Legos As Motivator

James has been begging for Legos lately. Silly me, I didn't realize it cost $29.99 for approximately 150 tiny little pieces, and then an extra $10.99 if you want, say...wheels or a mini-figure. Eek! I have been keeping my eyes peeled but haven't really found any good deals. At the same time, I have been trying to come up with a fun and encouraging way to get James to practice his reading skills over the summer. (yes, my boy is reading!) It dawned on my that I could use legos as a reward for reading, and I ended up ordering some legos on Ebay. Today was the first day of the 'program' and he read to me for FORTY minutes! For a kid just learning to read, that is a long time if you ask me. He did great and needed very little assistance. He even read the book 'Fly Guy,' which is beyond the scope of the words and sounds he has learned at school. I have always loved to read, and it is so fun to listen to him read to me. I am excited for him, just thinking about how many adventures he can go on by reading books. I might run out of legos, but that's a small price to pay. :)

First Day!

I am SO HAPPY that James did AWESOME in school today! I was afraid he was going to be a big, crying mess when I dropped him off, but he wasn't. We have talked about school so much that he can recite the routine in his sleep. I think that helped. I have been praying for weeks that it wouldn't be as bad as VBS. James had quite a few people praying for him and school, and we talked about that on the way home and decided that God had helped James to be brave. Yay! I kept waiting to the breakdown and it never came. Not last night, not this morning. Instead it was a very excited boy packing and repacking his backpack, and reminding me to hurry up because we had to get to school!! When we got there, he gave me a hug and kiss, and walked right to his table and sat down. I left quickly so he wouldn't have a chance to panic, and he did great. He told me he cried a little bit when I left, but then he was fine. I thought I would cry, and I did get a little teary eyed walking out thinking about how my baby is in school. But I was also happy for him. He is so excited to learn; he wants so badly to read. We have been working on sounds and letters at home and I know he is ready to take off! As we were walking away from the school, Katie said she was sad for James. I told her that it wasn't sad, that James was going to get to learn a lot of new things. After thinking about that, she said 'I'm not sad for James. I am weaaally, weally pwoud of him.' (Katie translation: really, really proud!) Me too!

10 Years Today!

(Jeff in his festive 'Christmas' shirt**)

Today is our 10 year anniversary!

**His sister got it for him a few years ago as a joke. He figured it was red, green and obnoxious so why not wear it for Christmas.

The Happenings (and a whole lot of pictures!)

(One of James' recent drawings, of he and Tyler's farm)

**Pictures in no particular order, Blogger is giving me fits and I can't get this post formatted nicely***

James' portrait of our family, sans Katie (because he 'didn't want to draw her')

(Detail) I LOVE my hair and James' hair (me on left, James on right, Tyler in the middle)

Our first art lesson project: coffee filter painting with fall colors. James drew himself standing under the tree

Katie gazing at the chickens in Lancaster

He got up there all by himself!! This kid is nuts!!!

My handsome James....how did he get so HUGE??

More James

I love this one! She always has that expression when she says 'I'll show you no comprendo!' (a veggie tales quote)

Tyler is thinking about making his escape

Aunt Sal and the kids

Happy Random Undie Dance!!! What? Don't you dance around with undies on your head?

And here are the latest happenings around these parts:

• The kids had check-ups today. No surprise, but we have tall children. James is projected to be as tall as Jeff. Even Tyler is taller than average, although still a skinny little thing coming in at a whopping 20 lbs, 4 ounces
  
• 

a

• James and Katie both love to draw, which excites me to no end! Katie has just started drawing people and James likes to make very detailed drawings with lots of people, animals and buildings.
• James has been eating up a storm!! Tonight he ate roast chicken, a salad, and three big muffins. The other night at my parents he ate two sandwiches and two tubs of applesauce and a 'few' (Mom's words) treats too. ;)
  
• We went on an actual date on Saturday. Such a novel idea. We had a great time!! Thanks to Grammy and Chappy for entertaining the kids!
  
