The Saturday 7

1. Lena read her first book this week. Her school is awesome, and since she has mastered naming and pronouncing her letters, she gets to move on to the little Kindergarten readers. I love watching the wheels turn in her brain and seeing her learn to read before my eyes. It's adorable.

2. I'm getting into high Christmas planning mode. The packages are starting to arrive . . .

My gift closet is getting full!

I've also planned out this year's birthday party for Jesus and figured out what we're going to do for Advent activities. We're getting in the spirit!!

3. I read Pepper Basham's newest book this week: Charming the Troublemaker. It wasn't my favorite by her, but still a solid work with the humor and character development I've come to expect from Basham. So here's a little confession. I almost always review the books I read on Goodreads. But Pepper has liked or commented on every one of my reviews of her books. Since I didn't like this one quite as much, I don't want to leave a somewhat negative review and hurt her feelings! So I didn't review it at all. Haha. #empath4life

4. Lucy went to another birthday party for a friend from school today. She's been to 4 birthday parties and/or playdates with friends from school in the past year, and they've all been half an hour from our house. She needs to start making friends with the kids who live closer to school! Anyway, it was a roller skating party and parents and siblings were also invited to skate. So Lena and I tagged along. I haven't skated since Sharon Lacy's bachelorette party in 2004, so I didn't know if this old 32 year old mom bod could handle it. I was amazed at how well I did! I mean, I wasn't spinning circles or doing the limbo or anything, but I managed to move without falling, which is more than I expected! Lucy is afraid of embarrassment and failure, so she only gave it a couple tries, opting instead to take pictures from the sidelines. But Lena loved it and skate-shuffled almost the whole time!

Lucy and Avery

Cutie patootie

5. Levi is almost 21 months old and I've been worried that he doesn't talk enough (even though he communicates his needs and wants perfectly fine), so I decided to start writing down all the words he says. I'm up to about 16, which is more than I expected. Lots of his words center around food: yum, all gone, bowl, and beep - you know, the sound the microwave makes when the food is done. Haha. He also says "no" very clearly. Don't all toddlers?

6. I'm still trying to avoid facebook. I haven't been as strict about it this week, but don't be offended if you post a cute picture of your baby and I don't like it, ok? I actually did really well staying away from it Monday through Thursday evening, but once the kids were in bed, I spent two hours scrolling to catch up on everything I'd missed. That might defeat the purpose . . .

7. Pictures

Lena making sure Levi doesn't fall off the piano bench while they play pretty music.

Beautiful sunrise

On Friday, I found a bug swimming in a cup of water on the table. Levi was totally enamored with it. When I first showed it to him, I said, "Ew!" so he referred to it as "ew" from then on. Whenever I tried to put it back up on the table, he'd point and shout "Ew! Ew!" until I gave it back to him.