First Annual

Had a fantastic Cousins of Love/Melody Sisters weekend! We went to my aunt's lakehouse and spent Friday night through Sunday afternoon there. It was me and my sisters, our two girl cousins, my mom and my aunt. And baby Carson- the only boy allowed. And only allowed because he's a mere five months old.

We watched movies, played games, went out for pedicures, ate lots of yummy food and spent time out on the porch. Gena swam. We played with the baby. Callie slept. A lot. I lost at dominoes. Badly. We played picture telephone. The Melody Sisters performed.

Wall Climbing

The Little Rock Climbing Center's age cutoff is five, so we'd been promising the Monkey that he could go climbing when he was five. The fam got him a gift certificate for his birthday, and yesterday he finally got to use it!

Little tiny harness and climbing shoes...


Holding him up by his harness...


First climb...


Climbing with Daddy...




He touched the top!



He climbed up to the very top three times while I was there, and then made it almost to the top one more time. He did a really good job!


In other news- we had an appointment with our midwife today, and found the baby's heartbeat again. It was kicking at the doppler thingy! And everything is measuring right, and is looking great! We also decided on a due date- March 17.

Banned Books Week is coming up!

I was reading this banned books list, and some of the books that made it onto that list really surprise me.

To Do

Things crossed off: 11
Things still to do: 31

I think my list is growing when I'm not looking.

FYI

This was my favorite way that we told...

We had to tell our boss. So RJ and I went in together to talk to him. RJ just pointed at me and said, "Expecting."

No preamble. No, "We've got some news!" Not even, "We're expecting!"

It was really funny.

honeydew

Things crossed off of my to-do list today: 5

Things still to-do: 35

One of my favorite things

Every morning, the Monkey comes and crawls in bed with us. I love it! He's snuggly and affectionate. Most of the time he falls back to sleep. But, lest this get too saccharine, if he doesn't fall asleep, the snuggles and hugs and kisses are sprinkled liberally with "I am HUNGRY!", "Are you ready to get up?" and "Do you want to talk about something?".

This morning, RJ got up early and headed out to go biking before it got too hot. So the Monkey and I were awake a little bit earlier. He came into bed and we snuggled, and I was thinking about how thankful I am that he still likes to snuggle, and how it's something we've been doing as a family in the mornings ever since he was a baby. (he did sleep with us, but still!)

It's something I was thankful for today.

Dubbin

We're in Eureka Springs. For the fifth year in a row. Actually, that's four years for RJ- he was in Afghanistan.

And the Monkey is so excited. About our motel room. We've got to get him out more often!

Monday in CA

We went wine tasting here...


We played in the ocean here...


We saw giant redwoods here...



Some perspective, they were really tall...




We ate Chinese food here...

RJ took the Child to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars this afternoon.

X said that he liked the light sabers and the fighting the best, and now he's looking in his Star Wars coloring book for characters that he saw in the movie.

I just think it was fun that they got to do something special together. RJ was pretty excited to take the Child to a Star Wars movie.

Also, I kind of enjoyed the few hours alone time that I got!

So I'm going today to turn in our "Notice of Intent to Homeschool". It's a big day!

I filled in all the information yesterday, and it's a little weird to see it in black and white. Especially the back page. The back page has all of our curriculum and our schedule on it. We're going to be doing three hours a day, five days a week, for 36 weeks, over a 9 month term. Wow!

So, hopefully, I'll be able to find the right office to take this thing to, and then I won't have to do it again for another year!


P.S.- for anyone who is interested, we're using Saxon math, for grades K and 1, and Christian Light Education's "Learning to Read" for our phonics. (We'll be doing art, science, history and P.E. things, but not as a set curriculum, just sort of as we feel like it. I figure that we can't really do anything else until he learns how to read, so we'll be concentrating the most on that.) The math is really cool, because he'll be learning how to use a calendar, tell time, count money, etc... along with counting, charting, adding, subtracting- all those nifty math skills.

The Pacific Ocean

loved it! We really did go swimming in it. It was cold at first, but then it felt really refreshing. But... I don't have pictures of that.

We went to see the ocean on Friday. This was at Shell Beach.




Eating in downtown San Luis Obispo.


Shell beach at low tide.



We watched the sunset.


R.J. stood very close to the edge of the very steep cliff.

California Dreamin'

We were gone for a week to beautiful, amazing California. Without our child.

And now we're home, we have our boy back with us, we're catching up on laundry and sleep, and I don't want to leave the house. Except that we have no food. So I need to go to the grocery store, but I keep putting it off, because I don't like going grocery shopping. But I'm reveling in being able to snuggle with my baby, and in spending time together as a little family.

RJ's got all the pictures on his camera, so I'll post some as soon as I make time to post from his computer. But for now, I'll tell you...

