We've Been Here a Month

It is hard to believe that we’ve been here one month already.  I think homesickness has kicked in a little harder this week, because the boys were really missing their grandparents as well as their friends.  It’s been made tougher because we haven’t found a church home yet with which to get connected.  Hopefully Josiah’s homeschool group will provide some much needed connections with other families. 

The first church we visited, we liked a lot, but they have a few things doctrinally that we disagree with and so we continue to look.  However, in the meantime the boys are going to their Wednesday night program called “Music & More.”  The kids get to play different instruments as well as sing, do sign language, etc.  It sounded fun.  When I told Josiah about it and how he may get to pick an instrument, his eyes lit up and he said, “I want to play the tuba.”  I think he is going to be the smallest tuba player known to man because he deeply desires to play it.  They did enjoy it, though, and Josiah got to play the maracas while Henry’s group sang. 

We tried another church today, but weren’t crazy about it either.  However, they did have a huge and really cool indoor playground.  It was probably one of the coolest playgrounds I’ve seen and they have weekly hours on it, so we can go during the week, too.  (The church was HUGE to have this sort of thing.)  If they had an adult size version I’d definitely play in it.  The boys had a ton of fun. 

Josiah did want to start school on Monday because the other kids in his Sunday School class were starting Monday.  I hadn't planned on starting until Friday with our CC group, so I came up with a few things to do this week.  One was a science experiment that I saw on facebook, but it was still neat.  I had the boys guess what would happen (Josiah guessed correctly) and draw their observations.

The experiment was supposed to take 30 minutes, but we used big glasses and thick paper towels, so ours took a good 6 hours.  Live and learn.

My love for Starbucks doesn’t go unnoticed with the kids.  As Henry was getting dressed in his pj’s the other night, he came and told me he had on Starbucks underwear.  Yeah, it was Star Wars. 

Caroline is hilarious because her favorite thing to do this week is walk around wearing the Mr. Potato Head glasses.

She has also gotten very good at playing with the big legos.  She gets super frustrated with it at times, but still loves them.  I’m not so sure she’ll get the chance to be a girly girl with two big brothers.  She is also a champion teeth-brusher.  She comes into our bathroom several times a day and points to her toothbrush.  She LOVES to brush.  Actually, she loves to chew on her toothbrush because that’s what she does.

Looking at herself in the mirror.

This week, Josiah and Henry have been watching Busy Town on a station called Qubo.  So, all week they’ve been pretending to be the characters.  Our family has turned into Daddy Cat, Mommy Cat, Huckle (H), Lowly Worm (J), and Sally Baby (C).  I don’t mind the Busy Town show, but I can’t stand the Qubo channel because it has real commercials on it (unlike PBS).  They have a commercial for a product called “Snackers” which is a cup with a straw, with a bowl type thing on top of the cup so you can drink and eat at the same time.  Well, we were getting into the car the other day and Josiah asked to have a snack for the car.  I told him I didn’t have anything for this car ride and he informed me that we needed to get the Snackers so they could drink and eat in the car AND (he informs me), if it drops it won’t spill (just like they say in the commercial).  He also wants to make t-shirts because they have a commercial selling those.

Well, this week we are doing homeschool every day - it's getting real!  Hopefully we'll have good things to report by this time next week.  :)

Josiah's First Day of Kindergarten & CC

On Friday Josiah had his first day of kindergarten with our Classical Conversations (CC) homeschool group.  His class has 7 boys and one girl.  (The girl has 3 brothers, though, so she does just fine.)  He has a great tutor, Mrs. Walker, who introduces the material that we parents are supposed to teach them during the rest of the week.  She does grammar, science, history, geography, Latin, a little math, and the first 6 week she covers fine arts.  She did a science experiment – can drawings appear to move?  She introduced the scientific method (hypothesis, procedure, results, etc.)   The kids had two pieces of paper – one taped on top of the other and by sliding the first paper up and down quickly, the drawing appeared to be winking at them (like drawing a cartoon).  They do some sort of experiment each week and as they get older they obviously get more sophisticated (like dissecting things).  In fine arts, Josiah learned the 5 elements of drawing (circles, dots, lines, angles, and curved lines).  After they went through each element, they turned their papers over and she had the kids each spin the wheel and then they had to draw whatever element was picked.  All the kids drew what they were supposed to.  Josiah drew what he was supposed to, but instead of just having a row of lines/dots/shapes, he made his into a dinosaur.  So the dots were eyes, the curved lines were the body, the angles were the spikes on its back, etc.  Our artist.  He really enjoyed it. 

