Daddy and Shea... having an enormous amount of fun with a shopping bag.Here I am, posting snapshots of our last few weeks. As usual, the days are going much too quickly, with my to-do lists getting longer and longer with each new day. Don't get me wrong. I am absolutely NOT complaining. This is life with children and I love it (most of the time :)). Most of our parent-peers are living parallel lives of laundry, meal prep, chauffeuring, moderating, social planning, errands, and, now, in our case... a very mild and fun approach to home-schooling preschool and a not-so-mild approach to house-hunting and long-term decision making! So, naturally, blogging has taken a back-seat to, well... life. :)
I can't remember if I posted earlier that we withdrew the boys from their preschool last month and we've been elated with the decision. I've been continuing a very short period (think 1 - 1 1/2 hours) of "school" time with the boys in the mornings and we're thoroughly enjoying the routine and interesting activities that result from this time together. I've watched them make wonderful progress in reading (they spend about an hour or more a day reading... and I love that they'll holler out questions like, "What does 'allegiance' mean?"). The other day, they read a chapter in one of their books about a little boy who loves his first-grade science class. So, they asked if we could do the science projects described in the book. Since we have this great time allotted each day for activities like this, we were able to pursue this interest and it was great. We now have a sweet potato growing in our kitchen that desperately needs to be transplanted!
A few months ago, Jaxon took a strong interest in piano and began learning a few of Shea's favorite princess tunes. Now, both boys have moved onto Star Wars songs and can gleefully play a few of their favorite themes. The trouble is, they have very strong opinions about HOW they should be played, so I have had little success with getting them to use proper fingerings. I guess the one-fingered approach is okay for now. Hopefully, kindergarten will help them become a little more flexible in taking suggestions. :) Eventually, when they're ready, I'd really like them to take actual lessons, but for now, it's fun to see them enjoy exploring the piano and having fun with it.
Around the time Jaxon became interested in the piano, Dexter started a collection of clone trooper drawings. A little obsessive, perhaps, but we now have binders filled with clone troopers, droids and star ships. It's pretty cute. Earlier this week, Jaxon joined him in a shared-endeavor of drawing all of their favorite ships, droids and clones. Today, they've been focusing on cutting them out and adding them to their action figure box. I'm fairly certain these little paper action figures will not last the day... but, I suppose they'll be fun while they last.
Shea continues to crack me up with her big personality. Yesterday, after tearfully crumbling in my lap after a series of disappointments, she cried out, "Mommy, my day just isn't going so well!!" I appreciate her ability to put words to her emotions. She still adores following her brothers around and insists on doing just about everything they do, which just adds to the humor around here. Mostly, I have been so thankful for her sweet and cuddly nature. I love the way she curls up on my lap and just enjoys being close to me. I know this won't last forever. And while there are certainly days that her physical proximity to me isn't SO easy to take, I try to remind myself there will most probably come a day when she won't need me like this... I'll miss it. She also keeps me in check by reading my emotions better than just about anyone. If I even start to get frustrated or short-tempered, she'll reach her little hands up to my face, stare me straight in the eyes and ask, "Are you happy, Mommy? Or mad?" It's almost always enough to make me giggle... which is a really good thing.
As usual, spring could not have arrived at a better time and we're loving our afternoons outdoors, again. Yesterday, watching the boys join the 8-12 boys that regularly play on the playground at student housing, I was reminded about how great living here has been for us and how thankful I am for the built-in community. I'm glad we have one more spring here to enjoy this aspect of living here. The boys have had natural friendships and relationships that resulted in living so close to children their age, which has been really nice.
We have the boys enrolled in a kindergarten for the fall, so the only big decision for us to make will be where on earth we will live! Exciting and overwhelming... we're looking at houses again tonight. So, we'll see...
Volcano fun.
Dexter's recon trooper outfit. The boys decided we should transform old shirts of theirs into clone trooper uniforms. An old shirt-sleeve of D.R.'s turned into a helmet (fairly creepy, if you ask me!) and Dex insisted on a paper-towel tube blaster (imitating the lego clone trooper blasters). Oh my. :)
Daddy and Shea, making lovely faces after seeing Disney Princesses on Ice together. What a great outing!
Blue clone trooper (Jax) and recon trooper (Dex), trying to teach Shea how to do "thumbs up."
Oh, photo shoots are silly affairs at our house.
Yes, that's a pile of laundry waiting to be folded. But what's more important? Folding laundry or photographing a couple of make-shift troopers?
I especially like the one-bunny-slipper-on, one-bunny-slipper-off look, which was a token fashion statement that Shea maintained for about a week.
