Getting ready for the election!

The other day I talked to the boys about polls, voting, and elections. To make their experience a little more concrete we took our lesson to the streets and polled our neighbors to find out which flavor of ice-cream was more popular, chocolate or chocolate chip. This is how it went; Keith and Ian would both run up to the door to ring the bell, then Keith would say, "okay, Ian, three steps back to give them room (Keith revealed to me that he learned this courtesy last Halloween). Then when someone came to the door, Keith would say, "Hello my name is Keith James Miller and I am taking a poll on the best flavor of ice-cream, would you like to vote?" The neighbor would check off either chocolate or chocolate chip on our tally sheet and Ian would offer, "thanks for voting; would you like a sticker?" The boys had a great time and it turns out that chocolate is just as popular as chocolate chip on our street so we celebrated by buying both!

Ian's (little) prayer

Here is a video clip of Ian saying a "little" prayer before lunch.

Children's desk area

Here are some photos of the boys' desks. They each have their own space where they can color, cut, paste, and create original works of art and practice writing their letters and numbers.

Marshmellow Art

Keith really enjoyed today's craft! After we practiced writing his name a few times, he glued marshmallow's to his letters. When he finished his marshmallow name he got to eat the leftover marshmallow's!

Keith is feeling much better!

All of the tests came back inconclusive but Keith has been feeling much better and has regained 100% of his energy!

Update for Keith

The specialist downtown believes that Keith's stomach issues are caused by something unrelated to Alpha-1. After giving him the symptoms, he thinks it may be a kinked bowel. We have to go downtown 3/31 in the AM for an upper GI study. Then we go back on 4/3 to speak with the specialist.

Recently his front tooth has begun to bother him. This is the remaining tooth from his injury in 2006. We went to the dentist and she said that it is also beginning to abscess and it needs to come out. This tooth will be removed 4/8.

100% boy!

I don't know if you are familiar with the book, Harry the Dirty Dog, but it is about a little dog who doesn't like to take a bath and runs away before his family can clean him. By the time he comes home, he is so dirty that he is unrecognizable. Well...that was Ian today! We went to a wonderful playground that was full of rocks and dirt. By the time we left his face, arms, and feet were completely black! I am not exaggerating and I even took a picture to prove it, but I just realized that I have been walking around for two days without a flash card in my camera! Ian is truly 100% boy! If there is a way to get dirty - he will find it! If there is something to climb up, jump off, roll down, ride on, or crawl through - Ian will find it!

Preschool Math

This afternoon Keith found the cribbage board and wanted to play. Instead of using cards I had the boys roll dice, count the number of dots, and move according to the total. Keith is a adding so well and Ian loves to pretend that he is counting just like his brother! We take every opportunity we can to learn about numbers. Another great way to teach preschool math with dice is to simply write a number from 1 to 10 on your dry erase board. Have your preschooler roll the dice and try to match the number you’ve written.

Day at the park

Today we went to the Woodlands for a dental appointment. It turns out Keith's other tooth is now starting to abscess and we need to remove it as well. After our appointment we went to a very nice playground near a lake for a picnic. Half way through lunch Ian says, "mom, I like it here. I want to live here." I said, "Oh, should we buy a house here?" He took a second to look all around and then said, "Yes, that one over there. We will live in that house." He pointed to the roof of a house that you could barley see over the tree line.

getting structure in our day...

Keith is four and is really ready for reading lessons. He is telling us the first letter of so many words, sounding words out and recognizing various words as we read together! This means I need to put more structure in our day! Right now our days are easy going. We wake up around 7ish, have breakfast and do our morning routine (bathroom, brush, get dressed). Then we either go to the library, meet for a play date or go to the gym to play and swim. We usually get home right around lunch time and have a quiet/rest time until 2:30. This time is just as much for me as it is for the boys! After rest time we read and play outside sometimes I can get them into a jogger and go for a long walk to a playground. When we leave for the afternoon I usually bring a snack and drink so we don't have to make any unnecessary stops. Around 5ish we go home for dinner and the boys either play in the backyard or watch a show while I get things ready. Then its daddy time (which we all love!) until 7:00pm and off to bed.

Somehow I need to start scheduling reading and writing lessons for Keith. Ian is not ready yet but I know he will be soon once he sees Keith doing it!

