commitment - whatever happened to it?

Okay, so Timmy's baseball team took first place in the regular season. Wednesday was the first game of a 3 game playoff series. There is a boy on the team that I've only met once. Timmy said this boy never comes to any games because he signed up for something else. In fact the only time I've ever seen this boy was at a game where he and Timmy each got a blizzard from the coach because of something they did at the practice that weekend before. Said boy has played in about 2 -3 games out of 16 regular season and he still gets a trophy. Then his mom tells the coaches last night that he'll be at all the games this weekend. Why? Because there is another trophy involved? They paid the money for him to be in the league. Then they are never there. To me that's teaching your kid that it's okay to quit in the middle (well not even the middle) of something, and that it's okay to back out on your commitments. I think that integrity is something to be valued and we need to instill this in our kids. If they've committed to something then they need to fulfill that commitment. Timmy joined flag football when he was in first grade. He ended up not wanting to play and he'd sit on the sidelines or stand there out in the field in a daze. When game day came he didn't want to go but we told him that he signed up and committed to this team and he can't quit now. If he doesn't like it, he'll never have to sign up again. So we went to every game and stuck it out until the end of the season. Turns out he doesn't like football and has no interest in signing up again, which is fine with me.

Chicken nuggets

I just love the way Kenan says "chicken nuggets". It's adorable! When Timmy was younger I loved the way he said cold and cookie. His first big word when he started talking was applejuice. If he couldn't get it out right, he'd start over and over and over until he could say the word correctly before moving on to the rest of what he wanted to say. Both Timmy and Kenan started talking when they were about 2 1/2. I'm guessing that this fall/winter is when Micah will really start picking up on the words. By talking, I mean saying things that aren't mama, ball, papa, nana! He can say down and done. He also say moon and balloon but I think only we understand it. I was just talking about this yesterday with my sister. How Lucy talks to her and no one else, not even her daddy. Her daddy thinks that Sarah is making all the talking up, until she made him go stand in the hallway and listen to Lucy to talk to Sarah. She did. I told Sarah she never talks to me either, but maybe she's been talking and chattering all along and I just don't understand it because she's not my kid. I remember when Hannah was a toddler and starting to talk. Her daddy and I could understand every word very clearly, but when we were out and she'd say something people were like "what did she just say?" I'd translate, all the while I'm thinking "how could they not understand that?!" Then I came across a toddler that belonged to someone else and all of a sudden I couldn't understand a word she said and I looked to the mom for translation. So, maybe Lu bear is talking to me and I just don't know it. I could've swore she said something like "see the big shoe" yesterday. :)

I just love hearing these little ones talk and express themselves in new ways!

Yikes!

Lately I've been trying to catch up on years of scrapbooking. I'm very behind but that's okay. I'd like catch up on Hannah's birthdays 6-8 this weekend if I can. Like I said I'm very behind. Anyway I needed some supplies and went to Michaels to get some. I did that came home and instead of scrapbooking I cleaned the laundry room. Usually the top of our Dryer gathers everything that we doesn't have a home, or we are too lazy to put away at the moment. It was beginning to pile up so high that there was strategy involved in putting stuff on the top. Anyway the laundry room is tidy now. Of course it's not my dream laundry room, but at least it's tidy, stuff has a home and we can walk through it without tripping over something.

Hubby took to finishing up his chore of cleaning the window wells today. Over the past few years he's been in school. So between that and family and relaxing time we just put off some of the unimportant maintenance of the home. Actually I guess it's all important. Anyway...cleaning the window wells was just one of those things that never got done. We also bought some rock to put at the bottoms of them so the dirt doesn't fly up onto the windows and get the so dirty so quickly.

I'm also in the process of starting a different blog. I'd like one that is more organized and lovely looking. Something clean and simple, yet fun. Right now I'm messing around with wordpress and a different blogger layout. Stay tuned...

Learning letters

So my latest undertaking is to prepare our 5 year old for Kindergarten. He is smart as a whip and comes up with deep and creative thoughts. He is very outgoing and social and has no problem making friends. He has a wonderfully creative imagination and can entertain himself for hours. As far as the academic stuff goes (you know - reading, writing, arithmetic) he has it in him just waiting to come out. It's in there. We know it is. We just need to find the "on switch." That thing that makes it all click. We know that he will get it and kindergarten is the place for that. Kindergarten has changed so much since I was a kid. I remember learning about sharing, playing in the sand table, coloring at the tables and doing paper mache'.

