First Day of Preschool (!)

August 30, 2013August 30, 20132 Comments

Backpacks, still-pointy crayons, new shoes…ahhhh…back to school. Or, in our case, to school for the very first time. Yesterday was David’s first-ever day of preschool. As a mom and a former teacher, I was VERY excited for this day to come. I love learning and, to be honest, I am really looking forward to having 2 mornings a week alone with Jacob (who still takes a morning nap…hehe…).

I was really hoping David would enjoy his first day of school because, let’s face it, he will probably be spending the next 20-25 years in school. I was also really hoping he wouldn’t poop his pants at school (we had an interesting weekend with potty training…). In the end, though, I just had to pray things would go well and send him off to spread his little wings.

Here he is getting ready to leave for school in the morning. He was pretty excited to walk to school and “see the pink ball” (a ball that was hidden on the top shelf in his classroom when we went by a few weeks ago for a tour). I’m sure he was also excited to meet his teachers and new friends and learn all that the world has to offer.

David’s school is about a 10 minute walk from our house, so we loaded up the stroller and leashed up the dog for our great exodus to The Preschool.

When we got to The Preschool, there was a definite buzz in the air. Parents and children were milling around outside the school waiting to be granted entry to this magical new land of learning. The Parents were busy snapping photos and The Students were busy trying not to topple over from the size of their ill-proportioned backpacks.

After a few minutes of waiting, The Teacher opened the front door and welcomed her brood (about thirty 3-year olds…I’ll be praying for her). David hung his backpack on his hook, put his shoes on a shoe rack, and put on his slippers (you know it’s going to be a great day when it starts with putting on slippers).

We stayed with David for a few minutes while he explored the classroom and checked out all of the cool Montessori supplies. His favorites were some pictures of balls on the wall (of course) and some scissors for cutting.

While David was at school, the “toy fairies” came to our house and delivered all of his balls from Seattle (along with about 90 boxes of other goodies for Mommy and Daddy to sort through):

At pick-up time I returned to The Preschool and waited for my little student to be released. It was a bit strange being on the other side of that school door, being the parent instead of the teacher. As soon as David saw me through the window he was literally jumping up and down he was so excited. When it was his turn to come outside, his teacher shook his hand and said goodbye to him in Irish. Then David ran to me and gave me the biggest hug ever–my baby, my big boy, my preschooler.

David’s school day goes from 8:45-12:15, so when I picked him up from school it was time for lunch. Since our house was littered with boxes and moving supplies at this point, I decided that a celebratory McDonald’s lunch was in order. On our way to McDonald’s David kept saying, “Stop, Mommy! I want to go back to school!”. I couldn’t get a single thing out of him as to what he did at school all morning, but the paint on his elbows leads me to believe there was some sort of art-making. In all, though, he seemed to have a lot of fun and he can’t wait to go back again next week.

This mommy-teacher is very proud of her BIG preschooler. A preschooler who is brave and adventurous and smart and kind and funny. A preschooler who is learning to be the man he will one day become.

A preschooler who, I am happy to report, came home with the same dry pants I sent him to school in.

Friend-Dating

August 23, 20132 Comments

Today I had my first-ever blind date. But it’s probably not what you’re thinking.

Ever since we moved to Ireland we’ve been blown away by the kindness and hospitality of the Irish people. Everyone here is just so…nice. It has been fun meeting new people but, with two demanding children always attached to my hip, it’s also a bit difficult to get out and socialize. Sometimes even grown-ups need some help making new friends. So, my “blind date” went down like this:

Jon has a coworker who has a girlfriend who has a friend that lives near me. The Girlfriend gave me a call yesterday and said that she’d like to introduce me to The Friend (another mom of 2 little ones about the same ages as my boys). Arrangements were made. The date was set.

We all decided to meet up at The Girlfriend’s house–neutral territory. I’d never met The Girlfriend in person, either, so it was almost a double-blind date. Talk about adventurous. I was running about 10 minutes late so, naturally, I was the first one to arrive (I’m still trying to figure out this whole “Irish Time” thing. For someone as finicky about punctuality as myself, it’s going to take some getting used to). The Girlfriend welcomed me and my children into her home and laid out a spread of tea, coffee, pastries and sweets (scones with jam and cream graced the table yet again). The Girlfriend doesn’t have any children, so she went out of her way to buy toys for the kids to play with at her house. How nice is that? I think that if I’d invited somebody with children over to my house when I was in a pre-baby state I would have just thrown some pots and pans down on the kitchen floor and told the kids to go to town. But, no, she actually bought Legos and bubbles so the kids would be entertained. Amazing.

