our sweet baby girl arrived september 28th weighing in at 7lbs 5ozs. we could not be happier. i am nearly done with the birth story and will share some pictures soon.
a little update
here i am with a little update on life. we had a busy and successful week of homeschooling last week. i volunteered in bennys classroom for most of the day on wednesday. i spent about an hour in the morning before i headed to my OB appointment where it was confirmed that baby is head down (yay!) then i headed to my weekly chiropractor appointment. i then went back to benny’s school to help out in the classroom the rest of the day. we live about fifteen minutes from his school but with gas prices its easier to just stay in town on days where i have multiple appointment. This then gives me an opportunity to work in his classroom because once the baby comes i won’t be able to do this much. after school we headed to my sister’s work to pick up the diaper bag she made me. she totally over did herself and made me such a stylish bag, i was so excited when i saw it. 
i will get some better pictures with my dslr but for now it is packed and ready for a newborn. i love the colors and it goes perfect with everything i have.
on saturday we had a fun family outing after jeff got home from work. one of the parks in the area is doing “movies in the park” for the month of september. it was so much fun and a free event so even better. we packed up blankets and chairs with some home made popcorn and snacks. the movie was a dolphin’s tale and was a cute story. benny told us on the way home it was a big kid movie and not really for little kids. he did pretty good through most of it and feel asleep on the way home. he slept in his bed the whole night so he must of been pretty tired. especially since he had his first soccer game that morning and already got his first goal of the season!
i hit the thirty-eight week mark on sunday, which is as far as i made it with benny. as nice as it was to have a shorter pregnancy with him, he probably would of done better if he had a few more weeks in there. we had a hard time with breastfeeding and thankfully after two month we got it down. other than that though he was a healthy baby just on the small side. so as much as i want to meet this baby i know that we have more time to be patient and baby is just getting bigger and stronger. i am curious and excited though to meet this little one.
nature study with friends
on friday we met up with some friends to do a nature study. we decided to head to a near by park that has a creek bed and lots of trees. i went to the library that morning in hopes to find some books on creeks but was out of luck. i was able to get a variety of other books that i thought would work well for the setting. we got there around noon and had a little picnic lunch and the boys explored for some time and got nice and dirty (next time i will be sure to not put benny in flip flops). after seeing squirrels, lizards, trees with fascinating root systems, butterflies, and tadpoles we decided to document the squirrels and some leaves we had gathered. before we knew it we had run out of time and i only got a quick sketch done.
on saturday i finished up my pictures and benny and i read over a few of the books. when i asked him why he decided to paint his squirrel the way he did his response was: “i like my squirrels to be different”. i thought it was a beautiful response and his rainbow squirrel gets an A in my book.
bits and pieces
1. benny using his “go” fingers with the tongs.
2 & 3. we are reading harold and the purple crayon this week so naturally we talked about crayons and then we made our own.
4. finished a hat for my cousin’s baby. i just need to add the ties.
5 & 6. benny wanted to make a double-decker bus after he saw a classmate bring his to school for the transportation project. so daddy got up at 7am so they could make it together. he went to bed and woke up talking about making it, so it had to be done.
7. finished crayons.
8. my yarn is overtaking my couch right now.
9. i work with my nephew after school twice a week with homework and some reading. trying to get the boys to be in sync with separate assignments and not distract each other has been a challenge. today i did the same thing with them and it worked well. they both also helped each other along.
today was
today was just okay. never book a dentist appointment at 8am. i think that is why i have been dragging my feet all day. or it could just be that i am very pregnant. one of the two i am sure. we are only two weeks into out homeschooling routine but i really like the rhythm we have going on. today we ran our errands after the dentist appointment and did not get started on our lessons until 10:30. by that point i was already a bit tired. i know one of the advantages of homeschooling is the flexibility but i much prefer to get started in the mornings and run errands in the afternoon. however, we did power through and had a fun time while doing it.
