Nathan's Reading!

I've been working with Nathan on his pre-reading skills on and off for the past few months.  We've been practicing all the letter sounds and short vowel sounds, and he knows most of them well.  But when we moved on to combining the sounds to make words, he wasn't quite ready for it (read: we both were getting frustrated trying to get him to sound out words, so I just had to drop it).  Until a few weeks ago when we checked out Curious George's ABC book and he started sounding out some words all by himself! 

I quickly hopped on the library website and reserved the Bob books again as well some other first reader sets, then I impatiently waited until they were available to be checked out.  We started reading more of the Magic Treehouse books (or, as Nathan calls them, "Jack and Annie" books after the main characters) while Sarah was napping, and I began introducing some sight words to him.  He learned "the", "and", and "of" and would alternately get really excited about recognizing the words and resistant to me asking him to read them over and over again. But as we've continued to practice, he's embraced his new ability and will point out words he recognizes in other books, on cereal boxes, etc. 

I brought the Bob books home from the library about two weeks ago and we've been working on reading them some.  I like to ask him to read one of "his" books before I read a Jack and Annie book, but sometimes he'll just wander over to the bookcase and pick one up and start to read on his own, which thrills me to no end!  The other day I finally had my phone close by when this happened and was able to take this video of him reading.

The book in the video is the most advanced one he's tried to read so far, with the longest sentences.  As expected, he's still working on comprehension since the sounding-out process is still new to him.  We also haven't talked about punctuation marks yet, as you can hear me try and explain a question mark in the middle of the story.


He's doing really well with sight words too.  We've added "a", "is", "it", "in", "Jack" and "Annie" to his repertoire over the past two weeks.  I also added "to" yesterday, though he hilariously will insist on sounding it out phonetically as "/t/-/ah/" rather then accepting my pronunciation and keeps insisting that "you are wrong, Mommy!"  But my plan is to wear him down with repetition!

I am SOO excited about this new stage for us!

Easter 2014

The Easter Bunny came bearing baskets with chocolate bunnies, jellybean-filled eggs, pinwheels and egg dyeing kit.  The kids were THRILLED!  They have been asking for pinwheels for forever and were so excited that the Easter included them in their baskets.  "The Easter Bunny was so nice to bring us eggs and pinwheels!" said Nathan multiple times.

Then came Nathan's questions, each prefaced by "Here's a really great question..."  Each time I turned the question around on him with a "What do you think?"  Here are the questions he came up with as well as some answers.

Q: How can the Easter Bunny get in our house?
 A: Jump in through the window.

Q: Did he visit M and S (our great church friends)?  How could he walk all the way to their house?

Q: How can he carry all the eggs and pinwheels?
A: A cart or a wagon.

Q: How can he see in the dark (to deliver the baskets during the night)?
A: Flashlight.

Q: Mommy, did you hear the Easter Bunny come in the house?
A: No. (A truthful answer :)

We had some special guests with us at church - John and Jennifer Little (friends from church in Knoxville) were in town for the marathon.  We met them downtown for dinner Saturday night, then on Sunday morning Brian and Nathan picked them up for church.  Sarah was especially enamored with Jennifer, sitting in her lap and playing with her watch almost the whole way through church.  After a nice Easter service, it was time for a finger food Common Meal and the egg hunt.

Here's all our church friends, giddy with excitement as they were about to be unleashed on the egg-strewn back yard of the church.  

For some reason, Nathan's egg hunt involved climbing over this wooden structure to get to the eggs inside.  I'm still not sure why he didn't just reach his arm through the sides.  I guess it was more exciting this way?

Sarah was slow and methodical in her gathering, but she ended up with quite enough eggs to be thrilled with her haul.

After naps it was time for some egg dying.  The kids REALLY wanted to take their finished eggs into their play kitchen to "cook" with.  I tried to redirect to some of their now-empty plastic eggs, but Nathan refused with "No Mommy, we need REAL eggs to do our cooking!"

The completed masterpieces!

Board Certified Anesthesiologist in the House!

Brian found out today that he passed his oral boards.  I knew you would do it honey!  Hooray!

