It may have taken three months to get to it, but I have finally put some pictures on the wall of Paul’s bedroom!
I have Greg Olsen’s O Jerusalem and a picture of the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple, and Aunt Jenny sent Paul some wall hangings last Christmas: an airplane, a car, a train, and a name plaque. I also bought a document frame from Michael’s and I’m going to rotate pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit. This month it is a picture of Christ being baptized, in honor of cousin Daniel’s upcoming baptism. I’ve been telling Paul about baptism all month. Next month I’ll put a different picture up and we’ll talk about the story all month. Hopefully by the time he’s older, he’ll actually learn something from that, right?
I think everything looks pretty nice and having something on his wall makes the room so much more cozy. The pictures are a bit small, so I may get something big for the largest wall at some point. For now, it’s very nice.
Signing Time does wonders. We got the “Leah’s Farm” episode from the library, and Paul just loved watching the animals in the video. Our yard has plenty of birds to watch, and every single one of our neighbors has at least one dog. Those are, by far, his favorite animals, and he loves to sign the words too.
“Birdie” looks like he’s eating his hand in this video. He also says “outside”, “cold”, and”dog” in this video. He signs “birdie”, “dog”, “frog”, and “cold.”
Other Things
Paul loves shoes. He goes around the house picking up shoes and carrying them into the laundry room (where I put them when I tidy the room). He likes to tidy the house, including “helping” me sweep and vacuum. I hope he keeps these habits when he’s older! Shoes are his favorite item of clothing.
He also loves music and he loves to dance.
Sometimes, he goes around the house saying “Jesus” and pointing to our pictures of Jesus.
He likes babies and signs “baby” when ever we see one in the store or church. I bought him a baby doll at a garage sale, and he likes pointing to her eyes, ears, nose, toes, and mouth. She doesn’t have any hair, so that always confuses him when I tell him to point to her hair! I think Paul likes his belly button the best and likes to look for his at random times of the day. If I ask him where his ears are, he’ll come find my ears.
In this video, he’s dancing, saying “shoes,” and pointing to our family picture (looking at either daddy or the baby, which is, of course, himself).
Paul loves to say “hi” and “bye-bye” to everyone we meet. Most people ignore him, but often people come up and tell him how adorable he is, patting him on the head in the process. (That is something Ryan says he hated when he was a kid. Oh well: like father, like son!)
Paul also loves to eat, as he always has. His favorite foods are bread, milk, bananas, and tomatoes. He also likes peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, and apple sauce. Here he is saying and signing a few more words for you while he eats a snack. Isn’t he cute?
Paul’s favorite toys are trains (there is a train table at the library and he has two engines) and cars, which he likes to make vroom all over the furniture. But his other favorite toys include an empty oatmeal container and a plastic tupperware container. He puts his matchbox cars and other small toys inside them and mixes it together with a plastic spoon from the kitchen. I think he is making soup.
These pictures were taken in May, when Paul was 18 or 19 months old. We’ve finally gotten to them! I took the pictures; Ryan did the processing. I wasn’t completely happy before the processing, but Ryan showed me that a little tweaking makes photos look pretty good. I think they turned out very nicely! Note: Post has been post-dated to reflect date photos were taken. Originally posted July 2009.
I spent one nap-time last week spraying all the weeds in our yard. All of them. This week, all the dandelions are withering and dying! YES! I feel so powerful.
The Lawn
Ryan’s in charge of taking over the lawn: I refuse to ever mow. He’s got a one-to-two year plan underway for making it look better. As I walk down the block with Paul, I take note of the lawns that look great. It would be so wonderful to have an OK-looking lawn in a few years. I’m not even asking for great. I’m just hoping the front yard will be relatively dandelion free some unseen date in the future.
I’m becoming accustomed to the idea of “years.” I’m an instant kind of girl: I like to see the fruits of my labors. But I’m realizing that that is not the way with yard work. We do little bits and in the long run it’s going to be better.
But our lawn already isn’t the worst. While our house had been vacant for a least one summer, at least they had a yard service. Two houses down is currently vacant and it must be a foreclosure because the lawn is bad. When I say bad, I mean 6-10 dandelion plants every square foot on the front lawn. Ours has about 1 dandelion or thistle every 2-3 square feet front lawn, about 1 per square foot back lawn, with lots of clover and crab grass too. So ours isn’t too bad. Our other neighbors have not many dandelions but huge patches of crab grass on the front lawn that grow faster than regular grass, thus making a “gopher-like” appearance. So ours isn’t too bad.
Lanscaping
Our empty planting spaces, on the other hand, are starting to look Bad. This will be my territory. Yikes. I’m scared, since I’ve never successfully kept a plant alive. Ever. I’m also not convinced that weeding will be fun. Seeing the dead dandelions did make me feel powerful, though. Yes! I’ve killed something. (Not that that is hard to do, unless we’re talking weeds.)
