Melinda the Teacher

Melinda has a natural desire to teach things to people younger than herself, especially to her brothers. You already saw a short video of how she was trying to teach Alex how to use the shape sorter. You've seen her helping him stand up, and she often encourages him to walk.

Here's an instance of Melinda randomly teaching Jacob something. We were all getting ready to go out yesterday. I was putting on Alex's shoes and jacket. Melinda got her coat on, and Jacob was struggling with his. He still hasn't quite figured it out.

I look over, after getting Alex taken care of, and Melinda is showing Jacob how he can do it himself. She came up with this method all on her own - I've never seen her use it before this, either.

"Here, Jacob, you put your coat down on the ground like this, and lay down on top of it."

"Now you try!" ... "No, no, no. You have to put your arms in."

"Now the other arm, too!"

"There you go! Now your coat is on!" .... "Mommy, were you taking pictures?!"

I just love it when they work together. They can do such amazing things. And they both end up happy!

Feeling Crafty

I feel proud of myself today. 

I just created an army of angels, all out of my own little brain.

Usually, when I go to make something, I'm working with a tutorial or at least someone else's creative idea that I just figure out on my own.  Not so, this time!  I actually made them all without anyone giving me the idea!  Now, I'm sure they're not the only peg-people angels in existance out there, but these are all mine!  :)

Well, they're not all mine.  I made them to give to our Primary class kids for Christmas.  I had been thinking and thinking what I could give them this year, and finally, it hit me - they're all such little angels.  Why not give them an angel ornament?  So we went out to Michael's, and found a fantastic sale in progress.  I got some tiny little peg people, some paints, and found the motherload of holiday ribbons for sale at 50% off.  Which is where I found the perfect thing for their wings! 

A couple evenings of painting and hot-gluing later, and I have 9 pretty little angel ornaments to show for it. 

I'm patting myself on the back right now.  Because I think I'm that cool. 

Really, I think they turned out just right.  I'm feeling very proud of them.  And myself, for making something so cute with only my own brain to thank for it.

There's more there than we need.  We only have 8 kids in our class, even when we get the rare visitor.  So we'll definitely get to keep at least one for ourselves, which Melinda and Jacob are happy about.  They think they're pretty cute too, even if Melinda is mad at me for not letting her paint one. 

Six Things

I was tagged by Brighton Woman to do this six things meme.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Ms. Brighton mentioned how she'd done a Six Things meme not too long ago, and took her list on a Holiday spin.  I, too, have done several random things-related memes before... and since it is Christmas, I decided that I'll focus on Holiday things also.  Why not?  :)

1- I love colorful Christmas lights.  They can be multi-color, or colored with a theme (like only red/green, even all blue, whatever!), but I MUCH prefer them to white lights.  There's nothing that disappoints me more during Christmastime than driving down a road and seeing house after house after house sporting nothing but white lights.  White lights on the edges of the roof, wrapped around columns, over the bushes, twisted through the trees... A great display of lots of lights, but there's no color!!! It's just wrong, people!  Use the white lights to compliment the colors, okay?  Throw some white icicle lights in with multi-colored bushes next time, will you?

2- I grew up in Western Washington.  There were a lot of local Christmas tree farms.  I do love the smell of fresh Christmas trees.  Usually, my whole family- 6 kids in tow- would go out, walk around the field several times, and try to get everyone to agree on one perfect tree.  That never works with 8 people, trust me.  By the time we were all feeling frozen inside and out, and it was clear that there was now way that we were all going to agree anytime soon, my dad would bribe those of us who didn't agree with the majority.  And he bribed us with a quarter.  And you know?  It worked.  Boy, we were cheap!

3- Even though I love fresh Christmas trees - the smell, the feel, the event of picking one... I own an artificial tree, and use it every year now, since we've been married.  The only exception was when we bought a condo in Colorado, and our Realtor gave us a tree as our little congratulations gift.  I have to admit I love being able to just pull a tree out of a closet, set it up, and be done with it, instead of devoting an entire day to the process.  And I love not watering it.  And not vacuuming up dead needles all month long.  But it sure isn't nice to touch or smell. 

4- I really, really, really don't like The Forgottoen Carols.  Does that make me a bad Mormon?  Michael McLean's voice really grates against my nerves for some reason.  Similar to (but not quite as bad as) fingernails on a chalkboard.  Just can't stand it.  Add to it that I think the songs are horribly cheesy, and well, I don't like it.  At all.

5- I don't believe in Santa anymore, I promise.  BUT, when I was 9 or 10 years old, living in Everett, WA, I remember feeling wide awake on Christmas Eve.  I knew my parents were in the front room, only separated from me by a couple thin doors.  I could hear them wrapping gifts.  And they were blasting the Christmas music, too.  And after all the noise started dying down, and I was finally feeling sleepy, I swear I heard jingle bells outside the bedroom window.  Not at people-level... like, up in the sky.  I thought for years that it HAD to be Santa's sleigh bells.  Nothing else could explain it!  And I didn't even really believe in Santa Claus at that age anymore!  But my brain allowed no other explanation.  I still don't deny what I heard... I just don't have an explanation anymore.  ;)  So I tell my kids that I heard Santa's bells one year when I was laying quietly in bed.  And now Melinda is sad when she doesn't.  Especially since watching the movie Polar Express, too. 

6- I used to peek at presents. Even as a teenager.  I know, I was so awful, wasn't I?  I finally stopped once I got married, but I sure was tempted those first few years after breaking the habit.  My parents were predictable and always stowed the gifts in the same place, with only a locked door to protect them.  But it was easily unlocked, and their weekly nights out sure gave me ample opportunities.  The good thing was that I usually peeked in the dark, so it was hard to tell what anything was.  Especially if I was trying to leave no evidence.  And also, when there's six kids in the house, and at least two others are also teenaged girls, you can't really tell what's going to be your present, anyway.  So, I don't actually remember spoiling the surprise for myself.  I might have on a couple occasions, but if I did, it wasn't bad enough to make an impression on me.  Also, the lure of all the "Santa" presents was soooo tempting that I would actually set my alarm for something crazy like 4am, get out of bed, go peek at the living room where the tree was, see all the neat "big"/unwrapped Santa gifts, then quietly sneak back to bed.  And then make sure everyone was out of bed by 7am to start unwrapping!  No sleeping in on Christmas morning as long as I'm around, no sir!  Oh wait... right, I'm the mom now, and now I do want to sleep in on Christmas.  What a pay-back.

And there you have it, six Holiday things about me. 
Now it's my turn to tag people.  Remember - this doesn't have to be Holiday related.  And you don't HAVE to play if you don't want to.  You can ignore me completely, and I won't be offended. 

1.  My college (sorta-)roomie, Shannon Milliman, who I found through Facebook and only recently made me aware that she had a blog!
2.  Emily at Dream Awake, who is an absolutely fun/wonderful person who I know through church.
3.  My sister Jacy,
4.  My sister Melissa,
5.  My sister Megan,
6.  And last (but definitely not least!) my sister Kaija.  Whew, that's all of them!

Can I tag one more for good measure?  I mean, do 4 sisters seriously count as 4 separate tags??  ;)  Laughadaisy, I'd love to see you do a holiday six-things meme, if you have time/energy for it!