The boys and I have decided that we are going to keep track of all the books we read together and see how long it takes us to reach 1,000 books. A fellow speech pathologist whom I work with has been keeping track of every book she has read to her baby since he was born. Yes, we SLPs are very anal and like to track everything. I wish I had kept track all these years, because I would be so proud of the number of books we have read. Now, I am not exactly sure how to track the 2,000 times we read Clap Your Hands, Goodnight Moon, and The Big Red Barn. Does each read-through count as 1, or should I count each book separately? :) Okay, focus on the big picture. Starting now, we will log each book we read one time, regardless of how many times we read it.
I need to jump up on my soap box and vent about something for a little bit while I am on the topic of early literacy. I was in a preschool last week evaluating a little kiddo who stutters, and asked the child to recite the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill. Many times, people who stutter are very fluent if they are reciting something that is familiar to them, like a nursery rhyme or the Pledge of Allegiance. Anyway, this child looked at me like I was crazy. She didn't know Jack and Jill. So I asked several other kids to say Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, etc.. I don't think a single child in the room could recite an entire nursery rhyme. How sad is that!! Why aren't parents doing nursery rhymes with their children anymore? And if they aren't teaching them nursery rhymes are they even reading stories to them? Nursery rhymes were the first form of literature that I exposed my children to. I bet Callum could sing Rub A Dub Dub and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star right now. He recognizes nursery rhymes, that I am sure of. Nursery rhymes have always been something I have done with the boys. Of course, my Mom is big on nursery rhymes and taught them to us at a very young age. I have a cassette tape of me when I was 2 years old reciting many, many nursery rhymes...and also singing the theme to Love Boat and The Brady Bunch, but that isn't the point. ha ha Back to the topic: nursery rhymes are very important to early literacy. They teach rhyming words, the sing-song prosody of language, vocabulary, etc.. Not to mention that they are just fun to say. Now I am not a perfect Mom by any means. We don't read books every single night. Things come up, we are late getting to bed, or I am just too tired sometimes....but we read several nights a week. And we DO recite nursery rhymes in this house! Parents--bring back the nursery rhymes!! I am stepping down from my soap box.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The One About January Chaos
Well I guess I could title every blog post I write something about chaos. Our home is so chaotic. I keep telling myself that someday I am going to miss all the yelling, fighting, fart/poop talk, etc.. Someday..... For now, I just try to get through each day. When all three kids finally fall asleep (which some nights isn't till 11:00), I breathe a sigh of relief that I survived another day. :) I am half-joking. In the midst of the chaos, there are a lot of laughs.
I haven't written a post since right after Christmas. Wow, I am behind. Not that much has happened since then, but I still try to post at least once a week. I guess I'll just do a catch-up post.
Last summer in the span of a few days, I had three very close friends all tell me they were having babies. This month, the babies arrived. Welcome to the world Creed Leeland, Liesl Katherine, and Kinley Joy! We are excited to have new playmates! Although Asher was disappointed that only one was a baby boy, I was excited to have two girls. :) I got to go shopping for pink, which is always fun for me.
Work has been crazy (don't I always say that?). I think all the birth-age 5 kids were just waiting for me to get back from maternity before they were referred. I have had a lot of little ones lately, which has been fun. It's no secret that I prefer working with the jr. high and high school kids, but it's been fun to have a few birth-2 home visits. Luckily, so far I haven't had any awful homes like I have in the past. And I LOVE my 3-day work week.
Gavin celebrated his 100th day of school. With no absences! The class had a big party, and every child had to bring 100 snack items. Little items, like Gavin had to bring 100 pieces of Life cereal. They mixed everyone's foods together to make a trail/snack mix for the kids. Here are both boys posing in Gavin's 100th day projects:
Gavin's homework the other night was to write the numbers 1-100. It took him forever, since he works at a snail's pace to make everything perfect, but I was proud that he could do it. That's a big accomplishment. He is reading more and more words each week, which is fun to see. He is doing really well in school. I can't believe we will be sitting at kindergarten graduation in just a few months.
During the past few weeks, influenza B has hit Ewing really hard. Gavin has 13 kids in his class, and last week there were 8 out with the flu. Many of them missed several days, if not the entire week of school. The school was being very cautious and they were sending kids home with even the smallest symptoms. Every day we would send Gavin, and just wait for a phone call. But somehow, our family was spared. Knock on wood!
Callum started on rice cereal this month. He is starting to get the hang of it now, but doesn't seem very into it.
He has been working on some teeth. None have popped through yet, but he is drooling up a storm and has had a low-grade fever several days. And we have had a couple of weeks of newborn sleeping patterns...getting up every 3-4 hours. That was rough on us after he had been doing so well and sometimes going all night without waking up. Hopefully when those teeth come in, he will go back to his normal sleeping. Like the other boys did, he loves lying on Daddy's big chest.
