She Crawls!

Wendy started crawling forwards yesterday.  (She’s been crawling backwards since Christmas.)   It is very cute.  Before every new attempt, she sits up, then leans over and slaps the floor with alternating hands a few times.   It looks for all the world like a miniature Suma wrestler trying to intimidate the floor. 

Charlie is not sure what to do with her mobility.   Neither is her Mama.   I have already vacuumed more times this week than I have in the last six months (and I am also accepting any advice on inter-sibling negotiation/parenting skills you have to offer!) 

Merry Christmas!

….pa dum Pum PUM!!!

And now, Ladies and Gents, adoring fans, grandparents from afar, I give to you what we have all been waiting for….Charlie and Alaythia’s First Ballet Recital!!!And the audience cheered wildly.  But Wendy knew better things were coming…This is Charlie bowing…it happened about 2 minutes after the performance when the older class was already getting into position, but hey, it still happened!Of course, everyone was enraptured….

Here is a link to the video of the whole performance.  http://youtu.be/C0Y8sLGUStA

(My favorite part is the very end, where you see Charlie arranging and then re-aranging his arms for his bow…that went on for several minutes after the video cut off before he finally settled on an arm in front and bent over from the waist….) Enjoy!

confessions of a J during finals week….

It is finals week and though he has been in the house most of the day, I have seen Jonathan for a total of maybe 20 minutes if you exaggerate it.  The day after he takes his last evening exam, we are leaving early in the morning on a 12+ hour road trip with two small, ACTIVE, children.  Christmas is upon us and there are MANY things to be made.  I don’t really know why (except that by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit must be prompting me) I’ve been dealing with this finals week differently.

Normally a week with this much activity, responsibility, uncertainty and potential for disaster would have me making plans upon contingency plans and lists of my lists in an effort to stave off any negative impact on my family.   Though this approach may sometimes result in being prepared for everything, it always guarantees one very stressed out and grumpy Mama.  I’ve been noticing, in the little bit of growing up I’ve done these past few months, that Mama’s mood quickly becomes everyone's mood.  So, in an effort to love my children and husband better, I have let the house go.   I am moving through each task in front of me without stressing about the cloud of other urgent, pestering tasks remaining undone.  I have no set of lists except the overall objectives of:

• getting Charlie outside for HARD playing once a day,
• making sure I have timely snacks and meals to provide my offspring (and to hand through the door to my muttering husband, hunched over yet another outline of notes he is studying)
• being aware of and then using any moment my hands are free to work on the projects I’m making for Christmas. 
• getting us all packed and travel-food supplied for our trip while the children are awake (as long as I can make it fun)  so that I can work on Christmas-ing while they are asleep.

The super bonus is that I’ve found I haven’t been inadvertently showing Charlie he doesn’t matter and is an inconvenience to me like I usually end up doing in high-stress  times.   We’ve actually had fun together instead of resenting the fact that we can’t have Dad!  This was our chaotic but delightful scene while we made pizza for dinner last night:

Many, many thanks to Gail, our Sunday school teacher, for teaching us this joyful song!

Physics through the eyes of a toddler….

A while back, when Charlie and I were still getting used to having Wendy in our lives, I decided to dedicate her first morning nap to “Charlie and me” time.  One week in September, we found this great little book at the library and read it together and did some of the experiments about force and gravity.  "Move It! Motion, Forces and You" by Adrienne Mason, Illustrated by Claudia Davilla

It is aimed at kindergarteners, so some of the more technical experiments were over his head.   But we did the simpler ones and just had lots of fun comparing bean weight (force of gravity) and blowing ping-pong balls (directional force) with straws—though I’m pretty sure the fun for him had mostly to do with scooping and blowing!

    

The real take-away was a fantastically fun game we discovered along the way.   I was trying to demonstrate the difference between pulling and pushing forces and ended up pushing Charlie over on the couch in explanation.   Soon  the “What kind of force do you want?” game became one of our all-time favorite activities.  It takes no more equipment than a bed or couch, one wiggling, giggling toddler and an adult with one hand free.   Here are Dada and Charlie demonstrating how to play the game …

Teach a toddler in your life about physics today!  You won’t be sorry!  Money back guaranteed!

independence…

Sometimes being able to root through your own toy box……is enough to put you in the very best of moods!

Photoshoot FAIL!

At the end, guess who was happy and who was not?