After awhile The Friend arrived and I got to meet her and her two darling children, a 2-year old girl and a 4-month old boy. She was so…nice. As we were talking we discovered that she, literally, lives across the street from me. She’s my neighbor. What a small, small world this can be! Her daughter even attends the same preschool that David will be starting at next week (which, by the way, she had nothing but nice things to say about). We exchanged phone numbers and, I can honestly say, I will be calling her (does the “2 day rule” apply to friend-dating?).

In all, it was a great first “date”. I met a new neighbor-friend, ate my fill of scones, and got to play with bubbles. I also got to clean up a lot of spilled bubbles. Maybe for our next date we’ll leave the kids at home.

iPhone Controls I’d Like To Use On My Kids

August 22, 2013September 1, 2013Leave a comment

I love my iPhone. Maybe a bit too much. It is always with me, waking or sleeping, handy and ready should I need it. Now that we are living in a different time zone from many of our family and friends, however, I have discovered that this wonderful little device can be quite a nuisance if not properly controlled. It took me a few weeks of midnight Facebook updates popping up on my screen and 2 AM phone calls ringing through before I discovered the “Do Not Disturb” icon (genius, whoever came up with that one). All I have to do is set up the hours that I don’t want to be bothered with beeps or buzzes or rings and I get to sleep through the night with my (dark and silent) phone beside my pillow. And that got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be great if I could transfer some of those iPhone controls onto my kids and my life? For instance…

Do Not Disturb:

I would love to have a button I could push that would keep my kids from bothering me between certain hours. It’s bed time, NO DISTURBING MOMMY. No whines, cries, or shouts allowed. No “I have to go potty” or “I want another drink” may be uttered. No baby in the process of “sleep training” (sheesh, is sleep training supposed to last 13 months???) who screeches from 4:30-5:30 every morning. No dog who barks at 3 AM when a cat runs through the back yard. Just silence. Sweet, sweet silence.

Privacy:

I have a 1-year old and a nearly 3-year old. I haven’t known privacy since the moment I went into labor with my first child. Sometimes I find myself dreaming about taking a shower or going to the bathroom by myself. With the door shut. And nobody crying and banging on the door trying to get in. Just me, alone, experiencing privacy. I want an icon on my life that says “Do not look. Do not touch. Leave me alone. I will contact you when I am darn well ready.”

Settings:

How awesome would it be to program your life to your exact specifications? I would check off boxes in my settings like no temper tantrums, no arguing, no complaining, no brother-hitting, no floor-licking, and no poop on the floor. I would set the day to include lots of fun and laughter and good food and good attitudes. Words like “I love you”, “please”, “thank you”, and “this broccoli is delicious, Mom” would be thrown around freely. I would schedule nap times–and the kids would actually sleep. I would set up my to-do list and everything would be crossed off by the end of the day.

Airplane Mode:

I would change this one slightly to be “transportation mode”, rather than just “airplane mode”. Transportation mode would allow me to control my kids’ behavior while we’re in transit. They would play happily in their seats, sing songs with me, and enjoy watching cloud animals out their windows. They would come up with creative ways to pass the time in the car or the shopping cart that did not involve kicking me. They would fall asleep in their car seats if it was naptime instead of becoming manic-depressive lunatics. They would not throw shoes at the windshield. They would respect the driver’s need to, you know, drive.

Navigation:

Sometimes, as a mother, I would just like some guidance. Someone to come alongside me and show me the way. And if I get lost (which I often do), to redirect me and get me back on the right path. Being a mom is one of the best parts of my life (despite the rants in this post)–but it is also, far and away, the most difficult (again, see the rants in this post). It would be amazing to–in a what-should-I-do parenting moment–to click a button and see the best solution. Or (and this happens, too), to see the best way to fix a problem I’ve already created.

If two kids have taught me anything, it’s that I can’t parent them (effectively) alone. I need guidance. Thankfully, I have my own parenting “navigation tool” of sorts–and it’s even closer to me than my iPhone. I have Jesus and God’s Word, ready and handy at all times.

