Edie has been educating Agnes on the art of the selfie. What grade would you give this one? It has full view of both nostrils and some great deep shadows from the light angle, but she did get almost her whole face in it so I'd say she's doing pretty well.
I think Edie forgot to point out how not to do the double chin pose.
Edie was tasked with writing a story using 1-2 sentences one day for school. Here are the results:
"Michael goes to the store and buys a box of cereal and then goes home." She got some help with the spelling for words she didn't know, and when I asked her how the stickers illustrated the story she plainly stated that they did not at all but she liked them.
Sometime in December, Michael celebrated a special mass at St Francis de Sales church, which is just absolutely stunning. It was evening and dark outside, and therefore quite dark inside, and I am generally against taking pictures during mass, but I did sneak out my phone at one point for a couple quick snaps of Michael at the high altar.
Agnes spent about half an hour looking at the details on the ceiling then fell asleep.
The kids figured out how to get on top of the playground structures at Benton Park. They have terrified many a parent since then.
Oops. Agnes reverted back to her up-the-nose selfie pose.
Edie likes to take selfies with her baby.
Aunt Jena sent Agnes this little toy camera and it is adorable. She walks around demanding everybody "say cheese" and then looks at the back like she's checking to see how the picture turned out.
Fair warning: nothing in our house is safe now that Agnes is in her toddler scissors phase. She will cut anything and everything with scissors all day long. She cut a whole in Michael Jr's pants while he was wearing them. She'll cut up any piece of paper she comes across into a million little snips. I know it's great motor skills practice, but I wish she wouldn't practice on the rugs, and books, and clothing.
And she's sneaky. If she finds a pair of scissors and something to cut, she'll also find somewhere to hide if she thinks there is the least chance it's something she's not supposed to be cutting.
Well I know that Thanksgiving happened after Edie's birthday, and we got together with most of the family at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but the only picture I have is of the cupcake turkey Edie wanted to bring for dessert.
And the rest is a mishmash of things that apparently happened near the end of November.
I have to say that my in-house babysitters are the absolute best. Can't be beat. They probably deserve a raise.
Edie, Gussie, and Michael (and maybe Agnes? I can't remember!) went out to Kali's house in St. Charles one day and Grampy stopped in on Creve Coeur Airport on their way home. The kids got to see some neat planes and play on a simulator, and Edie got to pedal this little plane around. She loved it!
When Catherine sees me trying to do any type of work at the computer or the school table, she generally interprets the situation as me needing some stress relief in the form of goofiness. She's generally correct, and has goofiness to spare. (Those are actual giant googly eyes that she stuck between her cheeks and eyebrows.)
Oh Agnes. She often tries to skip an afternoon nap now, which means she is super crabby around dinner prep time. One of the best ways to distract her is to put her on a stool in front of the kitchen sink and let her wash dishes. She'll often stick with it for half an hour or more.
Of course, I then have to spend about half an hour getting her new clothes and drying up the counter and floor and stool, but if you don't read that fine print, it feels like a win.
Yes, she's wearing a too-large swimsuit over her clothes. And the toddler mullet is strong with this one.
The more Anges learns about language, the more particular she gets. At the moment, you can't call anything "big" because she prefers the synonym "huge," particularly when discussing her belly. The "huge" is often accompanies by emphatic hand signs, and she's also fond of spontaneous dancing.
Well at this point it looks like all the kids are going to get at least one pandemic-style birthday. The normal fall cold and flu season now identifies as covid so cases are up and people are scared and schools are virtual and governments have doubled down on the masks and lockdowns and isolation. Thankfully we have family and friends still happy to celebrate Edie with us, because she would have a hard time considering it an actual celebration without at least a small audience.
Dema's cake skills and a friend's cutting machine came together to make this ballerina cake. Edie was pleased as punch.
We mostly just filled the house with balloons and played and opened presents and ate cake. Do you see Gussie helping Edie read her card? Both of them have progressed leaps and bounds in reading this year, but Gussie is still a little ahead in sounding out new words and he loves to help.
Catherine was doing the noble work of trying to distract Agnes long enough that Edie could open at least one or two of her presents without Agnes tearing into it prematurely.
It almost worked.
Catherine was able to distract her again with repeated opening of the card Dema made for Edie that has a ballerina who spins on a string when you open it up.
Here's a closeup of the tiny tiny ballerinas Mary colored for the card (or maybe these were for a similar card and I didn't get a picture of Edie's?) - either way they're maybe only 2 inches tall and completely amazing!
Edie insisted on lighting her own candles. I love her sweet freckly face here.
