[Faithful readers, please note: this post covers only through this past Friday. It's just late being posted.]
Happy Advent!
Our family got to light the first Advent candle at church! Well, we left Goose in the nursery, but the big girls were with Daddy and I (toddler + flames + microphone + large crowd = almost guaranteed disaster). Monkey and Bug did beautifully. I was very proud of them for not freaking out despite being in front of a couple hundred people. It helped that we did a lot of talking about what was going to happen, and we put up all our Christmas decorations, including our own advent wreath the day before.
We also started our advent study, which the girls love. It has a really brief devotion, a prayer, a Bible, and a short activity for each day. The first activity was making a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas, and the girls have been really good about taking turns pulling apart the links and counting how many are left. Now that we've done a week of them the girls have even enjoyed pulling out the book and looking back at the days we've done.
The entourage was very excited about all the Christmas decorations! With a few delicate exceptions, Monkey and Bug put all the ornaments up on our Chrismon tree. This meant of course that the tree was only decorated for the first 3 feet, but the next day they noticed the uneven decorating and pulled up a few stools and rearranged until they were satisfied with the distribution of ornaments. They also helped me find spots for all the nativity scenes (Daddy and I collect them, so the living room currently has 15 made in various sizes, styles, and materials. There are no doubts about the reason for the season in this house!).
Nana!
Nana arrived on Monday for a coincidentally well-timed visit. (It turns out Daddy departs for another "big trip" this coming weekend, so she got to see him before he leaves, and Daddy and I got a date night that involved Christmas shopping for the entourage.) The girls were very excited about this visit; they've been telling me for weeks that it had been a long time since they'd seen their Nana and Papa Bear! (Papa Bear couldn't come, but he was missed.) The highlight of this visit was going to see Christmas lights--not the ones on random houses, but a 100 acre farm near us that puts up displays made of more than 5 million Christmas lights. They charge admission to take a hayride tour through a life-size nativity scene, scenes of classic fairy tales, moments in history, and Christmassy things like Santa's Workshop made out of lights. The farm also had a Santa's playhouse themed playground that they got to run around on. Their favorite part though--getting to walk into Cinderella's castle made entirely from lights:
RIP Oswald
The morning Nana left, we went upstairs to get dressed and feed Oswald and discovered the poor fish belly up in his bowl. Monkey and Bug were really upset. We've encountered dead frogs and birds, and Nana's dog died a while back, but this is the first time something/one they really cared about died. Planning his "funeral" definitely helped. They picked out tissue paper to wrap him in and chose the spot to bury him (somewhere the sun reaches). They even pulled out trowels to help dig a little grave beside the house and found a good flat stone for a grave marker. Bug commented that she thought he would like it when it rained because then he'd have water underground. Goose had been raptly watching all this, and once we patted down the dirt and placed the stone on top, she cheerfully announced, "All gone Oswald!" That pulled grins out of her big sisters. Monkey and Bug wanted to "sit with Oswald" for a little while when we were done, so Goose and I went around the corner to give them a moment.
Goose is 2! (almost)
Daddy's going to miss some major events while on his big trip, and we realized the one thing we could easily celebrate early was Goose's birthday. Since she's still oblivious and it's right before Christmas we were just doing a family birthday celebration anyway. We made her a chocolate cake, and she got to open presents. Like her big sisters she freaked out a little about the sing Happy Birthday and blow out candles part, but she loves her new toys! (Sadly, I wasn't with it enough to remember to take photos.)
Reading
The girls continue to do very well with their reading lessons. Bug got to read several complete sentences this week (in addition to all the usual tasks) and added the sound "th." This is a very difficult sound for her to make (it comes out as an "f" when she talks), so being able to read it with correct pronunciation was a huge triumph. Monkey also added a new sound this week, "d," and she's requested a combination of white board and juice lid activities for her lessons (keeping up the variety is going to be key in this kid's education!). Monkey and Bug even requested that I make a set of juice lid letters for Goose, since she keeps requesting her own reading lessons.
Bug has also started writing much more recently. She occasionally pulls out paper and practices all the letters she can think of at the moment, or she ask me how to spell things (mostly family members names). It's interesting: she can write letters that I've never actually showed her how to. I don't know how her technique is, but her finished product is definitely improving!
Quotes
- Bug [munching on apple peelings]: "We're your vacuum cleaners because we clean up the mess you make in the kitchen. You have some cute vacuum cleaners!"
- Monkey has been experimenting with interjections lately. Among her favorites: "Oh jets!" and "Blasted rats!"
- Benefits of not talking down to your preschoolers: Having your almost 2-year-old ask, "My beverage?" about a questionable sippy cup or having one of your 4-year-olds say, "Well, acquire some!" after you inform her that we do not own any markers.
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| The closest we'll get to a full family Christmas photo this year. Aren't we a cute bunch? |
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