Play Time (I Play, You Play, We Play)

I have been following the blog Tots and Me for a bit and recently saw a blog linky she joined about playing with our children. I had been adding my play time pictures to my weekly Tot School post but decided this would be a new and fun way to post them.

Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up:

First Snow Fall of the Season








































































We got to enjoy our first snowfall of the year. Daddy even got to come outside and play with us. J liked finding "snow balls", chunks of snow that he would throw and then stomp with his feet. Daddy made a beautiful snow angel and invited us to join him. J was a little scared to be lying down in the snow and wasn't moving so I moved his arms and legs a bit to make an angel. Ours didn't turn out half as good as daddy's. After being outside for a while, J said he was getting cold so we went in and got some hot chocolate with marshmallows. J thought he'd have more fun and he put on my boots and was tromping around the house in them.



Christmas Tree Decorating with Friends






















































































Our friends invited us to join them for dinner and to help them decorate their Christmas tree. This was so fun, especially for J. He loved dancing around the tree even though he was only interested in putting a couple ornaments on the tree. Daddy and mommy were the ones enjoying trimming the tree. I love the picture of the boys eating their bananas like little monkeys.


New "Blankies"






























We made a trip to the crafts store and wound up next door in the fabric store. I would love it if I could sew a blanket, but the closest I came was finding some fleece remnants. J just loves warm blankets and I ended up finding some cute ones. Here J is wrapping himself up in his Sesame Street remnant and my North Woods remnant is next to it.



Light-up Snow Man






























Another find from the craft store was this little light-up snowman that was half price because the battery was dead. J loved it when we got it home and put new batteries in it. He sat on the chair with it for minutes at a stretch, just watching it change colors. It's neat to see what fascinates him.



Enjoying the Second Snow of the Season












































We played in the snow again when we had our second snow of the season. I showed J how it was coming down outside and the minute I asked if he wanted to go outside he said, "Let's go get my boots!" We usually "play balls" outside which means he takes the balls out of the bin and throws them and kicks them. He asked if we could play balls in the snow and I said sure. I pointed out the different tracks they were making in the snow and we especially loved the tracks made by the soccer balls. Then I asked him what kind of tracks he thought his lawn mower would make, so he took that out and pushed it around outside. After a while, the wind started to blow in our faces (see last outside picture) and it felt pretty cold. J wanted to go inside and I was thinking that too so I encouraged him that I'd made some nice hot chocolate with marshmallows. We got some called "Marshmallow Madness" that has bright-colored mini marshmallows in it.


"My Hands Are Walking"
















J put his hands into his boots and said, "Mommy look, my hands are walking." He actually walked putting one hand in front of the other, it was so funny. I love seeing his little sense of humor blossom!


Team Scoopie Gear
















We love our local Culver's restaurants and get their Scoopie kids meal every time we go. You get to save up the tickets for some scoopie gear. This time J picked out the soccer ball and he was so excited about it. He ended up falling asleep with it on his lap. Later, he wanted the ball with him when he took his nap when we got home!


Playtime with Friends






























We had our friends over for dinner one night and the kids had a lot of fun playing. The younger boy is like an adopted older brother to J. He's 5 and calls J "baby J" and they have so much fun playing together.



Mommy Reading
















Daddy took this one of my reading J a book. A very common sight in our house and one of J's favorite things to do.


Bedtime Routine
















I snapped this picture one night during our bedtime routine. I had the perfect timing while J was smiling and looking at me which is totally rare. He rarely if ever poses for pictures so I was glad I got this.



Sleepy Fireman Daddy
















This was a cute picture I snapped of a sleep daddy and J with their fire helmets on. He came over to daddy and put the fire helmet on his head. Daddy looks asleep but he was still slightly awake. We watched a video called "Fireman Sam" recently and so one of his favorite things to do is grab his fire helmets and he'll wear one and then he has mommy or daddy wear one.





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Tot School (Music, Books and Life)

J is 27 months old

Where did the week go??? It seems like I just did my Tot School post from last week and here I am ready to write another. This week really flew and although we did lots of fun things together, there were plenty I didn't get picture of and definitely more "life activities" than actual focused Tot School. Below is the recap of the week.

J started out the week by getting out his stacking cups. He hasn't played with these in a while. He took them up the stairs and started lining them up in different ways. He shifted the cups back and forth and this seemed to be all he wanted to do with them.









Coloring
J continues to love to color. Almost anytime I suggest it he'll gladly color, but most often he's either getting the coloring books out himself or asking me to help get him started. Like when we're reading, again he loved counting multiple things.


















