Presidents and More

With last week being President's Day, we talked about our Presidents, mainly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln with a little of Barack Obama thrown in there. I would also spill out various random facts about other Presidents too but we mainly focused on those.

Well, let me tell you... Barack Obama is a touchy subject in kindergarten (more so than last year!) When I even brought him up, l heard, "He is mean! He wants to kill babies." Or "My mom hates him." It was very interesting because some friends did not have that opinion and stated that their mom liked him so we quickly discussed how everyone has their own opinion and as five and six year olds, we aren't going to get into a fight about it. I am pretty indifferent about it. I mean, I am glad being the President isn't my job! I have a a hard enough time trying to make peace in the classroom, I couldn't imagine doing it for a whole country. My main stance on it is to pray for the President as it must be a tough job to try and lead a nation.

Back to the kids... One friend journaled about Abraham Lincoln. {see a fuzzy picture of a picture below} When I asked him about his journal he said "that's the bad guy (pointing to the guy on the left). He is saying 'ha! ha!' And that's Abraham Lincoln (pointing to the middle) and he said 'ut oh!' And that's me (pointing to the guy on the right) saying 'no! no!'" A side note to his drawing is that last week, I talked to him about speech bubbles. He loves to draw cartoon like pictures so I took the opportunity to teach him how writers use speech bubbles to show people talking. I was a little excited to see he used them again. The next day, he journaled about George Washington being a nice President and being on money and coins.

On another day, this same friend told me a story about his friend. The story started like this...
"My friend Alan died." {which I am sure if he really does have a friend Alan, he would be so glad to know that his 6 year old friend has killed him off}

Of course I said, " oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?" And the rest of the story goes like this...
"He went on vacation to see the dinosaurs. And when he was there, he went to see tyrannosaurus Rex. And when he did, he said "hi dinosaur! [waving]" and the Tyrannosaurus rex slurped him up to inside his head." The end.

A little bit after that story, Mrs. Chambers came to visit our class. For my own curiosity and for a laugh for her, I asked him if he wanted to tell her about the friend. It was the exact same story. He didn't skip a beat with it. Closer to the end of the day, he informed me that another friend, Ryan got slapped in the face by a polar bear tail. I thought, 'man, that guy was awfully close to the polar bear to get slapped in the face by such a short tail!'

Annoying

While our little iPad is handy.... I find it quite annoying at times. Why? Well, let me tell you.

The thing I find most annoying is when I am working on blog posts. Obviously, it is not the easiest to type on and when I want to scoot back something and try to fix, I can never click in just the right spot. I usually end up in the row or two above where I am trying to get. At that point I would love an arrow key to just be able to click down there, fix it, and click back to where I left off. But No. There is no arrow. My phone has a button that also works as a cursor. So... get with it Apple! Let's change that little button and make it multi functional!

Auto correct is a little annoying too. It is on my phone also so it isn't completely an iPad thing. But really, how do you get 'auto hitter' when trying to type 'another'??? There have been worse case scenarios, hence www.damnyouautocorrect.com, which can be quite hilarious! And, if you can auto correct, why can't you do grammar? I mean Word can do it on the computer so it must not be too hard. Then you would know that 'auto hitter' just doesn't make sense.

There is also not a back button. You know when you are on a screen but you just want to go back once. I always press the 'home' button and get taken totally out of everything. Annoying.

I'm sure there are a lot more things that I just can't think of right now.

However... there is a plus. We like to Skype from the iPad! It is so much easier to let Kinley sit on the floor of the living room and chat with her family than try to sit with her at the computer. She is more enjoyable and people can see her being her instead of being held.

So, all in all, it was a good, go at the last minute, Black Friday purchase!

7 months

You were six months and 11 days old when we spent our first night apart. I went out of town to visit a school in Missouri. I sure was glad to get back home and see you!

When we play, you have started noticing your toys more. For example, the puppy house Santa brought you... You get a big grin on your face when it finishes 'talking' to you.

