Princess Baby Is Wigging me OUT!

I've written many times about how Mr. Boy loves letters and words and sounding things out. And how we have the Leapfrog ABC magnet set.

Mr. Boy has loved to bring us the letters for months telling us what they are and what they sound like.

A couple weeks ago, when Princess Baby started talking a lot, she started carrying around letter magnets and calling them all "D's" because that is a letter she apparently liked.

Tonight after work I was distractedly talking to the sitter before she left and Princess Baby came up to me and handed me a letter and said K. It was a K! So I think, must be a fluke, or Mr. Boy told her. But no, in the course of the next hour, she brought me over a dozen different letters, all with the correct designation. Then I tested her further and sent her to find the N or the O and she brought back the right ones!

Princess Baby isn't just a pretty face, ya'll!

Mr. Boy on Animal Diets

Mr. Boy has a new library book with baby animals in it and on the last page there is a tiger cub and the final line says something about him playing hard and needing a snack. The following conversation ensued:

Mama: "What snacks does the tiger eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Tiger eats peanuts."
Mr. Boy then takes the book from me and starts paging back through to the other animals.
Mama: "What does the goat eat?" (The picture is of a lamb but Mr. Boy is obsessed with goats, so he has declared this particular goat-ish looking lamb a goat.)
Mr. Boy: "Goat eats smarshmallows (sic)."
Mama: "What does the Duck eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Duck eats duck food."
Mama: "What does the bunny eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Vegetables and pops. Bunny says pop."
Mama: "What does Mr. Boy eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Mr. Boy eats smarshmallows, peanuts, goldfish, and Mr. Boy no like vegetables."

Maybe Mr. Boy should change his name to Mr. Healthy??

Proud and a little sad

Today we took Mr. Boy to visit his new preschool. I'm so excited that he's nearly 3 and ready for 2 afternoons a week of big boy school. It's really great.

But I'm sad. My first little baby is growing so fast. He's so tall and smart and talks a blue streak. I cannot believe he's old enough for school. I know it is only pre-school, but here it is. I'm now a mom who has a class list. A mom who will have a kid invited to birthday parties or play dates (assuming he learns to socialize like I hope!). A mom who will talk about spring break and back to school clothes. A mom on the list to help with classroom parties.

This is the beginning of an era in parenting that will last in one form or another for 15 more years. And I thought the baby stage was lasting forever, but I am coming to terms with the fact that everybody saying 'they're only babies for a minute' is so true and suddenly I'm going to be sharing my sweet Mr. Boy with people from all over the place. First it'll be these few half days a month and the next thing I know he'll be borrowing my keys to drive himself to his own school and begging me NOT to attend a class party or social event.

For now I'm choosing to be very excited that Mr. Boy is a strong, healthy kid who is getting a great opportunity to go to a nice Christian pre-school where he'll meet more adults who teach him about love and respect and venture into the wonderful world of friends and learning.

And I'm also going to be secretly rejoicing that Princess Baby is an end-of-spring Birthday girl and won't be old enough for this particular pre-school for another year and a half!!

Raising Bookworms

As a mom who loves books, it is my hope that Mr. Boy and Princess Baby also learn to really love to read. I never hesitate to buy them books and taking them to story time is a favorite for me as well as the kids.

Story time is especially fun because of all the cool songs and rhymes. We read a couple books and then we get to do "Grand Old Duke of York," and "Head/Shoulders/Knees and Toes," "I Have a Blue Balloon," and the special clapping, hugging, waving bye song we do every week at the end. What has been neat is the fact that when Mr. Boy or Princess B are sad, we can cheer them up easily with a little Duke of York or Clapping song here at home, too.

Books the kids really love the most include: Skippyjon Jones board books, of course the Princess Baby and Princess Baby Night Night stories, one called Duck Dunks about duckies at the beach, Mr. Boy's Wonder Pets animal seek and find book, and our set of books featuring baby Sesame Street characters. We also have a great book of prayers for kids and three awesome picture Bibles.

For Christmas I have stowed away some books about farm animals and some Sandra Boynton specialties like The Belly Button Book and her ABC's book. Wouldn't be Christmas morning without some new books, right?

Belated Happy Halloween!

The kids enjoyed their first Kansas Halloween very much. They wore a cool pumpkin costume to their respective story times and then on the big day we went Trick-or Treating in Grammy and Papa's neighborhood with our special visitor from Western KS. It was so great to have Great-Granny R. here for a couple days so the kids could get to know her. The fact that it coincided with Halloween fun was just an added bonus. Our church also had a great fall festival night so after T or T-ing, we hit the church where the kids played games and got candy and had a blast.

