Hand Over the Cookies!

Kara's Party!

2012-06-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

This weekend we had Kara's 1st birthday party!
It was a watermelon theme.

I made cupcakes that looked like watermelons, they were pink and some had tiny chocolate chips for seeds, then I used white icing and green sprinkles (Green icing stains kids and clothes too easily)

I made watermelon sugar cookies. They were pink with tiny chips and then rolled in green tinted white chocolate

I displayed the sweets at the back of the table and then filled in the front of the table with all kinds of food

I even made watermelon salsa, it was a big hit.

For a cold treat there were frozen jello pops, with watermelon jello, lime jello and cool whip

I even had watermelon shoes :)

The weather turned out great so we hung out inside and out

Drew had a great time too. He played with his little friends and later broke out his guitar while the ladies danced for him. I have a couple pictures on my phone with him and all his groupies. He loves to play with little girls. I'm so glad I've found a group of friends that both my kids and I click with.

The birthday girl had a good time, but it's hard for a little ones with a bunch of people in the house. She wanted to be held a lot but for the most part she enjoyed her day too.

Kara had several watermelon outfits to choose from. It was going to be a little watermelon dress with matching diaper cover but it ended up a little chilly so we went with this outfit and then changed her into long jeans. She also has a watermelon tutu that she will be sporting all day on her actual birthday!

Here the birthday girl is eating strawberries, not watermelon. This is because after I picked out her theme and bought everything I discovered she might be allergic to watermelon. She had it and broke out in a rash. The Pediatrician said it might be coincidence that she got a rash and it could have been a viral rash since the week before she had a low grade fever, but I didn't want to chance it.

Kara loved her cupcake, but it took her a long time to figure out what to do with it.

We had a candle but the wind blew it out before Kara could try. Probably a good thing since she grabbed the candle so fast once I set it down.

Grammy facetimeing with Kara while she eats her cupcake

she has a pink marshmallow (we had pink smore's)

ALL DONE!

The aftermath

Later we opened presents. Some friends had already left since it was getting late. I let everyone help since Kara had no idea how to open a present. The big kids loved it!

I had a wonderful evening with friends celebrating surviving our first year as a family of 4!

On Job Training

2012-05-31T21:07:00.001-05:00

Imagine for a minute that you used to work with a bunch of people that were blacksmiths, then over the past few years you read a bunch of books about being a blacksmith. Finally one day you walk into a barn all alone and you are now expected to do the job of a blacksmith. Sure in theory you might know what to do but I bet you wouldn't be very successful. You would struggle with the tools, and question even if you had the best tools to do the job. You would fall behind in work and might even fall behind in other parts of your life as you put so much energy in trying to figure out how to be a blacksmith. Ideally you would have a mentor, someone that started out as a novice and worked their way up to a successful blacksmith. Perhaps that person even mentored other people, all with different ways of learning so they knew how to reach visual, hands on, and auditory learners. Sounds pretty basic right, that's how most jobs are taught, you mirror someone and they help you. That is, except the most important job, a parent.
Being a parent is hard, you can read books and hang around other parents but when it comes down to it you are tossed in the "barn" all alone and said to figure it out. It's hard to ask for help too because where do you turn? Everyone's child is different and your friends may or may not know anymore than you, your pediatrician can help explain what's going on with your child but they can't exactly help you be a parent. Your relatives are a good choice unless you don't live near them. The saying that it takes a village to raise a child is very accurate. If you had a whole village of wisdom surely someone raised a child similar to yours, surely someone understands and can help you. Unfortunately that village mentality is so hard to come by in so many places, people keep to themselves and generations don't stay close by and build large family networks.
It's no secret that I've struggled with finding the right tools for the job. That doesn't mean I'm a bad parent, it just means I was presented with a job different than what I planned for. I read the books, I worked in day cares and preschools and children's fitness centers. I've been around little kids and parents, I just wasn't prepared for a kid like Drew. In all the kids I worked with I only ever encountered one like my Drew, just one. And doing a little more research on personality traits I've found that what seems to fit Drew the best is only present in 5-10% of the population, so chances are no one has met a ton of people like my Drew. What's interesting is I am INFJ, which only about 1% of the population is, so there's no wonder Drew is rare. Drew is an exceptional child but needs people to respond to him in a certain way and it's taken me a long time to figure out what works and what doesn't work. It's taken me even longer to change how I naturally respond to things as well. It's hard to change who you are so you can make someone else the best person they can be. That right there is the hardest part of parenting, you can't always be you, you have to be who your children need you to be. After 30 years of perfecting me it was hard to find a new me.
I've heard that the 3s are one of the toughest years but I'm hoping that now that I have some better tools the 3s will be a year of learning and growing, for both of us.

Let's Go Bananas!

2012-05-25T07:08:00.000-05:00

The other day I came across a genius little recipe for homemade banana "ice cream" at Come together kids. All it is is frozen blended bananas but it is creamy like ice cream (or maybe dole whip).

Here's what you do...

Get bananas...I used normal ripe bananas but I would recommend really ripe ones because I think freezing bananas brings out the tartness.

Chop bananas

Freeze bananas. Line your pan, my little banana circles stuck pretty good and I had to get a metal turner and chisel them off.

Toss frozen banana pieces into food processor, blender, or baby food maker and blend them up real good. Then blend some more. The bananas becoming creamy.

Scoop out and eat soft banana "ice cream" or freeze for harder "ice cream"

This is wonderful because even Kara can eat it since there's no sugar or milk or salt added, it's only bananas. For Drew I added a little chocolate and chopped strawberries for a sundae, talk about the perfect banana split!

Next time I'll dip half of the circles in chocolate and put tooth picks in them. I love frozen bananas!

Weekend Trip

2012-05-22T07:12:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we took our (almost) annual trip to Ohio for Hamvention and to visit my in-laws. Hubby and I are both amateur ham radio operators and while I'm bored by many of the vendors and gadgets it's nice to get away and nice to see there's still such an interest in ham radios.
This year was a little different because I now have 2 little kids that do not want to just roam around a convention center all day so I took them to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. If you have a children's museum or science center in your town I recommend joining because you can go to almost any children's museum across the country. It's a great little side trip when traveling.
I loved this museum. LOVED IT! It was geared more toward little kids where as my museum at home is more sciencey and geared toward a little older kid.
Here's some pictures of our adventures...

"Mommy that's Earth, that's where home is"

At command central

They both loved the cardboard box play area, it reminded me of Honey I Shunk the Kids

Kara loves balls!

Drew was humoring me with this picture. When I asked him if he wanted to be a paleontologist and dig for dinosaur bones he said, "No mommy, all the dinosaurs are dead anyway."

Kara had fun though

Drew acting out the very hungry caterpillar

Now it's a beautiful butterfly

These things were fun, not sure what they are but both kids explored and played with them

One of Drew's favorite areas. He loves bugs! He told me he wants to pin bugs to a board in his room.

Shopping

Delivering

Kara was not thrilled that all the food was plastic

Taking a Pizza order

making the pizza. This area was so cute!

cooking the pizza

time to eat it!

In the landfill, Drew didn't like this area.

The vet area, he loved this area.

In jail :(

In the auto body shop, he kept saying, "Come on truckers"

They had a special poop section, Drew loved this too. He knows a lot about poop. Ever since he could talk he's been pointing out different types of poops on our walks.

Going in the piggy

coming out, that's one good looking poo

Back to looking at bugs. He thought this was cool, it projected them up on a screen on the wall.

