What a Sister

This afternoon I saw Evangeline pick up Irene's pacifier, lick it off, and put it in her mouth. That may have been the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

Second Hand Sister

Sweet Evangeline likes to pull up a chair and keep Reme
company at the office. Reme crowding?
Maybe, but they both love it.

Helping Irene with under-utilized toys.

OK. We went to some second-hand shops to
find Evangeline a backpack today. I let her choose a toy
at one place and she chose this helmet. Useful choice, I thought.
Now just to get her a bicycle (she cried to her dad for one for quite a while).
Then we found some velcro-tie tap shoes, which are good because she can
put them on herself. And then we did find a backpack without a princess or
other silliness on it. Individually it was a good day. But we felt a little weird
about it all together. Oh well. Irene seems to think it's cool.

Dancing to a Sung Requiem in the Aisle of a UCC Church

I worked up the gumption to take both kids to Ellee's choir (Greensboro Oratorio Society) on Sunday. I thought we might make it through five minutes. Instead, Irene didn't make a peep, and Evangeline danced and sang along, mostly from the aisle. She has a habit of opening the hymnal and singing from it. So, she thought it would be a good idea to accompany the choir. The choir sang really well and the kids behaved like angels.

We have some good kids.

Tuesday

I read this to my congregation this morning:
        
"On Tuesday of this past week, my wife, Ellee, went to the doctor and was hospitalized having suffered the miscarriage of our third child. In our time of suffering and pain, both spiritual and physical, you have come to us with food, with visits, with prayer, with cards. You have insisted that I stay home with my wife and children. We thank you from the bottom of our broken hearts for the kindness and love shown to us this past week. When one part of the body suffers, all suffer. Thank you for bearing our suffering with us. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."

Tootle.

Before bed, when I tell Evangeline she can pick ANY book for me to read to her, she likes to pick what I consider to be the most boring, long, dry book there is. She can even pick it without looking. The book is Tootle. I am considering eliminating it from the selection, but I feel like that's not fair. We read Tootle again tonight.

Best friends.

How does she know?

Six Month

Irene is six months old now. Its hard to believe that she is about the same age as Evangeline was when we moved to Greensboro. She is super advanced. See for yourself!

She really does love Katie. Evangeline really doesn't care about her most of the time, but Irene lights up whenever Katie saunters into the room. She loves to lick her and grab her ears and eyes. A handful of chihuahua-beagle hair does a baby good.

I figured out that kids probably don't work in factories anymore because they really aren't good at manual labor. Evangeline succeeded in getting approximately two mulberries into the bucket.

The little chickens follow her around.

Six month old babies apparently lay eggs too.

in due season

Here is an entry solely about the growing things in the backyard.

Evangeline presented a berry to us today, which you know, is always a bit disconcerting. Most berries are poisonous. I investigated the berry, and despite my previous knowledge that mulberries only grow on bushes, it turns out they also do grow in trees. Ellee somehow knows how to harvest them, so Irene and I put some tarps out to catch them. Since we will probably have more than we can eat, I will try to make some nasty alcohol out of them.

Evangeline ate the first pea of the season today.

Kale, lettuce, parsley, etc...

Carrots and beets.

Okra and radishes. I read that a small family only needs three okra plants. We have at least twenty.

Peaches.

They are in the mood for beach volleyball.