My Little Savant

***I actually copied this over from my other blog... It just cracked me up and I had to share it with my family. It's my first crossover blog***

Not, too long ago I went to my daughter's preschool to meet with her teachers. I'm always anxious about these meetings. Fearful of what judgment has been built up over the last few months... What phrases my daughter has repeated to the other 3-year-olds... or worse... her teachers. It doesn't help that this preschool is in my church and I actually go to church with some of the teachers there and a lot of the parents. So a meeting of this caliber is a bit terrifying. To add insult to injury, they make you sit in the little, tiny chairs so your eyes are almost level to the edge of the table... you're small and helpless, ready for your criticism. I'll admit I tend to be a bit overly dramatic, but don't think your kids don't talk at school! My 6 year-old came home and told me that one of her classmates' parents (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) sit naked together in the hot tub. They talk, my friends. Oh yes. You just don't know it.

So I'm sitting in my teeny chair looking like Kareem Abdul Jabar on the bench - sitting with my knees up to my ears, trying not talk too much and it turns out that the news isn't so bad. It's never, EVER as bad as I make it out in my head... one of the benefits of being dramatic. Some of it is actually pretty good. For example - she's only one of two kids in her class that can write her name. WONDERFUL! And, apparently she's a very gifted artist - all her people have torsos. Amazing. I realize you probably don't think this is a big deal. In fact, I shared that sentiment until I was shown the other kids' pictures of bubbles with arms and legs shooting out of them - no necks, no bodies... just giant, freak heads on sticks. Then I was shown Mallory's little people with heads and necks and bodies with feet and eyelashes and fingers... and hands... all the little details you expect a drawing of a human to have. Pretty cool! (She doesn't get any of that from me - I still draw bubbles with legs.) Whatever was said in the rest of the meeting, I'm not sure. I was just so impressed with her torso drawings.

After that I kept looking forward to the art projects that she might bring home to see what kind of inspirational artwork she would come up with on her own, without the influence of her older sister or me drawing next to her (of course I'm probably bringing her down). What kinds of masterpieces would our little smarty come up with to impress us? Of course most of what she brought home after that were projects where they dipped marbles in paint and rolled them around on paper or a similar project with sponges cut into shapes. Nothing remarkable... nothing, that is, until the following picture was sent home:



Artistic Genius!! To be honest I never really get abstract art anyway, so it might just be that it's beyond my comprehension... I can't be sure... A broken machine? I don't even know where it came from... we don't have one of those that we keep on hand. Maybe she's making a political statement. Can three-year-olds be poignant? Well if you look at my daughter's artwork then you'll know the answer is, YES. Yes, they can.

That's not it, though. The other day I was walking down the hallway at church when my husband pointed out her class' artwork hanging on the wall. They were drawing pictures of dandelions and then saying the things they had wished for. I took pictures of a couple of the other childrens' wishes, too:

Abby wants a dinosaur or a dog. Those are understandable wishes. I love dogs. And who didn't want to go to Jurassic Park... before the fences failed and the dinosaurs ate everyone? I know I did! I wouldn't say it's the work of a genius, but it's not bad.

Molly would like to go to Chuck E. Cheese. I get that. They have games there... and beer... I'd take her. Still... where's the message, Molly? Were you even really trying?


Then we have Mallory - my little prodigy:


Just in case you can't read that, I took a close up...


Just think about that for a moment... A stick made out of rope, indeed.

Indeed, Mallory.

Shawna's 6 Month Update

Little Miss Shawna is now 6 months old! A whole month older since my last post about her. She is the picture of health and sits comfortably at the 50th percentile mark. Half the babies are bigger and half are smaller - she is delightfully average... in size. For exact markings she is 15lbs 13.1 oz and 26 inches tall. To put it in perspective, Mallory was 23 inches long when she born. Shawna is my teeny-tiny pumpkin... the kind you decorate with - not the ones you carve.

Dr. Phillips mentioned that she could still hear the murmur, but that it was faint. Other than that she's moving along quite well. Milestones for her have been passing an object from one hand to the other and trying to sit alone. She still needs help sitting fully up on her own, but can sit like an ape (butt on the ground, leaning forward on both hands) with no problem. We were given the green light on 3 meals a day and "stage two" foods. She had her first stage two jar for lunch - Apples and Summer Peaches. It was a big hit! Tomorrow's menu includes Farmer's Market Vegetable Blend. Isn't marketing fun!?

