PRAYING MANTIS

We found this little critter while I was giving the sunroom an overhaul. James was so excited to show his daddy when he finished mowing the lawn. He was even more excited when Jay walked over and picked him up so the kids could get a closer look. They thought it was totally wild how quickly it could move and how it's head followed their every movement. Then they showed us how the praying mantis prays. So cute!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN: 6 WEEKS!

LETTERING

Weeks 1-3 of the school year were devoted to Aa. Last week was Bb. Next week is Cc. I still wouldn't say that James is eager to color or write or trace, but he's definitely more patient with it and is definitely putting forth more effort. We're pretty proud of him. And we think it's adorable that he sticks that tongue out when he's concentrating!

THE SWEETEST KITTY AWARD GOES TO...

General Mouton!

He may be ridiculously annoying sometimes (he whines a lot, is relentless in his attempts to sit on your lap or sleep on your pillow, and has wild "fits" in which he runs yowling around the house), but he sure is a good cat. He's awfully patient with Cora and all her lovin' lately. In fact, I see dress-up clothes and baby buggies in his near future... Poor guy will do anything for a little attention!

(And let's all say it together now... "Don't your kids ever wear clothes?!")

CHILDREN ARE...

Amazing, cherish them

Believable, trust them

Childlike, let them

Divine, respect them

Energetic, nourish them

Fallible, embrace them

Gifts, unwrap them

Here, be with them

Innocent, delight in them

Joyful, appreciate them

Kindhearted, join them

Lovable, love them

Magical, fly with them

Noble, esteem them

Open-minded, hear them

Precious, treasure them

Questioners, encourage them

Resourceful, support them

Spontaneous, enjoy them

Talented, believe in them

Unique, affirm them

Vulnerable, protect them

Whole, recognize them

Xtraspecial, celebrate them

Yearning, notice them

Zany, laugh with them

- Meiji Stewart

SATURDAY NIGHT MOVIE

The kids napped late today. REALLY late. And long (12:45-3:45pm!), so I ended up napping too. By the time we woke up, it was already time to start dinner prep (Chicken Crescent Casserole, which I modify to use an entire rotisserie chicken, cut out the onion, but add minced garlic and onion powder). Luckily we did all the cleaning in the morning (we're about as allergen-free as we're gonna get in our 3-cat-household), so the kids just hung out playing with their Magneatos and Legos while I cooked and Jay studied. 

By the time we'd stuffed ourselves full of cheesy chicken casserole, the kids were ready to chill again, so we turned on 'A Bug's Life' and let them stay up late (until 9:00pm, an hour past their usual bedtime) to watch it. Today was definitely a good balance of productivity and relaxing - both very much needed!

This only lasted about 10 minutes, then they were right back up on the couches snuggling with their parents. And we wouldn't have it any other way - LOVE our little snuggle muffins!

A FRIDAY FREQUENT

Somebody must have missed his nap at school today, since he fell asleep between home and the splash park. Don't worry, I didn't let him miss out on any fun - he woke up as soon as I said "We're here!"

Somebody else is learning to walk! 

(He can even get up into a standing position all by himself now - go Leo!)

James and Cora missed their buddy Manu BADLY while he was on vacation. When I dropped James at school after his doctor appointment on Thursday, he saw Manu out on the playground and started yelling "Manu's here! Manu's HERE! I gotta go outside and play with him!"

Grady came to play today too! 

And Will!

(Poor Will - he is SO SWEET, and James and Cora tend to take advantage of that - those are his buckets that Cora is playing with...)

 It's still hot here in the Deep South, so we plan to keep on hanging at the splash park until they turn the water off!

WHAT DOES JAMES KNOW?

