Friday, November 19, 2010

A Day In The Life

Emma

This morning at 2:00 am, Emma started making the B sound. Or kind of a cross between the B and F.

Jack

In the car on the way to gymnastics, Emma sneezed and Jack said "Bess Yooooou". =-) Also a minute ago, Jack said "Chee Ben Ha" which was actually "I want cheese like Ben has". I am very impressed!

Ben

Today was the deciding factor in whether or not we would continue in gymnastics since he hadn't participated the last two times. He made me proud by participating with enthusiasm!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Post-Halloween Post

What a super busy month on the run-up to the holidays!

On Halloween morning we took the kids to "spooky story time" at the Fayetteville Public Library. All the kids were in costume, they did a couple of stories and a couple of songs and then ended with a parade around the children's library. At the end of the parade the kids were all given Tootsie pops covered in a Kleenex painted with a little ghost face and tied with a piece of orange yarn (and a coupon for a couple of donuts at Rick's Bakery).



We also had a great visit from Mimama and G-Daddy who brought the boys Halloween books and musical Halloween cards which they LOVED!





Halloween night we took the kiddos to the NWA Mall for "Mall-o-ween" where they had a costume contest and trick-or-treating around the stores.
Below is Rob with Jack on stage:


Ben enjoying some of the candy while Jack is on stage:


Then we went home and lit up the jack-o-lantern on the dining table while we ate a quick dinner:




After dinner, Rob and the grandparents took the boys trick-or-treating to our usual stops: Uncle Matt & Aunt Aimee's house, Aimee's Mom's house and Aimee's Aunt's house, and new this year - Grandpa Huber's house!

So glad the boys love each other. =-)


Rob snapped some good pictures of Emma looking cute:


Ben found an old tape player in my bedside table. I found an old Huey Lewis tape and he listened to it almost constantly for 3 days. Then he turned it over to Jack:


In there somewhere we also had a fun night at Uncle Eric and Christi's house for a Halloween potluck. Last weekend Rob and the boys went camping with Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer at Devil's Den. The boys had a great time and Emma and I went down for lunch both Saturday and Sunday. Emma and I went shopping on Saturday to spend some of my birthday money and I confess, it was more fun buying a few things for her. =-)

Ben

We found out it wasn't too late to get into the "HIPPY" state sponsored home preschool program. They provide us with weekly lesson plans, school supplies and a weekly home visit to go over things and review the last week's lesson. So far I love it! Sooo much better than the pre-school curriculum I downloaded. Once per month we have an event with all the other home pre-school families in our area. This month we went to the children's library (which we had never been to). Next month is a Christmas party at the pizza place in town. Should be fun!

Ben is doing great with the lessons and gets really excited when we get to do any gluing or play with the shapes. He is doing great and gets almost everything right. Our "teacher" tested him a couple of weeks ago and even though it was his nap time and he was being shy, he did pretty well. When she asked him to name body parts the only one he didn't get was "jaw". I never thought to teach him that one. She said most kids don't get that one or "heel". Also when she was asking what color some boxes were, he called brown black and then didn't know what to call black. He knew pink though (which seemed to surprise her), and I think he got gray right. He was too shy to hop on one foot until I bribed him with Halloween candy.

Gymnastics went well for the first few times but yesterday he didn't really participate. He said he wants to go, but I told him if he doesn't participate and actually DO the gymnastics that the teacher wants them to do then we aren't going to go anymore. We'll see what happens next Friday. Maybe he was just tired or didn't feel well. One other little girl didn't want to go in at all and her mother took her home. It looks like great fun to me. Sometimes I want to join in!

Had to take Ben in for a well child check up as part of the HIPPY qualification and unfortunately he was due for shots which he was not happy about (especially because there was an autistic child in one of the rooms screaming "I don't want a shot! I don't want a shot!"). The Doctor said he was doing well and we should schedule a dental visit since he hasn't had one yet. Both boys are scheduled for January 6th. Can't believe they are already booked that far out.

I asked Ben what he wanted for Christmas and he said a metronome. Funny boy. More funny Ben things:

Ben: (as Rob was leaving) We'll see you soon! Stop at the red lights and don't crash into cars.


Ben: "Skeglekood."
Me: (blinking) "...what?"
Ben: "Skeglekood. It means 'Could you get me more juice please?'"
Me: "Ah! Okay."


Ben: The Doctor said "Do you want your arm to hurt?"
Me: Uh... I don't think he said that.
Ben: Yes he did a little bit in my imagination.


Jack

Our littlest man seems to be growing up so fast. He has started wanting to dress himself and he is also putting more words together. They're getting clearer too. It's really helpful to know what he wants now. I've been trying to get him to stop screaming when he gets frustrated (and use words instead) and it's going pretty well. Mostly he says "No Ben!" ha ha.

Emma

Still waiting to hear "Mama" but she sure has got "Dada" down. Still waking up a few times per night. I've tried feeding more during the day, but it doesn't seem to matter. When she does wake up she won't go back to sleep until I feed her, so I guess she's just growing and needs the extra feedings. She's not as good a sleeper as Jack who slept about 10 hours at 7 months (if I recall correctly), but she's way better than Ben who woke up every 2 hours until he was like a year old. Still won't take a bottle but I'm trying! No teeth yet. The boys got their first teeth at 8 months, and she'll be 8 months the day after Thanksgiving so it shouldn't be long.

Next update... Post Thanksgiving.