It is so beautiful here now. The trees are flowering and the flowers are flowering and everything is blooming all over the place. I really love spring. It seems to give me so much energy.
This morning I had to go in for a fasting blood draw. I hate having my blood drawn but today was surprisingly easy. I have very small veins and, when they finally find one they think they can use, it often moves away as they are trying to stick it. So it is normally not a very pleasant experience. Today the lady got it on the very first try. She put some kind of heated pad on my arm first and then she used one of the very tiny needles. Seems it was the perfect combination.
When we got home, we ate lunch and then we all went outside and played on the driveway. The boys rode their various riding toys and I rode one of the scooters. I was quite comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt. The boys had on T-shirts and jeans but Ben had on a zip-up sweat shirt over his T-shirt. He is having an issue with the short sleeves. He finally got so hot that I talked him into taking it off but only because I did it very quickly and distracted him right away. He is so funny about it and he is totally not into wearing shorts because he doesn't want his knees to "stick out".
Now it is nap time. I am having second thoughts about naps because I want the boys to have more time to play outside. But then I really don't want to change anything else while we are trying to finalize the potty training, so I will readdress this later.
The potty training is going well. Ben has not had any accidents. I knew he wouldn't if he didn't want to. He has great control but when he sees Nick getting away with wearing a pull up and not having to stop playing to run to the bathroom then he wants to do that too. Nick had several accidents the first two days, although I would say he probably had fewer yesterday than the day before and even less today. So far he has only had one accident today, which is great, although I had them both go before we left the house and then again before we left the clinic to come back home. He should have gone again before going outside to play and I didn't think about it and he is not as inclined to think of it himself like Ben is.
There have been several times that Nick asked for his pull up back, cried for it and even through a fit. He is not very into this having to stop playing to make time to go potty. Hopefully he will have a change of heart soon.
In retrospect, I think a lot of our trouble has been due to the fact that Ben was more ready to be trained and Nick was not quite there so training them together has made the situation more difficult but there really was no good way to train them separately. Regardless, I'm sure we will get there eventually.
We hit another milestone yesterday, albeit very belatedly. I finally found small back packs for the boys and transferred stuff from the big diaper bag to their small bags. They are so excited to get to carry their own back packs. It is cute. It is also nice for me not to have to carry the big one. It was mostly used for snacks, water and various small items that could entertain a small child during times of waiting and the two pull ups, some wipes and sometimes a change of clothes. Now they each have a change of pants, some wipes in a small baggy and their small entertainment items, plus snacks and water sometimes. I think this is going to work out very nicely.
In other news, we are heading to Kansas City soon to visit our friends there and I am sooo excited and ready to get away. We all need it and we have not seen them for a while so it will be a very refreshing time for us. I'm not sure what to do about our cats though, as my friend who used to care for them has moved away. We won't be gone very long so I may just leave out lots of everything for them and they will likely be fine.
I know I need to take more pics of the boys and post them and I will make an effort. It is more challenging and less fun than it used to be when they were little. Back then they would get used to me holding the camera. They would eventually not notice me as I took their pics and I could get some really good candid shots. Now days, as soon as they see or hear me with the camera, they immediately quit what they are doing and they make fake faces and then they want to see their pics right away on the back of the camera. Makes it very hard to get good shots. I see them doing the cutest things and I think I would love to have a picture of that but it is almost impossible to get candid shots anymore. I'll have to work on it.
Their napping now so I will go get a few things done. Have a happy day:).
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
March 17, 2009
I have finally decided to finalize (she wrote with a grin) our potty training efforts. I must confess that the reason the boys are not fully trained already is because I have not wanted to clean up accidents. Starting yesterday, we went to big boy pants only, even when going somewhere outside of the house. So far, so good. I just have to do more laundry for a few days and hopefully that will be the end of it.
But I'm not sure about night times. I had read to go ahead and put them in big boy pants at night too and just limit their drink intake before bedtime. Our problem with that is that we eat dinner late and there is not enough time between dinner and bedtime to really take care of that. So, I'm not sure how to handle this, other than just staying in pull ups at night for a while longer.
I have had so many funny-boy-things come up during this short time of not blogging and so many thoughts about things I wanted to blog about. Isn't that the way it always is? As soon as you stop, you think of tons of things to say. The only funny-boy-thing I can think of right now was that the boys and I were all in the bathroom the other day, taking care of business. Ben was standing next to me and I can't remember now what he was doing. He might have just finished pulling his pants up. He tooted and then he looked up at me and smiled and said "I making music!". That was certainly not what I expected to hear and I cracked up laughing.
But I'm not sure about night times. I had read to go ahead and put them in big boy pants at night too and just limit their drink intake before bedtime. Our problem with that is that we eat dinner late and there is not enough time between dinner and bedtime to really take care of that. So, I'm not sure how to handle this, other than just staying in pull ups at night for a while longer.
I have had so many funny-boy-things come up during this short time of not blogging and so many thoughts about things I wanted to blog about. Isn't that the way it always is? As soon as you stop, you think of tons of things to say. The only funny-boy-thing I can think of right now was that the boys and I were all in the bathroom the other day, taking care of business. Ben was standing next to me and I can't remember now what he was doing. He might have just finished pulling his pants up. He tooted and then he looked up at me and smiled and said "I making music!". That was certainly not what I expected to hear and I cracked up laughing.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
March 7, 2009 Part 2
Here are some pictures I have been meaning to post for a while.
Nick wanted me to take his picture with that little piece of white play dough in front of him. Isn't that special?
These next two are my play dough creations:). Notice that we long ago gave up trying to keep colors separate. If they stay separate, that's great. If not, that's great and quite interesting too:).
This is Ben's creation:
Nick and Ben were playing 'car' one morning. I tried to sneak up on them to take a cute picture but they caught me. It is almost impossible to do that these days.
Ben and Nick 'reading' to each other. They have so many stories memorized that they do a pretty good job of pretending to read. They each have a version of Peter Rabbit and they are comparing them.
A boy and his cat. Nick is becoming pretty good friends with Dancer and both boys are spending less time bothering the cats these days. Nick did push Dancer a bit too far last night and Dancer gave him a little bite on the arm. He didn't break the skin but he let Nick know that he meant business. Nick was a bit shocked because Dancer puts up with a lot so Nick was not expecting him to react that way. I think Nick learned a good lesson though and he will think twice before mistreating Dancer in the future. That being said, most of the time they are very good buddies, Dancer seeks Nick out and purrs very loudly when Nick gives him attention.
I forgot to mention that I am really starting to see just how much Ben does not like change. We broke out the shorts and T-shirts this week and Ben has not been very excited about wearing a T-shirt. He wanted his long sleeves and told me several times that he did not like the short sleeves. The problem with that is that he is very hot natured so I knew he would be too hot once he started playing, especially if he was outside. We found a good compromise. He starts off by wearing a light weight hoodie jacket and then takes it off when he starts getting hot. He has also not been real excited about switching to sandals but I know he will like them once he starts wearing them again. He cracks me up sometimes though with his resistance to change. My sister and her son also are not big fans of change so he is in good company in our family.
Nick wanted me to take his picture with that little piece of white play dough in front of him. Isn't that special?
These next two are my play dough creations:). Notice that we long ago gave up trying to keep colors separate. If they stay separate, that's great. If not, that's great and quite interesting too:).
This is Ben's creation:
Nick and Ben were playing 'car' one morning. I tried to sneak up on them to take a cute picture but they caught me. It is almost impossible to do that these days.
Ben and Nick 'reading' to each other. They have so many stories memorized that they do a pretty good job of pretending to read. They each have a version of Peter Rabbit and they are comparing them.
A boy and his cat. Nick is becoming pretty good friends with Dancer and both boys are spending less time bothering the cats these days. Nick did push Dancer a bit too far last night and Dancer gave him a little bite on the arm. He didn't break the skin but he let Nick know that he meant business. Nick was a bit shocked because Dancer puts up with a lot so Nick was not expecting him to react that way. I think Nick learned a good lesson though and he will think twice before mistreating Dancer in the future. That being said, most of the time they are very good buddies, Dancer seeks Nick out and purrs very loudly when Nick gives him attention.
I forgot to mention that I am really starting to see just how much Ben does not like change. We broke out the shorts and T-shirts this week and Ben has not been very excited about wearing a T-shirt. He wanted his long sleeves and told me several times that he did not like the short sleeves. The problem with that is that he is very hot natured so I knew he would be too hot once he started playing, especially if he was outside. We found a good compromise. He starts off by wearing a light weight hoodie jacket and then takes it off when he starts getting hot. He has also not been real excited about switching to sandals but I know he will like them once he starts wearing them again. He cracks me up sometimes though with his resistance to change. My sister and her son also are not big fans of change so he is in good company in our family.
March 7, 2009
Well, we have been very busy around here lately. The weather has been beautiful and we have been spending a lot of our time outside. On Thursday, a friend of mine had a doctor's appointment so she dropped her two little boys off here for a play date. We spent most of our time outside, first playing in the side yard, playing in the sandbox, kicking balls, and climbing on the jungle gym, and then around back on the driveway, driving cars, trucks, trikes and scooters. Everyone played hard and then we came inside for lunch, just after my friend returned. The boys all had a fun time together. My friend's youngest son is around 19 or 20 months old I think. He is so little compared to the other three (her other son is a couple of months older than Ben) but he thinks he is the same age as the other three and he wants to do everything they do. It is so cute. He is quite a little cutie.
Yesterday the boys and I headed off to the park, first thing in the morning, and we spent all morning there. We met another mom with her baby daughter and two sons who were close in age to Ben and Nick and we all hung out together for the morning. The boys had a very fun time playing together. We went to one play area that is actually for kids who are a bit older, I think from 5 to 9 or something like that. I had taken the boys there last fall and it was too big for them. This time, they just took off and could do everything. One of the boys whom we befriended was almost five years old so he was the leader and Ben and Nick followed him on the big play structure. I was really amazed at how much they could do now compared to just last spring. It is just incredible how quickly they change and grow.
The boys have been playing out on the driveway in the late afternoons, while I am preparing dinner. I can watch them from the kitchen windows, so it works out well (there is no fence in that area). They love to pretend they are going to the post office, Home Depot, the grocery store or any number of places we go to on a regular basis. They also like to get the big brooms out of the garage and sweep the driveway or try to get leaves out from under the big piney bushes. I get a kick out of watching them play. They are at such a cute age.
Interestingly, the boys have not been arguing about things quite as much these last few days. Maybe because we have been busier and have been getting out of the house more and spending more time outside. After praying about it, I reverted back to a tool I had used once before, which was just making the instigator come over and sit near me for a short time. That really has seemed to nip it in the bud quickly, it keeps me from getting frustrated or aggravated and allows me to stay on an even keel while dealing with less than desirable behavior, which is definitely where I want to be:).
The dad is back on hospital duty for two weeks so he had to do rounds this morning. The boys and I were up and early today. We got dressed quickly and went to the McDonald's that has the fun play area. It was a last minute thought but one that had us all full of energy and excited about our day. Unfortunately, the play area does not open until 9:00 and I didn't know that:(. We decided to eat there anyway and just as we were finishing up our breakfast, I noticed that people were going into the play area, even though it was only around 8:35 or so. I asked one of the workers and they said the guy cleaning up must have left the door unlocked but we could go on in and play. So the boys did get to play after all.
We went shopping for some little boy sandals after that. First we went to Target, then to Kohl's (they had two pairs of boys sandals and about 15 for girls), then to Shoe Carnival, then Famous Footwear, and then to another place that I can't remember the name of right now......and we didn't end up buying anything! Can you believe it? They were either the wrong size, they didn't have hardly anything to choose from or they were just so ugly I didn't think I could stand to look at them all summer:). I'm not sure where we'll look next, although I did find out that Famous Footwear is having a buy one get one half off sale a week from tomorrow so we will likely go back then. The boys were incredibly good during this shopping spree.
Both boys are now napping so I am going to sign off for now and go get a few things done around here. Happy Saturday!
Yesterday the boys and I headed off to the park, first thing in the morning, and we spent all morning there. We met another mom with her baby daughter and two sons who were close in age to Ben and Nick and we all hung out together for the morning. The boys had a very fun time playing together. We went to one play area that is actually for kids who are a bit older, I think from 5 to 9 or something like that. I had taken the boys there last fall and it was too big for them. This time, they just took off and could do everything. One of the boys whom we befriended was almost five years old so he was the leader and Ben and Nick followed him on the big play structure. I was really amazed at how much they could do now compared to just last spring. It is just incredible how quickly they change and grow.
The boys have been playing out on the driveway in the late afternoons, while I am preparing dinner. I can watch them from the kitchen windows, so it works out well (there is no fence in that area). They love to pretend they are going to the post office, Home Depot, the grocery store or any number of places we go to on a regular basis. They also like to get the big brooms out of the garage and sweep the driveway or try to get leaves out from under the big piney bushes. I get a kick out of watching them play. They are at such a cute age.
Interestingly, the boys have not been arguing about things quite as much these last few days. Maybe because we have been busier and have been getting out of the house more and spending more time outside. After praying about it, I reverted back to a tool I had used once before, which was just making the instigator come over and sit near me for a short time. That really has seemed to nip it in the bud quickly, it keeps me from getting frustrated or aggravated and allows me to stay on an even keel while dealing with less than desirable behavior, which is definitely where I want to be:).
