"Don't worry little buddy..."

As I sat in the van waiting for the rest of the family to get loaded up I heard Daisy holler as she ran from the swingset toward the van "Don't worry little buddy! It will be okay, Wormie. I'll be right back!" I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. How many almost three-year-old little girls enjoy playing with worms?  I can't imagine that number is very high.  Then again, Daisy tends to choose not to fit the "norm" for girls her age.

Once everyone was loaded and we were headed on our way it didn't take long to realize that we had an extra passenger. I guess Daisy's "little buddy" didn't think it would be okay if she left it behind.

Meet "Wormie"

 It started in her hand, but then it moved to her leg.  

I guess it needed to stretch out a bit.

I decided to be fine with our hitchhiker since we weren't going to be gone long and I didn't feel like dealing with the tears that would certainly follow any "Wormie relocation program" we might attempt to convince her to participate in.

While we were sitting in a parking lot waiting for Mike I heard Daisy's distinct voice "look, a mustache!"

Daisy's "Wormstache"

Some parents would have been totally grossed out by this image, but I grabbed my cell phone, snapped a picture of her and smiled. After all, it's nothing that can't be taken care of with a little soap and water. Besides, what good would freaking out have done when she already had the worm on her face?

We finished our errands and headed for home to get the kids washed up and ready for bed.  Unfortunately there was one casualty from the evening's events... poor Wormie just couldn't handle all the excitement and met with an early demise. Lucky for Daisy there are plenty more where that came from!  Let's just hope she no longer feels the need to use them as facial hair.

My first baby just turned nine...

Yesterday marked nine years since I became a mother. Caleb Daniel entered the world a whopping 9lbs 9oz and 21.5 inches long. I remember feeling like I had been hit by a bus. We didn't find out the gender at our ultrasound because we wanted to be surprised.  Honestly, I thought we were having a girl until Mike and both had a dream about having a baby boy on the same night. At that point we decided that we needed to settle on a boy name "just in case."

Since he was due close to my uncle Dan's birthday (May 12th) we knew Daniel would be part of his name. I had two naughty Dannys in school that year so we decided against using it as a first name. Mike wanted to name him Kale, but I thought it was too close to Kate when I wrote it out and I knew I'd end up crossing the "l" thinking that it was a "t." Then he switched it to Cale which I still wasn't fond of so I suggested Caleb as a compromise. I don't think Mike has ever called him "Cale."

It's funny how a name fits a person. Caleb is definitely a Caleb. The name means "loyal" and he is loyal to a fault. I remember one time we decided to leave Brady with grandma while we went into town because Brady had bitten Caleb and nearly drawn blood. Caleb sobbed the whole way because he didn't want us to leave his brother behind.

There are so many interesting things about him. One of the most prominent is his obsession with mice. It started when he was a toddler and loved watching Bear in the Big Blue House with the little blue mouse named Tutter. He started drawing mice, writing practice sentences about mice, using mice as examples for math problems (there were six mice and two went away how many are left?) and so on. The door of his room has a giant piece of paper with a "mouse hotel" drawn on it.

Speaking of drawing, he is very good at linear drawings of buildings and machines and such. He pays very close attention to the details of how things are put together. One of his favorite things to do is build with legos. He is very creative in that sense and even built a solar system for a school project out of legos.

I can't believe he is nine already. It seems like yesterday he was outside in his duck boots and camo sweatsuit splashing in the mud puddles looking up at me with those chubby baby cheeks and bright greenish blue eyes. Today he is inches away from growing taller than my 5'2" mom and quite proud of the fact that at age nine he is as tall as my now 6'3" brother was at age nine-and-a-half. I don't think he'll reach his goal of passing grandma by the time he turns ten, but if he hasn't by age eleven I'll be very surprised.

To my eldest child... Happy birthday. It is so nice to have someone in the family who looks at the world the way I do. Someone who can relate to my life experiences as the firstborn. At times this sameness can cause us to butt heads, but know that despite any conflict we may have I will always love you. You will do great things one day, of that I am sure. I can't wait to see what this next year brings as you grow and learn and mature. I hope you enjoyed your birthday and I am sorry I embarrassed you with that balloon. I was just excited about your birthday and I thought it would be a fun way to share that excitement. I didn't realize it would upset you as much as it did. I love you and thanks for being such a wonderful and unique child. Our family wouldn't be complete without you.  Love, Mom

Teaching Band

I found this on my whiteboard after the band concert tonight. It honestly brought me to tears.  Let me back up for a moment...


I am not a "band teacher."  My degree is a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education. I am trained to teach classroom music and choir. Sure, I had "Basic Instrumental Techniques" for a semester at St. Olaf which was basically a crash course in each family of the orchestra just in case we would ever find ourselves in a situation similar to that in which I find myself today. I honestly never thought I would need to use it. 