We went to the kindergarten information meeting and they would like kids to know how to write their name before they come to school. That's fine. Kenan is progressing and learning. But the fact that I'm mom, and he is very independant makes for a struggle at times. Then since it's no going how I envision, I worry and think to myself, maybe we are making the wrong decision. But slowly I am reminded that he is only 5 and it's kindergarten for crying out loud! It's not the SATs. I am also reminded that his big brother was in the same spot academically before he entered Kindergarten as well and by the end of the school year he was reading and writing more than his name! Kenan will get there, I just need to rest in that and not fret about everything else.

My prayer for today is that God would give me patience and gentleness, and that I would see the progress Kenan is making rather than what he hasn't attained. After all it is only kindergarten, not the SATs.

By the way, today we are reviewing Kk, Ee, and learning Aa.

Strawberry picking

Yesterday our family went Strawberry Picking. It was a lot of fun. I used to go as a kid and thought it would be a great thing to do while hubby had a couple days off. We went to Lorence's Berry Farm. We spent about an hour there and we picked about 17 lbs of berries. Kenan picked 1lb, Timmy picked 2 lbs, Hannah 3 3/4 lbs, Jeff 3 1/2 lbs, and I picked 7 lbs. Lucy and Micah spent their time wandering around and helping put berries in the buckets. Lucy and Kenan chowed on berries as well. We came home and began washing, slicing and eating fresh picked strawberries. I tried making a pie crust. It took me 4 times to finally get it right. Jeff and Hannah made two runs to the store to buy ready made pie crusts. I made 2 pies and they turned out delicious. The home made crust was from my Betty Crocker cookbook and the pie filling recipe was from a website I found. I gave that pie to my in-laws along with a bag of strawberries. The 2nd pie we kept and we still have 1/2 of it. It's so yummy! As a kid picking strawberries, all we did was help my mom pick the berries. Then we came home and she made jam while we sat outside eating a bucket of berries. I didn't realize that it's such a big deal and an all day process. What a fun thing to do as a family though!

silly boy

Last week Micah wanted to take a nap on the floor, so we put the crib mattress down on the floor for him to nap on. I figured that if he was really ready for a big boy bed, this was a good way to get him used to it, before buying a big boy bed. That way if he doesn't like it, he can just go back to sleep in his crib. Well, nap time went perfectly. Bedtime comes along and we gave him a choice and he chose to sleep on the floor again, so we kept the mattress on the floor for him. About 2 am I heard a couple thumps on the floor so I went up to check on Micah. I thought the thumps were Micah walking around so when I found that he wasn't on the mattress or next to it, I started to look though the entire house. I got worried but for no reason. I knew no one broke into the house and I knew Micah couldn't get out of the house, so I knew he was somewhere in the house. Suddenly it dawned on me to look under the crib. After looking through the house. Why didn't I think of that first?! I looked and saw a little tiny hand peeking out from under the crib. I lifted up the dust ruffle and there he was laying perfectly parallel with the crib under it. The thumping I heard was Micah bumping his head up and down on the floor. He usually does that on the mattress when he's trying to fall asleep. So I put the mattress in the crib and put him in the crib. I would've taken a picture but it was 2 am, I was tired, and I didn't want the flash to wake him or Kenan. It was quite cute!

Oh, Kids...they attempt to be so convincing.

A few weeks ago I was at Target with Kenan and I let him pick out a box of popsicles. He picked a box of ice age popsicles. The kids were so excited until they bit into them and found a gooey center. Needless to say, the rest of the box went uneaten. Fast forward a couple weeks. I threw the popsicles out, and last night Timmy comes and tells me that he wants to try them again. Apparently he saw a commercial advertising these very popsicles and the gooey part is supposed to be an acorn. So you didn't like them to begin with, but now that there is a gooey "acorn" in them that means you will like them? Hmmmm.....I'm not buying it.

About a week ago, Kenan was sitting on the couch upstairs Jeff. Kenan really wanted to go downstairs and watch cartoons. Jeff said "No Kenan. How about we stay up here and cuddle for a bit?" Kenan, who was very disappointed, said in his most convincing and enticing voice, " well, papa, did you know there is a big soft comfy couch downstairs?" It still didn't work but hey, he tried.

The other day Kenan was at the dining room table playing starwars guys. He uses his imagination which is awesome, and he had his crocodile playing as well. Lucy came up to see what Kenan was doing and Kenan and her conversation went something like this:

Kenan to Lucy: "Lucy do you want to kiss the crocodile?" Lucy just stares at Kenan. Kenan in his best enticing voice, "You'll turn into a princess. If you kiss this crocodile, you'll turn into a beautiful Princess Leia."