Sunday, March 20, 2011

Saturday Morning Hike


Husband and I decided to pack up the boys and go for a hike yesterday. We brought the magnifying glass so we could take a closer look at any fun things we found along the way. Bean enjoyed pointing out evergreen trees and deciduous trees (its damn cute hearing him say "deciduous"). Everyone did amazingly well. Monster was happy in the baby prison until the last 1/4 mile. I then made the mistake of freeing him, thinking (I'm not sure why I would think this) he would happily follow us back to the car. Needless to say, we made it back to the car but I was holding a screaming 18 month old. Husband and I are looking forward to another Saturday hike next week :) Hopefully the kids are too because I think our new Saturday routine is going to include hiking.
I am loving that spring is right around the corner (right, Spring?! I can't take anymore winter). I enjoy that I can hear the birds in the morning while I drink my coffee and read my book (yes, another book about homeschool. I'm an addict) before the kids get up. I cannot wait until the kids and I are able to spend the majority of the day playing outside (I am very much looking forward to my sweet tan!).
My wonderful mother-in-law is watching the boys for us today so Husband and I rearrange the house and get it ready for the home-study and safety check we have for our foster parent certification this Friday. We our moving our bedroom downstairs to the master bedroom (So long playroom). On the plus side, we will finally have our own bathroom that we won't have to share with the kids. SCORE! I'm so ready to be done with this house. We originally planned on living here for a year, two years tops. We have been here almost 4 years. Yuck! Hopefully, we only have another year (oh please, oh please, oh please) until we can pack up and go.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Pippi Longstocking

While the kids are in the bath, I like to read a book while supervising that they don't kill each other. The other day Bean asked me to read out loud my book. As my book was about unschooling and not what he would find interesting, I started to read a chapter from Pippi Longstocking. He was hooked. He asked me to read it to him during bathtime, lunchtime, and before bed. I was amazed how much information he retained.
Once he asked where all the pictures were and I explained to him that this was a big big boy book and there wasn't a lot of pictures so we had to make the pictures in our heads. Bean found this concept entertaining and would screech happily, "I'm making a picture in my head, Mama! Whats yours look like?" when we were reading.
Yesterday we finished Pippi Longstocking and as a treat we watched Pippi Longstocking the movie. Bean was in heaven. This kid LOVES watching anything on the TV. I mean anything. If I have the news on, he will become a zombie and watch it.
As we had finished Pippi, we started reading the complete book of fairy tales by the brothers grimm. There are some fascinating stories in there! Once again, Bean surprised and impressed me. I really didn't think he was paying much attention to the stories in the bathtub as he was splashing around with Monster but in the car while talking to Husband about his day, he started to tell him about the fairy tales we read!
Monster is getting much better with words (thank goodness! He is getting increasingly frustrated by not being able to communicate his wants/needs). He loves to mimic sounds that Bean makes. They have a lot of fun copying each other. The other day I was telling Monster how we were going to visit Bubbie and Poppy soon and go on an airplane. He through his hands up into the air and started to make airplane sounds. Apparently he is very excited about going on an airplane. I, however, am not looking forward to going on an airplane trip with that kid. I'm pretty sure he has already written up plans on how to break into the cockpit and fly the plane. I apologize in advance to all passengers on our flight.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick's Day


Yesterday we had a milestone. Sawyer got his first library card yesterday. He asked the librarian on his own if he could get one and they happily helped him get one. He was so proud of himself and he was able to check out the ridiculous amount of books we picked out with his library card. I'm not joking. We have an insane amount of library books. We probably have close to 100 things checked out from the library. We are book nerds.

Now a milestone for me :) I have been challenging myself to find new friends and meet new people to help myself get over my shyness. Today I am packing up the kids and carting them to Omsi to meet with a rad lady and her equally cool kids. We met through a homeschool group. Our kids are similar in age and have really hit it off. This is our second "mom date". I'm stoked. I love being a stay at home mom and I love spending every day with my kids but sometimes I need to remember what its like spending time with someone over the age of 4 that is not my husband (but who are we kidding, he acts 4 most the time).

I've decided to make a traditional Irish American dinner tonight. Corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes, and Irish Soda bread (the real thing, not the stuff with raisins and caraway seeds). I had a whole weeks worth of cool St. Patrick's day and Ireland activities to do with Bean but, of course, he wasn't interested. So I guess I will file it all away and hope in a few years Asher will find all my hard work and research fascinating ;) I mean really, what young kid doesn't want to learn about Ireland and St. Patrick's day?!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Update and library day

I have been a complete slacker. I have ignored you completely and I apologize. Almost everyday I think, I should blog about that and of course, life happens and it never gets done.
Let us do a quick recap and get everyone up to speed:
Bean is almost 4
Bean loves dinosaurs and can tell you amazing facts about them. He can identify and correctly name numerous types of dinosaurs.
Bean enjoys dictating stories for me to write in his journal
Monster is almost 18 months
He says more, water, Mama, Dada, no, up and is learning signs
His green blanket is his favorite thing in the world
Monster is fiercely independent yet a huge mama's boy
He is very opinionated
We are a few weeks away from becoming certified treatment foster parents
We are still homeschooling and plan on keep homeschooling
Husband is still working and loving his job
We bought a van (gag) and are actually starting to like it (double gag)
I'm sure there are so many more things I could mention but my mind is fuzzy this early in the morning despite being almost done with my cup of coffee. Sometimes I really wish I would allow myself to have two cups a day....
Today is library day. We do to the library at least once a week. This is an adventure that Bean really looks forward too. He likes to decide what types of books to get. He is finally comfortable walking up to the librarian and asking where he could find the books he wants. Monster spends his library time attempting to break out of his prison (stroller). Once he is finally freed he runs around like a crazy man, screeching, climbing, pulling books of the shelf, etc. He is a tornado of chaos.
As difficult as Monster makes this trip to the library (I am almost always sweating by the end of the trip from stress and the exercise of keeping up with Monster), I also look forward to library day. I love picking out my books (mostly home school books with a couple Sookie Stackhouse novels. What a guilty pleasure). Between all three of us, we bring home WAY to many books. It is just so hard to say no to a good looking book. I also don't want to deny the kids books. I love that they want to read and learn so why deny them a book they want? Luckily the car is never parked to far away because the book bag is pretty damn heavy by the time we leave.