Monday, October 13, 2008

walking, writing and first dates

Once again the past couple of weeks have been full of milestones. It's funny how far apart the milestones are with Livia and John. I know they are 13 years apart, but it's interesting to be experiencing them at one time.
Makynna is drawing and writing notes like crazy. I bet I get at least 10 every night, and that doesn't include the ones that she is doing for other people. She wants to know how to spell everything (and reminds us only 2 letters at a time or she might mess up), and is very detailed with her descriptions of her artwork. We have conferences with her preschool teacher on Wednesday and are interested to see what they have to say. I don't mind going to hers. :)
For a few weeks Livi has been, shall we say "moody", if this is a sneak peek into adolescence with her....look out. She can go from laughing to screaming in .4 seconds. I'm not sure if it was her teeth coming in (she was getting 4 on the top all at the same time) or if it was her frustration with walking. She has gotten thru both and is a very happy baby - for the time being... We got her first shoes at Stride Rite and that has made a huge difference. They are made for crawlers that are beginning to walk, so they have rubber soles but are very flexible. She's zooming everywhere. She'll probably be running by the time we go to Disney - scary thought.
John had his first "official" date. It was homecoming a couple of weeks ago. John doesn't say too much about the girls that he likes or is "seeing", so I didn't think much of it when he said that he was going to the homecoming dance. He called me when we were at the pumpkin patch, wondering if he could go to the Olive Garden with Hans (one of his friends he plays hockey with)before the dance. Of course that meant that they were going with their dates too, but that was just to be implied. I started to wonder if he was supposed to dress up for this dance... When we had homecoming back when I was in high school it wasn't a big deal and you didn't dress formal by any stretch of the imagination. I just figured that he would wear a nice shirt and jeans, since he didn't ask to go shopping earlier in the week. So, I get home and there he is in Brad's dress pants and dress shoes, but is wearing his own shirt. I guess he had another growth spurt and his pants didn't fit from last year. He did look nice though. Hans' brother brought them all to the restaurant and I got to pick them up. I was impressed when I picked them up, John introduced me to all of them. His girlfriend's name is Larissa and is very pretty and I guess she goes to our church; no wonder why he hasn't been complaining about going lately. :) He said he had a good time and even danced - trying to picture that...hopefully he takes after me... He is also going to start his first job. He'll be working for Chelsea at Raising Bread in the mall. I think it will be good to work with her, but she's been told not to take it easy on him. He needs to experience the real world and understand that money doesn't grow on trees:) He'll only be working every other Saturday when he doesn't have hockey, and on school breaks. Just another place to haul him to...
Grandma and Grandpa Ribstein are coming up this weekend to watch the kids while Brad and I go to Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake, near Brainerd, MN. We are sooo looking forward to some time away, hopefully the grandparents know what their getting into. :)
Happy Livi...and just 1 second later...
Look out!! Makynna had an assignment for preschool to bring pictures of her family glued on a piece of construction paper. I didn't realize that Brad and I haven't a picture taken since Livi was born. Here we are...
Getting a picture of all three kids was difficult. Makynna was making every silly face imaginable, Livi just wanted to get down, and John was just trying to hold on to Liv and look at the camera. Gotta love it!
A couple of weekends ago Chelsea and I took Jaden, Makynna, and her friend Sophia to the pumpkin patch. They had a blast. We took a wagon ride in the "not so scary" forest, went in the straw bale maze, saw a real cowboy and learned how to twirl a rope. What fun!
Everyone being silly.
Jaden, Sophia and Makynna.