Kid 1 and Kid 2

I feel like Rebekah has been getting a lot of blog posts lately. I know, weird, huh? They say the further down the sibling line you are the less photos (and blog posts) you have. I was determined not to do this to my kids…but it would seem the older 2 have been getting less posts and photos. Ah well! I can only do so much! So, without further ado I thought I would do today’s post about Kid 1–Cora, and Kid 2–Ben.

They keep me laughing and on my toes!

I am constantly amazed at how smart they are. Cora is so darn close to reading. When we go out to eat and she works on the kid menu things I marvel at how good she has become with them (Ben still just scribbles on or rips them!). She is even finding words in the word search puzzles now! She can recognize all of her letters and a lot of her numbers. The thoughts she comes up with, and the conversations we can have have been great. She is growing like a weed and it seems recently we have not been able to keep her full! Seriously, it seems that 5 minutes after every meal, after she’s eaten a TON of food, she’ll say, “I’m hungry!” Sigh…not sure how to keep that hollow leg filled up! We have cut dairy out of her diet completely and are working toward a gluten/grain-free diet. The no-dairy has helped her tremendously, but I’m starting to wonder if the absence of grain is also doing wonders for her. She LOVES playing with her Hello Kitty LEGOS and Strawberry Shortcake RC car. She’s always wanting to make cards and write letters to send to friends. She LOVES helping me in the kitchen, especially if I’m making hot cocoa! And, she LOVES playing “superheroes!” It absolutely cracks me up! I do not remember playing superheroes as a child, but she and Ben LOVE it! She is always requesting to watch “Superman and His Amazing Friends.” So funny! I’m thankful she and Ben have something they both enjoy playing together. She continues to have such a tender heart, she is a wonderful big sister and does anything she can to make her little sister (and often Ben, too) smile and laugh! She’s also proving to be quite helpful when it comes to feeding Bekah her food. I’ve told Cora she is a mommy-in-training and that just makes her grin from ear to ear. I love my Cora. I have a hard time accepting the fact that she’ll be five in 2 months and is so close to starting Kindergarten. She is shy, my quiet one when in a crowd. However, she is starting to come out of her shell little by little.

 

Benjamin…oh, he’s a hoot, that kid! He is ornery, always pushing the limits of my patience, and the limits of his physical abilities, he’s gentle, caring, full of funniness, a barrel of energy and just a joy to be around. He plays hard and he sleeps hard! He is a total ham and has taken to making funny faces in photos. He totally knows how to use his “charm” to TRY and get what he wants. A great story where the charm/humor worked…David was trying to get him dressed for bed. Ben would NOT be still long enough for David to change his diaper and get his jammies on. In exasperation David takes Ben by the shoulder and says, “BE STILL!!!!!!” Ben looks him straight in the eye and begins tapping his little foot. Sigh. Yes, all hope of seriousness was lost and David started laughing. Don’t worry, we don’t let Ben get out of everything. He is often found standing in the corner (he also puts himself there…), or getting spankings. However, we are learning not to take life so seriously with this boy. I love him to pieces. He LOVES both of his sisters to death. He is Cora’s constant shadow and anything she does he wants to be a part of. He is also very good at caring for Rebekah in ways he can (hugs, kisses, helping her get a toy, etc). And, this boy LOVES him some Spiderman! It totally cracks me up! How do boys know about these things? It must somehow be in their DNA. He is one smart cookie too! It amazes me what he knows, how quickly he catches on to things, etc. Ben is still not talking with words a whole lot. Yes, his vocabulary is growing regularly and he’s more prone to TRY and actually say things. We are now debating if speech therapy wouldn’t be helpful. Still trying to decide if we should keep waiting, or if it’s time. We’ll see!

