I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a follow up doctors appointment on Monday and, while I was there, I got the pneumonia shot. I had finished the antibiotic I was taking for the pneumonia I have had on Monday evening. Since then, things have not been going so well. My arm has continued to be more sore each day. I have really felt so badly overall and then, yesterday, I started running a fever again.
My mom and sister were here yesterday to celebrate N's birthday. They left just before I put the boys down for their nap. Then I went to bed and I was chilling and aching again. I was running 101.3 degrees temp. The boys woke up and I let them watch movie after movie and they played with new birthday toys. They were very good, while I was covered up under tons of blankets, chilling and aching and generally feeling miserable.
I called the husband at work and I was crying because I felt so miserable and really felt like the whole thing was starting all over again. He ended up calling two of the doctors that were seeing me in the hospital. They did not think I would have this reaction from the shot, which is what we had been thinking was causing this. One of them called in another prescription for me of the same medication I had finished on Monday and they were thinking I might need to see a lung doctor or something and maybe even have something taken from my lung and tested (doesn't that sound like fun!).
The husband came home early and took over, which was a relief. The boys had really been very good but I still felt bad that I was not up and watching over them. At one point, they were both standing at the end of my bed, singing songs for me with their new little microphones that they got for Nick's birthday. It was very cute and entertaining. I will post a birthday post later, since we now have another 4 year old:).
I took some medication that took my fever down and started feeling better and the husband got my prescription filled so I have had a couple of doses of that now. Last night we noticed a reddening on my arm, around the site where I had the pneumonia shot and today it has spread a bit. So it seems that maybe all of this is just a reaction to the shot. I am hopeful that is all it is. My breathing is so much better that I would really be surprised if it was my lung getting worse.
Actually, after only two doses of the antibiotic, I think the soreness in my arm is already feeling a bit better. So, I am hopeful that I am once again on the mend. This has been so frustrating, as it seems I have been sick now for a long time. My sister thinks I came home from the hospital too soon and I should have spent two additional days there. I think I probably would have recovered faster if I had stayed longer, although I was so ready to come home when I was there. The problem with being home is that I am constantly over doing it, whether I want to or not, because there are just those things that have to be done.
I am very thankful that our friend has come today to take care of the boys. She is absolutely wonderful. She loves to play with them and they are so happy while she is here. They stay busy, they are not arguing at all and I get to rest, which is wonderful. Off to my resting.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
November 9, 2009
This recovery thing is definitely taking longer than I would like. Everything is such an effort right now and I always feel exhausted, even though I am sleeping very well at night. Today was the first day I had the boys all day by myself, although I'm not really all by myself because my mom came to stay a few days with me. She is great moral support and also helps out as much as she can. It is very nice to have her here and I am thankful she offered to come. She will stay for a couple more days and then I will be on my own. It will definitely be a challenge. It takes about three weeks to really get your strength back from being this sick with pneumonia.
I am gaining in strength and endurance each day but it is still quite a chore and I feel I am dragging myself around most of the time. I feel for the boys because I am sure they are really tired of all of this, and of course the husband too. He works hard all day and then comes home and has to take on more than normal at home too.
I was surprised by the good behavior today. The boys were better than I expected, after observing them over the past few days. We all got along pretty well and I was patient and kind, which was great because it is not always easy to be that way when I am feeling so yucky. My pain was a bit better today than yesterday so that was a big help too.
I am so tired of all this and so ready to get back into my life. I feel I am sitting on the sidelines and life is passing me by.
I had a follow up appointment with my doctor today and she is going to refer me to a gastro specialist for my acid reflux issues. We all agreed that the problem is bad enough that we need to do something to improve the situation, especially since there is a good possibility that this is what has caused me to aspirate and end up with pneumonia twice within two years. I got the pneumonia shot, just in case:) and the boys got the H1N1 nasal spray. They were not too excited about this since they had just had the regular flu nasal spray a couple of weeks ago and remembered it well. But I think they preferred it to a shot and it was over quickly. In another week or two we have to take them back in for their 4 year old immunizations, which will be 4 or 5 shots each. That is not going to be a fun exercise.
I am gaining in strength and endurance each day but it is still quite a chore and I feel I am dragging myself around most of the time. I feel for the boys because I am sure they are really tired of all of this, and of course the husband too. He works hard all day and then comes home and has to take on more than normal at home too.
I was surprised by the good behavior today. The boys were better than I expected, after observing them over the past few days. We all got along pretty well and I was patient and kind, which was great because it is not always easy to be that way when I am feeling so yucky. My pain was a bit better today than yesterday so that was a big help too.
I am so tired of all this and so ready to get back into my life. I feel I am sitting on the sidelines and life is passing me by.
I had a follow up appointment with my doctor today and she is going to refer me to a gastro specialist for my acid reflux issues. We all agreed that the problem is bad enough that we need to do something to improve the situation, especially since there is a good possibility that this is what has caused me to aspirate and end up with pneumonia twice within two years. I got the pneumonia shot, just in case:) and the boys got the H1N1 nasal spray. They were not too excited about this since they had just had the regular flu nasal spray a couple of weeks ago and remembered it well. But I think they preferred it to a shot and it was over quickly. In another week or two we have to take them back in for their 4 year old immunizations, which will be 4 or 5 shots each. That is not going to be a fun exercise.
Friday, November 06, 2009
November 6, 2009
I was starting to feel better and could see much improvement on Saturday. For some reason, that was all lost on Sunday, when I woke up in more pain and was feeling worse again. By the afternoon, it was back to the hospital I went, this time as a direct admit. I stayed at the hospital from Sunday evening until Wednesday evening. It is so nice to be back home and I am quickly regaining my strength, although I still have a ways to go.
The husband has had quite the juggling act, trying to keep everything running around here, making sure the boys had supervision and also attending to his work. He has been on call at the hospital all this time, which means he also has to do rounds every morning too, plus still do a lot of his regular work. Thankfully my sister was able to come and stay with the boys from Monday afternoon to Thursday morning. She is such a gift from above. We also have a friend who came and stayed with the boys the last time I was hospitalized for pneumonia and Paul called her again this time. She has been able to come yesterday and today to help out, since I am not quite able to do it all on my own yet.
It is very hard to tell how much is too much right now. I find that I tend to over do things and then I am not hungry so I end up going to bed and not eating anything. That happened last night at dinner and almost happened again this morning at breakfast, although I force myself to eat a piece of toast.
I will be doing it all by myself for half a day on Saturday and half a day on Sunday, since the husband will be doing rounds at the hospital. That is definitely going to be a challenge and I am going to have to be very selective about which things really have to be done.
This morning, the husband had a new theory on what may be causing me to get pneumonia. I have acid reflux extremely bad so his thought is that it is making it too easy to aspirate. I would not at all be surprised if this is the case. I have known it is very bad for a long time, since I live with it every day. So, I think we will likely be doing some testing and searching along these lines and try to get this under control a little better. I'm sure that means changes to my diet:( but it will also mean I will feel better over all, which is good....and I really don't want to get so sick with this pneumonia again. Twice is way more than enough for me. Hopefully we will find a good solution.
The husband has had quite the juggling act, trying to keep everything running around here, making sure the boys had supervision and also attending to his work. He has been on call at the hospital all this time, which means he also has to do rounds every morning too, plus still do a lot of his regular work. Thankfully my sister was able to come and stay with the boys from Monday afternoon to Thursday morning. She is such a gift from above. We also have a friend who came and stayed with the boys the last time I was hospitalized for pneumonia and Paul called her again this time. She has been able to come yesterday and today to help out, since I am not quite able to do it all on my own yet.
It is very hard to tell how much is too much right now. I find that I tend to over do things and then I am not hungry so I end up going to bed and not eating anything. That happened last night at dinner and almost happened again this morning at breakfast, although I force myself to eat a piece of toast.
I will be doing it all by myself for half a day on Saturday and half a day on Sunday, since the husband will be doing rounds at the hospital. That is definitely going to be a challenge and I am going to have to be very selective about which things really have to be done.
This morning, the husband had a new theory on what may be causing me to get pneumonia. I have acid reflux extremely bad so his thought is that it is making it too easy to aspirate. I would not at all be surprised if this is the case. I have known it is very bad for a long time, since I live with it every day. So, I think we will likely be doing some testing and searching along these lines and try to get this under control a little better. I'm sure that means changes to my diet:( but it will also mean I will feel better over all, which is good....and I really don't want to get so sick with this pneumonia again. Twice is way more than enough for me. Hopefully we will find a good solution.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
October 29, 2009
The bad news is that I am sick and I'm in a lot of pain. Tuesday afternoon I noticed my body was a bit achy. I took 2 Ibuprofen and then the boys and I went outside to rake some leaves. By the time we came back in, I was a bit more achy and thought my back was hurting from raking the leaves.
I made dinner as quickly as possible because I just wanted to go climb into bed. At some point I started chilling and my aches continued to get worse. I didn't eat anything but left the boys and husband to eat and I went on to bed.
My backache was now starting to wrap around to the front and it was really painful. I felt like I had broken a couple of ribs. My fever continued to climb. Later that night I started throwing up and was extremely nauseated. This went on until around 10:00am or so the next day. After that, the nausea went away, thank goodness, and my worst symptoms were fever and severe pain.
I finally took hydrocodone just before bedtime, hoping it would help the pain enough that I could get some uninterrupted sleep, since the night before I had only slept in 20 to 30 minute increments. It did help a lot and I was kicking myself for not giving it a try earlier. But then I woke up around 4:00am and was in such extreme pain that we went to the ER. I was so thankful that nobody else was there and I didn't have to wait at all. Additionally, when you tell them you are having chest pain, they tend to get right on that too, just in case.
Long story longer, they took an X-Ray and I do have pneumonia, although it is in the opposite lung from when I had it a couple of years ago. We are now not sure if I have the flu or not or how in the world I ended up with pheumonia. Very confusing to me.
So not much going on around here right now, for me anyway. The husband had to call in and let them know I am sick so he has to take sick days yesterday and today. He was suppose to be on call at the hospital and doing morning rounds, this weekend but we are not sure I will be well enough by then. I am hopeful.
So far, nobody else is showing any signs of sickness, although the boys had taken a nap around 9:30am today, since they were so very tired from getting up at 4:30am.
Hopefully I will recover quickly and life will get back to normal soon.
I made dinner as quickly as possible because I just wanted to go climb into bed. At some point I started chilling and my aches continued to get worse. I didn't eat anything but left the boys and husband to eat and I went on to bed.
My backache was now starting to wrap around to the front and it was really painful. I felt like I had broken a couple of ribs. My fever continued to climb. Later that night I started throwing up and was extremely nauseated. This went on until around 10:00am or so the next day. After that, the nausea went away, thank goodness, and my worst symptoms were fever and severe pain.
I finally took hydrocodone just before bedtime, hoping it would help the pain enough that I could get some uninterrupted sleep, since the night before I had only slept in 20 to 30 minute increments. It did help a lot and I was kicking myself for not giving it a try earlier. But then I woke up around 4:00am and was in such extreme pain that we went to the ER. I was so thankful that nobody else was there and I didn't have to wait at all. Additionally, when you tell them you are having chest pain, they tend to get right on that too, just in case.
Long story longer, they took an X-Ray and I do have pneumonia, although it is in the opposite lung from when I had it a couple of years ago. We are now not sure if I have the flu or not or how in the world I ended up with pheumonia. Very confusing to me.
