Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Coming Labor Day 2013...
I'm pregnant! And I can finally share it! I hate keeping secrets, and a pregnancy secret is the worst! I had my 3rd miscarriage last November, so we wanted to be SURE before we told the kids. And so we ended up keeping it a secret from just about everyone we know until we knew it was safe. I didn't want it to get back to the girls, and then have to explain if something were to happen again. But I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and heard the heartbeat again, so it was time to spill the beans! Marissa was SOOOOOOO excited, flipping out all day after we told them. Arianna wants to name it Balloon Boy or Faline. And Roman doesn't know what everyone's so excited about. But we're so happy! I'm 12 weeks pregnant, due September 2, 2013, which just happens to be Labor Day, which I think is so funny! It will certainly make homeschooling interesting, but we're so excited no matter what!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
2013
I'm officially a failure at blogging. And I'm so used to typing on my
phone (new Samsung Galaxy Note 2! Love it!) that I wait for auto
correct to fix things on the computer! Arianna is sleeping, Roman is
supposed to be sleeping, and Marissa is playing her My Little Pony game
on the iPad (after some extra CC during naptime) so I'm going to try to
get a quick update in!
*UPDATE* Can't believe I forgot to mention the best Christmas present ever: we got a DSLR! Again, thanks to generous relatives, we were able to find one we could afford, barely used on craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel t2i, and it's basically in perfect condition. The guy who owned it only used it once, and we got an extra lens and a giant carrying case and all the manuals for it. We've just been using it on manual mode right now, cuz I have no clue what I'm doing! But I hope to be able to learn how to really maximize the potential. It's already worth it though, because it takes pictures so quickly that the kids are actually not blurry and it takes much less time to get a good shot. I'm so excited to see where we can do with this new toy!
- Still homeschooling, though we have yet to really get back into the routine of things after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a super long break from CC. Marissa is starting to fight it, and seems to be getting bored with some things, so it's time to kick it up a notch! She understands most things so quickly, but also gets bored quickly. The only thing she's really struggling with is spelling, which we aren't even really focusing on. It's part of phonics to me though, and the English language is frustrating the crap out of me lately! Marissa totally understands phonics rules like long vowel/silent e. But uses them in the wrong words (rane=rain) and other than saying "it's just that way because it's that way" I don't know how to explain it any better. I like the phonics book - it's very clear about rules/exceptions - I don't think that's the problem. It's just driving me crazy :-)
- I've been doing several pages of Kindergarten stuff with Arianna most days, and she whizzes through almost all of it. She can read most any CVC words and loves doing her "school." She'll turn 4 in February, and next year will start CC with us officially. Can't believe it! She's still very much a daddy's girl, and sometimes I just have to back away because I know I'm no good! She's still hilarious and full of imagination, so she and Marissa pretend pretty well together.
- Roman is finally starting to talk more and communicate things to us! It's been a long frustrating wait for it to happen though. The PACE therapist is still coming twice a month, though I don't really know for sure that it's helping - it certainly isn't hurting. He answers "good" when you ask how he is. He says "what" when you call his name. And knows the names of all of his favorite toys: cars, balls, truck, books, animal names - and most recently he's obsessed with the girls' My Little Ponies and calls them "moanies" and makes them say "yee haaaww" - it's adorable! He's actually growing out of his clothes for a change, and with Christmas money from generous relatives, I fixed that problem :-) His winter coat is still a 12m, but in actual clothes he's wearing 18-24 month stuff.
