Glad I Checked...

Rich ran up to the library tonight, while I made dinner (taking Little Bit with him!) and brought back two books I had requested. I am so thankful for libraries. They give me a chance to oftentimes either save on the cost of buying books new or save from buying something that I really don’t want. Today was an excellent example.

I love the photography by Lennart Nilsson. He has the most gorgeous pictures of babies in the womb. So since Alexander is old enough to really realize what is going on, I wanted to get a book with beautiful pictures and start explaining in more detail about the new little baby that is growing inside me. I almost bid on Nilsson's book, A Child Is Born, on ebay, but decided to check my library first. And boy am I glad I did. While having many of Nilsson’s beautiful pictures, it is WAY to graphic for even my tastes, much less for my children’s with an unnecessary section on how babies are made - including pictures. It was definitely not appropriate for children (or anyone else for that matter).

In addition to requesting that book, I saw another title that intrigued me, How Did God Make Me? I can't wait to read this delightful book to Alexander in the morning. It is perfect for helping a young child relate to what it is like in the womb and accompanied by Nilsson's beautiful photographs. It is PERFECT! Based on how he reacts, I think this will probably be added to the wishlist to make a permanent addition to our home library! Thank you public library!!!

If I decide that I really want to have more of Nilsson's photographs, I think I might invest in the coffee table style book, LIFE. From what I gather, it focuses solely on the photography and skips the "pre-conception" stuff!

ETA: Xander loved the book. We've read it about 5 times already and it isn't even 8am yet...

Neverland - the update

As I’ve mentioned before, Alexander is quite enamoured with the story of Peter Pan. So for his birthday, we decided to expand on his Peter Pan play set by getting him a Captain Hook hat and letting him use my dough hook. He LOVES it. We now play Peter Pan even more than ever. Try as we might, though, Keegan just isn't quite ready to play. He won't keep the all-important hats ON!
A few weeks ago, I had the bright idea to play the crocodile. I clapped my hands in front of me like jaws and chased him around the house. Based on his shrieks of laughter, it appeared he enjoyed the new game. It was all peachy until we reversed rolls - and that’s when my bright idea came to bite me in the… well, my leg, but close enough. Now this fellow is the only one allowed to play “crocodile.”

And lastly, my ever curious son, really wanted to take pictures and have me pose as Hook. Most of the pictures were of his fingers or the floor. But here is one where he actually had pretty good aim. I just love playing with my boys and am so excited for the excuse to dress-up and play pretend with them! :)

More harm than good?

"It turns out that popular baby videos don't create geniuses, and may even hinder development. University of Washington researchers warned in a report released Tuesday that Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and other videos for infants may make a child slower in picking up vocabulary in the first two years of life. Every hour babies spent watching videos, they understood an average of six to eight fewer words than a baby who didn't watch the programs, researchers found."

For the rest of the article, go here. Mom also talked about it a bit and referred to the TIME Magazine article at our blog, Playful Childhood.

ok, I must admit, I'm a little prejudiced. I've never been a fan of the Baby Einstein series for a number of reasons. Instead, as Meltzoff, one of the co-directors of the UW's Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences and co-author of the study says, "We would suggest quietly and (carefully) slip the DVDs and VHS in the top drawer and take out the pots and pans and lipsticks and keys and telephones that the children so adore playing with."

Actively engaging our children is much more work than letting them passively sit in front of the television, but the benefits are tremendous. Sometimes I think we just need a little inspiration to get us moving in the right direction (or at least that usually seems to help me!) Mom and I are finally getting up and running with our new blog. We hope to report new research in the field of child development as well as to give practical tips on how we as mom's (and grandma's!) can engage our children in the magical realm of play where their best learning occurs.

Dangerous Boys

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it." - Mark Twain

I love this quote. When I was younger, I was always drawn to the rowdy, adventurous boys. When I taught VBS or any kind of class, those were the kids I gravitated towards and usually found me too! Maybe it was because to a certain degree I was the rowdy kid. I look forward to all of the grand adventures my boys will take me on. So if I start to complain, someone please send me this link, so I can remind myself that I really am looking forward to it!

Again thanks to Dan, I discovered this awesome book, The Dangerous Book for Boys. It just climbed up to the top of my wishlist!!!!! I won't withhold the privilige from Rich of getting to do a good deal of these activities with the boys, since I think they are meant to be daddy/son bonding whatnot, but I sure hope they let me in on some of the fun! You can read Al Mohler's wonderful review here.

I just loved this video clip showcasing the book that I found very entertaining. The tomboy in me is coming out. I would have LOVED this book as a kid and I'm certain that our "boy" household will love it as well!
If this new little baby is a girl, she'll have to be a tough one. Both of these boys play with abandon and are pretty rough. We had another little boy who is a couple of months younger than Keegan over a few weeks ago and Keegan kept tackling him. The poor guy wasn't quite sure how to react... So if this baby is a girl, please pray for her.


BRING IT ON!!!!!

Letting Go...

I guess part of having children means letting go of having a perfect home. I'm not sure if this is primarily a boy thing or if it just comes with having children in general, but my house is becoming quite "used" and abused.

Poor guy was just a little too excited to open the door for me as we came in through the garage and popped this beauty in our wall. When I called Rich down to give him a heads up on the new look of this wall, Xander went and hid in the pantry. He thought he was going to get in trouble. After assuring him, that he wasn't, he came out and we explained how we have to be "gentle" with things...