Just getting this one written down before we forget…
Last night at dinner, Max let out a bloodcurdling scream because he didn’t want to eat his dinner. (Sigh.)
Alex jumped because he hadn’t expected that, and he said, “That really scared the NIGHTLIGHTS out of me!”
We’re finally reaching a point where Max, although he still speaks with only a handful of consonant sounds, is really starting to talk. He puts together sentences, shares his opinions, and is starting to make us laugh. This stage was so much fun when Alex was little. I’m looking forward to giggling at Max’s words in the coming months!
Last night at the boys’ bedtime, we read our story and got ready to pray. As always, I asked Alex and Max what was the happiest thing about their day.
Alex answered, “Playing with Daddy!”
Max parroted his brother, “Pway wiff Daddy!”
I then asked the boys, “Who would you like to pray for tonight?”
Alex said that he’d like to pray for Max.
Max said that he’d like to pray for Sax.
The conversation then went like this:
Mommy, quite confused: Sax?
Max: Yes.
Mommy: Do you mean Max?
Max: No.
Mommy: Do you mean Alex?
Max: No.
Mommy: Then who do you want to pray for?
Max: SAX!
Mommy: Who is Sax?
Max: I doh-know.
Mommy: Then why do you want to pray for him?
Max, very insistently: Pway foh Sax!
So we did. Alex giggled through the entire prayer. Whoever Sax might be, he’s been prayed for by two goofy, giggly little boys! :)
This little sweetie likes to eat! I started her on cereal at 5 months, then added fruits & veggies a few weeks later. Most days, she really enjoys her food!
When Alex was little, I made almost all of his baby food. It was mainly for the sake of saving money. I planned to do the same when Max was small, but on the day that I tried, our blender exploded and sent shards of plastic all around the kitchen. So much for that plan! He was our Gerber baby. :)
We have a new blender now, so out came the bags of frozen veggies! The boys were all excited to help. We steamed the veggies, then tossed them into the blender with a little rice milk and some brown rice cereal. (Why? I don’t know! That’s just how I do it.)
Alex lined up the old Gerber containers, I filled them, and Max put on the lids. Who knew that making baby food would be a fun family activity?
For approximately $3, we made 14 containers of vegetables for Jensyn. I’d say it’s worth the 30 minutes we spent on this project!
And Jensyn? Well, she’s glad we did it, too!
Alex is 3.5 years old, and Max is 25 months.
This week, we worked on the letter Ff, and we also did a fire theme using these printables. We did two mornings (45 minutes each) of tot school, and we fit in a few random activities during the week as well.
Alex has recently discovered the he LOVES using dot markers. He had a great time finding and stamping the Fs on this sheet!
Max LOVES to use any sort of matching cards. He happily matched shapes for a long, long time!
Alex loves to do pre-writing pages, although he hates for me to tell him how to hold the marker. 
Calendar time…
Count & Clip cards
More matching with Max. I left one sheet of the nomenclature cards whole, and then Max matched the pictures. Maybe some day we’ll use these for their intended purpose, but this works for now! :)
Max drove a wooden car with dice on top.
I’m sure there’s something educational about this, ha!
Alex practiced making uppercase Fs. He doesn’t mind doing this, but he won’t make all 9 of the letter. He only does 3, and then he’s finished. Fine by me, as long as he practices a few times! :)
Alex & Grace worked together VERY nicely to complete this Lauri fire truck puzzle that my sister gave us a few months ago.
We made chocolate chip banana muffins. Yum!
This is the first time that Alex has tried a word building activity. He’s been kind of resistant to this activity up until now. He was still hesitant, but caught on quickly and really enjoyed find the letters, making the words, and sounding them out with Mommy.
Max “matched” letters on this beginning sounds page. He so badly wants to do what his big brother does, but (obviously) doesn’t understand yet. He asked me often, “This go here, Mommy?” So cute! He only got one correct on the whole page, but he had fun trying!
Yep, back to the fireman’s costume…Alex cut (with some help, but he tried…) the sorting cards. Then without one bit of help, he sorted and glued them into the proper categories.
I finally realized that how I word this activity makes all the difference in how Alex completes it! Alex does much better if I say, “Which one doesn’t match?” rather than “Which one is different?”
