"Getting ready for baby" reading basket

Lately there has been a lot of prep for the new baby. And most of that has come in the form of talking with Logan about it. Here is a story that I wrote for the other blog that really touched my heart: Taking care of my now littlest before my future littlest gets here

In the reading basket right now is a whole bunch of books about bringing home a new baby. I wanted to list them for anyone else who has a toddler and is getting ready for a new babe. :)

Sam's New Baby from Abingdon Press

A Christan view on a older child (school age) that is getting a new baby sister. Very cute story and beautiful watercolor drawings. It talks a lot about how each child is different and special.

Biscuit and the Baby by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

A cute 'I Can Read' story about Biscuit the puppy and how he wants to meet the new baby in the house. This book features a big sister who is 'helping' Biscuit to wait until the baby wakes up before he gets to meet and smell him.

Froggy's Baby Sister by Jonathan London

Logan's favorite for the last week, this story is about how Froggy gets a new sister but she doesn't have legs yet and so he isn't able to really help. When she finally grows legs he teaches her the basics of being a frog (ie: eating flies). Logan really loved the idea of baby frogs getting 'fly mush' in a bottle. lol!

A Baby Sister for Frances by Russell Hoban

Frances has a new baby sister and she is not sure about all the changes. No one pays much attention to her... at least that is the way it seems to Frances. So she decides to run away to under the kitchen table and her parents have purposeful dialog about how everyone in the house needs Frances... even the baby. (At first the 'running away' portion bothered me, but Logan really related to the story.)

The Barenstain Bears: New Baby

This one really touched just on what we have been dealing with. Brother Bear grew out of his baby bed just in time for his new baby sister! Considering it was only two weeks ago that we got Logan his twin sized bed, Logan not only loved this book but was able to have some great conversations about growing up and getting bigger. A very cute and highly recommended book!

And my two favorites:

There's Going to be a Baby by John Burningham & Helen Oxenbury

An adorable book about a brother who is getting a new sibling. The brother is probably just about 4 years old. The drawings are incredible watercolors and there is a beautiful back and forth dialog between the mama and the little boy about what the baby may be when he grows up. There are also questions lingering like "Do we have to have a baby?" that come in during the time she is pregnant and they are very open ended, so may be very wonderful points of conversation for children who are thinking the same things, but may not know how to ask.

What Baby Needs by Dr Sears

My personal favorite so far. This book is perfectly suited to my family due to it's natural take on birth (which it doesn't go into detail), breastfeeding, co sleeping, baby wearing etc. It explains beautifully about how the baby needs to be next to the mama "just like you were" for a long time and it may seem like you never get alone time with mama anymore, but soon enough, the baby will be big enough to play with you and your mama will be able to take time to be with just you too. Wonderfully done with nice illustrations, this book may just be my standard baby shower gift for anyone with a older sibling. :)

A lot of catching up to do...

Hey guys... this blog has been put on the back burner for the last two months.

Just in case someone stumbles upon this and doesn't know, I consistently write on my other blog Collecting the Moments... one by one, and that one has been updated more frequently than this.

We are still doing school in a very basic sense. Currently I am a day overdue with our latest babe and feeling very overdone. It is hard to be enthusiastic about homeschooling when you can hardly change the laundry. The kids are weathering it well, even if many of their lessons come from Brain Pop and worksheets found online. :P

History class has started up again without me... My dear friends have been nice enough to allow Cyan to continue even though I am not participating. They say they consider it Maternity Leave. And thank goodness... because I doubt I would actually finish anything I start at the moment.

Preparations for the baby are in the works and Logan and the baby's room has taken on a beautiful turn. I have been waiting for a few finishing touches to take pictures and post them... but I am pretty thrilled with the outcome. It is quite the change! It's amazing what wood floors and curtains can do.

I will try to keep this more updated... as I realized the last post I had was for advent. lol! It will be much easier once I have this baby and things start ticking along as normal again.

