Despite not having an "official" first day of school we have slipped back into a more school-y mode around here. I suppose it is partly to do with PS friends who are no longer available to the PM, if at all during the week.
One of my favorite developments is how Zeff is picking up letters, counting and a little adding from Joss. He is also asking for "Zeffy school" or "dinosaur school" each morning during our quiet time before Joss gets up. We spend about 15-20 minutes talking about colors, counting things, writing his name and working on his dinosaur book. We did one in the past, but he is getting a lot more out of it this time around. So far he knows the name and can tell you one or two defining characteristics of T. Rex, triceratops, iguanadon, pachycephalasaurus and ankylosauraus. The way we reinforce which are plant eaters and meat eaters, and some of their defensive, or predatory characteristics is by mock-fighting on the floor! Zeff didn't believe that ankylosaurus would just eat plants - he's quite a mean looking dude - but I told Zeff to pretend to be a tree and I would be ankylosaurus and pretended to gobble him. Of course he had to gobble me next, which reduced us both to giggles. The baby was even crawling all over us laughing, it was so silly!
Another Zeffy thing is that he spent all day after we got home carrying his stuffed wolf around, dressing him, changing his clothes, feeding him ("he wants ham made from pig") and disciplining him ("He said 'Yes, Zeff' Good answer, Wolfie!'" - what we say to Zeff when he responds to our requests with a prompt "Yes, Mommy") He has always been way more into babies than Joss. He will be a good daddy, someday.
Our days have been busy and fun. Joss is ready for more than the K curriculum we are on the last few lessons of, so we are adding handwriting practice, and providing her with math toys. She has been getting alot of use out of a coffee can full of beans and buttons, several small containers with lids, her abacus and her balance scale (THANKS GRANDMA). She keeps complicated notes of what things weigh, sorta. She also is doing alot of counting by tens and fives and tonight added 70+50=120 because she said 7+5=12. I thought that was pretty good figuring from my not quite 6 year old! She is also doing lots more writing on her own. She brought me a letter today and asked me to have the fairies deliver it to summer.
Dear Sumr,
I had a grat toeem.
I am having such fun at home with my kids! I am sooo blessed to be here for these moments.
Today we finished Zeff's dino-book then got up, dressed and headed to playgroup. We were a little early and no one else had arrived so we decided to take a walk through the marsh on the boardwalk. We had a wonderful time fairy watching, dragon fly spying and pretending the tall marshgrass was jungle. We saw (for real) a great blue heron, cedar waxwing, redwinged blackbirds and a bunny! Jossy also caught (with one hand, mind you) three small toads and attempted to catch a grasshopper with the hand that all ready had three toads in it! She is so brave with bugs but the grasshopper freaked her out a little cuz he hurt her. I explained that they have claws on their legs and the proper technique for grasshopper catching (pin their back legs to their body), for next time.
We had a nice day at playgroup. We had a good turnout which is always fun. We helped one of the new moms with her sling, I hope it works out for her. I swear, slings are so wonderful once you get them figured out, but they are SO HARD to figure out.
ANTI-COMMERCIAL: NOJO slings are worthless. Every person who has ever told me that they tried slings but they weren't comfortable, or the baby didn't like, or couldn't figure it out was using a NOJO. I have gotten many times my money's worth from my www.kangarookorner.com sling and also have many friends using and loving Maya wraps. My second favorite sling is the one my neighbor has long-term-lent to me and is just a long piece of fabric with two rings. It is still better than my Dr. Sears (how could he!) NOJO sling that I gave up on with Zeffy.
Wow, can I go off on a tangent?
After playgroup we went to the ortho doc (not same creepy guy as first one, actually very decent nice older guy) who re-xrayed J's arm, pronounced it healed, and we cut off the cast! She doesn't even need any follow up. Poor Joss, had about a thousand plans for all the things she would do when her cast came off and was very disappointed that her arm felt so weak and stiff and achy. She had a long bath when she got home and worked on straightening it out (it was at a 90 degree angle for about 3.5 weeks). She was very frustrated and there were many tears this evening. Her fondest hope had been to ride her bike to DQ, so her consolation prize was that daddy made cookies with all three kids while mom read HP5!! Pretty good prize for the mama, too!
While I have PT in the am at 7:30 then I have to come home, do AM stuff, school and drive to two different places to sign up for the extra curric's then back home to get ready to work the whole weekend. I was a lazy bum last weekend and took two on-calls, but this is my off-weekend that I am working so I get bonuses for each shift so MUST NOT LET THEM CANCEL ME!!! I have so little will power in that regard. I can sign up for shifts like a responsible adult, but when it is a beautiful day and the kids and I are having so much fun together and they call me to ask if I want to stay home - HOW CAN I SAY NO???? But I am making the equivalent of time and a half all weekend with the bonuses so I need to get my butt in there!
Ooooh, work related: I went to one c-section last night to baby-receive and I realized I am actually starting to get it! I wasn't scared, I didn't contaminate anything and no one yelled at me. It was such a gorgeous little girl baby, she was a little slow going at first but the cute thing was: she was breech (butt-first, so bent in half with legs up by the head) and her feet kept floating up by her ears. It is just a positional thing, but it always looks to me like they are playing, when they do that.
