Writing and Drawing

I've been meaning to post some of the writing Kent has done so far in Kindergarten. I think I have written before that writing is not Kent's favorite thing to do, but he has been getting better. Once he started learning to read, it kinda clicked and although I still don't think he enjoys writing, he does enjoy trying to spell. Here is one of my very favorite things he brought home from the first half of the year. He made a monster and then had to write about it.

In case you can't read his writing, it says (I edited):

My monster has sharp hair.

My moster is happy.

My monster has a long nose.

I was pretty impressed with the spelling!

Kent still really enjoys drawing and markers are his favorite media. You can tell this by looking at my kitchen table. Have I told you that I hate markers? Pretty much detest them. Those are strong words from an art teacher, I know. Regardless of my feelings, Kent does not share them. Here is a photo of a portrait of Sunshine Bear done in marker. I think it is so adorable. He's pretty good with the details. 

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family. Pete's mom and step father came in from Maryland and his step brother came in from Los Angeles. We had a great time visiting with them and the boys loved their three seperate Christmas celebrations.

Our first stop was Pete's dad and step mother's house. The boys had a blast playing with all their cousins and trying to share all their presents. If you need a gift to get a child from the ages of 4-8ish a gift, I would suggest this Crayola Activity Center. It's a dry erase board with different templates that you can switch out and write, draw and play games on. All the kids loved it and it was definitely a hit. The markers even magically work when you find one that has had the lid off for hours. Thanks Aunt Monica!

Here's a group shot of everyone. Pete's dad, step mother Linda, sister Monica and her two boys Evan and Elijah and step sister Misty and her kids Cici and Chasen. You can see how much Chasen was enjoying the picture taking!

I told you Kent loved that Crayola thing. See how it had to be in every photo!

The next day we had Christmas morning at our house with Pete's mom Maria, stepdad Will and step brother Jonah. It seems we only took pictures during their stay on Christmas morning. The only good photos I have of everyone are pre coffee and no makeup. So, you will get to see more shots of the boys. Sorry everyone!

Here are our boys in front of our tree eagerly waited for for the go ahead to start opening stuff. Kent was about to go crazy! On a side note, Kent did not like the spiral things that I put all over the tree. He thought it looked messy. Pete thought it looked like a mechanical tree that broke with the springs popping out all over. I was going for whimsical...

Kent and Pete were super excited about all of the GI Joes that Kent received. I was not excited about all of the mini accessories that they come with. Pretty sure that they got mixed up with the wrapping paper during the big clean up. Oh well, real men don't need accessories, right? The snow that started falling Christmas morning was just beautiful. It was a wonderful reminder of the the real miracle of Christmas- Christ's birth. We had a wonderful, warm day full of family and blessings.

My parents and sister Barbara came over the Monday after Christmas after they came back from Illinois. Kent and Cohen were very excited to open their pillow pets. They had fun playing with them all day.

Merry Christmas!

Not Much Longer

This photo says so much. You can tell I took it quickly because it's such a horrible photo. Every mom has had moments like this. Something happens and you wonder if you have time to grab your camera to document it. I look at this picture now and think, poor Cohen! Why did your crazy mommy not get your down immediately? Why did she have to go get the camera? I will say that he wasn't crying and he has tried to climb into his crib like this at least three more times.

So, here's the story. Cohen was playing in his room and Kent and I were in the kitchen. I was just thinking that I hadn't heard from Cohen in a few minutes. There's a certain time period that you will allow to go by before your start to seek out your child because it has been too quiet for too long and nothing good can come of that. It was just about that time. Kent and I heard a noise. It wasn't a yell or a whine or even a cry, but we could tell that Cohen was not happy. We both ran back to see what Cohen could be so frustrated about and the picture shows what we found. Cohen was trying to get a stuffed animal out of his crib that was just beyond his reach. Now, you need to know that Cohen is pretty fearless. He is not scared of heights like Kent or myself and he definitely likes to do things all by himself. If his feet had not slipped through the slats of his crib and gotten stuck, I have no doubt that he would have made it into his crib. Kent and I busted out laughing when we saw Cohen stuck like this; it was just so unexpected. Cohen laughed too, which is why I ran for my camera. By the time I got back there was no more laughing. Cohen was not too pleased that I left or that I was now trying to make him smile for a picture. Definitely a crazy mommy moment. After one blurry photo, I came to my senses and rescued Cohen. He apparently was not too traumatized as he did this several other times that week. His poor feet got stuck like this every time.

