The other small victory is that I can now put Mary's hair up!
There were pig tails on Christmas eve...more pics to come.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Victory
There have been two victories for us lately. One is that I can now pull into our garage. The garage was a mess when I moved in (4.5 years ago!). So you can imagine that my organized self was having an embolism whenever I walked out there. I just stopped walking out there for a while, but finally I can park in there!
The other small victory is that I can now put Mary's hair up!
There were pig tails on Christmas eve...more pics to come.
The other small victory is that I can now put Mary's hair up!
There were pig tails on Christmas eve...more pics to come.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Christmas Walk
It's taken me a while to update all the things we've done over Christmas. Last week we went to the Neiderman Farm up in Liberty to do their Christmas walk. It's totally free and you get hot chocolate afterward! They have a walk through the bible that is lit up with Christmas lights. It was a really fun thing to do as a family. The kids seemed cold, as you will see below, but when I pulled Noah out of the car seat he was sweating! Daddy likes to bundle them up nice and tight. We also had a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our community group, but you'll have to see pictures of that on FB because I didn't take any. Just my friend Trish. It was a really fun night spent with really great people. Here are pics from the walk:
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Shapes, colors, letters, oh my!
I thought I would share the things we're using to teach Mary these things in case any other mamas out there want to try them.
Mary knows all of her basic shapes and points them out regularly. I attribute this mostly to the baby Einstein discovering shapes DVD. They do a good job of saying the shape name a lot. And it helped when I sat down and watched it with her and said, "Say rectangle!" When I realized she was getting it I got her this shapes puzzle by Melissa and Doug which was such a great learning tool. I would take all the shapes out and "hide" them in my lap. Then I'd count to three and pull one out. She usually laughed at that...not sure why:) But then I'd say the name of the shape and have her say it. It took her a while to tell the difference between circle and oval, and rectangle and square, but now she can tell them apart.
For colors we mostly just name the colors of things around us. But this stacker is SOOOOOO good for helping her with colors. We just started talking about colors last week and already she can name most of the seven basic colors (think ROY G. BIV). This stacker has all those colors and I also think it's good for her development otherwise. She's just getting to the point where she can stack them in order and when she gets it wrong she knows. She'll take them off and put them in the right order. For this I just have her name the colors as she's putting them on the peg. We also now name random colors of things around the house.
Letters...she's not great at them. But she does know a few by sight and she can sing the ABC's. Which apparently is all you have to be able to do going into kindergarten. I feel like you should be able to do more than that by the time you're 5, but that's just me. Anyway, I really like this DVD by leap frog. It does a great job making the letter sounds, it's fun, and there's nothing in it that I wouldn't want Mary to see. We also visit starfall, have flashcards, and use this puzzle (thanks mom!). I try to work on one letter at a time, but she also sees a lot of other letters because of the video and puzzles. It's a work in progress:) She's been getting a show almost every day now because it's so cold I don't even step outside most days. This bugged me at first, but I know once it gets warm we'll be running around outside during that time instead!
As for numbers, we just count as we're doing things. Once she could count to 3 I just started working her up. She can make it to 10 now. Three is easy because we're always counting to three. Like when doing puzzles, jumping, etc. We have the chunky puzzle that is similar to the letters one above, but haven't started using it yet. I'd like her to know her letters before we conquer numbers. For now just being able to count out loud is sufficient for me. Hope this helps some of you working with your little ones!
Mary knows all of her basic shapes and points them out regularly. I attribute this mostly to the baby Einstein discovering shapes DVD. They do a good job of saying the shape name a lot. And it helped when I sat down and watched it with her and said, "Say rectangle!" When I realized she was getting it I got her this shapes puzzle by Melissa and Doug which was such a great learning tool. I would take all the shapes out and "hide" them in my lap. Then I'd count to three and pull one out. She usually laughed at that...not sure why:) But then I'd say the name of the shape and have her say it. It took her a while to tell the difference between circle and oval, and rectangle and square, but now she can tell them apart.
For colors we mostly just name the colors of things around us. But this stacker is SOOOOOO good for helping her with colors. We just started talking about colors last week and already she can name most of the seven basic colors (think ROY G. BIV). This stacker has all those colors and I also think it's good for her development otherwise. She's just getting to the point where she can stack them in order and when she gets it wrong she knows. She'll take them off and put them in the right order. For this I just have her name the colors as she's putting them on the peg. We also now name random colors of things around the house.
Letters...she's not great at them. But she does know a few by sight and she can sing the ABC's. Which apparently is all you have to be able to do going into kindergarten. I feel like you should be able to do more than that by the time you're 5, but that's just me. Anyway, I really like this DVD by leap frog. It does a great job making the letter sounds, it's fun, and there's nothing in it that I wouldn't want Mary to see. We also visit starfall, have flashcards, and use this puzzle (thanks mom!). I try to work on one letter at a time, but she also sees a lot of other letters because of the video and puzzles. It's a work in progress:) She's been getting a show almost every day now because it's so cold I don't even step outside most days. This bugged me at first, but I know once it gets warm we'll be running around outside during that time instead!
As for numbers, we just count as we're doing things. Once she could count to 3 I just started working her up. She can make it to 10 now. Three is easy because we're always counting to three. Like when doing puzzles, jumping, etc. We have the chunky puzzle that is similar to the letters one above, but haven't started using it yet. I'd like her to know her letters before we conquer numbers. For now just being able to count out loud is sufficient for me. Hope this helps some of you working with your little ones!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Awakening
I've been listening to this song a lot on youtube:
It is so good. About 10.5 years ago I first heard about having a relationship with Christ. This was foreign to me because I thought God was just about rules. That I just had to be good and that's all He wanted from me. But that is so far from the truth. We had a prayer gathering last week with some people from my church and someone prayed for me. He said that God wanted to be my comfort. The next day I read this from Isaiah 43:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
This is how God feels about us. He wants more than rule followers. That song puts into words what I felt 10 years ago when I decided that I wanted more with God. I wanted to know him and he awakened my soul. Who doesn't want that? To really feel alive? Thank you Jesus for making that possible!
Oh, and as a side note, when I got on the computer this morning this article was up:) Pretty sure my husband is amazing.
It is so good. About 10.5 years ago I first heard about having a relationship with Christ. This was foreign to me because I thought God was just about rules. That I just had to be good and that's all He wanted from me. But that is so far from the truth. We had a prayer gathering last week with some people from my church and someone prayed for me. He said that God wanted to be my comfort. The next day I read this from Isaiah 43:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
This is how God feels about us. He wants more than rule followers. That song puts into words what I felt 10 years ago when I decided that I wanted more with God. I wanted to know him and he awakened my soul. Who doesn't want that? To really feel alive? Thank you Jesus for making that possible!
Oh, and as a side note, when I got on the computer this morning this article was up:) Pretty sure my husband is amazing.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Winter
I am not a fan of winter. Flubs closes. It gets cold. It snows. Combine those things and it means I don't get my favorite ice cream, I can't go outside and neither can my rambunctious 2 year old, and we don't drive anywhere because I'm terrified of driving in the snow. However, it also means cute and cuddly kids all bundled up! I really wanted some good hats for my kids and I also don't like paying $15 a hat. A friend of mine posted pictures on her blog of some hats she crocheted for her kids and she shared the pattern with me (thanks steph!) So here are some pictures of Mary bundled up and of the hat that I made. The pattern is here if you'd like it!
5 months
Nono is 5 months old now! He's got such a great smile. I just love going in to get him when he wakes up because he smiles so brightly up at me. Like Yes! Mommy came to get me! Here he is smiling at daddy:
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