Um, Awkward! Some Things You Should Just Never Say

Posted on May 10, 2013May 11, 2013 by Amy

The other day I saw my next door neighbor for the first time in over a year.

She was out in her yard, and I walked over with the girls to quickly say “Hello” and let them pet her dog. Neighbor Lady says, “It’s so good to see you!!!!!!!!!” Then she shifts her eyes rather pointedly toward my stomach, wiggles her eyebrows up and down, and excitedly says, “Are you?….” Of course the unspoken word was obviously “Pregnant?!”

I’m not.

Awkward.

So, here’s how it played out. I gave a terse shake of my head and said “No,” probably rather grumpily.

She quickly replied with, “Oh-I-was-just-asking-because-you-said-you-wanted-to-keep-going [with having more kids].”

Okay, that’s true. But… awkward.

Fortunately we were saved by my girls chattering about Neighbor Lady’s dog and how he looks like our dog who died (this might have been slightly awkward itself in a different moment, but as it was, it was quite refreshing), and about their hopes for future purchases of bicycles and stuffed hummingbirds and other random, innocent, oblivious things.

Then, Me: “Okay, gotta go!”

And as I walk away, the final parting shot, Her: “You look great!”

*sigh*

‘Kay. Here’s the deal. Yes, I do still have about 10 pounds I’d like to lose since having Baby Sis. Yes, she is 13 months old. Yes, my belly is squishier than it has ever been before.

I look okay. Not great. Okay.

But still. There are just some things you should never say. Right?

I’m someone who gains 50+ pounds when pregnant. I have tried to exercise and eat well during the three times that I have been growing another human within my body, but I gain insane amounts of weight even when I do this.

So. I have given in to just eating ice cream and becoming huge, knowing that I can lose it all after the fact.

It worked out pretty well the first two times.

This is me the day I found out I was pregnant with Miss:

About 8 months after Miss was born and shortly before I became pregnant with Lass:

Around 8 weeks pregnant with Lass:

After having Miss, I came close to regaining my pre baby body fairly quickly (of course it didn’t seem quick at the time, but now…).

After Lass I came a little less close, a little less quickly, but still got fairly near my goal.

Around 9 months after Lass was born:

About 9 weeks pregnant with Sis:

Now, 13 months after having Sis I am still nowhere near my goal weight, or even the weight I was when I got pregnant with her (which still wasn’t quite to my goal weight).

Crap, it’s a lot harder to get there this third time around! I know I can’t really complain, because I haven’t done the work to get there…

But it still feels pretty crappy to have my neighbor look at my (poofy but not that poofy) stomach and ask if I’m pregnant.

So the moral of the story? Never ask someone if she’s pregnant. Just don’t do it.

If it isn’t completely obvious, you are playing with fire.

Even if it is completely obvious, sometimes it’s not really, so you’re still playing with fire.

And truly, if someone is pregnant, and you can’t tell by looking, and she’s not talking about it, maybe she doesn’t want you to know. Just don’t do it.

I’ve hit the CrossFit workouts pretty hard the past two days. Nothing like a little motivation.

Thanks Neighbor Lady 🙂

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Should Preschoolers “Do School?”

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Amy

I went to my first homeschooling convention this past weekend. I learned some good stuff, got lots of cheap used books, and bought a few new manipulatives for our school room.

I had a really good time. Most of the workshops I attended were quite informative.

Surprisingly, the workshop from which I got the least amount of useful and practical information was the one focused on homeschooling 3, 4, and 5 year olds.

Kind of odd, since this is the only age group within which I do homeschool, but whatev.

I think the reason for this is that lots of people hold very strongly to their opinions that preschoolers should not be “schooled” at all. That our society pushes too much formal learning onto kids too early. That preschoolers should do all their learning through play. That kids should not be pressured to learn letters and begin reading before kindergarten, or even later.

The presenter at the conference cited lots of information on the importance of play and quoted one article as saying that the optimal age for children to begin formal education is around age 8 (I think that was the age she said… it was somewhere around there).

