Jungle Garden

I love summer. We have been doing lots of bike riding (up big hills), gardening, playing, seeing the Sounders, The Bellingham Bells, family, celebrating Eliza's birthday (more to come) and enjoying the sun!

As I was watering the garden tonight I looked around and feel like we are making real progress on the garden and have been able to keep up with this far in the summer. Alas, it will probably go to crazy weeds after our next trip but for now, it's looking like a crazy jungle -in - progress- garden. I thought I would share. 

love my hanging baskets. Thanks to Lynden HS students for growing such great plants in the greenhouse at school. 

the garlic will come out this week.

Our as usual giant artichoke plant

loving the flowers around the greenhouse this year. We also hung a shade, to keep it a little cooler in there. 

Our best crop- volunteer potatoes and nasturtiums. 

More plants for LHS!

The hill, its' pretty weed free at the moment... I have gotten to some spots that have been neglected for 5 years!

Raspberries and Strawberries!

Our squash and blue berry hill...

Squash/pumpkins and blueberries

Inside the hoop house

Lavender in full bloom. I think next year they will come out. 

more LHS plants!

Milestones

Oh, hello blog, I have missed you! Summer is here, so lets hope I get the chance to write some more blogs. Because believe me life is still going strong here. I just don't know when to fit in blogging, working almost full time, 2 kids, dinner, house, husband, garden, exercise, a dog, a cat, friends, and probably more! A few things must get let down I guess. I can now say that I have survived my first year working 4 days a week with two kids in a new job! I have a few more loose ends to tie up at school but I survived my first year as a high school counselor, barely :-) I am feeling very good about the change and hoping that next year will be a little easier and less of a learning curve. So that is one mile-stone down...here are a few more!

It was a big weekend around her last weekend. We have a big 5 year old who is done with pre-school and ready for kindergarten! Wow, how did that happen? It was a weekend of celebrations and getting ready to move on. Corbin finished his 2 years at his wonderful little Pre-School/Pre-K; Little Darling School. Crazy to think that 2 years ago he was just beginning this journey and last week he finished up and graduated from Pre-K. It was a little bit of a rough start but he finished strong and we had a GREAT year this year. He had wonderful teachers, a great group of classmates, and amazing opportunities to play, explore, expand, and learn. Here he is at his graduation. 

Walking across the bridge to new adventures!

 

Corbin and one of his best buds from pre-k, Lux (on the right).  

After his last day of pre-K and his graduation it was on to another celebration... his 5th birthday party! Wow, How do I have a 5 year old! This felt like a pretty special birthday, so we did it up. It was the first birthday separate from his friend Alden. We knew that by adding a few good new school friends and really letting it be about Corbin and not about us and our friends, we let him pick 3 friends from school and 3/4 friends from our group of friends that we play with often. I gave him a few choices for a theme, he chose "space".  We had a blast and it was the perfect amount of kids and activities. I took some videos on the Ipad but I can't seem to upload them onto Youtube... I will keep working on it. 

Alien cupcakes!

space food? 

Space ice cream in there somewhere :-) Thanks Susan and Mark (grammie and grandpa) for all your help with food and set-up!

You can see a few of the space stickers I stuck around the table in this one. 

Here I got super crafty and used a pintrest idea to make Rocket Booster for all the kids as their party favors. I tried to collect 2 litter soda bottles (but ended up buying most of them) and we spray painted them and then got them ready for the kids to decorate. I thought it worked out well! Thanks to Jen for helping me put them together during the crazy busy week leading up to graduation, the party, and finishing school!

The decorating table. Thanks Aimee and Jen for all your help!

Alden and Silas hard at work decorating them. 

A proud birthday boy!

The Rocket boys! 

Eliza and Uma were more interested in popcorn and the tent than decorating their rocket boosters. 

Adam designed a great space training obstacle course. I wish I could show you the video. Basically they had to run through the space challenge before they could earn their booster. We also had a space rock (tin foil pennies) search, and then a "Meteor Shower" water balloon toss. Again a great video. Soon I hope :-)

Eliza is really excited about this meteor shower balloon toss! We have Baker, Corbin, Alden, Lux, Silas, Brody, Luca and Eliza! 

Mmmm...cupcakes!

It was a great party and everyone was happy and tired by the time it was done. The weather cooperated and was great. Then it was time to move a free swing set from the neighbors over into our yard! It has been slightly neglected and was pretty shaky but Grandpa Mark and Adam took a trip to the hardware store and firmed it up! The kids LOVE it! 

Happy Father's Day! 

Wow, what a whirl wind. For Corbin's actual birthday he went to daycare and Adam and I still had work. We had pancakes for dinner and played out side. And now we have a 5 year old! Crazy!! We love you Corbin! 

Spring Break

It's spring break here. We are not somewhere exciting or exotic. But we do have a few new things around here... 

