Family News - August 2007

I haven't posted any KidNews for awhile, since it seemed such a daunting task to pick photos and get them ready to include in a post. But I guess anything is better than nothing, so here's a non-photo post, though I may upload photos later.

Katherine turned 3 at the end of May. She's getting more outgoing, at least to some extent. Some things she likes at the moment are
- dressing and undressing dolls
- cutting and gluing her scraps of construction paper together
- the toy "piano" that plays various snippets of songs when you push the keys (though she has figured out how to abort each musical phrase after it begins to make it more quickly cycle through to the song she likes best)
- doing Saxon "kindergarten" math with Mommy (well, it says Saxon K, but it's simple enough for a 3-year-old to enjoy and comprehend most of it; all done with manipulatives (e.g. plastic teddy bears) rather than worksheets)
She also likes to try to trace letters on some wipe-off pages, and do dot-to-dots. She likes to string beads and buttons on wires and make "necklaces". She loves to be outside, though we haven't been out much lately due to the hot weather, and the mosquitoes.



Emily just turned 1. She is just now taking off walking, more so every day, and getting steadier on her feet. She loves to hold a stuffed animal (or other item that she thinks is meant to be snuggled, even a plastic doll) up to her face and saying "awwww" (which is what I used to say when introducing a stuffed animal to her). She has a sense of humor and likes to laugh. She smiles at our camera when we want to take a picture of her, though she doesn't seem to realize that other people's cameras are also things to smile for.

She likes to take off her bib (that has a stretchy neck-hole), and so tries to take off her shirt when undressing too. She likes to take apart Duplos, though putting them back together isn't happening yet.

She says "Mommy", "no", and "ah-dah" ("all done"), claps her hands to say "please", and waves good-bye. (And those few things get her a long way!)

She's a very snuggly kid and likes to be held, though she doesn't demand it (thankfully!). She's very laid-back about things, but also has a determined spirit and usually doesn't give up quickly. She also likes to pull out her own hair so she can suck on it with her thumb... so her hair is not very long at the moment. I hope she'll outgrow that before too long.

The girls do seem to like each other, for which I thank God. I pray they will grow up to be good friends rather than rivals.


In other news...
We went to beach as a family (with David's family) in June and had a nice time (Outer Banks of NC). Almost all of David's family got to come be together for a week; an aunt and uncle from Canada came too.

Then a month later, at the end of July, Katherine, Emily, and I did "the Georgia Trip" which I've tried to do every year, to take the girls to see their cousins on the Peters side. We stayed with Matthew & Jolene (and their girls Anna and Rachel) in Augusta for a few days, then stopped to see Elizabeth and her four kids for an afternoon south of Atlanta, before going on to Chattanooga. We stayed with my Mom for a couple of days, and then she came with us back to NC and stayed for a week with us here before flying home.

While Mom was here, David's Grandad from Canada died (after a long, slow decline), so he flew up there for a couple of days for the funeral.

Sometimes it's nice to finally be home for awhile. We thank God for safe travels there and back all summer.

It's been really, really hot and dry here. We've had a drought this summer, as is not uncommon in recent years, but this year seems worse. Maybe it's because of the heat. We've hit 100 degrees fairly often this summer, which we don't often do (I think once last year). Our current drought status is only "severe" (level 3 out of 5 drought levels), but it seems more damaging than other years.

It's only mid-August, but there are trees losing their leaves as if it is fall already - only not turning color first, only turning brown. Things are dying. Trees are dying. We try to water sometimes, but it's hard to know how much good it does. We haven't had rain for several weeks now, and are praying for hurricanes to come our way (well, merciful ones at least, that dump rain without causing too much damage).

We are thankful to have air conditioning, and running water - things which make life pleasant inside, even if outside is almost suffocatingly hot (though I hear that in Iraq, when the temperatures go down to 100 degrees at night, it feels cool - so I can't complain about temps going up to 100 for a few hours during the heat of the day).

David is still at his current job for now, though it's possible that he won't have that job next year. His company was bought out by another company earlier in the year, and they are keeping on some of the old staff (including him) till the end of the year, at which point they'll see if their skills are needed in the new company or not. He stays busy doing church-related computer projects when he has time, including maintaining the website (www.grbc.net).