Singing and Reading

(October): Eliza sings. I found this out early September when she sings “Ginko Ginko” little “star, how I” wonder what you “are; up…Ginko Ginko … are” In August I found out she can read “Are you my ‘muh-er?’” she asks it over and over, and says, “NORT!” at the snort. So cute. 9/28 She was saying the baby bird jumped and jumped and jumped, while jumping at the same time on her bed. About June she started reading Go dog go, or at least saying the title. She reads lots of books now, like hop on pop she’s been reading for a month or so. “Hop Pop, Up pup cup, all ball” she’ll say all the words that go together, and “owie” for pat sitting on a cactus. She loves her hospital book and library book called “Friends” with pictures of people with slings or casts. 9/20 she reads “swish swish eight fish swimming past the hook, swish swish wise fish”… and “waddle waddle waddle” for her counting book. She’s really repeating everything we say, and I can’t keep up with her words, because if she doesn’t know it, she learns it. As a sidenote, Ben put her cast on one of her dolls one night he was with her. She brought it out and showed it to me, and I was amazed because I thought she had done that.

She sang "Happy Birthday to You" while reading Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw early October (cute book). She also sings I Am a Child of God at FHE, loves ring around the roseys, sings wheels on the bus, goodbye friends (that's real funny. Its a calm song at first, and she goes wild in the end).

(Present): I've tried to sing Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam to her, but it didn't seem to familiar to her. Tonight she wanted me to sing it, and she sings it sun "Beep!" which makes total sense, since we all jump at the "beam" part, but its pretty funny.Eliza studies the title of her story “fire station” and asks and tells what sound each letter makes. She says the “R”, tells me what sound “O” makes, the S, T, and N. Then, as she opens her book, she studies the pictures: the planes overhead, all the details. Daddy has trained her well. Its all his doing. Every night at brushing teeth he has her repeat her ABCs, and he bought stuffed alphabet letters in varying colors for her to play with and quiz with. She quizzes me sometimes, and enjoys them. She'll also tell Ben what letters are on his sweatshirts or tee-shirts, and started reading my Super Saturday signs, "Hhh, Hhh...Sss,Sss, RRR..." on "the stockings were hung..."

Eliza talks in motherese to Josiah. "Cute, are." (Imagine that in a cooing voice over and over. She was saying that one day.) Today she told me, "Watch your fingers," as I was cutting grapefruit, and some other fun words we've liked are: Josiah, boy, why, Ben, Erin (she always calls us by our first names (its crazy) and calls Josiah "boy," and Ben "mamadada" sometimes), window, leaves, Desmond, pillow, friend, other way, wash hands, funny, cut it up.

Josiah

I can't think of much to say about little boy. He loves to play soccer with my exercise ball, which is real cute, he drools, smiles, lifts his head, sometimes is too distracted for eye contact, always of good humor and loves to laugh, loves standing but has real funny feet positioning, wants to sit up so badly and doesn't really like to lay on the floor, but sit up, especially around the end of the day and when we're making dinner. Just taking lots of toys to his mouth, and smiling lots.

I feel he's so much ahead of his parents. He's got such a temperament. He has the secret to life. When he was first born, it was very pronounced the calm feeling that he brought to me, his mother. He is just so chill, and it was not so crazy to have two kids as it was calming, to watch him carefully observe everything around him, his arms and such moving slow like he's still swimming inside, and just observing and squinting at his new world. It just made you take a step back, and it still does.

I've put in my google calendar to watch Josiah sleep for 1/2 hour each weekday (not public calendar, so no, its not there). We'll see if I get sick of it, but it was suggested in Relief Society, reviewing Elder Ballard's exact quote from April General Conference. You know, I think that quote is quite ideal, not to be so into "next bedtime, next this..." but let's get real, moms need sleep, and that's how they get it. I dunno... there is a definite battle between being a housewife and being a mom. They sure don't fit together. Its either neglect kids or neglect house or balance in between, but I tell you what, kids and dinner (knives, hot stoves, small spilly objects) don't mix! Whoever invented housewife-combo-childcare?!

Josiah's dump truck is spotted at the WSU Student Rec Center, where we find Josiah taking a break from driving the truck in order to work out at the gym.

Halloween Carnival

So, I thought this carnival we went to at Pioneer Center was fun. Lucky for us it was a block away to walk! It was a little rainy and cold, but we made it. They had 40+ booths manned with sorority sisters or others in the community. We saw some people we knew there, and it was pretty crowded, but I wish I would have invited more. It was fun. They had:

A cake walk
Slinky the clown (yeah! our good neighbor Don that paints and that we watch fireworks with), tying balloon shapes
Police with glow-ring necklaces, helium balloons
pick the pumpkin (with the dot)
Plinko
shoot the 5' hoop
score the goal
bean bag toss
go fish over the sheet
go fish with the sticky-hand (paper pond, paper fish on the floor)
pin the nose on the pumpkin
get the prize out the hole in the board
bob for rubber ducks?
bowling
Wheel of (Halloween) Fortune
horseshoe toss
shoot the ball through the 1' hoop
raffles
miniature golf
witches with a pot, (I'm not sure what the game was... we just passed it by), and a few more I cannot recall

The kids would just go from one station to another within a few seconds and get a little token candy at each one. Eliza got to carry around the cute candy basket that the moms had given me and the other volunteers at PS. They also had a dinner, aparently, for extra $, and ice cream dessert, and there was a room for face painting, and lots of decorations suspended from the ceiling or stuck to the wall, balloons, and lots and lots of CUTE costumes, by the kids (chickens, ladybugs), sorority sisters (Indians, little mermaids), and parents (princess Leah, or serious Mohawk-man)

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