Meg's Birthday

Meg turned six!  I can hardly believe it, and almost typed "five".  She was so excited for her birthday, and doesn't mind at all that it comes right after Christmas.  This year she wanted a watch and a globe, and was happy to receive them both.  She also wanted cupcakes because she doesn't like cake.  Meg adds such a flavor to our family.  She has the best giggles and loves to take care of her younger brothers.  She loves to dress up in her dance clothes and dance around the house.  She can be a spitfire when she wants to be, but also loves to have a good hug and cuddle.  She is loving having friends and being in kindergarten.  Every day she comes home to tell us about some new friend that she has made.  She also loves to draw and has enjoyed a new book that shows you how to draw all sorts of animals.  We love our six year old Meg!!

Random Photos

Meg does Spencer's hair.  If only my girls had ever had this mop.

Riding the rides in the park.  I don't usually do videos, but these are funny.  The first is the kids on a ride while Spencer watches.  (He was too little.)  The second is him trying to crawl under the fence to get to them on the ride.

He finally gets a turn riding the train:

Meg's gum in Spencer's hair after she tended him while I took a shower.  I cut it out.  Peanut Butter seemed too time intensive, and he has enough hair to take the loss.

Personal Space

This is what Meg and Ellie always look like when we eat dinner:

For some reason, Meg's chair is always shoved waaaaaayyyyy over into Ellie's personal space.  While they generally eat next to each other, this happens no matter who Meg eats by.  Not only this but she turns sideways in her chair and puts her feet on the other person's chair.  Sometimes at lunch (when Ellie is at school) Meg sits by me, and I experience this firsthand.  The other day as Meg relentlessly tapped her foot on my chair and I did my best to control my urge to turn to her and tell her to "SCOOT OVER!!!!!" I realized I probably shouldn't be so hard on Ellie when she has her own personal space issues at dinner.  That girl puts up with way more than I give her credit for.  Being a big sister is tough.

Meg's Birthday

Meg turned 5 this year.  She is so excited that this means she can go to school with Ellie this September.  She is also very sure that outfits that did not fit before (5T) now do and that outfits that used to fit (4T) don't at all.  For her birthday we went to McDonalds and had a confetti cake with sprinkles. She usually asks for a confetti cake, and she never eats it.  She doesn't really like cake.

   



















I think this is the only bite of cake she took.  And it obviously wasn't anything she loved too much.

Spencer, on the other hand, really liked the cake:

About two weeks later we had Meg's birthday party with her friends.  This time Justin made cupcakes because Meg prefers "muffins."

Meg is very shy at heart and when we all sang "Happy Birthday" she ducked and cowered.

Friends:

We sure love our Meg.  She is so good at taking care of Spencer, she loves to tend him and follow him around, and play games with him.  She loves to be cuddled, especially by her Daddy.  She is slow to wake up in the mornings, just like her Mommy.  She wears ballet clothes almost every single day with lots of crazy tights that I can't help buying for her.  Grant adores her and does everything she says regardless of whether it's to his benefit or not.  She and Ellie love to pretend and set up long, convoluted stories of princesses, fairies, pirates, or school buses.  Happy Birthday Meg!!!

The Littles

Spencer:

Has begun to walk.  Mostly he likes to walk in circles.  Like it amuses him that you thought he was going to visit you, but now he's really going somewhere else.

Has one tooth on the bottom, another coming.  And apparently two teeth on the top.  They are coming in way up high - in the wrong spot - so I only discovered them while cleaning out his nose one day.  (He was screaming - good-naturedly, of course.)

Needs a haircut so that he can stop brushing the hair out of his eyes.  Still, his long hair is so cute that neither Justin nor I can bring ourselves to bring him some relief and actually trim the hair back.

Grant:

Has begun whacking people - just for fun - when he walks past them.  Or drop-tackling any available siblings.  Boys!  Boys are crazy!

Also needs a haircut.  I wish I could decide what kind of boy haircut I wanted him to have.  Who would have thought boy's hair would be so difficult for me.

Went to Primary.  Meg remarked:  "When the bad kids turn off the lights and run to the bathrooms I am good and listen to my teacher."  Whereupon Grant remarked:  "I like to turn off the lights and run to the bathrooms."  Yep.  That's right.

Meg:

Finally had her birthday party.  Every 30 seconds she asked when we were opening presents.  I kept telling her to be polite.  Justin rolled his eyes at me and told me just to let her open the presents.

Has inherited the Andersen "move your house around" gene.  Has decided to move her pillow to the middle of her bed and makes sure to sleep perpendicular to the regular fashion.  This means her feet hang off the side of her bed and her blankets are horribly skiwampous.  But she is glad because her bed is "different than it used to be."

Declared over Christmas to a complete stranger that she doesn't go to preschool but does homeschool with me where "we never actually learn anything at all."

Ellie:

Is horrified her classroom pet died over Christmas break because it was her only chance at a pet.

Is reading about 8 different books at a time, which she leaves all over the house with strange pieces of paper, random toys, ribbons, etc. as bookmarks.  When I move the books or accidentally close them she becomes very irritated.  She especially likes Nancy Drew right now, but when she reads those at night she has to come out and receive reassurances that it is all pretend.

Loves when I let her stay in her pajamas on the weekend instead of making her get dressed and brush her teeth.

Dinner laughs

Says Meg during a "future job" discussion where Ellie declared she wanted to someday be an artist.

Meg: I want to be a doctor.
Mom/Dad: That's a good thing to be.
Meg: Yes, then I can shot people.

Lately...

... we went to the Children's Museum again.  Our membership had lapsed and we hadn't been for awhile.  This meant there were some fun new exhibits that we'd never played at before.

Ellie made Meg a dress.  It was lovely:

Stories

Meg is learning to read. It is hard for her to tell the difference between lowercase "u's" and lowercase "a's" (Not how we type them, how we write them.) So often she reads "aaah" for "uuuh". The other day she was reading her sucker wrapper in the car. You know: Dum Dums. Which means she was saying, over and over:

"Dam dams, dam dams, dam dams!"

*****

Spencer loves his vegetables.  And he hates his fruits.  Seriously.  As in, to feed him his bananas I have to put green beans on the front of his spoon.  Totally wierd.