Kids Say {And Other Cute Moments}: Long Overdue Update

This is way way overdue but thanks to my posts on facebook, I'm able to look back and recover some of these moments that I want to remember and share. The last time I did this was the beginning of March 2014 so this will be a pretty long post. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

December

• 11:00 New Year's Eve: Em "Can we go to bed now!?"
• According to Emily I don't do yoga, I do "yoger".
• I asked Em what did she want for her birthday dinner. Her answer: cake!
• Em told me that she has a skeleton butt... ???
• When I went to see Wicked it was on the same stage that Maddy has her dance recitals. She told me that she wanted to go with me so she could see how they would have her stage set up. 

November

• Em's nose is running but instead of asking for a tissue she told me "I want you to catch my nose!"
• Dad asked Em if she wanted to go to Red Lobster. Her response was "We can't eat red monsters!!"

October

• Today was the 3rd day this week that Em has come in my room at 6:30, climbed in my bed, and told me "want snuggle". Tuesday she actually told me "Put arm round me. I want snuggle."

September

• Em was yelling "Sissy come here!" and Maddy was ignoring her. So Em yelled "MY SISTER come here!!"
• Maddy and Em want to be Elsa and Anna for Halloween (can't say I'm surprised) so I asked Sean if he wanted to be Olaf. He told me "no, I want to be something scary!" That's my boy!
• Ummm...ok..Em is demanding that her name be Sleepy Moody. At least the name fits at the moment...

August

• When we introduced Gizmo to the new pup Em told Gizmo "Gimzo, this is a friend." 

July

• After I helped her put these (see picture on the right) on she told me "mama, I'm not a tutu girl." 
• Em just randomly told me: "Mama! I didn't bonk my head!" I'm very glad she did not bonk her head while sitting on the floor drinking her drink. lol

June

• Things you never thought you'd say "no, you have to wear your pants until we get home." Em is always asking to take her clothes off.
• Em about daycare baby: "I really like him. He love me. He want to stay." and then gave me a pouty face when I told her that he would be going home when his mommy came. 
• *sigh* Gotta love 2 yrs olds "Mama! I hungry!!" "Then eat your dinner." "I can't like to!"
• Richard told Em to hold her horses. She turned around looking around the room saying "where's my horses?"
• How can I say no!? Em just came to me with her blanket and a paci and said "snuggle please"

May

• Em took off with my swiffer duster and then told me it was a big toothbrush. I told her "no, it's a duster." "duster? no way, it big toothbrush." "it's a duster" "ok it duster. I wike this duster! It my fabrite!" ...and now she's riding it around like a witch's broom. lol  
• I'm going through a message I wrote a friend about middle of last year and found where I told her about this conversation I had with Maddy: Maddy likes to have someone stay in her room and talk for a little bit before she goes to bed. The other night babies and marriage came up. She said she's going to marry Sean. I told her she can't marry her brother. She sat and thought for a minute, then "AJ's not my brother. I can marry him!" She also says she's going to have 5 babies.
• I just asked the kids to keep it down a bit b/c I'm starting to get a headache. Em tells me "you head hurt!? You need band-aid!"
• I asked Em if she was my snuggle bug and she told me "No, I'm not a bug!!"
• Remember the snail shell I found in Sean's pocket the other day?? Turns out it was more than just the shell and snails are pretty hardy. I did not find it the other day until I was putting the clothes in the dryer. It got left on the table and just now was crawling around there... We now have a pet snail named Gary.
• I peeked in on the kids. Sean's still on Maddy's bed reading to her but she's already fallen asleep. 
• I got a couple new skirts. I put one on and Sean said " Mama, you're beauuuutiful!"
• Oh my! My girls were just fighting. Em has learned a lot from Maddy. They started by yelling "stop" "you stop" at each other. Then there was identical growling from both. It ended with them yelling "bad girl!" to the other. And not a minute later they are playing so nicely together....
• Richard Rawls's getting Em in her pjs and this was their conversation: Em: "I can't go to sleep" Richard "Why can't you go to sleep?" Em: Because" Richard: "Because why? Because isn't an answer" Em: "Because I baby" Richard: "Well babies sleep a lot" Em: "Babies go sleep? No way!"
• I did a little clothes shopping tonight and have decided that Em has to come with me everytime I shop for myself. In the dressing room she told me "ooooh that's pretty" everytime I put something new on.