We sold my 1994 Nissan Altima with 227,000 miles on it. It was getting a little too unreliable for us to drive...so we finally decided on a "new" old car. A 2008 Prius!! We got 45 mpg on the way home from Seattle! Woot Woot!!

We had an awesome Easter and few days down on Bainbridge with Grammie Susan and Grandpa Mark. The sun was out, the air was warm, we hunted for eggs, rode bikes, watched soccer, and played. 

 Eliza is getting awesome on her balance bike. She really got the hang of it this last weekend.
Tutu's are for every sport!

 When we got back up to Bham, we got some new chicks. Two black Barred Rock's; George and Fluffy and a Golden Sexlink; Fuzzy. 

We were hoping to get into the garden too...but the weather is back to rain. We do have seedlings ready for the greenhouse. The garden is mostly weeded, we are eating the last of the winter Kale, and planed our peas and radish.  Spring is here!

iLVU

I see I haven't written a We Like Gryffin post since the end of March...2012. This should tide you over for another year.

We have always surrounded our kids with books. I read a bit. They know me at the library. And by always keeping Corbin and Eliza supplied with stories, we've surrounded them with something else, too: Words.

This is a Corbin post. Though Eliza is starting out on this journey herself.

Any time Corbin has a book in front of him, we call it reading. Some people may say that just looking at a book doesn't actually qualify as reading. I disagree. Reading is interacting with text or story. Corbin has read the pictures of his books since he could hold them. His is interacting with the story through its pictures. With wordless picture books, he reads them the same as anyone else. So he has always been a reader.

But it is still exciting that in the last couple months he has really started working on sounding out words. We've never pushed word-reading. But when Corbin expresses an interest, we help him with it. We've got the alphabet down. At his pre-K, there is a letter of the week, and they work on both finding the letter and writing it. They work on the sound the letter makes. We piggy back on this, and Corbin has sounded out full words on his own. He's not quite at the stage where he will sound out words in books he is looking at, independently. He will try, when he is ready. He is stepping through his own stages as a reader.

Corbin has also been copying letters for quite a while. We will write what he wants to write, and he will copy it. We call it writing. And it is.

In the last couple of weeks, Corbin has been a bit of a terror (see previous post). It has been very challenging. But a couple of times he has initiated his own coping strategy, one that we had never really suggested. The first time he did it, he told Erin, "I really need a pen." Then he proceeded to draw a picture to let out his feelings. That's right. Corbin is into art therapy. All on his own.

Then, this week, I did something that Corbin didn't like. He left and came back a minute later with this:

It's a little hard to read, but you can see the angry, sharp-toothed man that might be mean-me, or might be angry-Corbin. Next to it, Corbin wrote "iDNDLKU." So, that's "I don't like you." Which made me a little sad, but also HOLY COW HE WROTE SOMETHING!

I think I said something like, "Oh, that makes me really sad...But look! You wrote that all by yourself!" I couldn't really contain my excitement about it, despite what it said.

He left and then came back with more added. "iLVU."

Whoa.

This was the first time Corbin had sounded out and written his own words. It was amazing.

"Corbin! You're figuring out the code of writing!"

He was excited. He left and came back with a picture of "MOME" (Mom-ee) and "DADD" (Dad-dee).  What a step to witness.

Today, Corbin came home from daycare with this picture:

We couldn't decipher the word in the bottom left, even with Corbin's help (he tried sounding it out), but you can clearly see "Love" and "Mommy." He also scribbled out a "Love" in the top left. Maybe he wanted it in a different place, or maybe he wasn't satisfied with it. It's hard to know, too, how much his daycare person might have helped. Still. Writing.

Corbin will go to kindergarten next year. It makes me a little nervous, for a variety of reasons. Mostly, though, I am worried about reading and writing. At home, Corbin is a reader. He is a writer. He is a lot of things. I don't want that to change. I don't want anyone to tell him that he isn't a reader yet. That he isn't a writer yet. I don't want anyone to tell him what books he can read and which ones he can't (Of course I'll read that Dora book with you, Corbin [but it might go "missing" later...]).

But what can I do? Some things we can't control. In the meantime, let's read this book. Or write this story. Clearly, Corbin is on his way. He has taken a few more steps on the reading and writing continuum. We're pretty excited to be tagging along.

Conflict

Corbin and I have had a lot of conflict lately. It's been bringing me down on my parenting. He is not making good decisions. I am not making good parenting responses.  I feel like I am stuck in a 4 1/2 year old rut.  I need to dig out some books again. We need to bring back our Family Meetings to give him some positive power. I need to take more deep breaths. I am sure there are a lot more needs or things that could be done. I am definitely loving working more this year but I also think this is one of the downsides of it. I am tired. He is tired. We are all tired. Not an excuse, just the truth.  I feel like I just need to purge some of these feelings... this is a purge post. It's not all bad, as I will tell at the end. Just need to know I am not alone...