All the children have to give a presentation each week as well.  For his age it is usually a show-and-tell type presentation.  However, they do stand in front of the class and at the end they say, “Thank you for listening to my presentation. Any questions?”  The listeners have to listen quietly and ask real questions.  We had practiced what he would say at home all week.  He would say his name, age, and some things that he likes (pizza, drawing, etc.).  His name gets called and he jumps up, reaches into Henry’s backpack, and pulls out a plane from Planes.  He gets up there and talks all about Lead Bottom the Plane.  Not a bit of what we practiced.  He talked super soft at first and didn’t make much eye contact, but then he got better as it went on and by the time the kids asked him some questions at the end, he answered with a normal voice and normal eye contact.  They start doing the presentations now and do this all the way through high school so they get comfortable standing in front of people, talking, making eye contact, answering questions, etc.  The listeners learn to sit quietly, listen, and ask good questions.  At this age, they ask a lot of “Where did you get that?” so they can go get the toy themselves.  After school (9am-12pm) we all eat lunch together and then they have an outdoor playground that they enjoyed.  We meet at a Methodist church in Missouri City, TX (a neighboring city).  Henry and Caroline did well in the nursery.  So it was a success. 

At school a couple of the moms commented on how cute Josiah was with his presentation.  I think sometimes he gets away with “cute” because he is so little.  On Saturday alone, we had two people (completely separately) ask us if he was 3 years old.  So, to look like he’s 3, he acts super smart to others. 
As you can see, he got less enthusiastic to take pictures as they go on.  He kept telling me he was tired of holding the "silly sign."  

The Week Before School Starts

Our week did not start off on a happy note. We were all to go to HBU for their family Back to School picnic on Monday evening. However, the boys were just not behaving (and not just a little bit) and we couldn't justify bringing them after our Monday of not listening. Needless to say the boys were not too happy. After continuous not listening, hitting each other, pushing each other, running around the house, etc., I had them write up "I am sorry for my behavior." Henry was allowed to trace over my dotted line letters to write his, and he signed his own name. Josiah had to copy it from a paper where I had written it out. Henry did as assigned. Josiah decided to add to his. His first copy had a frowny face with "No Mommy" on it. When I told him he would have to do it again (with a better attitude) he tried to make the frowny face into a smile. No such luck. So he wrote it out again and then immediately drew a picture of me which he titled "the baddest Mommy ever." That'll bless your heart. :) At least he gave me pearls.

Since they lost TV/iPad/Computer for most of the week, Josiah did more crafts. He made a Raphael turtle puppet totally on his own. It was quite impressive. He's yet to use it. I think he just likes to make things sometimes. He also commissioned me to make him an Uncle Wiggily outfit. He has been wearing that all week long and it comes with a fake British accent. One night, Josiah went to bed before Henry and Henry immediately put the outfit on and kept calling me Ms. Jane (Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper) all night. We need to make him his own costumes!

Saturday morning we made the mistake of allowing the boys to be awake unsupervised. :) Josiah wakes up so early and we are so tired! He and Henry made Todd and I breakfast. They got hamburger buns, spread mustard on them, put sliced turkey on it, and topped it with Greek yogurt "frosting." My stomach turned just looking at it, but Todd won father of the year and cut it in half and ate it. I pretended to when Josiah was out of the room and threw pieces away bit by bit. They each ate a few bites of their sandwiches and then the trashcan got the rest. Josiah tried to do it again this morning. I came up to the table with Josiah getting the mayo, mustard, and rolls out. I quickly stopped it and got him a bowl of Cheerios.

Since we're finally mostly unpacked, as well as starting a new school year, we instituted new chores for the boys. They rotate weeks, but one will run the dustbuster after every meal, while the other puts the silverware away from the dishwasher as well as sets the table for dinner. They started off the week doing their jobs with enthusiasm, but after a couple days, they wanted to do each other's job. Good thing they'll get the chance to do that tomorrow. :)

Saturday morning Todd took the boys to see the new Disney Planes: Fire & Rescue movie. It was Henry's first movie theater movie and he said they both did really well. Henry got up and walked around a bit, but also sat and ate a bunch of popcorn. Now, of course, Josiah wants to buy all the figurines.

