Week with Jenna

As I mentioned in my Thankful Thursday post we were blessed to be able to spend a week with our niece Jenna.  Her parents went to Bolivia for a mission trip and left one of their three kids with us and the other two with Matt's parents.  We had so much fun!  Jenna was so sweet and easy on us the whole week.  Even though I know she missed her parents and siblings she was very happy to be spending time with us and especially her cousins!  That made the week even easier.  So here is what we did...

Sunday: Matt met his dad and picked up Jenna before church.  Then we took Jenna to church.  Even though she'd been there before I think the transition was to quick so she seemed a little hesitant about going to Sunday school with Grace.  I just asked if she'd rather sit in church with Matt and I and she chose that.  She just say quietly on my lap the whole time.  That was the only special thing about that day and I'm pretty sure we just played the rest of the day.

Monday: Monday was pretty warm so we go some time to play outside.  We also had a friend over for a playdate.  Jenna had a lot of fun meeting a new friend and I think she played with Aubrey more than Grace did.

Tuesday:  I decided on Tuesday that I wanted to brave taking the kids out.  I had read about a new program our park district offers that I wanted to try out.  It's an hour and a half open gym for 0-5 year olds at a park district building.  It does cost $2 per child but was totally worth it.  We had a whole gym full of toddler and preschool toys almost completely to ourselves.  The kids had tons of fun running around and playing with different toys.  I'll definitely be going back in the cold winter months!  Below are some pictures of the open gym.

Wednesday: After a successful outing to the gym on Tuesday I decided to take the kids to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday.  It was pretty crowded but the kids were wonderful and easy to manage.  Grace injured herself at the end of our time there so we did have a very dramatic trip back to the car but other than that it was really fun.  Below are some pictures of the pumpkin patch.

Thursday: Thursday we just hung around the house for the morning and after nap/rest time Matt came home from work a little early.  Then we took the kids to the mall for supper, time to play in the play area and a little bit (maybe 5 minutes) of shopping.

Friday: We are so lucky to have an indoor park really close to us so on Friday we met Amy and her 2 girls there to play.  Then afterward we were brave and took the 5 kids our for lunch.  Later that night the Tarrs called to see if we wanted to meet them for dinner so we loaded up the mini-van (we borrowed Jenna's parents' van for the week) one last time and took them to a Thai restaurant.  We actually had a really nice meal mostly because it wasn't crowded, all of the kids ate well and when they were done eating the 4 girls (not Caleb because he's too little) crowded around an iPhone and played with that while the adults visited.

Saturday: This was our last day with Jenna so we just played at home, packed her stuff and had lunch together.  After lunch Matt left to take her back to her parents.  I got really attached to her while she was here so I was so sad to say goodbye.  After she left Grace said, "I miss Jenna so much and I love Jenna so much."  I'll be glad to see her (and her brother and sister) again at Thanksgiving!

We had such a fun week.  We also had time to play with stickers, magnetic paper dolls, paint with water colors, and paint pumpkins.  Finally, here is one more fun picture of the girls together in matching outfits I couldn't resist buying for them...

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for...

608. The women in my home group
609. A fun Halloween
610. All my kids' Halloween candy that I get to eat
611. Ironic but the next one is I had no cavities and I don't have to go back to the dentist again for 6 months
612. Warm clothes and coats for the colder days
613.  An awesome week with my niece visiting last week
614. Yummy lunch and catch up time with my friend Jenna on Sunday

September/October Book Review

I think it's time for a book review since I have 4 books I want to mention...

1. Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman.  From the very start of her story I was engaged in the authors description of what it was like to be an American living in Paris and raising children.  She presented a very observant, sometimes funny, well written and un-biased book discussing parenting differences across borders.  Follow my link if you want a more detailed summary.  I liked the book because I liked the way she wrote.  I found myself a little more educated and was interested in her story.  I did Internet search the author and found some of her lifestyle choices to be very different from mine so as I was reading the book I didn't really look to it as a parenting advice book (and I don't think that was the intention of it either).  Enough said, it was worth the read.

2. Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic.  I LOVED this book.  First of all it is short (only 100 pages) and it is a quick read.  I actually read it in one not super long car ride.  But it was packed full of faith based encouragement for mothers of small children.  It made me smile and made me feel like I can do this mothering thing with a grateful heart and a good attitude.  I definitely don't feel alone in the mothering of little ones thing because I'm blessed to have so many friends who are going through it too.  But she put into words things that my friends and I haven't put into words together.  If you only have time for one book and you have any kids preschool and under read this one.

3. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett:  A great long novel that was fun to read.  I actually read this novel when I was in high school (long before it became more popular due to Oprah's Book Club).  All that I remembered about it was a cathedral was built somewhere.  I didn't remember the story line, characters, or time frame.  If you're curious about that click on link for a summary provided by Amazon.  But I will say it was fun to read (although I got a little bored at the end), the characters were interesting, and the time period was fascinating to lose myself in.  It also made me think a lot about the role the church had in government and how things were pretty messed up then.  Not that it was all bad but when sinful people (which is everyone) are involved things don't always reflect who God is (perfect and not sinful).

4. Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson:  This book was cool.  The author is an Ethiopian born, Swedish adopted, now American citizen chef.  He is famous and cooks good food.  In the book he chronicled his journey to get to where he is now which is running a big deal restaurant in New York City.  I loved reading about his life and travel, his long work days and what it means to be a chef,  and his thoughts on race and family.  I also was humbled and realized the food that I cook for my family and friends is nothing compared to his.  Sometimes I fancy myself a decent cook but after this I was reminded I'm nothing special (well I know I'm special to my family because I feed them good and healthy meals).  But, you know what I mean.

Grace - 3.5 Years Old

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on and I wanted to start with a post about Grace since she turned three and a half last week.  She is doing really well right now.  She seems to be growing out of the more difficult stage that she entered a little after two and a half.  Don't get me wrong, we still have our battles but overall she is much easier to deal with in areas of stubbornness and will.

I'm going to start out with a list of questions I asked Grace today and her answer (in her exact wording).  Enjoy reading...

1. What is your name? Grace
2. Who is your best friend? Caleb
3. What do you love most about Caleb? I cuddle him.
4. What do you love most about  Mommy? You hold me.
5. What do you love most about Daddy? Him being with me.
6. What is your favorite thing to do? My favorite thing to do is play princess.
7. What is your favorite color? Pink and purple
8. What is your favorite food? Vegetables and fruit
9. What do you like to do with your family? Play princess games.
10. What is your favorite toy? I like to play with Sparkles (her stuffed giraffe).
11. What do you want to be when you grow up? Animal Rescuer
12. If you could be an animal which one would you be and why? A tiger because it is one of my favorite animals.
13. What makes you happy? When I take a drink of milk and when you hold me is the best.
14. What makes you sad? When you don't let me get things I want.
15. What is your favorite show to watch? Special Dora (the 45 minute episodes are the special ones)
16. What is your favorite book? The princess Beauty and the Beast one.
17. What do you love to learn about? I don't learn and I want to learn how to do a Bible Study when I'm big.
18. Where do you like to go? To the park
19. What is your favorite treat? Candy
20. What do you think about before you fall asleep? I think about God.

Isn't the last answer the sweetest.  We always read the Bible before bed and for the past several weeks Grace has been listening to worship music at bedtime so I guess that's probably what she thinks about.

In addition to Grace's answers she also loves building with her Duplo blocks, dressing up and coming up with imagination games.  I'm pretty sure she spends most of her day in the state of a princess.

We haven't done very much along the lines of formal homeschooling yet but I'm continuing to work on letter sounds and reading consonant-vowel-consonant words with her.  She is able to do that a good deal of the time.  She is also always increasing her list of sight words.  Her curiosity to learn how to spell things and her good memory has helped in that area.

The last big thing she has been up to lately is going to an Awana club at a church near our neighborhood.  The purpose of Awana is to teach the kids Bible verses and she works on those every week. I honestly don't know much about what happens there but it's an hour and fifteen minutes every Wednesday evening and she always comes home hyper!  I think I'll save more information about Awana for a post of it's own someday soon.

Thankful Thursday

Now that the weather is starting to get cooler and the hustle of summer is over I want to get back to my regular Thankful Thursday post.  My last post I stopped at #600 so I'm going to pick up where I left off.

This week I'm thankful for...

601. Healthy kids who can jump and play in the leaves
602. A big tree in our back yard with leaves to shed
603. The kids I get to interact with in our kid's program at church
604. The women in my home group
605. The opportunity to go to a conference focused on kid's ministry
606. A friend who was willing to watch my kids while I was at the conference (Thanks Liza!)
607. Windy fall days

Socks, Slippers and Barefeet

Another obsession that Caleb has right now is socks and slippers.  About a month ago he realized where his socks were kept and starting getting them out on his own, bringing them to me, and asking me to put them on by means of sitting on my lap, waving his feet around and saying sock over and over again.

One of my favorite things about this obsession is he has definite favorite socks.  They are his duck socks and I kid you not he hones in on when they are clean and has them on within 30 minutes of them getting put away.

Caleb also loves his Robeez slippers.  He giggles at the car picture on them and has fits when they have to be taken off.  When it's time to go out he'd prefer to put shoes over his slippers and keep them on but unfortunately the shoes don't fit that way.  And when he says slipper it is so cute.

Car slippers

Favorite duck socks

Let's not forget Grace in this post.  The child refuses to wear anything but barefeet unless she is leaving the house.

Look at those cute toes

Dip

Now that Caleb is 19 months old (how did that happen?) I'm probably not going to be very good at posting monthly or even bi-monthly updates.  I'm just going to post things going on with him as I see fit.  I've got a couple good ones for you today.

The first thing I want to mention is Caleb's love of all things dip.  He thinks dipping is pretty much the coolest thing in the world and wants to dip anything in everything.  Anytime he sees a bottle of any sort he starts yelling the word dip.  Some of his favorite dips include yogurt, humus, honey and dressing.  And boy would he love to get his hands on Sriracha or hot sauce but Matt says not to those (I'd probably let him at least try those). He likes to dip crackers, pretzels, fruit, vegetables, pizza, and sandwiches.

One day recently I took the kids to the park then convinced Matt to meet us for lunch at Culver's and got some good pictures of a classic food being dipped in a classic dip.  Fries and ketchup!

Dipping

Inspecting the dip