Use your manners please

It's amazing when all the hard work and repetition that you've put into raising your child really starts to pay off.

It's been a long two weeks - Mike was gone the entire week of Vacation Bible School (plus the weekend leading up to it) and then home a few days (working though) and then fished Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He would get up around 4 a.m. and get home anywhere from 7 p.m. to after 8 p.m.

He was tired from all the working, I was tired from having no breaks or help around the house and Maddie and Wyatt have really been missing their daddy.

Today he got in from his trip a little earlier than expected and was home by about 4 p.m. Wyatt was being a royal pain in the you know what - crying and whining for no apparent reason. I couldn't hold him constantly and I'll be honest that I was quite frazzled and ready to just get out of the house.

Mike suggested dinner and I swear that Maddie, Wyatt and I were ready to walk out the door before Mike even said he needed to take a shower.

In the time that it took for Mike to take a shower I had really had enough of Wyatt's whining. He wanted up, he wanted down. He wanted one toy, but then didn't want it anymore.

I decided to call my parents and see if they'd take him for a few hours - I don't think Mike and Maddie and I have gone out by ourselves in quite a while. Thankfully they agreed and we dropped him off at Mimi and Papa's house.

We decided that we'd go to Zampieri's Harbor Grille - which is really an upscale kind of restaurant.

Our little girl - at 3 and a half years old - showed such wonderful manners. She said please and thank you for everything. Service is great there and our waiter, Chris, did a fabulous job.

She kept her napkin in her lap, daintily ate the "slinky" fries that they cooked especially for her - and was the model of good manners.

I overheard the other servers talking about what great manners she had - and my heart swelled with pride.

Our server rewarded her with a scoop of house-made vanilla ice cream - which she thanked him for several times over.

As we were leaving he handed her a small chocolate and told her she was the best patron he'd had in weeks - and she hugged the manager's leg as we were walking out the door.

She was the only child in the restaurant and other than the disney princess stickers and a little impromptu ballet dancing in the aisle as we were getting ready to leave - you might never have known they were a child-friendly establishment!

Playground conversations

It's been a long week - Mike has been working hard and a lot and that means the kids and I are on our own a lot. Trying to find things to fill up the time between waking up and going to bed can sometimes be a challenge with the summer heat. I find that the time between naptime ending and bedtime is especially stressful.

Maddie took a very long afternoon nap today - waking up close to 6 p.m. - so I decided we needed to get out of the house and go play at the Niceville Children's Park. They close at 7 p.m. so we kind of hurried to get there so we'd have enough time to play before they kicked us out.

It was deserted - there was one other little boy there who appeared to be around Maddie's age.

One of her favorite things to do is sit on the big porch swing near the entrance so as the time drew near to closing Maddie, Wyatt and I sat on the swing and pushed back and forth.

Maddie saw the little boy running in our direction and she called him over to come swing with us. He hopped up and was quite chatty.

Madeleine invited him to come eat dinner with us, to come play at our house, to go to church with her - What can I say? My daughter follows after her mother's heart!

After she asked him if he went to the same church (he said yes, but i don't know honestly) - she suddenly proclaimed that she could walk on the water just like Jesus.

This is the conversation:

"I can walk on the water just like Jesus," Maddie says "Do you know about Jesus?"
Boy replies, "He lives in our hearts,"

Maddie agrees, "uh huh!"

There's just something about the innocence of this conversation - It also encourages me in that my little girl is learning all this "christian stuff" and it's sticking with her. That warms my heart.

We said our goodbyes and Maddie ran after him to give him a hug. Later as we were walking out of the gate she lamented that she never got to give him a kiss.

I explained that it's ok not to kiss boys right now - Mommy is in no hurry to get to that part of parenting!

Wear your baby

I'm not sure how many of you have seen me toting around either of my kids in a wrap, sling or other carrier, but I'm sure many of you have seen Wyatt on my back or snuggled securely on my chest.

I'll have to come back and upload some pictures of me and my many carriers, but I just wanted to tell those of you with little ones about a contest to win the ultimate stash of baby wearing essentials!


The Essential Babywearing stash includes one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Beco Butterfly, one Zolowear Ring Sling, one Gypsy Mama Wrap and one Hotsling -- in whatever colors and patterns you choose.

Now that's an impressive stash!

Summer School

It's hard to believe that Madeleine will be starting preschool at the Wesley Academy in about 2 months. I was every so surely reminded of this fact when I got the first tuition statement yesterday. It came as quite a surprise - the school is requesting it by July 1 - and school doesn't start until the end of August...