When I was offered the job teaching K-8 classroom music, band, and choir, I honestly had a hard time with the idea of teaching band. I am a person who likes to do things the best that I possibly can do them and I really don't like the idea of doing a less-than-fabulous job at anything, especially when I am getting paid to do it. I knew that with my experience playing clarinet in band from middle school through high school (and even one semester in college) and the minimal training I had at St. Olaf that I could totally fake my way through teaching band. The problem was that I didn't want to just fake it. I wanted to be good at it and that in and of itself was a problem.


I haven't been trained in how to teach beginners to play instruments. I can totally figure out how to make a sound on pretty much anything, but teaching beginners how to do the same really seemed like a daunting task. Nevertheless, I decided to make the most of the 30 minutes twice a week that I had in my schedule to teach band.


I would be lying if I said it was easy to jump right in. It would also be a lie to say that I have enjoyed every moment of my first year as a band director. In all honesty, that part of my job has probably been the most frustrating and yet tonight it proved to also be one of the most rewarding.


Last Thursday I was preparing myself for a disaster. To my ears, the band (which consists of two drummers, three trumpets, three saxophones, four flutes and one clarinet) sounded terrible. I had no idea how they were going to manage to pull it together for the concert. Yesterday's rehearsal was a little more promising, but I still wasn't convinced that I wanted to be standing in front of this group of kids taking credit (or blame?) for their performance.


This afternoon we had our dress rehearsal. It went okay. I knew the kids were nervous performing in front of their friends and I hoped that the evening's performance would be better since it would be for their parents, after all, that is the audience that really matters.


The kids were antsy before the concert. At the last minute we decided to add "Ode to Joy" back into the lineup. During this afternoon's rehearsal we had made the decision to cut it because it was the worst song in the dress rehearsal. After a conversation with a fellow teacher who told me that song was her favorite of the afternoon, I started to have a change of heart. When we lined up to go on stage I spontaneously asked them to vote thumbs up for "let's do it" and thumbs down for "I'd rather not." Thumbs up won. We proceeded to enter the gym and walked up on stage and those kids played their songs the best they have ever played them. No, they weren't perfect, but you don't expect perfection from a beginner band. Each of those students worked so hard to play to the best of his or her ability and the result was their best performance to date.


I am so proud of those kids. Teaching band is still something I struggle with, but I can honestly say that it was worth every headache. To end the year with a performance like that and to be greeted by that whiteboard message when I returned to my room made it all worthwhile. This is why I love what I do.

Baby Be Blessed Dolls

Today the dolls I ordered from Baby Be Blessed arrived. I ordered them back in February after we got our tax return.  They take about 12-14 weeks to complete the dolls and ship them out. I had intended to save them for the kids' birthdays, but after peeking at them to see how they turned out I just couldn't wait.  I gave each of them their doll still wrapped in tissue and then counted to three before I let them rip into them. They were very excited to open them. The kids were thrilled to see that the dolls looked like them and that they even had their names on the tummies.

I love that you get to choose your own scripture verse for the dolls. I was originally going to choose Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go" for Caleb's doll. I changed my mind when I found this verse because I love that it has a similar message, but adds the reminder to "do everything in love."

Choosing the verse for this doll was very easy. When Brady was born 8 weeks early this verse kept running through my head. I wrote it out on a piece of paper and taped it to his isolette. I knew that I couldn't be strong for my baby, but our Savior could be and this verse was a daily reminder of that fact.

Amelia tends to be a worrier. She is the first to be afraid at bedtime and I thought she could use a gentle reminder of what to do when she feels the need to worry or be afraid. It was very cute when Caleb read Amelia's verse. He said "That's a good one, mom, because she's scared all the time." I like that he figured out my reason for choosing that verse.

Daisy has a very joyful nature so I did a search for the word "joy" on BibleGateway.com. This verse has so many wonderful qualities listed in addition to joy that I thought it would be the perfect verse for her doll. Caleb's reaction to this verse was a little different than his reaction to Amelia's. "Mom, Daisy is only some of those things. She is really not good at self-control."  Oh, the truth behind life with an almost three-year-old.

So there they are. My family of dolls. Each one unique in its own way just like the children they belong to.

Tuesday Morning Dance Class

Today is Tuesday. Laundry, housework, meal planning... the list goes on. Despite all the chores designated for my one day off, there is something I love about Tuesdays. This is the day I get to spend with my girls.


Today started with a snugglefest in my bed after Mike and the boys left for the day. Soon the girls got bored and moved on to a dance party.  Amelia was obviously the teacher and Daisy was more than willing to participate with the rest of the students in the class (including Gus the girl, Scarlett, and Baroness to name a few). She used the foam squares we sometime use for crafts as dance mats and directed each student as to where to stand. She then started singing a song she made up about hopping bunnies and led the group in a dance number to go with it.


It was fun to see her creativity shine through in their play. Daisy lost interest sometime during "The Flower Song" but Amelia kept going with the rest of her students. It was a good way to start my Tuesday.