This Week at Our House # 37

1. I think John is doing some things with work that he finds very interesting because he has been showing me what he is doing.
2. Trying to get the house loan has meant that I spent about an hour or more a day on the phone and the computer, and not much got accomplished. If the guy doing a structural inspection finishes tomorrow like he said he would, then we may be able to close in two weeks or less. I guess we will have to see. One thing for sure is we will not be closing on Friday, the original close date.
3. Ruth will be leaving the MTC on Tuesday and we will get a phone call from her before she gets on the plane, I think. I am already making sure my phone is charged. I won't hear her voice again until Christmas.
4. Kate spent all week again in Utah building a new deck with her grandpa and helping her grandma tend her cousins. She has been able to attend the Temple almost daily. And as huge miracle and blessing, she saw Ruth there on Friday.
5. Johnny's foot is doing a lot better and so he is beginning to help more around the house again. I am not sure he will be ready to lift anything when we have to move, though.
6. I have been making Adam read 50 pages a day no matter how long it takes him, and that is pushing him to read a little faster and pay a little more attention.
7. Suzy always plays with Rachel's legos and breaks them, so this week, Rachel very sweetly made Suzy a little house set with mini figures that Suzy would like very much, but Rachel did not really care about. It was a win-win.
8. We made pumpkin pie on Sunday and Anya decided to make little tarts with the left over pie crust. The other girls joined in. They used jam and left over pumpkin pie filling and made some very pretty tarts. My girls are good at making things pretty. I am not, so it is nice to have some girls with that talent.
9. Without Kate at home, we have had much less dessert, so Joseph has been making a lot of cookies. But he does not like to put them on the pan and cook them. He only likes to mix up the cookie dough.
10. Joshua lost his very first tooth!!! He wouldn't wiggle it much because he thought it hurt, so it just unexpectedly fell out during his primary class on Sunday. I was in sharing time with my primary class when I heard Josh at the door call out "mom!" I was relieved that it was his tooth.
11. Arwen says the funniest things. John walked outside with Arwen on his shoulders. She looked at his feet and said, "Dad you have feet." John replied that almost all people do. Arwen, then said that John was not wearing any shoes. John said, "that is called bare feet." Arwen exclaimed, "Dad, you do not have bear feet! You have human feet!"
12. Suzy is driving me nuts with potty training. She will be perfect one week and then poop her pants nearly everyday another week. This past week, she has just been pooping her pants. If she wasn't over 3, I would just put her back in her diaper. On a nicer note, we heard Susan upstairs start to scream and say, "My Ninjago!" Johnny jumped up and said, "she's got my lego ship. 'my ninjago' means MY boat." Johnny had found a place that Suzy could not get at, though, and that is why Suzy was screaming.
13. Sam has some very profound dislikes. He screams as loud as he can and twists and turns and fights during every diaper change. I always change him standing up now because it is less messy. He screams and tries to get away when I try to dress him. He will even crawl off as fast as he can if he sees me holding his clothes. He cries at every bath, but does not throw himself around. Still it's very hard to get him to sit in the water. Sam now says, "mum, mum, mum," when he wants me. He has for a while. The kids said he was saying mom. I just thought he was babbling, but now it is clear that he only says it to me when he wants me. Whenever I cook, Sam gets into the cupboard and plays with the trashbags or pots and pans. If I am blocking a cupboard that he wants to get into, he cries at me.

Pictures

Joshua's first lost tooth

the tooth

John teaching the kids

The kids saw this snapping turtle cross the street at turtle speed to get to our ditch.

Kate building a deck with Grandpa Robertson