So, needless to say, the presenter didn’t have much to say as far as suggestions for fun things to do in homeschool for preschool-aged kids. Mostly she just said “play.”

And that’s cool. I actually agree with her to an extent, though I was really hoping for some fun new ideas (I did get some from a session by a music therapist!).

I know that the most important ways for kids to learn in the preschool years are through play and being read to. I think art and music are also critical. And I do also believe that too much emphasis is being placed nowadays, in many settings, on teaching young children through rote memorization with things like flashcards and worksheets and drilling facts.

BUT, I also think there can be a happy medium. I think it’s okay to teach kids their letters and numbers and colors and shapes when they’re little. I think it’s okay to have a little bit of “school time” when kids do somewhat more formal learning activities, though I wouldn’t necessarily choose for these activities to be flashcards or worksheets most of the time (but occasionally these can be fun too).

I’ve spent the past six months or so trying to figure out how to do homeschool preschool in a way that works best for us. For me. For my kids. For our schedule. I’ve refined my “method” several times during this time. I’m happy with the way we do things now.

So in case you’re wondering, here it is:

I start by picking themes, or units, for our school based on what is going on around us or what my girls are interested in. Then I pick a letter to go with the theme. For example, we’ve done “G is for Groundhog” for Groundhog Day (still one of my favorite weeks), “L is for Leprechaun” for St. Patrick’s Day, and “C is for Clown and Circus” the week before we went to the circus. Recently we did “R is for Rainbow” and now we’re talking about weather and doing “U is for Umbrella.” Next up, by request from my girls, is “I is for Insect” (I would have done B is for Bug, but we already did “B is for Bunny” at Easter).

Our units last as long as I need them to, not just a week. Usually the length of time of a unit is dictated by how many books we have to read and how many days per week we do school. Sometimes external factors come into play too, like when we only had a week after “B is for Bunny” and “E is for Easter” (did two letters for that one, sometimes we get all crazy up in here) and before we went to the circus, so we did our entire circus unit mostly in one week. But I usually try not to rush through a unit.

Once I have a theme in mind, I search for books to go with it and put the books on hold at my library. I get lots of books for each unit!

Then I start combing Pinterest and my favorite homeschooling blogs (like this one and this one) where I get lots of free downloads. I find activities to focus on our letter as well as doing some counting, patterning, sequencing, sorting, etc. I print tons of pages, laminate most of them, and cut them up as needed. I have a slight obsession with my laminator and magnet tape.

I find a few craft activities for each theme and try hard not to over-manage their projects.

We do some experiments if applicable. Today we talked about clouds and the water cycle and experimented with using droppers to drip water onto a cotton ball to see how much water it could hold before beginning to “rain,” for example.

We “do school” several times a week, though not every day, usually in the morning.

We generally spend about an hour on school activities, sometimes a little more if we’re really into an art project or something.

We start our morning with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then we do circle time, which for us consists of going over our calendar, talking about the weather, doing the nursery rhyme and/or song that goes with our theme, reviewing our letter and its sound, and talking about any other interesting info related to our topic. I have a white board with the letter, rhymes, and other facts written on it.

We read 2-4 books related to our topic each day at the end of circle time (I try to do a mix of fiction and nonfiction) and sometimes do felt or magnet board activities with them. My girls really love these, so we often do them repeatedly throughout the time we are focusing on a certain theme. For example, at St. Patrick’s Day time, we did a magnet board activity almost every day while reading “There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover” (and the same thing with “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick” at Easter time). The girls had the Old Lady and each of the things she ate, and they took turns placing her/them on the magnet board as I read the story.

Right now we’re reading Jan Brett’s “The Umbrella” and putting up each of the animals in the story onto the felt board as we read the story. Every. Day. They even play with the animals and the felt board when we aren’t doing school time!

