My husband and I are celebrating our 5th anniversay today. Yay!! We are not doing much to celebrate because I did not line up a sitter in time (I'm bad about that). Actually, a friend had offered to watch the boys and our boys like to play together so I was thinking we might do that but one of her sons got sick. I called our sitter and she was already booked for tonight so she is going to sit for us tomorrow for a little while in the afternoon. The boys are very excited to see her. They had been asking for Katy to come play with them.
It is odd how in some ways it seems that it could not already be 5 years and in other ways it seems so much longer. It is the same with the boys. It seems they have always been here but then it seems like it was not that long ago they were such little babies. Time is a funny thing.
But back to the anniversary. It is a wonderful thing to be married to your best friend. If I had made a list for God of all the qualities that I wanted and thought I needed in a mate and if God had really listened to me, I would have really missed out and would probably have been a very unhappy person. Thankfully God knew exactly what I needed in a mate (He did make both of us, after all:) and I ended up marrying my husband. I would never have thought to ask God for half of the things that I so greatly appreciate in my husband. He is a very special man, my best friend and I am so very thankful to God for blessing me with him as my husband. The last 5 years have been the best 5 years of my life.....and I think it's just going to keep getting better:).
In other news, we are preparing for our trip to Arizona, where we will spend a week visiting my SIL and friends in Tucson and Phoenix. It has been two years since we have been back so we are really looking forward to seeing everyone and having a nice vacation with family and friends.
I looked up the weather forecast and the prediction is for high sixties to low seventies during the day and high thirties at night (I think - it was a few days ago but I think that is what it said). Yesterday the boys tried on clothes and sandals from last summer. They were so excited about it, it was really cute. Today we bought a few new shirts. I think we have enough shorts that fit to get us by and their sandals from last summer still fit. These shorts and sandals from last summer will not fit for long though. They grow so fast.
My brother will be house sitting for us so our cats and house will be well cared for while we are gone and I will have peace of mind:).
In other news, I booked my flight to go to the homeschool conference in Cincinnati in April. My friend from Kansas City will be meeting up with me there and we are both very excited about the trip. It will be the first time I have ever gone off on my own, since I have been married with children. I think I will enjoy the relaxation but will be very homesick for my guys. They are planning some fun things to do while I am gone, although Ben and Nick both said they wanted to come too and Ben got a bit teary eyed. It will only be for 3 days and 2 nights so I am sure they will do fine and will have lots of fun. When we started discussing the things they could do with daddy while I am gone, they were all happy and excited again.
I have been doing more research, trying to decide what to do and when, in regards to homeschooling. Once we are back from Arizona and are settled back in, I think we will begin doing a bit of reading and writing each day. Not too much and we will spread it between some fun stuff and getting lots of exercise in, but I think they are ready to start doing a little more than we have been doing to date. I will post more on this as we go along to let you know how things are going.
The boys are doing very well with our new night time routine of them going to sleep without us in the room. Actually, they would rather us not be in there with them now, for the most part. When we are in there, they have to be quiet and lie down. When they are on their own, they can talk and play in their beds. We usually have to go back up at least once or twice to remind them to stay in their beds but they normally do very well and we now have a bit more time in the evenings to ourselves, which is nice.
We have been watching the olympics and the boys get very excited when they get to watch it for a little while before going to bed. Nick especially ooooo's and aaaahhh's over it. The first night we had it on, they were both running back and forth through the living room, jumping in the air, spinning around and generally trying to imitate what they were seeing on the tube, all the while saying, "mommy, daddy, watch me!". It had us laughing a few times, for sure.
We had a couple of beautiful days here this week. The boys played outside in the yard and on the driveway one of the days and we went to the park for the afternoon on one day. Nick really surprised me. I looked around to see he had climbed and was grabbing the bar above his head to do the hand over hand thing above your head. I can't remember what that's called but I was shocked at how well he did it. He made it across to the other side and there were 5 rungs, which I thought was pretty amazing for a 4 year old.
We have had two nights recently when Nick was so over tired that he became impossible at bedtime. It is so difficult when that happens and we try very hard not to let it happen but sometimes it sneaks up on us. When he gets this way, there is no pleasing him. Last night he was exhausted after playing so hard in the park. He didn't want to brush his teeth so I said that was fine but he had to let me brush them in the morning (normally mom and dad brush them at night and they do their own in the morning). Then after we were all done in the bathroom and the lights were out, he wanted his teeth brushed. I knew that if I said ok, he would say no. This is just the way it goes. So I said I was not going to do it but he could do it if he wanted to so he did. There is constant crying and fit throwing during these episodes. After he was back in bed, he was upset because he wanted to say goodnight to daddy again. Daddy had already said goodnight when Nick was throwing his fit about teeth and generally not wanting to go to bed. Daddy was already downstairs so I told Nick that we had already done that and it was time to go to sleep. If I had relented, he either would have refused to say goodnight to daddy or he would have found something else to draw his line in the sand about. This is how he gets when he is so tired. There is really no pleasing him and he is just a mess through the whole thing. I think this was the first time he had been this way since we have not been sitting with them while they fall asleep so I was not sure how this was going to end. When I left the room, he was still crying and complaining. I listened to him on the monitor and within 5 minutes he was asleep. Very tired little boy. When he came down this morning, he was all smiles:). He is really normally a very happy little guy.
What else? The boys are doing great with their swimming lessons and continue to have a blast. I am starting a 6 week Bible study on Monday. I am totally ready for spring. My birthday is next week. I will be 47 years old. Wow! That's so close to 50! I don't feel that old and I don't think of myself as that old....not that there's anything wrong with 50 or that it is old or anything:). Actually, it seems to get less old with every year that goes by. Funny how that happens.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
February 9, 2010 Part 2
Yesterday Nick ran to the bathroom but he had waited too long and he had an accident on the floor, right in front of the toilet. I was in the kitchen and he yelled to me that he had had an accident. I yelled back (in a sweet voice) that he knew what to do. He complained once, and not very loudly, that he needed help but that was all he said.
The next thing I heard was Ben, yelling from upstairs, telling Nick to come see something. And then I heard Nick yell back, "Ben! Sorry! I'm busy cleaning up a pee pee mess!". I couldn't help but laugh and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget.
And then I asked Nick how he was doing. He was doing a great job with a great attitude so I went in and helped him a bit and he was back to his playing in no time.
Yes, we need to do something about the yelling in our house:).
The next thing I heard was Ben, yelling from upstairs, telling Nick to come see something. And then I heard Nick yell back, "Ben! Sorry! I'm busy cleaning up a pee pee mess!". I couldn't help but laugh and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget.
And then I asked Nick how he was doing. He was doing a great job with a great attitude so I went in and helped him a bit and he was back to his playing in no time.
Yes, we need to do something about the yelling in our house:).
February 9, 2010
Tonight the boys went to sleep without the dad or the mom sitting in the room with them. This is the first time this has happened since they moved out of their cribs, a very long time ago. This is huge people!!
When I talked to them about doing this last night and again earlier today, they were both on board with the idea. I talked it up several times today and promised them they could watch a movie tomorrow morning if they could stay in their beds and go to sleep without us sitting with them. When it came time to actually do it, Ben decided he did not want to try it. He wanted me to sit in the room and he cried for a little while. I should have expected this because he does not like change.
At one point Ben told Nick that he wanted to tell me something so Nick came downstairs and got me. I went up and talked to Ben and basically repeated what I had told him earlier. He was still crying a bit when I left again. Nick came back down a little later to tell me that Ben was bothering him with his crying and they both wanted me to sit with them and they didn't want to watch a movie tomorrow morning. I gave them another (firm) pep talk and told them we were going to do this and they are big boys now and don't need us to sit with them, etc. I told Nick to ignore Ben for a little while and he would quit crying and I also told him he could talk to Ben about what movie they wanted to watch in the morning. I told Ben that he needed to quit crying because he was bothering Nick. I was very sweet about the whole thing and tried to encourage them.
After my second visit to their room, I was listening to them on the monitor and Ben had stopped crying and they were both talking happily with each other. A bit later Nick was singing. He tried talking to Ben again after he finished his song and Ben answered very sleepily. Nick fell asleep during quiet time today and Ben did not so Ben was very tired and Nick was a bit peppy-er than normal. He sang a little longer and then he was quiet too.
I am surprised and very happy that it went as easily as it did. Hopefully this is the first of a new bedtime routine in which the dad and the mom no longer have to sit with the boys while they fall asleep, although I will remember those times with fondness.
They are such sweet boys. I love them so much. They are growing up too fast.
When I talked to them about doing this last night and again earlier today, they were both on board with the idea. I talked it up several times today and promised them they could watch a movie tomorrow morning if they could stay in their beds and go to sleep without us sitting with them. When it came time to actually do it, Ben decided he did not want to try it. He wanted me to sit in the room and he cried for a little while. I should have expected this because he does not like change.
At one point Ben told Nick that he wanted to tell me something so Nick came downstairs and got me. I went up and talked to Ben and basically repeated what I had told him earlier. He was still crying a bit when I left again. Nick came back down a little later to tell me that Ben was bothering him with his crying and they both wanted me to sit with them and they didn't want to watch a movie tomorrow morning. I gave them another (firm) pep talk and told them we were going to do this and they are big boys now and don't need us to sit with them, etc. I told Nick to ignore Ben for a little while and he would quit crying and I also told him he could talk to Ben about what movie they wanted to watch in the morning. I told Ben that he needed to quit crying because he was bothering Nick. I was very sweet about the whole thing and tried to encourage them.
After my second visit to their room, I was listening to them on the monitor and Ben had stopped crying and they were both talking happily with each other. A bit later Nick was singing. He tried talking to Ben again after he finished his song and Ben answered very sleepily. Nick fell asleep during quiet time today and Ben did not so Ben was very tired and Nick was a bit peppy-er than normal. He sang a little longer and then he was quiet too.
I am surprised and very happy that it went as easily as it did. Hopefully this is the first of a new bedtime routine in which the dad and the mom no longer have to sit with the boys while they fall asleep, although I will remember those times with fondness.
They are such sweet boys. I love them so much. They are growing up too fast.
Monday, February 08, 2010
February 8, 2010
The amazing husband fixed the washing machine on Thursday evening (Yay!!). He found instructions on the internet detailing how to take it apart. He had to replace a part and then he put it all back together again. He is amazing and I am so happy to have my washing machine working again. It is easy to take something like that for granted.
It is snowing again here today. We may get up to 6 inches. No ice this time though, so that is a good thing. Just snow by itself is not nearly as troublesome. I am really done with this now though. I am ready for spring.
Nick is coming down with a cold.
I have signed up for a Bible study class at church that will start in a couple of weeks.
That's all the news for today.
It is snowing again here today. We may get up to 6 inches. No ice this time though, so that is a good thing. Just snow by itself is not nearly as troublesome. I am really done with this now though. I am ready for spring.
Nick is coming down with a cold.
I have signed up for a Bible study class at church that will start in a couple of weeks.
That's all the news for today.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
February 2, 2010 Part 2
Today after swimming lessons I bought the boys each a pair of goggles. The two little girls who are in their swim class have them and the boys had been asking for some. I waited for a while because I wanted them to get used to having water in their face and not freak out about it. But today I finally bought them, after their lesson, when we were getting ready to leave.
We are having our quiet time and Ben is here in the living room with me, while Nick is in the library. I just looked up to see what Ben was doing. He is sitting in the big rocking/recliner recliner, looking at a book, while wearing his goggles. Very funny.
They are quite anxious to try them out in the bath tub. The husband has to go to a late meeting this evening. The boys and I will have a quick, easy meal and then they will spend a couple of hours playing in the tub, while I relax. Sounds like a good evening, yes?
