i forgot

we went to visit the nanaw's today.

it's an hour drive there and back and i made sure to take my camera so that we could get an updated 5 Generation photo.

i forgot to get a 5 generation photo.

in fact, i only took one picture.

some people might think: "FAIL! what was the point of taking even one picture??"

yeah, that's my youngest son with my great grandma. his great-great-grandma.

there is a ninety-seven year and seven month age gap between the two.

that's the point.

be on the look out...

for pictures of our new ''school'' as the little dudes call it.

i had the great idea to clean out half of our disorganized, cluttered and full of total crap unfinished basement, to used as a playroom/classroom. it's a good sized space and it has a full size window that lets in a lot of light. while it's all cement and drywall i knew that if we tried hard enough we could (in the words of tim gunn) "make it work". my goal was to have a nice, clean, SAFE place for the kids to play and learn without spending a lot of money. we already had 2 art easels, a little tikes table, 2 totes of toys and basic shelving. so with the help of b, nanaw and papa (and the dollar tree) i was able to do just that!

i will post pics sometime tomorrow evening. i want to let the little dudes see it first (they were so excited that they couldn't fall asleep!) and i want to snap the pics in daylight :)

what a big boy!

i know, i know lately all my posts have been about how big the boys are getting. well that's because they are. case in point, pooks:

pooks gave up the binky back in april. he turned 2 in may. then, in july he started potty training himself. in august he started sleeping in a twin bed. and now? well for the last two weeks someone has decided that he is much to big to wear a diaper. actually he downright refuses. he has been wearing pull-ups and underwear only. well a week ago we ran out of pull-ups so (following his lead in all this) we switched to underwear. we have pull-ups for bedtime and nap (he usually stays dry during nap...over night, not so much) but even during errands, pooks wears his big boy underwear. so far *knock on wood* we have not had an accident while out and about. we do have accidents at home but i think it's because he gets so busy playing that going potty is an inconvenience.

today was accident free. today pooks even went #2 on the potty (this is only the 3rd time for that!). and while sitting on the potty he insists on ''weading his book''. here is a video (and yes, WARNING! he is on the potty in this video!) of him reading outloud:

we made the plunge!

into home-schooling that is!

we had every intention of bubba attending a pre-school this year, however that just isn't possible. there simply are not enough schools for the number of toddlers in the area. he is on a wait list at the one I really want him to get in to, but she (the woman who runs the preschool) said it is a long list and my best move is to get him on the wait list for 4 year old preschool when that list opens in FEBRUARY! so in february i would have to get pooks on the 3yo wait list, then get bubba on the 4yr old wait list and hope they make the cut. being on the list, doesn't guarantee a spot! every kid who attends preschool here must attend a private or church based school, as preschool is only provided by the school district for need-based students. it is really frustrating!

what adds to that mounting frustration is that bubba really, really, really wants to go to school. he wants to learn and he wants to have friends and it's hard. i try to work with both older boys at home, they do love to learn. whether it's books or flashcards, trips (like questing) or crafts they pay attention and they take it seriously. i sneak learning into everything i can. trips to the grocery store we talk about the color and shape of produce. we talk about vitamins and healthy food, we count and we talk about opposites. on walks we talk about nature, animals, the weather, etc. even watching something as simple as ''Home Cooking with Paula Deen" we count how many eggs she adds, whats in each little dish, etc.

so after researching a bit online, looking at other preschool/daycare curriculums and lesson plans, i decided that i will homeschool them, at least for now. it's not a complete shocker; i was going to school for early childhood education...i do have an interest in teaching and i think it will be good for all of us.

we started this on monday and will do it monday-friday for 30-45mins each day. normally 3 year old preschool is 2 hours, twice a week. i know my kids and i know that i would never get them to pay attention for 2 straight hours. i am very much following their lead on this, i want it to be fun and educational!

so, every morning when peanut goes down for his nap (around 10am) we have ''school time''. they each go potty, wash their hands, we pick up all the toys and turn the tv off, then we sit at the kitchen table. each week follows a simple structured routine so they know what to expect. each week we focus on a theme, followed by learning a vocabulary word about that theme, as well as a letter, a number, a shape/color, and a nursery rhyme or song.