He has been spitting lately. Ugh. It's driving me CRAZY! And guess who decides to copy him. He does it to be funny. He does it to be mean. He does it to me. He does it to Adam. He does it to Eliza. Help! How do I stop it? 

One minute he is loving on his sister, the next, he pokes her in the eye. Eliza's new phrase, "Corbin's being mean..." He is the bossy one but she doesn't always just take it and do what he says... equals conflict. Arg! The minute we step into the house after school/work/daycare it's non-stop. You cannot leave the two of them alone without fear of one of them killing the other... add to that a HUGE mountain of couch pillows each night and it could end in disaster. 

We have been having some real power struggles lately. I am engaging in them, which is probably what is making them worse. It's amazing how easily I can find myself in one before I know it. And then I feel bad. He feels bad. We both feel bad. He seems to get over it fast than me. 

I know part of it is just him growing up, trying to figure out his place in this world. Eliza is becoming more interactive, more verbal, more imaginative, more independent. Thus taking some of the attention away from him. He loves it on one hand because he now has a play mate but he also has to share us more now too. Some of it's amazing. Tonight at dinner, we were having the best time just watching them. Eliza is having these strings of conversations about pretend things. Her toddler hood is going away. Corbin has so much spirit and determination. He tries to rationalize everything. He has a reason for everything. Literally everything. Sometimes its exhausting. Sometimes it's amazing! 

And then there are nights like tonight...start off bad and then end up better... We had a HUGE battle last night (every night) with him getting his PJ's on for bed. He wastes time. We loose book time. Last night it took him forever to get his clothes off, go pee, get his diaper on, PJ's on, etc. So when he chose his 2 books for bed and one was really short, he got really mad. He wanted 3 books since one was so short... I said, "NO".  He wasted time getting ready. Then he poked Eliza in the eye for no reason. We had to talk about that for a while. Basically, we did not have time for another book because he had wasted time. Screaming. Kicking. Whining. Pleading. Yelling. Crying. Everything. Nope, my answer was still no. I said, "tomorrow, let's work on getting ready faster and then if we have time for a 3rd book, we can read it." He calmed down enough for me to say "I love you" and to tuck him in... and then I left to work out. I know Adam had to go up again... 

So tonight we talked about not wasting time. Getting 3 books. Getting ready in a reasonable speed. Nope. SLOW. Even with help. Even with encouragement. I gave a warning. I went to help Eliza. I told him he had lost that 3rd book again. We could still read 2 but not 3. He lost it again. This time he slammed his door and said he was never coming out of his room. He yelled through the door. I am never coming out. Don't come in. I will put my self to sleep. I don't need your help. And on and on....Wow, this was a new tactic. So I said quietly through the door that his tooth brush was waiting for him  and that when he was ready, I would love it if he would join me and Eliza for some stories in her room. He said. "NO. I am never coming out. Not until my birthday. Not ever. I won't come out till my birthday. Then I will have my birthday and you will bring my presents to my room but I won't come out till then (his birthday is in June)."  So Eliza and I started reading.  I heard him come out. Go and brush is teeth. Then quietly he came over to us. Just wanted to see what we were reading. I told him he was welcome to read with us. He started to walk away... then he turned back and said. "Ok, I will read this one story with you. Then I am going back in. I don't want you to tuck me in. I will do it by myself. I am never coming out of my room." So we read the story. Then he said he would go back to his room, until he saw what we were reading next. "Ok, I will read this one too. But then I am going in my room, will tuck myself in. And never come out." 

I told him, "I will miss you if you never come out. What will you do for food? What will you do if you get hungry?" 

He replied after thinking for a bit. "I will stand at the top of the stairs and yell for food. Then you will bring it to me and I will eat it in my room." 

Hmm...Ok. "Well, what about school, won't you miss seeing your friends? Or going to your friends house? Or being outside, riding your bike?" 

"You can arrange play dates my friends can come here and play in my room."

"What about going to your friends houses? Like Brody, Alden or Lux's?"

"I will go to their houses only. Then come back to my room. They are my best friends, so I will do that. And I won't go back to Pre-K, not until kindergarten and after my birthday".

"Wow, I would really miss you that whole time. It might get boring."

"Nope, I will be fine. I will tuck myself in. Let's read more". 

Well... ok then... so we finished the next book. 

He looked at me, said, "I am going to go and tuck myself in. And read myself a book. But could you stop by on your way down?..."

"Yes, of course."

After putting Eliza down, I went into his room. He had gotten into bed, turned on his night light, and was reading quietly. He seemed very proud of himself. We had a quick snuggle, I said I was sorry we had been fighting so much and that I really would miss him if he stayed in his room till his birthday. I said I love you and good night. He told me he loved me too. 

I hope he comes out tomorrow :-)