Reading

P1 loves reading books. His favorites are the Zoomer books which are written and illustrated by my uncle! P1 is good at remembering the words, and can help you read them. I'm pretty sure I have those books memorized.

P1 has also shown a lot of interest in learning the alphabet. He can sing the ABC song, and can recognize most letters. He loves to point out "M" for Mom, "D" for Dad, the letter that his name starts with, and the letter that P2's name starts with. We also use "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" for most of the other letters. "P" for Peter Pan, "J" for Jake, "H" for Hook, etc. During breakfast, P1 loves to find the letters on the cereal boxes, or the milk jugs. I have decided though that different fonts and lowercase letters make it a bit harder for kids to learn though!

Valentine's Day

 One of our friends invited us over for a Valentine's lunch play date on Friday. We were excited to go, but then our truck died on Thursday. I told my friend that we probably wouldn't be able to make it because we didn't have a vehicle. So my amazing friends worked it out so that one of them would watch all the kids while the other mom drove up the hill to pick us up for the play date. We really have been blessed with some great friends! It was a very fun play date. I think there were 8 moms and 13 kids running around. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut out into hearts, and yummy cupcakes. We ate and played outside thanks to the crazy warm February weather we've been having.

For Valentine's, P1 helped me make heart pancakes for breakfast!

PE brought home flowers and a treat for me (and for P1). He chose the orange for P1. Oh, and he fixed the truck for me! Fortunately, it was just the starter that needed to be replaced.

We had a relaxing Valentine's day. We went to the pet store, picked up the truck (which had been abandoned at Smith's), and got a treat at Arctic Circle. We got ice cream, and P1 refused to eat his. And he kept asking for chicken nuggets (even though we had already eaten lunch). So we caved and got an order of chicken nuggets. What kind of kid refuses ice cream???

My 3 Valentines:

  

For dinner, we did our traditional Stouffer's lasagna for dinner. We enjoyed our double date with the kids!

Sunday Thought

This scripture was shared in church today. I've never really paid attention to the first part about the corn of wheat before, but today it really stuck out to me.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."

John 12:24-25 

If we live just for ourselves, we will only be a corn of wheat. But if we give of ourselves, if we "die" by giving our life to others, we will bring forth much fruit.

What an important principle to understand, especially with respect to motherhood. As mothers, we are constantly giving our lives to our children. Some days we may feel like we are dying, like we have nothing left to give. But what wonderful, joyous fruit we have in our posterity. It is hard, but it is so worth it!

The Lego Store

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." 

Proverbs 22:6

Well, we've trained up P1 to love Legos. He got his first set for his first birthday, and he has really grown to love them. We took him to the Lego store twice this month, and he loved it! He loved digging through the Legos and building little things. Another mom and I were joking how we each had a "big kid" somewhere in the store, while we were watching the little kids in the play area.

P1 loves to play with his Duplos, but he gets really excited when he gets to play with Dad's Legos. He is very good about not playing with them unless Dad is home to help. It's fun to play Legos with P1 and see his imagination at work (or play!).

Oh, and now he thinks whenever we go to the Lego store, we have to get french fries and chicken nuggets after. Because that's what we did the first time, so of course, it must be what we do every time!

Pals

P1 and P2 (or is it Thing 1 and Thing 2?) are good pals. P1 has some trouble sharing toys with friends, but he is actually really good at sharing with his sister. And she loves to play with his toys, and be near him. I love that they get along so well, and I love that P1 is gentle enough that I never really worry about them playing together. It's nice to have them entertain each other!

Going for P1's toys!

Giving P2 a cool hat:

 

Reaching for toys!

P1 likes to play with the laundry basket, and the other day he asked me to put P2 in with him. They had a lot of fun together!

They had so much fun that the next day P1 wanted to do it again!

 

7 Months

This little girl is already 7 months old, crazy! She is sitting up like a pro, and can roll around/squirm to try and get what she wants. She loves to stand up, but wants you to hold her up. She is a good eater, and does well with all the different types of baby food. She is still on formula and can sometimes feed herself with the bottle.

I'll probably jinx it, but she has been sleeping through the night for about a week now! It has been heavenly! We put her to bed around 8:30 pm, and she will often sleep until 7:30 am. Sometimes she'll get up at 5:30 am, but will go back to sleep after a bottle. This is definitely something I could get used to! Now we're just debating whether or not to move her into P1's room.

She usually takes a short nap in the morning, and a long one in the afternoon when P1 is napping. Also heavenly!

P2 is getting pretty feisty though. She is a very determined young lady. She is not easily distracted from what she wants. For example, she loves P1's Duplos and is always fussing and trying to get to them. You can give her a bunch of other toys to distract her, but it usually doesn't work. She is only happy once she gets to those Legos. Fortunately, P1 is pretty good at sharing with her.

P2 also loves her mommy. She usually cries when I walk away from her. It's nice to be loved though. 

I go back and forth between calling her an easy-going baby and a fussy baby. She really is pretty happy and easy-going, but if she doesn't get what she wants she will definitely let you know!

She loves to snuggle with her blankie and suck her thumb.

 

Walking with Dinosaurs

For my dad's birthday, we went and saw "Walking with Dinosaurs." We left the kids home though, we felt they were a little too young. P1 likes looking at the pictures and videos I took though. The dinosaurs looked very impressive. The pictures and videos don't do it justice.