CREATIVE LEARNING

Even though its summer time, I want to make sure the munchkins continue to learn a little something each day :-) Learning never stops...

Kielle has started speaking! She has about 25 words in her vocabulary and she is even starting to say two words phrases like "Hello Daddy", "Night night Nas", and "Read (the) book". For the past month Kielle has been calling me Mama, but recently it has switched to Mimi. I think she's trying to say Mommy, but I've gotta be honest I get tickled when I hear her call me Mimi :-) To encourage Kielle to learn more words and express herself with words instead of hollers we've been doing a lot of repetition exercises with her. If she wants say the blanket, I'll say "Do you want the blanket?" Usually I get a groan or a grunt in response. Then I follow up with "Say blanket" and she'll try to repeat the word. So far its working well. She's awesome :-) I definitely think she's going to be a chatterbox!

I can't even believe that I was worried about Khyri's speech! He has blossomed so much. I'm still glad I put him in speech therapy, though, because I think it gave us the jump start we needed. Now his little lips don't stop flapping. hahahaha. He loves to ask, "What's that?", which is good because it helps expand his vocabulary. His current fixation is construction vehicles - tractors, cranes, and bobcats. You name it; Khyri loves it. With all of the construction going on in Cobb County, I am forever pointing out something to Khyri!

In addition to our trips to the zoo ... well ok PetSmart ahhahaha, I've tried to incorporate some different techniques to teach the munchkins their letters, shapes, and colors. Here are a few activities that we've been doing over the summer to make sure that we keep learning fun!

Shapes & Spelling with Qtips and Cotton Balls

 

Fun with Blocks & Legos

still working on sharing!

Spelling with Grapes

Writing

Reading

 

Crafts!

Counting... and Gymnastics

I came across a good deal on my favorite frugalista site hip2save.com for a Thomas the Train magazine subscription. I love this magazine and so does Khyri! He likes going to the mailbox and getting his very own piece of mail - just like Joe on Blues Clues...Mail time! ahahahah. The magazine has short stories and activities for preschoolers. So while I'm reading Parents magazine, he's reading Thomas & Friends. hahahaha

Khyri starts his preschool program in two weeks. He'll be going everyday from 9 to 6. I'm sad that he will be getting most of his education from someone other than me, but its a great school and I know he's going to love it and develop tremendously. Kielle and I will just have to hold it down at Mosley Academy while he's gone :-)

FULL CIRCLE

I have a few friends that I have literally known all of my life. My friend Najah has been in my life since I was born. Her father and my father were BFFs in undergrad at Columbia University! We go waaaayyyy back :-) For a good part of my life we even lived in the same building in Harlem.

Of course as the years went by Naj and I grew apart - this was pre internet and cell phones :-) hahahhaha. Naj came down here to go to Clark Atlanta and while I went to Tufts. I had no idea she was even down here. Then when I came down to Atlanta for graduate school my dad casually mentioned - you know Najah's down there!?!? Uh no I didn't!(My father is good for holding information back)

We reconnected and what do you know we both became preggers within 6 months of each other! Aziz and Khyri are seriously two peas in a pod. We have playdates often and I love catching them in their pjs! ahhahahah

I think its amazing that our fathers had two little girls that they raised together and now Najah and I have two little boys that play together. Its awesome to see how life comes full circle!

EGGSELLENT!

Well spring is here, the birds are chirping, and It's Egg Hunting Time. But - where can the Mosley munchkins hunt for eggs?!?!?! Well, let's start from the beginning...

For the past 2 weeks I have been slaving away at our backyard so the munchkins can enjoy it this summer. I didn't have a real plan or a timeline. I just knew I wanted an area they could go explore, while I lounged in my pajamas if need be :-)

Let me give a little background info here... my backyard was DA FOOL. No for real. I have not gone back there since 2009. Yup 2.0.0.9. It was literally a jungle. The weeds were up to my knees and these random little trees had started to sprout. For 3 winters we haven't even raked the leaves. Sadly, I think that people had started using my backyard as a dumping site :-( All bad. So imagine my task!

View from the couch - day 4

I wish I would have cataloged my progress from the beginning, because the few pictures I do have don't do the drastic change any justice. I don't know what motivated me to start but I just decided that I wanted to straighten up the backyard. So one day while Kielle was napping I went out to the shed and pulled out my tools - a saw, a pair of hedge clippers, regular scissors, a rake, and trowel.

