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!