"I do it, work too!"

I am making an effort to become less of a pack rat and not hang onto every one of my kids' drawings and worksheets as they grow up. So I have decided to scan in a few pages and record the kids' learning progress for posterity's sake. As such feel free to simply skim through this post looking at cute little kid handwriting and come back next time for some fun updates.

In an attempt to balance Corbin's desire to attend preschool with his friends and learn new things with my desire to not spend a lot of money or have a committed schedule yet, I started doing school work with the kids on a daily (well semi daily) basis this past fall. He usually enjoys it, plus then I feel better about letting him watch TV in the afternoons while Makelle naps so I can get things done around the house.

Depending on my ambition level on any given day it ranges from reading books to elaborate projects with accompanying themed songs and stories. Most days are just middle of the road though and we do a math and writing worksheet then work on reading a book together.

He's a smart kid and aside from being able to add coin sums (2 nickles and 3 pennies equals 13 cents) he has basically finished two of the kindergarten level books. (Though his handwriting skill is still that of a 4-year-old, if not worse, so we have to modify some pages.) So yesterday I started him on a first grade one. There is no way he can do the more advanced pages yet, but he made quick work of some of the pages at the beginning.




Since Makelle typically likes doing whatever Corbin does, she insisted on "I do it, work too!" So her daily work became playing with her shape sorter or having books about colors read to her, doing those little toddler wooden puzzles or coloring. Yesterday she got a hold of one of Corbin's older preschool wipe off workbooks and a dry erase marker and started coloring on it. Just to make her feel cool I told her to draw a line to the other slipper that matches and to my astonishment she actually did!



So I helped her finish up the page and then today we printed off our own matching worksheets so now Makelle does her work everyday too :)

And let me tell you, she is pretty darn proud of it!

Life

Let's face it, this blog has basically become our little family journal, as I don't do very well taking the time to write things down elsewhere on a regular basis. As such I try to record the things that I want to remember, good and bad alike, for memory's sake.

On Sunday evening my mom called to inform us that my Grandpa Nash had died. He was actually feeling quite well, especially considering the health struggles he has dealt with in the past, and simply passed peacefully at home while reading a book and enjoying a typical, calm Sunday afternoon. And though it brought a sense of comfort to know that he died in a manner that he would have preferred, I still found myself brought to tears knowing that it will be sometime before we get to unite with him again.

The kids were already asleep in bed so we waited until Monday morning to explain his passing to them. Kids are always better at handling things than adults are. I am sure it has something to do with an inability to fully comprehend time. That is, just what it means that we will have to wait until we die, as well, before we can see him again. But I also think they just have a greater abundance of that simple faith that the Lord is over all and everything is as it should be and will work out in the end. I specifically want to remember Corbin's response, as his reaction and coping ability is a testimony to me of the Lord's plan.


First of all Corbin was quite fond of Grandpa Nash. From the time we first went to visit them after he learned how to walk he just sort of gravitated towards Grandpa. He would follow him around, attempting to help with whatever project or chore Grandpa was working on. Grandpa was a fair skinned, red head living in Southern Nevada and as such almost always wore a brimmed hat around when working outside. Corbin would always try to wear his hat or one like it, grinning ear to ear when he succeeded in getting a hold of one.


I am sure it could not have been too flattering but Corbin always referred to Grandpa Nash as "The Really Old Grandpa" rather than as Great Grandpa. Luckily, Grandpa was always light hearted about it and teased him back rather than taking any offense.


We would usually visit Grandpa at their summer house on Cedar Mountain and later in Hatch. There was lots of wildlife to feed and watch, a fun park for the kids to play in, lots of outdoor space to explore, fun games to play and four-wheelers to ride. But when I asked Corbin if he remembered Grandpa Nash, he immediately shouted out, "Yes! Remember he played swords with me and chased me!" On our last trip to Hatch it was nearly Halloween, Corbin was in his Musketeer phase, and somehow got my 75-year-old Grandpa to chase him all around, using rulers to sword fight. I love that that is Corbin's favorite memory of Grandpa, even over all the "bigger" things we did with them. It reminds you that life is all about those little moments.

When I told him that Grandpa had died last night, his first question was, "How?" Despite my attempts to avoid exposing him to violence I think that his only knowledge of death was when superheros killed bad guys or of people killing each other in the scriptures, so he was a little concerned. After I explained death as associated with old age he seemed a lot more accepting of it. I asked him how he felt and he quite simply stated that he felt sad because he was going to miss Grandpa.

