One Way, Jesus!

I especially loved our RRSP time this week. The format is the same each time, so I like finding new and interesting ways to present it to Brennan so he doesn't get bored. He seemed to really be into it this week too. Our letter was "V", our number was 8, and the word was "me". The verse was from John 6:47 "Verily, verily I say to you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." We didn't spend much time memorizing the verse, but focused more on the phrase "one way, Jesus" that was incorporated into the activities. Brennan LOVED saying that phrase over and over again. And he's loved pointing out all the "one way" road signs when we're driving!

Here's our board set up for the week.

Brennan requested to the do the egg game again this week, so I put the letter Vs in the eggs and put two Vs in one of them.

He's gotten more interested in coloring recently, so he was excited to color the rectangle and triangle to make an arrow for "one way, Jesus!"

To make his 'V' words more interesting this week, we used a spatula to flip them up in the air. This was a huge hit!

He did all his 'V' tracing pages this week. And then scribbled on them after he was done.

This morning he asked to read his easy reader book. I had read it to him on Monday, but we hadn't touched it since then. It's a very simple read, but he read the entire thing by himself; only asking for help on the word "only" on the last page. I told him that word once and since then he's read this book over and over today independently. This kid seriously blows my mind!

He loved the song "One Way, Jesus!" this week too. I put the YouTube video up on the tv so we could watch and dance. He was super excited! I think might buy him one of the Hillsong Kids cds because he's such a music lover.

 

I ended up finding multiple versions of the song on YouTube and we watched several of them together. It makes my heart happy that he loves these songs we are learning. When we were reading his Bible the other night, I read part of the verse from John 3:16 and he immediately said, "That's a song" and remembered the song from the week we learned that verse. 

Here's one of the videos we watched:

Here's a video of Brennan reading the easy reader. Love it!


He finally got a haircut today as you can probably tell!

A Day in the Life

I've seen several people do "a day in the life" posts and decided to give it whirl too. I decided Monday to keep pretty detailed notes on my phone. As the day wore on, I thought about stopping because the day didn't seem that interesting. I did several chores around the house and really nothing educational with Brennan, but in the end decided it doesn't matter what we did. I just like having memories like these to look back on.

Monday, March 18, 2013 - Bryce is 2 months and Brennan is 3 years old

7:00am - Brennan calls out for Mommy from his bed. Even though I wish he'd sleep later, I am a happy Mommy because I was only up once at 3:45 with Bryce and he's still asleep! I go in and snuggle in bed with Brennan for a bit then take him potty and he puts on underwear. I then grab Brennan's laundry and put it in the washer and take Bryce's clean laundry out of the dryer and bring it upstairs.

7:25am - Bryce wakes up, so I go in and try to feed him, but he doesn't seem interested in eating. I give Bryce a bath while Brennan stands on a kitchen chair beside me eating fruit snacks (yes, for breakfast - go ahead and judge me). I get Bryce dressed after bath and he gets the hiccups, so I put him sitting upright in his swing while I eat breakfast. Brennan sits at the table with me and asks for a lollipop and I let him have one. I guess I was in a really good mood after so much sleep. He normally eats a healthy breakfast, I promise! Bryce's hiccups are gone, so I move him over to the couch to play and clean up his bath stuff.

8:30am - Brennan plays on the iPad on the couch while Bryce sits in my lap beside him and talks up a storm.

8:40am - I try to feed Bryce again since he didn't eat when he woke, but he still doesn't seem interested. His eyebrows are red, so I know he's already getting tired. I swaddle him and lay him in his crib for what I assume will be a short 1 hour nap. Brennan says he actually wants breakfast now, so I fix him a waffle.

8:50am - While Brennan sits at the kitchen table eating breakfast and Bryce naps, I go shower and get ready.

9:20am - I'm done getting ready and come out of my bedroom to hear Brennan saying, "I'm all messy!" I discover he hasn't eaten any of his waffle (probably because I let him eat junk first), but has just played in his syrup. He has never done this before. I clean him up and we go downstairs together. He plays in the basement while I print his Raising Rock Stars Preschool papers for the week. I remind myself that I really need to get them printed by Sunday night.

9:50am - Bryce starts stirring in his crib. I quickly switch Brennan's clothes to the dryer and put towels in the washer. Brennan stays downstairs playing while I come up to feed Bryce. He eats well this time. Brennan comes upstairs on his own. I get myself dressed and then get Brennan dressed. I change Bryce's diaper and load him into his car seat.

10:30am - We head to PetSmart to see the animals and just to get out of the house. We go the same ole places all the time, so this was a change for us. It is still literally freezing outside this week, so we have to come up with indoor activities. We look at the fish, cats, rats, and birds at the store. We also watch some dogs get groomed. I remember I do need new batteries for Ringo's wireless collar and buy those.

11:15am - We leave PetSmart and drive to Auntie Val's house for a visit. Brennan plays the piano, eats his peanut butter and jelly sandwich I packed for him, and then plays with Val's dad on the computer while Val and I chat in the kitchen. Bryce just sleeps in the car seat.

12:30pm - We leave to go home. I get Brennan ready for his nap (brush teeth, potty, read stories) and lay him down at 1:00. Bryce should be waking to eat, but is still sleeping so I decided to fix myself a sandwich really quick. I also switch the towels in the dryer.

1:25pm - Bryce wakes up. I feed him (he only eats on one side) while Brennan is happily talking to himself in bed instead of sleeping.

1:45pm - Brennan is still talking away. Bryce and I come to the couch. I talk and sing to him while I fold his laundry and Brennan's laundry.