So not much going on around here right now, for me anyway. The husband had to call in and let them know I am sick so he has to take sick days yesterday and today. He was suppose to be on call at the hospital and doing morning rounds, this weekend but we are not sure I will be well enough by then. I am hopeful.
So far, nobody else is showing any signs of sickness, although the boys had taken a nap around 9:30am today, since they were so very tired from getting up at 4:30am.
Hopefully I will recover quickly and life will get back to normal soon.
Friday, October 23, 2009
October 23, 2009
The dad got home from Boston just fine and I was very happy to see him, as were the boys. His schedule is what gives the boys and I a schedule, somewhat, so when he is gone I tend to feel a bit rudder-less in some ways. Also, our normal routine allows me to take a break in the evenings, while the dad is playing/reading to the boys and he and I normally take turns putting the boys to bed. We both help with getting ready for bed but we take turns, every other night, reading bedtime stories and their Bible, saying prayers and sitting with them until they fall asleep. So, without the dad here, I end up doing mommy duty from son up until son down:).
I am an introvert and we introverts need to have some alone time to re-energize at times. Also, I find that I am just a better mommy and have a lot more patience when I have some down time each day. So going from Tuesday through Saturday late afternoon with no down time was really hard for me. I felt pretty wiped out, physically and emotionally, by the time he got home. Also, I really don't sleep nearly as well when I am here alone so that contributed greatly to the physical and emotional exhaustion I felt.
In other news, nothing has changed on selling our home. We have five more Sundays left until Thanksgiving and then we will have a break from showing the house for a while. We met with the Kitchen Idea folks about our kitchen design this week and it went very well. She had some great ideas that I would never have thought of. We will meet with them again sometime next week and I am excited to see the results. We meet with our architects again on Monday. We are pretty solid on everything except the layout of the upstairs bedrooms and also the master bath. We have never been happy with the master bath. I think we need to meet with a master bath expert, if such person exists. Hopefully we will figure something out soon. I am ready to finalize this thing and I know our architects are too.
Today the boys and I went to some consignment shops, looking for twin bed frames for their beds. Their mattress and boxsprings are still sitting on the floor and I would really like to find them a bed frame sometime soon. I found some pretty good consignment stores near here so I will have to make frequent visits to find something. I saw the perfect set today but it had already been sold.
I woke up with a scratchy throat today so I am either coming down with something or having allergy issues. It is sometimes hard to tell which, although both of the boys seem to be coming down with something so that may be a clue. Time will tell. I hope it is not the flu, although I don't think it is because nobody has a fever or chills or anything like that, just runny noses so far.
Better run. My click click typing is keeping someone from falling asleep for nap:).
I am an introvert and we introverts need to have some alone time to re-energize at times. Also, I find that I am just a better mommy and have a lot more patience when I have some down time each day. So going from Tuesday through Saturday late afternoon with no down time was really hard for me. I felt pretty wiped out, physically and emotionally, by the time he got home. Also, I really don't sleep nearly as well when I am here alone so that contributed greatly to the physical and emotional exhaustion I felt.
In other news, nothing has changed on selling our home. We have five more Sundays left until Thanksgiving and then we will have a break from showing the house for a while. We met with the Kitchen Idea folks about our kitchen design this week and it went very well. She had some great ideas that I would never have thought of. We will meet with them again sometime next week and I am excited to see the results. We meet with our architects again on Monday. We are pretty solid on everything except the layout of the upstairs bedrooms and also the master bath. We have never been happy with the master bath. I think we need to meet with a master bath expert, if such person exists. Hopefully we will figure something out soon. I am ready to finalize this thing and I know our architects are too.
Today the boys and I went to some consignment shops, looking for twin bed frames for their beds. Their mattress and boxsprings are still sitting on the floor and I would really like to find them a bed frame sometime soon. I found some pretty good consignment stores near here so I will have to make frequent visits to find something. I saw the perfect set today but it had already been sold.
I woke up with a scratchy throat today so I am either coming down with something or having allergy issues. It is sometimes hard to tell which, although both of the boys seem to be coming down with something so that may be a clue. Time will tell. I hope it is not the flu, although I don't think it is because nobody has a fever or chills or anything like that, just runny noses so far.
Better run. My click click typing is keeping someone from falling asleep for nap:).
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
October 14, 2009
Thanks for the book advice. I will definitely look into those suggestions.
One of the books I stumbled upon at the used bookstore is The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. We read this one yesterday and the boys really enjoyed it a lot, so much so that we reread it again today. Definitely a winner and we will likely be reading it often.
Another book that was recommended in The Read Aloud Handbook is Dinosaurs Before Dark, which is the first book in the Magic Tree House series. We started this one just before nap and finished it this evening before bed. The boys absolutely loved, loved this book. They were so excited about the story.
The boys have not watched or read anything much that is scary. I don't know if this is why or not but they do not like things that are scary. It took them a while to get up the nerve to watch the David and Goliath video we have and they still have not been brave enough to watch Jonah and the Whale. So I was not sure if the Dinosaurs Before Dark book would be just a bit too scary for them. At one time, Ben did say something about not liking the "monster", which was the T-Rex in this story. But he definitely wanted me to continue.
The funny thing is that I had forgotten that my sister had given me a set of these books that had belonged to my nephew. I remembered after we returned from the used bookstore yesterday and I looked through them and, sure enough, we have books 1-8 and 9-16, or something like that.
When we finished reading book 1 this evening, I told the boys that we have more of these books and they were so excited. They ran to the library and wanted to look through them right away. They decided they wanted to start reading book 2 for our read aloud before bed so we just finished the first 2 chapters in the second book.
I am glad that we found some books that they enjoy. These books seem to have just the right level of excitement and suspense that they are able to hang on during the pages that have no pictures and sometimes that is two page turns away, which is big for a 3/4 year old. This is the first time they have really been able to maintain interest at this level with so few pictures. These books are stretching them another page turn for a picture and I am a bit surprised that they have both been so captured by these books. It is fun to see and I am enjoying them too so that is icing on the cake for me:).
Not much else new around here. Time seems to stand still, to some degree, when the dad is away. But tomorrow things will pick up again because my mom and sister are coming for a visit and the next day (Friday) we have a play date planned and then the dad will be back on Saturday.
Now I just hope I can sleep better tonight than I did last night. I do not function nearly as well when I am short on sleep. Boys are sleeping so I better head that way too.
One of the books I stumbled upon at the used bookstore is The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. We read this one yesterday and the boys really enjoyed it a lot, so much so that we reread it again today. Definitely a winner and we will likely be reading it often.
Another book that was recommended in The Read Aloud Handbook is Dinosaurs Before Dark, which is the first book in the Magic Tree House series. We started this one just before nap and finished it this evening before bed. The boys absolutely loved, loved this book. They were so excited about the story.
The boys have not watched or read anything much that is scary. I don't know if this is why or not but they do not like things that are scary. It took them a while to get up the nerve to watch the David and Goliath video we have and they still have not been brave enough to watch Jonah and the Whale. So I was not sure if the Dinosaurs Before Dark book would be just a bit too scary for them. At one time, Ben did say something about not liking the "monster", which was the T-Rex in this story. But he definitely wanted me to continue.
The funny thing is that I had forgotten that my sister had given me a set of these books that had belonged to my nephew. I remembered after we returned from the used bookstore yesterday and I looked through them and, sure enough, we have books 1-8 and 9-16, or something like that.
When we finished reading book 1 this evening, I told the boys that we have more of these books and they were so excited. They ran to the library and wanted to look through them right away. They decided they wanted to start reading book 2 for our read aloud before bed so we just finished the first 2 chapters in the second book.
I am glad that we found some books that they enjoy. These books seem to have just the right level of excitement and suspense that they are able to hang on during the pages that have no pictures and sometimes that is two page turns away, which is big for a 3/4 year old. This is the first time they have really been able to maintain interest at this level with so few pictures. These books are stretching them another page turn for a picture and I am a bit surprised that they have both been so captured by these books. It is fun to see and I am enjoying them too so that is icing on the cake for me:).
Not much else new around here. Time seems to stand still, to some degree, when the dad is away. But tomorrow things will pick up again because my mom and sister are coming for a visit and the next day (Friday) we have a play date planned and then the dad will be back on Saturday.
Now I just hope I can sleep better tonight than I did last night. I do not function nearly as well when I am short on sleep. Boys are sleeping so I better head that way too.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
October 13, 2009 Part 3
We are still showing the house on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 5. We have discussed our timeline between now and Thanksgiving and have decided that, if it is not sold by then, we will take if off the market for the holidays, about 6 weeks, and put it back on in January. When we were discussing this, I told the husband that I just have a feeling that we will spend the holidays in this house and he agreed that he thought we would too. I am actually happy about that because I really like this house and it is a beautiful house in which to celebrate the holidays with family. I would much rather be here for the holidays than in a rental and I would really rather not have to move over the holidays.....although if someone offered to buy the house the week before Thanksgiving, I am sure we would sell it:).
As for the new house, we are still working on our house plans. We had another meeting with the architect yesterday and I think we are 98% done with the layout. We still have some work to do on the outside of the house though.
We also have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with a company called Kitchen Ideas to start working on the design of our kitchen. I visited two of their locations on Saturday and walked through some of their kitchens and I am very excited about the possibilities. It will be fun to start working on the details of the kitchen.
And that is the update on the house. Can you tell I have been without much adult interaction today?
As for the new house, we are still working on our house plans. We had another meeting with the architect yesterday and I think we are 98% done with the layout. We still have some work to do on the outside of the house though.
We also have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with a company called Kitchen Ideas to start working on the design of our kitchen. I visited two of their locations on Saturday and walked through some of their kitchens and I am very excited about the possibilities. It will be fun to start working on the details of the kitchen.
And that is the update on the house. Can you tell I have been without much adult interaction today?
October 13, 2009 Part 2
I am trying very hard to teach the boys to sleep under their covers this year. It has already gotten cool enough here to do so and the pajamas we have this year are no longer the thick, footie ones. They are much thinner, although I do put a T-shirt on them under their pajama top. Still, they need to learn how to sleep under covers.
We are keeping their room much cooler this year. Actually we are keeping our entire house much cooler this year, except our bathroom which has the radiant heated tile. I am so glad to have that back on and Dancer the cat is very happy about it too. I decided to dress warmer this year and keep the house cooler for many reasons. The number one reason is for better health though. That dry heat is really tough on us all but I think it bothers Nick a lot and it also causes cracked fingers and heals with the husband and I. Ben does not seem to be impacted by it much. There is also the added benefit of reduced heating bills which nobody will complain about.
But my point of this post is to tell you that Ben has a real issue with learning to use his covers. He has the habit of sleeping with his head towards the bottom of his bed. He is a child of habit and ritual and does not like changes a whole lot so he is not so happy to change his sleeping habit around. It has occurred to me, as I am writing this, that I might try changing his bedding around so that the head of his bed is at what is now the foot of his bed. That would probably do the trick. Then he could sleep in the direction he wants and still be under the covers.
Problem solved.
We are keeping their room much cooler this year. Actually we are keeping our entire house much cooler this year, except our bathroom which has the radiant heated tile. I am so glad to have that back on and Dancer the cat is very happy about it too. I decided to dress warmer this year and keep the house cooler for many reasons. The number one reason is for better health though. That dry heat is really tough on us all but I think it bothers Nick a lot and it also causes cracked fingers and heals with the husband and I. Ben does not seem to be impacted by it much. There is also the added benefit of reduced heating bills which nobody will complain about.
