The Bark Collection

You never quite know what will attract a person's attention or how long that something will stay at the forefront of someone's mind. In the same fashion, you never know what thoughts go through someone else's mind until they express those thoughts and you just listen.

Thomas has been talking for days about a tree that fell behind Amelia's school. I hadn't really paid attention/understood the big deal until I just listened today. There's a branch that's maybe 10'+ on the gravel walkway where we pick up Amelia.  We've passed it a few days, but today, he got to make his wish come true. He was able to grab a chunk. Earlier in the day, Thomas talked about how he needed a special box to collect bark, and how he needed to go around and collect bark that was falling off different trees because he wanted to see how some were alike or different, and to learn the kinds of bark on all the different trees. He wants to make sure that whenever we travel to different states, that we make sure to bring home some bark from the special trees that grow in those places.  He said he would like to have a book to make some notes about the trees the bark comes from. Of course, on the way back to the car with his precious bark specimen, he proclaims to the group of (older) kids, adults, crossing guard, and siblings, that he FINALLY got to start his first collection - his collection of "tree skin."  You can imagine the chorus of people who chimed in, "It's called 'bark,'" as if he didn't already know that.  I think he was just trying to use the non-technical term for all the other newbies who aren't familiar with "bark."

On the way home, he treated it gingerly and talked more (and more and more about it) but was interrupted (shocker) by Amelia who told him how he could use it in a much better way than just putting it in a box.  Her idea was to paint it white, get another matching piece, tap it to the top, chip off 2 little parts and bend them to make a T so that the bark could become a see-saw for little dollies.  After taking a breath, she added that she and grandmama would need to sew some seatbelts for the dollies so they wouldn't fall off the bark see-saw.

The whole time she was explaining this, I struggled to contain my giggling.  It was so characteristic for both of them to have these "plans" for something so simple.  John, who gets practically no airtime with his older siblings in the car, was thinking, but not speaking just yet.  I look forward to hearing his ideas about Thomas' bark tomorrow.  My guess is that he will want to get to school early before the crowds, drag the tree to the woods, and toss it down into the gulley where all the other tree limbs are.  He'll likely want to bring his wheelbarrow and transport any bark scraps back to the woods, and remove any indication that the limb was in the walkway.  He'll probably even look around long enough to determine the tree the limb broke away from and point it out.  But for now, all he has done with it was to walk by, and in devious little-brother fashion, break half of it and giggle, which sent The Collector into a tearful hysteria. I must go find "the box" for the collection now because he's a persistent little guy.

Edited to add: John shared his thoughts about the bark today.  He said, "Well, Thomas, you really don't neeeeed to collect it and keep it.  You should just leave it outside." You can imagine the rebuttal to this opinion.  John continued, "Well, you definitely shouldn't leave it on the floor in the living room. You left it in the floor so I stepped on it."

Where are you guys living? (Change of Address!)

"Everywhere and nowhere"is the best answer! Everyone we know has been asking, and we don't have a better answer just yet. We have been so fortunate that friends have allowed us places to stay while we have continued to search for our next home. We've bumped around here, there, and everywhere this summer. We've written up and submitted 4 offers on houses. We've had sellers decide they didn't actually want to sell, prices go UP on houses after we submitted offers, and we've been outbid. God apparently isn't ready for us to settle down into our next place just yet. In the meantime, we've stayed at the beach, at Homewood Suites, at our choir director's house, at some friends' downtown vacation condo so far. We'll move on to my mom's house, a Disney resort for a night, another hotel, and on to another friend's house for a few nights until we land in our rental home on Aug. 15. Our new temporary address will be 700 Emory Dr., same town and state, 27517. The house is just a hair (200sf) bigger than our old one we outgrew and just mile away from our old house, but we are renting it month to month and can still buy as soon as the right house comes up for sale. It'll be great to settle in and get ready for school to start. The rental house is in between both schools, so it'll be great to walk to them as much as possible. Michael keeps on saying it's been fun to stay in these nice homes but it'll be depressing when we finally do buy and our house is nowhere near as nice! We look forward to moving in soon!

Station One has a pole!