And, if I get really desperate, there’s an app for that, too.

Medieval Festival In An Ancient Walled City

August 18, 20133 Comments

This has been one of those wonderfully rare weekends that had just the right balance of fun, rest, and rejuvenation. On Saturday morning I basically got a mommy-vacation: I went grocery shopping by myself for two glorious hours (because it still takes me that long to figure out where to find things and what packaging to look for and convert prices from dollars/pound to kilograms/Euro so I know if the item is actually worth purchasing).

After my little “shopping spree” I went to our church for a women’s mini conference. It was a beautiful event with a talented speaker, heartfelt worship, and delicious food–including my favorite: scones (oh my, the scones here are to die for. Seriously, one of my favorite things about Ireland. The fact that scones with jam and cream are a part of daily life makes living here 100% worthwhile).

While I was at the conference noshing on scones, Jon took the boys to our local castle in Blackrock for a tour of the dungeons. Turns out, this was not nearly as cool as it sounds. The dungeons were not actually dungeons–it was just the basement, and had never been used as a dungeon at all. Very misleading. The boys enjoyed themselves as much as they could walking around an empty castle basement for half an hour, and at the end of the tour they got to go up to the top of the castle to check out the view (upon which David stated that he was going to throw his baby brother off the roof. We may need to work on the whole “brotherly love” thing).

On Saturday night, Jon and I got to go out on our first date night since moving here to Ireland. A sweet girl from our church came over to our house and looked after our (sleeping) children so we could go out to a movie. It wasn’t the most unique date, but it sure felt nice to get away from our house and enjoy some time together.

The big event of our weekend, though, was the Youghal Medieval Festival. The event was in Youghal (pronounced “yawl”), an ancient walled city in County Cork where people actually lived during medieval times–how cool is that?! There were lots of fun events going on at the festival: food, music, crafts and medieval demos. And lots of people dressed up in awesome medieval costumes. We forgot our costumes, but we tried to fit in as best as we could.

We all enjoyed listening to the Youghal Pipers:

And we got a great view of the town:

When asked what his favorite part of the day was, David said it was “watching Mommy get scratched.” This is what he was referring to:

They had a tent set up with all sorts of medieval torture apparatus and drawings showing how they used to be implemented. Gross. A little girl was manning this tent and she convinced me to help her demonstrate some of the apparatus. She literally tied me up to this torture board and started hacking at me with a foam axe. I was putting on a great show for the kids, cringing and writhing in pain each time her axe came down on me. It was all fun and games until my tormenter went over to her table of torture devices and picked up a real metal anvil. I quickly slipped out of my restraints before she could finish her demonstration.

I have suspected for quite some time now that our son is crazy. My suspicions were confirmed today. There was an arena set up for toy sword fighting. All of the kids were invited in to use foam swords to attack some guys in medieval garb. While all of the other kids rushed to attack their targets, David ran in the opposite direction and started “stabbing” an unsuspecting spectator (David is in the green shirt in the left side of this photo). Thankfully David’s victim wasn’t caught too off guard by David’s advances and he managed to fight off the wild little beast.

After all of the excitement of the festival we had to get some nourishment. We ate grilled kangaroo (yes, the jumpy things from Australia–not totally medieval, but definitely different), sausages, pizza and ice cream. Yummmm…

A very sweet weekend, indeed.

Farm Field Trip

August 16, 2013Leave a comment

I’m really on a kick this week, folks–and a farming kick, nonetheless. Perhaps it’s because you can’t drive more than 2 miles (er..kilometers) here without passing through a sheep paddock or a cow pasture. In fact, 1 out of every 7 jobs in Ireland is involved in agriculture and food. I love it. Yesterday I took the boys to our local farmer’s market (read more about our escapades here) and we had so much fun that I decided to take a little field trip out to a REAL farm today (mommy gold star: earned). It wasn’t difficult to find a farm to visit (like I said, lots of farms here) so I chose one just outside of Cork city called The Farm at Grenagh. It’s an open farm with real animals and tractors and crops…and lots of fun things for the kidlets, too.

When we got to the farm David was in a mood, so I sat him on a bench to brood while Jacob and I checked out the riding tractors. I even managed to snap a quick photo of him before he tumbled right off the slick little seat (don’t worry, Gramma Doreen, I caught him before he hit the ground).

