Letter of the Week - I

Isabel has really been getting into the Letter of the Week. Every Saturday, she asks me, "Mommy, what letter is it going to be next week?" And I always say, "I am not sure. I have to call Jenna." So last Saturday morning, she asked me the same question and then answered her own question by saying "You need to call Jenna!"  Since we were actually going to see Jenna that morning at gymnastics, I told Isabel she could ask Jenna herself, which she very excitedly did. Jenna didn't have one picked out yet, so she graciously allowed Isabel to choose, and not surprisingly, Isabel chose the letter I. I was less than thrilled to have another vowel to do, so soon after we did U, but since it is "her" letter, I decided to make the best of it!

The letter I
Memory verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phillipians 4:13)
Words: Isabel, ice cream, igloo, iguana, inch, inchworm, independent, I love you
Songs: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Inchworm
Isabel decorated her letter with: Isabels! (I printed out a couple dozen tiny pictures of Isabel and she glued them on all by herself. When we were done with the uppercase I, there were 7 photos left and she could not bear to throw them away so we made a lowercase i as well! :)


We had a very busy week and unfortunately started it out with a pretty bad injury. On Monday evening, at Luke's softball game, Isabel slipped and fell on the bleachers, biting nearly clean through her lower lip and (we found out later) loosening three of her top teeth (the middle two and the second tooth from the middle on the left side). I felt horrible as I was standing right there with Josiah on my hip and was close enough to see the look of shock and terror on her face as she fell, but not close enough or fast enough to do anything about it. She got lots of TLC over the next couple of days as we first had to go to our regular dentist, who was unable to get a look at it because of Isabel's (understandable) hysterics, and then to a pediatric dentist, Dr. Sally, where every single person in the office had incredible patience and a clear love for children (I am totally sold on pediatric dentistry and in my opinion, each of them should be dubbed heroes!) After complete hysterics in the dentist's office the day before, Isabel allowed them to get two x-rays and complete a thorough examination. She was very excited to show off her four stickers to her classmates at school that day. We have a follow-up visit in three weeks to see if the teeth have tightened up, but are very thankful that they do not think the permanent teeth were damaged or affected in the fall.  Part of Isabel's therapy this week has been soft foods, including a trip to DQ for ice cream right after her first traumatic dentist's visit.

Interpretation of above photo string: Injured lip and teeth...equals mommy guilt....equals ice cream remedy!

The rest of our week was pretty busy but we did manage to get to the library to pick out some I books. Our favorites included Isabel's Car Wash and a couple of I Spy look-and-find books.

Interesting week, to say the least! Who said parenting was for the weak of heart (or stomach)?

Letter of the Week - J

This week, we learned about the letter J.
Memory Verse: Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12)

Words: Jesus, Josiah, Jenna, Jessie, jelly, jam, jammies, juice

Books: Lots!  See the widget at the end of this blog post!

This was our favorite Letter of the Week so far. We have lots of J things and people in our lives, so this was a fun one, and despite being very busy, we were able to fit in lots of J activities. On Monday, Isabel spent part of the morning at Jenna's, and the girls decorated their letter J's with jellybeans (a big thanks to Jenna for this idea as I was wracking my brain and not coming up with anything to decorate the letter with this week!) Isabel also worked on a jigsaw puzzle that she really liked there. She has been liking puzzles a lot lately, and shocking me with how good at them she is when left alone to work on them!

Isabel was lucky enough to be able to make Jell-O jigglers twice this week. We made them on Wednesday night, and she made them again on Thursday night with Kyla who came over to babysit. I wanted to do J's and jets, but couldn't find an airplane cookie cutter so we settled for just J's.

We had a great time going to the library this week and choosing J books, then reading them throughout the week. Isabel especially liked "Jump, Frog, Jump" because she got to "read" every third page in the book which said "Jump, frog, jump!" She also liked "shouting" NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED! on the last page of that book. Below are our favorites from this week.

And our last J activity of the week was to make a J poster on Saturday night. I know it is too big of a commitment for me to help her make a poster every week, but this is one that we really wanted to make because we have lots of J people in our lives that we are very thankful for:

• Josiah: he is my son and Isabel's baby brother. His wrinkly-nosed smile lights up the rooms in our home many times a day. Our family would not be complete without him!
• Jessie: she is my sister (in-law) and Isabel's auntie.  Though the miles separate us it is clear that the kids are continually on her mind and she is as dear to us as if she were right next door.
• Jenna: she is my dear friend, our children's nanny, and Josiah's godmother.  She has poured hours of love into both Isabel and Josiah over the years, and she inspires me to be a better parent who takes a more creative, active role in my children's learning.
• Jack: he is our next-door neighbor and friend. He is a tender-hearted boy who is often willing to play with our kids in the yard or on the trampoline (one of Isabel's favorite activities).

We had a blast making the poster and Isabel wrote almost all the words (I would tell her each letter to write and she would write it). I am hopeful that the more of these we do, the more she will want to practice writing her letters. Once again, yay for Letter of the Week!

Letter of the Week - H

So this week, for Holy Week, we learned about the letter H.

Memory verse: "He is not here. He has risen!" (Matthew 28:6)
Words: happy, hat, heart, helpful, hair, hug, hot
Songs we listened/danced to: The Hokey-Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, If You're Happy and You Know It, Ho-ho-ho-Hosanna, Hallelujah
Books: In a People House, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight?

Isabel chose to decorate her letter H with hearts that Mommy painstakingly cut out for her!


Early in the week, Isabel and I were able to go on a special breakfast date to Perkin's. In honor of H week, Isabel got to order hot chocolate with her meal. We also must have had hearty appetites that day because we both cleared our plates, something that rarely happens! Hooray for us!

And on Friday, we got to join our friends Jenna, Megan, Camille, and Levi for a field trip to Fairview Ridges Hospital where all four kids were born. The hospital staff were very gracious to us as we wheeled around with two babies in strollers and two three-years olds walking with us! We tried to get a nice photo of the two mommies and all four kids. Despite the fact that only the mommies are smiling, they really are a happy bunch (you'll just have to take our word for it)!

Next we went up to the floor where there were babies in the nursery to look at. We talked to the girls about how when they were born and we mommies needed a little bit of rest, we would send them to the nursery where the nice nurses would rock them, or let them sleep in their bassinets under the warm lights.

And finally we went down and visited the NICU where Josiah spent his first 44 days of life. We told the girls that Josiah was too little to go to the regular nursery with the other babies, and had to come to this special nursery. I reminded Isabel that she was able to come and see her new baby brother through the window a few times, and how she would always say we were at "Josiah's house" when we would drive up to the hospital (she came up with that all on her own just after age 2!)  The best part about our visit was that three of the nurses who took care of Josiah were there and came out to see us. They all marveled at how big he has gotten and said they would never have recognized him as the same baby.  They took a new photo of the two of us and showed us the comparison between that and the photo of us on his discharge date (3/15/10). The difference is remarkable!

They were sad to know that he developed hydrocephalus but were glad that he is doing extremely well post-surgery. And the highlight of our field trip was running into our wonderful family pediatrician just outside the NICU. Dr. Williams is an amazing doctor and has always taken a special interest in our family. She just adores Isabel and Josiah, and was even willing to be in a picture with us!

And we topped off H week with church at Hosanna! on Saturday evening, Josiah happily posing for a photo on the Easter Bunny's lap (Isabel opted out of the photo this year), and a wonderful ham dinner with our family at our house on Sunday.