Daily Occurrences

I am kicking myself for my lack of posting lately. So many cool things have happened and I haven't documented any of them. In an attempt to help myself remember 30 years from now, here's a brief snapshot of some of the things the kids are doing:

Kai: Pushes the glass front door open and lets himself out into the front yard. (Don't worry, Grandma and Mim, we mostly remember to secure this door now).

Avery: Loves to hide from us. If we leave the room and come back 20 seconds later, she's gone. She waits about 5 more seconds then jumps out from the under the table and yells, "Surprise!"

Audrey: Is finally getting more excited about starting kindergarten. She has all of her supplies purchased and, with a few of her mom's genes, has organized them all in appropriate bags for taking to school. In another cue from her rule-following mother, a couple of weeks ago when I told her that she could take some to her classroom during the orientation and the rest on the first day of school, she looked suspicious and asked me, "is that what the rules say we have to do?"

Kai: Still uses crawling as his primary mode of transportation, but is taking more and more steps. He can pretty easily walk across the room if he's heading to Iain or I, but will rarely take more than about 4 steps on his own without encouragement.

Avery Is a reading machine. I can remember my family telling me that I could read at age 2. I didn't really believe them. Avery is about to turn 4, but in about the last 3 weeks, she has started picking up tons of books and just reading them to herself. Amazing!

Audrey: Her role as the oldest is really defining itself. She seems to understand that she needs to be patient and kind and set the example, and in the last few months, we've seen her mature in so many ways. Tonight, she went with Iain to buy a birthday present for Avery, something she decided she wanted to do and was genuinely excited about picking out something that Avery would really love. When Kai steals her markers, she doesn't get upset. She just finds something else for him to play with.

Kai: Honestly the happiest child and when Iain comes home each evening, Kai throws himself out of my arms to get to Iain while laughing all the way.

Audrey & Avery: They are practicing to sing with the other children in church in two weeks (My God is So Big and Better is One Day in His Courts). They both love to practice this for other people and will give a concert most anywhere. I think Avery may have a future in showbiz.

Kai: Still loves to swirl his hands in the toilet. Even (and maybe especially) if his sisters have forgotten to flush. Yes, yuck! But he's happy because then he gets to wash his hands, one of his other favorite activities (and if he can grab one of his sister's toothbrushes with his nasty hand before I can get the soap on it, even better).

Avery: Started tennis lessons last week. Came running off the court at the end with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen.

Audrey: In the middle of soccer lessons. She doesn't really like the game they play at the end because it's a free-for-all and she rarely gets a foot on the ball. But she LOVES all of the warm-ups and running through the cones and stopping the ball with her foot on top.

Allison: Broke her toe at gymnastics last week. Fell off the balance beam. The one that was lying on the floor. Genius.

Iain: Turned 36 last week. Continues to be the best husband ever! Children adore him.

McConnell Clan: Life is awesomely fast-paced and beautiful. Wouldn't want it any other way.

Skype and Other Things

I have to post this because I was feeling a little old tonight. I can remember getting our first dryer when I was 6 and our first microwave and dishwasher and VCR sometime after that. But tonight, Avery made me feel like I was really from a different century:

Me: Avery, do you want to skype Mim?
Avery: No. But Mommy?
Me: Yes?
Avery: When you were little, did you skype Mim?
Me: No, we didn't have skype when I was little. We had to either speak to people on the phone or see people in real-life.
Avery: Did you have cars?

Um, yes, Avery, we had cars when I was little. =)

Is it okay to lie to a pirate?

So a few weeks ago, Avery asked me if pirates really existed. I told her yes, but that they didn't look like the ones we see in cartoons, with patches over their eyes and peg-legs. She then asked what a pirate actually was. Audrey told her that it's a mean person who steals your money if you're on a boat.

We have talked about getting a boat one day, so Avery looked a little nervous. Audrey told her not to worry, that we just wouldn't take any money on our boat with us, so the pirates wouldn't be able to steal anything. I told her that we might need to take some money, because we might want to buy lunch while we're on the boat. Audrey thought about that for a second and said, "well, that's okay. We'll just hide our wallet in the bottom of our backpack and then when the pirates ask for our money, we'll tell them that we don't have any. It's okay to lie to a pirate."

So this was the first moment I can remember where I felt a little torn about what to teach them. Most of me wanted to clearly say that it's never okay to lie. But then I thought that, hmmm, maybe we would indeed lie to a pirate. Maybe not about our wallet, but perhaps about things that involve the saftey of our families.

So the question: is it okay to lie to a pirate?

Gymnastics

The girls' last day of gymnastics was this week. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera for Avery's last day, but here are a couple of pix at Audrey's last day (Audrey is demonstrating some of her moves and Avery and Iain are dancing ... they aren't both happening at the same time). =)

Kai's 1st Birthday

Kai turned one today! I can't believe it. Has a year really passed? He is such an incredible joy. So happy, almost always smiling, and all boy. His new favorite thing is to put his head down and crawl toward Audrey or Avery as fast as he can and head-butt them. Really. The girls run away laughing, and then he laughs and does it again, chasing them all over the house. He also has started standing on his own and is cruising around the furniture. Iain's parents are in town for a few days and we had a great birthday dinner and cake for Kai tonight. Chicken tacos and green beans (I think Kai ate half of the green beans himself). There are no pix of the green bean eating but a few of the cake eating that followed. It didn't take him long to figure out what to do. =)

Audrey's Dance Recital

For the last 2 months, both Audrey & Avery have been taking gymnastics, ballet and swim lessons. We will never again do 3 classes each for 2 kids. =) But they have both done a super job with each, and below are some pix from Audrey's recital yesterday.

Memorial Day weekend

Last weekend we went to the OCF retreat center in White Sulphur Springs, PA for a family weekend. It was awesomely fun to just hang out together as a family for 2 entire days. Iain & Audrey went canoeing (Avery was in the canoe on the shore but as soon as it started to get a little tippy, she decided to get out), we went to playgrounds, petted some horses, went fishing, and didn't use cell phones or the internet (that last part is probably the real difference-maker and I think we should try to do it at home more often)! Here are a couple of pix from an ice-cream stop we made on the way home, and also a pic of Kai at Arlington National Cemetery (we went on Monday evening), as well as the kids having fun at the house earlier in the day on Monday.