But my point of this post is to tell you that Ben has a real issue with learning to use his covers. He has the habit of sleeping with his head towards the bottom of his bed. He is a child of habit and ritual and does not like changes a whole lot so he is not so happy to change his sleeping habit around. It has occurred to me, as I am writing this, that I might try changing his bedding around so that the head of his bed is at what is now the foot of his bed. That would probably do the trick. Then he could sleep in the direction he wants and still be under the covers.
Problem solved.
October 13, 2009
The dad left this morning for Boston for a conference so we are on our own for a few days. Today we went to the used bookstore. The boys enjoy this place as much as I do and, when we go on a weekday, it is not crowded and they can really wander around the kids area and have fun. They have bean bag chairs and kids tables and chairs and tons of books and some stuffed animals; lots to keep them busy for a while. I found several books from The Read Aloud Handbook. I trade in books there so we got a little over $30 worth of used books for around $2.75. That's my kind of shopping!
I am finding that we are at a challenging time for finding the right books for reading aloud. The boys love any book that anyone wants to sit down and read to them, for the most part, as long as it is not too old for them. And we still read lots and lots of picture books, Dr. Seuss type books, Beatrix Potter, the original Winnie the Pooh books and the original Thomas the Train. But I like to continue to find books that stretch their ability to sit and listen without having quite so many pictures to look at and also having a bit more plot (the Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Train books are great for this too, but we need more variety).
One of the best I have found so far is the My Father's Dragon series. I read the three book series to the boys quite a while back and they loved it. It was perfect because it had a lot more text vs the number of pictures and it was full of action and left them hanging at the end of chapters...so much so that they were frequently asking me to continue. We actually reread the first book in the series again a while back and this morning we started the second book again. It does seem though that they were much more into the suspense of these books the first time around. Now they know the story so the suspense is not quite there as much.
Generally I think there is a real need for more books in this area. They seem to skip from books with lots of pictures to books with very few or no pictures and there is not a good enough transition, in my opinion, or at least I have yet to find it. And it seems they assume that children who are reading the books with fewer pictures are older. Or the chapter books are those for children who are learning to read so the words and plots are much more simple. We found several today that might be good, although I am not sure if the topic/plot might be a bit to advanced because these are geared more towards K'ers or above. We'll see. I might need to look on Amazon to see if I can find some and order them for Christmas or something.
I am finding that we are at a challenging time for finding the right books for reading aloud. The boys love any book that anyone wants to sit down and read to them, for the most part, as long as it is not too old for them. And we still read lots and lots of picture books, Dr. Seuss type books, Beatrix Potter, the original Winnie the Pooh books and the original Thomas the Train. But I like to continue to find books that stretch their ability to sit and listen without having quite so many pictures to look at and also having a bit more plot (the Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Train books are great for this too, but we need more variety).
One of the best I have found so far is the My Father's Dragon series. I read the three book series to the boys quite a while back and they loved it. It was perfect because it had a lot more text vs the number of pictures and it was full of action and left them hanging at the end of chapters...so much so that they were frequently asking me to continue. We actually reread the first book in the series again a while back and this morning we started the second book again. It does seem though that they were much more into the suspense of these books the first time around. Now they know the story so the suspense is not quite there as much.
Generally I think there is a real need for more books in this area. They seem to skip from books with lots of pictures to books with very few or no pictures and there is not a good enough transition, in my opinion, or at least I have yet to find it. And it seems they assume that children who are reading the books with fewer pictures are older. Or the chapter books are those for children who are learning to read so the words and plots are much more simple. We found several today that might be good, although I am not sure if the topic/plot might be a bit to advanced because these are geared more towards K'ers or above. We'll see. I might need to look on Amazon to see if I can find some and order them for Christmas or something.
Friday, October 09, 2009
October 9, 2009 Part 2
We got these write and erase books for the boys for their birthdays. Nick has not had his birthday yet but he got to open a present when it was Ben's birthday. That red panda bear is just dotted lines for them to trace. I thought N did a great job tracing it with his red pen. Nice panda Nick!
And here is Ben, showing us the trailer he drew behind that tractor. It is hauling bales of hay. He also drew some long-legged people in the barn. Nice job Ben!
Nick is very into coloring these days.
I have just purchased a writing program to start teaching the boys the proper way to write their letters, so we will be starting that soon but they are having fun with these books in the meantime. They are very interested in trying to write their letters. You would think that I could teach them that without any guidance from a writing program but I have found that the way I form my printed letters is not the "proper" way to do it:). Oops!
We recently went to the Tulsa State Fair and the boys had lots of fun.
This was by far the favorite ride for both boys. Unfortunately I thought they would really like this miniature roller coaster and they were all for trying it. The entire time they were riding it Ben had a look of terror on his face and Nick was screaming and crying, so that turned out to be a bad choice on my part.
They had this huge room set up with lots of fun stuff for the younger kids to do for free. They had a huge sand pit area, this Lego area with tons of fun Lego parts, a long wall to color and a magician, just to name a few.
This was another one of our science experiments that we did about air. They are blowing bubbles into the pot of water. We also put an empty plastic bottle in the water and watched the bubbles come up as it sank and we filled a balloon with air and then let the air out under the water and watched the bubbles come up from that. I think we did a couple more things for this particular experiment also but can't remember what they were now. We have now finished the section on air and are ready to move on to the next section, although I can't remember now what that is.
The dad, reading a library book to the boys after he got home from work that evening.
The boys and I have all had a fun time making different road scenarios with the new Build-A-Road that Ben got for his birthday. They have learned to put it together themselves now, which is great.
And here is Ben, showing us the trailer he drew behind that tractor. It is hauling bales of hay. He also drew some long-legged people in the barn. Nice job Ben!
Nick is very into coloring these days.
I have just purchased a writing program to start teaching the boys the proper way to write their letters, so we will be starting that soon but they are having fun with these books in the meantime. They are very interested in trying to write their letters. You would think that I could teach them that without any guidance from a writing program but I have found that the way I form my printed letters is not the "proper" way to do it:). Oops!
We recently went to the Tulsa State Fair and the boys had lots of fun.
This was by far the favorite ride for both boys. Unfortunately I thought they would really like this miniature roller coaster and they were all for trying it. The entire time they were riding it Ben had a look of terror on his face and Nick was screaming and crying, so that turned out to be a bad choice on my part.
They had this huge room set up with lots of fun stuff for the younger kids to do for free. They had a huge sand pit area, this Lego area with tons of fun Lego parts, a long wall to color and a magician, just to name a few.
This was another one of our science experiments that we did about air. They are blowing bubbles into the pot of water. We also put an empty plastic bottle in the water and watched the bubbles come up as it sank and we filled a balloon with air and then let the air out under the water and watched the bubbles come up from that. I think we did a couple more things for this particular experiment also but can't remember what they were now. We have now finished the section on air and are ready to move on to the next section, although I can't remember now what that is.
The dad, reading a library book to the boys after he got home from work that evening.
The boys and I have all had a fun time making different road scenarios with the new Build-A-Road that Ben got for his birthday. They have learned to put it together themselves now, which is great.
October 9, 2009
I'm making up for many months of no pics so get your coffee and pull up a chair.
These first two pics are from a trip to the zoo we made when the dad was on vacation and we were vacationing at home.
This was early one morning, the boys were working together to make shapes and I was amazed at how well they were doing this by themselves. Kids learn so fast.
The following pics are from a trip we made to OKC to see Thomas the Train when our friends were here from K.C. They had a tent with lots of tables set up with all different kinds of Thomas the Trains on them. Ben especially enjoyed this tent. At one point he went missing and scared me to death. He had been telling me he wanted to go back to this tent and we were standing not too far from it so I should have known. It didn't take us long to find him but it was one of those scary parent moments.
We took a short train ride, with 'Thomas' pulling and pushing.
The boys were excited to meet Sir Topum Hat. (I know I probably spelled that wrong but, in the interest of getting all of the pics posted as quickly as possible, I'm not going to go look it up:)
They had lots of fun things to do, including a fun climbing area and the obligatory bouncing places. Nick ended up with a massive blister on his big toe from bouncing so much. It is just now going away.
More to come but I'm going to put them in a separate post, as this one is getting too big.
These first two pics are from a trip to the zoo we made when the dad was on vacation and we were vacationing at home.
This was early one morning, the boys were working together to make shapes and I was amazed at how well they were doing this by themselves. Kids learn so fast.
The following pics are from a trip we made to OKC to see Thomas the Train when our friends were here from K.C. They had a tent with lots of tables set up with all different kinds of Thomas the Trains on them. Ben especially enjoyed this tent. At one point he went missing and scared me to death. He had been telling me he wanted to go back to this tent and we were standing not too far from it so I should have known. It didn't take us long to find him but it was one of those scary parent moments.
We took a short train ride, with 'Thomas' pulling and pushing.
The boys were excited to meet Sir Topum Hat. (I know I probably spelled that wrong but, in the interest of getting all of the pics posted as quickly as possible, I'm not going to go look it up:)
They had lots of fun things to do, including a fun climbing area and the obligatory bouncing places. Nick ended up with a massive blister on his big toe from bouncing so much. It is just now going away.
More to come but I'm going to put them in a separate post, as this one is getting too big.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
October 6, 2009
Today I was going through the drive through at our bank to get some cash. It is one of the older ones where you put your card in and the machine takes the card into the machine and keeps it during the transaction, spitting it back out at the end. Ben sits behind the driver so he could see what was going on but he missed seeing the machine spit the card back out. As I started to drive away, he asked "mommy, where is your card?", followed by "did it change your card to money?". I got a good chuckle out of that one.
We were driving in the car the other day and I was using the opportunity of a captive audience to explain more about sin, how God is perfect and cannot look upon sin, how we are sinful but God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. I was doing my best to explain it at a 3/4 year old level. When I finished talking, I was quite surprised when Ben immediately said 'We should pray and thank God for that mommy" and then he said a quick prayer, thanking God for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
Today as we were driving and I was listening to talk radio, the boys started singing songs together. It was so sweet. They sang three different songs together and I had to turn down my radio and listen to them because it was just too cute. One was The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me..... Another one was Glory, Glory Alleluia, which sounded like Gworwy, Gworwy Awewuia, which kept me smiling the whole time they were singing it. It was precious. I can't remember what the third one was but I clapped for them when they finished. This is such a cute and fun age.
Today we started a new system of memorizing Bible verses. I soooo needed this. Our first verse is: A soft word turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1. We read it this morning, along with a short story illustrating how a child put this into practice while playing with a friend. We role played it a couple of times (Nick and I did; Ben was playing nearby.) And we have discussed it and recited it several times throughout the day. We will stick with this verse for as long as it takes us all to memorize it well, which shouldn't be too long since it is a shorter one. I wrote it on an index card and I drew a picture on the backside to remind us of our verse. I need to read more about this system and get the details down. It is a free online at http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/. I am hoping it will work out very well for us.
Well, the boys are awake and I have to get out of Nick's chair and give him his blanky so he can watch his 30 minute movie. Pictures are still coming, I promise:).
