January Doldrums

Ever wish some of the excitement from November and December would spill into January? I don't really mean more parties or presents, just some of the thrill, the excitement, the anticipation. What is there to look forward to in January? More snow, ice storms, freezing temps. Spring in Michigan is a long way off, so it's best not to even think that far ahead yet. All of our normal activities stopped around Thanksgiving and haven't started back up yet. Thankfully story time is starting Thursday.

We try to find fun where we can. Last weekend the kids and I went to a concert by the Watoto Children's Choir from Africa. Every single child was an orphan, most due to the AIDS epidemic. Each child has a family made up of 7 other children and a mother. Each family has a house and the houses are set up as villages. It's amazing and really sad to think that there are that many kids that nobody can take care of. Right now there are 2 choirs touring the USA. One up north and one in the south. Both kids liked the concert. It was a bit loud for Alison though, so she covered her ears for most of it. Ian was transfixed. His attention didn't waver till the grown ups started talking about 3/4 of the way through. As soon as the kids started singing again he was ok.

Yesterday we went to the mall. Alison has a little Christmas money to spend and she is on the hunt for party shoes. Never mind that the Christmas parties are over and that most of the birthday parties we go to are casual affairs. She is a girl and girls need proper shoes and that includes party shoes. (at least according to her)

Ian on the other hand has become entranced with gravity and defying it. He has discovered that throwing toys over the baby gate and down the stairs is a very satisfying past-time. He finds great pleasure in the thump, thump, thump, thwack of the toys as they fall down the stairs and hit the door at the bottom. (the door used to be open, but now it's only open a crack to keep all the balls from being lost forever under the desk at the bottom of the stairs. We have taken all his toys away that could get broken or that are just too big and heavy for him to throw overboard. We also put a lot of his toys into the pack n play so that he can play with some but we don't have to worry about them flying down the stairs either. The funniest bit of all of this is the laugh that he does as something is thudding down step after step. His defying gravity stunts include standing on his rocking horse without holding on. His other is using his new zebra ride on toy as a step stool for climbing onto the couches (which up till this point he had been too short to get onto). He has no sense of danger as he scrambles up and then stands on the couches way too close to the edge for anyone's comfort except his own. He even fell off the other day. Alison was almost crying because she was so worried for him. Ian, well he didn't utter a peep. He just got up, looked at the couch, looked at his zebra and climbed up again. He loves to stand on the couch and when we tell him to sit, he throws himself back into the cushions and slides down to the seat. I'll try to get a video, but that kind of distracts him. I'll see what we can do.

Well, Ian is waking up from his nap so I have to go. I really need to figure out how to hook up the new camera to the computer so I can add some pictures. It should be easy, I just have to remember to do it.

Getting back to normal

Whatever normal may be!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We got to celebrate 4 times and each was great. Ian really got into opening presents and would get upset if we tried to help too much. The kids had so much fun and got so many fun presents. Now we have to find new places for them all. (They really need to get out of the dining room!)

We also need to take down our tree. Ian is getting too comfortable with it and starting to touch it more and more. Maybe we'll take it down today before it becomes a problem. He has already tried to cut it down with his hacksaw (thanks grandpa!)

ok, well, I started this about 10 hours ago and then got busy. So I'll post it now and come back later to add more. I just don't want to loose what I started!

Snow!

We got our first real winter snow this weekend. Ian's not sure what to think about it. He sure hates getting bundled up though. Just like most little kids I guess. He's smart though, inside he hates having a hat on his head. But as soon as we go outside he stops pulling at it and just leaves it on. Once the car gets warm, he starts pulling on it again.

Alison went outside and played in the snow today. It was pretty cold out, but she stayed out for about a half an hour. I don't think she even made it off the deck.

Ian did something cute this weekend. We went to my Aunt Rosalie's community choir Christmas concert. He did really good for the first half of the performance and was even getting the hang of clapping at the end of each song. That night when I took him in to go to bed, I turned on his night-time cd and at the end of the first song, he clapped. It was so cute.

For Alison for school this month, I printed a bunch of Christmas themed pages from various websites. So far she's done some secret code pages and some hidden picture pages, we still have a huge stack with math, reading, puzzles, mazes, crosswords and stories. Between those, decorating the tree and working on Christmas projects, she'll be very busy this month.

Let's just pretend that November didn't happen

I can't believe that November is done already! Sorry that I haven't updated in so long. Let's see, what happened in November...

Ian is now walking! He started at the beginning of the month with just a few steps here and there. Then he'd walk about 25% of the time but still crawl when he wanted to get somewhere fast. He walked with his arms straight out in front of him like a little Frankenstien monster. Now he walks about 90% of the time. He loves picking things up and carrying them around. He seems to pick huge things too, like giant balls. He is also getting good at climbing. This is different for us as Alison wasn't a climber at all. We had to move the chair away from the stair railing because he figured out how to get into the chair and he was studying the railing and the arm of the chair. We didn't want him going over the edge so the chair got pushed up against the loveseat. It looks weird, but at least Ian won't be base jumping off the railing.

