In His Sister's Footsteps

Well, it didn't take Michael long to see that unless he stepped it up (literally), Emily would leave him in the dust. He has been walking holding our hands for about a week now, but today took his first solo steps. I can see he is going to soon pass Emily. Even though she has been walking solo longer, she really hasn't made great strides (again, literally). She still takes only 6 steps or so before reverting back to her faster mode of locomotion: crawling. But the improvement in Michael from this morning to tonight was amazing. He will be totally independent by the end of the week...just my prediction. For me, the walking is a welcome relief. The "sitting up and playing in one place" stage was nice, but crawling is a whole different game. They enjoy it, but I always felt I had to be on the lookout for the tiniest piece of whatever that would find it's way into their mouths. And in a house that is home to Polly Pocket , this happened almost daily. Even though Polly has been banished to Sophie's room for some time now, she always seems to leave behind a purse or shoe downstairs. I guess when you come with a billion accessories, it is hard to keep track of them all.

On that note, I did manage to purge 4 boxes of toys ( empty diaper cases, they hold a lot!) from our house this weekend. I told Sophie that in order for Santa to bring her new things for Christmas, we needed to decide what to donate. After some discussion about what donate meant and the idea that there were children who didn't have any toys at all, she really got into it. Even though she was willing, I still did some of the purging after her bedtime. Sometimes I feel the slightest twinge of guilt, but I have to say, never once have I been asked where an item is. Lucky for me "out of sight, out of mind" still applies to 5 year olds.

Stats and The Pumpkin Patch

All three kiddos had checkups last week, during the same appnt. Note to self: Even though all three have October birthdays, Sophie's appointment should be separate. 5 Goulds, 1 doctor and 1 nurse, plus a double stroller, make for a slightly crowded and confusing exam room!

Stats are as follows:

Sophie: 5 years
42 lbs. / 60th percentile
43 ins. / 55th percentile
Now I know I can say "No" when strangers ask me if she is tall for her age.

Michael: 1 year
19 lbs, 10 oz. / 7th percentile (yes, 7th, not 70th)
30 inches / 50th percentile

Emily: 1 year
19 lbs, 4 oz / 15th percentile
28 inches / 20th percentile

So, we have one long and lean, and one like a butterball. And just yesterday that butterball took her first solo steps. It was hilarious to watch. Today she can manage about 8-10 steps total before she sits down hard on the floor. But she is SO determined. Since this epiphany yesterday (i can walk without holding on!!) it is all she has wanted to do.

We went to the pumpkin patch at Sophie's school right before Halloween. My sister Mary and her son Dave (age 10) were visiting. Here are the pics........

New Math

Conversation overheard today between Sophie and Noah as they were playing with Michael and Emily's birthday present, The Ball Popper.

Noah: "Sophie, you have 3 balls and I only have 2, that's not fair!"

At this point, Sophie refuses to give up her 3rd ball, and I wait for it, knowing what will come next.

Noah comes running to tell me, I reply that I am SURE that he and Sophie can work it out, after all, they are both 5 now. And of course I have to throw in that if they can't play with the toy without arguing, I will have to put it away.

Noah thinks about this for about 2 seconds, runs back in to Sophie and says: "Let's take one ball away, that way, we will both have 2."

Sophie: "Yeah, that's a great idea, let's take one away."

So they do, and the game continues, with each having the same number of balls to play with.

Here is my question, since when do 5 year olds know what "take away" means? I can vividly remember learning subtraction, and it was with scary Sister Rosemary....in the 3rd grade!

Luckily for me, Terry is a math person, because I can see that I will be of little help past the 2nd or 3rd grade.

Kanga Zooooommmmm!

Sophie and Noah celebrated their 5th birthday at Kangazoom. The party was great fun, the kids had a blast on all the gigantic slides, and were red faced and wiped out when it was all over. My favorite part was the area in the middle for crawlers and walkers. I loved the sign that read"If you can run, you shouldn't be in here". Michael and Emily had so much fun climbing and playing on the soft blocks, and they were protected by a 2 foot barrier on all sides from the big kids. Basically a huge play pen for them. Here are some pics:

This was taken before the jumping began, don't worry, that is a skort Sophie is wearing!

Emily enjoying herself, although she was stuck there for a few minutes until I realized she didn't know how to get herself out.

Cowboy Mike.


Stack em up and knock em down....we did that a few times.

Cool cars to ride from the play area to the party room. Time for pizza and cake.

No Princesses for Sophie or Cars movie for Noah, they compromised and went with a Nemo cake.

5 candles each....that's a lot of breath required!

Impact

We have all received the chain emails, you know the ones I mean. They go on and on about how important each day is, how important it is to live like this is your last day. So often I read them and delete them.

Yesterday I received an email from the brother of a dear friend. Ellen was Sophie's speech therapist for 2 years. She is a wonderful person, and became like a member of our family. She is married, and has two children, a little boy who is almost 3, and a baby girl who is 9 ms old. The last time I saw her was right before she delivered her baby girl. She came to visit Sophie and to meet Michael and Emily. On Monday, Ellen's husband died quite suddenly and unexpectedly. He was 40 years old.

I attended his funeral today, and it was one of the most moving funeral services I have ever been to. The outpouring of love shown for this man amazed me. Through the eulogies given by his brother and father I came to know him in a different way. He was truely a man who wanted to give back to others. Ellen also wrote a letter to him to say goodbye, and her brother read it for her. She has always been an eloquent person, and this letter was no exception. It was written with grace and dignity, and most of all, love. Through her words we all saw how much her husband meant to her, and how much he will be missed.

I am not really sure what compelled me to blog about this. I guess because today was such a wakeup call for me, I wanted to share that. This I do know: today made me appreciate my husband and children in a way that I didn't yesterday.