This past Tuesday, we had our orientation for our Classical Conversations homeschool group. The group had 12 families registered that night (but I think more just joined), so that is a good size. We have mostly younger kids, so Josiah's class has 7 children - 6 boys and 1 girl. They meet on Fridays from 9am-1pm. Everyone eats lunch together to foster relationships between parents and kids. They also take field trips together which is something we're definitely looking forward to doing. I'll write more on that after he starts this Friday.

And so Caroline gets some face time, too... Her latest this week is that she's learned how to shake her head "no." Unfortunately, she has confused shaking her head and nodding her head. She has been shaking her head "no" for everything, so it's been a week of training her to shake AND nod. I can always ask her if she wants her blanket (which is always "yes") as a test if she's understanding the whole shake and nod thing. She also has figured out how to open door handles which has made for some quick baby-proofing. She gets in our bathroom all the time and wants to brush her teeth. Ever since she knocked her teeth out and the dentist gave her a toothbrush, she's been a brushing champion.

She also loves to make a frowny face, then a happy face, frowny face, happy face. She tries to get you do it with her. Henry used to do the same thing when he was little. She's a cutie.


This coming week should be an exciting week with school starting. I've been working on developing a schedule to get in all the material for both Josiah and Henry. Henry's going to work on writing his letters, counting, and a little activity book based on children's books to read.

And I couldn't resist another picture. This is the boys trying to look mean and then nice/funny.


And one more of Caroline. I hope this isn't the look she gives us when she turns 15.

TMNT



This has been of week of things breaking around the house and LOTS of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I'm not sure where the fascination with TMNT started because the boys have never seen any movie or TV show with them in it.  They do have two books, but we've never actually read them.  They do play with the figurines, and I suppose all the things they have them do are made up in their heads.  Ever since we got our craft paper back, Josiah has been into making Turtle costumes.  First it was Michelangelo (orange) and then today it was Donatello (purple) I think because he found a "staff" to use like Donatello. Check out his fingers in the Michelangelo photo - we had to do individual finger things out of paper. 

Donatello

Michelangelo



He has also drawn some amazing drawings of the turtles. 

Michelangelo

Raphael

And when we went out to buy some lunch boxes for the boys for school next week, they both picked out TMNT.  It's hard to say what Henry would pick out if Josiah were not there because he always does what Josiah does.  He is such an admiring little brother. 

As for the things breaking.  First it was a piece of plaster off the wall (which we fixed), then it was a door stopper fell off (I think the movers must have loosened that), and then the boys tossed things from top bunk to the floor and back up again and in the process broke their overhead light/glass cover.  That was a scary sound to hear glass shatter knowing I hadn't put anything made of glass in their room.  So we are hoping for an upcoming week with nothing breaking!

Josiah starts school on the 29th (I think we said it was this week on the phone to a few people, but we had it wrong).  We have an orientation Tuesday night where we'll meet his tutor and hopefully get a better idea of how the group here works. 


And another funny Henry story.  We've been to Sugar Land Baptist Church for 3 Sundays now.  Henry's teacher has told us every time how smart he is and how well he does puzzles and on and on.  We thought we had a child genius on our hands (although he is crazy good at puzzles) and then she said, "When does he turn 3?" Yeah, he's 3 1/2.  He's in a 2 year old class until next week when they do "Promotion Sunday" which is when all the kids move up to the next class so he'll be in the 3 year old class.  However, since all the kids are moving up next week, he should be in a class of his peers.  So really, he is brilliant.  The church here does "Promotion & Pancakes" so all the little kid classes move to their new room and then have a pancake party. 


Henry took a cute picture of Caroline. 

Other than that, we've spent the week unpacking and we're nearly done!

Our Home

First of all I have no idea why the spacing between paragraphs & pictures is so huge.  I can't seem to fix it though.
Our furniture arrived on Thursday, so we have been busy getting the house in order and doing a ton of laundry.  I've never been so happy to do laundry in all my life. 








So, many have asked how we like the new house/neighborhood/city, so I thought I'd answer it here.
Our House:

From the outside it screams 1970.  From the inside, it quietly yells 1970.  :)  We really liked that it is a 4 bedroom and we had grand plans of making the 4th bedroom a guest bedroom.  However, we also did not want to unpack all of our boxes since we are only going to be here for a year.  So here is our 4th bedroom. 

