Friday, September 26, 2008

my jeeves

Think he deserves this little after-dinner snooze?


I do.

This week I've been laid up with the flu. And what has HE done all week?

make dinner
clean the kitchen
play with the kids
bathe the kids
put the kids to bed
put me to bed
make me hot tea
make me popcorn
rent movies for me
wake up with the kids
take the kids to my mom's
wash the laundry
massage my back
correct squabbling children
strip dirty sheets
put on clean sheets
pick up toys
pick up toys
pick up toys

Did I mention he also went to work each day?

time: in potty hours

Before naptime...

Did you go potty?
I couldn't go.
Did you sit on the potty?
Uh-huh.
Did you sit on the potty a long time?
Uh-huh.
How long did you sit on the potty?
Like 40 or 100 hours.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

maddie draws!

Maddie loves to color and paint, but she doesn't color or paint THINGS. She just paints...or she colors. About a year ago she drew some pears...and hasn't drawn any since (or anything else for that matter). On a good day I can get her to draw a shape. Remember those apples from 'A' week? They were quite a feat! (Much coaxing and help from Mommy.) So, naturally I was shocked when I saw she had drawn faces in her coloring book. In all my teaching days, I don't think I ever saw eyes as big as these. They make me laugh!

the docile dog

the dog with a black eye

the dog with a wicked gleam in the eyes


So, Maddie does draw--or at least she drew--though it may take another year before I see her draw anything else. But while she might not draw much, she still says a lot...

"I watched this movie for 40 minutes...no, for twenteen minutes. I watched it for twenTEEN minutes. TwenTEEN is a curly number. You write it different and put it together and it's curly."

...and this one just struck me funny...

"...just like when Nonna babysits on me."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

what could make a momma happier?

I've been pretty sick with a headcold for several days now. Today Little Bobe woke up early from his nap, and so I brought him downstairs with me. He was putzing around, coloring and such, while I lay there on the couch keeping an eye on him.

He came over to the couch and gave me a big, long snuggly hug. He looked up,
"I hug you! You feah bettow?"
(That's my sweet boy!)
"Yes, I do. Your hugs help me feel a little bit better."
Big smile.
Then he gave me another smothery hug and looked up at me,
"I feah bettow, too."

Now, what could make a momma happier?

a little dinnertime entertainment?

During dinner we watched a squirrel chase a rabbit all around our yard. Never seen THAT before!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

M-A-D-E-L-E-I-N-E

Maddie knows how to spell 'Maddie,' but 'Madeleine' is quite long. To help Maddie learn how to spell her name, I wrote each letter on an index card. I give her the cards, and she has to lay them out in order. She's doing pretty well so far, but still needs a little help--three 'E's are a lot to handle! :)

Maddie is also learning her color words and all the names in our family (extended included) using flashcards. She has fun reviewing her flashcards, and now knows almost all of her color words and more than half of our family's names. Go Maddie!

scissors practice

Maddie


Caleb

first big boo-boo


We're glad it's not a very big boo-boo! But last night his nose was so red, we were calling him Rudolf. :)

Yesterday evening, Caleb slammed the slider screen door really hard with his hands, popped it out, and went tumbling full force down the 2 concrete stairs leading to the patio. The screen door ended up on top of him, and by the grace of God he ended up with only an abrasion across his nose and upper lip and a very small bump on his forehead, which is pretty much gone already. It really could have been so much worse. When I picked him up, I was expecting a bloody mouth or a gash somewhere, but no. We're very grateful to God that so far our kids have been spared any ER trips.

classic little kid quote

Toward the end of lunch, having not finished her food, Maddie announced that she had a tummy ache. But upon hearing from Mommy that she could not have a cookie...

...I think my tummy ache is going away a little bit...It was a very short one. I think it's getting all better now.

Friday, September 19, 2008

* Preschool 'B' Week part 2 *

Here's a short video clip of Maddie doing her recitations from A & B weeks along with a spontaneous original song at the end. This is such a great little clip because it is classic Maddie. :) Enjoy!

* Preschool 'B' Week *

A few fun things we did this week...listen to Beethoven during lunch, look at paintings by the artist Bruegel, eat bananas & blackberry pie, and read 'B' stories: Bumpety-Bump, Baby Love, The Boston Tea Party, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Blueberries for Sal and plenty of others! Baby Love is a book I just found that is illustrated with paintings by Mary Cassatt. It's a great book for early readers, because it has just 2 big words per page, one of which is always 'baby'--a new favorite children's book for me!

Maddie also glued beans on paper to form both upper and lower case 'B's.


Caleb glued beans on a line, or 'stick' as he called it. Those extra red and green lines are "big sticks...I make loss sticks!"


We also read one of my absolute favorite children's books...


...and made our own symmetry butterflies.

