A Little of This, a Little of That...

Life is getting back to normal now that Jeremy is back from his 10-day trip. I've actually been able to get some sleep the past few nights. No, it isn't because Jeremy is staying up with Joanna in the middle of the night while I snooze...it's more that for some reason, she has suddenly decided that sleep at night is good! Well, yes it is, Dear Joanna! Why couldn't you have figured that out last week?!!

When we first brought Joanna home, Josiah wasn't sure what he thought about this whole new baby thing. However, in the past few weeks, he has become her biggest fan (well, next to Mommy, of course!) Any time she is being held, he toddles over and wants to hold and hug her. Yesterday I had her in her carrier on the dining table. Here is Josiah checking her out!


Hmmmm....I wonder if I can get her out of here...


The stare-down...Joanna doesn't look exactly concerned, but she's definitely regarding him with a wary eye...


Love that dimple...


Tiny little toes...


Kisses for my sister!


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Now that February is here, we had to start pulling out the Valentine's Day crafts. I ordered a few cute little kits from Oriental Trading Company. Today we made our own candy bracelets. Yes, I know it's a good idea to start out with something I'm sure will go over well. And if you know anything at all about the J-boys, you know they love their candy! Here's Joey stringing his...


Yes, some of you observant folks will notice that Joey's curls are gone. He got some sort of sticky mess going on in there last week while Jeremy was gone, and after messing with it for a while I got fed up and pulled out the scissors. At midnight. I buzzed up the back and cut it sort of like a bowl cut above that and all the way around. It's not great, but it works until I can get him into a salon to even it out.

Joshua modeling his bracelet...see, the other perk to using candy...there is absolutely No Other Way my big boys are going to be stringing and WEARING pink and red beads unless they can subsequently eat them...


Joey hard at work...he got his completely strung, I tied a knot in it for him, then he proceeded to try to stretch the thing out over his head and of course promptly broke it. You would think it was obvious that it wasn't a necklace...apparently not to a 4-year-old! Tears were averted when I gave him my bracelet...I had no intention of eating the thing anyway!


Doesn't Jordan look proud of himself?


Jonathan...


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This semester for science we are doing chemistry. We're using a book of simple experiments and learning about simple reactions and the scientific method at the same time. The big boys have to write down their hypotheses, procedures, observations, conclusions, etc. while Jordan just gets to participate for now. Today our experiment was what every little boy loves to discover: baking soda + vinegar + a balloon = a big 'ole mess.

Here Jordan opens up a new box of baking soda. This was necessary because my "old" box, which was in reality still nearly full, had been dumped out into my spice drawer by a certain adorable toddler who shall remain nameless.


Here Joshua diligently writes down his hypothesis while Jonathan tests the elasticity of our balloon.


Adding the baking soda to an empty Coke bottle... This was actually quite amusing. I gave Jordan the task of figuring out which measuring spoon was 1/2 a teaspoon. He named each measurement as he picked up the spoons, but then passed up the 1/2 tsp. calling it "one two-th." I had to tell him that we don't have "two-ths," those are halves. I thought that was funny! When Joshua started learning fractions, he never called 1/2 anything but one-half. But then when Jonathan started learning fractions, it took me several lessons to convince him that 1/2 was NOT "one-second." So to hear Jordan call it "one two-th" was just funny. I wonder what Joey will call them when it is his turn?


Joshua measured out the vinegar and added it to the jar, which of course produced the desired batch of bubbles. At this point, of course, my camera flashed a message that the card was full, so that's all we documented with pictures. But Jonathan did add the balloon and the balloon did inflate, and I'd love to say that the boys just sat and diligently wrote out the rest of their observations, etc. But...


no, they wanted to do the experiment again. This time using 3-4 times as much of each of the ingredients. This time it got messy. Fortunately for the boys, I don't have the pictures to prove it!

Somebody recently suggested that the boys try the Mentos and Coke experiment. I'm thinking we'll save that one for OUTSIDE!!!