October 25, 2013

Holy moly, has time ever escaped me.

I'm just going to do a photo dump and update so I can catch up, AND because poor Nana is bored out of her mind as she is off her feet after toe surgery, so the least I can do is give her some pictures to look at. :)

Last week I thought, hm, it's the end of October. I need to pull out the rest of the tomatoes before it starts to get gross out.  Man, am I ever glad I did!  Levi loved the last hurrah playing in the dirt and "working on the farm" as he calls it...Luke loved eating the mud for the last time.

We had  a great time doing fall activities last week.  I checked out a bunch of story books about pumpkins and apples from the library, we had some really fun worksheets that Levi loved, and we baked sugar cookies and decorated them.  He was very insistent that one of them was for Josiah, so we made an impromptu trip to see Josiah and deliver his cookie. :)  We took one to Matt at work, too.

We're trying to work on the letter G this week but Luke dumped his morning nap.  This has thrown my morning into a different universe as we adjust to yet another new normal.  I am nearly breathless with excitement at the freedom that no-morning-nap offers, yet at the same time we had a neatly packaged morning routine that is now all blown up.  Levi loves his little half hour of video time while I clean the house, and then we spend about a half hour or so doing our 'project time.'  Welp, video time now involves Luke literally climbing into the armoire and manhandling the TV (Levi: MAMA!!! LUKIE'S IN THE CABINET! NO! NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!!)  Trying to get any housework or projects done with Levi was a pretty epic disaster yesterday...I bagged the enterprise and figure we'll either have to table it for now (I remember this age with Levi was very difficult for getting things done, too...they are into everything, want to be right at your feet, aren't sturdy or trustworthy enough to be left alone for any length of time, and are still very needy), or retool and break our projects up throughout the day.  Levi LOVES his projects so we're not doing it because I'm a pushy helicopter mom, but because he asks for them. So we'll see.

Some of the stuff we did get done this week, if you are one of my homeschooling friends looking for ideas:

Pattern/sequencing with bugs...he was kind of mystified by this but seemed to be mildly interested)

Shapes/geometry to build a garbage truck - this is one of his favorite things to do.  Anything that involves gluing and trucks.  He also loves to hold the marker and 'help' me write.

Numbers - He asked for an activity that involved monkeys and bananas.  So I glued the monkeys on the sheet and cut out foam bananas, and told him he had to "feed" the monkeys their specified number of bananas.  He really got into that one.  

More numbers - the magnetic numbers were hidden in a bin of rice, and he had to dig them out and match them to the numbers that were written on the garbage truck.  He's not super good with identifying numbers.  He seemed to like the activity though.

We made granola bars, checked out books at the library (one lady cracked up at him because he was so excited to be there and kept running up to me with books: LOOOOOOK!!!!!  LOOK AT THIS BOOK, MAMA!" - and it would be a book about the State of Maryland, LOL - she said, "Wow, it's like Christmas!), and did some learning apps on the iPad.

Snow yesterday!!!  Levi begged to go out in it.  I thought that sounded like a great idea.

But...it's October. Do YOU know where your snow stuff is?

After 45 minutes of rummaging through the closets, fishing out my boots from storage, pulling tags off new stuff, finding mittens that matched, trying on boots, changing diapers, wiping noses, wrestling on snow suits...we went outside.

Here's what Luke thought:

Admittedly, it's hard when you're already Surefoot Sam who stumbles around in normal clothes and shoes after only learning to walk a few weeks ago.  So when you put on a snow suit that hardly allows you to get up from a sitting position, life is frustrating.

Levi, though, was very happy to be outside.

After about ten minutes of falling, crying, frustration (he DID perk up when he found a nice pile of mud to squish his new mittens in....*siiiiigggggghhhhh*), I called it a wrap and we came inside...a flurry of muddy, wet winter clothes.  Nearly an hour of preparation, ten minutes of crying and mud-flinging outside, and then a pile of cleanup.  Huh. Shades of the next six months?  *sob*

On a more positive note, behold the cuteness.  He's a little stinker and he slays us.

October 14, 2013

This has nothing to do with my boys, but I feel like I'm standing a couple inches taller today because I am roasting my first whole chicken. This feels like the height of domesticity to me, not that I'm trying to reach the height of domesticity, but I picture roasting a chicken as being on par with washing your clothes with a wringer washer.  Even though I know it's not, and it's painfully simple. But the truth is, I'm intimidated by the whole skin-and-bones factor, so I have always mingled comfortably with boneless, skinless parts.  Today I bit the bullet, and found that it was quite easy, and next time I'll be far less clumsy.  I dilly-dallied through most of the prep because I was really putting off the whole touching-the-chicken thing and holding a whole raw chicken in my mitts.  You would think I'd be over that, but I'm not.  Nor am I able to wrap my mind around reaching into ANY body cavity without gloves on.  And yes, I do have a box of gloves and yes, I used them. 

I love chicken from Kapenga.  It made me a little bereft that this girl may very well have been one of the ones that we said hi to this summer.

