Just a little bit about what's been happening this week

I get some flack from loyal readers (even if they don't comment on here and e-mail me instead; you know who you are!) if I don't post very often, so I will make more of a concerted effort to post in here.

This week has been a bit different. I had Karnette's girls, Lachelle and Lindsay, from Wednesday through today as Karnette had to go to a mandatory seminar or classes or something in San Francisco. Lachelle has been sick for the last 3 weeks and has only attended a few days of school since it started. So, I got to keep sick Lachelle here at the house. I made her wear a mask so that she could at least be in the main rooms with the rest of us and not infect my kids. Today she was feeling much better and being quite stubborn. I was almost wishing that she weren't feeling quite so good so that she wouldn't be so hard to deal with. I got a glimpse of having an eleven-year-old, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

The good thing is, since Lachelle is feeling so much better, she and Lindsay are going ahead with their plans for tomorrow. Those plans are to get baptized during the church service!! I am so happy for them. It is such a big thing to make that decision for Christ and get up in front of everyone to boldly announce it and publicly go through that rite of passage.

Reece is still working on potty-training himself, some days more than others. Today was not a strong training day, but yesterday was. I have taken to reading while in the bathroom with him as he won't hurry, but rather take his time on the throne. He's such a boy!!! (I mean no offense to the males reading this, I am merely speaking on the observances I have made with the males in my life.)

I should mention an update on Reece and his obsession with shooting people using inanimate objects. He discovered that he can create a credible facsimile of a gun using Megablocks. So now we have half a dozen "guns" lying around the house. I remind you that we have never bought a toy gun for him, or had one around for him to play with and are very strict about what he watches on TV. I swear, it's something inherent in the boy's psyche. Problem is, he wants to holster the guns, but since we don't buy any guns for him, we certainly don't have any holsters available. So, he's been stuffing them down the front of his diaper. My mom thought he had a rash and I said, "No, he's holstering things in the waistband of his diapers" and he stuffed a Megablocks gun down there directly after I said it.

Alicia is drawing things more and more precisely. She puts makeup on me now. I look as if I have really rosy cheeks in all her pictures. It's just too cute. My cheeks aren't nearly as rosy in real life. She is also trying to write her name now. It's so funny, she's writing it backward and the A's are huge, but it is a great effort!! I didn't even know she was capable of doing so! They must be working with her on it at preschool....

I read somewhere that most 4-year-olds know their phone number and address. I thought, 'What is wrong with me? I have not worked with her on this at all! I must be some kind of bad mother!' As a result, I began to teach her our information. She has it down pat! Now I need to instill in her that we don't tell it to everyone we meet. Strangers don't need to know where we live or how to reach us on the phone.