Education

Ellie and I were in charge of preschool for this week. While E would have been an obvious letter choice, we decided to go with the also popular L as the basis of our lessons. (Because Ellie thinks that her name is spelled E L.) We had lemonade (that no one liked), drew lines on lizards, drew lunch on these cute printable placemats, and made lolipops out of playdough and popsicle sticks. We also read (among other books) Cybils nominee Leaves, Denise Fleming's Lunch and a wordless book Look! Look! Look! by Tana Hoban which were big hits.

Ellie dressed in her new monocromatic favorite way.

Blue one day (immediately before I made her climb off the bed)
And purple the other (immediately AFTER she taught Moira to make this face--I'm tempted to carry my camera around until I capture Moira's copy)

This week Moira has also been constantly learning. She sat at the preschool table and participated in all of the crafts and drawing and snacks like a big kid. Then she came home and figured out how to open the dishwashing detergent container and sprinkle it on the floor. Three times. And she's been eyeing the laundry detergent, too--I see under cabinet locks in our immediate future.

But look out cute she is sitting in 6-month-old Grace's lap to read her a book:

Moira's also been working to learn the yes/no and up/down opposite sets and getting them mixed up most of the time. Having her stand at my feet with her arms up yellng "Down!" reminds me of a linguistics lesson I had back in college. The phrase "polar opposites" makes opposites seem seperate from each other by a wide spectrum, but really, opposites are completely like each other except for one key difference. The example my teacher used was man/woman--both human, both adult, but one is male and the other female. If they were totally different it would be more like banana/mountain, which just doesn't make sense. The point of my digression (if there is one) is that Moira has noticed there is a key difference between up/down and yes/no and knows that they are pairs. (Yay!) She just can't quite remember to use the right one, but that should come soon.

Also, I snapped some pictures of our darlings in their new Sunday best from Grandma Janie.

Moira is much too young for a cheesy "Smile" face, but she's already adopted one
Having two kids has been a challenge to me in ways that I hadn't imagined possible. I feel so split by trying to love both of them, know both of them, teach both of them, dress both of them, and even keep both of them out of mischief. But this week they've had some sweet moments together that make me so glad they have each other even if it does tear me in so many directions at once. They played kitty cats together early in the week, with both of them mewing at each other in absense of words. Ellie runs to check on Moira if she hears her wake up from a nap before I do and sometimes when Moira is not yet awake and Ellie just misses her. More than once this week I've heard them laughing together as I work to clean up after their meals, and I love to see them engage in the same toy, and to see them share and work together--sometimes with prompting, sometimes without. Is there any greater blessing than a playmate and friend who is also your sister?

And they're off on another adventure . . .

Chris and I rounded out the week by installing a ceiling fan with a light in our bedroom. It wasn't very difficult, just following the directions on the box and having extreme upper arm strength to be able to hold the fixture in place while we secured it with 9 billion screws without dropping too much popcorn ceiling asbestos on the girls. But overall, it was fun and we're on a bit of a home improvement high from the sucessful installation and so excited to move into our house in two short weeks. . . .