We attended the 4th annual Touch a Truck event in April, and we'll add pictures from that event eventually. Thomas talked at length to Fireman Keith who attended Will's birthday party last year and was on the first firetruck that responded to our neighborhood fire last month. We learned that Station One has a fire pole to help the firefighters get to their gear and truck quickly. We had few minutes to stop and check out this pole, and we were given a very special tour by some very special firefighters. We ran into Keith at the grocery the next day, and he was pretty impressed with the chiefs' demonstration.

As we pulled into the station, Will and Thomas proclaimed, "We've seen their fire trucks at touch a truck, at school, and at the party already, so we really want to see the fire pole. We don't need to see the trucks this time." It's a good thing because the trucks were all out responding to automatic fire alarms on campus.

So....Here is what we saw! The 4 year old boys and the 2 year olds, Charlotte and John, really enjoyed our visit! (CLICK ON THE PICTURE to see the videos, then tap the edge symbol on the bottom right to go full screen!)

Thank you, Chapel Hill Fire Department! We appreciate all you do!

First Sleepover

This week, Amelia decided she wanted Thomas to have a sleepover in her room. As they were discussing it at dinner, John realized he would be left out, so he kindly let them know he would be sleeping over with them. We thought for a minute he may actually enjoy having his own room, but that was not at all important to him. He tried to tell them that he was going to sleep on the down-low (trundle) bed, but Thomas had already claimed it. We realized this was T's first time sleeping on the trundle. So, here they are, pajamas matching, with Nana blankets (made by Debra's mom, Nana) and Build-A-Bears from Grandmama (Monkey Monkey, Owen the Owl, and Rover the Dachsund) and a ton of love swirling about the room...


and here is how we found them in the morning. They slept until 6:45 - a pretty normal wakeup time.

Surprise, I made a kite!

Thomas is always putting together items to create something new. Michael usually discovers his "creations" by looking and listening to him playing. He made a pepper grinder the other day with some of our "cutting food" that has halves of produce that velcro together. He used a lemon half on top and a carrot half for the long part of the grinder. He was twisting the velcro pieces back and forth to "grind" the pepper.

When I was talking to our next door neighbor and her children in the yard yesterday, Thomas discovered the twine we used to outline the new mulched beds in front of the house. He asked if he could go make something with the string, which was, of course, fine. A couple minutes later, he comes running through the yard screaming, "Look Mom, I made a kite! Isn't it a great kite?"

Sweet Sixteen, Girlfriend!

Our dear sweet niece & cousin Allison turns 16 on Jan. 26th. She is a lovely girl in so many ways. Her smile and beautiful singing voice are just tiny little glimpses into the wonderful person she is inside. If you ask our kids, they'll tell you how she loves each of them, loves her pets, her whole big family, her parents, especially her big brother Grant in Afghanistan, and her billions of stuffed animals. God has grown her into a lovely and brilliant young lady. We all just adore her and look forward to spending time with her each summer. Sometimes we get visits with her during the winter as well.

She popped into town for a Duke BBall game earlier this month, and Michael invited her to come in and take a look at the kids who were supposed to be sleeping. I think we surprised her!


Congratulations, Brian and Marian, on your awesome little girl who is all grown up now!

Amelia seeks your help!

If you would like to read to or sponsor this Kindergartner in her first ever Ephesus Elementary Read-A-Thon, please let us know! Pledge amounts are due by Jan. 20th and the funds need to be turned in by Feb. We'll try to capture some pictures of her reading adventures!

Rokenbok

The other night some good friends came over for dinner. I looked into the living room to find all men and children thoroughly engrossed in their building projects with our Rokenbok sets. This was the scene, except their heads were all down. I tried to make them look up for the picture, but they wouldn't.

This afternoon, Thomas has been playing with a handful of pieces while I've been cleaning up, replying to emails, prepping dinner, etc. He has brought me a tall car, a crane, a truck, a long car, a race car, and an ax for cutting into burning buildings, etc. He just keeps on making items with the same 10 pieces. He is loving the kits we have, and I enjoy seeing his creativity grow and grow. I got 2 of this Deluxe set for preschoolers on kids.woot.com. He is having so much fun! http://www.rokenbok.com/estore/construction/deluxe-rok-blocks

