Some of our favorite books from today

We checked out a whole pile of books at the library today and read them all in one sitting this evening. Some of them are barely worth mentioning, but I'll highlight our favorites:

6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (super cute book- appropriate for babies, toddlers and preschoolers- Eric Carle is great! Wonderful illustrations.)

7. The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown (the author who wrote Goodnight Moon- I really liked this one-

"The important thing about a daisy is that it is white. It is yellow in the middle, it has long white petals, and bees sit on it, it has a ticklish smell, it grows in green fields, and there are always lots of daisies. But the important thing about a daisy is that it is white."

8. I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child (a Charlie and Lola book- very cute book, but you have to read it with the British accent for the best effect :)

9. Dinosaurs Galore! by Giles Andreae (colorful dinosaur illustrations, funny rhymes, need I say more?)

Books 10-15 weren't spectacular-

Hansel and Gretel by Andrea Petrlik (not sure I like the message it sends at the end- When the children escape from the old witch woman, their father sends away his wife for "making" him abandon their children in the woods because they couldn't afford to feed them. He shouldn't have even listened to his wife in the beginning, and the children wouldn't have ever been lost. Of course, then the children wouldn't have ever found the gold treasure, and their family would still be starving. I don't remember this story being so weird when I was a kid!);

We read three books about Kindergarten, but done of them were that great. We also read one about playing fair and making good choices; Austin liked that it had flaps to open. We also read one about a Knight and a Dragon, but at some point the words stopped and you just had to make up the story by looking at the pictures. I think Austin was a little disappointed with the ending.

A funny thing Austin said when asked if he knew the different between going to school and home school.

Home school is like playing and stuff. School is where you learn your ABCs.

 Ha! He sure got the stereotype right. Joseph then proceeded to teach him to sound out a few two letter words, and he loved it! I think he is going to just love learning to read.

Our Summer Reading Goal

I've been doing a lot of reading about home school curriculum, good books for kids getting ready for kindergarten, etc, and I have come to the realization that I haven't been reading books to Austin like I did when he was younger. With him going to kindergarten in the Fall (at school or at home- to be decided upon very soon), I have decided to challenge myself to read Austin 100 new books by August. That is a little more than one book a day. (The library's summer reading only requires 10 books.)

I'm going to blog about it. Here's what we read yesterday and today:

1. Three in a Balloon by Sarah Wilson ("based upon the true story of the world's first air passengers- a sheep, a duck, and a rooster- who flew over France in a new invention, a Montgolfier hot air balloon, on September 19, 1783)- Austin's story time teacher at the library read this to the class, and Austin asked to check it out. It says it is a true story. Very interesting that they sent farm animals on the first hot air balloon ride!

The following books were recommended by the Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I checked them out from the library. They all relate to math in some way, as you will see.

2. How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwart ("If you wanted to count from one to one trillion... it would take you almost 200,000 years.")

3. Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (would be great for when Austin is older- has math puzzles)

4. Pigs will be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money by Amy Axelrod (very cute story about a pig family who has to scrape up enough spare change around the house to go out to eat- would be great for when Austin is learning about money)

5. Divide and Ride by Stuart J. Murphy (an entertaining way to practice division- above Austin's grade level, but still enjoyable for him)

You can pray for us about kindergarten. We will find out for certain what public school Austin is assigned to very soon (maybe tomorrow), and I have been reading up on homeschooling as well. There are pros and cons to both. This is a very hard issue. Any prayers are greatly appreciated!

Remembering Our Little Peanut

You would never guess that Austin was a preemie- a 29 weeker, in fact.

When he was a baby, I always had to "correct" his age (by subtracting 11 weeks from his birth age), and he was often developmentally behind. As such, I pretty much told everyone we met about Austin's prematurity.

These days, however, the fact of Austin's prematurity just doesn't come up as much. He's pretty much a normal four year old.

In order to provide some encouragement to others who are dealing with prematurity, I thought I would share a little bit of Austin's story.

(The following remarks were written in December of 2008 when Austin was 2 years old.)

Two years ago today we brought our 10 week old baby home from the hospital.

Austin was delivered at 29 weeks gestation (11 weeks preterm) and spent 72 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before we were able to take him home with us. Our "newborn" experience was a little different from that of most first time parents. Here are a few things I remember from that time:


It took many long weeks before Austin would sleep at night (I mean for even part of the night.) In the NICU, day and night were basically the same routine for him. He was a particularly demanding little preemie, and I think the nurses gave him special cuddle time at night. I'm thankful that he was well cared for in the hospital, but it took quite some time for him to acclimate to a normal nighttime schedule once we brought him home.

 We had a noisy oxygen machine in our living room with a really long oxygen hose that reached all over the apartment. Austin had to use the oxygen 24/7 for about a month after he came home. He also had a monitor that he had to wear under his clothes to make sure he didn't have any heartrate/breathing issues. He also had a strict medicine schedule. He took vitamins, two medicines for acid reflux and a diuretic to keep him from retaining fluids. We also had to mix formula with his breast milk so he would get more calories per ounce of liquid.



We quarantined ourselves in our home so that Austin wouldn't get sick that winter. RSV was a particularly dangerous threat. We are thankful that he never got so much as a sniffle until he was much older and able to handle the sickness.



My Mom helped us hang some modest Christmas decorations around the apartment. We didn't get out our tree that year, but we had some lights and greenery around the windows. Christmas 2006 was a very simple one. The Beckman family came up and spent the day with us, and we rejoiced that our baby Austin was home. He even went without his oxygen for part of the day.