 

 I laughed a little maniacally at myself because I admit that I am not well-versed in chicken anatomy. I was trying to apply human anatomy landmarks to poultry.  I can start an IV in a barely visible infant vein, but it was a little befuddling - I am very embarrassed to admit this - where I was supposed to stick the lemon.

I did find it.

Here she is!  Sorry, I feel like I should cover her up to protect her privacy. :(

She's in the oven now and smells delicious. I used this recipe.

Last week Levi and I made fruit pizza for the letter F.  I have also never made fruit pizza before, but is was less scary.  Gluten free sugar cookie dough isn't so easy to work with, but it turned out great anyway.  If you are GF and don't want to dink around with making your own flour or adding xanthan gum, you MUST MUST MUST use this flour.  It makes everything turn out perfectly.

Levi LOVED the pizza.  He kept saying, "This is the BEST ever!! Mama ROCKS!  You are a ROCK STAR!"

It's not perfect but it tasted great.

I'm having to hit Pinterest lately to find good morning challenges for Levi.  Last week I printed off truck pictures, glued them to foam shapes that I cut out, and buried them in rice.  Levi had to fish them out and glue them on the sheet to the corresponding shapes. He LOVED this activity.

This morning he had to match the 'baby letters' with the 'mama letters'.  I made it a little challenging and he needed some help, but he liked it. He loves the whole baby-mama concept so I knew that would speak to him.

 

This week we're breaking from the letters and doing an autumn theme.  I didn't super-plan but I have some good ideas of what we'll do and it'll be fun. :)

Random of Luke. He LOVES playing under the table.  And playing with Molly's food.

 

Not sure what Luke's deal is lately, if he's going through a sleep regression or wanting to dump his morning nap. He sleeps GREAT for that morning nap but does NOT want to sleep during the afternoon.  Levi I could let howl it out at this age and he'd back down, but Luke....notsomuch.  So I let him play while I fussed around with The Chicken, and then put him down later, which he agreed to do.  I just think he might have been happy to have all of the toys to himself.

 

October 9, 2013

I realized that it's closer(ish) to the end of the year, which means that I have documented nearly a year so far on a fairly regular basis (with a few dormant periods in there).  And even for it's mundane-ness, it's SO FUN to look back on it all and remember the most random things that would otherwise fade into non-memory.  Even on my old blog I love reading old posts and remembering the best AND worst times.  I would encourage you, even if you are going through a time that you'd rather never remember: write it down.  Every feeling, every question.  It's almost always worth it to go back and see how things have changed, how faithful God has been, how much you learned in that trying time.

Anyway...so we went to the zoo today with Mary and Josiah.  Last time we wanted to do the zoo it ended up raining. Today's weather was p-e-r-f-e-c-t.  We originally wanted to go to the farm for the letter F, but the zoo was easier this time around.  

Last time Matt and I took Levi to the zoo he was about 18mos old and far more interested in the trash cans and manhole covers.  Two things I learned: he's still not much into animals, and Josiah is well on his way to becoming an Olympic track star.  That kid can RUN.  Mary and I were made acutely aware of our out-of-shape state by trying to keep up with him.  We did have a really good time, saw some great animals, and the boys loved playing on the climb-able thingies they had there.

This lion looked so old I'm not certain I saw any teeth in his mouth.  Just kidding, I did see his teeth when he yawned, but man, he was hobbling.  Poor guy.

Note the ever-present Fire Chief jacket.

Highlight: a Bobcat!! But not the kind we paid to see.  This is going to be the tiger exhibit next year.

Newly-built 'natural' playground.  This was a rope trampoline of sorts that the boys loved. Josiah always rocks the action shot.

Heaven for Levi: a tractor to play on.

And a toy train to play on.

Luke stayed home with Nana, because taking a one-year-old who would rather walk than be in a stroller, who has missed his morning nap is not fun to take to the zoo while chasing a flighty 2yr old.  Nana said that after we left he walked around the house hooting (his signature "hoot" is a high-pitched distress signal that he's had ever since birth that alerts us to the fact that he's not getting enough attention) and saying Mama.  He definitely noticed that he was not included. :(  Poor buddy.  He took a very cheap afternoon nap, and it was clear that he was just trying to make up for lost time with me.  All he wanted to do was play.  I was happy to oblige.

He loves puzzles.

Happy teething squishy.

Yesterday when we were in the yard I realized that no one was crying for my attention.  No one was stuck in the grass unable to crawl or walk.  No one was frustrated that I was somewhere that they couldn't get to.  We were all doing our own thing and it was...peaceful.  And fun.

Even the Neediest Dog Alive had her own agenda to take care of.

You can't really see Luke back in the Berry Connection, but he's there.  Levi was hauling garden dirt.  I was turning compost.  Sometimes I fold laundry in the grass.  Trying to eat up every second of sunshine before the snow flies.

Luke hijacked the garden pinwheel.

