Anna and Diet Coke

My five-month-old daughter is a Diet Coke addict. No, she has not actually consumed any of the beverage...she just really, really likes the cans. Any time that somebody has a can of Diet Coke, she lunges for it. We tried a few experiments to see if she was, indeed, in love with Diet Coke cans. First, we put her bottle of formula and a Diet Coke can in front of her. Every time, she reached for the soda. Thinking that perhaps it was the shiny can she wanted, we tried a can of Diet Dr. Pepper and one of Diet Coke. She still went for the Coke (and dumped it onto my plate, thus spoiling my dinner.) My mom was playing with a Pooh bear and Anna was grabbing at it. Then, my dad held up a Diet Coke can. She immediately ditched the bear and lunged for the can. Maybe it's b/c I couldn't get enough Diet Coke was I was pregnant with her or she's just her grandpa's girl, but she loves Diet Coke. She will not taste any for quite some time (although she tried to put a bottle of it in her mouth today) but she's free to enjoy looking at the can!!

Conversations

One thing I love about my children's early verbal skills is all of the conversations they have. It's been fun to watch the development between Matthew and Ben and how they have become best friends. When they were in the same nursery together, they pretty much only played with each other (well, unless Matthew was organizing the entire nursery into a Peter Pan pretend or playing train.) Matthew loves to explain the world to Ben, with periodic corrections from Mommy and Daddy, of course. Matthew has even taken to asking Ben what he's learning in Sunday school, which is always the topic of conversation on the ride home each Sunday. It's so cute to hear the responses!

Just today, the boys were looking outside, waiting for us to leave and Ben saw a woman jogging. He said, "She's running!" Matthew said, "Well, I guess that's because she's in a hurry." (I'm guessing that's why you jog, Beverly??)

Ben also likes to inform us of his every move. After grocery shopping today, he said, "I had gas in the car." SO glad he informed us of that one....

Rob has a four day weekend and then it's back to school on Tuesday. He has four classes this semester, eight credits, so it shouldn't be too bad. He does not have a Greek class, so we're hoping his load will be a little lighter. The boys are always crazier for the first two weeks after school starts, so pray for my patience!!!

And all four of the Fulkerson babies due this year have arrived. Caleb Allen was born last night, a little early, but good sized. We're excited to have so many new little ones!

Story from the Bat Cave

Batman now lives in our home. Today, he was fighting crime with Robin. Their weapons of defense were a stuffed lizard and a teddy bear. They searched the house for crime to fight and both had to whack the Batsaucer and make Batgirl cry. Alfred rescued her and fed her a bottle of Batjuice. All was then calm in Gotham City....

In other news, I won 3rd place in the library reading program (didn't realize it was a competition!) and I will get a $40 gift certificate to a local bookstore, Tribeca. Rob didn't win anything so maybe I'll let him hold my certificate for awhile :)

And Anna is now mobile. Well, in reverse, anyway. She managed to scoot herself into the corner between the entertainment center and the wall. Once she hit the hardwood, it was smooth sailing! Maybe she'll go forward one of these days. Rob and I have a bet going on when she'll be crawling. Loser cooks the dinner of the winner's choice. I can just taste those mushroom and swiss burgers now....did I mention that my guess was end of September and Rob's is beginning of November? I think I've got this one in the bag! Rob guessed later b/c he doesn't want to babyproof yet :)

Oh, Brother.....

Last night, Rob and I were discussing the children, as we often do, and I was remarking on how good Matthew's memory is. He just seems to remember everything! He also has a great sense of direction (so much that if I decide to go somewhere different from a place we frequent, he throws a fit b/c we're going the wrong way!) I said that with my sense of direction and Rob's memory, Matthew will never get lost anywhere! Rob's comment back was this, "Hmm...well, if Ben gets my sense of direction and you're memory, he'll forget that he was lost!"

