>This morning we read about Noah. Later on, Nadine was telling me that his sons names were Ham, Shem, & Japheth. Then she said without hesitation, “And the girls were Hacka, Mecka, & Shecka!” I laughed so hard! Where on earth she got those names from I’ll never know! =) The toddler mind is so amazing!

We also read about Daniel in the lion’s den. Later in the morning Nadine & Elijah were running away from the lions and hiding under the table, which I guess was the den, and were exclaiming how the lions didn’t hurt them!

On Elijah squirting suntan lotion everywhere during naptime:
“I did a lot a lot.” He sure did!

On Elijah drinking Tylenol during naptime (all was quiet, but I could hear the tell-tale sound of the clicking medicine bottle cap as he was twisting it shut) :
After disciplining him, I explained how very serious it was not to drink medicine without Mommy’s permission. I told him we might have to go to the hospital. He started to cry, “I don’t want to go to the hosbibol! Then I will be sick! And then I will cry!” “Then I will have a baby.” The last comment almost made me lose my composure. I smiled behind my hand while looking away before finishing our serious conversation.

It’s been a very eventful day.

>Today for school we studied the letter “G”. We are learning the “consonant rhyme” to help them remember what sound each letter makes. Today was, “G stands for g, in g, g, gum!” So, we chewed gum until it lost its flavor, then stuck it to our G page and hung them on the wall. Fun!
I was struck today anew, at how relaxed kids are. I was watching Elijah enjoy a drippy, sticky Popsicle, with juice running down his arms and shirt and onto his toes. He just stood outside happy and content, not caring how it felt, just reveling in the sweet goodness of a summer Popsicle.
Tonight Nadine has her baby doll tucked in her own little port-a-crib, beside her bed. Her name is Nadine too and she was sleeping last we checked. =) This morning at school she told me that today was Monday! I go over the days of the week each day, but hadn’t yet today! I was quite impressed!
Jack is teething I do believe. He cried more than usual today, which was a little difficult. So, we’ll see how he does tonight! He’s eating a little bit of rice cereal each day and loves it. He discovered the joys of plucking grass when I put him on a blanket outside today. He loved that too!

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>What a wonderful day we had yesterday at church! Thankfully, the power-point presentation for our Belize trip worked ! It was a special time with the whole team (minus Henry) and brought back lots of memories and yet brought closure to our wonderful summer. Afterwards we went to the Shorts’ house for more fellowship. Had a blast playing basketball and getting black feet too. It felt good to be active and have fun with my husband! =)

Today Mat went to the ENT Dr. and had good news! His nose looks much better than 3 weeks ago. Now he will go back every 6 months to see if his septum is fine and not caving in or corroding. http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/sinus/sinus_septum.cfm if you want to see what exactly the septum is.

Tonight Nadine was “cooking” macaroni and cheese and “asparagan” (asparagas). We had just finished watching cooking and they had made asparagas. =)

A while ago, after his bath, Elijah said, “Fold me in” (the towel). =)

Jack drank formula for the first time today. Nadine fed him, actually. He drank 8oz!

>We had a wonderful weekend at the Jersey shore for Labor Day. Though we only saw the beach and didn’t swim, it was still a wonderful time. Mat’s grandparents own a tiny shore house about 10 min. from Cape May. So we hung out at the house, took some much-needed naps, cooked a live lobster! and had fajitas all weekend. =) It was great.

We are starting to get excited about moving! It wasn’t really official until yesterday, that we will be moving November 4th! We are buying my parents’ house and they will be moving a couple miles down the road!

Basically the only stitch of packing that I’ve done is organize Jack’s clothes. He is now in 9-12 month clothes… kinda’ skipped the 6 month clothes… and he’s only 4 and half months! What a chunk! =) He is still so smiley and fun!

Tonight is our first youth group meeting since the beginning of the summer! I still have a few things to do before then, but wanted to post a little note.

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>Here are Nadine & Elijah making Jack laugh.

> Here is a picture I took on my phone of the kids! Everyone loves to cuddle! We had a great day today, learning about the letter “D”. We pasted pictures of Daddy to our paper! Looking forward to a weekend at the shore with Mat’s family…

>Today we had our third day of school! We worked on the letter “C”. So, we cut out carrots and cows out of magazines and drew pictures for people. It was fun! I guess I’m not a very good artist, because Elijah asked me to draw a lion. So I did. He looked at it and said, “Do another mouse.” I said, “A mouse! That’s a lion!” Then Nadine piped up and said, “That looks like a pig!” So, my lion turned out to be half mouse, half pig. =) I am NOT an artist. Sherry, help!

Yesterday we cut out a picture of Bambi since we were learning “B”. Elijah said, “I want to ride on Bambi’s back!” Then Nadine said, “Bambi’s don’t live here.”
Later, she was pretending to be the teacher and said, “Elijah, what does owl start with?”
He would answer, “Whoo! Whoo!”
“That’s right!”

So, we have rather animated times between 7 and 11AM.

The Lord has been strengthening Matthew through this week. His prednisone dose is starting to lower each day, so at times he is feeling the effects of that. We are really looking forward to a time of relaxing this weekend down at the shore with his family.