Aidan's Own Joke!

Before viewing this video, you need to know a knock-knock joke that Jordan taught Aidan:

Knock, knock

Who's there?

Big interrupting cow

Big interuppt...

MOOOOOOOOO!

So here is Aidan's own spin on that joke! He came up with his all by himself...

Visit with Aunt Leah and Uncle Drew

On Tuesday night we were able to visit with Jordan's sister Leah and her husband Drew who are in town visiting from California. Leah is an amazing cook, and made dinner and dessert for us. It was wonderful! Gresham was a little hesitant about new family members until they brought out belated birthday presents which they had brought for the kids (and some for us too!). Gresham opened some crayons and a giant coloring book, and got to work on those.

We had a really good visit, and were reminded of the fact that it is too bad that we live so far from each other!

Mr. Literal

This morning, Aidan and I were working on Psalm 86:11 which says, "Teach me your way, O Lord. I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name."

Mom: Aidan, what does it mean to walk in Your truth.
Aidan: To do what God tells us to do.
Mom: Yes, that's right. Where do we find truth?
Aidan: In the Bible.
Mom: (thinks to herself that she is glad that Aidan is getting this concept)
Aidan: Here, let me find it. (flipping pages) I know I saw truth in here somewhere on another page. What letter does it start with?

Okay, maybe we don't quite have it yet!

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school... for public schoolers, that is. I actually enrolled Aidan in kindergarten at our local elementary school so that I could secure a morning kindergarten spot while we thought about it. I forgot to call to un-enroll him, and I was wondering today if his name was on a desk in a brightly colored classroom, and he never came... (actually probably not because we never turned in our vaccine exemption form, but that's another story.) I was sad for a moment because I personally really loved school and had good experiences there. And it was sad to think about missing out on the monumental first day of kindergarten with my son. But I was only sad for a moment, because I am really excited about what we can accomplish at home.

Every morning I get to sit on the couch with my children and memorize scripture with them. We are not in a hurry, because we don't have to be somewhere by 8:00 a.m. The other day, we were memorizing Psalm 86:5 which says, "The Lord is good and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindess to all who call upon Him." Aidan said, "Hey! That verse is like the other one I memorized!" and he went through Psalm 100 until he came to the last verse which says, "His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations." How exciting it is to see him hide God's word in his heart, and to make connections with the themes of the Bible. It would be harder to have the time for what is most important if we did public school. It's not impossible, and I'm certainly not saying that homeschooling is the only way, but for now I am glad to have the opportunity to have this time with my children.

While Aidan's spiritual development was certainly a big part of our decision, I think that homeschooling is also going to be an extremely sanctifying experience for me as I relate to my son who loves to dawdle, do things his own way, and challenge authority! I am going to be mom and teacher, in addition to cook, maid, financial coordinator, grocery shopper... but I digress... This is not going to be easy for either of us, but we didn't make the choice because it was going to be easy.

So here we go... in a few years we might be heading off to school, but for now, this is where the Lord has us!

My Silly Aidan

Aidan has been wanting me to buy fruit snacks, but I won't buy them anymore after an article I read about artificial colors. We found a type of fruit snacks that are all-natural, but they are a whopping $5 per box. I guess all this discussion has made my little 5 year old a little more health conscious because the other day, Aidan asked me to read him the ingredients on the Multi-grain Cheerios box. I read him every ingredient, including the ones that I could barely pronounce.
"Hmm," he said. "So it's artificial."

He is also really taking off with reading. Well, maybe "taking off" is too strong a term. He mostly tells me that he has no idea what something says without even thinking about it. But he's definitely more aware and more interested! Today we went up to my school for a while. On the way, Aidan told me, "Mom, now whenever you say something, I keep thinking about how to spell it."

Sweetness...

This morning, I went to go get Gresham out of his crib. Instead of being greeted by poop on his hands, today he said, "Mommy! Mommy! Are you! (how are you) Mommy! Yea!"

Also, since he is nearing age 2 (how did that happen so fast?), we are trying to get rid of the pacifier (which he calls "sassy.") Tonight at Target, we bought our last pack of sassies. We actually offered him the option to get a wooden James engine instead (Thomas the Tank Engine toy), but he happily chose the sassies and put the train back! After he bites through these two, that's the end of the sassy... (this won't take long)

Relaxing Sunday Afternoon...

Today was a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. It was rainy and a high around 85, which is unusual for Texas in August.

Jordan played Scrabble with Aidan. Aidan loved it, because he got to spell words like atrywg and syhkl. On one turn, he added "rlu" to "feet" to make it "feetrlu," and then said, "Okay Daddy, what does that spell?" Daddy then helped him make a real word. After each turn (which was done for him) Aidan would say, "Yessss! Now I have like a billion points!!!"

