Amelia: my family

I adore this drawing. I would frame it and hang it on the wall if I was a frame it kind of person. I'm more of a buy the frame and spill water on the special paper kind of mom.

Anyway, you can see mom, dad, William and Amelia are labeled. Gemma isn't labeled, but she clearly is the smallest one on the left with the crazy hair,

Gemma draws

Gemma is drawing on the magnetic drawing board while I'm checking my email. After about 15 seconds she wants my attention (have you gotten half of an email from me lately? This could be why).

Gemma: mom!! Mom!!
Mama: what? Did you draw something?
Gemma: yeah! Nice!
Mama: (looks) it IS nice!
Gemma: no. No nice. Nice.
Mama: hmmm. It is a nice picture Gemma!
Gemma: no. No nice. Nice. (With exaggerated expression). Thsssssssssss. Snice.
Mama: aahhh...a snake! You made a snake!
Gemma: yeah! Big snice!
Mama: wow!
Gemma; bye snice (erases board).

Then she drew me a new picture which I tried to record.

Sometimes it is a combination of a few crazy board games around here. Pictionary and charades and a few others just to try and have a conversation with the 2 year old. It is a totally different game entirely if you'd like to have a conversation that does NOT include her in it.

Amelia: I love momy

Isn't she sweet?

Amelia: planet writing

"If I were an astronaut, I would go to Jupiter planet because see a ust the red spot."

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?