Baseball Sign Me Up

Baseball sign ups were this weekend and our four year old is ready for spring so he can begin to play on his new team! Teams haven't even been assigned yet but we are registered and got to choose the sizes for the jersey and hat. While walking out of the building he saw a couple of older players throwing the ball and as soon as we walked through our door my son picked up a ball and needed to throw back and forth with me.

Moving - Just the Start

We are just starting the moving process again and I can say that I hate moving our stuff. It's not too often that I ever use the word hate but I do and I can't help it. I don't like packing, unpacking, moving it in vehicles and especially don't like other people touching my stuff. It always takes me back to the time when I was moving out of my college dorm and my dad was "tired of moving my junk" and proceeded to kick things down two flights of stairs. I'm very thankful that we are going to have help, believe me, truly appreciative but it gives me some anxiety because it's my stuff and I'd prefer not to have it thrown or kicked.

A little background - this is our third house in about six years and I know people, especially in the military, move a lot more often than this and I don't know how they do it. We moved to this area about four years ago and bought our second house and while the house was great; fantastic actually, the location didn't exactly suit our needs or wants. My husband and I talked about moving back home so we listed the house and to our surprise it sold in about 25 hours. We were thankful, ecstatic and felt extremely blessed because it's not too often that houses sell that quickly. Just one minor problem...we didn't have a new house to go to so we thought maybe we should rent in our current location until we found our new house. As you know, things change and we decided we should probably just stay in this area and call it home. After about nine long months of renting we are starting to move into our new home. 

This week begins with the painters ripping off the wallpaper and painting, the new carpet being installed in the upstairs and then an initial cleaning from a local couple. If I haven't mentioned I'm expecting an addition to our family in the summer so I'm not as much of a help as I wish I could be. Not only can I not lift the heavy items like previous moves but also can't even scrub the house. I'm forced to rely on other people which just makes me nervous. I know that I'm paying, probably more than I should for some of the services, but it just give me a little bit of anxiety. I like to do things myself and I don't like to pay for things like cleaning services. Wish me luck this week and upcoming weekend. 

Finishing Our Hearts

Today, Valentine's Day, our family finished the Conversation Hearts and while we were excited to reach the last paper chain heart it was a little bittersweet because our son looked forward to tearing off a heart each day. He actually liked having to think about his answer and always wanted to go first.

Yesterday's Question: Something I wish my family would do more of is...
Son - I wish we could go out to dinner more. (We went out to dinner this week for Valentine's Day and our son isn't always the most behaved when out to dinner so we don't go out a lot. Unfortunately this week was also one of those times. He isn't one to be standing on the table or running around but he is exceptionally loud and doesn't want to listen.)

Today's Question - What is good about a snowy day?
Son - I get to go out and go sled riding.

As I have stated before, I'm not insanely crafty and your family's conversation hearts could be a lot prettier and the design better executed but I'd recommend everyone doing this at least once. Your child's answers will surprise you and the questions can be a lot of fun.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Conversation Hearts

Our family's Conversation Hearts continued...

#7 - If you could have one magical power, what would you pick?

Son - I'd pick a wand and then I could do whatever I wanted. 

#8 - What is your favorite book? 

Son - The Berenstain Bears - Get the Gimmies

#9 - What was the best part of your day?

Son - Going to sign up for baseball and trying on my jersey. 

#10 - What is your favorite season? Why

Son - Summer because I can go to the pool. 

#11 - What are you thankful for? 

Son - Donuts and the show Austin & Ally that mom sometimes lets me watch. 

#12 - What do you want to get better at? 

Son - Soccer so that's why I practice. 

Valentine's Day Party

Today was the big Valentine's Day Party at preschool and the kids and mom volunteers seemed to have a great time. I know I did. The little ones started out with being able to make their own sundaes, vanilla ice cream with a real fruit topping of their choice and the not to be forgotten whipped cream. The kids were excited about the ice cream but I think they would have liked anything besides goldfish. Goldfish are a great snack and they all seem to enjoy them but as a parent you know they are common.

Anyway after the preschoolers finished we moved on to the games and craft stations.

Station 1 - Craft: We painted the kids hands bright red so they could make a handprint heart on paper. Special note to parents - kids love paint and when you paint their hands with a brush they think it's "one of the coolest things ever."

Station 2 - Game: Place the sticker heart on cupid's heart - Valentine version of pin the tail on the donkey. The kids liked helping spin their classmate around three times.

Station 3 - Game: Move the tissue paper heart from the table to the bowl by using only a straw. After the kids got the hang of this, we would give them a minute to see how fast they could go and then they counted the hearts to see how many they had. (I can say this is the game I brought and while I thought it would fail because it wasn't fun enough - the kids really loved it and I was pleasantly shocked.)

Station 4 - Craft: Decorate the I love you sign language heart. No mess, no fuss and kids love stickers.

Conversation Hearts #3, 4, 5 & 6

Although I haven't been posting each day the Conversation Heart that we are discussing, our family is successfully continuing to count down to Valentine's Day.