Silly little otter, the real otters were sleeping

A meerkat, Drew wanted to take him home he told me, "he's so friendly"

We didn't really do anything else exciting. There's a train place near Dayton that I wanted to try to make it to but the timing just didn't work for our quick trip, maybe next time. What I'm really bummed about is that no one got a picture of my hubby with his parents and the kids. We get together once a year! I can't believe we didn't get a picture.

It's not a regression

2012-05-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

Before Kara was born Drew grew up fast, not because he had to but because all he knew was the adult way of life. He was around mom and dad all the time and around mom and dad's friends, which most of them didn't have little kids. I think this is very common with oldest and/or only children. They are very adult because that is what they are exposed to. Sure they play with kids but any time that they are at home it's adult conversation they hear. Just before Kara came along people told me not to be surprised if Drew regressed a little. I assumed they meant with potty training or language skills but I was surprised when none of this happened immediately after Kara came home. Now I look at it and I think saying an older sibling will regress after a new sibling comes along is a little misleading, because most people probably look at it the way I did, they they would have a set back in the beginning then jump back to where they were or how they were. But life doesn't get back to the way it was so why do we expect a child to.
What I've noticed is that Drew sometimes acts like Kara, in speech and play and in how he reacts to life. I wouldn't call it a regression because that makes it sound negative. Drew changed when Kara came along, so did I and daddy, even the cats. When you introduce a new member in your house you should expect this, but I didn't. I wasn't really prepared on how to deal with my big boy acting like my baby and I don't mean acting babyish, he's totally acting his age but just acting different than before and not to get attention or manipulate me but because he thinks it's cool when she copies him so he copies her too. Drew has amazing speech and vocabulary but now he likes to say words like dada and nanana (for banana), of course I tell him he should use the real words but he thinks it's cute because when Kara says those words everyone oohs and aahs and smiles and repeats them back. He also isn't using his words as much when he's frustrated or mad, he's yelling and this is because when Kara is stuck or frustrated she screams. Drew laughs at her screaming but now he's picked it up. I don't punish him for it or anything I just remind him that words work better, faster, and we have to try to teach Kara that. When I type this I know it sounds like someone who would be talking about regression but I just don't like that word. I like thinking that Drew is learning how to connect and get along with someone younger than him, someone with less skill in a certain area than him. I think it's a good life skill really, to realize that someone can't play or communicate like you can so you bring it down to their level to include them and have fun.
So now I've realized I have to shift how I parent, how I think, and how I react. That I can't expect Drew to go back to how he was before Kara came along just like he can't expect me to go back to how things were before Kara came along.
People said to me when I was nervous about having baby #2 that the best gift I could give Drew is a sibling, I'm starting to see why they say that. Siblings really are magical :)

Reminiscing and Rambling

2012-05-16T22:23:00.003-05:00

I get asked weekly if I am going to enroll my son in preschool. I used to say I didn't know but now I firmly answer no, no I'm not. It took me a long time to decide if I wanted to or not so I am confident that I made the right decision for my family because I've spent hours and hours weighing in on this. I'm surprised at how many people think I'm doing a disservice to my child by not enrolling him in preschool at 3 years old. I just want him to be 3, to be little.
Sometimes life makes you grow up fast and I want my child to have another year of free childhood before he has to learn the ways of the school system. Even preschool. I don't know what the future may hold and if something happens and I have to return to work and my kids have to go to daycare I don't want to say to myself I wish I had spent just a few more days just enjoying my kids. I wish we had gone to a few more playgrounds, a few more ponds, a few more museums. I wish I had laid in bed and watched cartoons with them just a few more times. I see people's lives get scheduled out of control. They've gotten classes, and work, and meetings, and clubs, and games, and practices. I know all those things are important and people who lead busy scheduled lives love it but I love my simple not scheduled life.
My mom always said she wanted one summer with my brother and I before we grew up, just one summer to sleep in, camp out, play at the pool. One summer to laugh and love her kids without worrying about looking at the watch or the calendar. One summer to seize the day and not have to wait for the weekend and not feel cheated if the weather is bad or a kid is sick on your one day off.
My brother and I are grown with kids of our own and my mom never got her one summer. As I type that I have tears in my eyes. I know how much that dream meant to her and no amount of wishing will ever turn back the clock.
Now I get to live that one summer every day with my kids. I don't take it for granted either. Sure I have bad days and days where I get bored of going to the same playgrounds but more days than not I know what a gift I've been given. I can enjoy my kids without the stress of anything that has to get done. If we stay up we stay up, if we sleep in we sleep in. There are days we stay in our pajamas and eat on the floor in the living room, there are days we get dressed up and go out and what I love is I don't have to decide what type of day it is until everyone is up and I've seen what everyone's attitude is that day. We play and read and explore the town together. We do crafts and laugh and watch our favorite movies. I'm not rushed or stressed to get something done and get someplace on time. If we get sidetracked and spend and hour in target smelling candles it's okay. I know what some people are thinking, that the structured life a working mom's kid leads is better for them and maybe so but I've always marched to the beat of my own drummer and done things on Alyssa time so this parenting style suits and my kids just fine. I also grew up in a house where my mom worked, multiple jobs and we were in activities. I remember worrying about our daily schedule when I was younger, not Drew's age but still very young. I remember riding in the car and thinking I wish we could stop at that playground, the one near Cass Park, but I knew we couldn't, I knew we HAD to get someplace. I remember not asking to do something because I knew we couldn't, not because it was elaborate or it cost money but because it took time that we didn't have. Don't think that I didn't do things. My brother and I were very active but sometimes I craved a day of nothingness. I can vaguely remember days like that on Perry City Rd. Where my brother and I would play outside and it could have been an hour, it could have been 10 hours, it didn't matter we had nothing to do, no where to be, and an entire world in our backyard to explore. I wish I could remember my time in that house better. It's been so long.
There were times in middle school when time caused a lot of stress. I wasn't the best at keeping track of time and remembering where my mom was going to pick me up and she had to wait for and/or find me. I think at this time she was balancing 2 jobs and needed me to be on time to get us home and get changed for her other job. I wasn't scatterbrained on purpose, I just was in my own little world. 20 years later I still think about those days and wish I could have not contributed to any more stress in our household.
It's a shame that kids don't remember when they are this little because I sometimes worry that these unscheduled days bring out the best in me and I'm afraid my kids won't see how much I cared, how much I loved them, how much I did with them. I strive to make everyday special with my kids, even if we just sit in the living room all day, every day that I get to snuggle them and eat lunch with them is special. I make it a point every night when I lay in bed with Drew before I sing him to sleep to go over the positive points of the day, the fun we had, the good feelings we got. I see even in his tiny 3 year old self that he tends to remember the negative. He has a relative like this too so I know I'm not making it up. Him and this relative are alike in so many ways. We can have a great day and he'll say at night, mommy yelled at me because I kicked Kara in the head. Yes, yes I did but I also did 1,000 positive things. I want him to be happy and realize that negative things are going to happen in life but you can't hold on to them so tightly. I think it's starting to help him remember both, at least I hope so. I enjoy this part of our day too, it makes me relive the positive, which in a world where people are so quick to say a nasty comment and tear you down it's nice to think of everything that went right, it's nice that Drew goes to bed with happy thoughts. Kara is included in this too but she doesn't have much to say, when she gets older she'll have a more active roll in our bedtime routine. For now I just tell her how wonderful she is and how great her big brother is. Hopefully she doesn't remember all the times he pushes her over and takes her toy.