I am going to miss Grandpa too. I am sad for the all experiences he won't be here for, but I am so grateful for all the time I did have with him. Not only did I get to have him around throughout my entire childhood, but he was close throughout my college years, he got to know my husband, he was there the day I received my endowments and he held my children in his arms. I am particularly happy that he got to see his grand kids in this life and that I will forever have fond memories of him playing with my children.

St. Patrick's Day

We woke up late this morning (the kids are still adjusting to daylight savings time) with no real plans for the day. Then midway through the morning Corbin's stellar memory set in and he started talking about how "remember last year when Daddy wore his blue shirt to work and he had no green and I got to pinch him when he got home from work?!" He was so oddly excited about the whole green holiday thing that we decided it would be fun to celebrate St. Patrick's Day after all.

So we called up some of his friends (well sent out a mass text in today's world, but same idea :) and made a fun green lunch for everyone. We had pesto pasta, green cauliflower, green grapes and an avocado milkshake for dessert. My kids were far too busy complaining about the chicken in their pasta and talking to their friends to actually eat very much, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it and the kids sure had fun playing.



(Horrible picture--not even sure what Makelle is doing there, but at least we'll remember our little get together 10 years from now :)

Happy to You!

Whenever Makelle refers to some one's birthday lately she calls it their "Happy to You!" She seems to have modified the phrase "Happy Birthday to You" and it comes out sounding pretty cute!

Makelle's birthday is coming up on Wednesday and my brother's birthday was last week, so we decided to celebrate with one big family dinner yesterday.

It took her awhile to catch on that it was her special day, but by the end of opening presents and eating cake we caught her saying "Happy to Me!" a couple of times with a huge grin on her face, so I'd say she had fun.

We showed her an old children's cake book and despite my attempts to steer her towards the little cooking set or nursery rhyme themed cakes she got her heart set on a little make-up table she saw. So in the end we let Corbin pick out some pick fabric scraps and little girly make-up pieces and made her her favorite cake.




We also asked her what flavor of cake she wanted and she immediately told us "stawberries," so I made my first angel food cake and we celebrated Makelle's big 2 with strawberry shortcake. It was delicious, although she hardly even ate two bites of it before she wanted to get down and go play with her brother and cousins some more.



She got a lot of fun presents, but I am pretty sure her little baby doll got just as many presents as she did.




Corbin picked out some fabric and we made Makelle and her baby a couple of sets of matching pajama pants. And Grandma Lloyd made her baby a little doll blanket. Let's just say that baby has taken about 12 naps this morning :) and Makelle is still wearing her pajama pants (although we have changed sets of pajamas a couple of times).



Grandma Miller also sent her a cute little Princess dress up outfit, complete with her own pair of high heels. She loves it and immediately got all dolled up, prancing around the house.


We had her do her own little model walk down the hall... I think she may need a bit more practice before she'll be ready for the Paris runways.


So far today we've colored and read her new books, listened to stories on her new radio, put on lots of make-up and played happily for hours.


Corbin has been really nice about playing with her and her new girly toys, but he drew the line at allowing her to give him a make-over. It was pretty funny watching her try to chase him down and paint glittery make-up or apply some lip gloss to him, while he tried to follow the rules and nicely tell her "no thank you."

All in all I'd say she is pretty happy with her haul.

Precious Moment

Makelle is getting pretty good at keep her "unerwares" dry during the day, but as soon as you put her in a diaper, she just stops trying. I think that is normal, but Corbin was so easy to potty train because I just kept him in diapers until he was basically fully trained, which means I really didn't have to clean up too many accidents during the learning process.

I actually remember him holding himself with a diaper on screaming, "I gotta go potty!" and people with us thinking it was pretty funny. But I think I am just going to have to accept that that is not going to work with Makelle.

The other problem is at this age, we had switched Corbin to a toddler bed, so I could expect him to start to learn how to get up and go potty on his own in the morning or during nap time, when we introduced sleeping in underwear.

However, until we are able to get a new house with room for a twin bed for Corbin, he will be retaining ownership of the toddler bed and Makelle is staying in the crib. So I don't know how to teach her to go potty when she is caged in.

Then today I was changing the sheets on the kids' beds (which I usually remove the mattress from the crib to do, especially with a growing belly, it just seems easier) and decided to leave the mattress on the floor tonight to see how she even did going to sleep without being locked in.

I actually only had to go in their room once because they were both crying about being hungry (there is always something :) but then they settled down pretty quick, so I snuck in to go check on them and this is what I found:



Melts your heart a little bit--and makes you feel bad at the same time. Corbin hardly even fits on that little bed anymore, let alone letting his sister climb into bed with him. At least baby doll looks comfy! They are so precious. I love that they are still such good friends (most of the time :)

Free Day at the Zoo

The last Wednesday of each month during the Hogle Zoo's winter season they have a free admission day. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get out of the house yesterday.