After circle time the girls sit at their table and do various activities. Miss gets really excited about this part. Lass is sometimes less enthusiastic. This is where things get a little tricky for me, because each of the girls always wants to do what the other is doing, but Lass has a hard time with some of the things I have for Miss to do.

So I just try to have a good variety of things, with puzzles, counting, patterning, sequencing, sorting, and some writing practice. I only ask Lass to do the most simple prewriting activities and if she’s not into it, I let it drop. With other writing worksheets she just colors. It usually works out pretty well.

I have learned the beauty of the cookie sheet and magnetic tape or these colorful little round magnets. Magnetic tape holds puzzle pieces in place to keep perfectionistic girls from freaking out when they won’t stay just so. These little round magnets on various printed designs are one of Lass’s favorite activities to do.

The trick is to find activities that challenge them enough that they feel accomplishment, but not so much that they get stressed out and frustrated. That is my goal with all of the “school stuff” I have them do.

Sometimes I find the perfect activities for them (like the magnets for Lass). Sometimes I don’t get it right, like the time I had Miss adding by counting pictures and writing the number of the answer at the end. She had no problem counting and adding to get the right answer, and seemed to enjoy that part. But she wasn’t ready to freehand write the numbers in for the answers (she’s still working on tracing them), and she and I got quite frustrated by that one. For subsequent activities like this I have printed numbers for her to place in the answer space, or let her use numbered blocks, etc.

I try to keep our school time fun and minimize the frustration. If one of them is hating an activity and my coaching them on it isn’t helping, I usually try to set it aside and move on to something else or call it good for the day.

I don’t always get this right. Sometimes I start to think one of them is being lazy and not really trying to do something I know she can do. So then I start pushing her to do it. As you can imagine, this never turns out well. I usually end up mentally slapping myself and regrouping. Often I end up apologizing. I always end up reminding myself to try not to be a jerk.

But my point is, most of our day is spent reading and playing. The girls have tons of time for free play.

But they actually love having “school time” too. Miss asks for it frequently. They seem to enjoy the activities we do, the books we read, the crafts we make. They learn stuff. And so do I.

I like our balance. It works for us.

What are your thoughts on preschool? How do (did/will) you do preschool with your kids?

Singing in the Rain

Posted on May 4, 2013May 4, 2013 by Amy

Today was a gorgeous day.

We usually are on the crap end of the weather spectrum, but in the past few days we have been celebrating “Hooray, we aren’t getting snow in May!”

While other places not too far away were cold and yucky and recently got snow, we had a beautiful, sunny, and warm day today. Perfect for leaving the girls home with their Daddy and going to a homeschooling convention.

I came home to wet, muddy clothes strewn around the floor, and gooey, smiley, PB&J-and-sunscreen-smeared faces exclaiming over stories of running through “mucky mud puddles” barefoot and Miss learning to move the swing by herself .

Daddy knows how to have a good time.

Today gives me hope that we are starting a warming trend again, as the past week was pretty cold and gloomy. Though we didn’t get snow (Hallelujah!), yesterday was chilly and rainy.

The girls actually loved it because they got to wear their rain boots, rain coats, and carry their umbrellas when we ran errands.

They really love their umbrellas, so I let them play outside in the rain when we got home.

Appropriately, we are talking about weather and “U is for Umbrella” in school right now.

Unfortunately, it was a little too cold and windy. They ran and splashed a bit and then Miss asked to go inside (which is unheard of).

I loved the rain play. We sang rain songs, like “Rain, Rain Go Away” and “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring.” Miss kept asking me for more rain songs, but he only other one I could come up with at the time was “Blame It On the Rain.” So I did Milli Vanilli for them, but I couldn’t remember any of the other words so just kept repeating, “Blame it on the rain! Yeah, yeah!” After the fact I thought of “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” and “Singing in the Rain.” I’ll keep those for next time.

I’m hoping for a warm and rainy day soon.

Finally Spring

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Amy

It’s finally spring here.

Glorious, beautiful, sunny and warm spring.

I have always loved spring. I think it’s impossible to not love spring when you live in a place where it gets really cold during winter.

