Hurricane day and family life and ALMOST 39 WEEKS!

The hurricane came and went and left us with some beautiful fall weather.  The gusts of wind during the storm were fantastically scary at times but they were never more than long gusts.  No sustained winds.  The power was out for only 12 hours, most of which while we were sleeping so we got away with no generator one more time.  Many of our friends in the county still don't have power.

Sean is getting much better at spelling.  This is the first time I've seen him write his whole name down.

Sean and I are still plugging away at our studies.  He LOVES handwriting.  We've had a hard time with subtraction but I think that's due to my forgetting to bring out the manipulatives.  Once he had those to see the equation with, he was fine.  He is going gangbusters on the violin.  I don't know if it's from having a new teacher or what, but he's been playing for hours each day.  We do a formal practice in the morning after school stuff but he picks it up countless times throughout the day.  Today was supposed to be the first day of public school but it was canceled due to the power outages many families are still experiencing and to give the clean-up crews more time to clear roads and parking lots.

Sean  has been learning how to fry an egg for himself and Pea. 

This little one like sardines!  

Hurricane day.  Adam goes into nesting mode and makes a full Mexican meal of pulled pork with achiote seasoning, homemade corn tortillas, guacamole, salsa and butterfinger ice cream.  We expected the power to go off much sooner than it did (10pm) so we/he got lucky!  Here, he's showing Sean how hinge joint of the piggy used to work.  

Our big hurricane meal.  Oh, yes, he made fried plantains too.  Delicious!

It was strange with all the green leaves downed after the storm.  We're used to yellow, red, orange and brown leaves all over but not green.  This was the next day.

Mr. Helper got out a broom and worked on cleaning up the deck.

Pea loves arts and crafts.  

Here she is using watercolor crayons (best thing ever for my kids) to draw an easter egg "with a mustache and black pupils so he can see."

38.75 weeks. One day, I won't have a wardrobe malfunction in one of my personal pics.

One of these pictures shows the belly better and one shows my new haircut better.  Not sure which is which.

If this baby were Sean, he/she would be born today. Funny how I thought that was an ideal birthing experience. Actually with each of my babies, I've learned a few things to do differently this time and will certainly will learn something else with this one. With Sean, I was sent to the hospital merely because the OB measured my dilation at 4cm. (After she stripped my membranes earlier in the week without my knowledge or consent.) That's why I was all smiles at the hospital...b/c I wasn't in labor! So, of course, she was going to have to do some sort of induction to get me going. Why on earth wouldn't she wait until I was in labor? People walk around at 4cm dilation for days/weeks. Anyway, she ended up breaking my bag of waters and Sean was born 4 1/2 hours later. Luckily, or I might have been on the Pitocin>"emergency" c-section nightmare that so many first time mothers go through. With Sweet Pea, I went into labor naturally 8 days early. After a short nap, my contractions had slowed down and I agreed to get them moving again by breaking my waters. This time, I plan on waiting as long as baby needs and not doing any interventions unless absolutely necessary. I've had lots of small contractions and cramping this past week but I still feel as if baby's not quite ready. My tiny bit of mother's intuition maybe. Watch, I'll have the baby tonight. Adam would like the baby to come soon, as in today b/c he's got a few concert band gigs that he'd rather not be a part of. :)

First Grade update and a rare Adam-in-uniform photo

Each Tuesday, the Airmen of Note play at the Capitol steps.  We finally got to hear them last night.  

I am so encouraged about Sean's homeschooling after 2 1/2 weeks of steady work.  We've gotten everything done that I planned for each day and that's quite an accomplishment for us.  I was hoping for some maturity (not just for me!) and what a difference five months has made.  It's been five months since our school work had been up in the air and I think first grade is off to a great start.  The biggest obstacle right now is Pea.  She usually plays independently very well but when Sean does his school work, she wants to be right in the thick of things.  Either sitting very close to Sean, looking over his papers or on my lap (which is shrinking in real estate very rapidly).  Either way, she and Sean get each other on a roll with silly stuff and he gets too distracted to work.  The latest silly thing is that one of them will say "Poopy Pen" whilst they both laugh hysterically together.  Fine with me if he could get back on track within a reasonable amount of time but he can't!  I'm still working on finding activities for her to do, near us but not on top of us.