April

• This is Maddy. Her newest one is "When can I get up?" "In the morning" "How will I know it's morning?" "The sun will come up." "What if it doesn't happen?"/or/"What if I forget?"
• Little boys...gotta love them... Sean chose the time while I was meeting with a potential daycare mom to let me know he learned the word "coccyx". He'd say it and giggle. Oh well, if that scares her off, she wouldn't fit in with our daycare family anyway. lol
• Daycare baby (Tyler) has been "Baby" to Em...until today. All day today he was "Baby Brother"  ...but Sean was quick to reminder her that he is her brother, and Tyler is David's brother.

March

• Maddy just told me that she will never be mad at me. I should have recorded that to play back 10 years from now....or possibly later today. lol
• Em made Grandma proud last night. We had to run into Target for a couple things last night and when we walked past the shoes Em says "Ooooooh!!! Look at the shoes!!!"
• As kids came into nursery Emily waves and says "hi friends!" 
• I choose this one to end this post with, the pictures below go with it: Meet Baby Bug, the ladybug that was literary loved to death by Emily. Once it finally stopped trying to run away, Em swayed while singing a lullaby to it "Rock rock baby to sleep..." But then Baby Bug was missing. Em grabbed her face saying "Oh no! Where Baby Bug go!?" and eventually told me that Baby Bug flew away. RIP Baby Bug.

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Good Bye 2014, Hello 2015!!

It's that time again! Time to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year. I like to say goodbye to the old year by reminiscing.

In 2014:

• We begun the new year will lots of new life in our little suburban homestead ...and more in February! ...and more later in the year that I didn't blog about, including hatching eggs under a broody hen for the first time.
• I focused on my crafty side and opened up my Etsy shop: Made by Mama Dani
• I started the year having just lost a few daycare kiddos but have ended the year with a full house and a nice wait list for my home daycare.
• We said goodbye to our beloved Dachshund Annabelle.
• And said hello to a little firecracker Boomer.
• We started a new school year with Sean in the 1st grade and Maddy in kindergarten.
• I brought back Fun Lunches for the kids.
• The kids had a fun and busy year with Maddy continuing dance, Sean continuing soccer, and Sean starting scouts, and we all started going swimming at the ymca: update post #1 and update post #2
• Maddy turned 5, Sean turned 7 and Emily turned 3 this year. ...my my have they been growing!
• Richard and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! 
• I became serious about bettering myself. I logged my food and made better choices. I worked out regularly with cardio, weight lifting, swimming, and yoga. I've lost about 14 lbs!

Onto the new year! My intentions for 2015:

• As cliche as this is, I plan to continue working at bettering myself. I will work on the last 20-30 lbs I want to lose. I will continue to make good food choices. I will continue to work on making exercise part of my routine. I plan to lift weights 2-3 times a week, have regular swim time with the family, and regularly practice yoga. Join me on my facebook group Girls Rule {Boys Drool} Fitness and/or on MyFitnessPal
• I will be beginning the year with 30 days of Yoga with Yoga with Adriene. I'm going to give morning yoga a shot, wake up and get on the mat before I do anything.
• I will find more time to read. I am working on Wicked and then plan to read the other 3 books in the series.
• I will learn more sign language and share it with the children I care for. I will start this with one of my Christmas gifts this year: Sign to Learn: American Sign Language in the Early Childhood Classroom
• I will expand my butterfly garden this spring. I need to add more nectar plants to attract more butterflies and need to replenish the Milkweed that did not return this year.
• I need to remember to write down all the cute kid moments I want to remember years from now: with my Kids Say series
• And lastly, I will continue with my creative outlet: knitting and crocheting. I have started a stack of crocheted granny squares. My goal is to continue at least 1 square a day until I have enough for a patchwork blanket for myself.

