Travels

 

Some people are better long distance travels than others. The Big One is one of those people:

 

 

The Little One is not:

 

 

So we had to make one good long relaxing stop on the way to visit Mimi and Papa Strat in Florida!

 

Playground Palooza

 

 

 

This has been an awkward summer. Excessive heat, followed by excessive water. Next comes classes and work and moving and car problems. Momma and Daddy haven’t been able to orchestrate nearly as many trips to the local park. This trip was well enjoyed.

A Fantastic First

 

 

We celebrated a lovely first birthday for a lovely Little One. Thankfully, where we live, Late September is still beach weather (we even went in the water). Little One enjoyed himself immensely.

 

 

Since he hadn’t had a birthday cupcake, he had a little desert before presents.

 

 

He especially loved the the barn. There were many arguments over the barn.

 

 

The Big One did not approve.

Artwork

 

The Big One has been doing a lot of coloring, painting and other artwork now that we are doing slightly more structured learning. Here is one of Momma’s favorites – the Big One claimed it was a self portrait, so Momma had him identify all his body parts.

 

The best part? It reminds Momma of an angel.

A Few Brief Moments

 

 

A few brief moments of controlled playtime is a blessing in this house! Here are the Big and Little Ones playing at the table.

Midnight Snack

 

 

The Little One is still lucky enough that he doesn’t have a bed time. Or, another way of saying it is that Momma isn’t lucky enough for the little one to have a bed time. So here he is, enjoying his (close to) midnight snack.

Caption Needed

 

 

Momma loves this picture. She is sure the Little One is saying something – but what?

Preschool – Weeks 4-5

So this time, we were delayed by a vacation to Florida. Regardless, we are working on:

 

 

 

Letter R!

We started with some practice, which turned out surprisingly well. The big one has difficulty with anything that is not a straight line. He progressed onto:

 

 

 

Some of which were superb, and others not so much.

Along with “R” we talked about Rainbows, and with it, color mixing. Momma had planned to make a rainforest lesson, including a rain stick, but it never happened. Best laid plans and such.

 

 

Here, the Big One is learning that Blue and Yellow make Green. We did the same thing for Blue and Red, Red and Yellow, and all three together.

Preschool: Week 2-3

 

So for week 2, which ended up being weeks 2 AND 3, due to several days of both Momma and the boys being sick, is the letter:

 

 

Letter A!

 

I don’t have any pictures of the Big One drawing the letter A, because he never quite mastered it. Not that it’s important for him to do so at age 3, but we had a lot of other fun. While we discussed letter A, we also discussed Animals, and their habitats. So we had a little household scavenger hunt.

 

First, we spent the week reading several books about animals and where they live. Then one night, after he went to bed, I set up the house:

 

 

Taking animals from his playroom, I set up like type animals from the savannah, the desert, farmyard animals, water animals and flying animals, complete with props. The next morning (a Saturday), we went all around the house, seeking out the animal habitats, and collecting the animals in a bucket:

 

 

Once we had collected the animals in a bucket, I had him re-sort the animals on the dining room table and talk about where each of the animals live. And then he put them all back in their proper places. We had great fun!

 

Preschool: Week 1

There seems to be so much more pressure on starting kids in preschool these days. Momma knows people who are interviewing preschools for one year olds. Momma feels that she is capable of teaching the Big One basic skills.

Additionally, Momma has always been interested in homeschooling, but skeptical that she could pull it off. So she decided that a trial session, in the form of homeschooling preschool would be a good way to be sure that the Big One isn’t far behind his 3-years-of-preschool peers, see how Momma can handle the simplest of schooling, and also have fun in the process.

So this week, the Big One started preschool. He began with letter:

He practiced writing Hs, but lost interest soon (you can see two successful Hs on the top row at the end), so Momma thought that perhaps practicing letters might be out of his scope at this time, but just yesterday, he proved Momma wrong with the H above.

To begin his introduction to the letter “H” he went on a letter hunt where he found “H” all around him at the mall.

The Big One learned about houses and homes, along with his address (censored here for safety’s sake). He talked about what belongs in homes (bedrooms, bathrooms, dogs) and what did not (zebras).

He learned a hurricane song, and tried to recreate his own hurricane with button eye.

And he perfected his Bible verse, where the heart was made with handprints.

Such a successful week! Next week, he will learn about “A”!