Life

Well, I had high hopes for this week. I had planned to get all of my Christmas cookie baking and fudge making done. I had planned to get the house clean, go south to the big city my sister lives in so David could have a day to write…and then life happened. Tuesday I woke up with a cough. Wednesday I felt like a truck had run me over. Thursday I felt like that same truck backed up and just parked on me. Yep. The flu. The last time I think I had the flu was 20 years ago around my 15th birthday. I don’t remember feeling this sick since then (other than pregnancy…). Thankfully, my MIL was able to come up TH and help out while David went to work because I literally couldn’t move. I stayed in bed all morning and some of the afternoon. Curled in a tight ball of pain, muscles sore and absolutely freezing! Yep. Gotta “love” the flu. I was able to uncurl at some point in the afternoon when my fever broke and suddenly I was roasting! I got up, ate something, showered and was able to remain vertical the rest of the day. Then Ben got sick…then Cora…then David…and this afternoon Bekah is down too. Sigh. Yep, we all have the flu, in various stages. I’m praying we’re all better come Monday. And the silver lining is that hopefully this means we’ll all be well for Christmas!

Going to Preschool

Cora is part of a co-op preschool. This means the parents are responsible to help out in the classroom 1 day a month. This helps keep costs down. We provide snacks/drink on our day, help provide other products the school needs, etc. We have really enjoyed it, and Cora LOVES going to school! She only goes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:30-12, and it’s a LOOOOOONG wait until Monday again! I love watching her excitement and her love of learning. Last week it was our turn to help again. When the parent (me) helps for the day your child is also a helper. The child gets to be line leader, do little errands/jobs for the teachers, help with the calendar and weather and gets to help set up/clean up snack. Cora, as the rest of the kids do, LOVES being helper! Anyway, I took my camera in last week to take photos. Cora also had the Special Box (show-and-tell), and I wanted to get photos of that. It was a fun day! I love being a part of the preschool and seeing my child in action as she interacts with other kids her age!

The kids do a lot of playing. There is very little structured academic time, which I really like. They’re allowed to be kids, have fun and learn through playing! Play-doh is very popular!

This is the craft table and where her class gathers for their “good morning” & sharing time.

Pointing out that it’s Monday!

Talking about the pink painted seashell that her good friend, K, gave her.

Snack! We made “turkeys” out of pretzels, Hershey Kisses and candy corn. They were a huge hit!

The Sites of Fall

I love Cora. She’s such a hoot. She and I are moving into a new and different kind of relationship. She loves to do everything I do, and because she’s getting older I’m finding we can have actual conversations. She’s also getting more proficient at doing things and requires less instruction. Anyway, I’m enjoying this new stage in our relationship. The other day, during rest time, I decided to go outside and take some photos of the trees outside our home and our neighbor’s home. The colors have been so brilliant this fall, and I wanted to capture them before all the leaves fell off! I asked Cora if she wanted to go with me, and she enthusiastically said, “YES!” I go out with my camera, she with my iPhone, and we snap photos together. It was a lot of fun. I had to laugh at one point because she says to me, VERY despondently, “Mom, I sure wish I had a REAL camera. I guess I’ll just take pictures using your iPhone while you use your real camera.” Hmmm, guess we need to look at getting this girl a REAL camera! Here are some of the things we captured!

Mums from my Mum! 🙂

I love looking up into fall trees!

“Mom! Take a picture of me with the tree!” She says as she runs across the yard. 🙂

I liked the red against the yellow-orange

Tree outside our house–photo courtesy of Cora

“Mom! Hug the tree so I can take a picture of you!” –photo courtesy of Cora

I love the contrast of red and black–photo courtesy of Cora

Other neighbor’s tree–photo courtesy of Cora

The mums–photo courtesy of Cora

Fun at the Zoo

My mom has been wanting to take us to the zoo all summer, then that lead to fall, and it’s almost winter, and we finally went! You know, life just happens sometimes and things you want to happen don’t. In any case, we all went to the zoo yesterday! It’s a good zoo, on a smaller scale and perfect for small kids. We almost didn’t go because “they” were calling for rain, but we took a gamble and went. I’m so glad we did! The weather was warm (especially for October!), it was cloudy, which I actually think was good. The animals were out and active, and the kids were good and had a lot of fun! Plus, it was great to spend some time with my mom! We had a great time, and it was fun making more memories with and for the kids!

