And so another week begins… and with it our new plan of action in regards to Zander. I have to admit it was… odd… to be down a kid for the majority of the day. Zander and Ken had the basement to themselves and Mommy was told to strictly stay out of it. Though Zander DID escape Ken a couple times to come up and “show someone something”…

Both hard at work, pardon the mess!

In the meantime those of us left upstairs kept busy… there was math to be done, workbook fun… and then we read a book on celebrating Chinese New Year. That of course spurred the interest in creating pictures for our poster… Emanuel made TWO! 

Original illustrations

There were dragons to glitter up too… We had originally planned on doing them the way the craft suggested HERE but the cutting out of a template took so long we decided to do a  group dragon and decorate it as we pleased. VERY flashy!

Dragon decorating, final stages

The one on the right was 100% Trinity

In the back of the book was instructions on how to make relatively simple paper lanterns. Coloured paperr, tape and staples… oh and scissors… so simple!!

Lanterns

I am still so excited that Gavin WANTS to cross stitch, so this afternoon we had son and mom stitch time. Not quite a stitch’n’bitch but we did stitch’n’chat! He was much more cheerful than I was as I realized I had made a colour error LAST night that had to be redone. 

My stitching buddy

Gavin and I also worked on coming up with sentences and then him writing the words either from memory or by sounding them out. It is slow going and frustrating yet again… but we managed 3 sentences before I determined he was getting a little bit stressed and let him off (I do believe we went back to sewing or something). He is catching on, though it may not be until the summer that he will be writing his own paragraphs fluently! 

Quiet time creations - it is hard to tell, but the one on the left is a bowl of Chinese food on a table and then he is holding the chopsticks!

OH on the tooth front… for the first time EVER I am PLEASED that the twins were wrestling past bedtime. Gavin bashed his mouth on Zander’s head and out it popped! About time! It has a long root though (shudder) so once we get our dental coverage it will have to be mentioned to the dentist. BUT the other tooth is in and down. Straight and nice. He says he thinks he looks funny… I had to giggle at that – NOW he looks funny, when before he had a tooth hanging out of his mouth! BUT we are excited. The tooth fairy MUST be called (I had to remind them that she would NOT be coming tonight as Mommy had NOT alerted her to the loss)… again the massive surprise that MOMMY has the tooth fairy’s PHONE NUMBER! Remember it is a TWO toy tooth!

Pre tooth out illustrations!

Spontaneous space picture... he had to look up Jupiter.

So the excitement of a lost tooth, the weather being cold, the kids coming down from their visit with the uncles buzz… it has been quite the long and drawn out day!

Buttered popcorn baby

And the weekend comes and goes and the time got away from me! So… 3 day post! Enjoy! Let’s see… Saturday… well, surprisingly the kids played nice and Echo took and early nap in the morning (which kicked me into Emanuel’s room) and Ken and I both got to sleeping. Ken did have to make breaky and do baby duty for a bit but we got sleep!!! Did it ever feel nice! 

All dolled up

Our afternoon was when the real fun (for the adults) started – Karyn came over and she and I ran out on errands. After all, Saturday night was nacho potluck and gaming night! I lucked out watching Freecycle and was able to go out and grab some children’s dvd’s. Freecycle is a definite godsend! We got everything from Bob the Builder to Thumbelina and more. Included is a dvd on astronauts! Timely huh? 

Movies!

We played Arkham Horror Saturday night… it is a loooong game and lots of fun! And Kristen brought desert… VERY yummy!!

Camera Thief

Gaming

Desert

Our Sunday was a little out of the ordinary too… no Sunday School and with Gavin’s tooth being VERY stubborn we opted to stay home and wiggle. (still no luck but in the past two days VERY loose… just equally as stubborn!). So it was laze around and enjoy the family day… and mid way through that – a visit from Grandma and Grandpa! Presents too! Oh and Grandpa Mike tried to pull the tooth to no avail as well… wiggles yes, out NO. 

Along with the grandparents came some pretty dresses, socks, etc. AND another storage unit!! YAY! So we have TWO now that match and I am already filling the new one up. Organization makes Lisa HAPPY! The twins are to take a look at their room and little sets, kits, etc that have been making their home in their room at to migrate to the drawers. I am hoping we can cut down on the clutter. They have a small room and need all the space they can get. 

Storage

Grandpa Mike even spent some time teaching the twins how to play chess! There are so many rules that I am sure there will have to be quite a few sessions. I personally am not sure of all the rules but I bet by the end of the year I will have to learn them! 

