MamaBlogga

Today is Hayden’s birthday!

And yesterday, he participated in the science fair:

I asked him what kind of party he’d like. He said, “Surprise!” So we’re working on that….

Happy Halloween!

We almost didn’t do a family costume this year, since initially Rebecca wanted to be a princess and Hayden wanted to be a ghost. After flirting with the idea of pirates, finally Hayden settled on . . . KING, “for Princess Becca.” (Becca, however, insisted she was “Princess Beyya” and also from Princess and the Frog. Got me.)

Rachel’s sticky gem tiara lasted longer than half her earrings—but still not very long.

I made Rebecca’s dress, and you can read more about that over on Wayward Girls’ Crafts (if that doesn’t work, I’ll be along to fix it soon!).

Here’s the royal family. If Hayden’s the king, I guess I’m the Regent. No way I’m letting my five year old rule the country. And I just realized our royal orders are worn opposite. Oh well.

At the end of the night, we handed down our tiaras for a little while:

And where was Ryan? Well, mostly he was running the church Halloween party, but when you caught a glimpse of him, he was part of the entourage, too.

Head of royal security, of course. (And yes, it was his idea.)

What are you doing for Halloween?

I’d post a video of Hayden reading, but I still don’t have a way to upload videos from my video camera to our newer desktop. Barring that, here is a list of words Hayden read (yes, READ) one evening last week:

challenge word: pumpkin

Sentence: I can see like you.

(The sight words came from a school list, and from words I know he knows already; everything else I made up. They’re working on sight words at school, which mystifies me to some extent. When I hear “sight words,” I assume you’d focus on words that aren’t phonetic, and then focus on phonics for the rest of the words. The first sight words Hayden learned [I, am, can, see, like] follow regular phonetic rules. While there’s definitely something to be said for the feeling of accomplishment at reading a whole word, it seems more worthwhile to focus on teaching broadly applicable phonetic rules. I mean, the only reason the kid can read is because I’ve been teaching him his vowel sounds. </rant>)

I’m suitably proud of him. I might be praising him a bit too much. The other night, after he put together a toy, he sighed in satisfaction and said under his breath, “I’m always a genius.” He turned to me and added more loudly, “I’m always thinkin’, Mom!”

Yep.

A few cute stories from Rebecca over the last few months:

As we walked through our home airport, after three weeks’ summer vacation at Nana’s and 8 hours of traveling:

“For my birthday, I’m gonna go back to Nana’s,” Hayden proclaimed. “Becca, do you want to come with me?”

“Come wis you? Awe we gon’ get mawwied??”

While we were visiting, my wayward sisters taught Rebecca what to say when she received a proposal of marriage. I didn’t realize how deeply it’d sunken in until we’d been home a few days. Rebecca was rolling around on the floor (for fun, you know) and after a minute, I heard what she was saying:

“Whewe’s my big diamond?!”

Last night, since Hayden was sick, I brought Rebecca with me to his school’s literacy night. She was so well-behaved! I let her draw in Hayden’s notebook and she used the crayons on the table—though not always for pictures. Well, two-dimensional ones:

I asked if it was a house. She informed me, “It’s Hayden’s schoow! An’ dis ownge c’own [orange crayon] is Hayden!” After I took the picture, she added another crayon next to Hayden: “His teachew.”

I was letting Rebecca play in our fenced-in backyard while I put Rachel to bed. “Be careful,” I warned her.

“Don’t wowwy, Mommy.” She gave me a thumbs up. “I wiww be pewfectwy fine.”

“You are so funny,” I told Rebecca.

“Yes, I am.”

Hayden is very interested about when Rebecca and Rachel will have babies. I have tried to convince him it will not be for a long time (I’m hoping around 20 years here), but he still brings it up from time to time.

Both girls do love to play with baby dolls and stuffed animals. My in-laws just gave Rachel a stuffed caterpillar that’s a miniature version of her lovey, “Callie” (they didn’t actually know about Callie). We call the little one “Baby Callie,” because we’re imaginative like that.

But today, before and after her nap, Rachel has adopted a new favorite:

Yes, a book. But what book?

Oookay. She also bawled for twenty minutes when Rebecca took it from her (and started screaming when I took it to turn it around). I think she hadn’t quite gotten through it yet. But she does like the sound of flipping the pages.

(I don’t know why I have this book.)

Ryan got a subscription to Fitness magazine, thinking with a name like “Fitness” it would be for both genders. Of course, it’s really not. (I don’t know; are the pictures of half- and quarter-dressed women supposed to appeal to women? I know I don’t work out in underwear.)

I like to read it, though, especially after I saw this blurb on a study from Perspectives on Psychological Science in the October 2011 issue of Fitness (p 105; emphasis mine):

Women reported experiencing worse moods after reading an article touting the importance of joy and then immediately taking part in a fun activity. “Setting higher expectations for happiness can actually lead you to feel less happy,” says study coauthor Jane Gruber, Ph.D. . . . To avoid that buzzkill, pause to savor little feel-good moments. . . . “Enjoying the activities themselves, rather than because you think they are going to make you happy, is key,” Gruber says.

What do you think? What are your “little feel-good moments”? (You can see one of mine at right!)