Lessons Learned

I am closing out my Franklin blog as we close out our time in Franklin. You can follow the next chapter of our lives, when I remember to blog, at http://atleavenworth.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks and much love to my Franklin family. From you I learned...

to pray louder

to wear jewelry

to accept a lot of help - and to ask for it

to pay a sitter and do girls' night as often as possible

to appreciate the many joys of a small town

to find the positive and be content

to make decisions true to my heart

...and so much more!

Recital Highlights

John asked if he can keep the Muffin Man costume. He plans on starting his own restaurant in Kansas!

Katie went onstage and danced. It was a huge step for her. She has been led away from the front and to me at small preschool programs. Today she performed in a high school auditorium with the lights dimmed and chaos all around.

At rehearsal Allison stood, head hung low, and refused to do the ballet bit when someone else was on her mark. We talked about it and she told me before going on today that she would find a new house and smile if it happened again. Sure enough... Someone was on her mark. That sweet girl thought long and hard, moved to the end of the line, found a mark, looked out at the audience and gave her most dazzling stage smile!

I cannot wait to see and share the video.

Swimming Success

It is all relative, right? We are celebrating Allison's independent swimming. She can now push off the bottom of the pool and dog paddle forward with her bottom near the surface of the water. It is a HUGE improvement from last summer. Twice I had to rescue her when she went in water over her head and kicked furiously, albeit perfectly vertically. She couldn't get her head above water. Poor girl. She told people all summer how Mommy saved her. :)

Yesterday Claire went in over her head. For the second summer in a row I went in with my clothes on to pull a child to the surface. She see things differently than Allison did. Claire looked at me and said, "Yay Mommy! I went swimming under the water by myself!" She liked it so much she did it again just a moment later. On purpose. That one is going into my kids' quotes book!

Better late than...

WOW. It has been a long time since I've been here. I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaacccckkk! :)

We spent the evening at a ballet recital rehearsal. It will be our first. I tear up when I see kids I don't know doing their best on stage. I am going to be a mess when my kiddos get up there. I can't wait!

PJ Party

For Katie and John's 5th and Claire's 2nd birthday we celebrated in our pajamas with a house full of friends!

Notables!

Claire likes to pop out of her crib and visit me in the evening. Yesterday she ended up lying down on the couch while I finished a few projects. As I walked by I sternly reminded her to close her eyes. A few minutes later while I was washing my face and moisturizing I turned to find my sweet baby girl walking slowly towards me, carrying her blankie, eyes clamped shut! Cutie pie. :)

On really cold nights I layer one of John's undershirts under Allison's pajamas. Every time super skinny little Red smiles, flexes her arms and shouts, "Look at my muscles, Mommy!"

Remember this...

I am sitting here trying to recall a few of the hundred moments I keep meaning to share... All of them have escaped me and the sharks (aka kids) are circling, hoping for a chance to play a computer game. Is there a cure for mommy-brain???

Happy Birthday!

Katie and John turned FIVE yesterday. Oh what a treat the day was!
Every phone call started with Katie shouting into the phone, "HELLO! This is the birthday girl and boy!!!" They both sat with great smiles on their sweet faces as the callers sang Happy Birthday. Allison said, "Happy Birthday" to them every time she passed them in the house and repeated to anyone we met, "It is Katie and John's birthday today."
Katie's favorite gifts were a giant stuffed elephant and an even larger stuffed bear. They take up her entire bed! She gasped when she opened the bear box and shouted, "It is the best gift I ever wanted. I've never seen one before. I love my new brown bear!" Brown bears are always at the top of her 'must have' list and it is the only thing she asked Santa for this year. We will have an army of them soon and she will be in brown bear heaven for years.
Ask John what his favorite present is and he'll tell you, "All of them!" Playmobil sets and RC cars were a big hit. His remarks included, "WOW! This is the best toy I ever wanted from the toy store!" and, "I never knew I could have one of these!"
Watching them open their gifts was a mommy's and toy store owner's dream come true.
I so adore these innocent joyous moments and I hope they never end.

