A Mother's Daybook - September 7th

Planning and Preparing - Tot school. I originally said I was just going to let Jonah play but it turns out, he won't. Not while Lucy and I do school; he sits next to me and asks me to do things with him. So far, I've held him off by writing letters or shapes on his dry erase board and asking for him to circle only the letter J, or color the squares blue or other things like that but I can't think up that much on the fly. So I'm pulling out the Joyful Learning stuff Lucy and I did two years ago. I won't use all the activities, just the ones we liked last time along with a few printables to keep him occupied next to me. And I pick my own books because hers are a bit twaddley for me and I have enough favorite books and authors that I can easily come up with my own. But I think we'll all enjoy it.

Since apple picking with some friends was on the agenda for this week already, we did an apple theme. We made some apple suncatchers and a big batch of green apple playdough, sang the Johnny appleseed song approximately 20 times and are reading our way through some apple pictures books. Jonah did a little apple sort where he put apples in order from biggest to smallest while Lucy had her 10-15 minutes of table work to do. It worked well.

Suncatchers made from coffee filters. I used this to build off of our "Artists Look" art lesson from the week before. I asked them what color an apple was and they both dutifully replied "red!" but then we got one and actually looked and they noticed some lighter green areas and some yellow and even some tiny brown dots. Then we got out our markers and used red, yellow and green markers for the crafty part. I love having their seasonal art in my windows. It's what I call preschool chic.  

Pondering - How awesome it is to watch kid's learning. We tend to go through playdough playing spurts and I love watching the big jumps that occur after we've taken a break. Last month I had to roll our areas for Jonah so he could use the cookie cutters over and over again while Lucy made simple sculptures. Then they didn't want to play with it for a couples week (or maybe I  slightly discouraged it because I was so tired of having to sit there and help Jonah) but this week, we got it out again and Lucy's started making really intricate things like flying dragons with teeth and Jonah's taken off by himself and much more elaborate pretending - trays of cookies, a jar filled with worms, etc. It's so much fun watching them grow! (Especially when I can now sit back and watch).

Reading - My last classic for the classic challenge. I certainly didn't leave an easy one for the one. I knew Kristin Lavransdatter was long but this thing is over 1000 pages! And it's on ILL so I don't have a ton of time. Which is good because the baby is coming whether I finish it or not so I'd better get a move on. So far, it's a bit annoying. Well written but annoying. I just don't like watching people make bad decisions. But then, no bad decisions would probably lead to a boring plot line so I suppose I'd better just adjust my expectations.

Watching - Too much children's programming. Craig just got back from a 10 day trip and I was so tired (see below) by mid-afternoon each day that I defaulted to shows or movies. We tried watching Snow White but Jonah thought it was too scary (although he loved the songs and now goes around singing "Hi Ho Hi Ho, we go off to work" - and yes, I've tried correcting him) so it was mostly octonauts which isn't even of the quality I would like. I don't feel bad about that because we were in survival mode but once Craig returned and our regular screen-free life resumed, I was a bit worried about the fall out. The first day was rough with them asking all evening. But today Jonah asked and before I even answered, Lucy said "no, it's not a special occasion" and then informed me that "some people tend to watch tv but we are people that tend to play instead" and it made me laugh. Yes, let's be people that tend to play.

Eating/Drinking - All the things with Iron. Still struggling with my iron levels. In fact, they seem to have gone down in the last week. I've got a more accurate test coming up and have added even more iron supplements and iron rich food to my diet and am praying that helps. But I basically feel like all I'm doing all day long is eating or drinking Iron. If you want to join me in praying, I'd appreciate it. I'm trying not to be discouraged but honestly, I feel like its just been one battle after another with this pregnancy. But the end is near! And parenting just gets easier once they come out, right? Haha, I've got a toddler. I know the truth. But still, I wouldn't trade it.