A Happy Trifecta

A Happy Trifecta.  That's what this post is about.  And even though I'd written it a hundred times in my head, now that I'm here, my head is failing and the words I'd written are not coming back to me.  So, prepare thyself for some hideous writing and jumbled thoughts.  At the end of the day, though, the news is all good, so we'll just ignore the manner in which it is conveyed, yes? :)

The first good news is this: Jason has a new job.  This week is his third week in said job.  We took a little mini-holiday to Williamsburg to transition ourselves right before he started and that was lovely.

This is just Leif enjying one of his favorite pasttimes...watching ants.

The second big news is that we are expecting our second child in early November.  So, shortly after Leif turns 5, he should become a big brother.  I am 16 weeks (tomorrow) along and doing very well.  Today I had my second appointment with the midwife and we heard not only the baby's heartbeat (healthy) but also the sound of some rather vigorous gymnastics going on in there. 

The funny thing is, I didn't know I was pregnant for quite a while.  I had occasional symptoms (nausea while cooking eggs for breakfast once or twice) but otherwise had no clue until one day, I came down with a migraine.  I thought about it and I realized I hadn't had a migraine since my last pregnancy.  Essentially, I missed almost the entire first trimester which is a blessing because after the last pregnancy (and subsequent miscarriage) I would have been a nervous wreck.  Funny, I knew within days of my first two pregnancies, but was totally oblivious on this one until rather late.  I spent the whole first trimester wondering why I wasn't losing my Lenten weight (I gave up sugar and other fattening things) - and well, now I know. ;)  I ain't naturally blonde for nuttin'!  I actually haven't gained any weight yet in this pregnancy, only have lost, so that is nice, too :)

Leif and Jason "making their ends meet" in Williamsburg.  That phrase comes from the fact that only rich people could afford to own napkins so large they could tie them around the neck (making the ends of the napkins meet) - which is how the napkins were used at the time.  If you were doing well, your napkins were large and thus you could make your ends meet. :) 

Our Third bit of news is really only half news: We're looking for a house.  I'd like to say we've already bought a house (cause, hey! that would mean I'd already be IN it) but we're still looking.  We did find one we like, but we haven't made an offer on it yet...we're still keeping our eyed peeled for other properties :)

My handsome sweetheart.

So, between the new job, pregnancy, and looking for a new home for our growing family, we've been super busy.  I've been hauling things out of the storage shed all spring and decluttering, re-organizing, and re-packing.  The highlight was getting rid of all of our old computers, cameras and cords which we'd been toting from house to house (to house to house to house).  That was pounds of clutter I was tired of moving and storing in each house.

Anyway, that's our news!

Happy days! :)

Leif on Easter Sunday (in clothes he changed into after church - sadly, everyone changed out of their clothes before I could get a nice family portrait) with his basket full of Easter eggs after the hunt. :)

Homeschooling

This is Leif's Homeschooling Central, a little corner of his room where the bulk of his schooling activities are out on the shelves.

I've been meaning to do a little tour of his room (which is also his "classroom" if you want to call it that) for a while now. Plus, I wanted to talk about homeschooling, his progress, and few points on our homeschooling in general. I decided today, an overcast day with little light was the day to do it (despite the fact that I'd been waiting for a nice sunny day for pretty pictures). But then, in a Voltaire-ish mood, I decided to not let Perfection get in the way of Good. I'd procrastinated long enough. So enjoy the poorly lit, poorly taken photos and the long borish text. :)

I had started out all Montessori-centric, but there are two facts to doing Montessori at home:

1) It's wicked expensive (think slightly cheaper than putting your kid in an upscale private school).
2) You can never perfectly re-create the Montessori classroom in a home. Just ain't gonna happen. Esp. with one kid.

So, we've decided that pure Montessori goodness just wasn't going to happen for us, and we changed course.

That's one of the beautiful things about Homeschooling, though.

You can kinda just do whatever you want.

So, we are.

Our methodology now is a mix of education breeds, a blend of Montessori, unschooling, classical, and whatever floats our boat.

We have structure some days, but lately, it's been pretty unstructured, but he still gets in a lot of "schoolwork."

At his age, I'm a pretty big fan of learning through Play, because quite frankly, he's not interested in doing much else (nor should he be).

