Squeeze the Charmin

It's precious to me that at 9 years old, if Jessie wakes up beside me (any excuse will do to get in mama's bed sometimes) that she looks at me and smiles when she sees that I'm there.  This morning she did that, then leaned over and kissed me.  I kissed her a minute then the dog started begging to go out, so I encouraged Jessie to stay in the bed a bit while we did Bible.  She hates to wait how long it takes before she can have the main tv in the living room, the one with all her shows dvr'd.  She went back to sleep I think for a few minutes.

"Good Morning, Mama".  "Good Morning, Mama".  Evan helps out, "Mama, Jessie said good morning to you two times".  She has learned, for the most part, to wait patiently or go watch tv in another room till we finish Bible, so although she spoke to me, she had come and sat down in front of the Barbie house and started to play.   Since I'm the one reading I never even heard what she said.  I love that Evan wanted to be sure I acknowledged her greeting.

We finished Bible and I called Jessie up on the couch with me for a proper "good morning".  She snuggled up in my lap, and these days she's quite a lapful (I was shocked when they weighed her a couple of weeks ago and she weighed 100 lbs!).  We chatted a minute and then there was a pause.  Then she says, "Squeeze the Charmin".  I've told her a plenty that she was "the Charmin", all soft and squeezable.  Some times when she walks by I'll tell her I need a squeeze.  This was the 1st time she'd told me to squeeze the charmin.

Sometimes these days feel complicated, trying to meet each kids needs and do it in a way that speaks in each of their "love languages".  I am sure that as the day goes on, things will get more complicated, and that even Jessie won't be satisfied with whatever time or attention that I can give her.  Even so, I'm glad that I am here with them.  I'm glad that we started the day reading the Bible together.  I'm glad that we have time to stop and squeeze the charmin.  It helps me hold on in those crazy moments, of which there are many!

"Where is my #2?" Our progress with number order :)

Yesterday, Jessie surprised me and cracked me up.

Jessie has a set of apples with the numbers 1-10 on them that I made as part of a Fall themed lapbook.  I included the apple/numbers in the lapbook as we were in need of a fresh way to approach the same thing we'd been working on what seemed forever, the correct order of the numbers to 10.  Usually, I get the laminated numbers out of the bag and put them in random order.  Then I let Jessie put them in correct order, talking her through it step by step.  I ask, "who comes first?" (cause everybody knows #1 always get to be the leader!) and "what number comes next", or " what number comes AFTER 4", etc.  This day I dumped them on the table and let her sort them out and put them in order.  She had her own system....all the numbers were upside down until she was ready to put them in their proper place.  She did it perfectly, with only one number out of place, with NO help from me.  No guidance at all.  I was so tickled.  I had known we were close to getting it, but didn't really think she would do it on her own.  Usually, she is easy to get frustrated if she doesn't immediately know the answer.  She has always had difficulty with the number 6.  Why she discriminates against number 6 I would love to know.  Often, when counting, she would leave out 6.  This day, she put 5 in the wrong place.  Rather than immediately correcting her, I suggested she count them to check herself.  When she said aloud 5 but 6 was there she immediately realized her mistake, found 5 by the 7 and corrected it.  After she put the numbers in order, she placed the number word directly beneath them, with no mistakes!!  The order number we have worked on for what literally seems like forever, but learning the number words hasn't been that difficult for her at all.  We've only been working on them a couple of months.  She knew most of them within a very few days.  Funny, the crazy mixture of strengths and weaknesses.

  

What cracked me up?  While Jessie was putting the numbers in order, she was looking for 2.  She knew 2 came after 1, but it was hiding in the pile.  She says, "Where is my #2?!!  I had it last weekend!" Jessie has no good concept of time.  She knows tomorrow is the next day when you wake up.  She has no idea when last weekend was, but she does understand that it is a section of time, possibly even understands that "last" weekend is a time in the past.  Probably one of my favorite things about the age range we are in right now, is the way she makes me laugh.  Sometimes she does it on purpose, as she has the same "Hall" (sassy and a bit sarcastic) sense of humor that we all do.  Other times, that crazy mixture of things she understands and things she doesn't gives us all a great laugh.