Long, long ago Peyton used to be a good eater.  Anything that turned up on his plate made it into his mouth.  He even really liked a lot of the different tastes I put in front of him.

Then, for a long time, the foods that turned up on his plate only turned up his nose.  He didn’t like anything on the table, regardless of whether he’d eaten it before, or even of how much ranch he could smother it in.  Every night he requested the same meal – cheese noodles (aka alfredo).  He would eat the other meals, but he would usually proclaim them “yucky” and eat as little as possible to stay alive. 

Lately (over the past few weeks) he’s been more willing to try the different foods, and often after the initial reaction of disgust and despair, he’s taken a few bites and enthusiastically deemed the meal “yummy!”  He’s beginning to develop more favorites (now he likes potato soup in addition to cheese nooodles), and he’s more willing to approach the table with a positive attitude.

Including fish!  He loves salmon and requested salmon from last night’s dinner over grilled cheese, meat and cheese sandwich, and even macaroni and cheese (notice a motif?). 

And to segwey into the pics I want to post, his intelligence with the alphabet and writing must be a result of the DHA in the salmon.  Here’s his recent project – he loves to sound words out and write them down on his white board, so to help him get used to properly sizing letters, we picked up a booklet of writing paper from the thrift store today.

As you can see, he does have a bit of practicing to do – Daddy wrote out the line in the middle so Peyton could practice copying the ones he’d done backwards.  All in all, though, Peyton amazes me with his penmanship…our doctor doesn’t even write that clearly!  (Or perhaps Peyton’s clear penmanship means he won’t be a doctor himself?)

Here’s a pic from Peyton’s illustration a few days ago – he drew a chocolate chip cookie (the brown circle with dark brown chocolate chip polka dots in it), then he wanted to write cookie monster.  He sounded it out with me – I make the letter/word sounds and he guesses which letter and writes it.  Just below cookie monster he wrote “im” all by himself – I asked him what it meant, and he said “mmmmmmmmm!” so he added a few more “m”s for effect.

Not only do I have a sweet, bright little boy, but I also have my good eater back, and ever since I mentioned that to him at the dinner table, he loves to remind me that “Mommy got her old Peyton back.”

And of course this wouldn’t be a post without a pic of sweet girl and Peyton watching TV together (we don’t want him to get too smart, you know).  You can pray for Lauren – she still needs to gain weight but is getting less and less interested in eating as she gets more and more interested in the noises around her.  Also, whether it’s teething or the nasty cold Peyton got a week ago, she’s got a fever…so pray that I…I mean, she… gets some sleep!

In the next two pics you can really see how her hair is [finally] starting to grow.  Right now it’s starting to turn into a curly mohawk.

I was looking at this art-bag with Peyton and he re-explained the last drawing for me – it’s a robot with a remote control.  The remote control is pretty good – it’s the little piece at the bottom that looks like…well, a remote control.

Sweet Girl loving the baby.

Sweet Girl trying to remove baby’s hair.

Sweet Girl showing off her sitting up skilz.

Sweet Girl demonstrating how a proper lady drinks from a sippy.

At school today Growing Boy decorated a brown bag for a super-treasure-hike.  Here’s his illustration of our family: from L-R, Peyton, Lauren, Mommy, Daddy, Ji Young and the last blob is Peyton’s monster.  Bet you didn’t know we had a monster, did you!

Sweet Girl and the Daddy

Lauren’s CT Scan came back completely normal.  To Peyton this means that the cat finally did come out of her brain.

Thank God.

We’ve been having beautiful weather this year – last week was in the 70s-80s all week, and this week looks promising, too.  Here are a few pics I snapped in the backyard yesterday.

Of course, Lauren was more interested in the grass and leaves than in smiling for a picture, but brother was ever-so-helpful [after being bribed] and got Lauren’s attention eventually.

Peyton realized that Lauren is older than he is.  Lauren is seven, and Peyton is only four.  I tried to explain that Peyton is really 55 months (or so), but he wasn’t quite grasping the idea.  Perhaps that’s why multiplication doesn’t come in until 3rd grade.

Here’s a clip including a few of Lauren’s recent accomplishments.  Each is explained below.  FYI the first clip is from mid-August, the second from today.

Lauren learned how to scoot herself around.  She’s been rolling everywhere and rotating around for a few weeks, but this past week she’s become a proficient scooter. 

Lauern has also learned how to express herself.  How to make herself heard.  She screeches at the top of her lungs.  She especially loves to do this at the dinner table when I’m not feeding her fast enough.  She even experiments with pitch – she tries to make her voice so high that she can barely be heard at all, but I’m surprised every dog within a mile’s distance isn’t showing up at our door.

One of Lauren’s favorite activities is being like her brother.  When Peyton was a baby he would lift his entire lower half off the ground, then slam his feet against the floor.  Lauren recently has become fond of doing the same.

On another note, the weather has been beautiful this weekend – several of our friends were camping out at Birch Bay State Park, so we joined them for a few hours on the beach this afternoon.  Peyton had so much fun standing in the water and letting the waves crash against him; he’s a California boy through and through.  Lauren kept rolling off the blanket to play in the dirt and grass and I kept moving her back into the middle.  Daddy and the other daddies played lawn golf…yeah, I’d never heard of or seen it, either, but apparently it does exist. 

Anyway, I’m off to bed soon.  I’m subbing at LC this week to cover for an English teacher who lost her mom.  I started on Friday and had SO much fun…I suppose I could teach full time, as long as I didn’t have to do any lesson planning or grading!  The schedule is marvelous – I’m able to come home for all but one feeding each day, so I get to visit with Lauren and make sure she’s eating well…especially since she’s already so skinny!  Peyton was bigger than she is now when he was only 3 months old!  But I’m so glad this is only one week…my house is already starting to get messy again!