(*We were supposed to have a birthday party in Texas while we were visiting my husband's side of the family, but unfortunately, the night before, Nolan got a stomach bug. Philip and I were up most of the night with him and I had little energy to put into pulling the party together for a birthday boy who wasn't even going to be able to really enjoy himself. :-( So we had an ice cream treat for the other kiddos and our plans were put on hold until this last weekend.)
This last Sunday, we had Nolan's first birthday party. We had a Bee themed party, since he was our sweet little "B(ooker)" baby. Our first and second birthday parties are traditionally smaller than later birthdays. We don't have a whole bunch of people over. Just our immediate family with a lunch after church and of course cake! Usually, the first birthday is baby's first taste of sweets as well, so it's fun to have everyone gathered around and watch their eyes light up as they taste their first bite of something special. Nolan was no exception, he had a blast digging into his cake!
Anyway, we had some of Nolan's favorite foods (ie FULL of flavor) by having a Tex-Mex themed meal. Tex-Mex Sloppy joes, Chopped Southwest Salad, Taco Soup and always a crowd pleaser, corn pudding! As usual, we had plenty of food and Nolan bounced up and down eagerly anticipating the next bite.
We then moved on to the presents so everyone had a little time to digest before dessert. Nolan is very funny about opening presents. He tears off paper a tiny piece at a time, handing each individual piece to whatever adult is closest to him. This makes his older brother and sister a little anxious and they rush over to try to get the job done faster. It's hard for them to understand his patience with this process and it's hard for Nolan to understand why they want to rush through the best part, tearing paper (and not getting in trouble for it!! lol).
After proper time had passed of allowing the kids to squeal over the new items, we had the presentation of the cake and the "blowing" out of the candle (thanks Daddy!). Then comes the "first taste". This is always my favorite part of the whole party. Watching their eyes as the expression turns from "I wonder what this is all about" to "WHERE have they been keeping this MY WHOLE LIFE?!?!" :-D I love it. I really do.
So that was pretty much the party and we really enjoyed ourselves on into the afternoon.
The past couple of weeks have mainly been spent recovering from our trip and getting back into the swing of things around here. I had my first "normal" menu planning and grocery shopping trip since November. It's been nice to have a menu ready again. We had been trying to clean out our big freezer a little bit, so my menu for the day was basically go to the basement (or dungeon as I like to call it), stick my hand into the freezer, pull out the first thing I came to that could be dinner, and then try to figure out what I'm going to do with it . . . Honestly, I like the fly by the seat of my pants approach to dinner sometimes. It makes me feel very creative! ;-) But I quickly get tired of the brain power that involves constantly, so I get back to my routine. I think that might be a very good description of my personality in general actually!! lol
Nolan is still not walking except to take a couple of solo steps here and there. He just doesn't seem to be very interested in it. Which again, I'm fine with! When I took him to his one year appointment, the doctor said that he is very advanced in several other areas and the walking skill is probably there, he's just not ready to use it yet. The doctor was very impressed with Nolan overall, but especially with the fact that Nolan tried to trade the doctor his pacifier for the doctor's instrument that Nolan wanted. The doctor asked me,"Did he just try to make a trade?" I said, "Yes, he does that a lot." And the doctor stated, "Well, that's a very advanced skill for a one-year-old. You tell brother and sister they are doing a great job of teaching baby!"
Gabriel is growing by leaps and bounds in his imagination and knowledge. It's amazing, really, when I think about what he says and does in a day that just a few months ago was not something he knew. He's very good at spotting letters in everyday objects. He told me this morning, "Hey, that wagon handle looks like a lowercase t!" I'm hoping to get our preschool started for him this fall, I think he'll do very well!
Callie's behavior is improving slowly but surely. I think it was kind of a shock to her to go to school and realize that not everyone behaves themselves as she has been raised to behave. We've spent several months having to be very firm with her about certain behaviors and words she should not use and her eating. I'm beginning to feel that there is progress being made (it was getting very frustrating for us!), of course, I say that as this morning there was a little backslide in her behavior at breakfast, but nevertheless, I'm feeling better about the whole thing.
I have to be honest, I've been deeply troubled by our decision to send her to public school and then having all these problems almost immediately. I do realize that there are going to be times in a child's life where their behavior is not ideal and you just have to stand firm and get through it, whether or not they are in the public school system. I also know that our children will have opportunities in public school that I would not be able to give them if I homeschooled, and vice versa. I don't know if I will ever feel 100% committed to either solution, but I do feel like we have a good school and a good area that I can feel mostly positive about the public option.
Philip has been punching out at work and punching in here. I have been so tired that he's been picking up a lot more chores than normal, and for that I'm grateful. I have literally been sleeping more than 9 hours every night and still feeling like I could sleep another 6 hours or so when my alarm goes off in the morning. I have little to no energy for extras, so I'm ever so thankful to have a husband willing to pick up the slack right now. Fortunately for him, he knows that I will probably hit an energetic, "get-er-done" phase in the next few weeks that will take a lot of things off his plate! Right now, I'm also very grateful (knock on wood) that I have not been experiencing the kind of all day sickness that I have had progressively worse with my last two pregnancies.
I apologized once more to Philip last night about his "single parenting" this last week and he responded. "Honey, this is not single parenting. I come home, there are clean clothes in the closet, the dishwasher has been run, there is dinner ready for me and the kids. So you need to rest after all that and I need to do some extra chores. No big deal!"
