Last Week's Wrap-Up

I'm only a couple days behind . . . last week was a good week. We continue to have many warm, sunny days, most of which find us at the playground in the afternoon. It works out so nicely for the big kids to play while Little Bit finishes her nap (driving in the car generally puts her to sleep, just like it did her big sisters at this age) and I get to read, listen to CDs, knit, etc.

We've stretched our Halloween out abit this year, after attempting to trick-or-treat at the mall on Sat. night (a disaster, it was SOOO crowded, it is NOT worth the candy to have to stand in line forever!) we visited our neighbor, Miss Judy on Sunday night & she took pictures (which I'll post when I can get the photo adder thingy to work . . . ) and we "wrapped up" Halloween by visiting another neighbor, Miss Denise THIS Sunday evening (she wasn't home last week).

School continues . . . last week for Bible one activity was to learn the books of the Bible so we are working on that. Conveniently the girls have been learning a song in Sabbath School for the OT books, so they have a good start on those.

We finished up Little House on the Prairie and moved into By the Banks of Plum Creek. Most days, after listening to the "required" chapters the girls, especially L, ask for more, but we're trying to stay on track . . . some of their favorite assignments have been the nature/art ones, where we read about/discuss a wildflower, etc and then they get to draw a picture of it, so I decided to expand on that and let them each start a nature notebook. Each week we (them, unless they can't think of something) will choose something they'd like to learn about and we'll read about it & they'll draw a picture. We'll also try to do nature walks, etc. Yesterday when we were driving home from the playground we passed a whole herd of deer in a field, so L decided she wanted us to learn about deer this week. I happened to have a Deer Unit Study in my files so I used that to give us something to read about & today had them draw a picture of deer, then the next couple of days I have some additional "lapbook" activities related to deer that we will do, and put in their nature notebook.

Another assignment I'd given them a couple weeks ago was to do all their chores one day w/o me having to remind them. I "cheat" some and . . . warn them that I'll be checking their chart soon, but the main thing I'm trying to get away from is the CONSTANT reminders/nagging . . . if I can get it down to just reminding them 3 times a day (their chores are essentially divided into 3 "blocks") I'll be thrilled. So anyway . . . last Wednesday they finally were successful in remembering all day, so on Friday (because I forgot on Thurs, bad mommy!) we went for donuts. NOW their new assignment/challenge is to go a whole WEEK without reminders, we started yesterday, so far, so good . . . A especially is really getting into it, which is, of course wonderful . . . the next challenge will be a whole MONTH, and hopefully by then it will be a habit that won't require additional incentive . . .

Something I've been working on in the last couple of weeks is getting Little Bit's morning nap to not be a "nurping session" (nursing/napping), sometimes on weekends dh will end up taking a shower after Little Bit's been up for a couple hours and put her in the swing in the bathroom while he showers, and she would fall asleep & take a good-length nap in the swing. But I was in the habit of taking a shower/getting dressed as soon as I got up each morning, so of course she wasn't tired then, and just played in the swing during my 2-3 min shower. Which was fine for getting me clean, but . . . it occurred to me that it is very rarely that I NEED to be dressed before late-morning, so there's really no reason I can't wait & take my shower/get dressed after she's been up for awhile. After experimenting with that last week & the week before, I determined that she seems to be ready to go down for a nap about 2 hours after she gets up in the morning SO . . . yesterday I talked to A & L and told them that if they could stay focused, I thought we should be able to get our morning chores/breakfast done in an hour and then school done in an hour so that we'd be done w/ chores and school when Little Bit's ready to nap. If we can do that, then they can do their copywork (part of school, but a part that doesn't require anything from me) while I take a shower & then we can do something fun (craft, baking, etc) while she naps. BUT if they dilly dally and don't get chores/school done, then we'll have to spend her naptime finishing that up.

So, this morning was our first test . . . and wouldn't you know it, for some reason Little Bit was WIDE AWAKE by 5:30 (she normally wakes up between 7 & 8am, similar to when, usually soon after, the big girls wake up), sigh . . .I was SOO frustrated. I was afraid this was going to really ruin the whole "experiment" because the girls would be upset if we couldn't do things like we'd planned (since of course they weren't awake at 5:30am (thank goodness!) to start their chores, etc). BUT . . . thankfully the dishwasher hadn't been quite full the night before so I hadn't run it, so that was a normal morning chore that they didn't have this morning, when they woke up I told them "Little Bit's already been up awhile, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with her nap, but let's just try to get through things as fast as we can and see how it goes", we were through chores/breakfast in 1/2 an hour! (granted dishwasher is the most time consuming chore, but they often dilly dally over breakfast and make IT take 1/2 hour or more, just to eat their bowl of cereal & fruit). And jumped into school. We made it through Bible time (which is slightly longer on Mondays because we read a chapter out of our mission book to learn about the country we are praying for that week) but then when we started listening to Little House, Little Bit started nursing to sleep (my mistake there was sitting down to check e-mail and such while the girls were listening, me sitting down meant Little Bit crawled up to nurse, I think if I'd busied myself in the kitchen, etc she might have held off longer, although it had also been over 2 hrs since she woke up, so who knows . . .) anyway . . . when I noticed her starting to "nurp" I told the big girls I needed to go shower, I left them to finish listening to the chapter they were listening to & told them when it was done, to go ahead & do copywork. They'd finished both when I came down from my shower and Little Bit was sound asleep. So we went ahead & did a craft (they got some 3-D water-color kits in Sabbath School for knowing their memory verse every week last quiarter, so they're working on those) while she napped, then finished up school after she was awake again. . . so it was a partial success, but considering the monkey-wrench of her early wake-up, things went quite smoothly. And the big girls are very excited with that dedicated "mommy time", so it's a very good thing.