Here spring is like a fun new beginning. It’s a time to get my kids outside without it taking 30 minutes just to get dressed to do so. It’s a heady feeling of breathing in fresh, warm air and feeling the breeze in my hair.

Yes, I always have loved spring.

But this year? This year I love, love, LOVE spring. Looooove it.

I have been waiting for it for so long. My kids have too.

This past weekend was our first spring weekend of the year. We did spring this weekend. Yesterday alone, we did almost everything spring consists of in one morning.

My in-laws came to visit and the girls had a wonderful time playing outside with them. My father-in-law spent a lot of time pushing swings.

The swings seemed to throw some sort of magic switch in my girls, especially Lass, as they all sang as loudly as they could starting almost immediately once the swings started going. They all sang as loudly as they could. At the same time. Different songs. It was awesome.

Also awesome is seeing green grass in our yard.

Baby Sis is still not entirely sure of the grass when she first sits in it. She warms up pretty quickly though.

We moved from swings to the trampoline,

to the muddy, but oh-so-irresistible puddle left by the drainage ditch at the side of our yard.

The girls could spend all day in that puddle.

But happily they were ready to move on to other things after a while of “fishing” with sticks and splashing and throwing things into the water.

I said “Bubbles” and they were all over it.

Baby Sis was imitating her sisters and me, really trying to get some bubbles going.

Then we pulled out the chalk and made masterpieces on the driveway and the rocks.

Of course we had lots of rolling and wresting and running and spinning in the grass.

Just look at them go.

Yeah, I think they’re happy that spring has finally arrived too.

Field Trip – Elephant and Piggie Style

Posted on April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by Amy

A few days ago, I started our morning by telling my girls we were going to the children’s museum to see Elephant and Piggie.

I case you don’t know, Elephant (Gerald) and Piggie (who doesn’t have another name) are the characters in a series of books by Mo Willems. We were introduced to Mo Willems recently by my Super Friend who gave Baby Sis the book “The Duckling Gets a Cookie?!” and a Duckling stuffed animal for her birthday. My girls loved Pigeon and Duckling, so the Easter Bunny brought them some Elephant and Piggie books. And, wonder of wonders, they love these too!

Needless to say, they were very excited when I told them we were going to see Gerald and Piggie and hear a new book “Elephants Cannot Dance.” They immediately rounded up all their books and started reading them (they have them memorized).

I managed to tear them away from the books so we could get dressed and make the 30 minute drive to the children’s museum with time to make several parking errors, fill a parking meter with most of my quarters only to realize that it had a 30-minute limit (you’re welcome red car that pulled in after me), finally find a place to park, and get inside, with time to spare before the program started.

The girls killed time with some construction vehicles,

mirrors and squishy toys and

vegetables.

It wasn’t planned this way, but we ended up meeting Super Friend and her husband and their kids for the show. Super Friend walked in with her kids, and her kids and my kids exclaimed simultaneously, “Our friends are here!!”

There was so much anticipation before the entrance of Elephant and Piggie.

They finally came in and…

Sat down.

Apparently the costumes they were wearing didn’t provide them with much ability to see, because both of them needed to be guided to their seats by a “handler,” and they did not get up again for the duration of the story time. At least Piggie waved a few times.

The girls were so excited to see them, they didn’t care one bit. I was the only one who was disappointed I think, becasue I thought E and P were actually going to read/act out the book.

The woman who did read it did a great job though and had the kids up and dancing and spinning and having a good old time.

We got to “meet” the immobile, mute Elephant and Piggie afterwards. It was a very stimulating experience…

The girls got to do a craft, making hula skirts out of paper afterwards.

While we were crafting, Miss got wise to the fact that it wasn’t really Elephant and Piggie there at the story time when she looked hard over at Piggie next to us and saw a gap in the costume at the neck. Some guy’s hairy neck was showing, and my girl figured that one out right smartly. Later she told me, “Mom, I don’t think that was the real Gerald and Piggie we saw today. I think it was just someone dressed like them.”

