In getting things caught up, I found this post that had been started but never published. So here it is in all of it's unedited, unfinished glory:
The morning walks have begun again. Sadly so has the hot weather. But, I no longer have to push two kids in the stroller. Alayna is riding her bike around the neighborhood! She is very excited and does such a great job staying by the side of the road, stopping to look for cars, and saying hello to our neighbors.
Have we also shared that Alayna has begun to read?! Today we read "The Letter" from our "Frog and Toad" book that Grandma Onines gave Alayna.
We seem to share a lot about Alayna. I think it is because the older she gets the more she does. Today, we thought we would share a couple of things about Cavell.
For finger food at dinner we give Cavell a veggie mix of peas, carrots, corn and green beans. When he has finished what he wants to eat, he begins to very purposefully drop a green bean on the floor, watching it fall before he gets another and drops it. If he has placed a green bean in his mouth while trying to get the other vegetable in, he will spit just the green bean out and drop that on the floor. Cavell does not like Green Beans.
Paul was watching Cavell the other day while Stacy got some much needed alone time for shopping. Allowing the children to play together with autonomy, he notices that it is very quiet. All parents know this is not a good sign. Then he hears Cavell YELLING. He rushes to Alayna's room where she is quietly working at her desk. Cavell is still YELLING. He follows the yells to our bathroom where Cavell has climbed in the tub and is mad at the faucet because there is no water coming out. Cavell likes Baths.
Well, Alayna is a true Southern Girl. Yesterday at dinner she declared, "Biscuits and gravy are even better than taquitos!" And anyone that has asked her what she wants for dinner knows how much she enjoys taquitos.
We should probably share that Cavell has been walking for at least a week. Not much more than six steps at a time, but when he goes down he can stand himself back up without having to pull up on anything and starts walking again. He also enjoys climbing up onto the Thinking Chair to watch TV with Alayna.
Another tooth has come in. I guess the 6th just isn't as exciting as the first though it does give the bottom an even 4.
Monday Alayna asked me to read a book that Cavell had found on our shelf. "A" You're Adorable. I read it to her and mentioned that it was a song, but didn't know the tune. Instead, I went to YouTube and found a feed. Two BYU gals, Sandi Griffths and Sally Flynn, on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1971!!
Alayna listened to it over, and over, and over. Tuesday afternoon she asked to listen to the song again. This time I found her a Sesame Street version with a puppet named Jack from 1969! Cookie Monster even made an appearance for the second half.
She enjoyed the puppets, but asked for Sandi and Sally by name. This morning Alayna asked to listen AGAIN. She happily watched both feeds again, and again, and again.
As you can imagine, Alayna now knows the song and we present it here for your listening pleasure.
We have been teasing some of the Grandparents for a few weeks now about Alayna's first appearance at the ward talent show. Alayna has been excited about the talent show from the first time it was announced. She decided right away that she would sing Castle on A Cloud from Les Miserables. The talent show is also the night of the ward desert competition and pig roast.
Last year's entry to the desert competition was completely ignored by the judges (missionaries with no palate). I think the Bishop heard rumor that there may have been some hard feelings over the way the judging took place last year, because this year the desert competition was only open to the Primary children. Alayna decided that we would be submitting our recently found and modified to be gluten-free brownie recipe. Alayna did all of the measuring and pouring into the bowl and Stacy assisted by operating the heavy machinery.
So, we have the perfect set-up for the perfect evening. The ward talent show, made up of any person willing to stand on the stage in front of the crowd. The ward, more interested in talking to the people two or three tables away from them than pay attention to the talent. And desert provided by the Primary children. But the pig was smoked to perfection. There is nothing that a little bit (OK, a whole lot) of perfectly bbq'd pork can't solve.
Stacy started off the evening with her rendition of the song Popular from the award winning musical, Wicked. (Pardon the audio, I don't have a sound engineer willing to work for what I'm willing to pay)
As soon as Stacy finished receiving her well deserved applause, Alayna took the stage.
