Artsy Maryn

Do you have a child who shows gratitude often?  Josiah has been so precious, saying thank you when we wash his hair, and thank you when we give him medicine, and just at any point in the day he gives us hugs, kisses, and shares his love with us.  We pray before dinner, but if we have a second course or dessert, he feels we have to pray and say thank you to God again.  

I feel as though I have tried and tried to get Maryn to say Please and Thank You since the day she was born and yet she still struggles with these words.  But as I was looking through these pictures, I see that she is grateful, and she does notice the beauty in small things.  She also works hard to make things even more beautiful.  She just has that eye for all things lovely.

Maryn notices the beauty in weeds and thistles (notice our weed garden behind her, which she loves).

Here she is making a memory box like Josefina had in her book, Meet Josefina.

Ooh, who is this little fairy person?

Maryn and I decorated this t-shirt today.  She loves it :)
And she kept saying, "I love having girly time with you, Mommy."

You're welcome sweet Maryn.

:)

Sprinklers, Smiles and Painting :)

The kids love these new sprinkler toys from Mamaw and Aunt Cathy!

Morning smiles :)

Pasta night!

Morning painting project, under the skylight...so pretty.

She's painting a portrait of her favorite stuffed animal, Alice.  

Josiah's painting.  Grass, sky, sun, trees, and Lightning McQueen :)
I was helping Josiah with this one as I was showing him how to make up and down and
back and forth brush strokes.  And I helped him make the sun, too.

Our friends the Seelyes gave us this awesome easel.  

"Alice"

Maryn's second painting of the day, her bear that she won in the pumpkin decorating contest a couple years ago.
I didn't watch her do this painting at all and I thought it was the best!  I love how she's really using the whole paper now, and she's getting better at taking her time on each painting.  I think it'll be a good kindergarten year.  :)

crafty bunnies

 Life has been beyond crazy here.  I'm not sure I can even put it into words or explain why or how it feels so crazy.  So I haven't had much time to blog or do crafts with the kids.  I guess part of the reason is because Owen is crawling all over the place and has also been refusing to take naps longer than 20 minutes.  And there was DST.  And a strange illness.  And crazy weather.  And a two year old who is now breathing and sleeping very well and has become a tyrant during the day, not knowing what to do with all his energy and emotions.  Sigh.  I need a vacation.  I've reached that point in my stressed out mommy days where just everyone annoys me.  Does this happen to everyone, or is it just me?

One good result of basically ignoring your kids for hours each day (while cleaning, packing, etc.) is that they eventually learn to play together and entertain themselves.  Yesterday though I decided to do a craft with them and we made these adorable bunnies.

 I wish I could sugar coat it and say it was such a joy to make these with my kids but of course it was actually kind of annoying too.  Thankfully we were able to go outside and play afterward, and spent a huge chunk of time this morning outside again.  Sunshine makes such a huge difference!

Owen gets a little bored during crafts :)

I'm grateful I have a sort of mommy vacation coming up as I am meeting my friend Kendra in Cincinnati in just a couple weeks for a homeschool conference.  Owen has to come with me of course, which will make it very interesting.  But I have a feeling my kiddos will miss me a little bit, I will miss them a whole lot, and we'll be less annoyed with each other for a while.  Sometimes everyone needs a break :)

Maryn and I have been really enjoying reading The Secret Garden, my favorite book of all time.  She is becoming a winsome little girl, full of fantasy and wonder.  I really love it.  She will be four and a half soon and I am loving this age.

Josiah's speech is coming along splendidly.  He's experimenting with his voice a whole lot too, finding echoes whenever he can and taking advantage of it (screaming wherever he finds one, including public restrooms and the Chick-Fil-A Play Place even during story time).  The occupational therapist is helping us a lot with his bedtime routines and he's staying in his bed all night, almost every night!  I think his behavior will improve greatly once we can get outside more often.

Now I really must go...Owen has been crying in his bed all this time...and Josiah is begging for food.  :-/

winter fun

We've mostly recovered from our illnesses...I think...and here are a few things we've been doing, trying to pass the time, stay busy, and not go crazy.

Maryn's beautiful penguin picture.  Penguins are her favorite animal!

Josiah's adorable penguin.  He did a great job gluing and putting it together!

We made "chocolate popcorn" which we will post on our cooking blog soon.

Maryn's coloring has really progressed. Notice how she colors things the "right" colors now,
as in she colored the outline of the wings all blue and the middles all yellow.  I think it's pretty impressive, lol.

Maryn's been such a great helper, and she's been  more interested in reading and finding information.  She loves "The Blue Fairy" book we got at the library, which is a collection of old fairy tales.  A FANTASTIC read.  I hope we can buy all the "Fairy" books someday.

Maryn also made a fairy house and is hoping she gets more fairy visitors.  A fairy named Blossom even mailed us a letter to say she had visited and sent us a few pictures to color, like the one above.  And some fairies have also left behind fairy dust.  Hmmm....but we haven't actually seen any fairies yet.

The fairy house

complete with fireplace, furnishings, curtains 

Our living room today, after getting out some baby toys that were in "rotation."

We also made hamburger buns, which wasn't all that much fun, but I just posted that on our cooking blog as well.  :)  Happy 2013, everyone.

Special Moments

Maryn is figuring out reading!  And here she is doing a little word family game from Aunt Cathy.

These two are getting really close.  Maryn is so great with him.

Josiah loves to play with the rice while Maryn paints and draws and colors.

I love to do real art (rather than just "crafts"), and I am grateful I have such a gifted  student.  Josiah is doing very well painting and coloring as well.  I am so excited :)

Neighbors Elise, Bekah and I got together and made these sweet wreaths!  Guests are supposed to write on the leaves what they are thankful for.  So far Maryn has added to the wreath:  Art Supplies and People.  Ha!

This is Maryn laughing at Josiah as he drank his paint water.

This is an adorable painting of The Princess and the Pea!

Josiah is quite a handful lately.  I wondered why they were being so quiet.   He and Maryn had spread very thick, expensive shea baby lotion in their hair, on their clothes, and all over their bodies.

I guess things like this are a rite of passage.

And this sweet baby.  I just have no words.

He's sitting up pretty well.  And drooling a lot.

So cute I could just die.  :)

An Evening with the Erdmans

 We like being silly with Daddy on the couch after dinner.

 And then we sometimes have some drawing time.  Mommy draws animals.

 Maryn makes birthday cakes, flowers, or rainbows...

 Josiah colors and makes beautiful circles.

 Daddy draws weird geometric shapes.

by Josiah

 I love evenings with my family.  :)