An additional blog

Because I've started enjoying this blog so much, I've decided to start another -- this new blog will be all about things I learn, cook and love. I'll post how-to's, recipes and good finds on the new blog.

One Patch will still continue to be a journey of our family.

Come and check out my new digs -- Lyme Ricky.

Day 87 -- Demands

Obviously John didn't climb onto the counter, but he most seriously demanded to be put up there so that he could finish Maddie's Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He can't really talk yet, but most of the time his meaning is very clear. This is the process:

• Stand near desired object
• Scream at the top of your lungs until someone comes to ask what you want
• Scream and point to the object with your entire fist repeatedly
• If object is not delivered immediately, lower arms, tighten all muscles and scream from the depths of your soul
• Delivery of object usually occurs near this last step
• Complain in baby babble that your parents take way too long to understand

Day 86 -- The Care and Feeding

Little John will not stay in his high-chair to eat food. He wants freedom and the ability to poach from other's plates. We're trying to push calories so he'll stop waking up in the night hungry, and we're willing to try all options. Here he kept trying to steal Maddie's soup, so she fed him the black beans. Whatever it takes!

Day 85 -- Stuck

John's been climbing everything this week. Today, he was trying to get off the rocking chair in his bedroom and got stuck under the arm rest. He did not think this was amusing. The rest of us did however. Poor John!

Day 84 -- Tooth #2

Poor Maddie has had her permanent tooth coming in behind one of her baby teeth. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the baby tooth kept wiggling into the big tooth and making her gums bleed a bit. We were hoping to have an excuse to go see Grandpa the dentist (he lives in Florida), but Saturday afternoon, it got so bad we resorted to the old dental floss trick. As soon as Jared got it lassoed(not sure how to spell that) it popped right out. YIPEEE!

P.S. Sorry if the pictures gross you out :)

Day 83 -- Friday Folders

Every Friday for the entire school year, John and I have gone in at 11:20 AM to put together what is known as the "Friday Folders." These contain all the school work for the week, all announcements and any special notes from the teacher. The kids take them home, give the papers to their parents and bring them back empty on Monday. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the system.

Do you know how much time it takes to put them together? On average about 30 minutes each Friday. That's Maddie's teacher's entire lunch break. So, to help the teacher out, that is my assignment for helping her class. It's not a big deal for me to go in and help. John loves seeing the classroom and all of the kids as they head down for lunch. I get the chance to catch up for a few minutes with Maddie's teacher and see how things are going. I also get to give Maddie a hug and a kiss in front of her entire class! It's a win-win for everyone.

Be prepared for a small soapbox moment...... stepping up now...

When Maddie was little I really, I mean REALLY debated homeschooling her. I wasn't happy with the things I was seeing in the schools in Maryland. I didn't think it was the best choice for Maddie. We worked together every week so that she was accustomed to me as a teacher figure so that if I did decide to home school, it wouldn't be a major issue.

I collected curriculum, information, catalogs and was prepared to go the distance if required.

Luckily, we moved to CT a year before Maddie started school. I researched every school in the area before we bought a home, and I'd say that a significant portion of our decision was based on the school system we were able to find.

I'm absolutely blown away by Maddie's school and the families that attend there. We are in the right place for her. Maddie has abut 17 kids in her class. By my notes, at least six of the mothers are in the classroom every single week. Isn't that amazing???? They are helping, bringing supplies, doing crafts and assisting the teacher. The mother's and father's involvement has the most amazing effect on the school --

Every teacher in the school knows each of the children and loves them.

The teachers know that they are appreciated and loved by the parents. They reciprocate in kind for the children. It is the best feeling. The whole family is greeted by name with a smile, a hug and a great big welcome. They all even know little John. Everyone greets him by name, every person, every time.

I love sending my daughter to the school. Every day I know that they are taking good care of her and nurturing her in the kindest way possible.

So, where am I going with this?? When they started talking with me(some might say suckering me in) about helping with the PTO as a co-president next year, I was more than willing to be nominated. I haven't been voted in, the vote takes place next week, but I will happily serve.

Why? It's a lot of work, and no glory.

But, I know the influence it will have in my daughter's life. Anything I can do to make her school a better place, I'll do because it's my job as her parent. I made the decision not to home school, but I didn't step back from the educational process for her. I'm right there, every step of the way. She might not see me out in front, but I know what's happening and I'm there to help.

So, if you get frustrated with your kids teachers or school, why not offer to help? They can always use a hand, and you will be astonished by the great results it will bring.

Stepping down now......

Day 82 -- Planting Daisies

Today after school, I met with our Daisy troop. Our task was to "Make the world a better place." We decided that we would plant flowers at the school to help make it more beautiful. The school does not have a budget for landscaping, so the locals put together the money and time to beautify the school. They really do an excellent job! This was our small contribution to the cause.

Plus, the girls actually get a second badge for taking pictures of the event and submitting it to the Girl Scouts. Our little Daisies are going to be among the most decorated girls ever! They've already earned most of their petals, several patches and we'll start the new award system next year. So cool! Way to go girls!