And a few more pictures to share . . .
The girls were eating lunch on the ottoman in the family room to watch tv while they ate. Little Bit kept trying to grab their food so I put some "Gerber puffs" on the ottoman for her to eat, she was so proud of herself to be eating right along with her big sisters.

And is anything sweeter than pictures of Daddy sleeping with his baby girl? I LOVE this picture :o)

Little Bit's Check-up - Seven Month

Little Bit's 7 mo check-up (yes, we're on an odd schedule LOL), was last week. She weights 17lb 10 oz and is 26 1/2" long (I think, should have written it down). The computer system only has developmental questions for 6 mo & 9 mo, so the nurse asked the 9 mo questions, and the only one that Little Bit can't do is play pattycake, which we haven't actually tried . . . I told the big girls they should start teaching her LOL. The rest of the questions were things like crawling, pulling up to stand, etc all of which she does quite well.

And really, that's about all there was to the appointment. She's growing well, nothing really to report . . .

This Week, and Last Week . . .

Little Bit isn't giving me much typing time these days, when she's nursing she's generally too wiggly &/or distractible for me to type (sometimes even for me to surf the 'net), and she no longer has a long (3+ hour) sleep stretch at the beginning of the night, so I have to greatly prioritize how I use the half hour or so of baby's asleep time that I DO get at night . . . and blogging hasn't made the cut.

So now we'll attempt it while she eats her cheerios, or at least get it started.

Let's see . . .

This weekend my parents came up. My wonderful Dad helped us babyproof by installing our gate at the top of the steps and anchoring the bookcases and game cabinet to the wall, methinks Little Bit will try scaling such things more than her sisters did, plus the bookcases were hidden away in an extra bedroom when they were her age.

On Sabbath we went to the Philadelphia Zoo. It was rainy (forecast was only 10% chance of rain but it drizzled most of the day) but that kept the crowds away and we spent most of our time in the buildings anyway, the girls spent large blocks of time watching the naked mole rats and later a family of monkeys that were eating lettuce.

We've been being more consistent about doing school each day. We're just finishing up Little House on the Prairie for our Unit Study, and we're starting on v.17 for Polished Cornerstone (our year-long study of Prov 31:10-31) we started some seeds for winter container gardening week before last and the girls are excited to see sprouts coming up already. We started lettuce, cilantro, basil, chives and parsley.

The girls have been doing very well at keeping their room clean, I'm proud of them! We're going to work on doing some additional decorating in there now, they're excited about that.

Yesterday Mama helped A to mend the dress of the doll that she got in Williamsburg, she was so excited to "sew" and L was wishing there was something she could mend too. Mama said when the girls are at their house for our anniversary, she'll help L make a bib for her doll. L is very excited and went down to my fabric box and chose the fabric she wants.

Last week the girls painted pumpkins. We'd gotten them a few weeks ago & the big girls had each chosen a big pumpkin for themselves and a small one for their dolls. When we got ready to paint them, L decided that Little Bit needed a pumpkin more than her doll did, so she painted her little pumpkin for Little Bit instead.

We started reading the Addy American Girl books. Addy was a slave girl who escaped at the end of the first book, the harshness of slave life was hard for the girls to understand. When Addy & her mother decided they had to leave baby sister behind and escape, L was in tears at the very thought of leaving Little Bit behind. A was more "practical" about it all, pointing out that there aren't slaves in this country now, and that "President Obama has brown skin, so he wouldn't let there be slaves again". The 2nd book, after Addy & mother had successfully escaped and were making their new life in the North was less traumatic for the girls LOL. For some reason it's taken almost a week for the library to get book 3 since I reserved it (and even now, it just says it's "in transit", hopefully it'll be there by this afternoon) when they had multiple copies checked in, just didn't happen to have one at our closest library, sigh . . . anyway.

