Self-feeding

My life has officially become a lot messier these past few days: Nate feeds himself with a spoon now. Our progression went from him whining when I was not fast enough with the spoon for his liking to him reaching out for it and dumping the food on his tray the minute he got his hands on the actual spoon to him actually feeding himself. He seems so pleased with himself after he gets some into his mouth..for about 10 seconds before he throws the spoon across his tray for me to re-fill it for him. Ha! Should be a very messy Thanksgiving this year :)

Hot Chocolate

Ben was sick for a few days and now that he is finally better, we made a special treat tonight before bed since he has had a rough few days. After we put Nate to sleep we made some hot chocolate with the hot chocolate maker that G and CC brought for us when they visited a few weeks ago. Now this isn't any old hot chocolate, it's actul flakes of dark chocolate added to milk and then topped with a vanilla marshmallow and a peppermint stick. What a hit this was with Ben, as you can see from his photo. He couldn't get enough of those peppermint sticks!

Update on Barney

Thanks so much to all of you who have sent us your prayers and kind wishes for Barney as he underwent his surgery today. We have told him about all of the love being sent his way and he sends a big, wet, slobbery kiss out to everyone :)

His surgery went well. He has a huge incision on his hind leg and has been very lethargic all day but he is doing better as each hour goes by. He kept his food down tonight, is on pain medication and so far he not does appear to be having trouble walking. He also has to wear an Elizabethan collar to keep him from licking the wound. We will be taking him back a week from Friday (12/5) to get his staples taken out.

The tumor that was removed was very large - close to the size of a tennis ball - and it is being sent out for biopsy this week. We will hear the results early next week due to the holiday. There is a 60% chance it is benign.

Please continue to keep our dear doggie in your thoughts and prayers this week. He is a member of our family and we are so sad to see him going through this. He is only 6 years old. Thanks so much and we will keep everyone updated as we hear more.

Barney...

Please pray for Barney these next few days. We discovered a huge tumor on his rear end, larger than a golf ball, and he is going in for surgery on Monday to remove it. They are leaning towards it being benign but will not officially know the outcome until it is biopsied. Based on the small sample they took yesterday via needle, the cells are dividing very rapidly so that is how it got so big, so quickly. We are very sad about this and are praying that the surgery goes well and they are able to remove it. There is a slight chance he will have minor trouble walking after the surgery as well, so also please pray for his healing. Thanks...

Winter Day

It's official. Fall is nearing an end, much to my dismay. I love fall. And on those days when you have to go out in the winter it just seems, well, cold. But along with the cold weather, winter also brings so much holiday excitement, hot chocolates and numerous outdoor activities to do with the kids (bundled up, of course!). So it's a season that has definitely been growing on me in recent years...

My favorite thing about this pre-winter season are days like today when it is flurrying outside. It just seems so calm and peaceful. It reminds me that Thanksgiving is in one week (really?!?!) and Christmas is only a few weeks after that. Wow, I should get off of Blogspot and start preparing for the holidays :).

Here are the three boys watching the flurries fall this morning. And yes, that is Baby Nate standing up! He basically stands on his own now when propped up against something and even attempts to cruise a bit. He is not crawling yet so we are wondering if maybe he will skip this phase. He actually gets very bent out of shape when he is not standing up and able to see all that is going on in the world.

Nate got a little carried away with watching out the window that for a minute he forgot that he was not right next to his mom! He's just checking to make sure I haven't gone too far away (separation anxiety is starting...).

What a big boy!

What a perfect day it is to be stuck inside the house. I actually had cancelled our plans for today since I felt like I needed a day at home to get some things done so we were home all morning. The boys just love this wagon Ben got for his first Christmas that is filled with blocks. Still one of the most played with toys in our house, now for both boys.

