4th of July Hair

I wasn't sure we were going to get it done tonight, as slow as it started, but she got a second wind after just barely starting to whimper at 8:00 when Elijah went to bed.

Here was the previous style - flat twists and double-stranded hanging twists:Here's what the twists looked like after 5 weeks. I forgot to take the photo until after I'd removed what was left of her snaps, and a few of the ruberbands had broken/disintigrated. It's not the best photo to show the fuzziness of a 5-week-old style, but it wasn't extremely fuzzy - I probably could have left it in another couple weeks if I'd wanted:It took me about 1 1/2 hours to remove the twists, comb out, and put in big chunky twists for a temporary style Saturday night, until I could start the new 'do.
I spent about two hours putting braids/beads in the back 1/3 of her hair on Sunday afternoon.Someone asked how we (both she and I) have the patience for this. Josephine has all sorts of fun pretending with the extra combs and clips - you'd be surprised the conversations the Mommy and baby clips and combs have! Sunday at one point she says, "Wook-it, Mom! I'm getting a fever!" She had a clip stuck in her arm-pit like a thermometer. We laughed so hard! I also will sometimes have her color or look at books, get out her Polly Pocket dolls which she rarely otherwise plays with, or get out snacks. Sunday we took a break for about a half-hour to run around outside the yard. This also gives my back/shoulders a break to stretch.Tonight I started on the front 2/3 of Josephine's hair almost as soon as we got home, around 5:15. I did it through her eating supper - remembered when I was almost finished that I'd not eaten supper! We finished a little after 9. She sat in her chair the entire time! After supper, Jock mowed the lawn, and he read a couple books to both Josephine and Elijah when he came back in. She started to whimper when Elijah headed upstairs to bed, but suddenly got her 2nd wind. She was a little more wiggly that last hour, but Daddy also gave her a piece of candy, and I stopped about every other braid to let her shake her beads, so that helped too. :)

Here's the finished product:Love this one - she LOVES to shake her head to make the beads click together. I will certainly be able to tell where she is at all times with this hair style!

Josephine's bedtime prayer is usually something like this:

"Dear God,
Thank you for my mommy.
Thank you for my Daddy.
Thank you for my Elijah and my Kaylen.
Thank you for Jesus.
Amen!"

(Although sometimes there's a smattering of the day's events mixed in, and sometimes she tells God a long story complete with every detail of the day's events.)

Tonight's prayers after her sitting still for 4 hours to finish the front half of her braids:

"Dear God,
Thank you for my mommy,
doing my hair.
My hair is pretty.
Thank you for my chair,
I sitting still really good.
Thank you for Daddy.
Thank you for Elijah & Kaylen.
Amen -- Thank you for Jesus,
Amen."

Melt my heart! I love doing her hair for her, and it's a great bonding exercise too!

"L" and "M"

We had all sorts of ideas for the letter "L". For foods, I have possibilities of Lettuce, Lasagne, and Lemonade. I'm not sure I'll make lasagne though. We all Love it, but I don't like to make it very often. A while ago, Kaylen announced that Leftovers would be good for "L" day, and I'm thinking that'd be good too! I have books about "Little Lamb" and "Library Lion".

There are Many options for "M" foods: Marshmallows, Milk, Mushrooms, Muffins, Macaroni & cheese, and melon. We'll probably listen to Music and watch a Movie, or maybe play a Matching game. I found books at the library called, "My Mom is Magic", "There Was An Old Monster", and "To Market, To Market". We'll probably also pull out our copies of "If you give a Mouse a cookie", "If you take a Mouse to the Movies", and "If you give a Moose a Muffin". Love those books!

That'll wrap up the first half of the alphabet before we take a break for the holiday weekend. Hopefully we'll have time for some review, as we went through F, G, H, I, J, K, L and M pretty quickly - and the last half of the alphabet will go fairly quickly as well.

Weekend Landscaping

We are FINALLY working on some landscaping around our house. One of our front beds was completely overgrown with weeds, including thistles. Actually it included the side of our house too, because it wraps around on that side. I didn't get any before pictures (thank goodness - too embarrassing!), but took some after the couple hours we spent on it tonight. The thistles are gone!

