Noah's "Real" Glasses

A while back I blogged about the Fake Blue Glasses that Noah has worn for a couple years now off and on. Well several months back Noah's dream of wearing real glasses became a reality. What a lucky guy, huh?

We stumbled upon a free eye exam that turned out to be a huge blessing. It was there that we discovered he had a bad astigmatism and actually wouldn't even be legal to drive if he were an adult. Who knew!?! Not his very attentive parents! Anyway, it was a little disheartening to watch him take the exam. I assured them that he knew his letters, but he was doing so poorly they switched to pictures. He would say things like "that one looks like........hmmm....a bench?" Or "that looks like a ..... whatever that is". Sad and funny all at the same time.

He's had the glasses for month or so and loves them! We go back in December to get the lenses that will give him 20/20 vision. They're having to wean him to the correct Rx because it would be too much of a drastic change to give him the correct lenses now. "Writing It Down" so that I'll remember to get Levi's eyes checked!

The Things They Say.....

Noah: Mom I love you to past the chocolate kind of love.

Levi: Instead of Knock-knock at the beginning of jokes. Levi says, "Ding Dong" Usually when you say "who's there" the answer involves a puppy and barking and of course laughing!

Noah: When someone does something wrong, instead of saying they broke the rules, Noah says they "cracked one of God's rules". Unfortunately he's much better at pointing this out when someone else does it rather than himself. Guess we all have that problem!

Levi: If you ask him his name he says he's "Beanths" His nickname is beans, he's got a bit of a lisp.

Noah: I love everyone that knows me....even my family!

Levi: He calls every grandma at church by their "grandma name"; Gigi, Mimi, Coco, etc. It makes their day when he calls them by their "name". BTW his own grandmas are Nana and Mona...we're not sure where mona came from.

Noah: At least once in every sermon that Mitch preaches, Noah will look up at me and whisper, "Is that right?"

Levi: Last night at church Levi called me "Mrs. Jennifer"

Our Birthday Boy - Levi Beans

It is so hard to believe that our baby Levi is Two Years Old! Levi is truly a joy at the Landress house. He talks up a storm and loves getting in on whatever Big Brother Noah is doing.

For Levi's birthday we decided to take him to a Character Meal at Disney World. Thanks to Papa's great discount this is a fun option for us for birthdays. So Noah, Mitch, Grandma, Papa, Aunt Jessica, and I all joined Levi for a fun lunch at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. Also went on a few rides and had a fantastic day!

Some of the days highlights:

Levi yelling "ALL ABOARD!" at the Train Station.


His face lighting up when he saw the characters.


Levi enjoying me singing the Winnie The Pooh song to him at lunch (he may be the only person around that enjoys my singing!)

The way he now finds "hidden mickeys" EVERYWHERE. Basically anytime three circles are in any sort of proximity it's Mickey Mouse.

On Levi's actual birthday we took him to Toys R Us to pick out a toy from Nana and Papa. Of everything in the store he picked out a piano/keyboard. He is a little music lover!
Some of Levi's Favorite things these days are Barney, playing cars, listening to music, going to "chuch", and of course Frog and Purplish (his two favorite stuffed animals). We love you Levi Beans!

He's Learning Too

Three to four days a week, Levi, Noah and I sit down at the table and do "school". It's just part of our day now, worked into our routine. Usually both the boys have a snack and I have my mid morning caffinated beverage. Levi has a coloring book, some crayons, and usually something else that he insisted on bringing to the table with him.

We usually sit there for about an hour working on Noah's school work, but recently I've been amazed at the stuff Levi is picking up. He's nibbling away at his snack and will suddenly blurt out something I've been teaching Noah. Like when we're counting Levi will often say the next number. He sings along when we sing the days of the week. He walked up to our world map recently and pointed out Antartica (it's the one closest to his eye level, I guess). Noah was going on a shape hunt around the house the other day and Levi came in the living room with a peice from a puzzle and proclaimed "octogon"!

I love homeschooling and just to be honest, some days are much better than others. All in all the good days outweigh the more difficult ones and it's very fun to watch Noah get better and better at reading and to see the things Levi is picking up along the way too!

Finity Beyond Suits

There are few things my boys like more than dressing up. Before you judge me, there is nothing girly about our dress up stash. We have cowboy hats, police helmets, hard hats, manly "dress-up". Anyway, they love it! Their favorite costumes by far are their Toy Story costumes. Here is a picture from Last October....almost a year ago. Cute huh?
Well somewhere along the way, Grandma bought Noah a Buzz Lightyear suit that fit him great with room for him to grow into it. So now we have this.

