Special Person

Joshua is the special person in his preschool class this week which means he got to take the special backpack home that contained Ladybug, the journal, crayons and The Grouchy Ladybug book. Today Joshua dictated a story (I wrote his words) about his adventures with Ladybug and drew a picture to go with his story. It's interesting to look back at his first story from October and see the notable differences. His artwork still leaves a bit to be desired, but coming from two not so creative parents it's not surprising; this being said, his art work has improved as well. Tomorrow he will bring his story back and have it read to the class. He also gets to bring his Playmobil motor home for show and tell. The other highlight of the week (at least for me as a mom) is bringing a special snack. This time there really wasn't anything particular to coordinate the snack with (a holiday, project the class is doing, or topic they are learning about) so I figured something snowy would be good. I of course turned to my favorite Family Fun and found a recipe for sweet tortilla snowflakes. It was a bit time consuming, but fun. Too bad next year won't bring these fun treats as his new school requires all snacks to be store bought.

Joshua's story and illustration.
(click on picture to enlarge)

A sweet, snowy snack!

A blow to the ego. . .

So I finally broke down today and bought a maternity support belt. It made me feel so old to be asking for such an item. However, it feels like this kid is sitting low (much lower than Joshua did, at least until the last couple weeks) and along with that is giving me some delightful back pain. It might be manageable, but with chasing and interacting with a 3 year old all day I seem to be uncomfortable. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with the baby, he is as healthy as can be and my OB doesn't seem to think the baby is any lower than Joshua was, but my OB doesn't live in my body and doesn't have to deal with the discomfort!) The bonus of getting the maternity belt was that I got to visit one of my favorite stores that I haven't been to since Joshua was an infant, Baby Beloved Inc. It's a wonderful resource for pregnant moms and nursing moms! Not only do they carry products necessary for these stages in life as well as adorable little baby items, but they also have lactation consultants on hand to help with nursing questions or troubles. Since I last visited they have moved to a really nice new location in the new Women's Health Center in Grand Rapids. I was surprised to see an old high school friend of mine working there! She reassured me that many pregnant women of all ages use maternity support belts for comfort. So at least I'm not the only one who wears one of these wacky things, but it's still a blow to the ego if you ask me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's our family tradition to give Joshua a little Valentine's Day surprise, but this morning we did things a bit differently than we have before. Instead of just giving him his gift Joshua had to go on a "surprise hunt" to find it. I made little clue with words and pictures and put them all over the house. Joshua had to find and read a clue which lead him to another clue and another, etc. His final clue told him where to find his surprise. It was so much fun to watch him "read" the clues and figure out where to find the next one and finally his surprise! From the smile on his face and the excitement he showed running from clue to clue, I'd say he had a good time too! His Valentine's Day surprise was a new Cars movie car called Wingo, a little Lego set that can make 3 kinds of planes and a small tin of candy cars.

The first clue to begin the "surprise hunt".

Finding the clue on dad and mom's bed.

One of his clues.

"Hmm, what does this clue say?"

His final clue which led to finding his Valentine's Day surprise.

"Is it in my monkey bathtub?"

The surprise!

Little Valentine Creator

Joshua had already created valentine cards for family, but since Joshua is in preschool now I thought it would be fun for him to make valentines for his friends at school. Knowing I had the time to help him create valentines (and knowing this time spent as just the two of us doing projects is fleeting as #2's arrival is coming) I searched for a valentine that would be fun to make. Of course I started my search with http://www.familyfun.go.com/ and came upon the perfect valentine card for Joshua to create; it of course involved a car! Today we spent some time mixing up the right color "mud" paint to drive his cars through and then he drove his cars on his valentine cards. After the paint dried he chose where to stick each of the little chocolate race cars. I finished the cards up by writing the words. He had a blast creating his valentines and is very excited to pass them out to his friends tomorrow at school!

"Zoom, my truck drove fast on that one!"


One of the finished products.

Gorgeous!

Today was such a gift from God! The warm temperatures and continuous sunshine were just what we needed! I know it's just a tease and the snow will soon be flying again, but for today we enjoyed every moment. We went for a walk around our new neighborhood and played outside for a couple hours. The question is, how does a 3 1/2 year old entertain himself when there is no yard to play in? Well, climbing piles of dirt and digging for rocks did the trick for Joshua today. Hope this is a favorite activity for him as we have a couple months until we can actually plant a lawn.

Digging in the dirt.

King of the dirt pile!

Time and patience. . .

. . . is what it took to create the back splash in our kitchen. We started 2 weeks ago Saturday with Cory, myself, Shawn and Erin all putting the tiles up in the kitchen. This past weekend Cory and I sealed the tiles and then finally had the time to grout it all. Man what a pain in the neck grouting back splash tile is (gravity definitely doesn't help the situation)! We now know why we were going to be charged $600 in labor for the professional to do it! It was a horrendous mess and took longer than we expected (oh and we aren't completely finished because we ran out of grout with 3 feet to go). However, we are very happy with the almost finished project (once completely grouted we have to caulk and seal it). I guess in the end the pain of the whole project was worth saving the money.

Adjusting

Moves are difficult for children, but this move really hasn't been easy on Joshua for some reason. (Mind you we do a lot of talking about moving prior and during the transitions as well as reading books about it and yes, we do expect behavior issues regardless.) The last move 6 months ago seemed to go smoother, I mean we still had some behavior issues to work through at the beginning, but it wasn't horrible. This time around it's been a bit harder for Joshua to adjust. He's had issues with not listening and being disrespectful for the last couple of weeks. On top of that his sleep pattern has been disrupted and he is up once a night with nightmares and was waking up earlier than he ever has before. Thankfully he is back to sleeping 11-12 hours a night and is up by 7:45am at the earliest for school (and I usually have to wake him), but the nightmares are still an issue. I'm also not sure if he is still adjusting to not taking naps anymore. He does well most days, but by Friday (at least the last few weeks) he has been unbearable by lunch time and actually asks for quiet time. Both this Friday and last he has fallen asleep and taken a nice nap that helps refresh him. The picture above was taken today when I snuck in his room as I was suspicious of the lack of noise I was hearing. The little stinker had climbed down from his bed and apparently was playing, but he was too tired even to play! Oh and if that weren't enough, Joshua was also sick the second weekend we were in our new house. I'm praying that soon he will be back to his happy little self who has fully adjusted. We keep promising the poor kid that we will never move again!

New favorite place

Joshua has a new favorite place to sit in our house for meals now that we received our bar stools. Cory picked them up on the way home from work one night this week (they've been on order for 6 weeks and finally arrived). Ever since the night they came home Joshua will only sit at the island on the bar stools for meals. We've tried explaining that it's a great place for us to eat if only two people are home, but when all three of us are home we should eat at the table together; however, Joshua prefers to sit at the island for all meals and will even request that one of us sits next to him for dinner while the other has to eat at the table. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon and we can go back to having dinner at the table as a family. He's a funny kid!