40 lessons and other thoughts...

Last week, Emma made it through 40 lessons of her reading program. I wondered if we'd make it there at all this month, because several days in between she only wanted to do one lesson a day.  

There's nothing wrong with one lesson a day; I was just surprised, because she had been wanting to do two or sometimes even three so she could get to her prize faster.  But anyway, she made it.  I am really proud of her; I think she's doing a great job and is really getting a good handle on the material. 

Her prize for reaching lesson 40 was getting to go the gift store down the street and choose her own set of fork, spoon and chopsticks.  (This was a special "name egg prize" for some of the other children at the easter egg hunt.  When emma was fascinated by them, I decided it would be a good prize for her too!)  She ended up choosing snoopy because of her passionate feelings about dogs.  Plus, they were pink.  

Here are some general thoughts I have about this - because I know you all want to know.

I'm glad I started this reading thing before I started "real" homeschool.  Why?  Because I think it has given me a good idea of what works for me, how I work in certain schedules, and how emma responds in "schoolish" situations.  I have often been apprehensive about homeschooling because I fear my own inconsistency.  Being inconsistent is a problem, but when it only affects you, it's not such a big deal.  When it affects your child's education, it's a bigger problem.    I've had lingering doubts on whether or not I will be consistent enough to be able to provide high quality education to them.

Our journey through this reading program in part has been motivated by my fear of inconsistency.  I wanted to prove to myself that I could start something and stick with it, day in and day out.  I've been thankful and pleased that so far, we've really stuck with it.  

I've also learned that if I am responsible to prepare everything, the odds are much higher that I won't be as consistent.  I can deliver a "knock-em-dead" creative craft once a week, but doing something every day?  Even if it's small?  Not so much.  I tend to go for the blockbuster event than the slow-and-steady of everydayness.  BUT this reading program is like, "Say these words to your child: ".  I don't even have to think about what I'm going to say! I just say what they tell me!  So that has really helped me.  

I've learned that a lot can happen when I structure my time.  I've been amazed at how much I can fit into a smaller amount of time if I'm disciplined in using that time.  

Probably the most important thing I feel like I've learned so far is that I can't live my dreams through Emma.  I love reading.  I love accomplishment.  But I have to be able to separate those feelings when I'm teaching her to read.  I've reminded myself a lot: "It's ok if we don't speed through this.  It's ok if she doesn't pick it up right away. Go at her pace.  It's ok.  It's ok.  It's ok..."  Those have been helpful thoughts as I think about starting "school" in the next year or so.  

I want to do a good job with teaching my kids; I feel like it's so important to learn and so important for parents to be with their kids...so combining those two things together - me helping my kids learn - is such an exciting thought.  But even though I feel overwhelmed sometimes, I'm thankful for these lessons I've started learning.  

And I'm thankful for all you homeschooling moms out there who will be getting lots of questions from me in the future!  

because everyone loves baby pictures

I'm trying, really trying to take more pictures of abby.

I want my parents and josh's parents to feel like they can watch her grow. I want to be able to look back at her early months and marvel at her tinyness.  I want to be conscious about remembering her.  

So here's the fruit of my labor over the last week or so.  

In new clothes, from nat:

The pensive look:
oooh, first smile I caught by myself:
Samantha thought abby needed some help smiling:
Isn't this a great one?  Samantha is a great big sister!

seriously?

I've mentioned several times about our weekly custom of foot massage, right?  

So all the girls and I (there are four of us now) go out every thursday night for an hour and half foot massage.  The massage part is about $8 and we get our own little private room, and even comes with complimentary soy milk or tea, which I never drink.  

We chat during the massage and then share requests and pr together for the last hour.  It's the highlight of my week.

I take any visitors who come to see me to the hallowed grounds of foot massage place.  Want to come visit?  ;)

I also shamelessly plug the place to any of my foreign friends who live in the city.  I've had such great experiences there, I want them to enjoy it too.  

