Pixiemom

In the afternoon while it was raining, I draped the floor in strips of newsprint paper and got out crayons. I gave Amie and James the job of illustrating “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Christine did some drawings which she claims to be from the story too. All of the kids were down on the floor coloring. Ok, so Noelle enjoyed crawling over it and hearing the crinkle, crinkle instead of coloring, but she did a few marks of her own. Here comes Mr. Wonka. (Amie) and there he goes with Charlie, Grandpa Joe, and the 4 other kids behind the gates of the factory (James.) I didn’t want to put on the other pictures because they show stuff that happen in the story and if you haven’t read it (or seen it), I don’t want to spoil it for you. We only have three chapters left to read and we’ll probably get to those today. They’ve left a little free space on their papers to draw the ending of the story.

I hope this new movie goes better with the book. I didn’t see the other movie until we bought it for the kids 2 years ago and I was very disappointed. Amie and James are really wanting to see the new one, but I don’t know if we can. Our van needed some expensive repairs recently and it puts us in a bind concerning entertainment that costs.

Yesterday was one of those nice drizzly summer days. It wasn’t extremely hot and it had small showers off and on all day. I sent Amie and James outside to play during naptime. I figured they’d stay up on the porch with the play kitchen because I didn’t think they would go out into the rain. When I looked out to check on them a little later, there they were dancing and running around in the rain. As soon as they saw me, they ran up onto the porch because they didn’t know it was okay for them to be out there. I told them I wouldn’t have sent them out if it was a thunder storm and I didn’t mind them playing in the drizzle. They would get a little damp, then the rain would stop and they’d dry off. It only rained for a few minutes at a time and they just had a lot of fun. The only bad thing (and it wasn’t very bad at all) that happened was when Christine went out after waking and stepped straight into a puddle. Her sock is now quite dirty.

She is a “Toddler” now. *Sigh* No more baby. She walks so much now. She still crawls if she wants to get somewhere fast, but most of the time she’s up on those feet. She doesn’t go more than 8 or 10 steps usually without falling on her backside, but that doesn’t stop her. Since she is still wobbly on her legs and is a tiny thing I get lots of comments. I was asked this last weekend if she was a year old yet. I laughed and told them she was 18 months. People are always amazed at how old she is, but if they hear her talking, they wouldn’t be. Or maybe they would since many kids don’t speak like this until they are closer to 2, I think. She’s speaking in sentences sometimes and very clearly. Here are a few of the ones we’ve heard… (Sitting on Daddy’s lap)”Hey Daddy, That’s Momma!” (Watching me play a computer game)”Those are balls.” (No comments necessary on next two)”That’s mine.” “Where’s Grandma?” I know I’m a bit biased, but I think her mental skills are very well developed. Her fine motor skills are about where they should be for her age and her large motor skills are where they should be if you factor in her premature birth. I can see her get frustrated sometimes because her motor skills aren’t well enough to let her do what she wants to do in her mind. It doesn’t stop her from trying though.