baby[face], baby[steps]

pest control just came by.

when tesla and i answered the door, he asked if "the parents" were home.

"actually, i'm the, uh, parent," was my eloquent reply.

on a more random note, we made apple muffins this morning!

i'm trying to be better at letting the boys help.  obviously it's easier (and neater) for me to do the cooking myself, but why deny them a learning opportunity?

i read somewhere that a great way to involve children when you're cooking is to add extra, unnecessary step.

my original idea was to measure out all of the ingredients into separate bowls and have the boys help combine them.

yeah, no.  it was 7:30 am.  and i'm not on food network.

but i did place the chopped apples into the bowl and let the boys mix them in.  then they put the liners into the muffin pan and helped me scoop the batter in.

i was a little stingy with the "turns" i gave them and scooped most of the batter myself...

but it's a step in the right direction.  

  

:)

preschool--our first attempt (part 2)

so!  last time i talked about my decision to make an attempt at preschool (or "play school") with the boys.

here's how it actually went down.


after naps/diaper changes, i called the boys over to the table with an "everybody sit in your chairs" song.  we then went over today's date ("Today is Tuesday...say Tuesday!  Good.  August...can you say August?  Good job.  The 7th!  See, the number 7?  Let's count to seven."  you know how it goes.) and sang the "days of the week" and "months of the year" songs.  twice.  (the boys love songs.)

(last night i made construction paper cards with the days of the week, months of the year, and numbers on them so we could change the date every day.)

construction paper and markers.  that's about as crafty as i usually get.  try not to be too envious.

after finishing the date, we talked about the shape of the day (circle).  we identified some circles and then practiced drawing them.

tesla

desmond

obviously desmond had some assistance with his circles.  ;)

desmond

i don't have a picture of this, but i also made some shape cards (construction paper again) with different shapes on them (square, triangle, diamond, star, and of course, circle).  we went through the cards and identified the shapes ("Is this a circle?  Noooo...it's a star!  Is this a circle?")

the boys shocked me by being really involved.  they usually will only draw/color for about a minute, but they enjoyed making circles (and tesla also worked on drawing lines).  they loved identifying the shapes on the cards and desmond surprised me by joining in to answer some of my questions.

i think next we did music time (i ended up modifying my lesson plan as we went so i can't remember the order right now).

music time is pretty self-explanatory, but we basically just danced in circles and sang a bunch of songs. i'd made a list of about 10 or so action songs beforehand, and it really helped that i could just go down the list without having to think of another song off the top of my head.  

music time was a HUGE hit.  i've done a few half-hearted attempts at it before, but i didn't get nearly the response i did today. there was a lot of grinning, jumping, and choruses of "again?  again?" 

we sang most of the songs at least twice (some of them five or six times), and the boys loved dancing around and singing.  sometime i'd like to get a cd with a bunch of our favorites on it (we were just doing it a cappella) and maybe incorporate some rhythm instruments.

after music time we did starfall time.  i should do a separate post on starfall sometime, but basically it's free and awesome.  it was a big help in teaching tesla his letters and sounds.  (i've been slacking on teaching the alphabet with desmond though, which is why i decided to include starfall time in our day.)

for starfall time, i set a timer for 15 minutes and tesla sat on the couch and played starfall on the ipad.  (i explained to him that he would be playing for 15 minutes, and once the timer went off, he would be done.  i was hoping giving him fair warning might help avoid the usually inevitable meltdown when time was up.)

by the way, the starfall app is not free, but it is worth it.  tesla LOVES it.  desmond's still too young to really use it, so i brought him into our room to use the computer.  he sat on my lap and we went through A-G a couple times (with me walking him through the letters and sounds, narrating, asking him questions, etc.)  he knows probably a third of the alphabet but i haven't really worked on it consistently with him.

after the timer went off (tesla turned off the ipad and put it away without whining or freaking out!  it was like i'd stepped into a parallel universe), we went back to the kitchen table for our "activity".

we did this toddler science activity from play create explore.  i was a little apprehensive (i have a bit of "mess anxiety" that i'm trying to get over...food coloring definitely worries me) ;) but it went great!  and it actually held the boys' attention for quite a while (meaning probably 10 or 15 minutes...which is longer than i expected).

i poured water and oil into a glass bowl and then let the boys help put drops of food coloring in.  at first they were like, "so...?" but then the colors started dropping and they got excited.

tesla (left), desmond (right)

tesla kept saying, "it's going down!  IT'S GOING DOWN!" and "fish!  a fish, mommy!"

it was really, really cute to see them so interested.  especially because i didn't have very high expectations for this activity.  

after activity time, we did independent play/focus time with mommy.  i set a timer for 15 minutes and put desmond in his room with a toy (car/ramp thing).  tesla joined me for a montessori-style focus activity that i found here.  