Well I've rambled enough that I can get some sleep, I can't sleep with a full head :)

Mother's Day

2012-05-15T21:33:00.003-05:00

I love that Mother's Day is on a Sunday, because we end up celebrating mom all weekend! This was my first mother's day as a mom to 2. It's funny because I feel like Kara's just always been here, I can't believe just a year ago I didn't know her yet.

Here is me and my buddy a year ago (Kara's there too!)

And here I am now with both my loves

And Look! Daddy exists too!

I had such a nice weekend. Saturday we planned to go eat at a restaurant then go to a nature center. What happened was we ate in the car because both kids fell asleep then went to Hobby Lobby because it started raining. Then Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and spent the day at the Children's Garden. I loved having all day with my family and we are all happy when we are outside.

Maybe next year I can hang out with my mom too. That would be fun :)

Kid stuff

2012-05-10T09:44:00.004-05:00

Right now I have about 5 unpublished, unfinished posts. I just can't seem to get anything together to post. I miss my camera.

So I'll just do another random list type post to clear up my unpublished blogs.

Kid #2:

~Kara is the opposite of my Drew in every way. When Drew was little he nursed a lot and when he did he closed his eyes and blocked out the world. I took that time for a little me time, sure I was feeding him but I played on my phone, read blogs, watched detective shows, ate snacks. Now with 2 kids I don't get a lot of me time so I thought the very few times Kara still nurses I could still take my me time even if Drew needed some attention but that's not happening with Kara. She doesn't zone out while eating, she looks at me, plays with my shirt, smiles, tries to grab my food and shove it in her mouth, pull my hair, play with her toys, grabs my phone, kicks my lap top off the arm of the couch. A few months ago I put everything away and used this time to connect with my baby girl. I just sit and be with her, just her, since these moments are so few. I'm glad I don't bottle feed my babies because at least twice a day I have my little warm lump of a baby in my lap. She can't take the bottle and crawl away or eat in the stroller, she's forced to be snuggled right next to momma. I know there are bottle fed babies that only want to be held too but the way Kara is a girl on the go I'm pretty sure she would just take her food and run if she could.

~Kara is almost walking. It took her 10 months to crawl and just another month to realize that crawling is not all it's cracked up to be. She now bear crawls and pulls herself up on everything. She is also a climber, big time. Drew never was a climber, he's still not, he prefers his feet firmly planted on the ground. Kara can climb the stairs, climb playground equipment and climb up the little slide in the back yard.

~I've let Kara taste milk but she gives me funny looks, I don't think she'll nurse much past one but I don't see her switching over to cow's milk in the next 3 weeks. She is eating everything though. We are pretty much off all baby food, she eats what we eat, everything! She loves all food except green beans. She hates green beans. Whatever we are eating she gets the same things chopped up with a knife, I don't even use the processor anymore. I am very lucky, I don't have picky kids. Drew went through a little phase where he only wanted scrambled eggs to eat but he has always eaten any fruit and veggie I give him. I don't have to do anything crazy to get my kids to eat, I cut up their food and serve it to them. I know some parents that have to keep changing up where or how they feed their kids and I feel sorry for the amount of effort they have to put into that, meal times are stressful enough without having to worry if your kid is going to eat. Hopefully they both keep their good eating habits.

~Kara is a screamer. If she's happy she screams, if she's mad she screams, if she's bored she screams, if she's pleased with herself, hungry, full, needing a diaper change she screams. Some days she screams the whole day. I can't even go to the grocery store some days because she'll sit in the cart and scream, but she's not mad, she's laughing and smiling. Any advise on how to get this phase to pass quicker? I try ignoring her but she doesn't care she doesn't scream to get my attention she just screams. I've tried telling her no in a firm voice and she does stop and look at me for a second but I'm not sure that's helping stop the screaming in the first place. I've tried praising her when she's quiet but then she gets excited and screams.

Kid #1:

~Drew is now 3 and it's like something clicked in his little brain (his huge smart brain) and all of a sudden he's acting better. He isn't fighting me on every little thing all day long, he's playing so nice with Kara, he's listening when you tell him to stop or come back into the room. He is starting to play on his own and be able to entertain himself too.

~Drew is so smart. I can't wait to video tape him reading, he's so close. Though we are only focusing on 2 letters he's understanding that all letters make sounds and without me prompting him he's starting to sound out words. In addition to learning reading skills he's stepping up his number game too. He isn't consistent with adding yet but some days he will amaze me and tell me what 3 plus 3 is. What's funny is when I'm working with Drew on these skills Kara is sitting next to us copying us. So if we are going over the letter T Kara is on the floor going ta, ta, ta. Drew gets so excited when Kara tries to do something he is doing.

~The downside to a kid knowing that letters are words is now I have to read everything, every sign, every pamphlet, every magazine and he knows when I'm lying. There was a long long rule sign at the playground and Drew asked what it said so I said the sign says be safe and don't get hurt. He said no it doesn't mommy, there are more letters. So I read the whole sign. He also knows all the books we read and when I try to skip one (or half) of hop on pop he knows! He tells me to go back and read the Mr. Brown page. He's too smart! There was a little sign on a table and he asked me what it said so I told him it said to eat his lunch and he said no it doesn't mommy, there's no e on this sign. He surprises me. When we were at a playground Drew was playing with another kid and told the kid to stop, the kid did not stop, so Drew yelled out S-T-O-P, STOP! I guess my days of spelling things in front of him are coming to an end, pretty soon he'll be able to know if I say I want c-o-o-k-i-e-s and he'll want them too.

~I'm trying to overnight potty train Drew but I'm not sure how to do it. He goes all night dry, all night but then he wakes up around 5:30 and pees. Most times he won't go back to sleep but he's still so so tired and cranky and he won't ever nap, ever. So do I just go with and think pretty soon something will work out or do I put him back in night time diapers so he can sleep later?

There's more on my mind but I am running late to playground playdate. I must wake little one up so we can go.

Teaching Reading - Letter T

2012-05-07T09:18:00.000-05:00

Since I'm working with letter sounds, hearing them, pronouncing them, reading them, I don't have a lot of visual activities prepared, but if you are looking for fun activities to correspond with learning letters check out my friend over at Heart Journey. She is also teaching her little ones to read and is taking a more visual/play oriented approach.

The last week and a half or so we focused on letter M and Drew has a pretty good grasp of what M sounds like and what words start and end with M. I'm now moving onto letter T but I'm not forgetting M because after T, I will teaching the letter A and with these three letters Drew should be able to read his first word (MAT).

Letter T:
Our silly sentence: Turkeys Teeter in Tall Trees when Talking to Tiny Turtles. Again I printed out little pictures from clip art and glued to our sentence strip. That way Drew can "read" the pictures and memorize the words and feel like he's reading. There are a handful of children's books that substitute pictures for words throughout the story so it must beneficial in some way.

Correctly make the T sound. T is a short sound not tuuuuhhhh. I'm working on making sure all letters are being pronounced correctly so when we start sounding out words he isn't thrown off that mat is mat not matuuhh.

color the pictures that start with T. Normally I'm not a worksheet kind of person but I made an exception for this because I wanted to use these pictures for another activity.

The wheel of T
spin the paper plate and make T words (They match up to the pictures he colored). While he isn't reading these words just yet he is learning what they look like and learning we read from left to right since he's adding the T to the front (left) of the word.

