Pure fun!

We gave Prime my old cell phone, and he has been snapping lots of pictures. I will have to share some of his work once daddy teaches me how to download them. :) There are some really good ones and lots of goofy pictures, like Prime taking pictures of himself, especially parts of his face like just his eyes or his mouth. :) Whenever Prime takes pictures, J never wants her pictures taken, and vice versa. But both kids will let me snap pictures of them to my heart's content for some unknown reason.

The funniest pictures are the ones Prime took of daddy's butt. ;-) Excuse the language, but he chases daddy hard for those and took lots of pictures where daddy was acting goofy and totally acting like a kid . LOL. Yes, this is what I call pure fun!

I'm hoping this virus will clear up soon so we can go outside and have some fun and just do some physical activities. That's where my kids are the goofiest and have the most pure fun. Their favorite game is "red light, green light, little white light". There are many different versions of this game but basically one person says the verse about the colored lights (fast or slow or combo) and turns around to see where everybody is. If he/she catches someone moving upon turning his/her head as they finish saying the verse, then that person is it and they switch place. If not, players advance until they can touch the person saying the verse and then it becomes a tag game. Anyway, we play lots of similar games. Another favorite is the mother protecting her chicks from the old wolf.

The kids are coloring like crazy today again. I hang them on a new hung string (got this idea from another mom- sorry, can't remember who) But I love this idea as it does not require me to buy picture frames and the kids love the fact I'm hanging up. And they come often to look at their picture and read the bible verse which is a bonus.

The one on the string is J's and the raccoon is Prime's.

J is knitting again. :) She has been knitting a few rows on and off. I think the illness has made her gravitate to the quieter activities. I think we will try another knitting class to learn some new tricks.

Here is J's knitted recorder case. This was her 2nd project with the 1st project being a purse. She knitted about 1/2 and I sewed it together. But she picked the button and sewed the button. Our Enki recorder has been sleeping. :(

Also share with you the thing to use that saves you from even the worst chapped lips or bleeding lips (works wonder) for kids and adults: both kids just uses some this morning for their very chapped lips.

This is from Bath and Body Works. I love this brand: C.O Bigelow. I particularly love their rose water skin tonic and cucumber skin tonic for my dry skin. I use it on the kids sometimes too. It works great on them too.

Alphabets and Easter snacks

I bought the kids some Easter snacks when I got J's homeopathic medicine Sambucol (Elderberry) and they are disappearing fast (so is the Sambucol- the kids love it, they suck on them like candy). The picture on the snacks are so misleading...


There no balls in there, just a mesh of cotton candy (colors mixed together); Then I thought there would be eggs from the picture, but they are pretty much flat and they use the egg containers which made me think they would be rounder and bigger but they are not and they were all bumped together when I opened it. At least, both were very tasty and addictive and on sale.


I had to put these up today. Either J or Prime picked this out when they went holiday shopping at a bazaar held by an Waldorf school. Here is hoping for nice, warm Spring.

In the beginning....

J helped Prime to spread out the letters so he can find them better. Sweet sister. Prime was very resistant to any help in the beginning and I had to tell J to let him do it by himself. But I think J still helped him a little, and I heard Prime say, "Thank you" later on.

These alphabets are for scrap booking but also good for the kids. My Prime had to get the alphabets in order, starting with a, then b, etc. He have trouble with b and d, as well as p and q so I'm hoping playing with these will help him. Just this morning, I found he had little trouble with J too. He thought it was a broken f. :))

J is able to do this randomly and put alphabets where they belong. Ex. she could pick up s, then later pick up u, and knows u goes after s or pick up f, and know it is before u. When I did it that way, for a few letters close to each other, I found I needed to sing the alphabet song just to make sure I put it in the correct order myself. LOL!!

Prime did it!

Sick day learning

J is on the up swing. I'm not sure if its Sambucol suggested by Rosalyn and web page later provided by LBD, but I did purchase it at our local pharmacy and the kids have been taking it regularly since last night. J is not coughing as bad as she was and therefore she seem to have more energy. Thanks, ladies!!

We read quite a bit today, mostly fairy tale. But we also read like 5 chapters from Psalms. The Enki fairy tale we read this morning is called "Lubachaka". In the afternoon, I read 2 Italian fairy tales in Chinese to J and Prime. They also did some clay modeling in the morning, as well as listened to some music. Prime also played by himself while J did a little finger string games.

In the afternoon, the kids rested while Prime even felt asleep for a little while. Then they colored, first J, then Prime. I was suprised at the patience Prime had shown in his coloring today. Later, we watched a video- Ocean by EyeWitness. We all love this series of dvd/video and watch them regularly. I learn lots of new information too. I usually borrow books on the subject and read it to them before hand so they have some idea when they watch the video.

Today, the video was saying how our earth spins, Prime says, "Oh, I know! That's like what the Enki song says, round, and round the earth is turning...." I love these ah-ha moments. :) I also love the fact even on sick days as another mom points out in her blog, the kids are still learning.


Here is our home made color pencil holder which daddy kindly sewed for us at my request. (He knows how to use the sewing machine, not me. I do hand sewing. )


This is colored by Prime. He read the verse all by himself.