For a while now, you have been doing the cutest thing with your pacifier. While sucking on it, you put your thumb inside, like you are sucking your thumb too. Right now, I think it is so precious though some day I may not. I'm sure my parents felt the same way about my thumb sucking but I turned out okay!

You are still a champion sleeper although you move like crazy during the night. We start you at one end of the crib and in the morning you have scooted yourself to the other end facing a whole new direction, usually sideways but sometimes it's like your head is at the 'foot' of the bed. However you do it, you still manage to be mostly swaddled up in your blanket. Right now, we are still keeping you up until 10:30 and you are still a smiley little thing when you are woken up around 6:45 or 7:00. I know some day we are going to have to put you the bed earlier but we love spending time with you be it playing or snuggling.

You are still eating 6 ounces every four hours and usually having some rice cereal in the evenings. If your Mom and Dad would actually go shopping, instead of just picking up a few things here and there to make it through a meal, maybe they would buy some baby food and venture into it but we just haven't actually made it to the store lately. {we have since done this and ventured into the baby food era with squash.} When we pair food with milk, you get less milk but you don't seem to mind. Food is food and it all fills your little belly. Although we started food, we have also stopped. Little bumpies appeared so we quit food to see if it was caused from that since it is the only thing that changed. Once they go away, we will start over.

In regards to clothing, you are wearing mostly six and some of the bigger three month clothes... though your Dad will still squeeze you into some of the smaller shirts. The pants are starting to get a little short though. Size 2 diapers are still your cup of tea too.

You spent your first Valentines Day at home with Dad. Baby Ruth had to go out of town for a funeral and we struck out twice on finding someone else to watch you. We really had to twist his arm too. Ha! He was even sweet enough to bring you on a lunch date to school. You met all of my kindergarten friends who were so excited to finally see you. They even asked where Tobie was. I decided that should be a Dad tradition...to take Valentines Day off to spend with his little Valentine and a lunch date with his Wifey Valentine. Then, when you're in school, he can come have lunch with us (assuming you go to school where I teach). Sounds like a plan!

Sunday the 17th was quite delightful so we had another Family Funday! After church, we shopped a little in Tulsa then came home and headed to the park. Tobie enjoyed the walk and you enjoyed swinging much more this time!

Family Friday

{this has been sitting as a draft since October... Fail for me. It needed to be posted so I could reference it in Kinley's 7 month update, which is coming very soon! And might I add that she has gotten so big!}

My last Friday before returning to work was October 19th. I was able to talk Preston into taking the day off so we could enjoy it as a family before I started back to school and Kinley started daycare. We did lots together! After getting around in the morning, we ran a few errands and had lunch. We returned home to relax a little and pick up Tobie so we could head back to the park.

After the park, we went back home and loaded up the car to go to Stillwater for America's Greatest Homecoming Celebration! We met Courtney, Tiffany and their Chris's and walked around looking at all the house decs.

What a Pike/Phi Mu baby looks like

You can see a whole video of homecoming on youtube too. We are at the 1:55 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kXcI1lrw80 

While in town, I was dead set on having cheese fries from Eskimo Joe's. We went there but the wait was 3 hours! While waiting we shopped at 'The Endzone' next door. Preston decided to stay outside with Kinley and the stroller while I went in looking for a shirt for Claire. I followed these 2 girls in and overheard, "Um, ok. I hope that baby's mom is shopping in here. If not, I'll take it home." I almost said, "that baby's mom is behind you and no you can't take her home." I just kept my mouth shut instead. Inside this store is where Kinley met her first celebrity, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist wrestler, Coleman Scott.

That really concludes the adventures of Family Friday. It was so nice to have the day just for our little family since life as we knew it was going to be changing come Monday morning. One perk about my job is all of the breaks throughout the year.

A little taste...

...of squash

By Kinley

On Valentine's Day I had my first taste of baby food. The choices were squash and peas. We went for squash and I gobbled it up! Here I am on the second night showing you that I know how this spoon thing works.