Scunny School

Mr. Boy and Princess Baby are so blessed, they go to a church full of people that love them. Mr. Boy goes to kinder church, aka Sunday school for 2-5 year olds. They have snacks and sing songs, say prayers and learn Bible stories and how much Jesus loves them. It is so special. The teacher is a very nice lady named Miss Mary Lou and she even sends us cards and SS papers when we're absent. Princess Baby plays in the nursery and she has a nice lady named Grandma Lola who loves her babies and takes such wonderful care of them. Princess Baby has a little friend who is 2 weeks from her own birthday and they play with the baby dolls and hug them and take good care of them, learning from the best.

Mr. Boy likes to pray to Jesus, he folds his hands, squinches up his face (eyes are open, but he thinks they're closed) and he loves to say AAAAAAMEN!

Here they are all dressed for going to church.

Pumpkin picking!!

Yesterday the whole team celebrated fall with Grammy and Papa at Westside Market buying pumpkins. It was so fun. We got a nice big one and a little one for Papa to decorate with Mr. Boy and Princess Baby as well as two medium ones for the kids to decorate at home with Mama and Big J. It was very fun and put us in a delicious Halloween/fall mood!

Visiting Great Grandma

Mr. Boy and Princess Baby were able to go with Mama and Grammy last Thursday to visit Great-Grandma. She lives in assisted living and so it is challenging to keep the toddlers happy there, but they must know how much their Great Grandma adores them because they were super well-behaved and just as sweet as they could be. Mama was so proud.

Going to do better now!

Because I am now in possession of a working camera, keeping up with this blog will be more fun and way more easy!



Update on the Team:



Big J: He's enjoying his job, possesses a real life KS driver's license and is embracing his Midwestern status.



Mama: busy busy busy with work and loving the one-on-one time she's having with the kids on Big J's work nights



Mr. Boy: no luck potty training, but Mama doesn't care, has progressed from knowing all the letters in the alphabet and being able to identify the starting letter in each word he says to working on the letter combos--ch, st are his first two. Can count to 10 and knows every animal under the sun



Princess Baby: Much less baby than before, but she's a still our happy princess and the youngest, so the name stays! Almost 18 months old now, she's talking more and more, saying sentences like "read the book" and "get down now." She loves to steal toys from Mr. Boy and run squealing and laughing away from him. To his credit, Mr. Boy's not a hitter and expresses his outrage at her verbally only.

REALLY belated family update time

Mr. Boy and Princess Baby enjoying the summer, the farm, the zoo, and PB's 1st birthday.

Mama and Big J have been super busy enjoying summer with Mr. Boy and Princess Baby so we just now are putting an update on the old family blog.

Big J news: He started his new job this week. He's enjoying it, and we're adjusting to the schedule changes.

Mama news: not much, really. Working, playing, hanging out with the kids and family are the main priorities these days.

Mr. Boy news: much more interesting stuff!

He now knows his ABC's. He knows all the names of almost any animal you can see a picture of in a book or on a flashcard. He is currently obsessed with watching Kung Fu Panda and Babe. He talks non-stop and loves people. He remembers the names of everyone he meets, even after just one time and loves to talk about the people he knows. This summer he's been swimming, been to the big zoo in Salina, the great-grandparents' farm twice, a birthday party for his friend from church, a full 6 weeks of library story times, a puppet show at the library, and loves his life. Still ahead this summer for Mr. Boy is a week of VBS in August where he'll be in the 2 year old class and more fun in the sun!

Princess Baby news:

The little lady started walking the day before her 1st birthday, so she's been off and running for a little over 2 months now. She's still not a huge talker, but she says "hello," "milk," "mama," "dada," "go," "nonononono," and "duck." Sometimes she'll say something that sounds like book, too. She loves books and brings us books all the time, bouncing on her feet until we pick her up to read to her. She also attended 6 weeks of story time and enjoyed it a lot, too. She has also become quite a fixture in the church nursery, no longer wailing and crying all the time but having fun with the other kids and the nice lady Grandma Lola who watches over the kids. She also recently made a smooth transition from bottles to sippy cups without incident. No more Bottles for Bowlings!

Big J has news!

