Give Children Some Credit!

Ok so most of you probably do already! But I can't say I have given my children enough credit the past couple of years. Recently I started doing an Early Childhood diploma and am learning a lot but most of my experiences in seeing how children learn hasn't been from the readings but from actually watching them.

I think my first lightbulb moment was when Logan a few months ago started using full sentences. I thought "Wow she's grown so much!". As any parent of a young child knows, you are usually the only one who can understand your child's garbled speech when they first start using words and sentences. So I began picking up on her sentences and the way in which she said them because a few months ago it was pretty garbled. Andrew and I were reminiscing one day of Logan's younger days and watching some videos. I think we were watching a video where she was about 18 months and those of you who know Logan know she was always a chatterbox. Well to my surprise I understood what she was saying in the video! At the time of the video you could hear me in the background saying "Yeah yeah yeah" to her but I didn't know what she was saying...I thought it was just meaningless chatter. Now that I know the way she says specific words, I could actually pick up what she was saying and it was very clear to me...poor Logan all that time trying to communicate and me just nodding my head. So because of that lightbulb moment, I have been focusing more on Fox's words and his communication.

I am slowly learning but yesterday at the playground, he all of a sudden started screaming and grunting "bbb bbb bbb bbb". I thought he was just excited until I looked up and saw he was looking at a bus and shouting "bbb bbb bbb bbb". Obviously he was trying to say "bus" and point it out to me so I got really excited and pointed at the bus and said "Yes it's a big bus!".

Sometimes I question the whole learning through play thing but again I got to see it with my children this morning. Our friends Tim and Janet gave us this amazing construction type of toy with plastic screws, wheels, etc. I love creative toys like that because they are imaginative and children can be creative. Well I had hid it in the closet because they are only allowed to have 1 toy with pieces out at a time (otherwise things end up everywhere!) and the duplo was out. I left them alone and they managed to get it out of the closet by themselves and were playing with it. I walked into the room and Logan was building something all by herself. I sort of just did the "Cool look what you are making" and she looked at me and said "Mum I make a helicopter". I was amazed that she had made this by herself and knew exactly what she was making and you know what it was a pretty amazing and creative representation of a helicopter. I was so proud so I snapped a picture.

Give children some credit...they are amazing!

Busy Busy Busy...

My apologies again for a delayed blog post. We have been busy busy busy! As you remember last month I started school. Well what I remember school being is very different from what it is especially with 2 small children. I am struggling to find the will to get through this program and the time to complete assignments. I sit down to do assignments and the kids just hang off of me which makes it very difficult.

The whole family was sick during my last week of the in class portion of my program and I fell quite behind. Almost 4 weeks later and I've fallen even more behind in school. It's tough when you have kids...even tougher when you've constantly been sick. During my first week of placement Logan and Fox got Gastroenteritis and so me and Andrew didn't get any sleep that week and were constantly doing laundry. I had to take 1 day off my placement to help them out. This past week I got it and so nothing has gotten done and I had to miss 4 more days of placement which means I lose 1 week of my break where I need to make it up.

I'm quite frustrated as me and Andrew already never see each other while I'm working basically 8-4 mon-fri and he works from home during the week and 10-9pm saturday and sunday. Throw on top of that everyone being sick for a month now with different things and that equals a loooong month. Hopefully this next month will be better than this last one :)

Otherwise not much is new. Kids are doing well. Logan has grown heaps in the last couple weeks mentally. She's talking so much and explaining things and strings sentences together. It's pretty weird that she's communicating like that because I still think of her as a baby but at the same time, it's becoming so much fun to be with her. Her tantrums are starting to subside and it's becoming easier to explain things to her and reason through things. She is loving preschool and learning all kinds of new things and experimenting with all kinds of new experiences. Fox is also doing well, he's starting the tantrum phase *sigh* but hopefully he won't be as bad as Logan was. He's a bit better natured. He still loves his cuddles and is starting to say "mama" and "dada".

Here's some recent pics of the kids enjoying their sand pit and me playing uke with Fox:

1 Year and Counting...

Well, we've been in NZ for 1 whole year now, I meant to post something on our anniversary but it was so hectic. Better late than never? If anyone still reads this since I never update anymore! haha...

Well some of you may be asking...what the heck is going on in your lives? I've heard all these rumours. So yes Andrew has officially dropped out of law school. It wasn't for him and it was too expensive...end of that story. So naturally you might be wondering then what the heck are we still doing in NZ? Well I've enrolled in a 1 year Grad-Diploma program in Early childhood education (equivalent to a 3-yr undergrad degree), because it was on Immigration's long term skills shortage list, Andrew was eligible for a work visa. They took it off the list right before Andrew applied for the visa but it came through anyways, God wants us here obviously. So I'm on a student visa in a 1 yr program that finishes in November and he's on a work visa. Why early childhood? Because I love working with kids, it will help us stay in NZ, and also it fits us for where we are in our lives right now, especially if we have more kids (ie: you can take your kid to work), oh and super flexible hours. It seemed like a perfect fit. Once I graduate I'm eligible for a graduate work visa if I can find a job, and that makes it easier to stay. Otherwise we'll be back March 2013 (when our visa's expire). So the next 8 months will be extremely busy because Andrew will be working full-time, I'm in school full-time and the kids are still at home with us....how do we juggle it you ask? We're just that awesome! Ok we have some tactics:

1) We have a schedule
2) Andrew works 20 hours from home
3) I am doing my program via distance (except for 3 x 5 week placements)
4) Logan has started preschool 6 hours / week (3 on tues, 3 on thurs)

Life will be busy but I think this year will be a lot of fun!

I don't want to make this post too long but just wanted to tell you very quickly about our summer. Summer was pretty terrible this year, cold and rainy. I had put all my winter clothes away and on very many occasions regretted it. However there were some awesome things this past summer. Andrew's dad and step mom came out to visit us for 4 weeks in December. I was a bit nervous about how it would work out in our 2.5 bedrooms apartment with 4 adults and 2 young kids (more for their sake) but I think it worked out really well and we had a great time having them here. Logan absolutely loved it and was so excited to have them here. They were up in the north part of the south island when the Dec. 23 swarm of quakes hit so I'm glad they missed it. They came and picked us up and took us to Kaikoura which is 2.5 hours north of Christchurch. We were pretty rattled and thankful that we could all get away. It kinda ruined Christmas but I think we had a really good time in Kaikoura for 2 nights, so Christmas was just a bit different.

We also went out to the westcoast (Greymouth) for a few nights. That's about a 3.5 hour drive west of Christchurch. It's a pretty dull town but the scenery is absolutely stunning.



There were lots of great family friends walks to do and lots of cool scenery to explore. I definitely would like to go back there. This is one of my favourite sum-ups of Greymouth but I think it's funnier if you've been there:



In the never-ending story of our children. They are both doing great. Logan has started preschool 6 hours a week and loves it. When she turns 3 she is eligible for 20 hours for free (I love NZ). Fox is still scooting and tries to pull himself up but has only been successful twice in the last 3 months.

Here's us giving Logan dance lessons:



As some of you remember, I sent out a youtube video of Logan riding a little trike for the first time when she was about 19 months old. Well here's Fox on the same trike recently :) We're in the process of getting Logan onto 2 wheels, so Fox inherited her old bike:



That's all for now folks....Miss all our friends and family dearly!