Sing, sing a song

We hear a lot of singing in our house right now. Maybe this story will give you an idea of how much Anna likes music.

Yesterday we brought home the CD from church that has music for the kids' Christmas program. Now that Anna is 3, she'll be participating in our church's Christmas "pageant". It's not a huge production, but the kids get to act out the Christmas story and sing a bunch of Christmas songs during church one morning. Anyway, I explained the basic concept to Anna yesterday and after listening to the CD last night and on the way to the grocery store, she was humming "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" the whole time we were in the store. She didn't want Matt or I to talk when she was listening because then she couldn't "hear the music!" I set the (my) limit at listening to the CD twice through before we switch to another one in the car. When we got home Anna wanted to know the words to the song, so we sang "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" all during lunch. When we called Matt to say hi after lunch, Anna sang him the refrain by herself. Not bad considering that she hadn't heard the song before about 5 o'clock yesterday. Also, we have to tell her that she's not allowed to make up her own words to these songs; she keeps asking to do just that.

We also hear a lot of Kindermusik music. Not only does Anna do most of the class by herself this year, but we also have assignments each week! Actually, it's kind of fun. We've made boxes with different things on each side that we sing about and we've also made shakers. My favorite project so far has been the rain hat that we got to design, make, and decorate. Fun stuff.

Kate is also a singer, or at least she tries her best. Several months ago she started singing our family's "Daddy, Come Home" song. (If you're wondering what this is, ask Anna or Kate to sing it for you sometime.) Then she was trying to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Ring Around the Rosie". Last week I was singing Amazing Grace to her during her diaper change (to try to keep her from wiggling!) and she started singing right along with me. She can also sing Jesus Loves Me and a few other songs she hears a lot. Mostly her singing is saying the words that she knows and filling in some sounds in the other spaces, but we can usually recognize what she's trying to say/sing. She's a pretty amazing kid.

Besides the singing, we've be dealing a lot with the fall transition. Last week I got into an organziging mood since most of our outdoor chores are done and I cleaned out our storage room. I was also in a throwing out mood and got rid of a bunch of stuff ... it felt good :) My next task is the girls' closets; the space needs to be better utilized.

We're also soaking up whatever sunny, "warm" daylight hours we can manage. Last week we did a couple of quick walks after dinner since we knew that those things would be impossible after the time change over the weekend. We also visited a park as a family yesterday afternoon since we won't have the opportunity to do that for awhile either. The girls and I did another hike at the state park, too, last week. Anna really loves those now. We stop a lot and eat some of the snacks that Anna has packed for us, and we all enjoy the fresh air. Last Friday afternoon we also explored the field behind our house. The farmer harvested the soybeans a while back and it's been fun to just tromp around out there and see what we can find.

We've got a couple of nice days predicted this week. Hopefully we'll get the chance to make the most of them. We're painfully aware right now that any day we have above 60 degrees might be our last one for months!