Recently Jan was feeding Bree some goldfish crackers after lunch. She kept asking for “Mo!” (more)
Bree: Mo! Feesh!
Jan (pointing): You still have one more fish on your tray.
Bree: Mo! Feesh! Feesh!
Jan (pointing directly at the last goldfish cracker on her tray): See? You still have one more.
(Bree looks down.)
Bree (quickly sweeping last goldfish into her mouth): Mo!
Bree’s first fight. Anya brought home a pair of disposable latex gloves from the orthodontist today. Her baby sister was fascinated with them and immediately claimed them. When Anya finally noticed, she sat down in front of Bree.
“Those are Anya’s,” she said.
“Baby’s!” said Bree.
“Anya’s!”
“Baby’s”
“Anya’s!”
“Baby’s!”
The sounds of sibling squawking have taken on a new dimension…at least Bree still sounds cute.
Bree’s new words. MINE!
MINE!
MINE!
sigh.
ah-choo! “Ahhh-CHOO!” sneezed Jan.
From somewhere in the great room, a little voice commented, “ah-joo. Baby ah-joo” and little feet padded away.
Family movie night! Angela noticed there was a movie night at church showing “Madagascar”. Since Bree’s not ready to stay out that late, we decide to do the movie night at home instead: pizza from Pagliacci, and “Madagascar” on DVD. Bree got to sit through the first half, and happily ate popcorn with her sisters. The older girls got to stay up late to the end of the movie. Staying up late was fun, but they were so excited it was a bit hard to get them to calm down and go to sleep.
And so the orthodontia years begin… Anya’s palette and jaw are a bit too small for all her teeth, and a bunch of orthodontists agreed something needed to be done even in advance of getting braces. Today Anya had something called a palette expander put it: a metal bridge across the roof of her mouth. Anya was stoic during the long procedure to get it in. It needs to be cranked a little bit more open each day, and will need to stay in for something like nine months. The list of foods she’s not allowed to eat while it’s in is really long, and includes most known forms of candy.
Angela and Liya are away in Wenatchee for the weekend with some other folks from Liya’s kindergarten class. Tonight Liya wanted to call home at bedtime to talk to Daddy. After Jan was finished talking to her, Anya wanted to talk to Mommy. And then Anya asked to speak with Liya.
We think this was the first time the two sisters had ever talked with each other on the phone. It was pretty cute to watch. They talked about their day, but mostly they talked about s’mores.
Low Tide Walk at Golden Gardens Beach. Angela chaperoned Liya’s class on a field trip to the beach, and Jan was able to meet up with the class as well. It was a gorgeous day for a beach visit—sunny, with a nice breeze. The class found sea stars, sea slugs, and tons of seaweed. Jan even claimed that Liya’s friend Bailey was a seaboy who lived under the ocean and was only visible at low tide. When the tide turned, it came in pretty quickly, and Angela had to rescue a girl named Elise who got stranded on a high point without water-appropriate footwear.
When Anya was a baby, she was such a messy eater that Jan dubbed her the “Baby Viking”. At age seven, she’s still a messy eater—messier than Bree in most cases. Last night we had corn on the cob for dinner, and Anya’s hands ended up covered in butter.
When Anya got up to wash her hands, Angela suggested that Anya use the back of her hand to turn on the faucet. Anya: “No, I have a better idea. I’ll use my foot.”
Angela managed to get the entire family geared up for an all-family bike ride around the neighborhood. She spent close to two hours pumping up tires, digging out bike helmets, etc. Anya hopped on the tag-along behind Angela, Bree rode on back of Jan’s bike, and Liya rode her own bike. We biked for about two minutes before Anya wanted to pull over and adjust something. Jan looked back at Bree, who signed “All done!” Jan double-checked, but Bree was insistent. It looked like she didn’t really like wearing a helmet.
Jan ended up back at home with Bree, pushing her up and down the block on her tricycle, while Angela took the older girls for a ride around The Park.