An All American Girl

Petunia just celebrated her 8th birthday. "Eight is Great" She has been preparing for her Baptism and is very excited about this important event in her life. Petunia is truly beautiful inside and out. She has so much love in her heart to give to others around her. Petunia is the teddy bear of our family. She is also the biggest tease.
Petunia was born the day before her due date. She was 7lbs. 10oz., I remember she had such chubby cheeks that it made her eyes squint like she was a Chinese baby. She has the distinctive family round face and has beautiful brown eyes. Petunia was a tough baby. She cried all day long most of the time - but then she slept pretty well at night. Petunia's favorite story of herself as a baby was the time when I was changing her diaper and she pooped. I looked down at the clean diaper, and it was still clean. Weird. I finished changing her and got her all dressed and then looked at the wall. Yes she had plastered that wall with her poop. Somehow the poop ended up on the wall and not on her diaper.


When Petunia was just about 6 months old she met her friend Cael. For the next five years Cael and Petunia played together almost everyday. Cael introduced Petunia to rock climbing when she could barely walk. She loves to climb whenever we get a chance to go to the gym. On any summer day you would find Cael and Petunia outside playing in the water and about drowning each other with the hose.
One day when Petunia was walking home from Cael's house, I was watching her walk and then she stopped and started to shake her leg. I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Pretty soon I realized that she had pooped and when she shook her leg, the poop fell down her pants and landed on the sidewalk. Cael moved the summer before Petunia started kindergarten and it broke her heart. They still are very good friends and still see each other every couple of months.


Petunia is a very talented young lady. From a very young age she has loved to cook. She used to love to watch the cooking shows on TV. She would give me hints on how I could cook better. She loves to make shakes, popcorn, and anything else I will let her. I think if something happened to me, Petunia could take care of the other kids pretty well. She definitely would make sure everyone was fed and happy.

Petunia is one who tries hard to please everyone. She is the girl in her class at school that the teachers have the new kids in class sit by because the teacher knows that Petunia will make them feel comfortable. She is Miss Congeniality. She is very nice to all of the other kids and is very concerned when someone is sad or hurt.

Petunia likes to write notes to her family and hides them for us to find. She usually writes how much she loves and cares about each of us. Petunia has a very close relationship with her Grandmas. Whenever she can be around Grandma that is the greatest gift you can give her. She loves to spend time with them and watch and learn from them. I hope that she can have those relationships for a very long time. I think she has learned to show love from the examples of her Grandma and her Daddy.

Petunia likes to do things that will make other people happy. Many times Petunia will clean the entire basement without me knowing because she knows that it helps me out and makes me happy. She is learning to serve others and has a great example from her Dad. One day when Mr. Smiley and and kids were driving down the road, they noticed a lady out raking her leaves in her yard. A few minutes later they got rakes and went and helped her pick up all the leaves. Then they jumped in them.

Last summer Petunia noticed that the fire pit at Spring Lake was in bad repair. She asked us if we could help her do a service project and make it nicer for everyone to use. She painted benches, moved rocks, weeded, and wrote letters to several people to ask for help in this project. She was able to get gravel and a fire pit donated for her project. It turned out very nice.

A couple of nights ago she saw a commercial about kids in Africa that need help. She asked if she could help in any way. She has such a big heart.

Petunia loves to sew, paint, sing, play the piano, play tether ball, ride her bike, rock climb, jump rope, swim and spend time with her family and friends. She is such a good big sister to Peanut, Farmer and Squeak. When Farmer gets scared at night she lets him get in bed with her. None of the rest of us in the family are that nice.

We love Petunia very much. She really is an "All American Girl"!

Peanut

Peanut turned six years old recently. Peanut was born on the same day as her Great Grandma T. She also shares her birthday with her cousin Spencer who is one year younger than her. Peanut was born 2 weeks early and weighed 6lbs. 8 oz. she was quite small and has stayed that way. When she was born she was in a hurry. Her Dad had left to go home and take a shower as the nurse reassured him that she would not be born for a few more hours. I called Mr. Smiley in a panic just after he got home that he better get back to the hospital because Peanut wasn't going to wait any longer. Mr. Smiley arrived at the hospital just in time to be there to meet her.

Peanut got her name after much thought from Mr. Smiley and I. We couldn't decide on a name so we narrowed it down to 3 or 4 and asked our niece Samantha what she thought we should name her. She suggested Peanut - which ironically was one of the names that we had been contemplating. So with Samantha's help, we gave her the name of Peanut. Now we did not give Peanut a middle name but this past year she had decided that she would like to have a middle name. She now is known as Peanut J. She picked it herself and if you ask her what her middle name is she will tell you "J".