Alison is very excited. We were worried about how Ian would do with a Christmas tree and we were thinking about putting a tree on the deck and putting birdfeeder ornaments on it instead of having one inside. She liked that idea, but was still very sad that we wouldn't have a tree inside. I got a super deal on a new (to us) tree. It was $20 at a local 2nd hand store. It's much bigger than our old tree. I was shocked at how much bigger it was. I put it up last night after the kids went to bed. It's huge! Alison was so happy today. Ian just doesn't know what to think. Between our first real snow yesterday and now waking up to a tree in the living room he's excited, but confused. So far he has touched it a couple times, but hasn't pulled or anything. We don't have lights or ornaments yet. Well, technically I'm wrong, Alison made a snowflake tree top for it already. She's so creative. She added a twist tie to the back of her snowflake so that it could be slid over the treetop.

We have lots to do in the next few weeks (just like everybody else, right?) My goal is to get my Christmas shopping done this week. We have lots of craft projects to do and food gifts to either make or assemble ingredients for mixes. Lots of exciting stuff that I can't tell you about because some of my blog readers are going to be getting these gifts. So I'll have to post later about all the cool stuff we are making this year.

I'll try to be better about writing this month!

You can tell we are feeling better...

...because the past week we've been gone and busy and having fun again. It feels good to finally be getting back to normal.

Last Monday (Oct 22nd) was a beautiful morning. So I decided to surprise the kids with one last trip to the petting farm to get pumpkins. I even called my mom and told her that Ian was taking a nap but when we woke up, would she like to come too? When we got in the car a couple hours later, the sky was very grey and it was feeling colder. But we decided to go anyway and hope that we didn't get rained on. We had fun, we were cold, but it was fun. Alison had to see "her" ponies one last time. They had some photo stations set up and we got a couple cute ones.

The kids each got a cute little pumpkin. Ian wanted to lick his, so that's why it's where he can't reach it!

Tuesday we went to our normal playgroup. We left Ian home with Daddy because he still had a pretty goopy runny nose.

Then on Wednesday we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum . We met two of Ian's friends and their moms and had a ton of fun. After they left we ate our lunch and stayed for another couple hours. Both kids had fun at the bubble tables. Alison also loved the light box.

Thursday we went to story time at the library. Then we stopped at the Farmer's Market and got a half bushel of peppers. Friday was grocery shopping for me and Ian. Alison stayed home with Daddy while he smoked the peppers. The whole neighborhood smelled like smoked peppers.

And finally today Dan and I gave Ian a new haircut. He wasn't super thrilled, but he looks really cute! He's really tired in the pic, it was right after his bath to wash off all the hair clippings and right before he went to bed.

We've been sick!

I haven't posted at all this month because Ian and I have been sick. He started getting sick Oct 1st. Started with a cold, then a fever, then a rash. The rash lasted over a week and he still has a few spots left on his arms today (the rash started exactly 2 weeks ago today). For the first week he was so miserable, he cried so much he lost his voice. Poor baby. He's starting to finally act more like himself, but he still has a horribly goopy nose and a cough.

At the same time I came down with a bad cold. There were a couple days that it was all I could do to sit on the couch and hold my head up. I'm almost all better now, but the pesky, tickly cough is still hanging on and my nose randomly stuffs up. That's pretty much normal for this time of year for me though.

Luckily, Alison only had sniffles for a few days and got over it pretty quick. I'm glad she was spared. Dan was only sick for a couple days too.

Now that Ian is feeling a bit better he's testing limits. He figured out how to climb over the big footstool that I was using to keep him out of the dining room and kitchen. So I put the pack n play up to block him. He figured out how to climb the side of it and into the chair. I caught him a few times trying to figure out how to go over the side of the chair. Now I'm babyproofing the dining room and kitchen. I can't fight him much longer. The hard part is that Alison loves to take over the dining room table with her art and projects and Ian can reach pretty far past the edges of the table. This and the couple drawers in the kitchen will be our biggest problem spots.

Not much else is new around here. Alison is doing good with her school work. She's almost finished her first math book. It's all addition and subtraction up to 20. She definately needs more practice with them, but she's grasping the concepts and proud of herself for learning different ways to figure out her problems. So far she can use a number line, her fingers, and she's starting to memorize some of the math facts too. She's not good at doing flashcards. She gets frustrated too quickly. I know that they have math facts songs though and I think she'd really like that, so I'm going to look into those. I know from working with other kids that the key to math is learning and memorizing the basic facts. She is reading really well for only being 6years old. She's amazed that she's actually reading, but then she gets upset because she still has to ask for help. I keep telling her it's normal to be where she's at right now and it's ok because she'll keep getting better and better.

