English Tutor For Hire

Our apartment is owned by a family that has 4 grown daughters. The oldest daughter is the one that we usually relate to as our "landlord". Her father manages all the maintenance issues around the house, which is really nice. They are a great family, and we feel really blessed to have them as our landlords. Recently we were having a problem with some kitchen pipes leaking, so the dad came over and brought all 4 of his daughters. They all wanted to come so they could see the boys. Usually, we only talk to and see the oldest daughter and the dad (only when there are maintenance problems). Anyway, the younger 3 sisters wanted to get in on some of the action in our family (which could sometimes be referred to as "insanity"). Before they left that night the two youngest sisters (probably in the 18-20 age range) asked if they could start coming once a week to play with the boys to practice their English. Their dad said they should come when I'm home alone with the boys so it could be the most helpful to me. I said, "Sure!" not really knowing exactly what to expect. Well, last week one of the sisters came over for about 2 hours that morning and just played with Joshua and Luke the whole time. She brought things for them to do at first, then they went outside and played for like an hour. It was GREAT! They came back inside just in time for morning school. The sister's English was much better than I realized and she handled the boys way better than I expected. When she left, she said she would see me next week, so I'm really hoping she comes back again!

Later when I was telling Jeremy about the experience it dawned on me that if someone wanted to practice their English with a child, then Joshua is the perfect one to do that with. He has an amazing vocabulary for a 5 year old. He loves the attention (what kid wouldn't?). And he enunciates extremely well, so he's really easy to understand for a non-native English speaker. After we thought about it for a while we decided to hire him out as an English tutor. We could really make some bucks off of our 5 year old! :o) Just kidding! Believe me, it's a mutually beneficial relationship when someone wants to play with my children for English practice. Like I said, I really hope she sees it as beneficial and comes back!

Creatures of Habit

My boys are definitely creatures of habit. Joshua recently re-discovered his long sleeve Thomas the Train pajamas, as well as his love for them. He's always begging to wear them to sleep in, but I don't ever want him to because it is so stinkin' hot. For real, it's in the 90's during the day. And yes, I know it's probably hotter than that where some of you are, but you have air conditioning in your home. We don't. :o) It is HOT in our house, but we do have fans that help a great deal. Anyway, instead of asking, Joshua has taken to just running to his room before it's even time to get ready for bed and putting his Thomas pajamas on early. It doesn't seem to bother him that it's the dead of summer and he's wearing winter pajamas. It's all about the cartoon character. Maybe I should look for some Thomas summer pajamas. :o) Anyway, if he wants to be hot all night, then so be it. Along with the summer/winter lack of distinction, both boys insist on using blankets when they sleep. Because, after all, that's what you do when you get in bed - you put your blanket on you. At night we put a fan in their room, so it doesn't get too hot in there. But Luke even insists on using a blanket during his afternoon nap (during the hottest part of the day). There isn't a fan in there during his nap because we're using it in another part of the house at that time. He doesn't seem to care about it anyway. But when he naps with the blanket on, he wakes up soaking wet with sweat. He STILL wants that blanket because that's what you do when you sleep. Creatures of habit, that's what they are.

Happy Birthday, Micah!

My sweet little baby turned one last week! He's at such a playful and totally cute stage right now. He's still stumbling around a bit, working on his balance for walking, but getting better and more confident all the time. He hasn't started running yet, but I'm in no hurry for that. :o) Currently he's sporting 6 teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom) to chew through almost any and all food I give him. He loves to walk down the hall to the big boy's room when they're playing in there to see what he can join. Big boy toys are SO much more interesting than the toys we have out for him. He's also starting to dance a little bit when he hears music - total cuteness! He's got a great laugh and loves to play little games like "Where's Micah?". He'll chase after me when I leave a room, then when I turn around to look at him, he'll hide behind a door or something so he can pop his head out and giggle when I "catch" him. I could be a little on the partial side, but I just don't think babies get any cuter than this - seriously. ;o) He recently got his first haircut and did so well. He also recently got a very bad burn on his little hand by trying to pull up on the oven when it was on. We had to keep it bandaged and covered with a sock for about 5 days. It only seemed to hurt him the night it happened and he didn't seem to really notice it much after that. Something else he's started doing (that the big boys LOVE) is making zerberts on the couch or on his arm. It's really funny to watch him, then watch Joshua and Luke join in while all 3 of them are laughing.

Well, I realize that I've used the word "cute" like 50 times already, but it's really hard to talk about Micah without using that description. You'll have to check out the pictures below for reference!

He was down with the birthday pancakes! You can see the sock on his hurt hand here. I did take it off that night for the cake eating.

He was not too happy about the icing all over his hands!

But he eventually got over it, as you can see here.

It's hard to see the icing because it was light colored, but it was all over him. You can tell he enjoyed the experience immensely.

Trying to get into one of his presents.

Happy Birthday, Micah!!!