Week One in Review

We just finished our first week of school. I'm tired, but I think it's more from the humidity than the schooling. (Can I get an "amen" from the heat-haters out there??) We had a great time and Matthew just loves it! I can't believe how much a little structure to the day has changed everything around here. The boys seem to be doing very well with it all, although they have been playing pretend alot more. One of the books I'm reading says that children play more when they have a new experience, giving them time to process everything. That's certainly true around here. I don't think Matthew lasted more than ten minutes with anything he was pretending two days ago. Everytime I turned around, he was something else. Pretending to be a turtle lasted the longest and he and Ben had to hang up their shells before bedtime. :)

Anyway, here are some of the things we did this week: Matthew has been working on his writing. He has Rob's amazing memory, so he had already learned to identify letters earlier in the summer. Now we're taking that up a level and trying to write them. He does pretty good at free-handing the letters, but I'm trying to get him to write them in a line. I have some tracing pages for him and he likes to work on them. It's getting better, I must say, quicker than I expected. He just loves doing it!

The kids both dictated an experience story this week about a family member. Rob took Ben into the living room and I took Matthew. Here are the stories:

Matthew: When Anna was a little, itty bitty baby, she spit up on me when I fed her. And then we washed my hands off. And then we put my pajamas on. Then, um, we went back downstairs with Benjamin, too.

Ben: Anna, well, Jesus Christ is holding her. Well, keys, Anna's keys, well (are you writing) she likes playing with her keys but she doesn't even lick them.

We've been reading the books off the list in my cirriculum guide and I have found the need to preview them. For example, we were reading "Little Red Riding Hood" and I didn't realize it was the original version, where she gets eaten by the wolf and the story ends. Matthew's expression at the end was priceless! My favorite book was "My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World."

In the afternoons, Matthew and I have been reviewing his three-year-old Brain Quest. He's ready for the next level for sure, especially since he memorizes things so quickly. Anyway, there was a picture of a telephone and the question was: What do you say when the phone rings? Matthew said, "Litwillers!" I'm still chuckling.....

We've played some Zingo as well, a great Discovery Toys game that I heartily recommend. Both boys can play it and they have a blast. Well, at least they usually do. Matthew got beat in three straight games, two by Mommy and one by Ben and then he said, "I don't like this because I keep not winning!"

All in all, we're having a great time. Matthew is disappointed that we aren't having school tomorrow, but he does have a great art project: painting his desk. Today Rob took the boys to Ace Hardware and had orange paint made (counts as a field trip, right?) and they are going to paint a desk that was given to us. It was blue and kind of yicky looking and Rob was trying to strip it and refinish it, but there are so many layers of paint on it that he thought he'd add one more instead. The boys are eager to begin painting. I may need to charge the camera batteries and get this experience on film...tee-hee....

And let's not forgot Miss Anna! She has found her feet and likes to eat them. She has learned that she likes to suck on animal crackers (blame Daddy for that one). And, she has outgrown both her bouncy seat and the swing. What a chunk!

I asked Matthew what he likes about school and he started to name the various things we've done this week, then he said, "Oh, I don't know. I just like it all!" Me, too!

First Day of School

Today we started our preschool adventure. Rob and I wanted to give it a snazzy name, but decided on a pretty generic one instead: Bob's Preschool. I like it, he likes it, and there's no real significance to it....

I have to admit that I did not spend hours in preparation for amazing lessons nor did I try to dazzle my small class with crazy art projects. Instead, we started simply. I am using a book called "Early Education at Home." It is geared towards 3-5 year olds and can also be used for kindergarten (although I was given a whole kindergarten cirriculum by a friend, so I'm set for the next two years.) The reason why I like this book is because I can really taylor it to meet the needs of my two little students. Matthew is in the middle-range, so some activities are too basic and some too challenging. Ben's at the beginning, so I can use the easiest things for him, but he won't be overwhelmed. Matthew enjoys the easy stuff, but is doing things more age-appropriate when Ben naps. At least that's the goal right now.

We began our day with chore time, which we instituted a few weeks ago to get the into the idea of a schedule. Then I introduced our school stuff to them. I have a folder for each of them with coloring and workbook pages that go along with the theme for the week (this week is "A", red, and creativity.) They will complete these pages during the course of the week. Matthew's folder also includes lined paper so he can learn to print his name. He does it already, but it's that early printing where the letters are all over the paper, not in a row. They each have a pencil box with age-appropriate supplies (i.e. Ben does not have scissors and a pencil sharpener.) We had our Bible lesson this morning, given by Daddy, and for the rest of the week will read books about families, which is the social studies focus.

We had quiet play time before "class" started and they enjoyed it because it included toys they had not seen all summer long. We had outside play afterwards and I gave them sidewalk chalk, which was a new thing for them. I'm really trying to keep a balance between sitting time and active time since they are boys!