There is a homeschooling conference in June where I can learn about and buy curriculum for Keith. I think that we will continue to read and play as usual until then.

If you give a mouse a cookie

This week we read if you give a mouse a cookie and thought it would be nice to make some cookies ourselves. We made chocolate cookies (with spinach puree! I get it in them wherever I can!) and painted some cookie pictures while they baked. As we ate our cookies I asked them what they would ask for if they were the mouse.

Here is what they said...
If you give a Keith a cookie he will ask for..."nothing, well maybe a glass of water to go with it!"
and
If you give an Ian a cookie he will ask for..."lots and lots of cookies to go with it!"

Goodies from Nana!

Nana sent the boys some Easter goodies in the mail.
Keith rationed his sweets and enjoyed his bubbles and harmonica.
Ian, on the other hand, found his treat cup on a high counter, hid under the coffee table and devoured every morsel!

Oh Man!

Ian's most common saying changes from time to time. At one point it was, "I do!", then it was, "I Ian..." Now whenever he sees something interesting to him or just new in general he says, "Oh Man!" with such enthusiasm and curiosity.

Phone call to Claire

The other day Claire left a message on our machine to call her back soon. Here is a video of Keith's first phone call to Claire. He paces just like his daddy when he is on the phone!

Easter Morning

The boys were so excited for the Easter bunny to come! Last night Keith could hardly lay in bed and exclaimed, "I am so excited for the Easter bunny to visit!"

This morning the kids opened their Easter baskets and found chocolate, a book, a dvd, fishing pole and new swim suits! At church Ian and Keith opened Hymnals and started singing the songs with original lyrics.

Keith's lyrics - "I love God and not bad guys. Jesus loves everyone he is my friend!"

After church Ian lay on the floor looked towards the ceiling and started to say the following in his sweet and very deep voice.

Ian - "God...its me, Ian...can you hear me? Are you there? God...Hello."

When we got home the boys quickly made little Easter bags and to their delight found eggs all over the back yard! They just finished opening all the eggs and pouring their findings into bowls.

Happy Easter Jesus!

To nap or not to nap

Keith is over the napping thing but Ian still really needs it. Although he needs it he adamantly refuses on a daily basis. The result - a whining, yelling, tantrum toy throwing, eye rubbing little boy! To my surprise he fell asleep yesterday in his room during quiet time and was wonderfully pleasant all evening. Today as we took a walk he fell asleep again and is currently napping in the stroller as I type. Let's see how this evening rolls out.

How to fix a boo-boo

About two months ago Ian bumped his head and began to cry. In an attempt to comfort his brother Keith said, "Here Ian try this." He then proceeded to kiss his hand and then rub it on his head. He followed up by saying, "It works every time!"

Keith has a rash on his bottom

About two weeks ago we were getting ready for bath time when Keith pointed to a rash (or rather a pimple) on his bottom. Dramatically he cried out, "What is it mama! What is on my bottom that hurts so much!" I told him that he had a little rash and he asked, "How did I get this?" I reminded him how for the previous few days he refused to take a bath and I warned him that something like this would happen if he did not wash his body. Then he asked, "Mommy why didn't you give me a bath!" I said, "Well, I couldn't safely make you get in the tub and I told you what could happen and then gave you the choice." The he retorted with even more drama, "But why did you give me a choice!?"

We haven't had a problem with bath time since!

A day at the rodeo

The boys and I went to the rodeo with our local home school group and had a great time. They enjoyed seeing the tractors and petting zoo the most. They both sat up on a real long horn and posed for a picture! Keith really liked feeding the animals and when he ran out of food he found a piece of straw and tried to give it to any animal in his path. None of them took it and he couldn't understand why they didn't want it. At the same time, Ian was hugging all the animals and took a special liking to a deer and tried walking her through the petting area. It was sweet to watch them with the animals.

As we were getting ready to leave Ian spotted the fun house and wanted so badly to go inside. When I told him that we couldn't he took off running anyway. Normally he will stop and look back to test me but this day he didn't. He jumped up on the side, scaled to the platform and pulled himself through a circle! This of course means that I had to run and climb even faster to catch up to him! He was so mad when I pulled him away that he tried to hit me. I know he was acting out of being tired more than anything else.