100 Days and the Dichotomy of Fellowship

Today marks 100 days that our family has left in Boston (counting down to July 30th when Brian's terminal vacation begins).  Within the past 2-3 weeks my focus has shifted from "just survive today and then tomorrow and someday (please dear God) let this winter will be over" to "oh my goodness, we must go and do or we'll run out of time before we move!"  This shift has everything to do with spring and all of Brian's upcoming vacation (we hoarded Brian's time off to use during spring and summer).  I'm looking forward to resuming the once a week "adventures" to new places that the kids and I do together.  We are excited to do more traveling around Boston and New England as a family. 

However, in the midst of this renewed excitement about our time in Boston, Brian and I are starting to look forward to life after fellowship.  It started with putting Brian's vacation schedule for his new job on the calendar.  He gets 3 WEEKS of vacation during the last five months of this year, which seems almost obscene when compared to what we've had every year for the past 5 years of residency and fellowship.  We've started dreaming about a couple's road trip during Brian's first week of vacation (grandparents, please note that it's the first week of September).  Brian's been trying to decide what car we should take.  I'm dreaming of days and days of freedom and fun and taking beautiful pictures.  Both of us are thinking about a fantastic route or destination for our trip. 

Then we go to church and I see our loving church family and think about having to leave them.  So many people in our church have embraced and loved our children, which immediately endeared them to Brian and me.  This church family has become so special to all of us in a way I never expected would happen this year.  I think of last Sunday, Palm Sunday, when we (the kids and a few adults) paraded around the auditorium waving our palms while the whole congregation sang two songs, one of which was picked specifically because its Nathan's favorite (Hosanna).  And I think about small groups, which both kids live for each week.  Almost daily there's a child that tries to convince me it's Sunday and that we'll be going to small groups in the evening.  I can just hear in my mind Sarah questioning the adults in church on Sunday morning "You come small groops?" to make sure they'll be there.  Both children are always eager to play with their friends, the "big kids" M and S. And then there was this morning's Easter service, where a main part of the service was involving the kids in the celebration of Jesus' resurrection and then of course the Easter egg hunt following the service.  Our church family has been such a blessing to us this year!

My feelings are so conflicted.  I'm excited about the now and I'm excited about the future.  I can't wait to move to Knoxville and start the next phase of our lives yet I'm sad about what we'll be leaving.

I've decided what it boils down to is this... I am thankful that I have so many things in my life to be excited about.  And I'm going to try to be mindful about living in the moment to make the most of these last 100 days. 

He Said, She Said

Sarah

"Mommy, I want go trick-or-treating!"  (Sarah asks at least once a week.  I tell her that we will once we move to Knoxville and after Nathan turns 5. [eek! 5!]  I also mention that some of the grandparents might go with us...)

Sarah went through a phase where she did a lot of talking with her hands.  She'll put one finger up when she's saying something important.  She also shruggs her shoulders a lot.  And she'll throw up both hands in the "I don't know" gesture.

Earlier in the month she started the "why?" phase.  Brian and I agreed that Nathan never went through that phase of constantly asking why.  Amazingly it only lasted 3-4 days, but ever after such a short time my patience was being sorely tested.

Sarah was cuddling with Daddy while he was working on his computer, and this was their conversation:
Sarah: What you doing Daddy?
Brian: Scrolling through a web page.
Sarah: You looking for Abanties?  (Avantis are Daddy's favorite cars, he has a project car waiting in Knoxville that he's eagerly anticipating working on.)
Brian: No... what do you like about abanties?
Sarah: I like blue avantis, white abanits, green abanits, white abanites, red...

Sarah calls granola bars "ka-mo-a baas".  For a LONG time Brian and I could not understand what she was saying and would forget day-to-day that these were her words for granola bars.  It made for some frustrating weeks, but now we've finally got it decoded.  

Sarah told me she wanted to put on her Tigger "alphabet" the other day. 

Sarah was running down the hall and I called to her "Sarah!"  She ran back and said "Why you say Sa-rah?!"

Nathan

When Daddy's home, its his job to take Nathan to the potty right before we go to bed.  Sometimes he takes this opportunity to mess with sleepy Nathan.  "Nathan, do you want to play the snake game?" or "Want to play hide and seek? What do you want me to count to?" or "Nathan, want to go for a ride on the T?"