Afterwards the girls had lots of time to run and play with their friends and explore some of the rest of the museum.

We don’t go there enough. It has been about 2.5 years since we were there last, so neither of them remember being there before, but they’re already asking to go back.

We used up all of our usual school time to go there, so after we got home Miss asked when we were going to do school. Surprisingly she wasn’t that thrilled when I told her that our trip to the children’s museum was our school for the day.

It was a great “field trip.”

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Posted on April 24, 2013April 24, 2013 by Amy

We’ve spent the last week or so talking about R is for Rainbows.

I love rainbows. My girls love rainbows. It was a good week.

We painted rainbows.

We sang rainbow songs, and danced to rainbow songs, and did magnet games with pictures from rainbow songs.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow:

We did plenty of other “R” and Rainbow activities:

Punching holes in letter Rs with plastic needles

Some of my favorite resources for FREE preschool homeschool activities had great Rainbow Units.

Like this Rainbow Unit from 1+1+1=1. We used tons of the stuff from this download. The favorite of my girls was the printout of the lyrics to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with the pictures of the various things mentioned during the song (rainbow, star, clouds, chimney, etc.). I put magnet tape on the backs of each of these items and had them take turns putting them up on the dry erase board as we sang the song. They loved it, and we did it as part of circle time every day during this unit!

I also used lots of stuff out of the Letter R for Rainbow unit from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I love her stuff and I use it all the time. I got the “poke page” idea pictured above from her, for example.

Lass loved this magnet rainbow activity (we got this page and some coloring pages here, magnets here):

We got and read tons of rainbow books from the library.

We made rainbows on the walls and furniture and each other using our prism.

The girls really got into talking about Roy G. Biv!

For some more fun rainbow stuff, check out my Pinterest page on the topic (Have I ever mentioned how much I love Pinterest? It’s a homeschooling mom’s best friend). Enjoy!

Quirks and Updates

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Amy

One of the most fun things about having kids is watching their little personalities emerge.

I have yet to see how Baby Sis’s personality will develop, but she is already showing that she’s content, and cuddly, and funny.

Her older sisters are so different from each other.

Most of the time, Miss is my serious girl. She’s very intense and somewhat perfectionistic. She wants things just so, and can get very upset when things don’t happen the way she envisions them. She is stubborn and persistent and smart and funny. She enjoys school time and loves art and music. She’s not a big snuggler, though when she is in the mood, she can give the best hugs anywhere. Today she climbed up in my rocker with me while I was rocking Sis, and she just kissed and hugged her baby sister over and over. It was precious to watch them love on each other.

Lass on the other hand is a bit more of a free spirit. She isn’t terribly particular about most things. She’s more of a pleaser, both with my husband and me, and with her big sister. She is quite sensitive, and when she’s scolded, she often begins to cry and says, “You hurt my feelings!” She is my snuggly, lovey girl. She gives lots of spontaneous hugs and kisses. At least once a day she walks up to me, gives me a sweet little hug, and says, “I love you Mommy.” She cries when my husband leaves for work, saying, “But I love my Daddy! I don’t want you to go Daddy.” She yanks on my heartstrings all day long, that girl does.

My big girls have their funny quirks too.

Though I just described Lass as the free spirited girl who isn’t particular about things and Miss as my perfectionist, when it comes to their bedrooms, they are totally the opposite.

Lass is super picky about her bedroom when she goes to bed. She doesn’t take any toys to bed with her and she will not go to bed if her toys are not on her bookshelf in a certain way, if her Froggy isn’t sitting correctly in her chair, and if there is anything out of place on her floor.

Miss on the other hand is a total slob in her room. She goes to bed with at least half of her bed covered with various toys and books.

She often leaves toys all over her floor. I have to prompt her regularly to pick them up and put them where they belong. And she isn’t too particular about how her things get put away.

They are so different, but they are the best of friends. And Sis is playing with them more and more.