Scavenger Hunt
Hide the treasure that starts with T from the pirates that were invading our back yard!! 3 year olds are fun :)

Tea Party Tuesday - we were going to do a tea party but it turned into a picnic.
Make a tasty lunch to take on the go (we picniced in the back yard)
tuna sandwiches on toast (which he didn't like), teddy grahams, tomatoes, turkey cubes, and a twix...all wrapped up in a tin foil container. And of course I made iced tea to drink :)

Tap tap tap
we started tapping syllables to words. I would say a T word and Drew would say it and tap along to the syllables. He's good at this, really good, like he never messed up a single word even when I tried to trick him with words like tyrannosaurus. He is very musically inclined, he's been able to tap a beat to a song since he was a year old.

Repeat activities that I will probably do with several letters:
We sorted T and non T items just like we did with M. Then we sorted T and M objects. We had a race to see who could fill their container first. I was hunting for T's and Drew was hunting for M's then we switched. Then we raced the letters. We picked up items without looking and put them into an egg carton (m on one side T on the other) and saw which one won by filling their side first.

What rhymes with that starts with T...I love rhyming to help with reading. You really have to listen and understand how to break down a word in order to rhyme it. It is said that kids that can rhyme can read earlier than others. I didn't make this up. This is why I started teaching my kid nursery rhymes a year ago.

**Camera update: It is being shipped back to me this week so hopefully it works again. Once I get it back I'll take pictures of some of our little things that we've made and some of our activities.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2012-05-06T20:05:00.000-05:00

Saturday my little Drew turned 3 years old.
It's amazing how fast 3 years go by, yet I can't even remember my life without him.
We started his birthday celebration a little early. Friday Drew, Kara, and myself met our best friends for lunch at a train restaurant. My friend's little boy is just one day younger than Drew so it was a special day for both of them.
That night I took Drew to Barnes and Noble for a special milk and cookie pajama story time. He was such a big boy and did great. He even got to meet the mouse from if you give a mouse a cookie. When the story was done we walked over to the party store and picked out a lightning McQueen balloon for him. We had a fun evening just him and I. Sometimes I like leaving Kara home with daddy and it can just be me and Drew again, like it used to be. I know he likes it too, I think he misses being my little guy sometimes. When we are all together he's the big kid.
Saturday was Drew's birthday. We woke up and opened presents. Drew got just what he wanted, a bicycle, a baseball bat, and some books. He also got a couple other things. I had been asking him what he wanted to do for his special day and he kept telling me very simple things, like go to Walmart with daddy, mommy, and baby Kara, play ball with daddy, watch a movie, eat at Portillos (a hot dog joint). I tried to give him ideas that we could do anything, go anywhere. Go to candy stores, aquariums, zoos, skyscrapers, ride on a boat, go to the city, anything at all. He finally decided that he wanted to eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A then ride the carousel at the mall. So that's what we did. We had a nice lunch and Kara tried her first chick fil a food. Then we went to the mall and mommy and Drew rode the carousel. I must say that I am a little disappointed with my body though. Ever since I had kids I can not handle things that spin, at all. I felt like I was going to be sick on the Carousel, it was awful. I used to be the teacup queen. Maybe this will pass?
On the carousel we rode on the top level and sat on the bench. Drew loved the carousel but he wanted nothing to do with sitting on the horses. But he picked out his horse and named it shooting star, he's so funny.
Next we played the claw machines and Drew won a toy, he did the day before when we went out to lunch with his best friend too. This kid is lucky at claw machines.
When we were done we walked around the mall, went to the candy store, the Disney store, and the kids play area.
Then we just came home and hung out and ate birthday cake and ice cream. He had a good birthday and it was just what he wanted to do.

Calling all Party Planners

2012-05-03T08:28:00.000-05:00

I've decided to plan a cookout for Kara's 1st birthday instead of a traditional little kids party. This way I can invite my adult friends that don't have kids and they won't feel out of place and husbands of mom friends can come and meet each other. Hopefully we hit nice weather so people can just mingle inside and out and we can enjoy smore's when the sun starts to go down.
I've picked out the perfect theme for a kids 1st birthday without being little kiddish. It's going to be a watermelon theme, perfect for a cookout. I'll serve watermelon slices, make watermelon lemonade and I found a recipe for an easy watermelon margarita. The decorations will be watermelon related and I think I'm going to do hot pink and lime green instead of red and green so it doesn't look like a Christmas party but it all depends on what paper products I find for a good price.
Now here's my questions...I've never thrown a party, a cookout, or a BBQ. I'm not sure where to begin. What foods (side dishes) are popular with people, how much do I buy, do I have to plan any activities? Should I tell people to bring something (some people have asked what to bring)? What makes a successful cookout? What should I do early, what needs to wait until the day before? What's the best way to keep salads (pasta, potato) cold or is it not a big deal if it's sitting out for a bit?My parents were never party throwers either so I've never really seen a party organized and executed.
Any pointers from my party planning friends?

I can't wait to share pictures of my cookout with you guys when it happens!

Teaching Reading - Letter M

2012-05-01T16:11:00.004-05:00

I have started to teach Drew to read. Way way back when I went to Hood college I took early childhood education classes and one of them was how to teach reading. In this class they presented a good order in which to introduce letters for reading. The idea is that if you start in alphabetical order you start with a tough letter, a. Vowels are harder to sound out since they change so much. You also want to teach high volume sounds and letters first, makes sense right. Why waste a ton of time on the odd ball letters when R,S,T,L,N,E are so popular (those are the letters from Wheel of Fortune if you didn't get it).
So here is the order that the class went over the letters and letter blends. I still have some of the handouts so I'm going to follow them to make my life easier.

m, t, a, s, d, i, f, r, th, l, o, n, p, e, h, v, sh, u, b, k, ck, c, g, j, w, ch, tch, x, z, qu, wh, y

M is a great letter to start with, it's one of the first sounds a kid makes (ma ma) and there's only one way to sound it out, mmm so you don't have to try to correct the way your child is pronouncing something right off the bat.

I am going to do one letter at a time but it may not be a letter a week. So without further adieu here is the letter M for reading purposes, not for learning what the letter M is.

The letter M:
Our silly story:
Written on our learning wall is our M story:
"Motorcycling monkeys make milkshakes on Mondays."
Under my silly story I have pictures of the words that I took from clip art and glued up. We read this sentence a lot and Drew is getting a feel for the sound M makes. In a few days I'm going to ask him to change it up and give me different M words for our story.

Sorting M and non-M objects.
I have a tray with M and non-M objects for Drew to sort. We have a monkey, marble, marker, mermaid, money, and Moon. I mix up the non-M items so he has to think every time he does it. Sometimes he puts things on the wrong side but when I ask him what that item is he is doing it right to how he's thinking. For example he put a crayon in the M side but told me it was a marker. While he was wrong about what it was called he was right about the M, and that's what we were focusing on. He also put the money on the non-M side a few times but when I asked him what that was he said a coin. Also if there is an item that your child can't identify or calls something else just remove it. I remember when I shadow taught in Kindergarten a little boy kept getting bird wrong because he was identifying it as a Macaw not just a bird (we were doing a different activity). Rather than confuse him to keep thinking today it's just a bird we skipped it and went on.

That's why letter M is mmm mmm good.
We sing this when we hear the letter M throughout the day unexpectedly. Drew sang it at a McDonalds commercial when he realized that McDonalds starts with M. This is to work on listening for the letter, not looking for it written.

What rhymes with and starts with M?
I say a word and I want him to replace the first sound with M.
For example I say what rhymes with cat and starts with m. He says Mat.
Some that I say are hat, sit, cop, cud, rug, bad, boo, Tom, six, cat, fit, bug.
Eventually we will do this written down so he can see the word cat then see it switch to mat. He's not quite ready for this but he will be soon.

