Princess is 1 month old

Dear Princess,

Today you are 1 month old. Time is already going faster than I want it to. You are such a cute and sweet baby and I'm trying to treasure these days as much as I can. Everyone who meets you comments on how beautiful you are. I completely agree and I pray your life may be full of beauty and grace.

You went for your 1 month check-up today. Your doctor said you look beautiful and are growing very nicely. You weigh 10 lbs, are in the 75% for weight and are 21.5 in long, also 75% for height. You started smiling a few days ago. It's not all the time but when you wake up and are looking at me, you'll coo and sometimes give me a sweet smile. You still sleep a lot and love to be carried. I'm actually wearing you in a wrap right now while I type this letter to you. Lately, you've been crying quite a bit before bed. Usually between 10pm and 2am, when ever your dad and I want to go to sleep you start crying. You want to be walked until you fall asleep. Once you're asleep you sleep between 4-6 hours straight which is really nice!

You love looking at your brother. When he comes in the room and talks you look toward his direction. He loves you so much as does your mom and dad. He's looking forward to you crawling and walking. He also wants to feed you and very badly wants to pick you up on his own and carry you around. I know that the two of you will become very good friends as you grow up. He talks about protecting you and being a great big brother.

We love you, Princess, and are so glad to have you in our life. It seems like you've always been a part of our life and I can't imagine life without you.

Love,
Mom

Here are some pictures from today as well as a few my friend took the other day when you turned 4 weeks old. Another friend made the beautiful tiara for you.

I got one of you smiling and big brother making a silly face

Big smile. :)

One of my favorites of you two!

Pictures from Monday. You're so beautiful!

Week 17: My Father's World K - Unit 13: Cow

It's been a while since I've posted about homeschooling. We took almost a month and a half off for Christmas and baby girl's birth. We've slowly been getting back into the swing of things. It's much more difficult with having a newborn to care for. One interesting thing I've noticed has been that even when we took time off of doing "official" school work, Blue Rock still did school work. He practiced writing, drawing, reading, counting, did art work, etc. In fact, his handwriting has drastically improved. He's been taking the initiative and writing words, asking how to spell certain things and making signs. His reading skills are continuing to improve. It's made me think that people who "unschool" are probably doing just fine. Kids seem to naturally want to learn and if we let them, they will learn so much.

Okay, enough about that.  We've been working on Week 17 of My Father's World Kindergarten for a few weeks. The study was Unit 13: Cow. God's Word helps me grow. The verse was, 1 Peter 2:2-3 NIV, Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. We have finally finished this unit. One thing I've done differently that has made this unit drag on, is on some days we do our own thing. For example, two days we did a study on balloons, since Blue Rock loves balloons. We found out that balloons were invented in 1824, and some other neat facts about them. He colored pictures, did some math, shapes, and of course every day we read. I've also printed off some handwriting sheets so he could practice writing certain letters because all of the sudden he has become really interested in writing letters and words. Handwriting was one thing he "fought" me on at the beginning of last Fall. Now he has no problem writing or drawing and coloring. Gentle guidance and encouragement goes a long way! I also leave out some paper and markers for him to create his own art work. He's loved it! 

Since we were studying cows, we had a milk party. We made butter, buttermilk, and peach ice cream. We enjoyed those things with cheese and yogurt and discussed all the things milk makes.

Here are some pictures from these past few weeks. Enjoy!

Getting ready to make butter

We shook it for a while and ended up putting it in our Vitamix

Homemade butter is the best! Thank you Vitamix!

Peach ice cream, also made in the Vitamix

We enjoyed our Milk Party!

Counting Goldfish

Working on the States and matching the right quarter to the correct State

Brother/sister time!

Sweet siblings!

Morning cuteness!

We're playing a rhyming game

He drew a cake, cave, the planet Mars, and a hat

He's doing perfect with reading simple sentences.