Franklin Family Journey: May 2008

Monday, May 19, 2008

Creatures, critters & children

Patrick and the children discovered a nest of baby birds near the house.

When we gently moved the leaves to get a look at them,

they would reach up with mouths wide open waiting for food.

Curious bug we found on the front porch

Mary Stricklen, can you tell us what it is?

(Mary says she thinks it's a Florida Eyed Click Beetle. Thanks, Mary ; )

Emilie doing her school work

Studying the letter "N"

"Daddy, look at this lizard!"

Emilie on the phone with Mimi & Drandad

Daniel's garden has really been growing

One plant is a berry, but we didn't know its name so we named it

"Hansberry" in honor of Uncle Hans

We can't wait to taste these tomatoes

Strawberry plants

As I mentioned in our last post, Daniel was sick on his birthday. It turned out he had a bladder infection. This was his second. Dr. Robinson said that two is quite unusual in a little boy and that we should take him to a pediatric urologist to see if there is something more seriously wrong with him. Today, we got a clean bill of health from the infection. Now we need to look into getting with a specialist. At present we plan to wait a bit, until we get settled (I'm being optimistic that that will be soon). Please keep him in your prayers.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

April 28th was our Daniel's tenth birthday. It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since he entered our lives. I was just looking at a picture the other day of the kids that was taken in 2004. Daniel was only six in that picture. I would have sworn we took that picture two years ago ; )

We are so proud of how he has grown, especially this past year. He has developed a love for reading and can often be found curled up on the couch or walking up the stairs with his nose in a book. He is still fascinated with airplanes, birds, butterflies, flowers and outer space. We are studying Astronomy in Science right now and he is guilty of stealing my text book and reading ahead ; )

He has such a tender heart, an inquisitive mind and a desire to do things exact. It has been a joy (sometimes frustrating too) to watch him grow and mature. His mind is so creative and analytical that it's hard to keep up!

We declared the day a "national holiday" and asked him to make a list of things he wanted to do.

Here is how the list looked:

special breakfast

bob for apples

play pin the tale on the donkey

play Uno, Skippo & of course chess

and then have lunch (quite a full morning)

movie night

cubed steak, sweet potato casserole, green beans & strawberry shortcake for dinner

Unfortunately, he woke up not feeling well. He didn't finish his special breakfast because he got sick ; ( and ended up spending the morning laying on the couch feeling pretty miserable. But like a trooper, he persevered and felt a bit better later in the day and we were able to accomplish many of his desires. Here are a few highlights...

The birthday boy!