Oh, and as you can see in the background we decided to add some some blinds to our big windows in the living room. The morning sun was blinding, and made it difficult for Asher to watch his morning Jake and the NeverLand Pirates cartoon. ha ha
Asher has developed bipolar disorder. ha I kid...but he will remind me he is three years old by being completely unreasonable and throwing a fit and then turn around 5 seconds later and apologize with tears in his eyes. It's actually really cute, and knowing that sweetness is coming at the can make the tantrum behavior a little more tolerable. Just a little!
That's about it for the month. It seems like we have been so busy, but I can't really think of anything else to share. Here are some other pics of Callum from the month. I didn't get my camera out very often, as you can tell.
As you can tell from the pictures, he has Asher's spiky baby hair, but he has Gavin's blue eyes. A perfect mix of his big brothers. :) And thank the Lord that so far he has Gavin's sleeping patterns!! I have no idea where Asher gets all his energy with that little sleep.
I haven't written a post since right after Christmas. Wow, I am behind. Not that much has happened since then, but I still try to post at least once a week. I guess I'll just do a catch-up post.
Last summer in the span of a few days, I had three very close friends all tell me they were having babies. This month, the babies arrived. Welcome to the world Creed Leeland, Liesl Katherine, and Kinley Joy! We are excited to have new playmates! Although Asher was disappointed that only one was a baby boy, I was excited to have two girls. :) I got to go shopping for pink, which is always fun for me.
Work has been crazy (don't I always say that?). I think all the birth-age 5 kids were just waiting for me to get back from maternity before they were referred. I have had a lot of little ones lately, which has been fun. It's no secret that I prefer working with the jr. high and high school kids, but it's been fun to have a few birth-2 home visits. Luckily, so far I haven't had any awful homes like I have in the past. And I LOVE my 3-day work week.
Gavin celebrated his 100th day of school. With no absences! The class had a big party, and every child had to bring 100 snack items. Little items, like Gavin had to bring 100 pieces of Life cereal. They mixed everyone's foods together to make a trail/snack mix for the kids. Here are both boys posing in Gavin's 100th day projects:
Gavin's homework the other night was to write the numbers 1-100. It took him forever, since he works at a snail's pace to make everything perfect, but I was proud that he could do it. That's a big accomplishment. He is reading more and more words each week, which is fun to see. He is doing really well in school. I can't believe we will be sitting at kindergarten graduation in just a few months.
During the past few weeks, influenza B has hit Ewing really hard. Gavin has 13 kids in his class, and last week there were 8 out with the flu. Many of them missed several days, if not the entire week of school. The school was being very cautious and they were sending kids home with even the smallest symptoms. Every day we would send Gavin, and just wait for a phone call. But somehow, our family was spared. Knock on wood!
Callum started on rice cereal this month. He is starting to get the hang of it now, but doesn't seem very into it.
He has been working on some teeth. None have popped through yet, but he is drooling up a storm and has had a low-grade fever several days. And we have had a couple of weeks of newborn sleeping patterns...getting up every 3-4 hours. That was rough on us after he had been doing so well and sometimes going all night without waking up. Hopefully when those teeth come in, he will go back to his normal sleeping. Like the other boys did, he loves lying on Daddy's big chest.
Oh, and as you can see in the background we decided to add some some blinds to our big windows in the living room. The morning sun was blinding, and made it difficult for Asher to watch his morning Jake and the NeverLand Pirates cartoon. ha ha
Asher has developed bipolar disorder. ha I kid...but he will remind me he is three years old by being completely unreasonable and throwing a fit and then turn around 5 seconds later and apologize with tears in his eyes. It's actually really cute, and knowing that sweetness is coming at the can make the tantrum behavior a little more tolerable. Just a little!
That's about it for the month. It seems like we have been so busy, but I can't really think of anything else to share. Here are some other pics of Callum from the month. I didn't get my camera out very often, as you can tell.
As you can tell from the pictures, he has Asher's spiky baby hair, but he has Gavin's blue eyes. A perfect mix of his big brothers. :) And thank the Lord that so far he has Gavin's sleeping patterns!! I have no idea where Asher gets all his energy with that little sleep.
Friday, December 28, 2012
The One About the Christmas Proposal
I didn't share this news right away, but Nate & Jess told me I could put it on the blog. :) Nate proposed on Christmas morning, and Jess said, "Yes!!" Here is her ring:
When we told Gavin that Nate and Jess were getting married, he just said responded with a "whatever" sound. Asher said he wasn't going to the wedding because "boys don't go to weddings." I told him that they do and he said "then I am wearing my jeans." I told him he should wear a suit and said, "Fine. A cowboy suit."
