Hearts in His Eyes

Kaitlyn: "Mommy, am I smart?"
Mommy: "Of course you're smart, honey! You know, when you grow up and get married, you are going to make your husband a happy man. You are smart and beautiful and kind and loving."
Kaitlyn: "I know. And, when there's a boy who thinks I'm really, really pretty, he's going to get hearts in his eyes!"

[I think maybe she has watched too many cartoons.]

Aidan on Goal-Setting

Aidan needed to do an assignment for his Critical Thinking course, which included posting a list of his goals. So, we are resurrecting this blog for that purpose. Maybe it will encourage us to start using it again more regularly!


Aidan's Goals:

1.I want to be close to God.
Short-term: I could read the Bible, pray, learn more about Him at church and tell others about Him.
Long-term: This is the same as my short-term goal. I could keep reading the Bible, praying, learning more about Him at church and telling others about Him.

2. I want to be an astronaut.
Short-term: I could read up on astronauts and space travel. I could work hard at science, critical thinking and math at school.
Long-term: I could go to space camp and get a college degree in Aerospace.

3. I want to travel to an Italian pizzeria.
Short-term: I could start gathering money and learn how to speak Italian.
Long-term: I need to gather money for a plane ticket to get there. I could do this by walking dogs now or getting a job in high school.

4. I want to give 10% of what I earn to my church.
Short-term: I could earn money by walking dogs and give 10% to the
church.
Long-term: I could earn more money at a job and give 10% to the church.

5. I want to go camping for two weeks at Yellowstone National Park.
Short-term: I need to start gathering all the right camping equipment and learn how to pitch a tent and make campfires.
Long-term: I need to gather money for a car or a plane ticket to get there. I could do this by walking dogs now or getting a job in high school.

Better than caffeine!

Sunday afternoon Kaitlyn was taking a long, hard nap. We needed to wake her up to go to a meeting, so Roy and I stood at her doorway trying to stir her.
"Kaitlyn, wake up!" (No response.)
"Kaitlyn, your Mommy loves you." (Still nothing.)
"Kaitlyn, it's time to get up!" (Not even a twitch.)
"Kaitlyn, do you want some cookies?" (The toes start wiggling, the eyes pop right open, and her body jumps straight out of bed.)

Then, she stands there in a daze, forgetting what actually got her out of bed in the first place. I wish I had my video camera.

Defying Gravity

The boys are enjoying their newly painted bedroom. Apparently, the paint has gravity-repelling qualities, so we can float around like astronauts.

New Home Construction

It has taken about as long as it might normally take to build your average new construction home, but our custom-made doll house is almost complete. This has been a side hobby for Roy and a bit of a home schooling project for the kids. I'll have to post pics of the final product later, but here are some pics of a work in progress with Kaitlyn painting away on some of the bedroom walls.

Get the Growing Thing Out!

Today Kaitlyn says to me as I'm tucking her into bed:
" I don't want to grow bigger. I want to stay little. I want you to get me something that can take the growing thing out so that I can stay little. I want to take the growing thing out that pumps up so that I won't grow any more so that I can be little like my cousins."

And, as I was blowing her a kiss goodnight from the door, I whispered, "Sweet dreams, Kaitlyn." She says in reply: "Sweet dreams my Mommy, precious Mommy, the most precious in the world."

I love my little girl! 3 year olds can be so much fun.

Fun with ATL cousins: Fernbank Science Museum

Easter

Okay, so I'm still trying to make up for lost time, finally getting a chance to sit down and blog after a long time. Here are some Easter pics.

Daddy's Girl

Kaitlyn is at that age that just about everything she says is really cute. So, we are going to be a little "Kailyn-heavy" in the blogging these days, mostly so that I can have a personal record of some of these things to look back on. Don't get me wrong...all my kids are great. But, Kaitlyn is just really good at the one-liners right now.

Like, last week we were preparing to go visit Daddy to take lunch to a group of them at the office who were meeting off-site. Kaitlyn was excited to hear of our plans and said, "Oh, I can't wait to see Daddy, because I LOOOVE my Daddy. Because he's really pretty. But, he has his meeting clothes on."

I wonder if she meant that Daddy is pretty despite the fact that he was wearing a dress shirt and slacks instead of a dress? We'll never know.

I'm making a hat!

One day I noticed Kaitlyn was busy cutting some paper. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me she was making a hat. I thought that was pretty creative for a 3 year old. However, I was a bit curious when the Elmer's glue came out. A few minutes later she came to find me, proudly wearing her new hat, which she had glued to the top of her head.

Heaven is a wonderful place!

Today at nap time, Kaitlyn and I were talking about heaven. When I asked her what she thought was in heaven, she said, "lots of scissors and string you can cut." "And, there's pink trees." Then, she added, "I REALLY like pink trees!"

This would be my little girl's idea of heaven: to be able to spend her time cutting string all day long, outside among pink trees. Wow! Now THAT'S the life!

Cheese

Kaitlyn's quote for the day: "Aidan, you have cheese in your ear!"

Nope. We're Canadian!

Our pastor befriended a boy in our community, and he recently engaged him in conversation. He asked the boy if he goes to church. The boy replied rather matter-of-factly, "No, we aren't Christian, we're Canadians!"

Of course, our pastor had to share that with us. Unfortunately, there might be a little truth to that statement...

Cotter's Surprise

Today I was glancing through Aidan's English book looking at future lessons, and as I read through one of the pages, I got quite a surprise. They actually used Cotter's name as an example in one of their lessons! "First Cotter went to the library and gathered some books on his research topic..." It mentioned his name several times. I have never really seen his name is writing when it wasn't directly related to our Cotter, so we were thrilled to find it there! We have never known of anyone else named Cotter or even seen it as a name in a baby book. Cotter thought it was pretty cool and laughed for quite a while.

Avoiding Bad Words

Cotter was sitting at the table reading aloud his "Runny Babbit" book, which is full of mixed up words, where the first letter of two words are exchanged to make silly words, but the original story line can still be followed. I was wandering in and out of the kitchen, half-listening to him as he was enjoying this new challenge. At one point he looked up at me and said, "I'm not sure if I should be reading this book. It has lots of bad words. It has the "s" word, the "d" word...a thoughtful pause...and the "b" word." Well, that caught my attention! I was a bit perplexed at my 7-year-old's account of the words in this book, so I asked him what he meant.

Not wanting to really say the words out loud, he sheepishly said, "It says "stupid," "dummy" and "brat." "Mommy," he says, "is brat a bad word?"