Took a tour of Central United Methodist Church's "Hand In Hand" pre-school program last Thursday and loved it. Ben went with us of course and seemed to like it as well. Their facility is so open and fun, yet they have a locked building where you have to enter a code to get in, plus they run cameras that record to computer in every room. I liked everyone I met including the director and the two ladies who would be in Ben's classroom.
So he started his first day this past Tuesday. I left Jack and Emma at home with Grandpa Huber and took Ben so I could spend some time with him the first morning (and because it was snowing and VERY cold out). Turns out it was completely unnecessary! As soon as we took his coat off and put his things away he went straight to playing with new toys. When I told him I was going to go he didn't seem to care at all - a great relief to me!
When I went to pick him up (a little early at 2:15 instead of 2:30) the first thing he said was "Why are you here?" Then he asked me if he could ride the school bus. =-)
He will go from 8:30am - 2:30pm Tuesdays and Thursdays until he starts kindergarten in the fall.
We still have gymnastics on Friday mornings and are still doing the HIPPY home pre-school. It's pretty busy around here!
More on holiday adventures later!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Funny Things Ben Says
Ben: Mommy, can we have more kids?
Me: More kids to play with?
Ben: No, more kids like that guy who bought Daddy's bucket truck. (He told us he had 7!)
Me: Oh. You want more brothers and sisters?
Ben: No, just boys.
Me: I think we're done honey. You'll just have to be happy with a brother and a sister.
Me: More kids to play with?
Ben: No, more kids like that guy who bought Daddy's bucket truck. (He told us he had 7!)
Me: Oh. You want more brothers and sisters?
Ben: No, just boys.
Me: I think we're done honey. You'll just have to be happy with a brother and a sister.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Smarty Pants
Ben
I was reading Parenting magazine a couple of weeks ago - there are a lot of toy ads in it. Ben was sitting beside me and we came to an ad with a light switch on it. It said "ON" at the top and "OFF" at the bottom. Benjamin pointed to it and said "Mommy, why does this say 'on' and this says 'off'?" I have been wondering just how much he can read when he doesn't say anything.
Today I was getting his shirt ready for him to put on. It's an IZOD which the tag clearly states. He was looking at it upside down and said "Why does that say 'ZOO'?" I'm pretty darn impressed!
Jack
Yesterday Jack saw some bananas on the counter and was motioning that he wanted one. I started it for him and handed him the whole banana thinking I would most likely end up with banana mushed into the floor. I was wrong! He ate down to where the peel stopped, then he peeled it some more, ate some more, etc., until it was all gone. Then he threw the peel in the trash!
Emma
Last night, Emma slept 12 hours only waking up once. She has not done this... maybe ever. I guess between the growing and teething she just needed to eat more. We'll see if the trend continues. She is getting much better at sitting up and not falling over. I'm betting we have crawling soon after Christmas.
I was reading Parenting magazine a couple of weeks ago - there are a lot of toy ads in it. Ben was sitting beside me and we came to an ad with a light switch on it. It said "ON" at the top and "OFF" at the bottom. Benjamin pointed to it and said "Mommy, why does this say 'on' and this says 'off'?" I have been wondering just how much he can read when he doesn't say anything.
Today I was getting his shirt ready for him to put on. It's an IZOD which the tag clearly states. He was looking at it upside down and said "Why does that say 'ZOO'?" I'm pretty darn impressed!
Jack
Yesterday Jack saw some bananas on the counter and was motioning that he wanted one. I started it for him and handed him the whole banana thinking I would most likely end up with banana mushed into the floor. I was wrong! He ate down to where the peel stopped, then he peeled it some more, ate some more, etc., until it was all gone. Then he threw the peel in the trash!
Emma
Last night, Emma slept 12 hours only waking up once. She has not done this... maybe ever. I guess between the growing and teething she just needed to eat more. We'll see if the trend continues. She is getting much better at sitting up and not falling over. I'm betting we have crawling soon after Christmas.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Post Thanksgiving Picture Post
Finally uploaded pictures of the boys during their camping trip with Daddy & Gigi & Grandpa.
Eating s'mores:
The view from their window is good...
Miss Emma is sitting up by herself now.
She also got her first tooth (lower right) on December 1st!
Ben wanted me to take a picture of his play-doh parts tower:
Rub-a-dub-dub. Daddy is more brave than Mommy. He gave all 3 kids a bath at once! To be fair though, Mommy did come and get them one at a time and got them dried off and dressed.
A fun Thanksgiving night with the Huber clan:
Down to Little Rock to visit with Mimama & G-Daddy & lots of cousins.
Lots of Grandkids (and Great-Grandkids for Memo):
Left to right - Pat Graham, Billie Galloway, Barbara Maloney, Leslie Peresta
Kaitlyn Floring, Jack, Ben, Emma, Owen Peresta
Great-Aunt Pat is the baby whisperer:
We had a great photo shoot with Aimee in November too! (Elemental Photography)
The tree is up and decorated, the stockings are hung, and Ben got a personalized video message from Santa! Next post should be after Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
Eating s'mores:
The view from their window is good...
Miss Emma is sitting up by herself now.
She also got her first tooth (lower right) on December 1st!
Ben wanted me to take a picture of his play-doh parts tower:
Rub-a-dub-dub. Daddy is more brave than Mommy. He gave all 3 kids a bath at once! To be fair though, Mommy did come and get them one at a time and got them dried off and dressed.
A fun Thanksgiving night with the Huber clan:
Down to Little Rock to visit with Mimama & G-Daddy & lots of cousins.
Lots of Grandkids (and Great-Grandkids for Memo):
Left to right - Pat Graham, Billie Galloway, Barbara Maloney, Leslie Peresta
Kaitlyn Floring, Jack, Ben, Emma, Owen Peresta
Great-Aunt Pat is the baby whisperer:
We had a great photo shoot with Aimee in November too! (Elemental Photography)
The tree is up and decorated, the stockings are hung, and Ben got a personalized video message from Santa! Next post should be after Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)