We had already planned to put the boys together in the same room this year. This just gives us a good reason to get that plan rolling!

Photo Flashback

This photo was taken in June 2008. Elizabeth is 9+ months pregnant and Meredith and I are almost 7 months pregnant. Kent saw this picture and pointed out me and Mrs. Elizabeth and Mrs. Meredith. I told him that there was something different about us and asked him what we all had in common in this photo. His reply, "I don't know, you all have straight hair?"

Mom, can we pleeeease be Jewish????



Kent is obsessed with all things Hanukkah. I think he has been learning a little about all of the different holidays that people celebrate at school. He is very interested in why we aren't Jewish and was EXTREMELY disappointed to find that we do not have a menorah. One of his friends at school is Jewish and I think Kent is learning quite a lot from him.

It is pretty difficult trying to communicate the differences in Judaism and Christianity to a five year old. All the Santa business swirled in makes it all the more challenging. I don't think I remember even questioning any of this when I was little. Kent, however, has many questions:

"Mommy, why can't we just celebrate the lights? I want to celebrate the lights!"

"Everyone is supposed to have a menorah. Can't we just get one? I saw one at Target."

"Aren't we supposed to get presents every night?"

"Mommy, are you sure we aren't Jewish? Can you check?"

"The one thing I want most for Christmas is a dreidel. Can I please have a dreidel mommy?"

I have tried to tell him that people that are Jewish do not believe in Jesus the same way we do. They don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He seemed to accept that. I also mentioned that people who are Jewish are from a place named Israel. He understood that pretty well saying, "Oh, ok. We are from Georgia, not Israel." ;) I think part of the problem is that we don't really have any set Christmas traditions in our family. One of my friends at school said to get an Advent wreath and then tell Kent that instead of eight crazy nights we would celebrate four crazy weeks! All kidding aside, I feel that we do need to celebrate the season of Christ's birth as we head towards Christmas so it will be more meaningful for the boys. The hard part is that I usually have NOTHING ready for Christmas until we get out of school. That's right, many years I have not even started decorating until a few days before Christmas! I'm actually procrastinating with entering grades right now to write this.

So what sort of traditions do you celebrate with your family? How do you show the meaning of Christmas to your children?

Kent will be getting that dreidel after all. I was telling one of my friends who is Jewish about all of this and he went home and found a dreidel for Kent. He and his kids actually spun all of theirs to find one that was weighted the best for Kent (so sweet). He explained the meaning of all the Hebrew letters on the sides and how to play the game to me. I think I learned this a long time ago, but forgot. It really is a shame how little Christians know about Judaism! I didn't even bother to tell Kent that Jesus was Jewish. Talk about confusing! We'll just save that bit of info for next year! So Kent will get his dreidel after all. I plan on putting it in his stocking (pretty twisted, I know.)

Black Friday Shopping with Cohen

Mom and I went out for just a little while after Thanksgiving. We'll just say that Cohen was feeling very relaxed while I visited HomeGoods for the first time. This was probably a good thing as I don't think I would ever want to accompany an awake and mobile toddler in that store!

More than one man expressed their desire to trade places with Cohen.

Kent's Thanksgiving Play

Kent is having a great time in Kindergarten. He really likes his teachers, PE and computer class. Art is fun too, but it might just not be his very favorite class...unimaginable, I know! I'm still shaking my head. I think his very favorite subject is math and his reading is going very well too.

While Kent's scholastic progress is going relatively smoothly, we have definitely had some behavior surprises. Kent, it turns out, is quite the rule follower (not unlike his mother, by the way- I mean what are rules for if not to be followed? Hello!). He is such a rule follower that he really gets upset if someone else does not follow the rules. I mean REALLY upset. It might just be a control thing (quite unlike his mother. Definitely unlike his mother!) When Kent sees someone else not doing what the teacher says, he has no problem going right over to that individual and taking matters right into his own hands. Most of our conversations go a little like this, please note-names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

"Kent, why did you push/pinch/yell at Stephen?"