They are both still really enjoying their swimming lessons and they look forward to them each week. They learn a little more each time and become a bit more comfortable in the water. It will be interesting to see if the goggles make any difference.
We are having our quiet time and Ben is here in the living room with me, while Nick is in the library. I just looked up to see what Ben was doing. He is sitting in the big rocking/recliner recliner, looking at a book, while wearing his goggles. Very funny.
They are quite anxious to try them out in the bath tub. The husband has to go to a late meeting this evening. The boys and I will have a quick, easy meal and then they will spend a couple of hours playing in the tub, while I relax. Sounds like a good evening, yes?
They are both still really enjoying their swimming lessons and they look forward to them each week. They learn a little more each time and become a bit more comfortable in the water. It will be interesting to see if the goggles make any difference.
February 2, 2010
Last week I was washing a load of clothes and the boys were at the kitchen table playing with play dough. The washing machine shifted cycles from washing to rinse or spin or something and, all of a sudden, there was this very loud, obnoxious sound coming from the laundry room that startled all of us. I ran in and turned it off, looked inside (it looked normal), switched it from a fast/fast rotation to a slower rotation and turned it back on. It immediately started making the same noises and then I smelled a burning smell so I quickly turned it back off.
Later I removed all of the clothes and, when the husband got home, we worked together to bail out all of the water. He found a web site where you pay a small fee and a washer repair guy walks you through some steps to see if you can fix it. The husband took it apart and tried what they told him but it did not fix the problem. They said we probably need a new part so he ordered it. It is suppose to arrive today. If this does not fix the problem, we will either hire a repair guy to come in and fix it or we will buy a new one.
In the meantime, the dirty laundry is building up fast around here. We actually stopped by WalMart and picked up another package of underwear and socks for the boys last night, only because they were needing them anyway. Otherwise I would have washed some out by hand.
I have never seen a laundromat since I have lived here. I am sure there are some, although I suspect they may be in areas of the city in which I may not feel very safe. My plan is to head to my sister's house tomorrow with a car full of laundry, if the new part does not fix the problem tonight.
Later I removed all of the clothes and, when the husband got home, we worked together to bail out all of the water. He found a web site where you pay a small fee and a washer repair guy walks you through some steps to see if you can fix it. The husband took it apart and tried what they told him but it did not fix the problem. They said we probably need a new part so he ordered it. It is suppose to arrive today. If this does not fix the problem, we will either hire a repair guy to come in and fix it or we will buy a new one.
In the meantime, the dirty laundry is building up fast around here. We actually stopped by WalMart and picked up another package of underwear and socks for the boys last night, only because they were needing them anyway. Otherwise I would have washed some out by hand.
I have never seen a laundromat since I have lived here. I am sure there are some, although I suspect they may be in areas of the city in which I may not feel very safe. My plan is to head to my sister's house tomorrow with a car full of laundry, if the new part does not fix the problem tonight.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
January 30, 2010
In the first two pictures, the boys are playing with the wind vanes we made.
The dad took the boys to the zoo one recent weekend afternoon, when the weather was much warmer than now. They had a fun time doing this:
and this:
I don't think they actually saw very many animals but they had a fun time.
Morning reading time with the mom:).
The boys each got a bean bag chair for Christmas. Here they are, sitting together and looking at their books. The dad must have taken this one and it is one of my favorites.
They both love books. I hope their love and appreciation for books will last throughout their lives.
Do you like our boat? Mom built it:). (Based on the picture on the box. I am not quite that creative on my own.) They had so much fun with this. The swords are their oars.
And here is our knight in shining armor on his white horse, coming to save the day....straight from bed and still in his jammies:).
The boys had fun playing outside in the snow today. Once again, we improvised with our plastic-bag-duct-taped boots. Does he look as if he is having fun?
They look like they are wearing some sort of moon boots, don't they? I enjoy watching them play in the snow. I stand at the window with a smile on my face the entire time I am watching them. They attack their snow play with such delightful abandon. It also brings back a lot of fond memories from my childhood.
Nick was especially tired and a bit cranky after playing outside in the snow. It is exhausting work for a child. He fell asleep during quiet time while looking for Waldo.
And, here are Ben and Nick, giving a shout out to one of their favorite cousins. We love you!
And that's all for today folks!
The dad took the boys to the zoo one recent weekend afternoon, when the weather was much warmer than now. They had a fun time doing this:
and this:
I don't think they actually saw very many animals but they had a fun time.Morning reading time with the mom:).
The boys each got a bean bag chair for Christmas. Here they are, sitting together and looking at their books. The dad must have taken this one and it is one of my favorites.
They both love books. I hope their love and appreciation for books will last throughout their lives.
Do you like our boat? Mom built it:). (Based on the picture on the box. I am not quite that creative on my own.) They had so much fun with this. The swords are their oars.
And here is our knight in shining armor on his white horse, coming to save the day....straight from bed and still in his jammies:).
The boys had fun playing outside in the snow today. Once again, we improvised with our plastic-bag-duct-taped boots. Does he look as if he is having fun?
They look like they are wearing some sort of moon boots, don't they? I enjoy watching them play in the snow. I stand at the window with a smile on my face the entire time I am watching them. They attack their snow play with such delightful abandon. It also brings back a lot of fond memories from my childhood.
Nick was especially tired and a bit cranky after playing outside in the snow. It is exhausting work for a child. He fell asleep during quiet time while looking for Waldo.
And, here are Ben and Nick, giving a shout out to one of their favorite cousins. We love you!
And that's all for today folks!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
January 27, 2010
We are getting ready for another big ice storm. The last one was a couple of years ago and there were large parts of the city without electricity for a week or more. We were one of the lucky ones who did not lose power.
A friend of mine who lives about a mile from us called me last night. Her family stayed in their home for 5 days without power or heat in the last big ice storm. She wanted to know if her family could stay with us if it happens again. Most definitely.
The husband bought some salt, sand and firewood today. The boys and I went to the grocery store to stock up and I made sure to get plenty of comfort food:). I also had to renew my driver's license. That is such a treat.
Today it is 54 degrees and sunny. The boys had a fun time playing outside after lunch. They played in the sandbox for a long time and then they played next to the sandbox for a long time. The next-to-the-sandbox area is mulch and, under that, dirt/mud. They were playing with dump trucks. They were quite dirty when they came in the house but they had a really fun time. They will likely go out again in a little while, as it is so nice and it will probably be a while before it is like this again.
I believe our winter storm watch starts tomorrow morning at 6:00am and goes for about 24 hours or so. It will start out as rain and then, as the temperature drops, we will start seeing a lot of freezing rain and, later, maybe some snow. Depends on who you listen to as to how much snow we might expect. We may get up to a foot but will likely get less snow and more freezing rain. Freezing rain is really nasty stuff because it weighs down the trees, breaks them and brings down the power lines, although it is also very pretty when everything is covered in ice:). It will be an interesting 24 hours.
Goliath (Ben) is putting on a show for us right now so I must run. Must enjoy these while they last.
A friend of mine who lives about a mile from us called me last night. Her family stayed in their home for 5 days without power or heat in the last big ice storm. She wanted to know if her family could stay with us if it happens again. Most definitely.
The husband bought some salt, sand and firewood today. The boys and I went to the grocery store to stock up and I made sure to get plenty of comfort food:). I also had to renew my driver's license. That is such a treat.
Today it is 54 degrees and sunny. The boys had a fun time playing outside after lunch. They played in the sandbox for a long time and then they played next to the sandbox for a long time. The next-to-the-sandbox area is mulch and, under that, dirt/mud. They were playing with dump trucks. They were quite dirty when they came in the house but they had a really fun time. They will likely go out again in a little while, as it is so nice and it will probably be a while before it is like this again.
I believe our winter storm watch starts tomorrow morning at 6:00am and goes for about 24 hours or so. It will start out as rain and then, as the temperature drops, we will start seeing a lot of freezing rain and, later, maybe some snow. Depends on who you listen to as to how much snow we might expect. We may get up to a foot but will likely get less snow and more freezing rain. Freezing rain is really nasty stuff because it weighs down the trees, breaks them and brings down the power lines, although it is also very pretty when everything is covered in ice:). It will be an interesting 24 hours.
Goliath (Ben) is putting on a show for us right now so I must run. Must enjoy these while they last.
Monday, January 25, 2010
January 25, 2010
Today the boys and I drove to Oklahoma City to the state capitol building, for the last time, to get the apostilles for our post placement reports. Everything went great, up until the time we arrived at the capitol building, after an hour and a half of driving, and I was just getting ready to get out of the car. That is when I realized I had forgotten my purse. Apostilles cost money so this was definitely a problem. Also, it was now around 11:30 and we still had another hour and half to get home. I had brought snacks but I had planned that we would eat out for lunch while we waited for our documentation to be completed. We were all disappointed that we would not get to eat lunch:(. Fortunately I had packed a lot of snacks, of which the boys had already had quite a bit on our way to OKC. There was still a bit left for the trip home.
I called the husband and told him about my situation. I wondered out loud to him if maybe they would take a credit card number without the actual card, but I didn't really think they would. It is a long walk from the parking lot to the building. It would have taken another 30 minutes to walk with the boys into the building and back so I was almost ready to just head home, when I realized that we would need to take a bathroom break anyway.
It was incredibly windy in Oklahoma today. I struggled against the wind for the entire hour and half drive to OKC. Nick really hates wind and he started to cry when we got out of the car. Fortunately I had brought their warm hats so I bundled them up really well and then we did OK. Ben is a slow walker and I basically have to pull him along whenever we walk anywhere. Between him and the wind, it was a very long walk.
We made it into the building and through the metal detectors. We stopped by the bathroom and then headed to the Secretary of State's office. As it turns out, they had no problem taking our credit card number without the actual card, much to my surprise. The lady behind the desk started looking through our paperwork, as I called the husband to get the credit card number. After I got off the phone, she told me that some of the papers (agency and social worker licenses) were copies, rather than originals and they must be originals in order to be apostilled.
So, we headed home with no apostilles, no lunch, no money, etc. As we were driving out of OKC, I called the agency and told them about the situation. We had driven about 30 minutes when they called back and told me that we did not have to have the licenses apostilled, only the post placement reports. We had to drive a while to find the next exit so we could turn around and head back to OKC.
Now the good news was that we could definitely get the apostilles that we needed and not have to make another trip. The bad news was that it was another 30 minute drive back to the state capitol building. By the time we got back, it was around 1:30pm. We were all getting very hungry, we needed another bathroom break and I was not sure we would have enough gas to make it back home. Once again I called the husband to give him an update. I also asked him to call a pizza hut we had passed near the capitol building to see if he could order some food and pay for it over the phone. Unfortunately they would not do that. The boys and I were all disappointed.
We wrapped back up in our warm coats and hats and made the long walk in the blustery wind again. Through the metal dectector, to the bathroom and back to the Secretary of State's office. The lady behind the desk had no issues with doing the apostilles without the licenses. We walked around the capitol buiding for 15 minutes while she completed our paperwork. We picked up our paperwork and headed back out to the car. By this time, the boys and I were all getting tired, hungry and cranky.
We got back into the car and headed out. I passed out all of the snacks we still had. Fortunately I had brought the little DVD player we have for the car so the boys had entertainment. This turned out to be a very good thing, since we ended up spending about 4 hours in the car today. It also helped them take their mind off of not having lunch.
We made it home safely and, thankfully, we had gas to spare (barely). The light was on when we got home but we still had about 10 or 20 miles of gas left in the tank. We arrived home around 4:00ish. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed back out to Fed Ex the reports to the agency and fill the car up with gas.
