To read...or watch tv?

Last week Sam's teacher told me that she is really amazed by his "reading". Her exact words were, "It's remarkable. Way ahead of anyone in the class or what I've seen for someone his age." Wish I could take credit, but the truth is, it's all that early morning TV watching he does while Brad and I are still in bed...Yes, WordWorld and Super WHY are responsible for any early signs of genius that we may be seeing....Of course, I didn't tell the teacher, I just nodded in agreement and pretended that we read lots...and watch a little PBS Kids.

I'm not a total slacker. I have been noticing that Sam is very interested in letters and their sounds. He walks around the house sounding out words and if he can't figure it out, he'll ask what letter it starts with. "Church" really got him the other day. He spent five minutes saying, "ch....ch...ch..." and finally, "I don't know what sound that is." Guess it's time to work on phonics...

Anyway....I didn't intend to write a bragging type of post about this (or I would have written it last week after the teacher spoke to me)...I mostly just wanted to record this little gem...

"Mommy, P says puh, puh, puh like in poopy. Hey there's two P's in poopy! Mommy, penis starts with P too!"

"Yes Sam, poopy and penis do start with P. Speaking of poopy, when are you going to do it on the potty? Which by the way, also starts with P"

M&M Annual Christmas Party

Sam's finger is in his nose for EVERY group shot...
We didn't think to take a picture till half the kids had left....notice Sam checking out his "findings"
Twins, Liam and Patrick. Their mom Kit is AMAZING!

Riley
Audrey & big sister Rachel After Sam was born, I went to a Mommy Group at the Birth Center where he was born a few times. I didn't really click with any of the women (Women who chose to have their babies someplace other than a hospital, with a midwife and without drugs tend to be a tad crunchier than I...). I stopped going and just went at the new mommy thing on my own.

I can remember taking Sam to the mall that winter and seeing a large group of women with babies about the same age all having lunch together at the food court. My eyes filled with tears and I felt incredibly jealous of them. Although I had a lot of friends with children, I was the last in my group to have a baby and their kids were older than Sam...I thought that when I became a stay home mom I would see lots of them, but I didn't. Their kids had different schedules, different friends, different abilities. I felt so alone.

One of those mommies approached me. She recognised me from the gym and I had gone to college with her husband. She told me that these women all attended a Mommy Support Group at the hospital and she invited me to come. I wanted to hug her. I remember how anxious I was for the day of the meeting to arrive, I wanted to make friends so badly!

That group has been a life saver, I honestly can't imagine what my life would be like today if I hadn't met them! Some of the women have become very close friends, others I only see once in a while. For the last three years we have had a Birthday Party for all of our kids and we have a Christmas Party. It's fun to see how much everyone has grown...siblings have joined our group and more are on the way...I hope that this tradition continues in the years to come.

Gracie and I

I'm sure that we're no different than most families...I'm always the one behind the camera and as a result, there are very few pictures or videos of me with my children. Yesterday at our annual M&M Christmas Party, I joked that if something happened to me, other than prenatal portraits and the pictures from when she was born, Grace would have no pictures to remember me by. My friend Sharon grabbed my camera and took some great shots of the two of us.

"It's not fair!"

I haven't been blogging too much lately. I'm tired. It's been a really tough couple of days here at Casa Twinkle. Grace is getting a bunch of molars and I think the front pointy ones (are those canine or incisors?). She has green goo coming out of her nose and is cranky beyond words. Sam has been waking up a lot during the night and trying to sleep in our bed. He's tired in the morning and pretty much wakes up in a bad mood. He doesn't listen. He argues with me. He puts his hands on his hips and screams, "It's not fair....NO!" with a foot stomp for added emphasis. He's got the green goo too.

I find myself yelling way more than I should. I keep blaming my kids. I mean, if they behaved I wouldn't have to yell, right? Wrong. I know deep down that it's not really about them. No matter how badly they are behaving, there's really no excuse for me having a tantrum right back. How on earth can I expect them to have self control, to not kick and scream when I act like a lunatic way too often? Did I mention that I have green goo too? Not running down my face and all over my sleeves like them...I guess if there's something to be thankful for right now it's that I have mastered blowing my nose....if only I could master my temper....

First snow...

We woke up to a sleety, snowy mess this morning. First snow of the year. Sam was thrilled. He had his snow pants and boots on by 8:30 and basically played in the rain for about an hour, while I watched from the window and talked to my sis on the phone.

I don't like winter. I don't like snow. I used to, but not anymore. Why do I live in Northern MA? Really good question.

Michael W Smith Christmas Album

A few weeks ago, Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer wrote about an opportunity to receive the new Michael W. Smith Christmas CD for FREE. Nothing against MWS, but this is probably not a CD that I ever would have gone out and purchased. I've never been a fan and if I'm honest, the only song of his that I can even name is "Go West Young Man" (and I hate it). However, being a lover of all things free and excited to discover that my blog receives enough unique hits each month to qualify, I signed up.


It came today and I played it while I cleaned my house. I was pleasantly surprised. It is indeed MWS, just as I remember him, but it's also festive and joyful and the lyrics are beautiful. No songs about sleigh bells ringing or walking in winter wonderlands (or going west:), but songs of hope and joy about the birth of The Messiah. It's beautiful, I'd like it even if I had paid for it.

If you want to hear a few of the songs, click on the little MWS thingy that is adorning the left side of my blog that I promised to put it there in exchange for the CD....

Freecycle

I've been a Freecycler for over a year now. It's been a great way to get rid of things that we no longer need and we've also received some really great things. Check out what I picked up yesterday, for FREE! It all looks new...If I had bought it it would have been around $250 plus shipping! Way to be green!