Maddie is a smart little girl - she started with words at around 10 months and by 18 months was conversing in short 4-5 word sentences on a daily basis. These days you can't get her to stop talking. I read recently that the average 3 year old has a vocabulary of 300-500 words and I think she's a little over that number herself!

She knows her colors, numbers, recognizes most of her letters, shapes, etc.

Recently she's shown an interest in telling time, and I've noticed a distinct difference in her coloring. Before it was just random splatters of color strew across the page and whatever picture was on it, but now she's really trying to color "in the lines." Do not get me wrong - I've never once told her to stay in the lines! She's just progressing developmentally.

As excited as I am about her going to preschool - we are looking seriously at homeschooling our kids. In light of FCAT testing - teaching to the tests and the lack of morals and values taught in public schools I really feel that I can do a better job at home. I'd also like them to learn about the Bible and Jesus and let's be honest - it is not going to happen in a public school. Private schools are also an option, but expensive. I won't be going back to work anytime in the next 5-10 years probably so unless Mike gets a hefty raise and we pay off our vehicles I don't think it's a possibility for us in the immediate future. It's all we can do really to send them to the Wesley Academy for preschool.

So back to homeschooling...

I've started doing school at home a few days a week right now. I found some really awesome books by KUMON and we're having fun with the "let's color" and "let's fold paper" books. I also bought "let's cut paper" but it has wandered off it seems. 

Mike's mom, Paula, also sent a whole stack of preschool home schooling books she bought at Christianbookstore.com  and Maddie loves doing the workbooks. They're published by a company called School Zone and the one we've been working in lately is Preschool Basics.

Here are some of the things she's done this past week:

From the Kumon- Let's Color book:

This page instructed her to use a BLUE crayon and draw the rain coming out of the clouds

Instructions were for her to use a black crayon to give the boy some hair!



Mmm spaghetti with an orange crayon


Sprinkles on the ice cream. We chose purple, pink and green instead of the orange, yellow and brown - those weren't very girly colors!



Workbook pages:

The first day she got the books we did almost 30 pages in one sitting. I wasn't sure if she'd be ready for some of the exercises but she most certainly was!

We started with instructions to find the dog and girl that had short (hair and tail)



Then we worked on finding the things that were the SAME



This exercise asked her to find the object that went with the first object



She had to switch gears from drawing circles around things to drawing lines to match the items with the place they belonged




I'm excited about the prospect of teaching her at home and out and about. I like the idea of more flexibilty in our days and schedules. We are fortunate in this area to have a very active home schooling community that plans lots of activities for the kids to learn and socialize. And any of you who know Maddie personally will agree that she lacks nothing when it comes to social skills!

Watermelon Rind Pickles

It's funny how a smell or taste can bring back a flood of memories.

My mom's mom - my grandma - was always canning, pickling, freezing and "putting up" all kinds of foods. I lived for visits to her house where she'd feed me homemade pickles, fresh veggies from her garden, blueberries and figs and pecans - I could go on and on.

What I really loved, though were her pickles. I loved her sweet pickles - could eat a whole jar. 

She would also make watermelon rind pickles and these were a delicacy I really loved - and it's something most people have either never heard of or tasted.

Yesterday I bought a big watermelon at the local grocery store - it was $4.99  - which is a good deal these days for sure. I cut it in half, gave half to my mom and cut the other half up and put it in the fridge. 

Left on my counter was a small mountain of watermelon rinds. I was thinking how much my compost pile was going to appreciate the rinds, but then a memory came floating up and I raced to my computer to look up recipes for watermelon rind pickles. 

A half hour later I had peeled and chopped up almost all of the rind - piling the unused portions in my compost pail. Following directions I soaked the rinds in salt water overnight. 

It's a simple recipe: sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.

The smell was intoxicating and not necessarily in a great way - as the vinegar kind of overtook my kitchen and probably most of the house.

The taste, however brought back memories - floods of them. Images of my grandma standing at the stove frying eggs, cooking ribs, collard greens, etc. 

I'm sad because she doesn't cook anymore - hasn't really for years. After my papa passed away she kind of went downhill and now has full-blown dementia and Alzheimer's.

I'm glad I have my memories and the tastes of her cooking to remember and tell my kids about.

Now I'm just impatiently waiting for the pickles to be ready. One recipe said to let them sit for FIVE weeks, but I don't think that's how long we'll wait realistically. 

I'm thinking tomorrow will be long enough!