Big J had a job interview today and he got a great part time job!! We're so pleased to be blessed in this way. He'll be working 3-11 pm 3 days a week. It works great with our schedule and we'll be able to hire sitters for Mr. Boy and Princess Baby for a couple hours a day for Mama to finish up workdays.
Brilliant!
The job starts on July 6, too, so we're happy to keep Big J in vacation/Kansas Adapting mode for about 8 more weeks, too!
We already had a sample babysitter this afternoon during the interview and Miss G was a lovely girl who played great with the kiddos. She's got a sister so we're hoping it works out for Misses G and S to share the job come July. At any rate Mama and Big J are happy to have some sitters on the roster so we don't always have to pester G & G!

What Mr. Boy is learning right now

After Mr. Boy was able to learn over 40 states in his United States book, Mama realized that she should take advantage of this apparent gift of memory and retention and try to spend one-on-one time with him to help him learn some basics.

Mama's main focus lately has been colors, letters, big boy things, and a Bible memory verse.

Colors are going OK. Some colors he always gets right, like orange and yellow. He has a clear favorite in blue, however, because when randomly asked what color things are, "blue" is far and away the most popular answer. When he's on a roll, he knows K-State Purple, blue, pink, orange and yellow. But that requires focus and Mr. Boy is smart, but he's got the attention span of a gnat on speed.

For letters we're employing 3 different tools and it is working so well. In his Easter basket, Mr. Boy received the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics toy and he loves to carry around his letters and consistently identifies many of his favorites (J, X, W, U, P, O, T, A, E, M, and N) correctly. Mama also got lucky at a local 'next to new' sale and found a stuffed Leap toy that has a full alphabet keypad on it's tummy. Mr. Boy loves his talking frog that comes with many letter, number, and color games, plus it is personalized with a little computer in back--so the stories and songs feature his own name. Mama also got a box of Sesame Street ABC flashcards for Mr. Boy and he loves to snuggle in her lap and discuss what all his favorite characters are doing in the pictures. Then when the cartoon side of the cards are exhausted, he tolerates going over the bold faced letters on the back very nicely. Between the 3, success is at hand!

In the world of "big boy training," Mr. Boy is getting a soft sell on giving up his bottles and diapers. Mama is very reticent about potty training and Big J doesn't want a boy who won't sleep at night, so no aggressive stances have been taken, but the books "No More Diapers for Ducky" and "No More Bottles for Bunny" are big favorites to read over and over, so hopefully some of that message will sink in? The fabulous Frog toy also has a special Potty computer chip insert thing and so a lot of the songs and stories Frog tells Mr. Boy are big boy activity related. One big boy thing Mr. Boy is doing very well is helping pick up toys, throwing away trash, and bringing Princess Baby a toy now and then. He gets a lot of praise for his big brother and big boy helper accomplishments, and seems to puff up with pride at the compliments.

Our current Bible verse is "Children obey your parents." Mr. Boy is a good little boy but he's very, very curious and busy and has a bad habit of not listening very well. So we're really trying to impart the value of obedience to him. He's learning the ABC's and colors WAY faster than obedience, but that's OK, we still adore our curly-haired Mr. Boy!

Let's Roll!

Welcome to the newly founded Bowling Team Blog.

Since we left so many awesome pals back in VA, and we have so many relatives and friends, we thought we should make a blog to share what the Team is up to, share photos, update everyone on Mr. Boy and Princess Baby.

What we're doing now:

Big J is adjusting to life in the Midwest. He's finding his way around town, appreciating the lack of traffic, loving the new house setting with lots more room to roam, and hunting down the perfect part time job to fit our schedule and needs. He's also gearing up to teach music lessons in the fall once we have all our other important stuff organized.

Mama is getting used to living in KS again after 14 years away. So far it has been worth the stress and wear and tear of the move. Working in the transplanted Home Office, aka Desk in the Corner of the Bedroom picked up as seamlessly as we hoped it would--the work routine came together so well.

Mr. Boy is quickly adapting to his new home. He loves living so close to his grandparents, he runs around in the backyard whacking things with his baseball bats and giggling, and enjoying "Special Mama Time" aka Homeschool Preschool every night. At our new church Mr. Boy has a new friend, Noah, and he has been going to Children's Church eagerly. He loves his "class" as he calls it and even learned his first memory verse: "You are the Christ, son of the Living God."

Princess Baby is rapidly approaching her big 1st birthday on May 13 and she's just a lovely little lady already. She is sleeping all night every night now in her new room. It took about 2 weeks to adjust but she's doing beautifully now. Grandpa taught her to stand on her own and she's just dying to take off and walk. She loves to crawl around and explore, indoors and out. Indoors she comes around corners in the hallway or rooms and pops her head around with a big 4-tooth grin. Outside she tries to eat leaves and laughs at her bat-wielding brother.