Which word does not belong:
We do this written and orally. I say or write 3 or 4 words, one not starting with M and he has to tell me which is wrong. We are also working on ending sounds, not just staring sounds. This is much harder for him and I usually have to repeat the word and emphasis the end sound. (for example broom, zoom, form).

Because of this he's started calling me mommy M, at least he knows mommy starts with M but it makes it sound like he has a bunch of other mom a-z.

Ramblings

2012-04-30T15:49:00.001-05:00

I'm speechless
~No, nothing happened. I just don't have anything to say right now. Life is just going by and I'm living it but I feel like I have nothing to tell all of you, my imaginary friends. It's funny how sometimes I have all kinds of things to say and post and other times nothing comes to me. I think part of the problem is I'm missing my best friend....my camera is in the shop leaving me with only my iPhone to take pictures. I take a bunch of pictures with it, at least 10 every single day. I post at least 2 on instagram every day too. I love instagram. I think I spend more time on there now than anywhere else (like facebook, twitter, pintrest, and the list goes on and on). I've actually cut down on social media a lot. It's easy to spend so much time "socializing" online that you forget to get out and actually socialize face to face.

~I got my hair done. It's amazing what a new cut and color can do for a woman. I love it. I had them add just a hint of strawberry blond for summer (but since I have brown hair it's not light, it's just a warm glow). I also got 4 inches cut off, yes 4, and it's still past my shoulders. My hair was too long and blah. This morning I showered while both kids played in the bathroom then I got out, put my robe on and tossed both kids in the tub (don't worry I didn't use my shower water, they had clean water. I realized how that may come across after I wrote it). When they were done splashing we all got dressed, I put Kara down for a nap, put a cartoon on for Drew and I did my hair. I actually looked good today and it didn't take me more than 24 minutes (that's how long 1 cartoon is).

~My life is really good right now. I've been hanging out with very positive friends which makes a world of difference. I'm so glad that I have friends that don't just sit around and complain all the time. It's so easy to jump on the complaining bandwagon when everyone else around you is doing it. Sure we all have problems and issues we like to get off our chest but bashing everyone and everything all the time isn't healthy.

~It's funny how things seem to work out for the best sometimes when you look back at them. Without going into specifics, recently some things happened and I was left feeling a little used, perhaps scorned. Since then different opportunities have come along that are just what I needed. But had I never been treated the way I was I wouldn't have been looking for anything else. The reason I say this is maybe one of you are in a spot where you feel like things aren't going well for you, but maybe things will turn around. One of my good bloggy friends uses the phrase Bloom where you're planted. She had a rough transition moving and decided to put her big girl panties on and bloom where she was planted. She stopped dwelling in the negative and stopped waiting until life was right for something and she's making the best of what she has. It's great to hear people trying to be happy. I guess I don't say it much but I do try to be happy. In person I am a happy person who really does just go with the flow and make the best of my days. Perhaps I should do some posts on how I plan my day in my head and what really happens, and how it's the off the beaten path kind of days that I cherish.

~Well both kids are napping, yes both, so I'm going to go enjoy the silence for 3 minutes :)

Another hidden gem

2012-04-25T21:10:00.000-05:00

A while ago I posted about going to a local airport for a fun day out with my kids. Today I found another little hidden gem near me.
It's the Elwood Children's Garden. It is wonderful and free! I highly suggest looking for children's gardens in your towns. This place was amazing for a free thing to do in a tiny little village.

There were so many areas, but since nothing is growing yet we didn't play in all of them but we will be going back.
There's a peter rabbit garden with plastic veggies and baskets to play with, there's a building area with lincoln logs, slices of wood and sticks, there's a mud table, a sand pit, a hay area with a little cow statue, rakes and wheelbarrows, and a milking stool. There's a little cottage, a teepee, a pizza garden with herbs growing, a tree maze and a fish pond. There might even be a few more little areas I missed. It's a very small garden but laid out nice so it feel bigger than it is. I can't wait to go back here when it's a little warmer.
There's also a small playground across the parking lot you can walk to. I had a great day and highly recommend this to my local friends.
I do suggest bringing snacks though, there is no place to eat in Elwood! We were starving by the time we left.

Kara in the building area

Drew building a tree (out of a tree?)

Kara's 1st time playing in the sand

Drew and his buddy checking out the planting area

He's planting seeds to grow trees

They said they were having a tractor race

She doesn't look happy about being on the tractor

What a good big brother pushing little sister

Showing Kara how to crawl up a bridge

playing with dandelions

getting a flower from a much old boy. Don't tell daddy!!

Everybody enjoying the swings.

Lots of Learning

2012-04-25T14:49:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted a lot of formal lessons plans and that's mainly because we don't have any right now. I'm not doing a lot of sit down lessons because I'm incorporating both kids into the learning and Drew gets mad when Kara messes up his stuff. So we do a lot of hands on learning and playing without bringing out things Kara can mess up. I also don't have a lot of down time to make learning items so we are using what we have and using nature.

I also sometimes feel like I get stuck with Drew because everything I read about teaching 2 (almost 3) year olds still has learning colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. Drew knows these so I am floundering around figuring out what to teach next. Do I move onto concepts and information like Presidents and states, money, time. Do I focus on nature like caterpillar, tree, and water cycles. Do I teach him to read and write and do math? There's so much information out there and I know there's no right or wrong place to start I just want to do what makes sense to Drew.

Right now I'm focusing on worldly concepts like our towns, states, and countries. This interests Drew because he's been to about a dozen states and we have family that lives all over and daddy has been many many states as well as countries since Drew's been born.

Since it's spring we are also learning a lot about nature and why things are the way they are. A lot changes in spring so we've learned about seeds, birds, flowers, insects, weather. We spend a lot of time outside digging in the dirt, collecting sticks and rocks, and tossing seeds in the wind and identifying good and bad plants and bugs. Poison ivy is all over out here and I want to try to minimize contact with it so I am teaching Drew about it. It really is hands on fun and even Kara is learning from this. If you say the word dandelion she automatically blows a puff of air, she is only 10 months old but she's already learned that dandelions are fun to blow and Drew has learned there is a reason for them being so light and puffy, to carry the seeds. I love this type of learning because it's fun and you never know where it's going to lead you. We start with dandelion talk and end up with owl pellet talk. Both my kids are learning so much by me just being engaged in their interests and taking them out into the real world, not a children's play place.

In addition to just life learning we are doing some sit down lessons. Most of this is done while Kara is napping but we include her too when she's awake. Drew is learning to add and subtract. We are working with about 5 items right now. He's getting good at it. I don't write math problems down we just talk about items and count them. We also go up to 12 with using an empty egg carton. Kara's favorite number activity that we do is read 10 little rubber ducks by Eric Carle and bring out our 10 little rubber ducks. Kara loves ducks and we read and count the ducks then count how many our left in our little tub once Kara monster is done playing with them. Along with adding skills we are working on sorting and classifying by different characteristics too. I bring out the plastic animals and we sort them by color, by size, by where they live, by feet, by what they eat (carnivore, herbivore) and we are starting to get figure out mammals and non-mammals. Kara plays this game too but she sorts by what is fun to chew and what is not. Right now she likes animals with long thin legs that she can get to the back of her mouth, she has a molar coming in.