on monday's i put together our ''learning board''. i show them each thing that we will learn that week. so for example here is this weeks board:
(the theme is cows, the vocabulary word is 'calf', the letter is A, the number is 1, the shape is a square and the rhyme is 'hey diddle diddle')

on monday they watched me place each thing on the learning board and i briefly said what it was. then we learned all about cows. while they colored a picture of a cow, i read them 2 short books about farms and animals, adding in extra tidbits about cows: what they eat, drink, where they live, etc. we talked about what colors they can be and then i introduced the vocabulary word: calf. i sang ''hey diddle diddle'' a few times and then we roamed all around downstairs acting like cows. mooing and pretending to eat grass, corn and hay. they *loved* it!

it is kind of freaky how much information these kids retain! they told B (and nanaw and papa too) all about cows later that day.

tuesday we said 'hey diddle diddle again' then talked all about squares. after talking about them, looking at a few on flashcards and in their workbooks, we went on a square hunt. we walked, crawled and ran all through the house finding every square that we could. on rugs, the backsplash of their kitchen, potholders, blocks, books...you name it and these kids found it. bubba even corrected pooks several times when he pointed to a rectangle but called it a square! ''dat's not a square [pooks], dats a wecktangle. it's got yittle sides and big sides. see?"] they were more than happy to point out all the squares when B came home too!

today was ''letter A" day. (for now, we're working just on capital letters) this actually worked much better than i thought, and i think i will probably do this every wednesday on letter day.

basically, i needed to multitask and had to do so creatively. i needed to go grocery shopping and do ''school time'' both before peanut's nap. so i combined them! before we left the house i told them how today we were going to find all the letter A's at the store. in signs, on cereal, posters, toys, etc. when they saw an 'A' they needed to tell me and we would take a picture of it. (i took our old point and shoot digital camera and an 'A' magnet with us). we needed to find lots of A's so we could take the pictures home and make an A poster.

holy cow did they do awesome, bubba especially. pooks caught on and found a few all by himself but bubba was pointing them out left and right. on big signs, little bags, boxes--he even found one on Barb's name tag which he promptly took a picture of:

nevermind the blurriness, he is 3 after all!

so now they are napping and i'm getting ready to print off all of their letter A's. on friday, which is a review day of the week, we will make our poster.

overall, it's going really well. they are genuinely excited when i say that it is school time and actually listen to me! what a concept, right??

another one bites the dust

well another weekend has come and left. wake me up when september ends! it is going to be a lllloooong rest of the month people. B is working every weekend from here til oct 1st because it's the end of the fiscal year. he does this every year but as we keep adding kiddos, each year gets a little bit more difficult! mama is tired! i'm use to having the weekend as a little mini break, a chance to sleep in and take things easy.

not this weekend!

it's been eventful and fun but there has also been plenty of drama and adjusting!

when you consider that peanut is now officially mobile, adjusting takes on a new meaning. before i could run upstairs to pee and he'd be right where i left him. now, he is under the kitchen table or trying to get into the dog kennel. he already ate some mystery carpet crumbs this morning (i'm 90% sure it was 1/2 a cheerio) and he's had more than one toy yanked from his hands followed by a loud "NO NO BABY! you're too yittle!" let's just say i'm not the only one adjusting. ahem.

speaking of toddlers with a dramatic flare, bubba received his very first "serious" injury. i put quotes on that because while it wasn't a broken bone/stitches situation there was a LOT of blood and even more tears. friday afternoon we were playing outside waiting for B to get home from work. peanut was in his jumper and the boys were riding their assorted bikes, trikes, cars and fire trucks. bubba was attempting to run over to his bike before pooks got to it (sidenote: pooks wasn't even attempting to get the bike, bubba just thought that he was) and in his hurry he tripped. when he tripped he stopped his fall with his face, but mainly his lips. tears and screaming started immediately. i rushed over and picked him up then ran to the laundry room and grabbed a washcloth and some ice. (that sounds odd, most people don't keep ice in their laundry room. unless you know that our deep freeze is in the laundry room which is in the garage) i was trying to figure out if his teeth/tooth went through his lip, if he knocked any teeth out, what exactly was bleeding and how bad it was.