When we told Gavin that Nate and Jess were getting married, he just said responded with a "whatever" sound. Asher said he wasn't going to the wedding because "boys don't go to weddings." I told him that they do and he said "then I am wearing my jeans." I told him he should wear a suit and said, "Fine. A cowboy suit."
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The One About the Christmas Rollover
Callum gave me a wonderful Christmas present this year. He rolled over!! Over the weekend, I found him on his tummy in his crib after nap. So I knew he COULD roll over, but no one had seen him do it. Gavin worked with him on it, explaing how to do it step-by-step. ha ha
On Christmas Eve afternoon, he rolled over in front of Ernie. He yelled at me, but it was over by the time I got there. Then on Christmas Eve when the Funks were all at our house, he rolled over for Cassie and her husband, Travis. Finally on Christmas Day, I was lying on the floor with him and he did it! Now today he has rolled over several times, but then gets really mad when he realizes that he is now on his tummy. :)
On Christmas Eve afternoon, he rolled over in front of Ernie. He yelled at me, but it was over by the time I got there. Then on Christmas Eve when the Funks were all at our house, he rolled over for Cassie and her husband, Travis. Finally on Christmas Day, I was lying on the floor with him and he did it! Now today he has rolled over several times, but then gets really mad when he realizes that he is now on his tummy. :)
The One About the 3-Day Christmas Extravaganza
I always said that when we got into the new house, I was going to host Christmas. We have the room, the nice big open kitchen, etc.. It really does work well for parties. Hosting 3 days in a row is a bit too much. We survived. We had a good time. It all worked out well, but it was a lot of work.
On Sunday, we had my family over for our immediate Funk family Christmas. So it's a small group, but those of you who know my mother know that she goes way overboard on presents...so it was a ton of gifts.
Asher was not...big surprise.
Today, we are just relaxing at home and cleaning up the house. I love getting out my Christmas decorations, but I am always ready to take them down as soon as Christmas is over. Ernie took the boys out for a little sledding.
On Sunday, we had my family over for our immediate Funk family Christmas. So it's a small group, but those of you who know my mother know that she goes way overboard on presents...so it was a ton of gifts.
Nate's comment, "I like kids when they are little like this."
On Christmas Eve, we just cleaned up the mess from the day before and got ready for the big Funk family Christmas that night. Callum was exhausted from the day before:
Asher was not...big surprise.
If everyone comes to Christmas Eve, we have 43 people. Which actually isn't many considering there were 12 kids in my Dad's family. Many of them never married and had their own kids, so that really takes the number down. Anyway, not everyone could make it so there were 30-something. It is our tradition to do soups, and then everyone brings food. So it really is less cooking than my other two Christmas meals that I hosted. The boys LOVE these get-togethers, because there are so many teenage-early 20's counsins to play with them. There was a huge Nerf gun war in the basement. We had a giant Catch Phrase game. I didn't get my camera out that night, because there was just too much going on.
We were all in bed by around 12:30, I think. The next morning, the boys even slept till 7:00 a.m. Callum slept even later, so we opened gifts without him.
Later that morning, the Whitings all came for Chrismas dinner. The boys were excited to have Thatcher at their house again. It was a short Christmas, because everyone had to travel back that afternoon.
Today, we are just relaxing at home and cleaning up the house. I love getting out my Christmas decorations, but I am always ready to take them down as soon as Christmas is over. Ernie took the boys out for a little sledding.
The One About Santa Visit 2012
Last Thursday, Santa Clause came to the Ewing Elementary School. He comes every year on the last day of school before Christmas vacation. Preschoolers can come in at 9:30 to see him, and then they start bringing the grade school down to visit him afterwards. So we bundled Asher and Callum up, and luckily Ernie was able to go with us to town. The roads were still not great after the snow the night day before. Asher was worried that Callum was going to pull on Santa's beard. Asher refused to sit on Santa's lap, but agreed to stand beside him.
When we got there, Lisa was there with the daycare kiddos. Jett and Callum were in the exact same outift, so we had to get pictures.
Belle and Asher wanted to jump in a picture with Lisa.
Asher stayed true to his agreement and stood beside Santa. He told him he wanted a Spiderman castle.
I had taken some pictures of all 3 boys with Santa, but Asher had been touching my camera right before that and must have switched the camera setting. So all the pictures turned out black. Darn!