Seeing that the farm was actually a fun place (duh) David decided to join in our activities. The next place we headed was the sandbox. We had fun building sand castles (and, for Jacob, eating a fair amount of said sand castles).

After getting our fill of sand (literally) we went into the animal barn to meet some furry friends. This goat was very friendly. A little too friendly for my comfort. Jacob kept sticking his foot up near the fence and the goat would lick his shoe. Knowing goats tendencies to eat assorted non-food objects (like, for instance, leather baby booties) I decided it was probably best for all involved if we parted ways.

Just outside of the animal barn there were several pastures with cows, sheep, horses and donkeys. My children love donkeys. Both of them. Kinda strange, but you’ve gotta love something. As soon as we rounded the corner to where the donkeys were, both boys started heeing and hawing. The donkeys must have liked it because they sauntered over to the fence to say hello. The boys could have stayed at that fence all day stroking those soft little donkey noses but, alas, there was more farm to be seen.

Next on our agenda was a lesson in cow milking. They had cow “statues” (not quite sure what to call a large metal cow with udders full of water) and the kids got to learn how cows are milked and put real milk suckers (again, not sure what to call them) on the cows to “milk” them.

After our lesson in cow milking, it was time for a tractor-pull train ride. Jacob and I even managed to squeeze into one of the little barrels so we could tour the farm with the other kids.

Then we went into the farms museum that was full of old-timey memorabilia. David enjoyed working as the telephone switchboard operator (after I told him that they were telephones, that is. Poor thing has only ever seen iPhones, so he really didn’t have a clue how to work them).

We ended the day with a visit to the ball pit. There are many things I love about Ireland, and right at the top of the list is the fact that there are ball pits everywhere: at shopping malls, at playgrounds, at farms. There is almost nothing else in this world that brings my boys so much joy as a romp in a ball pit. Thank you, Ireland, for providing me hours of whine-free entertainment.

And then it was time to go home. Singing “Old McDonald” the whole way.

Fun and Learning at the Farmer’s Market

August 15, 2013August 15, 20131 Comment

Today we went on a culinary adventure to our local farmer’s market. I’ve been wanting to visit this market ever since we moved here, and I’m so glad we finally made it! It’s a great farmer’s market with all locally-sourced food–and GOOD food, at that.

Farmer’s markets are really my dream come true: I love fresh produce, bread, cheeses and the like, but I have a hard enough time getting the kids fed and my teeth brushed each day to worry about things like gardening and baking (or cheese making, mind you. Although I can see cows from my kitchen window. Perhaps that’s in my future. We’ll see.). Thankfully there are plenty of people who enjoy doing those things and they gather together every week in the parking lot at my local shopping center so I can reap the benefits.

We had a lot of fun exploring the tents and tables of the farmer’s market…and sampling our way through the stalls. We all enjoyed this cheese (and by enjoyed, I mean the boys ate about 10 slices each) so I felt obligated to buy a round:

It was getting close to lunch time and all of the food looked so yummy that I couldn’t resist getting a little something. We got some delicious pizza and raspberries–which David quickly smeared over his face like a clown with a bad face-paint job:

And, since I’m always one to take the easy road for dinner-prep, too, I picked up some roasted chicken and veggies for tonight’s dinner:

I would have been happy just camping out at a table in the center of the market and eating all day but, alas, my children had other agendas. Turns out 2-year old boys want to touch and smell and taste (read: lick) everything in sight. And babies who were forced to skip their nap so Mom could go to the farmer’s market get cranky.

Before we left, though, we made one last pass through the stalls to play a few quick “farmer’s market games”. The teacher in me couldn’t resist sneaking in a few teachable moments disguised as food-fun. For instance:

We compared the size, shape and colors of vegetables at one stand: What is the biggest veggie you can find? What is the longest veggie you can find? Can you find a red vegetable? Can you find a vegetable that is round like a ball?
We found vegetables that represented the different parts of a plant: Parsnips for the roots, celery for the stem, and broccoli for the flower.
We played farmer’s market bingo (print your own Bingo card here)
We played “5 senses”: we looked at, felt, smelled, tasted, and listened to the sounds different veggies made.
Together we came up with three questions to ask a farmer, and then we found an obliging farmer to “interview”
We counted: Can you put three apples in our bag? Which plate has more cookies on it? How many slices of pizza did Mommy just eat for lunch?
We voted for our favorites: after tasting three different cheeses we talked about which was our favorite and why
We learned about economics: Money is used to buy the things we want and need. See, Mommy stated with a wallet full of money and now it is empty. Now Mommy needs a second job to support her new-found market obsession.