- OH, ROMAN TURNED 2! He finally hit 21 lbs at his check up, and now I officially don't have any babies/toddlers in the nursery at church for the first time since Arianna was born. *sniff sniff*
- Speaking of Christmas, we had a wonderfully crazy holiday. My parents and sister and grandma drove out from NY for a (too short) visit, and then I randomly decided that I would drive back with them with the kids and visit for another week before CC started back up again. Unfortunately, Dan had to work in the middle of the holidays, so he couldn't come. Also unfortunately, we were predicted to get a GIANT snow storm here and then in NY too, during the planned traveling days. So at about 3pm on Christmas day, we decided we would try to leave ASAP before the snow hit OH and get to NY ahead of it. I hadn't packed a single thing, so I ran around like a maniac for 3 hours and we managed to leave at 6pm. We completely avoided all the snow, but didn't get to NY until 3am. But we left poor Dan all alone for the rest of Christmas AND his 30th birthday. We had a blast in NY though, and the kids loved playing in the snow. We got to see a bunch of extended family too, which was a bonus. The kids got SHOWERED with wonderful gifts from very generous family, and now I'm still working on finding our house and laundry room after all that chaos! (By the way, I LOVE shopping for clothes for the kids with Christmas present money. Haha!)
- Hmmm, I guess I never shared about this either: I had a miscarriage over Thanksgiving. We found out I was pregnant in October sometime (kinda forget now), but hadn't shared it with anyone. I got checked out kinda early for other reasons, and they were monitoring my levels (bloodwork - fun!) and the second they started to go down I just knew it. I had one good cry before we even found out for sure that it was over, and then I was ready to move on. Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving, which was amazing, especially since I was pretty much down for the count during that week. It was so nice to have the help, and the kids always love visiting with grandparents!
- I stopped babysitting the extra boys since they moved farther away. Roman was sad to not see the baby every week! He's so funny around babies.
- Roman also got his first haircut! Dan had a mowhawk at the time, so I went crazy and had Roman's hair cut into kind of a faux hawk. Roman thinks he is SO COOL when I gel his hair to look just like Daddy's! He begs me to do it and then goes around showing everyone!
- He's still an awesome sleeper, although it sounds like today he decided not to nap. Lol. He's singing and babbling away in his room, happy as a clam as usual. He was awesome even in NY, which surprised me, although it shouldn't have. He's just plain awesome.
- One of Marissa's main Christmas gifts from us was an mp3 player. She thinks she's so cool listening to music all the time, and we loaded it up with some of her favorites like Skillet and Flyleaf. Haha!
*UPDATE* Can't believe I forgot to mention the best Christmas present ever: we got a DSLR! Again, thanks to generous relatives, we were able to find one we could afford, barely used on craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel t2i, and it's basically in perfect condition. The guy who owned it only used it once, and we got an extra lens and a giant carrying case and all the manuals for it. We've just been using it on manual mode right now, cuz I have no clue what I'm doing! But I hope to be able to learn how to really maximize the potential. It's already worth it though, because it takes pictures so quickly that the kids are actually not blurry and it takes much less time to get a good shot. I'm so excited to see where we can do with this new toy!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Well, we've been homeschooling for about a month now! It's going
better than I expected with Marissa, and about what I expected with
Arianna and Roman. I was expecting Marissa to fight me more when I asked
her to work on things, but that really hasn't been much of an issue.
She's interested in just about everything we work on, and works hard and
relatively efficiently. We're on week 5 of Classical Conversations
material, and so far I really love the program and community. We meet
once a week, on Fridays, and Marissa's tutor goes over the new material
for the following week, do a science project and art/music, and reviews previous weeks' material. Arianna
and Roman do great in the nursery, and I enjoy talking with the other
moms while we observe the class. It's challenging for me to learn the
material, and fun for us to memorize it together. We have the CD of
everything in the car, and even Arianna is picking up on a lot of it! We
have separate phonics and math books, and they seem to be just about
right for Marissa.
We start each day with breakfast and Super Why. Then we head downstairs to the schoolroom/playroom. Marissa and I work at the desk, and Arianna and Roman have a little table and play area. We work on memorizing the CC material, and learning map locations for CC. Then a few pages of math (she likes to do more sometimes!) and then some phonics/writing practice. I have her read word families, and we're reinforcing short vowel sounds right now. Then she writes sentences for some of the words we read, or I give her a "spelling test" with some of the words we read. Then (if Arianna and Roman let us have time) we expand on a subject. We've been making a science book about all the classifications of animals. This gives her a chance for some crafting (her favorite thing ever!) and is a little more fun than just memorizing the facts (which we get from CC). Usually by this time, Arianna and Roman are no longer playing nicely, so we head upstairs for free play before lunch. I try to keep them busy with puff ball games, coloring, balls, trains, and Arianna practices her letters on a white board or uses her alphabet tracing notebook. But this only lasts so long! It's definitely the most challenging aspect of homeschooling so far!
