Littlest

I thought I would start from the littlest and work up. So... Max Palmer Van Wart.

We didn't know if Max would be a boy or girl before he was born. It took us a long time to decide on a boy name. Like about 8 months. :) I am big into wanting my children's names to "go together". I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's named Max because we loved the name and Palmer after his grandpa. Pretty good name I think. :)

He is 8 months old and here are a few fun facts about him...

~ He loves his family. All of us. He smiles and squeals when he sees someone he recognizes.
~ He gets carried around by big sis and loves it. Most of the time.
~ He is mobile. Watch out. He is crawling fast and has just started pulling up to a standing position.
~ He loves to feed himself. He will purse his lips if you try to feed him with a spoon. It's for this reason that he is mostly eating finger foods (cut up grapes, grilled cheese, crackers, cereal bars, peas).
~ He's babbling a lot and gives big open mouth kisses. So sweet.
~ He can be pretty feisty. He's very squirmy and loves to jump. Laid back is not how I would describe him.
~ He loves to nurse and has entered the super clingy stage. I have to admit, I don't mind. :)

We just love him to pieces, and we all gather around him when he wakes up in the morning to ooh and ahh over him. He eats it up! He hasn't been my easiest baby, but I forgive him because he's so cute and gives sweet kisses. Oh and did I mention he loves his mama?

Family of 5

Well, I'm still here. Barely. Just kidding. Not really. :)

My last post was about 9 months ago, right before I had baby #3. Baby #3 turned out to be this little guy.

Max Palmer Van Wart

Who now looks like this...

Isn't he a cutie?!

I'll do a separate post about this little guy. He is soooo sweet. :)

I've been away from blogging because long story short... I've just been trying to stay afloat. Having three kids really turned my world upside down. It was hard. Really hard. There's not really any one reason that made it that way. Bottom line is I had a 4 year old, 2 year old, and a newborn. All day was spent treading water- trying to maintain the house, unload the dishwasher, keeping clean clothes on the kids, nursing (a lot), feeding the bigger two, trying to squeeze a shower in, making my hubby dinner, running errands, having playdates, looking desirable to my husband (insert delirious laughter here)... did I mention Max would only take cat naps for the first 6 months of his life? How much can you get accomplished in 30 minute increments? Not a lot. I thought three would be no big deal. I think for a lot of people, any number after two is easy. Not for me. I was getting my hiney handed to me on a daily basis. :) I know I just painted a pretty dark picture, however, there were plenty of good times mixed in. :)

Things are better though! Whew. I was just talking to my SIL about how the 6 month mark after having a baby is the real turning point for feeling normal again. And the Van Wart house has a good groove going on! Max takes 2-3 long naps a day. Thank you Jesus. Jack is potty trained. Hallelujah. Bella...well... that deserves a separate post of it's own. I plan on writing an update post for each of the kids. We had a great summer FULL of swimming... some at the beach, some at the waterpark, but mostly at HoneyPop's house. Bella and Jack took swim lessons and both are swimming like fish. Swimming is the best thing ever. The kids will swim their hearts out, fill their bellies up, and sleep like newborns. Brilliant.

We are getting ready for the busyness of the fall. Jack is enrolled at MDO one day a week, we are all signed up for BSF, AND drum roll please.... I am homeschooling Bella this year. Yes, I know you're saying, "Bethany, you might want to read about two paragraphs up where you were talking about trying to stay afloat." Don't worry, a post is coming about homeschooling too.

*I sure am getting over-zealous in my commitments to new posts considering this one was 9 months in the making. Anyways ~ I'll end this way over-due post with pictures. You know, the good stuff. :)

Tick Tock

This baby is almost here and I have done NOTHING to prepare for his/her arrival. Seriously people, we are talking probably 6.5 weeks here, and I can't name one thing I've done in preparation. This is sooo not like me- I am a planner all the way. I have a few theories though as to why I have waited till the last minute to get ready for this baby.

