Throwback er, Sunday

This is probably from last month - a tell-tale sign would be the grass is still green - when it rained a little, and you could run out there and relish the muddy puddle.

There wasn't much to jump in, so you ended up making mud pies and whatnots.

Christmas Nook

Our house is quite small, and so there can't really be a Christmas nook - even though we DO have a Christmas Tree up, and especially not with rambunctious dogs and cats around.

So, in the RV, we have a little Christmas Corner, where all things Christmas reside.

 
I had saved the gingerbread houses we had made from last year, and most of them survived storage pretty well.
 
Next, came the bow-ridden faucet :)
 
We had painted a few smooth stones and one of them was Christmas-sy, and so they got added on too.
 
After we got our little RV Christmas Tree in a pot, we rearranged things around a little bit so that the plants would get plenty of sunshine.
 
We added a 2 snowmen having a feast, and a couple of Santas,
 
The Grinch and Max, his dog,
 

and Voila! :)

A Rare Evening Walk

We don't go out at night much.  It is even rarer for us to be out of the vehicle IF we ARE out, and WALKING around.

That evening, we had been by the Abilene Public Library, and Daddy was watching A Very Important Football Game on his phone.

So, we took a stroll at Everman Park downtown while Daddy watched the last bits of the game.

We had been to the park on numerous occasions, but never in the evening. 

We were greeted by The Man in The Moon from the William Joyce novels, in the parking lot.

The buildings had festive Christmas lights going, which was so pretty.

They had a bunch of colored lights going in the park, and the effect was well, colorful, if not a little jarring. :)

Of course, you wanted to stop at EVERY Seuss character statue and take pictures. AND read every inscription/information thingy.

You also couldn't resist jumping into the  bronze boat with the children from the book, Santa Calls, which is set in Abilene.

So Proud of You!

1.  Flu Shot

Last week, you got your flu shot.  We had set the appointment earlier in the week, but opted not to tell you till the last minute, so as not to drag out your dread.  On the last day of November, you asked if it was the last day of November, and when I said "yes", your eyes opened wide and said, "It's DECEMBER tomorrow! That means flu shot!".

Anyway,  this year, you were exceptionally brave.  You  knew about the shot literally about 30 minutes before it happened, and even though you were nervous, you remained calm.  When it came time for the shot, you sat on my lap and closed your eyes while the nurse gave you your shot.  At first you said, "ouch!", and then opened your eyes wide in surprise 2 seconds later and said, "Wow, that was over lickity split!".

2.  Broccoli, Green Beans and Vegetables in General.

Recently, you have been really sweet about eating a wider variety of vegetables, even if we have to take it slowly.  During dinner, several nights ago, you ate like 8 different bites of broccoli.  I was so proud of you! Of course, when I TOLD you how proud of you I was, you just beamed and beamed :)


3.  Water on your face thing.

You have always disliked very much having water on your face at bath/shower time, and afraid of it going into your eyes and like that.  So, every time you shower/bathe/go to the splash park, I have to be constantly on standby with a towel.  Thing is, you really want to learn how to swim in the future.  So, the last few times, we have been trying to take a little time before wiping your face if it gets splashed a little, and you even opened your eyes wide when I dripped a couple of drops of water down your forehead - which is HUGE! And of course, the happy look of pride on your face when I grinned and told you how proud I was of you, was just priceless.

Way to Go, Little Boy! :)

Play Dates

Patsy sometimes brings her great nephews to bible class when she has them for the week/weekend.  You have played with them on numerous occasions when they come, and I believe both Xiayu and Qi have had the opportunity to meet them.

Anyway, they like to play with you, and you are always asking when they would be back again - they live in New Mexico.

So, when Patsy had them for Thanksgiving, we were not about to let an opportunity to have a play date go by.

We met up with Patsy at McDonald's, and watched you guys romp around for 2 ( read TWO ) hours. :)

 

Thank you, Patsy!

School

We did fairy tales for a couple of weeks

Can you guess what they were?

We did Mirette on the High Wire

and of course, all about Thanksgiving.

We happened to see a Road Runner running about outside the RV during school and thought we would learn a little bit about them :)

Random Things You Do

as I remember them...

1. You like to hold the remote while we are watching a DVD and pause at the parts where the characters are doing something silly or have a silly face, and have a good laugh.  And then you rewind and pause and laugh all over again.