Much of the time during the day I stay near them and secretly watch and listen to them play together.

They are so imaginative. They seem so in sync as they make up games and stories together. They are so chatty with each other. They each have funny ways they pronounce words, which never fail to make me smile.

Miss says, “lasterday” instead of “yesterday,” “with-about” instead of “without,” and “breakthist” instead of “breakfast.” She is starting now to begin pronouncing these words correctly sometimes, and it makes me kind of sad. I love “lasterday.”

Lass has a hard time with some letter sounds and combinations of letters, as is common for her age of course. She can’t quite pronounce her “Rs” and “Ls” and has difficulty with the “SK” sound combination. So the word “squirrel” comes out sounding like “swoyo” and “scared” is “swared.” Like her sister, she is already starting to correct these mispronunciations on her own.

Baby Sis is starting to talk too. She signs “all done” and “milk,” and also uses the “milk” sign to mean “more.” She says “Meh-Meh” for milk, “Da-Da,” and “Mama.” She often tries to imitate other words we say. And the biggest news about my littlest girl is that she is walking!

And falling.

But walking!! Such a big girl.

One of the reasons I write this blog is to record the moments of my girls’ lives and their milestones and quirks. The funny little things they do and say. I don’t ever want to forget “lasterday” and “swoyo” and Sis signing “milk” for “more.”

I think one of my most important duties as a mom is keeping record of my girls’ moments. Our family. Our history.

These things make up my life. They form my happy place.

Nashville, a Basement Flood, and Rainy Day Play

Posted on April 19, 2013May 4, 2013 by Amy

Well. I haven’t written a real post in over a week. Sorry.

I’ll spare you the details of why I haven’t written.

Like the fact that I’ve spent several evenings this week cleaning up the mess left behind from water than got into our basement while we were out of town.

Of the fact that I spent one evening filling out an application to adopt a puppy from a local shelter. He was the perfect puppy found on petfinders.com (a mixed lab, husky, and mastiff, blue-eyed little guy), and I was convinced that I had to fill out the application right away so we would be able to get him. Only to realize the next morning, through discussion with the husband, that this is really not a good time for us to get a PUPPY. Duh.

Or the fact that my youngest child is barely napping more than 30 minutes a day.

Or the fact that, becasue I finished weaning Sis last week, I spent all of last evening sitting with heating pads on my boobs, alternating sides with heat and kneading out knots from clogged ducts. Ouchie. I was sort of successful, as I ended up with two big wet circles on my shirt (clearly didn’t think that one through ahead of time), but I’m still trying to get it all worked out.

Anyway. I now have a little bit of napping from Sis, so I’m trying like heck to get this post done before she wakes up.

A quick catch-up on our happenings:

Last week, I spent the most awesome 24-hour period ever. In Nashville. Over night. With my husband. My mom watched the girls. We splurged on a fancy hotel.

Did I mention it was awesome?

We relaxed and went out for a nice dinner. Unfortunately it was slightly marred by the fact that the cab driver who took us to the restaurant was a “Too Much Cologne Wearing Man” and had apparently not only doused himself but also the seat of his cab with his chosen scent. I ended up with Eau de Bad-Man-Smell in my hair and on my dress (all I did was sit on the seat, I swear!), and my husband and I kept catching whiffs of it throughout dinner, making “ew, that stinks” faces, and then smelling ourselves, our hands, sleeves, etc., to try to figure out why the smell from the cab was still lingering. We both noticed it on our hands and made trips to the bathroom to wash, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel that I thought to smell my hair and realized that I reeked of this guy’s cologne. And then I found that the back of my dress did too. Weird. And gross. And oddly sort of funny.

It was okay, though, since we got back to the hotel to find this lovely turn down service, complete with chocolate cookies that we were both too stuffed from dinner to eat.

