October 21

I have three stories for you today.

1. It was my turn to take Caleb to church today. When I picked him up at his classroom after church, he was smeared in green paint. They told me that he had danced during worship for the first time (a big deal - all the other kids do it, but Caleb has been too timid/hesitant to do it until now), and that they learned about the Holy Spirit today by comparing God to an apple. (Holy Spirit is the seed that lives within you and helps you to grow to be more like God.) And then they cut apples in half and made apple prints.

I looked at the wall to see everyone's artwork hanging up to dry - they all looked pretty much like this:

(not my picture - click on it for the source)

And then there was Caleb's. I scanned it for your viewing pleasure:

Hmm. I think we need to work on his painting skills. Or his direction-following skills. Or his sheer enthusiasm when faced with apples and green paint.

2. It was a beautiful day today. After naps, we played outside for a long while.

Caleb rode his "motorcycle" through the leaves,

and Daisy mowed the lawn.

(Oh, my goodness. Do you remember Caleb first walking with this mower? Granted, he was fourteen months old, compared to Daisy's seventeen and a half, but still. Darling!)

Check out those sweet new shoes! My friend Jen gave us a whole bag of her daughter's outgrown shoes, and they are all darling. Daisy saw these and wouldn't let them go. She kept them on during lunch, through her nap, and for all of her outdoor play. She loves them. Thanks, Jen!!

What, did you think Daisy was wearing the helmet just for lawn mowing? Nope. She did some serious cycling. She can ride - all by herself - all the way down to the neighbor's driveway, steering to keep on the (relatively straight) sidewalk. Chris and I were impressed.

Also impressive? 

Daisy's new walking skills. She'll do up to ten feet at a time now!

Look at this zombie walk... 

 

annddd... SPLAT!

She's getting better!

Caleb practiced his handstands, just like the elephants at the zoo.

I love him. Remember how cheerful and sweet he looks here, because I have another story to tell at the end of this post.

One of Caleb's current favorite games is "sword", in which he pretends any long, pointy object is a sword. Then he pretends to be Jesus' disciple, Peter, in the Garden at Gethsemane, when the centurions come to arrest Jesus. Caleb "chops" your ear off with his "sword". We keep reminding him that Jesus always says, "Peter, that is not the way!", but Caleb doesn't care.

Have I mentioned that Daisy now has ten teeth? Four on top, four on bottom, and two top molars. Based on the way she was gnawing on my finger (and everything else in sight), I think she's working on a bottom molar, too.

I love her delightfully crooked little face!

3. Our neighbor Terry was home alone tonight, so we invited him over for dinner. I was roasting a chicken, and told him to come at 6. After the chicken was in the oven, I threw together a (grain-free) apple crisp and whipped up some (raw milk, honey-sweetened) ice cream and put it in my ice cream maker.

Terry came at 6, and the chicken wasn't ready. No big deal. Fifteen minutes later, my meat thermometer said it was done, so I pulled it out and started carving.

It was definitely not done.

I scrambled to carve and sautee in a pan on the stove and get dinner on the table. But I noticed that my ice cream maker was still churning, even though the ice cream should have solidified a long time ago. 

It was cold ice cream soup. 

We finally sat down to dinner, which was fine, but Caleb started complaining that his mouth hurt. I could tell something was up, so I let him get down from the table (that never happens here). He looked pale, so I laid him on the couch. Then he started coughing. Chris noticed things were out of the ordinary, so he took Caleb to the bathroom. They almost made it before it happened.

Caleb puked everywhere.

So. Raw chicken, ice cream soup, and a puking kid. Poor Terry took it all in stride, but I'm pretty sure he'll never accept a dinner invitation from us again.

Caleb was still pale and clammy when we put him to bed, and he said his tummy felt "ba-yad". I offered to make him some ginger tea to help his tummy, and he fell asleep while he waited for me to make it. Hopefully he sleeps off the bug and feels better in the morning!