9 years?!

• Lily started climbing the stairs,
• Elsie has learned to find at least half of the 50 states on the map,
• Timmy started riding his bike outside (with training wheels),
• Abby instituted a geography/math quiz where the reward was a bite of sorbet and won many bites,
• Kate worked so hard at soccer that she scored two goals during her last game,
• Gina shared her 9-year-anniversary pineapple with the whole family, and
• I got a new book on paper airplane designs.

3rd week of April

In which

• Lily screamed in pain for many hours for many nights but got mostly better,
• Elsie learned where Oklahoma is,
• Timmy wrestled a lot with his dad,
• Abby set up a little picnic on the trampoline,
• Kate found herself anxious and frightened at about 7:40 several nights in a row,
• Gina made us ice cream cookie sandwiches, and
• I met with the chair of physics at BYUI and sent in part of a job application.

Happy Birthday, Elsie!

• Lily crawled,
• Elsie began singing the things she wanted to say like in a musical (and she turned 3),
• Timmy made himself a to-do list including chores and recreation,
• Abby began sleeping on the floor instead of her bed,
• Kate won a principle’s award,
• Gina stocked up on canned goods like spaghetti sauce and pineapple, and
• I got to take a friend to the emergency room after he drilled a hole through his finger.  (He turned out fine.)

Fair well to Mom and Andrew

• Lily showed that she didn’t want to nurse anymore,
• Elsie got as excited to see presents for Lily as she did to see presents for herself,
• Timmy had the time of his life playing with Andrew,
• Abby did the dishes without being asked to, getting work out of the way early “so I can play later,”
• Kate cried to have her grandma and uncle leave,
• Gina added a seep-system to water our onions and raspberries,
• I learned how to play Bohnanza,
• Andrew made hot air balloos that were powered by our stove,
• and Mom prepared a cinnamon chocolate and banana cake to welcome Gina and me back from San Diego.