Teacher

While We Were waiting in Astro Mutt (out van) one day.
(Pardon Luke, and the blurry picture.)

                                 
At the beginning of the school year I started teaching Luke and Caleb grammar. It's been fun mostly. I'm not teaching because I'm the most qualified, but more because I need to learn. Mama sits in on the class to answer questions I can't and stuff like that. We diagram sentences and learn about pronouns and "Its" and "It's" and singular, singular possessive, plural, and plural possessive, and all that good stuff.

We've also been learning poetry. I suggested it. Yeah, mean old me. Luke learned two short-ish poems (I may post them later) and Caleb learned Too Many Daves By Dr Seuss. It was funny when we read it the first couple of times but it kinda got a little old after a few days of reading and saying it several times. So here it is I hope you get a few laughs. We did. :-)

Too Many Daves

By Dr Seuss

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave

Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?

Well, she did.   And that wasn't a smart thing to do.

You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!

Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.

All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!

This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'

As you can imagine, with so many Daves.

And often she wishes that, when they were born,

She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn

And one of them Hoos-Foos.   And one of them Snimm.

And one of them Hot-Shot.   And one Sunny Jim.

And one of them Shadrack.   And one of them Blinkey.

And one of them Stuffy.   And one of them Stinkey.

Another one Putt-Putt.   Another one Moon Face.

Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.

And one of them Ziggy.   And one Soggy Muff.

One Buffalo Bill.   And one Biffalo Buff.

And one of them Sneepy.   And one Weepy Weed.

And one Paris Garters.   And one Harris Tweed.

And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt

And one of them Oliver Boliver Butt

And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate ...

But she didn't do it.   And now it's too late.

Anna

Happy Birthday Caleb!

I remember when he was born.

We spent the night at the house of some close friends. We went to their grandparents for supper that night and I think we ate hot dogs. We got a call on the telephone telling us we had a baby brother. I could be mistaken and I think I've been told this is wrong, but I have the memory stuck in my head that while Laura, Luke, and I were talking on the phone with Daddy and Mama at the hospital there was a digital clock sitting on the same table as the phone and it said 8:00 in big red letters. But like I said that memory could be quite inaccurate.

I remember that night when we went to bed. Luke and I shared a fold out couch and Laura got to sleep in a sleeping bag. (How cool is that! :-) The next morning we got up and dressed in our 'going to the hospital clothes'. Mama had picked them out, and of course, they were all cute. Laura had a little blue and purple jumper with frogs on it. Mine was a red and white checkered jumper with sunflower buttons of a similar pattern. Luke was either wearing overalls or denim shorts with a t-shirt that had lions and hippos and elephants on it.

We ate breakfast (I think it was cereal) and then we had just enough time to watch a movie. Peter Pan.
As the credits were rolling Daddy was at the door to take us to see our new little brother Caleb, at the hospital.

Though I don't remember being just 'giddy', I know we were very excited.

Lots of the hospital happenings were taped and we watched them the past couple years. Laura gave a speech to the camera saying something like, "Caleb's two big sisters and brother are glad he's here" and all. Very oldest sibling like and formal. When Luke was asked what he thought of the new baby the 2 year old little fella' only said, "He's silly." Then we all got a turn to hold Caleb. I remember when he was put into my arms I thought, and maybe said out loud. "He's heavy."

The rest is family history. We brought him home, and he grew. We have a sort of saying at our house it goes "Laura said 'yes,', Anna said 'no,' Luke said 'two,' and Caleb said nothing." That's because when someone, like Daddy for instance, would ask a question like "Laura," or "Anna, do you want to hang by your toes until your nose bleeds?" Laura would enthusiastically shout "Yes!" and I would say "No!". Daddy would always like to ask Luke math questions that the answer was two. Like "Luke what's the square root of four?" Luke was always sure to answer "Two!" But when we would ask Caleb questions he wouldn't say anything.

He eventually learned to talk though. He hasn't stopped since either. Caleb has be known to talk lots. He used to have trouble keeping his mouth shut for and extended amount of time. He's gotten a little better lately though.

It has been a wonderful experience to watch Caleb grow up so far. I am looking forward to seeing him learn and grow more and more.

Happy Birthday Cabe!!!
We love you!

A.L.L.  :-)