Bargains Arise!

I went to a local kid sale today at a nearby church. I had been thinking over our baby stash, cloth diaper stash and what things we truly wanted to get prior to Hannah’s arrival. (Hannah – so nice to name her kicks and soon-to-be snuggles.) Having two girls 17 months apart can put some serious wear and tear on your baby items and has left some birth to potty training items in need of replacing.

I have found the easiest “large sale” shopping to be done for a newbie who has yet arrived due to every size being a viable option. This allows for me to pass over items that are “too high” in my personal price without the pushing need to go home with something for the child to wear/use “today.”

So I have acquired the following things for a total of $28.

[Vibrating bouncer ($8 and CUTE), toddler shirt-bib, plastic toddler bib, plastic paint-smock bib, 2 receiving blankets (I see cloth wipes in the future), plastic-backed spit-up rag, 1 large namebrand cloth prefold diaper cover (Abi can wear now) [got it for $1 – resale price = $9], 1 medium cloth prefold diaper cover (got it for $1), 3 small namebrand cloth prefold diaper covers (visions of newborn to 4 month old Hannah in cloth) [avg. resale price per cover = $5-9. I got each one for $1-1.50], 5 plastic-backed bibs, 9 newborn-3 month bibs, 3 changing pad cloths (easy blow-out clean-up), and two 2T cloth pull-ups (for when Abi’s ready to start learning).]

All for TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS, people. And this wipes out half of our “we’d like to get before we bring Hannah home” list.

– Enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face on a rainy-thunderstorm day. =D

Teaching Responsibility

We had a great time time last Thursday having a little practical lesson on responsibility. After the girls woke up from their naps, we took advantage of that fresh recharging of energy to work on a house chore together. This is one house chore that usually gets overlooked because, quite honestly, I just don’t think actively about it.

So since utter delight can be found in nearly every activity when you are 3 and nearly 2 years old, we all dropped to our knees and enjoyed us some wonderful kitchen floor ice skating.

The girls primarily just played, slopping suds about. But they did have some very nice scrubbing moments  as well while I washed up the floor. They enjoyed the opportunity to “help Mommy” and take responsibility for caring for the house with me. We talked about how everyone uses the kitchen and enjoys eating the food that is in the kitchen, therefore it’s nice for everyone to help in keeping it clean. Such joy and delight came from the accomplishment of the shining floor with a united cheer and we all had a very fun time with some water/bubble play. Rachael provided a soundtrack to our cleaning (she’s quite the songwriter) and Abi even took on the liberty of washing her legs, my little over-achiever. 😉

So with a shine, thus ends another fun lesson in responsibility and being family helpers.

The Verdict Is In….

Thank you, first and foremost for those of you who enjoyed playing the baby gender guessing game. It was fun and I really appreciate all your excitement about baby.

Well after our ultrasound the verdict is in…

We will be welcoming to our household,

making our duo a trio:

HANNAH JOY!!!

=D

And we couldn’t be more thrilled.

So for those of you keeping tabs: Matt was right! And the joke lives on that “he only makes girls.”

Hannah is healthy, strong little girl measuring at 21 weeks. She has a wonderfully steady heartbeat at 153 beats per minute and is quite the mover (she’s kicking as I type this)- making our ultrasound pictures a bit on the blurry side. I was sure not to eat this time so as to give her any extra jitters, but she is just a busy little girl. =) Which is a WONDERFUL thing for us all to experience! And everything in there looks great and on track and healthy. Thank You, Lord, for the blessing!

For those of you who remember, Rachael wanted a boy. And while she repeated her requests a few times at the Dr. office, once she realized that we can’t dress a boy in pink, she was 100% in favor of having a Hannah added to our family. She is now naming her dolls Hannah, with an occasional Elijah Joel in there, despite the focus being on Hannah.

We’re looking forward to our little ladies trio maker coming to theaters in early September 2012.

I really can’t stop smiling and I don’t plan to. =D

For Newbee

I made two newborn prefold diapers today thanks to some old towel pieces and flannel sheets (thanks again, Rachel). It’s nice to use things here, donating about an hour to figuring out what I was doing (woot!) and about a half hour to forty minutes (if I had to change to bobbin) a piece to each diaper following. Planning on just adding about 6-12 newbee diapers to the stash with maybe only the cost of thread (if I run out). From what I’ve researched it’s helpful to have a few tiny diapers for the freshie stage up until about 2-3 months when they can go into more “normal” sizes. Abi was gracious to play nicely on the floor to the hum of the sewing machine (after waking up early from nap). 

 One is layered 2x4x2 (I) and the other is 4x6x4 (II). 

My old doll from childhood modeling. 

With the assistance of Abi. =) 


I’ll probably make more of the 4x6x4 or a 2x6x2 combo since the middle thickness is the real hero in the pottying story.

 

– Kind of exciting to slowly start the “get ready for baby” preparations. 