Theory #1- I have no idea what I am having. When you don't know if a boy or girl is on the way, it's hard to envision the room, the crib, the clothes, etc. So, you do nothing. :) Actually, we did move Jack to a big boy bed, so the crib is free. Yahoo! I took his bedding out of the crib, and I'm going to wait on bedding for baby #3 until we know what it is. Bella did feel it necessary though to put an owl blanket in the crib that a sweet friend made for the baby. :)

*Funny sidenote- Our crib has yet to be converted to a toddler bed because everytime we move a baby out of it, we move another one into it. :)

Theory #2- The baby is sharing a room with Jack, so there's no room to get ready. It's done. Which is actually really nice. I do, however, want to spiffy up the room once the baby is here.

Theory #3- No baby showers. Now I don't say that in a poor poor pitiful me way. Trust me. I've told more than one person that we have everything we need for this baby. We have a crib, carseat, stroller, bumbo, highchair, pack-n-play, bottles, blankets, burp clothes, diaper bags, clothes... really everything. I'm so glad that I chose neutral colors for the big items when we had Bella. They're about to get use #3 out of them, which is awesome! So, when you aren't bringing truck loads of gifts home, you aren't forced to organize or put anything away.

It all of the sudden hit me though that this baby is coming soon, and I might want to get a few things in order. :) So here is my baby to-do list for the month of November...

- Buy diapers. I think I'm going to grab a package from now on when I'm at the store and that should last me awhile.

- Buy basics such as diaper rash cream, baby shampoo, lotion, pacifiers, baby detergent, etc.

- Wash blankets, burp clothes, sheets, and neutral baby sleepers.

- Sterilize bottles and nipples and make sure my breast pump still turns on. :) It should- it's a really nice one that we bought when Jack was born.

- Have Mark get the boy newborn and girl newborn bins out of the attic. I want to pick out and wash one boy and one girl "coming home" outfit for the hospital. I also want to leave both bins down so I'll have easy access to whichever one I end up needing.

- Also have Mark bring down from the attic the swing, bouncer, and carseat. They are all covered, but I still need to take off all the padding and wash it.

- Grab the little cradle from my in-laws that we are borrowing for our room for the first few weeks.

Am I forgetting anything?

As much as not knowing what we are having is out of my comfort zone, the anticipation of the surprise is SO exciting!!! I love my family, and I can't wait to welcome another little baby VW into it. What a blessing.

A sweet Bella story: Every night for the past couple of weeks Bella has been having me lay down on her bed, so she can feel and talk to the baby. She puts her little hands on my belly and puts her mouth really close and talks so sweet. Most of the time, the baby will give her a little nudge or kick which elates her. I think she is at a really good age for this baby to be super exciting to her. She's even finally come to terms with the fact that the baby might be a boy and not a girl. :) I'm so proud of her.

Halloween

Operation Halloween 2011 = Success!

I love Halloween. This is actually a new love of mine. I love the cute kids in their cute costumes, I love the yummy and creative food, I love the trick-or-treating... I love the tradition at our house. I did not grow up where Halloween was a big deal. We did not go trick-or-treating- usually there was a fall festival at our church and I remember dressing up a few times. It's all I knew, and I never grew up feeling like I missed out. It was actually pretty fun. Mark, however, did grow up with Halloween being a big deal, so when our kids came along, he was pumped about it. I was thinking "What's the big deal?". Well, now I know. It is so much fun. :)

I think in every family, holidays are what you make them. You being mom and dad. When Bella was born, her first Halloween started off pretty small. Small being, she wore a pumpkin hat and we took her picture. :) But each year, we've added a little something to the celebration, and this year was awesome!
We love having our family over on Halloween. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and this year, a few friends came as well. Lots of pictures are taken and lots of food is consumed. We always order pizza, and this year, thanks to my friend I call Pinterest, we also had salted caramel popcorn balls, rice krispie treats on a stick, caramel apple bites, witch hat cookies, toasted pumpkin seeds, and pretzel hug candy corn treats. I don't think I got one picture of all the food, but it sure was yummy. And thank you to Brenna for bringing the awesome pretzel sticks covered in almond bark. They were so good!