It was a stressful day that did not go as well as I had hoped. But it could have gone so much worse:). I am so thankful that we were able to get the apostilles without having to make another trip, that I packed a lot of extra snacks so the boys were not starving, that we had enough gas to make it there and back and that we did not have any car trouble or other trouble where the lack of money and/or ID would have been a huge issue.
The great news is that we never have to do that again. Our adoption process is finally 100% complete. No more home visits. No more post placement reports. No more trips to OKC. Yay!! We still have the court date on Friday for our Oklahoma readoption but that is just a formality to get OK birth certificates.
So that was our day. We were all very tired when we got home.
Hope you had a good Monday. Goodnight.
I called the husband and told him about my situation. I wondered out loud to him if maybe they would take a credit card number without the actual card, but I didn't really think they would. It is a long walk from the parking lot to the building. It would have taken another 30 minutes to walk with the boys into the building and back so I was almost ready to just head home, when I realized that we would need to take a bathroom break anyway.
It was incredibly windy in Oklahoma today. I struggled against the wind for the entire hour and half drive to OKC. Nick really hates wind and he started to cry when we got out of the car. Fortunately I had brought their warm hats so I bundled them up really well and then we did OK. Ben is a slow walker and I basically have to pull him along whenever we walk anywhere. Between him and the wind, it was a very long walk.
We made it into the building and through the metal detectors. We stopped by the bathroom and then headed to the Secretary of State's office. As it turns out, they had no problem taking our credit card number without the actual card, much to my surprise. The lady behind the desk started looking through our paperwork, as I called the husband to get the credit card number. After I got off the phone, she told me that some of the papers (agency and social worker licenses) were copies, rather than originals and they must be originals in order to be apostilled.
So, we headed home with no apostilles, no lunch, no money, etc. As we were driving out of OKC, I called the agency and told them about the situation. We had driven about 30 minutes when they called back and told me that we did not have to have the licenses apostilled, only the post placement reports. We had to drive a while to find the next exit so we could turn around and head back to OKC.
Now the good news was that we could definitely get the apostilles that we needed and not have to make another trip. The bad news was that it was another 30 minute drive back to the state capitol building. By the time we got back, it was around 1:30pm. We were all getting very hungry, we needed another bathroom break and I was not sure we would have enough gas to make it back home. Once again I called the husband to give him an update. I also asked him to call a pizza hut we had passed near the capitol building to see if he could order some food and pay for it over the phone. Unfortunately they would not do that. The boys and I were all disappointed.
We wrapped back up in our warm coats and hats and made the long walk in the blustery wind again. Through the metal dectector, to the bathroom and back to the Secretary of State's office. The lady behind the desk had no issues with doing the apostilles without the licenses. We walked around the capitol buiding for 15 minutes while she completed our paperwork. We picked up our paperwork and headed back out to the car. By this time, the boys and I were all getting tired, hungry and cranky.
We got back into the car and headed out. I passed out all of the snacks we still had. Fortunately I had brought the little DVD player we have for the car so the boys had entertainment. This turned out to be a very good thing, since we ended up spending about 4 hours in the car today. It also helped them take their mind off of not having lunch.
We made it home safely and, thankfully, we had gas to spare (barely). The light was on when we got home but we still had about 10 or 20 miles of gas left in the tank. We arrived home around 4:00ish. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed back out to Fed Ex the reports to the agency and fill the car up with gas.
It was a stressful day that did not go as well as I had hoped. But it could have gone so much worse:). I am so thankful that we were able to get the apostilles without having to make another trip, that I packed a lot of extra snacks so the boys were not starving, that we had enough gas to make it there and back and that we did not have any car trouble or other trouble where the lack of money and/or ID would have been a huge issue.
The great news is that we never have to do that again. Our adoption process is finally 100% complete. No more home visits. No more post placement reports. No more trips to OKC. Yay!! We still have the court date on Friday for our Oklahoma readoption but that is just a formality to get OK birth certificates.
So that was our day. We were all very tired when we got home.
Hope you had a good Monday. Goodnight.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
January 21, 2010
The other day the boys and I were sitting at the island counter eating lunch. The boys were playing around with their grapes. Ben put one grape in each cheek so he looked like a little squirrel. He said, "Mommy, look, I have nipples", as he pointed to his cheeks. I had to think about that for just a moment and then I asked him, "Do you mean dimples?". He did and we both had a good laugh.
The dad and I took the boys to the 'family swim' time on Sunday. The place where they take lessons allows families who are paying for lessons to swim on the weekends for $2 each. I think there is a two hour time frame on Saturday and on Sunday both. So we took them on Sunday afternoon and we were in the pool for about an hour and a half. In retrospect, we realized that was too long for them, when Nick was completely falling apart before bedtime. We both agreed that next time we will only swim for maybe 45 minutes; definitely no longer than an hour.
The boys had their second swimming lesson Tuesday and it went very well. They both did well even though they were being encouraged and pushed a bit to put their faces in the water more. I was surprised at how well they did. I think the swim time on Sunday helped a lot too.
When we first got into the pool on Sunday, Ben was very tentative and careful about his movements and he wanted to stay on the steps. It was not long at all before we had moved to another area where the water came up to their necks and they were both jumping in off the side and getting splashed in the face a lot. The difference in Ben at the beginning of family swim time versus at the end was amazing. He was cautious again when getting in at his lesson on Tuesday but I think it is a bit less and less every time. They are both having a great time and have a smile on their faces the entire time they are in the pool (so far). I really enjoy watching their lessons too. It is fun to see them learning something new and watching how they behave with someone else in a 'teacher' role.
Our last post placement report is almost finished and I will be taking it to OKC for apostilles next week and then mailing it off. We also received a court date for our Oklahoma readoption. It's kind of funny because everyone treats it as if it is this really big deal, as if this is THE adoption, or so it seems. Meanwhile, I really want it to be this low-key, non event kind of thing. The only reason we are doing it is so that the boys will have Oklahoma birth certificates. It is a formality, to make their lives (and ours) easier for those occasions in life when one must present a birth certificate or one loses their original and must order a new one. I don't want them to remember this as a big event. The big event took place 3 years ago and it was very special. I don't want them thinking they are just now being officially adopted. So, I will definitely be downplaying it as much as possible.
And now that I have brought it up, I missed posting about our 3 year anniversary of adopting our sons. We don't think about it much these days, although it does come front and center when we have to another home visit and they start asking what we are doing to help the boys keep their Russian culture. Hmmmm. Right now, we are not doing anything about that. I know there are day camps available in the summer where children adopted from Russia can get together and learn about Russia's culture and get to know others with whom they have this in common. Maybe some day, when they are old enough, they might want to do that. We will leave it up to them.
The dad and I took the boys to the 'family swim' time on Sunday. The place where they take lessons allows families who are paying for lessons to swim on the weekends for $2 each. I think there is a two hour time frame on Saturday and on Sunday both. So we took them on Sunday afternoon and we were in the pool for about an hour and a half. In retrospect, we realized that was too long for them, when Nick was completely falling apart before bedtime. We both agreed that next time we will only swim for maybe 45 minutes; definitely no longer than an hour.
The boys had their second swimming lesson Tuesday and it went very well. They both did well even though they were being encouraged and pushed a bit to put their faces in the water more. I was surprised at how well they did. I think the swim time on Sunday helped a lot too.
When we first got into the pool on Sunday, Ben was very tentative and careful about his movements and he wanted to stay on the steps. It was not long at all before we had moved to another area where the water came up to their necks and they were both jumping in off the side and getting splashed in the face a lot. The difference in Ben at the beginning of family swim time versus at the end was amazing. He was cautious again when getting in at his lesson on Tuesday but I think it is a bit less and less every time. They are both having a great time and have a smile on their faces the entire time they are in the pool (so far). I really enjoy watching their lessons too. It is fun to see them learning something new and watching how they behave with someone else in a 'teacher' role.
Our last post placement report is almost finished and I will be taking it to OKC for apostilles next week and then mailing it off. We also received a court date for our Oklahoma readoption. It's kind of funny because everyone treats it as if it is this really big deal, as if this is THE adoption, or so it seems. Meanwhile, I really want it to be this low-key, non event kind of thing. The only reason we are doing it is so that the boys will have Oklahoma birth certificates. It is a formality, to make their lives (and ours) easier for those occasions in life when one must present a birth certificate or one loses their original and must order a new one. I don't want them to remember this as a big event. The big event took place 3 years ago and it was very special. I don't want them thinking they are just now being officially adopted. So, I will definitely be downplaying it as much as possible.
And now that I have brought it up, I missed posting about our 3 year anniversary of adopting our sons. We don't think about it much these days, although it does come front and center when we have to another home visit and they start asking what we are doing to help the boys keep their Russian culture. Hmmmm. Right now, we are not doing anything about that. I know there are day camps available in the summer where children adopted from Russia can get together and learn about Russia's culture and get to know others with whom they have this in common. Maybe some day, when they are old enough, they might want to do that. We will leave it up to them.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January 10, 2010
I am happy to report that things are still going very well around here from a behavior perspective. Ben is very seldom sassy these days and Nick is throwing very few fits. Nick's current challenge is that he is more likely to hit Ben or take a toy Ben has and Nick wants.
Today B started crying and told me that N had pinched his neck. After comforting B, talking to N about it and seeing that he apologized nicely, I reminded N that he needs to use his words. He told me in a frustrated voice "I used words 20 times!". There was an ending to that sentence (I used words 20 times and...) but I can't remember it. I was so surprised that he said the first part that I didn't hear the rest. I found his response pretty funny but I did not let him see that:).
To be fair, every once in a while B will hit or hurt N in some way or will take a toy or something but it is more likely that N is the culprit these days. Overall, we are seeing much better behavior, less of the bickering and much more playing together nicely for longer periods of time. What more could a mom ask for? I am pleased.
As for the potty training front, we still have an accident once in a while. N is more likely to have one than B but both boys will have one at times. It is funny that we can go a couple of weeks without any accidents and then we will see two or three within a couple of days. I think it is because, when we are in our normal schedule, I tend to tell them to go before certain events (an outing, a meal or quiet time, for example) and I tend to remind N at times. During weekends or holidays when we are not in our normal routine, I forget and they get busy doing something exciting so we see more accidents. Overall, I would say they are both doing pretty well with it though.
Unfortunately, night times are not coming along at all though, or so it seems. B was wetting through his pull up so often, waking us both (me and B) up at night, that we are now waking him up around 9:00 or 10:00pm, just before we go to bed, and having him go once more. Since we have started doing this, he has stopped wetting through and will sometimes wake up dry. N is hardly ever dry, although I think he may go in his pull up after he wakes up. I think he often wakes up early and hangs out in his bed for up to 15 minutes before coming down. So he may be dry when he initially wakes up but is not motivated to go to the bathroom. I just keep thinking it will come with time, although I know part of the problem is likely that we don't eat dinner until around 6:00pm normally and we normally start getting them ready for bed around 7:30.
Now that we are no longer doing naps, they are going to sleep at night very quickly, which is nice. We are doing one hour of quiet time each afternoon and then they watch a movie. It is a nice amount of rest time for me too, which is nice.
Yesterday they wanted to do math and science. So we did a lesson from our Right Start math program and then we did two science experiments. We made two wind vanes and played with and talked about them for a short while. Then we learned about static electricity using two balloons. We rubbed them on a static-y blanket and observed how they could stick to the wall. Then we took them into the dark bathroom, rubbed them on the blanket again and held them close to each other so we could see the spark of electricity they created. They liked sticky them to the wall better and B was more interested than N. N wanted to play with his balloon, hitting it to keep it in the air.