Another biggie for Drew is he's learning to read. He knows all the sounds the letters make so if you ask him what does G say he will make the g sound. He can do this with every letter and we are starting on blends (like ph, sh, and st). In addition to this I've started hanging up a couple word wall words on his wall. I bought a pack at Target in the dollar spot. A couple weeks ago he walked up to one of the words, pointed to it and said this says No. He was right, it said no. Then he went and pointed to yes and said this is yes. I was surprised. I know people say it's memorization but isn't that what word wall words are? They are words that kids need to know by sight in Kindergarten. When I read at night with him I am starting to show him how to sound out words, say each letter sound that you see then work on smooshing the sounds together. He is really understanding it and I don't think it will take him too long to be able to read some words. Kara loves books too, right now her favorite are our farm animal books. She loves looking at all the baby animals.

Kara is also learning about what fits into what. She loves to play with Tupperware, stacking blocks and cups, marker tops, mega blocks. She loves to take small things and put into big things. Pretty much every empty container goes to Kara. She's got a whole collection of shakey cheese containers, cream cheese bins, mayonnaise jars, and yogurt cups. It's fun watching her figure out what can go into what. She is also learning about her own size. Since she is crawling she crawls under chairs, tables, inside cat tents, in the closet. She likes to fit herself into small spaces. It's fascinating watching a baby learn. She is learning when she needs to duck her head and how to back out of something that's too small to turn around in. Drew never went through this stage so even though she's my second this is all new to me.

On a side note my camera is broken so all I have until it's fixed is my iPhone :(

What's Cookin' - Pork

2012-04-24T19:37:00.001-05:00

Tonight I opened the freezer and was faced with frozen chicken, frozen chicken, and something buried in the back...it was a package of pork chops. I didn't feel like pork chops, we just had oven fried chicken last night and I didn't know what to do with this pork but it's been in the freezer for 5 months so I needed to use it.
I like Chinese food but since I don't cook it very often I usually end up not having what I need to make a good meal. But tonight I figured out how to make a good sweet and sour pork with what I had. It was really good!!!
Sweet and Sour Pork:
cube some pork and let marinate in a dash of salt (1/4 teaspoon), sugar (teaspoon), one egg white, and soy sauce (like a tablespoon, don't go crazy) and green onions if you like them...I do not. Let sit for about an hour.
Toss pork cubes in corn starch and cook in a sauce pan with hot oil. When done set aside on paper towel.
Chop veggies. I used red pepper, celery and edamame...but whatever you have I'm sure is fine.
Cook veggies in a big of oil with a dash of salt and sugar. The sugar is important, it gets a little crispy on things. When veggies are soft enough for you set aside.
Mix a cup of water, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add mixture to large sauce pan and bring to boil. If you like pineapples add those and the juice from the can. Hubby does not like hot pineapples so I didn't add them. Once boiling toss in pork and veggies and bring to a boil again. Add 1/4 water and 2 tablespoons cornstarch and stir. Let cook until thickens up.
Serve over rice

It's really good and really easy!

Some of the best days

2012-04-23T08:08:00.002-05:00

Some days I have things planned to do with the kids, either learning or play dates or even just running errands. Other days I wake up with nothing planned at all and some times these turn into the best days.

Thursday was one of those days. We weren't on any schedule and nothing we had to get done. I get a warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about the day.

First we played train at home. Meaning we sat in the coat closet a lot and got out, shopped for souvenirs then got back in the coat closet. Drew loves our downstairs closet and it has been a train, an airplane, and an elevator.

Then we played megablocks. He hasn't played with them megablocks in a long time but now he's back to him and it's all day everyday again.

Next we got dressed and went out to say hi to a friend at work, we were hoping to catch her for lunch but she was too busy to take a lunch break, so we decided to go out to lunch on our own. We went to Babies R Us to pick up some baby food for Kara then walked over to Taco Bell. I know, not a fantastic lunch but Drew likes their cheese roll ups and it was cheap. Kara ate the healthiest with her strawberry banana baby food pouches.

After that we walked over to Petco and looked at the kitties waiting to be adopted. Drew loves looking at the kitties. Unfortunately one scratched his hand even though it wasn't even enough to make a red mark Drew was still deeply offended and wanted nothing to do with the cat after that. We then went over and looked at the birdies and the fish but the highlight of the day were the reptiles.

Normally they are sleeping but today they were being fed when we were there. The chameleon really liked Drew and followed him back and forth across the cage. We talked about where these guys live, what they eat, and how their eyes move in different directions. I told him chameleons can change color too but we didn't get to see that happen.

but our favorite were the baby bearded dragons. They were so entertaining. Drew asked if they were going to fly or spit fire but I told him they were not that type of dragon.

We watched then for probably 15 minutes.

They were trying to catch their crickets and they were not very good at it. I think Drew was a little sad that the crickets were getting eaten. He liked them just as much as he did the reptiles. We talked about how these guys live where it's warm and that's why they need so many lights and Drew thought Kara might need lights in her crib. I told him she was warm blooded, she would be ok.

Next we walked over to look at the little rodents. Most of them were sleeping but we still talked about what they eat and when they play.

When we left Petco Drew said he wanted to go to a train so I drove to our downtown area and took him to an old train that's on display from the historical museum. You can't get on it or anything but at least he got to see a train up close.

We looked at how they make train tracks and what materials they use. We also looked at the wheels on the train and compared them to the wheels on mommy's car.

We looked at how big the train was and noticed letters and numbers on the side.

We talked about the different cars and how the caboose in last. When we got home we read Freight Train - Drew loves this book.

While we were there we saw a spider and we got to see him catch a bug in his web and pounce on it. I don't like spiders but Drew really enjoyed watching this guy.

When we left there Kara fell asleep in the car and Drew said he didn't want to go home so we drove to the park by our house. We left Kara sleeping in her car seat with the windows down and while we got out. We were never more than 10 feet from the car and we weren't parked next to anyone so it would have been very obvious if someone came over to the car. We picked up all the spilled goldfish crackers in the car to feed the hungry fish but when we got there there were fishermen on the dock so we couldn't feed the fish. We talked about what fishermen do and how they do it and we peeked in their tackle box (with their permission)

We looked in the water for a bit to try and see some fish but they were hiding.

Then we went over to the playground and played, blew dandelions and ran around the field chasing butterflies.

When we were all tired out we watched the big boys on the BMX course. Drew told me when he gets a bike for his birthday he's going to ride that course. He's awfully sure of himself for a kid that can barely peddle a big wheels. Finally we went back to our sleeping beauty and headed home.

On the way home from the park (2 minutes from home) Drew fell asleep in the car so I parked in the garage and let him nap from 3 to almost 6pm. I guess our fun day wore him out! It worked out well though since daddy worked until 6 that night and I went out with some mom friends at 7 and just put Drew to bed when I got home around 9:30.

We did so much without really doing anything and Drew learned a lot too without even trying. He still tells me about what the reptiles eat and how people make train tracks. I love his age now, even when he doesn't appear to be listening to what I'm saying he's just taking it all in. He learns so much everyday without even trying. We just talk about what we see, the facts, the colors, the numbers. We make guesses, we look up answers and we explore. I hope he keeps this up as we move into the 3's.

If you have instagram you can follow me and see things we do every day :)

My uterus is mad!

2012-04-20T14:09:00.000-05:00

I don't exactly know what I did but I pissed off my uterus!
For a while I've been going back and forth to doctors for a handful of bothersome problems. A general practice Dr. finally put me on a very long course of broad spectrum antibiotics because they had no idea what was wrong and figured if something was in my body that shouldn't be antibiotics would get rid of it. I think that worked for half of what my complaints were but the other half I've been seeing my OB for and I'm getting so frustrated.
Toward the end of January, beginning of February Kara dropped off night time feedings and my cycles decided to come back. No big deal, except they decided not to stop once they started. I saw my OB and they switched my birth control. I was on the mini pill since I am still nursing and the Doc said perhaps my body isn't agreeing with it anymore. So they put me on something new and I think my problems are worse now. Earlier this week I went in to have a sono-hystogram and my OB said everything looked fine structurally so she wants to play the wait an see game. I am getting so frustrated with this. I have all woman doctors, you think they would understand how annoying it is to feel like you're bleeding to death every day but they just say oh let's wait and see if your body figures itself out. It's almost MAY! I am tired of this! It is making me very grumpy and probably anemic.