The dad is back on hospital duty for two weeks so he had to do rounds this morning. The boys and I were up and early today. We got dressed quickly and went to the McDonald's that has the fun play area. It was a last minute thought but one that had us all full of energy and excited about our day. Unfortunately, the play area does not open until 9:00 and I didn't know that:(. We decided to eat there anyway and just as we were finishing up our breakfast, I noticed that people were going into the play area, even though it was only around 8:35 or so. I asked one of the workers and they said the guy cleaning up must have left the door unlocked but we could go on in and play. So the boys did get to play after all.
We went shopping for some little boy sandals after that. First we went to Target, then to Kohl's (they had two pairs of boys sandals and about 15 for girls), then to Shoe Carnival, then Famous Footwear, and then to another place that I can't remember the name of right now......and we didn't end up buying anything! Can you believe it? They were either the wrong size, they didn't have hardly anything to choose from or they were just so ugly I didn't think I could stand to look at them all summer:). I'm not sure where we'll look next, although I did find out that Famous Footwear is having a buy one get one half off sale a week from tomorrow so we will likely go back then. The boys were incredibly good during this shopping spree.
Both boys are now napping so I am going to sign off for now and go get a few things done around here. Happy Saturday!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
March 4, 2009
If they don't change the forecast (that's a big IF), then we will be having some beautiful weather for the next week. Today was around 65 degrees and windy. The boys and I enjoyed some outside time. Unfortunately, the mornings are still pretty chilly so they are not getting as much time outside as they would like. They really love being outside these days and are always asking to go out, however Nick does not tolerate cold very well at all.
Yesterday morning it was cold and I was feeling a bit restless, like we really needed to get out and go do something. So we went to Bike, Balls, You at a community center at one of our local parks. We were basically in a basket ball court / gym. They had tons of balls of all different sizes and lots of other fun things for kids to play with / on. Lots of people showed up and most people brought tricycles or bikes with training wheels or some other type of ride-on toy. The boys each took their tricycles but it is pretty much a free for all, where everyone rides everyone else's ride-on-toy. The boys had a blast and they want to go back again sometime. It costs fifty cents per child. Gotta love that.
As we were on our way home, we passed a McDonald's with a really great play area. The boys had never played there. I didn't know it was a great play area. I just knew they had one and I was not quite ready to head home, as it was only 11:00am so we stopped at McDonald's (aka "the yucky place" :) and the boys had more play time. The play structure was very tall and had two nice slides coming off of it. I was not sure the boys would climb that high and they were a bit hesitant at first but it didn't take very long before they were both climbing all over the place and sliding down from the top. After they played for 30 minutes or so, we had a bite to eat, they played for another 15 or 20 minutes and then we headed home.
I payed dearly for all of this play time. It was too much for Nick. He started melting down over something, I think after we got home, and there was no coming back from it until he finally fell asleep at nap time. It was one miserable experience and I won't be over-doing it like that again any time soon. I have learned my lesson.
When he gets overly tired, there is just no pleasing him. For example, he was in his bed and still crying. I was giving Ben a hug and kiss before nap and Nick was saying (while crying) that he did not want a hug and kiss. He said it over and over and was pretty forceful about it so I said OK and I sat in my chair. Then his crying / fit escalated and he was asking for a hug and a kiss.
I have been through this with him before and it is absolutely a no win situation. If I get up to give him a hug and kiss, he will immediately change back to "NO!" "I no want a hug and kiss!" and then when I sit back down, he starts crying for a hug and kiss again. So this time, I just stayed in my chair and ignored him for a while. At some point, I had to get up for something for him (can't remember what it was) and I went to give him a hug and kiss and he started in on the "NO!" business so I gave him one anyway because I knew he would cry for one again after I sat down. After I sat down, he started in on "I want to hold you" (meaning he wants me to hold him) and, yes, if I got up to hold him he would say "NO!"....
So that is an example of how he gets when he is overly tired and that is why he is still taking a nap. Before we made it up to the room, he was doing the same thing about using the potty. He didn't want to sit on the potty. So I said fine and started to help him put on his pull up. Then he wanted to sit on the potty (and didn't want me to help him with his pull up)....and back and forth it goes and he is crying the whole time. This happens about everything. When he gets like this, there is really no way to please him. The only thing I can do is to get him into his bed as quickly as possible and then I have to ignore him until he stops and finally goes to sleep.
What I was going to write about today though was that these two little guys are fighting about EVERYTHING right now. It is getting to the point that it is driving me batty at times. They pick fights with each other all the time and I'm not sure how to stop it. Here are some examples:
- Ben is on the tower (that thing we have in the kitchen so they can be up at the counter; kind of like standing in a chair but safer) and Nick asks Ben if he can get up too. (Note that Nick knows that he can get up and does not have to ask permission from Ben and he also knows that, since he asked, Ben will most definitely say no.) Ben says no and tries to keep Nick from getting up. Big fight breaks out (mommy! He won't let me....), along with each pushing the other too, possibly.
- Nick is in the bathroom and Ben needs to go to. We are ALWAYS in the bathroom together, all three of us, so this is a perfectly normal situation. But on this occasion, Ben says "can I come in too Nick?". Now, make no mistake about it, Ben knows he does not have to ask and he knows very well that Nick will say no, which is of course exactly what happens and Ben starts whining "mommy! He won't let me....).
- The three of us were in the garage today and Ben pointed at the attic door and asked me if that is the attic. I said it was and he said that he would like to go in the attic when he gets bigger. Nick says he wants to go when he gets bigger too. Then Nick says he will also need to take a flashlight so Ben says that he will need a flashlight too. (this may have been a question; can't remember) Nick says no to Ben about the flashlight and another argument breaks out.
And then of course there is the normal fighting over toys that I have that you want and that you have that I want and those that are blue and all that.
Is this enough to make someone nuts?? I have had several people tell me that it is just their age. I need to pray about this but, in the meantime, if you have experienced this and have some thoughts to share, I am open to hearing them. I know my problem is that I need to spend more time praying and less time watching / reading news.
Yesterday morning it was cold and I was feeling a bit restless, like we really needed to get out and go do something. So we went to Bike, Balls, You at a community center at one of our local parks. We were basically in a basket ball court / gym. They had tons of balls of all different sizes and lots of other fun things for kids to play with / on. Lots of people showed up and most people brought tricycles or bikes with training wheels or some other type of ride-on toy. The boys each took their tricycles but it is pretty much a free for all, where everyone rides everyone else's ride-on-toy. The boys had a blast and they want to go back again sometime. It costs fifty cents per child. Gotta love that.
As we were on our way home, we passed a McDonald's with a really great play area. The boys had never played there. I didn't know it was a great play area. I just knew they had one and I was not quite ready to head home, as it was only 11:00am so we stopped at McDonald's (aka "the yucky place" :) and the boys had more play time. The play structure was very tall and had two nice slides coming off of it. I was not sure the boys would climb that high and they were a bit hesitant at first but it didn't take very long before they were both climbing all over the place and sliding down from the top. After they played for 30 minutes or so, we had a bite to eat, they played for another 15 or 20 minutes and then we headed home.
I payed dearly for all of this play time. It was too much for Nick. He started melting down over something, I think after we got home, and there was no coming back from it until he finally fell asleep at nap time. It was one miserable experience and I won't be over-doing it like that again any time soon. I have learned my lesson.
When he gets overly tired, there is just no pleasing him. For example, he was in his bed and still crying. I was giving Ben a hug and kiss before nap and Nick was saying (while crying) that he did not want a hug and kiss. He said it over and over and was pretty forceful about it so I said OK and I sat in my chair. Then his crying / fit escalated and he was asking for a hug and a kiss.
I have been through this with him before and it is absolutely a no win situation. If I get up to give him a hug and kiss, he will immediately change back to "NO!" "I no want a hug and kiss!" and then when I sit back down, he starts crying for a hug and kiss again. So this time, I just stayed in my chair and ignored him for a while. At some point, I had to get up for something for him (can't remember what it was) and I went to give him a hug and kiss and he started in on the "NO!" business so I gave him one anyway because I knew he would cry for one again after I sat down. After I sat down, he started in on "I want to hold you" (meaning he wants me to hold him) and, yes, if I got up to hold him he would say "NO!"....
So that is an example of how he gets when he is overly tired and that is why he is still taking a nap. Before we made it up to the room, he was doing the same thing about using the potty. He didn't want to sit on the potty. So I said fine and started to help him put on his pull up. Then he wanted to sit on the potty (and didn't want me to help him with his pull up)....and back and forth it goes and he is crying the whole time. This happens about everything. When he gets like this, there is really no way to please him. The only thing I can do is to get him into his bed as quickly as possible and then I have to ignore him until he stops and finally goes to sleep.
What I was going to write about today though was that these two little guys are fighting about EVERYTHING right now. It is getting to the point that it is driving me batty at times. They pick fights with each other all the time and I'm not sure how to stop it. Here are some examples:
- Ben is on the tower (that thing we have in the kitchen so they can be up at the counter; kind of like standing in a chair but safer) and Nick asks Ben if he can get up too. (Note that Nick knows that he can get up and does not have to ask permission from Ben and he also knows that, since he asked, Ben will most definitely say no.) Ben says no and tries to keep Nick from getting up. Big fight breaks out (mommy! He won't let me....), along with each pushing the other too, possibly.
- Nick is in the bathroom and Ben needs to go to. We are ALWAYS in the bathroom together, all three of us, so this is a perfectly normal situation. But on this occasion, Ben says "can I come in too Nick?". Now, make no mistake about it, Ben knows he does not have to ask and he knows very well that Nick will say no, which is of course exactly what happens and Ben starts whining "mommy! He won't let me....).
- The three of us were in the garage today and Ben pointed at the attic door and asked me if that is the attic. I said it was and he said that he would like to go in the attic when he gets bigger. Nick says he wants to go when he gets bigger too. Then Nick says he will also need to take a flashlight so Ben says that he will need a flashlight too. (this may have been a question; can't remember) Nick says no to Ben about the flashlight and another argument breaks out.
And then of course there is the normal fighting over toys that I have that you want and that you have that I want and those that are blue and all that.
Is this enough to make someone nuts?? I have had several people tell me that it is just their age. I need to pray about this but, in the meantime, if you have experienced this and have some thoughts to share, I am open to hearing them. I know my problem is that I need to spend more time praying and less time watching / reading news.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
March 1, 2009
I am in the bedroom, taking a short break before putting the boys to bed. The boys are in the living room playing together. They seem to have been having a bit of a disagreement about something. I heard Nick say to Ben "I bery angry at you". I was not sure I heard correctly but then, it came again, "I bery angry at you." No response either time from Ben and nothing happened afterward so maybe Nick was pretending that "his guy" was angry at someone else in their pretend world.
I love the "bery" word. Too cute. The other day, Nick said "it bery bery cold outside" or something like that. It always brings a smile to my face.
We have been talking about first names, middle names and last names around here recently. The other day Ben held up a match box vehicle and asked me "mommy, what is it's name?". I could only see the bottom of the vehicle so I said it was a car and then backtracked and said I was not sure because I could not see the top of it. He showed it to me and I told him it was a truck and he said "no, what is it's middle name?" He was actually trying to figure out what kind of truck it was, meaning what it's function was.
I have a couple of other funny things that were said recently but can't remember them right now. I hate when I do that. Hopefully I will remember them eventually. Must start writing them down again. They are saying some very funny things these days.
Just finished reading The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Excellent book. I highly recommend it and I am so glad I read it. Reminded me of what a wonderful man I am married to and what a wonderful life I have with him and my two sons. God has blessed me so much.
Time for bedtime routine. Must go for now.
I love the "bery" word. Too cute. The other day, Nick said "it bery bery cold outside" or something like that. It always brings a smile to my face.
We have been talking about first names, middle names and last names around here recently. The other day Ben held up a match box vehicle and asked me "mommy, what is it's name?". I could only see the bottom of the vehicle so I said it was a car and then backtracked and said I was not sure because I could not see the top of it. He showed it to me and I told him it was a truck and he said "no, what is it's middle name?" He was actually trying to figure out what kind of truck it was, meaning what it's function was.
I have a couple of other funny things that were said recently but can't remember them right now. I hate when I do that. Hopefully I will remember them eventually. Must start writing them down again. They are saying some very funny things these days.
Just finished reading The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Excellent book. I highly recommend it and I am so glad I read it. Reminded me of what a wonderful man I am married to and what a wonderful life I have with him and my two sons. God has blessed me so much.
Time for bedtime routine. Must go for now.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
February 26, 2009 Part 2
I went back to see what pics I had last posted and, wow, I have been very delinquent in posting pictures for quite a while now. I must do better....and I really must start taking more pictures.
Here are a few from the past few months, to make up for many months with none.
These first two pics are Nick, doing his flip-over on the mini-tramp. He can do it very slowly and stop and hold at any point for a picture or just to look out the window upside down:).
And below is Ben, doing his flip-over. This was all they did for a while, once they learned how. Now they are back to jumping again.
And below is our little salad boy. I think he could just about live on salads. Today at the grocery store the boys talked me into buying the long carrots that require peeling. It's been a long time since I peeled a carrot. It was kind of fun and they really enjoyed eating them.
Play Dough masterpieces....I have no idea what the funny faces (on the boys) were all about.
Ben, riding the scooter. I am hoping they will get this down before we buy bikes for them.