Matthew ate up everything we did. He is so ready for schooling! I don't want to overwhelm him and burn him out, so we're just starting with small things and working our way up. I have loads of art supplies and learning tools, so we have a wide variety of things to do this year. Benjamin, on the other hand, threw a world-class fit the entire time. He woke up too early this morning and on those days, nothing makes him happy. I'm only including him b/c I know he'd just get into everything anyway...I have very few ambitions for him this year outside of learning his colors and shapes. I figure it doesn't hurt to have stuff for him to do while Matthew learns, but he's free to come and go. Matthew and I can work on other things while he naps.

What did Anna do all this time? Well, she was napping at first, then she ate during the Bible story, and then Daddy took her to get her pictures taken at Wal-Mart (sorry, Shelly!) She did take a very good picture, but managed to break down during the six obligatory required pictures. We have the print-out and it's pretty funny to see the digression of her tolerance to pictures!

I have a horrible cold right now and thought about putting this off until later in the week, but I figured that if I could teach a whole day like this when I was a paid educator, I can handle an hour or two with the little guys. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

A Night Away

Rob and I have just returned from our first night away from the children since before Anna was born. It was very hard to leave my babies, but nice to be away. Rob's wonderful parents came up to watch the children, who had a wonderful time with their grandparents.

Originally, Rob's parents were going to send us to a bed and breakfast on our block, but we decided we wanted to at least get out of town, so we went to Johnson Creek, about 8-10 miles away. Not exotic, but fun for sure. After having lunch with everyone at Upper Krust, we headed out. We were a little early, so we shopped for a few minutes at the outlet mall and then checked in. My first order of business was a shower in a real shower. Our place has a claw foot tub, so there is no real shower, just a shower head. It's doesn't really bother us, but it's always nice to get a real shower in when we can.

We had supper at Fiesta Garibaldi, a local Mexican place. My favorite food is Mexican, so that was fun. We weren't sure if we would eat there or not so we decided we were going to do the read the menu thing and check out the place. When we entered, there was a live mariachi band, so I just asked to be seated. Rob was a little surprised at my boldness, but had a big grin on his face by the time we sat down. It was pretty loud, but a lot of fun and we knew we had a quiet hotel room to talk in anyway :) Oh, and the food was delicious!

We went back to the outlets to Harry and Davids, one of our favorite places. We usually buy some Moose Munch, but opted for some delicious coffee instead. Then it was back to the hotel to watch Micheal Phelps win his seventh gold by a very slim margin. We don't have channels on our TV, so it was a treat to watch some Olympic events, especially men's volleyball, which is Rob's favorite sport.

We kind of tooled around Johnson Creek for a bit this morning (which doesn't take long in a town only 2,000 strong) and then headed back home. We did some Wal-Mart shopping (always nicer w/o the little ones), went into GameStop, and then went home. Our little ones were happy to see us, especially Anna (who had a dirty diaper within five minutes of us being home--she only goes for me!!)

I did manage to catch Anna's head cold, so I'm pretty miserable right now. At least it held off until we were on our way home. We had a very nice time just being us again. Rob is my very bestest friend and time spent with him is always wonderful. We get pretty sarcastic when we're together and then just crack each other up, so much of our time together is spent laughing. I just love him to pieces! Next year is our 10th anniversary, so we'll have to come up with something big to do....like go to Jefferson, 20 miles away :) Maybe we should go crazy and make it to Milwaukee....

To the Zoo and Beyond!

Last Friday, we took a family trip to the zoo in Madison. The Custom Shoppe where Rob works has been shutting down on Fridays this month to recoop some losses (no worries on Rob's job--he was ranked second in the factory during evaluations--so proud of my man!) so Rob has had several three-day weekends. We all needed to get away, so we decided on the zoo. I don't think you can ever really outgrow going to the zoo, so we were all looking forward to it.

Now, let's stop and think about the Litwiller family for a moment, shall we? There are five of us. Two are in diapers, one drinks formula, one is transitioning out of strollers, and one is still fine-tuning staying with Mommy and Daddy. As you can well-imagine, we had our work cut out for us. Back to the story.