He’s so cute about saying “uppercase F, lowercase F” as he’s working on his letters.
Nevermind that red is supposed to be the color of the week; Alex was determined to use GREEN for a lot of things!
Here are some samples of his work this week. The color the hydrant page was half-heartedly completed, but Alex was very proud of the sorting and stamping pages.
I snapped this to show how we’re using the letter/number/sight word for the each week. The one for this week is clipped on the front of the pocket. Behind it are the cards from each previous week. We go through the cards together each week, reviewing the letters and numbers. He still doesn’t have a grasp on the sight words, but we’ll get there whenever he is ready for that! :)
I’d really hoped to make dalmation pudding for dessert after dinner on Friday night, but it didn’t happen. Oh well – maybe we’ll do it for lunch sometime this coming week…even if it no longer matches our theme! :)
I’ve thought for a while that Max would really enjoy working with tongs, and boy was I ever right about that. He knew JUST what to do, and he happily filled every hole in this ice cube tray and then started over again!
Alex used our big pom poms to fill the muffin tin while he waited for his turn with the tongs.
After that, Daddy changed the rules and….uh…gave the boys a science lesson about catapults and simple machines. Yeah. That’s what this was! ;)
Then Max started throwing pompoms all around the room. Yep. Great educational value! ;) They had a LOT of fun, though, messing around with Daddy…and that’s worth it!
You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!
We’ve had some amazingly beautiful days this month! Considering that’s October, and it will soon be chilly & gross, we’re taking advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.
So when Keith’s Uncle Jim called to see if we’d like to go for breakfast and play at the park, while I *really* wanted to get something accomplished, it was too hard to resist!
Grandma & I took the three kids, met Uncle Jim & Cailin at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and then headed to Lemon Lake to enjoy the beautiful day. It’s so pretty there, but especially so at this time of year. The trees were so gorgeous!
I can’t believe I *almost* said no because I wanted to clean my house. We would have missed out on a great time together & a beautiful day! The mess was still here when the chilly, rainy days rolled in. So glad we went, as we truly enjoyed this day!
I am getting backed up on blogging about family events! I got started on that Thanksgiving pack, and I just couldn’t stop. Expect a lot of new posts in the week to come as I work at getting caught up :)
Kyle & Jess had their fall break a few weeks back, and they asked if the could come & spend the night at our house. We gladly said yes, as we love to have them here!
It was a crazy week leading up to this visit – sick kids, doctor visits, etc – so we scrambled to do yardwork while the weather was nice, get laundry done, attempt to tidy the house, make room for them to sleep, and grab some groceries on Saturday morning before they arrived. (Kyle slept in Alex’s top bunk, which Alex thought was pretty special.)
Kevin & Leanne were bringing the kids and staying for lunch, so we invited Grandma & Papa to join us. I got home from the grocery store, started the clothes dryer, made lunch, took care of kids, and then realized there was a fire in the clothes dryer. I ran outside to tell Keith, and he was talking to our brand-new neighbor who I hadn’t even met yet. Not wanting our new neighbor to think we were CRAZY, and knowing the fire had burned itself out, I waited until Keith had introduced me & we’d chatted for a few minutes. THEN I told Keith about the fire, he went in to take care of the dryer, and I opened up the house to let out the stink.
Five minutes later, everyone started arriving. How’s that for a fabulous way to welcome six guests to your house for lunch? :)
I don’t have many pictures, but we didn’t do anything amazing – played games, hung out around the house, went to Dairy Queen, and just had a nice at-home weekend with Kyle & Jessica. I’d thought about going to the pumpkin patch, but then realized we couldn’t fit everyone in our car! So much for that idea! As it was, we had to take two cars to Dairy Queen & church!
We “returned” Kyle & Jess on Sunday night (again using 2 cars) by meeting halfway at McDonalds. This was SO nice…Kyle & Jess kept our boys at McDonalds play place for dinner while the adults (& Jensyn) went to the pizza place next door. That’s a nice benefit to having older nephews & nieces! :)
We had a fun weekend with the kids, even though we wish they could have stayed longer & we could have done a bit more!
P.S. We’re getting a new clothes dryer tomorrow! ;)
