At the Beach

Today, after M left to go to his dad's house to help pack for their hunting trip that's coming up, K asked if we could go to the beach. The weather was nice. I didn't have a reason to say no, so we did. I got the 3 kids ready, got their food and snacks ready, packed a few toys, loaded the little potty (just in case), and we headed to the beach. As soon as we got there, K took off. Before I could lay the towel down on the sand, K was already out thigh deep. He was ready to jump in and swim. Lucky for me, he didn't. They played in the water and built sand castles. We stayed for a little over an hour, but had a good time. K is already asking when we're going to go back.

T just hanging out... T did pretty good, but as soon as I put him in the van, he fell asleep.

In His Heart

Last night while reading Very Last First Time with K, I pointed out that the main characters believe in God. He asked me how I knew. I showed him the plaque on their kitchen wall that says "Bless this house oh Lord we pray". He said he believes in God and we talked about what it meant to have Jesus in your heart and how He gets there. Immediately, K prayed for Jesus to come into his heart. He did it without being prompted or suggested. It was the sweetest thing.

4 (5) Month Check-Up

T had his "4 month" check-up today. Yes, I know he's 5 months, but since we don't vaccinate, it's O.K. Really. He weighs 14 lb 6 oz (88%). He's 26 in. long (73%) and his head is 17.5 in. around (95%) ~ surprise, surprise to that hehehe. I just thought he was the smallest baby. All in all, he's healthy and doing well.

PB & J

K made his own pb & j sandwich the other day and he did pretty good. He's getting so big!

Math

I've decided to allow K to write his math work on the white board instead of the worksheets and it seems to be going better. He enjoys it more and he's actually doing pretty good at math, but then again, he has been adding since he was 3.

Nap Time

The other day, I put L in her room to take a nap. After she played in her room for an hour, I allowed her to come out since she apparently was NOT going to take a nap. When I told her she could come out, I realized what she had been doing.... playing dress up.

About an hour or two later, she finally fell asleep right next to her bug friends. She had taken her shirt off because she had spilled water on it.

5 Months

T is officially 5 months old... He can hold his bottle (when he wants), he can sit up for short periods of time and he started sleeping through the night (finally).

Colors & Art

In teaching L her colors, I found this cute little catepillar at www.dltk.com , colored it, and cut it out. It's really great for sorting and seperating colors. We are also working on animals and yes, that is a blue horse. ;-)Some of K's artwork from the day... from top (left to right) smiley face, river, box, don't remember what the next two are... another box, a pencil, a Christmas tree, a fish and weeds, nothing, shooting stars, a baseball bat, and a flying bat.

Cloth Diapers

When my daughter was a baby, I had considered cloth diapering, but never took the jump. Recently, I started thinking about it again and I finally made an order. Well, today, when we got home, there was a package at the door.

When I started this mothering journey, I never imagined I would be a stay-at-home mom, but I am. I never thought I would homeschool my kids, but I am. Never in my wildest thoughts would I be using cloth diapers, but not only am I going to use them, but I'm really looking forward to it and am excited about it. I have a friend coming over on Monday to show me more.

1st Field Trip 2010

K had been asking to go to Chuck E Cheese's for about a week. We were going to go a few days ago, but he got in trouble and we weren't able. This morning, (the public school's first day), I decided to take the kids, knowing it probably wouldn't be too busy. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, L started clapping profusely. It was cute. We don't go that often, so I didn't realize she would know where we were, but not only did she know where we were, but she was excited to be there. Although there were a few moms, it was nice to worry about my kids while they played because there were only a couple of other moms there. Alex ended up meeting us, ate lunch with us, played with the kiddos, and beat K in a game of air hockey. They had a good time.

Baby Sling

As of lately, T has been very clingy and doesn't really want to be put down. Since, like most moms, I have things I need to do, I pulled out the Hotsling and wrapped him on my hip. Although it didn't last long, it didn't take long for L to pick up the sling and try it on once I put it down. She realized very quickly how it worked, what it was for, and that it was too big. Luckily, I had some spare fabric around and I was able to make her one for her doll. She loves it and hasn't taken it off or let her doll go since. At one point, she tried to get something to drink, but as soon as she thought she was going to drop her doll, she turned to me and asked me to refill her cup.

Why the Fight?

