Little bits of life...

Erica is learning to play a few songs on the piano. And when I say "learning" what I really mean is "teaching herself". She has taught herself most of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb, We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet, and The First Noel. We're talking melody only here, and on the last two it's not the whole melody but rather the first few lines, but still - pretty good for a 5-year-old who hasn't had lessons. She'll be getting a 30 minute group piano lesson once a week when Kindergarten starts, so we'll see how she does with that and Mommy's teaching/prompting. Perhaps it is soon going to be time for lessons.

Isaac is about to turn 3. We were driving in the car to the store the other day to buy a birthday present for a little boy in the neighborhood who invited Isaac to a birthday party. We were talking about how it was almost Isaac's birthday, and I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. His answer? "Hmmm... maybe a skirt!" But it was shortly followed by "No, maybe a dump truck." And so now he tells me, rather often, how he is going to go to the store to buy himself a dump truck for his present for his birthday. He's pretty excited to be getting big, and he knows that 3 is big enough for (pre)school so he's extra thrilled for that.

Cambria has begun practicing jumping off the bottom step of the stairs. The older kids jump from higher up - Erica from step number 4 and Isaac from step number 3. Cambria watches them and then practices jumping off the bottom step. She's getting pretty good at it! One day I was in the kitchen washing dishes when I noticed that I hadn't heard her playing in a while. I looked into the other room and there she was, jumping off the bottom step, falling on her hind end, laughing, getting back up, climbing back up, and doing it all over again. She has also found that she is tall enough to turn on and off the light over the stairs if she stands on the second step so we get to see that light switch on and off rather frequently these days.