Nick riding the scooter.
Ben, having a snack. I just thought this was a cute pic of Ben.
Nick, sitting on the dad's lap at the dinner table.
The boys with the dad at Papa and Mimi's house.
And this would be me, the mom, with Ben.
The boys with Uncle Kelly on the tractor. It was very windy and very cold that day. When they went out with the dad and Uncle Kelly to feed the cows, they even fed some of them by hand.
That's all folks!
Here are a few from the past few months, to make up for many months with none.
These first two pics are Nick, doing his flip-over on the mini-tramp. He can do it very slowly and stop and hold at any point for a picture or just to look out the window upside down:).
And below is Ben, doing his flip-over. This was all they did for a while, once they learned how. Now they are back to jumping again.
And below is our little salad boy. I think he could just about live on salads. Today at the grocery store the boys talked me into buying the long carrots that require peeling. It's been a long time since I peeled a carrot. It was kind of fun and they really enjoyed eating them.
Play Dough masterpieces....I have no idea what the funny faces (on the boys) were all about.
Ben, riding the scooter. I am hoping they will get this down before we buy bikes for them.
Nick riding the scooter.
Ben, having a snack. I just thought this was a cute pic of Ben.
Nick, sitting on the dad's lap at the dinner table.
The boys with the dad at Papa and Mimi's house.
And this would be me, the mom, with Ben.
The boys with Uncle Kelly on the tractor. It was very windy and very cold that day. When they went out with the dad and Uncle Kelly to feed the cows, they even fed some of them by hand.
That's all folks!
February 26, 2009
Wow, what a beautiful day we are having here today. It is warm and windy and the sun is shining. Makes you almost believe that spring is here, but I think it will be cold again this weekend. We will enjoy it while it lasts though.
So, that sleeping thing. A day like today really makes me want to let the boys give up their naps. But, the dad and I are not quite ready for it yet. Part of the issue is that he normally gets home from work around 6:00pm. The boys are going to bed around 8:00pm, which already does not leave much room for the dad to enjoy his sons in the evenings, when you add in dinner and getting ready for bed and everything. We are not quite ready to move them to an earlier bedtime, which we would likely have to do if they skipped naps.
The other thing is that Nick especially still seems to really need at least a short nap. I really think Ben would be fine without his nap but Nick is definitely not. When Nick does not have a nap, he really becomes quite disagreeable, everything becomes a battle and it is no fun for anybody.
We went to my sister's house on Tuesday to celebrate my mom's birthday and mine, since mine was Monday. We went out to eat lunch and decided to take a drive by some of the beautiful areas on the lake, around their town. Nick was asleep in no time but Ben stayed awake the entire time. We extended our drive to let Nick sleep a little while because I knew he would not fall back to sleep again if he had been asleep for a bit. Nick did fine the rest of the day on the small nap he had and Ben did OK without one.
Ben tends to be a bit fussy at the end of the day, without a nap, but not too bad. I know he would adjust quickly to not having one but, selfishly, I want to keep them on the same schedule. Also, there is no way Nick would fall asleep (or stay in his bed) if he thought Ben was going to be up while he (Nick) had to sleep. He would throw a huge fit and he would be very sad....not to mention the fact that I sit in their room until they fall asleep and I could not leave Ben outside of the room unattended. Having them on different schedules would just be too hard.
The other thing is that I have read in several places that children should really have a nap until they turn four. Now I know all children are different but is that something that ever concerned those of you who let your younger ones quit taking naps? Sleep is so important to their little bodies and I want to make sure they are getting as much as they should.
The dad and I both feel that things are going pretty well right now with our sleep schedule. Granted, one of us is still sitting in their room with them until they fall asleep but, other than that, things are going very smoothly. They now settle down and go to sleep in about 10 to 15 minutes at nap time. Since we are getting them to bed around 8:00pm now, they are normally asleep somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00, but they are quiet and content until they fall asleep.
As for waking up time, Nick has started sleeping in again, which I am thankful for. Three of the past four days he has slept until 7:00 or later. He even slept past 7:30 one day, which was surprising. I think sometimes Nick wakes up earlier because he is a light sleeper in the mornings and he sometimes hears the garage door when the dad is leaving for work. I think that is why he wakes up around 6:00 or 6:30 some days. Ben consistently sleeps until 7:00 or 7:30, for the most part.
For nap, Nick normally takes about an hour and a half nap and Ben will often take two hours. That means they are getting around 10 to 10.5 hours at night and another 1.5 to 2 during nap, for a total of about 11.5 or 12 hours a day. I'll have to look up how much they should be getting at this age. Ben is right at 41 months old. N is a couple of weeks over 39 months.
The only thing is that today I almost, almost let them stay up and not take a nap because it is soooo nice outside and I wanted to let them play as long as possible out there because it is going to be turning cold again. But, I kept thinking about how miserable Nick becomes without a nap and decided that would not be a good thing. He is a very unhappy little guy later in the day without the nap and it is just not worth it yet. But, as soon as they wake up, we will be outside for the rest of the day and it will soon be spring and we can spend all day outside.
I got the boys a soccer ball and goal today so I am going to go put the goal together so we can play with it when they wake up. They were very excited. This is going to be such a fun summer with them. They are at such a fun age to do so many things now.
On the other hand, they are really fighting over a lot of things these days. I am ready to get rid of all of our dishes, silverware and cups and go buy white everything so they can't fight over it anymore...although I know they would find something to fight over anyway. They are now fighting over who gets to sit in which car seat, who gets the blue spoon, blue bowl, blue plate, blue shirt, etc. You name it. They are fighting over everything these days. I am beginning to think that three is much harder than two and I didn't expect that.
At the same time, they also melt my heart these days because they say the sweetest things. God knew what he was doing when he made them look and sound soooo cute when they are at an age where they can be a bit frustrating at times:).
Must go. I know I need to post some pics. Will try to do so soon.
So, that sleeping thing. A day like today really makes me want to let the boys give up their naps. But, the dad and I are not quite ready for it yet. Part of the issue is that he normally gets home from work around 6:00pm. The boys are going to bed around 8:00pm, which already does not leave much room for the dad to enjoy his sons in the evenings, when you add in dinner and getting ready for bed and everything. We are not quite ready to move them to an earlier bedtime, which we would likely have to do if they skipped naps.
The other thing is that Nick especially still seems to really need at least a short nap. I really think Ben would be fine without his nap but Nick is definitely not. When Nick does not have a nap, he really becomes quite disagreeable, everything becomes a battle and it is no fun for anybody.
We went to my sister's house on Tuesday to celebrate my mom's birthday and mine, since mine was Monday. We went out to eat lunch and decided to take a drive by some of the beautiful areas on the lake, around their town. Nick was asleep in no time but Ben stayed awake the entire time. We extended our drive to let Nick sleep a little while because I knew he would not fall back to sleep again if he had been asleep for a bit. Nick did fine the rest of the day on the small nap he had and Ben did OK without one.
Ben tends to be a bit fussy at the end of the day, without a nap, but not too bad. I know he would adjust quickly to not having one but, selfishly, I want to keep them on the same schedule. Also, there is no way Nick would fall asleep (or stay in his bed) if he thought Ben was going to be up while he (Nick) had to sleep. He would throw a huge fit and he would be very sad....not to mention the fact that I sit in their room until they fall asleep and I could not leave Ben outside of the room unattended. Having them on different schedules would just be too hard.
The other thing is that I have read in several places that children should really have a nap until they turn four. Now I know all children are different but is that something that ever concerned those of you who let your younger ones quit taking naps? Sleep is so important to their little bodies and I want to make sure they are getting as much as they should.
The dad and I both feel that things are going pretty well right now with our sleep schedule. Granted, one of us is still sitting in their room with them until they fall asleep but, other than that, things are going very smoothly. They now settle down and go to sleep in about 10 to 15 minutes at nap time. Since we are getting them to bed around 8:00pm now, they are normally asleep somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00, but they are quiet and content until they fall asleep.
As for waking up time, Nick has started sleeping in again, which I am thankful for. Three of the past four days he has slept until 7:00 or later. He even slept past 7:30 one day, which was surprising. I think sometimes Nick wakes up earlier because he is a light sleeper in the mornings and he sometimes hears the garage door when the dad is leaving for work. I think that is why he wakes up around 6:00 or 6:30 some days. Ben consistently sleeps until 7:00 or 7:30, for the most part.
For nap, Nick normally takes about an hour and a half nap and Ben will often take two hours. That means they are getting around 10 to 10.5 hours at night and another 1.5 to 2 during nap, for a total of about 11.5 or 12 hours a day. I'll have to look up how much they should be getting at this age. Ben is right at 41 months old. N is a couple of weeks over 39 months.
The only thing is that today I almost, almost let them stay up and not take a nap because it is soooo nice outside and I wanted to let them play as long as possible out there because it is going to be turning cold again. But, I kept thinking about how miserable Nick becomes without a nap and decided that would not be a good thing. He is a very unhappy little guy later in the day without the nap and it is just not worth it yet. But, as soon as they wake up, we will be outside for the rest of the day and it will soon be spring and we can spend all day outside.
I got the boys a soccer ball and goal today so I am going to go put the goal together so we can play with it when they wake up. They were very excited. This is going to be such a fun summer with them. They are at such a fun age to do so many things now.
On the other hand, they are really fighting over a lot of things these days. I am ready to get rid of all of our dishes, silverware and cups and go buy white everything so they can't fight over it anymore...although I know they would find something to fight over anyway. They are now fighting over who gets to sit in which car seat, who gets the blue spoon, blue bowl, blue plate, blue shirt, etc. You name it. They are fighting over everything these days. I am beginning to think that three is much harder than two and I didn't expect that.
At the same time, they also melt my heart these days because they say the sweetest things. God knew what he was doing when he made them look and sound soooo cute when they are at an age where they can be a bit frustrating at times:).
Must go. I know I need to post some pics. Will try to do so soon.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
February 22, 2009
The husband and I celebrated our 4th year of marriage on Thursday. He took the day off and we took it easy for most of the day. We dropped the boys off at our friend's house for a couple of hours and went out to dinner together. It was very nice and fun to reminisce about "four years ago today" type of stuff. My birthday is on Monday and my mom's birthday is on Tuesday and, of course, we just had Valentine's day too so this is a celebrating type of month for us.
The boys are still going at ninety miles an hour. They are at that age where they are constantly saying the funniest things. One of the things they say a lot these days is 'probably'. It is funny how they use it. We hear it most often as "I probably done now". It always makes me smile. Nick also used 'actually' the other day in a sentence. I can't remember the sentence, although his usage of the word was close to being correct and left me smiling again. They are very funny.
I have noticed that sharing has become much much harder lately than it ever has been between them. They are frequently at odds over something or another that they both want these days. It doesn't matter that we have a decent number of cars, trucks and trains. The issue is that "I want the blue one; it's my favorite" (or whatever color happens to be the favorite of the day). I am finding that the threes seem to be a bit more difficult in some ways than the twos and I'm not sure why. Maybe I just don't understand enough about child development and what to expect in the threes. Or maybe it is just that they are now old enough to have opinions and to be firm on what they want and don't want and they are too old for distraction tactics. They have outgrown my knowledge level:). I need some more tools in my tool box.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. She was a teacher of young ones not so long ago so she has more training in these types of things and knows better what to expect, what is normal, etc. She also has two sons; one who is a few months older than Ben and the other is around 18 months old. I was telling her how they are having more trouble sharing now and she said this is totally normal for their age. She said at this age they feel that the toy is a part of them so it is much harder for them to see another child playing with something they really like. I was glad we talked about it. It helped me to have a new perspective on their behavior.
My niece was in from college for the weekend so a bunch of us gathered at Papa and Mimi's yesterday. The boys always have a very fun day when we go to the farm. This time they got to see the cousins and had a very fun time wrestling with cousin Trenton. Uncle Kelly spent a good amount of time taking them for rides on his big tractor and letting them 'drive' and push all the buttons and honk the horn. It was very cold and windy but, thankfully, he has a very nice tractor that has heat. They also went with Uncle Kelly and the dad in Uncle Kelly's big truck to feed the cows. This truck can pick up two of the very large bales of hay at a time so it was another new experience for everyone, including the dad who said he also enjoyed watching how they did this. We all had a good time and it is always nice to get together with family.
Gotta go. Boys are waking up from nap and husband is at the health club swimming.
The boys are still going at ninety miles an hour. They are at that age where they are constantly saying the funniest things. One of the things they say a lot these days is 'probably'. It is funny how they use it. We hear it most often as "I probably done now". It always makes me smile. Nick also used 'actually' the other day in a sentence. I can't remember the sentence, although his usage of the word was close to being correct and left me smiling again. They are very funny.
I have noticed that sharing has become much much harder lately than it ever has been between them. They are frequently at odds over something or another that they both want these days. It doesn't matter that we have a decent number of cars, trucks and trains. The issue is that "I want the blue one; it's my favorite" (or whatever color happens to be the favorite of the day). I am finding that the threes seem to be a bit more difficult in some ways than the twos and I'm not sure why. Maybe I just don't understand enough about child development and what to expect in the threes. Or maybe it is just that they are now old enough to have opinions and to be firm on what they want and don't want and they are too old for distraction tactics. They have outgrown my knowledge level:). I need some more tools in my tool box.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. She was a teacher of young ones not so long ago so she has more training in these types of things and knows better what to expect, what is normal, etc. She also has two sons; one who is a few months older than Ben and the other is around 18 months old. I was telling her how they are having more trouble sharing now and she said this is totally normal for their age. She said at this age they feel that the toy is a part of them so it is much harder for them to see another child playing with something they really like. I was glad we talked about it. It helped me to have a new perspective on their behavior.
