Week ending Nov 27:
The big girls got home from their Indiana trip on Monday. They were much more excited to see their baby sister and their cats, then they were me, but I guess that's as it should be, hee hee (and kinda makes me want to go hunt down some of those people who told me I was "ruining" my children by not forcing them to be more independent as babies/toddlers/preschoolers . . . and stick my tongue out at them, but I'll try to refrain LOL).
Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our quiet, "just us" family Thanksgiving. The girls helped me to make their chosen menu. A1 chose angel hair pasta with browned butter and broccoli, and brownies for dessert. A2 chose Sabbath Roast and Taco Salad, with homemade chocolate ice cream and frozen raspberries on top.
We also put up the Christmas trees (we're using the small pink & purple ones again this year) and otherwise decorated for Christmas on Thurday & Friday.
Sunday, we left for Pittsburgh (for Rodney's work). Hadn't thought that through so well, Sunday after Thanksgiving = NOT the day to be travelling ANYWHERE! But we survived.
While in Pittsburgh, we started back into our school routines (all our travelling has = very little "school time" and now I have some curriculum reviews that are due soon and we need to actually USE the curriculum before I write my reviews, so that is dictating our school-time at the moment), and of course, enjoyed the hotel pool. I was surprised to see that Little Bit apparently REMEMBERS the hotel/pool from when we stayed there in July. Rodney had taken the big girls to the pool during her nap, so when she woke up, I walked down to the pool to see if they were going to stay there enough longer to be worth getting swimsuits on Little Bit & me. I hadn't said anything about swimming or going to the pool, and we were still wearing our regular clothes, but as soon as I started walking down the hall toward the pool (long before you could see it), she started doing the sign for "swim", so she MUST have remembered, from this summer, that that was the way to the pool. One of the reasons we went with Rodney on this trip, despite all our other travelling, was because he was going to be meeting with a church treasurer who has a 9 yr old and 5 yr old, and he figured that it would work well for her to bring her kids to the hotel and all the kids could swim together while he went over her books with her. So that's what we did. The kids had a BLAST! L & S taught A1 & A2 how to play Marco Polo and Sharks and Minnows, and they all got along swimmingly (hee hee). Little Bit and I hung out at the opposite end of the pool from all the splashing, and she had fun too. However, I discovered that all floaties are not created equal. I'd brought along a second pair in case the pair we had in FL got popped or something, so when S (the 5 yr old) mentioned that she'd forgotten her floaties (so she could go in the deeper water with the big kids), I loaned her a pair, and she asked for the "pink ones", I figured Little Bit didn't care, so let her use them. BUT discovered that the other pair I'd brought (a pair of that came with some kickboards I got at Ollies awhile back) is designed differently and didn't keep Little Bit quite high enough to keep from getting water in the face all the time, so that was abit frustrating, but she could still jump off the side and stuff, so she had fun anyway.
Some "school" highlights:
We're tripling up on Bible right now as we work to review 2 different Bible resources AND do a Christmas devotional. But the girls don't seem to mind. For while we were travelling we JUST did the Bible resources, and a math computer program, and another semi-educational, computer program.
I brought along some "tot school" ideas for Little Bit as well (gotta keep her occupied in the hotel room). The main thing was a bag of pony beads, along with a shoe string, plastic spoon, and a couple bowls. She had great fun, pouring the beads between bowls, using the spoon to move them from one bowl to the other, and also stringing them on the shoe string. Great way to help her build her motor skills, easily portable, but of course, requires close supervision since she does sometimes put the beads in her mouth.
A recent conversation with the big girls about "earning money" led to me mentioning that if they would stick with knitting, or sewing or whatever, to the point where they could do it without mistakes, they could sell things even now, on the computer (and to friends & family, consider yourself warned LOL). So, that inspired A1 to ask to learn to knit. So I brought along knitting needles and some cotton yarn to teach her to knit. So we worked on that too. Seeing A1 starting to knit, inspired A2 to want to re-learn (she was very gung-ho to learn to knit when she was 5, and we got her a video, etc to help her learn. She stuck with it for awhile, but then moved on to other things, and hasn't knitted since). I had a second, small ball of cotton yarn and a second set of knitting needles that had been in the car, so I set her up knitting too. She picked it up quickly, since she'd learned before and I think will soon be quite proficient at it. A1 gets frustrated with the learning curve, but is sticking with it.
We went home from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Thursday was Rodney's company Christmas party. The big girls enjoyed picking on (and being picked on by) various of Rodney's co-workers. Little Bit's gift from the office was a pop-up toy
. By the time the party was over, she'd mastered it, hee hee. And it worked well to keep her entertained. I also was amused, while she was playing with her new toy, the adults were doing a gift swap game (where they go around the circle and people either open a gift off the gift table or steal one from someone who already has one). Needless to say there was lots of laughter coming from the adults, and Little Bit alternated between thinking they MUST be laughing at her (she's a ham, so that's a good thing), and laughing along with them, and then telling me (in sign language) that they were silly.Friday my parents came down and picked up the big girls to take them home with them for the weekend for our anniversary. For some strange reason, they're not willing to take Little Bit for the weekend yet (something about the fact that she doesn't sleep . . . I don't understand, hee hee). So, the big girls are off on another adventure as we "speak" (errr. . . write). Based on the plans I heard ahead of time, they should be having lots of fun and come back beyond exhausted when it's all over LOL.
We've been enjoying a quiet weekend finding out what it's like to have an only child LOL. As we were getting ready to leave for church yesterday, Little Bit was signing something to Rodney that neither of us could figure out, but then during Sabbath School, I'd taken her out to go potty and when I said "ok, let's go back to Sabbath School" she made the sign again and it hit me, she was signing school, for Sabbath School. I also had to giggle, during Sabbath School, her friend, J (just turned 1) was standing in a toddler rocking chair, much like she tries to do with our toddler rocking chair at home. Every time he did it, Little Bit would sign and say "sit" because whenever SHE tries to do that, I tell her to sit down. Good to know that she KNOWS the rules, even if she doesn't bother to follow them, hee hee.
Last night, our lovely neighbor, Judy babysat Little Bit for a couple hours while we went out ALL ALONE! It was nice to have some alone time, and I think Judy & Little Bit had great fun together. When I went to pick her up and asked if she was ready to come home, she promptly said "no", hee hee.
And that was our week(s). I'll go down later this week to pick the girls up at my parents' house, and then the plan is to STAY HOME for awhile, woo-hoo!!!
1 comment:
Sorry your family is losing Pastor Barry--but it sounds like WE are gaining him, since we live at Southern! I'm sure he will be a blessing here.....and tell your girls we would LOVE to have them attend Southern when they go to college! :)
Post a Comment