For those of you who do not get the Ewing newspaper, here are the Santa letters for this year. And yes, almost all of Asher's letters is from his own mouth. You will know the part I added when you read it. :)
Dear Santa,
How are the reindeer and elves doing? How is Rudolph doing? How are your trees doing? I have been silly this year. I would like a Spiderman castle, Batman castle, and a Jake and the NeverLand Pirates pirate ship. I really want a markerboard and a book. My Mom says she just wants me to get an "inside voice" for Christmas. My little brother, Callum, is nice and smiles at me. Can you please bring Callum a baby toy? Can you also bring my Uncle Nate a black cowboy hat and black cowboy boots so we can play cowboy together? I will leave you a sugar cookie on Christmas Eve if you leave me a chocolate chip cookie, because I like those better. Thank you, Santa.
Asher Whiting
Dear Santa,
I want a scope for m BB gun. I also want a Nerf gun with 100 holes and bullets to go with it.
Gavin
When we got there, Lisa was there with the daycare kiddos. Jett and Callum were in the exact same outift, so we had to get pictures.
Belle and Asher wanted to jump in a picture with Lisa.
Asher stayed true to his agreement and stood beside Santa. He told him he wanted a Spiderman castle.
I had taken some pictures of all 3 boys with Santa, but Asher had been touching my camera right before that and must have switched the camera setting. So all the pictures turned out black. Darn!
For those of you who do not get the Ewing newspaper, here are the Santa letters for this year. And yes, almost all of Asher's letters is from his own mouth. You will know the part I added when you read it. :)
Dear Santa,
How are the reindeer and elves doing? How is Rudolph doing? How are your trees doing? I have been silly this year. I would like a Spiderman castle, Batman castle, and a Jake and the NeverLand Pirates pirate ship. I really want a markerboard and a book. My Mom says she just wants me to get an "inside voice" for Christmas. My little brother, Callum, is nice and smiles at me. Can you please bring Callum a baby toy? Can you also bring my Uncle Nate a black cowboy hat and black cowboy boots so we can play cowboy together? I will leave you a sugar cookie on Christmas Eve if you leave me a chocolate chip cookie, because I like those better. Thank you, Santa.
Asher Whiting
Dear Santa,
I want a scope for m BB gun. I also want a Nerf gun with 100 holes and bullets to go with it.
Gavin
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The One About the Christmas Program
Gavin had his Christmas program last Thursday. The Kindergartners had a little thing they did to start the program. They held ornaments with letters on them, spelling out "Happy Holidays" Gavin had the letter "Y" with the line, "Y is for our wish for you." We practiced it all week, and of course I had to work with him on the correct /sh/ production at the end of "wish." Here are some before pictures:
He said his line perfectly. I let out a sigh of relief. :)
Now when the singing started, that was a different story. I think Gavin was singing, but you could barely see his mouth moving. And forget doing the actions with the songs. He would have none of it. He kept glancing at me with eye rolls and that look that said, "I would rather be anywhere in the world but here."
It's been kind of a crazy week leading up to the program. The flu has been going around Ewing and daycare. Last Friday, Lisa's daughter was sick, so I kept both of the boys home from daycare, praying that Callum would not be exposed. Then Saturday, Asher started having symptoms and ended up puking all over the kitchen floor. Then he seemed to be fine. On Tuesday evening, he started running a fever, but then it went away. On Wednesday, he puked again, and then started running a fever through the night. So Ernie took him the doctor on Thursday, and yes...double ear infection. I should have known. His tubes were both out of the eardrums and in the canal in July when we saw Dr. Gebhardt. This time one of the tubes had worked itself almost out and the dotor was able to grab it. So Asher got to bring it home in a jar. :) Those darn tubes just haven't helped Asher at all. He still has had one ear infection after another. The poor boy is cursed.
He said his line perfectly. I let out a sigh of relief. :)
Now when the singing started, that was a different story. I think Gavin was singing, but you could barely see his mouth moving. And forget doing the actions with the songs. He would have none of it. He kept glancing at me with eye rolls and that look that said, "I would rather be anywhere in the world but here."
It's been kind of a crazy week leading up to the program. The flu has been going around Ewing and daycare. Last Friday, Lisa's daughter was sick, so I kept both of the boys home from daycare, praying that Callum would not be exposed. Then Saturday, Asher started having symptoms and ended up puking all over the kitchen floor. Then he seemed to be fine. On Tuesday evening, he started running a fever, but then it went away. On Wednesday, he puked again, and then started running a fever through the night. So Ernie took him the doctor on Thursday, and yes...double ear infection. I should have known. His tubes were both out of the eardrums and in the canal in July when we saw Dr. Gebhardt. This time one of the tubes had worked itself almost out and the dotor was able to grab it. So Asher got to bring it home in a jar. :) Those darn tubes just haven't helped Asher at all. He still has had one ear infection after another. The poor boy is cursed.
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