Sweet Boys

John and Thomas are having SO much fun together each day. It took a few days after Amelia started Kindergarten for them to realize that she wasn't coming home for lunch and that they could play freely in her room without worry. John enjoys going to the baby doll crib and picking up the boy doll to take him on a stroller ride around the house. He'll often put the baby back in the crib, turn on the sound machine and shut the door quietly before informing us "the baby's asleep." He loves pretending almost as much as big brother Thomas. Dressing up in costumes, acting stuff out, playing firefighter with the random hose we have, playing with Imaginext guys, trucks, whatever. John also enjoys cleaning things, mostly his big black pickup truck. He will search the house until he finds something to spray - a hair spraybottle or more recently the lemon juice spray we use for keeping cut fruit fresh. Hearing a squirt squirt following the refrigerator door makes me jump up to wipe the lemon juice off whatever item he doused. He loves playing with the soap pump and any water faucet he can gain access to. The child locks don't actually keep him out of anywhere, but they slow him down enough that we can hear them rattling and run to get there. John is also using the potty quite frequently. Not always, but there are many days where we remove and replace the same dry diaper the entire day. Here's a picture of the two boys one morning before his speech therapist came to play. We were trying on new clothes to see who got which size, and they looked like they were going to work with daddy.

Our little author met a REAL author!

click on picture for more photos

Last night, we used a groupon to eat at a favorite local place, The Flying Burrito. Yum. After dinner we sauntered into a bookshop a few doors down. We saw an advertisement for the author of the newer Amelia Bedelia books was coming to talk the very next night. Peggy Parish, from SC, wrote the original series, and her nephew, Herman Parish, has carried on the tradition by continuing the series. Now, Amelia Bedelia is a young girl. Here's the book we got: Amelia Bedelia's First Field Trip Of course, it pains me to see it for $9.99 on Amazon when I paid $18.xx in person, but I guess that's part of the fun of having a real author come within 2 miles of our house.

Mr. Parish talked about slamming his finger in the car door the day before on the way to our town,then he talked about his aunt and her career. She was a 3rd grade teacher who had lots of famous people pass through her school, including Chevy Chase. There's a statue of Amelia Bedelia in Manning, SC where the author lived.
The author of the new series shared how he gets funny ideas from real life conversations and jots them in a little notebook he carries in his pocket - things like turning left is right, telling a waiter to bring some pie and "step on it." The slightly older (well, older than 5) kids got the humor and giggled. Besides the obvious "name fun" for our Amelia, we really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces. We saw my old student whose family was there with their youngest 5yo girl, a friend from ballet, a friend from church, a yard sale friend whose clothes we've bought for years, two best guy friends from preschool, multiple friends from Kindermusik, and probably more. And now, we have 2 new friends, the real Amelia Bedelia and the new author, Herman Parish.

First Day of School EVER!

Thomas started school this week! He is in Mrs. Wesley's 3 year old class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the preschool across the street from our house. It's a special place because it's where big sister Amelia spent the past 2 years, but more importantly because it's at the church where daddy grew up!

Thomas got to meet his teacher last year when her son Jonathan was in big sister's 4 year old class, and when she came to our house for Amelia's birthday party. Actually, Mrs. Wesley and her son were in music class with us when I was pregnant with Thomas! His whole life he's waited to be in class with Mrs. Derby (the assistant teacher) since Amelia loves her so much. He is excited to begin his school experience at Binkley Preschool. Just hearing him shout it with enthusiasm brings a smile to us all.

On his first day of class, a parent needed to join him. Little brother John also had his first ever mommy and me Kindermusik class at the same time. Mama cannot be in two places at one time, so we called on grandparents to help out. Grand Dan was in the area, so he proudly accompanied young Thomas to his class. I'll admit we were all a little worried about sticking Dan in the 3yo class for the morning, but it was just an hour the first day, and only half the class attended at that time. Both teachers reported that Dan and Thomas did a great job. Click on the photo to see more of the craft time and story time. The children made crowns to wear during the first day parade.

"Oh, you must be here to play with me!"

The last few months have brought us many visitors. I called Early Intervention/the NC Infant and Toddler program because of John's delayed speech. Jessa, our service coordinator came over to speak with us. Then she brought Van to evaluate him. Then she brought Ginny to do the speech evaluation. We got temporarily set up with Martha, a speech therapist who filled in until Michele came to work with him consistently. In each situation, we've tried to keep the hoodlums (A & T) in the back of the house so the expert/therapist could actually HEAR John. Usually, mom, John, and the therapist are in a room together.