He can trace shapes and pictures and letters with varying accuracy (depending how well he is holding his pencil or crayon at the time)

He's starting to stay more within the lines when coloring

He knows his left from his right (and will stick out his left foot or hand when asked, and he calls his right foot his "wrong foot")

He can name the days of the week, in order (most of the time)

He can count to 20 or 30, depending on his mood (and never skips 5 anymore), and can tell you how many like objects are on a page by counting them

He knows all the colors and shapes (even some of the less basic ones), but still has a lot of work to do on recognizing written letters and numbers

He corrects himself in sentences like "Today at school, I mean, at the gym, I made the rockets fly way up in the sky."

He also uses adjectives and phrases we associate with older children, such as 'really', 'sometimes', 'next time', 'in a minute', 'I will', 'maybe so', 'I think so', 'I'm not quite ready', 'I promise', 'not right now', 'how about that', 'oh, I gotta tell/show you', 'I mean it', etc.

He's starting to get the concept of time, using 'yesterday', 'last night', 'last week', 'last year', 'tomorrow', 'in a little while', and 'soon', even though he doesn't always use them correctly (naming events that happened a week ago as happening yesterday, for example), and he's getting very good at naming events (past or upcoming) in sequence (i.e. 'first we're going to _____, then we're going to _____, and then we'll _____ - maybe he learned that from his "If you give a cat a cupcake" book, or maybe because his daddy always names tasks in order of how he wants them accomplished)

He can play pretend (superheros being his current favorite), often using sound effects and his own made-up story lines (and recruiting Cora to play a role, that she generally doesn't understand, yet still manages to follow along and make her big bro happy)

He know his parents' full names and ages, our home address, and the names of the streets near our house (in the order we drive them to get home)

He can name all his friends and teachers at school and at the gym, and he even knows his best friends' parents' names and what color/type of car they drive (and tends to recognize his friends' cars when we're out on the town faster than we do)

He knows how to say just the right thing ("I LOVE you mama!", "I didn't mean to", "It was an accident", "But I just love you too much!", "I need to give you a big squeeze") when he's getting in trouble (or procrastinating bedtime) so that his parents instead melt into a puddle of mush.

He also knows how to lie (a new milestone...), in respect to blaming Cora for things that happen when Cora isn't even in the room, or telling daddy that mama said something was OK to do when mama most certainly said the opposite. Yup, we're in that phase now.

He also knows how to say a few "bad words". I don't mean the usual suspects, because he doesn't know those, but things like "stupid" and "shut up" and "I don't care about you". We don't say those things, and we sure don't want him saying them (especially to us, his sister, or his friends or teachers). When he told his daddy "I don't care about you" in response to Jay saying that it wasn't nice for James to knock over the Lego town they'd just spent 45 minutes building, we broke out the superhero crutch, telling him "Superheros care about everyone James. If you want to be a superhero, you DO need to care, and be helpful, and speak nicely". The lesson sunk in. Partly because we took away his superhero pajamas until he got the message...

He knows the words to lots of songs (ABC's, AGAPE's school song, Twinkle Twinkle, something about an alligator eating monkeys that fall from a tree - 'can't catch me'?, Rockabye Baby, Pretty Day, Jesus Loves Me, Skiddermerinky-Dinky-Dink, Happy Birthday, etc.)


He knows many of his favorite books by heart. If we pause near the end of a sentence, he'll finish it. If he's reading to himself or Cora, we'll hear him following along and pointing to the words while repeating what he knows from memory. If we ask him to read a page that he doesn't remember, he'll say "Tell me the words of it", which we think is adorable.

He can finally get himself dressed and undressed, and put on his shoes (usually on the correct feet), though he still occasionally needs help with his shirt (at least getting it on facing front, anyway).

Things he doesn't know?

How to play hide-and-seek without calling out to tell us exactly where he's hiding...

That when he tells Cora "Don't touch _____", she's of course going to go over and play with it

That answering "Um, nothing..." when mama asks what he's doing is a sure way to bring mama into the room to check on him

IF YOU GIVE A KID A DONUT...

...it's probably because he had to go to the doctor.

Once he's at the pediatrician's office for his ear recheck,

you'll find out he's still sick (which you assumed due to his congestion).

