Baby Horsey

We went to Grammy and Grampy's to see a brand spankin' new colt this evening! He was still wet from birth, and trying to wobble around on his shakey little legs. From what I could tell (and it was kind of hard to see from the angle I was at) it's a little boy, and cute to boot.

Funny enough, I spent the entire visit pointing things out to the kids, like - "Oooh, look, the mama's passing the bag of waters! That's called an amniotic sac." "Hmmm, she doesn't seem to have delivered the placenta yet. I wonder if they'll have to get the vet to do a manual extraction." "Well, she's not bleeding anymore. That's a good sign!" "Yup, her belly is still fat, but that's normal. Mommy will be fat for a while, too." "Aw, look, the baby colt is breastfeeding! That's a good healthy snack for a baby horse."

I'm such a doula.

PS - I'm such a mom, too. As we were leaving the barn, my comment was, "Graedon! Watch where you're walking and don't step in poop!"

Daddy and Homeschool

The best part of a holiday is having Daddy at home. We had school this morning, even though every one else had the day off. That way, we can take a day off somewhere else and not suffer too greatly. So, Richard was able to sit in on our typical school day. He even took over teaching math.

It involved the hose.



It also involved my measuring cups and learning about volume.



Eva was the ever attentive observer.



It's so important that both parents be involved in the kids' education - whether homeschooled, public schooled or private schooled. For us, that means that I get more support, feedback and understanding when it comes to any hurdles and celebrations. I love it when Richard asks the girls what they did in school that day. Seeing that he is interested encourages them to try harder, and makes them feel more grown up. It's also a plus that his interest validates the work I put into their education.

Thanks for making homeschooling that much easier, Rich! ;)

Big Boy Bed

I found this toddler bed at a yard sale a couple weeks ago. It was marked $10, but the minute I showed any interest in it, the sales lady blurted out, "You can have that for $5!". She must have been desperate not to pack it up again. I crammed it into the vehicle (yay for vans!)and introduced it to it's new home.

Graedon loves it. The first day, he took 3 naps just so that he could try it out. I love it, too, if only for that reason. So far, so good. He stays in it most of the night and for naps, and will only escape if he's having a really naughty day.

Here's a picture of our big boy in his big boy bed. It's not a great picture. I had to sneak in when the room was pitch black, point in the general direction of the bed and hope to capture something good. It'll give you an idea, though.

Time Conflicts

May has been the mother of all months, as far as scheduling. I have cut down drastically on the activities I'm involved with since starting this pregnancy. Rich has tried not to be on the road quite as much for work, and I've let go of many of quite a few commitments I used to have. Still, there isn't time and energy for everything - which doesn't make it any easier to miss out on important events.

Every weekend and evening seems to be booked up this month - some things for months in advance. So far, I've had to miss out on family get togethers, school events for the kids, church services, alone time with Richard (Date? What's a date?), and many many other things. It's been a long time since we've been able to visit family in Quebec. The way things are, it will probably be next year before we can make the trip.

This weekend will see me in Moncton - a doula conference that has been paid and planned for months. Next weekend we'll be in Sussex - again, planned and paid for months.

Sometimes I wish I could clone myself so that I could do everything I'm expected to do. One Emilie-clone to do housework, one Emilie-clone to care for the kids, one Emilie-clone to be with Rich, one Emilie-clone to run errands and attend meetings and conferences and all that other "outside" stuff.

June looks pretty empty for now - and I'm LOVING that.

ABC Manipulatives

I got this great idea from one of the veteran homeschool moms in our homeschool group. Kids love manipulatives. Some kids find them very useful for when they are learning, especially if they are tactile learners. Plus, they're just fun :)

I was at the local discount store and I came across some Christmas discount items. In one of the bins was a plastic bucket of 3D letters - glittered to boot! Perfect! We've been using them to practice our sounds, spelling words, and the like.

Today we used them a bit differently. I've been collecting small items in an old wipe box. I have little toy animals, a comb, dice, fake berries, play food, tiny play chicks, and all sorts of other miniature things. The girls each had to pick an item and match it with the letter that the word might start with. For example, Car = "C" Then, since Maddie is beyond that stage now, I spelled out a bunch of items (car, duck, pizza, deer, spoon, etc) and she had to read the word, match the item to the word and find a rhyming word. They really enjoyed that! Thanks, Kate, for the ideas!

Yawn!!

I'm almost 26 weeks - next week I enter The Third Trimester. I capitalized that because it's such a huge step! It won't be long that my prenatals will jump from every 4 weeks to every 3, then every 2, then weekly...gack! I feel like I'm running out of time.

The first trimester was such a drag for me. I gagged and barfed constantly. Everything set me off - smells, food, car rides, hugs. I even gagged when taking too big a breath! I could hardly keep my eyes open from pregnancy exhaustion. Then, the second trimester came and I finally got some relief. Daily naps were a thing of the past. I could eat! I could sleep! Yay!

Now, I'm starting to get the late pregnancy aches and pains, I start nodding off after lunch, and the support pillows are overtaking our bed. Ah well. Such is life before baby.

On the bright side, this new baby is becoming more real to us. We've decided on names (secret!), we're making concrete plans for how to manage 4 kiddos, I am able to feel knees and bum and head in my belly, and my bump is much more active. I am getting mentally and emotionally ready to birth, and physically preparing as well.

We're so blessed to have such good support from our birth team with this pregnancy. Our prenatal care is second to none, and we're really seeing the difference in my overall health - which translates to healthier baby and birth. My stress level is so much lower than with the other three. Richard commented a couple weeks ago that I was "much happier" than with the others. I feel like God has really worked in our lives to lead us to these incredible women who nurture, teach, guide and watch over us.

Here's hoping that the next 14 weeks go smoothly!

Homebirth

I came across this blog while I was looking for ideas on homemaking, and lo and behold, she had a section on homebirthing! I was going to only link to one blog post, but they were all so good that I figured I'd link to them all.

She writes much more eloquently than I do, but her posts said pretty much what I would say.

Enjoy!

Roman Night

Our homeschool group had Roman Night last week. I loved it! The kids were invited to dress up as Romans. Here's a picture of my little Roman girls:



The only picture of a Roman baby/toddler I saw showed the babe naked, so that was going to be my costume for Graedon. Just kidding! I ran out of time, and he had to go as a present-day Canadian boy.

Roman Night was kicked off with a presentation of what a typical Roman's day might be like. Here's our favourite hystorical re-enactor showing us some Roman toys. She spoke about their clothes, jobs, hobbies, family life, etc.



Then everyone was invited to go to different stations where they could try out some Roman activities. There was weaving, dice & marble making, food, match the word/number, etc.



Maddie & Eva also made masks, like at the theatres.



They even tried their hand at making mosaics.



At the end, we were all treated to a mini-feast. Talk about good! Some of the items were olives, grapes, different cheeses, stuffed dates, dried apricots, nuts, cheese spread on bread, sausages, stuffed boiled eggs (with a honey/cumin mixture), and even fake doormice!

I'm really hoping there will be more time periods we can explore in the future!

Off I Go...

I'm headed to Halifax today with my mom. It's going to be a quick trip, but I haven't been to Halifax in 6 years...I'll enjoy the scenery through the car windows and maybe get in a couple touristy things tomorrow morning.

I've wanted to post about our homeschool group's Roman Night, but I can't get my camera to transfer the pictures to the computer! Argh! Something is definetly wrong with the camera, and I'm afeared it's time for a new one.

Patience....