Quick Takes Volume 34

~1~

Ellie is going on a field trip with her class to the Please Touch museum.  I'm not sure what she's more exited about, visiting the museum or getting to ride on a school bus for the very first time.  I think she's going to be disappointed when she finds out how that school buses are not as wonderful as she thinks they are.

~2~

Before the girls go on field trips or outings without us, Bryan and I run down a list of safety instructions.  One of them is ensuring that our child knows our phone number [or in Madeline's case, our home and cell numbers].  Ellie claimed she didn't know our home phone number.  Really?  The kid has had this memorized since she was three.  After giving her our area code, she was able to recite the rest of our number.

~3~

As Bryan continued to go over the safety rules, he told her that it was really important that she know how to get help if she gets lost.  She seemed uninterested.  Then he tells her if she doesn't know how to find the right people to help her if she gets lost she may never come home again.  This was followed by "You want to come home, right?" Ellie stared at him, blinked and shook her head no.  Either someone wasn't listening to what her Daddy was saying or Ellie is looking for a way out.  Hopefully she comes home today.

~4~

Vacation Bible School planning is going well.  I'm two months away from the registration deadline and I already have 20% of the students registered.  I need to find some time to assess how many volunteers I still need to have this all run as smoothly as last year.  I'm quietly looking for volunteers this year to avoid certain people make sure I get the best people for the job.  I think I'm pretty close to having everyone I need.  I just need to take a few minutes to assess the list of volunteers I've already badgered, pestered, or placed on the spot recruited.

~5~

Kitty Katkins is determined to move.  This morning she figured out how to move from a sitting position to laying on her belly.  I've also noticed over the past couple of days that she's doing a bit of a backwards army crawl.  It may not be too long before she's crawling.  Eeek!

~6~

Katie's becoming a lot more vocal, too.  She's making all sorts of sounds these days.  Some of them sound like she's starting to grasp English, or whatever mumbled language Madeline speaks.  It's unclear as of yet if she will have a New York accent like Ellie.  It's the strangest thing.  Ellie frequently talks like a New Yorker despite the fact that no one else in the family has a New York accent.  We like to remind her that she lives in south Jersey and we don't talk like that.

~7~

Madeline's schedule for the next two and a half weeks is jam packed.  I think tonight is one of the last days where she doesn't have something going on for a good while.  Bryan has her trying out for travel soccer at five or six different soccer clubs.  All of this coincides with band and chorus preparing for their concerts.  Madeline has really spread herself too thin with all of her activities.  We told her when she starts at our parish school in September that we're really going to have to assess which activities to pursue more carefully.  Right now she's involved in five different things that are all mostly year round obligations.  She's a busy girl!