Family Fridays: Uh-Oh, No-No

"Uh-oh, no-no" is Andrew's new favorite thing to say. Andrew has recently learned to nod and shake his head. He is also trying out new words almost every day. This stage is so fun because he is starting to be able to communicate so much more. But (at least with my precocious boys) this increased ability to communicate also seems to come with the "N" word: no-no. They both seem to realize that there is power in words and wanting some of the power that  comes with saying "no-no."

I can distinctly remember asking Aaron, at this same age, if he wanted ice cream and hearing him say, "no-no-no," while gobbling it all up. Andrew hasn't said "no" to ice cream quite yet, but he has specifically asked for a Pooh or a Thomas video (which he loves) and then the second it is turned on started shaking his head and saying "no-no."

I am working on being patient and remembering the extreme cuteness that he has also recently developed when he asks for something and then nodding "yes-yes," while emphatically signing "please" with both hands. Also, maybe his negative side will begin to fade early, like it did with his brother. And thankfully by grace it seems that just as one boy begins to be more difficult in a certain area, the other is beginning to be easier to deal with.

Studying America

The boys are enjoying the extra planned activities in our day. Actually, they have been enjoying them so much that we have already finished most of the activities that aren't reusable and reused the reusable ones a lot more than I thought we would. I didn't want try too much for this first unit study, but clearly next month I should add more.

The boys have enjoyed doing more worksheets. Aaron has suddenly become really careful about coloring and tracing. This happened right around his third birthday, but I think it had more to do with him observing me actually color Thomas the Tank Engine correctly, than simply turning three. Andrew loves to color, so he scribbles happily along beside.

I was pretty happy with the collection of American themed activities I chose, as they covered a little bit of everything. Preschool basics like tracing, counting, coloring, sorting, graphing, as well as facts about American history. We did do one quick craft I made up where we glued stars and stripes that I had cut out of wrapping paper to make our own flags.

Probably everyone's favorite thing was the special Fourth of July food. The hamburgers, watermelon, apple pie, frozen yogurt, and sparkler cookies were all a big hit.

We are still continuing our American facts calendar and singing songs about America. Aaron has learned quite a few facts and songs this month, and Andrew likes to chime in too. It is really neat to hear Aaron requesting to sing The Star Spangled Banner, presidents song, state song, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and America the "Beauty" (as he calls it). Don't let him convince you though that it was Thomas Andrew Jefferson that wrote the Declaration of Independence though, as Thomas Jefferson really has no middle name. Aaron just throws that in when he is feeling silly. I love that he is learning so much but is still a funny three-year-old.

I'm looking forward to continuing with this theme slowly for the rest of July and starting to plan our next unit study for August: D is for Dinosaurs. Although whenever Aaron sees me starting to work on it, he wants to do everything right now.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Yesterday, we got to spend a fun-filled day together enjoying and celebrating Nate. Daddy stayed home from school, and for the third day in a row, we all got to eat breakfast together, delicious mulberry smoothies. Aaron and Andrew had colored some Thomas pictures for him, and I gave him some birthday cake truffles.

Later that day, we had a simple brownie cake (I even used icing from a can), but I also made three kinds of homemade ice cream. The mango frozen yogurt was very refreshing. All of the boys' favorite was the moose tracks, and my favorite was definitely the caramel (it was amazing).

We went out in the late afternoon, to play at the park in our apartment complex. The boys also had fun "rock climbing." Then we cam back home for homemade manicotti and more dessert. It was such a nice relaxing day of family time. We are so blessed to have Nate in our lives and look forward to another new year of adventures together.

Cookie Fireworks

I had some pie crust left over from making apple pies, so I decided to make some fun cookies in the shape of fireworks and sparklers. Sugar cookie dough would also work well. This is a fun project that even little kids can help with and older children could do all on their own.

Simply cut strips of dough with a pizza cutter and stars with a cookie cutter (or a star shape from your child's shape sorter that you have thoroughly cleaned). Arrange strips and stars to look like fireworks and/or sparklers on a cookie sheet. Press together lightly. Bake until golden brown. Let cool completely. Then frost with accents of red and blue for some very patriotic cookies. Enjoy!

Our First Unit Study: America the Beautiful

With the boys begging for more school activities, I decided to incorporate some simple unit studies into our days. Aaron definitely needs a challenge, and Andrew is happy to be a part of any activity we can include him in. Eventually, I want our boys to have a good understanding of both America's and China's history and geography, as well as the states of Illinois and Texas. I thought that celebrating the 4th of July all month long would be a great first unit study. We're keeping it simple and doing the activities as a sort of birthday party for America. Aaron is getting really excited about celebrating America's birthday, and Andrew loves our patriotic decorations.

I found so many awesome resources online that I thought I would share them in case anyone else wants to learn more about America this month, or anytime of the year.

