Our Little Golden Book Stories Of The Week~

Life here is never, ever dull :) Thought I'd share a little story from each of the little girls that has happened this week. We will go in chronological order from oldest littlest to youngest littlest. (not to exclude Julie who is first youngest:)) Wrap your brain around that logic:)

First, we have Miss Leni. Like we have mentioned before, this angel has had the most to overcome in her short little life. We have dealt with many medical, and mystery issues as well as Sensory Integration Issues.....all of which we have valiantly conquered/or are mastering. It's been alot of work and here is the payoff. Two months ago, this child couldn't even recognize a letter of the alphabet ...mostly because we had never sat and formally tried. These last two months we've been working very hard academically with her and decided to teach her as aggressively as we did Jason and Julie....not having any idea how she would respond. Take a look for yourself. She's now completely writing her name on her own with no prompting or cues from Mom...AND can do an entire phonics lesson on her own without a cue. (not that we do this everyday...she just did it on her own when I had to leave the room for a moment). Math is extremely easy for her as well. Who knew? When she came in to show me her paper you see in the pic....the mom sat down here and cried. She's completely at grade level and even ahead in some areas! God knew just what this little girl needed and in His kindness and mercy....we were able to provide it. This is a HUGE milestone for us!! Party!!!! We are sooooo proud of her!!!!

Second, we have Miss Kristin a.k.a. Pickle. Her story is a little different. Pickle is very precocious. Make that very, very, very. :) Last Thursday, the mommy wasn't feeling all that well. I called my friend M and said...do you want to go to the park? We agreed to meet at a certain time that morning....well,I proceeded to get many phone calls, interruptions, etc. so I was hurrying quite a bit to get out the door. This is also our Cade day, so we had extra child to bring too...along with a quick picnic to make. (realize...there was NO food in our house as this was unplanned picnic....I almost had to bring dry rice to crunch on :) We made do without the rice)Pickle got herself dressed and didn't look all that bad at the time. Pink shirt...denim shorts that were way too big cuz P has gotten really skinny. Then she put these white socks on and pulled them up over her knees and put on her hot pink mary jane style sneakers. Add the Daniel Boone coonskin hat w/raccoon tail hanging over bushy-unbrushed-blonde-curls and she was ready to go. At this point Julie came downstairs (I was on the phone) and announced that P looked like Eloise (from the children's book series-Eloise at the Plaza). So now we will refer to P as Eloise. I made her push her socks down....and we went to the park. Now...here's the funny part. We get there...with our 4 kids....M is waiting with her 3 + a guest child. The 8 of them set about playing and M and I were talking. All of a sudden Eloise who is a ways away from us, pulls something out of her pocket. It's a roll of Scotch tape she had stashed in there. Why? Who knows..Doesn't everyone bring their favorite brand of tape to the park when they go? Don't you think it's a perfectly wonderful park toy?.....BUT then...Eloise proceeds to WRAP the trunk of a giant oak tree (remember the white socks and Daniel Boone hat still in place) with Scotch tape! M is asking what Eloise is doing...to which I reply..."I've never seen that child in my life!!" I was caught between laughing and being pretty darn embarrassed. THEN Eloise gets an audience. Other park kids came to watch Daniel Boone's tree-wrapping party. They actually stood there and watched. I still don't know what possessed the 4 yr. old to wrap an oak tree with an entire roll of scotch tape that day, dressed like Daniel Boone meets Wal-Mart.... ...because I turned and walked away. Couldn't take it. Too mortified. Too tired. When the tape ran out....she went on to something else. There are no pictures..because I didn't want anyone to know who's child that was :) Just ask my friend M...she'll verify all this. So the picture you see is of Eloise later that day...when she came clump- clumping down the stairs in Julie's old pointe shoes. How cute is that? Very....we love her. She makes us laugh.

Story 3 is Miss Katie Mei. In the last week and a half.....she has cut her own hair. Twice. You will see her in the pic with her friend Lauren. This is the famous park day from above. I can't remember if this picture is before or after she was going down the slide with Lauren... when Katie turned and chomped down on Lauren's finger and wouldn't let go. Yes...Katie bites. She bit Leni on the way home. Hard! I actually (confession) turned it in to a phonics lesson because B was the letter of the week. B-B-Bite!! Katie You May Not Bite!! B-B-Bite! Leni! Did you hear the word that begins with B?! Sorry she bit you Leni! B-B-B! THEN yesterday (see pic) our little Asian angel decided to draw a portrait on our lovely living room wall. Can you tell we are 2?? So you see.....it doesn't matter what country you were born in....kids will do what kids do....all around the world there are biters, scribblers, cutters, and "NO!!" shouters. (Lauren...we are so very sorry!! Hope your sweet finger is better!)

And there is just another couple of days at our house. We're very blessed don't you think?!