Funny kids...

Claire is taking an awful smelling medicine. She spit it all back out at me the first time I gave it to her and explained, "Mommy, SPICY!" Oh how I giggled. Lucky for me she is easily bribed. She drinks it all down twice a day so that she can enjoy the cookie chaser. :)

Katie, all snuggled in bed, fighting sleep: "Mommy, do you think I am on Santa's nice list or his naughty one?"
Me, "His nice one."
Katie, "What if you're wrong?"
Uhhhh...????

Joy to the World!

...Jenn is back to blogging. :)

Since my last blog I have sold the house, moved all of our belongings into storage, moved all of the kids and pets into a rental, reunited with Spence for two weeks, traveled to Houston for most of a week, finished 90% of my Christmas shopping and designed (though not yet printed) my Christmas card. In the next two weeks I have multiple events, a long trip to Virginia, Christmas and two 5 year old birthdays. All I want for Christmas is a clone of me! :p

Claire has started preschool. What a doll she is! One day a week she joins her brother and sisters at school. She just toddles in there, hangs up her jacket, picks up a toy and doesn't look back. Ask her what her name is and she'll tell you HAPPY FEET! Often she will jazz it up with a peppy little version of modern tap and a big smile. Ask her to say 'Claire' and she says, 'MY!' as in 'That's MY name!'

Katie, John and Allison had their preschool Christmas program today. For the first time ever there was NO crying! (I have had to pull Katie off stage in previous years to save the program from complete disaster.) All three of them enthusiastically participated. I was so excited to watch them. They were thrilled to get a cookie after... Priorities!

Katie's taste in music warms my heart. Her favorites these days are from The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. He most requested Christmas song is Little Drummer Boy. What mommy wouldn't be proud?

John is quite pleased with our rental house, circa 1854. He finds things to fix and collect and create daily. His outdoor collection consists of old bricks, large sticks, an old bucket and a few other cast offs her found in his yard. He does refer to the pile as his 'collection'. His most recent creation (which he does refer to as his 'creation') consists of different sized mailing boxes and packing tape. He tapes the flaps up and out or tapes a few boxes together. His current fix-it project is matching the 50 keys we have found here to the doors in the house. He is a boy who doesn't need toys; he makes his own fun.

Allison is still walking around everywhere with a thumb in her mouth and a couple of fingers twirling the front of her hair. She recently added a small soft blankie to the mix. I know that someday she will outgrow all of those things; I hope it isn't too soon and I hope that I will always be able to conjure up that perfectly innocent and sweet image of her.

Halloween

I didn't take a single photo on Halloween this year. I was fighting a nasty fever and was proud just to get the kids dressed and out trick-or-treating. In lieu of photos they get my recollections, however hazy they may be.

Katie, the witch, looked far more striking than scary in her corseted witch's dress, made-up eyes, tall hat and sparkling smile. John was all boy in his Spiderman costume and mask. Allison was sweet in a 2 piece ghost costume. The outfit stayed in place. The hood did not. It was sometimes backwards, sometimes cock-eyed so that her eyes were peering out of one eye hole and her mouth visible through the other, sometimes sideways so that her eye and ear were showing; it was never on straight. Claire looked angelic in her poofy ballerina outfit, denim jacket and pink bomber hat.

Katie and John ran ahead searching out homes with the lights on. Katie came back after one and let me know they tried to give her TWO pieces of candy. She only accepted one. :p John paused later to tell me he was told to take as much as he wanted at one home and he opted for THREE! Allison and Claire sat in the wagon between stops. They both popped out each time before I could bring the thing to a complete stop. Allison made it to the door long before Claire. I could hear her enthusiastic TRICK-OR-TREAT across the yard. She will never master volume control. Claire finally said her first "trick-or-treat" at our final stop. Before that she would walk up, smile (who could resist that?) hold out her hand, put her treat in the bag and turn to me. When I instructed her to say thank-you she pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and giggled. So darn cute! All four of them. Even in my feverish state I enjoyed every minute of it.