"Well...the teacher told him to go line up and he didn't go line up."

"And you thought that it was ok to push/pinch/yell at Stephen for not lining up?"

"Well...I was just trying to make him line up!"

Pete and I were very surprised when this happened the first (and second, and third) time, because he has never acted like this at church or with his friends. And teachers' kids are supposed to be the most well behaved, right? Apparently, it wasn't as terrible as I originally thought it was and his teacher assures me that Kindergarten is all about learning those social boundaries.

One of my favorite days this year so far was seeing Kent and about 100 other Kindergartners in their Thanksgiving play. All six kindergarten classes at Kent's school got together to perform a bunch of turkey and thankfulness themed songs. We didn't get a photo of all six classes together as Kent was in the back row and we kept trying to get close up photos of him. Here is a photo of Kent with his class.

Kent was a Pilgrim Man and as you can see, the other students were Pilgrim Women, Indian Men and Women, Turkeys and Corn. All I can tell you is that it was all just too cute. One of the students read a long poem and every time she would name one of the costumes the kids would say something. When she said Pilgrim Men then all the boys dressed as that would say, "Bang Bang!" The cutest was when she would say Pilgrim Women and the little girls would put their hands on their faces like they were shocked and they would all say, "Mercy Me!" ADORABLE.

My mom came to see the play too! Cohen was mildly interested.

  

Blane from Pretty in Pink was also there!

And here he is, the CUTEST pilgrim ever!!!!

Cohen these days.

I wanted to post a little update on our youngest little guy. Cohen has really gotten big since he turned two; he is three feet tall and almost thirty pounds! With personality to spare, Cohen always keeps us laughing. My mom says he has quite the temper, (which he does), but he's just so cute- how can I get mad?
 
One of Cohen's favorite things to do is drag out ALL of our shoes out of the closet as he tries each pair on and walks in them around the house...for hours. He loves shoes, but hates socks. I cannot keep socks on the kid- he really doesn't even like footy pajamas. He says that he wants to see his toes. Maybe he thinks they will disapear? Here he is in his many jaunts around the house in our shoes.

Cohen had a great time at his little birthday party. I say little because I was so stressed that we had a family only party and it was quite little, which was just fine. Cohen loves whatever his brother loves, so this year it is all Toy Story. Cohen carries Kent's Woody doll around everywhere. I think Kent realized how much his brother likes Toy Story so he wrote Cohen's name on the bottom of one of Woody's boots and put his name on the bottom of the other boot. Woody is VERY well loved.

Cohen blew out his candles so quickly and efficiently, we all missed it and had to re-light them and have him do it again! Of course neither of my boys had any birthday cake, no matter how much I tried to convince them sugary things taste good!

Cohen is also pretty sneaky. He is always up to something. Last weekend we were cleaning out the boys closets and put all the bubbles and chalk next to the basement door to take downstairs. I should have known that leaving these things there would be a bad idea as Cohen is known for taking things and moving them around the house. You can't find your keys? Check Cohen's pelican toy in his room, it could be in there. Or, maybe in Cohen's shoe in his closet, or under his booster seat in the kitchen. He is a master hider. I was actually thinking about Cohen and his sneaky ways when I realized he had been kinda quiet for a while. Any mom knows that silence is a recipe for disaster if you have kids. Just as I was going back to his room to see what he could have gotten into, I heard the hall bathroom door close. When I tried the doorknob, it was locked. Good thing I put that little key they give you when you replace your doorknobs in a safe place. I had that door opened in no time and this is what I found...

Sneaky Cohen had taken ALL the bubbles and chalk and set it up in the bathroom and shut and LOCKED the door. I can only imagine the mess I might have found if I hadn't known exactly where that little key was!

