I love crazy!

You can't have kids the ages we do and not be at least aware of the Frozen movie and all the hype surrounding it.  We waited until the movie came out (not purposefully, just happened to work out that way) and Amelia got it for her birthday.  We've all seen it twice now, which seems like a reasonable number.

John's favorite part of the movie is the song above, in particular, the first 10 seconds.

Girl: Can I say something crazy?

Boy: I love crazy.

Recently, this has turned into kind of a running joke between us.  I'm not sure how to sum this up quickly or concisely, but I'm going to try.  Many people are aware that John is very analytical and rule oriented.  He follows the directions every time an changes his oil every 3,000  miles.  His gas light in his car never turns on because he always fills up before that happens.  He is early to everything. He plans ahead and does things the same way every single time.

I'm almost the exact opposite in every way.  I like to know the rules, but I don't always follow them.  When I cook, it never turns out the same way because I never follow the directions - even when I mean to follow the directions, something always happens where the directions don't quite work out.  I'm chronically late, although I work really hard to make sure I'm not late.  It is absolutely shocking that I haven't ever ran out of gas while driving, because my low gas light is usually on and I'm always running late.  I don't plan ahead and never do things the same way.

John knew all this when we got married, although perhaps not the extent.  None of this was a surprise to him.  I am not crazy in a clinical sense (at least I don't think that is what he is saying), but most of the times my gut reaction is polar opposite to his and it feels a little crazy to him.  Almost on a daily basis, we laugh (or argue, if I'm being honest) about how differently we are built.

 For example:

John: What should we do tonight.
Me: I was thinking we should clean up the kitchen and then go to Dairy Queen for dessert.
John: That sounds good, but it is getting late, isn't it?
Me: I think we can just ride fast.  It isn't that far.
John: Ride? Ride in the car.
Me: Yes.  We should ride our bikes.  It isn't that far.
John: Are you sure?
Me: Yes.
John: I love crazy.

Amelia's work

At the end of the school year, I got
So overwhelmed by the processing of the papers that were coming home from school each day, I just started stacking them up. William's is an astonishingly high tower and Amelia's is much more manageable. I went through Amelia's and discarded a few things (ack! The guilt! I promise I kept every thing that was authentically her own work or words.). Here are some of the highlights over the next few posts including the progression of her ability to write her name this year.

Happy dance.

What does your happy dance look like?

Amelia

Amelia is a hoot. The things she comes up with are so...deep and thoughtful sometimes. This is not an example of this.

Conversation 1:
Amelia: I have lots of talents. I am good at singing, ballet, tap dancing (funny as she doesn't actually start tap instruction until next year.), and eating. Yes, I have 4 super talents!

William: how are you good at tap dancing? You haven't even started.

Amelia: oh! I just know I'll be super!

(Honestly, the eating one cracks me up to no end!)


Conversation #2

Mama: so! What was you favorite part of our trip to Lake of the Ozarks? (We were there for 2 days this last week for a work conference).

Amelia: I know! The dead skunk on the road!

Mama: (big sigh). Really? Your favorite part was the skunk?

Amelia: yeah! It was so smelly!

Mama: okay then....

Sent from my iPhone

Father's Day at the magic house

It was supposed to rain on Sunday, so John chose to spend the day inside at the Magic House. (Sadly, the predicted rain didn't happen. Happily, we still had a great day.)

We got to the magic house early before they were open (completely by accident. We thought it opened at 10, they opened at 11.)

As we were there early, we had time to walk around and enjoy some of the outside features. William found this sculpture of kids playing and joined them. Then, he convinced Amelia to join the circle so he could dance in the middle.

Gemma is hilarious

She loves making faces and looking at herself. And we love it. Here she found some Easter bunny ears and requested them in her hair. Then she proceeded to entertain us with her faces. Who needs TV with entertainment like this?

The dilemma with the table

This is from this winter sometime. I'd guess February-ish. Gemma spread her special purple blanket on our coffee table. Then she straightened it out and lined up the edges with the smaller end of the table. As she smoothed it out, she noticed it didn't quite reach the other end. She slid it over so it lined up with the other end. She looked at the other side. It wasn't covered now. She carefully slid the blanket over so that end was covered. It seemed like it should cover the whole table. But no matter how many times she slid it back and forth, it always left several inches bare on the other side.

I'll admit, I enjoyed watching her try to figure out how to solve this problem. I even laughed out loud when she started getting a little frustrated. I have to hand it to her, she didn't give up, even when she was totally frustrated. She just kept trying. However, it quickly became clear that she wasn't going to give up. She was going to make that blanket fit. She got up on the table and used her toes to hold the Blanket in place while stretching it to the maximum with her hands. Still not long enough.

At this point, it was time to call it quits. We were on the verge of a meltdown (it was bedtime anyway, one does not take deep disappointment well when one is tired), so mama intervened. I was impressed that she was not easily distracted - not book or toy would pull her from her task. Finally, I physically took the blanket and whisked her off to bed.

Luckily, for me, this wasn't something that carried over to the following day. By the next day, she was on to something else entirely.