Have I mentioned how much I love him :-)
Well, this has been a longer post than I first intended. Hope you all enjoyed the update!
God bless you and yours as you finish up your week and have a fun weekend!
This last Sunday, we had Nolan's first birthday party. We had a Bee themed party, since he was our sweet little "B(ooker)" baby. Our first and second birthday parties are traditionally smaller than later birthdays. We don't have a whole bunch of people over. Just our immediate family with a lunch after church and of course cake! Usually, the first birthday is baby's first taste of sweets as well, so it's fun to have everyone gathered around and watch their eyes light up as they taste their first bite of something special. Nolan was no exception, he had a blast digging into his cake!
Anyway, we had some of Nolan's favorite foods (ie FULL of flavor) by having a Tex-Mex themed meal. Tex-Mex Sloppy joes, Chopped Southwest Salad, Taco Soup and always a crowd pleaser, corn pudding! As usual, we had plenty of food and Nolan bounced up and down eagerly anticipating the next bite.
We then moved on to the presents so everyone had a little time to digest before dessert. Nolan is very funny about opening presents. He tears off paper a tiny piece at a time, handing each individual piece to whatever adult is closest to him. This makes his older brother and sister a little anxious and they rush over to try to get the job done faster. It's hard for them to understand his patience with this process and it's hard for Nolan to understand why they want to rush through the best part, tearing paper (and not getting in trouble for it!! lol).
After proper time had passed of allowing the kids to squeal over the new items, we had the presentation of the cake and the "blowing" out of the candle (thanks Daddy!). Then comes the "first taste". This is always my favorite part of the whole party. Watching their eyes as the expression turns from "I wonder what this is all about" to "WHERE have they been keeping this MY WHOLE LIFE?!?!" :-D I love it. I really do.
Punch for the bee party, sparkling lemonade! Funny reaction to the carbonation at first, but he decided he liked it in the end!!
So that was pretty much the party and we really enjoyed ourselves on into the afternoon.
The past couple of weeks have mainly been spent recovering from our trip and getting back into the swing of things around here. I had my first "normal" menu planning and grocery shopping trip since November. It's been nice to have a menu ready again. We had been trying to clean out our big freezer a little bit, so my menu for the day was basically go to the basement (or dungeon as I like to call it), stick my hand into the freezer, pull out the first thing I came to that could be dinner, and then try to figure out what I'm going to do with it . . . Honestly, I like the fly by the seat of my pants approach to dinner sometimes. It makes me feel very creative! ;-) But I quickly get tired of the brain power that involves constantly, so I get back to my routine. I think that might be a very good description of my personality in general actually!! lol
Nolan is still not walking except to take a couple of solo steps here and there. He just doesn't seem to be very interested in it. Which again, I'm fine with! When I took him to his one year appointment, the doctor said that he is very advanced in several other areas and the walking skill is probably there, he's just not ready to use it yet. The doctor was very impressed with Nolan overall, but especially with the fact that Nolan tried to trade the doctor his pacifier for the doctor's instrument that Nolan wanted. The doctor asked me,"Did he just try to make a trade?" I said, "Yes, he does that a lot." And the doctor stated, "Well, that's a very advanced skill for a one-year-old. You tell brother and sister they are doing a great job of teaching baby!"
Gabriel is growing by leaps and bounds in his imagination and knowledge. It's amazing, really, when I think about what he says and does in a day that just a few months ago was not something he knew. He's very good at spotting letters in everyday objects. He told me this morning, "Hey, that wagon handle looks like a lowercase t!" I'm hoping to get our preschool started for him this fall, I think he'll do very well!
Callie's behavior is improving slowly but surely. I think it was kind of a shock to her to go to school and realize that not everyone behaves themselves as she has been raised to behave. We've spent several months having to be very firm with her about certain behaviors and words she should not use and her eating. I'm beginning to feel that there is progress being made (it was getting very frustrating for us!), of course, I say that as this morning there was a little backslide in her behavior at breakfast, but nevertheless, I'm feeling better about the whole thing.
I have to be honest, I've been deeply troubled by our decision to send her to public school and then having all these problems almost immediately. I do realize that there are going to be times in a child's life where their behavior is not ideal and you just have to stand firm and get through it, whether or not they are in the public school system. I also know that our children will have opportunities in public school that I would not be able to give them if I homeschooled, and vice versa. I don't know if I will ever feel 100% committed to either solution, but I do feel like we have a good school and a good area that I can feel mostly positive about the public option.
Philip has been punching out at work and punching in here. I have been so tired that he's been picking up a lot more chores than normal, and for that I'm grateful. I have literally been sleeping more than 9 hours every night and still feeling like I could sleep another 6 hours or so when my alarm goes off in the morning. I have little to no energy for extras, so I'm ever so thankful to have a husband willing to pick up the slack right now. Fortunately for him, he knows that I will probably hit an energetic, "get-er-done" phase in the next few weeks that will take a lot of things off his plate! Right now, I'm also very grateful (knock on wood) that I have not been experiencing the kind of all day sickness that I have had progressively worse with my last two pregnancies.
I apologized once more to Philip last night about his "single parenting" this last week and he responded. "Honey, this is not single parenting. I come home, there are clean clothes in the closet, the dishwasher has been run, there is dinner ready for me and the kids. So you need to rest after all that and I need to do some extra chores. No big deal!"
Have I mentioned how much I love him :-)
Well, this has been a longer post than I first intended. Hope you all enjoyed the update!
God bless you and yours as you finish up your week and have a fun weekend!
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