N asked me to play soccer with him the other day. We have a soccer ball that is pretty soft and small that we play with in the house. So we just start kicking it everywhere, chasing it and trying to be the first to kick it again, all over the house. It was very fun and we both had a lot of laughs. B was pretending something at the time but, towards the end, he jumped in and kicked it a couple of times too. N is very good at it and we really need to get him involved in soccer in the spring. I need to check into this. I think he would really love it and he would definitely excel at it. It is clear that he is a natural athlete. I'm not sure with B yet whether he will like athletics or not. I am hopeful that he will but he does not show as much interest as N at this point.
On the other hand, B definitely excels at academics. He still amazes me at how quickly he learns academic related things. Today I was working on a new way to get them excited about learning to read. I was copying a lot of the words on to index cars and copying the sentences into a notebook because they seem to have an aversion to the book we use to learn reading. They were both excited about the cards. They have always liked that sort of thing. They climbed up next to me at the island and started reading the cards. B is really doing well at it, considering how little we do it. He can sound out the cvc words very well, although he will try to guess the ending at times (rat instead of ran, etc.). N got excited about it too and was trying to sound out words. He did very well at the first set of words (ending in at) but less so with the second set. He is still learning how to sound out each letter and run them together to make the word, such as sssssssaaaaaaaaat. He is impatient and if he does not get it right quickly, he gets frustrated. But he did try today for a little while and he did pretty well during that time. For his age, I think he is doing great.
Officially, we are not really doing school yet. Only when they want to, which is why I am trying to make learning to read more fun:). I am really glad they have late year birthdays (end of September and November). They just missed the official cut off which means that they would not actually start Pre-K4 until this coming fall, which means they would not start K until the fall of 2011. That gives us lots of time to be ready emotionally and for them to be a bit more mature. My number one goal is to have them reading very well by the time they are ready to start first grade and I think we are easily on track for that. I also have my eye on a good K homeschool program (My Father's World), when we are ready. They might be ready to start K in January of 2011. One nice thing about homeschooling is that we can start when they are ready. We can start earlier than they would have at public school and take it at a slower pace or we can start later and play catch up during the summer. It is nice to have the flexibility and to know we can go at the pace that fits them.
In other news, I am going to call our architect with our final (minor) changes to the plan tomorrow. So we are almost done with this part of the process. However, we have not sold our house. It was kind of funny. As the husband and I were finishing up the review our final changes last night, we both agreed that we will believe it when we see it. We both seem to have this feeling that it might not ever happen. I think that is more due to the state of our economy and our concerns that it is going to tank very soon, in which case it may be next to impossible to sell a home. We'll see but we don't believe it is looking very good.
We discussed what we could do to our current home to make it more energy efficient, in the event we end up staying here. We still really like this home and we think it is very pretty and functional, although it is a bit more high maintenance than we would like. Of course, any home that you design specifically for your family in mind will likely be more functional for your family and the one we have designed would be extra energy efficient, which would be nice.
I am still of a mind that God is in control, He knows what is going to happen and what the best plan is for us. I tend to believe that, if we end up staying in this house, it is because that is where God wants us for now. That sort of thinking is aways a positive for me, regardless of what ends up happening, since I would rather follow God's plan for my life than my plan.
I read two or three articles within the past week or two about the possibility of the government forcing us to convert a least a portion of our 401K's into annuities. Have you read about this? Take a look at these two links, although beware of bad language in the first one.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html
http://expectedreturns.blogspot.com/2010/01/coming-confiscation-of-401ks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ExpectedReturns+(Expected+Returns)
If you want to hear the truth about what is going on with the economy, don't rely on the news. Search the Internet. Two good sites that I watch are:
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
although the market ticker site does have foul language at times, so beware.
So, what do you think? Is Scott Brown going to pull out a win the special election in MA for Ted Kennedy's old seat? It is an interesting race to watch. I think it will be a miracle if Brown wins it but it is interesting that he is doing as well as he has so far.
Enough for tonight. Time to get ready for bed:). Good night.
Today B started crying and told me that N had pinched his neck. After comforting B, talking to N about it and seeing that he apologized nicely, I reminded N that he needs to use his words. He told me in a frustrated voice "I used words 20 times!". There was an ending to that sentence (I used words 20 times and...) but I can't remember it. I was so surprised that he said the first part that I didn't hear the rest. I found his response pretty funny but I did not let him see that:).
To be fair, every once in a while B will hit or hurt N in some way or will take a toy or something but it is more likely that N is the culprit these days. Overall, we are seeing much better behavior, less of the bickering and much more playing together nicely for longer periods of time. What more could a mom ask for? I am pleased.
As for the potty training front, we still have an accident once in a while. N is more likely to have one than B but both boys will have one at times. It is funny that we can go a couple of weeks without any accidents and then we will see two or three within a couple of days. I think it is because, when we are in our normal schedule, I tend to tell them to go before certain events (an outing, a meal or quiet time, for example) and I tend to remind N at times. During weekends or holidays when we are not in our normal routine, I forget and they get busy doing something exciting so we see more accidents. Overall, I would say they are both doing pretty well with it though.
Unfortunately, night times are not coming along at all though, or so it seems. B was wetting through his pull up so often, waking us both (me and B) up at night, that we are now waking him up around 9:00 or 10:00pm, just before we go to bed, and having him go once more. Since we have started doing this, he has stopped wetting through and will sometimes wake up dry. N is hardly ever dry, although I think he may go in his pull up after he wakes up. I think he often wakes up early and hangs out in his bed for up to 15 minutes before coming down. So he may be dry when he initially wakes up but is not motivated to go to the bathroom. I just keep thinking it will come with time, although I know part of the problem is likely that we don't eat dinner until around 6:00pm normally and we normally start getting them ready for bed around 7:30.
Now that we are no longer doing naps, they are going to sleep at night very quickly, which is nice. We are doing one hour of quiet time each afternoon and then they watch a movie. It is a nice amount of rest time for me too, which is nice.
Yesterday they wanted to do math and science. So we did a lesson from our Right Start math program and then we did two science experiments. We made two wind vanes and played with and talked about them for a short while. Then we learned about static electricity using two balloons. We rubbed them on a static-y blanket and observed how they could stick to the wall. Then we took them into the dark bathroom, rubbed them on the blanket again and held them close to each other so we could see the spark of electricity they created. They liked sticky them to the wall better and B was more interested than N. N wanted to play with his balloon, hitting it to keep it in the air.
N asked me to play soccer with him the other day. We have a soccer ball that is pretty soft and small that we play with in the house. So we just start kicking it everywhere, chasing it and trying to be the first to kick it again, all over the house. It was very fun and we both had a lot of laughs. B was pretending something at the time but, towards the end, he jumped in and kicked it a couple of times too. N is very good at it and we really need to get him involved in soccer in the spring. I need to check into this. I think he would really love it and he would definitely excel at it. It is clear that he is a natural athlete. I'm not sure with B yet whether he will like athletics or not. I am hopeful that he will but he does not show as much interest as N at this point.
On the other hand, B definitely excels at academics. He still amazes me at how quickly he learns academic related things. Today I was working on a new way to get them excited about learning to read. I was copying a lot of the words on to index cars and copying the sentences into a notebook because they seem to have an aversion to the book we use to learn reading. They were both excited about the cards. They have always liked that sort of thing. They climbed up next to me at the island and started reading the cards. B is really doing well at it, considering how little we do it. He can sound out the cvc words very well, although he will try to guess the ending at times (rat instead of ran, etc.). N got excited about it too and was trying to sound out words. He did very well at the first set of words (ending in at) but less so with the second set. He is still learning how to sound out each letter and run them together to make the word, such as sssssssaaaaaaaaat. He is impatient and if he does not get it right quickly, he gets frustrated. But he did try today for a little while and he did pretty well during that time. For his age, I think he is doing great.
Officially, we are not really doing school yet. Only when they want to, which is why I am trying to make learning to read more fun:). I am really glad they have late year birthdays (end of September and November). They just missed the official cut off which means that they would not actually start Pre-K4 until this coming fall, which means they would not start K until the fall of 2011. That gives us lots of time to be ready emotionally and for them to be a bit more mature. My number one goal is to have them reading very well by the time they are ready to start first grade and I think we are easily on track for that. I also have my eye on a good K homeschool program (My Father's World), when we are ready. They might be ready to start K in January of 2011. One nice thing about homeschooling is that we can start when they are ready. We can start earlier than they would have at public school and take it at a slower pace or we can start later and play catch up during the summer. It is nice to have the flexibility and to know we can go at the pace that fits them.
In other news, I am going to call our architect with our final (minor) changes to the plan tomorrow. So we are almost done with this part of the process. However, we have not sold our house. It was kind of funny. As the husband and I were finishing up the review our final changes last night, we both agreed that we will believe it when we see it. We both seem to have this feeling that it might not ever happen. I think that is more due to the state of our economy and our concerns that it is going to tank very soon, in which case it may be next to impossible to sell a home. We'll see but we don't believe it is looking very good.
We discussed what we could do to our current home to make it more energy efficient, in the event we end up staying here. We still really like this home and we think it is very pretty and functional, although it is a bit more high maintenance than we would like. Of course, any home that you design specifically for your family in mind will likely be more functional for your family and the one we have designed would be extra energy efficient, which would be nice.
I am still of a mind that God is in control, He knows what is going to happen and what the best plan is for us. I tend to believe that, if we end up staying in this house, it is because that is where God wants us for now. That sort of thinking is aways a positive for me, regardless of what ends up happening, since I would rather follow God's plan for my life than my plan.
I read two or three articles within the past week or two about the possibility of the government forcing us to convert a least a portion of our 401K's into annuities. Have you read about this? Take a look at these two links, although beware of bad language in the first one.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html
http://expectedreturns.blogspot.com/2010/01/coming-confiscation-of-401ks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ExpectedReturns+(Expected+Returns)
If you want to hear the truth about what is going on with the economy, don't rely on the news. Search the Internet. Two good sites that I watch are:
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
although the market ticker site does have foul language at times, so beware.
So, what do you think? Is Scott Brown going to pull out a win the special election in MA for Ted Kennedy's old seat? It is an interesting race to watch. I think it will be a miracle if Brown wins it but it is interesting that he is doing as well as he has so far.
Enough for tonight. Time to get ready for bed:). Good night.
January 12, 2010
Today the boys had their first swim lesson. It was suppose to be last Tuesday however I confused the days and thought it was Thursday. On Wednesday I decided I had better check, just to make sure. In retrospect, I should have done that on Monday:). Oh well.
So today was their first lesson, although it should have been their second. There are two little girls who are in their group and they all appear to be around the same 4 year old age.
The boys and I had made two visits to the swim school and had watched lessons. After each visit both boys seemed very excited to take lessons. Yesterday I reminded them that today they would have their first lesson and Ben started to cry, telling me he just wanted to watch Nick take lessons. We talked about it and I encouraged and reassured him a lot and then we forgot about it until today. He did fine, until we drove into the parking lot, at which time he reminded me that he only wanted to watch. Again, I encouraged him and reassured him that it would be fun.
We went in and got them changed into their swim trunks and then went into the pool area. We were about five minutes early, which was perfect because I did not want them to feel rushed or nervous about being rushed. They have mats along the edge of the pool (back a little ways) for them to wait until it is time for their lesson so I told the boys to sit on the mats. I was talking to the coordinator lady, telling her I wanted to talk to their teacher when Ben started crying. I got on my knees next to him (he was standing at this point) and hugged him and reassured and encouraged him again. The coordinator lady found him a toy boat to play with, to take his mind off of his fears. That worked great and then the two little girls arrived and we were making introductions and then the teacher came over and we were making more introductions and he was still playing with the boat so he forgot about being scared. I spoke to the teacher and told her Ben had had a traumatic water experience and was scared and had been crying and then I left the pool area and went to the viewing room. They have two large rooms for people to watch, one on each of the long sides of the pools, with large plate glass windows and lots of chairs so it is very parent friendly.
