Sunday Brian taught our three year old how to drive. She is obsessed. It took her 15 minutes to not automatically crash but now she can do loops around the yard like a champ. She spent about 90 minutes yesterday doing it and again today and even though I know she will eventually get tired of it, I'm soaking it up! Yesterday I used that time to do a lot of school with the older kids and I was pleased when she wanted to drive today! We got a lot done that previously had been interrupted with pleas for water, bathroom help, snacks, coloring sheets, clothing changes, books to read...even when I try to help her not interrupt, three is just a hard age. Driving the car will help!
Esther does crash once about every 5-10 minutes and Becky, Reuben and I take turns helping her. Sometimes all we have to do is remind her to put it in reverse.
After Becky was done with her school her and Esther played "taxi" outside with the car while I did a few subjects with Reuben before karate.
Seeing her drive the little car brought back so many memories. It's been a long summer since Becky and Reuben could both fit in the car. Now Reuben can't fit at all and Becky has to fold herself up and half of herself is sticking out to fit!
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| summer 2023 |
When Becky was five or six she had these amazing pink barefoot shoes and I had given them to a friend for her daughter to wear. The shoes have laces and I am convinced laces are the bane of every parent. It was at that time I decided never to buy my kids shoes with laces again! I do have two dyslexic children and I was over tying (and re-tying) shoes...of course both the older kids can now do it, but at the time I was angry and thus gave the shoes away thinking it would be forever and a day before Esther was 5 or 6 and could wear them and even if she could, would I want to put myself through the horror of tying toddler shoes 6 times a hour? My friend's daughter, Cozy, just outgrew them at 6 and a half years old. At church on Sunday she gave them back to me and they fit my three year old perfectly much to my complete and utter shock.
Esther is wearing clothing size 5 but still, this is ridiculous. Esther turned three in May. Becky wore these shoes when she was 5 or 6!! Becky (8) right now is a solid size 3 in shoe and Esther is wearing a size 10...that's what these little pink shoes are! Reuben (11) is wearing a woman's 8.
Actually, Reuben needed new shoes and I just gave him two pairs of mine since I am an 8 and we didn't really have the budget for new shoes. He is thrilled.
I'm making chicken for dinner and just got done trying to research dyslexic math curriculum. Becky really struggles with math and I'm wondering if a different curriculum would help. She gets really anxious and stuck in a fear cycle when it comes to math and sometimes she will just cry! She does really well at math, we take it slow and she can do it. I know it takes a lot of concentration for her. She flips numbers and struggles to keep everything in line. 37 can be read at 72 and she still struggles with the teens. 17, 18...these numbers we read the second number first then the teen, and those are the only numbers that do that in English. For example, 28 you read the 2 first but 13 you read the 3 first. She will forget to borrow when it's 23 minus 17 she will do the 7 minus the 3. She tries to put two numbers in the ones place and flips a lot of numbers when she writes. Her brain is trying so hard and I think a different curriculum, maybe one made for dyslexics, would help. If only I could find one...
With Reuben today we read about Abraham Lincoln's assassination. My mom was always told she was directly related to John Wilkes Booth and I need to ask her about it next time she visits. I tried to look it up on Ancestry and I couldn't find it without paying, and I can't afford to pay right now but I'm fascinated and I might try to pay for it sometime in December...as a Christmas present to me!
As far as I can tell on my mothers side, I am related to William Arthur Meredith who married Olive Lafayette Chitwood (Parents John M Chitwood, 1848 and Lauren "Narley" Jane Reagan). They had three boys, Robert Allen Meredith, Cecil Meredith (my great great grandfather) and Frank Raney Meredith.
Cecil Meredith, born in 1904 and died in 1968, had one girl and two boys with his first wife, Thelma O Chesher (Parents of Thelma: Walter Anderson Chesher and Pearl Bowles). He had Cecil Jane (girl) Joe Martyn Meredith (my grandfather) and James Michael Meredith who was in the mob.
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| Thelma with Jane |
Cecil Meredith also married a second wife named Marguerite Sinz (1906-1999) and they had one child as far as I could tell named Beverly Clair Meredith.
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| Joe Meredith (my grandfather) his sister Cecil Jane (the baby in the above photo) and James |
So, Joe Martyn Meredith married Carolynn (who I am named after) Joe was my grandfather and he had my mom, Julie, who was the 5th and last child in his family. He had three other girls and one boy before my mom was born. She married Nathan Bullard and had two girls, me, Carolynn Ruth and my sister.
My grandmother, Carolynn Meredith, her parents were named Vivian Violet Klingenburg and Virgil Leroy Bevers. Vivian and Virgil had three daughters, Ruth who married my Uncle Fred. He was a Jew who escaped the holocaust and also spent time being in captivity in China (?) and eventually moved to California where he met Ruth. They had at least one daughter named Susan? Then Vivian and Virgil had my grandmother, Carolynn, and then Gail and Dianne. Dianne had Kelly, Michelle, Rebecca, Lori and maybe Leanne--two of whom were twins. I was contacted on 23 and me by someone named Jessica who was looking for information about her father (not related to me) but on her mother's side she was descended from Dianne.
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| Back row, Left, Cecil Jane, unknown woman, unknown woman, Grandpa Joe and his little brother James all of Grandpa Joes kids in the front, my mom is the littlest one in the middle. |
Genealogy is very confusing. Oh, and my mom did tell me who those two ladies were in the back but I have forgotten. Ooops.
Anyway, there is also the fact that Brian's grandfather was adopted and I'd love to look into that too...
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