Weekly Wrap Up: November 2014 {and Notebooking American Girl Books}

by Meghan // December 1, 2014 // Comments off

This month has flown by! Thanksgiving is already over and everyone is prepping for Christmas.

We haven’t had any real weekly updates the last few weeks, because well … we haven’t done a lot of formal schooling. Most everything has been relaxed and theme based. And of course, we spend a lot of time just snuggling Ila. =) I mean, I spend 6 hours a day nursing her, and after every feeding Lexie and Max both request a turn to hold her. So, we school when we can. 😉

Fall Indoor activities {quietinthechaos.com}

Lexie and “Jane Kirsten” having a picnic, building forts, happy baby ila

We worked on some pumpkin activities, which involved Max making his own pumpkin description book. (you can find it at www.ThisReadingMama.com) He really enjoyed it! We are still working on NOT eating the markers … =)

Handwriting Practice and Fine Motor {quietinthechaos.com}

practicing handwriting, coloring with markers, gluing pumpkins in book

We also had our first big snow: (Lexie doesn’t mind the cold if she can play in the snow. Mister refuses to keep his clothes on, so of course he gets “too cold” and needs to come in. haha)

Lexie is still notebooking her way through the Kirsten of American Girl series. She loves doing this and I am so glad she does. I am going to introduce her to a timeline soon. We have been talking about so many things in history lately, and I know it will help her understand something so contrast if she can see a visual. We have two chapters left to notebook, and then we will move on to the next book. I got our blank notebooking pages from notebookingfairy.com. I chose the biography pages, whole punched them, and put in a folder with prongs. We will add to it as we go.

Notebooking “Meet Kirsten”

Last Saturday I was working on some knitting, and Lexie asked if I could show her how to knit. Of course I said yes! I love that my girl wants to sew and knit! So, this is the little progress we made. You may be wondering how I helped a four year old knit- I sat on the edge of my chair, and had her stand between my legs, so I could get my arms around hers. I place my hands over hers, and we just went through the motions. By the end, she knew exactly what to do, although she struggled with the dexterity needed. I have no doubt she will be able to do it herself before long!

We did do lots of reading about Thanksgiving. You can see my post of supplemental books for Thanksgiving HERE (link coming soon). Lexie really enjoyed this and learned lots of new vocabulary from these readings. She has been using the new words every chance she gets!

And then, of course, we had Thanksgiving dinner. Usually we spend Thanksgiving traveling to see family, but this year with Ila being so little we just decided to stay home. It was my first year to cook a real Thanksgiving dinner for my family- we had turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (from scratch, might I add…) and pecan pie. And of course I am using my turkey bones to make bone broth! As my sweet Lexie said, it was a “real Thanksgiving feast!” She was so funny, she was kinda wiggling around on her seat during dinner, and she says, “I am just wiggling my belly so I can make room for more!” haha She definitely belongs to us!

Between all this I have slowly started back running on the treadmill, and decorating for Christmas. I hope to get you a recipe for that DELICIOUS green bean casserole soon, and an update on our Advent activities. =)

Happy Holidays, and stay warm!

{easy} Oven Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

by Meghan // October 23, 2014 // Comments off

If you are like me, you *love* fall. I love everything fall- apples, pumpkins, leaves- and now I can add roasted pumpkin seeds to that list. These were a lot of fun, and are packed full of nutrition. The best part is you can involve the kids in the hardest part of the work, getting the seeds out of the pumpkins! =) We used it as sensory play, letting them get messy and having a big time!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. cut tops off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds

2. Rinse the seeds well in a colander.

3. Bring seeds to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes (don’t forget the salt for flavor!)

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Now drain seeds. Place in a bowl large enough to toss well. Toss with olive oil and salt (and any other seasonings you may want to add)

5. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake at 400* for 5-20 minutes. Ours took about 20 minutes, and we flipped them every 5-10 minutes to get the entire seed toasted. They are so good. We got seeds from two pumpkins (it would have been 3 but the tot threw the seeds from one pumpkin all in the grass..) and it was plenty of seeds!

oven roasted pumpkin seeds (so easy!) {Quiet In The Chaos}

Your seeds really need to be more spread out than this … we were just a little lazy. They still turned out good!

And that’s it! This was very easy, and is a great way to let the kids help while learning and playing. We eat on them as snacks, and I plan to use them in a granola recipe. Yum!

