School

Leilani has been wanting to do school since before Kindergarten was out, so we've been doing a light load over the summer. This week, we've started a regular work load. So far in our school, we've made a model of the Nile (the grass is growing, now!), made the Pharaoh's crowns and scepter, and written our names in Cuneiform on clay and Hieroglyphs on paper. We've read about the first nomads, wandering around and how they became farmers, how Egypt became united, and, of course, the first writing. We've learned a little bit about Egyptian myths. Leilani was quite fascinated by Set killing Osiris and Osiris coming back to life, by Isis getting pregnant off her dead husband (Osiris) and having Horus, who was born on Christmas. Actually, it's quite fascinating, because all the solar gods are born at the Winter Solstice. I find all the religious myths incredibly fascinating. (We're using The Story of the World Level 1 and the activity book that goes with it)

In science we're learning about all kinds of different animals - we started off by learning about habitat, migration, defense, camouflage, communication and conservation. From there, we briefly talked about how to know what a mammal is - if it's warm-blooded, has hair/fur, gives birth to live young (excepting the platypus) and has milk to feed it's young, it's a mammal. Leilani has been going around naming all the mammals. She, very wisely, deduced that we're mammals, since we have hair all over our bodies, are warm-blooded, give birth to live young (she has first-hand experience with this, having seen Natalia born last year) and have milk to feed our young-as she made that statement, she looked quite pointedly at me, since I was nursing Natalia at the time. I tell ya, I have one smart little girl :) We've also learned about Cheetahs, Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos and Horses.

Leilani loves her math. She'd do the entire book to the exclusion of all else if I let her.

In English, she's doing phonics, spelling, writing and language. I started off using Spelling Power, but it was a bit too advanced for her, so I found a list online. After I wrote out the list, I lost the link. But it's much better, more her level, and I think it will advance her to be abe to use Spelling Power next year. I got Hooked on Phonics, which she's loving - mainly because it's partly on the computer. We're using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, we've learned the poem "The Caterpillar" and we're learning about nouns - common and proper. For writing we're using "The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease Level 1"...it's quite simple, days 1 and 3 are copying out sentences in her best handwriting, and days 2 and 4 are narration and I write it out. This is to help her learn to write well and learn to put her own thoughts into words, that way she'll be able to put her thoughts into words, then onto paper.

We're going to be reading a good number of chapter books out loud - we finished Little House in the Big Woods on Monday and started Charlotte's Web yesterday. The girls love me reading out loud.

So far, we're loving it, having lots of fun, and most importantly - learning lots of stuff.

Yoga, Veganized Comfort Food, and Short Walks

These new yoga books are fantastic. Leilani has done two pages (a is for airplane and b is for butterfly). She does not want to do one pose a week, she wants to do a new one every day! And Natalia's been having a blast with Itsy Bitsy Yoga - yoga for newborn-24 months. She's loving the fun playtime it brings and the stretches make her feel good. I can tell, because she keeps doing them and has the happiest, most content little look on her face *smiles*. Those books were some of the best things I could have bought.

Now, on to comfort foods. I've been wanting chocolate (twix, thin mints, reese's, mac 'n cheese, cheesy potato soup, etc). So, I've been veganizing them. I found a homemade twix recipe that I'm going to work on veganizing either later this week or next week. I discovered how to make the most amazing baked mac 'n cheese, I made thin mints today (and they're amazing) and I'm going to be making the potato soup for dinner today. The bread is in the oven and the pot is in the dishwasher. I'm beyond excited. Tomorrow I'll let you know how it turned out :)

Natalia and I have been taking short (20 minute) walks around the neighborhood. Natalia LOVES sitting in the stroller (we're to the point that the Moby isn't really working anymore, she's kind of outgrown it, so I'm going to have to get the Onya carrier). Meanwhile, she's enjoying the stroller, being outdoors, seeing the trees and birds, feeling the sunlight. I'm enjoying walking around and getting some exercise, even if it's just a few minutes here and there.

So, basically, we've been having a pretty good week, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it - more walks, yoga and yummy foods.

Advent: Day 13

We finally got our truck back, so I could drop Leilani off and I'll pick her up this afternoon. I'm really quite excited to be doing that again :). When I picked Leilani up, she looked miserable. If she's not feeling better by morning, she's probably going to have to miss tomorrow. Her nose is running like crazy. We went to Wal-Mart to get the milk for our hot cocoa (it's National Hot Cocoa Day!) and Leilani fell asleep on the ten minute car ride to the store.