So, we do a lot of Memory Games, Go Fish, and other games like that which help improve his memory/memorization.

We've been doing these since he was 2 or so, but in the past few months he has improved so much that it's almost scary.

He almost always beats me at the Memory Games now, and I'm not one to let him win, just to let him win. (Then again, my memory isn't exactly a steel trap these days).

He's been doing a lot of coloring, too lately, which is great practice for handwriting.

In the past two days, he's developed so much in coloring that I didn't think he'd done two pages in a coloring book he showed me, but he had.

He's also written his first letter, L. And his second, S.

We've been reading, with a very light emphasis on him reading.So, he's read his first word, mat.

And he's read his second word, Madagascar.

That makes me laugh. So fitting!

Although we haven't done much of anything with it, he has started basic math (addition).

He's still in the very earliest stages of that, though (as in, I haven't even started teaching him that).

I've finally learned that my little boy is as hard headed as I am.

So, I don't force him to do things.

I don't even like to suggest things. I just let him find the items on his own.

I do this through strewing (leaving activities around the house to find, which he does, becomes interested in, and does them - think it's all his idea).

Here's a picture of a new activity (that he should definitely be able to do without me ever showing him) that I put out on his desk while he was in doing his lacing cards (excellent fine motor skills in that and great prep for writing!)

Most of the time, I don't strew them on his workdesk like this, but this one wasn't exactly one I could leave on the kitchen table.

I also get him interested in learning activities (and we don't really ever call it homeschooling, or school, or anything like - it's all games, activities and FUN) by starting to do the activity myself. A creature of curiosity, he'll come over and ask to play (of course I let him) and voila - he's learning on his own terms.

He's really into activity books right now, and while they weren't exactly my top choice for a homeschooling method, he can spend hours doing them and gets a lot from them. And since we're all about educating HIM the way it works best for HIM, I am more than happy to let him get all the activity bookage on that he wants!

Other than that, most of his activities look like this:

and live on that shelf in the first picture.

Each activity is on its own little tray so he can just grab a tray and go.

Represented in this picture are: (Top, L-R) Pencil Sharpening (which teaches Preparation, Care of Items, as well as fine motor skills), Bird Flash Cards (Nature/Science), Sandpaper Letters with Counters (preparation for writing, number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, math, etc).

On the lower shelf (L-R): Metal Insets (Preparation for Writing, Shapes, etc) and the last two trays are actually one activity, although you can't see it with the box on the right being closed. He puts the simple puzzle pieces together (that's the "dog" thing on the left) and then uses the wooden letters (in the closed box on the right) to spell out the name of the animal in the puzzle (ie, dog). We also use those wooden letters for a variety of other spelling purposes.

Oh, and the rugs in that first picture (in the basket on the right of the bookshelf) are for placing on the floor when he does floor activities, which are basically any of the activities too big for the table :)

I'm a pretty lax Homeschooling Momma, especially at this phase, because I believe pretty strongly that rushing kids into things before they're ready or willing will create a pretty furious backlash (and I say that as both general belief and from Homeschooling experience I've already gotten myself). Frankly, I'm not exactly the competitive type (understatement of the year) so I'm more than happy for Leif to continue at his own pace with little regard to what anyone else (in any schooling situation) is doing. I don't think rushing kids into things makes for smarter kids, and in fact, I think it can have the opposite effect. I'm more for encouraging a love of learning over just hammering facts into his head. We're in it for the long haul here, so I don't care if he isn't a master of toddler tricks (my pet peeve, actually) I just want him to be still eagerly learning when he's 60, 80 and until the end of his days. I'm a firm believer that learning is a lifelong pursuit, not just a mandatory sentence you endure until you graduate with a diploma or degree.

That being said, we homeschool for our very own unique reasons. I particularly like this little blog post 2p sent me a while back:

The Public School Parents' Guide to Homeschool Parents

I very much love #5, which states, "Our decision to homeschool is not a personal commentary on your decision not to. "

Which falls into the category of "Amen, sista!"

I totally couldn't agree more.

Homeschooling is a very, very, very personal choice for each family (and even each child within that family) and my decision to homeschool has no bearing whatsoever on what I think of your family's choice on the matter.

To each their own, I say.