We wandered around and took our time looking at everything. It gets funner and funner (is that real word?) each time I take them there. They ask more questions and seem to latch onto something new every time and especially Corbin now loves to learn about science and nature.

This time both of the kids spent quite awhile staring at the dead insect board, which I think we have always just sort of glanced at as we hurried by in the past, but this year Makelle loved the butterflies and Corbin seemed really interested in learning which insects--and snakes that were nearby--were poisonous. He also liked looking at their little color dots and finding where they live on a large map.


We watched the trainers feed the elephants and got them to do a few tricks for us, which Makelle loved. "Elephant sitting down!" "I hear it!" "Big ears!" It was fun.


We also spent a good amount of time sitting and watching the baby orangutan. He was by far the most active zoo animal I have ever seen. We sat there for at least 30 minutes and the entire time he kept running around, playing with a cup, swinging clear across the cage and back, dragging a blanket around, putting a burlap sack on his head, and the kids' favorite, poking at, jumping on, tugging on and laying on his mom and dad; clearly trying desperately to get someone to play with him. It was so funny, I could have sworn it was Corbin in there... he acted nearly identical to my child.

It is so great to do something fun with the kids, while being able to teach them at the same time. And at least for now, they actually like being taught and getting to learn as they play.


Side note I want to remember: Corbin has been working on learning his right and left lately.(I swear you would think he could at least get it correct 50% of the time, but somehow I would say his shoes end up on the wrong foot 75-80% of the time and so I am determined to teach him so I don't have to intervene all the time.) At first we tried to teach him to remember that he writes with his right hand. Then earlier in the week when he was holding a pencil and trying to trace a right path on a worksheet, I asked him to think about what hand his pencil was in, at which point I realized he was actually holding the pencil in his left hand--the opposite of what he was doing the last time we had this little lesson. So he tells me, "I don't know what hand I hold it in, sometimes this one (holds up right hand) and then when that one gets tired of writing I put it in my other hand. No wonder the boy has such horrible penmanship! So anyway we switched to learning that your left hand looks like an "L" but on the right hand the "L" is backward. That seems to be working better and he spent our zoo trip with map in hand learning how to navigate to find the next animal he wanted to see. It was pretty fun to watch him as he learned how directions work.

Getting Braver

After over 4 years of being a parent, I finally broke down and agreed to let the kids try their hand at finger painting.


Given their mom's "please don't ruin your clothes or stain our furniture" lecture that they receive almost daily, they both looked a little hesitant to smear paint on their fingers and go to town. But once they realized I really was encouraging this crazy idea, they started in and really liked it.


Corbin even started out his first painting by writing "I luv yu" which made it all worth it!

"I do it!"

Makelle's favorite line by far is, "I do it!" Not even two and she insists on doing everything her self. (Everyone says she gets this from me, but I just don't see it :)

The problem is her capabilities are no where near her self perceived abilities. But she'd rather hang on to her self pride and walk around like a penguin for half the day than admit that she needs help. (Again, I just don't see the similarity :)

We're having another...

BOY!

I had a birthday,

Shout hurray!

I didn't take any pictures so I neglected to ever blog about my birthday this year, but it was a great one nonetheless.

Caleb actually left work early (meaning 6:00 :) and got home in time to go to a show at the cheap movie theater in Kaysville. We took the kids to see Alpha and Omega. Being married to an accountant with a birthday in January I think that this was the first year we have hung out on my actual birthday, so it was fun to get to do something with the whole family.

Then on Saturday my parents watched the kiddos and we got to go on a fun date and hang together all afternoon.

Sunday we went to my parents' house for dinner and an ice cream cake. Yummy! We ate fruit, salad, rolls, chicken cordon bleu and roasted vegetables.

So I got to enjoy a full week of fun celebrations, it was super fun.

Fun Stuff

In recent news:

Makelle's pigtails finally have a "tail," albeit, only an inch long tail, but still we are making progress in the hair growth department, and she looks pretty cute!


Corbin has learned how to play the xbox with his Dad. Caleb hasn't really played since his brother, and gaming buddy, moved back east, but Corbin discovered the Ultimate Alliance video game with a bunch of action figures on the front and asked Caleb to teach him how to play. He was surprisingly good at maneuvering that guy around and could mash random buttons with the best of them during a fight, so now Caleb has a new gaming buddy.