With full tummies and a (truly) empty wallet, we left the market. Until next week, farmer friends!

Saving Money On Family Travel

August 10, 2013August 10, 2013Leave a comment

Last week we went on our first official “just the four of us” family vacation to Dublin. One of the great benefits to living in Europe is that we can literally hop in our car and drive to some of the most fascinating places in the world. In fact, this was one of the main reasons we wanted to move to Ireland in the first place: to travel and see as much as we possibly can in the next 2 years.

Dublin was a bit of a reality check for us, though. Turns out, it takes more than time away from work and a sense of adventure to travel with a family: it takes money. Loads of money. Especially in Europe. But I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure a lack of funds doesn’t keep us from our fun!

Here are a few ways we’ve found to save money on our travel. With a little extra planning and some flexibility, you really can stretch a dollar (or Euro) pretty far.

1. Travel Off-Season

Everything costs more if you travel during your destination’s peak season. If you have some flexibility in your schedule, travel when the area isn’t as popular (it will save you lots of money, plus there will be fewer crowds to deal with). If you need to travel at a specific time (like when your kids have a break from school), see if you can find a location that is off-peak during your preferred travel time. Many areas in the Bahamas and South America, for instance, have killer deals in the summer months during their “rainy season”.

2. Save Money on Transportation Costs

My friends over at This Beautiful Frugal Life just did a great post on saving money on airfare–really, if you want to save money on flights, this is a great post. Once you arrive at your destination, you’ll still need to get around. Many cities have great public transportation that is both convenient and affordable. If you plan on renting a car, you can often save money by renting for a whole week rather than by the day and by returning the car to the same location that you picked it up from (most car rental companies charge a fee for returning your car to a different location). For our recent trip to Dublin, we decided to spend a little extra money to have centrally-located lodging so we could walk everywhere and not have to pay for parking or taxis. Which brings me to my next point…

3. Be Creative With Your Lodging

Long gone are the days where hotels were your only (or even best) option for lodging on a vacation. For our family with two children under the age of 3 (read: two children who take naps and don’t sleep through the night), hotels are actually a BAD option. I need bedrooms. With doors that lock. And a kitchen to prepare the 5,000 meals a day that they require. We love renting from vacation rental sites like VRBO and AirBNB. For the same price as a modest hotel room, you can rent a whole house (or, for the truly adventurous, exciting options such as a gypsy trailer or a houseboat!). We have had several great experiences with rentals from these sites, so I really don’t see hotels again in our future for a very long time.

And, if you get really desperate for sleeping space, you can always let your baby fall asleep in the stroller then disassemble said stroller to bring sleeping baby inside.

4. Buy A Pass.

Most large cities across the United States and around the world offer some sort of “City Pass” that allows you to visit several attractions for one (relatively) low price. If you’re planning on hitting up several sites on your visit, these passes can save you a lot of money. If you are visiting a U.S. city with a Costco, you may even check the local warehouse for City Passes on a deep discount. In Ireland we were fortunate to have Heritage Pass cards gifted to us–the cards give us free admission to hundreds of national heritage sites and parks in Ireland for an entire year. On our trip to Dublin last week we saved about $50 per person by using our Heritage passes to visit castles, old prisons, and government buildings. Many cities and states have a similar pass for parks, museums and public spaces.

5. Save Money on Food

Next to airfare and lodging, food is usually the most expensive part of any vacation. We like renting places that have a kitchen so we can cook the majority of our meals at home (plus, our kids are picky little things so it’s a waste taking them out to eat, anyway). If you can’t (or don’t want) to cook for yourself, consider buying share-able ready-to-eat meals (pizza or rotisserie chicken, anyone?). You can also order your restaurant meals as take-out to save money on tips and service charges (as an added bonus, you can even make your meal into an adventure by eating in a local park or at the beach).