Everytime Noah puts on his Buzz Lightyear Costume, Levi insists on putting his on. As you can see I can only snap on or two buttons on his and we don't even attempt to put his legs in their proper place. Levi runs around the house yelling "finity beyond!" And aptly named this costume his "finity beyond" suit. Thankfully he doesn't realize that the costume is about, well, 4-5 sizes too small for him. I'm thinking that a new Buzz Lightyear costume may be a great Birthday present for Mr. Levi beans next month though!

Homeschooling Noah

I'm sure there will be more on this to come, but we are in the midst beginning to homeschool Noah. He is only four and I am convinced at this point that less is more. He's four for goodness sakes, he should be spending a lot of his time getting dirty outside, using his imagination, riding his bike, etc.

So all that to say we have started slow and steady. I have been using:

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Bob Books

Explode the Code Workbooks

Handwriting Without Tears

Saxon Math (adding this in the Fall)

I am enjoying doing a little homeschooling with Noah now and look forward to continuing into the Fall. I know we'll have plenty of years ahead of us to dig into a more rigorous curriculum, but for now this will do:) Writing it down so I don't forget how it all started!

Noah's Glasses

Noah has this pair of blue glasses that I think Uncle Ryan and Aunt Stacie gave him when he was just a baby. The sunglass lenses fell out long ago, but for years now he has loved wearing the plastic rims! It is the funniest thing. He will forget about them, but when he finds them at the bottom of his toy bin he will literally wear them for days. He's been wearing this silly glasses since he was about two. He actually wore them all day on his third birthday.

I think he just really wants to be like his Daddy. He says he can't see a thing without them! Considering the eye sight that Mitch and I have, with any luck he'll get to wear real glasses one day:)

Matching Bug Bites

Both of my boys have insane reactions to mosquito bites. This past weekend they were both bitten in the same exact spot on the same exact day. What are the odds? A little benedryl and they were good to go. Noah and I have a theory that mosquitos didn't bite in the garden of Eden.

Levi's Road Rage

Levi is the sweetest little guy you will ever meet. However this sweet little guy HATES and I mean HATES being in his carseat. Unfortunately for him we find ourselves in the van on a pretty regular basis. I have a few theories.

My first was that his carseat was a torture device. The little boy I babysit, Tyson, drifts quietly to sleep in the car and seems very comfortable in his. So I decided to let Levi give Tyson's a go. Tyson contentedly sat in Levi's seat, while Levi screamed in his loaner. Apparently the car seat is not the problem.

My second theory has no real way of being tested, but Levi gets kind of "ashy" on his back. The doctor thinks it could be mild (very mild) eczema. So maybe he gets hot and uncomfortable in the seat. Who knows? Maybe next year I can ask him and he will say, "why yes mother, my back itches. This is why I have been crying for the past year and half."

My third theory is he just hates being restrained. I know this is true, but the second theory probably has some merit as well. Anyway....here is a picture from a recent road trip as evidence.

Noah's Artwork

I teach Noah's preschool class on Wednesday nights at church. We were discussing how the Israelites were grumpy and complained in the desert, even after God had brought them out of slavery and defeated their enemy the Egyptians. Despite their bad attitudes God still showed mercy to them by providing them with manna to eat in the morning and quail in the evenings.

The kids enjoyed pretending to be the Israelites. They especially liked whining to Moses, together they would say....."Moses, Moses"....in the most annoying whiny voice ever. I think they could relate to the grumbling Israelites. The truth of the matter is I could too! God has so richly blessed me, yet I still find myself anxious and whiny. I still complain when I've had a long day with the kids...the very beautiful healthy kids God blessed me with. I still worry about money....the very money God owns and graciously lets me use. There is no telling the grumbling and complaining I would do if I was hungry in the desert!
I'm so thankful that the God I serve is merciful! Merciful to the Israelites, and merciful to me!

That night the kids also made quail as their craft. Their teacher is lame so the pattern is pretty silly. Here is what the quail was supposed to look like.....




Below is Noah's version. It looks a lot like Mr. Potato Head and is hanging on our fridge.

Levi Celebrates Our Risen Lord in a DISGUSTING way!

Easter Sunday my parents and sister were here so our Sunday morning routine was a little different than normal. Levi was going to stay home from Sunday School with them, and they were bringing him over for the service at 11:00am.

Noah and I were dressed and ready to go, almost ready to walk out the door when my Dad made the "discovery". Levi was playing happily in his room (too quietly). When my Dad found Levi, 66he had poop on his back, hands, feet, carpet, piggy bank toy, coins inside the piggy bank toy, and oh yeah....in his diaper! The diaper was still on so apparantly he had reached in and grabbed a handful and did a little "finger painting". YUCK! He had never done this before and hopefully he will never do it again! Nothing gets one in the mood for worship quite like cleaning poop off the carpet.