Counting
Here we played with his numbers game. If you press the number, it says the number aloud. It also has a game where it says, for ex., "find the blue number" or "find the purple 5". I ended up using this as a way of teaching him to focus on (waiting for) and following instructions. I noticed he wanted to keep jumping ahead and just hit the numbers so I held his little hand explaining we'd wait and then he'd press the number after listening. I think this did really help with learning more about how to wait and listen first. He's really good about finding the number when they add the color to it (the red 2), but not recognizing the number by itself yet.

Shape Sorter
He hasn't been picking up his shape sorters a lot lately, so when I brought this out he was eager to play. He did a few rounds of dumping out the shapes and putting them back in, but kept forgetting where the pieces of "mail" go so I guided him a bit on that.









Mr. Potato Head
J tried to grab the camera when I was trying to get a picture, but he first had fun putting the glasses on and running around. Then he sat down and got busy putting the pieces where he wanted them, none were in the right order but he had fun, yet he played with it only for a brief time.



































Music

These pictures are J in action dancing to Hap Palmer with his little bells.

Hap Palmer - Learning Basic Skills through Music
Recently, we went out to dinner with a couple friends, one of whom teaches preschool. We were talking about how lately J is really into elephants and it started with the Jungle Book with marching. She thought of this CD as it has an Elephant and a Marching song. I wasn't sure how he'd respond to this one but he really liked it. Although, I think his favorite was the song called Colors. It tells the kids to stand up and sit down and he started doing that and I noticed he was following the song. I think my favorite was the Elephant song though! During this song, he actually brought me the E from his alphabet floor mat! We did this a couple times and then the third time I had the idea to get out our instruments like tambourine and bells and he enjoyed playing with whatever I had in my hands at the moment.

Worship - Veggie Tales
I kept this CD in the car for when we were driving. J always is asking to listen to "his music" in the car. If I put on something I like he always says "no, I don't like this song...I want Veggie Tales worship". This was his favorite "in the car" music until I got the Sesame Street CD.

The Best of Sesame Street
He kept asking for an Elmo song, but this is from 1987 before Elmo. As he's getting to know these songs better he's trying to sing along.















Books
The picture above was my ambitious idea to read all these elephant books we got from the library or own. I sat down with J and he picked one called Where is Pup and gave me the elephant magazine saying "mommy read it" meaning read it to myself while he read something else. He was funny that he seems to really want to pick the books himself and didn't like it when I had a set of books picked out that I wanted us to read. So I didn't fuss about it.

One book that stood out this week was J enjoying Richard Scarry's Best of Mother Goose. We haven't done a lot with nursery rhymes yet and I think he really liked the rhyming as he kept saying the words back after I would read them. He loved naming the objects in the pictures as Richard Scarry books are great for that.

He also wanted to read over and over 4 older Disney books I found at the library for 50 cents/piece (Lion King, Lion King II, Dumbo and Finding Nemo).
Something I also noticed that is a newer development is J naming colors of things in the book and trying to count everything that he sees in multiples. He'll get the counting right if I hold his finger and move it to point, but on his own he counts and recounts, skips around, etc. I really love this. We had lots more, but these are the ones that stood out the most.

Finally, below is a video of J reading. Of course, most of his reading is all made up but he seems to catch a lot of what's going on in each page. Here he's reading a fireman book.



Fun enjoying "Life"

We went to Devil's Lake (a favorite of ours) on Labor Day and did what is now our usual thing, bringing plenty of books, cars, animal toys and coloring books so he has plenty to do all day. It was a bit too cool to swim (and really windy) so we didn't go down to the beach very much.









We stopped to see J's grampa on his daddy's side after the lake. He is very talented and enjoys woodworking. He showed us his current project making several of these rocking horses, including one for J so he got to try it out.










On our way home, we stopped at Pizza Hut for some dinner and I decided to bring in his toys as eating is the thing in J's life where we have the most challenges. He had such a great time playing like this, that we didn't have any problems. He only ate so/so but no fits or melt downs :o)

For more fun with Tot School ideas, visit 1+1+1=1


Also, here's another Tot linky I joined that is fun to visit.

Went to Eugster's farm today

Today, Eileen and I met up at Eugster's Farm
for an outing with the boys. This is a farm market and petting zoo. I realized I didn't have J's stroller so we used a wagon which J was pretty excited about. Jackson wanted to be in it too so the two sat together. I was amazed at how friendly these animals were. I've been at petting zoos before but never saw animals that stood so still just wanting to be pet. This llama we saw was super friendly and loved to be scratched under its neck.




