Winter Energy

One thing I really hate is winter. We are all stuck inside (way to cold outside) and the activity level goes way down. However little kids still have a lot of that energy that they really do need to burn.

Grandma bought the boys this adventure game for the Wii at Christmas time. It comes with 25 activities and a play mat that they have to run and jump on to do the activities. They have so much fun and it really does get that energy out that they have all built up.

Have a look and tell me this doesn't look like lots of fun.



If you noticed someone thinks he is Indiana Jones. He has a hat, whip and everything, hence the singing with the adventure. I love it!!!

The only bad thing about the game is the mat walks all over the room and the boys never reposition it until I make them, so someone is always jumping right next to a piece of furniture.

Oh and we do have the occasional melt down when someone doesn't win. Oh well they have to learn someday.

Growing Up

Can someone tell me how it happens? Why must they grow up?

These days I am missing my sweet little boy.
This little boy who use to be so happy and full of love.

He was such a mommy's boy!
He wanted to do everything with mommy & always there helping out.

Excited about the next adventure that life would bring, the next fun thing.

Always so happy and on the go.....

Where did he go????

It seems these days that happy little boy who I miss dearly has grown up.
Don't misunderstand, he is still here, he is still loved very much, he has just changed, he has changed in a very big way.

While he is only 7, it seems he has this built up anger and it all started this summer. Not real sure where it has all come from but he has closed himself off. He has a bad attitude most of the time, he is very mean to me more than anyone.

We are really struggling these day to get along. Every night I hug him and tell him how much I love him but the rest of the time we are doing nothing but butting heads. I can't seem to break down the attitude or get past the aggression that he has.

Is this just a phase that he is going through? Part of the aging process? Are these learned things from the world around him? Whatever it is, it is very new to me and very hard for me to accept. I want that happy, loving and sweet little boy back. I miss him so much!!!!

SOMETHING OLD HAS NEW LIFE AGAIN

A long, long time ago my sweet little Luke had a huge love for Thomas the Train. We had lots of different types of Thomas trains including these motorized ones.

(Luke age 3)

Living in a small house requires us to keep life simple and not hold onto to many things. We had lots of these trains and I just did not have the heart to get rid of such a wonderful collection of trains. So I boxed them up into two large totes and they made their way to the garage a few years ago.
Packed up long before a second child, long before any thought of another boy finding joy in such a fun set of trains.
Yesterday, we pulled those totes from the garage shelves and the playing began.
(Also, note the Bob the Builder computer that had been tucked away also.)
Now, little brother has a whole lot of new toys to play with. The best part, big brother still wants to play and he is now big enough that he can build the tracks and mom doesn't have to.
Now, if I can just figure out how to get them to play nice together. Oh yes after a few hours of play and a little one who skipped his nap, the playing wasn't so nice anymore. Even still with the disagreements it was so wonderful to pull out a little bit of the past and share it with the present.

Have you passed down anything special from one child to the next?

VACATION 2010

Summer vacation is one of those things we just love. This year the weather was extra hot but we still managed to get out every single day and enjoy the sun and water.

Here are some pictures that just bring a smile to my face.

This watering whole slowly filled up as the tides came in. The little ones had a blast with this one.

We jumped off the side of the pool so many times my poor arms hurt from all the catching and lifting to do it again.
Botany Bay is this beautiful run of beach that is preserved by the State of South Carolina. It is covered with lots of beautiful shells that are protected by the state. You can't take any from the beach. I think it is OK because it makes the beach so beautiful.

This child climbed every fallen try along our beach front walk.

My youngest wanted nothing more than to see Dolphins in the Ocean. Every trip to the beach the question was raised. So a trip on a boat tour was a must and yes we got to see Dolphins. See this smile, it was because he saw them.
Luke got to go fishing in the ocean with his grandpa and daddy this year.
I really don't want to say much. I think the photo's tell a great story of our vacation and all the fun we had.

WATER FUN

While on vacation it is the water that we seem to love and enjoy so much. My husband and I both would love to relax in on the sand in the sun with a good book but we have come to the reality that this is not going to be an option for many years, unless we take a vacation with out the boys.

My boys truly love the water. Last summer by the end of summer Luke was just getting a little comfortable with putting his head in the water. He went to Latchkey all summer and once a week he got to go swimming. It literally took all summer for him to get comfortable in the water.