Whenever Nathan calls out in the middle of the night and Daddy goes in to check on him, he always comments "You're not Mommy!"

Nathan is starting to respond to our questions with an exasperated "you know!" a lot.  For example:

Daddy: Nathan, what did you do today?
Nathan: You know!  (even if Daddy was gone to work that day).

Mommy: Nathan, what do you want to say "thank you God" for?
Nathan: A good day.
Mommy: Can you tell me something specific?
Nathan: Mommy, you know!

Welcome Spring, Let's Take a Day Trip (Part 2)

So the second part of our day trip was the one that we had actually planned for before leaving that morning...

First was our stop for lunch.  The restaurant I originally wanted to go to was still closed for the season (opening sometime mid-April), so we went with option #2 - Alisson's Restaurant.  And a fabulous option it was!  We started with the lobster bisque which was a hit with the whole family.  Sarah routinely tries to finish my soup for me, so I knew she would love it, and when we finally got Nathan to try it right before it was gone he loved it too!  We also ordered a fried fish platter, lobster roll and fish sticks for the kids. A few notes to self: you have never had a lobster bisque that you have not liked and a small portion is never enough... skip the entree (especially if its fried) and just order bowls and bowls of lobster bisque!  Also, lobster rolls are overrated (in both Brian and my opinions).  

Something really unexpected happened on our way out of the restaurant - two different people stopped Brian and me separately to comment on how well behaved Sarah and Nathan were in the restaurant.  It was really sweet and affirming to hear!

Next, we drove to "maple syrup", as Sarah affectionately calls our outing.  We went to Chase Farms in Wells, Maine.

We decided to come here out of the hundreds of options around the area because it was relatively close, they had farm animals to see, and... a horse-drawn wagon ride to see the maple groves.  Apparently, we weren't the only family drawn by these offerings!  Turns out this was the farm's first year participating in the open house weekend and they had not anticipated the big crowd that was there.  They had sold out of maple syrup before we got there and there was quite a line for the wagon ride.  

While Daddy generously offered to stand in line for us, I took the kids into the barn where we saw lots of animals: two horses; a mama sow and her piglets; two HUGE oxen; 6-8 cows, some of whom were pregnant, one about to go into labor any minute (no, we didn't get to see a live birth), and a couple of mamas who had their calves just a few days or weeks ago.  So we got to see some baby calves too!  (Most of the barn was too dark to take pictures in, so I only got a shot of the calves.)

We rejoined Daddy in time to squeeze onto the next wagon ride. 

These were the horses that took us on our excursion. 

Even though neither kids looks it, they both enjoyed the wagon ride.

If you look near the base of the trees, you can see the buckets with the sunlight reflecting off their lids.  The effect is more obvious and prettier in person. 

And here's a close up of the buckets. 

After the ride, we went back into the sugaring house and scoped out the equipment they use to turn maple sap into maple syrup.  We unfortunately didn't get a chance to chat with the lady much about the machine because it was getting to be mid-afternoon and the kids were getting tired.  We all were excited to try a drink of freshly processed and still warm maple syrup.  It was delicious!

We also decided to indulge in some treats before we went - vanilla ice cream topped with maple syrup and maple sugar cotton candy.  As expected, the ice cream was a big hit, though I was surprised when neither Sarah nor Nathan liked the cotton candy!

Unfortunately we left on a sad note - they had free face painting for the kids in the sugaring house and we had asked the kids earlier if they wanted their faces painted.  Nathan firmly told us "I want nobody to paint my face, NEVER!" and Sarah agreed.  Then after Daddy had stood in multiple different lines to get us our treats, and right when we were about to start walking out the door, both kids had a complete change of heart and REALLY wanted to get their faces painted.  But the face painting line was long so we had to tell them "no".  Sarah is STILL talking about how she wants to go to "maple syrup" and get her face painted!

We had a fabulous day and made some really fun memories.  Thank goodness the snow is finally gone and we can resume our New England adventures!