We arrived early only to find that the main parking lot was already full. Not too surprising, as it is a free zoo with free parking. We did manage to park close enough and then started unloading the passengers. Rob and I had a brief discussion on whether or not to let Ben walk. We opted for walking. We really should have known better, being former professional educators. Every teacher knows to start off strict and loosen up, not the other way around. We should have confined him first and let him run later, but it was too late...he was loose. He did stay with us pretty well up until later in the zoo....but I'll get back to that.

We wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of the zoo sign, but we got caught in a daycare herd, so we decided to try the pic on the way out instead. Our first stop was the lions, everyone's favorite. Last year, the male was roaring up a storm. This year, he was fast asleep. The boys roared for him (he did not even stir.) Then we decided to see the penguins, one of Ben's favorites. That's where the trouble started. Ben got to run in public! They watched the penguins for about five seconds and then wanted to take off. This started a trend of catching up with the boys, standing for a minute (maybe?) and then they were off to the next animal. Had we been at Brookfield, this might not have been a problem. But at a zoo as tiny as the Henry Villa, they would be done in half an hour at that rate! We finally "convinced" Ben to walk next to us while we made our way to the goats. (That was after he ran behind an employees-only gate.)

Feeding the goats was quite the fun event. Matthew laughed hysterically when the goats took the food from him, but Ben was rather scared and dropped his food right away. Rob showed him how to feed them and they had fun after that. I don't think I'll ever forget Ben's face when the goats were eating. Priceless!

We ran over to the children's area to play on the new playground and ride the carousel. The boys ran around while I fed Anna (who was far more interested in the carousel than her bottle!) The boys and I took a ride on it after Anna finished eating and they had a blast. Then it was off to more exhibits. We did put Ben in the stroller for the remainder of the trip and HE WAS NOT HAPPY!! Rob took his usual 100 or so pictures of bears in various poses (I might be exaggerating....maybe...) We decided we'd all had enough and headed off to lunch. We still had some gift certificates to the Cracker Barrel, so we treated the family. That was kind of crazy, but we were in a corner away from everyone, so that made it more tolerable...for the other patrons...

Sunday night, Matthew and I went to the library's pool party for those that finished the reading program. The rest of the fam went to an afterglow for our Sunday school class. Matthew had a great time. He was a little timid at first, but after he found some friends from church, he was good to go. He even said to me, "I'm okay now, Mommy. You can go back and sit on the bench." We found out there that we were one of the winners from the family program and we get a free pizza and a gift certificate to Mullen's, the local ice cream place. Matthew won a prize for his drawing as well, which was of Michael and Jane from Mary Poppins.

Rob and I are looking forward to Friday, we we go away overnight for our anniversary. Rob's parents are coming to watch the kids as we go to beautiful, exotic Johnson Creek (8 miles from here.) Can't wait!

Matthew's Bible Story

Every Sunday, we ask Matthew questions about what he learned in Sunday school and Junior Church. Here are excerpts from today's answers:

So there was this boy named Lazaras. He got very sick and died and then he had to go live in a deep, dark tomb. But not the same tomb that Jesus was in...it was a different one. And Jesus told them to roll a stone away and so they obeyed him and rolled it away and...Hey, Daddy, can we go home that way?

And in Sunday school, we are learning about David. We learn the same story EVERY week.

And the two girls that don't like me brought their Barbies today. They keep messing with me, but they didn't today. (Note to readers: I have no clue who he's talking about, but we've had discussions about being kind to others.)

And today I saw a large, plump goose on the way to church and I told my teachers about it and they laughed.

Pictures of Anna for Renee

Everywhere a Sign...

So, Rob and I are planning to teach the children sign language as part of their homeschool experience. Like most things we do around here, we started it on the spur of the moment. We really want them to regain the signs they lost as they began talking and be able to converse with their grandpa.

Well, the way we've been teaching them is the same way some friends of my parents taught their children when they had a daughter who was born deaf. If you want something, you have to sign for it. The boys are recovering some signs and now know coffee (mommy is an addict), pop gun, lemonade, bicycle, stroller, ice cream, and several others. We already own a sign language dictionary and checked out a more extensive one from the library. They run up to us and ask us to find signs for them. It's so neat to see them eager to learn.

Our method has already started to backfire, b/c Matthew is just a little too smart for his own good. He ran up to me tonight and asked what the sign for "bicycle" was. I looked it up, showed him, and he showed it back to me. Then he said, "Okay, I did it! Can I go ride mine now?" Next he'll be asking what the signs are for candy, new toy, and no bedtime are....

