One Word Wednesday: Babies

Goodnight Moon

Nathan read Goodnight Moon in First Grade last week. It's been one of our families favorite books since Nathan was tiny, often asking for the "moon" book. He's probably had it memorized for years! Now when I ask the twins to bring me a book to read they bring over "Goodnight Moon" frequently.

For those of you who don't know the book, it goes a little something like this. After describing the items in the room, the narrator begins to say goodnight to each of them. It starts like this: In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon."

And ends like this: "Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light and the red balloon. Goodnight bears and goodnight chairs. Goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens..."

As part of his assignment Nathan had to write his own version of "Goodnight Moon" by completing the phrase "Goodnight _______."

Goodnight bas fishin bot (bass fishing boat)
Goodnight oshin (ocean)
Goodnight nony (Nonny)
Goodnight Pap
Goodnight bekol (Binkle aka Bullwinkle)
Goodnight Tate
Goodnight ski (Skye)
Goodnight dady and Momy (Daddy and Mommy)

Every line of it reminds of where Nathan is in his life right now- the things he cherishes most and the people and pets in his life .  He's doing so well in school and I'm so proud of him!

One Word Wednesday: Bait

Flashback Friday: A Classic Motorcycle

This is one of my favorite pictures of Nathan and Tate from the summer of 2008. Nathan had just turned three and Tate was only about seven months old. They were just beginning to enjoy playing with each other.

Our neighbor gave us this really cool battery-powered motorcycle. The boys loved it for years. That summer was filled with so many great backyard memories! I remember watching Nathan play on the motorcyle and thinking that Tate would love it too. He wasn't walking yet and was still pretty wobbly, but Nathan held on to him so tightly and I snapped a quick picture. Almost as soon as I took the picture Tate started to slide off and I had to catch him before he hit the ground.

This picture has been displayed on my fridge for years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Flashback Friday

I was thinking the other day that about how many events and trips I've missed blogging about because life has been so crazy around here for the last two years. So I've decided to create "Flashback Friday." "Flashback Fridays" will allow me to blog about things that I wish I would have had the time to write about. I'm really looking forward to searching my archives of pictures and coming up with my first "Flashback Friday" post tonight after the kids go to bed! These posts will not be in any chronological order, just whatever strikes me as a fun story or a great memory. I hope you enjoy them!

One Word Wednesday: "Puzzles"

In Search of Creativity

Most of you who know me personally know I love my camera. I take it almost everywhere I go. My kids have all learned to say "Cheese" before they could say their own names! I think my love of pictures is genetic. My grandmother never left home without her camera either. She album after album filled with pictures of her grandkids. I got my first camera in elementary school one Christmas and went through at least two rolls of film before the day was over. In high school I took a photography class and loved every minute of it.

While I'm not the most creative person in the world, I have found that I can occasionally capture pictures that I can be really proud of. I recently came across a photography blog that has literally challenged me to be more creative with my pictures. I love it because I'm always one of those people who wants to be creative but can never think of anything creative to do. Each week they issue a challenge and then select the winner. While I haven't participated in their contest I have been trying some of their challenges for myself. My first attempts were with "Water" and "Feet." I call these "SPLASH" and "New Sneakers."

I challenge all of you to pick at least one of their challenges and try it!! It's a lot of fun!

http://isophotos.blogspot.com/

Why Do Brothers Fight Like This????

Our Little Fella

Jackson is our "little fella." He is younger than Lana by only two minutes, but most days she acts two years older than him. They have a very special relationship. He depends on his "Sissy" to take care of him and she loves acting like his little mommy. They share a room but have seperate beds. We frequently find him sleeping in her bed. When she gets mad at him and kicks him out of her bed he will sleep on the floor next to it. She likes to try to change his diaper and leads him by the hand to where she wants him to go.

He will usually play anything that she wants to play. While he loves to play with his cars, trucks, tractors and trains, he most often plays with her dolls, kitchen, jewelry and dress-up clothes. His older brothers still play a little too rough from him so he shy's away from playing with them. 

He's very quiet and doesn't talk very much. Some of his favorite words are: tractor, choo-choo, truck, puppy, bubbie, Elmo, Big Bird, cookie, cheese, juice and water. His favorite song is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and he like his sister he loves to read "Go, Dog, Go." He also loves Thomas the Tank Engine stories. He loves play-doh but he eats it like candy whenever he's playing with it.

He is such a sweet little guy. Giving kisses and hugs all the time. I love to hear his sweet little giggles. He's starting to get a little temper, which is cute until he gets really mad and has a complete melt-down. He's also finally starting to stand-up to his siblings a little bit more. He gives them a little slap to the back of the head when they're upsetting him or bullying him. While I don't like to see my kids hitting each other I also don't like to see one being so timid that he's always the one giving up his toy.