We were driving in the car the other day and I was using the opportunity of a captive audience to explain more about sin, how God is perfect and cannot look upon sin, how we are sinful but God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. I was doing my best to explain it at a 3/4 year old level. When I finished talking, I was quite surprised when Ben immediately said 'We should pray and thank God for that mommy" and then he said a quick prayer, thanking God for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
Today as we were driving and I was listening to talk radio, the boys started singing songs together. It was so sweet. They sang three different songs together and I had to turn down my radio and listen to them because it was just too cute. One was The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me..... Another one was Glory, Glory Alleluia, which sounded like Gworwy, Gworwy Awewuia, which kept me smiling the whole time they were singing it. It was precious. I can't remember what the third one was but I clapped for them when they finished. This is such a cute and fun age.
Today we started a new system of memorizing Bible verses. I soooo needed this. Our first verse is: A soft word turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1. We read it this morning, along with a short story illustrating how a child put this into practice while playing with a friend. We role played it a couple of times (Nick and I did; Ben was playing nearby.) And we have discussed it and recited it several times throughout the day. We will stick with this verse for as long as it takes us all to memorize it well, which shouldn't be too long since it is a shorter one. I wrote it on an index card and I drew a picture on the backside to remind us of our verse. I need to read more about this system and get the details down. It is a free online at http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/. I am hoping it will work out very well for us.
Well, the boys are awake and I have to get out of Nick's chair and give him his blanky so he can watch his 30 minute movie. Pictures are still coming, I promise:).
Thursday, October 01, 2009
October 1, 2009
Lately the boys have been very into "doing school". It had been a while since we had done anything and now they are really making up for lost time. Nick is particularly into coloring and tracing lately and will sit for long periods of time doing both. Both boys are doing a great job of coloring for their age. They also enjoy doing mazes and we spent a good amount of time yesterday morning doing pasting. I would cut out pictures from our Let's Sticker and Paste Kumon book and they would take the pieces and paste them back together to make the appropriate picture. They did a great job. It was a lot like doing a puzzle and they do lots of puzzles so they enjoyed this activity.
It is interesting to see how far they have come in their ability to do all of the crafty things since the last time we really did a lot of it. It had been a while and I was thinking they might be rusty but their skills had actually improved. We have not worked on cutting in quite a while so it will be interesting to see how they do with that now.
I had been telling them for a couple of weeks that I was going to start sitting with them one at a time and working on reading, while the other one works on other things at the table. Today we finally gave this a try and it really went very well. Nick sat at the table because he wanted to continue his coloring. Ben and I sat together on the small couch in the library/playroom. I wanted to start out slow so I set the timer for 10 minutes and explained to Nick very nicely that he was to stay busy and not interrupt us.
I gave Ben a choice of reading through words on flashcards I had made or reading the Bob Books and he chose the Bob Books. We started out with the first book in the first set. I was interested to see how he would do because, again, we had really not done anything for quite a while. He amazed me. He sounded out the words and read right through the first two with very little help. Once or twice he tried to guess at a word and got it wrong (Sam instead of sat). I just reminded him to sound out the letters and not to guess and he did so just fine. I was very impressed with how well he did. He seems to have a natural bent for learning to read and he enjoys his successes.
In the meantime, Nick kept himself busy at the kitchen table for the 10 minutes Ben and I were reading together. He did an awesome job and we never heard a peep from him. He continued with his work even after the timer went off. I wanted to do a few minutes of sounding out letters with him but he really did not want to. I tried to talk him in to doing just 3 minutes of work with me and we started to do it. He did OK for the first two pages or so and then he stopped trying and I could tell he really did not want to do it and was soon going to refuse. So I just asked him if he wanted to stop and he said that yes, he wanted to color again, so that's what we did.
I was working with Nick on a paper he wanted me to tear out of his book so he could color it. It was one of those that had rows of pictures and, for each row, you had to put an X on the picture that did not fit in. Like on one row there was a picture of an airplane, a helicopter, a tree and a balloon. He X'ed out the tree and told me all the others fly. He did very well on this exercise and, overall, I was very pleased with how both boys did today and quite surprised since we had not done anything for a while. Kids are amazing! Oh, Nick also traced a dotted picture of a panda bear's head and he did an exceptional job (in my humble opinion:). I was really impressed, since the last time we were really into "doing school" I could not get him to do much tracing at all.
We also played the Cat in the Hat, I Can Do That game this morning and we had so much fun. That is really a great game for little ones. The boys think it is so fun and funny and I laugh a lot, watching them do the silly things. After they were done, they had to count their cards. Nick counted his and he had 13 and Ben counted his and had 20. All this to say that was the highest I had seen them count out objects and they both did it perfectly. Makes me wonder exactly how high they can count out objects. We'll have to test that sometime.
What else can I tell you? Well, here is something I have noticed lately. Nick does not like to be messy when he eats. He really does not like to get food on his face and will refuse to lick icing off a spatula if he thinks it will make his face messy. He always wants and uses a napkin to keep his face and hands clean when he is eating. Ben, not so much:). He was eating some cake today after lunch and had icing all over his fingers and face and he thought it was funny. He was a mess, so bad that I gave him a rag to clean up and told him he needed to use his fork and quit making such a mess. He frequently leaves lots of crumbs in and under his chair and I always have to wipe his chair down after he uses his dirty/sticky hands to climb down. They are quite opposites when it comes to this.
Nick has recently started becoming a bit pickier as to what he will eat. Don't misunderstand. I am still the pickiest eater in my home but his once "I'll eat anything" attitude has been a bit tempered of late. There is one casserole I make that has mushrooms in it and he recently decided he does not like them, when he had eaten them without comment for a long time. Actually, he and Ben both had eaten them with joy, even when I cooked up a whole pan full of mushrooms, because their daddy likes them so they had to like them too. I guess that is no longer the case now. We normally eat salmon once a week or so and he has decided that he does not care for it so much, although he will eat bites of ours (and will say yum) but then still hardly touches his own and insists that he does not like it.
Ben's eating habits really have not changed at all. He likes almost everything. Neither of them like cucumbers or watermelon, although I think Ben had cucumbers recently, not knowing they were cucumbers, and liked them so who knows.
Both boys seem to switch back and forth between left and right hand, when they are writing, Nick more so than Ben. Ben still tends to favor his right hand and Nick seems to favor his left. Ben has really come along with his coordination and athletic ability, although Nick still seems to be a bit ahead of Ben is this area. Both boys enjoy climbing to the top of our jungle gym, hanging by their knees, falling backward while holding on at their knees and then flipping over as they jump to the ground. It amazes me that they have taught themselves how to do this already. My hope/plan is to find some sort of sport or something to put them in next year. I would actually like to put them in swimming lessons this winter but I'm not sure if everyone else agrees so we'll see. I think Nick would really enjoy being in T-Ball and Ben might also, although he might tend to get bored with it faster. We'll see. They will change so much by then.
Both boys still sleep very well and have been sleeping in since it is getting light later. I like this:). They take a nap from around 1:30 to 3:00 ish and they are usually in bed, ready to fall asleep around 8:30pm. They have stars and planets on their ceiling and we usually talk about them when we turn the lights out. The dad and I still take turns sitting with them until they fall asleep. It usually does not take very long and their behavior has greatly improved. I am still hopeful that, some day soon, they will be able to stay in their beds and fall asleep without us in their room:). We have not tried it in a long time so maybe we should try it again.
The boys love playing outside and they usually play outside for at least 1 to 3 hours a day, depending on the weather and what we have to do that day. They stay out longer if an adult is outside with them.
Making it to the potty in time is going pretty well these days, although we do have our bad days too. One day this week, Nick wet his pants twice and Ben wet his bed at nap time so that was not a stellar day for us. Most days we have no accidents though so it makes the other days tolerable.
Both boys are normally very well behaved when we are out and about, although Nick told me that a boy from church bit him one Sunday. After a few questions in an attempt to find out what had happened, I learned that they had been fighting over a toy and Nick had hit him first. Nick did not have a bite mark on him and he said that their teacher had told them both that we do not hit or bite so it sounds like it was handled well.
Both boys are a pleasure to be around and I am enjoying staying home with them. This is still my dream job and I still feel as if I am living my dream and there is nothing else I would rather do. I am also feeling very good about how we are spending our time, as far as making the choice not to do formal school time this year and just having fun and playing it by ear. We won't have very many more years we can do this and we are enjoying it while we can. At the same time, it seems we are still doing a good job of learning the appropriate things while we play and have fun so it's all good.
Next year the boys would officially be at the Pre-K4 level so we can really do the same thing next year if we want. I will make the decision as we approach that time frame and I can see how mature the boys are and how they are doing with what we are learning. I would like to be able to do another year of no formal schooling but we will see. Regardless of which we choose to do, I will definitely be ordering more age appropriate school related materials to be doing with them. I might also keep trying to do the 10 minutes of learning to read with Ben and build it up to 20 or 30 minutes, maybe three times a week, or something like that.
I'm just not sure yet exactly what we will do when, we'll play it by ear, but I am really enjoying watching them learn and seeing how great they feel about their successes in learning and how much they enjoy it. We are having fun and learning a lot and they seem pretty happy about staying at home for school, albeit they know nothing else. Several of their friends are at the Pre-K4 level this year, some at three days a week and some full time, so the boys know about "going to school" and that they are going to have school at home. This morning we were discussing this and I told them that some kids ride the bus to school but we just change out of our pajamas. They thought that was funny (not that we are officially doing school but it was still funny).
So, that's the update. I will try to put up some pictures within the next day or two.
It is interesting to see how far they have come in their ability to do all of the crafty things since the last time we really did a lot of it. It had been a while and I was thinking they might be rusty but their skills had actually improved. We have not worked on cutting in quite a while so it will be interesting to see how they do with that now.
I had been telling them for a couple of weeks that I was going to start sitting with them one at a time and working on reading, while the other one works on other things at the table. Today we finally gave this a try and it really went very well. Nick sat at the table because he wanted to continue his coloring. Ben and I sat together on the small couch in the library/playroom. I wanted to start out slow so I set the timer for 10 minutes and explained to Nick very nicely that he was to stay busy and not interrupt us.
I gave Ben a choice of reading through words on flashcards I had made or reading the Bob Books and he chose the Bob Books. We started out with the first book in the first set. I was interested to see how he would do because, again, we had really not done anything for quite a while. He amazed me. He sounded out the words and read right through the first two with very little help. Once or twice he tried to guess at a word and got it wrong (Sam instead of sat). I just reminded him to sound out the letters and not to guess and he did so just fine. I was very impressed with how well he did. He seems to have a natural bent for learning to read and he enjoys his successes.
In the meantime, Nick kept himself busy at the kitchen table for the 10 minutes Ben and I were reading together. He did an awesome job and we never heard a peep from him. He continued with his work even after the timer went off. I wanted to do a few minutes of sounding out letters with him but he really did not want to. I tried to talk him in to doing just 3 minutes of work with me and we started to do it. He did OK for the first two pages or so and then he stopped trying and I could tell he really did not want to do it and was soon going to refuse. So I just asked him if he wanted to stop and he said that yes, he wanted to color again, so that's what we did.
I was working with Nick on a paper he wanted me to tear out of his book so he could color it. It was one of those that had rows of pictures and, for each row, you had to put an X on the picture that did not fit in. Like on one row there was a picture of an airplane, a helicopter, a tree and a balloon. He X'ed out the tree and told me all the others fly. He did very well on this exercise and, overall, I was very pleased with how both boys did today and quite surprised since we had not done anything for a while. Kids are amazing! Oh, Nick also traced a dotted picture of a panda bear's head and he did an exceptional job (in my humble opinion:). I was really impressed, since the last time we were really into "doing school" I could not get him to do much tracing at all.
