Thursday, November 20, 2008
Our Chubby is 2 Months!
Noah is now 2 months old! I took him to the doctor's yesterday and he was a whopping 13 lbs, 14 oz! He was in the 92nd percentile which means he is heavier than 92% of all babies his age :) He obviously is being well fed. :)I'm hoping Noah will start sleeping through the night soon. Last night he went from 11 ish to 6:30 this morning. I think he slept longer due to the shots at the doctor's. I remember Weston did the same thing and then went back to his normal schedule the next night. I guess we'll see tonight ;)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Weston
I've been wanting to do posts to update the specifics of what the kids are up to lately. They are growing up so fast I thought it'd be fun to have a record of what they're into right now. I'll start with Weston and do separate posts for each child.
Weston has officially started Kindergarten this year. We are doing a great homeschooling curriculum called Sonlight and are enjoying it very much. We are pretty relaxed with our schedule as it's his first year. A typical day includes a math worksheet, reading time, maybe some copy work, and Weston has just started reading 3-word books on his own. We are way ahead of the curriculum schedule for the parent reading, way behind on the science projects, and right on schedule for the math :) I'm still learning how I want to structure our "school" time. I'm not a creative teacher, so my weakness is teaching the concepts as opportunities arise in regular life. When Weston wasn't understanding the math concept of counting by tens and working with dimes and pennies in the math worksheets, we took a week off from the worksheets and worked with beads and real pennies instead. I'm trying to train myself that I don't have to stick to the curriculum if I don't want to. The curriculum is there to serve us, we're not there to serve it!
Weston also spends a good part of his day coloring. Although his personality seems to be headed toward type "A", he seems to have freedom from perfectionism when he's doing art. Last week he colored about 30 army guys with various vehicles, uniforms, weapons, etc. He's really into military stuff right now (I'll have to scan one of his artwork pieces to display on the blog).
Other activities my son enjoys include bossing his sisters in pretend play games. He's pretty put-out if they don't want to play attack/war/boy games with him. In the summer, he spends a lot of time outside doing boy things. He usually wears some type of camouflage clothing every day.
Weston looks forward all day long to when Mike returns from work. Mike is definitely his favorite person in the whole world. This can be a little exhausting to Mike as Weston is so intensely needy for his attention when he's home. Usually Mike and Weston spend their time playing sports together or wrestling. Weston played soccer this past spring and we plan to have him try T-ball this next spring. Although he's small for his age, he's got surprisingly good hand/eye coordination. He can really whack the baseball over our fence!
One of Weston's quirks is that he doesn't want to throw things out. Broken toys, random piece of thread, cardboard, you name it, he thinks he'll have a use for it! Hmmm, wonder where he got the "keeping everything" quirk? Papa John, any ideas? ;)
Weston is very loving toward his sisters. He especially is tender toward Elsie and does great with gently leading her and teaching her. He likes Noah and talks to him often but hasn't been too interested in holding him much. Weston's chores include helping to fold laundry and dust, Swivel-Sweep the floors, run errands for me (fetch diapers, etc), and help his sisters with things.
Some of the things he struggles with are being bossy (hmmm, I have no idea where he got that one, I've never been bossy :) and not desiring to be independent (he'd rather be told and helped than to try it himself first).
Well, there are some highlights of my son and his life! I'm sure I'll think of many more things I should have included after I finish this post. I can always go back and add more later. Below is a picture Weston colored for me today. It's a princess with a flower in one hand and a coffee cup in the other :)
Weston has officially started Kindergarten this year. We are doing a great homeschooling curriculum called Sonlight and are enjoying it very much. We are pretty relaxed with our schedule as it's his first year. A typical day includes a math worksheet, reading time, maybe some copy work, and Weston has just started reading 3-word books on his own. We are way ahead of the curriculum schedule for the parent reading, way behind on the science projects, and right on schedule for the math :) I'm still learning how I want to structure our "school" time. I'm not a creative teacher, so my weakness is teaching the concepts as opportunities arise in regular life. When Weston wasn't understanding the math concept of counting by tens and working with dimes and pennies in the math worksheets, we took a week off from the worksheets and worked with beads and real pennies instead. I'm trying to train myself that I don't have to stick to the curriculum if I don't want to. The curriculum is there to serve us, we're not there to serve it!