Yesterday, we had DUCTZ come to the house to check out our air conditioning system, go into our crawlspace to investigate, etc. When the hoodlums where in a different room and the DUCTZ guy, John, and I were in a room by ourselves, John lit up and started trying to engage the gentleman. He was pointing to the Elmo sticker the pediatrician had given him and trying to talk with him about it. He was watching the man's lips, being super-animated, and so on. It took me a day to figure out why he was so lively and expressive with him. John must have assumed the man arrived at our home to "play" with him as all the other visitors have the past few months. If the others were off playing in another room, and just mom, the visitor, and John were in the room, surely it was for a speech therapy session, right?

He's doing really well with his language since starting therapy, by the way. We're amazed.

The First Tooth is Gone!

She's been asking me to let everyone know it happened in case they don't recognize her anymore! We didn't have a tooth pillow ready, so we used the sweet little pillow cousin Allison made for her at Christmas one year. I stitched a little pocket on the front while she tapped her toes waiting. When Michael went in to exchange the tooth for a note and the cash, he found her clutching it tightly. He was able to get it though. She recently heard about Ramona losing a tooth, and she told me she was hoping for a diamond like Ramona got. We came to the conclusion it was more likely a DIME instead.

What a difference a few days makes!

Just days ago, we were enjoying pleasant weather, attending lots of 5 year old birthday parties (like 6 in 10 days), looking forward to the start of summer, and hoping John would catch up with his expressive language. Here's a little glimpse of what's going on now!

John - I contacted Early Intervention about his delayed speech development, and we've had a few meetings, evaluations, etc. to get things set up. He'll be meeting with a speech therapist on his upcoming 2nd birthday for an evaluation. He has 10-15 words he uses or will repeat, but he's getting frustrated that he's not able to express himself. He understands everything we tell him, and he'll even follow directions better than his siblings! His ears are clear as of the ENT visit 10 days ago, and his hearing is fine. We're hoping he stays fluid and infection-free for the rest of the summer. We're also hoping he'll qualify for some speech therapy as this agency sends therapists to the child's home when they are under 3 years old. Oh, he's still doing the reflux and asthma meds, but he's seems to be doing fine with them.

Thomas - He's as happy as can be. Still enjoying friends, dressing up as a prince, a firefighter, Buzz, or his most recent costume - a snorkeler. He loves the "swimming" room at Marbles, and he kept asking for flip-floppers with a snorkel. I finally checked on them at a local sports shop and found a discounted high-quality set that I happen to have a coupon for. Now he and Amelia love wearing their flip-floppers up and down our hallway. We'll have to try them out at the beach soon! (Our extended family beach week is coming up later this month!) Oh, and Thomas was blamed for chewing up the seatbelt in the van. More on that later...

Amelia - Days after celebrating her 5th birthday and finishing listening to mom and dad read Ramona the Pest to her, she found a surprise...a LOOSE TOOTH! We happen to be keeping our dentist's little girl for a few days while they find a new nanny, so she got her tooth looked at right away. She graduated from preschool, and is itching to get her pencils sharpened so she can start Kindergarten on Aug. 25th. Both Amelia and Thomas signed up for the summer reading program at the library today, so she's been in her room reading to herself and wants to read some of the BOB books to me right now.

The squirrel - Since we have a carport next to our tree-filled yard, sliding van doors, crumbs in carseats and a bunch of people who are slow to load/unload, I had a huge surprise lately. Last Wednesday morning, I took all 4 kids (ours plus our friend Charlotte) to preschool dropoff before heading to Marbles in Raleigh. When I yanked the big double stroller out of the trunk, a squirrel popped out of the stroller and scampered away! He must have ridden all the way from home (30 or so minutes) in the back. Thankfully, we never heard or saw a peep from him. After returning home, I asked Thomas what he did to fray, tatter, and destroy the seatbelt holding his carseat in, and he claimed he did nothing. As I looked closer, I realized that the squirrel chewed up the seatbelt and dug at some of the plastic surrounding it. Just in case this happens to your car, have your $390 ready for the repair. Luckily, our dealership sent a driver home with me and took the van back to the shop so I didn't have to even deal with trying to move 4 carseats around or deal with entertaining 4 kids while it was repaired. (The whole story is horrible, right?)