6. Check The Group Deal Sites

Most major cities around the world are featured on group deal sites such as Living Social and Groupon. Sign up for e-mail alerts from your destination city to purchase vouchers for your vacation. I’ve gotten great deals on hotels, restaurants, and attractions this way.

7. Find Your City’s Free Admission Days

Several cities that I’ve visited have a “free day” where museums, art galleries, and the like are free on a certain day each month. In Seattle, we had free first Thursdays, and here in Ireland they have free first Wednesdays. If you visit any of the sites participating in the “free day” on their specified day, admission is totally free. Can’t beat that!

8. Budget For Special Activities

There will always be one or two things that are really important to splurge on. Maybe it’s dinner at a Michelin Star restaurant or visiting an over-priced theme park. Decide what your “splurge” is, and budget that in ahead of time. After all of the money you’ve already saved, you won’t feel *quite* so guilty about consuming $200 worth of duck confit. After all, this is a vacation!

The Ultimate “Busy Bag”

August 2, 20131 Comment

When we moved to Ireland a few weeks ago I had a lot of concerns. Would I get homesick before we even left? Would we like our new home across the sea? Would I remember to pack all of the essentials? But the most important question of all: How would we survive a 10-hour flight with two boys under the age of 3?

Grandma to the rescue! My mother-in-law is incredibly gifted with all things crafty. She can take felt and a sewing machine and fabricate incredible creations (whereas I would take the aforementioned objects and make something worthy for display at a Kindergarten art show). She took her crafting skills to a whole new level when she created this: The Ultimate Busy Bag.

Inside is a treasure trove of games and activities that could satisfy children not only for a 10-hour plane ride, but for weeks–nay, months–on end.

She created the bag itself from fabric scraps and her own design. Many of the games were also her own creation, but she did get several ideas off Pinterest and Etsy. The bag is *literally* bursting at the seams with great ideas, so I thought I would share some of them with you here. If you wanted to recreate just one or two of these ideas instead of the whole bag (because, really, I don’t know anybody else who could make all of this in one sitting!) each would make a great small project in itself. These are great ideas to have tucked away for a rainy day (or even a long summer day when the refrain “I’m bored…” starts echoing through your home). I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

1. Felt pieces and finger puppets.
One of the sides of the busy bag is made out of felt. There are several felt pieces that can be arranged on the “felt board” for imaginary play or story telling. Most of the pieces were cut out of colored felt and then decorated (my mother-in-law’s 6-year old neighbor helped with many of these pieces).

There are sea creatures and an underwater scene:

Fluffy clouds and an airplane (each of the windows and “decals” can be re-positioned on the plane):

A house and garden (even our dog, Bota, makes her appearance here!):

Noah and his ark full of animals (each animal is a finger puppet that can be used separately from the felt board for songs, stories, or pretend play):

And, of course, the rain and the rainbow for Noah:

Jesus and his disciples can even sail across the Sea of Galilee in their trusty boat:

2. Dry erase markers and letter practice.

There is a folder filled with sheets of handwriting practice, each page inside its own plastic sheet protector. Each dry erase marker has a color-coordinated pom-pom hot-glued to the cap that can be used as an on-the-spot eraser. David uses the colorful dry erase markers to trace the letters and color the pictures in his handwriting book–when he’s done, he just flips over the marker and uses the pom-pom eraser to clear the page. It is easy to find handwriting worksheets online (just do a Google search for “handwriting practice” or “handwriting printable” and look under images). You could also insert pages from coloring books, outlines of common objects, or blank pages for your child to draw on with the dry erase markers.

3. The Mitten book and finger puppets

This is one of the boys’ favorite activities in the busy bag. My MIL found this activity on Etsy, and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. The activity consists of the picture book The Mitten by Jan Brett and a large knit mitten full of finger puppet versions of the animals in the story.

If you haven’t read this story, you should. Jan Brett is one of my favorite children’s authors, and this one is a classic. In the story (a Ukrainian folktale) a little boy loses his white mitten in the snow. Woodland animals find the mitten and, one by one, they burrow inside the lost mitten to keep warm. As I read the book, David helps to put each animal into the mitten as they appear in the story. It’s a great age-appropriate interactive reading activity–and he just can’t get enough of it. If you don’t have your own mitten and animal finger puppets, you can print off your own mitten craft from the author’s website and make your own!