I am happy to say that both boys had a great time and their teacher was absolutely wonderful. She made it fun and neither of them were scared. They both had smiles on their faces the entire time and she obviously took special care with Ben. He even gave her a hug and kiss when we were leaving. They both talked about it all day and couldn't wait to tell daddy about it. They are so excited to go again and each of them, at different times today, told me he wished they could go again tomorrow.
I am so relieved and it was an answer to prayer. We had been practicing having more water in the face when we have taken baths recently and I think that paid off. They each put their face in the water several times and they were fine with it. She had them do things, such as jump in from the side of the pool, while holding her hands, in such a way where they would splash big enough to get water in their face and they did fine with that too. She is definitely an ace at teaching kids and I sat and watched in awe. They really know how to do it in a fun way, without making the kids feel scared or threatened at all. I am still amazed...can you tell?
The boys will have one lesson a week through sometime in May I think. They probably have one week off during that time for something or another and then we are planning a trip to Arizona for sometime in Feb. or March also so they will miss one more week. Hopefully that will be the only week they miss, other than the first one that we missed because I didn't have my act together:(. They also open the pool for family swim time on the weekends and we can go for $2 each and I think we can go for free if we miss a lesson for whatever reason. So hopefully we can fit that in some time too.
So, that's the scoop on the swim lessons. We are all excited and happy about the first day. Yay!
So today was their first lesson, although it should have been their second. There are two little girls who are in their group and they all appear to be around the same 4 year old age.
The boys and I had made two visits to the swim school and had watched lessons. After each visit both boys seemed very excited to take lessons. Yesterday I reminded them that today they would have their first lesson and Ben started to cry, telling me he just wanted to watch Nick take lessons. We talked about it and I encouraged and reassured him a lot and then we forgot about it until today. He did fine, until we drove into the parking lot, at which time he reminded me that he only wanted to watch. Again, I encouraged him and reassured him that it would be fun.
We went in and got them changed into their swim trunks and then went into the pool area. We were about five minutes early, which was perfect because I did not want them to feel rushed or nervous about being rushed. They have mats along the edge of the pool (back a little ways) for them to wait until it is time for their lesson so I told the boys to sit on the mats. I was talking to the coordinator lady, telling her I wanted to talk to their teacher when Ben started crying. I got on my knees next to him (he was standing at this point) and hugged him and reassured and encouraged him again. The coordinator lady found him a toy boat to play with, to take his mind off of his fears. That worked great and then the two little girls arrived and we were making introductions and then the teacher came over and we were making more introductions and he was still playing with the boat so he forgot about being scared. I spoke to the teacher and told her Ben had had a traumatic water experience and was scared and had been crying and then I left the pool area and went to the viewing room. They have two large rooms for people to watch, one on each of the long sides of the pools, with large plate glass windows and lots of chairs so it is very parent friendly.
I am happy to say that both boys had a great time and their teacher was absolutely wonderful. She made it fun and neither of them were scared. They both had smiles on their faces the entire time and she obviously took special care with Ben. He even gave her a hug and kiss when we were leaving. They both talked about it all day and couldn't wait to tell daddy about it. They are so excited to go again and each of them, at different times today, told me he wished they could go again tomorrow.
I am so relieved and it was an answer to prayer. We had been practicing having more water in the face when we have taken baths recently and I think that paid off. They each put their face in the water several times and they were fine with it. She had them do things, such as jump in from the side of the pool, while holding her hands, in such a way where they would splash big enough to get water in their face and they did fine with that too. She is definitely an ace at teaching kids and I sat and watched in awe. They really know how to do it in a fun way, without making the kids feel scared or threatened at all. I am still amazed...can you tell?
The boys will have one lesson a week through sometime in May I think. They probably have one week off during that time for something or another and then we are planning a trip to Arizona for sometime in Feb. or March also so they will miss one more week. Hopefully that will be the only week they miss, other than the first one that we missed because I didn't have my act together:(. They also open the pool for family swim time on the weekends and we can go for $2 each and I think we can go for free if we miss a lesson for whatever reason. So hopefully we can fit that in some time too.
So, that's the scoop on the swim lessons. We are all excited and happy about the first day. Yay!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
January 10, 2010
I have not been too timely with pics lately but, here they are, better late than never:).
Here are some pictures of the boys that I took in front of our tree before Christmas.
Here are the boys, putting the icing on their Christmas cookies.
Playing in the kitchen sink is a fun way to pass the time on a cold winter day.
Here is a picture of the outside of our house with our Christmas lights up.
This was Christmas Eve at my brother's house at the farm. The boys were excited about the pistols that my sister and her family gave them for Christmas. B has reminded us several times that he also wants a rifle. Not sure where they get this, as we are not gun owners. I guess they can't miss it though, since many of my relatives are hunters and we often talk about who got a deer and how big it was, during the hunting season.
Here are the boys, enjoying Christmas Eve lunch with Papa (my dad).
Here is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. All that snow fell the evening/night before.
Our knight in shining armor:).
Our two knights in shining armor. Note, they have the breastplates on upside down:). These are the "armor of God". The breastplate says "righteousness" on it, the shield says "faith", the helmet says "truth", etc. It comes with a pamphlet with ideas of how parents can use it to teach them the word of God. We have not covered that yet but they really enjoy the armor, especially Ben, since he has been in to the whole David and Goliath thing for quite some time now. Now he pretends he is Goliath sometimes, since David did not wear armor when he fought Goliath. Since we have recently read Peter Pan, Ben now keeps talking about the bow and arrow he will get when he turns 8 years old (or 5 years old, depends on the conversation). He talks about it often:).
A friend of mine gave the boys these little Chia-pet things. One is an elf and the other is a raindeer. When watered, they grow grass as hair. It keeps getting longer and longer so the boys get to give them hair cuts:). They really enjoyed this.
I just hope it does not give them any ideas:).
This was our Happy Birthday Jesus cake. The kids enjoyed decorating the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles....oh, and eating the cake of course:).
Fun in the snow. This was the day after Christmas and we still have a lot of this snow on the ground now. Very unusual for this part of the country. I am ready for it to be gone. We are expecting some much warmer weather early this week so we should start seeing the ground again.
Here is Nick in the sandbox.
This is our front yard and the street that goes by our house.
If you look closely at the boys wrists and feet, you can see the duct tape we used to hold their mittens on and to make the water proof "boots" to cover their good leather shoes:). I described this in a earlier post but am finally posting the pics.
I was working in the kitchen and overheard the boys playing. They were staging their own nativity scene, just under the mantle where we had our nativity scene displayed during Christmas. By the time I had gotten the camera, Nick had taken the "baby Jesus" (yes, that is a small monkey he is holding in the air - forgive us Lord) and was pretending He was going up into Heaven. I think he got a couple of the stories mixed up.
Ben was not happy about Nick's ending of the nativity story, since he still wanted to pretend the baby Jesus was in the manger, so he got another baby Jesus, which was a Winnie-the-Pooh in PJ's. Hmmm, we might need to invest in a toy nativity scene. We actually have three nativity scene's. The one that was on the mantle is one my husband got in Israel, when he visited there. The one we had in the library is one my mom gave us and it was the one we always put out when I was a child. The one we put in the foyer, at boy height, is one we received as a wedding gift and the pieces are not breakable so the boys can play with it.
Last night the boys and I built the structure below with the straws and connectors they got for Christmas. This toy is great (thanks for the tip CEP!) and I have more ideas of things I want to build when I have time:). I know this will be a popular toy for years to come. The only caveat is that we have to be very careful not to leave pieces out where the cats can get them. Our female cat loves to play with straws so this is heaven for her. If we accidentally leave some of these where she can get to them, she shows up on my side of the bed at odd hours during the night, playing with these on top of me while I am trying to sleep. I am a light sleeper, so this does not work well for me. One night she brought me three of them before giving up. I just kept taking them from her and putting them in my bedside drawer. She has brought me two already, as I have typed this post so I will need to search the house for them before going to bed.
Nick is pretending he is in jail. He is giving us his saddest "jail" look:).
Ben was pretty happy about his jail adventure.
Then we enlarged it so they could both easily fit. They had such fun with this and would turn it over and lay it down so they could play with it in different ways.
That's it for today:). Hope you all had a great weekend.
Here are some pictures of the boys that I took in front of our tree before Christmas.
Here are the boys, putting the icing on their Christmas cookies.
Playing in the kitchen sink is a fun way to pass the time on a cold winter day.
Here is a picture of the outside of our house with our Christmas lights up.
This was Christmas Eve at my brother's house at the farm. The boys were excited about the pistols that my sister and her family gave them for Christmas. B has reminded us several times that he also wants a rifle. Not sure where they get this, as we are not gun owners. I guess they can't miss it though, since many of my relatives are hunters and we often talk about who got a deer and how big it was, during the hunting season.
Here are the boys, enjoying Christmas Eve lunch with Papa (my dad).
Here is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. All that snow fell the evening/night before.
Our knight in shining armor:).
Our two knights in shining armor. Note, they have the breastplates on upside down:). These are the "armor of God". The breastplate says "righteousness" on it, the shield says "faith", the helmet says "truth", etc. It comes with a pamphlet with ideas of how parents can use it to teach them the word of God. We have not covered that yet but they really enjoy the armor, especially Ben, since he has been in to the whole David and Goliath thing for quite some time now. Now he pretends he is Goliath sometimes, since David did not wear armor when he fought Goliath. Since we have recently read Peter Pan, Ben now keeps talking about the bow and arrow he will get when he turns 8 years old (or 5 years old, depends on the conversation). He talks about it often:).
A friend of mine gave the boys these little Chia-pet things. One is an elf and the other is a raindeer. When watered, they grow grass as hair. It keeps getting longer and longer so the boys get to give them hair cuts:). They really enjoyed this.
I just hope it does not give them any ideas:).
This was our Happy Birthday Jesus cake. The kids enjoyed decorating the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles....oh, and eating the cake of course:).
Fun in the snow. This was the day after Christmas and we still have a lot of this snow on the ground now. Very unusual for this part of the country. I am ready for it to be gone. We are expecting some much warmer weather early this week so we should start seeing the ground again.Here is Nick in the sandbox.
This is our front yard and the street that goes by our house.
If you look closely at the boys wrists and feet, you can see the duct tape we used to hold their mittens on and to make the water proof "boots" to cover their good leather shoes:). I described this in a earlier post but am finally posting the pics.
I was working in the kitchen and overheard the boys playing. They were staging their own nativity scene, just under the mantle where we had our nativity scene displayed during Christmas. By the time I had gotten the camera, Nick had taken the "baby Jesus" (yes, that is a small monkey he is holding in the air - forgive us Lord) and was pretending He was going up into Heaven. I think he got a couple of the stories mixed up.
Ben was not happy about Nick's ending of the nativity story, since he still wanted to pretend the baby Jesus was in the manger, so he got another baby Jesus, which was a Winnie-the-Pooh in PJ's. Hmmm, we might need to invest in a toy nativity scene. We actually have three nativity scene's. The one that was on the mantle is one my husband got in Israel, when he visited there. The one we had in the library is one my mom gave us and it was the one we always put out when I was a child. The one we put in the foyer, at boy height, is one we received as a wedding gift and the pieces are not breakable so the boys can play with it.
