Spout it Out Saturday

Spout: vb to utter (a stream of words) on a subject, often at length

About the Kids:

Austin's class was featured in our local newspaper a few weeks ago, and I just realized that there were some pictures of Austin in the online version. Check out the link here: Field Elementary's Career Day. Austin is in pictures #2-5!

I signed Austin up for soccer. He will be staying after school one day a week for the program, so it will be super convenient- no long Saturdays at the soccer field for us :) This will be Austin's first time doing sports, and I think he is excited that some of his classmates are going to play with him. It is an informal program where he will learn how to play the game. You can see more info at this link: www.4kicksforkidz.com

David has recently been evaluated for speech therapy since he is not talking much. The lady who evaluated him said that he should qualify for First Steps, which is a state program where a therapist comes to your home instead of having to go to a doctor's office. He should be starting therapy in the next few weeks, so that is good.

Grown-up Stuff:

We are having neighbor troubles. Since I work for an attorney and am wise enough not to rant about specifics on the internet, I'll share two Bible verses that spoke to me this week:

"Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed." Psalm 21:11

 "You must not harbor hatred against your brother... Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh" Leviticus 19:17-18.

Neighbor troubles are no good.

In light of the Leviticus verse, I'm reading through the Bible chronologically this year with our church. It is going to be very interesting to read the Word from a different perspective, and I'm hoping it will help me to get a better understanding of the big picture of scripture.

Mortified Meijer Madness- Shopping with a Toddler

I was encouraged to find this post on my old blog from when Austin was two years old like David is now. I remember going through this terrible toddler tantrum stage with Austin, and it is so much easier this time around! (that may be due to a more mild temperament on David's part or increased maturity on my part- who knows)

What has Austin been reading lately?

I updated my Learning to Read page with some good books that can be checked out from our local library here in Louisville. Also, we recently bought an easy to read Bible storybook that has been fun to work through with Austin.

Austin is doing so well with his reading lately. It's amazing how quickly a child can progress to harder books. We have bought a few early reader books, mostly from used bookstores for 50 cents or from Goodwill, but most of the books Austin uses are from our public library. Since November, I have been going to the library no less than twice a week to pick up stacks and stacks of early reader books. Some of them I pick out from the shelves, but mostly I search the online catalog and reserve them from the comfort of my personal computer. There are about a dozen library locations here in town, and they will locate any book I reserve from any of said locatiosn and send it to my local library for free. Then I just go to the checkout counter, present my library card and they hand over the big stack of books I reserved. It's so easy!

When Austin first started to read, I was so overwhelmed when I went to the early reader section of our library because there were hundreds of books to choose from. Most of them were too hard for Austin, and I didn't know an easy way to figure out which books would be good for him as a very early reader.

Our children's librarian, Barbara, gave me a bit of helpful advice. She said that there isn't really a standard system of reading levels- "Level 1" for one publisher might mean something different than "Level 1" for a different publisher. So, she said to browse around until I found the perfect book for Austin's reading level, then search online for other books in that same series. I have listed some of the best series for new readers on my Learning to Read page if you are interested, or if your child hasn't started to read, just bookmark me :)

Actually, I just got on the online catalog a few minutes ago and reserved like 20 Mo Willems books for Austin. It's a good thing you can check out up to 99 books at a time because we are certainly checking out our fair share of books these days!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love our public library system here in Louisville?!

Valentine's Day 2012

Joseph and I have had 11 Valentine's Days together.

2002- I was a senior in high school. Pretty sure he got me a fabulous gold necklace. I wore it yesterday :)

2003- My first year of college at UT Martin. I think he gave me another pretty necklace.

2004- We were engaged this year.

2005- I was wrapping up my last semester of college (I got out in 3 years), and we were very newly married.

2006- This was our first year in Louisville. We had just moved into a new apartment (which we lived in for 5 years before moving into this one.)

2007- We had a new "little" valentine this year (Austin)

2008- 2009 No remembrance, but I'm sure we spent the evenings with Austin :)

2010- David was a newborn, less than a month old.

2011- I don't remember what we did last year. Is that terrible?

2012- Joseph and I celebrated Valentine's Day early last Friday. We sent the boys to Parent's Night Out at the seminary (only cost us $10 for three hours!), got O'Charleys steaks to-go, came home to a quiet house and watched a movie. It was great!

Last night we ate deli chicken from Kroger and watched The Biggest Loser. Joseph and I always watch that show together, and I look forward to it every week!

So, what's it like to take two kids to the doctor?

A Test in Patience!

Today was suppose to be a lazy-sleep in-and-don't-shower-till-noon kind of day since Austin didn't have school, but instead, the boys and I spent an hour and a half at the pediatrician's office waiting for an antibiotic for David's ear infections.

Since my last post was so popular, I thought some of you might be interested in a play-by-play of this morning.

So, what's it like to have two rowdy boys?

Exhausting!!!

Seriously, as I type this, my five year old is hopping around the living room in his underwear trying to get the two year old to squeal while I wait for my downstairs neighbor to bang on the floor with her broomstick. Joseph is sleeping because he worked last night, and I'm feeling jetlagged from a nap, which I decided to indulge in because David was up crying with ear infections until 1 a.m.

Now the boys have moved into Joseph's office where Austin is attempting to give the baby a piggy back ride. What he hasn't learned yet is that not wearing a shirt around an I'm-cute-now-I'm-going-to-pinch-you two year old is a bad idea....

Well before I finished that last sentence, they ran into the living room where Austin is trying to pick David's nose with his elbow (don't ask)... and now Austin is crying from the bedroom.... Oh, good, David didn't do it- Austin just hit his head on the wall...

Whew! That was a pretty good 5 minute sample of a typical non-school day.

So, what's it like to have two rowdy boys?

It's certainly never boring :)