Mole and the Baby Bird

While the title may lead you to believe we had excitement in our backyard... It's just that, a title, of a book in my reading curriculum.

We read the book about little Mole that finds a baby bird. He keeps calling the bird his pet while Mama Mole says it's not a pet but a wild animal. Mole feeds Baby Bird and builds a cage, not wanting to believe it is wild animal. Mama Mole calls in reinforcement. Grandpa takes Mole out to a hill to see other birds flying free and help Mole understand that his bird is a bird, not a pet. So they go home and release home. Later Mole is playing and Bird is flying around nearby. The end.

After reading the book, we talked about how the bird felt being trapped in a cage, what finally made Mole change hide mind ,etc. For the kids, I used them as an example. They always love to find nature the playground, whether it is a rock, leaf, flower, ladybug, roly poly or worse...an acorn that later spouts out the little creatures that have been munching on it inside the shell!, and try to bring it in with them. We then talked about our rule of leaving nature outside and how it fit with this story.

While doing this, a sweet little friend raises his hand. He starts telling the me and the class how he used to have a pet caterpillar. He found him outside, took him around with him and loved him. So much. "Then one day, he got yost. I couldn't find him anywhere." As he continued his story, I see he is getting sad. Then he just buries his little face into his hands and his story was over because he was so sad. It was precious...and funny.

I had to be quick n my feet with my response so I said, "do you know why you probably never found your caterpillar?"
Kid: No, why Mrs. Snow?
Me: why happens to caterpillars as they grow?
I got various answers... They grow! They get squished! And then the answer I was hoping for... They turn into butterflies!
Me: you're right! They turn into butterflies so you probably never found the caterpillar because he changed into a butterfly so you didn't recognize him.

At that thought, my little friend dried his eyes up and then forgot all about his "pet caterpillar".

To my little Snowflake

{I started this a few weeks before Kinley's arrival...}

In the coming weeks, life is going to make a drastic change. A change for the good.

Kinley,
I prayed for you before I ever knew you. I prayed for you ever since I found out there was a little you inside of me! It is hard to believe that in a short amount of time you will be making your debut. I will continue to pray that you are a happy and healthy little girl.

I am so excited to meet you! I am excited to see your little face. I can't wait for you to meet all the people that have loved you since the day they found out about you. Don't be scared of them... they have always been that excited about you.

{...And wrote a little more after Kinley was born...}
Now that you are here, people are not going to be interested in much besides pictures of your precious little self. As you grow, I will include stories of you and milestones you reach. I pray that your your Daddy and I will help you grow into a wonderful child of God. That you will live your life full of happiness and joy. Help you learn right from wrong. Encourage you to be an individual. Love with all your heart. 

I just hold you and think how amazing it is that you grew inside of me. I feel so happy to be your Mommy and know that your Daddy will move mountains to make sure you are happy.

{...Now that she is 10 weeks old, I guess I should wrap it up.}
Every day that I wake up and see your sweet smile I just want to scoop you right up and snuggle you to pieces. 

the first dreaming smile i caught on the camera

the first 'just woke up' smile (9 weeks) i caught on the camera

10 weeks grin when she woke up 

I look forward to seeing your precious self grow up... but not too fast. If I could put you in a box and keep you little and snuggly I probably would. Since I can't, know that as you grow your Mommy and Daddy will always look after, protect, and pray for you. You are a little blessing in our life. 

You are all because two people fell in love.

Love you my little Snowflake!

**And now that you are six months old, I can assure you that the love we felt at 10 weeks is only bigger and deeper now! Who knew you could fall more in love? You are such a joy to us.Your precious little smile is something I want to remember forever. I just want to record every part of your life so I never forget it, or so that it seems like you will never get too big. Could you imagine having hours and hours and hours of your life to look back and watch. Talk about a load of cuteness! I love to see the little ways you change now and can't, but also can, wait to see you crawling, walking, running, and talking. Just take your time. I'll always be here.