After lunch, I put Arianna and Roman down for nap (although Arianna seems to be getting out of this need, boohoo!), and Marissa and I have a while to ourselves. She does typing lessons on the computer, and we sometimes explore different areas on our globe and google information about it. Or she'll pick a topic she's interested in lately, and we'll explore that. One week we went to the Butterfly House at a local gardens, and so we researched Monarchs and everything about them. One day she informed me she wanted to learn how electricity works, so we attempted to figure that out. Lol. She wanted to learn how to tell time on an analog clock, so we've been working on that, and she plays a clock game on the computer to work on that. There's also tutorials and songs for CC material online, so we take some time to listen to those and work through the tutorials. Then she gets some free time on the computer while I get some free time, and her school day is over!
Today is Tuesday, which means I'm watching A (3 like Arianna) and R (5 months) for some friends. It means extra crazy days, and less actual school time, but we make up for it throughout the week. Right now I got all 4 younger kids down for nap (who knows if Arianna's actually sleeping though!), and Marissa is on the computer so I have some time to breathe. Haha. It's definitely challenging, but one day a week is definitely do-able, and they're good kids.
Roman is finally saying lots of words and getting a super funny personality, and it's so fun! He says bear, deer, doggie, ball, car, snack (na), mac (ma), mommy, daddy, bowl, and some others that I can't think of right now. He actually learned MINE today, from Arianna of course. Haha! He's so funny (especially around the baby) and still loves playing any kind of ball game, and driving his little cars around. He can be so goofy, and loves running around and crawling around (like jaguars) with the girls.
Arianna's still struggling with poop issues. But I'm not pursuing any kind of fix right now, just hoping time will help. She's so smart though, and I love watching her learn the CC stuff with us. She's getting really good at writing the letter A, and is very interested in writing her name.
Well, naptime is almost over and I need to prep for dinner tonight!
We start each day with breakfast and Super Why. Then we head downstairs to the schoolroom/playroom. Marissa and I work at the desk, and Arianna and Roman have a little table and play area. We work on memorizing the CC material, and learning map locations for CC. Then a few pages of math (she likes to do more sometimes!) and then some phonics/writing practice. I have her read word families, and we're reinforcing short vowel sounds right now. Then she writes sentences for some of the words we read, or I give her a "spelling test" with some of the words we read. Then (if Arianna and Roman let us have time) we expand on a subject. We've been making a science book about all the classifications of animals. This gives her a chance for some crafting (her favorite thing ever!) and is a little more fun than just memorizing the facts (which we get from CC). Usually by this time, Arianna and Roman are no longer playing nicely, so we head upstairs for free play before lunch. I try to keep them busy with puff ball games, coloring, balls, trains, and Arianna practices her letters on a white board or uses her alphabet tracing notebook. But this only lasts so long! It's definitely the most challenging aspect of homeschooling so far!
After lunch, I put Arianna and Roman down for nap (although Arianna seems to be getting out of this need, boohoo!), and Marissa and I have a while to ourselves. She does typing lessons on the computer, and we sometimes explore different areas on our globe and google information about it. Or she'll pick a topic she's interested in lately, and we'll explore that. One week we went to the Butterfly House at a local gardens, and so we researched Monarchs and everything about them. One day she informed me she wanted to learn how electricity works, so we attempted to figure that out. Lol. She wanted to learn how to tell time on an analog clock, so we've been working on that, and she plays a clock game on the computer to work on that. There's also tutorials and songs for CC material online, so we take some time to listen to those and work through the tutorials. Then she gets some free time on the computer while I get some free time, and her school day is over!