While they played, Gresham colored with crayons and ate chips with his feet up. It's a rough life they have...

Mommy! Mommy!

Yesterday morning, I was in the bedroom finishing getting dressed, and I could hear Gresham calling, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I called back to him, "Gresham! Gresham!" and I could hear him giggle. "How sweet," I thought. Well, it turns out that he was calling me to wash the POOP off his hands because he had put them in his dirty diaper! Lovely! There was some on his crib and his jammies, so we started our day with a bath and laundry.

I was just thinking of moving him out of his crib and into his big bed. Now I'm thinking maybe not...

Our finished living room!

Here is our completed living room! Well, sort of. We haven't painted the entryway yet, and it looks like we have enough paint to do the hall, so we'll be painting that as well. We should be able to finish on Jordan's day off on Tuesday. Lord willing, that is! With small children, you never know what the day will hold!

I am very happy with the color, and we were able to arrange the furniture to have a bigger "open area" for train layouts and games of chase.

Highlights of the Week

• We painted our living room this week. Actually, we aren't done yet. Jordan is still working (it's 10:00 p.m.!) to try and finish. It looks great! I will post pictures soon. We still need to do the entryway and hall, but that will be for another day when we have a babysitter!
• There is no good way to arrange our living room furniture.
• In the midst of this painting project, I am listing bunches of stuff on ebay (kid's clothes) that I bought on sale last year. It's a crazy week, but I need the money to buy stuff for the kids, and this is the best time to sell for a good price.
• We bought our school curriculum! Now I just have to pick a start date! We bought some first grade phonics books and first grade Saxon math. I just couldn't bring myself to pay money for kindergarten stuff, so we'll just go ahead with first grade, but take it slow.
• School starts for me on the 28th! Yikes! I'm not sure if I'm ready!
• I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow, and have no list made. This is a recipe for disaster but I am too tired!
• Time for bed!

Somos hermanos...

When I was little, we watched a lot of Sesame St. One clip that I remember in particular was a song called "somos hermanos," which means "we are brothers." It was about a boy and his baby brother, and it was cute. I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. Aidan and Gresham remind me of that song - they sure do love each other! I took these pictures on Saturday when Aidan was "reading" to Gresham. Sometimes he really is reading, but mostly he "reads" books that he has memorized. Aren't they cute?

How to have an unproductive conversation with a 5 year old child

Aidan: Mom, what are those metal things in the street?
Mom: What do you mean?
Aidan: Those round metal things.
Mom: Man-hole covers?
Aidan: Yes, I guess that's it.
Mom: That's how people get to the pipes to repair them.
Aidan: Do they leave the cover off when they are down there?
Mom: Yes, I think so.
Aidan: So they have light to work?
Mom: Well, they probably also take some lights down there.
Aidan: So maybe that would be a good way to get to somewhere like Califonia. Travel through all the pipes down there.
Mom: Um, if you went through the pipes you would probably end up at the city water supply.
Aidan: The what?
Mom: The lake where the city gets it water.
Aidan: Yeah (in his "duh" tone) so you could just get on a boat and sail across the sea and go back in those things (meaning pipes) and get to California.
Mom: This is ridiculous, we aren't going to talk about this anymore.
Aidan: I'm just trying to come up with a plan for us!
Mom: Okay, well on Sunday let's try that - we'll go down the manhole cover and go through the pipes to get to church!
Aidan: Nooooooooooooooo!

How to have an unproductive conversation with a 21 month old child

Aidan: Mom, Gresham is throwing train track!
Mom: Gresham, come here!
Gresham: Hiding!
Mom: (after finding him). Gresham, when Mommy calls you, you must obey. Did you throw train track.
Gresham: No.
Mom: Yes, you did. Did you throw train track?
Gresham: Nope. Nope. Nope.
Mom: Aidan saw you throw it.
Gresham: No.
Mom: I know that you threw train track.
Gresham: No. Nope. No.

So here's my new and better way!

Aidan: Mom, Gresham is throwing train track!
Mom: Gresham, you threw train track. You are going to be disciplined for this.

The end!

Note: We do not usually like Aidan to tattle, but he is allowed to tell us if Gresham is doing something that could hurt someone or something.

Little Miss Muffet...

So, the other day, I was watering the back yard, and the biggest black widow spider that I have ever seen came darting out onto its web and back again before I had time to smack it. We have seen at least 10 of these delightful creatures since moving into our house, and this was by far the biggest! Unfortunately, her whereabouts remained elusive, and I had not seen her again despite spraying water directly at her little hole in the foundation.

Then, last night during dinner, Jordan looked out and saw her in her web in our playset! Jordan willingly left the table and killed her, which made me very happy since she looks awfully "big" and I'm not really wanting thousands of baby black widows all over the yard!

Unfortunately, I doubt that she will be the last...