Letter A Week

J has been begging to learn her letters. I wasn't planning on teaching her the letters until later in the year but she wanted to learn them so bad, that I figured I would encourage her enthusiasm. We are starting at the beginning of the alphabet and working our way through to z. One thing that has helped is the learning DVD from Leap Frog about letter sounds. She has enjoyed watching that and it has helped to teach her some of the letters and their corresponding sounds. Our first week and letter was A. We learned about alligators and how close they lived to Josh. We learned about ants and apples and airplanes.

We are still learning about the farm and we made hand print sheep that we glued cotton balls to and added to our mural. You can see one of the sheep above J's head. Also, if you haven't noticed, J is fascinated with the color pink.

We stamped alligators and letter A's on a letter a.

We made a letter a with some fun foam puzzle pieces that I made.

We matched apple number cards to apple seed cards to review our numbers and counting.

We traced the letter a using wikki stix. These were new to her so we played with them for awhile. We also made an ant using the stix. You can reuse these over and over.

 We made ants from egg cartons and read about ant cities. We read The Ant and the Elephant by Bill Peet about an elephant who helps everyone in the forest and no one will help him - except the ant.

We made simple apples from squares of fabric, stuffing, and green pipe cleaners. No sewing, we just gathered and tied. We then used the apples for silly apple rhymes.

We played a silly game of trying to get the apples in the basket blindfolded. She thought this was fun as long as I didn't turn her around! We had fun this week for the letter A. It is definitely alot of work but she has enjoyed learning all about it. Next week is the letter b, she has already told me what our letter is and we had borrowed some books for it. She is excited and is always begging to do "school" even on the weekends!

What was baby Kaleb doing while we were in school? He was sleeping in the bassinet. We try to do "school" while he is taking a nap. We succeed most of the time but it turns out, Kaleb isn't on a schedule so sometimes school is in the morning or after lunch. We are flexible.

A Nice Surprise

Friday, DH arrived home with these pumpkins. It was a nice surprise for us. They may look like ordinary pumpkins to you but to us, they are a reminder of autumn in America. You see, we don't have pumpkins that look like this. Our pumpkins may taste like pumpkins but they definitely do not look like the ones we are used to seeing around town. These pumpkins were grown by a lady who brought the seeds back from America to raise money for the boy scouts here. We don't have the fall festivities that you may enjoy here. Gone are the hay rides, decorating pumpkins, picking apples, apple cider - anything that reminds you of fall. You think you wouldn't miss that but you do. So this is alittle piece of America for J, she will get to decorate the pumpkins. We will probably cut it open and count the seeds, scoop out the inside and maybe even cook it for pumpkin pie. (We don't have canned pumpkin for pies either) What a nice surprise-thanks DH.

What we did this week

Well, most of us......

Mama J

Having a new baby in the house definitely takes some adjustment. My main concern was for J and how she would react to a little one taking the attention away from her. She has been a big help for me. She wants to help change diapers, feed him, wash him, hold him. She is always checking on him to make sure he is all right and, if he makes the slightest sound, she comes running to me to tell me the baby is crying. Now, I am not saying that we haven't had any problems but J is a trouper and she loves her brother. I am constantly telling her how much I love her and how good she is at being a big sister. It is still an adjustment but we are working on the transition. I love it. Yes, having a new baby means little sleep but it is worth it. We are all enjoying our new addition.

A New Adventure

We have several family sayings in our house that have quickly become somewhat of "family mottos."  One of them is "Let's go on an adventure," which is really just saying "let's go out our front door." Living here, everyday seems to be an adventure, some more than others. Our DD Keke cringes when she hears that because she know something interesting is going to happen. It could be good, bad, or frustrating but it seems like it is life here in T. Well, we had an adventure once again.

Sunday, October 3rd, I was skyping my DS who is in college. We were video chatting and during our conversation, we had a mild earthquake. I believe it was a 4.4 on the scale but it was scary enough and my son got to experience it with us via our web cam. Everything shook in the house, I all most thought I was dreaming. It didn't last long but even though, I don't think I want to experience that again. I hope and pray that I won't.  That was adventure number one....of the week.

On to adventure number two....at about 4:40 a.m. Monday morning, I began to feel uncomfortable pains. I wouldn't call them contractions but maybe cramps. It was enough that it woke me up and I stayed up for awhile, waiting for them to either increase or go away. I had this happen the other day and all I got was 1 cm dilated, so I wasn't taking any chances. Well, they stayed the same so I woke up Scott and told him that he should be prepared because I thought we would have the baby today. But I wanted to rest alittle and I went back to sleep about 6 a.m.

After an hour, I decided to get up because they weren't getting any better. I wasn't timing them so I couldn't tell you how close they were. We started to get ready to go to the hospital. We made some phone calls, arranged a babysitter for J, called the insurance to tell them we thought it was going to be today, I took a shower, DH took a shower, I got J ready. The pains started to get closer and it was DH that made that observation. He began to run around, trying to get the bags, and I am telling him not to worry, that we have plenty of time.

We get in the car and take J to the babysitter and begin our journey to the hospital. We live in a major city and, well, traffic decided to be extremely congested. And I say, extremely congested. We got stuck in traffic at least 3 times going to the hospital. In the beginning, it was fine and I was doing okay. DH was weaving in and out as the contractions decided to get even closer together. He began to pray as I began to cry that I wasn't going to make it. Then the "oh no" my water broke. That totally concerned me.