thankfully it wasn't that bad. okay it was bad but it could have been much worse! it looks like he took a layer or two of skin off his lips. both lips, which i'm sure hurts but i was just so glad that he didn't need stitches! it took him sucking on 3 ice cubes before he would even let me see what was going on but i felt much better once he showed me. i didn't take any pics that day/night...it was traumatic enough without me going all paparazzi on him. here are pics from saturday morning though:
ouch! luckily i'm a nice mommy who gave into his request of a ''ice queem dink from starbucks to make my yips feel better'' and since then, they have felt remarkably better.

so we've got a crawling baby, an injured toddler and what else? how about a potty training 2 year old! pooks is doing great! he hasn't worn a diaper in days. in fact, even on recent trips to target and dillons he wore his big boy underwear (not a pull-up but real undies). he's had a few accidents with going #2 (at home) but we're working on it! pooks potty training is only adding to the chaos with peanut crawling because we're constantly running upstairs to go potty and i can't bring peanut into the bathroom (unless the tub is dry and i have somewhere to set him).

so we have a crawling baby, an injured toddler, a potty training two year old and what else? oh yeah, on saturday we had one of our playgroup friends over. little L is 9 months old and a very avid crawler! his parents just bought a house about 3 blocks from our house and i volunteered to watch little L for a few hours so they could paint. surprisingly having 4 kids all 3 and under wasn't any more difficult than any other day around here. lol! and they had a lot of fun!

little L and peanut sharing the jumperoo

"fighting" over a choo-choo

saturday evening i cheated and ordered Chinese food for dinner, lol! b didn't mind and neither did the kids. i enjoyed having a nice little break :)

this morning we were planning on having nanaw and papa over for Grandparent's day, the plan
was to get up, get dressed get a super cute picture of the kids to slip into the card and then have a big breakfast at our house. i was prepared to make waffles, scrambled eggs, hash browns and bacon. however, things did not go as planned.

getting the picture was an entire ordeal that i never imagined taking so long! and no, it wasn't the kids' fault! they did great and we got a great pic. the problem was in ordering it. i immediately sent it off to walgreen's to get printed while we finished getting ready. after a quick run to starbucks it was time to pick up the photos, 10 am. i get the kids all unbuckled and into the store only to find out that they don't turn the photo machine on until 10am so it'll be about 15-20 minutes.

fine.

so i text nanaw to tell her not 10:30, maybe 10:45am. i buckle all the kiddos up and we run to the grocery store to pick up something for supper. after another round of unbuckling and then buckling, we get back to walgreens. i unbuckle three carseats yet again, and we return to the photo dept. the guy working (the same guy that was working 15 minutes earlier) then proceeds to tell me that my 4x6s are ready for pick-up but unfortunately they ran out of 8 inch paper (yesterday!!!) so my 8x10 and 5x7s won't be ready until...get this...NEXT saturday!!?

great.

it's not like they were for a GIFT or anything. so fine whatever, i take the photos that are ready and return to the car. i buckle the kids up and head back to our house where it is now 10:35. we pull in, i unbuckle everyone and we get in the house just as nanaw and papa pull up.

now, do you think that i have brunch ready? yeah that was a huge no. so we scrapped that idea and went out for lunch. are my parent's flexible or what! (oh and they seemed to really enjoy the picture too!) so after a deliciously stuffing lunch where i ate way too much, we came home, played outside and then they took a nap. and i think i may have heard the hallelujah chorus sing when they finally settled down and a hush fell over the house.

i'm beat. and it's only the first weekend of B working. one down two more weekends to go. i know one thing though, i'm treating myself to a pedicure this week---even if it means paying a hobo to watch the kids, i'll get that pedicure!