Leah says

 Things Leah has said so far this morning:

“I need one… two… five… eight Band-Aids!”

Then, to her brother and sister, “You guys, I got Band-Aids!”

“Mommy, I need meat!”

And when I told her the sausage was too hot, she said, “I blow on it.”

I took the kids to the dollar movie the other day, and sprung for a root beer for them to share. Leah looks over at me and says loudly, “I like this tea!”

We have been doing swim lessons for the bigger kids, and Leah and I have to sit by the side of pool. She says that she needs her “Kim suit” and that goggles are “Kim glasses.”

She sings the ABCs, but not in order! She’ll just throw random letters out there to the tune of the song.

She slung purse over her shoulder, came to find me, and said, “Mama, I’m going work!” Never mind that she was otherwise completely naked at the time.

She’s also started saying, “Mama, I need see my kids,” when Amelie and James are somewhere with the door shut and she wants in.

She likes for me to sing “Ba Ba Black Sheep.” I was changing the line to “and one for the little girl who lives down the lane,” but now she insists “big girl!”

Bonus James Says:

“Mom, where’s the tape?”
Me: Drawer above the trash can.
On his way back through the living room, “Thanks, mom.” Then, “Do you basically know where everything is?”

Random Summer Photos

An assortment of random photos - these are selfies James took when playing with my phone.

 James and Leah are waiting (not very patiently) for Amelie to get out of her piano lesson. Look at Leah's hair! It's huge!

We've been going to the free morning movie at the theater close to our house this summer. The kids are big fans - though it turns out not to be free when they talk me into buying concessions.

Climbing at the park: 

Here's Leah tootling around in her new swimsuit and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle flip flops (both birthday presents from Nana Jana).

Showing off James's Mario & Luigi slippers.

Google made this comparison photo for me - these were taken exactly a year apart - Leah at one and a little bit and then at two and a little bit.

And finally, this one's really random - and not even a summer picture - but here's a comparison photo about 4.5 years apart - Amelie and James are 4 and 2 years old on the left and 8 and 6 years old on the right:

Stephens Lake

I took the kiddos to Stephen's Lake (more of a pond, really, but still a very nice free public area). Here's Amelie doing her thing:

James picking Leah up.

She started to slip!

They really went all in for the beach experience. (They rinsed off before they got into the car!)

James likes to go out absolutely as far as possible (where he can still touch).

 Leah stays closer to shore. There are minnows over by the plants.

 Poor James was the only one who got sunburned (despite also being the only one who I put sunscreen on twice! He must have rubbed it off of his face).

It went away pretty quickly.

Drumming

Sam brought his snare in and the kids of course wanted to play it.

Blurry photos - Look at James's face!

And Leah's face! She likes to play the cajon, too, and sing along - I'll try to post a picture of that as well (it's not nearly as noisy).

Little Gymmers

I used to take Amelie and James to Little Gymmers at the ARC all the time, but this was Leah's first trip. (I found this link to a trip when James was small.)

They have a lot of riding toys:

A new attraction that they've added is a bouncy house:

Videos of the same old thing:

Doctor Visit

Amelie had her 9 year well-child check, which I also dragged James and Leah to, and so I only got this one picture:

Amelie is now 4 feet, one inch tall (6th percentile) and weighs 59 pounds (31st percentile). She just finished up third grade at Ridgeway Elementary and will move on to Unit C in the fall. She was reading this magazine while Dr. Swofford was trying to ask her questions. Then I had to take James out in the hall to scold him about playing with the medical equipment and when I came back in, she'd finally looked up from the book and they were chatting about school.

They didn't give us a milestones checklist the way they used to when she was a littler kid, but I found these online and they seem to be accurate:

• Experience a growth spurt. Your child may get significantly taller and gain more weight. 
• Able to persist in physical activity to reach a goal, such as when playing a game or completing a challenge.
• May act unreasonable or rude when things don’t go as planned, but is as able to recognize behavior and apologize.
• Communicates needs and wants in socially appropriate ways.
• Works cooperatively toward shared goals
• Consistently recognizes the views of other people
• Increased attention span but interests may change rapidly.
• Learning there is a middle ground—things aren’t all right or all wrong.
• Exhibit interests in collections and hobbies.

Amelie is still reading her long fantasy book series, and pretty much anything that she can get her hands on. I did see her with Harry Potter last night. She likes to collect things and has a vast amount of knowledge stored up about all of the various Pokemon and Bakugon and dragons in her books. She made up a game today and made the pieces and board out of paper and taught me how to play it.