My Abigail

Tonight for family night we made cards/tags/ornaments; whatever you could do with self-adhesive foam and paper. Abigail kept saying, "Tonight is so fun, isn't it?" and "I like you mom." From the child who has taken to saying "Whatever" whenever she gets frustrated with me or the situation, this is music to my ears. It reminded me how much Abigail thrives on creativity.
A few weeks ago, she made this HO HO HO banner all by herself. She chose the paper, cut it, punched it, strung it, did the writing. She even took it outside for a photo shoot. She set it up just like she'd seen me do in my Etsy shop. Then when she was done with this one, she stamped 4 of her own HO HO HO banners, modeled after mine. She proudly gave them to her friends and our neighbor. I have got to go over and get a picture of it hanging in his house. It is pure Christmas lovin'.

Every year at school, there is a Thanksgiving feast, and this year Andy carved the turkey. This is a big event, and everybody watches you and your skill--or lack thereof. It was getting a little long, so I asked the kindergarten/preschool class if they could sing "Dry Bones" as Andy carved, since he had just told them about the bones. They agreed to do it and Abigail immediately sprang into action, coming up front and facing her class to lead them in song. She loves to lead and organize.

Also every Thanksgiving is our very small and very homegrown children's parade. This year was so busy I almost skipped it, but I knew it meant a lot to Abigail, so we did it. She made her own "float" to pull. All I did was tape the banner on the side. She also chose her outfit, an old dress of my sister's that we keep in the dress-up bin. Abigail just loves it.

Why We Have Family Meals

It's Sunday and we are all in the backyard, eating mac and cheese (thank you Joyce Packard for teaching me how to make the real stuff!), swinging, talking and climbing on the fort. (My kids also tell me there is a worm garden somewhere, but I haven't seen it yet.) I am lying on the trampoline, silently laughing at Warren's latest question:

"Why is a bowl of macaroni and cheese the opposite of a swimming pool?"

Really?! What is going on in there? He explained, a bowl of mac and cheese is hot at the bottom and cold at top, but a swimming pool has it's hottest water at the top and the coldest at the bottom. (To her credit, just moments before, Abigail informed us to "Always take from the top, and not the bottom." I thought she meant like in the grocery store--don't take the cabbage from the bottom of the pile. But she meant mac and cheese.)

On Monday we were eating breakfast together and Warren asked, "Is that company that McKane's brother owns going to put the Christmas video on YouTube this year?" (For the past 2 years Scrapbook.com has made a Christmas video featuring employees kids answering Christmas questions. Our kids still think they are supposed to give the "right" answers, not realizing how funny the "wrong" ones are. Like the first year, the cameraman sat W down and said, "We're going to ask you some questions," and W queried, "Are the math problems?" Last years video is the one at the top of the page) Anyway, back to story. Andy replied, "No, they're going a different direction this year." Warren looked a little sad and Abigail protested, "But I know better this year!"

Shorts

from Warren as I lay in bed next to him after reading "Geronimo" together:

"The only hard part about staying awake is my eyes; they just want to shut. My body is full of energy but my eyes can't stay open."

from a stranger as he held the door for Avery:

"She is a really beautiful child."

I used to worry about Avery because she looked so much like me.

A sweet moment with Abigail:

We went to Maricopa Stake's Evening of Excellence to hear some music I helped notate and ended up staying. We sat side by side for an hour. I had my arm around her. After a few minutes, she freed her arm from my side and stuck it behind my back. It didn't even reach all the way across. I can still feel the warmth of her small hand.

Madeleine is talking so much, but her singing is even better. She sings along with the kids' LPM CD's, and not just on the normal words--she does the sol-sol-do and mi-re-do parts. She loves to sing. She is fearless. I took her on the climber at the Children's Museum of Phoenix and she went all over, gaining confidence to go further each time, despite seeing the ground 15 -20 feet below, or being up against a wall of clear glass.

This reminds me of family night on Monday. I blindfolded each of the kids one at a time--in the dark, outside--and walked them at least 100 feet from our house. In Warren's case, across the street by a cactus-filled yard, then asked them to find their way home. I asked each if they wanted help and offered directions. As I watched them stumble in the dark, hands outstretched, W with a goofy grin and Abigail with tiny nervous steps, I was suddenly overwhelmed with humility for the trust these children place in me. Not one of them gave up or got angry with me; they trusted every direction I gave them, even when they didn't understand. I wondered if I was worthy of that pure trust.