Advent Days #24 - #25

#23: Wrap gifts with mommy

This one went off without a hitch. We had already made a bunch of gift bags and had ideas about our wrapping so we wrapped quickly and easily this night.

#24: Have a gnome bonfire with s’mores

Having gnomes over for Christmas eve is a bit more crafty. There was a special on pizza at a local place and so I got that and we spent the whole evening watching "Elf" and crafting away... I love how our little Christmas gnomes turned out!

Advent days #19 - #22

#19: Skating at the roller rink

Didn't do this one. We have it on our list, but I would have had to take the kids by myself and I was beat from all of the cooking, cleaning, and shopping that also had to be done. It is now in the 'to do' list for Jan.

#20: Fantasy lights with hot cocoa

What a fun show this year! The drive through was especially nice. :)

#21: Christmas cookies for the neighbors

This was a fun treat! We finished up all the packages and got the neighbors their sweet treats while getting most of the sugary stuff out of the house. Of course, I had forgotten about the next days craft:

#22: Fruit and Nuts dipped in Chocolate

So much for the no sugar thing.... we tucked most of these fruits dipped in chocolate into gift and care packages, but we still got a dose of sugar that day... and it was good! I followed it up with a nice big dinner salad and some homemade lentil soup with fresh bread for dinner.

Logan was THRILLED with his job of putting on the sprinkles. He would get ahead of the dippers and say "Hey guys... I got no more to sprinkle!"

Advent ~ Days 15 - 18

Day #15: Gingerbread houses

Due to being 8 mos pregnant right now, I opted for kits for our gingerbread houses this year... you would think this would be an easy project, but two dropped box kits later and us two mamas were pulling out the glue gun to put back together the beautiful gingerbread houses so the kids could decorate them. It was quite the adventure and I am SO glad I planned to do this one with friends! :)

They turned out pretty cute anyhow and the Alex added the origami stars at above each house. I think they added a wonderful touch. But eatable? These houses were NOT! lol...

#16: Paper snowflakes and bake something YUMMY!

Since we had already done snowflakes, this day was another way to get my kids to help with the holiday treat making! They had a lot of fun (as you can see from the rainbow that Alex made out of these yummy treats).

#17: Poptop can gifts for friends

These are the cutest gifts I think I have ever seen. Made out of recycled cans, each of these little treats have a diecast car (boys) or a Littlest Pet Shop critter (girls). Click over to my other blog (here) for a tutorial!

18. Special chocolate and surprise!

These last two go together... we spent the evening going around to all of our friends houses and bringing some surprise cheer to all the children. We decided to take the long ways through the neighborhoods to scout Christmas lights (of which, there are surprisingly few this year) and pick up hot chocolate and hot cider to keep warm along the way.

Advent ~ Days 11 - 14

This week got thrown off a little by the absolutely amazingly horrible weather and baking hundreds of cookies. We have had downpours nearly all week long, and at night, we get wind storms that have now blown down most of our fence between us and the neighbors. It's crazy! Today we were all excited that it wasn't actually raining, but it was just drizzle and cloudy. lol!

Day 10: Watching Christmas movie with popcorn and a treat

I rented The Sesame Street Christmas Story for the kids. They loved it!

Day 11: A surprise outing!

We went to see Narnia in the theater! (We don't ever take the kids to the theater so that was super special and the gesture got lots of squealing and bouncing as we pulled in). I even bought Turkish Delights for the occasion and we sat in the theater, happy as clams and watched my favorite childhood book turned movie. It was wonderful!

Day 12: Go shopping for mommy with daddy

I didn't get pictures of this one, cuz I couldn't be there. ;) But the kids and Don went out and got me 'something'...

Day 13: Zoo lights with hot cider

Skipped this due to not wanting to end up soaking wet walking through the zoo in horrible weather, but Alex is keeping track of what we are not doing and we will do it after Christmas. Instead, we got another Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life, and I let them eat in front of the tv, another rare thing. Then we had a cookie from the batch I was baking. They were very happy about it all and said it felt like camping.