In other news, Miss Anna is a VERY LOUD little girl. She loves to play in her exersaucer and yell at us. Rob taught her how to yell and she does it all of the time. I think she's competing with the boys, because she yells the most when they are loud. They have taken to playing with her and making her laugh while she's in the thing. Ben has not been hostile toward her for a long time, and I think it's because he no longer sees her as a threat, but as a toy. It's a good thing the Lord made her a big, sturdy girl! He likes to spin her around in her exersaucer and she loves it! I almost stopped him, but when I saw how much fun the two of them were having, I didn't intervene. They are bonding and I want them to be great friends. She's just such a happy girl!

Our Hometown Vacation Continues

Well, last week was pretty hot. Not "fry an egg on your sidewalk" hot, but more like humid mixed with a little heat. Today I think I could wring out the air and get a glassful of water. In spite of (or because of, in some cases) the heat, we managed a little family fun. I got the boys out to the park on Thursday and Friday. The poor little guys were too warm on Thursday to play on the equipment, so they had fun under the shade trees instead. We went to a different park on Friday, and they had too much fun exploring a new playset to notice the heat much. I had a caterpillar-type-bug loving on my ankle repeatedly (I must be tasty to caterpillar-type-bugs) so I had to move the bench at least once to get away from the guy! Though I do not dress in girlie clothes, I am a girlie girl when it comes to dirt and bugs! Icky! After the park, I let the boys buy water guns to chase each other in the front yard b/c our backyard is home to several swarms of mosquitoes and we can't put up their pool.

Anyway, we had been hemming and hawing about whether or not to go to Riverfest this year. We finally decided not to and went to a little subdivision having garage sales instead. This supposedly huge neighborhood sale had only four and all of them had clothing that was the wrong sizes for my kids. Matthew did use a bathroom there and left his dollar on their sink, so I guess we used a pay toilet unexpectedly. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to the craft fair at Riverfest. Yup, three children under five, and we did something on the spur of the moment. We're so cool.

We hit McDonald's first for those great $1 large drinks so we had something to sip and then made our way to the park. We actually found parking in the surrounding neighboorhood without too much trouble (even in the shade!) and hiked down to the park. Of course, we had to walk right past all of the carnival rides and I thought I was going to have to put Matthew's eyes back into his head. He still had a lot of birthday money leftover and he knew it, so he wanted to do some rides. Since they weren't open yet, we "convinced" him to go to the craft fair first. The island where the booths were had been underwater in the June flood, but was fine now, so that was nice for them. There were a lot of booths, but nothing much that interested us. There was a homemade soapmaker, but not the kind I use, and no card-making people to steal ideas from. Rob found a few ideas at wood making booths, but Matthew hit the jackpot. He bought himself one of those wooden gun things that makes a loud popping sound when you play with it. He and Ben have had great fun with it (and yes, it is orange, his favorite color.)

We met up with some people from church and talked for a bit. Then we hit the food stands. Many of the local eateries and restaurants have booths, so you can get a good taste of a lot of places you might not normally visit. We had gyros (pronounced yee-ros) and baklava and the boys had corn dogs. Yummy! Rob even found six extra food coupons on the ground which helped with the meal. He's convinced that had he looked hard enough, he could have paid for the whole meal for free. What a scavenger!

After lunch, we hit the rides. Matthew had $14 left, so I was able to get the 15 ticket deal for $13 (just to show how crazy carnival ride prices are) and that got us a total of five rides. Hmm...two boys, five rides.....how to divide evenly? Have Mommy take them on the Ferris Wheel! Matthew loved it, but Ben was a little scared. He sat very still the entire time and informed me at one point that he didn't like it when we go down. He was okay afterwards, but I'm not sure we could have gotten him to go again. The boys then went on a bumble bee ride and Ben hung on for dear life. I think he'd hit his ride limit, but Matthew wanted to go on everything, even the stuff he's way too little for! I have my ride buddy.....when he hits four feet!!

So, we had a great time. Totally impromptu, but great. In the aftermath, however, we discovered the need to keep hats in the car. Rob's poor bald head is still rather red. I tried to get him to wear his Bob the Tomato tie on Sunday, but he wouldn't b/c he was interpreting. Get it, Rob the tomato, Bob the tomato....I'm so silly.

Next vacation destination....the Madison Zoo!