DH was praying and I was begging him to stop the car and deliver the baby. He kept telling me that it wasn't far and it was going to be fine. "Hold it in.!!" he kept saying, "hold it in!!" Like I could do that. I laid down in the back of the car, as he ran a red light trying to get us there. I was still begging him to deliver the baby. He pulled up to the ER and started beeping the horn yelling "Hadi, hadi..." which is "hurry" in Turkish. A whole crew came out with a stretcher and they had to pull me out of the car. I couldn't move, the contractions were too close together and I truly expected to deliver this baby right where I was - the backseat of the car.

We were rushed through the ER (apparently they have a parking service for those who come to the hospital in emergencies) and, in less than 15 minutes of arrival, baby Kaleb made his appearance. I will have to say this was the fastest birth I ever had. The funny thing was that I was joking with Scott about having this baby in the car and I was not too far off. If it was up to me, I would have. It was the hardest thing to do, not to push. But it was Scott who wouldn't let me and he kept praying that we would make it. He said he felt this overwhelming peace come over him, telling him that we would make it. Unknowing to us, at that time, Keke was praying with her teacher and classmates in her class while we were struggling in the car.

It was an adventure, to say the least. And now, we have a new member of the family to share in all of our adventures. It should be fun - he has already been inducted into the family with his own adventure - his birth. We will have this story to tell for ages - an earthquake and a baby. Wow, what's next? I shouldn't ask that, should I?

By the way, in another post, I explained that I don't have 8 pound babies....well, Kaleb was a whopping 9 pounds 2 oz. All most born in the car....over nine pounds....wow. I still can't believe he was that big. He is a sweetie and he fits nicely in his newborn clothes and diapers, I wonder for how long though. I just wanted to share, enjoy the pics. Love ya guys.

Farm Week 4

No matter how uncomfortable I have been or how swollen my feet and legs are, I still have been doing "school" with J. She loves it and it gives her some different activities to do during the day. She is always asking to do "school" and I don't want her to lose that. One thing we have done this week is clean one room each day. She has been a big help in doing that. She helps me dust the furniture and sweep. She tries to mop but it it just too big for her right now. I put on some music and we work through a room as quickly as possible. Today, we will be cleaning the bathroom and she has already told me she wants to clean the sink and toilet.

We are still learning about the farm. This week is learning and reading about all of the different animals that live on a farm. Here are some of the activities we have done.

This is our farm mural that we have been adding to each week. So far, we have made farmer J, the barn, tractor, a blue rooster (I let her pick her own colors), a chicken and a nest, a multicolored apple tree and little baby chicks from our fingerprints (sorry you can't see these very well).

Because we have been learning about the farm, we have been reading about the food that farms give us. We learned about dairy and meats, eggs, and grains, veggies and fruits etc... So I bought a bag of unpopped popcorn and put it in a plastic bin with a lid. She has had a ball scooping and pouring the kernels, measuring with measuring cups and spoons, running her farm animals through it and hiding them. Even my teenage daughter got into it by playing with J for awhile!

We are working on our numbers. I printed out paw prints with numbers on them and every week, we are learning to recognize 2 numbers. This week, we are learning 6 and 7. We place the numbers on the floor and she jumps from one to the other, counting. Or she throws bean bags to the number I ask her. I leave these on the floor for her to jump to any time.

Still working on her numbers, she is placing beads on pipe cleaners to match the number board. We also used these beads to create patterns. The beads and pipe cleaners were bought in the states.

I recently made a felt board out of an old shelf I found hanging around and some felt. I made a ice cream pattern game which I found here. She chooses a card and makes the ice cream cone like the picture. We use this board in spurts, sometimes this will keep her attention for awhile and other times, she doesn't want to play with it at all. Lately, she has wanted to play with it all of the time.

Working on our numbers...wooden number magnets found at the Dollar Store.

Matching the numbers.

Our bible story this week was Noah and we learned about pairs of things, like a pair of animals, a pair of socks. We matched pairs of socks this week and we colored a rainbow as God's promise not to flood the earth. She is loving markers right now and I am loving that they are washable.

This is a new activity that took alittle time to get used to. I brought a turkey baster from America and gave her a bin of water with some measuring cups and spoons as well as small bowls. She used the baster to transfer the water from the bin to the cups. This is a fine motor skill that will help with writing and cutting later. She had fun playing in the water. She wanted to try to use the baster on the popcorn next to see what would happen.

One more activity that we are working on is recognition of her name. I found some letter cards in an incomplete game here and I used them for her name. We use the cards to learn the letters of her name and then, she matches the letters. We will be working on this through out the year. My goal is for her to recognize her name and the letters that make it.

We have definitely been having some farm yard fun. It looks like a lot but these activities may take about an hour or two to complete. We sing songs and color or paint as well. She also has been having fun playing with her Fisher Price Ark and making pairs of animals. I stress having fun in "school", if it becomes a chore, we won't want to do it anymore. Well, I am off to clean the bathroom with J, she has been waiting semi-patiently to clean the sink. Maybe all of this cleaning with trigger labor and I will have a baby soon. I guess I should be patiently and wait until he is ready to make an appearance. I am just afraid that the longer I wait, the bigger he gets. I still think I deliver only 7 pound babies, an 8 pounder will be something new for me.

Longest Week of My Life

I am one day from being 39 weeks pregnant and I tell you, this week has been the longest week of my life. I am uncomfortable and I haven't been sleeping well, my feet are permanently swollen, it seems. I can only sleep in 2 positions, on my side or on my other side. I am up at all hours of the night. I am waiting for arrival of the new addition to our family. I am nervous but excited. We went to the doctor yesterday and I am 1cm  wohoo. She informs me the baby is 8 pounds, ha ha. Eight pounds, no way, I tell her. I don't have 8 pound babies, I have 7 pound babies and I have 1 more week left. I guess we will see, hopefully soon.