Wordless Wednesday

Natalie Pics

I thought I'd post a few recent pictures of Natalie - I was just thinking of how if I had a friend who lived far way and had a baby and hardly ever got around to posting pictures, I'd be really glad to see pictures of the baby - honestly that is the ONE thing that keeps me on Facebook: people keep having babies and I keep thinking, well I want to see her baby, I have to keep checking it. And in the meantime I find out 10,000 things I never cared if I knew...

I digress...

So here is my baby - she is almost 8 months old. Not crawling yet, but she is starting to seem discontent at being stationary. She can sort of move herself around by laying on her back and pushing her rear up with her legs and that motion moves her some, but not always toward the toy she is aiming for! Still it is funny and fun to think what is going through her mind that she would do it that way. She also likes to stand up and is reluctant to sit down when I sit her on the floor! She babbles nearly all day long and *I think* will talk for real earlier than the bigs did. She certainly has plenty of people giving her opportunity to practice!

Her hair is coming in thicker and even more I notice every redhead and wonder what her hair will be like. People frequently ask me "Where did she get the red hair?" I'm never sure how to answer, because I don't know if they mean, "Is your husband a redhead?" or if they really want to know that red hair genes have to come from both sides of your family if your hair is going to be red.






By the way, if you are one of my FB friends, I don't mean to say that I don't care about what is going on with you, I do. I like blogs better. I like in person better. I am sure the majority of Facebook members have some FB friends who they aren't that interested in either.

Honest Mistake

We have been marking a calendar this year and each morning the "kitchen helper" is also gets to x out the previous day. We've been doing it for about a month, so earlier this month, I sent Annalise to the calendar with the marker to mark it on her own. It was the 4th, so she had to x the 3rd. I figured being 3 and knowing what 3 looks like and seeing that we x the next day each time, she wouldn't need my help.

I do think she made a nice x :)

I have been thinking, I have tried in the past to change the layout of my blog (it has had this design since day 1), but I can't seem to change the settings and have fiddled with the sidebar and various tickers so that there is this blank at the top that I can't get rid of. So maybe I will create a new blog and just link to this old one. I'll let you know ;)

Table Talk

I posted all the things I accomplished in January, but Rob's big home project was transforming our 4x4 table into a 4x6 with plenty of room for Natalie or dinner visitors:
He built a table leaf with a couple of boards from Home Depot. The top layer is nicer wood than the bottom layer.

He also replaced the pegs, he made new ones out of a dowel rod:

Then he stained it and coated it with polyurethane:

And we both think the end result is nicer than either end!
The top is very smooth, on 3 of the four corners, the leaf is perfectly flush with the original table top. On one corner, there is a tiny ridge.

Sometimes, being on a budget is such satisfying fun :)

Teaser

Can you (those of you who don't already know i.e. our parents) spot what is new and different about our dining room?

Special Rock

Have you ever found yourself "in charge" of a group of kids that you need to occupy for 5 to 10 minutes? This happens often at PEP because the classes have a 10 minute break between each one and in Caleb's class, the kids do not leave their classroom, they just wait for the next teacher. Can you imagine the mischief five 5 year old boys and six 5 year old girls can get into in that small amount of time! wow, well I was in the situation often when I worked as a substitute teacher. The solution I used most often was to play a simple game. The game needs to
a. have rules that need almost no explanation
b. generate no winner or loser(s)
c. require no equipment
Folks, the game you are looking for is Special Rock.

I learned about Special Rock at PEP when one of the teachers used it for this exact purpose. This game is perfect because you can play it with the kids, or if one kid knows how to play, you can just tell the kids "Go play Special Rock" It is awesome.

One kid or adult calls out "Special Rock Special Rock!" And all the kids crouch down on the floor and pretend to be a rock. Then the caller says, "Become a dog" or a giraffe or a butterfly or a lion, a parakeet, an earthworm, a hippopotamus, a snail, a bee, a sloth, whatever and all the kids get up and pretend to be a dog, etc. They mill around for a few seconds and the caller again calls "Special Rock Special Rock!" Down they all go. The caller calls out a different animal and the game can repeat as long as necessary. If a couple of kids don't want to play, you can have multiple callers or just let them watch, that's fun too. It works with a group of kids, it works with a couple of kids. We sometimes play it at home. I've seen Caleb play it with just Annalise. Aaaaaaand, we have learned how to play it in Spanish! I found it is great for reviewing animal names and a few other inanimate vocabulary words (kids can pretend to become a car or a door too). In Spanish, you say "Piedra Especial!" and "Pretende ser un/una...." In short, it is such a useful and fun game, that the next time you are surrounded by a mob of kindergartners, I hope you remember I told you about it.

In Which I Toot My Own Horn

February finds me feeling a bit bedraggled and tempted to think I can get nothing done, but in looking back over January, I actually accomplished quite a lot.

I made this:Rob, for the longest time, would not part with a ratty pair of jeans. It was so worn and torn we nicknamed it "The Holey of Hole-ies". He got two new pairs recently and The Holey of Hole-ies had to move on. But never fear, it lives on...I saw a tutorial online for making a braided coaster and was inspired. This is bigger than a coaster - so it's a hot pad.

I learned how to make cinnamon swirl pancakes:


I made a hanging art organizer:


I built two raised garden beds:

And yes, I built them, they are not perfect, but I think they will do. That is, if the plants do not grow well, I don't think it will be the beds fault.

I also increased my Spanish vocabulary by 150-200 words and finished reading The Lord of the Rings. My lantana is blooming and Natalie has 2 teeth.

I will not be posting a companion post regarding my failures of the last month!

Art on Groundhog Day

Caleb wanted to do the same Groundhog Day craft we made last year, but I found a new idea online:
This is super easy and, I thought, pretty clever. Basically you draw or trace a heart, then turn your paper sideways and draw a line through it. I think the rest is clear from the picture.

Here is Caleb's. He was so unhappy with it, he insisted he make a second one, but I thought his first one (this one) looked better:

Annalise wouldn't try to make one, she preferred to color instead. It has started bothering her to get out of the lines, but she has had a hard time staying in them. Today, I think she did a pretty good job :)


She also was in a drawing mood today - she drew 3 pictures of Natalie (using 3 different mediums - crayon on paper, chalk on concrete, and stick on dirt) and this octopus, I like it a lot!

Wordless Wednesday