Showing posts with label Josiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Josiah. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The BOX

Have you read Christina Katerina and The Box? I loved that story as a child, and I still love it! About a month ago I noticed an offer on Freecycle for a "very large box". Of course I jumped at the chance! We barely got it home, it was so big, but oh it has been worth it. :)

The kids turned it into a fort.



A few weeks later, it became a cliff, off of which they took flying leaps of great daring. When the cliff collapsed, it became an slide (sometimes for penguins - headfirst).



Once the slide fell apart, they turned it into a chasm,



and then a new kind of fort.



Like Christina Katerina's mother, sometimes I would like my space back. But really, I love watching their creativity and active play, and it is worth giving up the living room. :)

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Gifts

I'm not feeling well today - losing a fight with a cold. Gabe was super sweet this morning and handled getting Jonathan off to school so that I could sleep in a bit. And then Thomas and Josiah spent the next SIX hours playing together with not a single fight. We've taken a couple of breaks for snuggles and reading, but pretty much I've just been treated to an ongoing verbal summary of pretend play. They've been precious. And I'm so grateful for the truly restful day that I've been given.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Board games

All of my boys are fans of board games. I'm not (at all!) but I'm fans of my boys. So we play!







Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A conversation

Josiah: Look Mom, a roly poly!
Mom: I see it. Very nice.
Josiah: It's MY roly poly!
Mom: Ok, let's go to the car now. How about if you leave him in the garden with his friends?
Josiah: He doesn't have any friends. Only me.

*getting into the car, the roly poly disappears inside the car seat*

Josiah: Oh NO, my roly poly! Where did he go?
Mom: Maybe he's hiding.
Josiah: But WHY??? Is he scared of ME????
Mom: Well, maybe he's scared of the car.
Josiah: Oh. Ok!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Water Safe





I've been taking Thomas and Josiah to swimming lessons twice weekly for the past month. The boys are always asking me to take them to our community pool, and I've always been afraid to do it: one set of eyes on three boys who can't swim...mmm, no. But there is a solution to that problem! I figured that if I could be reasonably confident in the boys' ability to not drown (or freak out and think they're drowning) in the minutes it would take me to get them out of the water, then taking them swimming could actually be a lot of fun.

So, swimming lessons.

We're working with WaterSafe Swim School. They have a very clear, very structured teaching plan that starts with survival skills. In other words, water safety starts with your toddler being ok if he falls in the pool. The first skill taught is how to float on your back. The second is how to roll over so that you're able to float on your back. After that is how to fall into the water ("Humpty Dumpty had a great FALL!") and then turn and float on your back. (See a pattern here?) :) Along the way they teach "eyes in" swimming, so that the child develops an ever increasing level of comfort with his face under water.



It is very, very different from your typical summer swimming lessons. I am incredibly impressed. Both Thomas and Josiah started out HATING it. They cried the whole time. They didn't want to put their faces in the water and I sat and watched and wondered if the trauma was worth it. Three weeks later, Thomas is enjoying every lesson.



He can "swim" (with some minor assistance) from one platform to another.



He can float on his back. He's learning how to roll from his stomach to back to stomach while swimming. The building blocks for being a strong swimmer are being carefully laid, and he's having a great time.

Josiah hasn't quite turned the corner yet; he talks excitedly about swimming lessons but cries when it is actually time to get in the water. His teacher is wonderful. She is gentle and kind and loving but doesn't let his tears get in the way of his learning.



Josiah can now float on his back unassisted,



and more importantly he can find his way into a back float from any position. See him roll?



Here is a video clip of Josiah doing "Humpty Dumpty". It is amazing to watch what he can do! And this mama is so relieved to know that if he ever needed to, Josiah knows how to "save himself" until someone can come get him.

Friday, April 06, 2012

Art and projects

Jonathan has the day off school, so we have spent the morning enjoying art and projects and photography.

Josiah's passion is painting, of course, so those came out first thing after breakfast!




Jonathan received a model airplane for a birthday present, so we started working on that. That is definitely NOT SIMPLE. Trying to read the diagram makes my head spin. But we're making progress! :)

Jonathan took this picture:



And then since the camera was out and Jonathan enjoys taking photos, here are few portraits of the cat:



Jonathan says that this one makes him look like a lion:



It's been a nice start to the day. Who needs chores? ;)

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Heaven

Josiah: "Last Sunday, a bad guy killed me. And then I went to heaven."
Emily: "What was heaven like?"
Josiah: "Heaven is Jesus!"