Today was the public school's first day of school, so I decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese's. K had been asking to go for a while now and we either didn't have the time or he got in trouble and we were unable to go. I was really excited about taking them today. I always look forward to seeing their faces when they get to do something they've really been wanting to do for a while.
I woke up this morning expecting today to be a wonderful day. We were finished with school by 8 a.m. and I was going to surprise the kids by treating them to pizza and playtime.
When we got to Chuck E Cheese's, the 2 oldest were so excited. K immediately took the tokens he had from the last time we were went and started playing games and L ran around touching and "playing" every game that someone wasn't on. Then, Ms. Alex showed up and L and her started "playing games" together. Shortly thereafter, the pizza arrived at the table and K obediently came and ate. L on the other hand took a little longer and then once she got to the table, she didn't want to sit. It took her a little longer to eat. After they finished their meal, they got down and spent the rest of their tokens and ended up winning 144 tickets, which was able to get K a rocket and L a sucker. All was right with the world.
UNTIL.... we got home! I don't think we were home 15 minutes when they started arguing, fighting, and screaming at one another. After unsuccessfully trying to calm them down, I told them it was nap time and the dreaded, "I HATE YOU!" came from my firstborn's mouth. At first I was a little taken back and didn't know what to do. I mean really! I just took him somewhere he had been asking to go because HE wanted to go. The ONLY reason I wanted to go was because he wanted to go. I really enjoy watching them have fun. I love having fun with them, so I honestly don't understand why he feels the need to be so disrespectful. Not only did the words he said hurt, but it made me angry. It made me so angry that he got disciplined like I haven't disciplined him in a while. I had stopped doing that because it didn't seem to make anything better, but actually made things worse sometimes. Now, I don't know. I feel bad for what I did, but luckily I was able to maintain some self-control and didn't do what actually went through my head at that moment.
I want my kids to be happy, but not at the expense of mistreating others and being disrespectful. I also want to be an example of what a loving mother is. A mother with mercy and grace, but still has boundaries and still gets respect. I know my kids are young and it's "just a phase", but at what age do people stop allowing that to be an excuse and start teaching responsibility. I know I'm not perfect, but sometimes I don't know if my best is good enough. Then I realize, God knows I'm good enough and it's Him I should be living for, not my kids or anyone else.
I know how much it hurts when my son tells me, " I hate you" or "I don't love you" or "You're not my mother." It's hard not to break down in tears and wonder what I'm doing wrong.
I can't begin to imagine the pain God suffers when His children not only ignore Him, but choose to believe He doesn't care. I'm grateful I have a merciful God that allows me to be imperfect, doesn't expect me to get it right every time and loves me anyway. I don't expect any of my children to be perfect. I know they can't always control their emotions or behaviors, but what kind of mom would I be if I didn't help them try? All 3 kids are taking a nap right now as I type this, but I can't seem to enjoy the "quiet" time.

He Likes it Cold

M and I realized that T sleeps the best when he's sleeping in our bed under the fan on high. I don't know if it's because of the noise or the coldness, but we really don't want to get in the habit of him sleeping in our bed, so we improvised and tried to recreate the atmosphere in his bed. Notice the fan at the head of his bed and above his head. As you can see, he does like to cover his face, but he does sleep better with the fans. Last night, I put pants on him and he did a lot better. Hopefully I will get a full night sleep soon.

BINGO

To help reinforce numbers, K and I played a little BINGO. We didn't make it to "BINGO", but we took turns calling out the letters and filling the squares. It was pretty effective in helping him recognize numbers past 20.

1st day of School

Today, we started "school" and everything went pretty smoothly. We started the morning with breakfast and devotional. I bought this book at the MOPS Convention and I like it. The devotions are enough to have a conversation with your child, but not too long that you loose their attention. It also has a Bible verse as well as a prayer for the day.

After breakfast and devotions, we did a little math, then we did a few things from Five in a Row with the book Papa Piccolo. We did a little experiment with food coloring in learning about primary and secondary colors. Now, K is excited about taking baths again because we're going to add food coloring to help him reinforce the learning. I found this "snake" on www.dltk.com and it did a great job in aiding him to learn how to count by 2's. We cut it out and glued it together and drug it around the house for a couple of hours while reciting the numbers. I don't think he realized he was learning to count a faster way because he was having so much fun with his new pet snake. After we finished school, K and L played in the sink. They started off with the cups and then, once again, added food coloring for different effects. Their personalities are SO different. My little drama queen is pretending that she's in trouble. As soon as I took the picture, she started laughing. LOL! I love them!

Learning Games

Sunday, after church K, L, and I played games. At one time, I was playing Candyland and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed at the same time. I think L played about 10 games in about 2 hours. It was a lot of fun and a great start to "school".
K is getting pretty good at spelling and reading 3 letter words. I like this Boggle game, but unfortunately the letters on the blocks don't make it easy to spell "sun" since the only "s" and "u" are on the same block. We improvised and made it happen though. I'm looking forward to a great year of kindergarten.