Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

So, I am officially "homeschooling" Nicole. No...I'm not sitting her down for hours on end making her recite the alphabet. I am basically choosing to be intentional about creating opportunities for her to learn. I don't want to just read a book because it has cute pictures. I want to also tie in information and activities to help her learn. I'll let her lead and as I find she is interested in a subject, we'll pursue it. For this past week, we have simply been reading the same book over and over and talking about it. It's called Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom. It's about letters of the alphabet who climb a coconut tree, and then they all fall out and get boo boos. She has enjoyed this book a lot and it's created several opportunities for us to talk about it.

Examples:

~Obviously we said the alphabet over and over (usually she only sees capital letters...this book was great because it also introduced her to lowercase letters...or baby letters as she calls them).

~We pointed out different colored letters on the pages

~We counted different letters

~We talked about shapes (mostly circles)

~Here is where it gets fun. We were outside playing earlier this week and I pointed out to her that we have a coconut tree in our yard...immediately she said "Boom Boom". So...she was relating the book to what I just told her.



~This was the best part....Let me tell you about today!

Our friends Brooke and Bryan have to little boys, Peyton (almost 3) and Caulder (almost 1 1/2). When they got here, we sat the kids down and read the book to them (they all knew it well). Then we went outside and Painted Coconuts (that had fallen out of our tree!). Peyton painted his like a dinosaur. Nicole...well...she just painted and had fun. Caulder painted on paper. Then we ate a snack of alphabet shaped cereal. For lunch, we had alphabet soup (I couldn't find any coconut to eat too). Do you see though how we tied in the book to the fun things we did the rest of the morning? That's kind of what I want to do.

Here's a picture of the kids



The coconuts





Tomorrow is August 1...and that's when we officially begin. I'll write you tomorrow to share what we will be talking about this month.

I can't leave out sweet Hannah. Isn't it cute how she sucks on those middle fingers?

My favorite photo(s)

My friend Jenn wanted all of her friends to post their favorite photo. I am photo crazy and there is NO WAY I can narrow it down to one. (oh....disclaimer...I have to be in the photo too, or else I'd have even more I love) Uh oh...another thing. I can't find pictures pre-Nicole and we don't have a good family shot yet with Hannah. Sorry she's not in here. I have favorite pictures of her...just not with her.

This was part of our family Christmas photoshoot down on the beach last December. I was preggo with Hannah
This was our anniversary last year on the cruise boat. I really like my hair here. I also like it that we sort of match (and I have accessories!!!)
Nicole and I, February of 07. Nicole's (and mine too) first sled ride!
Nicole and me again. Same month and year above.
Nicole and I with my Mama Pat and Pap Sam. I believe this was October of 07.

My friend Jenn wanted all of her friends to post their favorite photo. I am photo crazy and there is NO WAY I can narrow it down to one. (oh....disclaimer...I have to be in the photo too, or else I'd have even more I love)

Pictures of the girls'swimming

Earlier this week, I posted about our time swimming on Greg's birthday. Here are a few pics and videos. Hannah pretty much liked the swimming (except when she got splashed).

Nicole LOVES being in the water.

A cute picture of Hannah, daddy and Gramps

Baby Bumbo!

So, I finally gave in a bought a Baby Bumbo. What is a Baby Bumbo you may ask? It's a cool chair that lets your little baby sit up, even though she really can't yet. They are pretty expensive, $40-$50. However I got mine on Craigslist (If you haven't heard of it, or used it yet...it's pretty cool. Craigslist is basically free "for sell" ads in your local area. We've bought and sold a lot of stuff on it.). Anyway...I got our Baby Bumbo for $15. Yay me! (as Nicole would say). Here's my little bumbo in it now. Hannah loves it!

I also have a pic here of Nicole and Hannah from earlier this week.

We've had a very good, but busy week. A friend came in town to visit one day, Greg's birthday was another day, and a few play dates as well. Gotta go get some work done now:-) God Bless!

PEE PEE!!!!!

I don't know if Jeremy has ever looked at this blog, but he knows I do it. In fact, an incident happened Sunday night with Nicole, and he looked at me and said, "Michele....this should go up on the blog!" hehehe. So...here it goes.

Sunday evenings, Jeremy goes to a Bible study and I try to go sometimes too. However, I couldn't go this week. So, we decided to grab a bite to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (Silverspoon) and then I drove Jeremy to the Bible and he was just going to catch a ride home with a friend. Anyway, I knew Nicole would have to go potty because she had just drank a bunch of milk at dinner, so I asked him to take her inside to go potty before we left.