My niece was in from college for the weekend so a bunch of us gathered at Papa and Mimi's yesterday. The boys always have a very fun day when we go to the farm. This time they got to see the cousins and had a very fun time wrestling with cousin Trenton. Uncle Kelly spent a good amount of time taking them for rides on his big tractor and letting them 'drive' and push all the buttons and honk the horn. It was very cold and windy but, thankfully, he has a very nice tractor that has heat. They also went with Uncle Kelly and the dad in Uncle Kelly's big truck to feed the cows. This truck can pick up two of the very large bales of hay at a time so it was another new experience for everyone, including the dad who said he also enjoyed watching how they did this. We all had a good time and it is always nice to get together with family.
Gotta go. Boys are waking up from nap and husband is at the health club swimming.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
February 11, 2009
Yesterday the boys and I went to the farm to see Mimi and Papa. It was a beautiful 73ish degrees and a bright sunny day and we had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful weather....the calm before the storm.
We went out with Papa in his truck to feed the cows. The boys watched, wide eyed, while Papa lowered the big fork thing on the back of his truck, backed into the very large bale of hay and then raised it up onto the back of the truck. They enjoyed taking turns lowering the hay for the cows and sitting on Papa's lap so they could steer the truck through the pasture.
They also got to help feed the ducks on Papa's pond and then he took them each for a ride on the 4-wheeler. The boys and I also enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek. Loads of fun was had by all.
This morning we went to the aquarium. For the first time, we got to see one of the beavers and the otters. We were there during feeding time so they were all out and busy, including the raccoons. The boys also enjoyed petting the sting rays and the sharks.
We had a lot of fun but I am now ready to stay home for a day. Can you tell I am a bit of a homebody? This comes after many years of doing lots of traveling though so I think I have earned it:).
Overall, things are going very smoothly around here these days. Behavior has been good and potty training is going pretty well. Nick has been waking up way to early lately but he is pretty good about climbing into bed with me and hanging out for a bit while I watch or listen to a little news. He pets Dancer and talks a lot but he is pretty good about letting me take a bit of time to wake up. On the other hand, Ben is sleeping in these days and is taking longer naps than Nick too. I am wondering if he is in another growth spurt.
We have moved the recliner back into the boys' bedroom and are sitting with them until they fall asleep again. I think we both decided it was just easier and less contentious to do it this way. I actually enjoy it most of the time. At nap time, I let them each pick out one book to take upstairs and I read it to them while they are lying in bed. At night time, we are still doing our normal routine.
Both boys continue to be wonderful eaters and will eat just about anything. The only thing I can think of that they definitely do not like is cucumbers. I was actually really surprised that they did not like them because they like pretty much all veggies and fruits that they have tried.
We went out with Papa in his truck to feed the cows. The boys watched, wide eyed, while Papa lowered the big fork thing on the back of his truck, backed into the very large bale of hay and then raised it up onto the back of the truck. They enjoyed taking turns lowering the hay for the cows and sitting on Papa's lap so they could steer the truck through the pasture.
They also got to help feed the ducks on Papa's pond and then he took them each for a ride on the 4-wheeler. The boys and I also enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek. Loads of fun was had by all.
This morning we went to the aquarium. For the first time, we got to see one of the beavers and the otters. We were there during feeding time so they were all out and busy, including the raccoons. The boys also enjoyed petting the sting rays and the sharks.
We had a lot of fun but I am now ready to stay home for a day. Can you tell I am a bit of a homebody? This comes after many years of doing lots of traveling though so I think I have earned it:).
Overall, things are going very smoothly around here these days. Behavior has been good and potty training is going pretty well. Nick has been waking up way to early lately but he is pretty good about climbing into bed with me and hanging out for a bit while I watch or listen to a little news. He pets Dancer and talks a lot but he is pretty good about letting me take a bit of time to wake up. On the other hand, Ben is sleeping in these days and is taking longer naps than Nick too. I am wondering if he is in another growth spurt.
We have moved the recliner back into the boys' bedroom and are sitting with them until they fall asleep again. I think we both decided it was just easier and less contentious to do it this way. I actually enjoy it most of the time. At nap time, I let them each pick out one book to take upstairs and I read it to them while they are lying in bed. At night time, we are still doing our normal routine.
Both boys continue to be wonderful eaters and will eat just about anything. The only thing I can think of that they definitely do not like is cucumbers. I was actually really surprised that they did not like them because they like pretty much all veggies and fruits that they have tried.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
February 4, 2009
We seem to be mostly over our cold stuff so that is great. I think this is one of our fastest recoveries ever and am very thankful.
I took the boys to the mall today to let them play in the kids play area. It had been a long time since we had been there and they had a lot of fun. I sat there with a smile on my face, thinking about the times they had played there when they were so small and I had to watch them like a mama-hawk to ensure they did not get trampled upon by the bigger, faster kids. Now I have to watch them like a mama-hawk to make sure they don't trample the little ones.
They are growing up too fast!!
I took the boys to the mall today to let them play in the kids play area. It had been a long time since we had been there and they had a lot of fun. I sat there with a smile on my face, thinking about the times they had played there when they were so small and I had to watch them like a mama-hawk to ensure they did not get trampled upon by the bigger, faster kids. Now I have to watch them like a mama-hawk to make sure they don't trample the little ones.
They are growing up too fast!!
Sunday, February 01, 2009
February 1, 2009
Well, Ben, Nick and I all have the cold now so we have not done a whole lot this weekend. The boys both continue to play and run around as if they are perfectly well; not so with me. It amazes me how they seem to be so oblivious to having a cold. They just continue on as if nothing is different, except for the quick detours to the tissue box.
I find a trail of tissues next to every tissue box around the house. Most of them, if not all of them, are Nick's, as he has the most runny nose of the three of us. He takes one tissue, wipes his runny nose and puts it next to the tissue box....and then he comes back a bit later and does the same thing again, even though he could easily use that one tissue more than once. Oh well, at least he is wiping his own nose now and he has learned to blow it a bit now too. Ben still blows out of his mouth, for the most part. Fortunately he has only had one day where he really needed to blow his nose. He was a bit frustrated that day but, since then, he has been doing pretty well.
I have had a very low level of energy, which I really don't like. It makes everything seem like such an effort. The dad has been doing extra to help out so I could take some rest periods during the day...especially today, since Nick woke up at 1:00am, thinking it was morning. He came into our room saying, "mommy, I can't see!", because our room was darker than the other parts of the house. He was not a very happy camper when he found out it was not time to wake up yet. I was not a very happy camper either, as I ended up being awake from at least 1:00 to 3:00 and had fitful sleep after 3:00. But I am very thankful I was able to take a good nap today and also to rest a lot.
Our ice is pretty much all gone now and it has warmed up once again. It is so nice to have a few warmer days mixed in with the wintery days so the boys can enjoy playing outside. We really have not been out much this past week, with the bad weather and now our colds. We stayed home today (Sunday) because I do not like it when people bring sick kids to church and leave them in the classes with the other kids. That is how my guys usually end up catching something, although I know there is normally a period where your child is coming down with something and could be spreading it but you may not know it yet.
I talked to the lady who is copying the boys' lifebooks and she said she should have them back to us by the end of this week. She is also putting them on a CD for us, which will be nice to have. She is copying them on to card stock paper. Once we get them, we can decide how we want to put them into a book. We have had several ideas on the best way to do this but it will be more clear once we actually see them. I am excited to see how they turn out.
Well, I'm just waiting for the boys to fall asleep so I can head to bed myself. Hope you had a good weekend.
I find a trail of tissues next to every tissue box around the house. Most of them, if not all of them, are Nick's, as he has the most runny nose of the three of us. He takes one tissue, wipes his runny nose and puts it next to the tissue box....and then he comes back a bit later and does the same thing again, even though he could easily use that one tissue more than once. Oh well, at least he is wiping his own nose now and he has learned to blow it a bit now too. Ben still blows out of his mouth, for the most part. Fortunately he has only had one day where he really needed to blow his nose. He was a bit frustrated that day but, since then, he has been doing pretty well.
I have had a very low level of energy, which I really don't like. It makes everything seem like such an effort. The dad has been doing extra to help out so I could take some rest periods during the day...especially today, since Nick woke up at 1:00am, thinking it was morning. He came into our room saying, "mommy, I can't see!", because our room was darker than the other parts of the house. He was not a very happy camper when he found out it was not time to wake up yet. I was not a very happy camper either, as I ended up being awake from at least 1:00 to 3:00 and had fitful sleep after 3:00. But I am very thankful I was able to take a good nap today and also to rest a lot.
Our ice is pretty much all gone now and it has warmed up once again. It is so nice to have a few warmer days mixed in with the wintery days so the boys can enjoy playing outside. We really have not been out much this past week, with the bad weather and now our colds. We stayed home today (Sunday) because I do not like it when people bring sick kids to church and leave them in the classes with the other kids. That is how my guys usually end up catching something, although I know there is normally a period where your child is coming down with something and could be spreading it but you may not know it yet.
I talked to the lady who is copying the boys' lifebooks and she said she should have them back to us by the end of this week. She is also putting them on a CD for us, which will be nice to have. She is copying them on to card stock paper. Once we get them, we can decide how we want to put them into a book. We have had several ideas on the best way to do this but it will be more clear once we actually see them. I am excited to see how they turn out.
Well, I'm just waiting for the boys to fall asleep so I can head to bed myself. Hope you had a good weekend.
Friday, January 30, 2009
January 30, 2009 Part 2
Today Nick and I were sitting next to each other at the kitchen island, eating lunch. He leaned over, laid his head against me, put an arm around me and said, "I love you through and through". Isn't that sweet? This came from a book we used to read a lot at bedtime but we haven't read it in quite some time.
This evening, as I was changing him into his pj's, he leaned against me and said, "you best my friend", or something like that. He got the words out of order and it was very cute.
Ben and Nick are both sick with colds now. Hopefully I won't get it and they will recover quickly.
This evening, as I was changing him into his pj's, he leaned against me and said, "you best my friend", or something like that. He got the words out of order and it was very cute.
Ben and Nick are both sick with colds now. Hopefully I won't get it and they will recover quickly.
January 30, 2009
I am constantly researching and reading to ensure we are doing all we should be doing, since the boys are not going to a formal preschool. I have the bug that I think many beginning home school mom's have in that I am at times wondering if we should "get started" doing something a bit more scheduled and official. Inevitably, after researching and reading and praying about it, I come back to the same conclusion: let them be three and enjoy themselves.
After praying about it, my most recent direction is to focus more intently on character development. It's funny how working on their character development is also working on my character development....isn't it funny how that works. Today I have been reminding them, when needed, to use a kind voice when talking to each other. It is a good reminder for me too, as it is easy for moms to lose our patience at times.
So we will continue to work on character development, with more intent. One of the things I must work on is encouraging them to help me more, when I am working about the house. It is so easy to wait to do house work type jobs when they are busy or sleeping but they are at an age where they can and should be helping more now. They are at such a great age for this, since they want to help and to learn how to do the things we (the dad and I) do. It takes a bit more thought on my part, of how to let them help me, what they can do, even if it is not just the way I do it.
They already put their dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket, at the end of the day, and they help to clear the table and set the table at times but we are not very consistent with the table duty. Also, they will start to set the table and then get distracted and not finish. So, we will be working on being more consistent and making sure the job is completed well. I need to have them do things alongside me until they learn it well and feel a sense of accomplishment and of helping out the family, as I want them to feel their assistance is appreciated and needed in our family.
We have already been working on persistence, or rather, praising it when it is displayed. We have also been working on obedience (obey, right away, every day, in a cheerful way:) and will continue to do so:). We work on sharing every day and Nick especially has been showing some growth in this area, as well as being compassionate towards Ben, although sometimes I'm not sure if this is always a good thing. We may be quickly approaching a point where Ben thinks he should always get his way and he always (or quite frequently) wants whatever Nick just picked up to play with.
In addition to character development, we will continue to learn through play, as we have to date.
We do preschool math by playing games and playing with toys that have us sorting, matching, counting, creating/finishing patterns and playing memory games.
We work on the basics of reading by playing with alphabet puzzles and the Leapfrog toy on the little white board. It is the one that teaches letters, phonics and spelling of three letter words. We work on letter sounds with the leapfrog toys also but we also discuss letter sounds when opportunities come up at other times during the day, such as when we are reading books. We also have fun with these sometimes when we are waiting for our meal, when we eat out on Sunday after church. We keep several types of fun, educational things to do in the diaper bag and the boys love to do this when they are getting bored at a restaurant. We play a game, once in a while, when we are in the car or waiting for something, where I tell the boys a word and they try to determine what letter it starts with. We are still a bit new to this game but Ben is actually pretty good at it, which was quite a surprise to me.