Chess

Today marks back to school for a lot of children. We have been going pretty steady over Christmas but now I am trying to get us really busy and focused. Since Chinese New Year is in January it is time for us to start our colouring and worksheet fun. There is a poster to create! I would suggest, if you are interested in learning about Chinese New Year, that you go to EnchantedLearning. They have a nice selection of worksheets… 

Workbook time

I am very proud of Zander today. Once he got over his “I don’t wannas” he spent an hour or more teaching Trinity different games… everything from tic tac toe to boardgames to memory. Very patient and not too competitive. 

Memory

At the same time the other two were hard at work with their blocks creating different cities and races. It is so lovely when they pair off and get along so well!

In Emanuel's room

Ken was a busy man today so a lot of stuff he was hoping to do for the family got postponed. I am so proud of how hard he works for us. Tomorrow morning he has errands to run and then Wednesday we lose the whole day to the city. Thankfully he can do work that does not depend on internet connection while we are at the hospital. 

Out in the snow now ice

So with math and reading and colouring and playing and time outside… well the day went by quite quickly! I wish I could say ALL the laundry is done and put away and the rooms cleaned BUT some progress has been made! 

Post bath curls

Testing has been done, appointment with doctor accomplished and the next two appointments booked… what a day! Ken had his yearly physical and came through with flying colours. Since he and Echo could not get in to have their blood work (and her x-ray) done sooner we are still waiting on those results BUT his bloodpressure was perfect, weight right on etc. etc. AND when he came back and picked up Echo there were able to get the x-ray done AND the blood taken. Apparently Echo was less than enthused as first off they had to have the nurse hold her for the x-ray (big no no in Echo land) AND then they had problems finding a vein on her. She is very tiny! 

Today Trinity was my busy learning bee… first it was fun with her workbook (some actual following instructions some random colouring lots of ADORABLE chatter) and then later on Daddy’s netbook for “ABCD” time on Starfall. It has been a while since I have mentioned this site I think. We do not pay a subscription fee so there is SOME stuff we cannot access but more than enough to keep even our two almost 8 yr olds happy! I love listening to her repeat along… G… and then the sound it makes… she is so proud of herself and a pro with the touch pad.

Starfall

The boys did their usual quota and added in copious reminders for Gavin to WIGGLE HIS TOOTH!! Ken talked to our physician and she said wiggle the heck out of it and if it is not out in the next while to bring him to her. We absolutely LOVE our new doctor… friendly and calm and so nice! Sadly she could NOT schedule Ken a vasectomy yet… there have been some changes in the health care system as to what is and isn’t covered and she wanted to be sure (a friend of mine who is a doctor said he thought it was still covered so we are keeping fingers crossed). Seriously, with 5 kids… 4 of which have needed some form of additional medical care you would think they would throw him a parade and walk him right on up to the door!

Note Gavin (in yellow) with his finger in his mouth wiggling as they play the PS3

Echo had her learning time too… in her favourite chair, though I am not sure how much was learning and how much was making the lights flash. She does love a noisy toy!

"Hey kids, welcome to Alphabet town"

We are going to get started on Chinese New Year next week, I will share my links. I have some books requested and am hoping some friends can suggest a good food to try as part of our learning. This is the year of the dragon, so there are some colouring pages to be done, word searches… a maze… and of course the story of the Zodiak to read. Since the boys want a poster I am hoping for lots of brightly coloured pictures. There is even an event on the 18th for Ken to take all 3 boys to to learn at the library (it says 6 and up but a 5 yr old who turns 6 in like 2 weeks… why not?). And if anyone reading this has links to share please DO!!!

There are days when I am reminded of how alike our twins really are and there was a moment like that today… we were talking about Gavin’s tooth and the need to take it out when I brought up the tooth fairy. I told them that Ken and I TALKED to the tooth fairy last night and that she said this tooth was a TWO present tooth… in unison, same look on their faces: “How do you talk to the tooth fairy?” I couldn’t help but giggle… it was ADORABLE… of course I told them that once you loose ALL your baby teeth you get a special phone number so you can CALL the tooth fairy for when YOU have kids… after all sometimes she needs a little help and vice versa. 

Tinker Bell is coming along nicely on the afghan and I have messaged the newest parents for information on their baby for a sampler. January may have nothing to do with Christmas but it has a lot to do with crafting still! I hope to have something to show by the next week but am holding off, I want to have something substantial and exciting with my Tink! Of course there is cleaning to do… kids to teach and a house to run so progress is not swift… but there will be more to show next week, along with Echo’s 6 month cardiologist appointment… wish us luck!

Baby with baby and popcorn