No pics of his math work but that's going well too.  It's a little workbooky for me but he likes it and is very much catching on.  I've completely dropped all Montessori activities from his schedule, though he can use the materials anytime he wants.  I really wanted to keep going with the Montessori math but I finally gave in to the realization that I was never going to sit and make all the labels/extra materials.  Sad but true.  I plan on selling the big items (like the bead cabinet) and chalking it up to a beginning homeschooler mistake.  I suppose it's not really a mistake, more like a change of heart and those are hard to avoid as a beginner.

This is from his spelling book, which is TOOOOOOO easy for him. I'm on the lookout for something with less writing but more challenging content.  I reminded him about the silent E on the end of "like" and I had him change the end of "Grammy" from an e to a y.  Other than that, he wrote this all on his own.

One of my favorite things, and sometimes Sean's too, is our grammar lessons.  It's mostly oral at this point and that's great since he's writing so much with his handwriting and spelling activities, as in 10x the amount I could get him to write toward the end of kindergarten.  The second lesson was a little poem for me to say over and over, during the week, until he got the hang of it himself.  The author suggests having the child tell a stuffed animal or pet the poem until he gets more comfortable saying it out loud by himself.  At this point, after more than a week of hearing The Caterpillar, Sean can easily recite it, title, author and all, to his doggie pencil topper or a stuffed animal that happens to be lying near where we're studying.  He loves saying it but he's still not ready to say it in front of humans.  I overheard Sweet Pea, while sitting on the toilet the other day, saying, "The Caterpillar.  By Christina G. Rosseti. Brown and furry, caterpillar in a hurry.  Take your walk to the shady leaf or stalk."  She made it halfway through and then today, in the car on the way home from Cove Point water park, she mumbled her way through the whole thing when she thought I wasn't listening!

This is from his Zaner-Bloser handwriting book, which he still enjoys.  For the last sentence, he used his new writing dictionary to spell out waterslides. 

I can't help but think of how much further ahead he is now than if he would be if he were in a classroom.  I know it's not a race, trust me I learned that trying to teach him as a kindergartner, but, for example, his handwriting.  I sit next to him and help him each step of the way until it becomes automatic.  For instance, he's just now able to start an A or G or D (the lowercase ones in particular) at the right point on the guidelines but that's just b/c I have been working with him on that for a month. If he were in school, I'm sure he'd be much further back b/c he doesn't self-correct on those things.  And since he's obviously capable of doing it correctly, the one-on-one is key!  It's just nice to see things turn out somewhat like you thought they would!

In baby news, we've decided on a boy name and a girl name and I'm back to being content with not knowing the baby's sex.  :)

Pregnancy and homeschooling update

Another attempt to pretty up our kitchen window.

Sean decided to begin a "Book of Icky things to do."  The first page is a recipe for "mickey soup" which is a nice mixture of dirt, banana peels, etc.

 Sean began 1st grade in earnest this week.  We started out with just the four basic core subjects (well, not sure if grammar is core in 1st grade): phonics, handwriting, spelling and math. He's balked a few times about settling down and starting his work a couple days this week but eventually sat down.  We do two subjects after breakfast and two after lunch.  In a few weeks, I'm thinking about doing the core subjects just 4 days a week and working on history and science on the 5th day.  The best change I've made is to require just one page of each (or one part) subject for each day.  It's very little work for him (if he isn't distracted) and is very do-able.  We still do violin each day. By the time the baby arrives, we might actually have a good routine in place!

After church last week.  Sean refused to join in.

32 weeks along

Yesterday, the whole family was at my 32 week prenatal appointment.  Finally, one of the regular midwives was able to see me instead of a sub. She was not concerned at all about the lack of weight gain (I did gain weight for this appointment) or the small measurements.  She measured me at 31 cm which is just fine for 32 weeks pregnant.  I noticed that morning before the appointment that the baby was positioned lower and I could breathe a little easier and my belly seemed bigger (this photo was that morning). That excited me to no end.  Breathing and belly actually looking bigger?  Yippee! The midwife felt the baby in a head down position which was also exciting and possibly explains the belly shape change.  Baby was head down but on his/her side..  Obviously no worries about that since we still have 55 very long days to go until the due date. Heartbeat was very strong at 136 bpm.  Calling the baby "baby" or he/she/it has really been getting on my nerves lately. Also, we're having a bit of a hard time picking out names.  None of this bothered me with my first two babies but I can actually see finding out the sex if I go in for another sonogram, though the chances of that are highly unlikely.