Winter Fun

If you're brave like I am and not afraid of a little vacuuming after playtime is over, then look at what kept Ben entertained all late-afternoon in our house today. Our outdoor sand and water table has been seasonally revamped into an indoor sensory table filled with dryed beans in different colors and textures. I'm definitely not the first person to ever do this - in fact I got the idea at the preschool we toured yesterday - but I always love to find alternate uses for many of the toys we own in order to make them more interesting and also to prolong their life with the kids. I'm all for a toy that can be used four seasons out of the year as opposed to only one or two. Makes me feel like I am getting my money's worth :)

Our iPlay table also has roads carved out of the top of the cover so when we are not using the beans, we can use the table with the cover on as a highway for all of our Matchbox cars. Even Nate was having a good time when the table was closed, as he can stand unsupported when propped up against something. Of course he is too little to play in the beans and we did pick out only beans that are small enough that they will not be a choking hazard to him if he happens to get a hold of one of the loose ones.

So in exchange for a little vacuuming and a few dollars for some dried beans, the boys had several hours of entertainment. Nothing like thinking outside of the box!

Big Bird

So tonight we met a big celebrity....Big Bird! We found out that he would be at one of the local Pizza Huts so I took the kids there for dinner with one of my playgroups to meet him. Seriously, they both were amazed. Ben's jaw literally dropped when he first saw him. He kept talking to him and really was excited to see his Sesame Street buddy (although this photo seems to belie me since he looks absolutely terrified in it!!). Of course when Big Bird first came over, I asked Ben what he wanted to tell his big yellow friend and Ben just looked him square in the face and said "Ben loves Elmo, Cookie and Zoe!" Poor yellow bird, always second best! :) Ben made up for himself by later telling Big Bird that he loves him, too, and that he made a Big Bird craft at his birthday party!


Nate just stared at Big Bird the entire time, this being his first interaction with one of these characters. He didn't know what the heck this "thing" was, apparently, as you can see from the photos.


"What the heck is this thing, Mommy??" says Nate...



..."I have a feeling he's behind me again!!"

Preschool

This morning we went and toured a prechool for Ben for next fall, Indian Valley Nursery School at the Grace Bible Church in Souderton. http://www.ivns-souderton.com/ We heard great things about it overall, it is located 3 minutes from our new house in Telford and it offers a great mix of play, academics, electives, field trips, and Bible teachings. Enrollment is not until January but we will most likely be sending Ben here next year.

Ben seemed to really enjoy himself on the tour and immediately marched right into the classrooms and began playing with the other kids. He's not shy, that's for sure! It certainly helped that one of his best friends, Tyler Kriebel, attends here so he was quite excited to visit Ty's class. We toured all of the classrooms, the library, the gym and music classrooms and the (mini) bathroom. Ben even used the mini urinol in the kid's bathroom, so funny!

On one hand, I am very excited to be sending Ben to school next year. The program looks very enriching and there just seems to be so much going on in the classroom that will be over and above what he has available to do at home. So, I think he will thoroughly benefit from attending preschool for two years before he goes off to kindergarten. Socially, Ben is fairly used to being in a school setting since he attends the daycare class at our church 1 or 2 times per week while I do various ministries onsite.

On the other hand, I cannot believe that my baby is getting ready to go to school next year! I'm getting anxious just thinking about dropping him off for the first day next September, leaving him out in the big world all alone :) But, like so many moms before me, I will survive and after a day or two, I'm sure it will be nice to have two mornings per week to get some errands done less one child. And I'm sure Nate will enjoy having me to himself for a little while without the big "helper" always deciding what is best for his little brother :).

Ben was so excited to be visiting a school this morning that he wanted to wear his backpack since we had talked about the "big kids" wearing backpacks to school. Here he is all ready to go!

All Bundled Up...

It has been so cold here in PA these past few days. Yesterday was exceptionally freezing out and was quite windy to boot. Here's Nate all bundled up in a fleece romper... underneath a fleece snow suit...underneath a Bundle Me blanket. Don't you just love babies looking all snuggly and warm in their blankies?

