Wednesday, April 26, 2017

2 Months With Rutherford


My handsome guy is 2 months old now!  I can't believe he is already 2 months old but I also can't believe he has only been in our lives for 2 months!  I can't imagine life without him.


He is 13 pounds already!


He is a happy guy and rarely cries.


Big yawn.  He has been a great sleeper.  He goes to bed (in our room) about 7:30pm and will stay asleep until about 3am.  I hear him stirring and I nurse him and he goes right back to sleep.  Then he nurses probably 2 more times and wakes up at 6:30/7am.  He naps pretty well too.


The girls are still adore him and there as been no jealousy or adjustment issues.


I am trying to soak up every minute of this "baby time" cause I know just how quickly it's over.




 He is starting to smile more.


He also has the most adorable pouty face that he makes when something startles him.  He seems kinda sensitive to loud noises which is hard since his 2 big sister's are far from quiet!


I love dressing him like his daddy in polo shirts (this picture was just a coincidence).


I wear him a lot.  In the ring sling when we are out and usually on my back in the mei tai carrier when we are home.


We are loving our life with our little guy!


Thursday, April 13, 2017

Jane Turns 2!


One year old Jane:


Two year old Jane!


Thankfully she has grown some hair in the past year!

Height: 32 inches

Weight: 25 pounds

Favorite Books: I Love My Tutu, Five Little Monkeys and The Hungry Caterpillar

Favorite Movies/Shows: Frozen, Totoro and Sarah & Duck

Best Friend: Alice.  They play all day together and have even started sleeping in the same bed together at night.

She is very sweet to her brother "Ruff-a-fer" and likes to do "This Little Piggy" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" on him.

She talks quite a bit though unfortunately "No" is still a favorite word of hers.

She's very easy going and has never had any sort of separation anxiety.

She's very adventurous and likes to try and do whatever Alice is doing.  She's also very tough and rarely cries when she falls.


 Look at those blue eyes!





Silly face!



Sunday, April 9, 2017

Homeschooling Confessions


Homeschooling confessions: 

I am sure I will have many more as the years go on but here is confession #1:

We are quitting preschool.

Alice turned 4 last September and I thought it was a good time to start preschool with her.

She has always been a little behind other kids her age in comprehension so I knew I needed to have realistic expectations and take it slow with her.  My main goal was to teach her the names and sounds of all the letters.  Apparently, this goal wasn’t realistic for her. 

It’s been about 7 months now.  We are on the letter N and have been on it for 4 weeks now and she still doesn’t remember it. 

We review all the previous letters each time and I thought she was doing well with that but I recently realized that she can’t recognize most letters when they are out of sequence.  Also, most of the other teaching goals I had haven’t been met.  

And though I have continued to lower my goals and expectations as we have gone on, school has just become frustrating for both of us.  So I have decided to quit.  I know this sounds bad, but I don’t think Alice is ready yet and forcing school on her is just going to make both of us frustrated, make her hate school and she probably wont really learn anything anyway. 

We will begin preschool again in the Fall using My Father's World curriculum and by then hopefully her brain will have developed more and be ready for more formal learning.  There are always many opportunities for informal learning and we continue to read lots of books. 


I worry sometimes but I remind myself that she’s only 4 and it’s not like she will be 14 and not know her alphabet.  She will get there eventually, on her own time, at her own speed (one of the many benefits of homeschooling).  I myself am an example of this.  I was not a good reader when I was little and hated it.  But around 8/9 years old it finally clicked and I became that child that would read under the covers with a flashlight at night because I couldn’t get enough of it.  I have been an avid reader ever since.  (I even read War and Peace for fun last year :) 

So that's where we are with our homeschooling adventure.