North Park in the fall feels a lot like summer camp to me. As I walk around campus at dusk, I hear some of the kids yelling down from dorm or apartment windows to friends below. Two nights ago, a couple guys were on their front stairs playing guitar and singing. And, due to last weekend's flooding, I also see co-eds with their shower baskets traversing campus to the rec building to shower with hot water.
To fill you in, North Park's campus was deluged with water from the North Branch of the Chicago River last weekend after more than eight inches of rain in less than two days. We got back from Minnesota on Sunday night, after criss-crossing back roads to get to campus due to flooding on the main streets. Dan then went to look at the river which was just under the bridge connecting the two sides of campus.
Several of the buildings were evacuated due to flooding or potential safety concerns with water near energy sources.
After two days, the dorms were again open, but the co-eds had to endure cold showers. The school's main dining hall for the undergrads is still closed because the basement was filled with eight feet of water.
The wedding weekend in Minnesota was good, but very busy. Dan was the officiant and Annika and Lauren two of the flower girls. When I get some pics, I'll attach them. We really didn't have time to take any. You can go to davidnewellphotography.com, click on Shop Photos, and choose Jessica and Andrew. Plenty of family pics there.
All six of us are getting over colds which we always seem to get in Minnesota. We just line the girls all up and give them squirts of kiddie tylenol. Anyway, enough for now. Below are some more cute kid quotes.
**9/08
Sometime before Uncle Andrew’s wedding, Annika asked when he and Aunt Jessica were going to have a baby. I told her they couldn’t have a baby until after they were married. Then I asked her how long she thought it would take for them to have a baby: “Um, about seven days, I think.”
**
9/16/08
Lauren, pointing at the blond doll on the cover of Barbie’s Swan Lake DVD: “That’s me when I was a Barbie.”
Annika, after catching the bouquet at Uncle Andrew’s wedding: “I get to get married now! Mommy, can we bring this back to Chicago so I can remember to get married?”
Annika, after getting a new haircut and Daddy commenting that she looked older: “Mommy, how old do I look? 15? 17?” She was pretty excited when I told her she looked at least six.
Lauren: “Mommy, when you were little, were you my size?”
9/17/08
Annika, when asking Mommy to wipe her bum: “I don’t know how to yet. Only when I’m 17.”
9/18/08
Annika, when asked if she thought she’d ever get to Disney World again: “When I’m a mom, I’ll let my kids go whenever they want to.” When we told her it would cost at least $1000, we also asked if she thought her husband would have any money left. “At least seven dollars.”
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Apocryphal Bible Stories
One of the good habits we try to maintain in our house is the nightly Bible story for Lauren and Annika. One girl chooses the the Bible story book and the other gets to choose which story we read.
Another "tradition" is my enjoyment of "writing" books which we get printed by one of the photo companies in a photo book.
Tonight as the girls and I were indulging in some chocoliciousness, I was asking the girls what kind of stories they'd like to see in the next book. Annika was excited about another Darth Bader book. She also mentioned a story about a dog that belonged to a farmer who forgot to feed his stock, and they died. But then the farmer O'Gill married Farmer Sophia and they had 7 daughters, 10 sons and of those children 13 were twins.
Lauren mentioned a few stories about pink, horses, and princesses. She also wanted two Bible stories--the "Jack and Jill went up the hill Bible stories" and "Nemo, the girl farmer who had a girl dog named Sarah" [Nemo is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O was his name-o, but it's sung "E-I-Veggio, Nemo was his name-o"]
I had to admit I didn't recall reading those in the Bible. She insisted they were in there. I guess my Bible degree at Northwestern isn't worth quite as much as I'd thought.
Annika had her first communion this morning. She was having a little separation anxiety so went to Big Church with me and Dan. She sat through the whole thing, asking good questions and commenting based on the sermon. Pastor Rob was talking about Peter and how he was known for "putting his foot in his mouth" to which Annika replied, "Gross!" She also asked about where heaven really is and what an agate is [a gate]. In the last few months, she really has brought up Jesus and faith often, showing a grasp of what He did for her. When I asked her if she wanted to take communion, she said yes. So we mark September 7 down as another milestone in her faith journey.
Lauren has had a tough week with lying. I guess that means Mommy has had a tough week with lying, too. The first one was about a toy. She said it had been put in the toybox. I went into the toyroom for something else and saw it lying on the floor. I asked her about it. She responded, "I didn't know you were going to check." Oh, boy.
The next one was about finishing her cereal. She said it was gone--I glanced down and saw it was not. Again, she said, "I didn't think you were going to check." Serious consequences followed the third incident regarding potato chips. Hopefully it has been nipped in the bud.
Emily, as you'll note in the pictures, is fascinated with dressing herself.She gets frustrated when she can't fit anymore jeans over her first pair of jeans and her sister's skirt. She will put on anyone's shoes, although she really has difficulty traversing in Dan's clodhoppers (they're clodhoppers when you're 19 months). But, unlike Lauren at this age, she'll keep hats on which is fun.
Megan is at the perfect baby stage.
She still has no teeth, but is interactive, rolling over with a strong neck to look around, and sitting up fairly well. She's still an incredibly content baby. Dan and I have been so blessed with our four kids and each other.
See you fellow Minnesotans in four sleeps!
Today's cute quotables:
9/4/08
Lauren, as I put her tights on for preschool: “Ooh, those are very big socks.”
Annika, as she prayed for her breakfast: “And thank you for all the people who share. And thank you for a great mom and dad.”
Annika, later on in the day: “I love Daddy very much even though I’m not nice to him sometimes.”
Dan Larson now has a girlfriend who is not Annika. How does she feel? “That’s okay. He’s going to be really old.”