We pet horses, cows, goats, pigs, held kittens and what the boys loved was playing in the sandbox with the giant diggers and dump trucks and then playing on the big wooden swingset. We had a nice little picnic lunch with some good time to talk and catch up and then went back to see some of the animals again. This time they "milked" a (fake) cow and got up close to a calf then we took them into the pen to see the chickens. They also got to bottle feed some baby goats as one of the mom's generously gave them the rest of her daughter's bottle to feed them. We ended up being at the farm for about 4 hours. I don't know who had more fun, me or J! By the time we were leaving, J was pretty cranky. At the car he said, "Mommy, I want to go night night." He was out within 5 minutes and then continued the nap at home.

I cut things a little too close tonight with getting J up just a little bit before dinner. It cemented the fact that he needs about a half hour to wake up beforehand. This time he was getting mad that his corn kept falling off the spoon and wouldn't stop crying. He didn't want a fork either. He sat on the couch until he felt better and then he ate almost the rest of his food. We went to the Y and J sounded excited saying "J go swimming at the Y". He got upset when I told him we didn't have our suits and weren't going swimming. Lately, I've been reading some books related to the Civil War that happened in Sierra Leone and the one in Sudan. I've been reading during my workouts and they go so fast now. What is especially interesting is these are written by children who went through harrowing experiences and survived to tell their story.
I've read:
-A Long Way Gone
-The Bite of the Mango
I'm now reading:
-Another Man's War
-They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

After my workout, we went to the gym to watch daddy play basketball. J wanted his teddy grahams so I got them out and there was a little girl looking longingly at them so I asked J to share a couple. In a little bit, she had told about 4 of her friends and they all swarmed around him to get some. I decided it was best to put them away after that before it got out of hand. It was pretty much right to bed when we got home since it was a long day, with daddy reading his bedtime story.

Overwhelmed by God's goodness...

We had a fun morning. It started out with eating pancakes and the chocolate on his mouth made Julian look like The Joker! Then we were reading a bunch of different books. Julian was going through a Clifford book on the ABC's and out of the blue says "L-M-N-O-P". Somewhere from Thursday to Sunday he learned some more letters. He surprises us sometimes with things he's picked up. Like later he was asking for Melvin which is a book about a truck named Melvin. He found the book and starts paging through it and then says "I can try, I can try" which is exactly what Melvin says in the middle of the book. Some things really stick with him. He must have been in a playful mood as he came up to me covering his eyes saying "peek-a-boo" and played that for a little bit with me. Then he was paging through a Richard Scarry book naming things like cake, school bus, barn, egg, picture. Right before nap time we were doing leg rides. I asked him if he wanted a horsie ride and he says yes and proceeds to climb onto his stuffed horse and got upset that it wasn't going anywhere. Not the horsie ride I meant!

I finished 2Samuel 7 today and chapter 8. I continue to be moved by the demonstrations of David's love and dependence on the Lord. I see a man whose heart is fully given over to Him. In this chapter he sat before the Lord and "offered him a prayer". He's in awe of how the Lord has been with him and granted him favor and so he poured out his heart. This is just after he was anointed king following all these years of struggle and the Lord promised his kingdom would endure forever. Now he rests from his enemies and seems overwhelmed by God's goodness. Beth reflects that David's prayer to the Lord is an expression of the intimacy he shares with him. I desire that kind of intimacy! I took some time to think of when I've been overwhelmed by God's goodness. The main time is God's grace in opening up my eyes to Jesus and leading me in taking the steps to follow him. It seems hollow to say I'm so grateful because words can't express how thankful I am to have found and be found by him. Another was finding my husband Lanty who has a powerful faith and has blessed my life incredibly. Another area it's hard to find words. And a biggee is the arrival of our son Julian into our lives, and being rescued from the depths of depression many months after he was born and then for the first time really enjoying raising him; just being overwhelmed by wonder and awe of the greatest gift he's given me. In chapter 8 we return to the battlefield where David is fighting for his kingdom. The Lord gave him victory wherever he went. What a powerful relationship! It says David reigned doing what was just and right for his people.

Several times today like when I got Julian up from his nap, when we were eating dinner and on our way home Julian and I would have these long "conversations" where I could make out about every 5th or 6th word. He'd go on and on and I'd respond back to him. He continues to learn his ABC's and sang different parts of the song. It's neat watching him learn this now that he's interested.

We had a wonderful time having lunch at the house church of a group of friends. This is a group from our old church which was on State Street and we later moved into house churches. It didn't take Julian long to warm up and start playing with the kids. It was great they had Thomas the train which is one of his favorites right now. What was really wonderful was when the moms were all in the kitchen sharing challenges with their kids and how they're responding. It really helped me to hear different perspectives on discipline and praying for your children in the midst of the struggles. Before we left, as a song on the piano was played Julian comes over and grabs me by the hand wanting me to dance with him. It surprised me how immediately I got really choked up and how something this simple was just so touching.