Probably most importantly, we spend lots of time reading a wide variety of books to the boys. I normally read to them in the morning. I have recently started letting them each pick a book that I read to them, while they are lying in bed, (hopefully) becoming relaxed and restful just before nap time. And I normally read again to them in the afternoon. The dad frequently reads to them when he gets home from work or after dinner and then they each get to pick another book to read before bedtime, after which we also read out of their Bible and the Everything a Child Needs to Know About God book. We also have a bunch of books in the bathroom, next to their potty chair. I encourage them to look at the pictures and have overheard them each "reading" aloud to themselves (stories they have memorized). I try not to read to them in the bathroom because they will sit there, wanting me to read more, even though they are finish and I don't like that:). I would much rather read while we are sitting on the couch, snuggling together.
We don't get in all of these reading sessions every single day, especially when we have to get out and run errands, but we do get in most of them on most days. Sometimes we only read one or two books before something distracts us and other times we read 8 or 9 books. We normally just follow the boys' lead.
To find good books for the boys, I look at book lists on the Sonlight website, other blogs of those who have already home schooled preschoolers and I also have three books that recommend good books for children. Also, Amazon has a listing of children's classics so that is a good resource, although I buy many of our books at my favorite used bookstore. I think the level of books we are reading to them are pretty good for their age also and they have a fairly good vocabulary.
We have the beginners set of Building Thinking Skills books from CriticalThinking.com. These are suppose to be work books but we don't really use them that way. I put them in with the boys' books and, every now and then, they get interested in them again and ask us to "read" them. They can easily be used that way, where you go through various pages and ask questions and have fun trying to figure out the answers, while sitting on the couch together. That is how we have used them so far, just sitting on the couch, with a child on each side and letting them pick out which pages they want to do. These are fun books and we all enjoy them.
We also have the Kumon cut, paste/sticker, fold, color, trace and maze books, along with the Brain Quest books that have sections such as My World (i.e. put an X on the things that do not belong in the house), Science (i.e. draw a circle around the animals/plants that are living), Numbers, Phonics, Letters, Sorting & Matching, Colors and Shapes, etc. These two sets of books are what we use when the boys ask to "do school". We usually do this two or three times a week, depending on what else we have going on and what the weather is like.
And, of course, they get lots of play time. Their favorite things to play these days are tractors/farm toys, firetrucks and the ambulance, cars and trucks with the garage or just running over the couch and couch pillows. They also enjoy puzzles a lot. We seldom go two days in a row without them spending a good amount of time working on puzzles - today, they worked together to do two large floor puzzles without any adult help. Then they did the United States floor puzzle but I helped them with that one. Additional favorites are playing trains, jumping on the mini-trampoline, and pretending to cook and prepare meals for me and also to shop for groceries.
When I write it all out like this, it makes me realize exactly how much we are doing to cover preschool, over time (meaning we don't do it all every week). I am glad I sat down and wrote this. It is good for helping me to think it through.....and now it's time for bed. Good night.
After praying about it, my most recent direction is to focus more intently on character development. It's funny how working on their character development is also working on my character development....isn't it funny how that works. Today I have been reminding them, when needed, to use a kind voice when talking to each other. It is a good reminder for me too, as it is easy for moms to lose our patience at times.
So we will continue to work on character development, with more intent. One of the things I must work on is encouraging them to help me more, when I am working about the house. It is so easy to wait to do house work type jobs when they are busy or sleeping but they are at an age where they can and should be helping more now. They are at such a great age for this, since they want to help and to learn how to do the things we (the dad and I) do. It takes a bit more thought on my part, of how to let them help me, what they can do, even if it is not just the way I do it.
They already put their dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket, at the end of the day, and they help to clear the table and set the table at times but we are not very consistent with the table duty. Also, they will start to set the table and then get distracted and not finish. So, we will be working on being more consistent and making sure the job is completed well. I need to have them do things alongside me until they learn it well and feel a sense of accomplishment and of helping out the family, as I want them to feel their assistance is appreciated and needed in our family.
We have already been working on persistence, or rather, praising it when it is displayed. We have also been working on obedience (obey, right away, every day, in a cheerful way:) and will continue to do so:). We work on sharing every day and Nick especially has been showing some growth in this area, as well as being compassionate towards Ben, although sometimes I'm not sure if this is always a good thing. We may be quickly approaching a point where Ben thinks he should always get his way and he always (or quite frequently) wants whatever Nick just picked up to play with.
In addition to character development, we will continue to learn through play, as we have to date.
We do preschool math by playing games and playing with toys that have us sorting, matching, counting, creating/finishing patterns and playing memory games.
We work on the basics of reading by playing with alphabet puzzles and the Leapfrog toy on the little white board. It is the one that teaches letters, phonics and spelling of three letter words. We work on letter sounds with the leapfrog toys also but we also discuss letter sounds when opportunities come up at other times during the day, such as when we are reading books. We also have fun with these sometimes when we are waiting for our meal, when we eat out on Sunday after church. We keep several types of fun, educational things to do in the diaper bag and the boys love to do this when they are getting bored at a restaurant. We play a game, once in a while, when we are in the car or waiting for something, where I tell the boys a word and they try to determine what letter it starts with. We are still a bit new to this game but Ben is actually pretty good at it, which was quite a surprise to me.
Probably most importantly, we spend lots of time reading a wide variety of books to the boys. I normally read to them in the morning. I have recently started letting them each pick a book that I read to them, while they are lying in bed, (hopefully) becoming relaxed and restful just before nap time. And I normally read again to them in the afternoon. The dad frequently reads to them when he gets home from work or after dinner and then they each get to pick another book to read before bedtime, after which we also read out of their Bible and the Everything a Child Needs to Know About God book. We also have a bunch of books in the bathroom, next to their potty chair. I encourage them to look at the pictures and have overheard them each "reading" aloud to themselves (stories they have memorized). I try not to read to them in the bathroom because they will sit there, wanting me to read more, even though they are finish and I don't like that:). I would much rather read while we are sitting on the couch, snuggling together.
We don't get in all of these reading sessions every single day, especially when we have to get out and run errands, but we do get in most of them on most days. Sometimes we only read one or two books before something distracts us and other times we read 8 or 9 books. We normally just follow the boys' lead.
To find good books for the boys, I look at book lists on the Sonlight website, other blogs of those who have already home schooled preschoolers and I also have three books that recommend good books for children. Also, Amazon has a listing of children's classics so that is a good resource, although I buy many of our books at my favorite used bookstore. I think the level of books we are reading to them are pretty good for their age also and they have a fairly good vocabulary.
We have the beginners set of Building Thinking Skills books from CriticalThinking.com. These are suppose to be work books but we don't really use them that way. I put them in with the boys' books and, every now and then, they get interested in them again and ask us to "read" them. They can easily be used that way, where you go through various pages and ask questions and have fun trying to figure out the answers, while sitting on the couch together. That is how we have used them so far, just sitting on the couch, with a child on each side and letting them pick out which pages they want to do. These are fun books and we all enjoy them.
We also have the Kumon cut, paste/sticker, fold, color, trace and maze books, along with the Brain Quest books that have sections such as My World (i.e. put an X on the things that do not belong in the house), Science (i.e. draw a circle around the animals/plants that are living), Numbers, Phonics, Letters, Sorting & Matching, Colors and Shapes, etc. These two sets of books are what we use when the boys ask to "do school". We usually do this two or three times a week, depending on what else we have going on and what the weather is like.
And, of course, they get lots of play time. Their favorite things to play these days are tractors/farm toys, firetrucks and the ambulance, cars and trucks with the garage or just running over the couch and couch pillows. They also enjoy puzzles a lot. We seldom go two days in a row without them spending a good amount of time working on puzzles - today, they worked together to do two large floor puzzles without any adult help. Then they did the United States floor puzzle but I helped them with that one. Additional favorites are playing trains, jumping on the mini-trampoline, and pretending to cook and prepare meals for me and also to shop for groceries.
When I write it all out like this, it makes me realize exactly how much we are doing to cover preschool, over time (meaning we don't do it all every week). I am glad I sat down and wrote this. It is good for helping me to think it through.....and now it's time for bed. Good night.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
January 28, 2009
We have had company for the past few days. A good friend from out of town was here and it was so nice to see her. She got stuck with us for a day longer than she had planned, due to an ice storm. We were not complaining, since we have missed her and enjoyed having her with us but I know she had other people she wanted to visit. Today is still very cold but the sun has been shining strong all day so the ice is quickly melting away.
Looks like we are starting another round of colds, although I can't complain too much because it has been a while since we have had anything around here. Nck started showing symptoms last night and woke up today with a runny nose that has not stopped all day. He didn't take a very long nap today and I'm sure that was due to not being able to breathe properly. He also did not want a gummy bear after using the potty and he passed on dinner and chocolate cake. That's when you know your child is really not feeling well, although it is amazing how kids keep going and keep playing, even though they do not feel well. The onset of this cold is perfectly timed for having been obtained at church, either on Sunday or Monday. I will be surprised if all of us do not end up with it, since we all eat and drink after each other quite often.
We seem to have made a break through with potty training, although it is too soon to tell if it will actually take this time or if we will once again regress. Ben continues to do well, although he did wet his pants once today. Nick woke up dry this morning and has stayed dry all day long, so far. I am completely shocked. He is really doing well with it right now, although I'm not sure how his cold will impact our progress. He did not want to go potty when he woke up from his nap and he had already been awake for over an hour and a half when I suggested it. I let them watch an extra 30 minute video, since he is not feeling well and we all kind of needed a little down time today. I convinced him to go to the bathroom by telling him we would not watch another video unless he did. I was shocked to find that he was still dry.
What we have been up to, in addition to visiting with our guest:
We have been doing lots of reading. We received some new (used) books last week and we have enjoyed reading lots of new stories. One of our favorite new storybooks is The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury. We already had several of the books included in this storybook and there is at least one or two stories that I don't feel are appropriate for the boys. However, this book still has some wonderful stories that we have all enjoyed and, so far, we have just touched the surface. We are also enjoying Richard Scary's Best Storybook Ever (or something like that) in addition to several others.
I have started reading to the boys, while they are in bed for nap or night and I am sitting in the recliner in their room. I really enjoy doing this and hope it can become a regular, fun thing for us to enjoy. I just have to remember to get them into bed a bit earlier or we end up not having time.
We have also been doing our "school work". It is pretty funny to call it that but I think it makes them feel like it is important. The other advantage of calling it that is that it distinguishes this time, when we are using our 'special' books, they are expected to follow directions and try to hold pencils correctly, etc., from casual coloring time or art time. Our preschool work basically consists of coloring, cutting, using paste and stickers, folding, tracing and doing mazes. They really enjoy it so that is the important thing this year. Our focus for this year is simply to learn that learning is fun, which comes pretty natural to them:), work on fine motor skills and attention span and our main focus is learning the basics to get to the point of reading (and having fun). So we spend lots of time reading. The boys already know their letters and most of the letter sounds but not all. Ben is already pretty good at telling me what letter/sound a word starts with, when I ask him (sometimes we do this as a kind of game and the boys really enjoy it).
So those are the things we are really working on, although we do not have any real type of schedule of any kind. Some days we do a lot more than others; some days we just do puzzles and play. We always read, usually several times a day. The boys love to be read to and they always ask several times a day so we do this often.
Time to sign off and get a couple of things done before bed.
Looks like we are starting another round of colds, although I can't complain too much because it has been a while since we have had anything around here. Nck started showing symptoms last night and woke up today with a runny nose that has not stopped all day. He didn't take a very long nap today and I'm sure that was due to not being able to breathe properly. He also did not want a gummy bear after using the potty and he passed on dinner and chocolate cake. That's when you know your child is really not feeling well, although it is amazing how kids keep going and keep playing, even though they do not feel well. The onset of this cold is perfectly timed for having been obtained at church, either on Sunday or Monday. I will be surprised if all of us do not end up with it, since we all eat and drink after each other quite often.
We seem to have made a break through with potty training, although it is too soon to tell if it will actually take this time or if we will once again regress. Ben continues to do well, although he did wet his pants once today. Nick woke up dry this morning and has stayed dry all day long, so far. I am completely shocked. He is really doing well with it right now, although I'm not sure how his cold will impact our progress. He did not want to go potty when he woke up from his nap and he had already been awake for over an hour and a half when I suggested it. I let them watch an extra 30 minute video, since he is not feeling well and we all kind of needed a little down time today. I convinced him to go to the bathroom by telling him we would not watch another video unless he did. I was shocked to find that he was still dry.
What we have been up to, in addition to visiting with our guest:
We have been doing lots of reading. We received some new (used) books last week and we have enjoyed reading lots of new stories. One of our favorite new storybooks is The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury. We already had several of the books included in this storybook and there is at least one or two stories that I don't feel are appropriate for the boys. However, this book still has some wonderful stories that we have all enjoyed and, so far, we have just touched the surface. We are also enjoying Richard Scary's Best Storybook Ever (or something like that) in addition to several others.
I have started reading to the boys, while they are in bed for nap or night and I am sitting in the recliner in their room. I really enjoy doing this and hope it can become a regular, fun thing for us to enjoy. I just have to remember to get them into bed a bit earlier or we end up not having time.