We also played the Cat in the Hat, I Can Do That game this morning and we had so much fun. That is really a great game for little ones. The boys think it is so fun and funny and I laugh a lot, watching them do the silly things. After they were done, they had to count their cards. Nick counted his and he had 13 and Ben counted his and had 20. All this to say that was the highest I had seen them count out objects and they both did it perfectly. Makes me wonder exactly how high they can count out objects. We'll have to test that sometime.
What else can I tell you? Well, here is something I have noticed lately. Nick does not like to be messy when he eats. He really does not like to get food on his face and will refuse to lick icing off a spatula if he thinks it will make his face messy. He always wants and uses a napkin to keep his face and hands clean when he is eating. Ben, not so much:). He was eating some cake today after lunch and had icing all over his fingers and face and he thought it was funny. He was a mess, so bad that I gave him a rag to clean up and told him he needed to use his fork and quit making such a mess. He frequently leaves lots of crumbs in and under his chair and I always have to wipe his chair down after he uses his dirty/sticky hands to climb down. They are quite opposites when it comes to this.
Nick has recently started becoming a bit pickier as to what he will eat. Don't misunderstand. I am still the pickiest eater in my home but his once "I'll eat anything" attitude has been a bit tempered of late. There is one casserole I make that has mushrooms in it and he recently decided he does not like them, when he had eaten them without comment for a long time. Actually, he and Ben both had eaten them with joy, even when I cooked up a whole pan full of mushrooms, because their daddy likes them so they had to like them too. I guess that is no longer the case now. We normally eat salmon once a week or so and he has decided that he does not care for it so much, although he will eat bites of ours (and will say yum) but then still hardly touches his own and insists that he does not like it.
Ben's eating habits really have not changed at all. He likes almost everything. Neither of them like cucumbers or watermelon, although I think Ben had cucumbers recently, not knowing they were cucumbers, and liked them so who knows.
Both boys seem to switch back and forth between left and right hand, when they are writing, Nick more so than Ben. Ben still tends to favor his right hand and Nick seems to favor his left. Ben has really come along with his coordination and athletic ability, although Nick still seems to be a bit ahead of Ben is this area. Both boys enjoy climbing to the top of our jungle gym, hanging by their knees, falling backward while holding on at their knees and then flipping over as they jump to the ground. It amazes me that they have taught themselves how to do this already. My hope/plan is to find some sort of sport or something to put them in next year. I would actually like to put them in swimming lessons this winter but I'm not sure if everyone else agrees so we'll see. I think Nick would really enjoy being in T-Ball and Ben might also, although he might tend to get bored with it faster. We'll see. They will change so much by then.
Both boys still sleep very well and have been sleeping in since it is getting light later. I like this:). They take a nap from around 1:30 to 3:00 ish and they are usually in bed, ready to fall asleep around 8:30pm. They have stars and planets on their ceiling and we usually talk about them when we turn the lights out. The dad and I still take turns sitting with them until they fall asleep. It usually does not take very long and their behavior has greatly improved. I am still hopeful that, some day soon, they will be able to stay in their beds and fall asleep without us in their room:). We have not tried it in a long time so maybe we should try it again.
The boys love playing outside and they usually play outside for at least 1 to 3 hours a day, depending on the weather and what we have to do that day. They stay out longer if an adult is outside with them.
Making it to the potty in time is going pretty well these days, although we do have our bad days too. One day this week, Nick wet his pants twice and Ben wet his bed at nap time so that was not a stellar day for us. Most days we have no accidents though so it makes the other days tolerable.
Both boys are normally very well behaved when we are out and about, although Nick told me that a boy from church bit him one Sunday. After a few questions in an attempt to find out what had happened, I learned that they had been fighting over a toy and Nick had hit him first. Nick did not have a bite mark on him and he said that their teacher had told them both that we do not hit or bite so it sounds like it was handled well.
Both boys are a pleasure to be around and I am enjoying staying home with them. This is still my dream job and I still feel as if I am living my dream and there is nothing else I would rather do. I am also feeling very good about how we are spending our time, as far as making the choice not to do formal school time this year and just having fun and playing it by ear. We won't have very many more years we can do this and we are enjoying it while we can. At the same time, it seems we are still doing a good job of learning the appropriate things while we play and have fun so it's all good.
Next year the boys would officially be at the Pre-K4 level so we can really do the same thing next year if we want. I will make the decision as we approach that time frame and I can see how mature the boys are and how they are doing with what we are learning. I would like to be able to do another year of no formal schooling but we will see. Regardless of which we choose to do, I will definitely be ordering more age appropriate school related materials to be doing with them. I might also keep trying to do the 10 minutes of learning to read with Ben and build it up to 20 or 30 minutes, maybe three times a week, or something like that.
I'm just not sure yet exactly what we will do when, we'll play it by ear, but I am really enjoying watching them learn and seeing how great they feel about their successes in learning and how much they enjoy it. We are having fun and learning a lot and they seem pretty happy about staying at home for school, albeit they know nothing else. Several of their friends are at the Pre-K4 level this year, some at three days a week and some full time, so the boys know about "going to school" and that they are going to have school at home. This morning we were discussing this and I told them that some kids ride the bus to school but we just change out of our pajamas. They thought that was funny (not that we are officially doing school but it was still funny).
So, that's the update. I will try to put up some pictures within the next day or two.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
September 30, 2009
We have our first 4 year old! For approximately six weeks or so, we will have one four year old and one three year old, much to Nick's dismay. He was very sad this morning that he could not be four too today however birthday-boy-Ben was very gracious and allowed Nick to help blow out candles and open gifts.
Ben woke up very happy to be four. He told my sister that when he went to bed last night he was three and when he woke up this morning he was four. It was so cute.
My mom and sister came today and brought a small cake and gifts. We had a beautiful fall day here today. Very sunny and cool. So the boys were able to play outside for a while, which they love to do with my sister. She is so much fun and plays hide and seek with them, pushes them on the swings, plays in the sand box and tirelessly pitches to them and chases balls while they hit the ball over and over and over. They love playing baseball and I think, Nick especially, would bat all day long if someone would keep pitching to him.
Ben also received three phone calls, wishing him a happy birthday. Aunt D called from Arizona and two of his cousins called him from college. Every time I answered the phone and then said "Ben, it's for you", he would get the biggest smile on his face. He was very happy and excited to be receiving phone calls just for him and Nick was happy to get to talk too, although he had a hard time with going second so much. It made me see just how often he tends to push his way to be first, ahead of Ben, and he tends to get away with it often because Ben does not seem to mind most of the time. I need to start watching for that more.
So Ben had two small family parties, one with my mom and sister earlier in the day and then the other one with our immediate family this evening after dinner.
I made a cake today and put the icing on it and then the dad wrote Happy Birthday Ben on it, after which Ben and Nick put sprinkle things all over it. So it was a joint effort and the boys were happy to get to help decorate Ben's cake.
Following are a few birthday pics. I still plan to post more pics and news about the boys soon but wanted to go ahead and do the happy birthday post first.
Here is the birthday boy, playing with a birthday toy.
Brother Nick is pretty happy about having new toys to play with and he is looking forward to his birthday coming up soon.
This is the coolest toy! It snaps together pretty easily, although it will likely be a few days or so before they can do it without help. The track is very flexible so you can simply give it a little push and create a new curve just like that and there is 15 feet of track. It was very quick and easy to put together and can be reconfigured easily to make a new track design. It comes with two little cars that run by battery and they are really spunky. I can definitely see why this toy was an award winning toy. I highly recommend it, if you are looking for something to put on the Christmas list and it was only $30, which I thought was great for what you get. It is called Build-A-Road by iPlay and it got great reviews. Ben got this gift from mommy and daddy.
I missed getting a picture of the boys playing with this (below) today but they played with it for hours. I don't know what it is officially called but I call it a marble run. This is also a big winner on the cool toys front and it also got very good reviews. Ben absolutely loved this toy that my sister and her family got for him and Nick enjoyed it also. It can also be changed around to your heart's content, although they are not quite able to do it on their own yet. It is very easy to change around though so I don't mind helping out. I enjoyed playing with this today too;). I like that both of these toys are open ended and allow for a lot of creativity. I know the boys will have lots of hours of fun playing with them.
Although I didn't get pics of them, my sister also got the boys some K'NEX toys for 3+ year olds and they are also wonderful for open-ended creative play.
My mom got the Cat in the Hat I Can Do That game and it is so fun and cute. I'm sure we will be playing it again tomorrow. Definitely a great game for kids and I think it won three awards, or something like that. I can see why. It was fun and easy for the boys to play and we all laughed a lot while they were playing it. Lots of good laughs with this game.
I think we had a successful 4-year-old birthday today and we have two very tired little boys. Now I have to start trying to find good, interesting gifts for the second 4 year old...and right after that is Christmas. This is going to be a challenge. If you know of any great toys that your kids have really liked when they were four, let me know!
Ben woke up very happy to be four. He told my sister that when he went to bed last night he was three and when he woke up this morning he was four. It was so cute.
My mom and sister came today and brought a small cake and gifts. We had a beautiful fall day here today. Very sunny and cool. So the boys were able to play outside for a while, which they love to do with my sister. She is so much fun and plays hide and seek with them, pushes them on the swings, plays in the sand box and tirelessly pitches to them and chases balls while they hit the ball over and over and over. They love playing baseball and I think, Nick especially, would bat all day long if someone would keep pitching to him.
Ben also received three phone calls, wishing him a happy birthday. Aunt D called from Arizona and two of his cousins called him from college. Every time I answered the phone and then said "Ben, it's for you", he would get the biggest smile on his face. He was very happy and excited to be receiving phone calls just for him and Nick was happy to get to talk too, although he had a hard time with going second so much. It made me see just how often he tends to push his way to be first, ahead of Ben, and he tends to get away with it often because Ben does not seem to mind most of the time. I need to start watching for that more.
So Ben had two small family parties, one with my mom and sister earlier in the day and then the other one with our immediate family this evening after dinner.
I made a cake today and put the icing on it and then the dad wrote Happy Birthday Ben on it, after which Ben and Nick put sprinkle things all over it. So it was a joint effort and the boys were happy to get to help decorate Ben's cake.
Following are a few birthday pics. I still plan to post more pics and news about the boys soon but wanted to go ahead and do the happy birthday post first.
Here is the birthday boy, playing with a birthday toy.
Brother Nick is pretty happy about having new toys to play with and he is looking forward to his birthday coming up soon.
This is the coolest toy! It snaps together pretty easily, although it will likely be a few days or so before they can do it without help. The track is very flexible so you can simply give it a little push and create a new curve just like that and there is 15 feet of track. It was very quick and easy to put together and can be reconfigured easily to make a new track design. It comes with two little cars that run by battery and they are really spunky. I can definitely see why this toy was an award winning toy. I highly recommend it, if you are looking for something to put on the Christmas list and it was only $30, which I thought was great for what you get. It is called Build-A-Road by iPlay and it got great reviews. Ben got this gift from mommy and daddy.
