More pictures

School Room

I hate my house (okay not really hate but dislike) but I LOVE my school room.  Anytime I dream of moving I think of how much I'd miss it.  Anyway it's been a work in progress this past year but I think it's finally complete for the most part.  There's not anymore space to add anything else and I can't think of anything we'd need anyway.  So here's some updated photos.

The kitchen area.  The kids love playing kitchen and it's in the room but back enough that Phoebe can play while I teach and not distrub the others.





Their table and the board (which really hasn't changed except for all the coloring Phoebe did on it.)





And the awesome rug Corey's parents got us, we love it.



The rest is still the same from the last time I posted pictures.

Snow

I thought dressing three kids to go play in the snow was a chore last year, dressing four is even more fun.  Yesterday we woke up to snow and the kids wanted to go play and I agreed.  So we pulled out our snow stuff...

• 5 snow pants/suits
• 4 jackets
• 3 hats
• 4 sets of gloves/mittens
• 4 pairs of boots

and out we went.  Well first I had to get a picture, by this point Hazel was beyond pissed and trying to have Bella hold her only made it worse



And this one so you can actually see Hazel's "save me" face



For a second I really thought about throwing in the towel before even going out, but I couldn't so I continued.  Hazel was fine if I held her but seeing as I needed to shovel the driveway I had to figure something out for her.  All the strollers were in the van so I pulled out John's old carseat and put her in it.  It worked great, she was completely content to sit there and watch.


Then we come to the real reason I hate taking the kids out in the snow, coming back inside.  All that stuff we put on at the beginning is now wet and needs to dry.  So the options are getting the carpet all wet, or trying to get everyone inside and changed on the tile in front of the door (a 4 square foot area.)  If we had a real entry way it'd be so much easier.

Hazel 10 (almost 11) months

I haven't taken any good pictures in awhile now, with it being winter and all (dark and ugly.)  Today I decided to give it a try, it was a very impromptu shoot taken right as Hazel woke up from her nap but it went pretty good.  She was quite happy.

I love how she smiles when she's really happy, it's her gummy crooked smile



















And this one just because it's funny



Next on my to-do list is getting a new picture of all 4 kids together, it's been way too long.  Though I don't know how much luck I'll have considering Hazel doesn't like being held by her siblings.

Cat

Back in November/December I made a lot of trips to Joann to buy craft stuff for Christmas.  On one early trip Phoebe found this little cat stuffed animal and decided she liked it.  When she had to put it back to leave she cried like we had abandoned her lovey of many years.  From that moment on every trip to Joann she managed to find the cat and get attatched again.  Eventually I bought it for her and she continues to love it (and still manages to find one everytime we go there.)  She named it "Cat" of course.

She's always loved stuffed animals and I had thought about taking her to Build-a-Bear last year but never did.  John and Bella both went and got stuffed animals there when I was pregnant with Phoebe.  So on Saturday I thought about her love of her cat and thought it would be a perfect time for Build-a-Bear and she could get a big cat.

She was a bit confused by the empty animal at first and then she was quite scared of the machine that stuffs it, but as soon as they held up that cat all stuffed she grabbed it and was in love.  She didn't want any clothes for Cat so we got a carrier instead, which is great for trips to the store when she won't leave Cat behind.

Oh and leaving the store they put your animal in one of those boxes, the box is almost as big as Phoebe is and she insisted on carrying it out of the mall by herself.  We got a few comments on it, I love it though she has that toddler independence that John and Bella never really had.

First dentist trip

Yesterday John and Bella had their first trip to the dentist.  They loved it and did great.  We went to a pediatric dentist and it was super kid friendly.  They have TVs on the ceiling and headphones for the kids to watch movies.  Bella got to watch How to Train Your Dragon (one of her favorite movies) and John watched Toy Story 3.  Both have great teeth and no cavities.





I made an appointment for Phoebe and Hazel to go next month.  I have a feeling Phoebe won't be nearly as well behaved.  She doesn't let anyone go looking around her mouth.

The moments I never want to forget

If I could freeze time I'd keep Phoebe this age forever.  This exact age, it's just so perfect.  And I hate how camera never quite captures what it is that I love so much, and even more how as soon as I pick up the camera she stops.  Tonight she was watching Elmo and dancing and I managed to get a video without her stopping.  And it's exactly the way I want to remember it.  Because the memories fade so fast.  I'm going to try for another one tomorrow when there's better lighting.

I also love how you can hear her repeat the last word of every sentence.

First spelling test

Phoebe's Dictionary

So a few years ago I started a dictionary on how John and Bella say things, and then I updated later.  It can be found here.  So Phoebe is finally talking enough now to have her own.  I LOVE the way little kids say things, and there's some I get really sad to see go when they finally learn how to properly pronounce them.