What happened to my baby?!?

Somebody, it seems, forgot to tell Ian that he isn't supposed to go from being a baby to being a 2 year old before he actually turns 2! However, in the past couple weeks, he really is acting more like he's 2. He is becoming fiercely independent.

The other day I was chopping up an apple and putting little bite size bits on his high chair tray. He started yelling and gesturing and trying to climb out of his seat. As far as I could tell, he wanted the 3/4 of the apple that was still whole! I have seen pictures online of babies his age and even younger munching on whole pears and other foods, so I handed him the apple. He was thrilled and happily started to munch it as best he can with only 6 teeth. After he had been nibbling it for awhile I noticed he was getting close to the core. I took the apple away to cut the seeds out and he protested the whole time. As soon as I handed it back to him, he smiled and contentedly finished the entire thing! I was amazed! The next day I hollowed the core out and peeled the apple before I gave it to him and he ate the whole thing again! He ends up, even with a bib, being drenched in juice from his chin to his belly button and he loves every minute. I give it to him as a night time snack and then he goes straight into the tub and gets ready for bed.

He is also getting very frustrated when he wants to do something, but he can't. It could be because he just isn't big enough or coordinated enough (like coloring like Alison) or it could be that he is doing something that I don't want him to (like standing on a box so he can reach the tissues that I moved out of his reach and pull them all out). He sure is keeping us on our toes.

On the other hand he can be very loving and calm. We were with a baby the other day who was crying a lot and after awhile Ian crawled over to him, pulled himself up to standing next to the other baby (who's about the same age/size as Ian and gave the baby a hug). It was the sweetest thing ever. We always hug and kiss him and he hugs and kisses us, but it's something that our family does so I just kind of expected that he'd hug and kiss us back. But for him to try to comfort a baby that he had never seen before just really awed me.

Now What About ALISON!

Well, she too is growing up way too fast. We are still working through the weather activities that we started our school year with. They are lasting so long because we have two other things that she is obsessed with and we are learning about all three at once (usually we stick to one topic at a time and learn until she is done and then move onto something new). But a book that her aunt and uncle sent her for her birthday about Pompeii has really caught her attention. We have read it several times and there is still a lot to talk about. We also ordered some other books from the library about Pompeii and a couple videos too. The videos haven't come in yet, but we are having fun with the books and comparing what is the same and what is different about how they each explain what has happened. Our librarian also pointed out that the newest National Geographic had an article about Vesuvius so we went downstairs into the "Quiet Reading Room" (may as well hang a sign that says "NO KIDS, This Means You!") to find the magazine. Luckily, there was no one in there so I didn't feel too bad about reading the picture captions out loud and for Ian adding his thoughts.

Along with weather and Pompeii, Alison is also very into horses and ponies (thanks to the petting farm). We have gotten factual books about different types of horses. Did you know why some horses are called "Quarter Horses"? It's because a couple hundred years ago they did horse races in short sprints of a quarter mile. The horses were called American Quarter Mile Racing Horses and over the years it shortened up to Quarter Horse. We have also gotten more than our fair share of My Little Pony videos too. They are sappily, sickily sweet and Alison hangs on every moment of them.

Such is the life of a 6 year old. She is starting to teeter on the edge of the age of reason. One minute she's matter of factly explaining why something couldn't possibly be true and the next she is building fairy houses and declaring that unicorns are real and that if she pays close enough attention she's sure she can spot something fantastic and extra-ordinary. It's so much fun to watch her at this stage. I'm glad that I can have her here at home where she can be free to go outside to search for signs of fairies and explore and dream. There will be plenty of years of harsh reality so I'm happy to let her be a kid even if it means watching My Little Pony videos.

One last thing...

Last weekend one of Alison's friends celebrated his birthday a few weeks early at his favorite minigolf and batting cage place (it was the last day they were open for the season.) She loved the idea of minigolf and although this course wasn't a huge fancy one, it was fun and challenging. She wasn't sure about the batting cages. Actually, she was scared and convinced that she would just watch. I try hard not to push her because it often backfires. I just told her that whatever she chose to do, she would have fun and let her decide. She decided to give it a try! Then while she was waiting her turn another friend got her finger pinched between the ball and the bat and I was sure that Alison wouldn't set foot inside after witnessing her friend get hurt. She did though and twice at that! The first time, she had the birthday boy's dad help her. The second time, she did it all on her own and made contact with 4 of the 15 balls! She was soo proud of herself and I was proud of her too. It's so neat to see her try something new and be excited rather than scared.