First Haircut AND baby belly!

Today was the day we finally cut off Baby Bear’s little Baby Mullet.  He is a Billy Rae fan no longer.  It actually wasn’t so much a mullet as it was a double rat tail.  (Classy!)  Long in the back, but only on the sides… shorter in the middle.  It does look so much better (which we were expecting) but he also looks so much older to us (which we were also expecting and is why we held off).  He barely knew what was happening.  I only trimmed up the back, so I did it quickly during his dinner.  Sneaky Mommy!

Our little boy is so cute.  Look at that face!

Also, here I am ending my 17th week and leaving the 4th month behind.  There really is a baby in there!  I look like a real pregnant lady now.  We still can’t believe it!

Disappearing Cookie Eater

Between his Roscoe P Coltrane giggle (he even has his own Bassett!) and some funny, flirty looks he’s been giving, little Baby Bear has been seriously cracking me up lately.  

Today I gave him a little cup with some cookies in it and he took off with the little cup.  I then finished cleaning up the kitchen.  It only took me, like, 3 minutes and then I walked into the Family Room and he was nowhere to be seen.  I was saying, “Drew…. Drew….” looking under things and all around.  It’s the only other place he could have gone since the doors to the other rooms were closed and the gate was up at the stairs.  WHERE WAS HE!?  I walked back into the kitchen thoroughly confused and starting to get a bit concerned… until I turned my head.

 

Little Drew found a comfy little spot to lounge and eat his cookie snack in peace – on Lucy’s Dog Bed.  Looks like he’s either missing his remote or maybe someone standing above him feeding him grapes.  He’s a little crack up!

Shoes

Rainy Days

What do we do around here on those days it won’t stop raining?  Well, besides schoolwork and preparing delicious Taco Salads we also:

Rest

until we can rest no more.

 

Watch

our little front yard squirrel enjoy the wet day.

 

Investigate

the backyard for new little critters.

 

Share

the goods with our little bro.

 

 

Look Cute

all the way down to our toes.

Science Experiment

I seem to be swinging in between moments of being so glad I’m homeschooling to thinking what business I have in doing so.  Especially now that I’m exhausted and nauseous… and imagining how exhausted I’m going to be taking care of a newborn, with 2 year old and trying to maintain any sort of school for Jr, plus his appointments.  He’s going to OT right now for strengthening his fingers and helping his poor balance.  And we want to get him in with a Behavior Therapist.

When Baby Bear was born it was a major task just drop Jr off and pick him up every day!  But from what I’ve read around the web it’s not totally unusal to doubt yourself or your abilities for a year or two.  Because I’ve been so tired I’ve been sticking to pretty much his Computer Lessons lately and have been getting a lot of dragging feet and arguing.  But I decided to throw in a Science Experiement today and am reminded of how important it is for him to do thing that are hand-on.

Today we made Gluep and learned about solids/liquids and molecules. It was so easy!  And he was SO into it:

Also I just noticed some unevenness in his hair and he just told me he cut his bangs.  When I asked why, he said he wanted them to grow faster.  Well, at least it doesn’t look like Uncle Matt’s when he took a big chunk in the middle right up to the scalp.

Also for your viewing pleasure, Baby Bear!

And in case you forgot or think we forgot, we have a 10 year old cat, Emmie:

We didn’t just get her, she’s been with us for 10 years!  I just keep forgetting to put her on our “About” page with the rest of the family.  One of these days I’ll get around to it.  Poor cat.  Emmie’s favorite things:  Being fed in the morning, her nighttime cuddles, growing extra layers of belly and having a place to lounge away from the children.

God is so good.

God is so good.  

Last Friday home school was a little rough.  The time spent with the local meetup group was a disaster… to the point of me being in tears the rest of the day… and yesterday started off not much better just with our time at home.  Lots of arguing and attitude.  You know, from Jr.  Although I was tempted to give it right back after awhile.  I’ve been plugging away trying to brush things off, but God knew I needed a little encouragement.

Today is when we do Art  - so Jr and I spent some of our morning creating Space objects with clay which we will paint and make into magnets after they dry.  Jr loved it because while we were making space objects I was asking him all different questions about the planets and the universe and he got to tell me how much he knows.  I could tell he was loving it – in fact he told me numerous times! lol  

When we were done I felt like some music while I got lunch ready – so I put in Chris Tomlin.  I seriously haven’t listened to this CD in about a year – maybe longer!  And I don’t know what made me think of it and put it in. (Well, I guess I do.) I didn’t think much when the first song started until this line:  

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.

Then my ears really perked up and I thought, Oh my goodness.  That’s the verse we were memorizing last week! 

Psalm 147:4-5

 4 He determines the number of the stars 
       and calls them each by name.

 5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; 
       his understanding has no limit.

It’s like he’s saying, “YES, keep going!  I love that!” 

I love how God surprises us, encourages us and cheers us on.

E-vil

I don’t know if any of you are interested in this or not, but we have toned down Jr’s food restrictions.  We were doing the full Feingold Diet (taking out dyes, preservatives, salycilates, etc) and have since scaled back.  Over the course of the year we realized that whenever anything was affecting him, it was always dye related.  This is the whole point of the Feingold Diet – to reintroduce and see what is/isn’t causing a reaction.

