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:)