Practicing with the Spoon

Jonathan's Lobster Robot

Here's the lobster robot. Depending on the claw placement, he says it can turn into a crab, earwig, or...

scorpion.

Zoom!

Shoes

Although Grace had a wonderfully content morning today, I promised to post about something other than my kids' moods today, so here goes!

Thank you to those who have been asking how I'm feeling.  I'm almost 23 weeks along and thankful to be feeling very good (as well as feeling lots of kicks.)  I feel much better than I did when Grace was on the way, so I'm very thankful for that, too.  With her at this point in my pregnancy, I was feeling out of breath all the time and having headaches, too.  Not so this time!

My trouble spot this time is my feet and legs.  Whether it's because I'm older now, I don't know.  I could blame my trouble on the amount of weight I've gained or the miles I'm walking to and from school, but my feet and legs were hurting before the pounds added up this high and before school started.  So, I realized that if I wanted to keep my feet from hurting during the day and my legs from waking me up in the middle of the night, I was going to have to break down and buy some new athletic shoes.  With feet this size, I can't just run down to the nearest store and buy whatever kind I feel like.  But, with some help from my hubby, I did find some without searching too hard.  Here they are.

After wearing them on school dropoff/pickup walks, my feet felt much better.  And after wearing them during the day, including in the house, my legs felt much better, too.  Yes, friends, I am violating our house habit of "no shoes in the house."  (I clean them off with a wet cloth when I come in.  So worth it.)  I wasn't planning on it, but after my legs woke me up again last night, Jeff suggested wearing shoes during the day, and it was a good idea. I look goofy wearing these shoes with just about everything, but I feel so much better that it doesn't matter.  Not that I concern myself too much with looking goofy anyway.  What's better than making my husband grin in the morning because I'm wearing a big bathrobe with tennis shoes when he gets up?  :)

I Spoke Too Soon, of Course...

Well, I shouldn't have mentioned that Grace was becoming more content, because she has been anything but content all morning...until we got out of the house, and then she was OK.  Next time I'll post about something more reliable than the moods of my children.  :)

About Grace

One side benefit I'd hoped for and maybe expected, with Jonathan going to kindergarten, is that Grace might start to talk a little more.  During the summer, when Jonathan was at Vacation Bible School for just five mornings, her babbling sounds got a lot more varied, which I loved.  I started hoping for the same thing for this fall.

After just a few days of kindergarten, I have noticed a big difference in the sound of her babbling.  She doesn't have a lot of words yet, but it's awfully cute.  Backing up a bit, I should note that we have done a lot more sign language with Grace than we did with Jonathan, and it has worked great for both kids.  (I have had some people ask whether this delays their language development, but research has shown that it actually enhances it.)  I thought I'd make a list of the signs she's using right now, for you faraway relatives who may not see her during this stage.  She would know more signs if I knew more myself and took the time to teach more to her, and also if our library carried the Signing Time video series.  Anyway, here's what she signs, some days better than others:

bear
dog
bird
fish
fan
light
no
baby
hurt
sorry
sleepy
eat
drink
more
all done
please
thank you
cracker
cheese
fruit
plane
car
phone
bath
silly

Back to the babbling:  she has started trying to say what we say now and then, which I love.  I love the trying-to-talk stage.  This weekend she learned "yay," "yeah," "moo," and "neigh."  Very simple, but this mommy is happy.

For the last few weeks (months?) Grace has been fussy in the mornings for no discernible reason.  She has been fine out and about, but not at home.  It hasn't seemed to matter what we're doing...she's just not content.  Finally, at the end of last week, she had a content morning (compared to before, anyway!) and it was so nice to be able to enjoy time with her with less complaining on her part.  Between the new babbling and less wailing noises, my time with Grace is getting a lot more fun.  We're soaking in the times that we have together, just the two of us, between now and December.

Breakfast Companions

Our table is right by the sliding-glass door to the back yard, and the kids love to watch whatever creatures make our yard their home.

We have seen a lot of tiger swallowtail butterflies lately.

We see a hummingbird to two on most days, too, but they are really hard to catch on camera. I barely zoomed in on this one fast enough to catch her. They love our Rose of Sharon trees for breakfast, and I think they live in redwoods.