I know! I know! Where have I been?

I could share stories of children vomiting in my bed, of bottoms so dirty I wouldn't take outer layers off until the offender was in the tub and my own nearly week long fight with a 102+ fever. That wouldn't be any fun!

How about some sweet memories?

Even at their young age I enjoy telling the kids stories from the past about them. They get a kick out of it too. Usually. Recently Katie or John found my phone precariously placed on a kitchen counter. I moved it to safety and shared this story...

When John was no older than 2 1/2 he came running to me crying his eyes out. He kept telling me he was so sorry he cooked my phone. I followed him into the kitchen and to the sink where I found my phone at the bottom of a stock pot filled with water. Bye bye phone. I laughed then. I laughed when I retold the story. John burst into tears as I retold it. Evidently it was just as traumatic for him the second time around. Poor, sweet buddy.

When Spence was home he gave the kids a bubble bath. They think that is such great fun! Now. I recall Katie and John's first bubble bath. They were just under a year. Yia Yia came to visit and was being a sweet grandma, giving the kids a bath for me and making it special for them. Little did she know then that Katie does not appreciate change or the unknown. Katie screamed bloody murder. Of course my sweetly overzealous mom used enough bubble bath for ten baths. It took her forever to get the bubbles out of the tub and to settle Katie down. I'm still laughing as I type this. Thanks for the great memory, Mom!

Katie can make an impression on anyone. She recently left a magna doodle board outside the door to her room. There were a few misspellings; the message was crystal clear. "No mom allowed in my room." Where does she learn these things? Really - who taught her to read and write? And what am I the target??? :p

John left an impression on Yia Yia. A very cold impression... She was here to watch the kids when Spence and I jetted off to the east coast for an Army v. Navy football game. He was almost 3 years old. Mom called me over and over again to get advice on warming up the house. She couldn't seem to make the thermostat work. (I was thinking - REALLY? I know you can work a thermostat!) It was December and the temperature in the house was falling into the low 60s. She was making preparations to take the kids to a hotel to get warm! With a bit of sleuthing I found out that John had flipped the master switch on the furnace. He didn't think Yia Yia would like all of the noise it made. She sure appreciated the heat it made when she flipped it back!

Allison's newest concern is nightmares. I can't tell if she is really having bad dreams. She worries about them when I first put her to bed. This week she came to me in the middle of the night babbling about a bad dream. I asked her about it and she said there was a monster getting her. She sounded quite upset. So I asked if the monster was pink or purple. She let out a joyful giggle and said "Pink! I guess that means it was a nice monster. It won't get me." She went back to bed and I didn't hear from her or her monster again.

Allison hums while she eats. It makes me giggle. I like to believe it is because my cooking is so fabulous!

Claire's obsession is HAPPY FEET! She loves penguins and she loves to dance. She carries a baby penguin around with her. She can find every penguin in the toy store. She screams "NUSIC! DANCE!" every time we see the CD player. And she dances.

Oh what fond memories. Tonight I sat at the dinner table with my crew and thought everyone should get a chance to do this! Sit around the table with 4 kiddos, 4 years old and younger. Let them lead the conversation. It is a hoot!

Hello Baby Mason!

New words...

Claire's favorite place to escape is my closet where she pulls everything she can out and scatters it around the floor. Then she sits down and tries to put everything on. Shirts on her legs, pants on her head, socks on her hands...
Today she was quiet for a tad too long so I went searching for her. Sure enough, there she was sitting on my closet floor with this and that all about. I asked her, "What are you doing in here?" to which she proudly and enthusiastically responded, "MESS!"
Ah ha! She does listen to me.

Sweet Dreams

Me to John, with great exasperation - John, WHY do you come into my room every night?

John in a quiet, sweet voice - Mommy it is because I love you sooooooooo much.

I know the pessimists among us would say - manipulation! I say say, awwwwww, he melts my heart.

Ha! Ha!