2:00pm - I put Bryce's laundry away and go into my closet and pull out a few shirts to add to my Goodwill pile. Bryce is getting a little fussy on the couch, so I put him in my lap and finish watching Army Wives from Sunday night. Brennan STILL isn't sleeping!

2:30pm - Army Wives is done. I top Bryce off on the other side and change his diaper. He gets in the hiccups (darn you, hiccups) so I put him upright in the swing. I figure he will probably fall asleep in there which is fine because I need to leave a little before 4 to take dinner to a friend who just had a baby. I put together Brennan's RRSP board and Bryce does fall asleep in his swing. Brennan is still happily talking in bed.

2:45pm - I start prepping dinner for my friend and realize I'm missing a key ingredient. I go ahead and get Brennan up (not that he ever fell asleep), transfer a sleeping Bryce to his car seat and we head to the grocery store for chicken broth.

3:20pm - We head back home from the grocery store. Bryce slept the whole time and continues sleeping in his car seat once we're back home. I quickly fix the soup (recipe below - YUMMA!) and we load back up into the car to take dinner to the Mowry's. Kyle texts right as we are leaving to say he's headed home for the day.

4:30pm - We head back home to see dad. Once there I take the towels out of the dryer and put them away.

5:00pm - I heat up our soup for dinner (made a double batch) and around 5:15 we sit down to eat together.

5:30pm - Bryce is still sleeping!!! I wake him up to feed him and hope he can stay awake until 7pm, so he's super sleepy for bedtime. Kyle cleans up dinner while I feed Bryce.

5:50pm - Family playtime. Kyle wrestles with Brennan while I play with Bryce.

6:15pm - Bath time for Brennan while Daddy plays with Bryce.

6:40pm - A little more family playtime.

6:50pm - Brush Brennan's teeth. He says he needs to poop, so I put him on the potty. Bryce is getting fussy with Daddy, so I take him, swaddle him and put him to bed. Come back to check on Brennan and he says he doesn't have to poop now.

7:05pm - Give Brennan cold medicine, we read two stories, his Bible, pray, and sing songs and he goes to bed. He falls right to sleep since he didn't nap at all. I change into comfy clothes and buy plane tickets for the boys and me to visit Amanda while Kyle and I watch tv.

9:00 - I get ready for bed and go in to "dreamfeed" Bryce. Then Kyle and I go to bed.

So that was basically our day. Now for a few disclaimers...

...Bryce doesn't always sleep as much as he did on Monday, but I am blessed that he loves his car seats and does typically sleep well in it.

....Brennan usually takes a 2 hour nap each day, so it is extremely odd that he didn't nap this day, but again I am thankful he just happily stays in his bed even when he's not sleeping.

...I know I leave my laundry in the washer and dryer too long before taking it out (sorry, Val!).

Recipe for Chicken and Cheese Soup:
1 can (12.5 oz) chunk chicken
1 can Rotel
1 can cream of chicken/mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
4 oz. Velveeta cheese
1 can kidney beans
dash of garlic powder

Just throw it all in a pot and heat it up! So easy and super delicious!

Brennan and Bryce Comparison

When Bryce was born, many people told me they thought he looked just like Brennan. Now that he's two months old, most people say they look completely different. They say Bryce looks just like Kyle, but the funny thing is everyone told me Brennan looked just like Kyle too. I started a folder on iPhoto right after Bryce was born where I could put pictures of both boys to compare and thought I'd share some with you.

Here are both boys being weighed right after they were born. Brennan looks like a chunky monkey compared to Bryce! They were both 19.5 inches long.

Here they are in the same outfit playing on the playmat. Brennan is first at only three days old and Bryce is second at 10 days.

Here are their 1 month giraffe pictures. Again, Brennan's is first.

Their 2 month pictures; Brennan is first.

Here are both boys sitting on the couch. Brennan is first and he's a few days shy of 2 months. Bryce is 2 months and one day old. 

And here are two more. Both are a little over 2 months old; Brennan's pic is first.

I think they look pretty different. But boy they are both so cute. I am just loving Bryce's bright blue eyes and I hope they stay. I also think both boys look so alert and make good eye contact with the camera.

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Happy Sunday

via

eXcept you be converted...

...and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 18:3

I had started this post on Thursday and completely forgot to finish it and post it yesterday. Better late than never!

We had a good week doing Raising Rock Stars Preschool this week. Our letter of the week was 'X' and the verse was long for Brennan to learn. We did talk a lot about heaven and how Jesus loves children. We sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" many times during the week.

Here's the board for the week and some of the activities I had ready for him.

Brennan was eXcited to try using scissors again this week! I cut his 'X' words into strips of three and he cut them apart. He still needs a lot of help, but he's learning.

He was very eXcited to do this shape sorting activity. I cut out four shapes and he had to match them to their outline on the paper. 

 He also enjoyed tracing the letter 'X'.

We've done capital and lowercase letter sorting before. As I was cutting the letters out for Brennan, he said he wanted to play with his Easter eggs. I came up with the idea to put a letter 'X' in each egg. Then I had him close his eyes and I put an extra 'X' in one of the eggs so that it had two. Then he opened his eyes and had to search through the eggs for the special two 'X' one! He LOVED this game! It wasn't very educational, but it was fun and it was good fine motor practice for him to open and close the eggs over and over again. We repeated this activity many times this week!

We laid his 'X' words out in the shape of an 'X' and he found all of them. Then he showed me his eXcited face!

Once again, B painted his coloring sheet with the week's verse on it. I think the Easter Bunny is going to need to bring him some more watercolors! 

I love my smart boy!