Resurfacing!

Wow- I think we're finally ready to resurface!  We've been on lock down with this cold all week.  Monday and Tuesday were awful nights of sleep and no naps because they were so incredibly stuffy, so we were all tired and irritable.  Then Caleb's cough started yesterday morning and resulted in one cough, cough, puke episode yesterday.  Matthew's cough started this morning at 6:30am (looooong before I was able to sit down with my morning coffee) and by 7:15 he had cough, cough, puked four times.  I don't know what is wrong with that kid, but he literally can't cough without throwing up.  On top of the four throw ups, I spilled my ENTIRE cup of coffee all over the living room floor before I had been able to take a single sip.  So by 7:30 am, when the boys shouldn't have even been awake and I should have been on my second cup of coffee- we were four pukes, two tubbies, and zero cups of coffee in.  It was not a good combination.  But by the grace of God I got them both down for an early nap and they both slept for three hours.  I got a short nap too, Jon came home a little early, and by dinner time we were back among the living!

We haven't done much formal, sit down preschool over the last three days but we've definitely done lots of learning.  We've been working on learning the days of the week and the month of the year with some songs and some cards.  Both of the boys have the months down in order and are starting to learn which months fit which seasons.  As for days of the week- they both skip Wednesday and Thursday!  But in all honesty, I like their version better  :)  I haven't decided whether to keep working on it or instead invest our time and energy into convincing daddy's school district that they have it wrong and we have it right!  We've also continued to work on our sight words.  The boys have mastered six words so far and are quite good at spelling, writing, and "reading" them.  Mathew has also made leaps and bounds in sounding out words!  Its really exciting to see it start to click in that little brain of his!

Since we were feeling better this evening, we decided on a family math lesson  :)  Mama wanted to make some pumpkin bread!  Daddy did a quick lesson fractions using some pipe cleaners and then our measuring cups.  We practiced reading the recipe together and letting the boys count out how many teaspoons or cups we needed of each ingredient, referring to our pipe cleaners to help them understand thirds.  The concept was quite above them, but at least held their interest!  Daddy was even brave enough to let the boys practice cracking eggs!!  It was great fall family fun activity and we all enjoyed a delicious pumpkin bread snack before bed.  Its pretty amazing how you can turn such a simple daily task into wonderful lesson...  its cool to slow down the speed and break things apart into digestible toddler chunks.  Helps me remember to slow myself down a little bit too and take the time to see the pure beauty and potential in such simple things.  Now here's to hoping we can wake up without coughing in the morning and we can get back to some real sit down preschool again!

"Reading" the recipe

Clearly our "reading" needs some work!!!!

Measuring

More measuring

Counting

Glad that daddy was brave enough to let them do this!