Big week for H!

It has been quite a big week for our firstborn!
has a new room (no longer sharing with baby bro)
first back to school night
started kindergarten
recited weekly verse in front of the whole school
experienced carpool (way cooler than just our little family)
first soccer game
scored 2 goals in the soccer game...
And tomorrow if our first day of homeschool Kindergarten!
So many fun things for our biggest kid!

silly kiddos on the way to school

Our family getting ready to bring H in for his 1st day!!

Flagged down the ice-cream truck after school for a special treat!

Soccer:

Loving that Daddy is the coach!

H and his best friend E!

 GOAL!!!

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What I didn't expect this week was how hard all of H's firsts would be on Bug.  Once we were in the parking lot leaving school, Bug lost it.  "Why isn't bro coming with us?  I want to stay too!  I want bro to come home with us..."

Her sadness didn't last all too long, when we got home I put B-man down for his nap and Bug and I played dolls for 45 minutes.  Do I dare admit, I have never played 1-on-1 with her for that long!  It was such a treat to just get to focus on her for window of time!

She is now enjoying our new routine and doing quite well with bro gone at school.  Tomorrow is our first day of homeschool for H for Kindergarten, so we will see how well she does sharing my attention with both of her bros : ) 

Though I was dreading the busyness of this season, I am really enjoying the unique blessings of this season more than I expected I would!

bed-time

Tonight I was tucking H into bed, after we finished prayers I said, "Oh, I am so tired, I wish I could sleep here with you."
H: "You should Mama, I will share my bed with you."
Me: "Wish I could buddy, I still have to clean up and do the dishes.  Maybe tomorrow night I can."
Without hesitation he said, "I think tomorrow night we should eat off paper plates, and even use plastic forks, that way you don't have dishes to do, and you can sleep right here!"

That kid melts my heart!  I love how he thinks, processes and comes up with possible solutions.  I love that he desires to spend time with his mama.

So tomorrow night... paper plates it is!

H is 5

How can it be that my little man is 5 years old??  He is growing up WAY too fast!  I love the boy (not little any more, but I can't dare say big either) that he is becoming!  H is such an amazing kid, I love watching his mind work as he tries to figure things out.  I love the big brother that he is to Bug and BB.  His desire for knowledge is unlike anything I have ever seen.  His memory of Bible verses and stories amazes me!  He is one great kiddo!

 

Highlights of this Past year:

Moving close to the beach

Making new friends

Skype sessions with grandparents and Aunts and Uncles

Cruising on his bike

Going to Awanas

Having a baby brother

Going to Sea World

Learning how to ride a scooter

Building sandcastles and getting buried in the sand

Starting Pre-school

Swimming

Going back to Utah to see friends and play in the snow

Starting to read

Looking for snails, insects and spiders in the back yard

Going to the pumpkin patch

Being the backseat helper with Baby Bro

Constantly doing math

Still loving dinosaurs, sharks, whales and spiders

Has done a great job making new friends

H, you amaze me all of the time!  I am so proud to be your mama!  I can't wait to see all that this next year holds... just do me a favor and don't grow up too fast!

Rain boots

I have a new fascination with rain boots... Yesterday, while Baby Bro was sleeping the "big kids" and I went out to look for puddles to jump in.   Ahhh, to no avail, they had all dried up while we were at Bible-study.  But we had fun playing around, and I loved capturing each of their personalities, but also the sweet relationship they have.

And then about 30 pictures into it, I noticed this...

 Bug had put her boots on the wrong feet.  It made me smile and made me so thankful that I was able to capture yet another part of life at this point in time.  Oh, the ordinary day that I want to cherish and soak in!

We had so much fun...  I think this mama needs a pair of rain boots so we can make a tradition of jumping in the puddles... or the lack there of : )

First Day

Today was H's first day of Pre-K.  I wanted to make today feel really exciting and special for H.  We had an extra special breakfast, french toast on cinnamon burst bread {thanks Sal for bringing it out from UT}.  We spent a lot of time talking about how great school was going to be, the kinds of things he might learn, the new friends he was going to make, how big he is getting and so much more.

We made it a family affair to celebrate H's big day...

 In the car on our way... H is holding BB's bottle as he was in-charge of feeding him while we drove

 Quick family shot on our way in... too bad Bug and BB aren't looking

He had a great time and when I went in the room to tell him it was time to go he said, "Mama, why do I have to leave already."  I reassured him that he would be back next week and that we had to go so that we could go out to lunch with Daddy. 