Fortunately my parents were here because usually I'm flying solo on Sunday mornings with the kids. I cleaned the carpet. Mom bathed Levi and Noah and I were still on time for Sunday School. Ordinarily Levi would already have been dressed for church, but he was still in his PJ's. God is very gracious to me!

We did have a wonderful Ressurection Sunday (poop incident aside).

Holy Week at Our House

A couple of years ago I read a book called Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. It is a simple book that challenges families (mom's in particular) to make the traditions in your home point to Christ. I could be doing more in this area, but here are a few of our traditions for Holy Week at our house. Two of these are straight from Noel's great book!

Every year Noah and I make a playdough tomb. I know it sounds a little silly at first, but this has been a great way to tell the story of Jesus death and resurrection every year. We make the tomb, stone, cross, and pipe cleaner people. All week we discuss the events of the crucifixion. We put our pipe cleaner Jesus on the cross on Good Friday, place him in the tomb, and cover the tomb entrance with the stone. On Sunday morning before Noah wakes up we pull Jesus out of the tomb and stand him up. He is Alive! We still do a basket for the boys in celebration of Resurrection Sunday, but our tomb has made the day much more about Jesus and I'm not sure Noah knows who the Easter bunny is...this is okay with us:) Click on the highlighted link for detailed instructions.

This year Levi got in on the action:

Noah working hard on the playdough. Levi was a BIG help. They are both still in their PJ's.

Levi would like for you to know that while the playdough isn't toxic, it doesn't taste good.

The tomb and Noah's new "natural" smile. We hadn't added the cross yet.

Also beginning last year we began using the Easter Readings available from Desiringgod.org Click on the link for a copy of the readings and complete instructions. We enjoyed this last year and are doing it again this year. It incorporates Lenten Candles as well. Noah doesn't completely understand all that we read, but he understands more this year than last year and is learning to quietly listen to scripture being read. Levi just enjoys trying to blow out the candles. Our prayer is one day they will come to understand the Gospel!

This year I stumbled upon what I think will be a new tradition. This month, Noah and I read the Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I didn't intentionally plan this for the Easter season, but it was good timing. I love reading aloud that book and Noah loved the storyline. I know he doesn't get all the parallels between Aslan and Christ, but he did enjoy the story. We finished reading the book on Saturday and watched the movie Saturday night. He loved it and I think we'll make this an annual event! (Caution: The movie is a little scary in parts.)

Also new this year. I found a fun recipe for Resurrection Rolls online. You simply dunk a marshmallow in butter, roll it in cinnamon sugar, then wrap it in two cresant rolls (canned, refrigerated dough). When you bake the rolls the marshmallow melts leaving an empty "tomb". Noah had fun making these. Levi didn't help to make them but he had fun eating them! They taste way better than the playdough! The link above gives the complete recipe. (Tips: Use two rolls instead of one for each marshmallow. Bake in greased muffin pan instead of a cookie sheet. Otherwise marshmallows tend to ooze out!)

I started these traditions for the boys' benefit originally but they have proven to be a great reminder for me as well. I find myself reflecting more on the precious gift of Christ's death, burial, and ressurection during this season.

My Children are Bilingual

On Sunday mornings I'm kind of on my own with the kids. It's a busy day of the week for Mitch...go figure. He gets up early and walks on over to church while the kids and I do breakfast and get dressed for church. Some Sunday mornings are pretty hectic, but all in all we usually do pretty well. The routine I have worked out is:

1. Get the boys fed, myself fed, and dishes rinsed (but not washed...it is the sabbath after all).

2. Get the boys dressed, shoes on, hair brushed, etc.

3. Turn on a cartoon for the boys.

4. Get myself dressed with theoretically no interruptions.

This past week I was on number 4, when Mitch came home to check on us. Which by the way is very sweet of him, because like I said Sundays are his busiest day. Mitch came into our bedroom and said, "Did you know the kids were watching a cartoon in Spanish?"

My answer of course was No. Apparently in my haste I had chosen a Spanish cartoon for them. The funny thing is they still didn't interrupt me and were quite entertained while I got dressed. Here is a picture of them watching their culturally diverse programming. I thought Babar had a British accent, but not this week!

Tigger and Frog

These two are very cherished pals at our house. Noah has slept with Tigger every night since he was seven months old and Levi found Mr. Frog in his Easter basket last year.

