mckmuffin is coming

You may remember me posting about my friend's unborn baby boy, Stellan, needing prayer for his sick heart. We praise the Lord that he has made it to his scheduled delivery date. Tomorrow morning, my friend will go in to the hospital for a c-section. Please pray for Stellan (aka MckMuffin), that he will be well outside of his mother.

he draws

In order to keep Henri occupied while I took a shower this morning, I decided to tear off a large piece from a roll of paper and give him his markers & crayons.

It has been my goal to teach Henri how to write his name sometime this year. He's had the letter H down ever since Aunt Alice taught him at age two and a half, and he has left that mark all over our house to our chagrin. However, Henri has had very little interested in learning how to write any other letter of the alphabet. In fact, he doesn't care to use markers, crayons, or pencils at all. Coloring? Nope. When asked to color a picture, he quickly scribbles over it with one color and declares he is finished.

I've been wondering how long it would take him to move into these fine motor skills. Over the past few Sundays at church, he has taken a liking to scribbling in his notebook. Then last week, he wanted to work on some letters for about a minute, and he started to try his lower case e, n, and r. After he tried a letter, he'd point to it and say, "My n looks like a P!" And it did.

Then came this morning. About a minute or so after I jumped in the shower, Henri knocked on the door announcing that he had drawn a robot. He was clearly excited to show me, and I told him that I was excited to see it after my shower. He shouted through the door again that his robot had one hundred arms. A few more minutes of quiet went by. I began to picture marker and crayon markings all over my walls, furniture, and floors (wouldn't be the first time), and I wondered if I should have left him alone with them.

After I dried off, Henri proudly showed me this.

This is Henri's robot. He says it has one hundred arms, two legs, angry eyes, and a mad mouth. He also has a sling & a gun that he holds with his legs to get the bad guys with.

I was so surprised. Really, I have NEVER seen him draw anything before. Sometimes he makes a circle, declares it to be a bug, and then scribbles all over it. But this was new.

What a joy to see my boy do something new at age 4 and a half!

We're thinking about homeschooling, and I've had this fear that teaching writing will become a dull chore for Henri. I want him to love learning. This drawing today brings me some hope that he will learn to write his name someday when he is ready.

1 month away from turning 2

apple orchard days

autumn morning play

I invited 4 women and their children from our small group to join me at my house and our neighborhood park this morning. Three were able to make it--Jen, Cathy, and Amy.

Oh what a beautiful morning! It was a chilly 40 degrees when I woke up, but with the sun shining, the temperatures were in the 50's and soaring toward the 60's by the time we headed out with the children to the park.

Henri, Toby, Micah, Hope, and Braden ran ahead while the moms tried to keep up with the three little girls in their strollers--Cosette, Rachel, and Allie.

Here's my friend Amy with her boys Toby (4) and Braden (2). Isn't that a nice picture?

Henri & Toby played with and smacked each other around quite a bit, both getting in trouble now and then. They're pals.


Eventually, Henri decided that he wanted his blanket and sat in the stroller, shoving away anyone who came near him, leaving me wondering if I should leave him alone or insist that he cheer up.

Then I had the magnificent idea to take a picture of all the children together.


My kids cried the whole time.
I'm still not sure why Cosette was crying.

But from left to right, here's Allie (22 mo), Cosette (22 mo), Henri (4 ½), Toby (4), Rachel (20 mo), Micah (5), Hope (3 ½), and Braden (2).

Then we walked back to my house for lunch. My friends and I enjoyed bowls of butternut squash soup--a recipe I had not made in years, but seemed perfect for this occasion.
As the children finished their lunches, they left the table to play. Henri & Toby completed their time together by taking off their clothes and urinating in our unfinished basement...thankfully, not a lot. I handed Henri a towel to wipe it up and that was that.

What a beautiful Autumn day it is! What a delightful time with my friends and our children was spent! I look forward to our next gathering at Jen's next month.