4. Felt Numbers and Letters

There are two sets each of felt letters and numbers for David to play with and manipulate. The possibilities here are endless! We’ve been using the letters to play “find the sound” (I’ll say a sound and he has to find the letter that makes that sound) and “letter match” (we’ll find a letter in a book or on an object in the room and he has to find the same letter from his pile of felt letters).

I used the numbers to show David representations (using balls, of course, because he will learn ANYTHING 10 times faster if it can be somehow related to balls):

And we even practiced putting the numbers in order from 0-10 (OK, I did this, but he helped me count the numbers after I got them all set up):

5. Art and Craft Supplies

There are several art and craft supplies that David can use for his own creative works: markers, scissors, a sketch pad, colorful pipe cleaners, stickers. We’ve been practicing how to use markers on paper ONLY and that we only use scissors when there is a grown-up there to help us. He’s actually been doing really well with all of his “big kid” supplies–especially the fact that he can now color a picture and then cut it into a million pieces. Toddler confetti!

We also like using the pipe cleaners to make “bowls full of worms”. The boys thread the pipe cleaners through the holes in the pipe cleaners (I put them in for baby Jacob) and then pull them out. It’s good fine motor practice..and also just a lot of fun!

6. Some Personal Touches

There are several smaller items that are personalized to David and Jacob. There is a little American flag so they can remember where they came from (represent!) and a little bendy bear that their dad used to play with when he was little. There is also a really cute set of “ABC Bible Verses” where each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding Bible verse (print your own here). We may have to use these for some memorizaton practice soon!

Thank you for the special gift, Grammy! We will treasure it forever!

Getting Established

July 24, 20132 Comments

One of my favorite–and most dreaded–parts about moving somewhere new is getting established in my new home–getting past the unpacking and the millions of phone calls to set everything up and finally starting to settle in to this place and find my place in it. It is my favorite part of the move because getting “established” allows me to feel like I belong here and I’m not just some lost tourist. It’s my least favorite part because it’s hard. I’m actually a pretty shy and introverted person so it takes a bit of courage for me to step out there and get involved. It can also take some time and patience to discover what opportunities and resources are available and to break into a new social circle. Thankfully, Ireland has been kind to me. This week I’ve had some exciting breakthroughs in the “getting established” department.

Yesterday I took the boys to our local library so we could get library cards and check out some new books (the 4 books I carried with us on the airplane are getting sooooo BORING).

Each of the boys got his own library card that he can use to check out 10 books at a time from the children’s department. The boys’ cards were free, but I decided to also buy myself a card for 15 Euro because I know I’ll use it. I went ahead and checked out a few books on Irish history from the vast selection of books on that matter (I think about 20% of the library is devoted to books on Irish history)–figured it would be good to know a bit about what I’m getting myself into here. I also signed David up for the library summer reading program. If he reads 15 books he gets a shiny “gold” medal. He’s already 2 books away from his prize (could be due to the fact that we checked out 10 books on soccer…er…football…from the library yesterday).

This morning we did something that got us legally established here in Ireland: we registered our visas at the garda (police) station.

As you can tell from David’s expression, it was an exciting venture. Actually, it wasn’t too bad. We were the first ones in line when the immigration office opened and they got us processed in about 10 minutes. Jon and I both have special visitor/worker permit cards that we have to carry with us at all times just in case somebody suspects we’ve outstayed our welcome.

After I dropped Jon off at work I headed out to Fota to meet up with a mum’s group (how cute is that…mum?!) from our church. Every Wednesday they go to this place called Go Safari to hang out. It’s an indoor play area for kids with food and drinks–perfect for hanging out while the kids run around and burn off some of their boundless energy.

I had a great time getting to know the 6 other ladies and their sweet little kids. They gave me some good tips on where to shop for the cheapest nappies (diapers) and who to contact for babysitting. Cha-ching! David and Jacob both loved playing in the ball pit–so much so that I couldn’t even get a photo of the 3 of us together before one of them would try to squirm away to jump in the balls again:

On Friday we will be going to get our PPS Numbers (kind of like Irish Social Security Numbers). After we have our PPS numbers we can set up our local bank account–something we’re really looking forward to since we’ve been racking up enough foreign transaction fees on our credit cards to purchase a small car. Unless you’re in Ireland. In which case, enough to rent a car for a month. Or maybe just buy a week’s worth of groceries. Oy…

Experiencing Cork City

July 21, 20133 Comments

Jon has become quite the coffee connoisseur over the last couple of years, and item one on his agenda has been to find a quality espresso machine that he can use over here. He’s done months of research on the types of machines that are available so he was just itching to get out to a store and buy one. We decided that this weekend would be “find Jon’s dream machine weekend”. We set out early Saturday morning to downtown Cork where we had a number of recommendations for specialty coffee and kitchen shops to look in.

