Cuddlebug

She prays to Jesus for mommy to have 100 more babies, but really--she was born to be the baby of the family. She's quiet, delightfully affectionate, observant, capable, and as smart as a whip!And stubborn. driven. Sometimes she's stubborn. very driven, and we all hold out hope that that quality will bring great glory to God as she grows.

She is studying the piano, and thinks she might like to play cello....later.

She's a good reader and picks up whatever her big sister has just finished, plays whatever her big sister plays, but is excited to have her very own math book to accomplish this year.

She loves both of her big sisters very much. And they love her too. Even if sometimes her stubbornness drive leaves them a little irritated dumbfounded.

She loves to ride her bike when Daddy brings it out in the cooler months. She doesn't have too much of a sweet tooth, and would eat her weight in tangerines and blue corn meal pancakes if we let her.

Cuddlebug is helpful and unnervingly stealth in her approach. I jump out of my skin on a regular basis for the way she suddenly appears by my side or behind me when there is work to be done. And then I smile for the way she cocks her head, bats her eyes and smiles a sheepish grin.

Dumpling

Middle child. Class clown. She's the one catching the sibling dynamic from both sides, and is specially equipped to handle it.

She is studying the piano and hopes to begin with classical guitar in the fall. She has lovely handwriting, is reading more and more, but says that math is her very favorite thing to learn about.She's partial to the stories of the Old Testament, loves to cantor, gallop and run laps around the back yard, plays hour after hour with animal figurines and thinks it's pretty great to be a girl--especially when it means long dresses, sparkle shoes, sequined purses and shiny jewels!

Dumpling is a kind girl--compassionate, a little mischievous, and gifted with a sharp, intelligent humor. Sometimes she's hard to read though, and requires a little "fishing" to find out what is wrong, but she's learning to open up.

She's very loud and says she doesn't want to have children when she grows up. Because they're too noisy. I hope she changes her mind though, because I think she'll be a great mom.

Fifi

...was Dumpling's attempt at "Sissy" when she was very young--and it stuck.

And "Fifi" is my very favorite "teen." She, like me, is a first-born through and through. She's very forgiving of her inexperienced mom, and alternately bossy and compassionate toward her two younger sisters.

She is a Jesus follower.

She studies the violin and plays the piano, reads Dickens, knits, sketches costumes, writes the occasional play, and likes to administrate things. If there are no "things," she will make them up so that she can write an administrative plan for them. She thinks she doesn't like math, but I think she's wrong. I tell her, "Just wait...you're going to love geometry!"

Some of her favorite "phases" over the years have included Trixie Belden mysteries, Elsie Dinsmore and Millie Keith books, all things Irish, the music of Celtic Women, a fascination with the Titanic, and this summer she is living most of her free time in C.S. Lewis' Narnia, up to her elbows sewing Susan's archery dress--from scratch!--and forming herself the perfect replica of the character's quiver.