Most of these boxes are not going to be unpacked.  And I have more in the house to add to this room.  So now we need a sleeper sofa!

The boys really like that their beds are now made into bunk beds.  Josiah gets the top, of course, which he loves.  Henry does fine on the bottom, but says he needs a flashlight because it is so "dark" under there.  They do go to bed while it is still light out, so the need for a flashlight is more for playing than soothing to sleep.  We used to put Josiah to bed 30 minutes before Henry, but now they go to bed at the same time and I've noticed they talk a lot more.  Mostly they do their "Where's Waldo?" books, which I don't mind because they're quiet and eventually will go to sleep on their own.  The biggest thing is getting them to not wrestle on the beds.  We often find red splotches on their faces/chests/backs/arms due to "friendly" wrestling. 

It is a nice neighborhood/area.  All the yards are very well maintained as is ours since the landlord told Todd we had to "shape" our bushes, not just trim them.  The driveway has been my nemesis.  It is long and slightly curved and at the end of it is a fire hydrant.  Todd thinks I'm going to hit the fire hydrant every time I back out.  I used to think I was a decent driver until this driveway.  I always hit the bushes on the side and have to go forward, back up, go forward, back up.  It's embarrassing really. 

We took a walk the other day just down our block and up the next because the boys wanted to ride their bikes.  Let me tell you, taking a walk at 1pm in Texas in August is not a wise move.  It didn't feel like an oppressive heat, but we were soaked in sweat by the time we got home.  Henry incurred another injury.  We were walking from one block to the next and there was a little hill that I saw up ahead.  He was pedaling his tricycle close to the top so I yelled out, "Henry! Stop! Freeze!"  Henry is 3 and Henry didn't stop.  He went flying down the hill, over the curb, into the street in front of a parked car.  Fortunately it is a quiet neighborhood and no one was driving nearby.  He will now tell stories of the mountain of a hill that he flew down and injured himself.  He'll show you where he bloodied up his elbow.  He says he thought it would bleed for the rest of his life, but it's not bleeding anymore.  (Mind you, it's a scrape, not a full blown cut.)  When we talk of taking a walk again he is insistent that we do not go near the hill.  And I will say, this was not a big hill by any stretch.  This area of Texas is flat.  And in a few years they'll love to ride their bikes down it. 


Sugar Land the city is very nice.  It has a ton of shady trees along many of the streets that are very pretty.  They sort of remind me of Savannah.  It has a lot of small local restaurants/take-outs.  There is a big Asian population where we are so there are a lot of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese places that we want to try.  There are also tons of ice cream shops and donut shops.  We've enjoyed Shipley's do-nuts this weekend.  Plus it has a Costco, so any city that has a Costco is pretty good for us. 

Caroline is talking more and more.  She now says "ball" (a lot more, too, since we bought her a big one).  She also says "I-yah" for Josiah.  We can't tell if she is calling Henry anything yet, but she probably is because those two just love each other.  They are always hugging and talking to each other.  Every time she wakes up from her nap, Henry will ask me to put her down if I'm carrying her so that he can play with her.  It is super cute.  He is also very good at telling her the rules of the house.  If she is doing something that is not allowed, he'll say, "Ca-wo-wine, you can't do that. You already broke your front teeth and you don't want to break any more." 

Our Cross-Country Trip

So, the movers came last Monday.  4 big guys and one smaller guy who were very nice and seemed to do a really good job.  I guess the ultimate test is when we unload and see how everything made it across the country.  :)  I don't think I've ever been called "ma'am" so much in my life.  "Ma'am, is this piece going?" "Ma'am, do you want us to pack this up?" "Ma'am, are you satisfied with the job?" The day went much easier also since Grandad and Nana watched all the kids while Grandma stayed with me and kept running out for errands (especially lunch!).