benny’s literature book of the week is harold and the purple crayon. in the book harold utilizes several forms of transportation to get where he needs to go, to which he of course creates with his purple crayon. our assignment was to create a form of transportation. benny choose to make a hot air balloon. we then headed to our friend the internet to get some ideas. we first hit up pinterest and did not find anything so then just headed to google. there was a lot of ideas but we ended up just putting things together we had around the house. in benny’s play kitchen he has a bunch of produce baskets so we got one of those and he painted it brown and then he weaved brown paper through the basket to make it appear more like a wicker basket than a produce basket.
we then headed to the store to get a couple balloons (an extra just in case) and tied them to the basket. voila! a hot air balloon. however it doesn’t float but that is okay. he has to bring it to school tomorrow to show and tale and it will barely be inflated. he had fun though and that is what is important. 
around 5pm i got a package of baby goodies that i ordered this weekend. in the package i had a couple of toys that i added to our small collection we have going on. again, i am trying to do minimal this time around and i want things that are of course eco friendly but simple. if this cute little group doesn’t put a smile on your face, i don’t know what will. i wish i could figure out how to knit some cute toys…maybe by christmas.
now we are wrapping things up for the night to get a early start. it is the first week of cal poly and grand avenue is supposed to be backed up so we have to head out a bit earlier. his lunch is mostly packed and his school bag is ready to go. after dropping him off i will head to my OB appointment to see if this baby is in the right position. let’s hope so!
i am excited to watch the season premiere of parenthood tonight. it has been awhile since i have been able to watch a tv show when it airs, the last two years i was playing catch up on hulu.com since i always had clinical the next morning. the joys of not being in nursing school…on that note i guess today was better than okay, because it could have been a lot worse. 😉
weekly nature study
i have a lot to learn on this topic, but i decided rather than to research before we start, to just dive in and have some fun. i hope to tie it in to his literature topic of the week, but i am finding this may be a challenge. last week it worked out perfect. we read about making apple pie and visited an apple orchard. i checked out some books about apples from the children’s non-fiction section at the library. we then brought our books and supplies to the barn and painted and learned about apples. this week was a little tougher. we read another celebrated dancing bear. the bears were more like people in the book rather than wild bears but i went ahead and got some books about bears anyways. we also are reading little house in the big woods for our free reading and this week laura and ma had an encounter with a bear so there has been some bear talk around here this week. i also stocked up on some other fun books that we can use in the coming weeks that probably will not tie in to his literature but will still be a good resource for a nature study. i have a few books in my cart on amazon as well that will hopefully be good tools to have.
i fully intended to go on a short hike with the little man today and work on the topic of bears, they are native to california after all. but at 37 weeks, 90 degree weather is not so fun. so we did an indoor study. we read a couple of books about bears in which we both learned several new facts. benny loves to interrupt about every two sentences which makes reading out loud a long process, but it is great because he is interacting and i know he is enjoying it. we learned about polar, black and grizzly bears. we both then decided to paint grizzly bears. our biggest challenge right now is benny wanting me to draw for him first in pencil because he likes my results better. sometimes i will do it for him but for his grizzly i really encouraged him to do his own. i keep telling him the more be practices the better he will become. the bear’s shoulder muscle is pretty well formed on benny’s but that is what makes it great! when i was younger i spend a lot of my free time in art projects. i feel really rusty, but i have been loving working along side him and doing my own. then of course i get to learn all the facts with him. 
after we learned about the bear and its habitat. benny wanted to make his own habitat and sleep for the winter. i then entered his habitat (as he told me to do) and he became an angry bear.
never upset a hungry bear, especially when they have cubs around.
pregnancy and baby update
well it seems i am in the home stretch. just a few days shy of full term. overall i am feeling good. i will admit that i have become more tired and more uncomfortable this last week, but that could just be the fact that we have stayed fairly busy each day. i had benny at 38 weeks which is crazy to think since i am a week away from that. i have a feeling this baby will cook a little bit longer though. next week i start my weekly appointments with my doctor so it will be interesting to see how much this little one wants out. we are still not sure if baby is head down as well so we find that out for sure at my next appointment.