We found our rhubarb (they were newly planted last year, so have a few years to go to grow up better - and should do better now that they won't be choked out by the weeds)...and our hostas...and other shrubs.There's extra dirt here too, that we had been holding here because we had to dig out around our window well in the back of the house to fix a leak. Jock helped clear the weeds and then got to work digging out the excess dirt and using the wheel-barrow to cart it back to where it belongs.(Yes, I know, that window well cover needs a good scrubbing! That's on my list too - or maybe will give the kids that job. :)

I helped clear the weeds a bit then started raking up the mulch that was on the left side of the front of the house. It was half-composted and some spots were moldy, so it really needed to go. I'll get it shoveled out tomorrow. We also tore out our euonymous - they had been annoying us for quite some time.There weren't weeds on this side - the landscaping felt has been down there since we moved into the house, and has served us well. The other side we pulled up the sod a couple years ago and for some dumb reason we didn't put the landscaping felt down then. We're going to put it down this weekend, assuming we can get the excess dirt out of there and level it off before it starts raining - the plan is to get up early.

We've decided to put down rock instead of mulch this time. We just have to find a place that has the kind of rock we want, and get them to deliver it to us in a couple weeks. We have the beds pictured above to do, plus we want to rock around our three trees and another shrub on the front corner of the garage, so we'll need lots of rock.

"I", "J", "K"

For the letter "I", we don't have a whole lot for our menu. Maybe some Iceberg lettuce with Italian dressing. And of course, some Ice cream! We have two books about ice cream, one about an iguana, and we'll probably dig out our copy of the Berenstain Bears' "Inside, Outside, Upside Down."

Josephine has been asking when we could do the letter "J", so she'll be super-excited when it comes up this week! We've checked out books from the library called, "Jiggle Joggle Jee!" and "Jungle Gym Jitters", and we'll probably pull out our children's Bible for stories about Jesus, Jonah, and Joseph. We'll probably have Jam on our toast, with Juice for breakfast. Maybe I'll make some Jello Jigglers for a fun treat too. Saw a couple other suggestions for Jerky or maybe sloppy Joes. Hmmmm...

The letter "K" also does not leave much in the way of menu items either, but maybe Kiwi fruit and something with Ketchup on it??? Jock likes to make a kimchee dish that the kids think is fun because mommy doesn't eat it. Maybe I'll enlist his help for dinner this week! I've been trying to avoid the letter books at the library, but got one for "K", called, "My "k" Sound Book". It actually looks like it has a story line, not just words - don't know why I've been avoiding them! I also got, "Kiss, Kiss", and "Kitten's First Full Moon". We'll probably also talk about Kaylen's name starting with K. They already recognize this letter because of Kaylen's name. :)

ABC Summer Update

Let me say how awesome the alphabet summer has been for the kids so far. We've REALLY been enjoying reading so many books together! When I have a plan to read certain books on certain days, it's easier to keep up reading to the kids every day! Even with Kaylen having swimming lessons every day last week (and will again this week), we've been taking a bag with a few books to keep us busy. Sometimes it's hard to keep their attention with kids swimming there, but we've found a more quiet corner of the bleachers near the deep end to read our books.

I have been VERY impressed with how the kids are doing with their letter recognition. When we work every day at noticing certain letters on the pages of books, on signs as we're driving down the street, and other objects where ever we are, they are really noticing that there's a reason for those things we call letters!

The other day, Josephine found a random book on the book shelf in the play room, and brought it to me, saying, "Mommy, Mommy, look! I found letters!!!" She was so excited, almost surprised. She'd point and I'd ask, "Oh, yes, what letter is that?" She knew most of them. Her biggest issue right now is she's really mixing up the lower-case letters. She's not noticing the tiny details of the letters. She'll point to "a"s and "e"s and "g"s, like they're all the same. But I'm glad with the progress she's making in the upper-case letters. :)

Elijah has really surprised me this week. I think he's starting to get what some of the letter learning he did last year in a preschool room at daycare means. He is getting both the upper case and lower case. Tonight when we were reading "G" books, he was pointing all the "g"s - even if they were different fonts and looked a little different than the ones we practiced on paper. I think the only lower-case ones he's pointed out the wrong ones were when we did "b" and "d". But that's a pretty normal thing for 4- and 5-year-olds.

Both Elijah and Josephine are doing better with their coloring and with their letter-writing practicing. They're also learning to spell/write their names, since we try to write our names on each page they do. Josephine struggles with the coordination to do the letters, but she also pushes so hard with a crayon that she has trouble moving it freely, so we're trying to get her to write more gently with her crayon - and maybe will try pencils soon too. Elijah struggles a bit, but has surprised me with this as well. He's confused about how to spell his name though. Sometimes we let them try to write their names themselves, and sometimes we help them. The other day he told me his name was spelled, "E, A, O" - and that's exactly what he'd written on his paper. So funny! I think we've corrected it so he's starting to practice writing "E, L, I". We'll see how this goes. Today he told me, "My name, no 'O'. Only Josephine." :)

Coordinating the foods with the letters of the alphabet has been a lot of fun. Some letters we've struggled with or have had to get really creative with them, but that's OK.

