Monday, December 3, 2007

Nobody Dances Anymore


Ah, my musical recommendation for today...it's an older album but pretty darn awesome. I forgot about it and Josh popped in a few songs the other night in the car. :)
Soooooo, what up everyone? Things around here have been crazy, as usual. I have the kids on this "26 week" curriculum, trying to drill the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, animals, etc into them. LOL. Well, drill is not the right term. We take it one week at a time. Last week we learned the letter A, how to write it (Anberlin has mastered it), the number one (how to write it as well), color green, a square, and a baby cow is called a "calf." Each day we do an activity reinforcing the skills for the week. Lots of books that include cows and calves. Going out to see an actual cow. Playing "shape searchers" and looking for squares around the house. That type of thing. Alot of it is review for Anberlin, but Sebastian is learning. Hopefully at the end of the 26 weeks, Anberlin will be able to write her whole alphabet and then we can move on to bigger things.
We put up our scrawny Christmas tree last week. Anberlin did most of the ornament hanging. Oh, I look forward to the day that we can have beautiful, ornate glass ornaments, and not the plain "looks like glass but it's really plastic" type. We had to place our tree in our dining room of all places. The store here on the base only sells christmas lights with the european plugs, and there aren't any of those in our living room. It doesn't look bad though, I just would prefer it elsewhere. We have presents under the tree, mostly from my parents, and somehow the kids have refrained from ripping into them! I need to get our gifts wrapped and under the tree. Josh and I started shopping in October, buying a little at a time and we've got all the gifts for the kids done.
Next Saturday, I will be "adopting" an orphan for the day from one of the orphanges in Nuremburg. The base has lots of activities set up for everyone. There will be free bowling, free pizza, things to do at the activity center. The problem is, I believe most of these things are geared towards a younger child and the girl that I am sponsoring is 17! We'll have to play it by ear. My girl has asked for one thing...a 2008 Simpsons calendar. We went to 4 different bookstores this weekend and no one had one!! I bought her a scarf to give her ontop of the calendar, but I"m going to feel horrible if I can't get a hold of one before Saturday. I guess if worst comes to worse, I'll have to give her a card with some money in it, along with the scarf.
There are lots of things going on with the family.
My mom went home to the Philippines to visit her mom and other family. It's so sad though. My "lola" has developed Alzheimer's and doesn't recognize my mom. I'm not sure to what degree her alzheimers is...hopefully she has good days and will recognize my mom while she's there.
My dad is receiving an award in Washington DC on Tuesday for the secretary's third annual Department of homeland security awards. I think it's pretty neat.
Josh's music has a slight delay as the other member is in the states visiting family until the middle of December. I can tell Josh has the itch to make more music. lol. They will be putting another single up very soon and this one will sure to make the gals swoon.
Anberlin is getting better with her speech. I still plan on taking her to a developmental researcher to make sure her language skills aren't something to be worried about. She will be 4 in May and still does A LOT of baby talk. And when she does say a sentence, she slurs her words. I think she has a lazy mouth.
Sebastian. Oh my poor little boy. In January he will be having surgery to correct a "hydrocele." His surgery is on a Friday morning and if all goes well, we'll be released on Sunday. I'm a bit nervous of the whole ordeal, mainly because it's in a German Hospital. I'd get into the details of his condition, but it's not exactly the thing I want to be plastering all over the blog. lol. If you're curious, you can read about it here: http://www.babysurg.org/hernia.html. He doesn't have a hernia though, it's not that extreme.
I've been busy not scrapbooking. :( I'm not "busy" per se, but my days are filled with the kids and then keeping up with the housework and cooking...by the time I have some free time, I'm exhausted. I finished all of my Christmas cards. I need to get ontop of doing the handmade items for my family. Maybe tonight. Josh has duty and he'll be gone until 8 am tomorow.
I'm sure there's more I want to talk about, but it's time for me to go play teacher. Hopefully I'll update more and have pictures to post.
Oh. The sneakie peeks are up at Scrap Mojo! This is an easy challenge and a super fun technique!! I hope you'll take the time to do it. :)
xoxo

3 comments:

Scrapping My 2 Precious Gems said...

Can't wait to see pics of your tree! Ours also has those plain plastic that look like glass ornaments. With my little guy there is no way I can have the beautiful glass ornaments...and he's 5!!!

It is wonderful that you are having Anberlin evaluated for speech delays. My daughter was. I took her to get evaluated when she was 3 and a half. Like Anberlin, she said a few simple phrases but mostly babytalked. And what was sad was the fact that she was frustrated when we didn't understand what she was saying.

They did find a significant delay (She had the speech of an 20 month old) and she started therapy 3 times a week for 30 minutes in a preschool setting. Worked wonders. My baby girl was talking within 6 months!!!! She was "declassified" at the age of 5 right before entering Kindergarten. Now at 8 and a half and can not SHUT HER UP! LOL

Good luck. You are doing all the right things (playing school, alphabet sound recognition etc). If you need any ideas, let me know. I still have Leilani's IEP progress reports I can peruse for you.

Unknown said...

Wow there was a lot to say on that one...First of all poor lil guy! I hate when kids have to have anything "done" to them. It makes me sad. Big hug and prayers that everything will go quick well and he will be home in no time. As for Anberlin it sounds like you are doing a lot to help her and im sure she will be just fine. Youre a good mommy.

You are one lucky girl to be on top of ur shopping! I am sooooo not...All we have so far is the trampoline from santa and thats it lol! 4 kids to buy for is not fun...especially at the last min. So you go girl!

Melissa Mann said...

Wow.
You have definitely been keeping busy!

And Mr. Sebastian...gracious! I'll definitely be keeping y'all in my thoughts....I would be scared about having that done overseas as well!

Have a good week!