When Noah was 7 months old, he still liked to be swaddled. Which would not have been a problem except for he was HUGE, and it got to be pretty ridiculous to try to keep him all wrapped up. Without the swaddle he startled easily and kept waking up. Eventually I figured out that with Tigger in his arms he was snug as a bug! His affection for Tigger only grew stronger over the years. Now he is 4 and still insists on sleeping with him every night.

As you can see Tigger's head hangs rather low. Mitch says he looks despondant. He really is a happy fellow, but Noah carries him around by the neck. He isn't quite as perky as he used to be. The picture below is of "back-up Tigger" which we foolishly bought thinking if we ever lost Tigger 1, Tigger 2 would do just as well. As you can see Tigger 2 has not had as much snuggling.

Frog became Levi's favorite last spring. He sleeps with him every night and his whole face lights up when he sees Mr. Frog. Occasionally we hear great cries of desperation from Levi's room. If he is playing in his room and realizes Frog is in the crib, he tries to pull him through the slats to rescue his pal. But Frog does not fit, and mourning ensues. Levi calls Frog "buddy" or "Gog".

We don't have any pets around our house so maybe Frog and Tigger will suffice for a good long while. They are so low maintence. No mess, easy to bathe (toss in the washer), no food, very healthy (they only go to the dr. if the boys are getting shots and there is no copay for Tigger and Frog), they enduce sleep rather than waking the boys up, Dad is not allergic to them, the list goes on and on.

Levi soon after getting Frog
Levi with the two pals one year later. Boy he has changed!

Enemies of God

Tonight while I was reading the story of Rahab to Noah, we read that the people of her land were enemies of God, yet she still helped the Isrealite spies. So Noah wanted to know if she was a Philistine (David and Goliath is his favorite story).

When I explained to him that she wasn't a Philistine, he said "well Amorites are little critters that (insert crunching noise)". First of all how random a comment is that? We went from enemy of God, to Philistines, to Amorites, to critters going crunch crunch?!?!

It took me a minute to realize that he was referring to TERMITES not Amorites. Wow, I had a little bit of explaining to do at that point.

Dinosaurs at Prayer Time

During bedtime prayers last night Noah prayed a very sincere prayer that went something like this, "God please, please could you put dinosaurs back on earth and keep them safe so that I could see them". Earlier in the day, we had discussed how dinosaurs are extinct now and everything we learn about them is from fossils.

Aren't you glad that God only gives us "good gifts and perfect gifts"? I'm glad his answer to some of our prayers is NO. I've never prayed for large carnivorous beasts to roam the neighborhood, but I have prayed prayers that in hind sight I'm glad God, in his infinite wisdom, did not give me.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" James 1:17

The Power to Read

Noah has always loved books (imagine that....have you seen my husband's office?). Last year he learned most of his letter sounds by watching Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD. Recently he has been super interested in words. When we are going down the road, we hear a lot of "what's that sign say?" from the back seat. So I somewhat doubtfully decided I would try to teach Noah to read when he turned four.

Let me just say how terribly insecure I am about my teaching abilities. I realize that on paper I am qualified for this task (I have two degrees in elementary education), but I taught upper elementary and have never really had the privilege of teaching someone to read. What if I screw up and he is confused from this day forward about the "short a" sound?

I found the perfect book though! It's called "Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading". That's me an "Ordinary Parent"! So last week Noah and I began working on all the short vowel sounds. He was somewhat reluctant at first, but today asked if we could do a reading lesson (it takes all of 10 minutes). Everyday we settle in to "our special reading spot" and do a reading lesson together, and I read aloud a chapter from one of the Chronicles of Narnia books. We're both beginning to really enjoy this time together. As it turns out, I didn't really need either degree to snuggle up with Noah while he learns to read.

Yesterday was a big milestone. Noah read his first book! He read a book entitled "Mat". A riveting tale of Mat and Sam. Mat sat on Sam at one point in the story. It is the first phonics reader in the Bob Book Series. He was SO proud of himself and grinned the whole way through the book. He sounded out those short vowel sounds like a champ! We went out for milkshakes last night to celebrate.

What a big day for Mr. Noah. I pray that he will continue to love learning and reading!

Exercising His Manhood

We live at church. I don't mean that we spend a lot of time there (which we do), but we literally live at church. We live in the church's parsonage, right next door to the sunday school building. The parsonage is a newly rennovated beautiful blessing. I love being able to walk next door to church with the boys without having to deal with carseats. Mitch can just walk over here for lunch or let Noah ride with him to make a visit without any planning. So all that to say there are definite perks to living at church!