Speaking of American Girls, I somehow got on the American Girl mailing list so a catalog came a week or two ago. A & L have had great fun pouring over the catalog trying to decide which doll they want (when they're 8) and generally planning out future purchases, at the time, they also were very gung-ho to start saving their spending money NOW to get additional AG stuff when they're old enough, we'll see how long that lasts . . . LOL.

Last Sabbath (a week ago) for Sabbath school Teacher Joyce went all out for the story of Jericho and made a kid-sized Ark of the Covenant to have A & L carry as they "marched around Jericho" the girls had alot of fun.

We've been having unseasonably warm weather alot of the time recently, so we're taking advantage of that & going to a playground we discovered nearby. It works out nicely to leave at naptime (or run errands before naptime, timing things for the errands to be done at naptime) and let Little Big fall asleep on the way to the playground, then the big girls get to play on the playground while I stay in the car and read or knit while Little Bit naps. The playground includes monkey bars and both girls are now proficient monkey-bar-crossers and are quite proud of themselves.

Little Bit continues to pick up speed and venture farther from Mommy in her crawling/exploring. She also is working hard to be able to stand unassisted, pulling up on things often and carefully trying to let go with both hands (she does pretty good holding on with just one hand, and enjoys having us put finger foods on a chair seat or the big ottoman we use as a coffee table so she can stand to eat.), so far she plops down on her behind when she lets go w/ the second hand, but she keeps trying. Yesterday Daddy was watching her while I was working on organizing bookcases and such (inspired by having to take the books off the non-built-ins so my dad could anchor them to the wall) Daddy had put a laundry basket across the living room doorway so she couldn't get to the entryway (a very tempting place w/ all the shoes piled by the door AND leaves that track in every time anyone comes in) but then it was very unfair that MOMMY was standing in the entryway, so she was trying harder to get past the laundry basket. She finally figured out & turned it 90 degrees then proceeded to walk (holding onto it) around it to get to me, she was quite proud of herself.

And in other "Little Bit is growing up to fast!" news, she has her first tooth! You can't see it yet, but can definitely feel it! Fri evening she was fussy in the car & I was riding next to her so tried giving her my finger to suck on (I'd forgotten her paci, which she usually likes in the car) and felt the tooth. Might actually be both of those bottom front teeth, it feels "bigger" than one tooth, but hard to tell till we can see it/them.

I think that's all the news from our house. Tomorrow the big girls are scheduled to give the worship talk at Daddy's office (it's his turn to have worship and they want to tell their story about the model rockets (where they lost Ashlyn's, then prayed, and found it), we'll see if they get cold feet when they actually get there, but at the moment anyway they're excited about it.

Another week, another wrap-up . . .

Hey look! It's Sunday & I'm actually writing (or at least starting) a wrap-up post! (and now it's Tuesday & I haven't finished this yet LOL).

Of course, not much to write about, the highlights of this week would be going to the Ren Faire last Sunday and Sight & Sound on Thursday, both of which got their own posts already . . .

Oh one thing that IS note-worthy!!! Little Bit is well & thoroughly crawling!!! Which means I'm madly attempting to declutter & baby proof and such. I ordered a gate for the top of the staircase today, now to figure out how to install it in our odd-sized, who says walls should be flat, house LOL. I was freaking out about that until it occurred to me that there's no law that says the "top of stairs" gate has to actually be right at the stairs, unless my Dad can figure out a better option for us, I'm thinking we'll have a "middle of the upstairs hallway gate, but oh well, it will work the same way.

I'm also thinking that this new development is going to result in "sweep kitchen floor & entry way" becoming a daily chore for A & L, not sure how they'll feel about that, we shall see . . . but despite what "they say" about babies not being able to pick up small things & transfer them from hand to mouth until 8 - 12 months, Little Bit is quite adept at it and I prefer she not eat the dry leaves that WILL track in off our leaf-covered porch each day this time of year.

And, speaking of that pincher grip thing, since it seemed like she was able to do the whole "pick up small things and transfer them to her mouth" thing, today while grocery shopping I picked up a container of the Gerber "puffs". They aren't health-food but they are low/no-mess for when we're out and about.

And on to the big girls . . . we learned about setting goals and taking initiative this week for Bible, they really embraced the idea of initiative, and enjoyed getting an "assignment" ("you mean we get an assignment like REAL SCHOOL?" Ahh the life of homeschoolers!) to take initiative 3 times during the week, they did it too.

We're continuing to enjoy Prairie Primer as well. Currently we're listening to Little House on the Prairie, and learning about Indians, mustangs, and building log cabins (during the description of which, A commented "that's just like big lincoln logs!" why yes, yes it is!).

Sight and Sound

Thursday we went to "In the Beginning" at Sight & Sound. Hubby & I went to their Christmas show last year for our anniversary and loved it, so wanted to take the girls to see "In the Beginning" before it closes.