Day 14: Paper hearts and bake something yummy!

I lined this event up perfectly with having to send all the cookies out. My willing helpers were HUGE help, and honestly, they bake better than I do already.

Logan was sweet and helpful too, in his own sweet toddler way:

Advent ~ Days 7 - 9

Day 7: Make recycled wrappings!

We made a lot of these little envelopes that we put our beeswax ornaments into and are planning on tucking those in sweet gift boxes.

We also made a ton of gift bags. Some out of book pages and some out of calendar pages. Tutorial is here.

Day #8: A soapy project! This one we didn't get to. It is the first one that we have had other things going on that day. Instead, we went ice skating! It was CRAZY fun and we are all thinking now of getting lessons (after Feb, of course). What an addictive sport!

Day #9: Making paper crafts with friends.

Paper bits were flying at my house when our friends came over for some cookies, hot tea, and paper crafting. We made Waldorf Stars, paper ball ornaments, and I got to learn a new way to make beautiful snowflakes! It was a blast!

Advent ~ Days 4 - 6

Day 4: Breakfast with Santa at the Station. Here is the Chief reading 'Night Before Christmas' to the kids before breakfast. :)

After breakfast each kid got to sit on Santa's lap and pick a toy from 'the workshop' (ie: the turnout tables. lol...) which they thought was the BEST THING EVER!

Day #5: Make beeswax ornaments:

These turned out beautiful!

Day #6: Pick our Christmas tree with daddy!

The kids were thrilled that we were going to a tree farm this year. It has been a while as we have bought them from places that source locally instead of cutting them ourselves since we have been up here. Don found this beautiful little tree farm right in the city and we got to pick our favorite from hundreds of beautiful trees, and take it home.

Shocking as it was, in the two years since we have cut our own tree, Alex is now able to cut, carry, and put the 8 ft tree on top of the car all by himself. I was stunned! My boy is getting so amazingly big!

Stay tuned for more Advent Activities very soon!

Advent ~ Days 1 - 3

Our first three days of advent have been wonderful! I love having these scheduled activities to do each day. It makes for some really great memories!

Day #1: Put up lights with daddy

We added 4 blue lights and one green light to honor the officers who were murdered last year at this time. It is a small supportive gesture during a hard part of the year without those men and women in blue.

Day #2: Journey to Bethlehem.

If you have never done the Journey to Bethlehem experience, I highly suggest it! It is a live action play that you are invited to take part in. Become part of a family who is on their way to seek the baby Jesus in his manger on that day so long ago. Hear the angels sing his praises and see the gifts of the 3 Kings for yourself. An amazing experience!

Day #3: Making wool felt hearts for the Christmas tree.

Just a simple blanket stitch around a felted sweater heart with some fun buttons thrown in for flare. But what a cute ornament they make!

Happy Holiday Season folks! More to come!

It's Advent time again!!

Our advent list for this year includes:

1. Put up lights with daddy
2. Journey to Bethlehem
3. Wool Felt Heart ornaments
4. Breakfast with Santa at the Station
5. Make beeswax heart ornaments for the tree
6. Pick out Christmas tree with daddy
7. Recycled wrapping projects
8. Make snowglobe soaps for gifts
9. Paper star and ball ornaments with friends
10. Watching Christmas movie with popcorn and a treat
11. A surprise outing!
12. Go shopping for mommy with daddy
13. Zoo lights with hot cider
14. Paper hearts and bake something yummy!
15. Gingerbread houses
16. Paper snowflakes
17. Popcan gifts for friends
18. Special chocolate
19. Skating at the roller rink
20. Fantasy lights with hot cocoa
21. Christmas cookies for the neighbors
22. Fruit and Nuts dipped in Chocolate
23. Wrap gifts with mommy
24. Have a gnome bonfire with s’mores
25. Open Stocking!

Tomorrow, the fun begins!

Last years advent list, just in case more inspiration is desired.