Finding September

It has taken a while for us to recover from the colds that took us down in September.  In between bouts of sickness I did manage to take a few pictures of what the kids were doing when it wasn't their turn to be sick.

small pompoms to practice poring - a new favorite! 

Supper tastes better in a box! 

snacks taste better in a box too :-) 

Having the activity shelf in the kitchen keeps everyone busy while waiting for meals

 With all the sickness we had a futon in the living room most of the month for the sick ones...

 puzzle time

  puzzle time

This is how (it seems) much of the month was spent - one family member or another laying around being sick!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and...???

One of Mega's favorite songs right now is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".  The Wiggles DVD that has that song is her favorite.  If she catches my looking at something on youtube she asks for the song.  When she plays school it is her main lesson!

I'm sure that eventually she'll get all the words for the body parts in the right order but until that time I'm going to enjoy watching her toddler brain try and make sense of it all!

Big Steps

Mega has been doing a lot of growing (mentally) since turning 2.  I'm sure I've missed noticing most of her accomplishments as they get lost in the business of daily life.  When I do notice something new I try to capture the moment.

 She can draw circles!

She also figured out that the yellow train has a stamp on the bottom.

Zilla received a remote control car for his birthday.  The kids have fun trying to drive the car into each other.  While neither is ready to drive something bigger I've been impressed with how quickly Mega figured out the basics! 

Cute as angels...

They like to join the Sunday School teachers as we pray before classes start.  Talking to God can be serious business... hence the looks!

~ Houdini

This and That...

Due to the sicknesses that made the round over the past month I have many things to catch up on... one of there is blogging about some of our special moments before they become forgotten memories...

Zilla came home from school one day with a bugs in a bag.  Of course he didn't tell me about it until hours after they arrived.  The poor things somehow survived.  Zilla asked for a jar and asked why he wanted it.  When he told me it was for a bug I thought he had something small like a firefly.  Thankfully over summer I had picked up a bug box at the 100 yen store as this cricket would not have been happy in a small jar!
The cricket became the centerpiece of our table.  We had a very interesting time of observation and discussion.  I realized how different the world is for my kids as we googled the Japanese name of the bug, and then the English, to learn all about it.  Some things though are best observed in person so we watched as it enjoyed eating some cucumber.  Thankfully Zilla was off at school the next day when the big bug decided it was time to eat his little friends.  Zilla came home to one less bug in the box and declared that the cricket must be an omnivore.  Did I know the meaning of that word when I was 4 years old?

Another accomplishment has come in the communication and tolerance that Zilla and Mega have for each other.  They have always gotten along but increasingly they are learning to listen to each other and do things for each other.  It has been pretty much one sided so far (Zilla accommodating Mega) so it is nice to see their relationship become more balanced. 

In this picture Zilla had been drawing some things and Mega came over asking to draw too.  She wanted a blue paper, the same as him so since he had just finished his picture so he asked Meg if he could draw something for her.  He's drawing a steam engine and she is coloring it in.  The peace between them didn't last for long (maybe 10 minutes?) but it is a great start!

This week we will once again be running as a single parent household as my husband travels for work. In recent cleaning/organizing I came across these picture calendars I made for Zilla when Daddy was on business trips a couple of years ago.  They really helped him to understand what was going on.  The top row is Daddy's daily schedule and the bottom row is ours.  I think we're going to have to make a picture calendar for this week too. Mega, especially, has little concept of time so I hope it will work as well for her as it did when Zilla was 2!

Dinner Out

Recently the kids went with a friend from church to have dinner at her house.  I really wasn't sure that Mega would even go and I spent much time trying to figure out how to explain it to her and coming up with contingency plans in case she threw a major fit.  In the end things went amazingly smoothly.  The kids were ready to go about 20 minutes early and when our friend came to pick them up they waved goodbye to me, grabbed on to the stroller and took off, talking a mile a minute.  After they turned the corner I snuck over to get this shot.  I was so proud of them!

Rachel and the Treeschoolers

I am waiting for a new DVD to arrive...
The people who created Signing Time have put together a preschool DVD - which may turn into a program - that looks like so much fun.  I've had a chance to see the parent download packet with additional activities, flashcards, etc. and it looks good.  If you want to do a bit of preschool homeschool this may turn out to be a great place to start!

So, here is your first look at Rachel and the TreeSchoolers!

Let me warn you that the theme song is good... it has been stuck in my head for hte past couple of weeks!

There is also a video of one of the songs posted on Youtube.  This rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider mashed together with Never Give Up is one I can listen to again and again without it getting on my nerves.  I can't say that about all of my kid's music!!!

Our DVD isn't here yet... but I'll let you know what the kids think of it, and the related activities, after it arrives!