January 2017

2017 is off to a running start!

We spent the first few days of the month in Ponca City helping Charlie's parents move into their new house, and then soon afterwards Charlie left for a conference in San Antonio for a few days.  While he was gone, central Oklahoma had some snow flurries!  Some friends invited us to go sledding with them - so we gave it a try!  Bruce LOVED it and had so much fun!  Abby stayed in the car almost the whole time and just cried.  I think she was just too cold, and too tired.  Maybe next time.  Charlie and I quietly celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary at home with root beer floats, but have plans to go out to dinner one of these nights when the planets align in our favor!

the pic doesn't do it justice, but it was a pretty decent hill!

Abbs did come out of the car for a hot chocolate break!

We went to the OKC Science Museum every weekend this month!  The first Saturday I brought the kids up to the city for a free event at another nearby museum, but the activity only lasted a short while, and the kid's portion of the museum was closed that day because the sidewalks that led to that building were too iced over still - so we popped over to the science museum for the rest of the day.  The next weekend we were in the city for a Lego store event, and decided to extend our trip by visiting the museum again!  The following Saturday was another Lego club meeting, and my mom and Rick were in town and we thought they'd enjoy the museum, too - why not?  And then this past weekend, I brought the kids for our weekly field trip - specifically to see the planetarium show (and then stay for the rest of the day, haha)

the kaleidoscope room!

Bruce waiting for the planetarium show to start!

Bruce getting fussed at for not staying with the group during the stage show... eek!

Abby taking Grandma for a ride on her favorite carousel!  

showing Papa and Grandma the train room!

Papa and Bruce - twinkies ready for space

Yvonne met up with us that day too, to visit the Science Museum and go to the Home and Garden Show!

enjoying movie night with Papa and Grandma!

Bruce sharing his build with Taylor - our favorite "Brick Specialist"

love these goobers

In addition to attending the planetarium show, we also took field trips this month to a WWII submarine and aquarium in Tulsa, and the Train Museum in OKC.  We made some changes at the start of this semester to the way we "do school" - and I think it's been really helpful.  Mainly, we get our morning started earlier, and stay pretty scheduled until lunch time.  The assessments I gave Bruce right before Christmas showed that he hadn't met some of the goals he *should have* met for mid-year, so I've also added a few more planned activities to our extremely loose curriculum to hopefully boost him in those areas.  Although he's well beyond his years in some areas of academics, he's still struggling some with letter and number recognition - so I'm thinking these changes will balance things out a bit more.

 

I wonder how popular Clown fish were before Nemo?

I want a pet otter!  They are so adorable!

the shark tunnel was so cool!  (But not migraine-friendly)

Charlie was able to link up with us at the aquarium because he had a meeting in Tulsa the same day!

Don't worry - we still make a lot of room for playing!  Some of our neighbors still come over once a week to play in the afternoons, we've had a couple of lunch dates with some library friends, and we've started back up with keeping a friend's almost-three-year-old in the morning a couple of times a month.  We also are beginning to get more involved with the home school group in Norman and are becoming more familiar with some of the "regulars" in that group.  And then there's Chick-fil-a.  We have a standing Tuesday night dinner date there with some friends.  And even when they can't come, Bruce and Abby have no trouble making friends with the other kids in the play area.  Just this afternoon Bruce and Abby spent probably 30 minutes talking through the fence to our neighbor's kids - so I have a feeling there might be a budding friendship there, too - and maybe more playdates!

the caterpillar Charlie found in September finally hatched from its cocoon!

 

having never witnessed this before, when it came out like this, I assumed something went wrong during metamorphosis...

but then its wings started growing!!!  It was amazing!

and then it hung on this stick to let its wings dry!  

If I had to pick one phrase to describe Bruce in this season - it would be "mass producer."  No matter what he's working with - the boy just makes and makes and makes and makes - more stuff.  If he's working with Legos, you better believe he's got no less than 15 new models to display at the end of the day.  If he's in a clay mood - he can sculpt away 10 pounds of clay creations in 30 minutes.  And look out if he feels like being crafty...  The other morning I finally had to talk to him about conserving materials and supplies when he blew through 20 pages of paper in an hour - and asked for more...  It's hard, because to tell him that he's being wasteful implies that there's no value to what he's creating, but at some point - there has to be some level of respect for the amount of consumables he's consuming!  It's definitely about the process for him - he's learning how to use new tools - like the stapler and hole puncher - and use them in conjunction with other tools and supplies, to create interesting stuff.  But unfortunately, he gets really attached to all of his creations, which is causing another problem - what do we do with all of this????  It's hard to throw it away, because he's got such a good memory that he's always asking me where certain "pieces" are, and he surely doesn't view any of it as trash - but it just.keeps.accumulating!  And it's not like we can just make a neat stack of papers in a small box - or really even "take pictures" of it like so many de-cluttering blogs tell you to do - because everything is three-dimensional with straws and wire and yarn and pipe cleaners and rubber bands and tin foil and... you name it, he's probably figured out a way to staple that sucker on to something.  It's all fascinating, it really is.  But it's too much!

anyone want a care package?

he's been really interested in robots lately - here's one he's been designing with Charlie

my free spirit

If I had to pick one phrase to describe Abby in this season - it would be "tiny tyrant."  I love that girl.  I love that girl.  I love that girl.  But wowza!  These past few months have been hard!  Generally speaking, she is an amazing, perfect girl.  The best.  Really.  But she is really dealing with a lot of big emotions in that tiny body!  The bossiness and stubbornness and selfishness that rear their ugly heads frequently these days wears me out.  But we're working on it - one tantrum at a time.  And I just keep telling myself this is only temporary, and soon her body will adjust to not taking naps, and her brain will mature a bit, and all will be well.  And in the meantime, I'm just trying to enjoy when the real Abby shines though, and listen to all the great stories she tells while she's reading through her book piles, and the narratives she goes back and forth with when she's playing with her toys - and most of all - soaking up all her sparkly-eyed smiles she still gives out all the time.

Abbs was sick earlier in the month - this is Bruce rubbing her legs to make her feel better...  My heart is exploding!

We've been enjoying an "off" week of school this week, and Charlie has been working out of Louisiana the past few days - so we're closing out the month in a lazy-just-barely-holding-onto-our-sanity sort of way, but we're looking forward to all the things that are already starting to jumble onto February's calendar!