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Busy Bees

Who said homeschoolers miss out on socialization!? Mine most certainly do not! Fall is just about here so all our activities have started up again. Sean is continuing with soccer. Moving up to U7 he's playing on a bigger field, bigger goals, games are longer, and they have referees. I love watching him play. He enjoys it so much!

Sean has started a second activity. This one he's been counting down to since he could pretty much talk. Last week he begun Cub Scouts as a Tiger Cub. Isn't he cute in his uniform!? He's following two of his role models with scouts: eagle scout, Uncle Justin, and scout master, Granddad. Sean and Granddad were both so excited that Sean was finally old enough to join that Granddad helped Sean go to his first meeting will almost all the requirements for the bobcat badge signed off on. All Sean needs now is to learn the cub scout law. Don't let the sourpuss look fool you; he was just annoyed with me for taking another picture because the one before was blurry.

 Maddy is continuing with dance again this year. It's her third year and she's moved up to first year barre. She also has a different teacher this year...the same teacher I had most of my time in dance. She has also tried out hip hop but isn't sure if she's going to continue with it.

And lastly, we recently joined the YMCA. While on vacation a few weeks ago we did a lot of swimming in the hotel's pool. Maddy took to the water like a fish. With frequent opportunities and a little nudge, I believe she will be swimming in no time. Sean, however, was the opposite. He clung to the stairs and didn't even want to be carried out into the water. The YMCA that we joined has an outdoor pool that starts as a splash park and gradually gets deeper. We've gone 3 times now and it has done a wonder on both children. Maddy's jumping in, going under water, and begging for time without her puddle jumper on. Sean will not only leave the stairs but will swim the length of the pool with his puddle jumper on. He will also slide from sitting on the side into the water at the 3ft level. Major improvements!! This is now how we end the week. Friday evenings we go swimming as a family. With scouts, dance, and soccer taking up 3 of the 5 weekday evenings, it's nice to have 1 weekday evening where we get to relax and enjoy an activity together.

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The Beginning of Our 2014-2015 School Year

Monday was the beginning of this year's school year. Even with doing a little school over the summer, the kids were excited to get back into the swing of things. I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging our schooling. However, I will not be blogging everything we do.

This year Sean and Maddy will be learning science and history together and will be doing math and language arts separately. For science, we're using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Life level 1. For history, we're using Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times. I would have preferred to find a completely secular history curriculum but I really like everything else about SOTW. We will skip a few chapters and use other resources to expand on the other chapters. World Religions is just a resource book I wanted to get. We want the kids to be knowledgeable about all religions. The nursery rhyme cards will be used for copy work to improve handwriting. Both will be using Singapore Math this year. Sean will continue with Explode the Code and Maddy will be trying Recipe for Reading for language arts. Sean will be reading the Magic Tree House books and using the reading comprehension book: Reading With the Magic Tree House

Mondays are our light days. They work on their handwriting and do art. Tuesdays and Thursdays are science and language arts. Wednesdays and Fridays are history and math. Monday's copywork was a version of the rhyme "Rain, Rain, Go Away" They then illustrated the rhyme. Maddy says that "Hpe" spells happy. ...not bad for a kindergartener. :)

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Kiddo Update: Summer 2014

I'll just come out and say it, I'm a major slacker when it comes to blogging. Life seems to have a way of getting in the way. A kiddo update is overdue so here you go:

I'll go in birth order. Sean. He has finished his first year of homeschooling. His testing supplies should be here soon so that he can do his test next week. I don't know exactly what to expect but I have no worries that he'll do just fine. We're still schooling throughout the summer but just a lighter load. Right now he's working on a Summer Bridge workbook that's for bridging 1st-2nd grade. It's not easy enough for him to breeze through it but it gives him a little bit of a challenge. Last week he got his summer haircut. He at first wanted his head shaved but ended up just getting it buzzed. And lastly, this weekend we made a purchase that I didn't think we'd be making already. We bought Sean a booster seat. He still has plenty of growing room in his 5 point harness. However, Maddy is nearing outgrowing her's b/c of her height. Sean is a bit sensitive to the fact that his younger sister is so much taller than he is so we thought that it might be a good idea to switch Sean to a booster before Maddy. He meets the size requirement, the belt fits correctly, and he's mature enough to sit properly so I'm ok with it. He's super excited!