Peanut was the easiest baby that we have ever had. She never cried and she always slept through the night and still is our best sleeper. Peanut has always been good tempered. She was very mellow as a baby and very patient. Now she is full of energy and has an incredible imagination. I could write a book about the adventures of Peanut. Maybe one day I will. I think it would be a best seller.

My fondest memories of Peanut's childhood will include her messes, her funny faces, her imagination and her laughter. She always has fun. Who could forget her imaginary friend "John". John was with us for a couple years. He was Jon punkin eater, John The Tide and Superhero John (who thought he could fly). Sometimes Callie would be John. One day we were out shopping when an old man came up to her and said," What a cute little girl." Peanut quickly replied, "My name is John, I am not a girl , I am only dressed like one today." With that we went on our way.

Peanut would play for hours with John until one day he died. She said he was going to be "resrected" soon. She took John to church before he died and Frowski (Sis. Frankowski) didn't really appreciate it. Callie got upset when Frowski wouldn't give John a snack and to make matters worse someone sat on him. Sis Weaver asked where John was from Peanut replied, "Texas".

John The Tide would tie Peanut up with an imaginary rope which she could not get undone without help. She would lay there on the floor with her hands behind her back because she absolutely could not get herself untied. After 20 minutes or so, I would come and rescue her.

After John died, Peanut was Flip Flop, a mermaid, who would only swim. A few weeks later, Peanut turned into a gorilla. She would walk on her hands and wrists just like a gorilla. It was quite embarrassing at church as we could not get her to walk like a human because she was a gorilla.

After a couple of months, Peanut turned into a penguin - but not just any penguin - she was Scamper. She walked like a penguin and even had to eat fish because that is what penguins eat. She was taking gymnastics at the time but I had to take her out because penguins cannot do somersaults or cartwheels. Penguins can only do the log roll.
Peanut also went through a phase where she would disassociate her body parts. Let me explain. One day Peanut was playing play dough and she turned to me and said, "Mom, my hand just put play dough in my ear." She then told her hand not to do that again and slapped it. A couple of minutes later she said,"OH NO, my hand did it again." I quickly told Peanut not to put play dough in her ear. She replied, "I didn't do it, my hand did it."

One Sunday at church, Peanut grabbed Frowski's arm and jiggled it and said, "Boy your soft." Then she had all the kids line up and try it. Poor Sis Frankowski. Another Sunday, they were all choosing a favorite animal to imitate - Peanut chose a stink bug and proceeded to walk around the room with her rear end up in the air.

Peanut is a very bright child. At her recent Kindergarten assessment. She turned to her teacher and said,"You know Ms. Rowley, I am really really smart." The truth is she is really smart. The hard part is that she knows it. We like to give our kids choices usually two choices which either one would make Mom or Dad very happy. Choices like - Do you want to eat the carrots? or Do you want to eat the broccoli? Peanut informed us that she doesn't like any more choices. She is smart enough to know that both choices would make mom or dad happy but not her.

Peanut has never been one to want to eat her veggies. She thinks that squash is too stringy, and carrots will make her puke. She used to say that water is for Dogs and for Petunia but milk is good for Peanut.

Peanut learned sign language when she was a few months old. She told her first joke when she was about one year old. She turned to me in her high chair and signed "Cat" "Eat" "Bird" - then she started laughing uncontrollably.

Peanut loves bugs, reptiles, and all animals. One afternoon I heard a horrific chirping sound. A few moments later, Petunia came inside to tell me Peanut had caught a chipmunk. I went to investigate and low and behold Peanut had cornered a chipmunk. The only bad run in we have had thus far with her love for the creepy crawlies is when she got caterpillar hairs stuck in her throat. The poor kid was miserable for weeks.

Peanut loves to color - recently she turned Farmer into the green monster.
Peanut is the bright spot in our family. She is the one that can make everyone laugh. We love having Peanut in our family. I can't imagine our home without her messes, her funny faces, her imagination and her laughter. I hope she never changes.

Vacation

Whew, it has been a whirlwind the last month. Just to start off we had Mr. Smiley's parents stay with us for a week, we went to Bear Lake, the Uintahs, a family reunion, blessed Squeak and went to Virginia. Life has been a little crazy but tons of fun. School has now started and we are hopefully slowing down for a couple of weeks.