We have also been doing our "school work". It is pretty funny to call it that but I think it makes them feel like it is important. The other advantage of calling it that is that it distinguishes this time, when we are using our 'special' books, they are expected to follow directions and try to hold pencils correctly, etc., from casual coloring time or art time. Our preschool work basically consists of coloring, cutting, using paste and stickers, folding, tracing and doing mazes. They really enjoy it so that is the important thing this year. Our focus for this year is simply to learn that learning is fun, which comes pretty natural to them:), work on fine motor skills and attention span and our main focus is learning the basics to get to the point of reading (and having fun). So we spend lots of time reading. The boys already know their letters and most of the letter sounds but not all. Ben is already pretty good at telling me what letter/sound a word starts with, when I ask him (sometimes we do this as a kind of game and the boys really enjoy it).
So those are the things we are really working on, although we do not have any real type of schedule of any kind. Some days we do a lot more than others; some days we just do puzzles and play. We always read, usually several times a day. The boys love to be read to and they always ask several times a day so we do this often.
Time to sign off and get a couple of things done before bed.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
January 25, 2009
One of my nieces came to stay with us for a couple of days this past week, which was wonderful. The boys really enjoyed playing with her and I enjoyed her company also. I was also able to take some time out to declutter the house, which felt great.
I recently ordered a few new (new to us but used:) books for the boys so we were receiving a book here and a book there all week and it felt like Christmas:). I so enjoy receiving new books and the boys get real excited about new books too.
I dropped by my favorite used bookstore yesterday to see if they might have the Square Foot Gardening book. They did not have it but I ran across a new kid's section where they are now separating out kid's books that have won awards so I had fun looking through those. I found the book "The Mitten" (I think that's the name), which is an adorable Ukranian folktale. When I got home, the boys wanted me to read it to them right away and then they asked us to read it to them several more times that evening. They really liked it. It is a cute story. I did not find the gardening book I was looking for though so I am thinking about ordering it. It looked like it would be a good book to have, since I really want to start doing a bit of gardening (vegetables).
The boys are both doing great and we have not had any further illnesses around here, after our couple of colds at the beginning of the winter, for which I am very thankful. Ben continues to do wonderfully with the potty training, especially if the reward is an M&M or gummy bear. Nick has really surprised me at how well he has done lately, most likely due to the candy rewards. He is still very hit or miss, however, and he wears pull ups full time. Ben wears them if we are going out to church or somewhere where a bathroom might not be easily available, although I think we are probably being overly cautious with this, as he is quite good at waiting until we can get to the bathroom when he needs to go.
The boys have so much fun playing together now. I am always hearing one of them call the other by name and say "let's play puzzles" or "let's play trucks" or any number of other things they like to play together. They play very nicely together most of the time, although they have their moments, like all children
One of the things they like to do now is a little flip-over thing when they are jumping on their mini-trampoline. It has a rail for them to hold while they are jumping and they like to pull their legs up, put them over the rail and then push off and flip their legs over their head and land on their feet. My niece was showing them how to do it and helping them learn when she was here last week and now they are pretty good at it.
As for bedtime, it seems we are regressing in that department. We never made any further progress really so we decided to move the chair back into their room today, although I'm not so sure I have given up on this completely yet. I am still considering finding some kind of stories for them to listen to while they fall asleep. That might be just what we need to keep them in their beds. If anyone has any other solutions, I would love to hear them.
I really have mixed feelings about it because I know this is just a temporary age-related issue. I have recently thought I should just enjoy it while it lasts and maybe read to them or something, while they are falling asleep. I think I will pray about it for a while before I make a decision about which way to go next.
As for eating, they still pretty much eat anything and everything. We were at a Home and Garden show yesterday, the boys were hungry for their snack, we had accidentally left their bag with the snacks in the car and it was very cold outside. So we stop by the snack bar to see what they had to offer. They had the usual menu of burgers, hotdogs and such. When we were standing there reading the menu, Nick said "I want rice and broccoli". We usually have pizza on Saturday evenings and last night was no different. I usually fix a salad to go with it, so it is not 100% unhealthy. Last night I fixed a big salad and I like to put a little fruit in with all of the veggies. Ben ended up eating a huge bowl of salad, while a slice of pizza sat on his plate untouched. I think he may have finally eaten it, once he finished his salad. That child really amazes me though. He would be quite happy as a vegetarian, I believe. He eats tons of fruit and veggies. I always give him big servings of veggies with our meals and he normally asks for more. When we have a snack, they will both frequently ask for baby carrots with whatever else they are eating.
We were eating out one day and the dad had spinach on his plate...the cooked kind that Popeye used to eat. They wanted to know what it was and then they wanted to try it and they both said they liked it. I, on the other hand, don't even like to look at it:). They like to eat and they like to try new things, although there have been a couple of times recently when Ben said "I don't like that" when I put something new on his plate. I told him that I knew he would like it if he tried it because it was really yummy so he tried it and he did indeed like it. There was something recently though that I told him I didn't think he would like....can't remember what it was now. He tried it anyway and, I was right, he didn't like it.
Well, I think I have sufficiently made up for my lack of posts lately so I had better sign off for now and go spend some time with my cuties.
I recently ordered a few new (new to us but used:) books for the boys so we were receiving a book here and a book there all week and it felt like Christmas:). I so enjoy receiving new books and the boys get real excited about new books too.
I dropped by my favorite used bookstore yesterday to see if they might have the Square Foot Gardening book. They did not have it but I ran across a new kid's section where they are now separating out kid's books that have won awards so I had fun looking through those. I found the book "The Mitten" (I think that's the name), which is an adorable Ukranian folktale. When I got home, the boys wanted me to read it to them right away and then they asked us to read it to them several more times that evening. They really liked it. It is a cute story. I did not find the gardening book I was looking for though so I am thinking about ordering it. It looked like it would be a good book to have, since I really want to start doing a bit of gardening (vegetables).
The boys are both doing great and we have not had any further illnesses around here, after our couple of colds at the beginning of the winter, for which I am very thankful. Ben continues to do wonderfully with the potty training, especially if the reward is an M&M or gummy bear. Nick has really surprised me at how well he has done lately, most likely due to the candy rewards. He is still very hit or miss, however, and he wears pull ups full time. Ben wears them if we are going out to church or somewhere where a bathroom might not be easily available, although I think we are probably being overly cautious with this, as he is quite good at waiting until we can get to the bathroom when he needs to go.
The boys have so much fun playing together now. I am always hearing one of them call the other by name and say "let's play puzzles" or "let's play trucks" or any number of other things they like to play together. They play very nicely together most of the time, although they have their moments, like all children
One of the things they like to do now is a little flip-over thing when they are jumping on their mini-trampoline. It has a rail for them to hold while they are jumping and they like to pull their legs up, put them over the rail and then push off and flip their legs over their head and land on their feet. My niece was showing them how to do it and helping them learn when she was here last week and now they are pretty good at it.
As for bedtime, it seems we are regressing in that department. We never made any further progress really so we decided to move the chair back into their room today, although I'm not so sure I have given up on this completely yet. I am still considering finding some kind of stories for them to listen to while they fall asleep. That might be just what we need to keep them in their beds. If anyone has any other solutions, I would love to hear them.
I really have mixed feelings about it because I know this is just a temporary age-related issue. I have recently thought I should just enjoy it while it lasts and maybe read to them or something, while they are falling asleep. I think I will pray about it for a while before I make a decision about which way to go next.
As for eating, they still pretty much eat anything and everything. We were at a Home and Garden show yesterday, the boys were hungry for their snack, we had accidentally left their bag with the snacks in the car and it was very cold outside. So we stop by the snack bar to see what they had to offer. They had the usual menu of burgers, hotdogs and such. When we were standing there reading the menu, Nick said "I want rice and broccoli". We usually have pizza on Saturday evenings and last night was no different. I usually fix a salad to go with it, so it is not 100% unhealthy. Last night I fixed a big salad and I like to put a little fruit in with all of the veggies. Ben ended up eating a huge bowl of salad, while a slice of pizza sat on his plate untouched. I think he may have finally eaten it, once he finished his salad. That child really amazes me though. He would be quite happy as a vegetarian, I believe. He eats tons of fruit and veggies. I always give him big servings of veggies with our meals and he normally asks for more. When we have a snack, they will both frequently ask for baby carrots with whatever else they are eating.
We were eating out one day and the dad had spinach on his plate...the cooked kind that Popeye used to eat. They wanted to know what it was and then they wanted to try it and they both said they liked it. I, on the other hand, don't even like to look at it:). They like to eat and they like to try new things, although there have been a couple of times recently when Ben said "I don't like that" when I put something new on his plate. I told him that I knew he would like it if he tried it because it was really yummy so he tried it and he did indeed like it. There was something recently though that I told him I didn't think he would like....can't remember what it was now. He tried it anyway and, I was right, he didn't like it.
Well, I think I have sufficiently made up for my lack of posts lately so I had better sign off for now and go spend some time with my cuties.
Monday, January 19, 2009
January 19, 2009 Part 2
Nick, pretending that Ben is daddy: "Read to me daddy". And Ben is more than happy to oblige. This was one of the books they have memorized, I think.
Nick: "Mommy look! I made a snowman". (Poor kid; we have not had any snow yet this year:)
Nick: "Mommy look! I made a snowman". (Poor kid; we have not had any snow yet this year:)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
January 18, 2008
Two years ago today we picked up our sons from the baby home in Russia. Wow, it is hard to believe it has been two years already. We have all changed so much over the past two years. It is really amazing. All of our lives have certainly been blessed and enriched. My husband and I thank the Lord regularly for bringing our sons into our lives.
The other amazing thing is that I finally finished the boys' lifebooks this evening!! Yay!! I can't believe that I finally finished them. What a relief. I hope to take them to Kinko's tomorrow to have copies made.
In other news, Nick's face is much better, although we are still having to put ointment on it and make sure our humidity level is appropriate. The swelling is almost gone now, although it was interesting that his face was a bit more red when we were leaving church than when we arrive. I think their environment must have been very dry also. It's just that time of year I guess. Hopefully it will be all better soon.
Time for bed:).
The other amazing thing is that I finally finished the boys' lifebooks this evening!! Yay!! I can't believe that I finally finished them. What a relief. I hope to take them to Kinko's tomorrow to have copies made.
In other news, Nick's face is much better, although we are still having to put ointment on it and make sure our humidity level is appropriate. The swelling is almost gone now, although it was interesting that his face was a bit more red when we were leaving church than when we arrive. I think their environment must have been very dry also. It's just that time of year I guess. Hopefully it will be all better soon.
Time for bed:).
Friday, January 16, 2009
January 16, 2009
The boys woke up at 6:00am this morning. When Nick came downstairs, I immediately noticed his face was beat red. The right side is worse than the left but both sides are really bad. The right side even looks swollen, his right eye was a bit swollen all day and the inflammation has spread throughout the day. It has now moved to behind his ear and is moving around his eye, on the inside of the eye.
He had a bad episode with this last winter but we had not seen any signs of it yet this winter. We had humidifiers installed with our furnaces, downstairs and upstairs, and we were hoping this would fix the dryness issue in our house this year. We have had a lot of trouble getting the new humidifiers to work properly though. The guy came back out today and we think the downstairs humidifier is now working properly. However it seems the upstairs may have to be taken out and our money refunded, as it is not working at all. There is a pan under it to catch any extra water and it turns out the pan was full. I had noticed a dark stain on the ceiling in our living room yesterday, which should have sent off huge alarms in my head. We had so many other things going on though that I ended up forgetting about it. When the guy mentioned the water in the pan upstairs today, I immediately remembered the stain on the ceiling and knew right away from where it came.
The dad bought a large humidifier on his way home from work today and it is already running in the boys' room so the humidity level should be good in there when they go to bed. I boiled to large pots of water on the stove for a couple of hours this afternoon and that really helped the humidity level downstairs right away and it seems the furnace humidifier is now working (I think). So I think we now have the humidity level of the house in good shape again, which is good. Now we just have to get the inflammation in Nick's face under control.
He is such a good sport about it and it really does not seem to bother him much. It is very hot to the touch though and I can't imagine it is very comfortable. There were several times today when I could tell he was not quite his normal self today but, overall, he did really well considering. Hopefully we will see some improvement in the next 24 hours or so.
In other news, we sure did a lot of reading today. The boys really enjoy being read to and ask for it often. This morning, I read 9 books to them before they were done and ready to get down and play. I think that is the most I have read to them in one sitting and these are books that are typically listed for four-year-olds according to the books that I use to find good books, so they are a bit longer and more complex than the ones we used to read to them. We still have the simple ones too but they really like the books with more of a story now.
I really enjoy reading to them, although sometimes I struggle to stay awake:). I don't know why but it seems that every time we sit down to read, I start getting sleepy. There are so many books that I never read as a child, I am definitely enjoying picking out the books and reading.
Time to help get little boys ready for bed. Goodnight.
He had a bad episode with this last winter but we had not seen any signs of it yet this winter. We had humidifiers installed with our furnaces, downstairs and upstairs, and we were hoping this would fix the dryness issue in our house this year. We have had a lot of trouble getting the new humidifiers to work properly though. The guy came back out today and we think the downstairs humidifier is now working properly. However it seems the upstairs may have to be taken out and our money refunded, as it is not working at all. There is a pan under it to catch any extra water and it turns out the pan was full. I had noticed a dark stain on the ceiling in our living room yesterday, which should have sent off huge alarms in my head. We had so many other things going on though that I ended up forgetting about it. When the guy mentioned the water in the pan upstairs today, I immediately remembered the stain on the ceiling and knew right away from where it came.