Cedar Point

 

 

The boys enjoyed the trip to Cedar Point for their Daddy’s birthday. Uncle Kevin came and played with with Big One almost all day, while Grandma played with the Little One. The Little One got a little sun, but it was gone the next day. Everyone had a great time!

Road Trip!

 

 

Sleeping through the better part of the road trip – just the way Momma and Daddy like it!

Blackberry Delight

 

We, as a family, enjoying picking fruit! North Carolina has no shortage, as we’ve picked strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Here you can see that the Big One is getting to be an expert, although his focus and attention span need some work. The Little One enjoyed the fresh off the vine (bush?) messiness!

 

Venus Baby Trap!

 

 

The Little One is enjoying  himself at the Cape Fear Museum. Apparently, Venus Fly Traps are native to our area (a very small area), so there is a small, interactive exhibit where you can throw bean bags into the fly trap’s mouth and make the trap gobble it up. It did not gobble up the little boy (although the big one tried!).

Spiderman, Spiderman…

 

…does all the child amusing that a spider can!

Little Chef

 

The Big One LOVES to help me cook. Whenever it’s time to make dinner, he pulls a chair over to reach the ingredients. He is a food processor pro – he can make homemade peanut butter almost entirely by himself, and can do about 50% of the work in turning cream into butter. Lately, about once a week, he and I have begun to make sandwich bread. He loves helping with the process, from stirring, to adding ingredients, to “punching” the dough. I love to imagine what hobbies and interests he’ll have as he grown older!

Trapped!

 

 

The Little One has a habit of crawling into the bottom of his Excersaucer – and then getting very angry about it. Momma stole a moment to snap a photo before rescuing him this time!

A Saturday in Southport

Southport is just a ferry ride away from Pleasure Island. We brought the Big One to satisfy his boat interest. We met up with family friends who live nearby to Southport and they showed up around town and we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch together.

We met our friends at a local park, right on the waterfront. While we waited we swung together and enjoyed the view. Once we met up, we walked through downtown, a short distance filled with all sorts of fun little shops, including a fantastic toy store, at which we bought little pirate toys (fashioned like the old school toy soldiers) that the Big One has played with for weeks.

 

We even found a small museum full of information about the local maritime tradition. Apparently, “Frying Pan” is a common name around here for boats and other locals. While at the museum, the Little One passed out in the wagon, while his friend slept in the stroller.

After a wonderful lunch of local seafood, we returned to the park to pick the van. My boys, my family, had a wonderful time.

Fantastic Ferry

 

 

The Big One has been really interested in boats lately. We decided that a fun trip would be to take the Southport ferry. At $5 a vehicle, we made a round trip for $10, which was well worth the total hour trip. We watched the birds, the other boats and all the land between Fort Fisher and Southport pass by. It was a cloudy day, and a bit windy, which seems perfect for a ferry ride!

A Return Home

Some of you remember that when Momma and Daddy first moved to Wilmington, we lived in a state park for a week before finding a place to live. We returned to the park for a walk in the woods with the boys. The Big One explored and touched everything, a practice we were less indulgent in as the heat of the day hit and 90 degrees plus humidity set in. But until then, the morning was a wonderful exploration of all that nature had to offer. 

 

 

Obligatory Naked Baby Photo

 

 

Here is the Little One, clean after a bath. It was his first bath after his surgery, where tubes were put in his ears. We had to wait for the doctor’s okay to get water in his ears again. Now, instead of “birdy baths,” he is fresh as a daisy, head to toe!

A View from a Three

The Big One has learned how to (mostly) operate our camera. Here are some of his better photos. For reasons that are completely beyond me, he insists on using the viewfinder on our digital camera. In this digital age, where did he learn that behavior?

 

Helping Momma Make Jam

 

 

Momma

 

 

“I’ve got you now, Perry the Platypus!”

Watersports, Level: Beginner

 

 

 

Letting the boys play with water in the kitchen while cleaning. Water is almost always fun. That’s why Momma moved close to the beach!

Beach Babes

 

Dipping the Little Boy’s toys in the ocean for the first time this summer. He is seriously styling with the sunglasses and new swim trunks he got for Easter. We’ll have lots more beach pictures this summer!

Chef-tastic

 

 

The Big One LOVES to help Momma cook. So much so that sometimes, Momma has to provide distraction so that Momma can cook dinner while the Big One feels actively involved. Momma loves to wonder what hobbies and careers the Big One might be interested in 20 years. Will he be a chef? or just a wonderful cook for his kids someday?