i loosely followed the activity cycle, so i had him get a blanket and lay it on the ground.  then we brought over the activity (ice cube tray and pom poms) and sat down.  i tried to demonstrate it for him (he kept wanting to jump in), and then he worked on it.  i gave him quiet verbal guidance ("nope, it goes here", "good job") but tried to let him do it on his own as much as possible.  he started to get the pattern after a while but i had to guide him quite a bit.  after a few minutes i just started saying, "left side!" "right side!", and that seemed to help it make more sense to him.

tesla

i think this was the biggest surprise of the day.  tesla absolutely loved this.  i really thought he would want to do it his own way and get upset if i tried to correct him, but he seemed to enjoy trying to do it the "right way".  sometimes he'd ask, "right here?" before placing a pom pom, and when he got it right, he seemed so pleased.  i could tell he felt accomplished.

tesla

and you know what?  it was really fun for me.  i haven't really done one-on-one activities with the boys (shame shame) before, and it was great.  i got to focus on tesla, and he loved having my attention.

he kept saying "again?" as soon as he finished *, which was really gratifying for me for some reason...i guess i was just proud of him for doing it and proud of myself for actually trying something new.

i'm a really bad multitasker during the day...i clean while the boys are playing, do dishes while they're eating, prep dinner while they're fighting (just kidding)...so it was good for me to take some time to focus just on my boys.

tesla

towards the end of our fifteen minutes, tesla wanted to change the format.  he'd already completed the activity several times so i let him do what he wanted for the last bit.  we did some sorting and then some "freestyle".

tesla

when the timer went off, we cleaned up our activity and he helped me fold the blanket and put it away. then we switched.  tesla went into the room for independent play (puzzles), while desmond came out for focus time with me.

for desmond, we did shape sorting.  he wasn't as interested in taking direction.  i tried and then gave up and let him do it his way. 

desmond

desmond also loved having my full attention.  (note to self:  HINT HINT)  once, when i got up to get something, he let out this impatient whine and gave me this "why are you leaving?!" look.

he kept asking to do the stars again, so for a while he repeatedly put in and dumped out the same three stars.   

desmond

it was fun to spend time with my other little buddy.  like i said, i tend to get caught up in getting things done and just pushing through to the next part of the day, so it was a good lesson for me in just being with my kiddos.

(during desmond's focus time, though, tesla quickly lost interest in his puzzles and sat next to the door calling, "out?  out?  out?" for the remainder of the time. we were able to tune him out though.)   :) 

focus time/independent play was our last activity, because it was past dinner time.  overall, our first preschool attempt went SO. MUCH. BETTER. than i was expecting.  i think i needed the encouragement in order to even consider trying again.  i know that we may never have another day that goes as well as today went, but it was hugely motivating for me.  

even though i don't get paid, being a mother is my job.  and i've found that when i put actual effort and thought into my job, it's immensely more satisfying and enjoyable.  it's okay to coast sometimes, too, but too much coasting leads to boredom (which was the plague that inspired this experiment).

the boys lasted a lot longer than i thought they would.  maybe it was because i had a plan and was really involved with them, but their attention spans seemed to have tripled yesterday.  the whole thing took us a little over an hour and a half i think, and i left out a few things.  i wasn't sure how much time it would take up so i was pleased we filled the whole nap to dinner time slot.  as i told silas later, having a plan turned the worst part of the day into the best part of the day.

i'd like to keep trying to have preschool, so i guess we'll see how it evolves.  i would love to hear your ideas!

*after i ended the "school" part of our day so we could eat dinner, tesla saw the pom poms and ice cube tray on the counter and asked to play again.  he burst into tears when i said that it was time to eat right now.   i'm glad he liked it so much.   ;)

preschool--our first attempt (part 1)

let me preface this by saying that i'm not one of those super crafty, creative moms who fills her children's days with age-appropriate activities to stimulate their development.  that kind of stuff doesn't come naturally to me.

but i want it to.

i knew we needed more structure in our lives.  i rely too much on getting out of the house (the gym, the park, the mall, the grocery store, visiting friends...anything), so when we're home for a few hours i find myself lost (and bored).  we play cars, we play blocks.  we play cars again.  we watch kipper.

it's b-o-r-i-n-g.  for all of us.

for months i've been pinning activities for the boys.  i've tried out several of them, but, honestly, the 5-10 minutes of enjoyment they bring doesn't quite outweigh the work, thought, and clean-up that goes into them.

(this sweetly composed little picture is a lie.  they got bored with watercolors after about 8 minutes.)

i really believe children crave order and structure.  freedom within limits.  even though it seems counterintuitive, a child is much more likely to get bored when he has free roam of the house than when he is directed to focus on a specific activity.

this is why i am a big believer in rotating toys, and in only getting one toy out at a time (aside from the mess factor  ;))  when you keep all the toys out and your child looks at them every day, they get old.  on a similar note, allowing a child to play with too many toys at once usually results in him flitting from toy to toy, without showing sustained interest in or focusing on any one thing.

this is how we do it: i store all of the toys in the boys' closet (which has been fitted with extra locks since they figured out how to get the doorknob covers off...nothing like a little breaking & entering to spice up naptime).  when it's time to play, i get out one toy (dominos, cars, blocks, puzzles, whatever) at a time and they play with it.  if they want to move onto something else, they must first clean up that toy and put it away.  occasionally i'll leave a toy out in the living room for a few days, but in general i try to keep them out of sight so they're more "exciting".