Every night he sleeps with an entourage of blankets and stuffed animals. When he does sleep in his own bed it is filled with a Care Bear, a glo-worm, at least two blankets, Telly Monster, Big Bird, Ernie and Zoe from Sesame Street.

That Girl Can Talk!

Lana is our little talker. She always has something to say. At 18 months she used more words than I could count. Some of her first words included: cheese, juice, shoes, purple, hi, bye, Mommy, Daddy, baby, dollie, dog, duck and Nathan. There were so many more, but I'm having some trouble remembering them all. Her first sentence was: "Help me."

At almost 23 months she has many phrases that she uses frequently. We often hear: "All done." "Mine."  "Nathan bus." "Pap truck." "I want ----" "Hi Mommy! (or Daddy, etc.)

Her vocabulary has increased dramatically. Some of her favorite words are: princess, pink, puzzle, potty, no, Nathan, Tate, Jackson, play-doh and car.

Her favorite show is Sesame Street and she loves Abby Cadabby. She calls her "Abby Gabby" or "Gabby Abby."

She loves to sing. Her favorite songs are "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." She also loves to count to two. I frequently hear her little voice throughout the house counting "one two one two one two" over and over again. She is also a book lover. Her current favorite book is a mini-version of  "Go, Dog, Go." She loves to read books to herself and have others read books to her.

Three's Preschool for Tate

Tate started preschool in the three's class on Wednesday, September 7th. It was a cold and rainy day thanks to Hurricane Lee. He didn't seem to be too excited about going to school, but when it was time to leave the house he grabbed his bag and headed straight for the car. He wouldn't even stop for a picture. He was really excited about his special school bag. His teacher likes the kids to have gift bags so I got him a plain green one and put pictures on it of him doing his favorite things. I also put stickers all over it and then covered it in contact paper. He loves telling people about the things on his bag.

He went straight to his class and started playing with a Bob the Builder toy. His little friend Brad came over and played next to him. I got a few shots of them playing, but neither would stop playing long enough to look at the camera. I snuck out of class quietly and he didn't even seem to notice I was gone.

I checked on him a couple of times, sneaking a peek through the window of the classroom door. He sat listening to the story during circle time, ate his snack at the table and even completed his little project by putting stickers on a paper with the number three. At the end of the day he lined up with his class, walked down the hallway and waited to be dismissed by his teacher. To say that I was surprised that he cooperated so easily is an understatement! I am so glad that he enjoyed his day even though he was disapointed that the playground was closed due to the rain. I hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly as the first day of school.

In addition to preschool he still attends speech therapy once a week at the local elemetary school, but he is making great progress. He even helped me read "Dear Zoo" to him today and did a great job with all the words!

Currently his favorites are:
Color: Green
Food: Pizza
Drink: Orange Juice
Toy: Boats, Trucks, Tractors and Campers
Friend: Nathan
Favorite Place to Visit: Hersheypark
TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & Tom and Jerry Cartoons aka "that mouse and cat show"

First Grade for Nathan

It's that time of year when the kids start heading back to school. Nathan was the first to go. He had his first day of First Grade on Monday, August 29th. It was a beautiful summer day. I can hardly believe Nathan is old enough to be in First Grade! He seems to like his teacher and is enjoying the kids in his class. Two little girls from his bus stop are in his class as well as several kids from his Kindergarten class. He doesn't say much about his day, but I can tell he's enjoying it so far.

He still likes to buy his lunch and he enjoys picking out a new library book each week. His weekly progress reports from his teacher reflect a good attitude and good work habits. He tends to socialize a little too much, but we're working on that. He is also looking forward to starting Boy Scouts this year.

What do you like most about First Grade?: That I get to learn new stuff and make new friends.

What do you want to learn about this year?: How to write my letters better. I also want to learn about space.

Who are your friends this year: Simon K., James, Zach, Bella, Gracie, Hannah and Roman.

Do you like First Grade better than Kindergarten?: I think I liked Kindergarten better. I was in Kindergarten longer. I haven't been in First Grade that long.

The days are long, but the years are short.

I'm going to gradually catch up on what we did this summer, but for now I just want to write about how big my kids are getting! I just can't believe we sent Nathan off to First Grade and Tate went to preschool and next month my babies will be TWO! Where has the time gone??? Each day seems so long but the years seem to fly by. We've struggled to get through the past two years, but it's amazing to look back and see how much joy there was amidst the struggle. We laughed, we cried and we survived on very little sleep! Sometimes it seemed that this day would never come, but here we are! I'm just amazed. I can't wait to see what our kids accomplish in the next two years. I miss my snuggly little babies, but I love watching them learn and grow into amazing big kids.