Weeeelllll, last week, things got a little out of hand.  A friend of a friend went to said foot massage place.  They even requested my massager, who knows me and what foreigners ought to like.  When I ran into him later on that week, this is what he looked like:

Oh.  My.  

I laughed.  I think there were also some tears involved.  

One small, itty-bitty part of our foot massage involves these tiny baby jar things that get suctioned on to the bottoms of our feet.  I believe it has something to do with circulation..?  

Anyway, apparantly this fella did not get the same foot massage we usually got.  He managed to get a whole massage with the jars.  All over his back.

Oh.  My.  

on the road again

Over the weekend, we had to make a trip to the big city up north for various reasons: 1) shots for abby, 2) meetings that josh had and 3) renewing of emma and samantha's passports (because we want all three of their passports to expire in the same year to avoid future globetrotting for renewal!)

It was a quick trip, but there were several notable events...

On the Train:

Here's the girls on the train - for an extra $5 per person we were able to upgrade to first class seats.  Well worth the expense, in my opinion...

Trains in our neck of the woods are very nice, especially this train.  It's based on the european trains that are modern, fast, and very comfortable.  This mode of travel is WAY better than a plane!

While we were on the train, Emma and I were doing her reading lesson for the day (more on that in another post).  As I was correcting a sound she was making, I noticed something white and irregular on the inside of her mouth.  Not good.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease has been working its way through the country and our area has been particularly hard-hit.  Several preschools in our city have closed because of outbreaks.  If you've caught the news headlines on the topic, you'll know that the HFM virus has mutated or something and has been fatal.  I think so far over 30 or 40 children have died in our province alone.

I saw the white things and I freaked.  It was a calm, inward, very controlled freak, but it was still a freak-out.  

We made some calls (thanks again john!) and made plans for josh to take emma to the international hospital as soon as the train pulled into the station.  I wasn't worried about emma.  She's a big girl, and even if she got the disease, the fatalities have come in very young children.  In infants.  Cute, little snugly infants that probably look and feel very much like little abby.  That was the stream of thoughts in my head...abby...abby...abby...

Fortunately, we found out from very reliable doctors that even though her mouth was filled with strange white looking sore things, it wasn't HFM but some other virus of the mouth.  Hmmm.  

So the trip continues on.

Later that evening, we're all heading out to go to a meeting with josh.  We debate riding the subway or taking a taxi, and end up deciding the subway is probably quicker.

That was before Samantha dropped her shoe into the crack between the subway in the platform.  This is not the first time this purple croc has been stranded in mass transportation lanes.  Remember last year when her shoe fell off in the middle of the road?!

This subway episode caused lots of tears, lots of panic, but lots of relief when finally some attendants were summoned with a little grabber thing.  It took several cycles of the subway coming in and leaving (with a concerned Samantha each time!) before the shoe was reunited with its rightful owner.  The "grabber"-dude got lots of gratitude from samantha.  

The morning after the subway-shoe incident, we decided to spend the morning at a nearby park since the weather was so super sunny and nice. NOT!  It was rainy and cool, but we were free for the morning, so it was a good way to spend the time.

At the park, you could rent these little flying UFO things.  Eight bucks bought you an hour, so we spent the next hour chasing this little guy all around the park.  Fun times, and a lot of exercise for the girls!

Josh was showing off in the beginning, trying to bounce it off his head:

It was actually quite big, and took most of samantha's body to get it thrown:
Josh in the middle, trying to throw it to the girls:
Emma loved it!  She was our main chaser, and always loved catching it!


I loved this picture:
ok, and this one too...(except for emma who has a weird look on her face):
and truly, the daddy's girl and her daddy:
Abby's appointment went well at the hospital also.  We learned that she's 5.5 kilos, which I think is 12pounds.  We've officially packed away all the 0-3 month clothes and are fully functioning in the 3-6 month range.   Her acne is gradually going away, so maybe I'll start taking more pictures soon...