Sleep-walking

The other night I was sitting at the computer, which is at the far side of our living room, and Daddy was sitting on the couch with his own laptop computer, cord strung across the room. It was that sacred time of day, when the kids are already in bed and the house is mostly quiet. All you hear is the tap-tapping of computer keys, parents actually getting some work done... All of sudden, Daddy jumps up and starts yelling, "No! No! No!" as he's sprinting towards the living room door. He trips over the computer cord (the same one I had already tripped over once that evening), falls and bangs into the door (very loudly). Then I hear Joshua start crying. Daddy is now carrying Joshua to the bathroom rather quickly. Apparently, Joshua needed to relieve himself and in his sleep wandered down the hall and into the living room where he proceeded to pull down his pants and prepare to do the deed. Hence, the yelling, "No!" by Daddy. Thankfully, when Daddy fell on the floor and slammed into the door, it woke Joshua up so that he realized he wasn't quite to the bathroom yet. Another mess averted, but Daddy is still nursing the wounds on his foot from the harsh computer cord. The whole incident was kind of crazy. Ah, the adventures of raising little boys. At least Joshua wasn't doing it on purpose. :o)

July 4th

We had a fun 4th of July. Again, it was great to have Aunt Stacey here to celebrate with us. This was her last day with us. We had the house all decorated and tried to eat American-type foods (pizza for lunch and hamburgers for supper). We made some fun crafts that morning while trying to explain why we celebrate this holiday (which the boys weren't all that interested in hearing about). The boys made Statue of Liberty crowns and torches as well as American flags. After we took pictures (see below) we had a parade up and down the hall with our flags and torches while Aunt Stacey, Daddy, and I sang the national anthem. We were all totally into it until the flags started tearing and the crowns started flying off. But we tried to keep the boys going until the end of the song. Good times!

Ode to Joshua

June 25th is a very important day in our house. After all, we've been talking about it practically all year long. Since Joshua can't have his birthday every day of the year (which is what he wishes he could do), he has to wait 365 for that special big day. Well, it's hard to believe it but my biggest boy is now 5 years old. (Though he's already talking about his birthday next year when he turns 6.)

We had a super fun time celebrating the big day! He wanted a "Little Einsteins" theme, so we went all out (thanks to Aunt Stac!). It was great having her here to help us celebrate and get ready for the big day. She made the coolest cake in the shape of Rocket. She used this stuff called fondant (which we had never heard of) to cover the cake and make the shapes on it. The little faces are actually stickers that she cut out and stuck to the fondant. Check this out:


We started off the day with a few presents and birthday donuts. I made them the night before, and being my first time to make donuts, they didn't turn out so good. I'm pretty sure it was mostly due (I think) to the fact that my yeast wasn't fresh. I'll have to try again another time. Thankfully, my audience wasn't picky at all and the boys loved them.


After breakfast we all got ready to head to the "fun place" where we met our friends, the T family. They have 3 children whose ages are within 6 weeks of each of our children. We all really enjoy spending time with them, so it was great to celebrate with them. Bumper cars were first on the agenda, and it was great fun with more friends there. The kids played in the fun place for about an hour, then they rode a few kiddie rides before we headed back to our apartment. This picture is Joshua doing the zipline in the fun place. He's so brave!


Back home, while we were getting lunch ready, the kids played pin-the-baseball-on-the-glove. They only mildly got into it. They were much more interested in running around together (since we did have two 3 year olds and two 5 year olds together). We had birthday pizza for lunch then had the yummy cake and ice cream. Then a little more running around with friends and a few more presents before the friends left and we all settled down for a much needed quiet afternoon.


After said quiet afternoon, we had another couple over for dinner whose husband shares Joshua's birthday. We had birthday Mexican food and enjoyed time with more friends. They gave Joshua this construction worker outfit, and the boys loved it. All in all, it was a very fun day!

I really am so proud of my big boy, Joshua. He absolutely amazes me sometimes with how smart he can be. He often talks like he's a little adult, using big words and enunciating perfectly (like his father taught him). He has an absolutely incredible memory and can quote chapters of the Bible as well as random facts he's learned about history, geography, etc. from his computer games. His pretending skills have greatly increased recently and he's always going on pretend missions with his friends the Little Einsteins, or sailing on a pirate ship with Larry the cucumber as a pirate, or going on a safari with his animals, or fixing things with Handy Manny or Bob the Builder. Going on adventures with Daddy outside is also very cool to him. He loves to line things up and put things in order and group things. His favorite color is still orange. Parades are like the coolest thing ever to him, so we have them up and down the hall often, and he's into instruments (especially in a parade). He's recently shown a little more interest in drawing animals, particularly elephants which is the favored animal of his choice. And he's getting better at writing letters and reading books. We're still working on these things, but he's slowly improving. He's totally stoked about beginning kindergarten (which really only means using real curriculum), but he just thinks he's so big and is proud of that. He's a good helper around the house and can do big boy things that his brothers can't do yet. His main job in the family is to clean off the table after every meal. Another thing that he's gotten more interested in lately is playing games like go fish or board games. We love our big Joshua boy; his sweet smile can melt your heart. I can't wait to see what God has in store for him!

A and E Weeks

We've done lots of fun things recently in school that I wanted to share. We just have to finish the vowel weeks before we take a short break, then head into real-live kindergarten curriculum. Fun stuff! For "A" week we talked about animals, ants (with antennae), apples, and astronauts. Below are some of the pics from that week. The boys are using apples to paint on their paper. It was supposed to make the star (from the core of the apple) imprint, but it didn't exactly work out that way. The boys still enjoyed painting! We finished up the week by watching some clips of astronauts on From the Earth To the Moon, which the boys really enjoyed.




Then we did "E" week, and there were lots of fun things to do that start with E. One day we talked about all the animals that start with E and watched a few National Geographic videos online. Then we made eagle masks. It wasn't until later that I realized that Luke's mask was upside down. Oops.


Of course, the funnest thing we did was talk about ancient Egypt. The boys got a kick out of looking at the hierophyphics and seeing their names spelled out in pictures. We also looked at our picture album from when Daddy and I went on vacation to Egypt (one of the coolest vacations ever!). They got to see pictures of the pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Very cool. To top it all off, Aunt Stacey cut out a mummy mask that we decorated together. Then we wrapped Joshua up in toilet paper to mummify him. It was a fun day! Here are the pics from that day.