Thinking happy baby thoughts

Why, yes, Uncle Wiggily, I am very happy . . .we are going to have some little birds . . . soon some little birds will come out, and I will sing a still happier song." - Uncle Wiggily's Story Book by Howard R. Garis

Note: As I read from this book at bedtime Agent E lays in his bed with a happy little smile. He has declared that this should be the only book we ever read from at bedtime.

A Christmas tradition

Making peppernuts is a German Mennonite tradition in our family. No year is complete without baking up a good supply with my mom. There is some serious sprinkling going on there!

Preparing for baby

We're sitting at week 37 and hoping for a post Christmas baby. Our doctor and doula are both either out of town or hosting a huge Christmas crowd and unavailable. If history has anything to say about it we'll probably be waiting for another couple of weeks. Babies seem to have their own way about things though. I keep telling myself that we'll have this baby when it's God's time and whenever that is it will be just right. Now for that to sink in. . .

The note of what to do and who to call "when the time comes" is taped up on the wall by the door.

Hospital bags are packed.

The big brother's sleep-over bags are packed.

The middle-of-the-night babysitter has been prepped.

Baby clothes and blankets are washed up.

Papa fixed the bassinet and it's moved into place.

The boys have been busy planning/making presents for the baby.

My head has been spinning on the logistics of where to have everyone sleep once the baby moves out of our room, how to arrange nap time locations, what van to get since 4 kids don't fit in the back of a small Saturn, and all the other millions of details that go along with a major family change. Again I see the need to just trust God that all these little details will work themselves out. That old song "Trust and obey, for there's no other way" is running through my mind.











New diapers for this little one! So exciting!! They are made of bamboo (a renewable/anti-bacterial material). I also ordered some new prefolds and some snappies to use instead of pins. We practiced putting a prefold with the snappie on a doll today. The General picked up the doll and said "HUG!". He is so tender towards babies! It will be such fun to see him be a big brother, he's always patting my tummy and saying "baby".












Agent E drew out a stuffed animal. I stitched over his drawing and then we sewed and stuffed it into a special "softie" puppy for baby. Agent H is hoping to have a special pillow sewn up in time.

Christmas ornament crystals

As soon as I saw this on Crafty Crow I knew we'd be doing it. Our first batch was finished after about 5 hours during the afternoon so we put in a second batch to let sit through the night. We got icy blue color results (although in the pictures they look white) with about 20 drops of blue food coloring. Rather than using individual jars, we tied them to a ruler and dipped them in a full pot. We tried to do a second batch in the same concoction and they didn't seem to grow as much but they still got some nice results.

The General

Big, breaking blog news: LE will now be referred to as The General. Referring to him as LE all this time has General Lee stuck in my head and as the youngest children in a family tend to have a way of making their wishes known very clearly over the hustle and bustle of the household, so does this fella. So I give you . . .
The General, at leisure.

Thanksgiving 2010

We took the week of Thanksgiving off to do some crafting. The results of our crafting are these great little file folder books. I found the idea at Musings of Me. I asked each of the boys to pick their favorite page for the group shot and then just posted a few other pages. We spread it out over the whole week because that much cutting, pasting, or group crafting would have put some of us over the edge. As we crafted we listened to these Plymouth Rock and Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember just like in years past.

First snow 2010

It is a wet, sticky snow. The best kind for snowballs, snow forts, and just plain snow fun. Agents H&E couldn't wait to get out in it. LE stood by the window in his footed red jammies and enjoyed the activity.

Baby Belly Week 31 . . . and counting

Potty training in progress

Notice the rain boots. Wise choice my boy.

Homeschool Reality

Wow that was a really great homeschool schedule I posted about awhile ago. Well that's usually how the first month or so goes. And then someone gets sick. And another someone. And another someone. Schedule, what schedule? Why does it seem we are always coming down with whatever is going around? Grrr!

And let's face it, I love to schedule, and then I love to unschedule and wing-it. I think the important thing is that there is some routine to the day (so the kids know generally what to expect) and that the work and play gets done.

Once again, it was too quiet

It was quiet, too quiet, and I had a vauge recollection of hearing LE close his door. There he was just sitting in the rocking chair. . . with three tubes of glitter (that super fine angel dust kind). Most of it emptied into his lap and on the chair. Good thing I was planning on vacuuming anyways.

LE at work

I've been working to switch out LE's activity trays on a weekly basis (okay I forgot this week). Here are some of his favorite activities. By the way this was all inspired by 1+1+1=1











Yes the pom-poms end up EVERYWHERE.

















Yes the lentils end up EVERYWHERE.

Me through the eyes of my children

A blind portrait of me by Agent H:




A potato head version of me by Agent E:

A Fall Moment

A Pile of Brothers

Look at this cute pile of brothers! I just love 'em.






















As if you need a reason to enjoy blue hair! It was crazy hair night for AWANA.

LE at 2 years

Things to remember about LE Babe at age 2

He used to say "no" now he says "mo" ** when something wrong happens he says "Oh mo!" **
has graduated from his high chair to a stool, his own doing ** has three cowlicks on the back of his head, his curls look like a roller coaster ride ** goes down for naps and bedtime so easily - he wants his nuk, his cars & trucks blanket, music, his stuffed elephant is a bonus ** is very neat ** he will clean up after himself when he's done with some toys ** he even happily clears his brother's dishes. ** loves his nuk, he sucks it upside down. ** calls Agent H "Hay Hay" ** double loves playing outside ** such a little monkey, copying whatever his big brothers demonstrate ** can make an entire paragraph out of the words "Momma" and "Papa".

