The First Two Weeks

Wow, hard to believe that the first two weeks have already gone by!  Of course since one of my goals would be to be healthy for this year some of our family is sick.  Anderson has a bit of a cough and runny nose still.  Christopher went to Illinois for his Uncle's funeral and came back with the flu!  We are doing our very best to stay away from him because it's a pretty nasty one and I really don't want the boys or myself to get it.

Anderson enjoying a train ride at a birthday party at My Gym

Anderson has been talking so much more lately and it is exciting.  Last year at his two year appointment we were told that the average two year old should be putting two words together.  Anderson maybe had a vocabulary of 20 words and wasn't close to putting any words together.  We weren't too worried about it because we know that some kids are late talkers and he understands a lot, but just wasn't talking.  Then around November he started saying a lot more.  He was also repeating some words.  Now he repeats a lot of what we say.  Sometimes he will wake up in the morning and just talk and talk and talk.  He isn't saying sentences, but he is practicing some of the new words he knows.  He has been saying, "train, tracks, and bolly ball" lately.  The two words that he does put together without fail are "Nate, no!" or "No, Nate!"  He was pronouncing Nathan's name as "knee," but just this week we heard a definite "Nate."  I was changing him one day and he says, "Knock knock."  I was just thinking that he was saying a new word so I repeated it to him.  After I repeated it to him he said, "moo!"  He was telling me his first knock knock joke!  Christopher had taught the following joke to Nathan and Anderson was doing his best to tell the joke:

Knock knock

Who's there

Cow 

Cow who?

No, silly.  Cow's go moo!

So many people have told us that they think that Anderson has grown a lot and he seems like such a boy now.  I still call him my baby and I can't help it.

Anderson fell asleep this way today!

Nathan cooking Kale for breakfast (Yes, my boys LOVE Kale!)

Nathan has been going through this phase lately where he always asks what words mean.  It is fun and challenging at times.  Sometimes one of the words that he asks about is hard to explain because we know what it means, but aren't quite sure how to explain it.  If this happens we tell him that we have to look up the word.  Nathan has also been really interested in cooking.  He likes making his own breakfast and will help with his lunch if he isn't too busy playing.  Nathan got a Mega Blocks set for Christmas (the kind that are like the regular Legos) and even though it was a fire station he has been building a whole bunch of stuff and really using his imagination with it.  It is so fun to see him.  Nathan and Anderson have been playing really well together and that is nice.

Nathan building train crossing guards out of Legos

Nathan enjoying the rings at the birthday party at My Gym

We had been in talks to have our backyard done last year and the year got away from us and nothing was done.  The price quote was also really high so we decided to go ahead and not do the big building portion of it, but just the landscaping.  The company that we are going through just came over yesterday to look at the yard and hopefully they will get started on it soon!

I've also decided that this year I am going to be more productive and crafty!  My first big project (well, it isn't that big) is to remove the wallpaper in the bathrooms.  I have already started and that stuff is stuck on really well!  I'm guessing it's been there since 1975 when the house was built.  I am also going to clean our dryer, which I don't think has ever been done since I have lived here.  I have also been thrift store shopping and found some furniture pieces that I really like.  I want to wait until Friday to get them because they are 25% off.  I just have to hope they are still there!

In the next couple of weeks we have to make a big decision regarding Nathan's schooling.  We were really set on sending him to the local Waldorf school for K-12, but now that the time is here and we are looking at tuition, it doesn't seem like it is an option.  Just for Kindergarten it is 15K a year and goes up every year.  I did a rough calculation and found that it would cost us over half a million to send both boys there through 12th grade.  Anyway, we aren't too happy with the public schools in our area and any other private school that is non-religious is going to be just as much so we are really considering homeschooling!  I've been looking into it and we are planning on talking to some friends that homeschool and make our decision.  We have to "decide" by the 31st of this month because that is when the enrollment forms are due at the Waldorf school.  I personally think Nathan would be a great candidate for homeschooling, it is just trying to figure out if I would be a good teacher for it.

Have a great rest of the week!

Heather