David

An update on David seems to be in order. He is doing great is his Pre-K class at First Baptist Preschool, and he seems to be enjoying making life as wild and interesting as possible...making life very "colorful" for me. 

Yesterday morning we all (me and the four kids) sat in a small room at the doctor's office, waiting for David to have his 4 year-old check-up and shots. 

The Nurse Practitioner came in and asked the usual questions, to which David gave the worst possible answers. She started off asking him about preschool, and he told her he did not have a playground, did not do art or crafts, and did not learn about letters...or learn anything. (All in the softest, cutest voice possible).

Then she asked him what kind of food he likes. No matter what she asked him, the only thing he would say was, "CANDY!!!!" 

"Do you like strawberries?" 

"No! Candy!"

"Do you like apples?"

"No! Candy!"

And on, and on, and on, it went...

I found some pictures on my phone of David that I thought I would include in this update:

On the playground at the SplashPark

Showing me that he "won't have to change at bedtime, because he already has his jammas on"

Riding his bike at the beach. His favorite part was dodging "obstacles" on the sidewalk

"Reading" his Bible in the morning while he waits for everyone else to wake up. 

A video of him playing with the "toy" that he literally played with for an entire day...including a 6-hour car trip. It was a tangled up piece of blue string.

Playing with his "military guys"

Note: on the first week of preschool, David brought home a craft that was titled "All About Me." Under the part that said "I want to be:" It said, "Military Chef."

That's David!

Lego Transformer

Today Mac showed me his very first "transformer invention."

It's a lego plane that turns into a robot.

Plane: 

Robot:

Front Yard Fort

Yesterday Mac and David went out to the front yard and started working hard on a new project. They told me it is a secret fort. 

   

Looks like there is still a little work to do on the camouflaging.

Homeschooling

This pretty much sums it up!

Corrie

Today Corrie wanted to practice riding her bike on the sidewalk. I went over to help her and noticed that some interesting attachments had been added to her bike. 

She said, "It's a cicada wrapped in saran wrap." 

That's Corrie!

Abigail

Cereal Art

Not even cereal is safe from becoming a canvas for these kids' imaginations...pretty fun!

According to Corrie, this is an orange fish with banana fins

This looks like an angry cereal bird to me!

Hooray for Abigail!

Abigail has yet to master walking. At almost 15 months, she seems happy to remain crawling for the rest of her life.

It has been really fun for Mac and Corrie and David to cheer even her most tiny achievements as she slowly gains confidence to take a step. Here is a cute video of them celebrating her!

Hungry Little Lady

Mac has decided that Abigail's super power is food consumption! Today she was so proud of getting to hold/use a spoon for the first time.

Digging for Fossils

The kids had been begging for days to go to the park and "dig for fossils."

I wasn't sure what they meant, but David seemed to believe that a real dinosaur skeleton would be unearthed.

David yelled, "Mac? Can you please find me a tooth?!!!!" 

That was the last thing I heard before they all ran off to a spot in the dirt on the far end of the park.

Too bad I realized after the fact that the digging tools were our dinner spoons.

Mt. Tooth

A few weeks ago, I heard a scream emerge from the girls' bedroom. Corrie came running out holding a tooth.

According to Corrie, Abigail climbed over Corrie's head and bumped her loose tooth into the carpet. I think the whole thing was a bit traumatic, but in classic Corrie form, she was over it in a matter of minutes:

Behold, Corrie's presentation of "Mount Tooth": (a tooth on top of a pile of kinetic sand)

Yesterday I overheard Corrie introducing Abigail to a new friend. All of the kids were describing some of Abigail's most noteworthy qualities. 

"She'll scratch your face!" (Mac)

"She screams!" (David)

"She'll knock your tooth right out!!!!!" (Corrie)

Mac

Last Wednesday Mac had a stomach bug and spent the morning on the couch. When David got home from preschool, he grabbed his pillow and blanket so that he could rest with Mac, too.

From the kitchen I overheard some very funny conversations between the two boys (not intentionally funny on their part). I glanced into the living room to see that Abigail had also joined the party. She was talking to our family picture and laughing.

It was a sweet moment to see all three of them happy and enjoying family.

A few minutes later I sent the boys downstairs to watch a TV show together so that I could put Abigail down for her nap. As soon as she was falling asleep, an angry yell came up the stairs:

"MOM! David threw Gatorade at me!!!"

And then Abigail started to cry.

And there went those few nice moments of rest for mom. 

Four small kids is really hard. But I am thankful for each one. And I am certain I will look back on these days with longing and gratefulness.