Here are a few pictures from this year's festivities...

We took Bella to the doctor on the day of her school party. She had a really bad cold and allergies but was heartbroken that she was going to miss her party. So, I ran her up there so she could participate. She was completely miserable... it was so sad. (I know it looks like I am the mom who brought her sick kid to school, and I kind of did, but it was for 20 minutes and she didn't touch anybody, so no judgement :) They had to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up, and she chose a nurse. So I made her up a costume that cost me about $1. :)

Carving our pumpkin

Washing the pumpkin seeds so we could toast them

Jack the Cowboy (minus a nap)

"Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world,

A freckled faced red head girl,

You wanna know,

She'll turn your life into a whirl."

Anybody remember Pippi? I grew up LOVING Pippi, and a couple of years ago I found the original movie in one of those $5 movie bins. I was so excited. I was even more excited when my daughter fell in love with Pippi too and wanted to be her for Halloween this year.

Cutest Pippi Ever!
She's holding Alfonzo the horse and Mr. Neilson the monkey, both of whom are Pippi's pets.

Costume made by yours truly for roughly $8. And most importantly, Bella loved it. :)

Trick-or-treating with friends and cousins

Starting in on the candy right away

She loved trick-or-treating this year!

Our neighborhood is CRAZY busy on Halloween. It's pretty cool how many families in the neighborhood participate in the festivities (as well as all the people who literally bus kids into our neighborhood just to trick-or-treat). So, we have to leave some adults behind to pass out candy. This year we had over 100 trick-or-treaters and went through 6 big bags of candy. Wow! It was greatness.

Sweet little mermaid

Assessing the loot

A happy and tired Pippi :)

So there you have it. Can't wait for next year!

