Thought I'd say hello

Hi
It's Kelly at home on a hot Korean Summer day. N is away at scout camp for a week and we all miss him. I found it especially touching that the first morning when we awoke and his absence was a bit more noticable, D (the youngest son, who usually gets picked on by N) voiced his sadness at N being gone. He went on to mention how "long the scout camp was lasting, that it was 5 days and that 5 days is almost 7 days which was a whole week and if they happened to extend the length of the camp then N would be gone a week and that would just be way too long!"

I had to smile and feel a bit of remource that poor D doesn't get the kudos he deserves from his older brothers. He really loves them and he is smart enough and good enough and dangit I really like him! So do his classmates at school and church by the way. When he is spotted by any of them around town there is always the excited "AD!!" (no one from school calls him D- that is his home name only) shouted out from a long distance away by some child his age who is just thrilled at the possibility of seeing our little ball of fire. One day maybe 'the brothers' will appreciate his greatness. I guess all this humbling by his older syblings is character building for him though.... E and D are getting along great without the older brother N around though- not a surprise.

A was a handful today. She has it in her mind that we are swimming today. This is correct, but the pool does not open until 12:00 and when D had a friend's mom call asking if she could drop off her son to play A started asking for a playdate as well. I made the mistake of reminding her that she would see her friend at the pool today. She instantly darted off to change into her swimsuit. The problem here being that I am behind on the laundry and finding a clean suit was a difficulty and then encouraging her to get her clothes back on as it was still 3 hours yet until our swim time did not go over well. Sigh-reasoning with a 3 year old often ends in "stop crying about this or you will be in time out!" or worse "I am going to have to spank you." It rarely gets to that but still the threat holds great weight in her mind and so I milk it. It's very tiring. Good thing she is so dang cute. She has been included in the boys play today like no other day in history. She has been "Rosemary", D's daughter and E's neice in a little game the kids play called 'cow kids'. She kept calling E uncle. E had some offspring as well played by the local dollies in A's room. Cow kids is basically about some kids living it up in the old west. They use a lot of stuffed dogs and pillows and today E got out is guitar as well. Glad to see he is getting some use out of that musical instrument : )

Well I am being bombarded by kid requests right now-so I guess it's time to close... TNT (til next time)
Kelly