H-man, I am so proud of you buddy!  I am confident that you are going to learn a lot and love school this year!

Pre-school

H's first official day of pre-school (away from home) starts tomorrow!  I can't believe that this day is here!  Mr. Steady and I spent much time praying, discussing, researching and talking with H, and we decided that this year to enroll him in a homeschool hybrid.  The kids go to school 1 day a week for pre-K and homeschool the other days. 

So far I have not been emotional about this at all.  Probably because I am pretty certain that he is going to LOVE it, and I couldn't be more excited about the school he is going to! I also think a large part of it is that he is still home with me all of the other days of the week.  I love my little H-man, and I am so blessed to be his Mama and to get to spend so much time with him! 

There has been a little more prep than I expected, but I think we are ready...

{To do list is complete}

Backpack

School supplies

Name on all school supplies

Lunch box full of snacks

Outfit laid out

Camera ready

Special breakfast plans

All week long H has been counting down the days until he gets to go to school.  He is ecstatic to say the least... I hope he likes school as much as he likes the idea of school : )

Training

"Be Careful..."
How many time do we say this to our little ones?  I personally say it all of the time... probably too much.  I recently realized that often I have not done a good job of explaining what "Be Careful" really means (or looks like).  There are so many things that this one statement can mean... don't drop that, walk slowly, stop and think, be cautious in what you are doing, don't spill, watch for cars...  With so many things "Be careful," can mean this is not an all-inclusive training, but a start on what it means to focus on the task and to have steady hands.

I created a mini obstacle course, maybe relay challenge is a better way to describe it.  We filled up a bunch of water balloons and put them in a bin, gave the kids a large spoon to scoop up the balloons and carry them over to the other side. (H could hold the spoon, but it was too hard for Bug, so Daddy took turns with H)

So I didn't get great pictures of the process... but the point was made.  It really helped H have a better understanding of what I mean by "be careful."  We will work on what being careful means in other areas... so much to teach and train our little ones : )

Training idea help...

Child Training is an ongoing task that I often feel like needs to have a higher priority in my life.  Training times can feel like a lot of work or we can make them fun.  I am not always so good at figuring out how to make things fun, but I am working on breaking out of my rule based mentality to a more colorful world of fun : )

This week I have been asking myself if I have put forth my best effort to train H in different areas or if we just laid out expectations for him without training him how to accomplish it.  We often tell our kids what to do or not do, but are we taking the time to walk them through, to show them what we are asking of them?

So we did potty training over 2 years ago.  Now we need to do retraining of some bad habits.  One area that needs some training for H is how to NOT pee on the bathroom floor.  Seriously, I am over stepping in puddles when I walk in the bathroom.  Also to WASH his grubby little hands after he is done.  Ahh, I won't go into detail on this one, but just know that some reminder training will be happening here.

The real area that I am aiming (ha, aiming would be for the first area of training.... but I digress) to work on training for H is the Golden Rule.   A few days ago, H bit his sister's finger and then hours later dropped a stroller on her.  Both of which seemed totally out of character for him.  When I asked him how he would like it if I dropped a stroller on him, he said, "I wouldn't like it very much!"  Not that I would ever show him what that would be like.  But asking the question really helped him realize what he had just done.  So how do I get him to ask himself the question BEFORE the offense happens?  I realized that we have not really trained him on what it means to consider others better than himself (which I feel like is one step beyond the Golden Rule).  H is usually a kind kid, thoughtful of others, but truly thinking of others first is not at the forefront of his mind.

I have some ideas for our training time, but I would love to hear if you have any ideas, book recommendations, games and such to drive this point home.  I will gather all resources and will post soon on our training plan.

Would love your help : )

Jana Alayra

If you are a mom of little people, and you don't know about Jana Alayra, you really should...
She is an amazing singer/ song writer and performer.  Her songs talk about God's love, loving and serving others, shining like stars, digging into who God is.

We were first introduced to Jana through MOPS when she came and spoke to our group.  I bought my kids a DVD and 2 of her CD's.  It was an INSTANT hit, especially with H!  He memorized all of the songs... for that matter so did I... the CD's were on constant repeat in my car for over a month.  H loved to watch the DVD and learned the moves that go with all the songs.

Here is a Jana's website if you want to learn more.  You can also order her CD's on Amazon here and here.