John - Non
Bella - Wawa which is starting to become Bawa
Phoebe - Beebs (because we call her Pheebs)
hungry - honey
Elmo - Melmo
Cookie Monster - Cookie Ha
Loveseat - Daddy's couch
socks - gox
Juice box - juice gox
boots - doots
jacket - gacket
nakey - gakey
I don't know - I no-no

I think that's everything she says.  She's starting to use a lot more sentences but is still pretty hard to understand.  Hungry is her new word and she uses it constantly (as she always wants to eat.)  She'll march up and announce "Beebs honey!"  And if Hazel cries she says "Baby honey."  That and "Mommy, I juice gox!"  She asks for a juice box easily 30+ times a day.  It's the first thing she wants in the morning (and of course doesn't get) and even when she gets one she'll ask for more within 10 minutes of finishing

Shorts

I finished John's shorts and don't have any desire to knit anymore that size.  I have a short attention span and don't like large projects.  I was so ready to be done with them halfway through.  I'll stick with Phoebe and Hazel since theirs don't take nearly as long.  I also just finished up another pair for Phoebe with the yarn I dyed last week.

Phoebe's


She insisted on wearing Hazel's like a hat




And John's.  I think the fit is a little girly but he loves them so I'm not saying anything.  Then again I guess the way he's standing doesn't help much.

School

I figure a school update is long overdue.  We took a pretty long holiday break which was nice.  And now we're back into it, getting everything finished so that we can fully enjoy our summer this year.  I can't wait for warm weather and spending all day outside.

So today Bella finished up level one of her Hooked on Phonics.  She got off to a very slow start.  For each lesson they say don't move on till they have mastered the lesson.  Well we spent weeks on the first 3 lessons and for awhile it felt like we'd never get anywhere.  Finally it clicked and she was moving through them quickly and remembering what she learned.



She can now read all of these books


And here's a video of her reading one of the small ones.  This was the first time she read it.



This is the big book they read at the end of the level.  I got a video are her reading it for the first time but it's long and she went pretty slow so the video ended up being 8 minutes long.  I don't think I'll be posting that.




I'm not really doing phonics with John right now.  He wants to learn but is still majorly guessing with all the words.  He sees one letter and then randomly guesses any word that contains that one letter.  So "sat" will be "tap" and "can" will be "nap."  And still his attention span is so small.  I think I'm going to work with him more on phonics this summer so that all he has to do is work on that for a few minutes and that's it.  Not in the middle of all the other subjects.  Hopefully that will help some.  And as much as I like the Hooked on Phonics program he might need something else, we'll see.

He is loving math though right now.  So he's been doing lots of that.  The math books I got them from the dollar section at Target are a big hit.  I like them because they can do them by themselves without me helping.  With our regular math lessons I have to sit down and teach them, and with those we haven't really gotten to adding numbers yet (just patterns and shapes etc.) so they love to sit and add with their books.


And now that Hazel is crawling it's even harder to get things done.  Before she just layed on the blanket pretty happy.  Now she into everything like Phoebe.  It's a bit crazy.





And this last one is kind of old, but Bella wanted to learn to write her name in "curly" letters.  So I taught her.  She thinks you can't buy things at the store if you don't know how to write you name this way.

At this age

One of my favorite things to do is look at old pictures of the kids and compare them each other at each age.  Mostly I look at the age of the youngest and see what the others looked like at that age.  Anytime I come across old pictures I'm amazed at how similar they look.  But like when I put a picture of Hazel and a picture of Bella as a baby together I don't see it as much, but just a picture of Bella and I see what Hazel looks like now.  It's weird, the camera doesn't fully capture it.

Anyway so here's a picture of each kid at 10 months.  I think Hazel looks most like Bella, and always has to me. And Phoebe is by far the least like the others. I'm still shocked looking back just how much hair she really had. In the picture here she'd already had two haircuts.

Pacifiers

None of my kids have taken pacifiers, at least not more than a couple times at most.  And I tried really hard with each of them to get them "hooked."  None would take it though, but three have been (well actually still are) thumb suckers.

So anyway with all I bought a lot of pacifiers, every type on the market and they are all over my house.  The kids mostly made chew toys out of them and as they got older used them to pretend to be a baby while playing.  Anyway several times now we've found Hazel with her thumb stuck in a Soothie.  It's the perfect fit and it doesn't seem to bother her at all, in fact I think it's easier to chew on that way.



And now for my confession.  I've always hated when people call them pacis or binky, drives me nuts (especially before I had kids.)  What do I call them now, a sucky.  Which is most definitely more stupid than paci and binky but I can't help it, it just came out and stuck.  Good thing my kids don't take them regularly or people might actually hear me call them that.