One night this week our evening was free and I felt no pressing need to do anything. That is rare. So we went to Trafalga! We've all got the Pass of all Passes (including Kessa!) but we never use them. So we decided to remedy that. We initially went only to do mini golfing. But when we pulled in, Megan and Tyler showed up with their boys who immediately went to a ride with airplanes. Of course Kessa wanted to do it. I was skeptical. My Kessa? That ride looks … scary for her. But we already had our clubs and balls, so we went golfing instead. It was hilarious. Abby wanted to hold a golf ball 75% of the time, which made it hard to, y'know, golf. Often BJ and I just took turns using one ball. A couple of times she even tried golfing herself. Which was A.Dor.Able. No kidding.
Kessa absolutely loved golfing. She had a hard time with the initial hit, especially if it had to go up a hill, so I'd often help her with those, but then she'd get it the rest of the way in herself. Even if that meant (which it usually did), pushing the ball along with her club instead of hitting the ball. Hah! I think she was a little put off by hitting it when I hit my ball a little too hard and happened to be at the one spot where the fence didn't have the netting over it … and hit my ball out of the park. Which would have been good had we been playing baseball, like Kessa keeps calling it. But alas. Luckily we just happened to find an abandoned ball right there, so I got to keep going. Later I hit it into a pond of water, but we were right at the end and BJ was holding Abby, so he let me hit his ball into the last hole, which I got a hole in one. On both mine and Kessa's (it was uphill, so I had to do it). Awesome.
The end of the course was right by the airplanes, and a neighbor girl was on it. So we watched her to make sure Kessa really wanted to do it. She did. So we got in line. But when the line ended, the worker said she had to move over to a different ride. Alas. So we followed her to the pirate ship that swings back and forth. At least, we were going to. But got distracted by the bumper boats. BJ and Kessa went out while poor Abby had to watch through the fence because she's not tall enough. (I find it ironic that our more adventuresome child will have to wait longer to ride rides because she's so much shorter than the cautious child who is super tall. Go figure.) Then we went to the pirate ship. Again BJ and Kessa rode (just the idea of it made me a little motion sick) while Abby and I were out on the side. Kessa loved it! (I think having Daddy by her side helped). Next up was a lighthouse ride where it lifts you up, then drops you a little, then lifts you, then drops you. She acted a little nervous at first, but then BJ distracted her by having her count the number of times it went down. Then she loved it and wanted to go again. But by then it was getting late, so we went home, promising her that next time we'd have better shoes so she could rock climb. What has happened to my cautious child!?
Joy School
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| The letter "S" |
From my journal that day, two entries:
- First day of teaching Joy School! Who knew that teaching the Joy of the Body would leave me so hot and sweaty? In hindsight, it makes sense. But man, I should have worn different clothes.
- Also, free time play is glorious. They're even playing quietly and kindly. Abby just went down for a nap and so far, the noise in the loft hasn't seemed to affect her.
But now I don't teach for the next 4 weeks. Which is also great. :)
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| Joy School Class |
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| Simon Says |
Preschool
Kessa still loves preschool. Hooray! We went to a Back-to-School night on Wednesday (sans kids, per request) where we learned how the teacher teaches and what we as parents can do to help. Turns out, a lot (but not all) of the method is what we're already doing with the book "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons." So Kessa should ease right in without any problems.She came back from school Friday with her first book. They've learned the letters M, A, and P and how to blend sounds together instead of putting pauses between each sound. The book consists of four words, one per page with a picture: Pam, hat, bag, Sam. It came with a paper with 5 pictures on it. Every time she reads the book with us, she colors a picture. Once all 5 pictures are colored, she takes the paper back to school (she gets to keep the book), read it again with her teacher, and if Mrs. Smart is satisfied, she gets to bring home a new book. She read it 4 times that night, then the next morning read it again so excited that she gets a new book! Unfortunately, I don't know if she'll get another one until Friday. That's her read-with-the-teacher day. We'll see. If she gets through all of the books we bought, she'll be at a 2nd-grade reading level! Mrs. Smart says that most kids don't, but some do. So we'll see how much she wants to learn it.
We also came home with a CD and flashcards that help teach letters and sounds. The first song is the alphabet song. But not the one you and I know. No, it goes something like, "I know the letter A says "ay" and "aaa". I know the letter B says buh, buh, buh" and so forth. It's really … exciting. And not insanity-driving at all. ;) So we listen to the song in the car while she goes through the corresponding flashcards. She loves it.Misc. Other
Saturday was Kellie Johnson's bridal shower, which I'm sure you heard from your mom. The house was gorgeous. The landscaping was gorgeous. With much attention paid to the detail. The food was delicious. But most importantly, the bride-to-be was radiating. Awww.