Sweet Bedtime Sentiments

These past three night I've been on my own with the kids at bedtime.  Sunday night Brian was in Chicago preparing for his oral boards, Monday night he was traveling home and tonight he's on call.  Nighttime is my least favorite time of the day to be on my own with the kiddos because we're all tired, my patience is wearing very thin, I'm ready to be "off duty" for the night, and one or both of the kids is likely to have meltdown(s) sometime between dinner and lights off.

BUT these past few weeks the kids have been giving me the sweetest good-nights...

Mommy, I love you so much!

Mommy, I want you to sleep with me. 

Mommy, you're my sweetest mommy in the whole world!

Mommy, you're my best mommy ever!

And with sweet bedtime sentiments like that, I am almost overcome with the need to snuggle with them one more time before I close that door.  Almost...

A Springtime Halloween

Though Sarah tells me weekly that she wants to go trick-or-treating (and we remind her that will happen after we move to Knoxville and Nathan turns 5), the Halloween costumes that I poured so much time into have only resurfaced once or twice.  So I was very surprised this morning when we were getting ready to go the to library for storytime and Nathan said "I want to wear my Tigger costume!" and then Sarah decided she did too!  The kids were a big hit at the library, with all three children's librarians exclaiming over them when we walked up to return our books.  Then the costumes came back on again this afternoon long enough to spend some time out in the sunshine blowing bubbles.  And I was thrilled to get another picture of the kids in the costumes since I only got a few on Halloween. 

Welcome Spring, Let's Take a Day Trip! (Part 1)

I heard months ago that in early spring all the maple sugaring houses in New England have an open house weekend.  After attending a fabulous 2nd birthday party for our friend I. two Saturdays ago, I was sitting at my computer at 9:45pm and remembered this little tidbit.  After a quick search I realized that it was THE weekend!!  Brian and I debated about what to do - was it worth trying to figure out a last minute day trip for the next morning?  I did some research on maple sugaring houses in Vermont, we debated some more, he joined in the search looking for places in Massachusetts, I widened my search to Maine and NH, and finally sometime after 11pm we had decided on a tentative plan for the morning - head to Maine to go "maple syrup-ing"!  We wanted to pick a sugar house that wasn't too far away (which nixed Vermont) and then Brian mentioned that he wouldn't mind having some lobster for lunch while we were at it, and since Maine wasn't much farther away then some of the places in Mass. we decided to head north!  We totally made the right decision and had an awesome day.

I volunteered to drive so that Brian could do some work and studying in the car.  He had two crazy complicated hearts cases scheduled for the following day that he had to research, so he had his laptop connected to a power inverter so that it could be plugged into the cigarette lighter for power AND ALSO connected to his phone for internet.  Crazyness! 

I had scoped out some restaurants in Kennebunkport where we could eat before heading to the sugar house, but when we got close to town I realized we were a little early and the restaurant wasn't open yet.  Since we had just passed a sign for the beach, we decided to turn around and check it out.  It was cold and windy but everyone got super excited when we saw these...

Whom do I mean by "everyone"?  These kids!  And Brian!  (Especially Brian!)  Not me, however.  When one of the kids asked me why I wasn't picking up rocks, I told them my favorite thing to do was take pictures of rocks, not collect rocks.  Good thing, I think, since there was quite a lot of collecting going on without my help. 

While we were packing for the trip that morning, Nathan had somehow decided that he needed to bring his net to catch something (I think his original thought was an animal? or fish?), and it was put to great use catching rocks!

Sarah also had a lot of fun splashing in the water - thank goodness we had thought for the kids to wear their rain boots!  We weren't sure about snow and mud and ice at the sugaring house, however the boots were even more crucial during our impromptu beach caper.  I hadn't brought a change of clothes, though, so we had to pull her out after her pants started getting splashed by the waves.

Discussing the merits of Nathan's rock.

This is the start of Brian's collection of special rocks for the day, though more were added after I took this picture.

As soon as Brian started a pile of his rocks, Nathan (of course) did the same!

For the most part, Sarah was more interested in finding large rocks to throw into the water then collecting...

...though when I went back to the car to scrounge up some bags for the collectors to take their treasures home, both kids redoubled their efforts so they could fill their bags with special rocks.  

Reluctantly we tore ourselves away from this treasure trove so that we could continue on with our adventure...