After dropping Leilani off, Natalia and I came home and Natalia took a nap (I watched How I Met Your Mother and worked out our Holiday menus and a corresponding shopping list). After Natalia woke, we went to the library, came home, read and watched some Backyardigans. Natalia loves the colors and music. I think they're super cute and like the songs.

Our Advent package today had a book - A Charlie Brown Christmas. As I was reading it, Natalia crawled! She wanted the book, so did an actual crawl to get to it! I rewarded her by letting her have the book when I finished reading it. It's a board book, she she can't really destroy it *grin*.

Advent: Day 6

We all accidentally slept in this morning - we had around 30 minutes to get ready to go, and Leilani can take that long just to eat! We did get out on time, and got Leilani to school in good time. Natalia and I came straight home, had some breakfast, cuddled and then Natalia took a nap.

I came up with a payment system for Leilani to do chores - everyday she does her chores, she gets a fake dollar, and I have small toys and things she can "buy" with her "money". I put all the little odds 'n ends in a drawer and now she can start to learn the how work = money = getting things. Also known as the value of a dollar. I'm quite hopeful that this will motivate her and get her excited. As soon as I explained the system to her, she put her dishes in the sink and ran off to brush her teeth again, make her bed and make sure her play room was all cleaned. Of course, she got a bit sidetracked by the legos,(yesterday she made the Great Wall of China, and today I heard her say she's making the Eiffel Tower) but I'm still hopefull. After all, it's only 4, still time for her to play *grin*

Today our Advent package contained a book: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown. Leilani was so excited, she wanted me to read it twice! We're also reading a Magic School Bus chapter book. And, when I went to the library yesterday, I picked up a few books she can help me read.

Advent Calender

I've made a kind of Advent Calender I found on, naturally, pinterest. I used the idea of getting a bucket and wrapping up things to do each day, trying to use things I already had so as to not spend too much money. In that strain, we used the packing paper left over from our move, red and green folders we've had for a looonnnggg time, and things lying around the house made into new things.

Each day, we're going to do something fun:

1 - bake cookies
2 - bake brownies
3 - make fudge
4 - play with the Veggie Tales nativity set
5 - make a "year in review" ornament
6 - read a book
7 - red and green playdough
8 - indoor snowball fight
9 - hand print ornament
10 - handprint Christmas trees
11 - Christmas jokes
12 - letter to Santa
13 - read a book
14 - make pine cone birdfeeders
15 - make gingerbread house
16 - make coffee mugs
17 - make snowglobes
18 - make snowflakes
19 - read a book
20 - Christmas bingo
21 - go Christmas light hunting
22 - make gingerbread cookies
23 - read the Christmas story
24 - Christmas Eve box

We're looking forward to having lots of fun this Advent season.

Beautiful Drive

Yesterday, we made it to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Say "Baraboo" a few times, it's quite addictive and funny sounding. It turned into a lot of laughs in our car, "badabing, badabong, Baraboo", plus, it made Natalia giggle like crazy for a good five minutes.

The drive was beautiful. The trees were so many colors, deep reds that were almost burgundy, bright reds that were almost pink; yellows ranging from gold to bright, sunshiny yellow; oranges that were burnt orange or pumpkin-y, mixed with the greens of trees yet to change, and some evergreens, some of which were blueish. It was a truly beautiful drive.

We stopped to see Jeremy's aunt Lonette, whom I had never met. So over the past couple days Jeremy and I have both met members of each others families. It really was a pretty good day in the travel department. When we got to the hotel, Jeremy ran into the office to check in so I made up a song to entertain the girls. No rhyme or melody to speak of, but I sang that I loved them and my husband their daddy and both seemed thrilled. Then Leilani, not to be outdone, sang that she loved her mommy, sister Natalia and daddy named daddy. It was adorable. The pool has a hotel, so we went down there for a little bit. Jeremy and Natalia didn't get in, but Leilani and I did. Leilani had a blast swimming around, and I got to do a couple laps while she looked on. Natalia didn't seem too crazy about not having mama for thirty minutes, but once Leilani and I had showered and Natalia got me back, she was fine. Oh, Leilani fell out of the shower, she was saying "I can't get out!" And the next thing I knew she was on the floor looking up all confused.

This morning I bribed Leilani to get up and dressed by saying "let's see if there are any cartoons on." It worked and I discovered Natalia likes Mickey Mouse as much as Leilani.