Cohen's all time favorite accessory is his paci. He loves his paci and ONLY his paci. Of course the pacifier he likes is discontinued and cannot be found anywhere anymore. His little friend Annie gave him her pink one in this brand since she never liked it and has her own favorite brand (which is also discontinued, by the way). Of course, the pink one is his favorite. Here you can see just how much he loves his nu-nu. (He came up with that himself. It was one of his first words and when we corrected him saying paci, he replied "no, my nu-nu!"

Cohen is also growing a head full of curly hair. Well maybe not a head full, but some curls in the back. He does have much lighter hair than Kent as well. Hopefully all those curls will come back after his first haircut.

Can you resist those eyes and cheeks!?! I can't!

Happy Halloween!

It was really hard to get a good picture of the boys in their costumes. Here's what I got. Woody and Superman wish you a fun Halloween!

We headed over to church for the annual Fall Festival. The boys had a great time. One of the first things we did was go on a hayride. Pete decided at the last minute that he had to go put Cohen's bag in the car. He made it back just in time to snap this picture. Apparently, something very interesting was happening off camera that I didn't know about... Pete decided there wasn't enough room for him and sat the hayride out. I don't think he minded too much.

We played games, jumped in the jumpies, ate snowcones and saw old friends. Many of the friends we hadn't seen in a while did not recognize Pete with his lock flowing locks. He has grown his hair out quite a bit. I'm now referring to him as Goldilocks and I encourage everyone to embrace this new nickname.

Cohen loved his snowcone, and mine, and Pete's. He did not love me trying to take pictures of his cute moustache. This is the best one I got.

Here is Kent with another one of his superfriends. They had fun posing together and were pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

Pete kept trying to get Kent to pose like Superman with his hands on his hips and looking off in the distance. He did it, but my camera snapped a little late. You know, that irritating delay that happens with digital cameras. His eyes were blinking, but you get the idea.

We hope you all have a Super Halloween, full of treats and no tricks. Just candy and definitely no snakes in your boot!

Drat!

Well, I've talked before about the crazy weather we have been having lately. This week was very strange. Lots and lots of rain after being dry for soooo long. Not only wet, but also HOT and muggy. I think it got  to 80 one or two days and there was one evening I was out around 10 pm and it was still in the mid 70's. Yuck-o. Especially yuck-o for our pumpkin family. This is what they looked like just a few days later!!!

A very mushy and hairy pumpkin family.

Carving Pumpkins

After the pumpkin patch, we immediately came home and carved our pumpkins. Pete and I chose "different" pumpkins. Pete said he wanted a multicultural pumpkin family. This was the first year that we carved pumpkins in I don't know how long. Definitely the first year for Kent. He absolutely loved it, of course. Here he is lifting the lid off his pumpkin.

The inside of my pumpkin was kind of a surprise. It was pale yellow inside and very spongy. Not slimy at all.



With the inside of my pumpkin being kind of a surprise. We all tried to guess what Pete's pumpkin would look like inside. His pumpkin was a dark, dull green on the outside...

But, when we opened it, it was bright orange inside! The rind was also really thick.

Pete carved his pumpkin as well as Kent's and the cat's. I carved my pumpkin and Cohen's pumpkin. Here is a blurry camera phone shot of our lovely pumpkin family. Top Row- Laura and Kent, Bottom Row- Pete, Patches (cat) and Cohen.

Pumpkins

Here are some of the photos from this year's pumpkin patch expedition. I saw two of the cutest scarecrows ever.

Cohen was enjoying all the little pumpkins. He said he was counting them, but all he kept saying was nine, nine, nine. We'll have to work on that some more. On second thought, maybe he is just speaking German. I mean, he says no all the time and I kept telling him to look at the camera.

Lining them up. Still saying nine, nine, nine, still refusing to look at the camera. You be the judge.

Here is Kent before we told him he could only have one pumpkin.

Here is Cohen after he found out about the one pumpkin rule. Why am I smiling when Cohen has the tears going? I guess I must be a mean momma...or ready for the photo op.

Pete took this photo that I love. I do wish Pete was in some of these. He was there!

Where are we, who am I and what are we doing???

