The Seven of Us

Isaac is tall . He's still eleven, and I'm guessing he's 5'6". He reaches my nose. Even though he doesn't like to hear it, he takes after my dad (and my dad's grandfather, Andrew Droddy): He's tall and slender. He may be done growing by the time he's 13. And he's obsessively clean. When I look at Isaac lately, I am reminded of the fact that he's becoming a man before my eyes.  I think I felt this way with Caleb, too, but maybe I didn't notice it right away since I hadn't been through it before. Yup, our boys become men, and while it doesn't exactly happen overnight, it happens fast.  Fast enough, in fact, that I'm thinking of Kenney Chesney's song  Don't Blink as I write this, and I'm wondering, How can you miss something when you're right there?  How has this happened so fast?  https://youtube/4f0p5KqdU9U I was organizing the office closet and I found this photo in Caleb's scrapbook. Kinda proves t...

In general, Isaac is still the kind, sensitive kiddo he's always been. I've really been able to see his sensitive side and his kindness this summer. That said, he does like to clown around.  He plays the part of an immature preteen quite well at times.  I love him regardless of how he acts, but I really, really like being around him when he checks his behavior a little. However, since he's in the clown phase, I thought I'd post these photos as evidence. Maybe sometime they'll be ancient history. 

It's been so long since I've blogged that I  forgot about this post. These photos were taken toward the end of summer and are representative of a couple of things Ike and Kenna did often. Kenna really loved playing "Ghost in the Graveyard" (a type of hide-and-seek) with her friends.  It was normal for a group of about 10-12 kids to play as often as 3 times a week this summer! (She wasn't happy that she only got to play about once a week.)  The last time everyone played, her friends Riley & Dawson joined the group.  (They live out of town, so that was kind of special.) Playing around with the Kurtzer kids.  This was in early August--notice Isaac's baseball-bat wound.

Jared and I were on our way home from the temple yesterday when Caleb called.  He told us that Isaac had been hit with a baseball bat and needed stitches.  A couple hours later Isaac and I were in the ER getting his poor face taken care of.  I'm grateful he was okay; the damage could've been much worse. Still, seeing her child like this just makes a mom feel bad.

Today I asked Corbin what his favorite part of summer is. Without hesitation he said, "Pot Fighting!". He pronounced the phrase strangely, and I had to ask him to repeat himself several times. Finally, it dawned on me... this is what he meant! (I know the pot looks dangerous. I'm tempted to say it's not. I know, I should know better than to let my kids do this, but it's better than TV, better than climbing on the garage roof, and much better than the squabbling these boys have been doing lately. So, for now, pot fighting stays.)

Field day is usually held just a couple of days before school is out.  My kids have always loved it.  The races (100 m dash and 400m run) and tug-o-war are always the highlight, but there are lots of other fun events, too:  softball toss, soccer kick, shoe kick, free throws, jump rope, hula hoop, long jump).  The kindergarten-sixth grade participate in field day and the 7/8 graders help with the events.  Here are this year's photos. Isaac, with his friends Kya Thacker, Cash Nab, and Ella Coffin. Caleb, Mason Edwards, tate Knapp, Aaron Michael, Megan Brown, Ashely murillo, and Callie Dickerson Kenna, with Eli Meakins,Molly brown, Riley Thompson, and Fernie  Isaac vs. Owen in the 100 m dash

Two great things happened today:  1-Isaac's teacher allowed him to check a Junie B. Jones book out of the library!  A couple of days ago he took some of our Junie B books to school; they caused a big problem, as kids were racing to book cubbies to grab their own copies of Junie B. to read at their desks.  I spoke with Isaac's classroom aide, whom Isaac reported  had said that "Kids in the red and yellow groups need to read their  leveled books", implying  that Isaac wasn't capable of reading Junie B.  Mrs. Cox and I had a nice conversation in which I expressed my concern about squleching his budding desire to read, explained how well I feel she and his teacher and title teacher are doing & how empowered he's feeling, and appealed to her to understand his desire and support us.  (I wanted to say, Good grief!  the kid reads all of his leveled books every night and reviews spelling words and does his math homework and alternatel...

This is Corbin with my brother Conor at Rogers Rock Park on Lake George. McKenna and Isaac walking on my parents' driveway The flower garden my mom planted along the edge of her lawn.

Once upon a time, a little boy was born to the Andersen family. He played happily and entertained himself by building trains and arranging magnets, aluminum foil, rocks, and all kinds of other things until he was about 4 and a half years old. A new baby had joined his family, but the baby just wasn't much company. And he kept his mom too busy! The little boy wanted someone to play with. His mom thought about what to do. After a little consideration, she sent him to preschool, where he made lots of friends. Here they are at his preschool graduation. Here is the happy graduate in his cap & gown. And here he is, celebrating at field day. Whew!