A Beekeeper's Eyes

Today, Leia Rose had a really creative idea to play "Beekeeper" by putting her butterfly net over her head. : ) Eventually she caught lots of "bugs" that were the magnetic letters on the refrigerator. : )
Recently, Annie has been very interested in drawing on the chalkboard. (She actually doesn't put much in her mouth anymore. Yay! So the chalk is a bit more "safe" than it used to be.) Anyway, today I asked her if she could draw eyes on this little boy. The two big lines are Annie's attempt. Okay, laugh if you must, but I think it's pretty good for a one-year-old. : )
And Annie spent at least fifteen minutes being fascinated by the handle on Leia Rose's lunchbox today. . . .
During which she heard the oven preheat beep. Here is Annie doing the sign for "hear" right while it happened. Catching this shot was just luck. : )
Leia Rose also got a surprise on the computer today: an e-postcard from Kevin! He sent her some Clifford games!!! : ) She enjoyed playing them for a while, but was a bit frustrated when she couldn't do all of them herself. (Mamma was trying desperately to make dinner.) ; )

Ash Wednesday

Annie got her first Ash Wednesday Ashes today. : ) (Actually, Leia Rose got ashes as well, but she had already gone back to school when I took this picture.) Both girls were as good as gold at church today. And Leia Rose has been a real angel in regards to learning about Lent. We talked a lot yesterday about how "Lent is the season during which we prepare for Easter, just like Advent was the season during which we prepare for Christmas. Except that Lent is a bit of a sad time because we're supposed to ask for forgiveness for our sins, and share in Christ's carrying of the Cross in any way that we can. That's why we 'give something up' during Lent as a sacrifice for Jesus, and that's also why Fridays of Lent are days of 'Fast and Abstinence.' We fast during the day (only one full meal) and abtsain from eating meat." As for me, I decided to "do something extra" instead of "give something up" for Lent. I am going to 1. Do laundry every Wednesday and put it away on the same day (something I've never managed to do in my life). 2. Follow my actual cleaning schedule, so I do a little bit each day (and so the house is fully cleaned every week). and 3. Go to the Stations of the Cross every Friday evening that we are in town. Leia Rose thought long and hard about her Lenten sacrifice, and she decided to give up "snacks & toys at Mass" (in order to concentrate on the prayers, songs, and Sacraments). : )

Just as a little aside here, now after prayers at night I let Leia Rose choose one saint in the "Oma Saint Books" to read about or one of the pages in Great Grandma Betty's special Catholic books from her childhood. In this way, Leia Rose is really learning about Catholicism an extra lot! And today, when I was doing a bit more explaining about lenten ashes and how "they are a reminder both that we need forgiveness for our sins and that our bodies will die someday, but our souls will go to heaven," Leia Rose said, "And at the end of the world Saint Michael will kill all the bad angels!" : ) But then she said, "But I don't like these ashes at all! They're black, and I don't like the color black!" : ) I told her that, if the ashes were pink, for example, they wouldn't really remind us of our sinfulness, would they? : )

New Valentine / New Friends

Today the girls got very special Valentines in the mail from their Great Grandma Betty!!! And, oh how well Great Grandma knows the girls!!! . . .
Because they were KITTY Valentines!!! The girls couldn't keep their eyes off of them!
The girls clutched them for an hour, bringing them into a self-made kitty-nest, . . . there was a lot of "meowing" going on. : )

Leia Rose even made the envelope into a peek-a-boo pouch for White Kitty. : )
Then Leia Rose wanted to go on a bike ride. Usually these rides last about two minutes, and then I have to drag the bike back up the hill. But today Leia took the longest bikeride in her life, . . . and it's all because she made some new friends.

Here are Chloe (3) and Mia (1). They live two doors down, and Leia Rose and Chloe biked all the way to Stonehill road, back again, and then up and down the Richard's driveway lots of times!!! They also played on the playground together, and even rode in Leia's Barbie Jeep. Annie played too, . . . and was especially enamored of their kitty named "Taco." : )
And the cutest thing about it was that Leia Rose thought "Chloe" was named "Glowy," as if she glowed in the dark. : ) And by the end of the day little "Glowy" ranked up near Shenandoah as a favorite friend. : )
Finally, while I was making dinner, Leia Rose drew her "own land" it even had grass, a mountain, a sky, a sun, and a flying pegasus pony. : ) Here's Leia Rose flying with the pony.
"Wait! I forgot something . . . "
"I drew a cloud for me to sit on!" : )

Annie's "Counting"

Whenever we read Ten Little Ladybugs, Annie has taken to counting the ladybugs with me (finger-pointing) and all! Of course, her counting sounds like, "Uh, ah, um, ahh." : )