This summer our vacation was the second time he was in a pool. This child blew us away. First with going under water, second taking a little instruction from us and he was swimming around the pool by day 2. AMAZING!!!!

Here is a little video clip of him enjoying the pool.



Now it is time for swimming lessons. No more waiting around....

The bad part about his new found love for swimming is he doesn't want to go to the sitters with his little brother for the summer. He wants to go to latchkey so he can go to the pool all summer. I don't blame him but it will cost me more money. I told him he had to give the sitter a try for 3 weeks and then if he doesn't like it I will consider switching him back. Now all I am hearing is "has it been three weeks yet", throw in a little 7 year old attitude with that and you get the idea.

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Now my little guy was all about the ocean. Forget the pool, lets go to the ocean. You couldn't call it the beach either, it was the ocean and had dolphins and whales.

Anyway here is a little clip of him enjoying the waves with his daddy.




He would crack us up when he would say in Spanish "salto" as the waves would come. This word means jump, thank you Dora the Explorer for teaching my two year old a little Spanish. The funny part is I always have to ask my seven year old what that meant. I don't think he say's "salto" here on this video.

Soccer

Soccer is one of those sports that I think some kids can really enjoy. Our local YMCA starts letting kids play at the age of 3. While it is pretty funny to watch "heard ball" at the age of three it is still very cute.

Luke started playing soccer at the age of three.

Here he is on his first ever soccer team.
While he wanted to play soccer, their was a lot more silly going on than playing soccer. Lots of grass and flower picking took place.
Even as Luke got older we still seemed to do a lot of grass picking on the soccer field.

Luke played on two orange teams. This one was in the fall of 2008 and Luke was 5. This was the season that dad coached and one of Luke's friends played on the team also. With the hope that having a friend would help him play better, we were so wrong. These two boys spent more time doing cart-wheels and bending over and looking between their legs at each other. Total silliness was taking place on the soccer field. It was at this moment we thought, he just isn't in to soccer and it is time to throw in the towel.
In the fall of 2009 Luke asked us if he could play soccer. Our first question to him was do you really want to play? Will you play? He said yes, so we signed him up.

This season it was 5 & 6 year old's and he got it. Finally we reached the point where we are not picking grass, etc...

This spring the age group changed. We signed up again but now it is 7 to 9 years of age. Luke is the smallest kid on his team. However he is the smallest he is still playing really well.
While I wouldn't call Luke a pro at soccer, not even close, he is out playing and having a good time. Plus he wants to play....

Just the other night he scored the first goal of the game. Then he got tired and ran out of steam but still did great.
While I love the character that the YMCA builds in kids and instills good sportsmanship. This will be our last time playing for the YMCA. This time they only had three teams so the kids just continue to play each other over and over again. In this area we have a city league for Soccer and it is much more popular with the older kids. Since we know Luke wants to play and we see hope in him we will be switch to the city league in the fall.

Now the big question, do we let Thomas play when he turns three? He already wants to get out and play with his brother at the games.

What age did or will you put your kids in group activities?

Never Cease to Amaze Me

Sometimes my kids cease to amaze me in the things they know and I often wonder where they have learned some of the things they know.

Here are just a couple of those fun moment that I have recently experienced with my kids.

Last week I was watching Dancing with the Stars (a show I sometimes watch/sometime don't), anyway out comes one of the professional dancers and my husband says, who is she, she is smoking....

Luke says to me: Mommy, I know the second part of that.
Me: What are you talking about?
Luke: I know the second part of what daddy said.
Me: What do you mean? (obviously I am clueless)
Luke: She is smoking, smoking hot!

Yes, my seven year old knows the phrase smoking hot. Seriously, where did he learn this.


Luke loves to play with my scanner. He can scan and print things with out ever accessing the computer. This is a killer on my ink since he will scan just about anything. The other day he tells his dad he can print money. Daddy explains to him that no he can't.

Luke: I can scan it and print it.
Daddy: No you can't, that is illegal. You will get in trouble.
Luke: Money doesn't have a TM on it so I can.

How does a seven year old know and understand Trade Marks? Like I said, they never cease to amaze me. Side note, I think he now understand that he can not make money.


Daddy turns on the TV for Thomas to watch cartoons and an exercise program is on.