What is your favorite fall snack?

Week 13 Baby Summary

by Meghan // December 7, 2012 // Comments off

Mister was officially 3 months old on December 2nd (also JTom’s birthday)! But because of how the weeks fell, he is 13 weeks old.

Sleeping
Max has been sleeping from about 7:15pm until 5:30-6:30am. Today (December 4th) I let him cry it out when he woke up at 5:20am. I went in and checked on him, calmed him down, then put him back in the crib and left the room. He cried and fussed on and off for about 30ish minutes. But he went back to sleep until 6:50am! So we have been CIO today. It’s not easy, but he is getting it. After his first nap he only cried (on and off) for 10 minutes before falling asleep. I am keeping one arm unswaddled, because he can use that hand to soothe himself if he needs to. (Oh yes, he is in love with his hands this week!) If it takes him longer to relax and fall asleep, I go in after 10 minutes, pick him up until he is calm, then place him back in the crib. I know today is pretty much going to mean very little sleep for him, but after a few days, he should be sleeping on his own. I think he is ready; I feel that way because when I try to get him down he struggles, wiggles, and fights me. He just can’t settle with me holding him as well anymore. So, I think it’s time he tries to settle himself. I will update at the end of the week on how it has gone.

*update*. It has been 3 days now and Mister is doing great with his day time sleep! We have rough patches through the day, but overall he is putting himself to sleep with very little crying or fussing. I watch him in the monitor, and he usually is just sucking in his hand, with his eye closed, while he rolls around some until he settles. He has been paci free for 3 days, and I think he is nursing better as a result.

Eating
He seems to be feeling better, reflux wise, so it looks like the dairy free is helping! One week of no dairy and he is like a different boy during the day. Looks like we have a dairy protein allergy. (I will make another post on that later).

Devleopment
Max is starting to try to raise his shoulders up, and he can do it pretty well. He rolls from his tummy to back easily and Lexie LOVES to watch him do it! He is already rocking/rolling onto is sides, and can almost make it to his tummy from his back! Im sure this will happen before the end of the month. I am still not sure if he is teething… I really want to say yes because of all the chewing and drooling (oh my!) but developmentally this is when babies’ saliva glands start producing more (it was part of evolution to help break down food/breastmilk as it changes with baby’s growth. Also to help build the stomach flora as baby grows bigger). And since that falls right in line with baby discovering his hands and enjoying chewing … I just don’t know! His gums have looked like he may be teething since the middle of October, and he started chewing in the middle of November … so we should have something happen by the end of this month if he is in fact teething. They do seem to be a bit more puffy and white there at the middle bottom, than the rest of his gums. So we will see.

Max is laughing, smiling, and starting to find his voice a lot! He is squealing some, especially when he is tired and ready for a nap, he starts really jabbering. He blows bubbles non stop and spit just flies every where! Lexie thinks this is a serious problem, “He’s dwooling, Mama. He’s dwooling!” She is so serious! It’s sweet.

Love Bug
Lexie has started napping again at home! We seem to have found her sweet spot during the day for tiredness, and now that those molars are in and she is no longer scared of going poopy in the potty, things are getting back to normal. But who knows how long that will last before we get more molars, or something else changes and throws her off for a while. Regardless, I will take any sleep she can get! =)

She’s enjoying gymnastics, and can do her bridge, straddle, pike and tuck. She really enjoyed the foam pit last week, and got brave enough to kick her leg up in the balance beam. It will be interesting to see what she does this week (tomorrow, Friday). We are doing Advent activities each day, and taking about Baby Jesus, Christmas, love, being kind, and God’s love for us. Sue Sue has given us some really great resources to use during the month of Advent. She has really enjoyed the Christmas stamps I got out.

She loves her daddy getting her up in the mornings, and doing her bed time routine at night. My favorite part about her being in a toddler bed now, is climbing in bed to snuggle with her when she wakes up! She makes me a spot, says “here, Mama, you need lovie.” and we snuggle. It’s wonderful! She walks around talking on her phone like a grown up (and Im never on the phone in front of her?), and loves to cook in her kitchen. Now she wants to play with Max all the time, which is basically just them laying on the floor together.

Quiet In The Chaos

Serving joyfully. Living Simply.

holiday

Weekly Wrap Up: November 2014 {and Notebooking American Girl Books}

{easy} Oven Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Week 13 Baby Summary