We picked Julian up from the nursery at church and they told us he was dancing with them again. Sometimes they hold his hand and other times he dances on his own. I told them how he was dancing with me earlier and they said "what a charmer". We went to McDonald's for dinner with our friends the Ane's and Connie and Nate from our life group. Julian kept taking fries off daddy's tray and it was hard getting him to eat anything else. It was great seeing Julian do so well with the Ane's daughters, 9 and 11. They just love and dote on him and he eats it up sitting in their laps or letting them carry him. He really is a charmer.

It came time to give Julian a bath and all I have to say now is "do you want to play with walrus?" and Julian goes to the stairs to go up and take a bath. He loves his bath toys and the walrus seems to be his favorite. He'd probably sit in there all night if I let him. He'll often get upset when it's time to be done so we go back and say night night to his bath toys.

Well it turns out I did have more to write about today. And now it's time to wrap up for the night.

We like our books and a taste of Africa

This morning turned out to be a little book reading fest for Julian. He brought one book after another for me to read to him for the better part of one hour. He couldn't get enough of reading. Then he picked up the CD of bible songs and says "Jesus, Jesus" over and over so we played that for a while and we even got him dancing a bit.

I am continuing in my book on (King) David by Beth Moore (A Heart Like His). Today the reading was in Psalm 142 when David was hiding from Saul in a cave. It says he cried out to the Lord, he poured out his complaint to him, "before him I tell my trouble". What came to mind was another passage, 1Peter 5:7 that says "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." David was pouring his heart out to the Lord in a time of deep despair. Again I see how David, whenever he is overwhelmed or anxious, prays. He brings his troubles to the Lord. While I was in my depression sometimes that was all I could do; pray and bring my troubles to the Lord even when day to day things didn't change. I think Beth Moore is right on track when she says that God honors us when go to him and tell him exactly how we feel. God always responds to our cry for help, even if we're not seeing it.

We had some time at the library today to refresh our stash of books. Julian had a great time entertaining himself with puzzles, blocks, "reading" a few books and playing with a little train set while daddy sat by him reading and I was off browsing.

I wasn't prepared for what happened later in the afternoon. I was getting ready for a friend to come over for dinner. This is someone we met at church from Nigeria who wanted to cook us a meal in our home. I was straightening up the area where Julian plays, the kitchen, etc. when I decided to put on some music. I have a stereo "juke box" that holds a lot of CDs so I wasn't sure what would come on when I hit play. It was like getting the wind knocked out of me when my "Sing over Me" Christian lullaby CD came on with the song "How great is our God". Immediately I am in a flashback listening to this CD just after having my C-section when Julian was born when it brought such serenity. Then my mind flashed to Portage WI where I lived with my in-laws for a time who helped care for Julian when I was deep in postpartum depression and this CD was one of the only things that brought any sense of peace. Then I flashed to times when the depression dragged on and I would try in vain to connect with God through this CD yet I could not shake the feelings of bleakness and meaninglessness of life that I was shrouded in. I just sat there in the living room this afternoon and let the tears stream down my face as I was awash once again with the realization of the depths of the pit that the Lord pulled me out of - the darkness he set me free from. The tears were a bit sad, but also being so moved by this.

I had to come back to the task at hand and finished my cleaning and then I got Julian up from his afternoon nap. He has been practicing putting his socks on every time he wakes up from a nap now. He sits in the crib and stretches out his legs. I am just delighted as I watch him stretch the sock over his little toes. He usually catches his big toe in the sock and lets go so the sock hangs on his foot. Then he looks up at me with his wide grin. He's so happy to be doing it even just a little bit and I am alongside him just beaming.

So our friend Efosa came over with all the fixings for cooking a Nigerian meal of fried rice. Our kitchen was filled with the wonderful smell of exotic spices while he cooked. He had us hang out and relax while he was busy in the kitchen. The meal was wonderful and we were impressed that Julian loved it too. We weren't sure if he'd even eat it since it was plenty spicy. He did do a bit of rubbing his mouth and I would say "spicy, spicy" letting him know where that feeling was coming from. The conversation was good too as Efosa wanted to hear the story of how Lanty and I met and we got to know more about him, his three siblings and his somewhat new relationship. Julian was starting to have meltdowns a little bit after Efosa left so we knew it was time to call it a night. I think that's my cue too for calling it a day.