My tummy is growling

You will never find anything quite as elaborate as my best friend Becca's Food Blog - in my writings but from time to time I might write about a recipe or being hungry and going to her house to eat breakfast!

Right now as we speak I have banana oatmeal muffins baking in the oven. I had a "rotten-by-my-standards" but very bakable banana on the counter this morning. I asked Maddie if she wanted banana pancakes or banana muffins for breakfast and she said she wanted muffins.

One of the things I love about having a preschooler is that Maddie LOVES to help do things. She dragged her little chair over to the counter and mashed up the bananas for me. She also helped mix all the ingredients together. She talked me into letting her put some of the batter in the muffin cups, but I took over that job as she was being a little too messy.

Wyatt even got in on the action at the end - after the muffins were already in the oven. Maddie had lost interest and run off and he climbed up on the chair and put all my measuring cups into the empty bowl of muffin batter. 

They were yummy! Enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter softened

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 c. honey

1/4 c. milk

1 3/4 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. raisins

1/2 c. walnuts

* I added cinnamon and nutmeg (for a half recipe I added 1/2 tsp cinnamon and about 1/4 tsp nutmeg - freshly grated)

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, banana, honey and milk. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and oatmeal and spices if using. Fold in nuts and raisins. Spoon in greased muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes, yield 18 muffins.

*Anne's notes: I made a half batch (1 cup minus 2 tbsp for the flour measurement). I used 1/3 cup whole wheat graham flour, and then 2/3 c. AP flour (minus 2 tbsp of flour). I used salted butter - most recipes call for unsalted, but this one didn't specify and honestly i never buy unsalted butter!. I added cinnamon and nutmeg, which I think greatly improved on the taste. I used quick cooking oats and omitted the nuts and raisins since I detest raisins!

I also used mini-muffin pans instead of the full size muffins. I rarely use big muffins these days because both Maddie and Wyatt like the little ones :)  Half a batch made 24 mini muffins, which is MORE than enough for us! I baked them for about 12 minutes, but I would start checking at 8 minutes. They didn't rise a whole lot, but were very moist and yummy!

Late Nights and Early Mornings

Without fail on the nights when I stay up too late - usually chatting with friends on the West Coast - I experience insomnia coupled with frequent wakings of my children.

Last night was no exception - up until past midnight chatting with my good friend Shari about life, motherhood and our usual banter - I finally laid my head down on the pillow only to experience the non-stop chatter of my mind trying to sort through the days' goings on.

I must have eventually drifted off to sleep - only to awaken to a scream from wyatt as he woke up. I prodded Mike to get up and bring him to me before he woke up Maddie, but it was too late. Mike walked back into the room with Wyatt and Maddie jumped up onto the bed as well.

We have - or rather I have - a problem with Maddie getting into our bed in the middle of the night. It has nothing to do with her actually being in the bed, but that she tends to stay awake for hours once she gets in our bed - and this robs me of much needed sleep.

So I informed her she could stay in bed with me for a quick snuggle and that Daddy would put her back in her bed. She protested, but finally let Mike carry her back to bed. I finished nursing Wyatt and lugged him (hey - he's getting heavy!) back to bed where I found Maddie to be patiently waiting for the kiss I promised her.

This was 2 a.m. and I was tired - I'd only been in bed for not even 2 hours and had already had a major interruption to my sleep!

Thankfully they both slept for the next 3 hours and I maybe got 2 hours of sleep as it takes me a while to fall asleep each time.

Maddie was up before 6 a.m. and her exit out of the shared bedroom woke up Wyatt- of course.

The good thing is that Maddie went back to sleep and is still sleeping as I write this.

The bad is that Wyatt did not and is presently terrorizing the house and his mother.

Thankfully Katie is coming this morning to help me with the kids and clean.

Stuffed animals and mommy milk

Tonight as I was laying in Maddie's bed - snuggling with her and Wyatt (who was nursing) I listened to my three-year-old prattle on about how much her babies (stuffed animals) love drinking mommy milk. She interrupted her conversation to announce that Blueberry - her most loved stuffed cat who is purple - was hungry for some mommy milk. She hiked her little nightgown up - explaining that she needed to get it higher so he could have some mommy milk.

After a few seconds  she asked him if he wanted to switch sides, which I often do with Wyatt (whose response is "side!"). A few moments later she exclaims, "wow, you were really thirsty for some mommy milk Blueberry!" and says he's all done. 

I often ask her why she no longer drinks mommy milk - she was abruptly weaned at 15 months due to complications in my pregnancy with Wyatt - and I've always felt slighted since then. 