At 6 years old, Edie is still a "strong personality" and manages to stand out in boisterousness in a family already rife with boist. (Yes, I made that up, and yes, I'm standing by it.) She loves fanciful dressup and wild dressup and wrestling her brothers while playing "Big Cats" and climbing trees. It absolutely makes her day when some kid or parent freaks out upon seeing her climb on top of the roof of the playground structures at the park. Edie has mostly flown through or skipped first grade work and is doing a lot of second grade level work (except for handwriting, because hers is... inconsistent). She is still mad at me for not keeping a school planner for her this year like the other kids' (in MO I don't have to keep official schooling records until the the age of matriculation, which is 7, and I'm definitely not keeping any records I don't have to keep). Edie gives great, tight, never-let-you-go hugs and is a master at making cards and drawings to send to people for no other reason than to make them happy. She has also officially forbade me from calling her "Edie Bug" or "Edie Banana"; she will be called simply "Edie" or I may use her full name. Happy Birthday, Teresia Benedicta! We love you!
Gussie, if you're reading this and wondering why there are rarely pictures of you on the blog, remember: you're well into a multi-year phase of rarely consenting to your photo being taken, and my memory of day-to-day life stories is 100% reliant on the photos I find on my phone and camera. Michael Jr, unfortunately you spend a lot of time with Gussie and since he starts writhing around on the floor as if in pain any time he even sees my camera, well I don't have a lot of pictures of you either. I'll work on that. Anyway, there are only sisters in this post.
We were waiting in the church parking lot of something (truly I have no idea what or whom) and it was drizzling outside but the kids were being so loud and ridiculous in the van that I kicked them out. Their ridiculousness was put to much better use outside, where they started finding damp leaves on the ground and sticking them to the car windows in the shape of faces.
It was a much more entertaining use of their energy than kicking at each other in the van.
Agnes will drag over a stool to help me in the kitchen every single chance she gets, and I know she does the same at Dema's house as well. She is not quite old enough for her help to be considerably helpful just yet, but she's getting closer, and jobs like cinnamon rolls that involve heaping amounts of cinnamon and sugar spread around a large area of dough are right in her wheelhouse.
All I can say is that life must have been quite dull before we had teenage Catherine in the house.
Random yellow flower re-blooming in the garden in November - there must have been a warm spell!
When Edie secretly gets ahold of my phone, I find one of two things later: either a 10-minute long video tour of some part of the house or some creation she has made, or a long series of selfies like this:
Agnes, meanwhile, is entering that period of late toddlerhood where the only thing that matters in the whole world is getting to do and decide things for oneself. She is particularly found of picking out her own clothes, and for the moment that means wearing a fancy "ballerina dress" every day. Edie has started taking ballet again this fall and Agnes could not be more jealous of her, so she consoles herself with fancy dresses, worn with snow boots and photographed while eating a cheesestick.
She even will let those little pigtails stay in for a while now.
And she practices her ballet twirling all the time, insisting I take a picture or video multiple times a day, and always running around to the back of the camera halfway through so she can watch herself.
Agnes is definitely obsessed with phones already. If I leave mine in my bag or plugged in on my desk or in the kitchen, she will sneak it off the first chance she gets. I finally made the password something she can type in because otherwise she would keep hitting all the numbers and lock out the phone for hours. So she can put in the password and open the photos app and scroll through pictures all by herself. Her current favorite "Agnes Spot" is between the windows under the piano, and if she's been quiet for any length of time, that's where I go looking.
To be fair, she knows I grab my phone to take pictures and videos often, and she loves looking at all the family pictures and facetime calling with people.
A book that she reads often with Dema has a puffer fish in it, and Agnes like to mimic the puffer fish face:
The video is even better because any time you ask her to make a puffer fish, she does the same two little nods of her head with an attempt at puffing out her cheeks, and I laugh every single time.
Clearly this is the proper way to wear your brother's baseball hat you've stolen.
Oh Agnes is in love with all babies right now. She and Edie both have "heavy babies" that are weighted to feel more like real babies. Agnes can barely carry either of them but she insists, and when she wants to play taking care of her baby she usually demands that Edie play the same. Edie likes playing dolls and is a good sister, so she's usually happy to join.
I know I've already posted one of these, but you should get to here it as much as I do. Agnes reciting her one memorized poem: Ooey Gooey. (There are subtitles you can turn on by hitting the CC button!)
We had a fall family hayride weekend at the farm with Grandma, Grandpa, Chris, Sunny, and Olivia, but the hayride was after dark and I have no pictures. The weather was lovely though and we had a great weekend! Michael Jr was granted a 4-wheeler driver learning permit.
We had a bonfire where I gave up trying to take pictures after this first one.
And Agnes was feeling brave enough to ask to ride the zip line all by herself! I just have to be close enough at the bottom to help her hop down without bopping herself in the face with the seat.
Back home we had some nice color in the yard. It's not the same as spring in the garden, but there are definitely highlights!
The hydrangeas bloomed fairly late and still had some color in the drying flowers while the leaves were turning to dark red and purple.
The Japanese Maple is a stunning red in the fall.
And the various dogwood leaves on the still-green grass are a lovely contrast.
The other tree with lots of color is the maple in the back above the playground.
