What's been going on in our house? Just a little bit of everything I think.
We began 2014 in another state, still visiting my fam in Chicago. We were going to come home January 2nd until the weather trumped our plans. We left mid morning New Year's Day before 12 inches of snow fell later that day. We started our second semester of school on the 6th, the day after almost 12 inches of snow fell here. We spent that snowy, bitterly cold week stuck inside, and had to deal with some frozen pipes and a stomach virus in 4/5ths of us. Now we're finally back to our regularly scheduled lives.
Hannah is in her final weeks as a 1 year old; her second birthday comes on Feb 23. She has developed many words over the last several weeks and it's getting easier and easier to figure her out. She got a lot of baby doll gear for Christmas and has been having the most fun pushing the babies in a little swing. Developmentally she loves doing peg puzzles, pouring from one container to another, and will sort objects according to color. She recognizes letters everywhere. She doesn't know them but knows that we call them the ABCs, so she says BCs or something like that. We can also recognize melodies when she "sings" the alphabet and Barney's "I Love You" song. Speaking of Barney, he and Elmo top Hannah's list of favorite celebrities. She continues to be the feisty and opinionated girl she has been for most of her little life and always wants to be the center of her mommy's universe. And she let's mommy know when that's not happening, oh yes she does.
Joey is a smart little firecracker, as always. He got lots of Legos for Christmas and has been having fun with Dad building/playing with the sets. His bond with Hannah has deepened as he usually visits her in the morning for a few minutes (or 20, oops!) before I get up. He gives her toys and talks in a sweet, high pitched voice. He still definitely pulls big brotherly stunts like teasing her by keeping favorite toys away from her, but those times are becoming less the norm.
These days Ben is very much like a puppy who doesn't get out enough energy during the day and gets in trouble for it. The lack of outdoors time is creating too much pent-up energy. He flops around on furniture, jumps and stomps all around the house, and even sometimes looses control and bops a sibling. It's definitely not to be mean - he just has energy and has to get it out somehow. He got an mp3 player for Christmas and does some pretty crazy dance moves when no one's watching, so I think I just need to have him do that for awhile every day. Either that or do laps on the stairs or something!! And for something I'm also not quite ready for yet, at CC yesterday he noticed his little lady friend, whom he adores, come in and he whispered to me, "Mom, get up!" You know, so the sweet little girl could sit next to him instead of me. If it wasn't so gentlemanly and sweet I would have protested!
And as for the house itself, we've made a few silly improvements around here... you know, the kind that come from almost 10 year old bridal shower/wedding gifts starting to die on us. Christmas brought new pots/pans, hand mixer, laundry basket and hamper, and kitchen garbage can. Woo. Hoo. :-) And I've made some small changes in our dining room, which is becoming less "the dining room where we also homeschool" and more "the homeschool room where we also eat our meals." I think I'll blog that separately though when I can take a few pics.
Take a second and check out my friend Katie's new menu board in her kitchen. I love the idea of meal planning but a certain grown up in this house would rather eat what he has a taste for than what I may happen plan in advance. :-) But I sure like her idea about having the rest of the family pick recipes to add to the week's menu and could see that helping some of the mealtime woes around here. And it's super super cute too! Hey Katie, could you just make another one for me?!!
Have a great rest-of-the-week and thanks for checking in!
We began 2014 in another state, still visiting my fam in Chicago. We were going to come home January 2nd until the weather trumped our plans. We left mid morning New Year's Day before 12 inches of snow fell later that day. We started our second semester of school on the 6th, the day after almost 12 inches of snow fell here. We spent that snowy, bitterly cold week stuck inside, and had to deal with some frozen pipes and a stomach virus in 4/5ths of us. Now we're finally back to our regularly scheduled lives.
Hannah is in her final weeks as a 1 year old; her second birthday comes on Feb 23. She has developed many words over the last several weeks and it's getting easier and easier to figure her out. She got a lot of baby doll gear for Christmas and has been having the most fun pushing the babies in a little swing. Developmentally she loves doing peg puzzles, pouring from one container to another, and will sort objects according to color. She recognizes letters everywhere. She doesn't know them but knows that we call them the ABCs, so she says BCs or something like that. We can also recognize melodies when she "sings" the alphabet and Barney's "I Love You" song. Speaking of Barney, he and Elmo top Hannah's list of favorite celebrities. She continues to be the feisty and opinionated girl she has been for most of her little life and always wants to be the center of her mommy's universe. And she let's mommy know when that's not happening, oh yes she does.
Joey is a smart little firecracker, as always. He got lots of Legos for Christmas and has been having fun with Dad building/playing with the sets. His bond with Hannah has deepened as he usually visits her in the morning for a few minutes (or 20, oops!) before I get up. He gives her toys and talks in a sweet, high pitched voice. He still definitely pulls big brotherly stunts like teasing her by keeping favorite toys away from her, but those times are becoming less the norm.
These days Ben is very much like a puppy who doesn't get out enough energy during the day and gets in trouble for it. The lack of outdoors time is creating too much pent-up energy. He flops around on furniture, jumps and stomps all around the house, and even sometimes looses control and bops a sibling. It's definitely not to be mean - he just has energy and has to get it out somehow. He got an mp3 player for Christmas and does some pretty crazy dance moves when no one's watching, so I think I just need to have him do that for awhile every day. Either that or do laps on the stairs or something!! And for something I'm also not quite ready for yet, at CC yesterday he noticed his little lady friend, whom he adores, come in and he whispered to me, "Mom, get up!" You know, so the sweet little girl could sit next to him instead of me. If it wasn't so gentlemanly and sweet I would have protested!
And as for the house itself, we've made a few silly improvements around here... you know, the kind that come from almost 10 year old bridal shower/wedding gifts starting to die on us. Christmas brought new pots/pans, hand mixer, laundry basket and hamper, and kitchen garbage can. Woo. Hoo. :-) And I've made some small changes in our dining room, which is becoming less "the dining room where we also homeschool" and more "the homeschool room where we also eat our meals." I think I'll blog that separately though when I can take a few pics.
Take a second and check out my friend Katie's new menu board in her kitchen. I love the idea of meal planning but a certain grown up in this house would rather eat what he has a taste for than what I may happen plan in advance. :-) But I sure like her idea about having the rest of the family pick recipes to add to the week's menu and could see that helping some of the mealtime woes around here. And it's super super cute too! Hey Katie, could you just make another one for me?!!
Have a great rest-of-the-week and thanks for checking in!
Awww... thanks for the shout out. I am loving my menu board! I could be persuaded to make one... :)
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