We put in mulch a few weeks ago and I’ve been waiting to see which of the stick-plants are alive versus dead.
The verdict: It looks like in the front planters, one of the rose bushes is alive; the other three are dead as a doornail. This space is about 10 by 13, so I have lots of perennials to get. We do have two other living bushes, thank goodness.
In the back, we have two living rose bushes compared to four dead ones. Plus we have a huge dead tree stump and another huge dying evergreen. One other tree of some kind is half dead. The ferns (fiddleheads?) are growing in the lawn.
I’m going in to the nursery today, armed with photos. The consultants are willing to look and give advice for free (assuming, of course, I plan on buying from them when I’m ready for plants). I’m also wondering if I’ll be able to dig these plants out myself; that dead evergreen stump is pretty huge.
Here’s the question: What’s the smallest amount of money I can spend to make my landscaping look presentable, year one? I was seriously hoping for $100 but I wonder if that’s reasonable, given the number of dead bushes I’m going to pull out. I’m aiming to tame the front planters this year and worry about the back (minus taking out the dead stuff and the plants growing in the lawn) next year.
On a postive note, I’m hoping that this is a chance to actually be successful at getting things to grow. I just love Spring: it’s even nicer living in a neighborhood. Each day when I drive home, I just love the tree-lined roads that now have white and pink and green blossoms. The world is so beautiful!
Paul is an incredibly happy boy, and apparently he is completely up-to-date developmentally. The doctor kept saying “Oh he’s so good” when he did things like open his mouth when she asked him too. I think he was just observing and taking it all in because it was all new to him (relatively; he doesn’t remember the last visit three months ago).
When the doctor left, we had to wait for the nurse. He was ready to be done though. He kept walking to the door saying “go? Go? GO!” When the nurse finally came, he got two shots. He wasn’t sure what was going on with the first one, and since we were clapping and saying “yeay!”, he started clapping too. For the second shot, he was a little more wary and tried to pull away. It brought tears, but when he saw the bandaids, he was fascinated with that too, and even the tears stopped.
Overall, I love my boy. This week’s special words are “Hi! Hi!” and “Bye! Bye!” to strangers both coming and going, “shoes” as he wanders the house looking for them (anyone’s is fine), and “go!” for everything and everywhere. He still signs “thank you” with a little kiss.
As a part of the Read with Kids Challenge, I’ve been tracking the time I read with Paul (who is 19 months old).
I love to read (as one can tell from my reading blog), so I like to read him chapter books (usually children’s). Even though he’s too young to care or follow a plot, I want to read those books, so I might as well get them read while I’m reading to a child. But each morning, I usually read him a chapter from something (10-20 minutes) while he plays with his toys or eats his breakfast. We also read picture books a lot, any time of day.
The Read with Kids Challenge encourages parents (or teachers or librarians) to read with kids from April 1 til June 30, 2009. There are awards and such too. I don’t expect to win anything — I just thought it would be fun to see how much I read with Paul and try to raise that amount of time each day so that reading is a habit for him and for us.
From April 15 (when I started keeping track) until today, we read 390 minutes, or an average of 26 minutes a day. I had made a 75-day goal of 2500 minutes, which is an average of 33 minutes a day. Considering reading in the morning and bedtime stories, that sounded do-able, but then I forgot about the days when I forget or don’t do much reading at all (like weekends!). I realize now that that will be nearly impossible. In the past two weeks, I’ve been really pushing myself to read whenever I could and every day. But I still came up short of what I expected would be “easy.” Maybe averaging 20 minutes a day is plenty practical. My new goal is 1600 minutes by the end of June, including, of course, the 390 we did in the later half of April.
I also wonder which times I should count as reading; maybe I am “cheating.” My son doesn’t actually read, so all my time is actually “reading to a kid.” Which times would you count as “reading with kids” out of these?
I read a chapter book to him while he plays with his toys or eats his breakfast or takes his bath.
I read a chapter book to him while he falls asleep in my arms (he was not feeling well).
I read him a picture book bedtime story.
I read him two pages of a bedtime story, and then he points at the pictures and babbles as he turns the other pages.
When I say it’s time for a bedtime story, he runs to the closet and grabs a picture book. Then he sits on the floor, turns the pages, and babbles, pushing me away if I come near. After about 30 seconds, he gets up and exchanges it for a different book. Repeat five to ten times.
I count them all, because each in its own way helps him to love reading. That is, I think, the purpose of this challenge. I’m comforted in the fact that my son loves books. But what do you think? Does reading with kids need to be interactive?
An example of success: I read Paul Robinson Crusoe aloud over the course of two months. Now, whenever he sees that particular book on my bookshelf, he brings it to me, babbling something incomprehensible. I’m hoping he is actually saying something about his good memories of me reading to him (like maybe that day I held him when he was not feeling well, and he fell asleep as I read to him).