The blog 1+1+1=1 has an awesome calendar you can print that teaches history facts. You can also print out activity sheets that accompany the calendar to reinforce the facts in fun ways.

2 Teaching Mommies provides a free printable 4th of July activity pack. These preschool worksheets and activities teach basic skills using fun patriotic graphics.

Homeschooling in Heels has a really cool lapbook pack available to download and print for free. I think we are going to have to wait a year or two for this one, but it still looks well done.

Currclick has a free ebook about why we celebrate this holiday in the first place.

Kidzone has free coloring sheets focusing on state history and geography.

DTLK has a lot of 4th of July activity sheets and games for kids.

Apple 4 the Teacher also has a ton of coloring sheets and other activities focusing Independence Day and American history.

Family Fun has some neat craft ideas. Including printouts for a patriotic paper airplane and patriotic pinwheel that look fun.

We have also been trying to learn more songs together as a family, and I think we will try to learn some patriotic songs this month. And perhaps we will work on the pledge of allegiance with Aaron as well.

There are so many awesome resources out there to pick and choose from. It is great to be able to pull together activities that are right for each child's level and tailor what you want to focus on. I pulled bits and pieces from a lot of these resources. I may add more if time allows, and the boys are still interested. We'll see what we all end up using this year, and can always save things they aren't ready for yet for another year.

So far we have just done a few days of the calendar cards and some of the activities from 2 Teaching Mommies. Aaron has enjoyed them a lot and asked to do more. I plan on making traditional American food for tomorrow's official birthday party, and we may try to make other special treats and/or crafts throughout the month. I want to make this learning experience lots of fun for our little guys.

Family Fridays: Big Boys

The boys are getting bigger every day. It seems like they do new things every day too. Andrew is trying to talk more and more. Lately, he is asking for more and more things, particularly Winnie-the-Pooh ("Pooh, Pooh") and Thomas videos ("doodle, do, do"). If you don't come right away, he tries to pull you by the hand with all of his 18-month-old might. It is very funny.

Andrew also likes to make friends with everyone. This older grandpa on the right is one of his favorite friends around here. But Andrew knows who his real grandpas are and is starting to say, "Pa, Papa," when he sees pictures of them.

Both boys keep begging to do school lately. They would do school activities all day if I had the time. Aaron is making neater lines and coloring precisely (even when drawing on the computer). It seems like overnight he went from coloring everything on a page all one color to trying to get each detail as accurately as possible. Not that he does get everything inside of the lines, but he wants to. And if you are coloring with him, he will definitely want your drawings to match his idea of perfection. I got in trouble with him the other day for getting a couple of stripes on Percy the train the wrong color.

Since his birthday, Aaron has also been making decorations and presents for everyone. He is constantly asking to draw a picture for grandma, cut something for grandpa, or make a game for Andrew. I think his generous spirit is inspiring, even if his productions are not always Hallmark worthy yet.

DIY Tortillas

I tried making tortillas twice back when we were first married, and I wanted to try making everything from scratch. They were OK, but not great. They also take a lot of time to make. So when we were back in Illinois where there is a large Hispanic population and tortillas are cheap, I basically gave up on the idea. But Chinese people don't really eat tortillas, so there are only a couple places in town where foreigners can buy them. One place is the import stores, but everything in these stores is pretty expensive. The only other place that sells them cheaply, but those tortillas aways fall apart when you try to roll them.

So, I started looking for a good tortillas recipe. Eventually, I ended up tweaking this one and made some delicious and cheap homemade tortillas. These are the best tortillas I have had outside of a truly authentic Mexican restaurant. It would be hard to go back to store-bought tortillas because these are so much better. It still takes a while, but now I enlist helpers, and we generally make a quadruple batch. We have a fun family project and can freeze enough tortillas for several weeks.

Chewy Tortillas

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup warm water
2 Tbsp oil

In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients, and then add wet ingredients. Knead until the dough reaches an even consistency. Let the dough rest for 20–30 minutes. This makes it much easier to roll the dough thin enough to make good tortillas.

Next divide the dough into 8 to 10 balls and roll into circles that are ¼ inch or less thick. This is the part that is really helps to have helpers since they can be rolling and someone else can start the next step of fry.

Place a tortilla in a hot, dry, skillet, and fry for about 30 seconds. The tortilla will often bubble up as the first side cooks. Flip it over and cook another 30 seconds. Now place the warm tortilla in a clean kitchen towel. Fry another and place it on top of the first one until all are cooked. This helps the tortillas develop the right consistency. After they are all cooked they can be eaten right away or frozen and reheated in a microwave or toaster oven later. These are great for tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, enchiladas, Mexican lasagna, or anything else you normally use tortillas for.