This is colored by J. J memorized her scripture.

My J - " funny ", sensitive, playful

Okay, after a rave about Prime, only fair to do one on J. Right now, she is a sick puppy so not much too much to share. But J is doing little better, temperature stable after medicine (102), coughing a lot but not as bad as just a one day ago.

I asked her a while a go, how she would describe herself, and the first word she said very quickly was, "funny!" with a big smile. I said, you mean, you think you are very funny as in you can make others laugh? And she said with a goofy smile and a bit shy this time, "Yeah" . :) Not the first word I would use to describe J, but okay. She can Prime laugh a lot and when Prime was a baby, we always relied on J to make Prime laugh very hard so I guess that's about right.

When she has some energy, she played with the clay model I bought for the kids just yesterday. Look what she made.

Those are characters from Veggie Tales.

She also wanted to play Blokus (maybe its the medicine, the girl got a little extra energy all of a sudden), and because I blocked her, she lost and was crying and didn't even put up her last few pieces. :( I had to tell her, crying just does not help you that much. I know, I can be harsh but that's how it is . I understand she is frustrated and upset, but she needs to learn to redirect that energy and put it to good use and not cry so easily. Just how I feel.

Later, after some beautiful Andre Bocelli music, J was playing the piano again. :) Overall, she is not in a great mood and not acting like herself. That at least I can sympathize with. Back to bed she goes.

I'm looking for a piano teacher for her and if I find a good one at a reasonable price, we will give it a try. But the advice I received from a good friend, is be ready to quit. Well, I'm ready. When J doesn't show much interest in it and agrees to quit, we will. I don't feel it is a waste of money to try...how would I know other wise?

Raves about my little man

Where do I even begin? I love my little man, he is cute, handsome and just a really good little boy....good little helper... mama's boy (and daddy's) for sure.

This morning, after some snuggling in bed and breakfast, we read a few books together. Actually, Prime read most of it himself. He always asks me when he reads a book that is above his level. "Is it okay if I mess up?", he asks. "Of course. That means you are learning.", I tell him.

Then he happily reads and points his finger at the words. This boy can read a lot considering we haven't formally learned phonics. I'm planning to start with that in the fall with him, most likely.


I wasn't sure about this set of books in the beginning. But Prime really likes them. I purposely got him the B and Q book (since Prime have some trouble identifying lower case b and d, p and q). I couldn't find the D and P book.

Later, he puts away all his clothes, and his daddy's clothes all by himself w/o me saying anything. I think he started because he saw me putting away my clothes. The sweet thing is he says, "Mommy, I am going to put away my clothes everyday because I want to make you happy." Words to melt my heart. The boy got a super sweet mouth. Sometimes, he will say, I don't want to make you mad because I don't want you to get white hair. :-)

Then he goes down stairs to clean Fluffy's cage ( our hamster) all by himself. Usually, he and J do it together so it's a big step for him to do it all by himself. :-) And he did a great job! The boy even swept!

I tell him, you are getting purple today. And he says, "Yeah !"

This color system is used at the beginning of year in J's school for 1st graders. (Red- 2 or more warnings (note to parent) Yellow-warning, Green-good day, Blue- great day (did 1 thing good w/o reminding) Purple-excellent day (did 2 or more things great w/o reminding and teacher will write a happy note to parents).

When J was in school, she got mostly green, and on a few occasions, she gets blue. Usually, only 1 person gets blue. And even more rare is a child gets purple. But it does happen.

At the time, Prime always asks J when we pick her up, what did you get today? (as the color code report came everyday; the children color in the chart themselves) At the time, I was annoyed at the chart since there was no clear guidelines and very discretionary. Luckily or unluckily, J didn't care too much about the color she got. She never got yellow, but when she did get blue, she wasn't thrilled either. After 2 months, the daily color report stopped and a weekly report came.

Anyway, Little Prime, you deserve a PURPLE today. I love you googel (yes, it is a #).

-mommy

Impromptu drawing by Prime

Here is an impromptu drawing by my Prime. See J on the right? That's pretty much what J looks like. I was surprised he captured her spirit so well, especially the eyes. J look like she hasn't slept for days and just pitiful overall.

The other thing on the right is Prime's rendition of Fluffy, our hamster.

J's ammunition

I need some diversion...other wise watching J suffer just stresses me out. We have been reading the Bible and have continued to pray. That always helps me . But here is something else: it's funny how I recently borrowed this book, called "Henry and Mudge - Get the Cold Shivers" by Cynthia Rylant. Here is what Henry's mom and dad gives to him when he is sick, Popsicle, cracker, and comic books in the story (mom in the morning and dad in the evening).



Well, here is what we have been given J (other than Tylenol and the throat/cold tea for kids). She really likes the Tylenol but can never finish the tea. *sigh* Okay, I know she likes these: Vitamin water! We also give her crackers/bagels, and I just bought some oatmeal too. Daddy brought her a variety of cough drops and yogurt last night(she is not crazy about those).


I wanted to get Primrose and some balloons for J but I'm pretty tired myself so that will have to wait for another day.