Call Day #53, 3/27/14

Heard a familiar crinkling noise and found him helping himself to some cereal. Seems to always go for the Corn Squares.

Then, pulling things out of the bag of recycling that was waiting to be taken out.

 Went to the museum this morning. Eleanor's favorite thing was rolling around in this contraption.

Oliver went into the toddler area for the first time. How perfect! A baby-sized ball run!

Eleanor wanted to do an experiment and waited for it to begin. As soon as it did, Oliver started crying. And not just a little crying that could be soothed with a drink or any of the various snacks I had with me. Other things that didn't work: giving him a crayon and paper to draw with, walking around to look at other things in the museum, singing, putting him down to crawl around, picking him up and holding, etc.

This is all he wanted to do. For the 15 LONG minutes the girls were doing the experiment. I don't know what they were supposed to be learning. Normally I listen in so we can talk about it more afterwards but I didn't catch much of it today. All I heard was Eleanor answering a question by talking about gravity and the instructor talking about capillary action and the word nano.

This afternoon the girls both wanted to play Old Maid.

Playing.

Thursday is choir day. While Eleanor's off learning songs, Sonnet and Claire have fun playing together. That usually involves lots of running.

Attempts at headstands and dance moves.

Today there was also some time on the playground.

After choir, everyone's favorite activity is playing tag (or just running around) on the grassy area behind the church.

The girls have good friends so goodbyes look like this.

Call Day #52, 3/20/14

School in the morning as usual. We've been studying ancient Mesopotamia and the girls were working on a ziggurat. We're all learning lots in history! (We do other subjects too, of course, but I never end up taking pictures of math and reading.)

Claire uses a stamp set Eleanor gave her for her birthday. Eleanor tries out new projects on her loom after getting a rubber band jewelry book from the library.

Finished ziggurat!

A last-minute dinner at the Carnahans' was followed by playtime.

Oliver checks out Elmo.

Call Day #51, 3/18/14

She cracks me up. The girl who sits on the vents to get warm. This morning her birthday doll from Grandma and Grandpa needed to warm up too.

She knew and told us several times that her birthday is "the day before St. Patrick's Day." When you'd ask her what that is she'd raise her shoulders, hold out her arms, palms upturned and say "Huh?" We're a day late due to continued birthday celebrations yesterday but today we learned about the life of St. Patrick, where England and Ireland are, talked about shamrocks, how green Ireland is, red hair, etc.

We also talked about the legend that Patrick used a clover to explain the Trinity. We talked about the Trinity and listened to Judy Rogers's song "The Lord our God is One."

Trying to get a straw back in a cup. And trying one-handed since the other hand is still trying to hold his precious spoon.

Call Day #50, 3/15/14

Saturday mornings are ballet mornings. Oliver entertained himself with a bag of markers taken from one of his sisters' dance bags. Take them out, put them in, take them out, put them in...

Claire's class is first. They made up their own ballet story line and performed it for the parents.

Scarf prop.

Then it was Eleanor's turn.

Claire and Oliver play with a ball. He liked to fetch it and bring it back to her.

Then they looked at The Word Book. Someone gave it to us when Eleanor was little and all three of them have enjoyed it.

Running.

Dancing her part of her class's self-choreographed ballet performance.

Leap! (during free dancing time)

She made a valentine for a girl in her class who had made one for her a few weeks back. Eleanor was excited to give it and her friend really liked it too. (The back story is that we were already on the way to ballet when she remembered it and turned around to go get it. It seemed a hassle but it was so important to Eleanor and I'm glad we did it.)

Putting a milk cup in Eleanor's boot while waiting.

The afternoon was so pretty that we just had to go be outside. We went to a park we hadn't been to before. Eleanor has been trying to master the monkey bars when we've been to playgrounds that have them. Today she made it farther than in the past and got halfway across.

He loved shaking theses bars back and forth and listening to the sounds.

Boy in a bucket.

Claire waves to Oliver.

Trying to climb up the slide to her. He enjoyed going down a few times (with me standing and holding him all the way down).

Back to the music-making bars. Also, have you noticed how well these two play together? Love how good Claire is with him.

Stair climber!

She went from needing help to reach out to the pole to being able to do it by herself pretty quickly. Then, of course, she had to do it over and over.

If your cup's in the van, just borrow your sister's!

Call Day #49, 3/10/14

Weeks back, Eleanor had asked to learn about presidents. When I asked which ones she said "All of them." We've read through a few books about presidents and this morning we ended up doing a whole roundup of American history. Sometimes they're interested and pay attention for a good long time. This was one of those mornings. We read about the White House, Betsy Ross and the first flag, and the origins of The Star-Spangled Banner. We ended by listening to the national anthem a few times.

I was not excited about needing to go grocery shopping with all the kids, but as I headed out to the van, the girls were already in their seats and singing "This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it and be glad in it." It was so helpful to hear this reminder out of their mouths.

It was a beautiful day and we had lots of yummy groceries to choose from so we decided to eat outside. Eleanor helped a lot getting everything together because she was so excited about it all.

This little guy ended up with a piece of Eleanor's lollipop. Boy, did he enjoy that! Can't you tell he's smiling even without seeing his mouth?

 Afterwards, the girls did some building with wooden blocks (pieces trimmed off the fence!) and a sand slurry they've made.

Little guy crawling with utensils in hand. What is it about those things?!?

Call Day #48, 3/6/14

It was just the boy and me today since the girls are off enjoying their Disney vacation (and having a GREAT time). He's been pulling things out of the cabinet with the kids' dishes in it for a while now. This morning he spent some time putting things in and out of one of the cups.

While I tried to reorganize toys, he got his hands on this spoon and knife from a tea set. He didn't want to let go of them and tried eating snack with one in each hand, even though they were no use to him.

This afternoon he spent some time banging the washing machine with a shoe while I did laundry. Yes, he was this happy about making loud banging noises.

The highlight of the day was discovering just how great balls are. We spent some time rolling and throwing them around and he was happy to chase after them. He did a little throwing too.

He found the openings on each ball for putting in air. Had to check them out.

And, he says ball, or "ba."