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.”

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!