Or, as my Dad always says, "Different strokes for different folks."

And about Socialization.

Since people always ask first thing about Socialization.

Here are my thoughts on that:

1) I believe that kids who are exposed to more social situations with a variety of people (age, ethnicity, etc) are better prepared for the "real world." Because the world, as we all know, is comprised of a mixture of people, not just your peers in the same age group as you.

I'd rather Leif has 20 friends in the 0-100+ age range than 100 friends in his exact age group.

2) That being said, I have every plan to enroll Leif in some fun classes (Karate, music, swimming) or such that will enable him to interact with a group of people, both his age group and not. When we were down South, I joined a Catholic Homeschooling Group shortly before we left, where we were going to go on educational and religious trips with these other families (kids of all ages), but alas, we moved and were never able to do that. Right now, we're not in a permanent situation (as far as where we live) so I'm not keen on the thought of joining a group that we'll possibly be leaving sooner rather than later (ie, when we get our own house). When we do get to that point, though, I will be hopping right on the karate, homeschooling group, etc. bandwagon. But, Leif still has interaction with plenty of other children (and adults) through his family/cousins, as well as swimming at the pool (where he meets lots of kids) and other outdoor adventures we go on frequently (parks, etc).

So, that is that.

A long diatribe in lieu of what otherwise could have been a very simple post.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Tiramisu? (Ooh, yes please!)

PS.  Fun pics of Leif in the post below, so don't miss that! :)

Waffle-Making

 

Stirring up the Waffle Batter!

Yesterday, Leif wanted nothing more to eat than WAFFLES.

So, Leif and Grandmom whipped up a batch.

He donned his apron and chef's hat (aka Baker Man's Hat) and set to work, stirring, measuring, and cracking eggs!

Lots of his favorite, stirring.

 

Cracking in the egg.

Thanking Grandmom for the napkin (because his hands were covered in egg mess). 

 Silly lad.

Virusageddon 2011

 

Uncle Ed, Leif and Sammy Dog all cuddle up in the sunroom to chat and read books.

You might have been thinking that we've fallen off the face of the Earth of late.

We have not, but it did kinda seem that way.

A few weekends ago, we had a big party - a Bull and Oyster Roast - that functioned as several things, several birthday parties, wishing Uncle Marcos' Adieu (he's off to Basic Training) and of course, The Annual Bull and Oyster Roast.  It was a fine time, with lots of good food.

The following evening, though, began a most unrighteous few weeks in which the entire household (sans Susan) became rather violently ill with the most vicious stomach flu I've ever had or seen.  I became sick first (I lost 12+ pounds in 5 hours if that tells you anything!), then a day or so later, Granddad had it, then Jason..and then my Leify.  Tummies still aren't running at full capacity, and Leify is still sick (although not contagious!) even now, over two weeks later.  Or is it three?  I dunno, I lost count.

When Leif became sick, he started becoming dehydrated very quickly.  He couldn't keep anything down - ginger tea, Pedialyte, water - it all came back up.  He was laying in the bathroom, snuggled in towels by the shower because as soon as he left the bathroom, he started up again with the vomiting.  It was constant. 

That night, I took him to the Dr. (the places where they have late hours and are open holidays) to see if they could give him an IV because he was showing so many signs of dehydration (and we've been there, done that with him, with no wish to do it again!)  They said they didn't do "Pediatric Fluids" meaning they don't give kids IVs there, so they called ahead to the ER, and told us we'd be seen right away, the Dr. was expecting us. 

Long story short, we sat in the ER for over two hours (and this in the middle of the night) - which is not fun for a vomiting child with diarhhea.  They wouldn't give him any water (policy) even though he was asking for it repeatedly.  I finally found a machine with bottled water and he took several big gulps.  When it hadn't come back up five minutes later, we were outta there.

So, sometime around 1am, I was doing laundry and giving Leif a bath before putting him to bed. 

In 27 hours (straight, with the exception of around 2 hours where I was sleeping), I did over 20 loads of laundry: 2 beds (multiple times each), every towel in sight, loads of clothes, etc. etc. because little guys don't know quite how to get to the toilet (or a container of some sort, at least!) when they're sick at the age of 4.  Who knew?

Anyway, I've dubbed the past few weeks "Virusageddon 2011" for obvious reasons.  Ugh.