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Song stories

This evening Josiah asked for a "bear song" at bedtime, so I sang "The Bear Went Over The Mountain." When I finished, there was a long pause, and then Josiah said "but I wanted him to see something on the other side of the mountain!"

Me: Well, what do you suppose might have been there?
Josiah: A big giant thing!
Me: Oh my. Do you think the bear was scared?
Thomas: Oh, the bear said "please don't eat me, I'm very small, but there is another bear that is much bigger than I am."
Josiah: And then the other bear came and saved the bear from the giant thing!

Mixed up scripts

We have a couple of "scripts" that we use around here, to simplify resolution of conflicts.

There's the "sorry" script:

Brother 1: I'm sorry for X, Y, Z.
Brother 2: I forgive you.

and the "bothering brothers" script:

Brother 1: Please stop doing X, Y, Z.
Brother 2: Ok, I'll stop.

Josiah is quite happy to play along with this, although I'm not entirely sure he understands anything he's saying. This is evidenced by the following conversation which I have been hearing on a fairly regular basis:

Brother 1: Please stop doing X, Y, Z.
Josiah: I forgive you! :)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Homemade Halloween costumes

Jonathan chose to be a king this year. I sewed his robe, and edged the sleeves, hem, and neckline with gold thread. He loved that. :) We used an existing purple cape (I made it for him years ago), added a belt with a sword, and he did most of the painting/decorating of his crown. Do you see the cross on the front of the crown? That was Jonathan's idea, and very important to him. Overall, I love the way it turned out!



Remember how Thomas wanted to be Yoda? We managed it! The ears turned out a little bigger than I meant them, but they're the right shape and Thomas LOVES them. I sewed his robe from some fabric that my brother Jonathan sent from work (thank you, Uncle Jonathan!) Isn't he just the cutest Yoda you've ever seen?



Josiah was adamant that he wanted to be Darth Vader this year. Since we already had that costume, I was happy to oblige! We purchased a red light saber for him, which actually works out great because the other boys have blue and green ones and Siah wanted his very own so badly.



These photos were taken last night, just before leaving for our church's Halloween Party (a bang-up event!)

My goal this year was to create awesome costumes for a minimal cost. I ended up spending $13 (including the light saber!) and the kids were entirely happy. I'd say that's success!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Conversation

Josiah: "I am."
Thomas: "I'm not."
Josiah: "I am."
Thomas: "I'm not."
Josiah: "I am."
Thomas: "I'm not."
Josiah: "I am."
Thomas: "I'm not having this conversation with you, Siah."

Monday, October 17, 2011

Look who's three!

Josiah seems to be settling into the concept of being three years old. For the first few weeks he kept asking "Mommy, is I'm three?" I suppose I ought to fix his grammar, but it is such a cute part of his three-year-old-ness that I can't quite bring myself to do it!



He was so excited about his birthday. Everything about it: the parties, the presents, the cake with blue icing, the fact of being three!! He gets excited with his whole body, and his voice gets higher and higher and his eyes light up with joy.



He's a great helper around the house, often asking me if he can help with whatever I'm doing. He unloads the plastic dishes from the dishwasher every morning, all by himself. He helps set and clear the table, and sometimes feeds the cat. He loves to do laundry with me, especially tossing in the clothes and adding the soap, and later throwing things into the dryer.

Recently he's started "doing yoda" with me in the morning. He's better at some of the poses than I am - childhood flexibility is amazing - and we have a good time together. One of our favorites is the "dead bug" pose. Josiah thinks it is hilarious. :)



Playtime often includes brio trains, building elaborate tracks with tunnels and roundhouses. Grandmommy & Granddad, Libby & Jon, thank you for adding to the collection! He's SO enjoying them.



And painting! Oh, how Josiah loves to paint! I invested in a painting tablecloth, taught him how to get out his own supplies, and now he paints almost every day.



Star Wars is another BIG DEAL around here, and Josiah joins in with gusto. I often see him running by, in costume and with light saber in hand, singing "dun dun dun, da da da, da da dah!" (the opening notes to the imperial march). No, none of our boys have seen the movie. Apparently you don't need to in the star-wars-saturated little boy culture we're living in!

