“…And Mom, the boys are Indian brains.”

Uncategorized

Yes, the lovely season of Thanksgiving is upon us–certainly the favorite holiday of the Burts!  Preston gets off work tomorrow, and I finished tutoring today, so we have the rest of the week to relax and spend time with our girls!  I’m going to be adding more pictures tomorrow, but I did want to update everyone on what’s going on with us.  Before you feminists get angry over the title of the post, I must explain that the night before Ella’s Thanksgiving program at school, she told me that the boys were Indian “brains.”  It took me forever to realize that she meant that the boys were Indian braves.  I love that kid.  She is really amazing us with her knowledge of stuff that Preston is teaching his kindergarteners right now.  She knows her letters, patterns, days, months, numbers, can recite nursery rhymes from memory (Preston said that’s a major skill), and can answer questions we ask her about stories we read to her.  She is also a pro at tangram puzzles and counting out syllables and can “read” us some books that she’s memorized (also a major skill on the road to reading).  She is so fun to hang out with now, and she is always wanting to be a helper.  One thing we’ve done that works pretty well for our little early riser is placing a clock in her room and telling her to stay in her bed until the clock says seven.  She never quite makes it all the way to seven (we’re already up with Audrey anyway), but she always apologizes to us for coming downstairs at the wrong seven.  This way, if she wakes at 5:30, she’ll know to read in her bed or play quietly in her bed with her babies until it’s time to come downstairs.Â
Audrey is crawling and seemingly on her way to running.  She LOVES to play with her big sister–and “chases” her (with our help, of course).  She is pulling up to standing and has gotten three teeth.  She is a busy bee for seven months!  She often reminds me so much of Ella, and at other times, she seems so different.  I guess that’s one of the joys of having children is seeing the wonderful similarities and differences between them–how they are their own individual person yet inherently connected.  Audrey still loves to “sing”, and her voice moves up and down with her squeal.  It’s actually pretty impressive.  She “sings” more than she talks.  She had her first ear infection a couple weeks ago and came through it like a champ!
Preston can’t believe he’s almost halfway through the school year.  He is truly enjoying his work, and the kids LOVE him.  In fact, on their Thanksgiving feathers they made for their feast today, one kid responded to the prompt “I am thankful for…” by putting “Mr. Burt”.  He also got an informal invitation to a kid’s birthday party–they just think he’s so great.  Although he never really has any “free” time because he’s working seemingly non-stop, he has found some time to fix up some games, and he is excited about trying to get those sold during the Christmas season.Â
I’ve been busy tutoring and serving as a long-term substitute for the Dean of the Academy while he was in Asia.  I was able to teach his American literature classes, and I taught a whole unit on The Scarlet Letter, which made me really happy!  It was also nice to be finished last week and be able to just go back to tutoring, which I have definitely been doing a lot of this fall.  It’s really rewarding work.  I’ve also been busy trying to run everyday–at least three miles or more.  I signed up for the 2010 Breast Cancer 3-Day, which I’m really excited about, although I’m a little nervous about trying to raise the $2300 that is required of all walkers and trying to prepare myself to walk sixty miles in two and a half days–EEEK!  But it’s for such a good cause, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.  Thirty has been good to me so far.  One really fun thing that Ella, my mom, and I did:  My mom bought us tickets to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at the Fox in Atlanta.  Ella was mesmerized, and the show was SO good.  I think we have to make this a girls’ tradition!  We took Ella to the Varsity after the show for her first “naked dog” and Varsity Orange.  So fun!  I love this age because we’re getting to show Ella such fun stuff and go some really neat places with her.Â
I’ll update our Flickr page in the next day or so.  We hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving–never forgetting that we shouldn’t just be thankful on one day of the year, but everyday!

Preston @ November 23, 2009