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.

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?!

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.

Application is done

I finally finished Bean's application to OES. Now I just need to send it in and keep my fingers crossed they accept him and want to give him a close to free ride. I REALLY want him to get in. I REALLY want him to get the best education possible. I love homeschooling but I had such a great experience at OES and I want him to have the same....

Anyway, I made bagels last night. It has been a while since I made them last. They look good and smell good. I plan on devouring one soon...I just need to make my eggnog latte first. God bless you, latte maker!

In other news, pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving was on Saturday. Holy cow, my turkey was amazing! I brined all 25 pounds of it over night in a mix of water, orange juice, lemon juice, salt, pepper, rosemary, and brown sugar. I then made a rub of basil, rosemary, Italian seasoning, garlic, EVO, salt and pepper. I separated the skin from the breast and stuffed some of the rub under there before massaging the remainder of it over the rest of the bird. The first few hours I cooked the turkey breast down before flipping it over and finishing it off. I can safely say that this was the best turkey I have ever made. It was flavorful and juicy. Go me!

Time for kid updates!

Bean: Bean is getting excited for thanksgiving though he does not like turkey. He doesn't like most meat. He also doesn't like potatoes unless they are fried. I love to ask him what he is thankful for because he ALWAYS says people that are important to him, especially "Airdan" (adrian). It snowed last night. I few flakes started falling before his bedtime but about 15 minutes after he went to bed, it started to come down. Husband went to wake Bean up to show him. His eyes just lit up. Husband took Sawyer outside so he could play in it a little bit. It is this type of stuff that you get to do with your kids that makes parenting so much fun. How cool is it to go play in the snow at 9:15 in your jammies?!

Monster: Oh monster...where to begin? He still keeps me on my toes and is really clingy when other people are around. I wish I could say he is sleeping through the night but we are close. He sleeps until about 5 and then I give him a boob. That buys me anywhere from another hour to 2 hours. He is getting really good at communicating. If he wants to me to do something for him, he comes over to me, grabs me, and pulls me to where we need to go. He then points and grunts. I'll ask him if blank is what he wants and if it is, he will nod his head. Soon enough he will be using words. They grow up so fast!

I am ready for my bagel now. See ya later!

a fun fact...

Monster likes to clean up spills and other messes. If he sees something that needs to be wiped up, he goes and gets a rag from the drawer and cleans it up :) Yesterday, he was running around naked when he peed. He went and got a rag and cleaned it up. Hahahaha

Almost a month has gone by...

I cannot believe it's been a month since I last updated this. Yikes! Oh man, I have some funny stories to share but I should probably start with updates as my time here is limited. Monster is due to wake up any minute.

Monster is going on 14 months now and he is even a bigger handful than before. He is a mama's boy through and through (which has its ups and downs). He loves to wrestle, climb, and get into EVERYTHING. He still never stops. Seriously, he never stops. He is like the damn energizer bunny. He is very opinionated. He will tell you of his displeasure if you don't let him have his way. He also started hitting when upset and as I am the one who spend 99% of the time with him, I get most the slaps. He is still nursing (I try to limit him to twice a day. If I never said no, that kid would be attached to me all day)

Bean is still a happy, easy going kid. He is the best big brother ever. We are so lucky. He loves to play with Monster and likes to help comfort Monster when he is upset. Yesterday when we were running errands, he told us that when we got home he wanted to give us hugs and kisses. He got distracted when we got home and after playing for a few minutes, he jumps up and says, "Oh! I forgot!" and runs over to give Husband some love. (Heart melting).

He is doing great in "school". He is learning to read! Crazy! He can read about 15 words and we started to sound out words a couple weeks ago and he is doing well with that. He loves science and math.

Husband is still loving work and things have slowed down for him a bit so he can come home earlier in the evening. SCORE! I do really enjoy him. Football season is upon us so we have spent a lot of time watching it. Yay? After being forced to watch it for a few years now I am starting to enjoy it. Well, I enjoy the first few hours of it....

Now its my turn...not much is new with me. I have more things I want to do than time to do them. Isn't that always my problem? I really want to knit a scarf with attached mittens, can, make crackers, start my quilt of the boy's baby clothes, organize the house better, take a nap....and the list goes on and on. Whenever things get incredible hectic and crazy, I remind myself that everyday things get a little easier. The boys grow up a little more each day (sob) and things will calm down...eventually :) Though in all honesty, I love it! I love the hecticness (new word!) of my days, even if they stress me out sometimes. I just remind myself to "win the day!".

Alright, Monster and Bean are still sleeping (WOOHOO!) so I should probably take these last few quiet minutes to myself and be productive. Fingers crossed I can get on here tomorrow and write about our vacation.

Lordy, its been a while...

Life is so busy these days. There are so many things that have happened...where to begin....

Monster turned one. My baby is a year old. Where did that year go? Seriously? It seems like we just brought him back from the hospital and now he is walking and climbing up things and generally being crazy.

His birthday party was a blast. There was a pinata and a doughnut game. We hung doughnuts from the ceiling fan and the kids had to eat them without using their hands. Oh my! That was amusing to watch.

Monster is sleeping though the night 90% of the time-woohoo! He is also still nursing like a champ. His new thing is to reach down my shirt and grunt when he wants a boob. It's interesting when he does that in public. Haha.

We are going on to our fifth week of homeschooling kindergarten edition and Bean is doing so well! It's amazing how quickly he picks things up. I love doing the homeschooling thing. I love being able to be the one to teach him all these things and to watch him absorb the information. I feel so lucky to be able to have the opportunity to do this.

Husband and I are counting down the days until VACATION! We cannot wait to get away. We are going to Long Beach with the kids, then ditching the kids with my parents, and flying to Vegas. While in Long Beach we are taking the kids to DisneyLand. Bean is excited to go and I think he will have a good time BUT he is terrified of people in costume (for example, Chuck E Cheese. He RUNS the opposite direction and hides when he sees Chuck E Cheese coming his way). Monster will probably just try scaling to the top of the Disney castle.

Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin patch with Nana. It was the perfect day to go. It had poured all morning but cleared in the afternoon. The morning rain seemed to scare most people off so it was not busy at all. We did the corn maize and Bean walked the whole thing. Monster wanted to walk but kept getting distracted by puddles and mud. We got one BIG pumpkin and the boys each picked out a "their size" pumpkin. I think we will carve them next weekend. We also picked up two sweet meat squashes. EEEEEEEE!! I LOVE sweet meats! I am going to make pies, cookies, pasta, bread, so many wonderful things.

One more wonderful thing has happened since I last wrote. Ms. Allie has had her baby. Hayden James was born October 8th around 1:30pm. He was 8 lbs and 2 oz and 20 inches long. He is so beautiful. Some babies are not so cute when they come out (both our boys looked like weird old men), Hayden looks like a gerber baby-so damn cute! He has some fluid in his lungs and is breathing to fast so he is in the NICU but will hopefully be leaving in the next few days. I cannot wait to be able to hold him and give him a zillion kisses.