Above: freshly cut hair and our neighborhood spy

Below: the big boy in his new booster

Ms Maddy...She's also doing a bit of summer school as she prepares for her first official year of homeschooling next year as a kindergartener. The big milestone that she's hit is she has given up naps....for the most part. Bedtime was getting to be a huge hassle. Giving up naps has helped a ton. Though there are still some afternoons that at the end of naptime for the younger kids she crawls onto the couch and is out like a light. This summer Maddy is working on a preschool workbook to review the past year. I have a daycare child that has also given up naps so her and Maddy have the same workbook and they work together, Maddy teaching her some. Maddy's growing like a weed! She's already outgrown some of the clothes she got for her birthday in April!! It's insane! She's 5 and about the average height of a 6 year old. This past year she took dance again. Earlier this month she had her second dance recital. Oh my, does she love being on the stage!! She danced beautifully on stage once again. Too bad she only gets to do that part once a year. I really do enjoy watching her dance at her recitals. It's not just that she's following my footsteps but just watching the enjoyment she gets out of it. And the way she just glows when you tell her that you were watching. She loves having an audience.

Above: on stage at dress rehearsal

Below: before the big show! Can you see the excitement!?

Emily: the baby. Well, she's not much of a baby any more. I've been slowly night and nap weaning her and she kinda took the lead and started cutting back during the day as well. We've been at once a day (first thing in the morning) for a little while now and today, Monday, I realized that she has not nursed since Saturday morning. She hasn't even asked! We've also started potty training today. Last week one of my daycare kids started telling Em when he needed to go potty and asking if she needed to go. She would then tell me that she needed to go and they'd both get a try. I decided to run with that idea. Today she was dressed in a dress (then a shirt after she tucked the dress under her while on the potty) and a pull up. I set toilet paper next to her little potty in the bathroom. This made it so that she could do the entire process by herself. I got Sean and Maddy in on it too. Whenever any of us went to the bathroom we'd tell her and ask if she wanted to try. She went potty a lot today! There were a few times that she actually asked on her own to go and the only accidents were a pee accident during pick up time/dinner prep time and a poopy pull up. Not bad for her first official day! My baby's growing up...

Above: baby's first "ony"tail

Below: Cinderella needed a nursing break

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Good Bye 2013, Hello 2014!

Holy moly am I late with this post. It's almost February! But then again, how long has it been since I wrote a post!? Too long!

I like to begin the year by looking back at the previous year. In 2013:

• Maddy turned 4 and had a mermaid party. 
• I lost count of the butterflies we released.
• We added to our flock and hatched eggs for the first time.
• Our rabbits had successful litters.
• We kept 2 female and 1 male rabbits to expand our rabbitry.
• I processed my first rabbit.
• Maddy preformed in her first dance recital. She did beautifully!
• Sean started playing soccer. Maddy joined him later in the year.
• We're officially homeschoolers. According to our city, Sean's a kindergartner but he's more on the first grade level.
• Richard and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. 
• We added a house rabbit to our homestead; a lionhead named Thumper.
• Sean turned 6 and had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party.
• Emily turned 2. She just had a family party but had a Dora/Minion/Thomas the Train cake...her favorite things.
• Our does (minus one that was too young) had another litter in December.

Now to look forward to this year. In 2014, I plan:

• I plan to do monthly photo shoots of the kids.
• I plan to blog more.
• I plan to use natural options more when it comes to medication and cleaning.
• I plan to eat dinner at the kitchen table more...we've become too lazy with this somehow.
• I have something else I plan to do but I'll make that announcement later. ;)

I will post a couple of update posts with more pictures this week.

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