Tool Belt

Remember Mr. Saggy Pants?

Problem solved!

Learning

Michael uses our bedroom to study in and consequently there are five huge whiteboards on the walls with notes and drawings of different anatomy, physiology, etc. Today I was in my bedroom with Jack and he pointed to one of the pictures depicting the majority of the muscles of the face.

He said, "Look, Mom. Those are muscles." I was taken by surprise and asked, "Did Daddy tell you that?" He said, "yes." It had to have been at least 24 hours since Michael had told Jack about the muscles and was probably a lot longer than that. What a good memory he is developing, my little Jack.

Another fun thing about Jack lately has been nap-time. Jack doesn't nap anymore. I used to be disappointed in this because that meant my nap-time disappeared, but now I just look forward to that quiet time. Jack knows that once Daisy goes down for a nap that he's got a choice. He can either play with his toys or he can help me clean. What does this 3-year-old love doing? Cleaning the bathroom! I don't know where he got that from. But my bathrooms haven't been this clean in years. Sometimes I can convince him that we need to clean a different part of the house, but usually we end up cleaning at least a small part of the bathroom every day. As soon as Daisy goes down for her nap, he runs to the drawer and pulls out two washcloths (one for me and one for him). He also likes to help me take out the trash. I give him the small bags from the bathrooms and I take out the kitchen garbage. He has gotten really good at chucking the bags up into the dumpster.

Not only do we clean during nap-time, but we have also started doing more educational activities. We have been playing with an apple math mat

and doing a lot of coloring and number games. Today was the first time he counted from 1-10 correctly. It's always been 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9...and sometimes 10. But today he did it right multiple times. I think it's a combination of a little song I made up that counts to 11 (sung to the tune of "Welcome Christmas" from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas") and the book "Ten Apples Up On Top" by Dr. Suess.

He is also obsessed with drawing lately. He drew his first self portrait.

I think it looks great! It's actually a profile. His nose juts out to the left. You can also see his arms and legs coming off his head. And I drew the hair for him...

I sure love my Jack!

Side-By-Side

So, I thought I'd do a side-by-side of all three kiddos at about the same age. Here they are at around 3-4 months old:

Calvin

Daisy

Jack

What do you think? Siblings? I think sooooo....

Calvin's Blessing and More

So, I know it's been a long time, but here's some pictures and a few updates from our lives:

Calvin was blessed in church on Jack's 3rd birthday.

What a cutie.

Yummy food. The ugly cake was a major fail in our new diet (which seems to change almost weekly).

Jack had a Spiderman themed party.

The big 3

He was spoiled with presents. Here he is with his ThunderCats sword and claw.

Daisy is still a delight. She charms everyone who sees her.

I caught Jack playing with his tools the other morning. I think he needs a tool belt.

He's got saggy pants.

Jack is learning how to take pictures. Sometimes he actually takes a picture of what he's trying to get.

We built cardboard box airplanes.

And Calvin is full of smiles. Here he is charming the ladies already.

Visit From Grandma Petty

For 10 days in December (including Christmas), Grandma Petty came to visit us from Texas. We LOVED having her here! The kids were spoiled (including the tutu pictured above) and loved on the entire 10 days. They read stories, played games, talked, hugged, and loved.

On the evening that we decorated the tree, Grandma played He-Man with Jack. Jack was He-Man and Grandma was Cringer/Battle Cat. I think Daisy got to be He-Man for a while, too...this was before Jack discovered She-Ra :)

(Oh, how I laughed...)

And just a few more pictures with Grandma. We sure do miss her and look forward to her visiting us again soon, hopefully with Grandpa Petty next time.

New Diet

Michael has been suffering from heartburn for years and years. He's tried all sorts of solutions but to no avail. A couple months ago he decided to do a master cleanse where he drank a lot of lemonade with cayenne pepper and maple syrup. Not my idea of fun, but it seemed to really help him. Following the cleanse (which lasted 8 days or so) he began a new diet aiming to eliminate heartburn. As a family we've joined him in many of his dietary restrictions (though we are not completely strict in this). It has been quite an adjustment, but I like knowing that we are eating healthier as a family. We are vegetarian and dairy-free (occasional glass of milk for the kids). We're also mostly gluten-free. We avoid highly-processed foods which means Michael or I make most of our meals. Our new favorite is our version of spaghetti. We use fresh tomatoes, green onions, mushrooms, cilantro, spinach, and Italian seasoning to make a sauce and we serve it over spinach rice spaghetti noodles. Yum!

Daisy is like me and loves food! With Jack it's more of a battle to get him to eat his meals. He would rather snack on tortilla chips and raisins all day, I think. If anyone out there has a good recipe they'd like to share with me, I'd love it. I'm always looking for something new to add to our now-limited menu.

Daisy the Comforter

Since Calvin has joined our family Daisy has become more mothering. She got a doll for Christmas that she pretends to change its diaper and care for. But prior to Christmas she used what was available...and that usually meant a superhero figurine of some sort :) This particular day it was SpongeBob and a little stuffed dog. And by the time I had the camera, Jack had joined in the fun.