Helping Out

Babies truly can find entertainment in just about anything new to them, even "folding" a load of white socks fresh out of the dryer (aka warm). Now if only I could find that much excitement in doing 8 loads of laundry a week...

Little Smiles

As an adult, there are often times in life when everything just seems to happen at once, and Murphy's Law, this usually occurs for those things you wish would not happen at all. You know what I mean: the kids get sick, the car breaks down...and then the second car breaks down as well, busyness sets in. You get the picture. Well, the past few weeks have been pretty hectic for the Martins, both Andrew and myself busy for 18+ hours a day trying to keep up: work, kids, spontaneous house showings, Open Houses, working at the new house, ministries and other committments. And throw in a few car repairs, some headaches with the sale of our house, the pilot for the biggest work project all year...and a few 2-year-old tantrums and teething kids to the mix as well. Wow, that makes you want to curl up in bed and play sick, doesn't it?

So what helps us through these hectic times of life? Of course prayer and patience are top of our list but just as important is sitting back and for a few minutes, seeing the world through the eyes of our two boys, so innocent and hopeful, dependent and eager. A little smile can bring so much joy in our house and helps us to remember that life is so precious. So sit back, forget about all of your "musts" and enjoy it sometimes.

Benjamin has the best smile, doesn't he? (and can you help but smile when seeing a two-year-old hanging out in his undies? So cute!). He has the most tender, sensitive heart and is just so loveable.

Nathaniel is the happiest, smiliest baby, so calm and pleasant all the time. Does he not have the most beautiful blue eyes in the world? And pair those with his sly, proud smile that he succeeded in tearing apart my catalog when I was not looking. Such a sweetheart!

Grandpa G and CC Visit

This weekend Grandpa G and CC visited us in PA. On Saturday, Andrew and I went over to the new place to get some work done all afternoon while the boys stayed with their grandparents. What a big help! We got a lot done around the new house.

On Sunday, Gordon helped Andrew do some stuff around the new house and Cheri and I spent the day in Lancaster with the boys, visiting Maggie at her house and going outlet shopping. Here are some photos that Cheri took over the weekend.

Grandpa G reading to his two grandsons. Both of the boys really enjoy books and even Nate has started to actually pay attention when we read to him.

Having lunch together. Something tells me that we may have to work on teaching Ben about fibbing...supposedly he told Grandpa G that he gets two or three jellybeans when he uses his potty (he gets 1) and he also got G and CC to make him more fries with his lunch than he usually has :) :).

Here are me and Maggie with the boys in Lancaster (in their matching sweaters, of course!). It was cold yesterday...

And here we are at Maggie's house. This little rocking chair was Cheri's grandmother's and was just to right size for a toddler. Of course, Ben wanted to hold Baby Nate on his lap as well...

Finally, resting in the car after a long two days!

Sensory Play

People who know me know that I do not allow my kids to watch much television throughout the day - an hour is our absolute limit, usually it's 1/2 hour or none at all. What do you do to keep them occupied throughout the day, people wonder, especially during these cold months when we tend to stay inside more.

Well, I certainly give credit to many of the well-made, thought-provoking toys out there today, especially books, puzzles and things that exercise the imagination. But even those get "old" after a while. When this happens, I pull out a recent purchase of mine that I would highly recommend to others: The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kushner:

The Toddler's Busy Book

This book provides many activities for your little busybody, many without much preparation necessary and all at very low prices. The ones we have done so far are free and you know what they say about kids: we buy them all sorts of toys to play with but the ones that keep them occupied the longest are the free ones (think: "bow-on-top-of-the-package/box-that-the-toy-came-in" kind of fun).

So to buy yourself enough time to get dinner made, make a phone call, heck, to just go to the bathroom :), I would recommend this book. Plus, it helps to know that you are stimulating their minds through this sensory play.

Last night's activity while I made dinner involved a baking pan and/or Rubbermaid, some dry rice, oatmeal, and ABC pasta. Free. Simple. No frills. FUN!

