Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Blast from Past Post - David at 9 months

So Laura and Scot posted an adorable picture of their Eli on the blog yesterday. Eli now has a Johnny Jumper that looks just like the one David had and just adored. I couldn't help but look back for the absolutely funny clip we took of him in his Johnny Jumper. We actually sent it into America's funniest home videos once - oh about 7 years ago.

Now rest assured Laura and Scot, if you watch this, David turned out fine. He was 9 months old in this clip and Eli is still WAY younger than this.

He always wound it up on his own - I swear - and then after a good long time he would lift his feet and let it go like crazy. Then after 3 or 4 seconds of "getting his barrings" would start all over again. I kid you not. He did this so often, often enough for us to get it on tape - that hardly ever happens.

Enjoy the blast from the past. I am still laughing 7 years later.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Nathan's birthday

So I guess when you turn 2 you get 2 celebrations.

We celebrated with family at Lake Emily a few days before his actual birthday. Then we celebrate with just us on his "real" birthday.

He loved your toy Grandpa Paul. It is still the coveted play thing of the moment for all the boys. Can you believe that? NEW TOY!!!!!!!

Here are some videos:

Pictures are on my flickr site in case you are interested in those:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39403720@N00/

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Nathan turns 2

My baby is 2. Can you believe it! I am so thrilled.

Nathan is truly 2 in every sense. He is so willful. How many of you remember Caleb's 2nd birthday party? Remember how when Caleb turned 2 and that day declared war? It was like a switch was flipped and he became instant willfully disobedient toddler. Well we have a repeat with Nathan.

This has been going on for a few weeks with Nathan. But I will take this over the baby stage any day of the week. Good thing too because I do get it every day of the week. HA! I am reminded of a comment Bill Cosby made YEARS ago. He said he could take over the world if he only had an army of 2 year olds. How true is that! I am amazed as to how many grown people cave at the shrill of a determined toddler. Dr Dobson said "If Jr is looking for a fight - don't disappoint them" I am sure he would sit back and grin at a day at the Baierls.

Nathan's favorite fight is over his beverage of choice. It pretty much is anything you don't have. Well come to think of it, he never wants milk, but then again it might be because we always have milk. Not sure. Mostly you hear him yelling. NO! CUP OF TEA! It sounds so funny coming from him. You would think he was a little Englishman. CUP OF TEA! CUP OF TEA! Not hot tea, he wants green tea - it is sweet and normally is what I am drinking.

Between this and his beloved blanket you will find a very independent mind. I think Nathan really believes in his head that he is one of the "big" boys. He is determined to walk down the stairs standing up like the brothers do. He wants to put on his own shoes. He wants to put together legos or Bionicles and play with action figures. He fights a good battle with a light saber. This is really good on some levels - not so much on others.

Last Sunday I moved him out of the nursery and into Jr Children's Church. There ended my stint as a nursery kid mommy. YAHOO! I no longer have to look at the number panel and wonder if the number on the screen belongs to my kid. It has been a long time coming. 8 years of having a kid in there is a long time. Nathan immediately gravitated to the train table in the children's room and actually sat thru the Sunday School class without incident.

So now I am trying my best to enjoy these days. And when I am not pulling my hair out or grinding/clenching my teeth, I am smiling at this last round of toddlerhood. Soon the storms we will be weathering will be of adolescence and not of toddlerhood and I am not in a hurry to rush into that.

I will post his birthday pics and videos soon, but right now I need to get a cup of tea - for me.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

David starts 3rd grade

Off to a new school for David. The first time David will be the youngest class in his school. Evansville has K-2 at Levi Leonard Elementary. 3rd - 5th grade goes to the intermediate school, Theodore Robinson. His building was the old Evansville High School. So they have lockers about the same size I had when I went to high school. Pretty weird.

His new teacher is Mrs. Horgen who has 3 kids at home under 4. She must be crazy busy. So far David is adjusting to not having any good friends in his class. (Last year he had a really good buddy in the same room with him). But we are on week 3 and he announced last week: "Mrs.Horgen's class is STILL bully free!"

The first day of class he found out that a bully in his class last year (the one David punched) would be in his class again this year. Well, the first day of class the teacher was handing out the class jobs for each kid. When she read off this boys name she ripped up the papers and thru them in the trash and said:" Well since he moved I guess we are done with that!" David loved this of course, especially the dramatic finish of ripping up the pages.

Our newest challenge is that his teacher is much less a "mother hen" who takes care of her little ones. She has a much higher expectation of her students to be responsible for their assignments on their own. A good thing for David to experience. It is after all 3rd grade. The kids should be able to be responsible for a large amount of stuff.

His spelling is much harder. This is good and bad. His spelling last year was a JOKE! The words were kindergarten level, in my opinion. Unfortunately, now that he is getting words that are appropriate for 3rd grade, this is taking some time to adjust. So David is beginning to learn what it takes to actually have to put effort into school. It is about time.

He was suppose to be responsible for taking his spelling work home and he didn't do it. He forgot it at school. His teacher allowed him to, on the first time, have a consequence for forgetting it. He got a demerit on his reward card the 1st week of school. He was surprised by this. Not only did she have a bigger expectation for him, but she also followed thru when he didn't do as he was expected, the first time.

Obviously, we have moved up to the big kids school. David has always been a rule follower and always been ahead of his classmates in everything except spelling. So this will be very good for him to experience some disappointment and the need to actually work at his grades.

His teacher did make a remark about David's handwriting. In this same conversation she said a remark about David being home schooled. I think I will let this one slide. It better be the only one she makes. She has no idea just who she is dealing with - yet. But for now my guns are holstered. Should more eyebrow raising home school comments come this way, I will unholster them.

John dropped in unannounced to David's class yesterday. He sat in the math class and afterward had lunch with David. I don't feel it is necessary to announce we are coming in advance. That sort of defeats the purpose don't you think? So John was pleased with what he saw and heard. There will be more visits like that, we like to have a pulse on what the atmosphere is like in the class.

Overall, we are glad he has a teacher with higher expectations and I am sure she has figured out already, that we monitoring Davids school activities closely. So we are looking forward to seeing what the year holds for David in 3rd grade.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lake Emily Take 2

So we had so much fun (except for the freezing nights) at lake Emily back in July, we decided to have a repeat of camping one last time this year.
For Labor Day weekend we again rented 'rent a camp' at the grounds and had a great weekend.
We did an early celebration of Nathan's birthday while there too.
As you can tell by the infrequent posts lately school has started and I am way behind on everything so I will just post some pics on this entry of our weekend.
Soon I will write about David's 3rd grade and Nathan's official birthday at home once I get it all off the video camera.
Here are some pics from Labor day.