**
9/5/08
Lauren in response to Dad calling her peanut, “Daddy, don’t call me Peanut.”
“Can I call you Pumpkin?”
“No, you can call me little cute kid.”
Another "tradition" is my enjoyment of "writing" books which we get printed by one of the photo companies in a photo book.
Tonight as the girls and I were indulging in some chocoliciousness, I was asking the girls what kind of stories they'd like to see in the next book. Annika was excited about another Darth Bader book. She also mentioned a story about a dog that belonged to a farmer who forgot to feed his stock, and they died. But then the farmer O'Gill married Farmer Sophia and they had 7 daughters, 10 sons and of those children 13 were twins.
Lauren mentioned a few stories about pink, horses, and princesses. She also wanted two Bible stories--the "Jack and Jill went up the hill Bible stories" and "Nemo, the girl farmer who had a girl dog named Sarah" [Nemo is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O was his name-o, but it's sung "E-I-Veggio, Nemo was his name-o"]
I had to admit I didn't recall reading those in the Bible. She insisted they were in there. I guess my Bible degree at Northwestern isn't worth quite as much as I'd thought.
Annika had her first communion this morning. She was having a little separation anxiety so went to Big Church with me and Dan. She sat through the whole thing, asking good questions and commenting based on the sermon. Pastor Rob was talking about Peter and how he was known for "putting his foot in his mouth" to which Annika replied, "Gross!" She also asked about where heaven really is and what an agate is [a gate]. In the last few months, she really has brought up Jesus and faith often, showing a grasp of what He did for her. When I asked her if she wanted to take communion, she said yes. So we mark September 7 down as another milestone in her faith journey.
Lauren has had a tough week with lying. I guess that means Mommy has had a tough week with lying, too. The first one was about a toy. She said it had been put in the toybox. I went into the toyroom for something else and saw it lying on the floor. I asked her about it. She responded, "I didn't know you were going to check." Oh, boy.
The next one was about finishing her cereal. She said it was gone--I glanced down and saw it was not. Again, she said, "I didn't think you were going to check." Serious consequences followed the third incident regarding potato chips. Hopefully it has been nipped in the bud.
Emily, as you'll note in the pictures, is fascinated with dressing herself.She gets frustrated when she can't fit anymore jeans over her first pair of jeans and her sister's skirt. She will put on anyone's shoes, although she really has difficulty traversing in Dan's clodhoppers (they're clodhoppers when you're 19 months). But, unlike Lauren at this age, she'll keep hats on which is fun.
Megan is at the perfect baby stage.
She still has no teeth, but is interactive, rolling over with a strong neck to look around, and sitting up fairly well. She's still an incredibly content baby. Dan and I have been so blessed with our four kids and each other.See you fellow Minnesotans in four sleeps!
Today's cute quotables:
9/4/08
Lauren, as I put her tights on for preschool: “Ooh, those are very big socks.”
Annika, as she prayed for her breakfast: “And thank you for all the people who share. And thank you for a great mom and dad.”
Annika, later on in the day: “I love Daddy very much even though I’m not nice to him sometimes.”
Dan Larson now has a girlfriend who is not Annika. How does she feel? “That’s okay. He’s going to be really old.”
**
9/5/08
Lauren in response to Dad calling her peanut, “Daddy, don’t call me Peanut.”
“Can I call you Pumpkin?”
“No, you can call me little cute kid.”
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Annika's First Day at Kindergarten
Our five-year-old joined the big kids today at Peterson Elementary here in Chicago. It's a four-block walk from our house--one small step for mankind, but a giant one for a little girl and her mother. Annika took it like a woman, though. I asked her last night if it was alright if I cried today. She said, "Moooom [in that teenage 'whatever' voice]. No, it's not alright. I have to go to school. This is how it works." I asked her where she'd heard that from.
"You," she said.
"I lied," I replied.
"No, you didn't. When Jesus comes back, you can ask him why it's this way," she said.
She is in Mrs. McFarland's class with at least one other seminary student's child. A few of the professors have kindergarteners this year, too. We'll be doing "ride" share. It's only half-day which is fabulous. At least I won't be losing my worldy-wise firstborn all day.
As for Lauren, she's been asking for a week, "How many more sleeps until preschool?" She's really looking forward to it and her teacher, Miss Erin who was Annika's teacher last year. We go for orientation on Thursday--what we're calling Lauren's first day of school so it's not as many sleeps away. She gets to play for an hour while we turn in paperwork.
Emily will then rule the roost for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, although we're hoping she sleeps through most of it. It's hard keeping up with a 19-month old who knows how to use the stepstool to climb on everything! You can't childproof once the child can climb. She can get herself naked now--not necessarily a good thing. She throws tantrums on a regular basis--something Annika and Lauren never really did. Emily throws good ones, too--very thorough. We pretty much ignore them. She sleeps in Annika's bed--for some reason she stays there. Annika doesn't have any pictures left on her wall, but at least Emily stays in bed and eventually goes to sleep. So the toddler is sleeping in the twin bed while her preschool and kindergarten sisters fight over who sleeps in her toddler bed.
Megan is gnawing on everything and is finally willing to choke down a few small spoonfuls of rice cereal. She's still her happy self and is finding her tongue and her voice. Her legs have gotten strong enough to stand from using the walker and the activity center we borrowed from the neighbors. Her bald spot is gone and she slept until 8am this morning!
Uncle John was here this weekend--we went on an adventure Sunday afternoon to a very cool 9-hole mini-golf course for little kids--they were allowed to climb on all the obstacles! And, on the way home from church and to mini-golf, Uncle John endured countless "why did the sea turtle cross the road" jokes with enigmatic punchlines. Attached are a couple pics and maybe a video if I can figure it out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments