New Arrival for the Real-Looking Fake Cat Family

Congratulations to Snowy Days and Pepper, Bennett's two full-grown, real-looking fake cats. They have a new little calico kitten (a souvenir from the vacation Dad and I were on last week.) Here is the happy little family, sleeping on the floor next to Bennett's bed. They can be found there each and every evening, wearing their nightcaps (pop bottle caps from Bennett's bottle cap collection.) The tiny white cat and the little bear are baby toys for the new little kitten, I'm told. What a sweet, loved little addition to the family! In Bennett's world , this trio rivals the popularity of The Queen and her ensemble.

Coming Soon

Bennett and Ainsley spent the past few days with grandpas and grandmas while Dad and Mom were away on a little vacation. That explains my lack of posts. I'll try to get something up soon, as we're almost finished unpacking and settling back into life as usual around here. Stay tuned...

Spelling Explosion!!!

I am very pumped about Bennett's recent reading/writing progress. She is starting to read on her own, and she can often be found writing things using her own inventive spelling without asking for any help from me. This morning we were playing "movie theater" and she made her own sign. Above, you can see it. She put a period between her versions of the word "movie" and "theater" to separate them, since she didn't leave a very large finger space between them. While neither word is spelled correctly, she did a great job of using letters that can make the sounds heard in the words "movie" and "theater." I am most excited about her use of vowels. These are really fun times for a teacher/mom! Also, not to forget Ainsley's progress...she can write the first two letters of her name! We're working on adding "n" now. Her smily face drawings are also becoming more awesome by the day!

Seek-and-Find Slumber

Ainsley is really digging look-and-find books right now. She's very good at them. She has a pile of every look-and-find book we own in her room. Every naptime and bedtime she has me place them next to her in her bed and she entertains herself to sleep. There have been a few evenings lately that we've peeked in on her and found her sleeping, book still propped open in her lap, as pictured. It's pretty cute.

Last night we had a most wonderful evening, hanging out with friends at an area festival. Bennett got to see her two favorite friends and her favorite cousin, all in the same evening. Here she is with one of her favorite friends, and it is obvious that they are thrilled to be in the company of each other. When we went home, Bennett told me that she had just had the best night of her life! It was a great time for all.

A New Use For Packaging Paper

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday. Large pieces of wadded up paper were used in the packaging. I told Bennett and Ainsley that they could have the paper to do with as they pleased. For a while they used it as a plank for their mock-pirate ship. Then we played "Bible Story Time" and read a book called The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. This prompted Bennett to decide that turning the paper into characters from The Crippled Lamb would be a fabulous idea...we would be able to reinact the story! We started this activity of creating paper characters around 4:00 p.m. This activity ended up lasting the rest of the afternoon and evening. The Girls were still reinacting at 7:45 p.m. until it was time for pajamas and bed! They had a great time with this. Here you see Bennett and Ainsley standing by Joshua, the crippled lamb (notice his bent leg), and his cow friend, Abigail. If the reinactment continues into today, I'm probably going to start advertising and charging a ticket fee for this production to go public!

Candlelight Dinner

The other evening The Girls requested we have a fancy dinner. This is what a fancy dinner entails: dress clothes and an elegant hairdo (for The Girls), crystal glasses, crystal candlesticks with lit candles, our best china, and of course a menu written in swirly lettering. Bennett and Ainsley named our kitchen The Caffie Cafe for our fancy dinner. There is no significance to the name...it's just what popped out of Bennett's little brain. We had a dazzling experience. Baked Beef Stew was on the menu on this particular evening, and I have never tasted such fancy beef stew! The only thing that wasn't very fancy, as you can see, was the unsightly tub of Country Crock on the table. We have a little bit of refining to do...

Serious Infraction

Last night Bennett did something very illegal in our house. She took one of Ainsley's whole pretzels and traded her a broken one. Ainsley was immediately outraged. This was not the major offense, however. The major offense came when I told Bennett to trade the pretzel back with her sister. She looked me right in the eyes and took a bite out of her sister's pretzel! I was hot! I realize one should not discipline out of anger, but I picked her up off the floor and carried her straight to her bed...no second chances. She was quite upset by this sudden consequence...she was not even allowed to gather her beloved "bedtime items" a.k.a. blanket and doll to take with her. She did not even brush her teeth. It was quite a severe course of action for her, especially the part about not having her blanket and doll. She was in her bed crying and screaming for at least one hour about the lack of bedtime items. Here were a couple of her statements...."I WILL NEVER GO TO SLEEP WITHOUT MY BLANKET AND BABY! NOT EVEN IF IT TAKES TWO YEARS!" THIS IS THE WORST NIGHT OF MY LIFE! BLANKET AND BABY! BLANKET AND BABY!" It was crazy. She put up quite a fight. She eventually calmed down, and I was able to talk with her about her disobedience and why I chose such a harsh consequence. She understood. I think she thought I would give her back the bedtime items after our talk, which I didn't, which began the intense crying again. But eventually she went to sleep and she is a much happier kid this morning. Her eyes are still red and puffy from last night, but she is chipper. She assures me there will not be a repeat offense anytime soon. I hope not!

Paleontology 101

Bennett brought me this stack of plastic toy fingernails and wanted me to tell her was it was, as if I should know. I said, "...a stack of plastic fingernails? I have no idea..." She informed me that it was actually the skeletal remains of a dinosaur's spine. Oh,yeah! I should have completely known that! Silly me. I better brush up on my paleontology so that I'm in the know next time I am presented with a piece of history such as this!

The Notebook

Ainsley said something that was impressive today, regarding her tiny spiral notebook. First, a little background...The Girls each have a small spiral notebook. We usually keep them in the car for drawing on roadtrips. The are identical notebooks, so I wrote each girl's name on the back of their notebook so they would be able to distiguish between the two. This has created a strong possessiveness regarding this beloved notebooks. Bennett DOES NOT want Ainsley scribbling in her book, and Ainsley DOES NOT want Bennett drawing or writing in her notebook either. So, then comes the impressive statement. Today, Ainsley was showing Dad her notebook as he buckled her into her carseat, recapping a recent occurance for him that involved the book and a brawl. This is exactly what she told him..."Bennett was messing with my notebook and I was not impressed." I overheard the statement. I said, "Did she just say she was not impressed?" She and Dad both confirmed that what I heard was correct. It was pretty fun to hear. I was definitely impressed!