It was a lovely weekend in Georgia. Pete and I have been traveling so much lately (for us) it was really nice to enjoy a quiet weekend at home. I'm extremely behind with posting in general, but especially behind with our travel posts. I mean I haven't even finished with the Europe trip and we've been to Arkansas, Washington DC and New Orleans since then. YIKES! I guess it will all happen soon enough. That's what I keep telling myself anyway...back to this weekend. On Saturday, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. It was a beautiful day here, but it would be a lie to say that I didn't wish it was a tad cooler. I'm just saying, I am done with 80 degree weather, at least for a long while. Ask me again when I'm shivering in January, daydreaming about the heat, heat, heat of a Georgia summer day. Fantasizing about the feeling when you get in your car and the hot air just hits you like a wall and your leather seats are burning you through your clothes. I know, the memory is only good in the dead of winter and the reality is definitley not good at the end of October people!!!

Do you ever feel like everything going on in life just leaves your head spinning? Well, I have decided that I don't like that feeling and from now on I will be still and just let the world spin around me. I have had a pretty introspective couple of months and all that thinking just might make its way into written form here from time to time. I hope you all don't mind. The changes in season always make me want to make changes in my life. I like writing very much and plan on making use of that hobby because when it comes down to it, I need a hobby! Something I like to do things that are fun and do not involve working or cleaning or folding. Now this is hard for me, because I am known to work all evening and then stay up into the wee hours cleaning just to get things done. It took me a while, but I've realized that that is not fun and I don't really want to do that anymore. I want to have more fun.

I know only three of you will probably respond, but what are your hobbies? What do you make time to do for yourself, to keep yourself sane in your crazy, faster than lightening paced life? Let me know and I hope to be seeing you on a more regular basis.

Marriage

Kent is very concerned about marriage. He asks who he is going to marry all the time. The conversation usually starts out with questions about why he can't marry his brother.

"Mom, are you SURE I can't marry Cohen?"

"Yes honey, I am very sure you can't marry Cohen"

Then he discusses who he might marry. Sometimes he thinks it will be his friend Abby. Sometimes he thinks it will be his other friend Lauren. He told Pete this morning, "(Sigh) there's just so many girls to choose from!" He cracks me up! I keep assuring him that he really doesn't need to decide this now, but he keeps asking me when, WHEN. So, today I gave him a deadline. I let him know that people do not decide who they are going to marry till they are in college. That stopped the questions for a few minutes. Then he responded, "Mommy, if I marry Lauren, then she will have to leave her family and move in with us." I let him know that he would probably move out when he gets married, because married people like to live in their own houses. He completely freaked out saying, "Mommy, I don't EVER want to move out of our house!

I hope he always feels this way! I told him that he could live with me as long as he wanted it was all smiles again.

First Day of School

Thursday was Kent and my first day of school! I love the beginning of school. While many parents dread this day, I love the first day of school. I guess that is good since I have been going to a school every single year of my life since I started preschool. Seriously. I love the structure of school, a set schedule, new supplies, rules that are followed, lunch at the same time everyday...made for me, even! Someone else even cleans my room each afternoon. Don't get me wrong, my love of the beginning of school does wane some, somewhere around faculty meetings, grading piles of work, morning detentions, computing data... you get the picture.

I have been so excited for Kent to start school. Of course he has too. Every day this summer he asked if it was time to go to his new school. All he talks about are all the science projects that he wants to do. When Thursday finally came, we all woke up early for the big day, got ready and loaded ALL of our bags into the car. Pete and Kent headed out to his school and Cohen and I followed behind. We were all there to walk him to class and say goodbye. His teacher even emailed us halfway through the day to let us know how great of a day he was having. In the afternoon, Kent rode the bus home to my Mom's house where Pete and Mom were waiting for him at the bus stop. Pete said he was so excited to ride the bus and he had a huge smile on his face. We still haven't been able to get too many details from him about how school is going. He says he likes it, has not done any science projects yet, but the bus is great! If I try to ask anything too specific, he just responds with, "I don't remember!" We all love his teacher so far and the school nurse says that he has a big smile on his face every time she sees him. He even asked why we couln't go to school today, which is Saturday. Hopefully he will feel the same in ten years when he's fifteen!?!

A great day all around!