Before Boarding the Ark...

The animals need some kisses. Grace kisses just about everything and everyone these days.

And, they need their fur to be combed.

More combing.

Time to rest!

For the Birds

The other day after school, Jonathan decided that it was very important to build some birds.

These are the first two, and since we have two Lego strings, the first two "fly." So they also needed hinged wings, of course.

Here's the parrot.

Here's the cardinal.

Here's the owl. Since we were out of strings, Jonathan used a helicopter part to help the owl perch on the cabinet handle. I love watching what comes from his imagination!

We Have a Kindergartener!

The first day of school for our little man. Can you believe it? Here he is, ready to walk to school.

Grace and I have been walking him to and from school every day, and Jeff was able to join us on the walk to school the first day. It's usually hard to get a really good smiling picture of Jonathan, so this smile tells you how excited he is to start kindergarten.

We ran into a neighbor kindergarten buddy on the way to school. You can see they're both jumping out of their skin.

I love this picture of my two favorite guys right before we dropped Jonathan off.

Of course, he did great, no problem saying goodbye, no anxiety that I know about, and he comes home with fun stories and knows a few more new kids each day. I'm the one who's having trouble adjusting. It's not that I'm weepy...I'm just having trouble resigning myself to the fact that I am, once again, subject to the school calendar and clock each day. I will get used to it because I know it's a good thing. But, it's making me tired so far. I am working on establishing new routines and norms for all of us, and we're getting the hang of it. It gives Grace and me some time to ourselves, and we are taking advantage of it. But, we're always glad to see Jonathan after school.

Speaking of new norms, here's Jonathan doing some of his homework.

He has a reading folder that he brings to and from class each day. He gets to choose a book from his teacher's shelf to bring home, and if he remembers to bring it back the next morning, he gets to choose a new book to borrow. As soon as we get home, I put Grace down for a nap and we read together. We both really love that individual time.

Jonathan tells us that one of the best things about kindergarten is learning how to dribble a basketball.

Overall, I'd say that school is off to a great start.

Hello?

It's for you!

Hat

Yes, those are her plastic pants. Whenever I'm doing laundry, she likes to swipe whatever she can and wear it. She also likes wearing her daddy's undies as a necklace, but out of respect for my husband, I won't post a picture of her doing that. :)

Thumby-Thumb Time

Grace loves her thumb. Not the way some kids do, as in keeping it in her mouth all day long. But when she's ready to get into bed, she does put it in her mouth. I don't mind. Jonathan was a finger-sucker, and I guess each kid has his/her thing. Jonathan calls the thumb-sucking her "thumby-thumb time."

Lately, though, Grace has wanted to sneak in a couple of sucks after meals, so I had to snap a picture. I think it's pretty adorable while she's this little. Especially since this was one of the short moments that she was also wearing a hairbow. I love this bow. She promptly yanked it out. Will she ever wear one? Time will tell. Her crazy hair hangs below her nose when I don't keep it pushed back, and she doesn't seem to care!

Almost-Freebie Labels

I made some of these for Jonathan for his school stuff to be labeled easily, and I thought a reader or two might want to do the same thing. Ours have construction equipment on them as well as name and phone number. (You can also do address labels, if you want. That's where I got our labels that have a different caricature for each member of our family.) Here's the link. Enjoy!

More on the End of Summer

Jeff has been wanting to take Jonathan out in the woods for some guy camping time. And since trying to sleep on a Thermarest is not very fun for me in my bulging state, I encouraged them to go without the girl-half of our family. When our schedule cleared out on Friday night and Saturday, Jeff jumped at the chance to go camping with Jonathan.

They had a great time together driving on 4x4-accessible roads, kayaking, swimming in a lake, and eating beef jerky. I think it was a special time for both of them.

