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Chasing Babies... Growing in Grace

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Chasing Babies... Growing in Grace: June 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day... how my babies' daddy wanted to spend it

My Beloved's Father's Day buys... fireworks!

Father's Day started for us the same way every Sunday does... we get up and get going to church. We were almost 30 minutes late for Sunday school (just like last week), but I figure we got more out of it than we would have if we'd skipped because we were running so late.

During our morning preparations, My Beloved mentioned that he might want to go get fireworks after church. A friend of his from work sets up a stand about 40 minutes south of us. He delivers, so re really didn't have to drive all the way down there, but My Beloved wanted to go down... if it worked out.

So after church we took our time visiting and chatting and fellowshipping... taking the slow way out of church. It was a lot of fun. Then just before 1, we headed out of the parking lot. Turns out this firework stand was right in front of a yummy pizza shop, so we were going to do lunch too!

We got down there around 1:30 and headed over to say hi before heading in to eat. Sadly, his family wasn't there yet but we hoped that if we took our time eating lunch, we may still get to meet them.

Lunch was good! I polished off this last piece after taking the picture! :)

After we got cleaned up, My Beloved did his big shopping. He browsed, he picked, he read off his list and gathered. I'm pretty sure he was having a good time! I sat in the swivel chair under the tent (where not all customers get to hang out... apparently I look like I'm supposed to have a baby in 6 weeks or so) and watched my kids run around. Our shopping time took a lot longer than a normal person's would have because 80 percent of our being down there was social.

Just before My Beloved was finished wrapping up his order, we were thrilled for his friend's family to arrive! It's always fun to meet the family of a friend... but it gets even better than that. Apparently, a while back, My Beloved told his friend about this little blog of mine... and he told his wife... and they follow! All of this is crazy to me... but I officially met a reader! What a treat!

And it gets better! We talked and chatted all afternoon (until just after 5!) What like-minded people they seem to be so far! We are looking forward to getting to know them better. We still have hours and hours and hours to go before I'd say we know them well, but on the way home My Beloved said to me... "Well, you said we didn't know anyone (locally anyway) who thinks the way we do... we may have just found them."

We're looking forward to finding out! Thanks J and L for a fun afternoon!


And thanks for all the fireworks!

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Near and Dear

I haven't spent much time talking about it around here, but my husband and I are on the homesteading track! That's right. It even sounds crazy to me... but when I saw the giveaway going on over at Keeper of the Home, I just couldn't pass up one more chance to be entered for it... with a blog entry! Head on over to see the Homestead Blesssings giveaway!

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A Monster

It seems I've created a monster... a rhyming monster. I introduced Tornado to rhyming this past week as part of our "preschooling." He picked up on it fairly quickly and is running with it! This is great news... but like I said, I may have created a bit of a monster.

I hear from him all the time, "Mommy, fire, tire, hire!" Cue his laughter, and he continues with another run of rhyming words.

My favorite though is when he does one wrong. Occasionally there is a sequence of words that end in a word that isn't quite right. He thinks it's very funny and bends in half saying "oh!!!" really loud. It's great.

Go pre-reading skills!

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A lesson in giving

Our local (Christian run) crisis pregnancy center does a "Baby Bottle" fund raiser each year. We've never really seen it done, only heard about it. This year our church is participating and distributed the bottles on Mother's day (to be collected on Father's Day). We took one and I let it sit for a while, waiting for the "right" time.

Last week I brought it out, grabbed the kid's "money jar" and gathered on the couch.


We talked about how some people don't have very much money, and can't take care of their new babies. We talked about the baby in Mommy's tummy, and how we already love him, but that sometimes there aren't very many people who love babies when they are in their mommies tummies, so those mommies need help.

Then we talked a little about money, what it's for, and what it can do. (Way over their heads, but an introduction at least.)


Then we talked about their money... what they could do with it... that it could buy them things they want. Or... that they could give it to the babies to help them.

I don't know if they understood and wanted to give, or just wanted to put money in the baby bottle...


...but they dug right in...


...and gave it away.


I also gave them the option of how much they wanted to give away. Again, whether they really understood or just wanted to transfer the money, I don't know... but they gave it all away.

We've talked about it a bunch of times since, whenever we see the baby bottle sitting on the shelf waiting to go back to church. I hope it's a good first lesson in giving to others and helping.

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Adding #3: Project Sleeping Arrangements

With just about 8 weeks to go before adding a third child to this bedroom (in theory anyway, if not in practice), we're working to make space.

