Fish & other pets

We went to a pet store the week before Christmas just for kicks - it was Dan's idea... kudos for Dad for thinking of something so fun. Julia really enjoyed terrorizing the fish. She found if she would strike the tank the fish would scatter and thought it was great fun. Almost at fun as running off with Ellie's current toy. Of course they had dog, cat, and rabbit adoptions (we almost left with a dog but decided since we'll be moving in just 6 months that would be a bad idea). I think the funniest event was the Santa pictures they were taking with the pets. Santa and the dog... funny times.

Nicknames

If I were one of those bloggers who renammes my kids on my blog (for privacy reasons, I guess?), Julia's name would be Jitterbug, like the swing dance. Currently we call her any one of these: Jitterbug, J, Little Bit, and maybe Red.


Ellie's name would be Sassy. Or maybe Sassafras. Yep, I know it's a tree. It's a tree that makes tiny, very fragrant yellow flowers and has leaves that smell like root beer when they are crushed. Mmmmmm. Despite my best efforts, I still call her Ellie Belly all the time, though she prefers Ariel.

Do you have a blog?

Hey there! If you read my blog and you have a blog, leave me a comment so I can check yours out!

Recent Activity

One morning Ellie and I decided to make orange juice. We used the juicer that belonged to my great grandmother (right, mom?).

That same morning we had to make cookies because I had a cookie exchange that night. We made gigantoid crunchy peanut butter cookies. They were awesome and Ellie was good enough to only eat the one spoon of dough that I gave to her.

How many stickers can big sister put on little sister's face? And how bad do you think those puppies hurt when they came off?

Aaaaand how many stickers can I get on my hand?

She said, "hold on while I turn on my blender, cover your ears, it might be loud." And proceed to blend her felt pasta.

She got the lacing cards out when I was in the next room and when I came in, she held up this horse. Funny, she never did these when I had them out as an "activity." But now that I'm not doing any of that structured stuff...

Being silly in Dad's car while we waited for my car to be done with repairs. Julia wet her winter clothing and I hadn't changed out the spare outfit from a summer one... it was only 30 degrees outside, she wasn't cold, right? hah.

The first time we used our little cutter from For Small Hands. Ellie loved this.

She's obsessed with The Paper Bag Princess. We're trying to find an alternative to Disney princesses and this book was recommended on several blogs I found. Apparently there's a whole anti-Disney princess community out there.

I made this from a book I got from the library: Montessori for Everyone. Ellie has done it once and liked it.

Dancing to Christmas music with Julia! Dancing to whatever Pandora plays on their Christmas music channel is a new favorite. We have taken to repeating this ritual about twice a day, especially when Dad gets home and there are two big people to pick up and twirl the two little people.

I've been working on getting better at photographing the ordinary things we've been doing. Who knows, the next few weeks I'll probably stink at doing this. It's an ebb and flow thing for me, as is this blog. So goes life. :)

Learning

I feel so fortunate to be able to stay at home with my children. Yep, it's hard work and before I had Julia, sometimes it was boring. But I LOVE getting to know my children better as each day passes and because I'm at home with them all the dang time, I can study their every move! hah.

Recently, I have made a discovery about Ellie. She knows what she would like to spend her time doing. Shocking, right? That a 3 year old would be able to direct her very own time? Hm.

I've been doing a lot of reading. I love to read about things that are new to me and I've been exploring types of schooling. One frame of mind believes that we learn best what we are interested in, and I think I've written about that before. So since I stay at home and have nothing to lose, I decided to try it (it's not like I'm trying out a totally new way to homeschool with 7 and 9 year olds or something).

The more I follow Ellie's natural sense of intuition and direction, the happier she is and the better she plays (mostly on her own), and the more she has been doing. Even some of the Montessori activities I've made for her. She fills her days doing what she likes to do. Novel thought. This does not mean I follow her every whim and fancy. There are still fits, although I'm learning how she best responds to guidance in recovering from a fit (and it's not being sent to her room to be by herself).

All this time, I thought that if I provided enough structure, she would flourish (sadly, I gleaned this from Montessori. I think I twisted her teachings in my mind a bit). Ellie bucked the structure I tried to create. Though her persistence made me crazy, I'm glad she continuously "told" me she didn't like my idea of structure and replaced it with her own idea of how to experience her world.

We are all much happier for it.

Great Article...

No More Junk Toys

http://www.mothering.com/green-living/no-more-junk-toys-rethinking-childrens-gifts

A quote from the middle of the article:
"Julie Convisser, a movement therapist and mother of two small boys, worries about the messages kids get from commercial culture. "I feel like they are being groomed to be materialists, to buy into an evil-vs.-good world paradigm, and to ignore the spiritual heart of life and the bounty of nature." She buffers the influence of commercial culture as much as possible by limiting her boys' TV viewing and being picky about videos, avoiding media-promotion toys, and sending her older son to a school at which the other children's parents share her values."

Another interesting quote from the article:
"Changing the Culture of Gifts
Alicia Daniel, field naturalist, teacher, and mother of two daughters, offers a radical checklist:

1) Will this toy eventually turn into dirt-i.e., could I compost it? Stones, snowmen, driftwood, and daisies-they will be gone, and we will be gone, and life goes on.

2) Do I know who made this toy? This question leads us to search for the hidden folk artist in each of us.

3) Is this toy beautiful? Have human hands bestowed an awkward grace, a uniqueness lacking in toys cranked out effortlessly by machine?

4) Will this toy capture a child's imagination?"10

To this list we might add: Does this gift foster my child's natural inclinations? Will it enable him to more fully engage in life? Does it help her reach her goals?"

To reduce our family's idea of toys for our girls, here is the question I ask myself often:

Does it do less so my child has to do more?

Gardening with J

Back in October I had some help planting pansies in the front bed. Is anyone surprised that Julia likes digging in the dirt? She held her little shovel quite well and dug dug dug. After twirling around in the yard, Ellie wanted to dig around a bit and I had to share my shovel with her (just don't have any pictures to prove that yes I, too, know how to share).