Chronicles # 11

January 2010- May 2010

William makes every hand washing a water-filled adventure. Potato Head and Duplo blocks have little battles and eventually all go “aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh” or “weeeeeeee” into the full sink. After 30 minutes goes by we have to see what the floor looks like. Believe it or not his joy of toys has made it a quieter home, most sound chips in toys don’t make it through the dunking.

William was at his little table in the kitchen eating his Cheerios. He looks at me and holds up a Cheerio and said “close your eyes mom”. I hear copious amounts of crunching, “open your eyes mom, it’s magic”! I open and exclaim how amazing and he answers with a conspiratorial whisper, “I put it in here” as he points at his wide-open mouth.

Very dear sweet Emma was our best grief counselor. Burton’s lovely Aunt Margie passed away on April 24th and we had several family members staying and visiting with us. Emma drew portraits of each person, lovingly colored in crayons. She smiled and listened and was a charming 6 year old. We love you Emma!

Emma finished her first year of school. It has been such a joy to see her growth and discovery of reading. Ms. Marshall was a stellar teacher with 34 years of experience. She sang and danced her way into the Kinder’s hearts. Emma learned many great songs and gave many performances through the year. I think her favorite was:
“Wringle wrangle jing a long jangle, HOOT HAA! Got me a horse I love of course and got me a pretty persons love. Dollars worth of beans, new pair of jeans, learning to cook and sew-oh! Wringle wrangle jing a long jangle, HOOT HAA!”

Emma has been insisting on a lemonade stand forever. We had all the lovely lemons from Grandma’s tree so we began juicing. After making the lemonade Emma made a sign “lemonade 20¢” and we taped it on the side of the kids table. We moved out some chairs, the ice chest and cups. The kids started waving at every motorist going by yelling in unison, “cold lemonade”! Every time a car went by without stopping they both said in unison, “aaaaaah”. When someone stopped William counted out the cups and Emma poured. Many people left the change and the kids made $5.00. We split out a quarter for tithing for each, put some in the piggy banks and took a dollar out for a trip to the dollar store. William bought a car and Emma bought a 5 foot long rubber snake.

On the way to the library:
Emma: Can I use the computer to look for worm books?
T: Sure, you will need to type in the word worms.
Emma: I don’t know how to spell worms.
We work on sounding it out, “Wwwaa, W, er er er, O R, mmm M, sa sa, S”
William: X X X!
Emma: Then it would be wormX!