Phillip (age 3) is going through a phase of calling anyone who disagrees with him “a liar.” He has also picked up the oh-so-mature habit of calling them a “Liar, Liar, pants on fire.” He started in on his daddy this morning, while we were still in bed (he’s our alarm clock), so in Lannie’s defense, he was still pretty groggy. The conversation went something like this…

Phillip: Liar, Liar, pants on fire.
Lannie: My pants aren’t on fire.
Phillip: You’re a liar, and your pants are on fire.
Lannie: If my pants were really on fire, I would hope you would put out the fire.
Phillip: I would get a bag of marshmallows and roast them.

I see an impeccable sense of comedic timing colliding with a long string of junior high school detentions in his future.

We took our second trip to the Little Rock Zoo (in 9 months) this week. Compared to the Memphis Zoo (which we visited at least 2-3 times a month while we lived in Memphis), it is a big disappointment; however, the visiting bird show was almost worth the price of admission. I’ll admit, the kids and I were both awed and terrified of the hawks and vultures that tapped our ears with the tips of their wings as they flew past our heads.

We didn’t sleep in as much as I wanted this summer, but we definitely visited the neighborhood pool more times than I can count. This may be the first time I’ve had an authentic (read non-tanning bed and non-tanning cream) tan since I was in middle school. The highlight of the summer for me came when Phillip learned to swim by himself (with his lifesaving vest), so that I could move from wrestling with him IN the pool to sitting on the side of the pool, thereby allowing my legs to see the light of day (at least from the knee up).

I am looking forward to starting our third (!) year of homeschooling on Monday, but I will miss the easy pace of summer. We’ve all gotten bored a time or two, but it has been a nice change.

We are settling into Little Rock.  It seems a little easier since we moved so recently.  We know what to do, or more importantly, what not to do.  The kids were so isolated when we first moved to Memphis, so I started trying to get them into homeschool groups before we even moved this time around.  They are going to enrichment classes (art, music, creative writing, etc.) one day a week at a place called the Homeschool Academy.  They are also taking P.E. classes at Arkansas Baptist through a satellite group.  Elizabeth seems satisfied with the number of new friends she’s made, so I’m happy with the arrangement.

The only thing we haven’t been able to jump-start is finding a church.  Looking for a church is a long and tedious process– I’ll never enjoy being a visitor.  We’ve visited five churches in the West Little Rock area so far, and I think we have one more to try tomorrow.  We definitely have a “type.”  Lannie (in particular) prefers a modern worship style, and a well-organized children’s program is important to me.  I also like a great missions outreach (local and international).  At this point, one church is definitely our favorite.  The only problem? It’s not a Baptist church.  This is really only a problem for the daughter of a Baptist preacher (who now works for a Baptist seminary).

One thing that has really suprised me since we’ve moved here is how easy it has been to re-connect with old friends from high school and college.  Facebook makes it so effortless!  I’ve messaged with friends and set up get-togethers without even having a phone number.  I’ve actually been out to eat with three friends in just a couple of weeks.  That has done so much to keep me from feeling lonely.

I’ll try to do better about keeping up with my blog.  The kids have said some really funny things in the past month.  Hopefully, I can remember what they said!

Caleb and I have noticed that Phillip acts especially crazy right before each meal.  I’ve finally figured out that if I keep snacks on-hand for him to grab himself, it regulates his blood sugar and keeps him from acting insane.  That was no small victory this week!

Elizabeth’s emotions have manifested into sleep walking this week.  Last night marked the third time this week that she has wandered into my room while asleep.  She is the strangest sleep walker– she cries at the top of her lungs for the first few minutes, then she says things that don’t make any sense.  It honestly took us a couple of times to figure out she was sleep walking.

Last night, she wandered down the stairs crying, and I met her in the hallway to keep her from waking Phillip up.  We went into the living room, and she said, “I need to go to…”

“Go where?” I asked, knowing she wasn’t going to make any sense.

She never answered that question.  Then she said, “When are you going to get in on the…”

“Get in on what?”

“Get in on the…you know…get in on your age?”

