The Pictures Say it All

I couldn't resist picking up this shirt for Jeffrey at the store the other day. Can you guess why?




"I tried to be good but I got bored."



Perfect. Simply describes my little "Jack Jack" to a "T". The wild and crazy man who tries to be good but it just gets boring sometimes.

Gymnastics Class

Today was the last morning for this session of Gymnastics. It's been great, and Erin really still loves it. The class is much smaller, only about 7 regular kids there. Erin's friend Julianna signed up with us and they love to play together at class. Since the class is smaller they made it more structured -- which I love. There are two instructors - the same coach from the spring and Miss Kimmie who I suspect is a college student and is more of an assistant.


They begin the classes with a little free play in the big gym while everyone get there. Then they head back to the smaller room with all the equipment. Miss Kimmie leads the stretching exercises. Erin's got better each week about following what she was doing - stretching just doesn't have the flair that the bar does, so Erin found it a little boring.

Then they'd sit and work on skills on equipment. They'd walk on the beam forwards, sideways and even backwards. Erin LOVES the beam. The low one she'll do all by herself and she's getting more and more comfortable on the higher beam. High bar is still her favorite part - they do pull-ups and some swinging and what they call monkey walking down the bar (hanging straight and moving down the bar by sliding hands). Erin keeps really good form on the bar generally and is even supporting her own weight most of the time. She does have trouble with the monkey walking because her hands are still a little small I think.

Erin also loves to do the mat exercises. She works with coach really hard on her handstands (but with feet against the wall). She'll hold up for a solid 10-count. Making tables is still fun as well as back rolls, log rolls and forward rolls down the incline mat.

So we now have a two week break before the next class and then another 6-week session. I love to see her having so much fun and learning to listen to instruction and work on skills at the same time.

Pumpkin and Apple Weekend with Grandma W.

Grandma W. came down for a weekend visit and we decided to take her to one of our favorite places. It's an apple orchard on the top of a nearby mountain that has the best apples, apple donuts, apple cider and pumpkin selection around. We met some other frinds there and had a fun-filled morning.

While Erin and Tom went apple-picking with our friends, Grandma, Jeff and I played in the pumpkins. Sadly I didn't realize that the camera was not working very well and most of the pictures ended up pretty poor quality. Still Jeffrey had a BLAST climbing among the pumpkins, sitting on them, tryin to pick up ones that were heavier than he was. He just ran around like the wild man he usually is.

When Erin came back she played around looking for the perfect pumpkin while Tom got some snacks - Apple Pie for mommy, apple donuts for everyone else. Yummmy. Erin also enjoyed the fruits of her apple picking labors and munched down on a fresh juicy apple.

Afterwards we decided it would be fun if we all took a hayride. This was a blast. The view from the mountain is awesome. The day was soo clear we could see for miles and miles. And the hayride went some close to some of the trees we could almost pick the apples from the ride (but decided against it). The kids had fun throwing the hay around and filling Grandma's purse with hay. I think she's going to find bits of hay in her bag for a long time to come, but it was soo much fun she probably won't mind too much.

After the hayride we picked out some more apples. I got my favorites, Pink Ladies, for the kids and I to snack on. Tom got 2 big bags of Macs for making applesauce and 5 gallons of cider to try and make some "hard" cider at home with the beer-making supplies. we then spent the rest of the afternoon with our friends eating lots of great food while the kids played together.

Sunday continued the apple theme with Erin, Tom and Grandma making applesauce. Erin had lots of fun working the food mill to smush the apples into sauce. And of course she LOVES the results of her labor as does Jeffrey.

So we had a really fun weekend with Grandma and look forward to her next visit. Thanks for coming to play Grandma.

Compassion

So...this isn't as much about "the" kids as just some thoughts I've had recently and relating them to the kiddos. We were having a meeting at church the other night and decided that a good topic for Advent wreaths would be circling around compassion. We tossed around a few ideas, and someone said hey, Meghan can talk about what it's like to teach compassion to kids. I thought and thought about that. And as I was driving home I realized that I think there's no teaching involved in this.

Have you ever been in a room with several toddlers and preschoolers and one of them falls down and gets a bump. He/she starts crying and nearly every child in the room will run over to the other with hugs or whatever. That's compassion and nothing I've ever consciously taught Erin or Jeff. Even kids Jeff's age will do this. It's a beautiful thing to see.

And when did a simple kiss stop making it "all better?" The other day when I had a headache Erin came into the room, climbed up into the bed and kissed my forehead. She said, "I can make it all better mommy. Here let me kiss it." And you know what? My headache got better. Not totally gone, but certainly better. Because of the kiss and because of the compassion that was behind it.

And those little moments when mommy gets a peck on the cheek and an "I love you mommy," or a snuggle on the shoulder from Jeffrey. That's true compassion. It doesn't have to be given out only when someone is crying or in pain.

I don't know if I'm making any sense here but it's just been something on my mind. Of course I've always given hugs and kissed boo boos. I let them know I love them, but I've never "taught" them to act compassionately. I seems to just be in the blood of my simply beautiful children.

Look Out World

So Jeffrey's always been my wild man. He has very little common sense when it comes to dangerous feats of daring. He'll climb with Erin to the top of the slides that are meant for 5-year olds. He'll try to climb up the back of the couch. He'll stand on his riding toys because it's fun when they shift and he falls off. He'll climb ladders in order to get to a slide. He'll jump off the bottom step and sometimes think about it from the second one. And most recently, he'll come walking down the stairs, snack in hand, without a care in the world. What else is his big sister gonna teach him? And most of all, where has my little baby gone? He's been replaced by a wild man toddler. So, look out world here he comes.