The dad bought a large humidifier on his way home from work today and it is already running in the boys' room so the humidity level should be good in there when they go to bed. I boiled to large pots of water on the stove for a couple of hours this afternoon and that really helped the humidity level downstairs right away and it seems the furnace humidifier is now working (I think). So I think we now have the humidity level of the house in good shape again, which is good. Now we just have to get the inflammation in Nick's face under control.
He is such a good sport about it and it really does not seem to bother him much. It is very hot to the touch though and I can't imagine it is very comfortable. There were several times today when I could tell he was not quite his normal self today but, overall, he did really well considering. Hopefully we will see some improvement in the next 24 hours or so.
In other news, we sure did a lot of reading today. The boys really enjoy being read to and ask for it often. This morning, I read 9 books to them before they were done and ready to get down and play. I think that is the most I have read to them in one sitting and these are books that are typically listed for four-year-olds according to the books that I use to find good books, so they are a bit longer and more complex than the ones we used to read to them. We still have the simple ones too but they really like the books with more of a story now.
I really enjoy reading to them, although sometimes I struggle to stay awake:). I don't know why but it seems that every time we sit down to read, I start getting sleepy. There are so many books that I never read as a child, I am definitely enjoying picking out the books and reading.
Time to help get little boys ready for bed. Goodnight.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
January 15, 2009
Things have been pretty busy around here and yet there is nothing too exciting to report. The boys and I made our trip to OKC for the apostilles for our post placement reports and sent them off this week. That makes three down and one to go. Our last report will be due around this same time next year and then we will be done.
I took the boys to Target and let them each pick out some new big boy underpants, in hopes that would provide some much needed incentive. Since then, Ben has been wearing them each day and has not had an accident now in two and a half days. Nick, on the other hand, has an accident almost every time he turns around, or so it seems. I'm not sure what is up with that. On the afternoon when we returned from OKC, it was probably around 3:00 in the afternoon when we got home. Both boys put on their new underpants and N wet his pants six times that afternoon/evening. After that, he put on a pull up, since it was almost time for bed and I was out of sweat pants for him. I did laundry that night and let him start again the next day and he did the same thing. He sure seems to wet often and in smaller amounts. He tried again today and same thing. He likes to wear the new underwear but I have yet to see any progress in his ability to recognize he needs to go before he actually starts going. My plan is to wait until it gets warmer and then do the program that I did last time with him. He did very well with it at the time and he is older now so hopefully it will stick this time. Until then, I will continue letting him wear his big boy pants and "try" as much as he wants and I will encourage him and provide incentives and we'll see what happens. But, since it is so cold right now, he has to wear sweat pants or jeans and so it is not so easy for me to catch him as he is just starting to go and rush him to the bathroom.
I am very thankful that Ben is doing so well with using the potty. I would be going nuts if they were both wetting their pants this often. God has really blessed me in this way. It seems that it is usually one at a time that has an issue with something. It has saved my sanity.
I need to try to remember some of the funny/cute things the boys are saying lately. There have been several I have thought I would post about and then I forget them. One of them was Nick, the other day, telling me that I am his best friend. He told me this again tonight. It really melts my heart. The other funny thing is listening to them playing "stone soup", which is a book they like to read. They will pretend they are making soup and they will say, "mmmmm, this is good....but it needs something else" and the other one will ask what it needs and then they will think of all kinds of things to put in their "stone soup". Very cute.
Today, they wanted to sit at the table and color. I was just finishing up something before getting all of their stuff out and, while they were waiting for me, they started picking on one of the cats who was sleeping nearby. I told them to stop or they would not get to color. They continued with pestering the cat so I told them they could not color right now and sent them off to find something else to play. They both cried loudly, apologized and begged to color but I stuck to my guns. Nick tends to get over things like this easier/faster but Ben seems to take it to heart a bit more. They were in the library/playroom and I overheard Nick saying "let's play puzzles Ben!". I am seeing more and more that Nick does not like to see Ben upset, unless it is from something that Nick did, like taking his toy or hitting him or something. Soon after, I heard Nick say, "Ben, are you happy?; Are you happy Ben?". I think Ben said that he was happy. It was so cute and I heard him ask it again a bit later too. Very funny.
As for sleeping, Nick is staying in his bed much better these days. I am on night duty right now and they have both done very well. I had to go back in once because Nick decided he needed to go to the bathroom (and he did:). After that, they both went back to bed and I have not had to go back in since and they are both quiet now. So that's all good.
Well, boys seem to be sleeping. I'm off to bed myself now. Good night.
I took the boys to Target and let them each pick out some new big boy underpants, in hopes that would provide some much needed incentive. Since then, Ben has been wearing them each day and has not had an accident now in two and a half days. Nick, on the other hand, has an accident almost every time he turns around, or so it seems. I'm not sure what is up with that. On the afternoon when we returned from OKC, it was probably around 3:00 in the afternoon when we got home. Both boys put on their new underpants and N wet his pants six times that afternoon/evening. After that, he put on a pull up, since it was almost time for bed and I was out of sweat pants for him. I did laundry that night and let him start again the next day and he did the same thing. He sure seems to wet often and in smaller amounts. He tried again today and same thing. He likes to wear the new underwear but I have yet to see any progress in his ability to recognize he needs to go before he actually starts going. My plan is to wait until it gets warmer and then do the program that I did last time with him. He did very well with it at the time and he is older now so hopefully it will stick this time. Until then, I will continue letting him wear his big boy pants and "try" as much as he wants and I will encourage him and provide incentives and we'll see what happens. But, since it is so cold right now, he has to wear sweat pants or jeans and so it is not so easy for me to catch him as he is just starting to go and rush him to the bathroom.
I am very thankful that Ben is doing so well with using the potty. I would be going nuts if they were both wetting their pants this often. God has really blessed me in this way. It seems that it is usually one at a time that has an issue with something. It has saved my sanity.
I need to try to remember some of the funny/cute things the boys are saying lately. There have been several I have thought I would post about and then I forget them. One of them was Nick, the other day, telling me that I am his best friend. He told me this again tonight. It really melts my heart. The other funny thing is listening to them playing "stone soup", which is a book they like to read. They will pretend they are making soup and they will say, "mmmmm, this is good....but it needs something else" and the other one will ask what it needs and then they will think of all kinds of things to put in their "stone soup". Very cute.
Today, they wanted to sit at the table and color. I was just finishing up something before getting all of their stuff out and, while they were waiting for me, they started picking on one of the cats who was sleeping nearby. I told them to stop or they would not get to color. They continued with pestering the cat so I told them they could not color right now and sent them off to find something else to play. They both cried loudly, apologized and begged to color but I stuck to my guns. Nick tends to get over things like this easier/faster but Ben seems to take it to heart a bit more. They were in the library/playroom and I overheard Nick saying "let's play puzzles Ben!". I am seeing more and more that Nick does not like to see Ben upset, unless it is from something that Nick did, like taking his toy or hitting him or something. Soon after, I heard Nick say, "Ben, are you happy?; Are you happy Ben?". I think Ben said that he was happy. It was so cute and I heard him ask it again a bit later too. Very funny.
As for sleeping, Nick is staying in his bed much better these days. I am on night duty right now and they have both done very well. I had to go back in once because Nick decided he needed to go to the bathroom (and he did:). After that, they both went back to bed and I have not had to go back in since and they are both quiet now. So that's all good.
Well, boys seem to be sleeping. I'm off to bed myself now. Good night.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
January 7, 2009 Part 2
Now that the boys are both three years old, we are letting them watch 30 minutes of television a day. We have a bunch of old videos that my sister gave us and we have some DVD's that were given to us as gifts so the boys have plenty from which to choose. I have started having my quiet time and reading my Bible during this 30 minute period so it is actually working out very nicely for all of us.
But here is the thing. Once their 30 minutes are up and we turn off the set and they start playing again, they frequently start pretending many of the stories or scenes they saw in the video/DVD. It is amazing how much they remember and I am surprised at how often they will say something or pretend something that is new to me and I'm thinking "where did they learn that". I will ask them how they know that or where they saw/learned it and they tell me what video/DVD it was on. It is incredible what the remember. They do the same thing with books we read too.
Now, thankfully, the videos/DVD's that we have are all very wholesome and have good messages. Some of them are Bible stories, many are Barney and then we also have a hodge podge of Winnie-ther-Pooh, Veggie Tales, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, Madeline, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, etc. However, after watching my two three year olds running around pretending and reenacting scenes from what they have seen, I cannot understand how on earth people could say that television, movies and video games do not impact children.
We are very careful about what the boys watch. I don't want them watching anything that is scary or aggressive. They are aggressive with each other enough already. I certainly don't need to add to it. If something is the least bit scary they don't want to watch it and I am glad. They are great sleepers and I want it to stay that way. I really dislike most scary stuff myself so there is no way I would let my kids watch it, especially at this young age.
There are been several times when they finished watching their 30 minute video/DVD and they ran and asked me to read a book about something they were watching. Today we read Stone Soup after they had heard the story told on a Barney video. Oh, and they love to sing the I love you, you love me, we're a happy family song. It is so cute because they want to hug me and each other when they sing it. What a cute cute age three is turning out to be. Now if we can just get that potty training thing down, we'll be doing great.
But here is the thing. Once their 30 minutes are up and we turn off the set and they start playing again, they frequently start pretending many of the stories or scenes they saw in the video/DVD. It is amazing how much they remember and I am surprised at how often they will say something or pretend something that is new to me and I'm thinking "where did they learn that". I will ask them how they know that or where they saw/learned it and they tell me what video/DVD it was on. It is incredible what the remember. They do the same thing with books we read too.
Now, thankfully, the videos/DVD's that we have are all very wholesome and have good messages. Some of them are Bible stories, many are Barney and then we also have a hodge podge of Winnie-ther-Pooh, Veggie Tales, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, Madeline, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, etc. However, after watching my two three year olds running around pretending and reenacting scenes from what they have seen, I cannot understand how on earth people could say that television, movies and video games do not impact children.
We are very careful about what the boys watch. I don't want them watching anything that is scary or aggressive. They are aggressive with each other enough already. I certainly don't need to add to it. If something is the least bit scary they don't want to watch it and I am glad. They are great sleepers and I want it to stay that way. I really dislike most scary stuff myself so there is no way I would let my kids watch it, especially at this young age.
There are been several times when they finished watching their 30 minute video/DVD and they ran and asked me to read a book about something they were watching. Today we read Stone Soup after they had heard the story told on a Barney video. Oh, and they love to sing the I love you, you love me, we're a happy family song. It is so cute because they want to hug me and each other when they sing it. What a cute cute age three is turning out to be. Now if we can just get that potty training thing down, we'll be doing great.
January 7, 2009
Just when I think I have the boys figured out, something changes and I have to start all over again. I mentioned the other day that our potty training efforts and our bedtime efforts are not going very well these days. Fast forward a couple of days and, surprise, the boys are both doing better with potty stuff. Amazingly better. And I didn't do much of anything. Who would have thought.
Basically our situation was that nothing had changed with Nick since I last reported on this. He did great during our three day potty training exercise and even for a couple of days afterwards but, when all the excitement wore off, he was much too busy playing to bother with going to the potty and he could not care in the least if he ran around in dirty pull ups. He also put up a big fuss if I asked him to sit on the potty and try to go. I was really at a loss of where to begin again with him.
Ben was still doing a great job of pooping in the potty but he was using his pull up for peeing more and more often. I have had several people tell me that it would be easier to train two at the same time because, when one wanted to do it, then the other would to. Not. Don't believe this. It actually worked just the opposite in our house. Ben was trained to the point where he hardly ever had any kind of accident. Then he saw how Nick was not going to the potty at all and that seemed to work for him and he had more play time (or so it seemed), so he decided to start using his pull up for peeing also.
I really felt like I would be starting over again, for the most part. Only this time, they would kind of already know the drill and the excitement of the newness of it all would not be there. So, I was really dreading this when, all of a sudden, Nick decided to start using the potty for pooping. Boom! Just out of nowhere. He just decided. Isn't that nice? And, after I had a talk with Ben, he has decided to start using the potty all the time now, instead of peeing in his pull up. He wants to wear big boy pants again and I told him he could after he showed me he could go all day without wetting his pull up. He did that today with no problem.
So, it looks as if they may be getting to a point where they want to be potty trained. It will be so nice not to have to worry about pull ups, wipes and diaper bags. I can't even imagine it. Hopefully it will happen soon.
I think tomorrow I will take them shopping to buy some new big boy pants and see if that adds a little more incentive to the mix. Maybe if I let them pick them out, they will really want to wear them. I am hopeful that is all we need to get Nick back on the potty bandwagon.
As for our bedtime issues, we have had a very hard time keeping Nick in his bed at night. At nap time, they both usually do very well. They are so tired that they normally fall asleep within 10 minutes or so. We have had such a hard time with them at bedtime that we have now moved out bedtime a half hour. It used to be that we started getting ready at 7:30 and we tried to have them down by 8:00 but then they would play and get out of bed for about 30 minutes before they finally started to settle down around 8:30 and then they would both normally fall asleep between 8:30 and 9:00.
So, we have move out their bedtime a half hour so that they are going to bed at 8:30. We just recently did this so it is still a bit too soon to tell if it is going to help. They did settle down pretty quickly tonight though, I think. Sometimes it is hard to tell because Nick has figured out that if he walks softly we can't hear him. So I think he probably gets out of bed at times when we don't know it.