Weston also spends a good part of his day coloring. Although his personality seems to be headed toward type "A", he seems to have freedom from perfectionism when he's doing art. Last week he colored about 30 army guys with various vehicles, uniforms, weapons, etc. He's really into military stuff right now (I'll have to scan one of his artwork pieces to display on the blog).
Other activities my son enjoys include bossing his sisters in pretend play games. He's pretty put-out if they don't want to play attack/war/boy games with him. In the summer, he spends a lot of time outside doing boy things. He usually wears some type of camouflage clothing every day.
Weston looks forward all day long to when Mike returns from work. Mike is definitely his favorite person in the whole world. This can be a little exhausting to Mike as Weston is so intensely needy for his attention when he's home. Usually Mike and Weston spend their time playing sports together or wrestling. Weston played soccer this past spring and we plan to have him try T-ball this next spring. Although he's small for his age, he's got surprisingly good hand/eye coordination. He can really whack the baseball over our fence!
One of Weston's quirks is that he doesn't want to throw things out. Broken toys, random piece of thread, cardboard, you name it, he thinks he'll have a use for it! Hmmm, wonder where he got the "keeping everything" quirk? Papa John, any ideas? ;)
Weston is very loving toward his sisters. He especially is tender toward Elsie and does great with gently leading her and teaching her. He likes Noah and talks to him often but hasn't been too interested in holding him much. Weston's chores include helping to fold laundry and dust, Swivel-Sweep the floors, run errands for me (fetch diapers, etc), and help his sisters with things.
Some of the things he struggles with are being bossy (hmmm, I have no idea where he got that one, I've never been bossy :) and not desiring to be independent (he'd rather be told and helped than to try it himself first).
Well, there are some highlights of my son and his life! I'm sure I'll think of many more things I should have included after I finish this post. I can always go back and add more later. Below is a picture Weston colored for me today. It's a princess with a flower in one hand and a coffee cup in the other :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Dahl Happenings
Here's Noah at about 7 weeks. The first thing people say when they see him is, "Well, we can tell he isn't starving!" It's been so fun to see him start to smile and coo. He's a pretty happy baby and seems to be fairly laid back so far. We've amazed how much he looks like Weston as a baby. We didn't realize it until we came across some of Weston's baby pictures. The only differences in their baby photos are Noah's dark complexion and more turned up nose. 
Grace loves to hold the baby every day. One day she sat and held him for over an hour! She was happy and he was happy so I just let them be.
Big sister holding again. I like this photo as Noah was so awake and alert. 
Elsie's getting in on the action. She likes to hold the baby too. Her limit is about 3 minutes :)Trip to Seattle
This weekend Noah and I were able to take a trip up to Seattle to visit my friend, Leah. Mike was sweet enough to go it alone this weekend with Weston, Grace and Elsie so I could take this trip. Leah and I had a great time shopping in stores with breakable things since we didn't have our toddlers with us (although Leah almost took down an entire rack of clothing with Noah's stroller :) Noah was a good sport and slept the entire afternoon while we went out to lunch and shopped.
I was also able to stop in Lacy on the way up and back and see Mike's Uncle John, Aunt Marion, Aunt Elaine and Cousin Catherine. It worked out perfectly both ways as Noah was just starting to cry about 5 minutes before arriving in Lacy. It was wonderful to catch up with them and Marion even sent me home with some yummy mint brownies. I also had my first eggnog latte of the season this weekend. I burned my tongue though which probably served me right for all the sugar I've been eating lately :(
It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so blessed Mike encouraged me to go!
Aunt Marion and Noah.
Catherine and Noah.
I was also able to stop in Lacy on the way up and back and see Mike's Uncle John, Aunt Marion, Aunt Elaine and Cousin Catherine. It worked out perfectly both ways as Noah was just starting to cry about 5 minutes before arriving in Lacy. It was wonderful to catch up with them and Marion even sent me home with some yummy mint brownies. I also had my first eggnog latte of the season this weekend. I burned my tongue though which probably served me right for all the sugar I've been eating lately :(
It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so blessed Mike encouraged me to go!