But, it seems to be winding down now, so on to better things, right?

This was before Leif got sick.  He saw the dog snuggled up in the corner by the stove, and cuddled up next to him.  They both napped for over an hour there together!

 

Leif chomps into his cupcake at the birthday party portion of the Bull & Oyster Roast.

 

Uncle Ed read Leif and Same every single book in the sunroom. 

That's no small feat!

So, nohowz, we're on the mend here, slowly but surely.

Hopefully, things will get back to normal and then I'l be blogging more regularly again.

Happy Days!

Superbowl

Leif has fun playing his Tools Memory Game in his newly set up room.

I did a lot of work bringing in some furniture and getting his room set up for homeschooling.

So far, we're both loving it.

I'll do a post on that later, though :)

Jason and Leif watch the Superbowl.

I liked the food, but pulled out a gardening book and then worked on a chart for Leif.

Football, I spose, just ain't my thang.

Leif takes a nap in my bed...the light was gorgeous at the time (see the stripeyness on the pillow above his head?) but I couldn't quite capture it without a tripod (which I didn't feel like doing, so...)

Leif plays with his matchbox cars during the Super Bowl.

He had a late nap so he could stay up late for the game (which he wanted to watch with his Daddy, he said).

We've been busy working (Jason), playing (Leif), and working on an infinite amount of projects all at the same time (moi).

I'll blog more later on our homeschooling efforts and Leify's "new" room (which is still in the process of changing.

So stay tuned (but don't hold your breath, it could be a while!)

:)

Sickness Made Fun

Grandmom and Leify snuggle up in a bundle of colorful blankets to watch "Nanny McPhee Returns."

Leif hasn't been feeling well the past few days.

He's been coughing a lot, and his temperature has been slowly rising. After a fitful night of musical beds (long story), he clearly was not getting better.

So today I took him to the Dr. and the diagnosis was...

Strep Throat!

He's been a champ through it all, and his fever is down below 100 now, so I think he is feeling much better.

He's taking his medicine very well (although one is bubble gum flavored and one is grape flavored, so I was half-tempted to try it!), drinking fluids like he should, and laying low.

I got him a few movies so that is what he's doing tonight...snuggling on the couch with Grandmom, watching what he calls, "kid movies" (ie, not boring grown-up movies).

Hopefully, he'll sleep well tonight and be quickly on the mend.

The Dr. said that he is highly contagious until he's been taking the antibiotic for 24 hours...in fact, he even wore a mask in the Dr.'s office to prevent from spreading anything. He hated it, but he was a good boy despite that.

That picture was taken mere seconds ago...they are still in the same position now! :)

That's our story, then. G'Night!

Little Elf in the Snow

Little Elf playing in the snow
(in typical boy fashion, picking up big chunks of snow just to throw it back down and smash it).

He had so much fun doing this.

Jason and Leif made two snowmen in the backyard, a big Daddy snowman and a little Leify snowman.

Later, driving through the neighborhood, we saw that most of the yards had snowmen in them, and that was a real treat! :)

We love the Snow!

MORE Snow Pictures

 

Lifting big snow chunks with big muscles.

Climbing big snow chunks.

 

Sitting on big snow chunks.

 

Falling over carrying big snow chunks. 

HeeHee.

More Snow Pictures

More Emily Dickinson-esque-ness.

Making sure the boat is in pristine shape for Spring's Madagascar Expedition.

Climbing up "rocks" as he called them - large chunks of snow created by the snow plow truck blasting through.

Big steps for Leify-kind!

snow, Snow, SNOW!

It snowed! 
And little Elf went out to play.

He flopped in the snow (a lot), and floundered about most happily.

There's a certain slant of light... ;)

And there's a certain slant of Leify, playing in the snow.

Nativity Peg Dolls

 

Leif poses with the small army of Nativity People (and Animals) that I made for all the little local cousins as Christmas presents.

As a  child, I loved to play with our creche, but I was in constant fear of breaking things, especially the camels' spindly legs!

I figured Leif and his cousins might like to play with the Nativity People, too, and it would be nice if they (and their parents) didn't have to worry about anything breaking.

Enter the wooden peg people Nativity Scene.

