Oh These Kids

Just a quick catch up on the kids so I don't forget things and a chance for me to brag on them. :)

Miles

Miles is my rock. He has so much goodness in him, and I'm just hoping I don't squelch it. It is not uncommon for him to be dressed, bed made, table set, and outside taking care of the bunnies before I even get out of bed.(Although I'm trying to rectify this, and get out of bed sooner. Man, it's tough.) And the way he takes care of those bunnies is adorable. He holds them like little babies and nuzzles his nose to theirs and talks to them. He talks about how many kids he's going to have when he grows up and wonders if the first one will be a boy or girl. But he already knows who he is going to marry. :) (Still has a crush on Ava from homeschool. :)
I think I've written about it before, but he has a job rolling in our neighbors garbage cans for 25 cents per house. Some days he really doesn't want to, but for the most part I've been able to motivate him. It's like that with school some days also. Some days it's like I'm pulling teeth to get him to ready a book, and other days, I have to physically take away his pencil so he can't do more handwriting. We had our first homeschool group day of the year at our house this past week. It all went over well, till the end when Miles had a major fit. He doesn't have them very often anymore, but when he does, they are MAJOR. It's usually happens when he's been around too many people for too long. Classic introvert. I'm going to have to get smarter about dealing with them because he's almost too big for me to physically control when it gets to that point.
When he grows up, he wants to be everything. Any time he hears about a profession, that's what he wants to be. He gets bloody noses all the time it seems like. We had a follow up eye appointment the other day and things are looking good. No regression, so we should be all done with therapy! Hallelujah!
He's on a de-junking kick. He finds boxes, extra bags, whatever, and fills them up with clothes and toys, wraps them up, and then delivers them to his friends. We had to make a rule that I have to check what's inside first because he's tried to give away some things that were actually expensive. But for the most part, I'm glad he's getting rid of stuff. He just swells up with pride when he delivers a package. You can tell it makes him feel so good inside. I love him to pieces.

Gwen

I think when Gwen grows up, she's either going to be an entomologist or a lawyer. She is too smart for her own good and finds all sorts of loopholes in our logic and can argue it until we are exposed and have to change our stories. And she's 4. The other day she was coming out of quiet time and the rule is that they can't come out until their room is clean. So she comes out and Richie says, "Is your room clean?" And she says, "Probably." Rich says, "If I come check it right now, will it be clean?" And then she ran off to actually clean her room. When she came back, Richie said, "How come you lied to me about your room being clean?" She said, "I didn't lie. Probably is not yes."
I have felt extremely stressed over the past month or so (trying to get school ready), and so I've been more snappy than usual with the kids. One day, I made pancakes and made one chocolate chip one for everyone. When we had all had our allotted chocolate chip pancake, I realized I had made one extra. I literally felt my heart speed up as I realized I'd have to referee a fight over the extra pancake. Gwen was the first to notice and asked right away if she could have it. When I explained how it wasn't fair for her to have 2 and suggested cutting it into 4 pieces so we all had extra, that's when it really hit the fan. I'll cut to the chase. Basically it ended up in her screaming every hurtful thing she could muster, and me in tears because my feelings were hurt (and I was really tired). We ended up on her bed cuddling in silence until we had calmed down. And then I realized, "Oh no. One day she's going to be a teenager."
She's still constantly getting UTI's, so it might be time to have the Dr. check her out more in depth. Last time we went in, I asked the Dr. about it and she said if she's had more than 3, we should xray her kidneys to check for scarring etc. Yay.
I don't know if I'll ever fully "figure her out". She seems to have so many layers to her. She's a girly girl, she's a tom boy, she's too sensitive, she's ridiculously tough (Story Interjection: At our end of school field day this past May, we taught the kids how to play Red Rover. Gwen was smaller than some kids there, but she NEVER let anyone through. Even if it meant she got plowed to the ground by an 8 year old and came come home with bruises on her arms.), she has a knack for getting out of anything she doesn't want to do and then convincing you it's ok, she's got major attitude, she's sweet as sweet can be, she's beautiful, she's a wreck, she's a drama queen, she's simple, she's deep, she's unbelievably smart. Gwen seems to know it all already, and I'm just here to guide her. I love her to pieces.

Lindy

Lindy's middle name should have been "Personality". She's always had some sass in her, but it seems like lately her personality is big enough to fill any room she's in. Usually it's pretty entertaining. She's almost in nursery, but not quite. So ever since I have been in the primary presidency, I've either had to find a friend to watch her, or take her to primary with me and try to entertain her there. One day I was conducting senior primary and she kept trying to have me hold her as I was talking. Finally I picked her up and one of the kids jokingly said, "Oh, is she going to teach us the lesson today?" I said, I didn't think she could do that. Immediately, Lindy shook her finger at the entire senior primary shouting as loud as she could in her baby talk. The room erupted in laughter. Lindy was very proud of herself, and decided as an encore, she would blow raspberries, which elicited even more laughter. I finally had to take her out because she was such a distraction.
This girl...She is the most violent kid I've had thus far. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but man, she can be a real bully. We can't go any place, literally, without her making at least one kid cry. I've gotten very good at apologizing to the other moms. Lindy is getting better about saying sorry and giving hugs and kisses afterward. Now if we can just get her to not do it in the first place, that would be great. She's very calculating about the whole thing. She loves little babies, so she'll find them and start "talking" to them and kissing them, and rocking them...and then without ANY warning, she grabs their faces, pinches, slaps, pushes, kicks, bites; the whole 9-yards. I'm going to have to warn all those nursery leaders to keep an eye on her. I do think it's subsiding though.
She is in a blanket-carrying phase. It doesn't have to be one particular blanket, any blanket will do. But she loves to drag a blanket around in one hand and a baby doll in the other. She is a MAJOR mama's girl. We're doing what we can to break that habit, cause let's face it, it gets annoying. She is starting to catch on to all sorts of things. We played hide-and-seek today for the first time with her, and she couldn't get enough of it. She understands most things. "Go throw this away" "Find Miles, where's Miles?" "Get your shoes so we can go outside". She loves to help me hang laundry on the line. She LOVES to get wet. Sink, hose, tub, cup of water left on the table, it doesn't matter, she is usually soaked at some point in the day. :) She was helping me water the flowers the other day, and accidentally sprayed me. When I reacted, she realized the implications, and started chasing me around with the hose with this knowing sparkle in her eyes. In a nutshell, she's a handful, really entertaining, a bully, a sweetheart, too smart, and growing like crazy. She continues to be our most expressive kid. Her facial expressions are awesome. I love her to pieces.