And that was pretty much it. 

easter egg hunt pics

The big hunt this year was at my friend Rach's apartment complex.  It's full of nice paths, grass, a winding river and good hiding places for eggs.   The kids used all their baskets from last year, because I had no new ideas for baskets. Emma was excited to get started:

Samantha too:
Yay! She got so many!
The only picture of them together...
there were lots of kiddos, but it was fun times:
Redeeming prizes - this picture is included because it's the only proof that abby "participated" in the event:
Proof that mommies will go to great lengths to get pictures of their kids... way to go, rach!
When it came time to eat the flower cakes, samantha was a little weirded out. Even after we took off the flower, she was unconvinced:
...but the other kids had no problem!
It was a great day for an easter egg hunt!  It was warm (obviously you can tell that by the clothes!), we had a nice picnic and lots of time to play and hang out together. We're so thankful for our friends!

easter party preps

Even though our easter egg hunt was two weeks ago, I am still trying to get caught up on previous activities.  Because I'm weird like that.  Because I'm chronologically wired.  So I can't post what we did yesterday because I haven't posted two weeks ago.  

And plus, if my computer ever crashes again (though I have learned my back-up lesson) and the world ever comes to an end and all my pictures are gone, I know that blogger will save them for me.  Forever.  To infinity and beyond.  So I shall continue to post my previous pictures.  You know, in case the world comes to an end.  

I was excited about our 2nd big easter egg party, in large part because last year's was so fun.  Like last year, we planned it this year to be several days before easter, so there was no mixing of ideas...you know, the whole easter egg vs. resurrection competition for the hearts of young kids...or something like that.  Plus, logistically, it's much easier to have party time seperate from w.rship time.

Anyway, this year in keeping with easter egg traditions from josh's side of the family, I decided to have prize eggs - plastic eggs that had numbers inside them, which corresponded to prizes that could be redeemed after the hunt was over.  I also added special name eggs this year: if a child found their name egg, they could get a special prize.  (This was motivated to make sure that each child got a prize - mixing big kids and little kids sometimes results in unequal prize distribution!)

Here are the name eggs:

(these were so easy to decorate!  I poured glitter into a small bowl and put those round double sided scrapbook stickers on the eggs.  Then I rolled them in the glitter and they turned out really cute!)

The prizes:
The day before our easter party there was a slight mishap with the easter cake I was making.  I'll save you all the details, but it was irrepairable.  I thought and thought about what to do...and I remembered an idea from The Pioneer Woman's website.

I sent my house helper to run to the flower market and buy 20 small flower pots.  We washed them, washed them again, and then washed them again.  Then I lined them with foil because I still wasn't convinced of their cleanliness.
Then I crumbled up the few parts of cake that weren't already crumbled and put them in the flower pots.
I took green straws - because every mom of preschoolers has multi-colored straws in the pantry, right?! haha - and cut them in half:
...then stuck them in the pots.
In another bowl, I mixed cream cheese, whipping cream, sugar, and fresh sliced strawberries:
I spread that over the crumbled cake, then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on top.  A fresh bouquet of flowers got trimmed and divided between the flower pots.  The end result looked like this:
They all turned out really cute.  They were springy.  They were fun.  But they were supremely time consuming and I will never do it again!  The Pioneer Woman conveniently left that part out of her description...

Actual easter egg hunt pictures to come...and much more...

cloudy with a chance of...

meatballs?  No, probably not where we live.  But now, thanks to aunt kristen, Emma and Samantha are prepared for rainy season!

I'm totally digging these lady-bug and polka dot raincoats.  Don't you think they are way cute?  

They surely brightened the landscape when we went outside!

Rainboots: check.

Super cute raincoat: check.

Rain:  Not yet...

20 down...

Progress in the reading department is going well, especially after I added a bit of "motivation": a progress bookmark.  After every lesson, emma gets to add a red star, showing that we completed that lesson.   When we get to certain predesignated numbers on her bookmark, she gets to have a special something.  