We got back on the road by about nine. Leilani did a few of the worksheets I brought for her. Fortunately, she seemed to enjoy them, which means she won't forget everything she's learned over the past few weeks! We stopped at a rest area that had a walking trail, which we "hiked"...it was beautiful. Vibrant yellows, reds, and oranges. Still some green on some trees, dead branches here and there. Incredibly picturesque. Leilani loved it, she and I raced, then on the way back down she and Jeremy raced. Natalia kept trying to take her jacket off. Actually, she did three times manage to get it off. She seemed to enjoy being out of the car, looking at the beauty all around. We were rewarded for our uphill hike with a gorgeous vista - looking out, over the trees right close to us, there was a tapestry of oranges, reds, yellows, and greens as far as the eye could see. So many different shades of each of the colors, some of the reds had enough brown in them to look almost purple, some of the reds and oranges looked almost pink, and the yellows ranged from yellow green, to bright sunshiny yellow, to marigold. It was restful for mind, body and soul, and I think we all felt the benefit of it when we had to pile back into the car to head west on our long trek.

We stopped at a hotel with a pool again. Leilani and I went down there for a few minutes and did a quick swim. Natalia fell asleep, and then Leilani woke her up so both girls are still awake, and all I wanna do is sleep, I'm tired :)

Computer...

Remember how earlier in the week Leilani spilled water on my laptop and Jeremy fixed it? Well, last night, my computer had the dreaded blue screen of death. So I no longer have a computer. It's still under warranty, but since we're inthe process of moving and don't have an address yet, we can't send it in to get it fixed. Do you know how hardit is to type on an iPad? So my posts may not be as long for a while. Also, there probably won't be very many pictures. But I'll still be posting and keeping everybody in the loop.

Today we celebrated my birthday, at least a bit more than yesterday.  W Ernest to one of the only vegan cafes in the area, The Flaming Ice Cube.  It was alright, nothing to write home about. Pretty much just stuff I make all the time, anyway.  It was fun to get out, though, and not have to cook or clean or anything. From there we went to my favorite place.....the bookstore.  I really didn't plan on buying too much, if anything at all.  But I saw a book on herbal remedies on clearance, and really, who could resist?  Leilani got a set of books, and I got Natalia The Very Grouchy Ladybug, one of the only Eric Carle books we don't own.  I got a couple books to help me with writing, since I really do want to do that.  Write, that is.  And it's perfect timing, since y computer is dead.  I'm going to have to actually focus on completing the books and learning.   I'm really excited about it.  

Tomorrow promises to be more cleaning, getting our cars ready for a long trip across country.  It's also going to be our last night at awanas here.  I can't believe we're this close to moving.  This next week is going to fly!

An Independent Sitter

It's official, Natalia is an independent sitter. She sat for half of Leilani's math lesson yesterday, all of her bath last night, and really, most of yesterday and today. Natalia also loves her Guess How Much I Love You book. More eating it than reading it, but still, it's a good sign, right? She still has apparently no desire to roll over, but that could have something to do with the fact she's so chubby. I think she's too fat to roll over. Not that it's gonna stop her from being mobile. Oh, no. She's trying to crawl. Not doing such a hot job, but still trying.

The movers are coming out on Thursday to look at everything and see how many boxes they'll need. We still don't have an actual move date, but this is a good thing. It means it's actually getting closer. It also means I need to gather up everything I don't want them to pack and put it in a safe corner. Which means lots of work, and with a baby who won't let me put her down, that's nearly impossible. Fortunately, Jeremy's a much better cleaner/packer/organizer than I, and he's probably going to stay home Thursday to take care of all that and talk to the movers.

Leilani has decided she simply must have a certain Dora DVD, so she’s going to have to pay for it. She has quite a bit of money in her piggy bank, and she’s going to start earning money for doing chores. This little girl has expensive habits and no concept of money. It should be a fun journey. She got her school done fairly quickly in order to go to the store, too. Math took her the longest, it always does. I don’t think she’s very fond of it, so she dawdles the whole time. Any tips on getting her to just buckle down and do it?

(yes, I know this is a picture of her doing phonics) Personally, I think Natalia likes Leilani’s school books more than she does.

We went to Target (have I mentioned how much I love Target? So much better than WalMart). Anyway, we went to Target to get the movie, and I got sucked down the costume aisle. Natalia is going to be a unicorn, Leilani is going to be a mermaid, and I’m going to be a witch. Notice anything? Yeah, my family has a teensy weensy obsession with fantasy. I also got a few things we actually needed, like diapers, wipes, baby spoons and “fresh food feeders” so Natalia can eat bananas or whatever and feel like a big girl. I’ve been looking for them for months, I literally squealed when I found them. I also got Natalia some rice rusks, apparently they’re a traditional Chinese first food thing, and I’ve been looking for something non-GMO and organic and vegan to give Natalia to hold and eat. They dissolve very easily, too. So no worries on that score.