When John was 2 and potty training we changed his pants - a lot! Spence was just home after a year long deployment and didn't know that a tot could have a sense of humor. Spence sent John back to get a clean pair of unders (as we call them) and John came back with a pair of Katie's. Spence explained that he wanted a pair of boy unders and John went away and came back with... another pair of Katie's. When a pile of 6 or more were on the floor at his feet I had to explain to Spence that John was playing a joke on him. The funniest part about the whole event was me explaining it to Spence because John has Spence's sense of humor!
I've been thinking about that a lot over the past few days as I have watched Claire develop her sense of humor. It is so similar to John's and Spence's. I will have many stories to tell in the near future.

Cookbooktionary - any cookbook worth reading, according to the Anderson kids!

Holding On

I often wonder which memories will stick with me over the years and how intact or embellished they will be...
I hope these are two of them!
Monday (my one and only easy morning) I was lounging (ha!) in my bed just past 7:30. At least one child was already in my room and I could hear everyone else stirring. I glimpsed a head full of blonde hair walking around my hair and rolled over to say good morning to Katie. Um, NOT Katie! That's right... 20 month old Claire can escape. With ease! She is sooooooo proud of herself. Oi vey.
Every night after prayers everyone gets a chance to thank Jesus for something or to ask him for something. Every night, no matter what kind of day we have had, whether I've just been cuddling with John or screaming at him about his unacceptable choices, he thanks Jesus for his sweet, wonderful Mommy and Daddy. My heart melts every time.

I know where they get it from!

Katie and John ask WHY? in a disobedient manner way too often. (Kids, don't throw sand at each other! WHY? Kids, don't touch the hot stove! WHY?) They must go sit on the stairs and consider the question and answer. Claire has picked up the habit. So, as I am the only one who really understands her I am also the only one who is pestered with her quiet, sing-songy voice asking why? many times a day.

Katie's newest catch phrase: Needs salt!

Allison's phrase: W-w-w-w-w-what's happenin', dude?

I was baffled by these newest bits until I overheard their latest movie du jour... A Leap Frog reading enrichment video. Ha! Ha!

Hiking with friends...

Funnies

Katie, having a 'pretty party, brushing my hair and putting barrettes in for me (ouch!) - Oh Mommy, soon you are going to be so stylish. Gee, thanks!

John, watching a DVD that wasn't playing well - Mom, this movie keeps itching! I thought hard and asked a lot of questions to figure out his train of thought... At some point I probably told him that DVDs skip when they are scratched. Scratched. Itching. Aha!

Julie brought her new puppy, Sophie, over for a visit. Katie noticed Sophie's neck and said - Oh what a beautiful leash. Julie told her that it is a collar. Allison immediately piped in - I have a collar bone and it is broken. (Insert sad face.)

Katie, while crying about everything threw in a very dramatic - It has just been years and years and years since I saw Daddy!

When Julie's husband, Craig, left their house yesterday their daughter ran out and said 'Bye Daddy!' My sweet, sweet, sweet Claire went running across the front porch happily screaming - DADDY! DADDY! DADDY! (Tears in my eyes.) Awwww... The baby girl just wants her daddy.

Allison must have dreamt about Spence a few nights ago. She woke up and told me her daddy was home. I gently told her, not yet... She pleasantly insisted that she saw him here, at home, with her. We walked through the house, hand-in-hand, just to be sure.

Friday night is pizza night. In our ideal life I take the night off from cooking and Spence makes pizza with the kids. In this altered universe I make pizza with them. Chef John helped through the whole process. His running commentary is quite amusing. The best was when I turned only one oven and put both pizza stones in there. I now know (and I expect to be reminded many, many more times) that is NOT the way Spencer (yes, he refers to Spence as Spencer) makes pizza. Spencer is the best pizza maker and I should follow his methods. (Spence will be disappointed to know that our current 'pizza' consists of a tortilla, sauce, a sprinkle of cheese, tomatoes and feta - with basil and/or spinach when we have it.)