Corbin is at that age where he likes to phonetically spell out words and is starting to write things on his own... only he HATES writing with a passion and is borderline horrible at it, so he has recently become excited to discover Microsoft Word.


For those needing a translation, he was making a list of his favorite things, "I like books" and "I like my mommy" he told me he was planning to type "I like TV" next, but got distracted when his sister asked me to read a book and he wanted to join in... it is number one on his list after all :)

Sweet Tooth

Corbin has never really liked desserts or had much a sweet tooth. He honesty likes graham crackers more than suckers, that is his idea of a treat.

For example: Tonight after eating his dinner Corbin wanted to know if for dessert he could have some Grapenuts... with a little bit of honey :o ! I don't think that kid is normal.

Makelle however, is definitely a sweets girl! Oh my gosh she will eat anything with sugar she can get her hands on. And her hands are getting into more and more things lately.


I made a small batch of brownies and set them up on our counter, where I thought they were out of reach. While I busy in the other room she dragged the stool out to the kitchen climbed up to get them and sat down to eat a little treat.

We are going to have to keep our eyes on this one!

Potty Training

The past month or so Makelle has been at point where if you take off her diaper and let her run around naked all day she will go potty in the bathroom everytime. We have yet to have an accident, except once when I forgot to leave the bathroom door opened and ignored her calls for help until it was too late. Oops.

Being morning sick and trying to get through the Holidays I was too lazy to start actual potty training though, so I just let her do whatever she wanted. Some days she would be in diapers all day and some days she would undress herself and run about naked.

So with the holidays behind us and starting to feel better during the day time, I bought Makelle some underware and juiceboxes (my neighbors brilliant idea for a reward system that makes them need to go even more :) and we started in today. At first she just kept taking them off and trying to run about naked still (I probably shouldn't have let that go on for a whole month, but oh well). But eventually she has kept them on and dry all morning, and already gone potty four times... we may need to buy more juice boxes!

Snowboard Trip

The week between Christmas and New Year's we went down to Southern Utah to spend some time with the Millers. We all ended up staying in a cabin up at Brianhead together and Corbin got to go snowboarding for the first time. He loved it!

We started out making him practice on a little hill by the parking lot and after he got good enough to go down and balance mostly on his own, Caleb took him up the lift and they rode down the bunny hill together.


We spent the rest of the week playing games, watching movies, reading books, visiting with family... all the typical relaxing vacation activities.

We wanted to take the kids out sledding the last day up there, but we decided to just hurry home and get back before the New Year's Eve drunk drivers hit the roads in full force and so that we would have time to do something fun to celebrate the New Year.

Then Corbin and I got carsick (well mine was morning sickness enhanced by motion) and threw up, plus the kids didn't get the most sleep that week staying up late playing with cousins and new toys so instead we got home, unloaded the car and the kids and I were asleep by 10:00. Lucky Caleb has such a fun wife! So he stayed up and did his own thing and watched the ball drop for us :) Yay 2011!

Santa Came!

This year was the first time we stayed at home with just our little family for Christmas morning. It was divine.


Makelle got a doll and was beyond thrilled, she has toted that baby around with her ever since. She clearly doesn't understand the whole "Santa" concept and has no idea where it came from, but boy does she love that doll. Sooo girlie! Although I have to say we discovered it has an "on" feature that will make the baby cry until you give it its pacifier and when we tried to show her she started whimpering and backing away from it until she finally screamed and threw it on the floor. So I guess she does have some of her mother's lack of feminine traits in her :)



Bean got a cool Buzz Lightyear, that can do practically everything that the one in the movie can do (except come alive when we turn our backs... or does he?). We coordinated well with Santa and also got him the movie and he keeps asking if he can write Andy's name on the bottom of Buzz's foot. Not his own name mind you, he wants it to say "Andy," just like the movie.


His dad also got him a lightsaber so that they can imagine themselves as intergalactic warriors now as well as the regular earthling ones :) He loves that it changes colors when you hit stuff with it and we just love that it makes battle noises the entire time it is on. What a great toy!




We had a slow, lazy morning opening presents and eating a giant breakfast, which included half a case of fresh squeezed orange juice, thanks to Caleb. Then we went up to my parents' house and had round two of present opening. We stayed up there all day and the kids played with their new toys while we watched movies and played games.




It was great; best day ever.

Who eats just one pistachio?

Corbin does!

Add one more to the list of Corbin food allergies.

milk*
eggs*
cashews
fish
peas
turkey
lentils
pistachios

*These two are still cause the most severe reaction though.