Daddy: Do you want to watch this? (daddy teasing him)
Thomas: No that is a mommy show.

I guess this child has seen me working out a few to many times. I am just shocked he is paying this much attention.

I have to say I never know what to expect in my house. I will say my kids can always bring a laugh or two.


Side note: for all you mommies with little ones. I get a parenting newsletter via email and this week has to do with this past years baby product recalls. If you want to see the current list (long list) and keep yourself informed follow this link to Baby Center.

LETS PLAY

Welcome to our day of discovery at the local kids museum. I have never been here but Luke has been a few times with his grandma. I must say I was so glad grandma went with us yesterday because my kids divided often leaving me chasing after one and my mom chasing after the other. It was a really fun yet exhausting day. So exhausting that I scrapped the work out yesterday because I got plenty of exercise running through this place chasing my kids.

Upon entry we took a picture in front of this giant wall that above has dinosaur bones in it. My 2 year old pointed out the dinosaur almost instantly.

Off to dig a few of those dinosaur bones ourselves. It was fun to watch them brush away the ground up rubber that was used to cover the bones.

Next we found a few tunnels to crawl through.

And stick our heads out of. Such a silly kid!

Every child's dream, one giant water table with spraying water everywhere.
Oh and a side note this is also every mom's nightmare. LOL...

The space ship was by far Thomas's favorite thing to play on. We went back to the space ship many times through out the day. He just loved it!

If you could hear them it was all "mission control, prepare for take off" and then to listen to them counting down. Hysterical!

A little slide that Thomas went up and checked out the slide and then came back down the steps.

It requires a little brotherly love to help take that first step going down the tunnel and then we did it several times all on our own.

I got a great joy watching this child pull the rope that moved a bag from the second floor down to the first. He was having a blast pulling on this thing.


Here is a short video of him pulling on the rope.

Also please forgive my video skills. Often I rotate the camera for pictures and can't get it in my head that I can't rotate the camera for video's.

Lots of tunnels to climb up high.

If you were a small child a parent had to go with you.
Let me say squeezing in these little tunnels pushing a 36 pound 2 year old up to the next level was exhausting.

I thought these guys slept during the day?
I guess not....

We had a garage to play in....

We put ourselves in jail!
It was missing the lock because I could have used a break.

Driving the garbage truck. Had a great horn to beep!
You could also recycle lots of different items in in the back of the truck.

Digging in the land fill.

A little hard for Thomas to do.

Finally the end of the day came and the museum was getting way to crowded for my liking and we called it a day. Thomas was asleep before we left the parking lot.

This brings me to today!

We are starting off the day with a giant fort in my living room.
Not my favorite thing but they are having a good time.

Hope you are all having fun this week. I am not off to do a few household projects. Trying to keep them to just a few things each day.

Luke's Art

My 7 year old brought this home from school yesterday. I sometimes wonder about this kid....

I had to laugh at his thought process. It says below "I am counting my muny (money).

Have your kids ever done something unexpected like this?

Oh How They Look A Like

I have often talked about how much my boys look alike. Just the other day we were in the preschool where Luke went from the age of 2 until kindergarten and all the teachers that new Luke said how much Thomas looks just like him.

One thing I don't know if I have ever mentioned is how much Luke looks just like his father. It blows my mind how much they look alike. This year at Christmas time my mother-in-law gave me a photo of my husband when he was in kindergarten. Have a look at these two photos and tell me what you think?


I am sure you can guess who is who based on the photo quality but the first is Luke and the second one is his dad. If I didn't give birth to Luke I wouldn't think he was mine at all. There is nothing on him that is me it all goes to his dad.

KEEPING UP WITH SCHOOL

Luke is in first grade and I am amazed at how much a parent has to do with their children to help reinforce what they are learning in school. Just to give you an idea, a typical evening/week of school work includes the following....

Sight words: These are flash cards that he should be able so see and say with in 1 second of seeing the word and he is not to sound them out. We have about 90 of these right now and they add about 5 new words to this list each week. Our flash cards are divided into two piles, words we know and words we are working on. Anyway, it takes about 20 minutes to run through all these words mostly because I can’t flip the darn things fast enough.