as far as getting ready for the little one to arrive, i still have lots to do. we have not washed all the clothes and blankets yet. i still have most my gifts from the shower neatly packed in bags in my room. i think part of me doesn’t want to do anything too early because then i will just be waiting. we did get a few things out of storage last weekend, so this weekend we hopefully will find the time to clean everything up and put it together (basically the co-sleeper and snuggle nest). the baby will be rooming with us until we decide to create a new space for him/her. we did create a little changing area in our master bath where all the diapers and essentials will be kept.
i still may add a few items to the wall once i find out the gender and rearrange things a little different on the shelves. i did not cloth diaper with benny until he was six months old, but this time we have one size diapers so we can start as early as a couple weeks if we wish too. i went with the fuzzi bunz elites this time. i have a pretty good stash of seventh generation newborn diapers that we will most likely use the first few weeks. hopefully i don’t have a bigger than eight pound baby or they may not fit.
that about sums it up. i am excited to see how i do with my labor. i am much more prepared this time around so hopefully that works to my advantage. labor is so unexpected though, so my plan is to just stay as relaxed as possible and go into without too much expectations. i do hope to have a natural labor so hopefully without putting too much pressure on myself i will be able to achieve this. call me crazy, but i am actually looking forward to it.
that about sums it up. hopefully my next little update i will have a baby to show off.
bits and pieces
some bits and pieces from our day today. so far i am loving our new routine and homeschooling.
1. breakfast smoothie with banana, spinach, apple, fresh squeezed OJ, frozen berries and mango with some flax seed and a few drops of apple cider vinegar.
2. benny looking at a lego book while enjoying his smoothie.
3 and 4. “recess” some play time in his room while i do the laundry.
5. one of his daily chore options is putting clothes away.
6. handwriting lesson of the day: spinning top with “go” fingers. we did this ten times and counted how many seconds each time. it was a lot of fun.
7. we finished with our morning lessons with some time to spare before lunch so we headed to the park down the street for some fresh air.
8. during his afternoon vocabulary lesson he learned the word pyramid. he then thought it would be fun to build one with his blocks.
9. schools out for the day, so we headed to the library. i may have overdid it on the nature books. i’m trying to get more ideas for our nature journals. if you have suggestions, i would love to hear them!
10. soccer has officially started!
how to make an apple pie and see the world
the literature program we are following through benny’s school is five in a row. we read the same book five days in a row. in this particular book not only does it cover the literature portion of his curriculum but also included a geography and science lesson. we of course too made the apple pie which could be considered all kinds of lessons. not only did we make the apple pie but we went and picked the apples ourselves. i sent an email out to the kindergarten parents that we were headed to the barn and luckily a few of them joined us. it was a great way to get to know a few of the families a little better. the kids had a blast. we rode the tractor out to the orchard and picked apples for about twenty minutes and then headed back to the barn for a picnic lunch. benny and i did our first entry in out nature journals (i will have a separate post on that) and the kids finished with a game of hide and seek.
we waited until sunday to make the apple pie so we could include jeff in on the fun. with his busy work schedule he does not get to be involved too much with the homeschooling so this was the perfect way to include him. i cut and peeled the apples and benny did a good job eating them. he loved not having to eat the peels. 
together benny and i measured the cinnamon, sugar and salt and then benny mixed the apples with the ingredients.
at this time jeff walked in with some butter (he had to run to the store because we did not have any). we then all teamed up on the dough. this was our first time making home made dough and jeff’s first time making apple pie. i later found out while we were eating it that jeff never even had apple pie before, he always thought he would not like it. um ya…he loved it. he even had two servings!
after the dough was all mixed and put into two equal balls. jeff and benny rolled them out to twelve inch circles. 
we then put the dough in the pie pan and filled with apples. looking back we could probably have added a few more apples but it all worked out.
the top layer was then added and the pie was placed in the oven for about forty-five minutes.
we did not refrigerate the dough so it was not the prettiest top but it was a good first attempt. it also was the perfect way to wrap up our first week of school and may i add a delicious way to end the night.
i recommend this book to read to your little ones. a cute little story and full of learning opportunities.
we did it!
our first week of homeschool is complete. now we are eating gorilla crunch and watching the lorax on a overcast saturday morning. 
ps it is now september, i wonder if our baby will come this month!?!