It soon became quite obvious, however, that this quest was not going to end well. Most stores had no espresso machines whatsoever, and the ones that did carry espresso machines were very high end and out of our comfort zone, budget-wise (we really don’t need to spend over $2,000 on an espresso machine that he can use for two years, do we?). We abandoned our goal of bringing home Jon’s espresso-baby and turned our attention to something more positive.

Since we were already downtown, we decided to make a day of it and do a little sight-seeing. We bought delicious snacks and drinks from a chocolate shop and ate them in this little park:

Then we crossed the River Lee that runs right through the middle of Cork City:

We walked up a large hill to Shandon where the famous “Four-Faced Liar” clock stands at the top of St. Anne’s Cathedral:

When we got back to downtown Cork they had set up a huge street festival for the Street Performance World Championship. They had some really neat street performers for us to watch:

The boys enjoyed watching the live performances:

There were also lots of fun activities for the kids to do. David’s favorite? The soccer game where he won a bag of candy every time he scored a goal!

After we’d had our fill of street fair fun (and maybe a bit too much sun) we went to pick up our NEW CAR!

I’m super-excited about this new car because it’s an automatic–no more trying to figure out a manual while driving on the opposite side of the (narrow) roads. It was quite the journey to actually get this car. After many days of calling car companies we came to the conclusion that there was really only one way we could get a car here. We are doing a long-term rental on the car because they don’t do leases here in Ireland and we don’t qualify for insurance to buy a car. We had hoped to get two cars, but long-term rental is VERY expensive (our car rental costs almost as much as our house each month!). So, for the time being, we will share the one car. One benefit to having a rental is that we can technically change out the car we have every 28 days if we need to. If this car doesn’t end up working well for us, we only have to keep it for 28 days and then we can try something different. We are also going to buy Jon a bike so he can can commute by bike whenever he’s able. Just one more change that we’ll have to adapt to!

One more change that we’ve been thinking and praying a lot about for…well…as long as we’ve know that we’d be moving to Ireland…is the church community we would join here. Getting plugged in to a Jesus-loving, gospel-preaching church is our first priority, but–as with many things with this move–we discovered that would be easier said than done. There are very few evangelical Christian churches in Ireland. In fact, our city (the 2nd largest city in the Republic of Ireland) only has about a dozen. A few months back we heard about a church here called Calvary Cork from a friend of mine who knows the pastor. We decided to check it out today.

From the moment we walked in the doors we were blown-away blessed. It’s a small church (50-75 people were there today), but one of the most welcoming I’ve ever been to. Everyone was very friendly and they made us feel right at home. David was able to play in the creche (childcare) during the service (Jacob could have gone, too, if he wasn’t such a cry-baby). David had tons of fun coloring, eating snacks, hearing a short Bible story and playing with lots of sweet little Irish girls (his first response when we picked him up was, “I’m girl crazy!”).

The sermon was great (at least the parts of it I could hear from the baby cry room!). One of the best parts if the whole service, however, was the music. One of the first songs they played was “Grace Alone”, a song written by Dustin Kensrue from our church in Seattle, Mars Hill. We sang this song all the time “back home”–it was so neat to hear this song halfway around the world and worship with these new brothers and sisters who I’ve just met. Really, really cool.

We also had two of our other more petty prayers answered at church this morning. Jon got a great recommendation for a new coffee place that sounds a lot like Philz (his favorite coffee place EVER). And for me: I got invited to a mommy playgroup that meets every Wednesday not too far from our house. I’m really excited to meet some new friends and get to know the people I’ll be living with for the next 2 years!

All in all, it was a great weekend experiencing our new home city. And it really is starting to feel a bit like home.

We Love, Teach, Grow

My journey through motherhood

Tag: kids