"Don is a fat ram"

Wow, it has been over a month since I last posted! How does time get away from me so quickly? I suppose it is to be expected as we add things to our "to do" lists, and as the children grow. Again we are striving for disciplines around here, and just a month into having begun our fall/school routine we find... I find us trying to get back on track already. But here we are, learning to be a family, learning to be peop,e of good character, all of us together and simultaneously. We live in a workshop we call home. So many things I want to write, mostly so I don't forget, mostly because it is a way to perpetuate this day, this beautiful good day we're living...

** We don't have cable and although we haven't seen this show in several months, pretty much every single meal we play Iron Chef. All the girls are Chef Cora because she is the only girl. And we talk about the food we're eating.

ELENA is reading. Sentences like the title above or something like: "Pam's cat fits in a can" are proudly heard around here, usually between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. She loves Bronwyn, misses Abby terribly and is intent on introducing them some day. She actually practices what she'll say: "Abby this is Bronwyn! And they will be friends mom, I know". She just began ballet, so she twirls and dances all around the house, all.day.long.

ADRIANA has begun school and is writing her name. While Elena dances, Adriana sings. She probably sings much more than Elena dances, actually. And she randomly remembers songs that she's heard, as she proved the other day by out of the blue singing the song about the Three Bears we heard at Academy Night for CFA. But everything she does, she sings along as she does it. She is also doing ballet and is looking forward to going to CFA for the first time.

BENNY spends the morning scribbling on the stack of books I got him at the Dollar Tree and with each turn of the page exclaims "ok, Mommy, teach me! Teach me!". As voluntarily as he began to potty train he gave up on it, much to my disappointment, but I know that it is coming at some point down the road somI won't fret about it, at least not today. Whenever he goes to bed, for nap or bedtime, he'll lay there ask me to "pay him" (pray for him), lets me (or daddy) give him a kiss and then, every single time without fail he'll say "now I kizz your face" and proceeds to turn our face sideways and kiss our cheek. Where he came up with this, I have no idea but I can't help the cuteness of the whole thing! We moved him to a twin size bed, mostly to have the crib matress available for Giselle, but still... My little man is growing.

GISELLE is a force to be reckoned with, as pleasant as she is, she has a little dynamite temper in that little mass of chubbyness! She cries at the mention of the word "no" which bears witness to the fact that she understands it, so she can't fool me with her cuteness. She's a smart cookie! The only reason I think she is not walking is the massive thighs she has to figure out how to balance! And I keep her in her basket in my room "just for one more night" so she has already jumped out of it into the floor a couple times, but I just refuse to accept that she is growing so fast! The crib awaits to be set up in the girls' room.

And so, we do life in this little home, thankful for these seemingly long days that are just flying away. My thoughts get lost in the midst of 6 year-old's made up rhymes, 5 year-old's made up songs, 2 year-old's sticky fingers, and 9 month-old sometimes-slobbery-sometimes-bite-kisses, but I think that'sa good place to find one's self lost!