ABCs vs Play

So several months ago, I mentioned that I wanted to blog about this topic, and then I never did. Partly because of time but partly because I was chicken. It's never left my mind though, and since I am dealing with it everyday, I decided I would go for it. I will start with a disclaimer...
I know this is a touchy topic and there are lots of different points of views. My view on the subject is just my opinion and it's what works for me and my kids. That's all. :)
Okay- ABCs vs Play. What do I mean by this? I'm going to back track a little bit, and then I'll come back to the present.
Education. This is a powerful word in our society today, especially for my generation, not to mention our children's generation. When you meet someone new, what's a good conversation starter? What do you do? Where did you go to school? What did you major in? We ask this because we are interested, but also because it's something most of us can identify with. Education in my family, as well as Mark's family, was something you just did. It was never really presented as an option. It was more of "So where do you want to get your education?" not "Do you want an education?" I think that's just a sign of the times. Our country says: To do anything, to be anyone, you need an education. Now, obviously college is not for everyone and college is not the end all be all. But I think we can all agree that education in the world today is a pretty big deal. This brings me to my next point... when does education begin?
When you have a child, it's specacular. You watch them grow, reach milestones, and become more knowledgeable of the world around them everyday. It truly is fascinating to think about how much babies and toddlers are learning everyday. As parents, we watch and are truly amazed at what our children are doing and saying, and we think to ourselves, "Man, this kid is smart!" Am I right? :) Sometimes it feels like I can literally feel my heart swelling up with pride over something my child has just done or said. Examples could be: learning to walk, starting to talk, counting, saying ABCs, identifying animals, going to school the first time, writing their name, learning to read, memorizing songs, verses, books... and the list will never end. As parents, I think know we all feel a huge sense of responsibilty to our children and their "success" (whatever that means) in this world. And there is massive amounts of pressure to step up to the plate to have "that kid" or to be "that mom". I am already getting asked, "So have you decided where Bella will attend kindergarten?" and "When will Jack be starting preschool?" I watched this documentary about familes in NYC and their quest to get their toddlers into very prestigious nursery schools. It was seriously crazy. There was blood, sweat, and tears trying to get their child into the best nursery school because that would determine what pre-school, grade school, highschool, and eventually college they would get into. Whew. That stresses me out just typing that. Was their focus off? I think just a tad. :) Which brings me to MY focus.
As a former teacher, I saw lots of successful children passing through school and lots of struggling children trying to get through school. They were so many factors that contributed to this... great family involvment, no family involvement, great home life, tragic home life, good old fashion "smart" genes, frustrating learning disabilities. When I had Bella, you can imagine, I was a little freaked out by all the different scenarios she might be faced with in school. I started to feel lots of pressure to make sure she was "ready" for "life". I had seen so many children struggle academically, socially, emotionally, etc. that I wanted to do everything in my power to keep Bella from having to struggle. Again, as parents, we naturally have a protective instinct for our kids, and something erupts inside of us when they are feeling any sort of physical or emotional pain (a.k.a Mama Bear and Papa Bear come out). Back to academics... in our house out came the bathtub abcs, the color and matching games, dollar bin toddler workbooks, and flashcards. Again I'm thinking, "I have to teach her this stuff or she's going to have a hard time and struggleI want her to do well and feel good about herself." Hold up. She was 1. It's really embarrasing typing that because it sounds so shallow. She.was.1. Was I skipping over her first years of life for the sake of academics?
As Bella has grown older and when Jack was born, I began to have a shift of focus. I began to realize that their first years of life were passing way too quickly for me to lose focus of what was important. Them. Not their knowledge of colors, shapes, or letters. But them. Their character and personality. Were we playing enough? Getting dirty enough? Making enough messes? Because here is the truth: At the age of 5, our children will begin a 13 year (at least) process of going through school (more likely 17-20 years). Does that not freak any other mother out besides me? My baby is going to have to start school, and I can't have her everyday to just play? It makes me pretty sad. Where has the time gone?
Is education still important to me? Absolutely. I think we can use opportunties that arise as we "play" to teach and educate our kids. I'm not saying, don't teach your kids. Of course, we want to teach them everything we can. It's fun, and they enjoy learning. Plus, it's fun to brag about them or have them say their abcs for grandparents, aunts, and uncles. :) We are proud of our children, and we want to show it. Nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying, give yourself a break. And give your kids a break. Try worrying less about how they compare to others. Who cares if they can't do what some other kids the same age are doing. Every child is unique and made in the image of God. Let's take their first years of life to focus on teaching them self-worth, God's love for them, humbleness, love, compassion, responsibilty, self-sacrifice, respect and grace. Those are the things I want my children to carry with them into the world. If they are strong in those things, I know their education will fall into place. Some of my most loveable students were not the smartest ones. They were the most compassionate, generous, and hard- working ones.
I feel so much more balanced when it comes to this topic, and I owe that all to the Lord. It has given me a tremendous amount of peace about bringing up my children, treating them as the individuals they are, and helping them learn and grow in a way that's best for them. Several examples are...
- Bella loves to learn. Usually on a daily basis, she goes over to her art table to practice "school". Sometimes she wants my help, sometimes she doesn't. And when she's tired of writing her letters, we stop. That's what works well with her. And then we move on to Barbies and crafts!
- I will be playing cars with Jack, and sometimes I'll ask him the color of the cars (see, teach during play). Jack is funny because there are times he will give his guess at the color and then there are times when he will say, "I not say that color!" He's not in the mood, so instead, we race them across the floor. I'm not going to get myself all worked up because he doesn't want to say his colors right then.
- Bella started AWANAS, and we practice her Bible verses every week. One week, she recited her new verse but for some reason, not her review verses. I was trying to ask her why (and getting a little bent out of shape about it) when she said, "But mom, we played this really fun game called Duck, Duck, Goose." Thank you Lord for using my daughter's innocence to remind me to re-focus.