Another example: Yesterday morning, after I got him up and dressed, I was going to go into the other room. But Paul found the copy of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle we’re reading and handed it to me, very excited.
“Do you want me to read some of it to you?” I asked.
He nodded emphatically and then headed back to his toys, turning to look back at me to see that I was starting to read. Aww, how could I not?
In honor of National Poetry Month (again), I thought I’d write another haiku, but then A Lotus pointed out to me that when the seventeen syllables focus on human irony and interactions, it’s more accurately called “Senryu.” According to Wikipedia, Senyru are more “darkly humorous.” Since that is my intention in the following verse, I think this is probably a Senryu. Any thoughts and pointers on what the different forms “require” would help me.
Weather Means More (Now that I Have a Yard): A Senryu
I groan and dawdle
on Saturdays clear and bright:
weeds mock and taunt me.
(It’s my third month of having a yard, and I’m beginning to dislike yard work already!)
The prompt is from April’s Café Writing, In the Garden: Option One Poetry
Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.
~Marcelene Cox
Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about weather meaning more
I haven’t updated this for another two weeks. My, time goes fast!
Nothing is happening in my life except these things (decide for yourself if they are exciting).
Our house is fully furnished and we almost have all the pictures on the walls. We also have just a few shelves to put up, and I want to add family photos in frames to those shelves. My color printer on the fritz, so I guess I should just pay to have them printed.
We have spent every Saturday for the past few weekends working in the yard. It looks bad, but it’s getting a little better. The house had been vacant for a long time, and while they must have had a yard service mowing the lawn, the planters were rather neglected. This weekend we got mulch and in the next few weeks, once Chicago stops frosting and I’m sure there won’t any more snow (when might that be?!), I may get some plants in the ground. Maybe then I’ll show pictures. I don’t like yard work at all at this point, and would love to have the money to hire someone else to make it pretty. I’d rather do an inside project in that time, of which I could choose from many.
I got my haircut. It looks bad. I didn’t get it straightened (I decided it was too expensive this month), and with all the humidity and rain we get in Chicago this time of year, it’s just horribly frizzy. Sigh. Maybe in two months I’ll get it straightened. I dislike it almost as much as I disliked my hair before I got it cut. (it had been 15 months since my last cut; it was time.)
I’ve gotten a cold every two weeks for the past three months, but thankfully, I don’t think it’s the swine flu.
Paul is finally starting to talk. It’s delightful to understand him! He’s also becoming a sporadic napper, meaning there are some days when he’s awake 12 hours and I don’t get a break. That’s not so delightful but we’re managing. Lots of visits to the library (where there is a train table).
Ryan is still traveling Monday mornings through Thursday nights. I’m so glad he doesn’t have to leave Sunday night! The few interviews he’s had have been of the “we’d-love-to-hire-you-but-can’t” sort, thanks to this crummy economy. We’re looking at options for the future and the long run looks promising, although it means he’ll be traveling for the foreseeable future. At least he has a great job!
I am the primary music leader. They have had substitutes for about three months, so they are delighted to have me. I love my calling.
I don’t update very often, and it’s good to look at this and remember that life is good. We’re so grateful for all the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us.
Paul finally has enough hair that I had to buy him a brush this week. When it is wet, it is matted and long. When it dries, it curls in the back to produce an adorable head of curls. Ryan is quite traumatized by this: every time someone comes up and says “What adorable curls! What lovely hair!” he has memories of his own childhood. He, apparently, hated having curly red hair because everyone wanted to touch it. Alas: like father, like son.
Paul is signing at least 30 words now — surprising me every day with new ones. I shouldn’t be too surprized since Signing Time is his only show these days.
Paul is saying at least 15 words. Sometimes his talking sounds like babbling and other times it actually is words.
Paul has become fascinated with dogs and birds. He also loves the train table at the library. He also loves the slide and the swing at the park: I need to fix up our play set in our yard because right now it’s not useful for a baby Paul’s age.
Paul has a runny nose again this week. It will never stop, I’ve decided.
Paul’s naps are still sporadic. I never know if he’ll go down or when he’ll be ready for it. (Saturday he was ready at 10 a.m. and he slept for three hours. Today it was one hour. And that’s it.)
Paul likes his binkie. He can only have it when he’s in his bed, so sometimes he begs to go in his crib, just to have his binkie. Ten minutes later, he’s ready to go on with his day again.
Paul is a smart kid. There are so many stories I meant to share. I’m going to have to write them down as soon as they happen because now I’ve forgotten!
Note that I am taking some phrases from Stevens, not with the intent to plagiarize but as poetry guidance and prompts for my own ideas. In some sense, this is all a joke, for I don’t think it is great poetry. As you read, please keep in mind that I’m not a poet.
Despite that fact, I sure had fun writing this. Each of these stanzas references a different way that I, a stay-at-home mom, look at books.
If you choose to do a “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a…” poem yourself, leave a link in the comments. Continue reading →