Today is Tuesday, which means I'm watching A (3 like Arianna) and R (5 months) for some friends. It means extra crazy days, and less actual school time, but we make up for it throughout the week. Right now I got all 4 younger kids down for nap (who knows if Arianna's actually sleeping though!), and Marissa is on the computer so I have some time to breathe. Haha. It's definitely challenging, but one day a week is definitely do-able, and they're good kids.
Roman is finally saying lots of words and getting a super funny personality, and it's so fun! He says bear, deer, doggie, ball, car, snack (na), mac (ma), mommy, daddy, bowl, and some others that I can't think of right now. He actually learned MINE today, from Arianna of course. Haha! He's so funny (especially around the baby) and still loves playing any kind of ball game, and driving his little cars around. He can be so goofy, and loves running around and crawling around (like jaguars) with the girls.
Arianna's still struggling with poop issues. But I'm not pursuing any kind of fix right now, just hoping time will help. She's so smart though, and I love watching her learn the CC stuff with us. She's getting really good at writing the letter A, and is very interested in writing her name.
Well, naptime is almost over and I need to prep for dinner tonight!
Monday, August 13, 2012
End of summer
Well, the summer's pretty much over already! This Friday starts our
first Classical Conversations (CC) day, and officially kicks off our
year of homeschooling for Marissa!We just finished up a fun weekend with
Granny and Poppop, only a week after an extended trip to NY to visit
with Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, and Rara. My PA grandparents, aunt
and uncle from NH, and my brother and his wife also all drove to NY to
visit while we were there. It's been a fun month of relatives, and we
haven't had much downtime at all!
In NY, we spent a lot of time at the pool in the neighborhood that I grew up in, where my Grandma still lives. It felt so weird to go back there after all these years, and spend the afternoon swimming again! This year, by the end of our visit, all 3 kids finally started loving the water! Marissa finally gave up her floaties (after much convincing, and some "accidental" deflating - she hasn't actually needed them for a while), Arianna finally gave up on hysterical screaming, and Roman couldn't keep his face out of the water (as long as there was a ball nearby). I drove the kids out by myself (Dan used so much vacation time for Disney & Nicaragua, that he didn't have any left), and it went much better than I expected. We only stopped for dinner and gas, and made it in great time! The kids did great, and I didn't even go crazy! We spent one day at Toughannock State Park and ate lunch by the water, played on the playground, and hiked up to the falls with the kids.
Roman learned a bunch of new words while we were in NY (mail, bear, deer, birdie, fish, rara, and "grandma, grandpa" which both sound like rara, but he knew the difference). Just this week he also started saying car and poppop. He's still completely obsessed with all types of balls and games with balls. He now sleeps with a soft ball, and practices kicking and throwing balls against the walls. He's crazy good for a 20 month old (?!) and since I know I'm going to have to watch him play sports the rest of his life, I'm just glad he's so cute :-) He also discovered running while we were in NY, and he holds one arm sideways across his chest and runs so crazy!
Arianna's still having digestion issues, which means she's back in pull-ups so I don't go crazy. Wish we could figure this girl out, but I have a feeling we never will. She does everything 100% and all her emotions are extreme. I'm hoping we can do some school stuff with her and figure out how she works. Haha!
Marissa is excited about homeschooling, and we've started making a list of everything she wants to learn this year! I hope I'm up for the challenge...
I guess that's all for now!
In NY, we spent a lot of time at the pool in the neighborhood that I grew up in, where my Grandma still lives. It felt so weird to go back there after all these years, and spend the afternoon swimming again! This year, by the end of our visit, all 3 kids finally started loving the water! Marissa finally gave up her floaties (after much convincing, and some "accidental" deflating - she hasn't actually needed them for a while), Arianna finally gave up on hysterical screaming, and Roman couldn't keep his face out of the water (as long as there was a ball nearby). I drove the kids out by myself (Dan used so much vacation time for Disney & Nicaragua, that he didn't have any left), and it went much better than I expected. We only stopped for dinner and gas, and made it in great time! The kids did great, and I didn't even go crazy! We spent one day at Toughannock State Park and ate lunch by the water, played on the playground, and hiked up to the falls with the kids.