Spelling words: Each Monday he comes home with a new list of spelling words. He has 10 words each week and they are different from the sight words so in total he learns 15 new words in a giving week. We do two practice tests in the evening. Usually one on Monday night so I can see where he needs the most help and one on Thursday night right before the test on Friday. In between these two tests we practice them verbally when we drive in the car.

Reading: The requirement is 10 minutes a night and I have to sign a paper. At first it was more me reading to him but we are changing that and I am making him do more of the reading. 10 minutes is not enough time for Luke to get through the books at the level of reading he is supposed to be at. Instead we spend about 30 minutes a night reading. We also have a 10 book challenge each month where he is to read 10 books and I sign off on the books. Another reason I am making him do more of the reading.

Another reason I am making Luke do more of the reading is I have found that the sight words that he knows, I will catch him sounding them out when he reads them in a book. This is not good because I think the cards have been memorized and he doesn’t translate it over to his reading the way he should. I have actually sat down and written up a bunch of sentences using his words and making him practice them this way.

Math home links: These are all assigned on Monday and due back on Friday. Each week varies as to how many we have to do. It can range from 2 to 4 papers per week. I would say this is the easiest part of all the home work. I say that because Luke really gets into math and does it with ease. Often he will sit down on Monday night and do all the papers by himself in a very short time. I then review them with him to make sure he did them right.

I would say we spend about an hour and a half every night on school work. This is tough on the nights we don’t get home from work until 6. It seems like we make dinner, eat, squeeze homework in the middle of all this, take baths and go to bed.

Luke goes to an excellent school and I think part of the excellence comes from what they demand of the kids and the parents. I just worry as this is only first grade and what do I have to look forward to as he moves up each year. I also feel like I put a lot of time into all of this because I really want him to do well in school and when I was growing up my mom put a lot of time into us kids and I am thankful for that.

Do you have school aged children? How much time do you put into helping them? Do they carry this type of load?

DADDY WATER

When Luke was two he could not tell us he wanted Fruit2O flavored water. His dad loves the stuff and drinks it often but I don't like it and drink regular water. Because he couldn't say Fruit2O Luke called it "daddy water" and he was very specific that he did not want "mommy water" as it was just water. Soon we were all referencing flavored water as "daddy water".

Even now at the age of 6 Luke calls it "daddy water" just as we all still do.

Then the other day Thomas's babysitter asks me, "what is daddy water". I just laughed because clearly flavored water will always be called "daddy water" in our house.

Playing Soccer

Luke has played soccer since he was three years old.

We thought it would be something fun for him to do.
We quickly learned soccer wasn't really his thing.

OK, at 3 it isn't really any child's thing but they are learning.

At 4 he would sit down in the middle of the field or was off picking dandelions.

At the age of 5 we put him on a team with one of his friends.
Big mistake as these two would run around the field holding hands,
trying to do cart wheels and anything else but play soccer.

After that fall season we decided it was time to give soccer a rest.
Luke's dad coached a few times and his dad was really starting to lose his patients.

This fall Luke wanted to play again.
Of course what parent can say no when their child wants to play.
No really big hope for him playing but we signed him up anyway.

Well guess what?
At the age of 6 he has figured out that he can play soccer
and he does it very well.

My little all star played so well this year and we were so proud of him.

I guess this is why they say never give up.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

Flash Cards

I often find it amazing how one child will watch and mimic another child.

Each night at dinner we go through Luke's spelling words and sight words that are on flash cards. We ask him to spell certain words out loud and also when he looks at the flash cards he has to tell us what that word is with in one second or less.

As we do this every night, Thomas has started to join in on the fun. As Luke spells, Thomas spells along with him. He also wants to see the flash cards so he can say the word.

The other night at bed time he picked up a book and held it in front of me and quickly say's "doggy" and then he grabs another and say's "mickey". He was using the books like flash cards testing me on what was on the books. It was the funniest thing.

Have you experienced one child mimicking what an older sibling is learning or doing at a certain time?

I often wonder if we kept reinforcing and showing the sight words to Thomas if he would not learn those spelling words right along with Luke. Hard to say but they say at this age their little brains are like sponges.

Luke (age 2)

Lately I have had a lot of thoughts about Thomas turning 2 in October. Well today I went looking through some old photo's and found some great ones of Luke at about the exact same age.

It just amazes me how much my boys look alike.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.