Caterpillar

Timothy's preschool does Scholastic Book Club books. I remember my own childhood--I always got to order some books from the catalog and I loved bringing home the fresh, new books that were mine to keep forever.

I loved looking at Timothy's Scholastic catalog just as much as I did my own so many years ago. The prices are reasonable, the books are good quality, and the classroom earns free books for every book we order. We bought some that we thought were a good deal and might be good for hoomeschooling later on.

When we got them today, Timothy was sooo excited. He didn't even want to go into the hardware store with Daddy--he wanted to stay in the truck and read his books!!

Well, Timothy's been saying a lot lately that he wants to shoot bad guys. We're not too fond of shooting people in this household, so we've been trying to convince him that isn't a good idea (we don't own guns or even toy guns, so I don't know where he got that idea in the first place). He always says "But they're bad!!" and we talk about how people change and someone might be bad for awhile and then God can change their heart.

We were having this conversation on the way home from the store today, and when we were walking up to the house our porch was COVERED with caterpillars. I means hundreds of fuzzy caterpillars were all over our house, our door, etc. Some have now crawled into our house!! Timothy's spent hours watching them crawl around around, careful not to touch them. He told me they eat leaves, they can pupate, and that they'll be a butterfly one day.

As I was putting away our Scholastic books, I realized I bought one called Caterpillar to Butterfly. We sat down and read it (to the caterpillars) and then Timothy looked up at me thoughtfully and said "Mommy, God changes the caterpillar into a butterfly just like He can change a bad person into a good person."

Thank you, God, for this amazing spontaneous teaching opportunity!! I couldn't have planned it better myself!!

Argh, Matey!!

Tonight Timothy and I were playing with legos and generally just messing around. I built a great big wall to keep out pirates (Timothy's on a pirate kick) and then pirates (controlled by Timothy) came knocking at my door.

No, I won't let you in!! You might burn my city!

No I won't. I'm a good pirate.

What's a good pirate? I'm not letting you in, you'll burn my city!

But I won't burn your city. I promise!

A pirate's promise isn't good for anything. How can I be assured you won't burn my city?

Look at me. Search me with your wand. I can go through the metal detector. See? I don't have any lighters!

(Can you tell someone recently went through security at an airport and saw Mommy get the secondary screening??)

Anyway, true to his word, the pirate did not burn my city. What a relief!!

DisneyWorld Trip

There hasn't been an update because we just spent 8 full days in DisneyWorld!! We stayed at the Pop Century resort, went to all four parks, and did tons and tons of character meals.

It was our first time flying. Going down, Timothy had a rough time. He didn't want to take his shoes off when he went through security and had a bit of a meltdown. He did great on the flight, but the first day or two was a bit of an adjustment for him. We weren't at home and things were just "different."

It was an awesome, awesome trip though--I was pregnant and it was so hot and there was a TON of walking involved, but the night before we came back he gave me a kiss and whispered "I'll remember this forever!!" Even if he doesn't, I will. The trip we had when it was just him, before our lives changed forever and we added another little one into the mix. I'm so glad we had this time!!

Not only did he get that personal time with our family, though, but he also got to go my mother and my grandmother. There were four generations of us in DisneyWorld!! I got to see Elizabeth experience the magic for the first time...I just loved it. It was just awesome!!

Every silver lining has its cloud, though. My dad got really sick on Sunday and developed the flu. My grandfather fell and needed stitches in his head. My mother-in-law had a heart attack back at home. Timothy had a day full of diarreah. Yesterday morning David and I both woke up with a stomach bug and spent the morning (and the flight) running to the restroom. This, in turn, caused us both to become dehydrated. The dehydration caused me to start having contractions. So I got off the plane and went to the ER and found out I was having labor symptoms brought on by severe dehydration. I got fluids and the contractions stopped but, as I'm still having diarreah, they've now started again. So I'm desperately trying to rehydrate myself at home so I don't have to wind up back in the hospital. Contractions at 21 weeks? No, thank you.

Well, that's the best update I can give at the moment...ta ta for now!!

Fishing Trip

Today after preschool four generations (three out of four named David) went fishing. I think they all had a great time!! Timothy said they caught fish, and I asked him who caught the largest one. The answer? Nobody. They were all little!!