Add some trucks and it's at least 45 minutes of sensory fun.

Since Nate will eat anything put in front of him, his "dirt" had to consist solely of oatmeal because (as I guessed) he dumped it all out and proceeded to try it out (in his mouth, that is).

Yes, it's true that you will need to pull out the broom or vacuum after this activity but to me, I would rather spend 5 minutes sweeping than an hour listening to crying and whining. It's the perfect trade-off in my mind.

Halloween 2008

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays when it comes to being able to plan fun activities for the kids. I really do not like all of the morbid or spooky paraphernalia that is typically associated with the day but I absolutely love dressing the kids up in cute costumes and planning innocent, unscary fun for them. Of course the overabundance of candy is every parent's nightmare but my thoughts are that Halloween is one day a year so what's one extra candy corn for a day!

This year one of my playgroups planned a trip to a local nursing home to trick-or-treat and visit with the elderly folks. What a wonderful way to spend the morning before Halloween (plus the boys got to wear their costumes for two days in a row!). The residents of Rockhill Mennonite Community obviously had their entire day brightened when ten toddlers and infants came to visit them. What a blessing it was to see the little ones interact with them. Unfortunately I did not get any good photos with the elderly folks during our visit since I was holding Nate the entire time, but I did get a few of the boys alone.

Happy Halloween from Ben the dinosaur and Nate the pumpkin, all dressed up and about to leave for the nursing home.

At Rockhill Community. Here, Ben was showing one of the residents his baby brother.

Nate (minus his hat) smiles widely as one of the elderly folks ohhs and ahhs over him.

On Friday, for the actual Halloween day, I suffered a bout of temporary insanity when I decided to host a Halloween party for our closest friends and their kids and a few of the children in Ben and Nate's playgroups whom they interact with the most....at our currently unoccupied, still entirely under construction, new house in Telford. What an idea but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

My thoughts actually were that the three rooms where we would be would be basically finished, we would just have no furniture yet. So, after bringing in some folding tables and chairs and some decorations, we ended up with a Halloween party being hosted in an area that offered lots of space for the kids to run around in a big old house. Great setting for a Halloween party, huh? We also were able to show our friends all of the progress Andrew has been making on the house over the past 6 weeks since he has been getting so much done.

So, it seemed to really work out and everyone seemed to have fun. We certainly did! It was a bit hectic for me since I had to transport everything over but in the end I am glad we did it.

Here's Nate in his "pre-costume" attire, a Halloween outfit, of course! He is sitting on Nana's lap. They were able to visit for the weekend to help me out with the party and also to help with the kids since the day after we had an extremely hectic day of house showings.

Nate and Jonathan Saunders eating Cheerios and playing together in costume. At one point, they actually appeared to be having an actual conversation, babbling to each other and looking at each other as they interacted. So cute!

Elaina Saunders in her duck costume, smiling as she ate dinner.

The three Nice boys (yes, their last name is actually Nice in addition to being very polite, "nice" boys!) :)...they are doing the craft I planned: decorating faces on pumpkin-shaped Cheerio treats with various candies.

We had a Halloween beanbag toss game and a pinata. Here are Ben, Kyle and Samantha playing the beanbag toss.

..And the pinata. There were definitely mixed feelings about this one. It was difficult for the kids to break open so luckily we had a few older kids at the party. Ben also seemed sad that the pumpkin-head pinata was busted in half and kept telling me to put him back together! Of course, he and others enjoyed scrambling around for the candy!

In all of our chaos getting ready for the party, I forgot to take pictures of the food I made and the decorations :(. Here are some of the desserts that we had leftover. Ben had fun helping with the spider cupcakes and black cat cookies!

After the party, many of us went trick-or-treating together. Thank God it was actually a very nice night outside, not too cold or windy. Ben was tired at first but once he got a second wind, he really enjoyed trick-or-treating. It was the same story as last year, I remember.