Aunt Marion and Noah.
Catherine and Noah.Hello Kitty Coloring
I found the girls coloring together this morning by the front door. I thought they looked pretty cute in their pj's. It was one of the those wonderful moments where they were actually getting along and not crying, squealing, taking, pushing, etc. The rest of the morning was kinda hard so this was a bright spot in my day!Friday, October 24, 2008
Pumpkin Patch
Last weekend we made a quick trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. It was fun to pick out a few pumpkins to carve with the kids and browse around the farm near Boring, OR. We decided we'd go to a different farm next year as this one was very crowded and we joked that they wanted to charge us $ if we even sneezed. :) We only wanted to spend money on a few small pumpkins which meant we had to constantly say "no" to all the other fun things they charged to do.We haven't carved our pumpkins yet, but I'll post some photos when we do. We plan to roast some of the seeds to snack on while we're at it.
Which is the cutest pumpkin? It was too hard for me to hold Elsie's hand while pushing Noah's stroller, so she hopped a ride with the pumpkins :)
Friday, October 17, 2008
Fat and Happy Baby!
Well, I've survived my first week alone with 4 kids! Noah's also 4 weeks old today.
Here's a few photos to update you on Noah's new chubby look.
Grace and Elsie were helping me bathe Noah in this photo. The water ripples make it look kinda neat.
Here's Noah in my favorite outfit. I think he looks pretty sweet in the blue and brown.
Clean kids after the bath! You can tell how much Noah's grown when you see the other kids holding him. He takes up a lot more of their lap!
Here's a few photos to update you on Noah's new chubby look.
Grace and Elsie were helping me bathe Noah in this photo. The water ripples make it look kinda neat.
Here's Noah in my favorite outfit. I think he looks pretty sweet in the blue and brown.
Clean kids after the bath! You can tell how much Noah's grown when you see the other kids holding him. He takes up a lot more of their lap!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
On My Own!
We took this photo 2 weeks ago now. Elsie was holding Noah first and you can see she didn't like giving him up to Grace. This is one of the only photos we have of Weston and Grace where they aren't doing their fakey smiles.In the photo below Weston is enjoying some Noah time :) So far, it seems like Noah looks like a mix of Weston and Grace.
Well, here I go! Tomorrow I will officially be on my own with the four kiddos. Needless to say I probably won't be doing much blogging this week :)In anticipation of the week ahead I realized I'd need to plan a few things out. First of all, I decided I need to get up ahead of the kids no matter how tired I am. I plan to get up by 7:15 (the kids get up at 8:30), get myself ready, make my coffee and settle in for some time in God's Word. Lately I've been pretty cranky as I've neglected getting my spiritual cup filled. When I spend time with God in the morning by reading my Bible it's amazing how much more patient and loving I can be with the kids and my husband. I sure don't have patience and love in me naturally! God has to give it to me first before I can dish it out at home ;) I printed out a new Bible reading plan to do the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in about 3 months.
I have also realized that to be successful at homeschooling Weston I need to teach him how HE needs to be taught, not how it's easiest for ME to teach. My son is showing signs of type A personality with a bit of perfectionism thrown in. He does best at homeschooling when it's more structured and he knows what to expect. He now knows, and we practiced last week, that we start homeschool at 10 o'clock every day and go until about 11:30. Of course, since he's only in kindergarten, our "school" time is pretty low-key and relaxed (lots of me reading fun books to him and a little of the other subjects). I want to make sure not to make him hate school when we've only just begun! Grace and Elsie also do homeschool with us. Grace has a few preschool workbooks she does and Elsie does her homeschool by coloring in her coloring books :) We did start homeschool back in July knowing we'd be a little "hit and miss" with having the new baby :)
Well, now that I've shared a few of my plans for the week, can I ask that you pray for me? I know it's a lot easier to plan than it is to actually accomplish the plans. When the kids are fighting, the laundry's undone, the babies have dirty diapers, Noah needs nursed and the house is a mess I need an extra large dose of God's grace in order to speak kindly and lovingly to my kids.
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