From the Left, Sheep, Donkeys, Camels, Angels, Shepherd 1, Shepherd 2, Joseph, Baby Jesus in front, Mary in Blue, Wise Man 1, Wise Man 2, Wise Man 3, Star.

Each of the Wise Men carries a present (each of the three carries a different one), and each Shepherd carries a Shepherd's Crook.  The Angels have little wings on their backs :)

It took me around 5 full days to paint all of these little peeps, animals and stars.

I was going to leave the little Baby Jesus' heads bare, but I asked Twops and she said to do the little curly cue hair on his head.  I did, and now that's my favorite thing of it all! :)

This is an individual grouping (what each family got) pulled out from the large bunch.

They were each packaged in a little muslin drawstring bag (Susan made them) that I had stamped Joyeux Noel onto, and tied with a Christmas-y or plain ribbon.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture of all that in the Christmas rush.

 

Close up of the little faces and terrific haircuts that I gave some of them (heehee).

Overall, I was pleased with how they came out, but when I saw how some other (more artistic) people had painted their peg dolls online, it made me want to cry :\ they were so good.

Nevertheless, Leif loves to play with his set, and I think it will help build his understanding of Christmas as he plays with them each year.

Maybe next year I'll add in King Herod and soldier characters for an element of good v. evil.

Or not.

:)

Quick Leif Story of the Day: As mentioned in previous posts, Leif has actually taken to Mary Poppins after watching it twice.  The other day, I began to sing (song bombed by the movie playing in the background as I baked the day before): "Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Mary...." at which Leif burst out in song, "Mary makes the sun shine bright!" <3

A Mid-Winter Tea Party

Katie, Sarah, Sophia, Amy, Leif, Lisa and Grandma Mil enjoying an afternoon tea in the sunroom.

Yesterday, everyone came over for a Mid-Winter Tea.

In my opinion, a Mid-Winter Tea is the perfect antidote to the Wintertime blues.

But that's just my opinion.

The real reason for everyone getting together was distributing hand-me-downs (from Twops, previously from Spring), but I thought just doing that alone would be boring, so we had a Tea, too.

The Tea was just as much fun to prepare as it was to enjoy for me.

I spent yesterday afternoon baking up the sweet treats, setting up the table, and then the morning of prepping sandwiches and the like.

I hauled in the teacups (all my Grandma's passed on to me) from the shed, teapots (wedding present from Grandmom and Granddad) from the basement where my "fragiles" are stored, silver trays from all over.

I even pulled out my good silver for the teaspoons :)

And I was finally able to use a present Amy and Marnell gave us from their honeymoon trip to Italy - a gorgeous Linen tablecloth from Venice.

I hadn't the proper size table to use it with before, but it fit like a charm on the table in the sunroom.

All in all, it was a nice coming together of all of the beatiful things I've been collecting since Jason and I married, all comprised of gifts and inherited items.

But a Tea isn't just about pretty dishes, it's about FOOD!  And tea.

The Menu was Thus:

Cucumber Sandwiches
Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
Smoked Salmon Mousse on Pumpernickel Toasts

Russian Tea Cakes
Citrus Tea Cake
Dark Chocolate Tea Bread
Chocolate Peppermint Triangles

Fresh Citrus

To Drink:

Earl Grey Tea
Lady Grey Tea
Tea of Choice*
Cranberry-Citrus Punch


*A Teapot of Hot Water and selection of individual tea bags so people could choose the tea they wanted if they didn't want the Grey Teas.



I made everything except for the Chocolate Peppermint Triangles, which were cookies from Whole Foods that I cut into...triangles.

All of the sandwich and tea cake recipes came from Williams-Sonoma, with the exception of the Russian Tea Cakes. 

My Mom always used to make Russian Tea Cakes around the holidays, but my cookbooks are all in storage, so I went with a recipe from Allrecipes, which was excellent and tasted just like my Mom's anyway.

So that was good.

I wasn't keen on the Dark Chocolate Bread, but I loved the Citrus Tea Cake.

It was so much fun to put on, that I think it would be fun to have one each season - a Mid-Winter one like this one, Springtime Tea, Summer Tea, and an Autumn Tea.

Lots and lots and lots of pictures below, so keep scrolling down.

I think I put up like 6 or 7 posts today, so it's a lot.

Enjoy!