Animal Alphabet

For the month of November Samuel is learning about a different animal each day. He has been quite interested in what sounds animals make lately and has picked up on quite a few of them. I thought we could incorporate this new love of his with learning the alphabet as well. I'm trying to get a list of all kinds of animals: insects, mammals, birds, reptiles, etc. If you have some additions to the list, leave a comment.

Abbi is doing something similar with her kids this month too. They are dressing up in colors that start with the letter they are doing that day and are eating foods that start with that letter as well.

We've gone to the library to get some more books on each animal so we have a few to look at each day. November sounds like it's going to be quite a fun month in the homeschooling world! We'll let you all know how we're progressing.

Our Alphabet Animal List:
ALLIGATOR
BEAR
COW
DOG
ELEPHANT
FISH
GORILLA
HORSE
IQUANA
JAQUAR
KITTEN
LADYBUG
MOUSE
NEWT
OSTRICH
PIG
QUAIL
RABBIT
SHEEP
TURTLE
URCHIN
VULTURE
WHALE
X-RAY FISH
YAK
ZEBRA

Yay for Grandparents!

Gigi and GranRan visited this past weekend. Samuel had such a blast with his grandparents. They spent lots of time outside playing. He was able to show off all of his recently learned animal sounds which of course melted their hearts. They brought him some stuffed animals which make the noise that the animals make. He's been carrying them around practicing their sounds. It was great to see family. What would kids ever do without grandparents?!

And what would we ever do without them either?! We were able to get away for an afternoon and go on a date. We all went to the farmers market Saturday morning and then Andy and I stayed in Bloomington and went to Barnes and Noble for some quiet time. We use to go there at least once a week for a date before Samuel was born, and we've been there only 3 times in the 15 months since he's been born. It was a great get-a-way.

Before I went to pick them up at the airport I had a ton of dishes to do and Samuel was not cooperating. So, I got creative and put him in the sink. He had a blast and I was able to get the dishes done in no time! He thinks that's to be expected every time the dishes are done now.

Samuel on the trail playing with sticks and leaves.

I'm In Fat Denial

I just love being pregnant. The miracle of live just overwhelms me at times. I cannot believe what is going on inside my body. I have not had a single pain since my miracle and I have never felt better. Joseph is starting to form a schedule of sleeping and playing. Unfortunately it seems to oppose my sleeping and playing schedule. This too shall pass.

My stomach started to grow much sooner with Joseph than it did with Samuel. They say that is typical of a second birth. But, lately I don't feel like I've been progressing any faster. I found a picture of my finishing 22 weeks pregnant with Samuel so I thought I would take a similar picture today, since I just finished 22 weeks yesterday. I'm carrying Joseph a tad bit different, but by the looks of it I'm right about the same size. I don't know if it's just because I'm so used to being pregnant, but I don't feel as big as I look. When I saw the picture when I was pregnant with Samuel I just though 'oh my I look huge' but then after I compared the two pictures, I am definitely no smaller now than I was then! I think I'm in fat denial.

First picture is with Samuel, second is with Joseph. Both at 22 weeks.

Phasing Out The Pigger

Just a great picture of the two of them before church last Sunday.

Samuel's very first love was unfortunately his pacifier. It still is, but we are working on phasing it out. We've limited it's use to only in his crib for the past couple of months and now we have resorted to clipping the tip of it off little by little. He is growing less and less interested in it by the day. Our point exactly :) It has been going well. We shall see how long it actually takes for it to be gone. He even fell asleep in the car the other day without it, the first time in his life that has happened. We are making progress.

Hospital To Home

We have decided through much prayer, research, interviews with doctors, midwives, nurses, and other women who have had home births, that our very best bet of having the birth we want for Joseph will be to give birth to him outside of a hospital. We will be delivering him in our home with a certified nurse midwife and a certified nurse in attendance. We feel very strongly about this decision and hope that we can answer any questions anyone might have. Please feel free to ask any questions you'd like. We encourage the discussion.

We believe we are making this decision in faith and have been lead to our decision only after much conversation with the Lord.

Due to the fact that so little of you out there are unfamiliar with home births I have decided to start a blog giving resources to help those of you who care to learn more about it and why this issue is so near and dear to our hearts. I do not want to bog down this site with the issue, so I have reserved the other blog specifically for that reason. I will go into much great detail there as to why we feel that giving birth at home is our best option.

We pray that this will be a learning and growing experience for us all.

You can view my blog at: www.hospitaltohome.blogspot.com, as well as clicking on our profile on the right and finding it through there.