They LOVED it! Even Little Bit "watched" most of the first half, the angels with all their glitter especially fascinated her.

A, in typical A fashion, spent the entire show trying to figure out "how they do that". At some point we will definitely need to take her on the "behind the scenes" tour LOL.

L was next to Daddy, and it was noisy enough that I couldn't hear her comments, but apparently she liked it, since, when she came with me to get snacks during intermission, she was very concerned that we might miss something, hee hee.

I was amused at the use of "heely" shoes on the angels so they could "glide" around the stage, hee hee.

By the second half Little Bit was tired and found it hard to nurse or sleep with all the loud noises & such, so she was kind of fussy, but the positive side of all the noise was I didn't feel like she was disturbing others with her fussing, so I didn't have to miss the show, she did eventually settle down and nurse to sleep despite the noise, and stayed asleep for the ride home as well.

Both A & L picked up on the fact that they "rearranged" things abit, and showed Lucifer's fall coming AFTER creation instead of before, which I thought was rather astute for 6 yr olds.

Afterward, A was asking why they were advertising "Joseph" so much if it wasn't starting "for a year" so I explained that, while it was starting "next year" it's not a year away, and as point of reference, said it was starting "right before your birthday" to which, without missing a beat, she replied "wow, that would make a GREAT birthday present" LOL. Now here's hoping they do the educator's discount deal that we used this time, hee hee.

Renaissance Faire

Sunday we went to the PA Renaissance Faire I wasn't sure if A & L were quite old enough for it, but thought we'd give it a try. And additionally, while we went to the MD one several times pre-kids, we'd never been to the PA one, so it was a new adventure for all of us.

They LOVED it!! When we got there, I saw that there was basically "kid shows" running all day and figured we'd go mostly to those, but the girls jumped right in and enjoyed the "regular" shows. We only went to one kid show and that was a show we happened to be walking by right as it started, so stayed to watch.

They totally got into the "plot" of the main storyline and insisted we stay for the final joust so they could find out if Queen Elizabeth won or the other guy. They also asked me LOTS of questions about that particular era in history that I couldn't even begin to answer LOL, note to self, next year study up on it ahead of time LOL.

A few highlights . . .

When watching a magician do a trick, L asked me how he did it, when I said I didn't know, she replied "well, I know it's slight-of-hand of SOME SORT"

As we waited for an archery demonstration to start I mentioned that I'd actually (attempted to) learn archery when I was a kid. The girls wanted to hear about it, so I said I'd chosen to learn it at summer camp one summer, to which they both exclaimed "Mommy, you're not as boring as I thought!" hmmm . . . is that a compliment?

Little Bit enjoyed the day napping the wrap, like at Williamsburg, she got lots more sleep than normal LOL. She enjoyed guacamole for lunch, but didn't think we fed it to her nearly fast enough.

I'm Behind Again . . . LOL

Last week was nice, nothing major going on, one afternoon L came down dressed as you see her here, she explained that she was the letter A LOL.

Our chapter in Polished Cornerstones was on being an Organized Woman (ok, those who know me, stop laughing that *I* might be attempting to TEACH this to others LOL), so we spent a good part of the week (in the little spurts of time that I could manage with an almost-mobile 6 mo old around) getting the girls' room organized. Still have a couple loose ends to tie up, waiting on Daddy to have time to help get the big bouncy horse out of there (ahhhh, that alone will make it feel much less cluttered to me! after much discussion they agreed that "Princess" the horse could go live in Mama & Papa's basement until Lina's old enough to use it. and even then, if we're still in this house, it might be a toy she plays with when we visit there, it's awful big for this small house . . .) and help us attach the finger-puppet holders to the underside of their loft bed (power tools scare me LOL). But overall, much less cluttered room, didn't get rid of much, other than actual trash (scraps of paper & such), but hopefully were able to better assign a PLACE for everything so they can better keep things organized going forward.

Carrying forward from the week before's Polished Cornerstones, the girls are helping me cook more, they helped with making stir-fry and fried rice and muffins . . . and other things I don't remember LOL.

When we stopped at Ollies we found some "Princess devotional Bibles" that include devotions and Bible readings along the them of "You are God's Princess", the girls are enjoying reading them instead of or in addition to their normal morning Bible reading. They (the books) also included some lined pages in the back to write notes on and the girls really got into that, filled the pages within about a day, so I got out some regular journals I'd picked up at the dollar store awhile back, they love having a place to write "secrets just between me and God" I love that it's building their relationships with God AND giving them writing practice :o)

Sabbath after Sabbath School we visited Grandmom. Little Bit enjoyed her lunch of canned peaches, the big girls enjoyed an afternoon of legos, crafts, and running around outside.

Sunday we went to the PA Rennaisance Faire, I think that deserves it's own post LOL.