In a random turn of events, that evening we went up to our friend, Kelly (and Neil) Johnson's house. It just made me a laugh a little. We did dinner and were going to do games, but they just bought a new house, so we toured it instead. Kessa is right between their two oldest kids, age-wise. Zachary is 5 1/2 and Daphne is 3 1/2. They all loved each other and had a great time playing, outside on the toys and inside on the Nintendo. Also, check out the picture for more proof that caution is starting to be thrown to the wind for this girl.Kessa gave a talk in Primary today. The topic was, "When I serve others, I serve God." BJ helped her give it. It was cute. Except she was talking in her not-quite-baby-and-not-quite-big-girl voice. So it was a little hard to understand. I think she was feeling a little shy. But it was adorable. That was her third talk! She's only 4!
One benefit of my calling is that I get to go to primary programs! Our first one was today and it was adorable. Only 7 more to go… (except I only go to 3 more. We split them up.)
A new SimCity just came out. I watched BJ play for a couple of hours one night and kept thinking about it. So I downloaded it onto my computer and started a new city and have been playing it. I'm a little addicted. The current quest is to figure out how to turn off the game when there are no levels or stopping points.
It's been raining like crazy around here this past week or two. Which is good in that we've been in a severe drought (and now my dead grass is starting to grow back!), but bad in the fact that there are burn scars on the mountains, so we've been having flash floods. But it's clearing up this week, so maybe we'll find a happy medium? Anyway, one morning Jenna (my neighbor) and I went running. We hadn't gone in weeks (my last time was Labor Day) because of vacation, her husband being out of town, and her getting a massive headache that lasted for a week or so. We finally got together and went running. It was lightly sprinkling when we started, so we figured we'd just go around the block so that we would always be semi-close to home in case of a downpour. 4 minutes, and almost exactly halfway around the block, the heavens opened and it poured. Like, instant drenching. I'm sure you understand. :) I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. And I know I've never laughed so hard while running. As Jenna said, "I felt like a little kid, laughing & running home to get out of the rain. " It was hilarious. So, maybe a 6 minute workout? I was winded for twice that long, though.
Flies are AWFUL here right now. Stupid mink farm. BJ and I are getting really good at our fly swatter aim. Abby knows the word "fly" and knows to look up whenever anyone says it. She also likes to play with the fly swatter.There's going to be a new Harry Potter movie! Not during Harry's life, though. It's going to take place about 70 years prior to Harry and is about Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Awesome. I'm excited. :D
Random fact about Kessa: she says sprinkles as sprinklers and ceiling as singling.
Abby
And some more about Abby. She doesn't really do yes and no much lately. “Abby, do you want to go to bed?” her answer is invariably, “I don't want to (sounds like: I oh want to)” or “k”. And her "i oh want to" is adorable. She usually says it happily and matter-of-factly. It's great. She's also taken up a fondness for cats. She's taken possession of Kessa's stuffed cat and will wander around holding it and saying, "meow. meow." See? She loves you! One time I was driving and Abby had been silent for awhile. Suddenly, out of the blue, she started meowing. It was great. She's also obsessed with "yucky." She does not like to touch anything she deems as yucky. Usually it's when she sticks her finger up her nose, then pulls out out, points her finger at us, then declares it to be yucky. She'll say it very concerned, and almost a question. Even if there's nothing on her finger, she'll start freaking out unless you wipe off her finger for her. (Even if only with your own finger.) She'll say it after she touches her finger to her tongue, too. Or just when we change her diaper. Or with random foods.Abby's dentist said her binkie is starting to push her teeth out, so we've limited her binkie to sleep times. So far it's worked pretty well. So long as we keep her binkies out of sight. We need to take them away in the crib, though, and I'm not looking forward to that. But ever since we've taken them away, she's turned into a biter! It's kind of hilarious, and not cool at the same time. Hilarious when she tries to bite the wall or something, not cool when she goes for people. Though, she rarely ever gets people. Just bites at them.
And now, Kessaisms:
- Kessa: Mommy, when are we going to go baseballing [golfing] again so you can practice hitting the ball over the fence?
- Kessa: It's not a week because it's not raining!
- Kessa: I remember we went to some place and I don't remember the name, but we've been there before. And it had a food court. And it had circles and holes. Do you remember that?
<3 Tianna and Co.
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