One of my favorite developments is how Zeff is picking up letters, counting and a little adding from Joss. He is also asking for "Zeffy school" or "dinosaur school" each morning during our quiet time before Joss gets up. We spend about 15-20 minutes talking about colors, counting things, writing his name and working on his dinosaur book. We did one in the past, but he is getting a lot more out of it this time around. So far he knows the name and can tell you one or two defining characteristics of T. Rex, triceratops, iguanadon, pachycephalasaurus and ankylosauraus. The way we reinforce which are plant eaters and meat eaters, and some of their defensive, or predatory characteristics is by mock-fighting on the floor! Zeff didn't believe that ankylosaurus would just eat plants - he's quite a mean looking dude - but I told Zeff to pretend to be a tree and I would be ankylosaurus and pretended to gobble him. Of course he had to gobble me next, which reduced us both to giggles. The baby was even crawling all over us laughing, it was so silly!
Another Zeffy thing is that he spent all day after we got home carrying his stuffed wolf around, dressing him, changing his clothes, feeding him ("he wants ham made from pig") and disciplining him ("He said 'Yes, Zeff' Good answer, Wolfie!'" - what we say to Zeff when he responds to our requests with a prompt "Yes, Mommy") He has always been way more into babies than Joss. He will be a good daddy, someday.
Our days have been busy and fun. Joss is ready for more than the K curriculum we are on the last few lessons of, so we are adding handwriting practice, and providing her with math toys. She has been getting alot of use out of a coffee can full of beans and buttons, several small containers with lids, her abacus and her balance scale (THANKS GRANDMA). She keeps complicated notes of what things weigh, sorta. She also is doing alot of counting by tens and fives and tonight added 70+50=120 because she said 7+5=12. I thought that was pretty good figuring from my not quite 6 year old! She is also doing lots more writing on her own. She brought me a letter today and asked me to have the fairies deliver it to summer.
Dear Sumr,
I had a grat toeem.
I am having such fun at home with my kids! I am sooo blessed to be here for these moments.
Today we finished Zeff's dino-book then got up, dressed and headed to playgroup. We were a little early and no one else had arrived so we decided to take a walk through the marsh on the boardwalk. We had a wonderful time fairy watching, dragon fly spying and pretending the tall marshgrass was jungle. We saw (for real) a great blue heron, cedar waxwing, redwinged blackbirds and a bunny! Jossy also caught (with one hand, mind you) three small toads and attempted to catch a grasshopper with the hand that all ready had three toads in it! She is so brave with bugs but the grasshopper freaked her out a little cuz he hurt her. I explained that they have claws on their legs and the proper technique for grasshopper catching (pin their back legs to their body), for next time.
We had a nice day at playgroup. We had a good turnout which is always fun. We helped one of the new moms with her sling, I hope it works out for her. I swear, slings are so wonderful once you get them figured out, but they are SO HARD to figure out.
ANTI-COMMERCIAL: NOJO slings are worthless. Every person who has ever told me that they tried slings but they weren't comfortable, or the baby didn't like, or couldn't figure it out was using a NOJO. I have gotten many times my money's worth from my www.kangarookorner.com sling and also have many friends using and loving Maya wraps. My second favorite sling is the one my neighbor has long-term-lent to me and is just a long piece of fabric with two rings. It is still better than my Dr. Sears (how could he!) NOJO sling that I gave up on with Zeffy.
Wow, can I go off on a tangent?
After playgroup we went to the ortho doc (not same creepy guy as first one, actually very decent nice older guy) who re-xrayed J's arm, pronounced it healed, and we cut off the cast! She doesn't even need any follow up. Poor Joss, had about a thousand plans for all the things she would do when her cast came off and was very disappointed that her arm felt so weak and stiff and achy. She had a long bath when she got home and worked on straightening it out (it was at a 90 degree angle for about 3.5 weeks). She was very frustrated and there were many tears this evening. Her fondest hope had been to ride her bike to DQ, so her consolation prize was that daddy made cookies with all three kids while mom read HP5!! Pretty good prize for the mama, too!
While I have PT in the am at 7:30 then I have to come home, do AM stuff, school and drive to two different places to sign up for the extra curric's then back home to get ready to work the whole weekend. I was a lazy bum last weekend and took two on-calls, but this is my off-weekend that I am working so I get bonuses for each shift so MUST NOT LET THEM CANCEL ME!!! I have so little will power in that regard. I can sign up for shifts like a responsible adult, but when it is a beautiful day and the kids and I are having so much fun together and they call me to ask if I want to stay home - HOW CAN I SAY NO???? But I am making the equivalent of time and a half all weekend with the bonuses so I need to get my butt in there!
Ooooh, work related: I went to one c-section last night to baby-receive and I realized I am actually starting to get it! I wasn't scared, I didn't contaminate anything and no one yelled at me. It was such a gorgeous little girl baby, she was a little slow going at first but the cute thing was: she was breech (butt-first, so bent in half with legs up by the head) and her feet kept floating up by her ears. It is just a positional thing, but it always looks to me like they are playing, when they do that.
posted by KatyM @ 9:09 PM
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