Last night the boys and I built the structure below with the straws and connectors they got for Christmas. This toy is great (thanks for the tip CEP!) and I have more ideas of things I want to build when I have time:). I know this will be a popular toy for years to come. The only caveat is that we have to be very careful not to leave pieces out where the cats can get them. Our female cat loves to play with straws so this is heaven for her. If we accidentally leave some of these where she can get to them, she shows up on my side of the bed at odd hours during the night, playing with these on top of me while I am trying to sleep. I am a light sleeper, so this does not work well for me. One night she brought me three of them before giving up. I just kept taking them from her and putting them in my bedside drawer. She has brought me two already, as I have typed this post so I will need to search the house for them before going to bed.Nick is pretending he is in jail. He is giving us his saddest "jail" look:).
Ben was pretty happy about his jail adventure.
Then we enlarged it so they could both easily fit. They had such fun with this and would turn it over and lay it down so they could play with it in different ways.
That's it for today:). Hope you all had a great weekend.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
January 7, 2010
We have been busy and it is VERY cold here right now, although I think it is that way just about everywhere these days so I guess that is not new news.
My niece came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days. She is in her second year of college and is home for Christmas. It was so nice having her here. The boys really enjoyed her and were sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company too. We stayed up one night until midnight, catching up and just talking about life. It was so nice. She is so easy to be around. So many times when we have company, I end up feeling more tired because of the introverted-ness of me:). When I am around people a lot I just need some down time to regenerate. But when Jana was here, I didn't feel that way at all. She just slips into our routine and is very easy to be with. It was quite enjoyable.
On Sunday afternoon, she stayed with the boys for a couple of hours and let the husband and I get away to a movie. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and we both really liked it and agreed we would like to see it again when it is out on DVD. The dialog is so quick that it is easy to miss some of it. Good flick though.
This morning we had our last home visit for our last post placement report. It went very well and was very low stress for everyone involved, I think. After the boys spent a few minutes trying to show off and gain everyone's attention, they went off to play and played nicely while the dad and I talked with the two ladies from the local agency. This was the first time this agency has done a report for us so they had a lot of questions for us, in order to come up to speed on our history. I enjoy telling our story and remembering our adventure so the questions were welcome. It also makes us think though the differences between the boys and what makes them tick.
After our home visit this morning, we had a real estate agent come by to show our house to a couple of people moving here from Texas. They were OK with us staying here so we got to meet them. They are a very sweet couple who are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren. It was clear they really enjoy kids and didn't mind having the boys around while they looked at the house. I enjoyed visiting with them and hope they find the best house for them.
After showing the house, the boys and I had lunch and then they wanted to take a bath. They have a couple of fish that suck up water and, when squeezed, squirt it out and they are having fun with them lately in the tub so they were asking for a bath. So, they took a very long bath and had a fun time playing. I had to reheat the water at one point and they played until it cooled a second time. They were real pruney when they finally got out.
After the bath, we had our quiet time. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we no longer do naps now. We have worked our way up to one hour quiet times, which is nice. The boys take turns, one in the library and one in the living room. They can play with whatever they want, as long as they are quiet and stay in their room. I normally hang out in a chair or on the couch in the living room and read. It is a very peaceful time and, although they sometimes complain, they seem to enjoy it in the end.
After quiet time the boys watch a movie. They take turns picking the movie and they really look forward to this point in their day. Some days they get to watch a longer movie (longer than the typical 30 minutes) or they each get to pick one. This tends to happen more in the winter months, since it is often too cold to play outside or we are nursing colds or whatever. We have to be careful not to do it too often though or they start to expect it. They just watched one movie today and then we read a book and then the dad came home and it was time to start dinner.
It was an easy, relaxing afternoon, which was nice after having to-do's this morning. Today was very very cold here. I think it was in the single digits this morning (not including wind chill factor) and I noticed it was around 17 degrees in the late afternoon, when the dad got home. It was a good day to stay at home and play in the bathtub. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground from our big snow storm on Christmas Eve. This is unusual for Oklahoma and I am really ready for it to go. I think we may have a few 40 degree days coming up early next week so maybe that will be what it takes to melt this stuff away.
I am happy to report that behavior all around (Ben, Nick and me:) has been exceptionally good lately. I think (I hope) we have found our new normal because this is a very good thing:). I have pictures to post. I need to post them. I will. Maybe tomorrow.
My niece came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days. She is in her second year of college and is home for Christmas. It was so nice having her here. The boys really enjoyed her and were sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company too. We stayed up one night until midnight, catching up and just talking about life. It was so nice. She is so easy to be around. So many times when we have company, I end up feeling more tired because of the introverted-ness of me:). When I am around people a lot I just need some down time to regenerate. But when Jana was here, I didn't feel that way at all. She just slips into our routine and is very easy to be with. It was quite enjoyable.
On Sunday afternoon, she stayed with the boys for a couple of hours and let the husband and I get away to a movie. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and we both really liked it and agreed we would like to see it again when it is out on DVD. The dialog is so quick that it is easy to miss some of it. Good flick though.
This morning we had our last home visit for our last post placement report. It went very well and was very low stress for everyone involved, I think. After the boys spent a few minutes trying to show off and gain everyone's attention, they went off to play and played nicely while the dad and I talked with the two ladies from the local agency. This was the first time this agency has done a report for us so they had a lot of questions for us, in order to come up to speed on our history. I enjoy telling our story and remembering our adventure so the questions were welcome. It also makes us think though the differences between the boys and what makes them tick.
After our home visit this morning, we had a real estate agent come by to show our house to a couple of people moving here from Texas. They were OK with us staying here so we got to meet them. They are a very sweet couple who are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren. It was clear they really enjoy kids and didn't mind having the boys around while they looked at the house. I enjoyed visiting with them and hope they find the best house for them.
After showing the house, the boys and I had lunch and then they wanted to take a bath. They have a couple of fish that suck up water and, when squeezed, squirt it out and they are having fun with them lately in the tub so they were asking for a bath. So, they took a very long bath and had a fun time playing. I had to reheat the water at one point and they played until it cooled a second time. They were real pruney when they finally got out.
After the bath, we had our quiet time. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we no longer do naps now. We have worked our way up to one hour quiet times, which is nice. The boys take turns, one in the library and one in the living room. They can play with whatever they want, as long as they are quiet and stay in their room. I normally hang out in a chair or on the couch in the living room and read. It is a very peaceful time and, although they sometimes complain, they seem to enjoy it in the end.
After quiet time the boys watch a movie. They take turns picking the movie and they really look forward to this point in their day. Some days they get to watch a longer movie (longer than the typical 30 minutes) or they each get to pick one. This tends to happen more in the winter months, since it is often too cold to play outside or we are nursing colds or whatever. We have to be careful not to do it too often though or they start to expect it. They just watched one movie today and then we read a book and then the dad came home and it was time to start dinner.
It was an easy, relaxing afternoon, which was nice after having to-do's this morning. Today was very very cold here. I think it was in the single digits this morning (not including wind chill factor) and I noticed it was around 17 degrees in the late afternoon, when the dad got home. It was a good day to stay at home and play in the bathtub. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground from our big snow storm on Christmas Eve. This is unusual for Oklahoma and I am really ready for it to go. I think we may have a few 40 degree days coming up early next week so maybe that will be what it takes to melt this stuff away.
I am happy to report that behavior all around (Ben, Nick and me:) has been exceptionally good lately. I think (I hope) we have found our new normal because this is a very good thing:). I have pictures to post. I need to post them. I will. Maybe tomorrow.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
December 26, 2009
We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas and are now enjoying a relaxing weekend.
My extended family meets together on Christmas Eve at "the farm", which is the area where two of my brothers, my dad and his wife and my uncle and aunt live and where my grandparents used to live before they passed away. It takes us about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there from where we live. There are other family members who live further away, however they were all staying with relatives nearby so we had the furthest drive on Christmas Eve this year.
We had planned our get together for around noon time however, after listening to the weather forecast multiple times, I started calling family members first thing on Christmas Eve morning, asking if we might move up our start time to around 10ish. Fortunately we were able to contact everyone and make it work out because the bad weather was going to moving into our area sometime between noon and 3ish, according to the forecast. The day before Christmas Eve, we were enjoying 60 degree weather:). Huge change from one day to the next.
We had a wonderful time seeing the whole family, enjoying the holiday feast that my sister and others put together. My sister always makes her homemade lasagna and it is absolutely awesome. One of the nieces read the accounting of the birth of Christ from the Bible and then it was time to open the gifts. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we headed back towards home around 1ish.
It is a good thing we did not wait any longer because the last 20 to 30 minutes of our drive was in sleet and the closer we got to home, the worse it got, until the point where we were having to drive very slowly because it was so icy. The road that leads to our subdivision is one that has not yet been widened and it is a small, windy, uphill two lane road to get to our home, regardless of which direction you are coming from. Our subdivision is at the top of a hill. There was already a car off in the ditch on that road and a fire truck blocking one lane of the traffic so we ended up having to turn around and go around to come in from the other direction. We were very glad to finally get home and we were surprised that we made it up our driveway without any issues.
Later that night I heard on the news that they had closed all of the major highways around us. It was a pretty treacherous blizzard, one of the worst in our state's history....but was it ever beautiful! Once we were home, we could really enjoy it. We all enjoyed watching it turn into snow and it was really windy so it was blowing all over the place. It was very pretty to watch and we ended up getting about 8 inches in our neck of the woods, although with it being so windy, it is much deeper in places and you can see the grass poking through in other places.
We had a lovely Christmas present opening together the next morning. I spent a good deal of the mid-morning preparing our Christmas dinner (my first real holiday meal!) and the husband spent about three hours outside, shoveling the driveway. We invited friends to come over to join us for Christmas dinner around 2:00 so we had preparations. The boys enjoyed their new toys while we worked and everything came together quite nicely, although I did have to call my mom a couple of times to ask her how to do some things. I made the traditional ham, mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs and salad and my friend brought a wonderful green bean casserole. I also made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and we let all the kids gather round and decorate it and put on the candles. We all sang happy birthday to Jesus and the kids blew out the candles and then we all had cake. It really was a lovely get together and I was very pleased (and very very thankful) that everything came out so well. The food was great and the company was even better and my friend and I ended up wondering why we had not had our families together more often....and promised to do so in the future.
She is a good friend of mine and we have spent a lot of time together, off and on, over the past year or two. She has twin girls who are 5 years old and she has a new baby girl who is 7 weeks old. They go to our church and her husband sings in the choir and has an amazing voice. They only live about a mile from us (as the bird flies, as they say:) and we used to have play dates a lot with the kids, when our boys were 3 and her girls were 4. Now her girls are in school and she has the baby so it had been a while since we had gotten together.
Today I have been reorganizing things, getting rid of more toys that have been out grown or are no longer played with and organizing new toys. The boys have been playing upstairs yesterday and today and they seem to be doing pretty well with it now, which is nice. It gives them a lot more space to run around and there is carpet up there, which is good for certain kinds of play.
Earlier the dad took the boys outside to play in the snow. They wanted to go out so badly yesterday but we just did not have time, with everything we had to do. Plus the wind was really gusting yesterday and the wind chill factor was in the single digits so I don't think they would have enjoyed it much or lasted very long.
We normally get so little snow in these parts and it usually melts so fast that we do not usually spend the money to buy snow boots or snow suits for the boys. So getting them ready to play in the snow was a big task. They each wore two pairs of sweat pants and a T-shirt underneath a sweat shirt. The only shoes they could really wear were their good shoes that they wear for church, which are leather (kind of like dock siders but they lace up). Their sneakers are wearing out and I need to get them a new pair but I knew they would not be as warm as their leather shoes. So, after putting on their leather shoes, we had them step each foot into a large ziploc bag and we used duct tape to seal it to their sweat pants. We also put some duct tape on the bottom to give them a bit more traction. By the time we were done, they kind of looked like they were wearing boots, duct tape boots:)! It was pretty funny and very effective. We also tucked their sweat shirts into their sweat pants and put some duct tape around their waist to make sure they didn't get snow up their shirts or down their pants while making snow angels. Then we put their coats, hats and mittens on. We tucked their mittens into their coat sleeves and put duct tape around them so their mittens would not fall off (they fall off very easily, for some reason). Then they went out and had a great time!
