Motherly Hen (or should I say Rooster)

From the day that we told the boys we were going to have another baby in the house, Trevor has been the one showing the most interest and excitement about the baby.  He would rub my tummy.  He would talk to the baby.  He would sit with his hand on my belly awaiting for the baby to move.  He's just been excited.  The last month or so he has taken it to a different level and considers his little stuffed elephant his baby.  He will put the baby to sleep in his bed after he wakes up in the morning, making sure to cover him up.  He will hold it if "the baby" is crying, and he has been seen wrapping "the baby" up so he can calm him down and put him to sleep on the couch or chair.   He's my little Mother Hen.

In the pictures below I found him sitting in the nursery (after we had set up the crib and moved the rocker in there).  He was as quiet as could be just rocking away, looking out the window at certain points and other times, caring for "his baby". 

 

Then today, both the boys were having some down time (quiet time) before heading to the pool.  They normally have a choice of where to do quiet time, either in their room or the soon-to-be baby's room.  They were playing with Lego's and reading books for awhile and then it got very quiet.  I peeked around the corner to see them "messing" with the car seat - not quite sure what they were doing, but they were quiet so I left them alone.  After quiet time was done, I asked them what they were doing with the car seat and they both had the biggest smiles on their faces as they led me in the room to show me just what they were doing.  I couldn't help by smile!!

Letter(s) of the Day - G and H

The Letter G

The letter of the day was G. After making the frogs for the letter the F, the kids were on a roll with crafts so we decided to make a GOAT for the letter G. The worksheets were not much of a hit for that day, but they did them and checked it off the list.

But they had fun making the goats from this website (now, Rick said they look more like cows (which I can't deny), but the website called them goats, so I went with it!)

In addition we did a Guessing Game with random things.  How many toothpicks did we have?  How many matchbox cars did we have in the bucket?  How many forks were in the drawer?  Etc.  It was fun to hear their guesses and we then got some counting practice in so that we knew who guessed closer.

The Letter H

The letter H was a fun one.  We did our worksheets.... and Trevor rattled off some things that started with the letter 'H'.... like hippo, house, and horse.

And then we went onto the fun activity for the day.  I was feeling rather brave that day (and I need some abstract artwork for our playroom/loft, so I decided that we were going to do Hand prints on a big piece of paper with paint in the basement.  Any time I mention painting, hands, mess" the boys are all for it!!    We did the hand prints and it turned out great, but then they went on to do other pieces of artwork.  We used fingers, popsicle sticks, and sponges.  They had a blast and it wasted away almost two hours of our morning. 

Here are the master pieces that I will put in larger frames - either in full or by cropping some of the pictures to fit in the frames that I buy.

The Hand Prints

Ethan's Abstract

Ethan's Soccer Field complete with goals, a center line and a black and white team

(can you tell we've been watching some of the World Cup lately?)

Trevor's Abstract - He called them Storms

Trevor's Sponge Painting

Child Tattoos

Yes, my children decided to give themselves tattoos today.  Actually, I think it was Ethan saying, "Hey Trev, let me do this to you!"  And Trevor naively agreeing to what Ethan made sound so cool.  I really don't know how it all transpired, but this is what we ended up with...

Wearing Protection

Now, this post is not what you may think... this is a very innocent and quite silly post about our oldest. A couple weeks ago he was riding his bike and scooter a lot and ended up getting a blister in the web of his hand between his thumb and index finger. It was a little one, but it hurt enough that he knew he didn't want another one.  To fix it so he wouldn't get another one he came up with an idea of his own. He had seen on TV that people that play sports (football, BMX racing, golf, etc) wear gloves when they play and had just the thing to use while he was playing bike racing in our driveway.

These.....

Yes, these - WINTER gloves.

But they did the trick.  He was as happy as could be using them while biking, golfing and playing around the yard. 

And the important thing to him was that he didn't get another blister no matter how much biking he did!!

Rainy Day Fun

It's another rainy day. Rick left for quick trip to WI. Those two statements together mean that I need to find activities for the boys to do so they don't get on each others' nerves as the day goes on. So, off to the cupboard to reference my handy dandy book entitled, "The Toddler's Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner. I have come to LOVE this book.

Today's finds in the book included "Tape City" and "Mini Olympics".

Tape City was so very simple and all you needed to be willing to do was waste a bit of masking tape. The boys made me go above and beyond just the masking tape when they asked for a bridge that could jump over water. Hmmm... added a couple books and some blue construction paper and viola - we had a jump over water. That sparked the creativity and we then made a tunnel (an empty granola bar box), an off road section (tape that went over a folded up towel), and a parking lot for the vehicles that needed a rest. Simple, yet fun for the car enthusiasts in the house.