I didn’t know what that meant, so we sang Jesus Loves Me until (I thought) she woke up.  Then I told her she needed to go back to her room.  “Okay,” she said and laid down on the couch.

“No, go to your room,” I said, and she got up and kissed me, then laid back on the couch.

I eased her up and prodded her to walk back to the stairs.  I started walking up the stairs, and she started down the hall to my bedroom.  “No, to your room,” I said, guiding her up the stairs.  Unfortunately, she is too big for me to pick up and carry.

She laid down in her bed and kissed me good-night.  I left the room, and she started crying loudly again.  I went back and asked her what was wrong.  “What do you want?” she asked.  Apparently, she never woke up in that entire exchange.

I am so ready for Lannie to come home.  This is exhausting.

“Hey, Dude.”

“I’m not a dude.  If I’m a dude, where’s my mustache?”

“Not all dudes have mustaches.”

“Okay, but all dudes have hair.”

“Some dudes don’t have very much hair.”

“Okay, all dudes have hair somewhere.“

Phillip had a hard time staying still and paying attention throughout much of the movie.  The musical numbers kept his attention, but the dialog and story line were lost on a three year old boy.  He did catch the kissing scene between Troy and Gabriela, though, as evidenced by his very loud, “YUCK!” which caught the attention of everyone around us.

As I was putting him to bed, I asked him about his favorite part of the movie.  To my surprise, he said, “The kiss.”

“Really?”  I said.  “I thought you said the kiss was yucky.”

“I liked it,” he said.

“Do you know what it means when people kiss?” I asked.

He thought for a moment, then said, “People bump their lips together.”

Today, Elizabeth brought a note home from school saying that Mr. Cowart died this morning.  Ugh!  I felt terrible for thinking that he had flaked out by leaving the class in the middle of the year.  Elizabeth said that the school counselors had spent the afternoon in her class, talking with the kids about Mr. Cowart and helping them make cards for his family.  I thought that was a good way to help them deal, at least as a class.

When Elizabeth showed me the note, she said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”  Later, though, she cried and said, “Why do all these people I know have to die!”  As far as I know, the only other person she has known that died was her grandmother, and that was before she was old enough to remember.  Still, she has a lot of unresolved feelings about that, including the fact that she doesn’t remember her grandmother.

My mom said she was going to send me some things about helping a child deal with grief, but right now I’m kind of at a loss.  I guess the best way to handle it is to just let her talk about it when she wants to.

He has been observing our school situation (Caleb is homeschooled, and Ellie goes to public school) without much comment, so I wasn’t really sure how he was processing it until recently.  I heard him playing with his little people when he said, “You can’t go to school.  You’re not a girl!  Boys don’t go to school.”  Seems we may need to have a little clarification.

With his third birthday just around the corner, Phillip has been potty-trained for a while; however, he still needs help removing and replacing his clothes, so every trip is pretty much a two-person job.  Earlier in the week, he cocked his head at me lovingly while he was doing his business and said, “Mommy, I can’t pee without you.”  I’m not quite sure that is a good thing.

Another thing he is learning is how to pray before he goes to bed.  He’s been learning this for a while, but for the past few months he’s been stuck in a rut.  His routine prayer is to say, “Jesus, thank you for that and that and that” indiscriminately.  We’ve been working on being specific about “that,” and he is making progress.  Last week, he prayed one of the sweetest prayers I’ve ever heard.  He said, “Jesus, thank you for being my friend.  Jesus loves me, Amen.”

We have also really enjoyed his science and history curriculums that we picked out together.  Both of them are so hands-on.  He was so proud of the lapbook that he finished on Thursday for astronomy.  It was an accumulation of everything he learned about the sun, the moon, the earth, Mercury, and Venus– the first half of his book.  It was like a massive nine weeks’ test, but with a creative and kinetic element.  We both loved it!

I was hesitant about continuing with homeschooling this year, but I am so glad that we did.  We would have missed out on a lot if we had decided not to do it.  My only regret is that Elizabeth is not joining us, but I know the one-on-one time will be good for our relationship, especially as he gets into the preteen years.  Hopefully, Elizabeth and I will get the chance to do something similar for a year or two.  I think she would flourish under the one-on-one instruction (without competition from Caleb).