And in other news, it's like 97 degrees here, some 12 degrees higher than the average for this time of year. No playing outside this afternoon, for sure! We need to join our neighborhood pool and get ourselves in that water soon.

Baby Girl is FIVE!

This week we celebrated Amelia Grace's 5th birthday. On the official day, the 18th, we met Grandma and Papa for lunch after preschool, and on the 21st, we had a backyard party with friends from school, church, the neighborhood, and some family. We had over 25 kids swinging, running, bouncing, and playing together before we enjoyed a fun set of cupcakes and a little follow-the-leader musical event led by the birthday girl. It was a fun time for sure! Click on the picture to see pictures from the party.

Yet Another Round of Ear Infections

John started January with thick fluid behind his eardrums...and here we are starting April with the 5th round of infected ears in 2011. Once in Feb/Mar, his ears were clear, but for the most part, he's had a rough time. Today, we'll start another round of antibiotics. Oh, and Thomas is on his 3rd round as well. He told the dr. he has something bad in his stomach that comes up and makes him cough, but it was ears again.

We do look for the bright side of all these little issues, so I want to share this funny...

John has been up coughing/screaming in pain from ear and mucus issues for most of the past month. Crying leads to lots of snot, snot leads to tissues, and tired parents holding sleepy, crying babies at 2 a.m. means that lots of tissues land on the couch. Apparently, we didn't have any on the couch this morning (he was in our bed instead) so John went to find a new box of tissues after breakfast. He pulled a whole bunch out and delivered them to the "spot" on the couch where they've collected over the past few weeks. He patted them down to make them look like the pile that's usually there in the morning. The kid does not miss a beat.

Twitter Widget Removed

Dear Blog Readers,

We have decided to make our Tweets private to friends and family. If you'd like to follow them then create a twitter account and follow @voshchev.

Thanks,

Michael and Leslie

See, I told you I needed pedals!

A few weeks ago, we took a longish (3.2 mile) walk to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics for 2 boys who had ear infections. Amelia rode her yellow spider bike, Thomas rode the red pirate balance bike, and John rode in the stroller. Michael managed the two bikers quite well through the different neighborhoods, across the roads, down the bike path, across the highway, etc. Thomas was running as fast as he could, but kept indicated that he had some jeans/bike seat chafing. His little legs were moving so quickly. He kept saying he needed pedals to keep up with his Amelia.

I finally found a 12" Specialized bike from last year on Craigslist. Why was this particular model so important??? Well, last year when we were deciding which model to get Amelia, we would visit the bike shop, try to determine which size would work best for her, which color could be passed down to the brothers, etc. (The mechanic actually cut part of the seat post off so that we could get the 16" bike and her feet could sit flat on the ground. She hopped off the balance bike, onto the new yellow bike with a spider on the frame, and took off down the street. She was 4 years and 2 days old when she mastered it.) Each time we visited the bike shop, Thomas hopped on the smaller green spider bike and rode around the store on the training wheels. He was quite upset that he didn't get to come home with a new bike, but he was happy to have the "motorcycle" he begged out from under his beloved sister.

Recently, he shrieked when we passed the bike shop, then he told me to pull over so those bike guys can put pedals on his (balance) bike. After concluding that we actually do need a small pedal bike for him, I searched for the green spider bike he wanted so much. A red one came up on Craigslist, so I grabbed it as quickly as possible last Wed. We've taken him around the block maybe 4 times during the past week, holding onto his shirt, then just lightly touching his shirt, and this time, just holding onto his hood for starting. Shortly before this video, Thomas told me that Jesus was helping him to ride his new bike and not be afraid. Tomorrow he'll be 40 months old. Yes, that's 3 years, 4 months. Crazy kid.

KX Clothes Sort

This is my experience working the volunteer shift at Kids' Exchange. The two guys in the video are my friends Duff and Sham.

Uncle Luke's Birthday!

Today we're celebrating Uncle Luke's 34th birthday! Since Chapel Hill to Atlanta is a bit of a drive, we're sending our video wishes for a happy day. We usually buy the Uncle Luke's brand syrup from Sam's Club, so our celebration of this special day included "his" syrup, pancakes, and a stubborn candle. We hope you're having a great time today, Luke, whatever you're doing!

With love from your loyal followers... John, Thomas, and Amelia!