Twenty Months

Levi is 20 month and is getting shockingly close to being a two year old!  This little boy is keeping us on our toes with near constant conversations and his pure delight in tractors, trucks and anything that goes.  He had his first haircut and is busy as a beaver taking things out of drawers, digging and hammering, scooping and running.  We lost Maggie our kitty last week and he has been searching for "Baggie" and though he isn't gentle yet, he loves well. His little personhood is emerging and he is the dearest mix of daredevil and tender soul. At bedtime he likes to list things he notices: "it's dark", "I see moon", "now a song" and then just for good laughs he makes a joke "Humpty Dumpty is stinky"!  This boy! He understands so much. He is delighted with the crunching leaves, with identifying colors, with tasting things like an acai bowl and whipped cream and with the sound of Papa's truck.  He is growing tall but is still my baby.  

 

Our Little Woman is Twelve

Emmeline, our darling little woman, is turning twelve.  She is our book girl through and through and is stout hearted and courageous. She is tender and gentle and was born an old soul.  She has a poet's heart and loves her music and painting. She has a wild imagination and can write stories like no other.  At the same time she is quite down to earth and can keep the home going when needed. She loves adventures and explorations, gardening, archery, biking, boating and quiet time to create paper dolls or pictures.  Emmie is not afraid of hard work and has quite the selfless heart.  She is also a second mother to her siblings, who love her ever so much.  At twelve Emmie remains consistent in her dislike of mushrooms and fish.  She does not like grammar or math too much, but history makes her come alive! She has beautiful blue eyes and long dark hair and enjoys tea and read-alouds in the evening.  She knows her herbs and wild plants and wants to drive the tractor.  She can do an oil change on the van and install wood flooring.  How blessed we are to have had our girlie all of these wonderful years.  She is a delight and a gift and we ask the Lord to bless her and keep her all the days of her life.  May they be many and joyous.

 

Nineteen Months

Levi is 19 months old! He is such a chatty little fellow and has so much to say, but his favorite phrases are:  "Not like it" or "I want it", usually in the grammatical equivalent of Yoda speech.  "Pet Wendell, I want it".   At the moment Levi really likes pumpkins, Papa's tools, cooking ("mix mix, cook, cook"), yogurt, firetrucks, and boo boos. He has a few boo boos that are really quite healed but at each diaper change he likes to remark quite mournfully "boo boo hurts".  Such high drama for such a wee little man.  He does not like getting messy or touching things that are sticky.  He likes tea with milk and the book Apple, Pear, Bear best of all right now.  He had such fun harvesting the last of our vegetable garden (everything is a tomato by the way) and biting one bite out of each bean and pepper plant.  The best of all was picking the long awaited pumpkin! Levi does not like it when someone leaves him at home or if he has to stay inside and big girls get to go outside. He carries shoes around hopefully asking "outside?" He says yes in the cutest way  "des" and "otay" for ok. We love our little fellow and are trying our best to keep up with him! 

 

The expansion of learning

We are five weeks in to our new school year.  Emmeline is in seventh grade and Lena fifth grade this year. Phoebe has begun kindergarten. We began gently with a few field trips to the shore and to the zoo with many a hike and backyard tent village.  This year our learning seems to be overflowing and the girls are excited to be studying Beethoven and Shakespeare's Cymbeline. We are studying Phocian in our Plutarch study, Chemistry, and Albrecht Dürer for our artist this term. History is the Industrial Revolution into the World Wars and the girls are already asking so many good and hard questions.  Map drills, Latin, German and French at dinnertime, narrations, archery, ballet and choir, cello, violin and piano, nature studies, handicrafts, math, grammar, spelling and geography round out our subjects. But the real learning comes in the in between moments where we learn to engage our minds and hearts, to be still and listen, to watch and wait and pray.  I've seen this already as these little women grow - they are growing in mindful habits and discipline, in prayerful awareness of a broken world and a suffering Savior. Phoebe begins her official schooling with a Beatrix Potter curriculum that focuses on a story each week. These match a character trait and Scripture passage she will learn and it is sweet to watch another beginner hungrily put letters together to read words.  Phoebe is also so excited to learn piano and recorder and to watercolor like her big sisters.  This is all quite new to the little man in our house, who seeks to undo most of what we set out to work on by dumping pencils and baskets of books.  We try to invite him into our learning and he is learning oh so quickly, working on his colors, his ABCs, his french and matching pitches.  (At 18 months no less!) The parents too begin again, as we do each day, to learn to trust in Jesus, for each day.  We learn to trust for the big things, and look expectantly for joy in the fringes of each day, because our Savior cares about those moments too. 

 

Eighteen Months

 Levi is 18 months old.  So many changes have taken place in this last month and I want to remember them all.  Although Levi continues to love tractors, he has discovered that not all things with wheels are tractors and has been quite amazed by cement trucks, trash trucks, airplanes, bulldozers and trains.  He has discovered tools and loves to hammer like Papa. He continues in his attempts to dismantle things and put them back together, loves wearing socks and shoes ("ocks") and ("soos"). He will say the entire alphabet with help. He has become a climber, a runner and loves fencing (he pretends to sword fight). He calls Maggie (our cat) Baggie and it is the funniest thing in the world. His words are in complete sentences now,  "Baggie where are ooh".  He also loves his "pinkles" (pickles) He knows all of his body parts and thinks counting and colors are really fun. He loves tubby time and says "ahhh" when he gets in the warm water.  He does not like elevators or diaper changes, car seats or the word no. Sleep still eludes him but we know a bit more why and we're working on it! He can play independently chattering away to his cars and building magna-tile stacks. But he loves playing with Beebe and when he is sad he wants Mamie or Nayna. Levi is so tall for his age and has huge feet.  He is in 12-18 month clothing. He loves belly buttons and making his family laugh. He loves to say AMEN. He has discovered the word CAKE. We love our little guy and can't believe he has grown so much!