Homeschool - Week 3

Week 3: The Clown of God / Letter C
 

Well, this week was interesting. And rainbows mean a lot more than they used to to all of us here at the House. 

Let me start from the beginning... (spoiler alert if you haven read it)

We read this book for our Letter C week (c is for clown...) and we all loved it. It is about a little orphan boy who grows up to be a clown and brings joy to those around. He grows old and leaves the clown life behind. He finds himself in a monastery where it is Christmas night. When he sees the statue of Mary and Child, the Child looks so serious. He remembers that the Brothers from the monastery told him that when you make those around happy, you make God happy. So, he juggles for the Child...as he finished his last act and a miracle happens. As the Brothers come and see what is going on, they find the juggler has passed away but the Child is smiling and holding the Golden Ball from the act.

Working on our daily notebooks - learning the day of the week, date, weather, etc

Art - Rainbow Caterpillars in size order from biggest to smallest

Completed caterpillars - so cute!

Math: Rainbow Math - They had math problems to solve. The answers were on the different colors of the rainbow. Andrew's were a little harder (1-10) and Alex had some that were just a bit easier (1-5). They used cheerios to help them add up the numbers when needed.

Such an great book with some really fun activities.

And this book meant more to us as the week went on...a lot more.

On Thursday night, just before heading to bed, we went to bring Max inside... Max hadn't barked for us to let him in - he's been doing that lately as he can no longer see or hear. He barks, and we help him find his way. Well, I turn the back porch light on and he was lying on the patio as if he were asleep. Only I knew he wasn't asleep. I yelled for Jason and, as anyone would do, we tried to wake him. We said our goodbyes after a while and Jason took him on one last car ride to the 24-hour vet.

I miss that little furball.

We adopted him from Schnauzer Love Rescue in January of 2008. You never know what you will get with foster pets, or rally any pet for that matter, but we were truly blessed with him. Such a wonderful, sweet little dog. He was everything we wanted. We hope that he is much happier now and young and playing around once again.

Now, of course, Friday morning came around and we had to tell the boys...

Thankfully, a wonderful friend sent me this:

I was so thankful for this. After I read it with tears down my face, I ran to the boys, "I know where Max is!!" They were so excited to hear about this Rainbow Bridge. They had all kinds of questions, of course. But, now they have an answer for now that they are satisfied with. Yes, we did tell them in the beginning that Jesus is taking care of Max - watching over him, and Tango, too. But now we have have PLACE. It's not a place we can go to at the moment, but maybe we can catch a glimpse of it the next time a springtime storm comes around.

Max holding onto a baby blanket

Our sweet Max 

 
Adopted January 18, 2009 was with us, his forever family, until this past Thursday, August 21, 2014

 
We love and miss you, Max!

 

The Cone of Shame

If you have little kids or have a sweet spot for Disney movies, then you probably saw Up a bit ago. If not, go rent it (is that still the term to use?). Super cute movie! Here's a quick clip to see where I'm going with this:

Click here if you can't see the video clip.

Anyway, our sweet mini schnauzer, Max is about 12..13...? We aren't 100% on his age as he was a rescue from Schnauzer Love Rescue back in 2008. They said he was 3. Papers said 5. We took him to the vet once we brought him home and suddenly he is 7. Funny, huh? I know dogs age faster and all, but wow! We love him bunches, so whatever! :)

A few weeks ago our allergy season took a toll on ALL of us. Our normal meds weren't working for anyone. Absolutely ridiculous. But, poor Max suffered the most maybe. Poor puppy... He was scratching like crazy and the next thing you know I had to take him to the vet because he could barely walk - he was THAT itchy!

After a trip to the vet (while racing another round of storms the next day...), he was given a bunch of meds, some allergy pills, and this:

The Cone of Shame...

Poor Max...

Even Austin was not a fan...

Let me tell you a story about these two stinkers. The above 2 pictures I took about 15 minutes after we got home. This last one was taken about an hour later. I told Austin "no no" but, of course, he is 6 months old.. I told Max "no no" and he did the slow walk sadly out of the room. While I was fixing dinner, I can hear the cone being messed with by someone - who I wasn't sure. But, I found out.

Mr. Max has really kept his distance from the bigger boys since they started crawling. But once he figured out that the tiny human could possible take that stupid thing off, maybe he will hang out with him more. Austin was pulling and pulling with all his might. And Max - who would have either gotten annoyed rather quickly or ran or growled or something at the other two - pulled in the opposite direction!! WHAT?!

STINKERS!

