All this packing has my ADD flaring up, which means that I can't stay on one topic for long, and that is why I'll be writing a lot of run-on sentences and talking about several random things in one post. The one thing everything has in common: they all happened today. And I took pictures with a new-to-me camera generously donated to me by my father-in-law. I had fun learning how to use it when I probably should have been packing. Here I go.
1. I took the kids with me to check out a preschool for JP next fall. I got really choked-up taking him around to visit classrooms. This is my BABY! How can he be ready for preschool already??? sniff*
Then Ezra snapped me out of it. The kid is a walking tornado. After the inside tour, I let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes, and Ezra dove down the slide headfirst faster than you can say, "Mommy needs a drink" (of coffee, I mean...), and landed spread-eagle in the muddy mess at the end. The judges gave him a 9 for form and a 10 for reckless abandon. It was one of those moments where time stands still and I thank God for giving me little boys. I wish I had a picture of it to show you.
2. I tried to pack. I really did. But every time I got out a box, something like this would happen:
3. I found out my cousin, Lisa went into labor this morning! I checked Facebook a million times and called my mom several because I was so excited to hear about Landon's birth!!! Lisa and Todd have such an amazing story of embryo adoption and I am so happy for them to be experiencing parenthood with this little guy (born this evening! I just got word!) Yay! Welcome to the world little miracle!
4. I stared out my window for a while doing dishes and got a little teary eyed thinking about not seeing this view anymore:
Breathtaking, isn't it? Maybe it appears to be a horrible view of a shopping center. But to me, it is dozens of trips with my little family through the split in the fence and down the hill to the restaurant. It is a lesson about the American flag. It is a lesson about the wind that blows the flag. It is remembering why the flag is at half-mast. It is games of watching the cars come and go in the parking lot, and counting the red cars and counting the blue. And I don't know, it's weird but I find it somehow comforting that there is a food source so close to my house! Ha! I can't explain it. I just love food, I guess.
5. I typed out a new potty chart for JP, because the other one had me giving him five stickers per potty session; one for sitting on the potty, one for actually going, one for flushing, you get the idea. I decided to start weaning him off the potty chart. ONE sticker for the whole shabang, got that, buster!?
And if he fills out the chart, he gets to pick out one car. It's been a little lesson for me in the whole psychology of motivation- this whole potty-training ordeal. And motivation has definitely been the biggest issue, here! I decided to let him pick out the toy and actually BUY it before he actually earns it.
When he sees it right there, way up on the shelf, it becomes a lot more real to him. Like, there it is! It's RIGHT THERE. I can do this. And sometimes to add extra motivation, I'll pretend like I hear the cars trying to talk to him through the box- "Wait? What's that? He said he can't wait to come out and play with you!" and then JP is really motivated to rescue that guy! I think he's had dry underwear for a couple weeks now- nighttime, too. Go, JP!
See, here they are, the little buggers. I took one out for him last night and it was locked down like a top-secret government document. Do they really need to package toys like that???
6. These are the chairs around our little breakfast nook table. I have big ideas for these chairs when they move over to the new house, and I mean it this time:
7. I wanted to do this craft that I saw on the Crafty Crow (thanks, Aubin for introducing me to this great website!) I think I did something similar in kindergarten. It's one of those classic crafts you can go a million different ways with and make it your own. I love that kind.
You need wax paper, crayons, an old cheese grater, an old towel (or paper towel), and an iron.
~ First we peeled and shaved the crayons unto the wax paper. He already had that crazy "I've got my own ideas" look in his eyes.
~ Then we immediately deviated from the classic and did our own things.
~JP drew rectangles in the crayon shavings because they are his new favorite shape. The kid likes a lot of shapes. I knew all about that. But what I did NOT know, is that he no longer likes HEARTS. Somehow he has it in his head that "Ha(w)ts a(w)e fo(w) gu(w)els."
"No," I told him. "Hearts are for everyone on Valentine's Day. Not just girls."
He wasn't having any of it. Which was sort of a bummer for me, because that was the whole point of this craft- to make a little Valentine string-of-hearts decoration. But it's hard to say 'no' when such conviction takes over your child, and he proposes a new idea and looks up at you like this:
~I decided to get over it, and let him take the craft a different direction and make it his own.
~ So, I folded the wax paper over and made a crayon-shaving sandwich, and then covered beneath and above with paper towel and ran the iron over it briefly.
Then I cut-out a girly heart.
~And JP made a very masculine string-of-rectangles.
I think I've stalled long enough.
yay! I'm so glad you like the site. We just did the popcorn/cranberry bird feeder :)
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