Board Books

I love books.  When I was a child I loved Scholastic book orders, book fairs, book stores, and the library.  When I got to college, I got the opportunity to study children's literature there too.  I don't have nearly as much time to devote to reading (for myself) as I once did, but now I get to share great books with the littles (and not so littles--as Kate will be eight (!) in a week).  We've read some great classics in the past couple of years, but now we get to pull out some of those fun board books again.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Guess How Much I Love You is a sweet little book in which the parent always loves the child more.  It is the first book I remember Justin reading to the kids--

he also read Kate a lot of chemistry journal articles as a baby, but this is a little sweeter.  He'd lay on his back next to her in the floor and hold the book above them to read it.

Horns to Toes and in Between is a fun book.  It teaches body parts, I suppose, but it is so funny that you wouldn't know it.  And, unless your a monster, I guess most of us don't really have the tails that are described in the book either.  The children love that there are instructions to tickle them in the book.  Sandra Boynton is a favorite author here.

Moo, Baa, La La La! is another Boynton book.  It is full of animal sounds and more silliness.

Prayer for a Child is my absolute favorite.  I believe that it was in the church nursery when I was little because it seemed vaguely familiar to me when I read it when I was in college, as part of one of those literature classes.  It is simple and sweet and has the most darling illustrations.  We read it to

Kate every night for about a year.

In the Waiting

I know a lot of women get really upset that they continue their pregnancies past their due dates.  I have to say, I'm not phased, of course I've done it with the three before!  I have my moments when I'm ready to be finished, but for the most part I am just thankful.  I'm thankful that baby is healthy and so am I.  I am grateful that my discomforts are very minor.  I am choosing to be glad of each night of (relatively) unbroken sleep I'm getting and every day we're getting in of school before we have another little person who needs my attention.  I'm looking forward to meeting our little gal face to face, but until she's ready to show herself, I'll try to be thankful for these last few hours and days.

For the Oldest and the Youngest

From earlier in the month:

Kate: Did you know it was Old People's Day?

Me: You mean Respect for the Aged Day? (I had noticed the holiday on my calendar, but had not noticed the date..)

Kate: Yeah, so PawPaw went to the grocery and saved 10%.

Me: Oh, that's Senior Citizen's day at the store.

Kate: No.  They called it Old People's Day.

Okay then...Happy Respect for the Aged Day!  And Happy Due Date baby!

Friday Funnies

Gabby: Kate wants to eat snails at her wedding.  I want McDonald's.

My Helpers

Shortly after Gabby was born I started having trouble with sciatica.  It was debilitating for quite awhile.  Eventually, I was able to get past the pain.  I've had a few issues with it since then, but they have been minor.  This past week I over did--I did my typical Friday vacuuming and bathroom cleaning, and then I scrubbed and waxed the wood floors on Saturday.  By Sunday, I was having trouble getting into and out of chairs and even walking.

I was afraid that I was in for a long painful end of this pregnancy, not to mention trying to figure out how to get through labor when you can't sit, stand, or walk comfortably even without contractions.  I had noticed that the pain was much worse when I bent or twisted, so Monday as I went about my day, when I came to anything that required bending I asked the munchkins to help.  They handed me the plates from the dish washer, put the dry laundry into a basket for me, picked up the items from the lowest shelves at the store, and helped haul the groceries up the stairs into the house.

I adore babies and can't wait to hold a little bitty in my arms again, but I am thankful for my big helpers too.  The help they gave let my body heal and now I feel much better.

State of the School

While some places started school last week, we are 65 days in.  The year has been chugging along.  We're approaching the halfway point in our history book and 40% in our science and writing courses. Both girls are in the second semester books for their math classes.  We tend to stay a bit ahead in those because the first books are a little shy of the 180 days in our year and they often did an extra page here and there in the beginning because the lessons were short and the girls were excited.  Kate's spelling is perpetual in Spelling Power until she finishes the book (probably around middle school).  She's a third of the way through her vocabulary an half way through her grammar.  Gabby's reading has improved a great deal this year too.  We're enjoying hearing her read aloud to us, herself, and Nate.

We are just about where I was hoping to be.  I'm trying to be realistic about our days once the little one arrives.  I figure that we may need slightly less structure for a bit and spend more time reading in the living room, which will be a nice change of pace after we take off the rest of September (after the birth day) and at least the entire month of October from regular schooling.

I also thought I would mention Kate's cursive handwriting, since we've struggled with it, and I mentioned that even Handwriting Without Tears produced tears.  She is liking the book now and is more confident in her abilities.  It was definitely a change for the better for her.  It is much simpler that any cursive I learned (I learned three different styles because I was in teacher education in college), but the author pointed out that if the student learns the basic structure the loops can be added easily later.  Currently her cursive is more legible than her print.  Hopefully that will continue and she can make the switch so her writing is easier to read.

The timer has become my friend lately.  As Kate is getting increasingly older, I want her to work independently on practice tasks in a timely manner, even when I leave the room.  I found that she works much more efficiently if she knows that she will be leaving a subject and moving on if I do that.  The consequence was always the same, that she didn't get as much free time at the end of the day, but I think that she makes the choice more consciously this way.

Friday Funny

Nate (after we had breakfast for dinner): Do we have dessert?

Me: No, but you had jam on you toast.  Isn't that like dessert?

Nate: No.  It is not.