Ramblings of a Sleepless Mom

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the Hattiesburg zoo while Mike and Melissa were here.

It was hot, but thankfully, the Lord sent us some rain to cool off with. That's partly why Micah's hair is wet, but also he wanted his sippycup of water poured on his head. (I think Aunt Melissa inspired all 3 of our older ones to do this when she got too hot and used her water to cool off.)

Getting ready for the most exciting part of the trip: the train ride. Micah sat beside me with his hands clasped together, very intent on taking in everything we passed.

(Mike, Maggie (2), Camie, Emma (3), Micah, me, Cassie, Melissa holding Abigail (9 months), and Felicity)

We were working on the letter C this past week. The kids glued orange paper shapes together to make carrot, Camie and I made cookies (and iced them. Turned out well, and I'm pleased that I finally did something so motherly with her. I like baking, but doing it with the kids tends toward stress for me. But I made an effort to just relax, and even let her sample pretty much all she wanted while we mixed and rolled.) Mam took Camie to the Courthouse while they were in town one day. We sorted and counted coins and then I let them use some to "buy" cookies from Mamma's Cookie Shop (conveniently located at our kitchen bar). Then they did coin rubbings (didn't work out very well. Coins kept moving, but they thought it was working, and that's what counts.) Camie cut hers out to use for pretend money. She loves paper scraps and empty boxes. I'm sure her money is put away somewhere in a box I tried to throw out and she salvaged from the porch.

This week the letter is K. Since we got up late and lunch wasn't too far away, we just ate cereal for breakfast. Special K cereal, that is, with frozen blueberries. (And who do you think requested the empty cereal box? That's right. Camie. And even wanted it taped shut so she could use it in their toy kitchen. Afterward they colored a picture of a kangaroo and then we cut it in 9 pieces which they glued in order onto a piece of construction paper. While they were coloring I remembered a movie Sara and I loved as kids, "Dot and the Kangaroo." I found it on YouTube and they watched it. We had to skip a few scary parts. Lissy got terrified of the Bunyip--some sort of Australian legend about a ghost or monster or something like that-- (don't know how it's actually spelled) while I was trying to fast-forward past it. She basically fell out of her chair trying to get away from the computer and started crying. I thought maybe she was hurt from the fall, but as she stiffly clung to me I realized that she was VERY scared of the movie scene. Micah and Camie bravely declared they weren't scared and wanted to watch it, but I told them we were skipping it anyway. Here's one of the songs I remembered parts of and the kids liked too. (This is for you, Sara.) :)

Well, I wasn't sleepy when everyone else went to bed, so I stayed up reading about travel ideas to use for the long trip to WI in November. Now it's past midnight. Starting to feel a little sleepier. I'm sure I'll feel very sleepy at 6:30 when Matt's alarm goes off. Oh well. Only 14 more hours till naptime. :)
More pictures for later. I tried again, for the 3rd time, to post them but for some reason it froze up.

Rose