Send it back/Keep it

I recently checked out the book The Ugly Duckling for the girls. It's a long story, so Naomi didn't care for it too much, although she was impressed by the various animal pictures in the book. Hannah, when asked today if any of the books we got last week could go back to the library, said The Ugly Duckling should go. She was horrified at the other fowl pecking at the poor little guy. She told me she didn't know why they wrote a book like that for children, and she didn't want to read it again. Apparently, turning into a swan didn't make up in her book for being pecked at and ridiculed throughout his childhood. So...it's going back. The book Polar Bears, by Gail Gibbons, gets to stay, even though the bears kill and eat ringed seals in it. It's all right -- you hadn't really connected with the seals before they're eaten. Plus, there are some cute pictures of polar bear cubs.

Naomi has completely latched onto the book Bus Stop, Bus Go, by Daniel Kirk. I'd never seen it before Hannah picked it out and thought we might like it. It's a bit young for her, but it seems to be perfect for Naomi. It's rhyming and even has a hamster that escapes on a bus so you can do the hamster search in many pictures.

Doctor's appointment yesterday

Everything looks great. Everything's right on target. The ultrasound looked good. Hannah and Naomi and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, which is always really cool. So, praise God, and we'll keep up with our usual stuff!

Drawing and writing

Hannah has recently discovered the joy of writing. She loves to write notes, stories, and letters. Usually she'll have me tell her how to spell things for her letters, which is good, because she's recently been introduced to the idea of "sounding things out," and loves it. She's not very accurate, however, and often leaves out spaces, vowels, and other pesky details, so the end result can be a bit hard to read. CRSMSDA = Christmas Day, and so on. It's very endearing, even if difficult to decipher, so I thought I'd share some with you:


This one reads: "Grace: Another little Fairy." Hannah was organizing a play and handing out parts. Grace was another little fairy, so this was her paper.


This one is a family portrait. Hannah doesn't often write from right to left any more, but I thought this was darling. The one on the far left is the new baby, which I think is what she wrote below, but what with it being backwards and phonetically written by a 4-year-old, I can't promise that's exactly what it says. I do love how she's given each of us the appropriate amount of hair.

I know I'm going to miss these days when she's writing beautifully in script and correcting everyone else's spelling!

And today

it was a snail that bit Naomi. A snail the size of my thumbnail. Who knew they were so vicious?

Biting

Naomi has recently taken to saying, "It bit me." about most living things. Luckily she hasn't quite figured out the art of biting herself, so we're not dealing with that yet.

Michael took the girls to the park today and there was a small dog that they were able to pet. Naomi apparently had a great time petting the dog, telling Michael, "It's so so cute, Dada!" Then, as they walked away, she said, "It bit me." Michael, who was watching the whole time, of course, was able to reassure her that she had not, in fact, been bitten.

This story is not the height of the biting frenzy we've been experiencing lately. It's topped by the day that Naomi and Hannah were playing in the garden and found a worm. They were mesmerized for a good long time, then came to tell me about it. "It bit me," is what Naomi said. The same day, they found an enormous slug in the yard. That one bit Naomi, too. Strangely enough, none of these creatures ever bite Hannah.

Happy Mother's Day!

We've gone to Mass, eaten lunch, and are settling down for naps and quiet time. After that, we'll have a nice, relaxing afternoon and Michael will make dinner. It's going to be nice and quiet.

Our kitchen floor

is vinyl of an amazingly active pattern. It's dark blue, off-white, and gold. I've mopped it before and been really disgusted by what I took from it. I mean, really grossed out by the amount of filth on the thing. And I always left off mopping before I was really satisfied that it was fully clean. Really. Yuck. It's disgusting.

OR I should say that it WAS really disgusting. Today, a friend of mine (and you'll see that she's a *really* good friend!) came over and HELPED ME SCRUB THE FLOOR! She actually did most of the scrubbing (although she did let me use the power scrubber -- that she brought! -- part of the time) with me doing the follow-up mopping.

So now I can rest easy that the floor, although it's still ridiculously ugly, is clean. It's not spotless, since a floor of this age and texture and pattern will probably never qualify as spotless, but it is clean, and that makes all the difference.

This also means that our house can officially become a no-shoe house, since I will no longer feel like our floors will irrevocably stain visitors' socks if I ask them to take off their shoes. Which in turn means that the floors all stay cleaner.

Didn't I tell you she is a great friend?