• We went to Lancaster on Friday for fun. And by we, I mean Mom, the kids and I. After waiting for Jeff to be done in Ohio, and realizing that won't be any time soon, Mom volunteered to come with me. We went to my favorite place for lunch, saw Aunt Sally, I bought two BUSHELS of apples and some fancy sprinkles. Now to make some cookies! And loads of applesauce. We also went into an Amish-run tack shop and got a new piece of leather for my poor decrepit Bible. It needs some serious attention, but I can't bear to get a new one when that one has been with me for so long. James found a horseshoe there, which he was quite happy with. He informed me that he 'liked talking to the Amish guy; he was really nice.'
  
• Tyler is busting out teeth left and right (at night, of course!). In the last week, he got a front bottom tooth, and two top molars. Now he is working on the bottom two molars and his other side bottom tooth. Crazy! He got the first four at 8 or 9 months and then nothing since then. I guess he's trying to get them all out at once.
  
• Jeffrey is officially sick and tired of eating out after eating approximately 10 meals out a week. Ick!
• Oh, and how can I forget!! Today is the 12th anniversary of our first blind date, although technically I had met him once before the fact. Someday for posterity I'll write about our first date in its entirety, because it was a doozy. Its a wonder we made it past that. Happy 12 years, Jeff, even if you a) don't read the blog, and b) don't believe in celebrating date-iversaries!!
• Phew! I think that's it. If you made it to the end then give yourself a big ol' pat on the back!
  

Big Things for James

There has been a lot going on in the life of James lately. Learning to ride his bike, visiting new places, swimming lessons, and Vacation Bible School. The first day of VBS he did good. He had a lot of fun, and was only a little bit sad when I left. The second day, he was more upset, but I knew he would have fun. They said he took an hour to settle down. Poor guy. But when I asked if he had fun, he said yes. I asked him if there was anything he didn't like and he said no, he liked it all. Then yesterday, he had a complete meltdown and I couldn't get him to calm down or stay. Even his teacher seemed apprehensive about him staying. So we went home. Today, who knows. His swimming lessons started off with a bang, kicking and screaming. He wouldn't get near the pool. He wouldn't even stick his toes in. Any time I got near him to try to coax him in, he would jump up and cling to me like a lizard to a wall. I could hardly peel him off. Finally, after the suggestion of the instructor, I took the other two off to the playground while he basically took James into the water kicking and screaming. Of course I am wondering if I am going to scar him for life, and if he'll be afraid of the water. I just wanted to run over and rescue him. James is naturally a timid kid and I knew he would probably need some sort of encouragement to do it, but I wasn't sure that was the right thing to do. Sometimes being a mom is really hard. Anyway, the second day I really thought would be the same. All day I talked to him about how he would love swimming once he could stop being afraid. I told him being afraid is normal but if he tried it out he would realize how fun it was. I also told him to play a trick on his teacher. (He is really into tricks) I told him that when the teacher told him to do something (like stand in the pool) to just do it, and the teacher would be 'tricked' because he wouldn't believe that James would/could do it. We also prayed that James would be brave and try it out. Well, he did. He was a little timid at first but the teacher really worked with him, got him in the water and to participate in almost all the activities. He even swam out in the deep end with James. Now James says he wants to swim every single day, all the time!

Happy First Birthday Tyler!

I can't believe you are a year old already! We love you!


(The pictures aren't the greatest but our computer is misbehaving so they'll have to do)

I'm Still Processing....

(Tyler 'helping' Jeff install trim; he is very, very interested in 'guy' things already)

Tyler took his first steps yesterday. Two of them at once! And if that wasn't enough to send me into some existential meltdown, he did that two more times. I mean, part of me is excited about it but part of me is shouting 'Hello! You're my baby!!! Please, please, slow down!' But alas, he is not cooperating with my plans. So, pretty soon I'll have another kid running around the house.

And here is a random picture of fun and cuteness from last week. We went to a local park so James could ride his bike on the nice, flat sidewalks there. He is getting really good at riding his bike. Now we need to get him a bike that is more his size, and I think pretty soon he'll be ready to try without training wheels. How is it that my first baby is going to be five in September???

t