Doing a letter about every two days isn't ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely giving them a good start to learning their letters. When their preschool curriculum starts in the fall, they'll be doing about one letter each week, so they're just getting a really quick overview for a head-start!

And not to leave Kaylen out, she's been reading a whole bunch as well! She's been loving our trips to the library. She got her own library card, and squeezed me REALLY hard when I helped her put a hold on a library book she's been wanting to check out for a few weeks now. So fun! Also, when the little kids are sitting at the table coloring or practicing their letter-writing, she's been working on math worksheets that I printed for her. She's not all that excited about the math, but I've told her that her teachers will be happy that she's worked some on her math during the summer. I also just tonight heard a learning center owner talking on the radio about just how much students lose over the summer in their reading and math skills, and shared that with her - she actually seemed to switch her tone to kind of proud of herself that she's working on stuff during the summer. :)

This Weekend

We are looking forward to this weekend. We've been so busy the last two weekends with a soccer tournament and Dam to Dam. Jock and I have had to divide and conquer to get to the things we had going on.

The same has gone for this week. Kaylen's had swimming lessons M-Th evenings, so we haven't so much as had a meal all together until tonight. Last night after Kaylen's swimming lesson, I took Kaylen to the last half-hour of soccer practice, then all the kids to the library to pick out books for the next two weeks and get their reading logs stamped for the summer reading program. It was 8:30 when we got home so no family time last night either!

We'll probably still be busy this weekend - that never seems to end - but we'll be home or going places TOGETHER, and that'll be nice! Saturday we have Elijah & Josephine's last Blastball game of the season. Sunday morning we have church, and late Sunday afternoon we have a get-together with Jock's dad & brothers for Father's Day. Looking forward to those things.

Other than that, we'll have time to get some things done around home. If the weather holds out, we might even be able to finish planting my garden -- after all, "G" is for Garden! Jock may work on some landscaping beds that need some work, or do some more work on the swing set. We can all catch up on some sleep too - much needed after being awakened two nights in a row this week by thunderstorms and one VERY SCARED little girl.

And on that note... I'm heading to bed - as the weatherman just forecasted that there's a chance for isolated thunderstorms every night for the next several nights! Maybe we'll be gardening in the humidity and mud, on very little sleep. Ugh! We need a few more dry days!

Elijah's Behavior

So, Elijah's been having behavior problems at daycare. He'd been having them for quite some time. We'd been talking to him about them every night, talking about what he should do instead, etc., but we haven't been able to get a handle on them.

He moved to a different preschool classroom at daycare right after Memorial Day. It's a more formal preschool classroom, and a little bigger than his previous class was. We figured for the first week or so he was adjusting, feeling out his boundaries, how far he could push, etc... But it extended beyond the first couple weeks, and then started becoming more of a problem.

Behaviors like:
* Running away from teachers when it's time to line up after recess.
* Pushing friends when in line.
* Hitting/kicking friends.
* Throwing/breaking toys.
* Not sitting still/listening at group time. Then when removed from group time, throws a fit with teacher (hitting/kicking/attempting to bite).
* Jumping/noisy on cot at naptime.
* Not helping pick up toys when asked.
* General disobedience/not listening to teachers.

None of these are huge problems themselves, but all these things were really adding up and becoming a much bigger problem. It seemed after a couple weeks in the classroom, they were actually getting worse.

We got a call from daycare last Friday regarding Elijah's behavior. Saturday I was with Kaylen at soccer games most of the day, so he was with Daddy and Josephine. He had behavior problems with Daddy at his blastball game, and at home. Sunday he was pretty well behaved, but I think he tends to behave better with me than Daddy for some reason.

Monday I got another call from his daycare teacher. We chatted a bit about a smiley-face/sad-face chart they were using for him daily. He got either the smiley face or the sad face for each activity or hour. It was a carry-over from his previous classroom, and we agreed that it wasn't helpful - he simply didn't care about what faces he got circled.

We both talked about what we could do that might motivate him. Daycare was going to start using their "Being caught good" jar, where he gets a popsicle stick and when the jar's full, he gets to play with a big box of toys that only gets played with when the jar is filled. I don't think this will be a big motivating factor initially, because I don't think he'll totally understand it up front. But it's a start.