I missed getting a picture of the boys playing with this (below) today but they played with it for hours. I don't know what it is officially called but I call it a marble run. This is also a big winner on the cool toys front and it also got very good reviews. Ben absolutely loved this toy that my sister and her family got for him and Nick enjoyed it also. It can also be changed around to your heart's content, although they are not quite able to do it on their own yet. It is very easy to change around though so I don't mind helping out. I enjoyed playing with this today too;). I like that both of these toys are open ended and allow for a lot of creativity. I know the boys will have lots of hours of fun playing with them.
Although I didn't get pics of them, my sister also got the boys some K'NEX toys for 3+ year olds and they are also wonderful for open-ended creative play. My mom got the Cat in the Hat I Can Do That game and it is so fun and cute. I'm sure we will be playing it again tomorrow. Definitely a great game for kids and I think it won three awards, or something like that. I can see why. It was fun and easy for the boys to play and we all laughed a lot while they were playing it. Lots of good laughs with this game.
I think we had a successful 4-year-old birthday today and we have two very tired little boys. Now I have to start trying to find good, interesting gifts for the second 4 year old...and right after that is Christmas. This is going to be a challenge. If you know of any great toys that your kids have really liked when they were four, let me know!
Monday, September 28, 2009
September 28, 2009
I have been so busy lately that I have not had much time to post. Our friends from KC came for a visit over the weekend and we had such a fun time together. They arrived on Thursday, we went to OKC on Friday for the Thomas the Train event, went to the aquarium and out to eat along the river on Saturday afternoon, and then they headed home. In between those events, we had a fun time just hanging out and eating lots of yummy bagels that they brought to us from KC (I miss my bagel store so much!). The kids really enjoyed playing together and had so much fun. They always get along so well. It is fun to watch. We were sad to see them leave and will definitely be looking forward to our next get together.
In other news, we are still working on selling our current house and finalizing the plans for our new house. After noticing that we always seem to have more people come through for our open house on Sundays than on Saturdays, we have decided to only have them on Sunday afternoons going forward. That is a relief because it gives us back our Saturdays to get things done
We had an appraisal of the house today, since there has been some confusion on the exact square footage of this house. When we bought the house, we were told it was just under 3800 square feet. When we listed the house on the MLS website, the agent got the square footage from the county records and it was listed at just under 3500, much to our surprise and dismay, since that raised our price per square foot for the amount at which we had the house listed. The results of the appraisal today? 3972 square feet! I was a bit surprised, since I thought it would come in closer to the 3800 square foot amount but, at the same time, this is a big house so I'm not too surprised.
Our architects told us that the square footage number they give us on our new house plans will be less than the number an appraiser will come up with because they calculate it differently. That is why we decided we should go ahead and pay to have our current house appraised, because we were thinking the smaller number in the county records was probably from the initial house plans and the 3800 sq ft number was probably from an appraisal. Lo and Behold, we ended up at 3972 sq ft so, who knows, but we are happy with this new number. It will really make our price per square foot so much more attractive and means that our price on the house is really a pretty good deal. So that was good news today.
As for our house plans, we got the second iteration back on Tuesday and they look great. We are really happy with them and have only found a couple of small tweaks that need to be made.....and then, this evening, the husband suggested we might want to consider moving the boys bedrooms upstairs, which is a pretty big change I think. I do agree with the husband though that, in the long run, it will be cheaper because it is much cheaper to build up than it is to build out on one level. So now we are thinking we will move the two bedrooms and their bathroom upstairs and we will also have another smallish room finished upstairs that will hold our workout equipment. That makes me happy because I really did not want that equipment downstairs, as there was not really a good place for it.
Hopefully this will not be too big of a change. We had already added a staircase to the upstairs in anticipation of future owners who might want to finish out the space upstairs. We have always been a bit unhappy with the way the three car garage was going to stick out at the front of the house and in the last iteration the architects had rotated the garage a bit so that it was at an angle and did not stick out quite so much. So now the garage can move back into the area where the two boys bedrooms are currently and we will have to rearrange some other things, like the laundry room, powder room and some closets. In the end, I think we will have more of what we want for less money, which is great.
The other news is that we will be celebrating Ben's 4th birthday this week. I sat on the couch this evening with the boys and we looked at pics from their 2nd and 3rd birthdays and it was fun to see how they have changed so much. They are such big boys now.
I have had a hard time finding gifts for Ben this year. It seems that we are at an age where so many of the toys and games are based on movie or TV characters and our boys really don't know most of them. They know a few, such as Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Train, Barney and Curious George but not much else. I really like to pick toys that are fun and educational, along with some cars and/or trucks, since they both love to play with those. I searched long and wide on the internet for award winning educational toys and I did find a couple of goods ones but I think it is going to be a challenge to find good ones for Nick's birthday and Christmas.
The boys are both doing great but this post is long enough already. I will post some pics and a boys update next and will try not to wait so long between posts next time. Tomorrow the boys have been invited for a play date and they are going to be treated to play time at one of the fun bouncing places as a birthday gift. They have not played with these friends for a while so they are really going to have a blast.
My mom and sister are coming for a visit on Wednesday and we will be celebrating Ben's birthday, so that will be a fun day to.
In early October, the state fair and rodeo is coming to town and this will be the first year that we are taking the boys. I know they are going to enjoy it a lot. Then we will celebrate the dad's birthday and then we will celebrate Nick's birthday and then it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Wow! This year is going by so fast!
We are having beautiful fall weather and are trying to spend as much time outside enjoying it as possible. We played outside in the yard a lot today and I so enjoyed watching the boys play and playing with them. It was a nice, cool but very sunny day. Absolutely perfect. Tonight it is suppose to get into the 40's, which is a first for us this year. Fall is truly upon us and I am loving it.
Next post will be a picture post with a boys update, I promise. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the fall weather (for those of you with seasons:).
In other news, we are still working on selling our current house and finalizing the plans for our new house. After noticing that we always seem to have more people come through for our open house on Sundays than on Saturdays, we have decided to only have them on Sunday afternoons going forward. That is a relief because it gives us back our Saturdays to get things done
We had an appraisal of the house today, since there has been some confusion on the exact square footage of this house. When we bought the house, we were told it was just under 3800 square feet. When we listed the house on the MLS website, the agent got the square footage from the county records and it was listed at just under 3500, much to our surprise and dismay, since that raised our price per square foot for the amount at which we had the house listed. The results of the appraisal today? 3972 square feet! I was a bit surprised, since I thought it would come in closer to the 3800 square foot amount but, at the same time, this is a big house so I'm not too surprised.
Our architects told us that the square footage number they give us on our new house plans will be less than the number an appraiser will come up with because they calculate it differently. That is why we decided we should go ahead and pay to have our current house appraised, because we were thinking the smaller number in the county records was probably from the initial house plans and the 3800 sq ft number was probably from an appraisal. Lo and Behold, we ended up at 3972 sq ft so, who knows, but we are happy with this new number. It will really make our price per square foot so much more attractive and means that our price on the house is really a pretty good deal. So that was good news today.
As for our house plans, we got the second iteration back on Tuesday and they look great. We are really happy with them and have only found a couple of small tweaks that need to be made.....and then, this evening, the husband suggested we might want to consider moving the boys bedrooms upstairs, which is a pretty big change I think. I do agree with the husband though that, in the long run, it will be cheaper because it is much cheaper to build up than it is to build out on one level. So now we are thinking we will move the two bedrooms and their bathroom upstairs and we will also have another smallish room finished upstairs that will hold our workout equipment. That makes me happy because I really did not want that equipment downstairs, as there was not really a good place for it.
Hopefully this will not be too big of a change. We had already added a staircase to the upstairs in anticipation of future owners who might want to finish out the space upstairs. We have always been a bit unhappy with the way the three car garage was going to stick out at the front of the house and in the last iteration the architects had rotated the garage a bit so that it was at an angle and did not stick out quite so much. So now the garage can move back into the area where the two boys bedrooms are currently and we will have to rearrange some other things, like the laundry room, powder room and some closets. In the end, I think we will have more of what we want for less money, which is great.
The other news is that we will be celebrating Ben's 4th birthday this week. I sat on the couch this evening with the boys and we looked at pics from their 2nd and 3rd birthdays and it was fun to see how they have changed so much. They are such big boys now.
I have had a hard time finding gifts for Ben this year. It seems that we are at an age where so many of the toys and games are based on movie or TV characters and our boys really don't know most of them. They know a few, such as Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Train, Barney and Curious George but not much else. I really like to pick toys that are fun and educational, along with some cars and/or trucks, since they both love to play with those. I searched long and wide on the internet for award winning educational toys and I did find a couple of goods ones but I think it is going to be a challenge to find good ones for Nick's birthday and Christmas.
The boys are both doing great but this post is long enough already. I will post some pics and a boys update next and will try not to wait so long between posts next time. Tomorrow the boys have been invited for a play date and they are going to be treated to play time at one of the fun bouncing places as a birthday gift. They have not played with these friends for a while so they are really going to have a blast.
My mom and sister are coming for a visit on Wednesday and we will be celebrating Ben's birthday, so that will be a fun day to.
In early October, the state fair and rodeo is coming to town and this will be the first year that we are taking the boys. I know they are going to enjoy it a lot. Then we will celebrate the dad's birthday and then we will celebrate Nick's birthday and then it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Wow! This year is going by so fast!
We are having beautiful fall weather and are trying to spend as much time outside enjoying it as possible. We played outside in the yard a lot today and I so enjoyed watching the boys play and playing with them. It was a nice, cool but very sunny day. Absolutely perfect. Tonight it is suppose to get into the 40's, which is a first for us this year. Fall is truly upon us and I am loving it.
Next post will be a picture post with a boys update, I promise. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the fall weather (for those of you with seasons:).
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
September 22, 2009
Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We have had a busy week. We received the first draft of the house plans so the majority of my spare time has been spent going over it with a fine tooth comb and making lots of changes. We met with the architects today to go over them and they had more suggestions also. The husband and I both felt it was a great meeting and we are really liking where the plans are headed. I am anxious to see the next iteration, which should be ready sometime next week.
We had another weekend of open houses. On Saturday, the husband managed the open house while the boys and I drove up to my sister's house for a visit. My niece was in from college so we got to see her, along with my nephew, brother-in-law and my mom. The boys really enjoyed it and it was nice to get away from the open house. Turns out we didn't miss much. There had only been one couple come through. When we got home, we all went out for dinner and then it was time for hair cuts and baths. The boys really needed hair cuts badly. Their hair was longer than it had ever been.
This coming weekend we have company coming in from K.C. We are very excited and looking forward to their visit. It will also be nice to have a weekend off from open houses
I have been staying up to late lately, going over house plan stuff and searching the internet for tips and info about designing a house. I am falling asleep now and it is before 9:00pm. I am heading to bed early tonight.
Good night.
We had another weekend of open houses. On Saturday, the husband managed the open house while the boys and I drove up to my sister's house for a visit. My niece was in from college so we got to see her, along with my nephew, brother-in-law and my mom. The boys really enjoyed it and it was nice to get away from the open house. Turns out we didn't miss much. There had only been one couple come through. When we got home, we all went out for dinner and then it was time for hair cuts and baths. The boys really needed hair cuts badly. Their hair was longer than it had ever been.
This coming weekend we have company coming in from K.C. We are very excited and looking forward to their visit. It will also be nice to have a weekend off from open houses
I have been staying up to late lately, going over house plan stuff and searching the internet for tips and info about designing a house. I am falling asleep now and it is before 9:00pm. I am heading to bed early tonight.
Good night.