Our very own penguins!

What is your wingspan? This was at the condor exhibit.

The carousal ride was OK. Cora loved it, I got dizzy and Ben cried unless I was holding him! 🙂

I love how my mom loves her grandkids!

This was the coolest thing! There was a clear tube slide that went under the otter exhibit. You could see the otters playing as you slid down! It was so fun!!!

Hiding out in a tee-pee!

Just give a boy a shovel and some pebbles.

Our cutie!

I love this girl so much!

Mimi and Cora feeding the very aggressive goats!

We thought this red bush was so pretty! The kids semi cooperated to get a photo with Mimi…

The cooperation evaporated when it was time to get a photo with me! 🙂

The girls on a giant caterpillar! Ben was being uncooperative…

Hello Kitty

Cora LOVES the toy Hello Kitty. I find this fun because I remember my sister and I being into her as well! It used to be Minnie Mouse and Strawberry Shortcake and VERY briefly, Angelina Ballerina. But, Hello Kitty has been around for a bit and the love Cora has for her is just as strong! I find Hello Kitty to be quite benign, nothing but a cute, furry, white cat–who wouldn’t love that? Anyway, as is always the case, Halloween has reared it’s ugly head again, and we are left with the never-ending debate as to whether or not to celebrate. Well, that’s not entirely true. A couple years ago we made the decision to not celebrate. And, we still hold to that. We don’t decorate, or do trick-or-treating. However, this year Cora is in preschool and that means we’ve had to do some Halloween stuff. I have appreciated the way her teachers have done Halloween–it’s a fun holiday to dress up and get candy. They’ve talked about what’s real and what’s not real during this season and that’s been good. In any case, yesterday they had a Halloween party and all the kids were supposed to dress up. I felt the old childhood panic start to well up inside of me as I thought about the prospect of coming up with a costume (we aren’t keen on spending money on one!) for Cora. And, with a 4 year old, one never knows what they might want to be.

At first Cora wanted to be a princess. I thought that was easy enough. But then, I thought about how much she loves Hello Kitty, and I was thinking through how easy the costume would actually be. I suggested it to her and she about died with excitement! 🙂 I bought pink, sparkly shoes and a headband, but other than that everything else was borrowed, oh and the face paint. I have to say she was a pretty stinkin’ cute Hello Kitty! I think we pulled it off quite well! And, she got gobs of candy at school so I have no qualms about not taking her trick-or-treating. Call me a party pooper if you want, I don’t care! I will forever hate this holiday, but am glad Cora was able to have fun and see the fun that can be had during Halloween!

Soccer

We’ve noticed for a while that Cora seems to really enjoy soccer. She’s pretty good at kicking the ball around, and we’ve been waiting for her to get old enough to enroll her in soccer. I thought we’d have to wait until she was 5 or 6, but was so excited to learn a company around here (maybe national?) comes to preschools and daycares and offers 30 minute lessons once a week! We signed Cora up (you pay by month) and so far she has LOVED it! They don’t do any actual soccer games, and it’s non-competitive. What they do do is teach the kids, through fun games, nursery rhymes, etc., how to handle the ball. The ball’s name is “Bob the bobcat.” You can’t touch Bob with your hands because he loves “tasty fingers,” however, he doesn’t like “stinky feet” so you can only kick him! It’s been so much fun to watch! It’s the highlight of Cora’s Monday, and she’s always so disappointed when it’s done. I love to watch as she’s being taught soccer skills through fun games. I don’t know if this will be something we do for years, or just for months, but we’re having fun with it right now!

October? Really?