Day 1 - Caroline did not sleep the night before (at all it seemed) so she did great in the car - 2 solid naps.  The boys did well, too, because they finally got to play with all the toys that we'd been saving for the car ride.  One stop in Wilson, NC to eat only since we couldn't find a "play place." We stopped again in Sumpter, SC looking for a play place.  We found one at McDonald's but Henry grabbed the door to open it for everyone (at the McDonald's) and was stung by a wasp that was on the handle.  I saw it on the handle and tried to tell him to "wait! stop!," but he is 3 and not quick to listen.  The poor kid cried a lot and loudly, but ice (and ice cream) seemed to help and by the time we got back in the car he was all better, although a little swollen on his hand.  No play time, though, since the play area was outside and I didn't know if there were more wasps lurking near it.  Our church Yorktown, VA has a playground that is always locked up because the wasps seem to claim it first every year. We stopped in Augusta, GA for the night. 473 miles down.

My Co-Pilot

Henry's hand on ice

Day 2 - Caroline didn't sleep last night either so she slept in the car again.  Although I don't enjoy the staying up all night, it is nice that she sleeps in the car.  We left the hotel in the morning and drive to get gas.  We drive the 5 minutes to the gas station at which time Josiah asks if we can find a hotel and check into it.  Aaah, no.  The boys were content because we had a few new toys that we hadn't opened the day before so they played with them.  Today we stopped at two play places - a Chick-fil-a in Fairburn, GA and a McDonald's in Greenville, Alabama. As gross as I think they are, the kids had fun playing.  The boys make friends wherever they go and the McDonald's was no different.  There was a little boy, Ryder, that the kids played with although Josiah kept calling him "Slider."  Caroline loved climbing to the top and playing at the top of each play place.  So I got to climb to the top of each and bring her down.  That's always fun to see the inside of these things and see how much they really do need to be cleaned.  We made it to a La Quinta Inn in Mobile, Alabama for the night. That proved bad for Henry...  Another 480 miles completed.

Day 3 - Caroline finally slept all night.  We take the elevator down to our continental breakfast and as the elevator doors open, there stands a man with a dog.  Apparently La Quinta Inns are VERY pet friendly, especially dogs, and especially this particular location.  Henry sees the dog (smaller than himself) and starts to freak out.  He exits the elevator, runs in circles, flailing about and runs head first into a chair rail which leaves a dent (and now a big bruise) in his forehead.  The poor kid is so scared of dogs and we're not sure why.  He settles down and has a nice big breakfast.  Back on the road.  I'm not as "friendly" to pass the kids things today since I've been saying for the past two days....all day long...."put your toys back in your backpacks when you're done so you can reach them the next time you want to play with them."  Both boys had empty backpacks of course.  We stopped at another play place in Lafayette, LA (I again climbed up to retrieve Caroline), crossed a bunch of bridges in Louisiana, crossed the Mississippi River which was neat and finally made it to Texas.  The second we cross the border, Josiah asks, "Where are the cowboys and horses?" He wakes up Henry, tells him we are in Texas, and Henry asks, "Where are the cowboys, and the horses, and the little cows they catch?"  We still had another 2 hours (at least) to go, but Josiah asked at least 500x "Are we in Sugar Land yet?" That was fun.  Caroline was getting fussy and I knew she was getting hungry but I was at the point of just wanting to get there, so we pushed through.  I handed a Costco-size bag of Veggie Straws to Henry to give to Caroline and she was good to go for a couple hundred miles.  Henry would reach over to get some from the bag and she would yell at him, so he started opening his mouth and she would put one in it, but that's all he got - one at a time. We made it through Houston (VERY big city!) and got to our new house at 4:30pm and had to wait for Todd to get home from work.      1419 miles.

Welcome to Texas

Since we've been here, we've driven around to see some of the town. On Saturday we walked to a park in the neighborhood and upon seeing a dog, Josiah says he wants to get a dog when he's grown-up.  A big one.  To which Henry responds that HE wants a bigger dog than Josiah.  We asked him how he would take care of it since he's scared of dogs and he says he's going to get a dog that doesn't have any teeth so it can't bite him.

Sunday we went to church at Sugar Land Baptist Church.  I was concerned that the kids wouldn't go in the nursery very easily since it is a new place.  We drop them all off in their separate rooms, no one cries, each goes in nicely.  We go to pick them up and they all did well.  Caroline didn't even want to come home with us because she was playing with a ball (like a beach ball) and just kept saying "ball" and throwing it around.  We do not have shy kids.

And here we are, Monday again. Now we are just waiting on our furniture which should hopefully arrive mid-week.

Our everything table - dining, play, etc.  Can't wait for a bigger one soon!

Henry playing in his "house"