Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

We got home from my parents' Monday. Now to get back into the swing of chores and school and such after a week of play LOL.

Some random highlights from the last week or so:

• L is getting more willing to write phonetically, the big girls & my mom have an on-going game that mom's kitchen is a restaurant and the big girls are her helpers. I didn't completely follow the story, but apparently L met (or already knew) an imaginary woman with "20 kids plus a baby" whose husband had just died, and L invited this woman to leave her kids (all of which were 6 & under, lots of multiples in that family I'd say . . . and not much breastfeeding to spread out the gap between kids LOL, just because I'm a geek about such things I figured out that if the baby was 4 mo old (per L), and the baby & the 6 yr old were singletons, and all children were 11 mo apart, it COULD be done as long as all the ones between the baby & 6 yr old were at least triplets, and one set of quads LOL. . . anyway, L proceeded to write a list of all the kids names, need to work with her on LISTING things one to a line, and perhaps skipping a line if it's a narrow ruled paper, but readable or not, at least she's writing :o)
• Between Little House and American Girl and I'm not sure what all else, the girls have wrapped their minds around the fact that money was worth more "back then", I missed the beginning of the conversation but something was said about a quarter & one of the girls said "that would've been alot of money back then".
• They have also grasped the fact that we live in a much more materialistic society than Colonial America, as we were driving home yesterday talk turned to Christmas wish lists and A decided that her new (colonial) doll, Sarah, needs presents as well, there then followed a conversation between "Sarah" and L, where Sarah asked for a multitude of things on her Christmas list, and then asked "am I being too greedy?" to which L replied "not for these days" LOL
• When A & L were using the cross-saw to saw through a log, the guy showing them how, said that children in colonial America would have learned to do that, and it would have become one of their chores at age 6. I commented to the girls that "that makes unloading the dishwasher not seem so bad, huh?" to which A replied, "but THIS is fun!!" sigh . . . I give up LOL
• Little Bit is SO close to crawling, she can get on hands & knees and rock, she can bring her knees forward, OR she can leave her legs laying behind her (instead of being on her knees) and move her hands forward, just hasn't put the pieces together EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!
• One thing we've been working on is being "honoring" as defined by Turansky & Miller in Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes... in You and Your Kids. It's fun to see the girls start to "get it" when I point out that they are being honoring when they do more than asked. It's also fun to hear them do the same to me "Mommy, you were being honoring when you let us write a shorter verse for copywork today" hee hee.
  
• Yesterday I hit my limit on the girls' messy room, had them put away a bunch of stuff and then I got in there and got things at least looking better (there are several "stashes" of odds and ends of junky toys that I haven't dealt with yet, would like to start working slowly to get things better organized in there so it's easier for them to KEEP it clean). This morning A told me "Mommy, it's so nice to not have an obstacle course to get out of our room! she also said "we'll keep it this way from now on . . . RIGHT L?" ROFL.
  
• Little Bit didn't read the books that say "pincher grip" doesn't come till 8-12 mo. Yesterday while sitting in the (desperately needs to be vacuumed) upstairs hall she not only managed to pick up the yarn "kite tail" that was laying in the hall (A's turned the playroom into a "craft store" and the sign, stuck to the wall outside the door, is a kite, complete with yarn tail) but also picked up a scrap of paper that was about 1/4" square (left over from one of the many craft projects the girls are always doing)
  
• We've been experimenting with solid foods. Little Bit LOVES broccoli, continues to enjoy bagels (a "hotel treat" since we rarely have them at home), to keep her happy while we were eating various meals on this trip, we discovered she's a big fan of "ritz" type crackers, sweet potato fries, avacado . . . and last night, roasted potato.