Monday, September 14, 2009
September 14, 2009
We had a fun and relaxing vacation week last week here at home. We went to the zoo and we went to see Papa and Mimi, where the boys got to ride Uncle Kelly's tractor and Papa's four wheeler. They always enjoy that and we had not been there for quite a while so they had a fun time.
On Friday we had a sitter for the boys while the husband and I went to the local Home Show. The boys were very happy about this because they had been asking for Katy to come over to play with them for quite some time and they had a fun time with her.
As for the husband and I, we thought we would spend about three hours at the home show and then go to dinner or a movie or something. We ended up spending the entire time at the home show and we were not quite finished when we had to leave to head home. We went home and got the boys and took them back with us so we could finish up. As it turned out, we had basically already seen everything that we needed to see so we were not there very long with the boys.
We talked to a lot of people at the home show and received a lot of good information about building an energy efficient home. Our next meeting with the architect is Wednesday and I am excited to see what he has come up with as his initial draft.
We are getting back into our routine. We had another open house Saturday and Sunday. We did Sat and Sun from 1:00 to 5:00. We had fewer people come by than we expected on Saturday and more than expected on Sunday, as the weather was very cloudy and periodically rainy.
In other news, Nick has been sick. He has had a high fever, although it seems to have broken now so I am hopeful that it was only of the 24 hour variety. On our way to church, the dad said Nick had only eaten two bites of oatmeal for breakfast, which is not like him. I thought he would really be hungry by lunch time. We got out of church at noon and our open house starts at 1:00pm so that does not leave much time to get everything ready.
While we are in open house mode, we don't go out to eat after church on Sundays. Instead, we go after the open house on Saturday evening. When we come in from church on Sundays, I quickly change clothes and then start getting the house ready for the open house, while the dad fixes a sandwich for the boys. Yesterday Nick said he wanted a sandwich and then decided he was not hungry. It was not long after that his fever was up up up and he just wanted to be held by mommy. We ended up giving him Ibuprofen, which brought the fever down but we think it was around this time that his eye lids started swelling pretty badly. I was beginning to think his eyes were going to swell shut but they didn't and it didn't seem to bother him much. We are not sure if it was the Ibuprofin that caused this but we are being cautious and not giving it to him again yet. The dad put a little of it on a bandaid and put the bandaid on his back to see if he has a reaction to it.
So far, nobody else has gotten sick, although I am very tired and have a bad headache today. The tiredness is understandable, as I was up with Nick during the night and I laid with him in his bed until he fell back to sleep. So I missed a couple of hours and then woke early this morning, hearing him yelling because he did not want to take the tylenol the dad was giving him. After he had the tylenol, he went back to sleep, thankfully, although I think we will all benefit from a nap today.
Today we are having a relaxing day, as much as one can have with two almost-four-year-olds who may not be feeling their best. After a weekend of open house, Monday's are always nice because everything is already clean. I do a few quick chores in the morning and I do one or two loads of laundry but that's about it, except of course snack/meal prep and clean up.
The husband called to let me know his trip to Boston has been cancelled. He was scheduled to go to a conference in October but they would not have had enough docs in the office so he had to cancel. He was understandably disappointed. He starts one week of hospital duty on Thursday morning so things will be really hectic around here next weekend. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I really do prefer the one week hospital duty stints much more than the two week ones. Much much better.
Well, it's naptime so it's time to sign off. I hope you all had a great weekend.
On Friday we had a sitter for the boys while the husband and I went to the local Home Show. The boys were very happy about this because they had been asking for Katy to come over to play with them for quite some time and they had a fun time with her.
As for the husband and I, we thought we would spend about three hours at the home show and then go to dinner or a movie or something. We ended up spending the entire time at the home show and we were not quite finished when we had to leave to head home. We went home and got the boys and took them back with us so we could finish up. As it turned out, we had basically already seen everything that we needed to see so we were not there very long with the boys.
We talked to a lot of people at the home show and received a lot of good information about building an energy efficient home. Our next meeting with the architect is Wednesday and I am excited to see what he has come up with as his initial draft.
We are getting back into our routine. We had another open house Saturday and Sunday. We did Sat and Sun from 1:00 to 5:00. We had fewer people come by than we expected on Saturday and more than expected on Sunday, as the weather was very cloudy and periodically rainy.
In other news, Nick has been sick. He has had a high fever, although it seems to have broken now so I am hopeful that it was only of the 24 hour variety. On our way to church, the dad said Nick had only eaten two bites of oatmeal for breakfast, which is not like him. I thought he would really be hungry by lunch time. We got out of church at noon and our open house starts at 1:00pm so that does not leave much time to get everything ready.
While we are in open house mode, we don't go out to eat after church on Sundays. Instead, we go after the open house on Saturday evening. When we come in from church on Sundays, I quickly change clothes and then start getting the house ready for the open house, while the dad fixes a sandwich for the boys. Yesterday Nick said he wanted a sandwich and then decided he was not hungry. It was not long after that his fever was up up up and he just wanted to be held by mommy. We ended up giving him Ibuprofen, which brought the fever down but we think it was around this time that his eye lids started swelling pretty badly. I was beginning to think his eyes were going to swell shut but they didn't and it didn't seem to bother him much. We are not sure if it was the Ibuprofin that caused this but we are being cautious and not giving it to him again yet. The dad put a little of it on a bandaid and put the bandaid on his back to see if he has a reaction to it.
So far, nobody else has gotten sick, although I am very tired and have a bad headache today. The tiredness is understandable, as I was up with Nick during the night and I laid with him in his bed until he fell back to sleep. So I missed a couple of hours and then woke early this morning, hearing him yelling because he did not want to take the tylenol the dad was giving him. After he had the tylenol, he went back to sleep, thankfully, although I think we will all benefit from a nap today.
Today we are having a relaxing day, as much as one can have with two almost-four-year-olds who may not be feeling their best. After a weekend of open house, Monday's are always nice because everything is already clean. I do a few quick chores in the morning and I do one or two loads of laundry but that's about it, except of course snack/meal prep and clean up.
The husband called to let me know his trip to Boston has been cancelled. He was scheduled to go to a conference in October but they would not have had enough docs in the office so he had to cancel. He was understandably disappointed. He starts one week of hospital duty on Thursday morning so things will be really hectic around here next weekend. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I really do prefer the one week hospital duty stints much more than the two week ones. Much much better.
Well, it's naptime so it's time to sign off. I hope you all had a great weekend.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
September 8, 2009
The husband has the week off so we are sort of vacationing at home. He has to give something like 4 or 5 months notice these days so he just puts it in the schedule even if we don't have anything big planned.
Yesterday I spent the morning cleaning house and the husband spent the morning catching up on some of our personal things, while we both spent time with the boys. In the afternoon, my mom and sister came to visit. We all had dinner together and then I made an egg and sausage casserole for the morning while my sister and the husband played with the boys. My mom visited, watched the boys and read a book. It was a very nice evening.
Today we woke up to a yummy breakfast casserole and then the husband and I got ready for our first appointment with the architect. It was very interesting and it went very well. He had a lot of good ideas for how to change the plan we found on-line, making it better and more space efficient, better flow, without adding too many square feet (we hope) or big cost. I'm not sure how long it will take for them to have a first draft ready for discussion.
After our meeting with the architects, we arrived home to a house that smelled of cooking apple pie. Yum! My sister made one of her delicious apple pies and the boys had fun helping. They really enjoyed it and we all really enjoyed eating the finished product...plus, she baked some pie crust with cinnamon and sugar on it and that was Yum too. My sister makes the best apple pie I have ever tasted and I think she probably makes the best apple pie anywhere, ever:). It is that good!
After pie and lunch, we visited for a little while, as the boys played nearby, and then they had to head home. After nap, we headed out to the aquarium. The beavers were out and very active this evening and they were so cute. The female was very friendly and really hammed it up for us. I have seen the workers there hand feeding the beavers and petting them so they are friendly towards people. We watched them for quite a while and it was definitely the highlight of our visit to the aquarium. We saw all of the other fish and sharks and stingrays and everything else and the boys had a great time there. We had been wanting to go for a while so it was especially fun to be able to go with daddy. Also, since it was evening (they stay open late on Tuesdays), there were not very many people there, which was nice for us.
After the aquarium, we went to a place that has a pizza, salad, pasta (and everything from chicken to hotdogs to mashed potatoes, etc.), dessert buffet and it also has a arcade type of place. That is really an understatement. They have bumper cars, mini golf, bowling, race cars, plus and arcade, plus a little kids area that has one of those big blow up things that the little ones can jump around in and slide and stuff and a small train ride and on and on. Too much stuff but it sure made for a fun evening. We did not even hit half of it but we all had a great time and it felt like we were really on vacation, even though we never left our city. Not bad.
Tomorrow morning we are going to the zoo. The dad has only been to the zoo once before, when the boys first came home. It was just before he had to start back to work and we took the boys even though it was pretty cold out that day. We didn't stay very long that day and didn't see too much because it was too cold. So tomorrow will be fun. The boys will enjoy showing their daddy all their favorite things to see and do at the zoo. Then we will be sure to take a good nap and have an early dinner because we are going to church tomorrow evening. We signed the boys up for the little kids choir and a class afterwards but they have missed the first two weeks because they were sick. So tomorrow will be their first night. I hope it will be ok and they won't feel bad that they don't know what the others have already learned in the past two weeks.
When we were at the aquarium today, Nick was not watching where he was going (and this particular area was poorly lit) and he ran right into a small display that was standing right in the middle of the walk way. He hit his head on it and, at first I thought he was really hurt. There were some people nearby and I saw him kind of look at them, as his daddy picked him up to comfort him. Turns out he really was not hurt that badly but I think he was embarrassed. This is something new that I have noticed recently, with Nick in particular, that he can be embarrassed now. He is a bit ahead of the game socially so I am not surprised to see this with him first. I'm sure Ben will be following soon, if not already, although I have not seen it yet.
Things around here have been going well overall with the boys. I think I may have said this already but, just in case, we hardly ever have any day time accidents anymore. Night time is another matter, although we are bad about eating dinner late and also not taking the straight to the bathroom when they first wake up. But, overall, things are good and everyone is healthy and happy around here....and tired.
Time for bed. Good night!
Yesterday I spent the morning cleaning house and the husband spent the morning catching up on some of our personal things, while we both spent time with the boys. In the afternoon, my mom and sister came to visit. We all had dinner together and then I made an egg and sausage casserole for the morning while my sister and the husband played with the boys. My mom visited, watched the boys and read a book. It was a very nice evening.
Today we woke up to a yummy breakfast casserole and then the husband and I got ready for our first appointment with the architect. It was very interesting and it went very well. He had a lot of good ideas for how to change the plan we found on-line, making it better and more space efficient, better flow, without adding too many square feet (we hope) or big cost. I'm not sure how long it will take for them to have a first draft ready for discussion.
After our meeting with the architects, we arrived home to a house that smelled of cooking apple pie. Yum! My sister made one of her delicious apple pies and the boys had fun helping. They really enjoyed it and we all really enjoyed eating the finished product...plus, she baked some pie crust with cinnamon and sugar on it and that was Yum too. My sister makes the best apple pie I have ever tasted and I think she probably makes the best apple pie anywhere, ever:). It is that good!