Since he's still sick,

there will be lots of talk as to "why".

First they'll look in his throat,

and then they'll look in his nose.

They'll listen to his breathing,

and decide to send him off for a head x-ray.

Once you get to the x-ray room,

the kid might think it's pretty funny to have to stand with his chin against the wall.

After having to be so still though (even if only for a couple minutes),

he'll probably need to run around and burn off the donut sugar.

After waiting a while (involving hide-n-seek and many books),

the doctor will return to tell you that the kid has infected sinuses.

Because he's infected,

he'll have to take more antibiotics (for 30 days).

Since he's been sick off and on since June,

there will be talk of potential causes...

...it might be that he needs new ear tubes,

or maybe it's allergies.

Since it might be allergies,

the doctor recommends lots of expensive medicine and allergen-reducing measures at home.

Because we've now had 4 copays in 2 weeks time and many bottles of medication purchased for various members of the family and are awaiting bills for x-rays and MRIs and also paid a surgery fee yesterday,

mama might decide that she needs more than a donut to make herself feel better.

(Since it's not Friday yet, 

we made a collective decision to bump pizza and beer to tonight)

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING...

James still moves all over his bed at night, and has come close to falling out a few times since we moved him up to the real bed.

And Cora is still creepy. And still doesn't sleep as good as her big brother does. Sigh.

SUPERHERO STICKERS

(Not due to content, but due to placement. Cute, eh?)

TWO KIDS, TWO CAMERAS!

When we made the switch from baby monitors to security cameras (thanks again mom and dad!), we had an unfortunate event occur. One of the cameras took a nosedive off it's perch on top of James' mirror. The camera still worked, but the plug had knocked loose, thus we couldn't keep it charged (or plugged in, obviously). And we'd waited too long to install the cameras to simply send it back for an exchange. So we procrastinated a bit longer, then Jay was able to get someone at work to fix/weld the plug, and now all is good. We can keep our eyes on BOTH kids again, all night long.

And no, Cora is not having a sleepover. She takes all her babies to bed with her. And "Bear Bear" the Care Bear. That makes it a party of 5, plus Cora. Even if we only tuck her in with Bubble Baby and Addy Baby (yes D&T, Cora named her birthday baby from you after her cousin), we can be guaranteed to find the whole crew in there come morning. And the nightlight ladybug thingy. The other night I went back to check on her before I went up to bed because she was crying (yes, she still has falling asleep solo issues), and she had all her babies lined up, tucked in with individual blankets (where does she even find that stuff in the dark after we've cleaned up her room for the night?!), and all with their faces in the pillows. It was kinda creepy...

3.5-YEAR STATS

Just for the record...

35 lbs and 40" tall!

BEANS, BEADS, AND BIKES

The kids desperately needed something different to do today, and I desperately needed a little "quiet" time and ability to put my leg up (Why does it feel just as bad now as it did two weeks ago? Shouldn't it be getting BETTER?) Phase 1: dried beans in a kiddie pool (which was quiet in the sense that they played PERFECTLY together, no fighting or arguing, no whining to mama, no asking me to go sit in the beans with them - but wasn't really quiet, since dried beans make a LOT of noise when scooped and dumped).

We hadn't played with the beans since the time I spent over an hour sweeping and vacuuming up beans from all over the sunroom, then still found them for weeks later tucked into random places... But this mama wasn't as worried about messes today as she was self-led play. And Christina's post about Will's bean bin during the hurricane reminded me about the tubs of beans safely tucked away in our Harry Potter Closet. So we put a spin on the bin and stuck the beans in the smaller of our two kiddie pools. 

This activity kept the kids entertained for almost an hour.

Then James requested Batman (two episodes, so about an hour's worth). Though Cora went back and forth between reading and playing solo in the bean pool.

About a half hour before lunch, James returned to the pool with some new toys.

I'd say that's a pretty good duration of self-led play. 

I was able to enjoy my coffee and read up on Barefoot running.

