4 months!

Munchkin has grown so quickly, she is very interactive with us now. Her squeals of laughter at her brothers' antics are so fun to hear. She loves to watch them. Earlier this month she tried to pick the flowers off the shirt of someone holding her. She lets me know if she is bored with what we are doing! She can hold her head fully upright now while on her belly. She is such a happy baby too!

Reading

Trainboy knows his letters well, and is starting to remember some short words when he sees them. Overall he still focuses on the pictures when he is reading or being read to. He does ask what things say, so he has word awareness. I didn't catch a photo of him listening to his train book on CD but this is a bit later - when he was reading the body books. He is so intent!

Dinoguy can read pretty well now. He loves his Dinosaur book on CD from his Grandparents. I thought this was such a cute moment, I grabbed the camera while he was unaware. His confidence level with reading has increased in the past few months and he'll read in front of me. It has come naturally from wanting to be independent at video and computer games as well as being able to read books to himself. We haven't done any specific reading practice. Just read a lot of books. As far as learning to read books, the best for us has been the Berenstain bears. The boys love the stories, they are cute and catchy and use great repetition. "Big bear, small bear" is genius in my humble opinion.

I keep a box of books in the car between their car seats for them to read while we're driving. Recently I heard Trainboy trying to remember the words that went with the pictures to "Big Bear Small Bear" and then I heard Dinoguy say "Here let me read it to you". What a moment! I was grinning big in the front seat.

Haiku for Headstones

My friend invited us to share haiku for our headstones on her blog. I came up with a few and enjoyed them enough that I decided I wanted to record them here too. :)

Note - I take the planning of a headstone pretty seriously - currently I want my full name listed including maiden name, birth place and death place in addition to full birth and death dates and the names of my children on the back with their birth dates. These things need to be recorded everywhere IMHO and I have life insurance that can help pay for how expensive that will be to put on stone.

But the haiku - what fun it is to write the simple poems. Here are some:

I am a mother
I changed the world for better
Raising my children

Or

You can catch a glimpse
My eternal legacy
Those who stop to visit here

Or

For my dear children
I will always cherish you
In my heart forever

Or

I learned early on
That what matters most in life
Are people we love

Kind of fun! What haiku would you write for your headstone?

Ice Play

Dinoguy has been coming up with some interesting experiments he wants to try, based on things he sees on PEEP and the Big Wide world. (Which is such a cool nature show. :D ) He built a beaver dam in the wheelbarrow this past weekend (because I wouldn't let him build a pond in the yard first, poor guy) and earlier in the week they did this ice play.

We froze some dinosaurs covered in water in the freezer and then unmolded them for them to kick and push and roll around the driveway. Throwing ensued. Then some were still not free and took a hot bath in the tub to finish escaping their icy tomb. The boys had a good time with it.

By the way, I would love to help him put a pond in the yard. But its not our yard. We're renters. Poor boy. :D

Happy Easter

3 months

Munchkin is 3 months old now. How quickly the newborn stage goes! She's gotten strong and smiley and talkative. She'll talk to me for quite a while, she loves holding conversations.

Munchkin did get sick this month and got to spend time breathing thru a nebulizer. She's healthy now. So she now chews on her stuffed cow instead.