The first little treat was taking the whole fam to McD's for ice cream.  I was delighted to see that she felt like SHE was treating the whole family to ice cream - and in a way, she was totally right.  So we gave her the money, she ordered it for us all, and we all made sure to thank her for reading her 20 lessons so we could eat ice cream.  She loved all the gratitude going around!  I didn't so much love the coffee ice cream we ended up with, but hey...I can make some sacrifices for my first-born.  

Here's Em with her bookmark: 20 lessons down...80 more to go!

...and yes, that big pile of napkins belongs to us.  All of them.

rainbow days

Since Emma goes to preschool three days a week (M, W, F) I try to do some "special" activities with the girls on the days where she is home.  Thursday is usually playday with the bff's (clara anne and chloe) so that leaves tuesday for mama!

Last week, most of our activities were about rainbows (and they were all done inside a tent - made up of dining room tables and a big black sheet).  The crowing glory of activity day was making rainbow cupcakes.  *Note- this is not a "rachel-rocks-at-thinking-of-cool-activities" idea.  This is the result of an image search on Flickr for "rainbow".  These really rockin' rainbow cupcakes popped up.

So...rainbow cupcakes it was.  The girls were excited, in a sort of blind way. What exactly are rainbow cupcakes?  Well, they weren't sure...but it had something to do with cupcakes, so that counted for a lot.  

First step - make a batch of yellow cake mix.  Seperate it into four bowls.  Add desired colors of food coloring to each bowl.

We were going for pink, yellow (not adding any color, since the mix was already yellow), green, and blue (with a purple icing finale).

Slave labor, I tell you...

Once the colors were all mixed and lined up, the girls put in the muffin cups for me.  I even dug some stuff out of our "special" box...because if you don't ever use your "special" stuff, what's the point of having it??  We used Cars and Dora cupcake liners to add a little extra touch:
Then, one by one, add globs of cake mix into the muffin cups, being careful not to show favoritism to one color.  Then you'd end up with a cupcake with unequal rainbow proportions. We can't be having any of that.
Then, after they're done baking and cooling, add that final rainbow color and sprinkle on some extra sprinkles...just for that extra touch.  
My kids totally thought this rocked, and they were excited about rainbows for days.  

baby sweetness

These pictures are a reflection of all the abby cuteness that has been saturating our house recently.  I'm amazed, shocked, and quite honestly - saddened - at how quickly it seems she's growing up.  She's smiling a lot (keep reading for pics!), cooing, at holding herself up like she doesn't need help from anyone.  How can I savor the moments when she's growing so fast? 

Anyway...

What is it with baby toys and options?  I mean, these baby toys give your 5-week old like fifteen different choices of things to play with.  I think this little bear playgym is mild compared to an exersaucer, which has so many toy-choices even I get overwhelmed looking at it.  When I put abby in her little hand-me-down bear gym, she immediately looked over at me and was like "Which one do I play with?"

Ok, maybe she didn't say that.  But she certainly didn't know, so she looked at me instead.  

aaah...a sleeping baby.  Nothing makes you more willing to have another baby than watching one sleep. They look so peaceful and innocent, so soft and snugly...just inviting you to curl up next to them and take a nap yourself...


But then, when they wake up, there's even more reasons to love them!  Especially when the smiles start coming.

Last night - at the very inconvenient bedtime hour - I called josh away from teethbrushing supervision to take some pictures of abby.  (It's a lot harder to find the time taking pictures of child #3!)  She was being so friendly during her diaper change that I was convinced pictures MUST be taken.  I'm glad I insisted...

I love her buildup to a smile.  It starts with "big eyes"...then moves on to a coo or two...then a very intent stare (don't give up at this point, you're almost there!) and then bam! A face-spreading grin.  

I love it. 


oops...a sneeze...
These are the first actual pictures of me and abby together (naked birth pics don't count).

Really? I said no more kids?