Dear L we not only love you we enjoy you so much!

Brother-to-Brother Playtime

I finally have kids who are at the age where this works! In order to have some quiet school time with both Agent H & E we started a special playtime for LE Babe with his brothers. Every morning we meet together for circle time, then snack time, then we break up into groups. Agent H and LE head up to my room to play for about 20-30 min while Agent E and I do his preschool. Then we switch it up and Agent E and LE go to LE's room to play for about the same while Agent H and I get some time together. We are on week three of this and it's working wonderful. Admittedly the first week had a few bumps but we revised things to do snack time together before we break up and that brightened everyone's spirits. (By the way, Agent H who is in 2nd grade spends about an hour or so after lunch working-during rest time on the rest of his work)

I can't imagine why it took me so long to get on the rotating toys band wagon but now that I have, it's been awesome. I have a schedule written up so that I know who gets to play what, when during those play times. It's just a list with two activities for each group for each day of the week (I only pick one of the activities a day for each group). So . . . they should play with each activity twice a month. Then I'm thinking we switch the H&E column the following month so there is a whole new list for the big boys. Here's what it looks like.

	Agent H & LE	Agent E & LE
Monday	Bowling/Ring Toss/Air hockey game Race cars and track	Little People Duplo blocks
Tuesday	Rescue Heroes Mr. Potato Head	Play tools and benches Doctor play set
Wednesday	Plastic dinosaurs Elefun/Lucky Ducks	Wooden cars/trucks and road blanket Stickers and a large piece of paper taped to the wall
Thursday	Puzzles Bristle blocks	Balls, baskets, basket ball hoop Big trucks and fire engines

Extra activities: Puppet theater, castle marbleworks, plastic zoo animals, fort, movie, dominos, trains, play mailman, lacing/stacking toys, Leap Frog alpha and animal magnets.

I just happened to think that part of my motivation for toy rotation has come from reading the book The Well-Behaved Child. In the book the author talks about not making your kids' room into the Garden of Eden (i.e. removing most of the play factor). He thinks alone time in your room is a very good tool for getting your kids to come around. There's much more to it than that but you get the idea. So their toys have been gradually sifted from their rooms. Really, they haven't even noticed.

Our first week of Mighty Oaks

Yes I changed the name of our school again. My brother and SIL sent us this plaque last Christmas that I just love: Might Oaks From Tiny Acorns Grow. I posted it above the door to our schoolroom and love it. So Mighty Oaks Academy it is.

Our first day was pretty light. We took "first day" pictures, did a little circle time, gym, and a bit of desk work.















Sometimes you take what you can get. Can you see his mouth forming the "ooooo" in " Mooooooooom"





The boys constructed and reconstructed paths out of the alpha mat letters that LE Babe got for his birthday. Then they raced along them and jumped off the end. This literally consumed two hours of their day.








LE is at his desk playing with another of his birthday presents. Magnetic pom poms on a cookie sheet. I LOVE these. This is where I found how to make them (you really don't even need directions) and here is where you can get printables to use with them. LE just enjoyed lining them up along the edge or the cookie sheet.

















Agent E at his desk area and some active preschool time. We're using the Play-doh alpah mats from Homeschool Creations.
















Agent H at his desk area, no real dress code as you can see. Up next he's modeling our "globe". We wrote the continents and oceans on index cards and he had to tape them to the correct locations on our balloon.

That's a quick glimps at our week. Don't be deceived by the drawers at the desk stations. I am NOT doing the workbox method this year - I burned myself out on it last year. I am glad that I did it though because I learned a lot of things that I like from it and being a part of a workbox Yahoo list provided me with tons of great free schooling printables, ideas, etc.

Who're you looking at?

Who're you looking at?
-LE Babe

Our turtle for a day

Swimming Lessons

Per the recommendation of a friend we signed Agent H up to join her kids at Swim America. I have to say that I was sold on the company when I heard that the kids get to dong a gong when they pass on to a new level. I knew my Club Penguin loving son would LOVE that. After the first day of lessons he was convinced he wants to be a Swim America swim instructor. He passed through 2 levels so he was able to try his hand at the gong twice. And let me say, I think we all felt the vibration!

Oliver H. Kelley Farm

Oh how we love visiting the Oliver H. Kelley Farm . . .

Summer Came

Summer came . . . Agent H and Papa doing a little fishing.

35

Somewhere in the last 3 months I turned 35. My husband brought me to the only restaurant that could sooth my belly into a few hours of peace (Noodles & Co.) so we could enjoy a concert at Orchestra Hall. It was a beautiful night.

It also happened to be my first night away from LE Babe (LE Babe and I both survived).

1/11/11

It's only been three months since my last post . . . but really I have a very good reason. A ten itty-bitty fingers and ten itty-bitty toes kind of reason. A "I feel really sick, so only the bare essentials are getting done" kind of reason. Due 1/11/11.

Our wormery

Today we took advantage of the rain and scooped up some worms and made a wormery. I followed the instructions at Hillbilly Jillies. I think I see some fishing in our future. (That is if Agent H doesn't get too attached.)