Father's Day Yum!

For Mother's Day I got a wonderful breakfast in bed made by my daughter and wonderful and tolerant husband.  For Father's Day, we tried to make something special as well.  We had orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast (although not in bed) and Katie and I made these super yummy Frozen S'Mores from Easybaked.

It made 12 so he is still enjoying them!

Where was Christian??

Where was Christian during Katie's b-day party you say?  Splashing in the pool and hanging out, eating his first pizza!

6th Birthday Success!

Despite Katie's comment earlier in the week that, by pool party, she actually meant a sprinkler in the yard...we finally managed to have her party AT the neighborhood pool and she had a great time.

We didn't really have a theme for the party but, after much deliberation, she decided on a rocket cake and it was AWESOME!  Katie loves space and spends a lot of time at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville with her dad so this was definitely a good choice.  Huge thanks to Eileen Sheldon of Sugar Mama's Cakes for this awesome Saturn V sister rocket, the Katie 6!

Even cooler were these cake pops that look like the sun, all of the planets (with great details!) and several stars.  I loved these!!

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Creative Play

Now that I am going to be staying home, I am exploring new and exciting ways to play with my kids (so I don't go crazy, and neither do they).  Also, since Christian won't be going to a daycare where he would otherwise get lots of stimulation and time to explore and play, I feel more pressure to provide more stimulating play opportunities at home.

Thanks to a friend, I came upon a blog written by a few moms in my area called Play at Home Mom.  They believe in the value of creative play in learning and they have some of the BEST ideas ever.  One of the things that really interested me was how they set up "invitations".  Basically, they set up a new play area, a collection of tools and then let the kids have at it.  Sometimes the kids go right for it, sometimes they wait awhile (even days) before they decide they "accept" the invitation to play.  I loved the idea of the invitations as a way to give a child some tools and a fresh palette for their imagination.  By not scripting their play, the child has the freedom to let their imagination roam wherever it wishes.

This is my first foray into "invitations" and I was very excited about trying it.  It was one that the Play at Home Moms had set up as an activity that was appropriate for an infant.  This is what the invitation looked like:

The white is vanilla yogurt (Christian puts EVERYTHING in his mouth).  Each of the yogurt blobs has different food coloring in it, except one so that we could have white as well.  

Christian had a good time playing and exploring although I was sad that it didn't hold his interest longer.  Mostly, he wanted to see what sissy was doing on her table.  He did have some fun playing (and eating) some of his colors.

This one is Jim's favorite. :)

Ultimately, he had more fun playing with the hose that we ended up leaving running to rinse the dirt off of his yogurt covered hands and legs whenever he wandered over to Katie's table to see what she was doing.

I put Katie's invitation up on a table with a few different tools.

Katie was super excited about her "experiment" as she called it.  But, as she got started, I saw how I have failed as a parent.  She sat there and said, "What do I do?"  I said, "What do you want to do?"  "I don't know.  What am I supposed to do?"  "Anything you want." "But what do I do?"

This conversation went on for a few minutes before she tentatively began mixing and stirring.  

Then more of the tools came out...

 ...and she started to really have fun.

Ultimately, although Christian did not engage with it as much as I had hoped he would, Katie had a blast and she showed me that I definitely need to do more activities like this to give her the opportunity to let her imagination go without the being constrained by rules.

Big thoughts from a little person

Every Tuesday morning, when the stars align, I attend a women's bible study at my church.  This is such a wonderful time to spend time worshiping and having fellowship with other women in my church.  A few weeks ago, on Valentine's Day in fact, we were talking about envy and jealousy as part of our study for that week.  One woman commented that, if God wanted us to have more (money, cars, house, stuff, etc.) he would have given it to us.  So, what we have is what God wants us to have and we should be content with that.

The lesson stayed with me all that day until I picked Katie up from school for her swimming lesson that afternoon.  On the way to the lesson, we talked about her day and she started talking about the Valentine celebration they had had in class.  In particular, she talked about the Airhead (type of candy) that she got from one of her classmates and how another classmate received a bigger one than she did.  With my earlier lesson in envy in my head, I decided to use this as a small teaching moment and an opportunity to share the lesson that I had learned in bible study that day in a 5 year old friendly way.  I explained to her that she got the Airhead that God wanted her to have and that if God had wanted her to have a bigger one, she would have received a bigger one.  

She thought about this for a moment and then agreed, "Yeah, because God is our remote."  Confusion reigned for a moment in my head as I tried to figure out what she might be talking about.  Remote?  Like, far away? No, that didn't make any sense...Could she mean a different word?  Sometimes she uses one word when she means another because she doesn't have a big enough vocabulary to encompass everything she wants to say yet...No, I don't think so.  What else could she be talking about...Wait, remote, like, remote control?  "Do you mean, remote, like, the remote control for the TV?"  "No," she replied.  "Like the Wii remote." What?!? "Why do you say that?" "Because God is giving us things and making us do things like the we do with the Wii people." 

Oh my. I truly wanted to bust out laughing at this point.  It amazed me that she had made this connection about God and that she was so particular about what kind of remote.  I think of the Wii remote and the TV remote as essentially the same.  They both control electronics.  In her mind, however, they are very different.  One has many buttons and changes channels or gives lists that one has to read and click on.  The other controls what looks like a person.  As she moves the remote, so moves the person on the screen, like a puppet master and his marionette.  It made complete sense to me how she made that connection to God.  To many, he seems like a puppet master who just pulls our strings (or yanks our chains, depending on your opinion of God).  

I managed to get past my laughter and have a short conversation about the difference between how the Wii remote controls the people on the screen (who have no ability to think for themselves) and God's desire to let us have free will.  What amazed me even more is that we had this whole conversation in less than the 15 minutes it takes to get from her school to the pool.  

You heard it here first.  God is a Wiimote. :)

Happy 6 months Christian!! (picture explosion!)

My little guy is 6 months old today!!  To remind myself how time flies, here is a look back at the last 6 months and all of his firsts.

Newborn

First minutes, and first words of comfort from Mommy.

First hour

First Katie kiss

First photo shoot

First trip to the pool (for Katie's swim team practice at 4 days old)

First tummy time

1 Month

First bath

First time contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

First stroller ride with sissy at the helm.

2 Months 

First smiles

First geek picture

First sleepy looks

3 Months

First pass out on the floor giving Mommy a blessed break from the screaming (pre milk-free)

4 Months

First play times sitting up

First plane trip (Raleigh to Phoenix for Uncle Dave's wedding!)

5 Months

First solids

First Halloween costume (puppy dog)

6 Months

First tuxedo!

First book!

HAPPY 6 MONTHS!!!

My talkative baby

The new sounds Christian is making. :)