Shane and Leah

Hello to all our family and friends,

I thought I would send out and post on my blog a general update on the Klingonsmith household.

Marie finished her reading program.  Actually it has been three different programs we have been rotating through according to Marie’s needs.  Now she is reading as many things as she can.  I brought home some books from the library thinking they would last her a week.  She read them all in the first day.

Oliver is his funny self.  Recently at church I was asked to be a counselor in the Primary Presidency.  For those not familiar with this program Primary is a bit like Sunday school for children under 12.  Now for half the time during their classes on Sunday my kids see me.  I asked Oliver if he liked me being there.  He said, “Yes, NOW we get to see you.”  I chuckled…as if they don’t get see me the other six days of the week. It’s nice to know my kids aren’t tired of me.

Peter has gotten into making books and drawing picture stories of space battles.  The picture changes as the battle progresses.  He loves to do what ever his siblings are doing and often asks me for work to do.  I like to savor those moments.

Walter is starting to take steps on his own for short distances between things.  When he is in the mood he will laugh as he does it.  He also loves being chased around the house squealing as he crawls at lightning speed.  Recently I took him to a speech evaluation and he tested at about a ten month expressive level or a 40% delay.  No surprise to me.  I can’t wait to hopefully get a little more vocal communication from Walter going since he really isn’t interested in sign language and gets frustrated.

As for myself, I have been cooking.  Shane got me a new cookbook for Christmas and it has some real winners.  We have been feasting on some excellent vegetable curry all week.  I have also been planning my week of meals ahead of time and that has taken out the anxiety of figuring out what to cook for whining picky children.  At least one night a week I make something I know they won’t like but is tasty to the adults.  They could eat bread for every meal and not mind, whereas I feel like screaming after a week of just eating what they like. It’s amazing what a difference small things make, like a really flavorful meal once a week.

Hope you all are well and happy and busy.  It makes the gray winter go by faster.

Love,

Leah

Oliver doesn’t like silent e’s in words.  He thinks it’s a waste of time to write something you don’t hear and therefore spell it WRONG.  I let him slide on leaving out the e in his name, after all it is his name.  When it came to his new vocabulary words I explained he was learning the English language not the Oliver language.  He laughed, then copied his new vocabulary correctly.  Afterwards he put big x’s through all of the silent e’s  he had just written.  The next day when signing his name he put in the e…as small as he could write it and proudly showed me. Compromise is such a great thing, it helps all of us get through those rough “I know everything” spots in life without tearing our hair out.

I have thought twice about using that title, but I didn’t come up with it and it fits so well.  For a few weeks now I have noticed Marie’s clothes scattered all over the floor and grumbled to myself about her sloppiness as I stuffed them back in and closed the drawer.  Then Marie started complaining about not having clean underwear, which annoyed me because I do laundry ALL OF THE TIME.  Then I found Walter carrying underwear all over the house.  He LOVES playing with underwear…of all things.  To top it off one day while I was in Marie’s room in came Walter.  He opened the drawer that Marie normally puts her underwear in, finding none he threw everything on the floor. A little while later while I was helping the boys get dressed Walter noticed and came steaming in as fast as he could grabbing for just one thing out of their drawers….their clean underwear.  That night as the kids got dressed in their PJ’s I could hear Marie squeal, “Oh no the panty stealer is here!”  What a nickname to have Walter.  Enjoy it while you can get away with it! Meanwhile I have to be extra vigilant that the dirty laundry is safely tucked out of reach.

Since Shane’s parents were visiting during our anniversary we took advantage of their being here to spend a night in Seattle just the two of us to celebrate our anniversary.  I was very spoiled.  We ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Seattle called Tulio’s.  The food and service were excellent and we had a nice cozy table.  I would go there again in a heartbeat.  We stayed at the Hotel Alexis by the waterfront and again we were spoiled by a huge jetted tub and room service breakfast.  We also perused Pike’s Place market and caught some really nice after Christmas sales in which we bought Shane a suit (among other things). Most importantly we came home refreshed and ready for the New Year and many more years of striving to be the right person for each other.  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!  Click here to see some more pics.