January/February 2011

 January continued to be a rather relaxed period.   So many new things to play with since the boys have Christmas AND their birthdays in December.

We took a trip to Swakopmund on the Namibian coast.  The boys loved the water and the playground.  The snake house, crystal palace, and other more typical tourist attractions were not as exciting for them.

The beach at Swakopmund, Namibia.  Ryan LOVED the waves and the sand. Justin was a bit more cautious of the ocean.

Ryan and Justin LOVED the bouncy castles and various other inflatable climbing and sliding structures.  Justin must have gone up (and down) the water slide a million times.  I think this was his highlight for the trip.

  

To help celebrate my birthday, Justin and Ryan made birthday crowns for everyone.

February still pretty laid back.  Justin is more interested in doing his own thing rather than doing a lot of structured activities.  He loves all of his games, old and new.  He plays them the correct way and also his own creative versions.  If I am playing, I would rather stick with rules I understand. :)

There are a lot of different spins on the traditional three bears!

J was more creative with his valentines than I am.

Ryan's version had the whole word to match rather than individual letters.  Good practice cutting, something Justin really needs.

Activity related to Mama, Do You Love Me? book.

One of the robot valentines we made for friends,  Body is a Hershey's mini candy bar.  Justin really enjoys folding the paper for the arms and legs.  Ryan is all about the wiggly eyes.

Some of the Valentine books we read over and over and over...

Even more Valentine/love books

Ryan "writing" his alphabet letters.

Justin and his writing.  He needs to work on appropriate grasp and letter formation, but doesn't want to hear about that from Mom!  I get in the way of his creativity.

Watching the video show how to make the letters is better than listening to Mom.  If it is on the TV it HAS to be good, right?  This is from the Waterford early education series.

We taped markers to Thomas trains and drew on some of the paper that was used as filling in packages we received in the mail.  A great activity for a rainy day.

We had MANY trains available for drawing/racing.

We have to drive by this church regularly and, though a major tourist attraction, had never gotten out of the car to look at it.  We FINALLY did.  Justin calls it a gingerbread church and Ryan says it is a castle.  Although it was supposed to be opened, the doors were all locked.  I have read that the inside is nothing special, but the boys were a little disappointed.  At least now when we drive by I don't have to promise that someday we will stop to look at it.  We finally have!

Oh, IN the Lines!

Justin and I were coloring today, and I decided to show him how I color inside of the lines and not just all over the page.  He looked at me like he had never even thought of that concept before.  I modeled a bit, including "accidentally" going outside of the lines without getting upset.  He decided to make a cherry blossom tree and he tried to stay in the lines too, though he showed me how it was okay when he went out of the lines too.

The pink parts are cherry blossoms, the green parts are leaves.  -The X in the tree tells you not to climb it.  At the bottom he tried to write "DONT GO" but it is hard to see because it is in yellow.  Not a child prodigy or anything, but not bad.  We will see if he continues to color within the lines or if he continues to color with multiple markers in each hand wherever they may land on the page.