After pie and lunch, we visited for a little while, as the boys played nearby, and then they had to head home. After nap, we headed out to the aquarium. The beavers were out and very active this evening and they were so cute. The female was very friendly and really hammed it up for us. I have seen the workers there hand feeding the beavers and petting them so they are friendly towards people. We watched them for quite a while and it was definitely the highlight of our visit to the aquarium. We saw all of the other fish and sharks and stingrays and everything else and the boys had a great time there. We had been wanting to go for a while so it was especially fun to be able to go with daddy. Also, since it was evening (they stay open late on Tuesdays), there were not very many people there, which was nice for us.
After the aquarium, we went to a place that has a pizza, salad, pasta (and everything from chicken to hotdogs to mashed potatoes, etc.), dessert buffet and it also has a arcade type of place. That is really an understatement. They have bumper cars, mini golf, bowling, race cars, plus and arcade, plus a little kids area that has one of those big blow up things that the little ones can jump around in and slide and stuff and a small train ride and on and on. Too much stuff but it sure made for a fun evening. We did not even hit half of it but we all had a great time and it felt like we were really on vacation, even though we never left our city. Not bad.
Tomorrow morning we are going to the zoo. The dad has only been to the zoo once before, when the boys first came home. It was just before he had to start back to work and we took the boys even though it was pretty cold out that day. We didn't stay very long that day and didn't see too much because it was too cold. So tomorrow will be fun. The boys will enjoy showing their daddy all their favorite things to see and do at the zoo. Then we will be sure to take a good nap and have an early dinner because we are going to church tomorrow evening. We signed the boys up for the little kids choir and a class afterwards but they have missed the first two weeks because they were sick. So tomorrow will be their first night. I hope it will be ok and they won't feel bad that they don't know what the others have already learned in the past two weeks.
When we were at the aquarium today, Nick was not watching where he was going (and this particular area was poorly lit) and he ran right into a small display that was standing right in the middle of the walk way. He hit his head on it and, at first I thought he was really hurt. There were some people nearby and I saw him kind of look at them, as his daddy picked him up to comfort him. Turns out he really was not hurt that badly but I think he was embarrassed. This is something new that I have noticed recently, with Nick in particular, that he can be embarrassed now. He is a bit ahead of the game socially so I am not surprised to see this with him first. I'm sure Ben will be following soon, if not already, although I have not seen it yet.
Things around here have been going well overall with the boys. I think I may have said this already but, just in case, we hardly ever have any day time accidents anymore. Night time is another matter, although we are bad about eating dinner late and also not taking the straight to the bathroom when they first wake up. But, overall, things are good and everyone is healthy and happy around here....and tired.
Time for bed. Good night!
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
September 2, 2009 Part 2
Wow, I just went back to see how long it had been since I had posted pics and it has been quite some time. I have also not been very good about taking pictures so I am going to work on that. We are at that point where, every time we take out the camera, the boys want to take the pictures. Anyway, here are some pics.
This was taken sometime in July. We were doing some arts and crafts.
This one may have been in July also. I just happened to look up to see what the boys were doing and they were sitting like this, "reading" to each other. It was so cute that I grabbed the camera real quick and snapped a surprise photo.
These next two photos were taken on a day when we did a science experiment. They were seeing which piece of paper would fall to the floor the fastest.
This was also a science experiment. They were blowing bubbles and watching them pop on a piece of paper, leaving wet marks on the paper. We were learning all about air.
This is Nick's artwork. It is the first time he has ever drawn a complete face all by himself. Sorry it is turned sideways. I forgot to spin it around before I loaded it.
And this is Ben's artwork. After he saw Nick's face, he had to draw one too. I asked him what the blue and purple areas were and he said they were eyebrows.
I took this one today, just so I could post an updated picture, since they are both growing and changing so quickly. Ben was playing with the spider that Aunt D gave the boys. They have a mixed reaction to all of the Halloween decorations that are already out in the stores. They talk about them before we get there and can't wait to see them and then they get kind of quiet when they first see them and then they don't want to get any closer and then they don't want to see them at all:).
And here is a picture from today of Nick, playing with the toy mouse.
And, of course, when I got the camera out, the boys each had to take some pictures. Nick took this one.
And then Ben took this one.
And then Nick took this one.
And then Ben took this one...and then I put the camera away.
That should do us for a couple of days. The husband has the week off next week so we might try to spend a couple of days in Arkansas. They have an outlet mall there and I have not bought any fall/winter clothes for the boys yet this year so I'm thinking I might find some really good deals.
The boys are now in bed and I am sitting with them until they fall asleep. I am racking my brain, trying to think of some of the other funny things they have said lately. One thing that I hear sometimes is, if I ask one of them to do something, he will say "certainly". I don't know where they got that one because I don't say it...at least I don't think I do anyway.
This evening, the dad came upstairs and noticed a tear on Ben's face and asked him if he had been crying. Ben told him that he had been "weeping" and that it was the same thing as crying. The reason he had been crying is that, earlier he had gotten his foot shut in the door, when coming in from outside. It left a nasty mark and came just short of cutting his foot open so I am sure it is very sore. When they were upstairs with me, getting ready for bed, Nick pushed Ben in fun but it made Ben step on his foot in a way that made it hurt again so he had been "weeping".
The other word that one of them used today was "tidy". I can't remember the context now and I think it was Ben who said it. He used it correctly and I was surprised to hear it because it is not one of my normal words. They pick up so much from books and movies, it is really amazing.
The other night, Nick leaned over to give the dad a big hug and said "I lovin' on you". It was so sweet.
We went for ice cream this evening and, on the way there Ben happened to notice the numbers on the CD player so he started counting. He counted to fifty something before he lost interest and stopped. I had to help him with thirty, forty and fifty but he could do all the others. It really is amazing how quickly little ones remember things and pick up new things. I am constantly impressed by their memories but then, at the same time, I am always surprised when they don't remember something we did a number of weeks back.
Time to sign off for now. Goodnight!
This was taken sometime in July. We were doing some arts and crafts.
This one may have been in July also. I just happened to look up to see what the boys were doing and they were sitting like this, "reading" to each other. It was so cute that I grabbed the camera real quick and snapped a surprise photo.
These next two photos were taken on a day when we did a science experiment. They were seeing which piece of paper would fall to the floor the fastest.
This was also a science experiment. They were blowing bubbles and watching them pop on a piece of paper, leaving wet marks on the paper. We were learning all about air.
This is Nick's artwork. It is the first time he has ever drawn a complete face all by himself. Sorry it is turned sideways. I forgot to spin it around before I loaded it.
And this is Ben's artwork. After he saw Nick's face, he had to draw one too. I asked him what the blue and purple areas were and he said they were eyebrows.
I took this one today, just so I could post an updated picture, since they are both growing and changing so quickly. Ben was playing with the spider that Aunt D gave the boys. They have a mixed reaction to all of the Halloween decorations that are already out in the stores. They talk about them before we get there and can't wait to see them and then they get kind of quiet when they first see them and then they don't want to get any closer and then they don't want to see them at all:).
And here is a picture from today of Nick, playing with the toy mouse.
And, of course, when I got the camera out, the boys each had to take some pictures. Nick took this one.
And then Ben took this one.
And then Nick took this one.
And then Ben took this one...and then I put the camera away.
That should do us for a couple of days. The husband has the week off next week so we might try to spend a couple of days in Arkansas. They have an outlet mall there and I have not bought any fall/winter clothes for the boys yet this year so I'm thinking I might find some really good deals.
The boys are now in bed and I am sitting with them until they fall asleep. I am racking my brain, trying to think of some of the other funny things they have said lately. One thing that I hear sometimes is, if I ask one of them to do something, he will say "certainly". I don't know where they got that one because I don't say it...at least I don't think I do anyway.
This evening, the dad came upstairs and noticed a tear on Ben's face and asked him if he had been crying. Ben told him that he had been "weeping" and that it was the same thing as crying. The reason he had been crying is that, earlier he had gotten his foot shut in the door, when coming in from outside. It left a nasty mark and came just short of cutting his foot open so I am sure it is very sore. When they were upstairs with me, getting ready for bed, Nick pushed Ben in fun but it made Ben step on his foot in a way that made it hurt again so he had been "weeping".
The other word that one of them used today was "tidy". I can't remember the context now and I think it was Ben who said it. He used it correctly and I was surprised to hear it because it is not one of my normal words. They pick up so much from books and movies, it is really amazing.
The other night, Nick leaned over to give the dad a big hug and said "I lovin' on you". It was so sweet.
We went for ice cream this evening and, on the way there Ben happened to notice the numbers on the CD player so he started counting. He counted to fifty something before he lost interest and stopped. I had to help him with thirty, forty and fifty but he could do all the others. It really is amazing how quickly little ones remember things and pick up new things. I am constantly impressed by their memories but then, at the same time, I am always surprised when they don't remember something we did a number of weeks back.
Time to sign off for now. Goodnight!
September 2, 2009
The boys are doing great. Today we were looking at some of their baby pictures and I had a hard time believing how little they were then...and they were both such chubsters. They are such boys now and very cute and sweet ones, even if I do say so myself.
They are both very into telling us what to say these days, in their pretending. It is so funny. Nick has told me to say something and then, after I said it, he said "why?". I never know what to say to that so I just say, "I don't know. You told me to say that".
Yesterday we were driving in the car and Ben said something (I don't remember what he was talking about now) that started with "In the old days....". It really cracked me up because it was not something that related to "the old days" at all but that did get them talking about how in the old days they didn't have cars and they used horses to pull buggies and such. They are coming up with some very funny things these days and I need to do a better job of writing them down.
We are all getting over colds around here. Nick got it first, then the dad was very sick last Saturday. I have seldom seen him feeling that badly. I think this was only the second time in the almost 5 years we have been married. Ben ended up coming down with it around the same time as the dad. Now they are all recovering fairly nicely, though with some running noses, and I have not felt so well the past couple of days. But I think we are almost over it all.
The boys have really been enjoying playing outside lately. Our weather has been absolutely incredible. The is the coolest August Oklahoma has enjoyed in quite some time and I think we have set quite a few record days with coolest ever weather. It is now bright and sunny and around 74 degrees outside. The perfect day, although it was cloudy and trying to rain most of the day today.
Dinner is ready so I must go. Maybe more later...maybe with some pics.
They are both very into telling us what to say these days, in their pretending. It is so funny. Nick has told me to say something and then, after I said it, he said "why?". I never know what to say to that so I just say, "I don't know. You told me to say that".
Yesterday we were driving in the car and Ben said something (I don't remember what he was talking about now) that started with "In the old days....". It really cracked me up because it was not something that related to "the old days" at all but that did get them talking about how in the old days they didn't have cars and they used horses to pull buggies and such. They are coming up with some very funny things these days and I need to do a better job of writing them down.
We are all getting over colds around here. Nick got it first, then the dad was very sick last Saturday. I have seldom seen him feeling that badly. I think this was only the second time in the almost 5 years we have been married. Ben ended up coming down with it around the same time as the dad. Now they are all recovering fairly nicely, though with some running noses, and I have not felt so well the past couple of days. But I think we are almost over it all.
The boys have really been enjoying playing outside lately. Our weather has been absolutely incredible. The is the coolest August Oklahoma has enjoyed in quite some time and I think we have set quite a few record days with coolest ever weather. It is now bright and sunny and around 74 degrees outside. The perfect day, although it was cloudy and trying to rain most of the day today.
Dinner is ready so I must go. Maybe more later...maybe with some pics.
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