Alike, and yet so unique

Cran:

My big girl is doing wonderfully in school. I kept her home on Tuesday due to a sore throat and persistent cough (not to mention, she cried again on Monday morning that she didn't want to leave me and I thought it was wise to give her a day off regardless) and she was eager to return yesterday for her first ever FIELD TRIP! She was accompanied by Dan to Weaver's Orchard. Granted we go to Weaver's all the time, but this was her first excursion via school bus AND the bonus being she got to go with Daddy. Dan was adamant that he was going to go with her ever since we heard there would be a field trip. He has been so excited about going on field trips with them, and he was beyond excited for Wednesday. He sacrificed major sleep, but he and his Maddie had a great time from what I heard. They got a personal tour of the apple orchard (which we've obviously never gotten before), a hayride to the pumpkin patch where they got to pick a little pumpkin, and a tour of the market there where they showed them how they press their apple cider. It sounded like a lot of fun.

This morning Maddie was excited to hear that today was "sharing" day.. aka, show and tell. She asked to take in the scrapbook that Aunt Lisi made for her when she turned one-year-old (that she loves), but the darn thing was too big for her backpack. She then wanted to take a unique glass nail file that their beloved Rhonda gave her yesterday, but I told her that might be considered a weapon. She then matter-of-factly told me that she was going to sing a song for her class. I asked her which song, and she told me she was going to sing her most favorite Halloween song since last year, "The 13 Rooms of Halloween" (note, this is sung to the tune of "12 Days of Christmas" and she has had this memorized since after reading it 1 time LAST September '09). Dan was a little nervous about her doing this because he was worried kids might tease her for singing in front of the class, but I didn't want to discourage her from doing something she was excited to do.

Today was my day to do kid's writing at school, and I expected that they would have already finished with show-and-tell by the time I got there in the afternoon. But, they were just about to start when I got there. I saw Maddie raise her hand and tell her teacher quietly "I don't have anything to share, but I have a song to sing." It was so sweet. I got to stand there and watch her first performance (she told me later that this was great practice for when she does stage shows like Taylor Swift). I could have cried. She sat there with her hand raised waiting to be called upon, and finally got her chance after about 6 other kids who were also so cute. She sang in a voice I have never heard before (I later heard her tell a friend at her table that this was her "beautiful voice") and got to the 10th room in the song before her teacher smiled and said there were other kids that had to share also. She was so proud when her teacher asked her how she learned this song, and she answered "I learned it from my favorite library book called "13 rooms of Halloween" and I wanted to sing it because I knew the boys would like it. There are mummies and goblins, you know?" I had to make sure I didn't burst out laughing!

It was really quite a moment.

The kids are adorable in her class, and I love doing kid's writing with them. Not to mention, I get to come in and see my Cran. AND... I found out that she gets to eat with the principal next week (a Happy Meal, mind you) because she was chosen as October's student of the month!! She was jumping up and down when she heard that, and we are so very excited and proud. We took the girlies out for dinner tonight to celebrate!

Flop:

I am so excited that tomorrow night is a PTL event at the elementary school that we can all attend. Faith is always missing her Maddie when she's away at school, and I'm psyched that Faith will be able to feel a part of the school atmosphere tomorrow. They are having a pumpkin painting event, and Faith is really looking forward to it. She tells me all the time that she wants to go to kindergarten like Maddie. She always reminds me of one of my favorite books when I was little, "When I'm as Big as Freddie." She is forever imitating her beloved big sis, and she takes so much pride in doing things that Maddie would be proud of. Abrie is her pride and joy, and you can tell she wants to be a good big sister. It's really funny.

Faith is definitely a dare devil. We went to the instrument playground this afternoon in Wyomissing, and it was apparent to me how different she and Maddie can be just by watching them play. Faith has been trying to tackle the monkey bars recently, and successfully got across this afternoon for the first time on her own. She did the rock wall without me even there to spot her, and climbed two other huge parts of the playground without me even knowing until she called "Hey, Momma! Look at me" and I looked up and couldn't believe she had gotten to where she was. Maddie was trailing her the whole afternoon trying to do what Faith was doing, and her foot would start to shake and she'd come back down backwards. Maddie is extremely cautious about things, and Faith tends to tackle things head on without over-thinking. It's really neat to see that in Faith.

Her new nickname for herself recently is "Slice of Pizza Faith-y Q." Yep, it's a unique one!

Show:

Little Trouble is teething, big time. She's got the classic signs of teething: crankiness and diarrhea. Not to mention, she's got her entire hand in her mouth constantly trying to uproot her teeth and gums. My poor baby. Her tolerance for pain is quite low, but then again, that's got to be a pain in the butt to get so many teeth all at once.

She actually has been very pleasant this week. She threw one of the most major tantrums in her history today at Target (I had to duck into the pet food aisle to count to 2 in vain as her screaming did not cease at that magical number), but I tend to overlook these things and put them on the backburner of my memory when she's laying in between Dan and I at night as we both hum the melody to "Maybe" from Annie fame to soothe her to sleep. Yep, she loves that song. It's quite funny when I hear Dan humming it to her since he doesn't know the words to the song.

She's got an obsession with putting Maddie and Faith's underwear on her head and parading around in front of her sisters to get them to laugh. It's absolutely hysterical! It's never just one pair that she wants, but both pairs. You can tell that she thinks she's a total riot.