Why am I blogging again? I can't let these moments be forgotten.

In Which Abigail Gives a Gift

Abigail has a very good friend, Gabriel, who she loves dearly. As she gets dropped home from school by his mom each day, she calls out, "Tell Gabriel I love him!" This behavior isn't limited to Gabriel, but, he might be the most frequent recipient. Anyway, growing up has been hard on their friendship, at least from Abigail's perspective. Just last week she was telling me she wasn't sure they could be friends anymore since, "All Gabriel ever talks about is Batman, and sometimes I want to talk about princesses and stuff." Really, she mentioned it several times over a few weeks. Well, Gabriel had a birthday and Abigail must be gaining perspective on the give and take of friendship because she requested we give him:
-a CD of "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells"
-a coloring book of Batman
-a picture she would draw of Batman

I made the recording, just accompaniment for him to sing to, and she is so excited to give it to him. After school today, we printed off several Batman coloring pages she chose for him. After stapling them together, she made a cover for the book: CULRE GABREL and colored it all in. She drew the picture of Batman and friends--I know Batgirl was there, but there were more--yesterday. Of course, she selected her own gift bags and couldn't resist giving them to him when she saw him today.

Later I got this email from his mom:
"I just had to share with you how excited Gabriel was about the gift Abigail gave him. He loves it so much! He already colored all the pictures while he was at Grandma's tonight. Then when he was finished, he dictated a story to Grandma for each page. When he got home, he wanted me to read the story to him for bed. Daniel said that he was asking all sorts of questions about growing up, getting married and if he would remember being little. It eventually came out that he was worried that he would forget to marry Abigail when he grows up.
I just can't stop laughing and smiling at how cute they are!"

What a sweet gift from the heart.

Preschool and Avery

Avery,

You started preschool this month--September 2010. I almost waited to have you start--you are so sweet to have around, but you wanted to go so much! Every time we've visited Warren and Abigail's school before you've always been wide-eyed and engaged by all the "works." The night before your first day was Preschool Open House; W&A had already attended their open house, so I just planned to take you, but Abigail was begging you to let her go. After much pleading, you told her she could come, "If you wear Sunday clothes."

You were so delighted to find your name on a cubby, and you pointed out all the letters. You are really good at this. Often as we drive, you call out from the backseat, "I just saw 2 letters from my name! A & V" or whatever letters you saw. You ask me what signs say, and often ask, "What is this word that has a {letter} in it?"

As I watched you both, spontaneously holding hands, walking together into this new phase of life, I was so grateful you have each other. I hope you are always dear friends like you are now.
The next morning, you were thrilled to be getting out of the car at drop-off. All your life you've stayed and called out your goodbyes and I love you's. Now you were going. You were bursting with excitement.

It's been 3 weeks now, and tonight you were telling Aunt Tiffany--via email--about preschool. This is what you said:
"I did button work. [long pause] Um, you get a sponge and there is water and a plain bowl and you dip it in and you put it into the plain bowl. And I did --I know one, I know one! Puzzles! And then--that's all. No, I did another work. A hammering work, and then a pouring work where it has green things and you put it into the plain one. A pink tower. I think that's all. Oh, play time outside, and then you wash your hands when you're going inside and then you sit down at gathering again and they pick someone to get--to set the tables, and I did one time one day. They picked us to go back to gathering again after we did that and get our lunch boxes. And we didn't have to go the fridge, because some people got them out. And then we get up and we get all our dishes and put them in the dishwasher and go back to the table and we get choosed by the table leader--we go like this, we point to each other--to close our lunch boxes and line up by the door and sit on the benches and wait for our moms and dads. Oh one more thing--when we, when we, when we, hmm, when moms pick us up and then we sometimes go with Gabriel's dad, or Nicci--she's Gabriel's mom--or our mom picks us up. And that's all."
It took about 5 minutes of chatter interspersed with thought-filled pauses. You were so animated. Pure delight.