Here's Levi's 'F is for Fox'

He wasn't too into yesterday's morning challenge. He did those first two rows and then jumped ship. Oh well.  Had it been trucks.....

He LOVES Starfall.  I'm hitting numbers and shapes more this week.

His story about Josiah. LOL

October 7, 2013

I worked this past weekend.  Matt is rocking the Mr. Mom gig more and more every time. :)

It's letter F week - Levi's verse is Proverbs 17:17, A friend loves at all times.  We went to the library this morning (the earlier you go, the less pandemonium because there aren't nearly as many people) - also found that if I have Levi help me drop the books in the return slot, it keeps him busy and quiet(er).  And if I explain to him that if he's wearing his Fire Chief jacket (which he does every waking second), he needs to be brave like a fire chief - and do brave things like step over the crack in the floor to get into the elevator - then it's a bit more peaceful too.  So we checked out several books about friendship and also about farms, and of course fork lifts (I'm tired of reading fire truck books, so I quietly skipped past those).  It was still loud and slightly chaotic - especially now that Luke is not only walking but trying his hand at RUNNING already, so isn't the least bit interested in staying in his stroller for very long.

If anyone reading this blog is homeschooling, sort of homeschooling, thinking about it, or whatever - or just wants something productive and peaceful to distract their kids at any part of the day, I have found this: I think I explained not too long ago that I set up a morning challenge for Levi each day.  Honestly, I think it's the most productive part of the day for him as far as learning something.  Each night I set out a puzzle or something.  He breezes through the kitchen in the morning and just asks, "Can I play with that?" and of course I tell him yes.  If he asks for help I give it, but otherwise I try to just let him figure it out.  It might be word puzzles, shapes, numbers, whatever. Sometimes I set out several puzzles and mix all of the pieces together in a box, and he has to fish them all out and figure out if it's a number, color, or letter, and put it on the correct puzzle.  Anyway, it keeps him busy and engaged, and I can make breakfast and help him if he needs it, and maintain some peace in our mornings - which were previously fraught with whining and fighting over toys.  It's fun to come up with new challenges too, but thankfully there's Pinterest for that.

This morning we had a little geometry challenge. :)  I drew a train and cut out corresponding shapes from construction paper.  I did assemble it with all the shapes in their correct spot initially so he could see what it was all about. Then I took them off and told him to build the train himself.  He wanted to glue it together, so I gave him a glue stick.  He matched some shapes, and others he didn't - but as one very wise and experienced teacher friend pointed out: it's all about the process, not the product.  He was very proud of his train at the end. :) 

Luke's in a very happy mood today; I think being able to walk has made his life so much more fun.

October 6, 2013

Warning: photo bomb ahead

This past week we took a four-day mini vacation and headed up to Crystal Mountain in northern Michigan.  We normally use our timeshare for vacations, but this time we rented a condo (got a steal by renting directly from the owner vs. through the resort, paid less than half of the price), and holy moly - if we only vacationed here for the rest of our days, we'd be some very happy cats.  We stayed on Mountain Top and literally were the only people there for most of the time.  It's the 'off' season right now, which is laughable since it was so incredibly beautiful, how can it possibly be "off"?  Anyway, we hung out and relaxed.  That's about it.  We enjoy simple pleasures, such as babies sleeping in their own rooms and watching movies on a big screen TV. And looking out over miles and miles of trees and not hearing any traffic, sirens, or trains.  I grew up skiing at Crystal, so walking on the slopes that I skiied on every week through grade school and high school was so much fun.  Great memories.

Pretty nice digs.  It was more like a three-level townhome - two bedrooms on the lower level, living area on main level, master on the top level.

We had just arrived.  Excuse all the junk.

The view from our balcony. The boys LOVE when we have a balcony to play on!

I could wash dishes looking out this window for the rest of my life.

Baby playing on porch. :)

I took the boys out for a walk at the top of the slopes (if you are familiar with Crystal, we were situated at the top of Giggles between Cheers and what used to be Main Street and is now a snowboard run).  We walked to the top of the chair lift and explored the wooded slopes.

From the top of the Main St. lift looking back to the condos at Mountain Top.

An after-dinner walk down one of the wooded slopes.

Another bonus was that we were only about 20 minutes from my family's cottage ("the farm"), so we headed over there to hang out and have a picnic one morning. 

Walking to the pond

Our beloved pond :)

Luke + the raft = a dangerous enterprise.  He WILL launch face-first into the water without a second thought.

This pic is for you, Aunt Ginger. LOL

Walking back to the creek.  Last time we were at the farm, Levi 'found' a watermelon in the creek.  He couldn't figure out why there weren't any more watermelons there.

Grandma and Grandpa Stamy's memorial

Our last evening: sunset walk overlooking the Betsy Valley.  Pure Michigan.

Probably the highlight of Luke's vacation: taking a bath in the huge tub in the master bedroom.

Yet another bonus: a vacation that is close to Grandma and Grandpa's house!  Levi playing in their yard before we finished driving home.