Card to Mommy

Nicole and Allie decided to make a card for me today.  Allie drew her picture first, then Nicole.  I like it!

Church lesson

Today, Daddy was giving a church lesson to the children about us being created in the image of God; ie. human beings have bodies like God's body.  So he asks Allison, "What does Jesus have that's a part of his body?"

She says, "Skeleton?"

"What else?"

"Uh, lungs??"

So Daddy searches for a picture of Jesus and shows it to Nicole.  "Nicole, what else does Jesus have?"

Nicole:  "A brain?"

Allie:  "Skin?"

Daddy:  "What else do you see in the picture?"

Allie:  "The sky?"

Finally, after further prompting, they give normal answers like "eyes" and "a chin."

Strange children.

Sensory details and the Harvest Festival

As I may have mentioned before, Nicole seems to have a talent for head-cocking and, at times, mercilessly critical descriptions.  Here are some things that Nicole has said that I've jotted down over the past several months.  I've put them in descending order by date so my favorite can be the last:

 

10-25-21
Nicole describes her painful brain freeze:  "It felt like my brain was about to be split in half."

 

6-17-21

Nicole:  “The only cakes I like are Brazilian cakes.  They’re spongy, I like the sponginess.  Other cakes are like crackers.”  (Not a very good endorsement of other cakes.)

 

6-5-21

At the track meet in the sun, Nicole:

"It feels like someone lit me on fire and put hot water all over me that is a thousand degrees."

5-20-21

Nicole’s description of what it felt like to put lotion on her broken skin:  

"It felt like it was on fire and someone was pinching it over and over again."

 

What Nicole said about the chocolate milkshake that she didn’t like:

“It kind of tastes like a garden. A garden that has never been watered, or cared for, or loved.”

 

****************

At the end of September, we attended the local harvest festival, where Nicole and Allison had way too much fun.

We went to the festival once with Daddy, and returned a few days later with just me and the kids.  On our return visit, we discovered the "kids only" section.  There was an amazing two story castle with dress-ups and a Cinderella carriage.  Nicole and Allie donned adorable dresses and were having such a charming time when they suddenly discovered the world beyond the fence.  Staring through the fence, they saw a world that was better than the one they were living in.  "How can we get in there?" they asked.

So we left the castle and the princess carriage and the dress-ups and entered the mini village, which read at the entrance, "For 12 years and under."

Nicole and Allie were each whisked away into two entirely different fantasies.  Nicole was dressed up like a police woman and kept running around the village in chaos; at one time, she sprinted past me shouting urgently, "A case to solve!  A case to solve!"  Juveniles were running around all over the place, often in police uniform or fireman attire; there was tons of shouting and crime; arrests were being made left and right.  So many events were happening at once, I have no idea what went on there.

Meanwhile, Allison discovered the nursery school, where she acquired a baby in a car seat.  She peacefully tended to all her baby's needs, and then ventured out into the village.  She moseyed around the village, stopping by the ice cream parlor, pausing to adjust her baby's car seat straps amidst the doughnuts and ice cream all over the floor.  She later returned to the nursery to tend to her baby, and managed to gain another baby, who she placed in a car seat.  She visited the local schoolhouse, where she sat against the wall listening to the school teacher's lecture--her babies in car seats placed carefully beside her.  At one point, she took both babies with her for a ride in the car.  Wanting to investigate something, she left the babies alone beside the car briefly.  But when she returned a moment later, the babies were gone!  One of the ever vigilant teenage workers had whisked the babies away, and was already striding toward the nursery to put them in their rightful place.  Allison looked around, wondering.  Where could her babies be?  As a witness to the crisis, I quickly pointed Allison in the direction of the kidnapper, tipping her off that the nursery would be her best bet.  Allison arrived only barely in time.  Other children were already clamoring to claim her babies.  She competently fought them off with stern words, "That was my baby," and perhaps a bit of gentle force.  She soon learned the hazard of governing two babies in a community of 2 to 4-year-olds, as she often had to divert her attention to fend off other children from one baby while she had been busy tending to the other.  And, of course, now having her attention on that baby, the other becomes a target.  And so on.

The doctor visit

The butterfly cakes I improvised for Allison's birthday.  It was going to be a double layered round cake, but it occurred to me as I was baking them that I could do a butterfly...and then I realized two butterflies was better and easier!
 

The day after her birthday this year, Allison was to see the doctor for her well-check visit.  She was excited.  She loves going to the dentist and the doctor.  The morning of her doctor visit, we were in the car, having just dropped Nicole off at school.  Allison says:

A:  I like both of them.

Me:  Who?

A:  The doctor and the dentist.

Me:  Why?

A:  Because…….they help people.

At her appointment, the doctor advised Allison could get her kindergarten shots now, so she wouldn't remember them.  I told her, "Oh, Allie likes shots."  The doctor said, "We don't get much of that!"  

When the nurse came in, Allison was giddy with excitement.  She told the nurse that she liked shots; they tickle.  She watched the 1 inch needle go into her thigh, and just grinned broadly.  When the second shot was administered into her other leg, I could tell it hurt a little because she flinched, but then she just giggled, and we talked about how much she loves shots.  She was so energized after coming out of her doctor appointment!

When Allison decides something, it's decided.  It's pretty pointless to ever get her to change her mind through persuasion.  If it's fun, of course, she'll often follow.  I guess she decided shots are the best!

 

Proudly displaying her band-aid after getting her shot

 

 

Unfortunately, a month later, I took both Nicole and Allison to get their flu shots, and Nicole requested that she go first, because she thought that would help her be braver.  Well, that didn't work.  She cowered behind me as if I were a shield between her and the nurse, trembling and pretty much in tears.  The nurse was eventually like, "I have a hundred more of these to administer today, so we gotta do this."  So when it was Allison's turn, she reflected Nicole's fear--though not to the same extreme.  I've learned my lesson:  Don't take Allison along when Nicole gets shots, or at least have Allison go first!

Throwback Tuesday

If I wait until Throwback Thursday, this'll never make it on the blog. I believe these two pictures (Lev and Nicole) were taken in summer 2016 at the family reunion:

I don't know what all the kids were doing the night before, but apparently there was a theme to it.

Stories through pictures - 2

 

Sunbather I sculpted in Hawaii

Mega grape

Nicole does something........Allie does it too:

 

We went to the theme park on Nicole's birthday

Apparently some sort of book holder Nicole made

This is how you use it

Cousins

Dinosaurs

Ninjas

Our hammock setup while we were homeless for a few hours in southern Utah.

Nice hike we went on during a date a couple weeks ago