I have to admit, though I love to stay in a fancy hotel sometimes, I always feel very awkward around the staff of such places. I never know when I’m supposed to tip, how much, and how to do it. I always end up averting my eyes and shoving some wadded up bills roughly in the direction of the person to whom I want to show appreciation while grumbling, “Uh, thanks a lot” or something like that. I think I was a little better this time than the last time we stayed at this place (mostly because I made my husband tip the valets and wrote all other tips on receipts), but I still always feel like a total hick in these situations.

The best part of the trip? We slept in and woke up to a room service breakfast and leisurely morning.

No one yelled, “I’m huuuuungryyyyyy!” No one spilled her milk. No one complained about the breakfast food offerings. It was lovely.

We topped off the day with a walk around downtown Nashville, some visits to art galleries, and lunch at a place called the Back Alley Diner.

It was a funky little place with a fun atmosphere and very good food. It made me feel young and hip again. Yes, I was once young and hip…

Our little side trip was an amazing perk of the visit with my parents. The girls did great while we were gone, as I knew they would, and I had some wonderful QT with my man.

It was a great visit with my parents. The girls had a great time, and they came home saying new things like “Doink” and “Big Honkin,'” as in “I doinked my head” and “Don’t take big honkin’ dragon bites [of food].” If you know my Mom, this will make perfect sense to you.

We were all sad to leave my parents’ house, but glad to be getting home.

Our travel day turned out to be a long one, with a flat tire on the way home and water in the basement once we got here.

But we’ve had a wonderful relaxing week at home.

Lass has been saving up her allowance money and finally got to order her “Rody” toy. It came in the mail the other day and she was so excited.

She has barely stopped bouncing on it and has even asked to take it to bed with her. I’m pretty easygoing about letting them take books and toys to bed, but I’ve drawn the line at that one.

So she bounces during nearly all of her waking moments.

We brought up Miss’s Rody from the basement, which she got for Christmas two years ago from my in-laws. The games they are playing with these guys and the stories they make up are priceless.

They even hold them during their special time watching “animal shows” with their Dad in the evening.

The weather is still awful here. It’s snowing as I type this, and yesterday it rained all day. I used the weather as a good excuse for a lazy jammy day. We didn’t get dressed. We didn’t go anywhere. We did school in our pajamas, which the girls think is hilarious.

And they played and played and played.

Getting back into our home routine and hoping for better weather soon.

Happy weekend!

Little Pim DVD Winner

Posted on April 15, 2013April 15, 2013 by Amy

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the Little Pim DVD:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:1

Commenter #1 Dianne wrote, “We would love to learn Italian.”

Congratulations Dianne!

If you still want to try out Little Pim, check out all their stuff here.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered.

P.S. I just dragged the Random.org graphic showing the result of the numbers I plugged in into this post (I couldn’t figure out any other way to get it in). There were 37 comments on the giveaway post, and I did actually use the number 37 as the maximum value. I don’t know why it doesn’t show like that when I put it in here.

Southern Adventures

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Amy

We are visiting my parents this week. Just take a look at all the fun:

Sunday we went to the circus.

Baby Sis stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

The big girls had a big time.

They both said the horses were their favorite part of the show.

Monday we went to the local nature center.

We saw turtles and snakes. Owls, vultures, a hawk, an eagle (I’ll never get over how beautiful those birds are). Whitetail deer, fallow deer, wolves, a coyote, a bobcat, a groundhog, and an opossum (this one had all four of his legs and an intact tail, unlike our friend under our deck). I think these guys were the favorite:

Each time I made my (pathetic) turkey gobble call sound they would all puff up and gobble really loudly all together. They were so loud they scared the crap out of the girls, who thought it was quite hilarious.

We’ve been reading a gazillion books and going to story time with Grandma.

We’ve been flying kites and playing outside.

We’ve had lots of running outside. I love watching them run.

Being outside (without full snow suit attire) has been nice for all of us. There’s something about feeling the wind in your hair that is good for the soul.

They’re having ice storms where we live, so we’re taking full advantage.

Sun, warmth, and Grandma and Grandpa. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Motherhood and Miscellany

Author: Amy