Thursday, November 12, 2009

What's New?

A fun part about life with kids is there is always something new going on. Or is that the bad thing about life with kids? I guess it depends on what that new thing is!

Seven new things around our house:

1.
My 4 year old daughter just learned to pump herself on the swing. She is so proud, we are so proud, and now she spends a good part of each day doing this!

Is it just me or do little girls like to swing much more than boys? Boys would rather climb and slide and don't have the patience to stick with the swing long enough to actually get themselves going with the pumping.


2.
But, my boy? The 6 year old has entered this phase:


And I love seeing it so much! He's reading chapter books silently to himself, often, and by choice. Sometimes even while standing! We bought The Boxcar Children Books 1-4 at my daughter's school book fair on Monday and he is totally loving them!

3.
For the toddler, he has entered the phase of language development where he realizes the need for past-tense (as in adding -ed to words) but is still not quite sure when and how to do it. Favorite things I've heard him say recently:
"I sleep-did!" meaning, "I slept."
"I hop-did!" meaning "I hopped."

and my absolute favorite:
"I naked-did!" meaning, "I'm naked!"

4.
And speaking of the toddler, at 2 years and 6 months he is not potty trained even though his big sister was at 23 months and his big brother at 2 years and 2 months. I tried. I failed.

But on a positive note, the toddler has been grabbing wipes and wiping himself during dirty diaper changes. So, I've switched my strategy and instead of trying to potty train him, I'm just gonna teach him to change his own diaper!

5.
And this has been going on a lot around here lately. In fact my house is over-run with them. The acorns! They are in piles on kid tables, in envelopes brought home from school, in little baggies, in cups, basically everywhere! Anyone else have little acorn collectors?

6.
Oh, and the Batman turkey. I'm not sure whether to count this as the high or low point of the week. But we did complete the 1st grade family Thanksgiving project. A note came home telling us to cut out the attached turkey and paste it on poster board and then decorate it in a creative way. We embellished our turkey with felt Batman accessories, a cape and mask made of silky fabric, and fabric feathers.

7.
And my husband and I? May or may not be navigating the waters of exactly how much to help on kid school projects. Granted this one did specify it was to be a "fun family project". But still, I draw the line at actually coloring over an area my child had colored just to make it look better. My husband, however, apparently does not have that same line! He may have caved to the pressure of the other turkeys he saw hanging in the school hall that were turned in early (before we even started ours) and looked as he put it, "professionally done, like the parents took it to Michaels and let someone there do it for them!"

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart, Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

9 comments:

  1. Precious things happening at your house! LOL
    That last paragraph cracked me up because if you have read my blog for any period of time you know I would have done the project myself while the kids watched! LoL
    Happy Friday My Friend.
    Kim

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  2. I love it when the children love to swing for ever. That looks like a very big and strong swing set. Did you make it.
    Wow, we love acorns but can only collect them when we visit the town 1 hours drive away.
    God Bless

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  3. I think the swing thing depends -- if a boy thinks there's a chance if he swings hard enough he'll fly around the pole, he might stick with it for awhile. Grim determination and all that. .. .

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  4. I used to collect acorns when I was little. Then one day I got the bright idea to cut one open- while it was in my hand. Big mistake! Now every time I see an acorn, I see blood!

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  5. I think I have figured out why I so enjoy your blog. It brings me back to my yesterdays when my kids were young and stirs my memories and makes me smile. I will tell you this about school projects if it helps. Over the years we covered every aspect there was to doing them. From doing the entire thing ourselves while they stood watching, (the science fair ones get hairy) to feeling guilty that we had and so then making them do the whole thing themselves next time telling them they MUST learn to do things by themselves, to settling in on a happy medium. We did them together. And you know what? My kids are all young adults now and what they remember isn't what they were suppose to be learning at the time, they remember mom and dad involved and caring and working together on something that brought us all closer and left us with wonderful memories. btw, your turkey is great, and girls DEFINITELY swing better, haha Have a great day...Blessings, Debbie

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  6. Oh, I love your post today! My "baby" is 36 yrs. old, but I still remember those same things that he did at that age! Such sweet memories. Yes, my granddaughters spent much more time on the swings than he did! We are so blessed to have children...God sure knew what He was doing when He said to multiply...there's just nothing like a child!

    Blessings,
    Mary

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  7. You are one funny lady! These takes made me smile a lot.

    #3- Naked-did. Love it.

    #4- I am filing away this idea for future reference.

    #6- That turkey is AWESOME :)

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  8. Love it! Especially the past tenses. I recognize that. My 4yo has outgrown that and my 2 yo (who has Down's) isn't even talking yet, but my 4yo has one other linguistic cute: he says "No I amn't!" Thanks for making me laugh early on a Saturday morning, after two nights with very little sleep...I needed it!

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  9. Gotta tell you that my 4yo boy LOVES the swings. So great that your 6yo is into the Boxcar Children books. I'm reading those to my daughter.

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I'd love to hear what you think!