First Day of Preschool

Today is Timothy's first official day of preschool!!

He was ready this morning. We bought all his supplies last night and picked out his clothes for the day. We labeled his cup and did his homework (which, by the way, took two hours). This morning he was up early ready to go! He went in and told his teacher that he'd have to wash his hands a lot because he doesn't want swine flu. Ha!!

The teacher was holding a parachute and they were going to be putting their letter and shape of the day inside. I can't wait to pick him up and see the fun he had!!

BabyPlus

With Timothy, I faithfully did BabyPlus until the day he was born. Of course, that day happened to be six weeks early and he didn't get to go through all the lessons. Timothy did pretty well, though. They originally thought he would be in NICU for about 6 weeks and he was in less than two, so that might have been a BabyPlus benefit. Who knows!!

Tonight started the first night of BabyPlus for our newest little miracle. This child is very inconsistent--sometimes he/she will kick for awhile in the morning, sometimes I won't feel a thing for days, sometimes he/she will be most active in the evenings. It always depends!! When I strapped on BabyPlus for the first time tonight, he immediately started kicking. It was literally about two minutes and I felt a kick kick kick. I explained to the baby that it was boring in there and he/she could listen to something else twice a day.

I dunno--it's hard to concentrate when I'm constantly hearing a bump bump bump and feeling a kick kick kick. But I think the baby likes it!!

Preschool

I believe that parents can give their child a wonderful education. I believe that learning in the home is meaningful and important and parents are the child's most important teacher. I really, truly believe that we've been giving Timothy a quality education here in our home.

Now, with that being said, we've enrolled Timothy in preschool at our church 2 days a week. Until tonight, we really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Tonight at meet the teacher night, I actually left in tears. I'm so excited about this opportunity for Timothy!!!!

His classroom is awesome--just like a schoolroom but with tons of centers and manipulatives. Bright posters cover the walls and there are tons of bulletin boards to display their craft masterpieces. Timothy will be learning in English and Spanish, too! It's just 6 hours each week, but I love that Timothy will be spending those six hours with a teacher with THREE DEGREES who, most importantly, truly has a love for God and these children. We could tell she was called to do this and we won't hesitate to leave Timothy with her!!

If I could have designed a preschool for Timothy, this is exactly how I would have designed it. I am so excited about his year here and so is he--he didn't want to go home tonight!

The Dallas Zoo

Yesterday I had a prenatal appointment in Dallas (everything is great btw) and we decided to go in early and enjoy the Dallas Zoo. We thought we could talk about animals who live in the water while we were there, tying in perfectly to our WATER lesson this week.

We've been to the Dallas Zoo several times before, but we normally spend our time in the "Wilds of Africa." Actually, we've never really explored the Children's Zoo. This time, we spent our entire time at the Children's Zoo and were most impressed. They have a big stream that the kids can play in and, thanks goodness, we just happened to have Timothy's swimsuit in his backpack with us! What a great tie in to our WATER unit!! He had the BEST time playing there and we were all really, really impressed with it. We vowed to go back before every prenatal appointment.

Our Very Own WaterPark

Bonus: Awana Picture

Our Very Own Waterpark!

Daddy did it, but Mommy said the baby wouldn't quite appreciate that

This week we went over our "W" lesson. It's amazing to see the changes that have taken place over the last three months since we've stopped doing My Father's World!! Timothy retains things so much faster now. We took him to his map and pointed out all the oceans and the land. Timothy got his pointing stick and showed Sonny "This is land, and this is land, and this is water, and this is water too, and this is land, and this is water..." Timothy loves teaching his brother things!!

Timothy's doing great with the first step of Sing Spell Read and Write. He's almost able to sing the entire song by himself now!! He knows the sound that the letters make

and we can ask him questions like "Does floor start with the letter W? Does window start with the letter W?" and he gets it right every time.

We've been having a great time!! Timothy can easily learn, and Timothy enjoys learning--everything was worth it, then, don't you think??

Today we're going to zoo to talk about which animals live in water and which animals live on land. I can't wait!! Afterwards, we'll have a nice lunch and a prenatal appointment.