A movie that he has seen (and LOVES) is Bambi. This story has completely captured him. He'll often tell me little parts of the story throughout the day, or repeat a line that he thinks is particularly funny, giggling so I can barely understand him.



Since turning three, Josiah has happily embraced the concept of "big boys pee in the potty!" He's really training himself, and I'm enjoying sitting back and watching (and cheering and handing out chocolate chips, of course.) :)



He's a big boy, but he's not too big for snuggles yet. I still get to carry him in from the car sometimes, when he's tired. And at bedtime I lie in bed with him and sing lullabies, and he gives me sweet smacky kisses and "bear hugs, mommy, so that you go 'oomph!' "



Josiah, age two, was a bundle of fun, and I'll kind of miss him. But Josiah, age three, is shaping up to be pretty fabulous as well. :)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Fun times with little boys

I have to admit that I'm really enjoying the change of pace now that Jonathan is in school in the morning/early afternoon. It gave me some space to really see where Thomas and Siah are right now, and you know what? They're really fun!

Here are a few photos from our past week.

We've been building some great train track set-ups. See the lake and the river?



I've been getting creative with lunches - initially to encourage Jonathan to actually eat them while at school, and continuing because it makes the other kids smile. If you're ever looking for fun and creative lunch ideas (yet still reasonably easy) Wendolonia is a great blog to explore.



Thomas is fascinated by our Risk board game. Thus far our playing consists of setting up all kinds of armies, and then knocking down the "bad guys". Sometimes Raskol knocks them down for us...but he's not very discriminating as to good/bad guys!



It is fun to listen to Thomas talk about the battles - he can't ever remember how to say "cannon", so he's always telling me about the canyons or the cannonpults.



Gabe just looked over my shoulder and said "aww, preschool time with the boys. Teaching them to conquer the world."



Yep. I think the world better watch out for this one.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

More of Josiah's creative grammar:

"Mommy, is I'm old enough, now I'm three?"

Isn't that interesting? He's the only one of the three boys who has made up his own grammar in this way.

{He thinks that he's already three, because we had a big family joint-birthday party last weekend.}

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Brothers

Today Thomas and Josiah were extra tired, and I let them spend some time watching Bambi. From the kitchen, I heard Thomas saying "I'm not scared, are you scared?" And I'm so happy that I had my camera next to me to capture this sweetness:

Pumpkin Pie

One of Thomas and Josiah's favorite things to do with me in the mornings is baking. Muffins, or waffles, or bread, or cookies...they love to help measure and crack eggs and mix things together. Yesterday we made pumpkin pie!



We even made the crust (usually I skip that part and just make pumpkin pudding.) :)

Sue Baumann's Pie Crust (I adapted and used whole wheat flour and sucanat)

1 and 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. cold butter
3 T. ice water

Place flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor and whirl. Cut butter into chunks, add, and process till pea size. Do NOT over process. Add ice water gradually and touch process. When dough balls, stop immediately. Put dough ball in plastic bag. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Roll out between waxed paper. Makes one single pie crust.



Almost ready...!

And this is what happens when I bring out the camera these days:







I guess they learned it from their Dad.

Monday, August 29, 2011

First day of 1st grade!

Or "real school" as Jonathan insists upon calling it. :) He's attending a private Lutheran school this year, and I think it is going to be a really good fit for him.


{please excuse the messy floor - we were trying to get out the door on time!}

The other boys didn't want to be left out of the picture taking:



Jonathan had a hard time with me leaving, so the little boys and I came to opening chapel and sat right behind the first graders. I was so proud of Thomas and Siah - they were not expecting to have to sit quietly in church, but they did SO well. Right before the end of the service I whispered "Bye, Jonathan" and took the other boys out. We sat in the parking lot for a moment and I watched Jonathan filing back to his classroom with the other kids - just like he'd done it every day of his life. Yay Jonathan!

Today was a short day, so I picked him up at lunch time. On the way home I asked him what he did, and he told me that they read a book, and had snacktime, and chapel, and made "welcome back" visors. Apparently the book is quite interesting, and Mr. Rader will continue reading it tomorrow, and this is all very exciting. :)

While Jonathan was at school, Thomas and Siah and I had our own preschool time. Siah elected to paint (of course! this is all he ever wants to do!)



and Thomas chose an ABC workbook. I'm excited about preschool with them this year. Preschool is all the fun of homeschooling with none of the pressure. :)



I think that this is going to be a good year.