I know probably no one cares or wants to hear this but I needed to vent and it's my blog ;) hehe

2 weeks and 6 weeks

2012-04-18T10:52:00.000-05:00

In 2 weeks Drew will turn 3 and in 6 weeks Kara will turn 1! I should be planning birthday parties but I'm not. I am a big birthday party kind of person. I would throw parties for everyone, not just kids. I think of great themes and ideas and want to go all out but hubby is not into birthday parties...at all. If I was independently wealthy I would just ignore the fact that he hates birthday parties and throw a big elaborate bash anyway. But since he is the sole provider for this family I have to respect what he wants me to spend money, and more than that, what we can afford to spend money on. Being a one income family is tricky, there's no one to pick up the slack if a month is a little rough and my husbands job doesn't offer any type of way to earn more money if you need it (like overtime or holiday pay). I'm not complaining about money, it's just I have to be aware of what we NEED and what we WANT and for 1 and 3 year old they won't know or remember if they had a tiny party.
The other part of this is my kids birthdays make me sad. Not so much that they are growing up, they do that whether you throw them a party or not. But that they are growing up without family around and each birthday is a reminder that we went another year without seeing family. I never minded being away from my family until I had kids. I mean I know my parents, I grew up with them so it wasn't much of a big deal to not see them a lot but my kids don't know their grandparents and that's sad. It's not just my parents either, my kids don't know my husbands parents, we live so far from everyone. When I sit down to write out a guest list for my kids parties I should be filling it with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins but instead I have to invite my friends and people that my kids aren't really close with. And for the most part people couldn't care less if my kid is a year older, to them it's just a commitment to buy a present for. There is a huge exception to this, I have one close friend that I think truly celebrates my kids as much as me. What's fun is her kids have birthdays close to my kids and she always throws big parties so I get the party atmosphere at the right time of year :)

If I had gotten to throw the parties I wanted for my kids here is what they would have looked like. It makes me happy to at least come up with ideas even if I don't do them.

Drew 1:
I dig being 1! It would have been a construction truck theme. The cake would have been chocolate with a little digger digging into the cake on top.

The party hats would have been orange safety cones and for fun I would have set up some sand tables with construction trucks.

Drew 2:
The very hungry caterpillar: I did a play date with this theme but it wasn't as elaborate as I pictured in my fantasy world that I like to think I live in.

(http://www.pinkpistachio.com/our-very-hungry-caterpillar/)

Drew 3: Ratatouille pizza party: kids would make their own pizza's and everyone would get there own stuffed rat and chefs hat. The invitations would have been attached to a mini whisk or rolling pin. The decorations would have been mainly Remy and Emile and the Eiffel tower.

Kara 1:
Pink Poodle Party! Girly Girly Girly! There would be pink poodles, pink boas, Eiffel towers, pearls, and more pink! (See how I could have reused any Eiffel tower decorations from Drew's party...pretty smart thinking). I actually haven't decided if I'm going to do anything for Kara's birthday yet or not. But here was my inspiration.

SHE CRAWLS!

2012-04-17T18:09:00.000-05:00

Kara is mobile!

She is so proud of herself too. Every time I hear the little pat pat pat of her hands on the floor and look back I see her little toothy grin looking up at me. She is loving that she can find momma now.

I was standing in the kitchen making peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches for me and Drew when I went to step back and caught something out of the corner of my eye, it was a baby! She came to find momma and you should have seen that smile when she realized she made it all the way to me.

Drew is pretty excited that Kara can crawl too. Drew likes to crawl with her. He's been showing her how to do it for the last month so he feels pretty accomplished.

I used to walk away and just hear momma momma momma coming from the other room but now I hear momma momma momma getting closer and closer. It's adorable and I've had plenty of time to get ready so she can be as mobile as she would like. I'm ready.

More Kara updates:
I told myself that I wouldn't be upset if she said dada first, after all Drew said momma first. Then kitty, then dada. Poor dad. Kara said Dada first and part of me thought gee thanks kid, I'm with you all day, I get up at night, I feed you, change you, play with you and you say dada first. But now she says momma momma so I'm okay with it again.
Kara made me happy by saying momma but the first 3 days that she said it she only said momma when she had a poopy diaper. I see where I stand with her.
One day Kara was being pretty cranky and she was reaching for me screaming mu-meeeeeee mu-meeeee. I thought perhaps she was trying to say mommy since she hears Drew say it all the time. I reached out to get her and said mommy's here and she cried harder. She kept reaching saying mu-meeeeeeeee. I looked down and realized she couldn't reach her monkey. She wasn't saying mommy she was saying monkey. Thanks kid.
Besides momma, dada, and mu-meee (monkey) she also says brother (bubba) and she just started saying more for food (a very short ma!). Today she even added na-na. I figured out she's been saying this when she's tired. She wants me to lie her down to go night-night.
Even though she can't say what she wants she knows how to communicate. Sometimes I ask her if she wants something like water or milky (to nurse) and she'll ignore me. Other times when I ask she claps her hands. I think it's adorable that she has decided clapping is how she will tell me yes she wants what I just said.

I have a couple short video clips of Kara crawling and Drew finally riding his big wheels motorcycle so I'll try to get those up in the next few days.

The Toddler mind

2012-04-16T14:23:00.001-05:00

Drew talks a lot, so much I can't keep up with everything he says but here are some highlights...

~Shut up kitten (Drew, don't say shut up, it's not a nice word for kids to say). Can I say it when I'm 23 (yes, when you're 23 you can say that word). I'm going to be 23 soon (Not real soon Drew, you've got a few years). I'm 2, I'm going to be 3. Two, Three is twenty three. (Interesting)

~Mommy you're not wearing any pants! (It's okay, mommy has a dress on)

~I don't want any egg cheese (what type of cheese?) The egg cheese, the cheese in the middle of the egg (Ahhh, the yolk)

~Mommy does fish start with Z? (No, fish starts with F) But if they were zish they would start with Z (yes, you are right zish would start with Z...and be a Dr. Seuss character)

~(Drew what do you want to do today?) Join a marching band! (Cool, what instrument will you play?) The cymbals, but I don't have any cymbals. Let's go to the music store.

~(What do you want to do today?) I want to go on an airplane (We can't do that today Drew, you need a ticket and they cost money). But I don't have any money, this is a big problem. (Is there anyway you can get some money?) Yeah, from mommy's backpack!

~Mommy can I wear sneakers to bed? (No Drew, you'll get your sheets dirty. Why do you want to wear your sneakers anyway?) I want to run in my dream and I don't want to trip and get an owie.

~Mommy these chocolates aren't good anymore (Those are raisins)

~*&$% (DREW! That is a daddy word, you DO NOT say that word again) Fine, I'll just go be a daddy and say that word.

~(Drew did you grow, your pants are so short) Yes, I'm growing up into a daddy.

~(Drew why are you crying?) because you didn't give me a drink (I didn't know you wanted a drink, you have to tell mommy if you want something) but I thought about drinking a drink (I can't read your thoughts Drew, I need to hear your words) But mommy, you can read can't you? (yes Drew, it's just hard to read thoughts) I will think bigger.