When they came back in, their outer layer of sweat pants were soaked and their inner layer was also wet around their knees. The rest of them, including their shoes and their pants where the duct tape was (just below their knees) were perfectly dry. All the duct tape held perfectly. It was really quite impressive:). They had an amazing time and probably would have stayed out longer, if the dad had been willing. They made snow angels and enjoyed walking through the snow drifts and getting in their snow filled sand box. They were all over the place and they loved rolling around in the snow. It was very cute to watch and the dad got some good pics so I will post some later.
When they came inside, we read some stories, including one that was all about how castles were built, which we all enjoyed. And then it was time for quiet time...which is almost over and then it will be time for a movie.
This is long enough (too long) so I better say good bye for now. I hope your Christmas was blessed.
My extended family meets together on Christmas Eve at "the farm", which is the area where two of my brothers, my dad and his wife and my uncle and aunt live and where my grandparents used to live before they passed away. It takes us about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there from where we live. There are other family members who live further away, however they were all staying with relatives nearby so we had the furthest drive on Christmas Eve this year.
We had planned our get together for around noon time however, after listening to the weather forecast multiple times, I started calling family members first thing on Christmas Eve morning, asking if we might move up our start time to around 10ish. Fortunately we were able to contact everyone and make it work out because the bad weather was going to moving into our area sometime between noon and 3ish, according to the forecast. The day before Christmas Eve, we were enjoying 60 degree weather:). Huge change from one day to the next.
We had a wonderful time seeing the whole family, enjoying the holiday feast that my sister and others put together. My sister always makes her homemade lasagna and it is absolutely awesome. One of the nieces read the accounting of the birth of Christ from the Bible and then it was time to open the gifts. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we headed back towards home around 1ish.
It is a good thing we did not wait any longer because the last 20 to 30 minutes of our drive was in sleet and the closer we got to home, the worse it got, until the point where we were having to drive very slowly because it was so icy. The road that leads to our subdivision is one that has not yet been widened and it is a small, windy, uphill two lane road to get to our home, regardless of which direction you are coming from. Our subdivision is at the top of a hill. There was already a car off in the ditch on that road and a fire truck blocking one lane of the traffic so we ended up having to turn around and go around to come in from the other direction. We were very glad to finally get home and we were surprised that we made it up our driveway without any issues.
Later that night I heard on the news that they had closed all of the major highways around us. It was a pretty treacherous blizzard, one of the worst in our state's history....but was it ever beautiful! Once we were home, we could really enjoy it. We all enjoyed watching it turn into snow and it was really windy so it was blowing all over the place. It was very pretty to watch and we ended up getting about 8 inches in our neck of the woods, although with it being so windy, it is much deeper in places and you can see the grass poking through in other places.
We had a lovely Christmas present opening together the next morning. I spent a good deal of the mid-morning preparing our Christmas dinner (my first real holiday meal!) and the husband spent about three hours outside, shoveling the driveway. We invited friends to come over to join us for Christmas dinner around 2:00 so we had preparations. The boys enjoyed their new toys while we worked and everything came together quite nicely, although I did have to call my mom a couple of times to ask her how to do some things. I made the traditional ham, mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs and salad and my friend brought a wonderful green bean casserole. I also made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and we let all the kids gather round and decorate it and put on the candles. We all sang happy birthday to Jesus and the kids blew out the candles and then we all had cake. It really was a lovely get together and I was very pleased (and very very thankful) that everything came out so well. The food was great and the company was even better and my friend and I ended up wondering why we had not had our families together more often....and promised to do so in the future.
She is a good friend of mine and we have spent a lot of time together, off and on, over the past year or two. She has twin girls who are 5 years old and she has a new baby girl who is 7 weeks old. They go to our church and her husband sings in the choir and has an amazing voice. They only live about a mile from us (as the bird flies, as they say:) and we used to have play dates a lot with the kids, when our boys were 3 and her girls were 4. Now her girls are in school and she has the baby so it had been a while since we had gotten together.
Today I have been reorganizing things, getting rid of more toys that have been out grown or are no longer played with and organizing new toys. The boys have been playing upstairs yesterday and today and they seem to be doing pretty well with it now, which is nice. It gives them a lot more space to run around and there is carpet up there, which is good for certain kinds of play.
Earlier the dad took the boys outside to play in the snow. They wanted to go out so badly yesterday but we just did not have time, with everything we had to do. Plus the wind was really gusting yesterday and the wind chill factor was in the single digits so I don't think they would have enjoyed it much or lasted very long.
We normally get so little snow in these parts and it usually melts so fast that we do not usually spend the money to buy snow boots or snow suits for the boys. So getting them ready to play in the snow was a big task. They each wore two pairs of sweat pants and a T-shirt underneath a sweat shirt. The only shoes they could really wear were their good shoes that they wear for church, which are leather (kind of like dock siders but they lace up). Their sneakers are wearing out and I need to get them a new pair but I knew they would not be as warm as their leather shoes. So, after putting on their leather shoes, we had them step each foot into a large ziploc bag and we used duct tape to seal it to their sweat pants. We also put some duct tape on the bottom to give them a bit more traction. By the time we were done, they kind of looked like they were wearing boots, duct tape boots:)! It was pretty funny and very effective. We also tucked their sweat shirts into their sweat pants and put some duct tape around their waist to make sure they didn't get snow up their shirts or down their pants while making snow angels. Then we put their coats, hats and mittens on. We tucked their mittens into their coat sleeves and put duct tape around them so their mittens would not fall off (they fall off very easily, for some reason). Then they went out and had a great time!
When they came back in, their outer layer of sweat pants were soaked and their inner layer was also wet around their knees. The rest of them, including their shoes and their pants where the duct tape was (just below their knees) were perfectly dry. All the duct tape held perfectly. It was really quite impressive:). They had an amazing time and probably would have stayed out longer, if the dad had been willing. They made snow angels and enjoyed walking through the snow drifts and getting in their snow filled sand box. They were all over the place and they loved rolling around in the snow. It was very cute to watch and the dad got some good pics so I will post some later.
When they came inside, we read some stories, including one that was all about how castles were built, which we all enjoyed. And then it was time for quiet time...which is almost over and then it will be time for a movie.
This is long enough (too long) so I better say good bye for now. I hope your Christmas was blessed.
Friday, December 18, 2009
December 18, 2009 Part 2
Below is Ben, a.k.a. 'David', as in David and Goliath. He plays this all. the. time. and he frequently insists on being called David. In the picture below, you can see the panda bear hanging from the waist band of his sweat pants. But that is no ordinary panda bear. That, my dear friends, is David's harp. And you can also see the sock hanging from his waist band (it is actually a balled up sock inside another sock). That is David's sling shot. He stays very busy being David (and it is absolutely adorable).
Below is Ben again. You may think that my son is playing with my old purses but you would be wrong. That brown thing across his chest is David's shield and the small bag on his arm is David's small pouch that he puts his stones in before he uses them in his sling shot. I'm sure he also has his sling shot tucked into the waist band of his sweat pants but we can't see it because his shield is in the way. He has also memorized all of the words from the David and Goliath story in one of the children's Bibles that we have. He corrected me the other night when I was distracted and said one of the words wrong. He says all the words when he pretends to be David. He asked the dad to be Goliath the other night. They normally play this in the dad's office because it is carpeted (Goliath needs to have a soft landing in our play:). The dad was in his office ready to play and Ben walked away so the dad started doing something else. I was in the kitchen and saw Ben come into the living room, pretending to talk to Jesse and the other Israelites, according to the words from the story in the Bible. It was too cute. When he finally went back to the dad's office, ready to slay the giant Goliath, he found the dad doing something else but he soon got back into the act and was slain by our hero David. David then came to the kitchen to let me know he had slain Goliath and made sure I said the right words, which I never can remember correctly but David is oh too happy to tell me what to say:). It is really something how much of it he has memorized.
Nick loves hanging upside down, climbing on the dad and jumping off the dad. You can also see Ben in this shot. He has pulled up his shirt so he can put his sling shot into the waist band of his sweat pants:). It is a constant theme these days.
And here is our Merry Merry Merry Christmas picture for all the blog readers. You can click on it if you want to see a closer, larger view. Merry Christmas everyone!
Below is Ben again. You may think that my son is playing with my old purses but you would be wrong. That brown thing across his chest is David's shield and the small bag on his arm is David's small pouch that he puts his stones in before he uses them in his sling shot. I'm sure he also has his sling shot tucked into the waist band of his sweat pants but we can't see it because his shield is in the way. He has also memorized all of the words from the David and Goliath story in one of the children's Bibles that we have. He corrected me the other night when I was distracted and said one of the words wrong. He says all the words when he pretends to be David. He asked the dad to be Goliath the other night. They normally play this in the dad's office because it is carpeted (Goliath needs to have a soft landing in our play:). The dad was in his office ready to play and Ben walked away so the dad started doing something else. I was in the kitchen and saw Ben come into the living room, pretending to talk to Jesse and the other Israelites, according to the words from the story in the Bible. It was too cute. When he finally went back to the dad's office, ready to slay the giant Goliath, he found the dad doing something else but he soon got back into the act and was slain by our hero David. David then came to the kitchen to let me know he had slain Goliath and made sure I said the right words, which I never can remember correctly but David is oh too happy to tell me what to say:). It is really something how much of it he has memorized.
Nick loves hanging upside down, climbing on the dad and jumping off the dad. You can also see Ben in this shot. He has pulled up his shirt so he can put his sling shot into the waist band of his sweat pants:). It is a constant theme these days.
And here is our Merry Merry Merry Christmas picture for all the blog readers. You can click on it if you want to see a closer, larger view. Merry Christmas everyone!
December 18, 2009
Well, we are one week from the big day and I think I am almost ready. Our Christmas cards should go out tomorrow, which is a miracle (if you only knew), and I only have a couple more gifts to find tomorrow morning and then I am officially ready. Then I can relax and enjoy the season a bit more:).
We made Christmas sugar cookies the other day and it was a family project. I was cooking stew & cornbread so the dad and the boys mixed the cookies up, cut them out and put them into bake. After dinner, the boys and I decorated them. The boys really enjoyed the whole Christmas cookie experience, most especially the eating part. Unfortunately the left over ones that we had not decorated yet seemed a bit stale the next day. I should have put a slice of bread in the ziploc with them before closing it and I didn't think of it.
The boys had their 6 month check up at the dentist the other day and their teeth looked great, which is such a blessing. I think it is so hard when little kids have to have major things done to their teeth. I am very thankful the boys seem to have healthy teeth. We try to take good care of them. They were both little champs at the dentist.
Today I printed all the required pictures of the boys for the last post placement report. We are very bad about not printing pictures often so I have to go back through pics from Jan-Dec to find all the ones I want. I ended up printing 141 pictures, although most of them were for Christmas cards and a bunch of them were for family who have been wanting pics (I will send you some soon Dasha:). We are scheduled to have our post placement home visit in early January. The company who has done all of our home visits and reports to date went out of business this month and can't do it so we will have a new company doing it this time, which is kind of a bummer. The lady from the old company was very laid back and the new company will likely not be at all. Oh well. At least this is the last one and I am so glad.