At this point we are still just keeping things as organic as possible, checking for preservatives and other unnatural ingredients and avoiding them when possible.  But will have absolutely no dye.  Dye is E-vil.  As in the Fru-its of the De-vil.  You know, like from So I Married An Axe Murderer.

I think this is still dt’s favorite scene:

 

Anyway, that’s the scoop.

Bakugan Birthday

We spent the day centered around Bakugan.  This is how the day went down.  

Breakfast of his choice – Eggs and Bacon.  

Open Bakugan Presents.

Shopping with Gift Money.  

Try two Targets and one Toys R Us to find a specific Bakugan he’s been wanting.  Still couldn’t find it!

Home for the Buffet Lunch.  He specifically asked for a Buffet (exept he says it like Phoebe’s last name, Boofay.).  So we had different kinds of fruit, veggies, pizza, leftover corn salad, a quartered grilled cheese and a cut up burrito.  He loved it!

Family Bakugan Battle.  He won.

Watch Bakugan show.  Repeat funny lines.

Play Soccer outside.  (What?  No Bakugan?)

Steak on the grill.

Have Bakugan-inspired cake.

Bat around a few balloons until they pop.

iCarly rerun.  (one of his favorite shows)

More Bakugan playtime.

To bed.

8 Years Ago

Eight years ago my world was suddenly, magically, wonderfully turned upside-down and inside-out.  

 

 

I have never been the same and am so thankful.  I love you Jr!

Home School Update

So these first few weeks of Home Schooling has taken some adjusting.  The hardest week was, by far, the first week because I was starting with a curriculum that just doesn’t work with him. Basically it had a LOT of writing.  There is nothing Jr hates more than writing. I thought it wouldn’t matter and he might even enjoy it if it was all about Space… but… yeah.  Turned out not so much.  

The following week we started up Time4Learning.com and are using that for our foundation.  Because it’s a month by month fee, I figured we could finish up 2nd grade with it and look for a better suited curriculum for him starting in the Fall.  So far he’s loving it and I have ZERO issues with getting him to do his work.  He giggles at the lessons and thinks a lot of the stories are funny.  I think Interactive + ADHD = good combo!  So we’ll see… if it keeps going this well, we may just stick with it.  I just want to be sure he’s really learning and retaining everything.  I also am planning weekly trips to the library so we can do bi-weekly book reports (he’ll have to write or type that one out) on a book of his choice.  We’re memorizing a weekly Bible Verse, which he actually likes and has done great with.  And we, of course, are doing Science Experiments.  And I’ll start spelling up in a bit, but I’m waiting to start up his least-favorite thing while we get everything else situated.

Other than that we joined a Meet-up Group of Home Schoolers in North Austin.  They meet every week and have fun stuff for the kids to do — sometimes just getting together to play, sometimes for a field trip for learning fun.  One of the events coming up is Science Theatre where they show the kids all the things you can do with Science.  So cool!

I also asked Jr if he had the choice would he want to do a sport or learn how to play an instrument (we can’t afford both) and surprisingly he said he really wanted to play piano.  HUH?  Where did that come from??  I was really surprised.  I guess sometimes you just need to ask a direct question to know what’s going on in your kids mind.  lol  So we will look around for a reasonably priced keyboard and get him going with some piano lessons sometime soon, too.

One thing for sure, I am so happy I’m doing this.  Jr is SO much happier.  Being tagged as an issue at school, with everyone scolding him, being sent to the principal’s office regularly and then hating what he was doing all day really did make him miserable.  I can’t imagine what he went through all day!  I’ve definitely seen his ADHD come out, where he’s jumping off the walls and a bit overly wound-up, but I’m able to tell him he needs to go outside if he’s going to play like that.  Or if he doesn’t listen, he’s grounded and has consistant concequences.  (and it’s not even been that much of an issue.)  With so many teachers at school, there were different rules in each room and different tolerance levels for different behavior.  That is not good for any kid, but very difficult for kids with ADHD to switch gears and know and remember all the different rules.

It has also been a comforting time for me.  A lot of times the teachers reactions about Jr were so strong and annoyed and/or concerned that I was really worried about him.  They painted him as this delinquent kid with barely a conscious.  And Gosh, what would become of Jr as he got older? I worried.  It was probably wrong of me to let their words effect me so deeply, but they did.  Honestly, I don’t think I even knew how much I worried about him until after the last few weeks I’ve been able to let out a big *sigh*.  I’ve really been able to lay down any unfounded fears about what the future holds for him.  Jr is a GOOD KID.  (I’d yell that right now if I wouldn’t wake up the baby.)  He is an honest kid.  He is a compassionate kid and cares deeply for others.  He is stinking hilarious… and dedicated and kind.  He wants to do his best and always tries his hardest – but sometimes falls short of the goal because of his ADHD.  I’ve seen it first hand.  I shouldn’t  have let people who don’t truly care about him shift my view and make me worry so much.  He just needs a little extra guidance than your average kid.  Big deal.  Know what I mean?  

Thank you, Lord, for giving us this time together and opening my eyes and showing me the truth.  Truly.