~Mommy I need the tape (For what Drew?) For my blocks, they keep falling over

~(Drew put the toys in the bin) Does not compute

~(Look at the tall buildings Drew) Those are skyscrapers mommy (yes they are) Kara can't pick them up, they are very heavy and she is just a baby (o...k....)

~Mommy look that's Paris (yes it is) They have candy there (I'm sure they do) and the awful tower, daddy's been there (very close Drew, very close)

~Mommy Texas is not Atlanta (no, no it's not)

~(Grrr!) Mommy don't get mad, you're a nice mommy

Sports

2012-04-15T08:06:00.001-05:00

I grew up in the northeast, baseball really wasn't a big deal neither was football, the popular sports were lacrosse and hockey and since I lived on a lake with an ivy league college in my backyard crew was very popular too. Growing up I guess I was a sports snob. I related well to the ivy league sports and played 2 out of 3 I just listed. I never saw little kids playing football on sports fields around town and even our high school football program was more of a past time hobby not a Friday nights lights kind of thing.
For a brief second my brother played baseball but it wasn't his thing and it wasn't big in our area. I couldn't name one kid in my high school that was on the baseball team, though I think we had one. The popular boys "white hat boys" were the hockey players, which were pretty much the lacrosse players too. Soccer was pretty high up there but nothing like it is in other parts of the country. In fact I think our math and science teams were just as popular as our soccer teams.
My husband didn't grow up in the same town as me but he still grew up in the northeast. He played a little soccer and he was great at tennis but no baseball or football in his childhood either.

Now we live in the Midwest and we have a little boy. Since the moment he was born people have picked on me that he will be a baseball player. I've laughed and said no, I will tolerate being a soccer mom but I will not be a baseball mom. I've refused to introduce him to baseball, I hate it. I find it boring and the fans obnoxious, which is a bad thing to say living so close to both the Cubs and the White Sox but it's the truth and actually living close to both these teams has made me realize that baseball fans are even more obnoxious than I originally thought. Drew has never seen a baseball game or played any form of baseball in the backyard. The other day I asked Drew what he wanted to play thinking he would say a game or his soccer ball but no. My boy told me that he wanted to be a baseball player. How does he even know what that is? I tried to ignore it but he rounded up the plastic ball pit balls and started hitting them with the lint brush. Isn't that sad. I must say though he was awesome. He was tossing the little ball with one hand then swinging and hitting it with the lint brush and was connecting perfect, I couldn't have done it better if I had tried. I guess it's time for me to face the fact that I have Midwestern kids, sigh. I always thought I would have snobby ivy league east coast kids, oh well...play ball.

Out of my comfort zone

2012-04-14T20:46:00.003-05:00

Kids force you to go out of your comfort zone. Tonight Drew did and I was so proud of him though I really wanted to just look at the sidewalk and mind my own business.
To make a short story long...
After dinner I took Drew outside to practice riding his big wheel motorcycle and he got it! He finally got it! He got this motorcycle for a present a long time ago and he's been too short to ride it. It's rated for 18 month olds and he's been too short. My poor tiny Drew. Recently his feet started actually touching the pedals, so a few weeks ago I tried to get him to pedal. Once we got past him being afraid to pick both feet up off the ground we worked on making the pedals move. We've worked and worked and worked at it and all he could do was make himself go backwards. Tonight something clicked and he started going forward. What I learned through this process is I am going to be horrible at teaching my son how to drive. I was so frustrated watching him try to ride his big wheels and I didn't know how to help him other than push him so he could feel how his feet were supposed to move and tell him to push with his feet but he wasn't getting the timing of it and he kept pulling his feet off the pedals then getting them stuck.
Tonight when he started to ride he was just as surprised as me, it was cute. After he rode a tiny bit he noticed some guys playing frisbee in the road. He wanted to watch them so we stood watching these guys play frisbee and drink beer (the guys were drinking beer, not me and Drew). After an awkwardly long time I tried to get Drew to continue riding his bike but he said no, I just want to watch these kids. These kids were guys probably within 5 years of my age on either side. I felt very weird just standing around watching them play frisbee, but Drew was really interested in what they were doing. Finally I asked Drew if he wanted to talk to these guys and he said yes and jumped off his little bike. He went right up to them but didn't know what to say so I said my son wants to know if he can see your frisbee. They said sure but I could tell they thought it was strange. Drew tried to throw the frisbee just like he had seen them do. They praised him and laughed at (with) him and kept playing frisbee. Eventually Drew started to throw the frisbee quite well and everyone was having a good time. Drew was chatting up a storm and giving high fives. He kept saying these guys were good guys and he's one of the good guys tonight too. It was so cute to watch him be "one of the guys"
After about 20 minutes I made Drew wrap it up since we did interrupt these guys. Everyone gave him a high five and Drew came home proud and happy. I was secretly proud of myself too. I really didn't want to make eye contact and talk to these guys but I did for my son and met a few more people that live in my neighborhood.
Way to go Drew! Keep up your braveness!

Avery's Bucket List

2012-04-14T07:21:00.001-05:00

This blog has been going around facebook, twitter, and other blogs that I read.
Please go read it.

http://averycan.blogspot.com/

These parents are very strong to be able to do this and it's both beautiful and sad to follow along with what Avery gets to do before she says goodbye.

Easter Lesson Plan

2012-04-13T16:33:00.002-05:00

I had intended to get this together to post before Easter but I didn't and now I've lost a lot of motivation to go back and do an Easter lesson post, so here are some things we did and some ideas I had.

Art: Easter is probably my favorite time to make projects. I love spring crafts!

Cotton ball bunnies: Glue cotton balls to bunny cut outs
Egg Shell collage: dye eggs, later peel eggs and save shells, crunch up and glue onto cardboard eggs
Hatching Egg: Two halves of a cardboard egg held together with a brad and a little chick inside
Coffee Filter flowers: dye coffee filters with food coloring drips, let dry, crumple together with pipe cleaners to make flowers
Sponge painting: use pieces of sponges to paint shapes on eggs
bunny ear headbands
clothes pin bunnies - use one piece ones upside down, paint and add eyes
creamer bottle jelly bean storage bunny - this is a coffee mate creamer bottle
sun catcher egg - contact paper egg shape with cut up left over cupcake liners (I didn't have tissue paper)
Egg roll painting - put hard boiled egg (or plastic egg) in container with blobs of paint, roll around
Stickers - put Easter stickers on egg shapes
Kool aid art - sprinkle dry kool-aid on paper, spray with water
Balloon eggs - blow up balloons slightly, dip in paint and press on paper

Songs:
Little Bunny Foo-Foo
5 little ducks went out to play
10 little bunnies (10 little Indians)

Science:
Hard boil eggs
Hard boiled egg in vinegar
White carnations in colored water

Math:
Egg match by color
jelly bean count into eggs with that number
duck match - draw shapes on bottom of little rubber ducks with sharpie, pick out of tub of water and try to match
Sticker patterns - eggs, chicks, bunnies
What's in the egg: Put objects in plastic egg and shake
Estimation - how many jelly beans in the cup

Motor Skills:
Egg carry: Carry hard boiled (or plastic) eggs on wooden spoons
Bunny hop parade. Put on bunny ears and hop around to music
Egg toss: toss plastic eggs into baskets
Duck waddle - Try to waddle while holding small ball between knees
egg pass (hot potato game) - Since it was just me and Drew we just worked on passing eggs as fast as we could from one basket to another.