While they went camping, Grace and I went to IKEA. I'm working on making Jonathan's room more practical as a shared room, and part of that is finding places to store Jonathan and Grace's stuff. After lots of measuring and planning, I knew what I needed to get, so off we went. It's a little crazy to go without help to IKEA, especially with a 16-month-old, but we did it and came home with everything we set out to get. I got more than one "You came by yourself???" comment from IKEA employees, but they helped me get my 72-lb. boxes from their shelves to my car, so I can't complain. Not only that, but kids' meals were free, so Grace got to enjoy some applesauce, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies, and I got to indulge in some Swedish meatballs with potatoes. Mmmmm. Putting together the shelves I chose for the kids' room is going to take a lot more time than the IKEA trip did, but I'm working on it!

The End of Summer

After swimming lessons were over, Jen and Heidi and I decided to commemorate the end of summer and the beginning of school with one last "hurrah" at the fountains. Between the three of us moms, we had seven kids with us, aged first grade to one year old. Everyone had a hopping good time! I didn't get many great pictures this time, but here's what I got:

Yes, my fountain-loving daughter decided that shoes were much more interesting than the fountains this time.

After a good time was had by all at the fountains, we went to lunch and had pizza. Mostly the moms were hopping during lunch! Somehow, amidst the happy chaos, we moms got some time to chat and catch up. I had a great time, and I know my kids did, too. We're wishing our kid friends and our mommy friends a great start to a new school year!

Swimming Lessons

We had a great experience with swimming lessons at the end of the summer! Thanks to a glitch in our local pool and a great tip from my friend Jen, we tried out lessons in another town nearby. We loved their program! Jonathan had a great experience, and I'm hopeful that he'll learn to be a more independent swimmer with practice next summer. We'll see. He had a lot of fun at his lessons and tried to do all that his teacher asked. He also got to hang out with his buddy, Ella, and I got to chat with Jen while Grace and Delia kept us busy. Delia and Grace did a great job being patient little sisters.

At the very end of class, the kids got to play with water toys. Jonathan's favorite thing was using this ball to help him float and kick around the pool.

Jonathan and Ella with their classmates.

The final day was about water safety, and the kids took turns wearing life jackets.

Grace got to try out some of Delia's toys.

Overall buddies! Grace wouldn't look at the camera, though.

I think they are getting ready to "save" Ella on water safety day here.

The sweet kids. They got along really well together. The end of swimming lessons was one more reminder for us that summer is ending! Not summer weather, of course, but summer activities. Summer weather won't likely end for a month or two more.

Playing with Blocks

Here are the kids playing with blocks at my dad's house. These belonged to my siblings and me a long time ago. Jonathan said he was building a "Hanukkah menorah."  He read about Hanukkah months ago...seems like everything that he reads sticks with him!

Congratulations Times Five

A big congratulations to our dear friends, Brian and Anna, and their kiddos, Samuel, Katherine, and Malakai.  They welcomed a new member into their family yesterday:  Alexa Eileen.  Congratulations and love to all of you!

20-Week Belly

The Belated Birthday Post

We celebrated Jeff's birthday on Sunday.

Here he is with the ice cream flavor that he and Jonathan invented together: "Batman Blackberry Cheesecake Bliss." It is truly amazing. And I don't even like fruity ice cream. Just another example of what a great daddy he is to our kids, though...he and Jonathan really did make the first batch as a team and named it together, too (obviously!)

Jonathan and Grace adore him, and so do I. Happy birthday to you, Sweetheart!

Reminds Me of Mowgli

Grace's new trick is walking on all fours. We think it is so funny. She reminds me of Mowgli in the old animated Jungle Book movie from when I was a kid. I had a hard time getting a little video of her doing this because Jonathan was also walking on all fours, but in a T-shirt and undies. I was trying to keep him out of the picture. It's nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm trying to give him a little more bloggy privacy these days since he'll be starting kindergarten soon. It's fun to see the new things Grace is figuring out, and it's also fun to see how much Jonathan enjoys cheering her on (and sometimes egging her on, too.)

That's Our Girl!

Gracie is a funny, quirky girl, and we are really enjoying seeing her little personality emerge!

Brushing the horse's hair

Playing in the disassembled exersaucer (that's finally on its way up to the attic, yay!)

Climbing

Silly girl. She got up and down from this position confidently probably a dozen times or more in a row.

Putting on any accessories she can find...and unloading the kid cup and bowl drawer

Getting ready for church by wearing her brother's laundry

Very pleased with herself