2. If we are on the tablet, you will pause and rewind, as per #1

3. Every night when Daddy comes to tuck you in, you insist on calling me over and doing a group hug. It is a Big Deal.

4. You have already made out your Christmas List to Santa. Of course, a bunch of it is Angry Birds stuff.

5. You think that wiggling your bottom at me is hilarious.

6. Even after "lights out", you are still up, reading books by the light of your Xmas lights that are strung around your bed area.

7. Favorite cartoons at the moment : Tom and Jerry, Pixie and Dixie & Mr. Jinx, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound.

8. You can read really well, and are good with sums, and are now coloring in the lines really nicely when you put your mind to it.

9. You are pretty considerate of others' feelings, and I often am struck by how resilient yet loving and gentle you are.

to be continued..

Timing of FIAR lessons

I try to have our lessons coincide with the correct season, or time of the year etc, and even though we did Cranberry Thanksgiving last year, I decided to do it again this year, with some added information.

You helped me prepare our Cranberry Relish for Thanksgiving.

We observed how the cranberries floated to the surface of the water, like in the videos we had watched of Cranberry farmers harvesting their berries in a flooded bog.

We cut up our Cranberries to see the air pockets in there, as well as the tiny seeds,

You had quite a lot of fun being mommy's little helper. :)

Sleeping like a Baby

Every night, practically since you were born, we have looked in on you several times a night.  Daddy always talks about how he wishes you didn't have to grow up so fast, and that even though you are a ripe old age of 5 1/2 now, you still look so angelic when you are asleep.

The Rocketeer

I try to talk to you about the importance of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and you are quite the advocate sometimes.

Anyway, here you are, in a rocket jet pack made of an empty cereal box, empty paper towel roll and the little plastic sleeve that our newspaper comes in.

Veterans Day

This year we are handling a few more topics than we did last year, and Veterans Day is one of them. I think you are a little more mature this year, and can understand a little bit more about topics like war and sacrifice and honor.

After we had read several books on Veterans Day, you asked if you could write a letter to a veteran.

Then, we talked about how Grandad had gone to enlist, he had been turned away for health reasons. He had had old football injuries to his knees, and them knees thought that that was the perfect time to get all swollen and inflamed.

He did however, contribute to the war effort by working at a North American Aviation in Inglewood, California during the war, and assembled B 52 bombers .

I miss Grandad.  Apparently he had mellowed a lot by the time I got to know him, but he was a sweet sweet man who had great pride in his family and his life, and he ADORED you. I am so glad you at least got to spend a few years with him and vice versa.

Okay, now my heart is aching and I had better stop before I am a complete mess.

Remember when....

We got you a bike a long time ago and unveiled it at Grandad's house one Christmas...

 

Christmas 2011, to be exact, and our roads out here in the country aren't exactly conducive to learning how to ride a bike.

Sure, every now and then we would bring you to the "Umbrella Park" to try to learn how to ride, but you would lose interest really fast, or be afraid you would fall.

 

A few weeks ago, you started asking to go on bike rides.  The weather had turned cooler, and so we thought, "sure, why not".

We went and got you new protective gear, and although you took a few minutes to get warmed up, pretty soon you got the hang of it and were pedalling all over the place by yourself! *ignore for now that daddy has a pop-tart head*

Once you got into it, you insisted you weren't tired and kept going and going.   We were so proud of you!!

Fall/Autumn, Homeschool Stylz

We did a bunch of fall craft and activities to usher in the season :)

 
First we built ourselves a scarecrow in a pumpkin patch, out of colored construction paper and cut-outs I had gotten from Dollar Tree over the years..

and learned all about pumpkins. Yes, gotta love them visual aids.
 
We also learnt some songs and rhymes, and you managed to remember all the words to "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" better than I could :)

and made an apple print tree!  You had been asking me for a while now, to do potato prints, and I thought that making an apple print tree would be quite fitting for the season. I drew some templates for the tree trunk and leaves, and you painted them in.
 
As for a Jack-O-Lantern, you drew a face on a little pumpkin that we had, and I did the carving. I had gotten a set of little flickering LED lamps for this very purpose.  You were so excited to turn off the light to see the glowing face. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of it before it got mouldy. Bleh.

We also decorated a window with Halloween gel clings.

Meanwhile, we Columbus Day came up and we learnt a little bit about him as well.