She really seemed to enjoy them! She’s wanted to eat big people food for a long time, like since 3 weeks old she’s been trying to grab my food. I’m so glad I found stuff today to help keep her happy and me sane.

As soon as we got home, Leilani had to put on her costume.

Cute, no? After Natalia woke, I put her in hers.

She wouldn’t stop grinning.

I’m using up food we have; today, I got rid of the rest of our couscous. I made pesto with spinach, tossed it with the couscous, and waalaa, cheap meal. Tomorrow we’re going to have spaghetti. I really have barely any food left. It’s an incredibly odd feeling, since I’m used to having so much in my cupboard.

Natalia’s going to be eating sweet potatoes for a while. I opened a jar today and froze most of it. I’m tired of throwing away over half a jar at a time. Fortunately, she really seemed to enjoy the sweet potatoes.

She finished off her “big people eating” eating with a slice of apple in her fresh food feeder.

Quite a food day for this little girl!


Oh, and the reason there are more pictures of Natalia than Leilani is because Natalia can't run away from the camera.

UPDATE: after reading the warning about arsenic in rice, I tossed the rice treats I got her. What a day to be without internet, right?

100th Post

Well, todays my 100th post here. I wanted to do something amazing and awesome for it, butt couldn’t think of anything particularly flashy, so I’m going to go through 100 highlights from my posts. Yesterday involved some drama, Leilani spilled a cup of water on me, Natalia, the floor and the computer. I didn't have any computer for the second half of the day. Fortunately, my hubby managed to fix it and I still have a computer!

Here's my list:

1. Natalia was born, a nice, healthy, eight and a half pounds.

2. I had a lovely home water birth

3. Leilani got to help catch Natalia

4. We went vegan

5. Princess “Camp” and all the crafts we did with it

6. The girls dressed up as mermaids during “camp”

7. I started cross-stitching Natalia’s birth record

8. We got to watch the helos land downtown for Marine Week

9. We stayed in a nice hotel for Marine Week

10. Because of my hubby’s position for Marine Week, we got to do all kinds of cool things – go out on the tarmac, go on the baseball field, drive places instead of having to walk there, and see the airshow from the air conditioned vehicle

11. Leilani enjoyed climbing through all the big equipment at Marine Week

12. Leilani got to play with some Marine bomb-sniffing dogs and met a police dog

13. The wreath laying ceremony at the Traveling Vietnam Wall, it was incredibly moving

14. All the new, fun foods we’ve been trying since becoming vegan

15. The fact I can go through and remember all the things I’ve been thankful for over the past months

16. That I have a record of a lot of the funny things Leilani has said

17. Seeing the fun we had on our stay-cation – Leilani loved the lake waterpark

18. Having the memories written down by the pictures, so they’re not just pictures and I don’t have to wonder what was going on there