One downfall and an explanation of this post's title. When Noah is out playing in the yard during the week, it is not terribly unusual for him to drop his pants and pee in the yard. Mitch assured me early on this is no big deal and that Noah should be allowed to "exercise his manhood". Now I really didn't have much of a problem with this when he was 2-3 years old and church was not "in session". Newly potty trained, trouble pulling pants up and down, lazy mother, etc.

HOWEVER, I knew it would happen sooner or later and it did last Wednesday night. Noah was playing on the playground with another little boy at church and before I could stop him (you know where this is going), he dropped his pants and peed in the front yard of the church on the playground! Oh my! Fortunately it was under the cover of darkness and there were only a couple moms close by and no little girls.

It's definitely time for more training in modesty!

Levi Beans

Don't ask me why, but somehow Levi acquired the nickname, "Levi Beans" at our house. He is such an amazing little guy. He started walking kind of late (16 months old to be exact), but what he lacked in coordination he has made up for in vocabulary. He is talking up a storm at 17 months. The funny thing is I remember Noah talking early on, but I had to translate a lot of what he was saying. Not so much with Levi, his articulation is pretty great for a toddler!

So anyway, here are some of the words he is saying:

* Mommy and Daddy (of course daddy was first)
* Hello
* Cookie and Nanny (for banana)
* Good, Good, God (a song on one of his favorite cds)
* Please and Thank You
* Light
* Why (unfortunately he says this when you tell him No sometimes)
* No, No (usually said as he does something he should not be doing!)
* What's That?
* Buddy (another name he is called pretty regularly around here)
* Belly
* Peek-a-Boo

So proud of our sweet Levi!

Our Happy Noah Day

This year for Noah's 4th birthday we decided to take him to Disney World instead of throwing a big birthday party. We did the party thing last year and it was fun, but I felt like in the frenzy of the day I kind of missed out on appreciating Noah and remembering the gift that he is to us! So anyway, we decided that my parents would keep Levi for the day, and Mitch, Noah, and I would have a fun-filled Disney day.

Let me first say that my Dad works for Disney, I worked for Disney for several years in college, I basically grew up at Disney. While this really is a gift (that I didn't appreciate until just recently), the parks begin to lose some of their "magic" after a while. However, I can honestly say that it was a very.....at the risk of sounding like a tourist.....very magical day!

Some of the special memories of that day are:

* Holding Noah's hand - He's growing up so fast and is so independent it doesn't happen as often anymore. Plus I usually have a Levi and a diaper bag in my arms.

* Noah giggling all the way through Big Thunder Mountain, his first roller coaster.

* Noah wanting to stop and watch the ducks in a lake in the middle of all the "lands" that he could have been exploring.

* The way Noah calls Mickey and Minnie and the gang critters instead of characters.

* Noah playing so contentedly with his Star Wars action figures in lines (his souvenir of choice for the day). * When we asked Noah his favorite part of the day, he said, "The line for Star Tours." They have lots of characters from the movies in the line area. There was no wait so we just strolled through the cue while he and Mitch chatted it up about the "critters".

* Eating burgers with Mitch and Noah and having fun conversations with both of them.

* The way Noah loved studying the guide maps.

* Waiting for the parade and eating snacks. Noah made friends with several folks around us.

* Turning around to ask Noah what he wanted from McDonald's drive-thru on the way home and discovering he was sacked out after 5 minutes in the car.

* The way Levi squealed and ran to me when I picked him up at Mom and Dads. My kids hardly ever miss me because I'm always with them!

Both of our boys are so very special, but this was a special day to celebrate gift that Noah is to our family. Noah is such a blessing to our family and I'm so thankful to God for graciously giving him to us. We love you Noah!

Sporting the cool 3D glasses for the Toy Story Ride

The rockets were a big hit and a much shorter wait than Dumbo!

Noah and I made a cake on his actual birthday. Check out the "I" in the far right corner. That was Noah's personal touch. We are taking orders if you are interested in us catering your next event.

Lest I Forget

When I got pregnant with Noah, one of the sometimes welcome, sometimes unwelcome results was parenting advice. EVERYONE has a bit to offer. Don't get me wrong, I am very teachable and open to wise council, but we really had to pick and choose the advice we would implement!

I think one of the best pieces of advice we heard time and time again especially from seasoned parents was, "write it down". Meaning there are so many precious moments that will slip away from your memory if you do not keep a journal, scrapbook, or something of the sort. Well I did a traditional scrapbook for Noah, managed to throw together a digital scrapbook for Levi, and have since basically fallen off the scrapbooking wagon.

Noah is now 4 and Levi is 17 months and I know that it is already happening. I'm forgetting. There is so much that I want to remember, to hold on to. So here I go.....I'm going to "write it down".