The Overall Track

The Parking Lot

The Off-Road Towel

The Tunnel

The Over-the-Water Jump

Mini Olympics was even simpler than the Tape City. A bulls-eye drawn on a piece of newspaper or construction paper. Put it on the floor and then find discs (small paper plates) to throw at it in hopes of landing on the bulls-eye. Also, can use javelins (straws) to spice things up a bit. Again, nothing too hard to put together, but Ethan and Trevor thought it was fun to be able to throw things that don't normally get thrown - especially in the house!

The last thing they decided to play (for quite some time, I might add) was titled by them, "Bunk Bed". The time between dinner and bedtime was quite blissful due to this little game they made up. Ethan decided to get all Trevor's blankets and pillow from the bed and brought them into his room. They then set up Trevor's "bed" under Ethan's bed. So, in reality Trevor was sleeping on the floor, but he thought it was the greatest thing EVER. They had wake-up morning time, bed time, reading time, etc.... all dictated by Ethan. Big brother Ethan was the master of this game. Telling little brother what to do (in a fun voice) was his idea of a great time! And Trevor loved it, too. Bless his heart for taking direction from Ethan for over an hour.

New Ice Skates

This morning Ethan informed me that he had some new ice skates. I said, "Ice skates? Where did you get them?" He came from around the corner with a huge smile on his face, and started ice skating around our kitchen in these! Empty Kleenex boxes. I love his imagination...

illustrated by: Ethan

At Rick's work they put together an annual safety calendar with pictures that are drawn by child relatives of the employees. This year was no different. They only difference is that Ethan was able to participate this year. We told him the "rules": it had to be drawn by him and him only, it had to be drawn on a certain piece of paper that Daddy brought home from work, and it had to have a safety theme to it. We told him a couple theme examples such as "look both ways before crossing" or "always ask the owners before petting a strange dog", and then asked what he wanted to draw. He thought for a little bit and then said, "Make sure to get outside if there is a fire." Great idea.

We gave him his crayons and let him go. He started drawing a large, spiky haired person and we had no idea where he was going with it being that the person was just about "life sized"! But in the end he did a great job on it! We wrote his "theme" on a different piece of paper so that he knew how to spell the words without getting frustrated. When the frustration sets in it can be a struggle to get him to finish things and we didn't want that to happen since he had done such a superb job on the picture. And he finished it... all on his own! We were so proud of him and he was proud of the job he had done as well. Rick took the picture to work the next day and it was displayed by all the pictures other children had drawn. Typically, it is a contest and only some of the pictures get chosen to be in the calendar, but this year because of lower numbers all the pictures will be in collages as part of the calendar. As a reward for the great job the kids did, all the 'winners' received 2 movie passes that include popcorn and drinks. Ethan was so excited to know that he "won" and gets to go to the movie theater (of which he has never been)!! Now we'll just have to see if he picks Mom or Dad to go with him....

Church Role Play

Lately, the boys are on a roll with doing things at home that we do in church. Shaking hands for the sign of peace, pretending to receive communion and the latest, being part of the procession into church. They took on the role of bringing in the "Testament Book" (as Ethan calls it) and setting it on the alter. Since Trevor wanted to join in the fun, Ethan decided that he was going to carry the "New Testament" and Trevor had the "Old Testament". You'll see that they have very believable books in their hands... They have done this rendition over and over and over for a couple days in a row and we just have to laugh. (yet at the same time we are so proud that they are actually paying attention in church...)

(and I have to tell you that this was not scripted at all... they really were being this quiet on their own and I just happened to catch them during their role play. Those of you that know the boys, wait til you see, you'd never believe that they can be this quiet unless you saw it with your own eyes!!!!)

Racin' Day

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!!!!

Now, I'll tell you straight out, I'm one of those mean moms that won't buy their kids a dirt bike at the age of 4 nor will I buy those little motorized cars that a 4 and 2 year old would be "safe" in. No need for that stuff. We have bikes that you can peddle, scooters that you can zoom along on and amazingly enough, 2 feet to run and walk on. So, one day this week the boys decided they were going to have some fun racing with the cool cars that they DO have.

They had such a blast with this (for over 45 minutes). Sometimes Ethan would win, sometimes Trevor would win. Sometimes Ethan would crash and sometimes Trevor would crash. And other times they would be side by side and just giggle all the way to the finish line! It was so fun to watch. Who needs motorized stuff when you have the good ol' fashioned toys to play with?

Bored with the Hoop?

Back in February (yes, I'm catching up on some random posts) the boys had a day when they got a bit bored of using the basketball hoop the way in which it was meant to be used. So, instead of shooting a ball into the rim, they decided to do the following....

Use it as a SLIDE

And... use it as a TUNNEL

I'm happy to say that they are back using it the "correct" way, but what a fun day it was to have both a tunnel and a slide in our kitchen and not just a boring ol' basketball hoop!