Still Here

Sorry that I have been a bad blogger these days. Days just have a way of getting by me and before I know it, it has been weeks. Since we have been back, I have been getting ready for the new baby, having guests, working with J doing "school." I seem to have gotten J's cold and it isn't being very nice to me right now. All I really want to do is sleep but I can't - too much to do. My craft projects are put on hold  for awhile except for making sheets for the baby crib.

One thing I have been trying to be consistent on is doing "school" with J. We are learning about farms and numbers. We are using a preschool curriculum called Winter Promise and so far, we are having fun with it. We are reading many books about the farm, learning about who lives on a farm, how farms give us food. We are practicing writing and learning our numbers and we have played some farm games on the computer to help us learn how to move a mouse. Here are some of our pics for our farm unit, so far.

Here J is matching counters with numbers. This is a homemade version of a Montessori one that I saw on the Internet.

This is something new that I brought back from America, it is a magnetic board with logic style puzzles using magnetic shapes. The one we are using is based on objects or animals found on a farm. She has to match up the shapes on the pictures. The beginning ones are easy and they get progressively harder as you go.

We are learning about how farms give us food this week and one way is eggs from chickens. Since we are plenty far away from a farm, I made some "eggs" from ping pong balls which I numbered 1-12 (for a later math game) and I put some water in a plastic container. We put the eggs in the water, after counting them of course, and then J had to fish them out using tongs. This activity helps with fine motor skills and hand-eye skills. She had fun putting them back in and fishing them out again, several times.

Again, working with eggs and hand-eye coordination, we balanced a plastic egg on a spoon and had to walk around the room. I placed one of her plastic animals in it to give the egg some weight in case it dropped. This was to show her how an egg would crack open if dropped on the ground. We started with a large spoon and worked our way down to a smaller spoon.

Baby update - I am all most 37 weeks (this Friday to be exact) and I went to the doctor last week. The baby is doing good and he is the correct position. According to the ultrasound, he is measuring a week larger than he should at the moment. I had a good discussion with my doctor and I am hoping that this delivery will be good. I was able to tell her what I was expecting and what I wanted to do (natural birth, circumcision) and she seemed okay with my requests. We will see. Here, in this country, circumcision is done when the child is older (around 9 or 10) and it isn't usually done by a doctor. They have a big party and parade the child around in a white suit, so everyone knows (except the child) what is going to happen. The doctors will do it here after the birth if the child is healthy. So we are shooting for that option. We were also able to find out that the hospital will bill the insurance so we don't have to pay out of pocket for the birth. We will have to pay for the circumcision and then bill the insurance. We were alittle worried about that, so finding that out was a relief. DH was supposed to go on a middle school retreat the weekend before my due date but he has decided that it was too close. Just in case I go into labor early, he will be here. (I was alittle worried about that so I am glad that he decided to stay home.) J reminds me daily how big my stomach is getting and is constantly telling me to pull my shirt down - ha ha. She is having fun playing with all of the baby toys and is anxiously awaiting her baby brother so she can teach him things. And a special thanks to my family and friends, Kaleb will be well outfitted. He has just about everything he needs at the moment. Thank you, thank you.