No, Austin was not able to get the cone off and Max was sent to his little bed in our room until further notice.

Weeks later, Max is 100% and Austin is now all over the house most days. But, Max has started to stay closer to Austin. I guess they formed a bond. So sweet. 

Those cute stinkers of mine...

Week in My Life: Sunday

I must admit...after yesterday's extravaganza I didn't do a thing.

I am soooo happy to have Jason back home. He takes much better care of me than I do. He took the boys to Mass this morning and I had the house to myself. I technically only did one thing...right after they left, I started a load of dishes. But, then I went straight back to bed and slept until about almost noon. It was so nice.

I finally got up and got everyone a late lunch. And, apparently, the little ones were cranky about yesterday's extravaganza so they skipped out on lunch and went down for naps. Well, actually Andrew is the one who got into bed for a nap. Alex was still in his car seat sleeping soundly. Don't worry. We left the door open so we could hear when he decided to wake up. he is such a cutie.

After naps, lots of smiles and some playing around, I got dinner reheated and everyone fed. It was really one of those wonderfully relaxing days - thankfully. We really don't need any more unplanned trips to labor and delivery...ugh.

The boys got to watch the Packers kickoff and then it was time for bed. And, once they were in bed and quickly asleep (I supposed labor and delivery wears them out, too!), I got out a yummy treat that kept calling my name from the checkout line at Aldi:

Oh, yes. A cheesecake sampler. Yes, please. And it is very, very good! Jason was teasing me for grabbing this, but he ended up loving it just as much. Besides, I can't have this after November 6. So, there. It is mine for now. Haha!

I had to share this pic, too. This is Max. He is almost 13 now (we think, anyway...). My sweet little mini-schnauzer is going blind and has more than a few ear infections, but he's my little snuggler after the mini humans are in bed. Love him!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, what a week this has been. Thanks to Adventuroo for hosting this event! Really, it could not have been a better week to document. Well, ok, Austin could have been born and that would have been fun to share. But, he has 9 more days...or does he??

**Linking up with Adventuroo: Week in My Life 2013**

Simple Things

Wordless Wednesday

I promised a picture of Andy & Alex's height marks in my last post about their room.

So here is Andy pointing to how tall he is on the chart - 33 inches!!

Alex's height was measured at the doc appt yesterday - 26 1/4 inches!! 

He grew 3 WHOLE INCHES from his 2 month check up. Whoa!

My guard dog keeping me safe from the birds. LOL

The Simple Things

Max checking out Alex. All I can figure is that Alex is wondering why this guy's face is furry. And Max is wondering if this one is going to smack him. Hopefully, Andrew will teach Alex that we need to pet Max gently... I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. ;)

Playing Together (sort of)!

Finally! Andy and Max seem to have a game that they can play together (with us watching close by)! It is so exciting and the funniest thing ever! Tug-of-war!

 

If you have trouble viewing, click here. 

Now, since we have grandparents and great grandparents watching these vids closely, I am sure they are all wondering why a band aid is on Andy's forehead... Or, you never saw that until I said it just now, which made you watch it 4 more times and beginning to think of all the crazy things that could have happened. 

Well, while we were going in and out of Andy's room taking things out and placing things here and there (now that the fabulous dresser is up and even more fabulous than we thought)... There was a crash. Followed by a screaming little boy that every parent runs to in a heart beat. 

Yep, he thought he could stand on his little chair while we weren't looking. He was right. But, he didn't realize what he would crash into... 

The coffee table. 

I can actually hear the gasps from the grandmothers (even though they are 5 hours away). And maybe a "I told you to move that thing!"

Ugh! He has a cut on his forehead. Cleverly disguised by Buzz Lightyear, of course. NO! No stitches needed... Not even a drop of blood really. And no concussion - I checked. After being a lifeguard for 6 years (and counting probably...I should get a re-cert, huh? Only a year overdue...), it's kind of embedded into your brain to check for that after busting your noggin... Oh, and no bruise! Yippee!!

Quite an eventful day, eh? Well, at least he is ok and has no bruise/concussion.

Once he was calmed down and semi-happy, Jason looks at him and then at me and says, "I don't know how parents do it! He's going to go to school soon - BY HIMSELF!! What do we do when he gets hurt there?"

I didn't answer then... I wasn't really sure at the time. But, I guess what every parent has done forever. Pray. 

Boys Are Such Stinkers

Watch VERY closely...

Did you see the train move?

Did you see Max?

Did you see what Andy did?

Stinkerpants!

If you missed...watch it again! You will laugh!