Roman learned a bunch of new words while we were in NY (mail, bear, deer, birdie, fish, rara, and "grandma, grandpa" which both sound like rara, but he knew the difference). Just this week he also started saying car and poppop. He's still completely obsessed with all types of balls and games with balls. He now sleeps with a soft ball, and practices kicking and throwing balls against the walls. He's crazy good for a 20 month old (?!) and since I know I'm going to have to watch him play sports the rest of his life, I'm just glad he's so cute :-) He also discovered running while we were in NY, and he holds one arm sideways across his chest and runs so crazy!
Arianna's still having digestion issues, which means she's back in pull-ups so I don't go crazy. Wish we could figure this girl out, but I have a feeling we never will. She does everything 100% and all her emotions are extreme. I'm hoping we can do some school stuff with her and figure out how she works. Haha!
Marissa is excited about homeschooling, and we've started making a list of everything she wants to learn this year! I hope I'm up for the challenge...
I guess that's all for now!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Happy 4th!
Either life is too busy or I'm too lazy to keep this up. One or the other is true all the time. So I'll just start!
Yesterday I went shopping for 6 hours by myself. It was glorious. It was my treat because I survived 8 days of single parenting while Dan was in Nicaragua on a missions trip with church. I have quite a bit of birthday money, and I'm actually spending it slowly this time, instead of the usual "spend it all in one day then return things because I'm indecisive" thing I usually do. We also went to see fireworks with some friends last night til 11pm and the kids are all soooo tired today!
The month of June was crazy. Marissa had her last day of school and a school program. We had a few weeks of nothing, then we DROVE to Disney World with Dan's parents and bro & sis-in-law for a week. The kids did SO GREAT, and it was so much fun. But it was exhausting! Then we drove back through the night on Friday, and Dan left for Nicaragua Saturday morning for 8 days. It was hard to be without him, but my college roommate (Laureann) came for a few days with her two boys, and we had dinner with some friends, so that helped break it up. We have this week to catch up from that, and then next week is VBS (I'm watching babies again of course), the next week is "practicums" for me and Marissa to prepare for Classical Conversations homeschooling which starts the middle of August. And after practicums, I'm driving the kids to NY for a few weeks for an extended visit with everyone. I'm really excited about that visit, just not so much about the 9 hours of driving with no adult backup! Dan's taken so much time off from work in June that he just can't take any more yet.
Marissa's adjusting to being at home all day (and so am I). The kids play really well together most of the time, and when they're not, they're fighting of course! Marissa is in massive craft mode still, and makes the most creative things out of paper and tape. Lol. Arianna is doing pretty well with potty training - although we reverted to wearing a pullup all the time because of her ongoing poop issues. She's still on Miralax everyday, which usually does the trick, but for some reason it's not always perfect. Roman got a hold of her cup yesterday (while I was shopping, and Dan didn't realize which color cup was hers), and poor Roman had a miserable day with lots of nasty diapers! Arianna's talking so well, and copying Marissa like crazy. She knows all her letters and sounds, and busts out the most hilarious phrases, directly imitating the things Dan and I say (it's a good thing they're not bad phrases!). Roman still really only says "mommy" "ball" and barks and quacks. But he's trying. We're going to a class for him since he qualifies for help, but I'm not really sold on it, and am trying to get in-home help instead.
Roman and Arianna play like crazy together. And usually Arianna ends up knocking him down or injuring him in some way. While Dan was in Nicaragua, they were running down the hall, and A bumped R and he ran smack into the corner of the mudroom doorway with his forehead. It was BAD immediately, and I considered taking him to get stitches. It was super swollen but didn't really bleed very much, and it's scabbed over pretty well, so I think he's ok. But it was scary! He's still super sweet and cuddly, and such a wonderful sleeper. But he's definitely showing his age (19mo) lately...tantrums are starting!