Before

After

I knew it was going to be a huge undertaking so I paced myself. My first goal was to rake and clear all the way to the first big tree on the right hand side. With Khyri raking and putting leaves into the yard waste while Kielle napped and in the evenings, we accomplished our goal quickly - 7 leaf bags and 3 days later. I sawed down a few little trees and trimmed the big ones hoping that some sunlight would filter through. Some is exactly what I got hahahaha. It just isn't meant to be for the backyard to have fancy grass.

For awhile I considered doing a clover lawn, which is said to do very well in low light areas and in Georgia clay, but the white flowers tend to attract bees so that was a no go.

*sigh* The clover lawn would have been a real nice look for the backyard and easy to maintain, but it wasn't right for all the running and romping I had envisioned. I decided to pay close attention to hidden 'jewels' like this ivy that I planted back in 2001. I had totally forgotten about the ivy so it was a nice surprise. I decided to plant some more to create a border for the back fence.

 


I also knew that in addition to sprucing up the yard, we needed to do something about the part of the fence that had gotten damaged a few years ago in one of the storms. Before we couldn't really see it because it was covered by trees and debris but now it is in plain view. I got quotes for the fence and let's just say... it's going to be janky a little while longer. ahhahahaha

So I focused on what I could accomplish in the near future. I packed up the munchkins and headed to The Home Depot. I grabbed a bunch of plants that said they would survive in low light and a big ole bag of garden soil. I also got some of our favorites - the ivy and daylillies. Daylillies are some hardy plants because they've survived being neglected in the front of the house for about 6 years; so I thought I'd give them a try in the back. hahahahaha. I was seriously motivated now! I had even brought along a simple sketch of how I was gonna get some bushes and plants to add to the back. I noted the 3 large trees and tried to think of how what I needed to pseudo landscape back there.

When we got back, I got to work. Please take note - the hubby is taking photos of ME doing the work. hahahaha I think he thought I was going through some sort of midlife crisis. I was seriously on a mission! Must clear play area NOW! ahhaha

Nas enjoys the fruits of my labor

The bushes I planted are so small, but with time they are supposed to grow to 3 feet wide. I feel really good about clearing out the backyard. I still have some more plants to put out back, but we'll see if I get around to them. If not, they are gonna go right back to Home Depot  - I am the return queen! The other day Khyri asked if he could go out back and I psyched that he wanted to go back there. He put his shoes on and went right outside while I sat inside on the couch and read my magazine. My vision was coming true!

The inaugural event for the backyard was fittingly an Easter Egg Hunt! I hid the eggs and Khyri and Kielle searched. Daddy was in charge of making sure nobody peeked while I hid the eggs! *that didn't work* We did 7 rounds of hiding the eggs.

 

While we were egg hunting our backside neighbor yelled over the fence to introduce himself. He asked us if we had just moved in. Nope we've been here 12 years... and just decided to use our backyard. *hanging my head in shame* But, you have to start a makeover somewhere and I started ours 2 weeks ago. We still have some work to do, but today's hunt gave me renewed spirit to keep on digging, weeding, sawing, and cutting - The smiles from backyard fun are SO eggsellent :-)

As many celebrate Easter Sunday I'll share a video of Khyri who was moved to sing a little diddy while focused on his puzzle and a video of Khyri spreading the happiness :-)

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE :-)

THE STANDOFF

Khyri is taking this "I'm a big boy 3 year old and I run this house" thing a little too far. Tonight we had a showdown over peas. I don't know where this tension between the peas and Khyri started; but its getting out of control. Peas used to be Khyri's favorite - the munchkins love mixed veggies. Recently however he just pushes them around his plate. Seeing as frozen peas are $1.29 a pack, I need for Khyri not to waste food or my money - so the time has come to make him eat his peas.

It started out as any other dinner meal. Khyri had pasta and peas. Kielle just had peas and I wasn't that hungry so I had cereal. After a rousing "The Wheels on the Bus" I start cleaning up the table. Low and behold - there are the peas. Sitting there. Staring at me. I calmly say "Khyri eat your peas." No go. 4 minutes later I move into negotiations "Khyri if you eat your peas you can get out of the chair. Khyri if you eat two spoonfuls of peas you can get more juice." No movement.

5 more minutes... peas are still on the plate. Time for serious action. I cut off the lights. That's right this boy is sitting in the dark - chilling. Seriously chilling. 

Khyri protesting in the dark

Play around all you want to - I'm not budging! hmph. Mind you Kielle is out of the highchair running around playing just having a good old time. This other one... not.so.much. I couldn't believe it. My little Khyri. My sweet Khyri. Defiant. Booooooo

43 minutes later... I hoodwinked Khyri into eating 4 spoonfuls of peas. They were all hand fed to him by me, but hey a win is a win! There were maybe 20 or so peas left. No trash can necessary though ...