DIY Child's Drum

This toy is super easy to make, and what child wouldn't love a drum of their very own. I made one for the boys before, when we were living with family, and the boys wanted to be just like their Uncle Caleb. But the recycled pretzel container drum obviously didn't make the cut for items to move half-way around the world, so I made a new drum for Aaron's third birthday, and he loved it.

First, find a cylindrical container, and clean it. This time, I used a cardboard container that formerly contained 3 kg of ice cream. Next, cover it with paper, and decorate it. Then, find something to use for drumsticks. This time, my husband cut two pieces of bamboo for drumsticks. Incidentally, the thin bamboo stick was sturdy enough to break the brand new saw blade (that's China for you). In the past, we have used other sticks, pencils, and chopsticks for drumsticks.

If your child wants to pretend to be in a marching band (like Uncle Caleb or Christopher Robin), you can add a string to be worn around the neck, as long as you are there to make sure it is not a strangulation hazard.

Now our boys are all ready for a hero party. Both boys love this simple and free (well except for the saw blade) toy. Perhaps we'll have to get another "big old kind of ice cream" (as Aaron would say) so that they can each have one.

DIY Thomas Board Game

My mom made tons of games for us when we were kids. A lot of them were educational, but some were just for fun. For my son's third birthday I wanted to make him a special board game that he would really enjoy. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so I decided to make a Thomas-themed board game. After I decided on the theme, it was a pretty straight forward process.

First I found a piece of cardboard. I used part of the box from the new toilet seat, but any sturdy cardboard will do. You could probably even buy new cardboard if you wanted to, but I have no idea where I could but it here.

Then I had my husband print out a map of the Island of Sodor he downloaded from Wikipedia. Because Nate is amazing and computer savy, he was able to make it large enough to fit on two pages and added direction arrows, start here, and end of the line markings to the document before printing. This made my job easier. I just added additional stops, basically black dots, for the trains to stop at along the track. Then I glued the map to the cardboard and put some Thomas stickers we had on for decoration. Next I laminated the whole thing, with tape because that is all we had at the time.

I also had my husband print some engines from Thomas coloring pages we found online. Again because my husband is so cool, he was able to shrink them down and adapt a Thomas engine to match the rest before printing them out. I colored them, cut them out, and then laminated them onto cardboard. Then I made little stands so the trains can stand up as they move along the track.

I wanted the game to help emphasize some of the good morals that are taught in the Thomas stories so I made consequence cards to be used when a player lands on a stop that has a name written on the map. Things like helping a friend shunt freight cars move you ahead, but being bossy or boasting move you back a few stops. If you want to make your own game you can download the free printable game cards here.

The rules are simple:

1. Roll the die
2. Move that number of stops
3. Stay there if it has no name
4. Or pick a card and follow the consequence if it has a name
5. The fist one to the end of the line wins

Or you can simply push the cars around the Island of Sodor and have fun reading the cards, which is what Aaron's favorite thing to do with this game so far. I guess it is good to has gifts that you can grow into.

I am really pleased with how the game turned out, and Aaron is too even if he plays the game differently than intended. It is a gift Aaron loves and cost me basically nothing to make since we had the cardboard and die already. It did take a little paper, ink, and tape, but the only real expense was my time.





What do you think would be good themes for board games?

Aaron's Third Birthday and Andrew's 18 Month Birthday

Wow! My firstborn is turning 3? I don't have two boys two years old and under anymore? I don't have only babies in the house any more? Andrew is already 18 months old? How did that happen? It sure seems like both Aaron and Andrew were just born not too long ago. I am finding the saying "Some days can be long, but the years are short" to be very true.


Andrew is an amazing son.  He as always excelled at anything related to physical development. His all of his motor skills (both gross and fine) have always been his most advanced abilities. Of course, he is trying to keep up with his big brother. He can throw and hit a ball almost as well as Aaron can, and he can already walk on his tip-toes. He doesn't quite have the running motion down yet, but his walking speed can be just about as fast as running. The other day, he decided he wanted to watch a Thomas The Tank Engine video, so he took it upon himself to plug the portable DVD player into the tablet computer and press enter to start it. Andrew was the only one in the room, so it had to be him. This speaks highly of his fine motor and computer skills and sheds light on why the USB ports are wearing out.


Everyone here says Andrew is very fat. At 27.5 pounds and 33 inches tall he does dwarf the Chinese 18-month-olds. But he is hardly fat since he is in the 75th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height (by American standards). I think that that is a pretty good weight for his height. We take it as a compliment that he is of healthy constitution.


Andrew is just developing the ability to sit still for more than a minute. An ability he lost temporarily when he learned to walk at 9 months. As such, he can read a couple of words and letters, but is just starting to develop a real interest in learning. Now he loves to look at the computer, books, and pictures. His verbal skills are starting to take off once again too.  He is rapidly adding to his vocabulary, both in English and Chinese. His desire to communicate meaningfully is kicking in, and he loves to "talk" about everything he sees, whether in English, Chinese, sign language, or by simply making Animal noises. The last activity is one of his favorites as of late, especially snorting like a pig.