Day 81 -- Swimming progression

I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me yesterday. You'll just have to read about it because I'm so proud I could burst!

Maddie went to swimming, and it was so amazing! It was like watching a different child in the water. She'll float for about 15 feet with her face under the water. She'll back float all on her own. She'll hold her breath under water for about 5 seconds.

Two months ago she wouldn't put her head in the water to wash her hair! She has progressed so far in just a few weeks, I wanted to stand and cheer as loud as I could! I was definitely teary eyed when the head instructor passed her off to go to level 3. She started level 2 a few weeks ago with 5 boys. The boys are still there and Maddie will move up next week.

I love the way this pool does things. You don't have to stay in a class for an entire session if you are ready to progress. The teacher for a class calls over the head instructor if she thinks a student is ready. The head instructor gives them the test and tells them right then that they're ready to move up. Nice, efficient and no time wasted! Love it!

Day 80 -- Jury Duty

I spent the day waiting in jury rooms in both New London and Norwich. Jared stayed home with John so that I could fulfill my civic duty. I must say, the process was interesting. It could have taken 15-20 minutes instead of 6 hours, but it was interesting anyway.

The judge told us that they settled the case out of court that morning, so I'm not required to go back. The estimated length of the trial I had been selected for was 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. UGH! That would have been bad! Thank heavens they settled!

Day 79 -- Dress-Ups

We had some friends and the missionaries over for dinner today. The girls always love to put on a dress up show and dance.

Day 78-2 -- The Swing set

John got to play on our backyard swing set for the first time today. Man, he really loves the slide! I thought that they looked so cute, they needed a post of their own.

Day 78 -- Family-A-Fair

We went to Maddie's school for the family fair on Saturday afternoon. We had planned on spending about 30 minutes and stayed way longer than that. Maddie had fun painting a rock, decorating with colored sand, creating a wind chime and getting her face painted. It was pretty impressive!

Day 77 -- The Rocks

We headed to the beach this morning to collect rocks for the PTO's family fair tomorrow. They asked us to find and clean 30 rocks for the kids to paint. So Maddie was in charge of the rocks, while John tried repeatedly to run away both on land and in the sea.

It was about 50 degrees and sunny, probably our warmest day so far this year since there wasn't any wind to make it feel freezing cold. We all had a good time and John was extremely sad to leave.

He's just such a boy! He loves getting down and dirty. He would have brought his newest love -- Thomas the Train -- to the beach, but I wouldn't let him. He found enough rocks and sand and shells to meet his needs.

Day 74 -- Domination

John can be cranky, wandering around the house and looking for something to do. If I lay down on the ground, he'll get very happy and excited and climb right on top of me. I think it's his internal need to dominate the situation. Let's face it -- based on his genetic heritage, he really wants to be the one in charge. Climbing on top of me gives him the appearance of being in control, at least until Maddie jumps in and fights for the dominant place. Who's the Alpha female in this household anyway?????

Day 73 -- Discovering Talents

Maddie has really wanted to work on a quilt with me. So,we picked out some fabric from my stash and created a plan. We needed to iron all of the fabric first. So, she was in charge of spraying with the starch, and I would iron.

After about the 5th piece of fabric, she turned to me with all seriousness in her voice and said, "Mom, I think I've found one of my talents -- I'm very good at starching."

Yes you are Maddie Patch!

Day 71 -- Funny Face

This is John's "I think I'm funny" face. He'll try to make it when he's performing for the family and trying to get us all to laugh with him. Along with the face, he'll breathe loudly in and out of his nose until he starts to laugh.

Day 70 -- Dump and Fill

We are deep into the development phase of dump and fill -- including little John. He likes to get into everything to see if he will fit. He was trying on Jared's present box on for size.

Day 69 -- Walking

I'm desperate to get outside and go walk by the ocean. It is so stinking cold! We went to the boardwalk today, but it was just bitter with the wind coming off the water. I put John inside his plastic tent for the stroller. In the parking lot, he was very put out about it. When we rounded the bend and were out in front of the railroad track berm, it was so windy he stopped complaining.

PLEASE!!! Can't we get some heat???

Day 68 -- Jared's Birthday

My wonderful husband often has his birthday railroaded by circumstances out of our control -- experiments, cub scouts, etc. It seems that we seem to get him a few presents, but little in the way of celebration that others demand for their birthday. It looked like we were headed for another train wreck of a birthday for him this year if we didn't do something different.

So, we enlisted some help to celebrate Jared's birthday. You see, his birthday is March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, so the Leprechauns were more than willing to jump in and help. "The Leprechauns" stole all of Jared's presents about a week before his birthday and would leave clues for him to find two of them each day. It was really fun for our in-resident "Leprechaun" to write the clues and hide the gifts -- she would think very hard where each should go for best effect. It was fun to prolong his birthday and make it a more memorable experience.

We took him out to Ruby Tuesday for dinner and had a nice time as a family. Jared got to open his presents from the extended family on his birthday. The Leprechauns really did a good job hiding his gifts -- we even forgot about one until it arrived in the mail a week later!