My sweet friend Dena told me about a concert that was in our area.  So we made plans to go with Dena and her little girl.  Truth be told Dena brought the big kids and I met her there 1/2 way through the concert : )  It was a really fun night.

On her DVD's and at the concerts she is such a great performer, totally getting the kids involved, they even got to go up on stage. 

H, loved it! And I love what he is learning from each of the songs : )

What kids music do you like?  I am always looking for more tunes to add to our play lists!

Lovin' on Baby Bro

We are all loving our newest addition.

Baby Bro has continued to be an amazing baby.  He only gets up 2 times a night.  Usually around 2am and then 5 or 6.  Bug and H still love Baby, which I am incredibly thankful.  Life is busy here, but life is good!

Everyday life is feeling more normal as a family of 5... well actually right now a family of 6.  Thank goodness my mom is in town.  She has been such a blessing... playing with kids, changing diapers, holding baby, cleaning, cooking, middle of the night shift,  playing in the ocean,  and maybe some more changing of diapers.    I only have 4 more days with her here, it will be a sad day on Thursday when she leaves...

Can I do 3 kids on my own????

Pre School this week/ and Bug School too

H- 4 1/2
Bug- 18 months

This week we have not been great about doing school time... a little here and a little there.  We have been busy playing at the park instead, meeting Daddy for lunch, going to craft stores, getting ready for the baby...  We did do some school time, here is what we have been up to:

H-man Preschool
Math:  I had H put together this really great puzzle that I got at Ross for $5.  It has 3 pieces for each number 1-20.  I started by taking out all of the words, and just had him count the pictures then match the number.  Once he did this for all 20, I took away numbers 11-20.  Then I pulled out the cards with the the words (names of each number) for 1-10.  I would hold up the card and ask him if he knew what it said.  Some of the words he has memorized, others he tried to sound out. 

Art time:
Just painting, per H's request

Reading:
For our real reading time we are still slowly working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.   He is now to lesson 26 (I think) and each lesson has a "story" for him to read usually made up of 2 sentances of words he can sound out.  This book is honestly amazing, he can already read the little stories.  Then after each story there is a list of questions to help the child with reading comprehension.  We do reading time always while Bug is napping, it helps us both concentrate : )

H has also been really into "reading" or what you might call reciting stories to the baby.  Here are some of my favorite pics:

Yes that is by big bare belly. haha

And this one shows when the baby kicked H's hand as he read... look at that face!  I just love his expression!  It honestly made H's day that the baby liked his story so much!

Tiny Tot School:
Bug is not the best at sitting still, or having a very long attention span, so we have started working on this in a couple of different ways.
1.  High Chair time:  When I am doing school time with H, I have Bug sit in her high chair and play with 1 toy at a time.  She usually has 5 minutes of interest in the toy, then she will gather back up the pieces, and try to hand it back to me.  I know 5 minutes isn't long, but it was huge for her.  And I was so proud of her that she didn't throw the toy on the ground when she was done, that she waited for me to come over and take it from her.  Then I gave her another set of toys... again, 5 minutes of interest, packaged it back up and handed it to me.  On the first day she lasted through 4 sets of toys for a total of 20 minutes!

random, but fun... 1.  Farm Toy

2. Garlic press (don't worry no sharp edges)  

3. Metal bowl and spoon with plastic sharks

2.  Sit still time on a blanket:
Again, sitting still is not her strong suite, but an area we can improve on: )  Both of the kids get Gummy Vitamins each morning.  Instead of just giving them to the kids, I use the vitamins as little rewards or re-enforcements for sitting still.  Bug gets 1 vitamin and H gets 2.  So to lengthen the training time,  I cut hers into 4 pieces and his both in half, giving 4 pieces.   We lay out a blanket, sit down, I start by reminding Bug that it is "sit still time," then I start the Bible story.  If she can sit still for a page (2 -3 sentences) then she gets part of her "bite" as she calls it.  H has the skill down, but I use this time to let him be an example for Bug.  Praising him when he is sitting still, and letting Bug see Bro get his "bite."  Oh, we have a long way to go in this area, but it is worth all of the time and effort.  Training is never easy, but with time it does have it's rewards.

3.  Painting:
Every now and then I will pull out water-colors or finger paints for Bug to do while H is painting.  But on days that I don't have time for a lot of clean up.  I give her a paint brush, construction paper and a little cup of water.  She LOVES it.  And clean up is so easy, simply throw the piece of soggy paper away : )