The highlights of this past month were being with family and going to Virginia. We were in Virginia for 10 days and stayed with the M family. We had a great time getting to know their family and felt right at home. The kids really had fun playing with "Piglet" the dog. His name is really Flint but Farmer gave him a new name. I hope he likes it. Most of all they had a great time with Josh, Anna and Sara. We did keep Dr. M busy as he had to give Isaac stitches our first day there and then had to pull a tick out of Callie's head. Our kids will never forget the M family.

We were able to spend a couple of days at Virginia Beach, and couple of days down at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We all had a great time boogie boarding and playing in the sand. We saw many fish, shells and even some manta rays jumping in the surf. We went to an aquarium, an outdoor theatre, the Wright Brothers memorial, on a paddle wheel ferry and sailing on a tall ship. We drove across many bridges and tunnels, the most amazing was the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. This bridge is 17 miles long across the bay. The kids and I (runnergirl) were kind of nervous as there is more water there than any of us have seen in our whole lives. We went on the USS Wisconsin, a warship that is 3 football fields long.

We also went to Jamestown and Williamsburg. We went crabbing at Bennetts creek and had great success. We visited a couple of families Mr. Smiley has known for years and we went to his class reunion. Mr. Smiley and I also got to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean, it was breathtaking. As we were waiting to see the sunrise we saw a red fox just below our hotel window. We had a great time in "Ginia" as Farmer would say.

This past weekend, the city had the ribbon cutting for the new pool. Mr. Smiley was asked to do the honors. What a great opportunity he has had in working on that project. The community is so pleased with the outcome and Mr. Smiley has received many complements.

Peanut starts kindergarten tomorrow. She is sure growing up fast. Petunia is really enjoying school thus far and has seemed to grow leaps and bounds this summer. Farmer keeps us all on our toes and Baby Squeak is our precious little angel. I guess we will see what the next month adds to our lives.

Happy Birthday Farmer

Farmer turned 3 years old this week. He had a great birthday. We had Boyd and his kids come over on Monday night to eat ice cream and brownies and then on Tuesday morning the girls and I surprised Farmer with cake and a couple of presents when he woke up. Mr. Smiley had to work on Tuesday from 6am until 10:00pm so he wasn't able to be with us on Tuesday so Farmer opened a couple of presents Monday night so Dad could be here.

I have decided that I will just write a few things about Farmer today. Farmer is a great kid and we are really happy to have him in our family. We didn't know we were having a boy when he was born so it was a great surprise. The other surprise was that the nurse told us that he weighed 8lbs 7 oz. but when we left the hospital he only weighed 6lbs. 8 oz. So we will never really know what his birth weight was as obviously the nurse did it wrong or the machine malfunctioned.

Farmer loves to ride his bike, ride scooters, play superheros, trains, and pretend fight with swords and guns. Yes he is all boy! He also has a softer side as well, he loves to sing. Most of the time when he is playing by himself he is singing. 'Oh MY Darling Clementine' is one of his favorites. He also sings 'I am a Child of God' and 'George of the Jungle'. I think he takes after his dad in his love of singing.

In his short three years, we do have a book full of great stories about Farmer. I will share a few of these experiences. When I was pregnant with Squeak, Farmer looked at my growing belly and just got this strange look on his face and then asked,"Mommy, do you have a door on your tummy?" All I could do was laugh and answer "well Yes I guess so". He was sure wondering how our baby was going to get out of my tummy.

Ever since Farmer could get out of my arms and explore the world, he has loved to eat dirt. Lots of dirt. This spring I told him that dirt is yucky and not to eat it. He replied, "No mommy, dirt is delicious!" I do think he is growing out of this - now it seems he gets more dirt on his clothes than in his tummy.

Farmer loves his scooter, I used to watch the neighbor kids ride their scooter (sit down type) without shoes on and use their feet for brakes across the asphalt - I swore my kids would never do that - haha Farmer must have leather feet because he does it with the best of them.

Christmas day this year was eventful, Farmer got a sword and immediately started inflicting deadly wounds to the Christmas tree. Bulbs and fake pine needles were flying everywhere. Needless to say the tree is now at the county dump.

Mr. Smiley installed a water fountain outside for the kids to get drinks. I thought it would ease some burden for me not to be a water maid all of the time. Now, I deal with a young man who is always in wet clothes and wants new ones. The new rule is he can only have 2 sets of clothing per day. The first outfit has to dry before he gets a new one.

We will find out what fun and excitement a 3 year old boy brings into our lives this year. As Farmer would say "To Infinity and Beyond" as he jumps off the couch.