19. We went through the submarine downtown, Natalia slept the whole time while in the Moby

20. Getting to visit Grandma Olalah.

21. The goofy rhymes Jeremy told his grandma

22. Showing off my vast book collection

23. Making dresses for Leilani and me

24. Making barefoot sandals for Natalia

25. Leilani playing in the rain and gathering flowers for us all

26. Watching Leilani at the parade on the 4th of July

27. Watching Leilani and Natalia both enjoy the fireworks that night

28. Leilani and Natalia cuddling, always super cute

29. Sharing some favorite movies with Leilani

30. Natalia starting to seriously suck her thumb.

31. Watching Food Inc

32. VBS and watching Leilani become more independent

33. Skyping with family

34. Getting loads of new diaper covers

35. Getting to take walks during VBS

36. Natalia liking her swing

37. Leilani learning so much on starfall

38. Natalia playing on her playmat

39. A Day in Pictures

40. Reviewing some thoughts from my previous blog and realizing how much I still don’t know

41. Doing loads of school with Leilani while she enjoyed it

42. Arts and Crafts with my girls

43. Making Leilanis’ sensory jar

44. Playing with my girls

45. Co-sleeping with them

46. Picking all the flowers before going to Florida

47. Dad helping us drive down to Florida

48. Getting to Florida and seeing all the family

49. Meeting cousin L for the first time

50. Watching the cousins all play together

51. Leilani learning to swim

52. Getting to spend the day with Uncle Jeff and family before he deployed

53. Natalia getting to meet Grammy Mandy

54. Cousin cuddles

55. Getting to dress all the girl cousins in matching outfits

56. Photo shoot with some of the cousins in shirts our cousin gave them

57. Sophie guest blogging

58. The cousins getting to bathe together

59. Introducing Gracie to some of Leilani’s favorite movies

60. Natalia got to try her cousins’ bassinet and Jenny Jump-up

61. Exploring new vegan foods with Sophie

62. All the baby cousins getting held by their aunties and uncles and PawPaw

63. Trying to do a Shrek marathon

64. Makin vegan Oreo truffles

65. Playing on the beach

66. Natalia’s beach blow-out…got me, the moby, and my swim suit

67. Accidentally eating some of a different blow-out. Definitely memorable

68. Leilani and Natalia watching movies together

69. Making myself use up all the food stuffs I already have so as to not waste
money

70. Being able to share my heart

71. The realtor’s visit – ugh

72. Going down to Columbus to see Uncle Dorr and family

73. Officially starting school

74. The new curriculum finally arriving

75. Natalia starting to grab everything

76. Walking and exploring

77. Finding things to help with PPD

78. Randomness

79. Leilani learning to type her name

80. Getting to read lots to both girls

81. Making cloud dough

82. Getting to dress Natalia in Leilani’s baby clothes

83. Natalia’s sensory play

84. The Yummiest Art Lesson

85. Natalia eating real foods

86. Experimenting with our school – one benefit of homeschooling

87. Leilani “reading” to Natalia

88. Finding my lesson plan book

89. Getting new running shoes and a new diaper bag

90. Going for a jog on Labor Day and Natalia loving it

91. Trying to teach Leilani to ride a bike

92. Finding out Natalia loves avocados

93. Getting to document funny things, like in this post

94. Leilani is a Sparky!

95. Using Leilani’s floppy seat for Natalia

96. Leilani writing her name by herself

97. Getting to see how much we’ve all grown

98. Leilani making a bread sculpture

99. Orders being finalized! We're heading west.

100. Getting better from our head colds - hurray for orange juice and pinterest (I found and made "vicks" diy shower discs, and they worked great!)

A Much Better Day

Thank goodness Leilanidecided to rent Dora yesterday! She watched it this morning while Natalia and I slept in a bit. Just enough for us to all get a good start to the day. We finished the first Molly book - Meet Molly, which I read to her while she ate her breakfast. Natalia was incredily uninterested and watched Baby Einstein instead.

Phonics went amazingly smoothly, math not so much. She keeps making her 6's and 7's backwards, so I need to find a writing program that will help with that. For bible we're working on memorizing John 3:16 for Sparkies. They've broken it up into sections which I almost think makes it harder. However, she's doing a fantastic job with it. History and science were just reading and oral answers, which were nice and easy. Leilani can now play an "a" and a "b" on her flutophone. I decided on the flutophone for music because it's small and portable, and she and I didn't seem to really be "getting" piano together. I think I need to find an actual piano teacher for her.

Natalia is definitely sitting up by herself for short periods of time. Of course, when I praise her and tell her how fantastic she's doing, she gets all excited and goes a bit rigid and falls over, with the biggest grin on her face and her eyes all alight with happiness. It's funny and adorable, all at the same time.

On our drive to take the movies back to Blockbuster, I was enjoying the drive, fresh air, greenery, new colors on the trees and sort of lost track of where I was. I passed our turn by a huge margin. But it really was a beautiful drive, so instead of getting upset, I just looked at the beauty all around us and Leilani and I tried to see who could see leaves turning first.

So, really, today was a much better day. It's amazing how much sleep helps!

First Day of School and Three Month Pictures

Today was our "official" first day of school. Since our curriculum still hadn't arrive as of this morning, I decided to just use what we have and do it religiously. Then, this afternoon, the curriculum arrived! I spent the whole afternoon going over books and working out a bit of a lesson plan for the rest of the week. I think, right now, I'm more excited than Leilani. The curriculum has everything I need for Leilani's kindergarten year - phonics, history, science, Bible, mathematics, handwriting and art. The only thing I'll be adding will be some Spanish. I've figured out how much we should do each week, so we're off to the races tomorrow.

Leilani with her new Hello Kitty backpack


I also took Natalia's three month pictures today, a little late, but better late than never :) Here's a small preview:

Fun in Pictures

running from the surf

Fat-Pants Cake (from the cookbook Baby Cakes, we didn't have a round pan though lol)

My favorite baby with one of my favorite cookbooks :)

My beautiful daughter in her adorable new (fitting) swimsuit

my adorable nephew L in the swing

Natalia having a nice cuddle with Uncle Matt

Natalia all swaddled, she loves it and hates it

at the beach

Leilani and cousin G

in the sand

Sophie and a sleeping James :)

the mommies and babies

playing with PawPaw

Never Too Many Books

Today we did LOTS of packing. We now have around 10 boxes all packed up. I even started packing my books.


Books packed:

vs Books waiting to be packed