Day 67 -- Little Boy

The sun broke through the 40 degree barrier this week, and John sprouted into a little boy in the sunshine. I helped him go out the front door for a walk, he walked right up to the dirt, sat down and started to yank up the grass and throw it in the air. He also tried eating it, but I discouraged it as much as I could. It's so fun to watch him grow up!

Catching Up

Am I the only person that can't manage all aspects of my life at the same time?

If my house is clean, the kids are dirty.

If I'm all caught up in my tasks for Girl Scouts, church and other weekly projects, the blog is not updated and all my cute pictures are just waiting .... and waiting .... and waiting.

Oh, and then there's the pictures I meant to take to document our lives, but was just too busy living it to remember the camera.

But, I'm hoping over the next couple of days to get all caught up with the blog. The dishes will just have to wait....

Day 66 -- Haircuts

We have to cut every one's hair on Sunday nights because it's the only time we have a long enough stretch of free time to get it done. It usually takes between three and four hours for set-up, cutting and clean-up.

We started with John:

And progressed to Maddie:

I cut Jared's last, but didn't make him pose for a picture.

If you can handle the slightly disgusting aspect of publishing a picture of discarded hair, I thought you'd want to see how close John & Maddie's hair color is(I'm not sure how to correct the grammatical structure of that thought, but you get the idea.)When you look at them together they are both very dark. In real life, John's hair seems much lighter than it is when it's cut on the floor.

Day 65 -- The First Park Visit

Today was monumental in Little John's life -- his first visit to the park. OK, he went to the park as an infant, but this was the first time he got to play on the stuff. It's been so cold here I haven't been taking him outside much. This was one of the warmest days of the year -- 45 degrees and breezy. We are so sick of winter we had to go anyway, cold or no cold.

When we got to the park, the first thing I did was put him in the swing.

Holy Cow! John HATES the swing! He just cried. I was laughing and taking pictures because it was just funny. I'm sorry, but after all the hours I spent arguing with Maddie that I would not push her in the swing any more, I just love the fact that he has no interested whatsoever! After I got a few good pictures, I did take him out and show him the other things around the park....

John loves the slide! He was so happy. He'd try to climb back up, and that was obviously unsuccessful, but eventually he did figure out the stairs and ....

sliding down on his tummy, just like he would the stairs at home. He did this loop countless times. Again and again and again. Until he found the dirt. He likes dirt too.
Maddie was able to play with friends, and for the first time she made it all the way across the monkey bars. Very big accomplishments!

In case you are wondering, yes, that is the ocean behind Maddie. If you look at the horizon in the picture, you can catch a glimpse of the island where Jared works.

Day 63 -- Daisy's

Maddie is a Daisy scout this year, and I'm one of the leaders in her group. We are working on a coat drive this spring to give the used coats to charities. I cut the vinyl for the posters, and all the girls decorated them. We'll be putting the posters on big boxes in each of the schools for people to donate their coats over the next couple of months.

Day 62 -- MMR Fever

John had his MMR shot, and today had a terrible fever. He was so cute though. He just kept smiling, but he wanted to be snuggled. John never holds still long enough to snuggle. But today, he'd grab his "snugglie" and a blanket and curl up in my lap for a few minutes at a time. This was taken when the fever was a bit lower from Advil. I just love this happy kid!

Day 61 -- ACE

Here's Maddie in her CT River Museum class in an after school program called ACE. I help out with the organization and making sure all the kids are in the right places. It's been fun to see and get to know more of the kids in the school.

Day 60 -- Family Home Evening

We've been slacking a bit on family home evening. We try, but Monday nights are just crazy for us. I teach piano two different times on Mondays, finishing up at 6:00. I love teaching and refuse to give it up, but my family suffers a little because of it.

This week we decided to push through and have a lesson, game and all the other stuff. I guess we were pushing a bit too far and Jared went over the brink.

Day 55 -- Swimming

Maddie started swimming lessons again today. This has been a big challenge for her. For years, Maddie has not been willing to put her face under the water. She will not let go of the wall without a flotation device, and is generally very skittish in a pool. Oh, she'll play freely on the stairs, or up to water that goes to her arm pits, but after than, she's just been scared.

Our new place for lessons is fantastic! Today, her wonderful teacher had her under the water voluntarily in about 2 minutes. I think it's mostly a matter of right time, right place, but this was definitely the right place! Maddie was jumping off the wall without anyone to catch her by the end of the lesson. I was truly amazed. Leaps and bounds! She even passed off all the requirements for Level One and was moved up to Level Two. YAHOOOOOOO!!!!

Day 53 -- Our First Nor-easter

We had fun digging ourselves out of the snow -- about 6-7 inches at our house today. Since we live right near the ocean, it doesn't usually snow that much in a single day. A nice man stopped to help plow our driveway, this one would have taken us forever!

The kids had a good time playing in it -- John just sat and watched until the driveway was clear, then he walked around giggling as he slipped on the ice. It was cute to see him having fun smashing the snow.

Maddie had the traditional cup full of snow with orange juice -- our version an orange slushy.

Day 52 -- The Hat

John has on Jared's hat -- take a look at his purple nose -- can't wait for the comments at the doctor's office on Wednesday!