The Bible study had already begun (we learn Greek for the first 30 minutes or so), but she took attention away when she walked in and said "HI". Jeremy quickly ushered her to the bathroom where she did her business. When she was finished, she went running out of the bathroom, out into the living room and straight to our friend Celia (the leader's wife). Nicole put her hands on Celia's knees, and said (very loudly) Pee Pee!. Everyone started laughing. She totally interrupted Greek study, but I'm sure it was very cute. She was very proud of herself for going potty and thought everyone else should be proud of her too...hehehe.

Keep reading...I wrote two posts today about our fun last night.

Hannah's first time swimming

Last night was Greg's birthday (Jeremy's dad), so we spent the evening at their house. We decided to go up to the pool and swim (Nicole is a shark in the water...she just LOVES it!) We even brought a swim suit for Hannah. She LOVED the water! It was very warm (almost to warm!). The only time she really cried was when Jeremy and Greg were throwing Nicole in the air and Hannah got spashed in her face (pretty cute actually). I DON'T have any pictures, yet. They are all on Greg & Valerie's camera...so I will post them up ASAP.

Nicole did Great in the water again. She is now confident enough in the water, that she will hold onto a noodle, kick, and actually swim around the pool all by herself. She's so proud when she does it. I can't believe how big she's getting already. It's fun to watch her. I can't wait to show you the pictures

I woke up grumpy this morning because I only got a few hours of sleep (not the girls fault...my fault for staying up late). So, anyway...I was just grumpy, annoyed, frustrated ... you know the feeling. Until Hannah started talking. I got the camera out at the very end. She seriously "talked" for about 45 minutes. Finally got me smiling and laughing. It's great how she does that:-) I thought you might enjoy watching one of the videos I took.

I also needed to post these little smiles I got from the two of them the other day.

Sorry, I forgot to rotate this one.

Hannah is now grabbing items and holding onto them. We've been putting these stuffed animals near her, and she's even fallen asleep with one...sweet huh?

Jeremy loves his girls! (and they love him:-)

Nicole is a little chef..she's making Oatmeal!

Nicole got a little cooking set for her birthday that we just got out today. First we made her a little stove. Then, we put on our aprons and started cooking. She said the first thing she wanted to cook was oatmeal (I make it every morning for her and her daddy). Here are some pics.

Hannah was napping during all this fun. She can't possibly be comfortable, can she? It's the longest nap she's taken all day....I guess she is.

Till next time....

Dinosaurs and ABCs

Yesterday I took the girls over to my friend Teri's house. Teri has a little boy who is about 6 months older than Nicole, and another little boy about 1 month older than Hannah. We had a fun time, and it was good to get out of the house (it's been raining like crazy the past several days. My yard is flooded!).

Anyway, Teri's little boy, Hunter has a dinosaur toy that walks across the floor. It's not very tall...but Nicole had never really seen a dino before. It upset her greatly. She was pretty scared of it. Anyway, later in the morning, the dino had made it's way to the side of the room. Nicole was running around the room being funny, and all of a sudden she stop and screams at the top of her lungs. I look over at her and she had just run by the dinosaur and it had scared her again. She was crying about. But...I was laughing. It was pretty funny. Wish I had a picture.

Also...Nicole is getting better at her alphabet. She recognizes and says lots of letters, but this weekend, she all of a sudden started singing the alphabet song. A, B, C, D,...F, G...O, P...and then it really got random. I was impressed though...I had no idea she could go so far (skipping E). Way to go Nicole! She was pretty proud:-)

Glad to know you missed seeing us:-)

Well...I'm glad to know some of you like reading this blog because I've been getting complaints about me not posting anything recently. Thanks for wanting to read about our family. We have been busy the last several days, which is why I haven't posted anything.

This weekend we went up to the Itchetucknee River in North Florida to go tubing with the college group we help teach at church. We took the girls with us, which was an adventure. Hannah cried most of the way up (she does not like the car) and Nicole had to go pee pee a lot. But, we made it. Nicole was wonderful! She did a great job listening to and following directions. I'm so proud of her. She even got her own big bed in the hotel room and just loved it! The river is spring fed, so it is always about 72 degree....freezing! Jeremy took Nicole with him down the first half of the river. Hannah and I didn't go because it was raining and I didn't want her soaking wet. After lunch, all four of us went. They had floats that were more like mini boat/rafts. So, we didn't have to be wet to float down the river. It was a nice time. We are glad we went. I don't have any pictures because we didn't want to get the camera wet. There were a few water proof cameras going around, but I haven't gotten my hands on any pics.

Our family is back closer to our normal routine, which is nice. I was playing with Nicole last night and took these pictures. She is playing with one of her favorite toys. It's a giant snow globe that sings Christmas music. We were having fun singing Jingle Bells and Silent Night. Thanks Papa:-)