What I like is that there is a definite difference between the background noise when Stacy and Alayna sings. The free-range children that escaped the attention of their parents and stood in front of the stage making too much noise during the show paid more attention to Alayna than Stacy, but returned to their noisy diversions as soon as Alayna was done.
Immediately following the talent show and later at church on Sunday, Stacy received four requests wondering where she can be seen performing plays/shows/musicals in the area. Apparently Stacy is perceived to be good enough that normally cheap thrifty Mormons are willing to pay money to hear her sing. Alayna received her share of positive comments as well. She is the current darling of the ward and milks it for all it's worth. Everybody was very impressed at her ability to memorize the whole song and willingness to perform in front of the crowd.
And to quote my Deacon's reporting on the events of a campout, "We had a lot of fun."
Our ward has an Annual Pig Roast and Talent Show. Alayna has seen Stacy perform a song for the past couple of years. This year when they announced it in Primary, Alayna pronounced that SHE was going to sing a song on the stage. In order for her to take this seriously we have been having her practice. We don't want her to be the one to get up there and then do nothing no matter how much it seems everyone in the ward would still love her for that.
Following is picture and audio of our practice session, part of our activity for Family Home Evening.
Stacy sang a beautiful rendition of I Know That My Redeemer Liveth from Handel's Messiah at church this morning. This is not Stacy's favorite song from the Messiah. Stacy does not really like to sing about worms, but she did a great job. I apologize for the amateur recording. I was not able to balance the voice and the piano, but you can still hear Stacy pretty well. Turn up your volumes and click on the play button to hear:
Since Stacy is also the primary chorister and leaves sacrament to make a beeline to the primary room for the remaining two hours, she did not receive as many compliments on her performance as I did. Some of the excerpts:
"Stacy has a beautiful voice, where did she perform opera before she moved here?"
"If I was lying in a hammock with a cool breeze, I could have drifted off to sleep." (really, that was a compliment, I promise)
"Amazing, where does she take lessons?"
"I hope she sings at the ward talent show again this year."
"How much training did Stacy have?"
"I could listen to her all day. Alayna and Cavell are lucky that they get to hear Stacy all the time."
"Does she sing like that at home all the time?"
Needless to say, Stacy did a great job as usual and really made a positive spiritual impact on the meeting. Even if she was singing about worms.
Cavell has been standing, leaning, pulling himself up, and generally getting ready to walk for nearly four months now. He has been cruising around the sofa and coffee table and gaining speed for a while as well. Last Sunday, he started standing for a few seconds without leaning against something. So we put the walker in front of him to see what he could do. He seems to have mastered it today.
We have really noticed a change in Alayna's ability to draw. For a long time all she did was make little circles that were usually raisins. Then she graduated to hurricane style shape of concentric , eccentric, circles. Then we noticed that when she colored with pencils or crayons, she was actually coloring in the lines more than outside the lines.
The other day she had a notebook and was pretending to write a list. One of her favorite games is to take a small notepad and 'take your order' while she plays waitress. This time, she was working very hard on her scribbles. When she was done she proudly wanted to show us her giant. We thought you would like to see it as well.
Stacy found a great web page detailing the stages of art/drawing at each age of maturity. It looks like Alayna is right on track.
After church our Bishop lets the children line up for a piece of candy, and if they recite a scripture or Article of Faith they can have a second. He often has to prompt the children, but was rather impressed when Alayna recited hers with no help.
Alayna reciting the 1st Article of Faith boomp3.com
For the last week of February it was Alayna's turn to lead the scripture and Article of Faith during Primary closing exercises. Again she needed no prompting and impressed the Primary Presidency, teachers and the Bishop.
Alayna reciting the 2nd Article of Faith boomp3.com
Alayna reciting her scripture, 2 Nephi 4:15 boomp3.com