Maddie's


Caleb's

Thursday, September 18, 2008

flowers

Some beautiful fall flowers my hubby brought me last night. Don't they look like the flowers in the painting?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

* Pre-school 'A' week * (and a few other things...)

Last week, Maddie and I started some preschool. We're working our way through the alphabet focusing on one letter each week. Last week was of course 'A'. I'm keeping it simple, just about 20 minutes each day 4 days a week. Among other things, we learned about the letter 'A', practiced writing it, talked about the different sounds it can make, and read lots of books pertaining to the letter 'A': ancient Greece, animal babies, alphabet books, Johnny Appleseed, and some Amelia Bedelia--her favorites by far. Maddie is very happy we can read those again this week for 'B' week!

One of the things we did in our 'A' book was write down words with 'A' sounds


Here's a journal response to our trip to the farm to pick apples. Maddie dictated, I wrote, and we drew the apples together.


Now, a little bit about our apple-picking...or should I say blackberry picking? We went with the intent to pick apples for 'A' week. However, to get to the apple trees we had to walk right through the blackberries. The bushes were just covered in HUGE ripe blackberries! I couldn't resist (and actually the kids couldn't either). We picked blackberries for a long time before we popped over to the apple trees and picked about 10 apples really fast to finish off our 'A' week! As I told Maddie, we picked apples for 'A' week and blackberries for the next week, 'B' week. :)



Caleb had fun running up and down the rows, picking and eating lots of blackberries, and finding sticks to play with.


Maddie diligently picked berries, although after about 20 minutes there were still only 3 blackberries in her container.


Needless to say, upon returning home, our clothes went straight into the wash with lots of stain stick! We weren't dressed for berry picking. But it was so worth it--five pounds of fresh blackberries!


We stopped by the barn (the store) where I bought seconds of peaches and apples for baking and also a few other items.


That night we had blackberries and cream for dessert, complete with milky cream moustaches.


What a face!

Monday, September 15, 2008

bobe-isms


A few current bobe-isms Braden and I enjoy hearing...

Yes, it is-nt:

Is this the right one? (Nodding) "Yes, it is-n't." You want the red race car? Hmmm...is this the car you're looking for? "Yes! It is-n't!"

Oh:
Another one I love hearing is "oh." Caleb says "oh" as though he completely understands in great depth everything you just said. There's no way I can describe it in written form--you'll just have to take my word for it that it's pretty funny to hear!

Whoop-see Day-zee:
Caleb's in that phase where he is starting to use grown-up phrases and expressions when he talks. He just doesn't always use them in the right context, and it is obvious he is making the extra effort to use the phrases. Lately, it's been "whoopsie daisy" a lot. He drops a toy, "Whoop-sie, day-zee." A crayon rolls off the table, "Uh-oh. Whoop-sie, day-zee." It always makes me smile.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

bobe

Friday, September 12, 2008

Labor Day

We spent Labor Day with Nonna and FaFa. We went to our favorite HUGE park, and then FaFa treated us to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and ice cream. The kids were so tired by time we got home, but boy did they have fun!
way up high on the tower



talking to daddy on the other side of the playground through the talking tube


swinging with Nonna


Every time Maddie would swing up, she'd give Daddy a kiss.

playing the xylophone with Mommy

This is my dad calling up the slide to Maddie in an effort to get her to slide down. Now there's a story!

When we got to the playground, Maddie ran off climbing as usual. Braden climbed up to the top of the tower with her. But suddenly when it came time to slide, she wouldn't budge! We still do not know what was wrong--she loves the slides and normally goes on all of them again and again. However, she would NOT go down the slide. After probably 20 minutes up there in the high tower, Daddy finally convinced Maddie to slide down with him.

Let's zoom in and take a look at that face...not a happy camper.

She did not slide down any slides the rest of the time there....but Caleb did.

static hair :)

Look at Maddie jump!

Look at Daddy jump too!

on the teeter-totter


last summer days at the pool

I can't believe I'm already saying 'last summer days.' But here we are at the pool on one of those last summer days.

practicing swimming with Bubbie


jumping


Caleb loves the pool toys and finds unusual ways to keep himself entertained in and out of the pool.


squirting Pop-Pop




This was their favorite thing to do at the pool. Watch the toys float into the 'drain' of the baby pool (and push them in), and then climb out of the pool and open the lid and pull them out.


Thursday, September 11, 2008

craft project

We set out to do a bean collage the other day.
I thought for sure this would be a hit with Caleb, but I was wrong. Maddie loved it...of course...and spent probably 30 or 40 minutes gluing beans onto her cardboard.


Caleb, however, had the most fun smashing his glue bottle into the cardboard while I was gathering the beans. I think he thought that was the 'special project'. We did manage to glue a few beans before he was DONE.

However, capitalizing on his love of separating things, I then set him up sorting beans, which he enjoyed for some time...before he started chucking beans around the room--Clean Up Time!