 Austin was 3 months old for Christmas that year, but he was the size of a newborn, around 7 pounds.


Austin was born September 23rd and he wasn't due until December 7th. I never imagined that I would have a preemie. I always thought that prematurity was caused by something the mother did wrong. I have learned otherwise. By God's grace, He sustained us through the trial of prematurity. Looking back now, I see how blessed we are to have a healthy, energetic two year old. The Lord was gracious in allowing Austin to develop normally according to his "corrected age" (using his due date instead of his birthdate). He is a completely normal child now and seems to have "caught up" with the other kids his age. Not all preemies are so fortunate.

 I am thankful to God that He has given us strength to persevere through the hardest time of our lives. I know that it was by God's grace alone that we were able to endure this trial. We are on the other side of it now and can see the big picture more clearly. My faith has been tried and has proven weak at times, but God has sustained me. Because of our short season of suffering, we are better able to sympathize with others who are enduring similar trials.

I will leave you with this verse of scripture from James chapter one.

 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and compete, lacking in nothing.

About David

Here are some things I want to remember about David at 15 months old:

• He climbed into his plastic mega blocks wagon the other day and thought he was the cleverest baby ever. I saw him try to climb into it today, but he had on jeans and didn't have the flexibility that he had before.
• I taught him to stick his tongue out recently (terrible, I know), and it is the funniest trick! He is tongue-tied like me, so he can't stick it out very far, so it looks really silly.
• We chased each other around the apartment yesterday. I would chase him, and then he would turn around and decide to chase me. We just laughed and laughed about it.
• David has started pinching and sometimes biting his older brother. It's cute now (Austin's just reward sometimes), but I know it could become a problem if we don't address it soon.
• He is really serious about food. He is a hungry little beast. Some of the foods he eats now are: cooked black beans, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese and crackers, applesauce and rice cereal, cheerios/kix, chicken salad wrap (gobbled it all up the other day), pizza, anything resembling a cracker or snack bar, etc. He will eat all or at least part of anything I cook, which makes me a very happy cook.
• David is loving the warm weather and being able to play outside. I have to watch him around stairs, though, because he wants to climb up them.
• We started doing Skype with our parents, so now any time I sit at the computer with David in my lap, he starts waving his little hand like someone is there watching him.
• David started doing a little "happy feet" dance this week. He grins and stomps, alternating his little feet. It's hilarious. I need to get it on camera.
• He stares with straight face at strangers, but he is the funniest comedian at home. We make faces at each other all the time. (hence the sticking out the tongue trick)
• David is starting to throw fits. Ugh. I was hoping he would be an easy toddler, but I guess there is no such thing :-)
• Speaking of throwing, David doesn't really communicate with words or signs. He just starts chunking food on the floor when he is finished eating. We bought a plastic floor mat to put under his high chair since our table is on carpet. The best $10 we have spent in a long time.

"Old Camera" Edits

 We bought a new computer a few weeks ago, and I've been playing around with the HP MediaSmart program. It has a cool special effect called "Old Camera" with about a dozen different lighting options. I love it! Enjoy the pictures of the boys!

 

Toys stored under Austin's new bed













blowing bubbles



Pretty baby!





Climbing on the ottoman



Batman



Farmdale

We like our new church in Frankfort. Joseph is settling into his role as Associate Pastor with an emphasis in Children's Ministries, and the boys and I are finding our place as well. Austin is learning so much, and Joseph and I are getting a lot of experience at teaching some of these classes.

Joseph teaches the 10-11 year old Sunday School class which includes the pastor's two oldest children. They are both believers and very informed theologically. I've been sitting in on the class and have been very encouraged by the excitement that these two young people have about spiritual things. We are currently working through the book of Galations.

On Sunday mornings, kids ages 3-6 leave the service during the offering time and participate in Children's Church, where they are taught some catechism questions, have a light snack, listen to a Bible story and have some sort of craft or activity. There is a monthly rotation for Children's Church workers, and Joseph and I are part of the rotation.

On Sunday afternoons, we usually go out to lunch and then rest at the pastor's house or another church member's home. Joseph sometimes has a meeting before the evening service or he makes a hospital visit with Pastor Steve. We get along great with the Weaver family. Gretta and I have had many hours to chat and visit, and she is a wonderful model of a biblical pastor's wife. "Those Weavers" (as Austin calls them) are pretty fun. There are six kids ranging in ages from 6 weeks to 11 years old. Austin especially enjoys playing with Jonathan (5) and Isaac (7). They have all kinds of batman toys, which would account for Austin's new fascination with batman. Up until this point, he was pretty much a Marvel kid like Joseph.

On Sunday evenings, we have a program called Praise Factory, which was originally developed by Mark Dever's wife, Connie Dever. Joseph gathers all the kids together at the beginning and talks to them about the "big idea" which is some aspect of systematic theology. For the past three weeks, the big idea was "God Treated the First Sinners with Justice and Mercy." Then the big kids listen to a story and the little kids learn about missions. Then, both groups come back together for a snack and a memory verse game or music time. I've been working with another older lady to teach the kids a hymn once a month. This past time, they learned the first verse of We Have Heard the Joyful Sound. Praise Factory is a pretty neat program for the kids. Austin is learning a lot.

The congregation at Farmdale is very kind. There are several couples in their 30s, but a great number of the members are our parents' age or older. The church we came from was primarily made up of twenty-something seminary couples and members aged 80 and above. There weren't many people inbetween. It's encouraging to be around Christians who are in their 40s and 50s, who are still young enough to be active in church, yet wise enough to be the "older Christians" talked about in the Bible.