(i do, however, keep all of the books out in the living room where the boys can access them easily.)

our "system" (if you can call it that) isn't perfect, and once i can get more organized i'd like to change the way i store the toys and possibly keep a few in the living room at a time (rotated weekly or something) for the boys to choose on their own.  (i've been doing a little reading on montessori-style learning and i'd like to integrate some of the concepts.)

anyway.

our biggest problem (for months) has been too much free play.  too much free play-->wandering around-->boredom--crankiness-->fighting-->getting into trouble...you get the picture.  but i am SO NOT GOOD at sticking with things.  (remember that gym i joined?  it's a good thing they don't grade on attendance)  cleaning schedules?  yeah right.  meal plans?  please.

i was really inspired by some of the homeschooling/preschooling posts i've been reading lately.  but i was also really intimidated.  i don't have experience with this type of stuff and i just wasn't sure exactly how to start.  finally, i decided i just needed to try.

so last night found me drawing up a "lesson plan" for today.

(on a piece of ripped construction paper, appropriately titled "lesson plan".

i'm so fancy.)

i decided we would hold our first trial "play school" after naptime today.  we're usually out and about in the mornings, and the after-nap-before-dinner window is usually a stressful and boring and whiny time. perfect candidate for a little structure.  ;)

during naptime i made dinner and prepped for our play school time.  and do you know what?

i was actually nervous.

ridiculous.  i know.  i don't think i was as nervous about the boys' reaction to my plans as i was about failing.  i think i felt like if i failed at this, if it didn't go well, then it would mean i just wasn't cut out to be that kind of mom.  the fun, involved mom.

and i really want to be the fun, involved mom.

i felt like all of my hopes were riding on the success or failure of this experiment.

dramatic pause.

(and this is where we acknowledge that anxiety has no basis in logical thought.  do not put pressure on yourself over something as ridiculous as this.)

so...how did it go?

you'll find out next time.

to be continued in part 2...

i know you're all on the edge of your seats.

there is beauty all around

when there's bread at home.

i love this recipe.  easy peasy.

family dinner

now that my parents live close (30 mins away, holla!), we've been going over on sundays for family dinner.

(i don't think i've actually ever uttered the word "holla" in real life.)

anyway.  it's really nice.  the boys LOVE going, we get a delicious meal (that i don't have to cook), and i bring dessert.  it's a win-win-win.

yesterday's chocolate cake:

so yeah, it was a little lopsided because i was too lazy to trim it to be level.

but it was super moist and awesome.  although i almost died on the car ride over, trying to keep an eye on the road while making sure my cake didn't end up all over the car.  that would have been tragic.

but we all made it, safe and sound and intact.



happy monday!  feel free to stop by if you want to take some cake off my hands.

well, not literally off my hands.

you know.

just found these.

 from last year.

isn't he so cute??  i love that little desmond.

and here's one from a few days ago.  (we have longer hair now)

they really are fun, you guys.  

(except for when they trash the closet.)

don't worry.  we put two extra locks on their closet door.

really high up.  so they can't reach.

and one on their bathroom door.  

i was getting tired of walking in on them dumping buckets of toilet water on the floor and brushing their teeth in said toilet water.

but really.  usually they're fun.

what do i want to talk about today?

so i'm going to a baby shower tomorrow.  for some reason i had the hardest time thinking of something to get.

i mean, come on, it hasn't been that long since i had a baby.

i went with the usual--clothes and diapers.  it's baby #2, a girl this time.

did you know we've gotten rid of all of our baby stuff?  (like...over a year ago.)

 goodbye car seat.  goodbye boppy pillow and all clothes smaller than 3T.  goodbye swaddling blankets and baby toys.  the only thing left is the crib, because desmond was using it up until a week ago.  (the boys are now in the beds that my dad built for me and my brothers!  i can't wait until they're old enough to bunk up.  there will be more space in the room then.

plus bunk beds make excellent pirate ships.)

when i ask the boys if they want another baby, they always say yes.  and when given the option of boy or girl ('cause that's totally how it works), they always pick girl.  personally, if we had one, i'd like another boy.

but who knows.  maybe we're done.

done done done.

why am i talking about this boring stuff,  you ask?

i don't know.  i just started typing and this is what came out.

(we don't have cable or i could talk about something cooler like the olympics.)

tell me something interesting!  what are your weekend plans?



for now, here's a sweet picture of my shoes.