Melanie Mae– 3 Months

Melanie Mae.  She has been the easiest baby thus far.  Jesse has said if we were guaranteed that all babies would be like her – he would have more!  I reminded him of that one time and he said… he was just blowing smoke.  But… I am not so sure she is our last.  But… If I go back and remember her birth – I could maybe make that call!  But…I have horrible memory and could easily forget in a few more months!

She is becoming very social – as in babbling and smiling at us.  Most of the time she will wait to babble until someone goes to talk to her and she will wait until you are done talking before she babbles.  So polite already. 

She is very content just being by herself too.  Doesn’t need to be held all the time.  She has her moments – but they are few and far between.  She can jump in the jumper.  Lay on the counter and watch me cook supper.  Sit in the bumbo on the counter and watch us eat. 

Can not get her to giggle though.  I try so hard and I can get huge big ‘ol smiles but nothing comes out!  Sometimes a teeny tiny little one will come but that is it.

Chewing and drooling!  Big time hand chewer!  Sucks on her two fingers (pointer and middle).  Slimy mess she usually is!

This look (below) is usually the look Max gets.  She yells at him.

Then (below) she gives him the one-two-punch!  He is just so wild and aggressive and in your face sometimes that she has to defend herself. 

She has created a routine by herself.  And I have created a bedtime for her!  She goes to bed at 9pm… sleeping all night long!  She is a hard sleeper too!  I rarely hear her grunting and or wiggling or wanting a nuk!  Then I am waking her up (yes – waking her up) between 8 and 8:30 in the morning to get her going so we can start school at 9.  She goes back down for a nap about 10.  Eats at 11:30.  Back down at 1.  Up between 3 and 4.  Eats at 4.  Now she stays up for a long time.  Eats about 7.  Takes a power nap and then to bed at 9. 

When Melanie sleeps she pulls her blanket up OVER her head.  At first it really bothered me that she slept like that.  So when I would see it I would go pull her blanket down off her face.  Which she would pull it back over her face.  She constantly has a grip on her blanket too.  And it has to be the fuzzy side on her face. 

If I really stop and think about how fast she is growing already – I get tears.  Now that she sleeps all night – before putting her to bed I give her extra snuggle time and have to force myself to put her to bed.  With the first baby – you don’t have a clue how fast it is going to go.  The second baby – cried so much you just couldn’t wait for him to get bigger.  The third baby – don’t grow up fast!  Soak up every moment just in case she is the last! 

She is also still sleeping in our room in her little bed.  Can’t move her yet!  I have her napping in her crib and she does great… I just don’t want her that “far” away yet.  The other two the first few times they started sleeping all night off they went.  Something about if this is the last… I am going to try to make it last longer. 

I still hear a lot that she looks like Max.  They do have the exact same mouths.  Lately though I have been seeing a lot of Baby Mallory in her.  Especially when she wears some of Mallory’s old clothes and hats. 

She has stayed a few hours with my Mom and she refused to eat and became poor sad Melanie.  Then Jesse kept her a few hours while I went to photography club and she did the same to him.  She turns into this sad baby and nothing will make her happy until her Mommy comes back. 

All the pictures were taken by my Mom.  The knitted dress and hat were made by my Aunt DiAnn. 

Are those not the cutest ears you ever did see?!! 

Nature Exploring

During one of the first few weeks of school I gave the kids a challenge.  We went on a nature walk around the block looking for nature items that could be used to make a person.

When we do these nature walks – there is no rushing.  I make myself promise not to say “Come on kids.  Keep walking.”  I can’t say it!  I let them walk really slow and stop and look at everything they see.  Requires extra coffee on my part and tons of patience!

The next day they dumped out their treasures and explored them a bit.

Then started making a person out it.

Melanie sat in her chair watching us.  She is super easy during school most days.  She is either napping or she just hangs out and watches. 

Here is Max’s person.

Mallory made a face.