 – If we find out on Friday that we’re having a boy, he’ll be relieving himself in flower-print prefolds. hehe. I don’t think he’ll care and it’s what I have to work with. Eh! Baby’ll just be sleeping through newbee life anyway. And we could find some cute neutral covers to help him out if he’s a he. 😉

39 Months

We took an opportunity to do homeschooling today. We don’t usually do it on a Saturday, but the Littlest was sick Monday and we were all seeking a day of rest. Since I like to try to do three days of homeschooling per week, we did not do homeschooling on Friday, and Daddy is away on a youth trip this weekend, I figured Saturday was as good as any.

We took the opportunity to do some review. We have been going through an alphabet series of one letter, upper and lower case, per week. Since Rachael is 39 months, I am not expecting her to be able to freehand lower case letters yet (that is a more advanced skill since a lot of those letters have less defined lines [approximately Kindergarten aged]). But in our series (that I’m making up with the help for a few preschool/pre-Kindergarten workbooks I got at the dollar store and a teacher supply store [whoppin’ dollar fifty] and the rest I improv based on state standards for what a child should know to enter Kindergarten), she is expected to trace and attempt to freehand all the capital letters in the alphabet, as well as identify the lower case letters. We have gone from A to L thus far and are in week eleven of the series. I anticipate another 12 weeks of letter introductions to occur (we’ll combine some familiar letters in one week) and then have a review week or two before starting our “formal” Pre-K curriculum. I have been using the resources through the Answers In Genesis curriculum packet to introduce various topics to Rachael so the curriculum will not be completely foreign when we start doing a more structured preschooling. And the alphabet flashcards and 8’11” display resources along with tracing marks have proven helpful for the past series.

I’ve also been using what we refer to as “word pieces” to introduce the letters to Rachael as she has developed her fine motor skills in tracing and, ultimately, writing. These “word pieces” help to introduce the letters in segments, or strokes, and better help her organize the concept of writing the letter. She has really enjoyed the puzzle-like quality and handful of activities on the backs of the mats to aid in the letter’s introduction. While I did not pay for the wooden pieces (they were a bit pricey), but simply traced my sister in law’s pieces and cut them out of foam board, I did purchase the laminated alphabet pages and have used them for an introduction and reintroduction (should it be needed) of the letters at the start of each week.  I just couldn’t justify spending $53+ for an introduction material, even if I am planning on using it for all the kids in our household. The upfront cost when on a budget was a bit extreme. But not wanting to break copyright codes, I planned on just purchasing the sheets and then measuring the size of the “wood pieces” until my sister in law decided to purchase the wooden pieces and therefore I could measure the size from the wooden pieces themselves. So between the two of us, she really helped me out to make that product fit our budget and homeschooling needs. We’re just careful not to beat up our “word pieces” as we should be respectful and kind to all our supplies. I may very well actually buy the wood pieces here down the line, but not this year with our tight budget.

I have also used various storybooks, Rachael’s tag (not tag Jr.) reader system (A Christmas gift secondhand for $8.50 plus two books and then added other books via Christmas wish lists and sales racks), library books, and written sentences/words for the purpose of letter identification to begin to introduce the concept of decoding words. I’ve checked out “Teach Your Child to Read in 110 Easy Lessons” from the library and am hoping to start that with Rachael as well when we begin her “formal” pre-K curriculum. Since I have modeled my created lesson plans from the curriculum we are going to use for Rachael’s “formal” pre-K, it should be a more natural transition into increased listening/interaction time. We have been averaging an hour to an hour and a half of preschool three times a week. The curriculum we will begin is a 1.5 to 2 hour 4-5 day a week curriculum that is more holistic in skill and themed. Since Rachael has been exposed to many of the resources, saving the more advanced ones of course to use in the actual curriculum, the compilation of the resources should not overwhelm her. The curriculum in itself is for 180 days and since we are schooling year-round (at least for now) we are in no rush to take any quick pace. Rachael will begin her pre-K curriculum at the ripe age of 3.5. And if you’ve met her or held a conversation with her, I think you’ll understand why so “soon.”

So back to my original point of this post (though the previous explanations are quite beneficial in understanding how we came about this fruit). I had Rachael do some review today and I wanted to share her work with you all. Much of this work she completed independently while I fixed lunch, did house chores and put Abi down for a nap. I popped in for occasional instruction and to see how she was fairing. But without further delay, I give you Rachael’s A-L work.

 [My writing: circle of third C and notation where Rachael corrected her own form. Penned third D during explanation to Rachael of the side that the curved part of the D was supposed to be on – she wrote it backward (not a big deal, but still wanting her to see the difference).]
 [My writing: Rachael’s self-correction of the second F after drawing the first circled line, she explained that she adjusted the line over to fit the F better.]

I’d say it’s going well.

I’m VERY proud of her. She really worked HARD on this review and applied herself with great concentration, asking questions about letter formation where she had forgotten.

Once again, the child is only 39 months. =)

– Go Rachael!!!

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