Aaron is an equally amazing son with different strengths. At three years old, he already knows words in four languages, reads English proficiently at about 4th grade level, and uses a computer almost too well for his age.  Once he surprised me by using the table of contents to find his favorite Winne-the-Pooh story. His daddy taught him how to use a table of contents and how to use a computer, so it is no surprise he is great at it.

At three years old he is 33 pounds and 38½ inches tall, which is 80th percentile for height and 65th percentile for weight. We know he is growing a lot lately because he is eating more than Andrew again. He loves to run, jump, and climb trees, and he is getting much better at throwing and hitting balls.

Aaron is starting to make clearer, more purposeful lines and drawings. He loves to cut and glue things. So far this hobby has been contained to approved paper. He loves to help around the house and is beginning to be a really useful boy. Aaron can help set the table, clear dishes (we use metal camping dishes), put dishes in the dish drainer, hang up and fold diapers and diaper wipes, shake out the rugs, and pick up toys. He also loves to help mommy when she is cooking and baking, although perhaps his favorite part is licking the spoon.

Andrew and Aaron's favorite fictional characters are from Winnie-the-Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Since we had a Winnie-the-Pooh party for Aaron's second birthday, we went with Thomas this time. We found Thomas coloring pages online and colored a bunch of them for decorations. I put them up the night before Aaron's birthday so that he would see them first thing in the morning.

The birthday fun started when Aaron awoke while I was blowing up balloons for him. Aaron and Andrew ran around naming all of the engines and singing the "Doodle-doot Song" (their name for Thomas's classic theme song). Aaron had great fun picking out which color balloon should be next and naming each after an engine of the same color.


We had breakfast and talked to both sets of grandparents on Skype. Aaron was super excited, except when his grandparents tried to sing the birthday song to him. For some reason, Aaron decided he hated the Happy Birthday Song being sung to him. He got cranky each time the grandparents sang to him.


That afternoon, as part of the boys present, we took them to their two favorite places: Walmart and KFC. Behind Walmart there are those funny little toy vehicles that you put a coin in and they move and sing for a while. The boys were thrilled that they each got a ride one and then play a wack-a-mole game. After that, we went to KFC for ice cream cones, and the boys played in the playplace for a long time. Well, they played in the playplace until Andrew discovered that he can now climb into the KFC highchairs by himself. These new jungle gyms then became the most exciting thing around.

We had a few of our friends over for a small party that night. Three girls in their twenties are probably not the most traditional guests at a 3-year-old's party, but these are some of Aaron's favorite people here. At first, he said that he didn't want any birthday party, and then later he said that these guests could come to Andrew's half birthday party. It's a good thing it was the same party because Aaron actually loved it when they came. The six-year-old boy we invited was busy, and we decided against inviting kids from the neighborhood because Aaron is so bothered whenever their grandmothers try to touch his blond hair. The small party was just right.

Nate printed some extra Thomas pages to color at the party and a complete set of coloring pages as a gift for Aaron. I also made some Thomas themed games. The boys had fun with the games, even though they didn't really follow the traditional way to play Bozo buckets or pin the tail on the donkey. It is easier, after all, not to have to stand behind a line or use a blindfold. Everyone got prizes anyway. Andrew made sure that everyone had plenty of prizes; he loved passing them out.

I made a cake with a map of the Island of Sodor (from Thomas the Tank Engine) and put Henry (engine number 3) on top for Aaron and a half a cake with a Thomas (engine number 1) for Andrew. Once again, Aaron said that he didn't want the birthday song sung to him, but he said we could sing to Andrew. So, we sang a general Happy Birthday song to both of them. Aaron then proceeded to blow out his three candles and Andrew's one candle. Poor guy, we had to light it again so that Andrew could blow it out himself.

We ate cake, ice cream cones, and watermelon, and then the boys opened a few simple gifts. Our friends brought Aaron a bunch of cars and stickers. We gave Aaron a few gifts we made and bought both Aaron and Andrew a plastic bat and ball. Aaron couldn't have been more excited. He stayed up late looking at all of his new things and coloring his coloring pages. Then he announced that he was ready to go to bed, laid down, and fell asleep instantly.

A few days later, when the packages arrived from the grandparents, it was celebration time all over again. The boys just kept opening presents until everything was spread out all over the floor. Then they play with the new toys all afternoon. Aaron got so sad when we all needed to go out for a couple of minutes to pay the electric bill, even though we said we would take him to the park on the way back. He is usually begging to go outside, so the gifts from the grandparents were a huge hit.

It has been a wonderful  (albeit sometimes grumpy) year with Aaron, and we look forward to seeing what God will bring in the next year of his life.