A Gracious Place

Monday, January 31, 2011

Peanut Butter, Bikes, and Valentines

The kids are just so active and unpredictable these days. They really keep me on my toes with the new things they are learning and the hilarious things they say. I just thought I would give a little summary of what they've each been up to lately.




Miranda has been busy doing extra chores or "fresh chores" as she calls them. Dan and I are using it to help teach her a little about money, since she has started asking to buy things at the store. Some of her extra chores include washing windows, folding towels and socks, and helping bring in groceries. She gets 3 dimes per chore; one for church, one for saving, and one to spend.

Miranda has also been having fun making valentines and heart crafts. Miranda loves crafts (and so does mommy). Johnny takes a longer nap than Miranda, so that gives us some nice scissor and glue time that isn't very Johnny compatible.

And oh the funny things she says! She repeatedly calls the person who works at the store "the cliff" instead of "the clerk". I hesitantly corrected her the first time because I thought it was so cute. She still does it though and I would rather just smile and relish her 3-year oldness than correct her at this point. She goes to childcare during the Wednesday night service and one of her sitters made a heart out of red pipe cleaner and stuck it in Miranda's hair. On the way home Miranda said, "I just think Miss H. is amazing because she can make hair clips for children!" In the bath the other night I gave Miranda and Johnny their goggles to play with. At one point Miranda standing up with hand on hip declared that she was "taking goggle lessons".




Johnny has started eating peanut butter sandwiches like a sandwich. Up until now I have made the sandwich as normal and then cut it up into bite-sized pieces because if I didn't he would tear the two pieces apart and lick out the middle, making a complete mess. So this week we were on a picnic at the Dallas Arboretum and I watched in amazement as he picked it up and ate it like he'd been doing it his whole life.

Johnny also hit another huge milestone this week. He started riding his two-wheeler with training wheels. He can "Fred Flintstone" it like nobody's business on his three wheeler, but we got him a big boy bike for his birthday and now how to pedal has clicked. I'll try to post some video of it soon. I can't believe it! I have to resist the urge to rip him off it and stuff the bike in the closet. Johnny, don't grow up too fast!

Lately, Johnny has been getting creative with making words plural. It started with saying "carses" instead of cars and has spread into other areas of his vocabulary. This morning when he woke up he said, "Daddy snoreses".

There is so much more. If only I could bottle it all up ... sigh.