After lunch and nap, I figured we needed a change of pace. Phase 2: Jay set up the larger kiddie pool outside with fresh water and the slide, and I put the Water Beads I'd been growing overnight into their sensory table. The kids hadn't played with water beads in FOREVER, so they were beyond fascinated (and highly occupied) with them and pretty much ignored the pool, even though they were in their swimsuits.

(The flask is plastic, don't worry)

(Bubble wands made good water bead containers too)

(Lemonade break - a special treat for the holiday)

(They got in the pool briefly to cool off, though even with the offer to help each other not be scared to go down the slide, they both faltered and retreated once they got to the top. SO WEIRD how kids' fears come and go and come and go...)

Finally, Phase 3: bikes. This really didn't last very long. The kids wanted to go back inside to play some more with the bean pool. I guess they were just really into scooping and dumping today...

 Which was awesome. Until Cora peed in it (Why? I have no idea. She was accident free for ALL FIVE of her days with me, and hadn't had any accidents at school or the babysitter either. Maybe something to do with *likely* peeing in her swimsuit outside, *likely* in the pool? Even though I had JUST taken her potty.) Luckily, Jay took a break from homework and took care of the clean up (never fear, all beans were hosed off then "baked" in the oven to dry and further clean them). Then he kept the kids busy while I cooked dinner, and handled bath and bedtime. He could tell mama needed a break!

And then I had a large glass of wine after dinner. And all was well. 

Goodnight :-)

BUSTED!

Told ya! She heard me coming and was thus on her way down...

PIGTAILS ARE EVEN CUTER WITH A BOW

That is all.

STIR CRAZY

 The kids and I have been stuck inside, together 24/7 (OK, they've both slept well, so not REALLY 24/7, more like 15/7), since Thursday at noon (due to the hurricane and sickness). By Saturday they were literally climbing the walls...

There was some potty training going on...

(I guess all her baby dolls are already trained now?)

 Daddy spotted a turtle walking across the front yard from the kitchen window, so we investigated...

We played a lot of Legos. And I built an awesome slide that the kids actually left standing...

And we've now watched Labyrinth 4 times. Cora can only take so much Bowie, apparently...

By this morning, the kids were kinda over me (I know right? Good thing I don't take offense easily). They only wanted Daddy, who was trying very hard to grade papers (somehow, his TA assignment is for a graduate level course, instructed by his adviser, who is out of the country for the entire first month of the semester, didn't leave lesson plans, didn't know Jay was the TA until 2 days before classes started - and only because Jay emailed him about it, and told Jay simply "I'm sure things are going fine" when he inquired as to grading policies and chat session topics). No pressure or anything...

 So after I escaped for a little alone time at the grocery store over naptime, I took the kids to the park so that they could get some fresh air and run out their pent-up energy (it took 2.5 hours), and Daddy could work in peace. There was swinging and sliding, driving of trucks, making of new friends, and major excitement when their buddy Will showed up.

(I know it's blurry, but she's just so CUTE!)

(He's going to be just like his Daddy was as a kid - always with a car in his pocket)

(Can you believe they can still fit in there together?!)

(Playing soccer with Will and his Daddy Al)

GREAT SCOTT!

SOMEBODY DIDN'T FEEL WELL TODAY

Cora spent most of the day either in my arms or in a carrier. When she doesn't feel well, she is super clingy like this, so whatever is going on with her must hurt. Whether it's her incoming molars or her cold that's bothering her, or a combination of the two, I don't know. She hardly ate anything (a few bites of cereal, half a Babybel cheese, a handful of yogurt-covered raisins, some juice and milk, and a lot of ice). Until dinner. She downed two slices of pizza in record time. Then she seemed to get into her groove...

This is seriously the BEST way to wear the kids out before bed. We've always encouraged running in circles in the evening, but tonight was just awesome. You can't pay for this kind of entertainment!

And P.S., who taught Cora how to do somersaults?