This visit was also a vaccine visit, which means it didn't end nearly as pleasantly as it began. One finger poke to check anemia (which didn't bother her nearly as much as the nurse holding her hand and squeezing her finger. Once the nurse let go, Shawna stopped crying) and three sticks in the thigh. Ouch. I actually felt kind of sorry for the nurse. Perfectly sweet lady with her Mickey Mouse watch on and still she must be one of the most hated people in town. That would be hard. I still made sure Shawna knew it wasn't me poking her with needles! I have enough problems!

On the plus side, Shawna loved the paper at the doctor's office. So much so that I had to take a picture. Toys R Us is so overrated!

We return to the doctor in 3 months. Hopefully by then she'll have some teeth to show off... maybe even crawling around... although I don't know. Her nickname around here is "Lazy Baby." Unlike her energetic sisters, she is taking her time and enjoying her infancy and I think its just grand! They grow up way too fast and I love that Shawna is not in a big hurry. She's cuddley and lovey and I'll take it while I can get it!

Easter Antics

I realize that it has taken me a while to get our Easter Sunday posting up, but it has been a crazy mess around here. Poor Mallory has had a mystery disease for a couple weeks now. She has been on many different medications - so many, in fact that that I've been waiting for her pee to come out purple (none yet, but I'll keep ya posted!). She's also had an on and off fever the entire time that can get as high as 103.5 at times and although she's handling all of it pretty well, the fever sometimes makes her cry. She'll look at me and say, "Mom, I feel like I need to cry again." This is my cue to take her temp. She's been out of preschool for 2 weeks, but was VERY excited to go back today, and I was excited to let her!! I think we were both getting a bit of cabin fever. Looks like we found a medication that will help her kick this bacterial infection. Fingers and toes crossed! But, aside from Mallory falling asleep in some interesting places, it's been a pretty uneventful couple weeks at home. Keep an eye out next week for Shawna's 6 month update! Woo hoo!

EASTER
Here is the video we took on Easter Sunday. I worked at church in the nursery for the early service, but we didn't take the girls. Mallory was actually pretty chipper that morning, but with her already being sick and the high number of kids on this particular Sunday we didn't want to risk her picking up anything else! So Neal stayed home with the kids and ate all their Jelly Beans.

The Easter Bunny did come! He left a rattle for Baby Shawna and even left the girls some plastic, jelly bean-filled eggs in their hunting baskets. That Easter Bunny is pretty cool. Gwynnie and Mallory each found an Easter basket that had been hidden for them. They easily figured out which basket belonged to them because the E-Bunny used their favorite color wrapper... I'm tellin' ya! That EB ROCKS! We didn't charge the camcorder so we used Neal's camera to take the video. I pieced together what we got and posted it below. I hope you enjoy.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

We're at that stage with Mallory where she's a wonderful communicator, but is still young enough to not understand a lot of the language she has come to use. This makes for some pretty hysterical conversations. So, instead of laughing and letting them pass and eventually forgetting them, I thought I'd start a blog series to share with you all.

Here are a few of the vocab mishaps we have had a laugh at recently.

SONGS:

So What - Pink

"We're all gonna start a fike."

Since You've Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson

"Since you been gone! I can't breathe for the FIRST time! I'm so moving over. Yeah YOU. Thanks for you! NOT AGAIN! I get what I waaaaaannnt!"

Bah Bah Black Sheep

"Bah Bah Black Sheep, do you have any rules? Yes sir, yes sir, three back four. One for the master. One for the days. One for the little boy who lives down the lane."

VOCABULARY:

Just Appeared - (v.) to vanish into thin air.
Stirg - (v.) to mix with a spoon
Store - (n.) a device you stand on to reach things from high places.
Stooler - (n.) the new name for a device you stand on to reach things from high places.
Spill - (v.) what you might do if you have an upset tummy. Synonyms - throw up, barf, puke
Tophead - (n.) the space on your face above your eyes and below your hair line.


These are just a few that I can think of right now. I'll be sure to make note of them as them come and post an updated version when I have more. I hope you got a laugh out of this today!