She explains that mommy milk is for babies and she's no longer a baby. I remind her that some of her friends are still drinking mommy milk, but she's made up her mind - it's no longer for her because she's too old in her mind. 

I often wonder what our relationship would be like if she were still nursing - if mama's milk were a source of comfort as it still is for Wyatt. Would her tantrums be less intense? Would I be able to reason with her or calm her more effectively?

I guess I'll really never know when it comes to her - but I'm already noticing a bit of a difference when it comes to Wyatt - who is almost 18 months old. My goal with him is 2 years, but I know we'll continue to enjoy our nursing relationship past that point. 

What matters most beyond the basics of why one should breast feed is that my kids are growing up in a world (my world really) where breastfeeding is totally normal. Babies are fed from their mommy's breasts and bottles don't really have much place in our life. Sure, they had a few here and there, but not enough that they were a constant presence in their life. 

I'm hoping one day to write about Wyatt nursing his own lovies - and listening to him talk about how much he loved drinking mommy milk. Maddie talks about how when she was a baby she drank mommy milk - she mentions it daily!

Vacation Bible School 2008 - Memories

This was my second year teaching Vacation Bible School at FUMC- Niceville. I signed up to teach third graders - which I found to be a great age! They were a little more independent and self-sufficient than second graders (the age I taught last year). 

The theme was "Power Lab" and we spent all week learning how Jesus gives us the power to be thankful, help others, brave, live forever and tell others about God.

Everything was a little wacky this past week - we did lots of "experiments" in our lab (arts and crafts). The kids learned some great songs, saw some neat drama presentations and had fun with Ms. Schroeder in Recreation time.

I took a ton of pictures with the promise of blogging about our week - so to my kids in 3B - I had a great time with you guys! Enjoy the pictures and commentary!

Ms. Anne in her "shocked by the power of Jesus" hair-do

Ms. Rebecca and her little alien Martha (who was so great all week!)

Every day we had lots of activities - Generally we spent 20 minutes in each rotation - with 40 minutes in the classroom.

Music: 





Drama:


Some of our group participated in one of the drama's. They did a great job!



Opening and Closing Ceremonies:

Katie and Skyler groovin' to "Making Melodies" - one of the silliest songs ever!

Zach, Hatcher, Nathan and Ben also "making melodies!"

My 3-year-old Maddie doing the music with the big kids!

Zach and Ben dancing during opening ceremony

Jessi, Nicole and Bailey were chosen to sing with the kids' Praise Team!

Missions Offering:

Our mission this year was the Children's Hunger Fund. We learned that some kids don't have breakfast, lunch or dinner every day  - like we do. Through the CHF a family can receive meals for one month for about $24/month. The kids were challenged to go home and work around the house to earn money for the offering. At closing on Friday the total was up to $2900+. That's a lot of families who are going to have food to eat!

Maddie putting her hard earned money into the mission box. She helped set the table, clear her dishes and tried very hard to be a good listener and obey what Mommy asked her to do.




Arts and Crafts (Science Lab)

SLIME!

BY FAR the slime lab was the biggest hit with the kids. Using glue, water, food coloring and laundry starch - the kids made their own slimey slime. 

Alaina showed off her talent for making a huge sheet of slime and then blowing on it to make bubbles..

Ben playing with his slime

Courtney got a little help with mixing hers - it sucks to break your arm!

Baby Martha got slimed!


Ublek or however it's spelled!

The kids made ublek - cornstarch and water - 

Hatcher (i think? I still can't tell you two boys apart!) walking across the ublek. If you walked quickly it was just like walking on water. If you stopped you sank - just like Peter did when he took his eyes off Jesus.

Skyler's facial expression makes me laugh!


Mmm test tube candy!

Noah making his test tube candy

mmm lemonade flavored candy dust.

skyler almost finished with hers...

Everyone's looked so different!

Kristen - one of our youth helpers- made one for Caitlyn when she missed the last two days.

Floating Popcorn:





Maddie and Wyatt:

Maddie had such fun in the three-year-old class this year. She came home and sang me the songs and told me the bible stories she learned. I'm amazed at how much her little mind retained! She can't wait for VBS to come again next year when she's 4 and can go to all the stuff that the big kids do!

wyatt had fun playing with Ms. Patti, Ms. Melissa and Ms. Neoma and all the other toddlers. It is his last year in the baby room! 


Class Time:

We had a blast this week. Thanks to all our helpers and to the kids for making this a great week. I can't wait to see what the theme will be for next year!