Thankful for health

This year we were supposed to go to the Clark Homestead for Thanksgiving but the virus keep us away. All of us at some point during the week, except Asa, were down with the ick. We planned to go to Arkansas on Wednesday, postponed to Thursday, hoped for Friday and then just called it quits and decided to stay home.

We had made a special Thanksgiving handprint art piece for Grandma and Papa. We sent them a picture mail of it since they didn't get to see it in person.

Tommy braved the crowds and ran to Price Chopper to buy us a Thanksgiving meal. He got a rotisserie chicken to act like our turkey, stuffing, green beans for casserole, cranberries (fresh and jelly in a can), and some rolls. He also got a smoked turkey leg - it was so tough, no one touched it. 

We had spent the weekend before Thanksgiving making salt dough ornaments for a thankful tree that we were going to put up on Thanksgiving with everyone. Each ornament had the first letter of everyone's name that was going to be there for dinner. We ended up putting it up at our house. I asked Tommy to go out and get us some sticks and brought back a huge branch from the tree in our backyard (you can see some of it on the table). He didn't quite understand what we were going for at first. 

Finally, I know someone who has Thanksgiving down right. After dinner, Asa snuggled in for the traditional afternoon snooze. He's just so smart!

What's wrong with this picture?

Hanging with the Baby

Asa is a big deal in our family. He pretty much gets what he wants and his siblings are willing to hang out with him whenever he wants them around. It's quite wonderful being a family of five.

Montessori Volunteering

While I've been on maternity leave I've been helping Steven's class with some of their work. It has been a great experience - it has helped me learn some of the Montessori materials, get to know some of his classmates and understand better the abilities of the children at this age. I've wondered if Steven should repeat kindergarten since he is the youngest in his class but after working with the children for the last few weeks, I can see that he is keeping up (at least with the math work that I've been helping with) and even a little ahead of some of the children.

This is him working with Mikala on the the 1000 chain (excuse the thumb interference, I was holding a wiggly baby). They lay out a roll of felt (their rug) and have a chain of beads broken into segments of 10. Their work is to count each and every bead up to 1000. When they get to 10, 20, 30, 40, etc they put a label above the bead that represents that number. It takes about 2 hours for them to complete since you have to keep reminding them to stay focused on their work.

On another occasion I was helping Mikala and Kaden with the 1000 chain. Mikala started counting by 10s. I was pretty impressed that she could do that and so I let her finish out the chain that way. When they were finished (very quickly, less than an hour) and went to get Mrs. Jongeling, she scolded them for not doing their work properly. I think I felt more guilty than the kids did for not knowing how to do the work!

Royal Babies

Asa at One Month

Asa at one month ...

Today Asa made his first visit to the pediatrician. The doctor's first question was, "what are you eating? Steak and potatoes?"

Weighing in at 13lbs, 3oz, Asa is off the weight-for-age charts. He's probably 115th percentile!

Those cute noises he was making while sleeping have turned not so cute. Mommy can't sleep with this throat clearing, grunter by her side every night!

The president was re-elected today. Asa went to the polls with mommy, Steven and Lyla. Steven used the tiny pencil to fill in the circles for mommy. Asa got an "I voted" sticker for his car seat.

Asa has retained most of his dark locks. His sister loves to make mohawks in his hair. He's our little punk rocker.

Cliff Hanger 2012

Tommy's work sponsor a lot of 5k races around town and signs their staff up to participate. This year he signed us up for the Cliff Hanger 5k/8k a month after Asa was born. The race is along Cliff Drive which is a scenic byway in the historic Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City. There are some really old mansion (most are really run down) in this area and it is a dream for Tommy to buy one and renovate it. I say, no, not if don't feel safe letting the kids play in the yard. Maybe I'm too cautious.

Anyway, back to the run...the kids stuck with me and walked complained most of the way. And then when Tommy caught back up to us, they ran to the finish with him. I think that the announcer had more fun announcing our family's arrival at the finish line than the actually winners of the race. We are a spectacle.