Monday Mish-Mash

Annie has yet another cold *sigh*, so luckily we were off for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Drake this morning. A perfect time to have Annie's ears checked. I'm happy to say they were clear (and "well ventilated"), and even more happy to say that Annie was an absolute angel when she was being checked. Anyway, here we are in our usual Under-The-Sea-Turtle Room that we have been put in every single time we go in there, no matter if it was for Leia's "ear seed" or Annie's "tubes." This is a good example of how Annie is these days whenever the stroller stops. Translate: "I want to get out now!" I came with a slew of questions this time. Here they are: 1. Can we use drops or antibiotics as a preventative measure? (No.) 2. Why not? (Because, if you do, you pre-select bacteria to grow that does not respond to either treatment.) 3. What is the next step after the tubes fall out? (After one or both fall out, make an appointment fairly quickly. We'll discuss it then. It depends on her continuing condition.) 4. An ear infection can follow a cold, but can a cold follow an ear infection? (No. It's a different virus.) 5. Can using an otoscope at home help you use drops earlier? (Not really, you only use drops when you see drainage. When drainage come out of the tubes, you'll see it in the ear. Period.) All very interesting. They were also very glad to hear how verbal Annie is. In fact, as Dr. Drake left the room, Annie waved goodbye and called her "doc-da"! : )
Then we had to stop at the fancy ball-machine, of course. : ) Annie was mesmerized, as always. We could have stayed for hours, I think. As it was, I took her to each side for about 5 minutes each, and we talked about what we saw. She was especially excited to see a kitty face swing back and forth, and a moon/star combination move. : )

Leia Rose's excitement of the day was getting a very special package from Yukino! Look at her expression when she found a necklace and bracelet inside! And THEN discovering that her name was spelled in beads on them! Leia Rose LOVED it!
And she was particularly impressed with all of Yukino's nice drawings.
Especially this one where Yukino wrote, "Leia Rose, I wish you a playdate with me! I miss you! I love you! Yukino" And it features a PINK KITTY. (Actually, I wondered if it was a bunny, but Leia insisted it was a kitty.) : ) What a very special picture! And what a difference in writing from preschool to first grade, huh? : )
Leia Rose was so inspired, that she began creating for Yukino right away. In fact, she created 8 pictures, including a Valentine! : ) Oh my, I'll say she was inspired!!! I'm sure wearing her new bracelet and necklace really helped. : )

Another cool thing about the day was that Leia Rose brought home her very first homework assignment: to read this book (Mat) to friends and family time and time again. Leia is smiling really big in this picture because she's thinking about a really funny page in the book. This one page always made her laugh. (See below.)
And, of course, Annie wanted to get in on the action, too. : )
Part of the deal with the homework assignment was to read it over the phone to lots of family members, and Leia Rose chose to call Grandma first. Here's Leia Rose reading the book to Grandma. : ) Now, I probably won't do this for every single book/assignment as Leia grows up, but I thought the first one was really special, so here it is:

[Yes, this is the page that always made Leia Rose laugh really hard! I'm so glad!]
Now, considering the books that Leia Rose read this summer, I would say that this was a bit below her reading level. But you know, I'm so glad she felt it was "easy" because it really boosts her reading confidence. (Where sometimes the books last summer frustrated her.) It just goes to show that teaching preschool and teaching high school are totally different animals. : )

[Ironically, what these pictures don't show is that we had a really hard afternoon. Leia Rose proceeded to break BOTH my special Rosary (that I've used since Leia was born) AND Brian's special Rosary (that we gave him when he decided to become Catholic) by shoving them down into the cracks of the screened porch floor and then pulling them out again. And by the time she was out of the thinking chair for doing that (I made her stay in until I fixed both Rosaries, which took 20 minutes) and I gave her a little lecture about respecting other people's things and especially other people's HOLY things, it had started raining and she couldn't go outside (which she wanted to do all day). Crying ensued. And all Annie wanted to do was climb the stairs, and cry every time I put the gate up.]

But let's end on a silly note: Both Annie and Leia created silly games today. Annie and I went back and forth saying "Blah" together. (You had to be there.) And Leia Rose came up with this game in the car called "Lower Case/ Upper Case" where she would say, "A lower case house is just 'house' but an upper case house is 'HOUSE!!!' Ha! Ha! Ha!" So fun! : )

Sister Love

Making Valentines

A long time ago, Leia Rose decided that she wanted to make each of her Valentines by hand this year (just like last year). In between a few much-needed breaks, Leia Rose used crayons, markers, glitter glue, glitter paint, puff balls, sequins, and jewels to finsh them. Now all she has to do is write her name on them and she's done. (I'll admit, though, in the middle of the process when Leia Rose was like, "Okay, I don't want to do this anymore" as there were huge globs of glitter glue drying on our kitchen island and Leia Rose was loading up one Valentine with a million things and leaving another plain, I had a less-than-lovely parental moment and thought, "Why the heck can't we just go to the store, pick out a nice package of Valentines and leave it at that?!?" : ) Still, I was so very proud of her for her effort! : )