This morning I turned in my weekly editing work for probably the last time ever! Between my vacations and their schedule and the ending of remote reviewers anyways, I am probably done. It was the most wonderful job for this time in my life and I loved the flexibility of it. But I will be soooo glad to have my evenings free after the kids go to bed!
I think that's all I can think of to update on. Wish I could have made the time to chronicle in detail our Disney trip, but at least we have pictures to remember it by! Maybe someday (in my free time - ha!) I'll get back to updating this more regularly. For now, I'm glad I at least do it once in a while.
Yesterday I went shopping for 6 hours by myself. It was glorious. It was my treat because I survived 8 days of single parenting while Dan was in Nicaragua on a missions trip with church. I have quite a bit of birthday money, and I'm actually spending it slowly this time, instead of the usual "spend it all in one day then return things because I'm indecisive" thing I usually do. We also went to see fireworks with some friends last night til 11pm and the kids are all soooo tired today!
The month of June was crazy. Marissa had her last day of school and a school program. We had a few weeks of nothing, then we DROVE to Disney World with Dan's parents and bro & sis-in-law for a week. The kids did SO GREAT, and it was so much fun. But it was exhausting! Then we drove back through the night on Friday, and Dan left for Nicaragua Saturday morning for 8 days. It was hard to be without him, but my college roommate (Laureann) came for a few days with her two boys, and we had dinner with some friends, so that helped break it up. We have this week to catch up from that, and then next week is VBS (I'm watching babies again of course), the next week is "practicums" for me and Marissa to prepare for Classical Conversations homeschooling which starts the middle of August. And after practicums, I'm driving the kids to NY for a few weeks for an extended visit with everyone. I'm really excited about that visit, just not so much about the 9 hours of driving with no adult backup! Dan's taken so much time off from work in June that he just can't take any more yet.
Marissa's adjusting to being at home all day (and so am I). The kids play really well together most of the time, and when they're not, they're fighting of course! Marissa is in massive craft mode still, and makes the most creative things out of paper and tape. Lol. Arianna is doing pretty well with potty training - although we reverted to wearing a pullup all the time because of her ongoing poop issues. She's still on Miralax everyday, which usually does the trick, but for some reason it's not always perfect. Roman got a hold of her cup yesterday (while I was shopping, and Dan didn't realize which color cup was hers), and poor Roman had a miserable day with lots of nasty diapers! Arianna's talking so well, and copying Marissa like crazy. She knows all her letters and sounds, and busts out the most hilarious phrases, directly imitating the things Dan and I say (it's a good thing they're not bad phrases!). Roman still really only says "mommy" "ball" and barks and quacks. But he's trying. We're going to a class for him since he qualifies for help, but I'm not really sold on it, and am trying to get in-home help instead.
Roman and Arianna play like crazy together. And usually Arianna ends up knocking him down or injuring him in some way. While Dan was in Nicaragua, they were running down the hall, and A bumped R and he ran smack into the corner of the mudroom doorway with his forehead. It was BAD immediately, and I considered taking him to get stitches. It was super swollen but didn't really bleed very much, and it's scabbed over pretty well, so I think he's ok. But it was scary! He's still super sweet and cuddly, and such a wonderful sleeper. But he's definitely showing his age (19mo) lately...tantrums are starting!
This morning I turned in my weekly editing work for probably the last time ever! Between my vacations and their schedule and the ending of remote reviewers anyways, I am probably done. It was the most wonderful job for this time in my life and I loved the flexibility of it. But I will be soooo glad to have my evenings free after the kids go to bed!
I think that's all I can think of to update on. Wish I could have made the time to chronicle in detail our Disney trip, but at least we have pictures to remember it by! Maybe someday (in my free time - ha!) I'll get back to updating this more regularly. For now, I'm glad I at least do it once in a while.
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