The way WE do PE!

Abby is 19 months now and follows William everywhere.  (I do believe I've mentioned that before!)  She will try anything he does.  The girl has no fear!  The slides here are perfect for younger kids, as they're not too big, but still big enough to make your heart skip a beat when your little ones fly down them!

A work in progress

Whew.  Today has been a day.  A fun day, but a very tiring day.  We decided that we would start a new project for our family - a square foot garden.  My sister in law Gina and her husband Andy started one last year (and lived to blog about it!) and their results were fabulous.  I was quite encouraged, so John and I decided that doing our garden in square boxes was also the way to go.  A few weeks ago I ordered Mel Bartholomew's book All New Square Foot Garden, read everything, and today we started clearing the space we had designated for our home grown produce. 

It had rained a couple of days ago, so instead of rock hard dirt it was actually a tad moist.  It made for digging out the square blocks and ripping up the weeds a bit easier.  But just a bit.  There were a total of 36 18x18 cement squares that had to be removed.  John cleared all of them out.

While he removed the squares I started digging out the weeds.  Sod had been laid when the house was built, so all of it had to be dug up and removed...even the green mesh.  I should mention that it was NOT grass but weeds.  No one watered the grass after the previous owners moved out, so all the sod died and weeds took over.

It was an unbelievable amount of work.  My arms are simply aching now.  John's too. 

I should mention that after I cleared about 3/4 of this I went inside to make lunch.  John finished digging out the rest, and I shoveled it into the pile. 

And here is the cleared area!  John sketched out a rough design of what we'd like the area to look like, with the garden beds on the right (it's hard to see the ones in the back), a bench complete with trellis on the left, and posts to hang flowers at other various spots throughout.  I'd like some bird feeders and bird baths as well, but goodness gracious!  We have an insane amount of pidgins that live in our neighborhood...I'd hate to actually provide a respite for them!  So, I'm still debating that idea.  For now, I'm thinking NO.

I can't wait for our arms to get back to normal so we can start laying the gravel, walkway, and building the boxes.  This is going to be such a fun project not only for us, but also for the kids.  William and I have already been reading books about seeds, plants, and gardens.


As if this wasn't enough for the day, John, my hero! finished the last shelf in Abby's room!  It is now hung and pretty much done.  I'm still waiting for my curtain order to come in, then I'll share some pictures.  But for now...Abby is back to sleeping in her own room!

A Conversation

So today I took the kids to the local jump house.  Abby took a morning nap, since she was literally asking to take one, and they were both happy to eat lunch a little early and spend the afternoon jumping.

In the car, on the way down there, William, completely out of the blue, asks, "You guys made us, right?"  Say what!?!

I ask for clarification.  "What do you mean?"

"You and Dad.  You made William and Abby, right?"

I clear my throat and croak out, "Um, yeah."  Then it hit me.  Duh.  He's three.  "Yes, God gave you and Abby to Daddy and me." 

"Oh."  And that was the end of that conversation.

 

(Amazing.  We read a book several days ago entitled, God Gave Us You.  I read lots and lots of books to him, and sometimes he pays close attention, and other times not so much.  I didn't think he was paying attention to that book, but I guess he was, since his initial question was very similar to the question in the book.  And so was my answer!)

 

It's Been Awhile...

I am trying my hardest to keep up with this blog.  Some days are just too busy, but there are tons of things going on here that I could be writing about. 

 William LOVES "doing letters and stuff."  He asks every day to work on his tracing and do crafts.  At the suggestion of my friend, I picked up four Kumon books and he is working his way through the first two.  We spend maybe 10 minutes a day on this, but it's just the perfect amount for him. 

 The house was too quiet one morning....this is what I found.  They had somehow opened up my jumbo bead bin, got out the peg boards, and were making designs.  I was rather impressed.  Abby will participate in anything William does, and he's usually more than happy to include her in everything.

 John and I pulled out the bed the other night to watch a movie, but didn't push it back in.  She thought it was the perfect trampoline.  I'm loving her new leggings I purchased through Zulily. 

 For Valentine's Day I used one of the Heart cookie cutters Grandma A sent and made them grilled strawberry and Nutella sandwiches.  Wow.  Those were good! 