Monday afternoon, I picked up the kids early for dental appointments. We went home and spiffed up the house for a meeting we had later that evening, ate a quick bite then took Kaylen to her swimming lesson. When we got home, the kids played while Jock and I had our meeting. While the girls played the Wii and a computer game, we had decided that Elijah couldn't watch TV or play computer since he made poor choices at daycare. He cried for a bit, but went on, playing with his tractors/cars. When he and Josephine got bored but we were still in our meeting, we got out their crayons for them - but Elijah proceeded to color and stick stickers on the dining room table, which he KNOWS is not allowed. We figured he was mad and paying us back for not letting him play Wii/Computer. Grrrr...

Tuesday, Jock got a call from daycare regarding Elijah's behaviors. Ugh! (But glad they called, because we want to know what he's doing so we can try to address at home.) That evening, when I picked up the kids, we went straight to Kaylen's swimming lesson, and Jock had supper ready when we got home. Jock also had brought a few extra cookies home from work, but we talked and decided he wasn't going to get one. He ate his supper fairly quickly (because he was hoping for a cookie), but then we sent him to clean up the mess on the dining room table he'd made the night before. After it was cleaned up, it was bedtime for all the kids. He cried himself to sleep, over not getting the cookie, and not having playtime after supper like the girls got.

Today, neither Jock nor I got a call from daycare regarding Elijah's behaviors! When I get to daycare, he's usually playing outside, but I go through his classroom on the way out to get his papers, including the one the teacher fills out about what they did that day. At the top of the page, she wrote, "Elijah had an excellent morning - good listening & helped pick up without being asked!" The teacher almost hugged me when I got outside.

We made a BIG deal about his good behavior - praising him multiple times, etc. When we got in the car, he immediately asked me if he could watch a movie, and when we stopped in at home to get Kaylen's swim suit, he immediately asked for the cookie. He got a big smile on his face when I told him he could have a cookie after supper. I let him pick out the movie to watch in the van on the way to the swimming lesson. After we got home from Kaylen's swimming lesson, we had supper, which included he and Josephine splitting the one remaining cookie, and also getting a piece of candy from the bowl (because Kaylen chose candy over 1/3 of the cookie, so he thought he was entitled too :). It was a nice night, and I'm so glad that we may have turned the corner.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we're done with this year. I totally expect him to misbehave again about every other day until he gets that we're not going to back down after one good day. But hopefully soon we'll be to a point where we're having mostly good days.

"F", "G", "H"

For our "F" days, we're planning to have Frosted Flakes for breakfast. We'll have Fish, French Fries, and Fruit For supper. Jock thinks we should have some Fun. We usually do, but I'm not sure how much Fun we'll have time For, running back and Forth From swimming lessons, but we'll see. We'll read books about FireFighters, Flowers, and Frogs.

Going on to "G", we're planning to have Goulash for supper, along with some Green beans, Garlic bread, and Grapes. We'll also try to Get some books about Glasses, Grandparents, Giggles, and Growing a Garden. And who knows... perhaps it will stop raining a couple inches every other day, and we can actually Get the rest of our Garden planted!

How do you celebrate the letter "H"? With a picnic of Hamburgers and Hot dogs or Ham sandwiches, along with Hashbrowns and Honeydew melon - and maybe some Honeycomb cereal for breakfast. We'll read books about Honey, Hugs, and Haiti. Looking forward to this one - maybe even a History/geography lesson for my oldest who thinks she's too big for this alphabet stuff. :)

Now, if only I can Find time to Get to the library and Hunt for these books. The kids need their summer reading program log cards checked off at the library as well, and Kaylen needs a new batch of books to read. I think she's read each of the 6 she checked out two weeks ago at least twice now.

"E"

Enchiladas were on the menu for our letter E days. I also made an Egg caserole, but I don't think the kids ate any of it. Elijah & Josephine aren't big fans of Eggs, and Kaylen turned her nose up at the onions I put into it. We read books about Elmer the Elephant, Ears & Eyes, and Eggs.

That's about all we had time for, as we were pretty busy those couple days. This is one of our easier letters though. Both Elijah & Josephine already recognized the upper case "E", and now Elijah's really good at recognizing lower case "e" too. Josephine can find them, but she also points out the lower case "a". I guess maybe they do look a little similar?

We took a break this weekend, because of the soccer tournament. We did do a little review, and played catch-up on some books that we'd missed along the way.

This week we move on to "F", "G", and "H".

Blog Updates

I'm working on updates to my blog, so that's why I moved Elijah & Josephine's Adoption Timeline to a blog post from my sidebar.

More blog changes to come. Stay tuned. :)