A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Peter’s dislike of getting his ear’s wet and the fact that he had never voluntarily put his head under water. Well, on Sunday, August 10, he and Anna voluntarily put their heads under water for Jesus to let the whole world know what took place in each of their hearts when they were 5 years old! They got baptized! PRAISE THE LORD!
Me: Anna, go put your pajamas on.
Anna: It’s already time for pajamas?
Me: Yes
Anna: Land, time, land?
me (with raised eyebrows): what?
Anna: Land, time, land. Time is flying, and I want it to land.
Our church is going to have a baptism service soon. Since Peter became a Christian last year, he and I got into a conversation about whether he wants to be baptized at the service.
Peter has not liked having water in his eyes and/or ears since he was a baby. When he goes swimming, he comes out with a dry head because he would never choose to put his head under water. So, with that in mind, here is how our most recent baptism conversation went.
Peter: Mom, isn’t it almost the day for the baptism?
Me: Yes. Do you want to get baptized Sunday?
Peter: Yes! But Mom, do I really have to put my head under water?
Me (with demonstration): Yes. The pastor takes you under and then brings you right back up.
Peter: Was Jesus baptized?
Me: Yes
Peter: Does he want me to be baptized?
Me: I think that would make him very happy.
Peter: Well, if it will make Jesus happy, then I will do it.
The baptism was scheduled to be tomorrow, but since there are so many children in the church interested in being baptized, the pastor decided to do a class on Wednesday explaining what baptism is and why people get baptized. So, the baptism will be in 2 weeks. We are not sure if Peter will go through with it this time. We are not pushing him to do it before he is ready, but we do hope he will be baptized (and understand the meaning behind it) in the near future. 🙂
Candice has been playing with her toys long enough to be tired of them. I have resorted to giving her jar lids, spoons, and bowls to play with because they are new to her! 🙂 Here is a video of her newest toy discovery.
On the Fourth of July, we went to the 224th Annual Independence Day Parade in Bristol! I did not know until I got there that it is the oldest parade in America! We all had a blast with YeYe and Nei Nei and their French friends. It was fun having conversations with a mix of French, American, and Chinese! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
The Brunneaux house was one like I’ve only seen in movies. It was a huge 2 story house with a double parlor and a lot of open space. They had a fenced in backyard that had a gate leading out to the beach and the bay behind their house! And as we were leaving, I received my very first true French kiss. 😉
Here are some pictures from our Independence Day 2008 celebration.
Anna has been old enough for a while to help out around the house, but the part that is relatively new is that she is old enough to help out with the younger kids. Last week she got Candice to sleep all on her on for the first time. I asked her if she was tired of holding her, and she very quickly said, “no!” After about 20 or 30 minutes, she said she wasn’t tired, but she wanted to go play now. 🙂
In past years, Peter has been replacing the “th” sound with the “d” or “f” sound. “That” was “dat,” and “Bethany” was “Befany.” I worked on teaching him the correct pronunciation, and he was finally able to make the “th” sound.
During a reading lesson where he was introduced to the word “the,” he finally understood and is now able to make the “th” sound on a regular basis. And boy was he proud to be able to do it after so much hard work!
Unfortunately, that was not the end of this learning process. Now he is replacing “d” sounds with “th” sounds. For example, instead of saying, “the dog,” he will say “the thog.”
I am working to help him understand that “dog” and “the” have different sounds, and he is always able to repeat it correctly after hearing me say it. I believe his problem is that, since he is not reading well yet, he does not know which words have a “d” sound and which have a “th” sound. To him, he learned a new sound and now has to replace all of what he used to pronounce with a “d” sound and replace it with a “th” sound.
It is just going to take time for him to learn the difference, and hopefully it will work itself out as he learns more and more words. Meanwhile, I will be patient and gently correct him. And I might do a few lessons focusing on “d” and “th” words. What do you think? Will it work itself out? Do you have a suggestion for dealing with this letter confusion?
The other morning while at a park, Anna brought me a pine cone and said, “My friend Hannah told me that when a pine cone is closed like this, it is going to rain.” I looked around at the sunshine and white puffy clouds and said, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to rain.” She did not argue and went to play some more.
Within ten minutes, the clouds had turned grey and the sky was dark. Anna so conveniently happened to be next to me on the bench, holding another tightly closed pine cone. She said, “It looks rainy now.” I couldn’t do anything but respond with, “Yes, it does, doesn’t it?”
Within a few minutes the sun was shining brightly again, but because I was curious, I told her she could bring the pine cones home with us. I wanted to watch them to see if they opened up later.
We got home dry, but around mid-afternoon, we had a short 10 minute shower with the sun shining the whole time. (Don’t you love sunny showers?). And by early evening, the pine cone was beginning to open again.
Still extremely curious, I did a little research and discovered that, even when pine cones are no longer receiving nutrition from the tree, they still have the capability of closing on humid days. This protects the seeds and allows the pine cone to hold onto the seeds until a dryer day when the wind is more able to pick them up and carry them to a safe place to grow. So, there you have it. Your science lesson for today.
Here are a few interesting things I learned about pine cones while researching:
By the way, Anna has been taking care of her pine cones like little pets, and they did open up completely over the next day or two. They are now sitting (still open) on our deck, and for some reason they are still open even though it rained today. Too bad I already admitted to Anna that she was right. I might have a case now:) Just teasing. I mean, after all, she has the internet to back her up, so she has to be right. Right?
For Mother’s Day, we went to the park to take nice pictures of the kids. Since the kids were already dressed up after church, we ate a picnic lunch and headed to a park with water and large rocks. (I love Rhode Island’s rocks, but that is a different post). Some of these were taken a little later because Bethany slept through most of the pictures, and I could not easily get pictures of Candice alone while outdoors. Here are my favorites!
Anna and I have been taking a home ec class together. Technically it is Anna’s home ec class for home school that I am supposed to be teaching her, but in reality we are both learning side by side. This month’s project was making a dress.
Anna picked a purple floral-like material, and since there was a lot leftover, and I was given a pattern in Bethany’s size, we made a matching dress for Bethany. We had two sewing machines, so Anna worked on one machine on her dress while I worked on the other machine on Bethany’s. My friend Christy instructed both of us at the same time. (Thanks, Christy!!)
After the dress was finished, I found myself standing in the middle of the room holding up Bethany’s dress saying, “I made a dress” in wonder! Anna said she wants to wear her new dress every Sunday. I guess there’s just something special about a dress you made yourself!