I don't have a picture of our current set up (wouldn't that have called for forethought?!?) but right now Tornado is sleeping in this red toddler bed (which used to live on this wall and not in the middle of the unfinished bed frame) and Sweet Pea is still in the crib (because she doesn't climb out at every moment like Tornado did at a lot younger than she is now).

We were posed with a bit of a challenge when we learned baby number 3 was on the way... and no plans to move immediately into a larger home. That means 3 littles in one little room. Ok... so the room isn't tiny. It works. But the layout does pose us with a bit of a problem, so we're working with it. I'll try to give more details in a future post, but for now it's enough to say that Daddy is building a bunk bed! That's right... in his spare time. He got this much done Sunday afternoon/evening. It takes up a big chunk of the room, especially as it relates to the door, so we will be reorganizing and reevaluating the "stuff" that is in there currently.

The kids think it's great and Tornado is very excited that he gets to sleep on top and that Sweet Pea will sleep under him, and especially that he will get to use a ladder to get in and out of bed. I don't know if he really understands it all to the fullest, but I guess we'll find out.

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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Tot School

~Sweet Pea is 26 months, 3 weeks (for real this time... oops)~
Tot School

Here is a little glimpse into our Tot School for this week. I think we did more than what's here... it's just that it's the only day I had the camera going. :)

The kids love doing "Pom Poms" and ask for it all the time! I made a point of including them in this weeks plans. Sometimes Sweet Pea needs to be reminded to hold the tongs closer to the opening!

It's a great use for our Pampered Chef tongs! (I keep them washed though, because Daddy actually likes to use them in the kitchen.) :)

It was a big hit!

Then I added a canning jar to the fun and she filled it up...

And filled it up some more!

Then we tried dumping them out. After a while I got smart and kept the little pom poms for the jar... they were easier to get out again. :)

We did some puzzles too.


I try to point out what colors they are as she's doing them.


While Tornado was doing his work, I let Sweet Pea try cutting too. It isn't the first time she's tried... but we don't do it very often. She was getting frustrated because it wasn't cutting well, but I think it was a good attempt.

We also included Sweet Pea in a lot of our preschool activities this last week.

One of the biggest things I introduced this week is memorizing her own verses. She's only recently started putting sentences together and is starting to sing whole phrases of songs on her own (I just noticed this in the last week or so), so I hadn't really tried any yet. One day this week while we were sitting together on the couch looking at books, I started saying Genesis 1:1 over and over again and she started joining me some. This was the first verse I worked on with Tornado and he learned it rather quickly! I'll be integrating this verse into our times together more and more as we go along.

Visit Tot School for more tot learning fun!

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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tot School

~ Sweet Pea is 26 months, 3 weeks ~
Tot School


Though I have not gone so far as to make official "plans" for Sweet Pea's "Tot School" just yet, I have made plans to be more intentional. This has turned into some very fun times around our home during the day!


Sweet Pea wanted to play with the train tracks (Tornado wasn't going to argue!), so we all played train tracks. Tornado had a track on my left, and Sweet Pea and I worked with her track on my right. Sweet Pea likes making her trains go up and down the hill, so we spent some time doing that, saying "up"...

... and down. And up and down...

...and sometimes "off". She thought it was very fun! We did this for a long while.

Then she wanted to read and picked this tractor book with flaps.

She wanted to do puzzles next, so I brought them all out and she worked her way through them. (Yes, she is wearing her brother's cowboy boot slippers!)

We made towers with blocks too. Part of this lesson is teaching the kids not to knock down each others' towers without asking.

I generally *hate* play-doh. I avoid it when I can... but everything fell into place to play with it last week, so I went for it. And you know what? It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Sweet Pea wanted a bridge, so I made her one. She put her hand under again and again and I would say "under" each time. She would laugh and pull it out and do it again.

After a bit I showed her how to do "over" and she walked her fingers "over" the bridge (that was hard to catch on camera... she's so fast!)

After putting her hand under the bridge one time, I grabbed both sides of it and wrapped it around her wrist, saying "around". She thought this was very funny and wanted me to do it over and over again!


We did a number of other things throughout the week (this was the only day I got "blog-able" pictures.) We went on a "nature walk" to the end of the street where the kids are aloud to run around in a field. We read tons of books and played around! We've even started spending more "table time". She'll color for a while, then she enjoys "organizing" the crayons, moving them from the box to the lid, and then flipping it back.

Head over to Tot School to see the other Tot School Posts!

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