Mallory takes her time when working on projects and Max rushes and does it as fast as he can.  When he is done he typically runs over to Melanie and gives her a shake in her chair and harasses her until she has had enough and she starts swinging her arms and yelling back at him.

Then he snuck upstairs and brought down the fixing for s’mores. 

I challeneged Mallory to make a whole person with a body.

The kids ate their raw s’more snack and I talked to Melanie.

She smiles with her nose and I love it!

Spaghetti City

Sometimes summer days are too long.  The kids have no idea what to do with themselves.  They start following me around and telling me they don’t know what to do.  They haven’t discovered the words “I am bored.” 

One day I decided we were going outside and we were going to make a city on the drive way.  Max has all these trucks, cars, farm stuff.  I was very much pregnant the first time we did this and very much lazy.  So I sat in the middle of the driveway with all the city supplies… sidewalk chalk, cars, trucks, tractors, etc.  And I was the store and the kids had to “buy” each item they needed for the city.  Turned out that “game” was a huge hit the rest of the summer.

Our driveway constantly looked like this.

Their favorite part was when there was puddles!  Real lakes!  Sometimes they would have me draw alligators coming out of the “lakes”. 

They ended up getting smart towards the end and using two pieces of chalk to make the roads. 

Even smarter… drawing their “houses” under the camper so the rain would quit washing them away.

Melanie.  She sleeps while cities are being made. 

Their houses and their cars under the camper safe from the next rainstorm. 

Once everything is built they drive their bikes on it.

First Day of School

We started school way back in August.  The last week of August.  I was too excited to get started so I started early.  I also started early because every two weeks we take a day off.  Plus we are going on a week long vacation in late October.  The perks of homeschooling. 

The kids were also excited to get started.  I still had my summer boy (I watched my friend’s little guy this summer) and was so curious about how homeschool works.  He was just as excited as my kids.  He even told his Mom he wanted to come here for school. 

Maxwell!  Age 3!  Max will be working on colors… he knows most of them but he struggles with White/Yellow.  He flips them a lot.  Letters.  Writing his name.  He has perfected the “x” and the two “l” in his name.  Numbers.  Counting.  Memorizing.  Scissor cutting.  Coloring.  He will be doing “school” for about an hour to two hours a day.

I have to be sneaky with Max.  He is very much boy and sitting still is not his idea of fun.  And learning – no way.  So I have to get real creative with him.  He is also kind of lazy.  If a project/activity gets too long or hard he is outta here.  He is also just three so I don’t push it.

Miss Mallory!  Age 5!  Kindergarten!!  She will be working on penmanship.  math skills.  reading.  memorization.  reading comprehension.  arts and crafts.  She does school about 3-4 hours a day.

Her strengths so far are math.  She has figured out addition all on her own.  She likes math a lot.  She also has a killer memory!  Which is wonderful but it can hurt her when she is reading because she will memorize a story… instead of reading the words.  Of course arts and crafts are super fun for her too.  She has some hidden drawing talent that I am very excited to watch grow.  There was a picture hanging up in the basement (that she drew and hung up) and I looked at it and said, “Mallory, is that Doc McStuffin?”  She said, “Yup!”  It was pretty impressive!  So impressive that I knew who it was without having to ask her who she drew!  Maybe she got some of Grandma Connie’s drawing talent!! 

As of right now we are about 6 or 7 weeks into homeschooling.  I can honestly say I love it.  It is so much fun.  The kids like it.  They never complain or whine when I say “Time for school” and we go down to the school room.  They eagerly ask “What do we get to do today.” 

My favorite part is the lesson planning and prep work!  Love that!  It takes me forever… but I am pretty hardcore about it!  Right now it is taking me about 10-12 hours to plan two weeks.  The curriculum I picked for this year has a ton of printing and prep work.  I really don’t mind it though (when I have the “free” time to work on it). 

I have gone from reading parenting and food blogs to reading homeschooling blogs… and being addicted to the teachers pay teachers website! 

I am already plotting and planning the grades to come!