Monday, December 19, 2011

Playtime!

Eli

Eli

Thomas


Caleb


We took the boys to a nearby elementary school to play in the playground. It brought back good memories of grade school, the little cubbies with your name on it, crayons and paste! My aspirations of home schooling don't seem realistic anymore. Raising a family of five is very expensive, the boys aren't even over 20 pounds yet and you should see how much I spend on yogurt alone! We are scraping by for now but I just don't see how we will make it in the long run. I will eventually have to go back to work, but I'm holding my ground and don't ever want to go back full time. I want to be able to drop off and pick up my kids from school and spend the entire weekend with my family. Of course this is a long way off and won't happen until the boys are in 1st grade when they start going full time. The boys have a tricky birth date since they were born in September. I want them to have an advantage so I don't want them to start kindergarten early. So we are looking at the fall of 2015 when they start Kindergarten. Seems so far off but I know we'll be there before we know it. I checked out a few schools in our area and the one in the pictures above has a Spanish imersion program which would help tremendously my plight for the boys to learn proper Spanish, after two Spanish AP classes I still don't quite know where to put the accent marks!

Literally within 2-3 days after changing my baby sign language strategy the boys are all picking up on it. Partial success but we are moving in the right direction. We have been working on the sign for 'more,' Eli seems to be the most consistent followed by Thomas then Caleb. They don't always use it but if I promt them by asking them if they want more while signing it myself they will usually respond by signing back. We've started on the next sign, 'gentle,' because they are too rough with the kitty and I'm afraid he'll scratch them someday if the boys go too far with him. The other cat steers clear of the boys so we don't worry about her.

The boys (well mostly Thomas) have been super drooly lately I think we have some molars trying to make their way in. Thankfully haven't had any more middle of the night screaming because of this.

We are having a record breaking dry December here and it has just been awesome! We are trying to enjoy every minute of it, I can take a walk at anytime I darn well please. It feels like since we've lived here we've gone through so many record breaking months but for rain! I feel like we deserve this : )

Eli sure does know how to use a sippy cup!

I can still pick up all three at once, check!

Sometimes you have to be creative to get things done around here : )

Thomas has at least two in his mouth, one in his hand and he's reaching for another one! I can't believe how much these guys love tater tots! I bought a humongous bag for them and in anticipation of Janet & Chance's visit : )

3 comments:

nan cee said...

It is hard to believe that they are 14 months old already and up and running around all over the place! Looks they are good eaters too! Enjoy your visit with Janet and Chance and tell them hello for me.
Love to you all,
A.Nancy

Jonalyn said...

Those are great pictures! Looks like they enjoyed the playground.

Ami said...

I followed a link from KGW to get here. I remember the story when the little guys were born, but never saw a follow up. Nice to see they're doing so well!

Such a bunch of cute kids and I can't even begin to imagine the WORK involved!

And I can't NOT talk about homeschooling here.. it doesn't have to cost you anything. And there are soooo many homeschooling families in the Portland area. Definitely do-able if you really want to.

I'm retired from homeschooling now (kids grew up) but always available for free advice. Some of it even involves homeschooling. :)

I mean, just in case you end up going that direction.
:)