The Babies, and Joyschool

 

Can I tell you how much fun it is to have a toddler and a baby together?  Yes, it can be very demanding on my time and energy and sometimes discouraging when things don’t go the way I would like them to, but those little moments where the two of them connect together or where they are just SO CUTE make it so worth it.

 

Conner is getting to be quite a big boy—rolling all over, sitting up pretty well, and trying SO HARD to get from rocking to crawling.  He has the sweetest disposition and makes the most adorable smiles and little babbling sounds ever. 

 

He still is not much of a champion napper, but thank goodness for the moby wrap!  He is getting better at his naps and will now typically have at least one really good nap and then cat naps the rest of the time.  However, he sleeps great at night so I really can’t complain too much. 

 

 

Then there is the other baby Ella—she is also growing up SO FAST and just such a fun little lady.  She talks very well with complete sentences most of the time.  “Mom, can you get my drink?  It’s on the counter.”  “I need to take that doll to bed” and so forth. 

She has become very interested lately in where people are, and where they are going, and what they are doing.  She always notices if someone in the family is gone and asks me about it.  It’s like she is starting to realize that there is a world that is going on when she isn’t there.  It is the best to get a greeting from her when I come home from something and she is there.

“Mom!  You’re home!!” followed by a huge bear hug.  Of course, Dad gets this every day—such the celebrity!

 

And Conner did this tonight—he can’t even crawl yet but he’s ready to take off!

 

I hope these two little monkeys will stay close forever.  We were worried about little Ella not having a playmate close to her age because Logan is 6 years older than her—what a blessing Conner is to her, and what a blessing she is to him.  Thank goodness he tolerates most of what she puts him through—so far:)

 

These are some pictures from the little joyschool we are doing in our neighborhood.  We have eight children and the school is only once a week for 1 1/2 hours.  Each mom takes a month to have the school at her house and we rotate.  This was my month and it was really fun, but I’m not going to beg the next mom to let me do it again or anything like that;)  I think that by the last week I had finally gotten the schedule down really well and knew what I was doing, but the kids still had a great time no matter what and that’s what matters. 

 

We made flags for President’s Day.

 

 

 

We did free play, a little lesson with books, fingerplays and usually a visual math concept(This was also where we had our snack time—sneaky way to get them to sit still I know), and then a craft.  By that time it was almost parent pick up so we would head out back to jump on the tramp till they got there.  

 

Some physical time activities:  dancing!

 

Making a tunnel—this was the most fun to watch them do!  Each kids took a turn crawling under. 

 

Congrats for reading this whole post—believe it not, I wanted to post more but decided against it for now.  I will just leave with one picture of the rest of our children so as not to neglect them too much: we are so proud of them as well!