#3 - What do you like to do when you feel happy?
Son - I like to play the Wii, especially swords.

#4 - What is your favorite game to play?
Son - I think football or maybe soccer.

#5 - What is something you would like to learn this year?
Son - I'd like to learn how to ride my dirt bike when we get our new home.

#6 - Tell us about an adventure that you would like to have this year?
Son - To go swimming at the big pool with my new baby sister (expecting her late June).

"Nothing" at School

We all do it or we've all done it -well anybody that has or had a child in school. "How was your day at school kiddo?" And it seems that the answer is "good" or "fine." Then a follow up, "what did you do today?" And a return "nothing."

Everyone knows that's not exactly true but for a preschooler, that's a much harder open ended question. If I don't ask a specific question, I really don't get much of an answer. So I have started to ask things like, what did you have for snack, who were the helpers and who did you sit by at lunch. I enjoy hearing about the social aspects of school but I know the teacher is very good, wonderful actually and they have a great educational program and these are the things that are a little harder to pull out of my son. He likes to talk about what he learned but if the question isn't targeted then I'm definitely not getting an answer. That is unless it slips out, like today.

These are moments that I just love because he's learning and applying what he learned (on a four year old level).

I picked him up from school and when he got in the car I had two cups, identical, except one was full of water and the other was empty. My son got so excited and screamed "mom, those are opposites, they are the same cups but one is full and one is empty. Mrs. O loves opposites and she'd really like those cups!"

To help with learning the alphabet and upper and lower case letters the classroom has 'letter people' and they focus on a letter each week. This is usually the only time I really get a glimpse into what he's learning vs. what he is being taught.

I believe we learn a lot from children or at least have the opportunity. One very distinct thing I remember being impressed to learn was when he informed me at Christmastime why a candy cane is shaped the way it is because his teacher taught him. Honestly I had no idea why it's shaped like a hook, I don't even think I would have had an educated guess. Well I quickly found out that it's molded to look like a shepherd's crook.

As he grows, I know that I will learn more and more. And sometimes maybe stuff I'm not ready to learn that he knows. Thank goodness he's four and we aren't even close to those days.

Painted Dragon

This weekend my son and I ran into Michaels in search of a fun project and after looking through a couple isles, I thought paint might be a good idea. So with paint brushes, paints and a toy dragon we were set and on our way home for my little boy to become the next da Vinci.

When daddy saw the paints he was curious why I purchased real paint and not the cheap little watercolor ones. I actually didn't see those at the store but those aren't near as cool as the real paints - you know the ones, the ones that make a mess of your hands, clothing and tablecloth.

Anyway while he may not be the next da Vinci...yet; our little guy loved using the paintbrush to create his art.

Conversation Heart #2

If you could be invisible for an entire day, what would you do? 

That was the question from tonight's Conversation Hearts and tonight we were all able to enjoy dinner together along with a Saturday night movie, The Little Rascals. 

Son's answer: I'd play the Wii all day if I got to be invisible. 

Husband's answer: I think I'd spy on people because they wouldn't know I was there. 

My answer: I'd play fun tricks on people so they wouldn't know what's happening. 

Our son was very intrigued to know what kind of tricks I'd play so I started with when daddy put toothpaste on his toothbrush I'd hurry and wipe it off without him looking at the brush. Then when he reapplied it, I'd wipe it off again so he'd feel silly. Then I told him that while we was watching television and eating a chocolate covered pretzel for dessert, I'd move the pretzel behind him so he couldn't see it. (Just as a side note - my husband and son love Sarris Candies chocolate covered pretzels so when we have them in the house they don't last long.) My husband looked at me like I was losing it by teaching my son how to play silly little tricks because he's mischievous enough without me helping. But...kids have to be kids. And yes, I'm well aware that the statement I just made will come back around full circle at a different time. 

Conversation Heart #1

I had mentioned that our family was going to start our version of Conversation Hearts on February 1st and our son would pick off one heart from our paper chain and we'd all answer. Unfortunately my husband couldn't be at the dinner table tonight but he can answer later.

The first question: If you had a lot of money to spend, what would you buy?

I told my son he should go first that way I know he will answer with whatever is on his mind. Before I tell you what he said I'd like you to think about what a four year old would say. See I thought it would be for toys, one specific or just lots of tots in general. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Chips! Yes, chips. And he followed up with maybe some pizza too. I wonder if his answer would have been different if he hadn't been eating spicy homemade chili.

Penny Wars

My little guy
unwrapping pennies
for his class.

Today ends Catholic Schools Week which means a conclusion to Penny Wars but we still aren't sure who won. The goal of the game is for a classroom to collect the most pennies and each morning kids bring in their bags or jars of pennies to be put into their classroom's container. The catch - there is a designated 'bombing' period when students visit other classrooms and drop silver coins into the container. The amount of the silver coins is then subtracted from the total pennies in the jar. The top three classrooms are announced each afternoon so kids can plan their strategy for the following day. With the exception of the last day - hopefully we find out Monday if the preschool class won, my son's class was in the top three on Tuesday but he only goes three days a week so keep your fingers crossed.