Moochie McMunchkin is always ready willing and able to eat some peas!

KHYRI IS THREE!

Baby boy Khyri is now Big Boy Khyri :-)

We started the morning off with Khyri waking up to his Happy Birthday balloon. After a few rounds of "Happy Birthday To You" big boy Khyri sat with his baby sister and read the first book of his 4th year of life "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jacks Keats. Its funny that we went into his new year of reading the same book we ended his 3rd year with - literally 12 hours before :-) I guess if it ain't broke then don't fix it - The Snowy Day out and The Snowy Day in!

For breakfast Khyri requested waffles so the family chowed down on waffles and apple slices. We didn't have anything planned for Khyri's big day; we just wanted to celebrate together. The only thing that was a definite on our agenda was doing our annual birthday deposit at the bank.

We headed off to the bank around 10:30am. The tellers were surprised at how big Khyri had gotten and that Kielle was walking now. Daddy helped Khyri dump the coins into the counting machine. We had a little glitch because Khyri is learning his coins - pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and he wanted to keep putting them back into the piggy bank! He wasn't too enthused that all of his coins that we've been depositing resulted into a tiny slip of paper hahahah. He looked at the receipt with a screwed up face like "Later for this paper... where is my money!" ahhahaha

All that change and a couple of checks from the family amounted into a good chunk of change for big boy's account. I'm sure that since we are on this coin counting kick he'll get his piggy back up to 'heavy status' in no time.

After the bank we headed to the Georgia Aquarium. Khyri had a good time running around looking at the penguins and the whales. The aquarium was PACKED. I vowed never to go back there on a weekend. There were just too many people and Khyri is not a fan of crowds so if there was a crowd looking at an exhibit he would mosey right on pass them. For $20+ dollars a ticket Imma need for Khyri to look at EVERY exhibit, take pictures, and come home and write some notes about his experience! ahhahaha We had a really good time though.

After the aquarium wrapped up we headed back to the house for some pizza and cake YUM! The pineapple, chicken and barbeque pizza as always hit the spot and right after we had some cupcakes from Kroger. Khyri surprised Keith and I both by leaning over and blowing out the candle all by himself *sniffle* I guess when you go to 300 bajillion birthday parties you pick up a few things ahahha :-)

 After cupcakes we moved to opening presents! Khyri actually participated in ripping off the wrapping paper this year, so mommy got to rest a little. We sat and read each of his birthday cards. He smiled every time he saw his name in print. We also worked on his saying that he was three instead of two :-)

Then it was time for the BIG surprise! We all got bundled up and went outside in the driveway where Khyri was presented with HIS FIRST BIKE! I tried to hide it behind an old scooter toy, but he saw it right away!

Its a green and black JEEP 12" bicycle and we got a neon green and gray helmet to keep his noggin safe. He doesn't pedal at all, but that'll come with time ;-) He looks so big on it. *sigh* I can picture him riding  away from me to go play with other biker boys already *sigh again*

The day ended with Auntie Netta coming over and giving Khyri his first laptop :-) Of course he was instantly amazed and spent a good hour doing the letter and shapes challenges.Hopefully this will keep him off my laptop! I doubt it, but a mommy can hope.

Around 11:30pm the cupcake high wore off and we were finally able to get Khyri and Kielle to bed. It has been a WONDERFUL year. My baby boy learned to speak and use the potty! Up next - riding a bike, tying shoes and joining a t-ball team! Phew I'm exhausted just thinking about it :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KHYRI ;-)

READ ACROSS AMERICA

This morning Kielle and I participated in a read along at Heritage Elementary School. We joined some of my sorority chapter members reading books to students for Read Across America. Started on March 2, 1998 (Dr. Seuss' birthday) the National Education Association's Read Across America is an annual reading, motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss.

I chose to read the book "The Cat in the Hat" - a Mosley favorite :-). I read to the special needs classroom first and then went into a Kindergarten class. In the kindergarten class, I was cajoled (literally.. please please Puhlllleeeeezzzz!) into reading an additional book "Put Me in the Zoo". I was really glad that the students enjoyed the session. There is nothing worse than a room full of screw faced angry school children hahahaha. I love doing hands on service! Encouraging children to read and develop a love and appreciation of books is near to my heart. I guess momma Millie left a mark on me ;-)

On the way home I started imagining what it would be like to see little Khyri sitting in a circle on a mat listening to his teacher read to the class. Recently he's started saying "My faaaaaaavorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." I think a good number of the students today would say "The Cat in the Hat" is their favorite :-)