 My dozen red roses from my Valentine.  So pretty. 

 John came home a bit earlier yesterday to help cook our Valentine's Day dinner.  The kids looked so cute sitting at the counter (note it's cleaned off!) watching us cook.  I fed them earlier and was able to get them both in bed before enjoying our dinner together.  In the almost eight years we've been married it has always been our tradition to cook dinner together, and skip going out to dinner.  It's the best.  We both agreed that this might be the last year we will get to eat our dinner (at home, anyway) by ourselves.  I'm thinking we might have a four year old little boy joining us next year. 

 Getting ready to enjoy our dinner of filet Mignon, garlic potatoes, orange-honey carrots, sour dough bread and dipping oils, and spinach salad.  With bacon. Yum!

 William really loves doing puzzles.  This puzzle is quite hard, if I might say so myself!  He's been doing it everyday now for awhile, and he can actually do the whole thing by himself.

 

And Abby...well, she's officially 19 months now and I can finally get her hair into pigtails!  And boy, does she sure look cute!  I had quite the time getting them in, however, since she refused to sit still.  I think I did a pretty good job, though.  

Whew!  I told you there's been a lot going on!

Baking

I'm happy to say that I am NOT going crazy with those shoes.  Sad to say the reason is because they don't squeak.  Yes, he's right back up on his toes, completely ignoring the fact that if he walks heel-toe they will squeak.  He simply doesn't care about it anymore.  Abby is much more interested in them than he is.  But then again she's a shoe girl. I'm still holding out hope that maybe he'll walk flat footed more than before, but...I'm not holding my breath.

On a better note, we baked the other day.  Yah!  

William used his new spatula he got from Grandma and Grandpa A for Christmas.  He's a pro with his whisk, but this was his first official use of the spatula. 

The little man loves his cookies!  And Abby...don't even get me started.  She thinks that every time she steps her toe outside she needs one.  That's partly because I try to time snack time with outside play time, so as to eliminate the crumbs inside.  Smart, I know!  She can pack 'em away with the best of them.

On a side note, I finally got around to getting Abby's 18 month well checkup done.  The doctor asked why I missed the 15 month check, and I said I wasn't completely aware she needed to come in at 15 months.  Oh well. 

I got to see an actual doctor this time, since for her 12 month check up I didn't "request" to see the doctor, so she only saw the PA.  (For the record, the PA was excellent, I just wanted to see a doctor this time.)  I was hesitant to leave the pediatric practice that I love, but since it is about 50 minutes away now I took the plunge.  I'm glad I did, as the doctor was wonderful! 

I told him my wonderful eater has turned into Miss NO, not wanting to eat much of anything these days, and he assured me that was fine.  As long as she was eating from each food group in a week she'd be okay.  (What group do cookies fall into? haha!)  Abby was so kind to the doctor, no screaming or fighting.  In fact she looked at the doctor with her big eyes and said, "Hi!"  She now is 32 inches tall, putting her exactly in the 50th percentile.  She is 22.7 pounds, which is the 30th percentile.  I'll take it!  She was pretty good for her shots, and barely cried.  The nurse put a Tweety band aid on, and she took one look at her leg and promptly said, "Owie!"  Throughout the whole exam William didn't blink an eye.  He loves playing doctor at home, and since her visit has an ever renewed interest in it.

Oh Goodness

I bet you didn't think my follow-up would be this quick.

But WOW.  Those shoes add such an incredible dimension of chaos to our home that..well, there really are no words.  I'm officially commit-able.   

The End.

Good bye forever.

I'll Keep You Posted If This Works!

You should have seen his face when he took his first step!  Priceless!  He was quite shocked.

If these help stop his toe walking I'll be forever indebted to Squeak Me Shoes.  A friend of mine alerted me to the fact that Zulily was having a sale on them so of course I had to get some...along with a cute diaper bag and some leg warmers for Abby.  (If you decide to order through Zulily please use the link included in this post, as I'll receive credit if you do.)  Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on his toe walking...that is if I don't go deaf (or crazy!) beforehand! 

Cheese!

Whenever I get the camera out to take a picture, Abby always looks up, smiles, and says, "Cheese!"  The resulting smile is usually quite hilarious.