I just have to know…is it October, or July? Our small town had their annual Pumpkin Festival, and it’s the beginning of October, and was nearly 80 degrees on Saturday!!! What???? We were going through the hay maze sweating! I had the kids in shorts and t-shirts, and us adults were dressed the same way. The Pumpkin Festival takes place on our town square, but this year they moved all of the kid-friendly stuff to another location a few blocks down. It was so nice! They had a hay maze (with a bushel of apples in the middle), a blow-up bouncy thing, face painting, pumpkin painting, all sorts of crafts, balloon animals, pick-your-own-pumpkin, a hay ride, and other things. It was fantastic! The kids had so much fun and with the weather being nice I found it most enjoyable too! We went to the square to have lunch (read: fried, greasy fair food) and then went back to the other location to wait our turn for a hay ride. To top it off, David’s dad and step mom were with us and got to enjoy the day (weekend) too! But, I had to keep asking the question: is it really October? I mean, really, 80 degrees, in October, in the Midwest???

These kids crack me up!

Bekah and Grandad

David got to the middle of the maze first! 🙂

Yum! Apples!

A quintessential fall photo…

Bekah and Mammaw

I love her ponytail flying out behind her! She was so excited to see how to get out of the maze!

Just following along, munchin’ on his apple…

Grandad and Mammaw with the babies

The fire department took a fire truck down for the kids to sit on and climb around in/on.

Cora absolutely LOVES these inflatable things!

Getting their faces painted: Ben a football and Cora a cat

Rebekah taking it all in and also starting to suck her thumb!

Eating our uber healthy lunch! HA!

My Loves

My children…

…and the man who gave them to me!

A New Milestone

Tuesday was a new day for our family. A day with a big change, and a day that starts a whole new era for us. Cora started preschool! Sniff! I do not consider myself an overly sentimental person. I don’t cry easily and tend to use humor more than anything. However, this week I’ve been having a hard time coming to grips with my firstborn stretching her wings and leaving the nest just a little bit. Yes, it’s only for 2 1/2 hours for 3 days a week. Yes, once a month I’ll be a room helper. Yes, David will take her and bring her home because the preschool she attends rents space at our church. But, despite all of this, my not-so-little-anymore girl will not be with me for 7 1/2 hours a week! It’s a big change. And, yes, I have shed some tears over it. BUT! I am so excited for her! Because the preschool uses our church, Cora has been seeing the classrooms for a long time, and she was beside herself with excitement when we told her last spring that she would be going to school in those classrooms! It was a looooooong wait for her (what were we thinking???), and I don’t think she could hardly contain herself when Tuesday came and she got to go to preschool!

Normally, she’ll be going M-W, 9:30-12, but on Tuesday it was an orientation day–we went in the afternoon for 2 hours rather than the morning. The first hour the kids and parents stayed together. The kids had free reign and got to play with all the toys, play with their new classmates and stamped a cloth bag with paint to use for all their stuff! The second hour we were separated, and the kids got a taste of what the day will be like for them–story time, snack, singing, etc. When Cora was told she could go home she came running out, and when she saw me she says very loudly, “I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!!” Did this momma’s heart good to hear that.

This preschool is a co-op. That means there are 2 teachers and 2 parent helpers every day in the classes. The benefit of this is the cost is less, and it gives the parents the opportunity to be more involved. It’s very family-oriented and casual. This is also the start of the 55th year of it’s existence! The teachers stress free play with the kids, crafts, story time, etc. They won’t be stuck to a desk/table doing worksheets. They learn a letter of the alphabet during the week, but it’s not strict, more learning as they do other things. Very much like you would do at home. I like this. I have always been hesitant about preschool because I figured kids are in school for 13 years of their their life (K-12), and why add 1-2 more years to that with preschool? I think this is the best combination. The kids have a lot of fun, crafts, etc. much like they would at home, only they get to have fun with a bunch of kids their age! What could be better?

I’m excited about this year. I’m excited to watch Cora as she learns from other people, continues to learn how to make friends, and learns all sorts of other things! I’m excited to see who we meet in the co-op and get to be a part of a very successful organization. It’ll be neat to see how the Lord uses our family. I know we have some adjustments to make (for example, Ben will need to learn how to talk for himself and make his own decisions!), but we’re excited for this new chapter.