Pledge of Allegiance--Crazy Kindergartener Edition

I hope people don't find this video of Makayla reciting the Pledge of Allegiance disrespectful. I love it because she was so excited to show me that she could say it without help, and because it shows off that crazy side of her personality. She is 90% crazy, 9% sweetness and 1% stubborn.

Reality Check From a 5-Year-Old

Having Kasey work out of town for 2 weeks* at a time is no picnic. It's really hard to have the full weight of taking care of our three girls resting on my shoulders. There are no breaks. There are no quick trips to the grocery store by myself. There is no one else here to help with baths, story time, or diaper changes. The weeks when Kasey is gone are physically exhausting and emotionally draining.

And honestly, sometimes the strain is too much and I break. I brush their teeth a little too aggressively. I shut the door a little too forcefully. I speak a little too loudly and a little too harshly. In short, I turn into the mother I never wanted to be.

On one such night a while back, I was tucking the older girls into their beds. Ellie sat up urgently and said, "Mom! We forgot to say our prayers!"

At this point in the evening I seriously did not want to pray, but I knelt down anyway. Makayla volunteered to say the prayer. She was just about to finish when she said, "Oh, and please help my mom not to be a bully to us anymore."

Talk about a sucker punch to the stomach! Wow!

Although I cried myself to sleep that night, I am actually really grateful that Makayla said that. Whenever I get to the point where I am discouraged, or angry, or completely stressed out and ready to lose my temper, I think of her praying for me "not to be a bully" and it helps me to take a break. To breathe. To show a little more patience and a little more love.

*I was recently told by a person in the know at Kasey's work that his crew will no longer be working out of town. Although he will still be working 14-16 hour shifts (possibly longer?), I am so excited that I will get to see him at least once a day. I can hardly wait!

One Year Old

Kimberly is one. It's hard to believe that just one year ago she looked like this:

So here are some things about Kimberly at one.

• She loves her sisters. She frequently crawls or walks over to them and gives them hugs and kisses. She gets so excited when we pick up Makayla from school. It's the sweetest thing!
• Her favorite foods are marshmallows and yogurt.
• She is still a total mama's girl, but is now more willing to allow others to hold her. And she will even give an occasional snuggle to the grandparents.
• She has a mischievous twinkle in her eye. I laugh when I see that spark in her eye because I know she is up to no good.
• She loves to be around when I do Makayla's and Ellie's hair. Every morning she is right there next to me with a comb "helping" to comb their hair. She loves it. Them? not so much.
• I can tell that she is the third child because she has reached many milestones and yet none of them are written down. She is slowly starting to get the hang of this walking thing. She has taken as many as 20 steps at once. Go Kimberly!
• She is still toothless. Her little gummy grin is adorable. (see picture above)
• She equates the phone with her daddy. Whenever she hears my cell phone or the house phone, she quickly heads that direction saying, "Dada! Dada!"

We love our little Kimmy Bear. It's hard to imagine our lives without her!

New Skills: Reading and Writing

I discovered my favorite thing about Makayla being in kindergarten: hearing her read. I absolutely love it. I love how excited she gets when she reads a whole sentence by herself. I love to hear her sound out the words, one letter at a time before she molds them together into one complete word. I love when she stops dead in her tracks walking through the grocery store and yells, "Mom! I see the word 'the'!"

It's fascinating to see this new world that has opened itself to her.

At the beginning of the school year, I had to read to her 15 minutes a day. Now that she can read, and is starting to do so quite well, I have her read to me for 15 minutes every day. It's quite possibly the most entertaining 15 minutes of my day. Not necessarily because of what she is reading (really? some of these books actually got published?) but because of the reactions that she has to what she is reading.

These are my favorite one-liners from tonight's reading of "The Red Car."

--"I don't want to read this book. It's Bo-rinnnng*!"

--"Uh, Mom? We have a problem. I can't really put these sounds together."

--The words on the page read, "But the red car did not start." Makayla read "but" and stopped short. She looked at me and said, "This says "but" and it doesn't mean your bum** so it's not a bad word."

--"Uh, Mom? We have another problem. These sounds DO NOT make a real word."

--"Mom? Why are you shaking?" And when she discovers I am shaking because I am laughing so hard, she scoffs disgustedly, "This is not a funny part."
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My second favorite thing about Makayla being in kindergarten is getting 50 notes from her every day. They pretty much all say the same thing: some variation of "I love you, mom." It's so sweet, and I love her crooked, phonetically spelled words.

The best note from today read, "MoM I Mis Yu"
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*I don't think she really knows what boring means because she also called our van boring. And our spaghetti dinner boring. And the boy at school who is mean to her boring. See a pattern here?

**We don't say "butt" at my house. We say "bum." Saying "butt" could very well land a little person in time-out sitting on the offending word.

My Little Squirrel

I was sitting at my computer snacking on some crackers. Kimberly crawled up so I gave her one. She disappeared into the kitchen and came back with no cracker. Assuming she had eaten it, I gave her another. When she came back a third time, I followed her into the kitchen to find out what she was doing.

Well, apparently Kimberly is part squirrel because she created a cache of crackers in my cupboard.

Just look at those cheeks! She's definitely got some squirrel in her.

The "I'm Running Out of Good Titles" Post

I drive a mini van. And I love it! It is the most mom-friendly vehicle:

• Low enough that little kids can crawl in without too much trouble.


• Ample storage. (Thank you, Dodge, for creating Stow-n-Go!)


• Doors that open and close with the push of a button.


• Cup-holders galore! (I'm a huge fan of cup-holders. Whenever I look at new cars, it's the first thing I check for.)


• Room to bring along a friend or two for the ride.

This last thing has not escaped Makayla's attention. She frequently points out to me that we have 2 empty seats in our van. "Mom we have room for two more kids in our van."


"Yep. That's so we can bring a friend with us sometimes."


"No I think it's so we can have two more babies in our family."


"Well, I don't think we are going to have 2 more."


"You have to! We have that many seats!"


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Makayla seems a little more eager for a new baby than I am. While driving home one day, she and I were re-visiting the conversation above. Except it took an unexpected turn. "Mom, I think it's time for daddy to put another baby in your belly."


"Yeah, I don't think so."


"But you have to! I need another sister!"


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I'm sure this post will generate some rumors. So let's just put a stop to those right now. I am definitely NOT pregnant. Doing the single mom thing is hard enough with three. I don't want to try it with four. Thank you very much! I just think it's so funny that Makayla is dead set on filling every seat in our car.

Holiday Hairstyles

I had a little extra time this morning (or at least I thought I did) so I decided to do something a little fancier in the girls' hair for church. You know, fancy hair to match their fancy dresses.


In Makayla's hair I did a braided headband.
Then pulled rest back into a loopy side bun.


I loved the way this turned out. It took me a while to do it today, but with practice I think I could do it fast enough for a school day.

Ellie's hair took forever! All those little twists took a while. Then I was a little annoyed that they didn't work out so great.

I could probably make it look better with some practice. But it took me so long to do that I don't think Ellie will let me practice this style again. Oh well.

Kimberly still has very little hair, but she's cute anyway.