The dad was on the night watch last night and he ended up putting Nick in the next room for a short time, so he could see/understand what it would be like to be in that room by himself. We have been telling him that, if he doesn't start staying in his bed, we were considering moving him to his own room and he would be in there all by himself. He is a very social kid so I know he would definitely not like this. So hopefully it made an impression on him and he will start staying in his bed now.
If not, we'll try something else. You just keep trying until you finally find something that works or they finally grow out of whatever it is they are doing. Before I became a parent, I never knew how difficult it could be....but also how rewarding and joyful it is:).
I'm back to working on the lifebooks and I am so close to being done that I can taste it. I can't wait to finish these. It will be such a relief to have it done and to have books that the boys can look at and we can read to them. The lifebooks cover birth through coming home. I can't believe it has taken me this long to do this. They are really coming out nice though. I am pleased with the results. I just hope that Kinko's can copy them and put them in a bound book so the boys will each have a copy they can look at anytime without worrying about ruining the original.
In other news, our post placement report should be finished tomorrow. I still have to make copies of the pictures, although I have them ready to go. I will review the post placement report and, if everything looks good, I will probably plan a trip to OKC next week for the apostilles and then I will mail it off. After that I will do a happy dance because we will only have to do this one more time next January and then we will be done. Yay!
I have also contacted a lawyer to help us out with our readoption here in Oklahoma. This is not required, although it will make it much easier for the kids if they need to order more copies of their birth certificates in the future, since they will be issued an Oklahoma birth certificate. I have to gather up all of the paperwork and then I meet with the lawyer next Friday. I'm glad to finally get started on this because we have always planned to do it but it somehow fell to the bottom of our priority list.
Sounds like they are asleep and, as far as I know, nobody got out of their bed this time. Yay!
Basically our situation was that nothing had changed with Nick since I last reported on this. He did great during our three day potty training exercise and even for a couple of days afterwards but, when all the excitement wore off, he was much too busy playing to bother with going to the potty and he could not care in the least if he ran around in dirty pull ups. He also put up a big fuss if I asked him to sit on the potty and try to go. I was really at a loss of where to begin again with him.
Ben was still doing a great job of pooping in the potty but he was using his pull up for peeing more and more often. I have had several people tell me that it would be easier to train two at the same time because, when one wanted to do it, then the other would to. Not. Don't believe this. It actually worked just the opposite in our house. Ben was trained to the point where he hardly ever had any kind of accident. Then he saw how Nick was not going to the potty at all and that seemed to work for him and he had more play time (or so it seemed), so he decided to start using his pull up for peeing also.
I really felt like I would be starting over again, for the most part. Only this time, they would kind of already know the drill and the excitement of the newness of it all would not be there. So, I was really dreading this when, all of a sudden, Nick decided to start using the potty for pooping. Boom! Just out of nowhere. He just decided. Isn't that nice? And, after I had a talk with Ben, he has decided to start using the potty all the time now, instead of peeing in his pull up. He wants to wear big boy pants again and I told him he could after he showed me he could go all day without wetting his pull up. He did that today with no problem.
So, it looks as if they may be getting to a point where they want to be potty trained. It will be so nice not to have to worry about pull ups, wipes and diaper bags. I can't even imagine it. Hopefully it will happen soon.
I think tomorrow I will take them shopping to buy some new big boy pants and see if that adds a little more incentive to the mix. Maybe if I let them pick them out, they will really want to wear them. I am hopeful that is all we need to get Nick back on the potty bandwagon.
As for our bedtime issues, we have had a very hard time keeping Nick in his bed at night. At nap time, they both usually do very well. They are so tired that they normally fall asleep within 10 minutes or so. We have had such a hard time with them at bedtime that we have now moved out bedtime a half hour. It used to be that we started getting ready at 7:30 and we tried to have them down by 8:00 but then they would play and get out of bed for about 30 minutes before they finally started to settle down around 8:30 and then they would both normally fall asleep between 8:30 and 9:00.
So, we have move out their bedtime a half hour so that they are going to bed at 8:30. We just recently did this so it is still a bit too soon to tell if it is going to help. They did settle down pretty quickly tonight though, I think. Sometimes it is hard to tell because Nick has figured out that if he walks softly we can't hear him. So I think he probably gets out of bed at times when we don't know it.
The dad was on the night watch last night and he ended up putting Nick in the next room for a short time, so he could see/understand what it would be like to be in that room by himself. We have been telling him that, if he doesn't start staying in his bed, we were considering moving him to his own room and he would be in there all by himself. He is a very social kid so I know he would definitely not like this. So hopefully it made an impression on him and he will start staying in his bed now.
If not, we'll try something else. You just keep trying until you finally find something that works or they finally grow out of whatever it is they are doing. Before I became a parent, I never knew how difficult it could be....but also how rewarding and joyful it is:).
I'm back to working on the lifebooks and I am so close to being done that I can taste it. I can't wait to finish these. It will be such a relief to have it done and to have books that the boys can look at and we can read to them. The lifebooks cover birth through coming home. I can't believe it has taken me this long to do this. They are really coming out nice though. I am pleased with the results. I just hope that Kinko's can copy them and put them in a bound book so the boys will each have a copy they can look at anytime without worrying about ruining the original.
In other news, our post placement report should be finished tomorrow. I still have to make copies of the pictures, although I have them ready to go. I will review the post placement report and, if everything looks good, I will probably plan a trip to OKC next week for the apostilles and then I will mail it off. After that I will do a happy dance because we will only have to do this one more time next January and then we will be done. Yay!
I have also contacted a lawyer to help us out with our readoption here in Oklahoma. This is not required, although it will make it much easier for the kids if they need to order more copies of their birth certificates in the future, since they will be issued an Oklahoma birth certificate. I have to gather up all of the paperwork and then I meet with the lawyer next Friday. I'm glad to finally get started on this because we have always planned to do it but it somehow fell to the bottom of our priority list.
Sounds like they are asleep and, as far as I know, nobody got out of their bed this time. Yay!
Friday, January 02, 2009
January 2, 2009 Part 2
I thought it would be fun to do a comparison post, so here are some pictures of the boys from last Christmas (our first Christmas together and home for one almost year) and this Christmas.
That was then:
(Ben was not ready for Nick's hug:). If you click on the picture, you can see it better.
This is now:
The dad didn't want them to hold hands but I thought it was cute (I suggested it:).
And a few more....
That was then:
This is now:
That was then:
This is now:
That was then:
And this is now:
Now wasn't that fun?? Boy oh boy, have they changed over the past year or what?? Both sets of pics were taken on the Sunday before Christmas, as we were getting ready for church.
That was then:
(Ben was not ready for Nick's hug:). If you click on the picture, you can see it better.
This is now:
The dad didn't want them to hold hands but I thought it was cute (I suggested it:).And a few more....
That was then:
This is now:
That was then:
This is now:
That was then:
And this is now:
Now wasn't that fun?? Boy oh boy, have they changed over the past year or what?? Both sets of pics were taken on the Sunday before Christmas, as we were getting ready for church.
January 2, 2009
I am constantly amazed at how fast kids grow up, especially during the preschool and younger years, which is what I am most familiar with at this time. Ben is now 3 years and 3 months old and Nick is now 3 years and 1 month. The speed with which they learn new things is absolutely amazing.
I have always been of the mind that puzzles are really great for little kids. The boys have recently really taken off with their ability to put together puzzles without help. It seems like it happened over night, although I know that is not the case. We have a lot of puzzles and they can now put most of them together without any help. Today the dad and I were sitting at the kitchen island, reading and talking. We did not know the boys had climbed up on a chair in the next room to reach the shelf where the floor puzzles are kept. They had gotten a puzzle down, put it on the play table and had put it all together by themselves. Then they yelled at us to come see. We were amazed. The floor puzzle is a 2 x 3 foot jigsaw puzzle with 24 large pieces but they had worked it many times before.
I recently brought home 2 new 25 piece jigsaw puzzles, because I had noticed the ones we have were becoming less of a challenge. They needed a little help in the beginning to work these puzzles. Then, a couple of days later, I brought home 2 new 12 piece jigsaw puzzles. The boys were both able to put the 12 piece puzzles together without any help the first time they worked them. After they did that, they got the other two puzzles out and were able to also put those together without any help. It seems that something just clicked.
After working the floor puzzle today, they got the alphabet floor puzzle and, for the first time ever, they were able to put 90% of it together without help. It was the first time that they actually said the alphabet each time to figure out what the next letter in the train was suppose to be.
I am also impressed by their vocabulary's and how they can easily carry on a conversation these days. Today, Nick walked into the room where the rest of us were sitting and said, "hi guys, what'cha doin'?". Ok, now I know we need to use a little less slang-sounding talk around here but he said it so casually, as if he had been speaking like this forever, even though it was the first time I had ever heard him say something like this. I know that example is not a good one for displaying ones vocabulary knowledge but I think they both have large vocabularys for their age, probably because we read so much to them and also they frequently ask what a word means when we are talking. Today, for example, I was explaining to them what the words sympathy/sympathic and empathy mean.
I have not been around children enough to know if all of this is average for children of this age or if it is above average. Either way, I am impressed. Kids learn so incredibly fast and they also have such a huge desire to learn to do everything.
Both boys are very into trying to dress themselves, which I think is normal. They can do the bottom half and are close to being able to remove a shirt without help, although they still have issues with putting on a coat. They can put their shoes on without help (Velcro fasteners). Sometimes Nick might need a little help with getting them on the right feet. I ended up putting a black dot on the inside of Nick's sneakers so they could tell which shoes are Nick's and which are Ben's.
They also try to be very independent in the kitchen. They get their own plates, bowls and cups and they like to try to spread the peanut butter on crackers and stuff like that. They have been practicing cutting things too but it has to be something easier to cut, such as a banana.
They are very into playing together these days and they are spending more and more time interacting in their play and pretending together, such as one is the patient and the other is the doctor. It is very funny to observe these interactions and I see it a lot after we have finished reading or they have finished watching their 30 minutes of TV per day. They have great imaginations and will frequently act out what we just read or what they watched on TV. It is quite funny to watch one of them pretending to be Peter Rabbit and the other one chasing him saying "stop, thief!", as he pretends to be Mr. McGregor. This is one of their favorites to act out.
Isn't it awesome the way God made kids?!
I have always been of the mind that puzzles are really great for little kids. The boys have recently really taken off with their ability to put together puzzles without help. It seems like it happened over night, although I know that is not the case. We have a lot of puzzles and they can now put most of them together without any help. Today the dad and I were sitting at the kitchen island, reading and talking. We did not know the boys had climbed up on a chair in the next room to reach the shelf where the floor puzzles are kept. They had gotten a puzzle down, put it on the play table and had put it all together by themselves. Then they yelled at us to come see. We were amazed. The floor puzzle is a 2 x 3 foot jigsaw puzzle with 24 large pieces but they had worked it many times before.
I recently brought home 2 new 25 piece jigsaw puzzles, because I had noticed the ones we have were becoming less of a challenge. They needed a little help in the beginning to work these puzzles. Then, a couple of days later, I brought home 2 new 12 piece jigsaw puzzles. The boys were both able to put the 12 piece puzzles together without any help the first time they worked them. After they did that, they got the other two puzzles out and were able to also put those together without any help. It seems that something just clicked.
After working the floor puzzle today, they got the alphabet floor puzzle and, for the first time ever, they were able to put 90% of it together without help. It was the first time that they actually said the alphabet each time to figure out what the next letter in the train was suppose to be.
I am also impressed by their vocabulary's and how they can easily carry on a conversation these days. Today, Nick walked into the room where the rest of us were sitting and said, "hi guys, what'cha doin'?". Ok, now I know we need to use a little less slang-sounding talk around here but he said it so casually, as if he had been speaking like this forever, even though it was the first time I had ever heard him say something like this. I know that example is not a good one for displaying ones vocabulary knowledge but I think they both have large vocabularys for their age, probably because we read so much to them and also they frequently ask what a word means when we are talking. Today, for example, I was explaining to them what the words sympathy/sympathic and empathy mean.
I have not been around children enough to know if all of this is average for children of this age or if it is above average. Either way, I am impressed. Kids learn so incredibly fast and they also have such a huge desire to learn to do everything.
Both boys are very into trying to dress themselves, which I think is normal. They can do the bottom half and are close to being able to remove a shirt without help, although they still have issues with putting on a coat. They can put their shoes on without help (Velcro fasteners). Sometimes Nick might need a little help with getting them on the right feet. I ended up putting a black dot on the inside of Nick's sneakers so they could tell which shoes are Nick's and which are Ben's.
They also try to be very independent in the kitchen. They get their own plates, bowls and cups and they like to try to spread the peanut butter on crackers and stuff like that. They have been practicing cutting things too but it has to be something easier to cut, such as a banana.
They are very into playing together these days and they are spending more and more time interacting in their play and pretending together, such as one is the patient and the other is the doctor. It is very funny to observe these interactions and I see it a lot after we have finished reading or they have finished watching their 30 minutes of TV per day. They have great imaginations and will frequently act out what we just read or what they watched on TV. It is quite funny to watch one of them pretending to be Peter Rabbit and the other one chasing him saying "stop, thief!", as he pretends to be Mr. McGregor. This is one of their favorites to act out.
Isn't it awesome the way God made kids?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)