The boys have already received their first Christmas present from Aunt Dasha. Dasha, they love their magazines and trade them back and forth to look at the pics, when we are driving in the car. It is such a great gift, thanks so much! We are really looking forward to seeing you soon.
The next post will be a picture post:). Merry Merry Merry!
We made Christmas sugar cookies the other day and it was a family project. I was cooking stew & cornbread so the dad and the boys mixed the cookies up, cut them out and put them into bake. After dinner, the boys and I decorated them. The boys really enjoyed the whole Christmas cookie experience, most especially the eating part. Unfortunately the left over ones that we had not decorated yet seemed a bit stale the next day. I should have put a slice of bread in the ziploc with them before closing it and I didn't think of it.
The boys had their 6 month check up at the dentist the other day and their teeth looked great, which is such a blessing. I think it is so hard when little kids have to have major things done to their teeth. I am very thankful the boys seem to have healthy teeth. We try to take good care of them. They were both little champs at the dentist.
Today I printed all the required pictures of the boys for the last post placement report. We are very bad about not printing pictures often so I have to go back through pics from Jan-Dec to find all the ones I want. I ended up printing 141 pictures, although most of them were for Christmas cards and a bunch of them were for family who have been wanting pics (I will send you some soon Dasha:). We are scheduled to have our post placement home visit in early January. The company who has done all of our home visits and reports to date went out of business this month and can't do it so we will have a new company doing it this time, which is kind of a bummer. The lady from the old company was very laid back and the new company will likely not be at all. Oh well. At least this is the last one and I am so glad.
The boys have already received their first Christmas present from Aunt Dasha. Dasha, they love their magazines and trade them back and forth to look at the pics, when we are driving in the car. It is such a great gift, thanks so much! We are really looking forward to seeing you soon.
The next post will be a picture post:). Merry Merry Merry!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
December 15, 2009
Things are busy around here these days. We are getting ready for Christmas and also working on finalizing our plans for the new house. We still have not sold our current house but, if it is God's will, I know it will happen in His timing. In the meantime, we still have much to do before we would be ready to begin building anyway. I have hopes that when we are finally ready, we will be in the process of selling our home but I know God's timing is perfect and He knows so much more than we do so I will continue to trust in Him.
Tonight I am sitting with the boys as they fall asleep. Most of the time the boys still take naps these days, although sometimes we just can't fit it in. On those days, I always end up feeling badly because Nick just ends up falling apart and his behavior is just really bad and then I feel bad because I know he normally does not act that way when he has had a nap. And if he has to skip it two days in a row, look out. It is going to be really bad. He still needs his nap so badly but Ben really could go without it now and do pretty well probably.
In other news, the boys will start swimming lessons in early January and go once a week through the second week of May. It is a great place and they like what they have seen there (we have been there twice and they have watched other kids taking lessons). I anticipate the first 2 or 3 weeks might be a bit difficult, from what other moms and the people who work there have told me, but after that the kids usually start to really enjoy it and learn fast.
Merry Christmas!
Tonight I am sitting with the boys as they fall asleep. Most of the time the boys still take naps these days, although sometimes we just can't fit it in. On those days, I always end up feeling badly because Nick just ends up falling apart and his behavior is just really bad and then I feel bad because I know he normally does not act that way when he has had a nap. And if he has to skip it two days in a row, look out. It is going to be really bad. He still needs his nap so badly but Ben really could go without it now and do pretty well probably.
In other news, the boys will start swimming lessons in early January and go once a week through the second week of May. It is a great place and they like what they have seen there (we have been there twice and they have watched other kids taking lessons). I anticipate the first 2 or 3 weeks might be a bit difficult, from what other moms and the people who work there have told me, but after that the kids usually start to really enjoy it and learn fast.
Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 11, 2009
December 11, 2009
Overheard this morning, as boys were taking turns jumping on the mini-trampoline:
Nick: "Ben, the timer is over (the 3 minute timer they use to take turns). Now we can jump together!" (Ben had just finished his turn jumping.)
Ben: (said as he was walking away) "I don't want to jump. I have a head ache and my pants keep falling down."
The dad and I both had a chuckle over that.
Nick: "Ben, the timer is over (the 3 minute timer they use to take turns). Now we can jump together!" (Ben had just finished his turn jumping.)
Ben: (said as he was walking away) "I don't want to jump. I have a head ache and my pants keep falling down."
The dad and I both had a chuckle over that.
Monday, December 07, 2009
December 7, 2009
We have been quite busy lately. On Thursday evening we went to the husband's work Christmas party and the boys had quite a good time. We had a nice dinner and then Santa came and the boys each sat on his lap and told him what they wanted and then they each got a bag of goodies.
On Friday we had a play date with friends in the morning at our house. We actually went to their house, got their two boys and brought them back to our house. Their mom had to stay home and watch over things, as they had to have all of the carpet in their new house replaced, as it was defective. So I had all four boys with me at our house and I was very impressed with how well they all got along. After playing for a while, I served lunch and an ice cream cone for dessert, which was a big hit. Then we took them home and came back and watched a movie, as it was too late for nap because we had to be at the circus by 4:30.
Some friends of ours got tickets to the circus and invited us to go too. It was actually better than I had expected and the boys loved it, especially the flying trapeze, which was pretty neat.
On Saturday the dad took the boys up north to a Christmas tree farm where they picked out our tree and the dad cut it down. They got to take a hay ride on a wagon pulled by a tractor to find the tree and haul it back so that was a big hit. I did some Christmas shopping that morning while they were tree shopping and then we decorated the tree and inside of the house in the afternoon. The boys were so excited and they love the tree. They helped decorate it, which was kind of funny because they like to hang the bulbs from the cord for the lights and they hang many bulbs side-by-side in a row. They enjoyed helping though and it was cute.
Saturday afternoon we went to a Christmas play at our church. The boys enjoyed it at first but did not last too long. Part of the problem was this was the second day in a row without a nap for Nick and he was getting really sleepy and not wanting to fall asleep. So he kept saying he was hungry. So I took the boys out and we wondered over to the kitchen and the cooks were busy preparing food for the dinner that would go with the dinner theater that night (we were at the matinee). They generously offered the boys some crackers and drinks and the lead cook also had a couple of fun toys (a cash register and groceries and a pretend bar-b-q grill) for her granddaughter that the boys really enjoyed playing with. I gave them a bunch of pennies to play with and sat and watched them. They "cooked" many things for me to eat and also let me buy lots of groceries from them. They enjoyed themselves.
Sunday we went to church and out to eat and then had a relaxing day at home, which was nice.
We have been trying to wrap up our architectural drawings but we still have a couple of things to do before we can do that. We are waiting to hear back from the Kitchen Idea people on the kitchen design and also the master bath design. Things really slowed down when I got sick and then they just did not pick up again because of the holidays, I guess. Anyway, it seems like things are moving very slowly.
We were at Home Depot for a while and one of the sales ladies who was helping us noted the boys were bored so she got them a couple of coloring books and some crayons. I let them get out of the cart and get down so they could color on the floor, but warned them to keep their coloring on their books and not to color on the concrete floor. At one point I looked at Ben and he had this major look of guilt on his face. So I asked him if he had colored on the floor and he said no but he was still looking funny so I started looking and, sure enough, he had. He was covering it up by sitting on it. He was not happy when I took his coloring book and crayons away and made him get back into the cart. He is usually a pretty well behaved child but, for some reason, he has a really hard time not writing on things that he should not write on. The last time we left the boys with the sitter, he had her pen and wrote a few big marks on our couch. Fortunately I was able to get it off with some fabric cleaner but he just cannot be trusted yet.
In other news, I called our local agency today to schedule our last post placement home visit, only to discover they are shutting their doors as of December something (one day last week) and will not be able to do it. The funny thing is that I was not at all surprised because, for some reason, I had thought of this the other day, that it would not surprise me to find out they were going or had gone out of business. Anyway, they are trying to work with another agency to provide us with what we need and we are just waiting now. It has to be done in January, dated in January and sent in by the end of January. Hopefully we will hear something soon.
The dad is off this week for a week of vacation. The boys are upstairs napping. It is very very cold here right now. I need a warm spot and a nap myself.
On Friday we had a play date with friends in the morning at our house. We actually went to their house, got their two boys and brought them back to our house. Their mom had to stay home and watch over things, as they had to have all of the carpet in their new house replaced, as it was defective. So I had all four boys with me at our house and I was very impressed with how well they all got along. After playing for a while, I served lunch and an ice cream cone for dessert, which was a big hit. Then we took them home and came back and watched a movie, as it was too late for nap because we had to be at the circus by 4:30.
Some friends of ours got tickets to the circus and invited us to go too. It was actually better than I had expected and the boys loved it, especially the flying trapeze, which was pretty neat.
On Saturday the dad took the boys up north to a Christmas tree farm where they picked out our tree and the dad cut it down. They got to take a hay ride on a wagon pulled by a tractor to find the tree and haul it back so that was a big hit. I did some Christmas shopping that morning while they were tree shopping and then we decorated the tree and inside of the house in the afternoon. The boys were so excited and they love the tree. They helped decorate it, which was kind of funny because they like to hang the bulbs from the cord for the lights and they hang many bulbs side-by-side in a row. They enjoyed helping though and it was cute.
Saturday afternoon we went to a Christmas play at our church. The boys enjoyed it at first but did not last too long. Part of the problem was this was the second day in a row without a nap for Nick and he was getting really sleepy and not wanting to fall asleep. So he kept saying he was hungry. So I took the boys out and we wondered over to the kitchen and the cooks were busy preparing food for the dinner that would go with the dinner theater that night (we were at the matinee). They generously offered the boys some crackers and drinks and the lead cook also had a couple of fun toys (a cash register and groceries and a pretend bar-b-q grill) for her granddaughter that the boys really enjoyed playing with. I gave them a bunch of pennies to play with and sat and watched them. They "cooked" many things for me to eat and also let me buy lots of groceries from them. They enjoyed themselves.
Sunday we went to church and out to eat and then had a relaxing day at home, which was nice.
We have been trying to wrap up our architectural drawings but we still have a couple of things to do before we can do that. We are waiting to hear back from the Kitchen Idea people on the kitchen design and also the master bath design. Things really slowed down when I got sick and then they just did not pick up again because of the holidays, I guess. Anyway, it seems like things are moving very slowly.
We were at Home Depot for a while and one of the sales ladies who was helping us noted the boys were bored so she got them a couple of coloring books and some crayons. I let them get out of the cart and get down so they could color on the floor, but warned them to keep their coloring on their books and not to color on the concrete floor. At one point I looked at Ben and he had this major look of guilt on his face. So I asked him if he had colored on the floor and he said no but he was still looking funny so I started looking and, sure enough, he had. He was covering it up by sitting on it. He was not happy when I took his coloring book and crayons away and made him get back into the cart. He is usually a pretty well behaved child but, for some reason, he has a really hard time not writing on things that he should not write on. The last time we left the boys with the sitter, he had her pen and wrote a few big marks on our couch. Fortunately I was able to get it off with some fabric cleaner but he just cannot be trusted yet.
In other news, I called our local agency today to schedule our last post placement home visit, only to discover they are shutting their doors as of December something (one day last week) and will not be able to do it. The funny thing is that I was not at all surprised because, for some reason, I had thought of this the other day, that it would not surprise me to find out they were going or had gone out of business. Anyway, they are trying to work with another agency to provide us with what we need and we are just waiting now. It has to be done in January, dated in January and sent in by the end of January. Hopefully we will hear something soon.
The dad is off this week for a week of vacation. The boys are upstairs napping. It is very very cold here right now. I need a warm spot and a nap myself.
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