My last few thoughts for our children are:

1) PLAY with them lots and lots and lots

2) READ to them lots and lots and lots

3) PRAY for them lots and lots and lots
and
4) LOVE them lots and lots and lots

The rest will work itself out. Our children will go out into the world and know how to love and treat others, deal with disappointment, struggle and work hard, make friends, play, learn lots, be responsible, and make us so very proud.

And then we can not only brag about their 100 on their spelling test, but also how they stood up for a friend that was being bullied, sat with a new student at lunch, showed respect to their teacher, turned in lost money, or prayed for their sick brother.


"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."... And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
                                                                                                                 Mark 10:14,16

Happy Birthday Jack!

So, the last post was about his big sis, but this one is all about him.

Such a cutie!

When you are preparing to have your second child, your head tells you that you'll love this next baby just the same, but your heart has a hard time grasping that. Well...it just happens. It is so amazing to fall so in love all over again with another child. Your heart grows and suddenly, you have more love for your family than you thought possible.
This little boy has really done a number on his mama. He is the sweetest, cuddliest, most precious little boy ever. Ok, I know I'm biased, but he truly is the sweetest! We call him a 'kind soul' around our house. :) As you can imagine, it can't be easy to enter a family where Bella is your big sister. She is a great big sister, don't get me wrong, but Jack has had to learn to hold his own. He is extremely sensitive, doesn't like to see anyone upset or hurt, and is very compassionate. He has always been a mama's boy, which I definitely can't complain about. What mother doesn't want to hold onto her little boy all day?

Lately, however, he has been ALL about daddy. It took a little getting used to, but again, what mother doesn't love that her son is so in love with his daddy? He only wants Daddy to put him to bed, only wants Daddy if he wakes up crying, Daddy is the only one that can get him out of bed, if Daddy leaves the room, Jack has to immediately find him. Where Daddy goes, Jack goes. It's crazy. And really sweet. The word hero comes to mind.

This pretty much says it all!

We realized early on that Jack is musically inclined. Before he could really talk, he was humming the tune of songs from beginning to end. He has always loved going to bed with music, and now, we have to make sure we have music on hand if we go out of town, so he can go to sleep. Music makes him happy. Right now I hear him saying to Mark, "I play gu-tar?" He loves to sing along with the songs and dance to any music. When we are in the car, I always have kid cds on hand because they can pull him out of any funk. We hear him at night through the monitor singing along to each song as it plays. He knows them all! He learned his ABCs from the song box that plays on our refrigerator. Ask him to say them, he won't. Ask him to sing them, no problem. As a previous teacher, you can imagine how insightful this is to me. He obviously has a great memory when it comes to songs, so I will definitely be tapping into that resource when he is in school.

Jack's great love right now is horses. Actually, it is more like an obsession. He constantly talks about riding "Hot Rod", he flips through page after page of horse books, and he will spot any horse we pass in the car. This is his very favorite thing to do...

Jack on Hot Rod

For his birthday, I made him this cake...

He loved it! He kept saying, "I see horsey cake, I see horsey cake!" And boy did he score on the horsey loot! Remember those riding horses with the springs? He got the new and improved one where someone was smart enough to cover the springs with padding. How many times did we pinch our legs on those springs?! He also got cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, cowboy pop guns, little toy horses, paddocks, a stable... whew. If anyone ever needs horse anything, we have it. He has been in cowboy heaven every morning since his birthday.

We had family there to celebrate with us, which is always a great time!

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet Jack!

To end this post, I leave with this picture and thought...

I have two wonderfully different and unique children, that I wonder... what is baby van wart #3 going to be like? Hmmm... I can't wait to find out! I think we are all already stretching our hearts for the love we are going to feel as a family of 5. :)