That we had a good trip. The San Louis Obispo area was beautiful, with wonderful weather, and lots of time spent on the beach or near the ocean. San Francisco was cold and foggy, but filled with good friends, and we got to see/do almost everything we wanted to.

Because I love my cousin, Jill, and she's bored with my blog...

We were sick for three weeks, well for a week, and then I got sick again for a a week. I think we're finally in the clear.

The Child is still sleeping in the box. His latest project is to color the entire box- inside and out. He has a plan, and a color scheme for each side. It's rather impressive. He's also been doing his "schoolbooks" obsessively. It's making me a little crazy. We have this conversation about his connect-the-dots almost hourly...

X:What comes after 12?
Me: What comes after 12?
X: Oh, 13!
X: What comes after 13?
Me: You know.
X: 14. What comes after 14?

Wash, rinse, repeat for numbers one through 40.

I have to admit, these are lovely, elaborate connect-the-dots. And he has learned to count. I just wish he'd stop asking when he knows the answer!

It's Official...

We've had over a week of sickness at our house. Tempers are getting shorter; we're running out of Kleenex. On the plus side, we're sure getting our money's worth out of the TV.

Points for Mr. Rogers!

On Mr. Rogers this morning, they made a stop and go sign. So X decided to make a stop and go sign.

And he wrote the word GO all by himself- without asking how it's spelled, or anything! Then he asked me to write STOP, but he told me the first two letters.

And now we have to go look for a stick to put on the sign.

All about the Monkey... and some birds.

A self portrait, complete with weird claw fingers and toes


We have baby birds in our bushes in the front yard:


He's into a fort/house building phase, and he wanted to sleep in his box/house, so we let him:


and this is how I found him last night:


Yes, I covered him up after I took the picture.

We went to a baseball game a couple of weeks ago:

I'm Hungry

My shamfull housewifely confession: I don't enjoy cooking. I stink at menu planning. I loathe going to the grocery store.

Actually, in an ideal world, I'd love it. If I had a wide range of fresh foods available; if my pantry and fridge were stocked with everything I could ever want. If I had miles of counter space, and a freezer to stock up when there are sales. If I had the best appliances and all the kitchen gadgets my heart desired. THEN, I could be a great cook, cooking delicious, fresh meals for my family.

However, I've got three square feet of counter space to work with, and I've got one of those side-by-side fridges with not much freezer space.

So anyhoo, I've gotten into this meal planning thing. I can plan supper really well, but it usually involves deliciously fussy Williams-Sonoma recipies. Recipies with huge ingredient lists. Which are great! But not cost-effective. And I'm not so good with the breakfast/lunch thing.

So I went to the grocery store today, and I spent 130-ish dollars. And saved $29!! And I've meal planned for three weeks, but I think I can stretch what I got today, combined with what I've already got in the pantry, for another week. So four weeks total.

But, I figure that if I let myself spend another $70, that will total $200 for the month. Which will give me a little wiggle room in terms of buying some more meat, milk, bread and some veggies.

So we'll see how it goes! I'm pretty excited, and excited to see if I can be creative and do it! And we will, even if we have to eat butter-flavored-PAM coated noodles for a week.

Vee Bee Ess

This is what he learned in VBS this week...




And this is what happened on Friday afternoon...

As I type, the Monkey is sweeping my floor.

He said, "Mom! Look at the bricks!"
I said, "What? Are they dirty? Well you'd better sweep it up then. Since it bothers you."
He giggled and is now sweeping.

Oh wait, now he's just playing with the broom.

Forts and Fast

This is life in my house these days. Every day he builds a fort, complete with roof and "bricks", then fills it with his stuff. He even likes to eat lunch in there.

Then he spends the rest of the day ferrying himself around on his "tri-cycle".

Funny story about that stinkin' tricycle... RJ oiled the wheels the other day because the "squeek- squawk" through the house was driving us crazy. However, the Child was very sad about it, because he loved the squeaking.
He came up to me and said, "Mom, I want you to come into my room because I want to tell you something." I told him that he could just tell me where we were, but he said, "But I don't want Daddy to hear!"
So we had a whispered conversation about how sad he was that his tricycle wasn't squeaking anymore because Daddy oiled it.
I don't know if he didn't want to hurt RJ's feelings or if he didn't want to get in trouble for being upset about something RJ did, but it was pretty funny.

Also funny... this morning the Child said to me, "Mom, I think we don't got no more toilet paper." Maybe not so much funny as sad, but still.

FYI

A little health gem from my child, who has a cold...

"Tasting breakfast makes people feel better."

I guess his Cheerios are a miracle cure!

Graduation

This is what we did between graduations...

"Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters...":








And this is the graduation...

Can you find RJ?

Graduation pics

Carpet burn on the face:

Holding his part of Gena's graduation sign:

Brothers-in-law:

X and Paw-Paw in search of a cookie:

It's About Time!!!

RJ graduated on Saturday!
More pics to come...