No Ice Cream Please

Well, we've all known Michael was a routine kid, but I never thought it would stretch this far.  Saturday we had a lazy afternoon that ended with Mom not wanting to cook dinner.  So at 6:00 I announced "Ice Cream for dinner tonight!"  (Note: We have never done this before and it sounded fun, but please don't think we do this on a regular basis.)  :)  Instant approval from Jon and Becca full of cheers.  Michael just laughed and insisted I was joking because ice cream is a treat NOT a meal.  We talked about how we thought it might be fun, but Michael was not budging.  So for dinner it was:
Jon - ice cream sundae
Becca - ice cream sundae
Michael - crackers, cheese, carrots, orange



However, before you think Michael is the strangest child ever, he did have a large ice cream sundae for dessert.

Sledding

My moms group just had a successful sledding trip!  When we planned it we said that it would be contingent on the weather cooperating and there still being enough snow.  With the winter we've been having that was no problem.  While we almost had to cancel because of dropping temperatures, it decided to warm up enough just in time.

This is the first sledding trip where I didn't have to sit someone on my lap and take them down the hill against their will.  All three kids were ready to go and took off!

Goals

I normally scrap about the kids, but this week I did a page about me. :)



I actually created this for a blog post I wrote for the digital scrapbooking community.  I have some graphic designers that I write blog posts for in exchange for them giving me some of their digital supplies to use for my pages.  If you'd like to read the actual post, you can see it here.

Can I tell you?

Can I tell you how fabulous it is to have kids who can now play a game together on their own?

The Paradoxes of My Mother's Day

The Serious
In many ways I love Mother's Day.  I don't get (nor do I want) lots of gifts, but it is so nice to be loved on by the people who love me.  A hug, a phone call, a smiling face screaming "Happy Mother's Day!" all bring great amounts of joy to my day.  And I love saying Happy Mother's Day to all of my friends who are mothers too.  I know how tough this job can be and yet they do it with joy and smiles and wouldn't have it any other way.
However, the one person I wish I could say Happy Mother's Day to isn't here anymore and I miss her so much still.  If she were here I'd give her a huge hug and let her know how much I appreciate her.  She had one of the warmest hearts for people - any people who crossed her paths.  She genuinely wanted everyone to experience life to the fullest, enjoying all that God had for them and to see them grow in their faith and abilities.  For me, she was the one I could always talk to about anything and I miss sharing my life with her.
I also feel some mixed emotion as a mom.  I have three fabulous children.  God has gifted them in so many wonderful ways and I feel so honored to be their mom and have a roll in shaping who they will become.  Tim and I have talked over the last few years about adoption from foster care.  So on mother's day I can't help but wonder if I have other children out who are not yet a part of our family.  This is exciting but also a bit sad on Mother's Day, knowing that I can't hug them too and imagining that they are probably living through some tough situations where I can't support them yet.

The Funny
A church friend and I were talking about what we wanted for Mother's Day.  She laughed and quoted her husband who said, "How come for Mother's Day, moms don't want to do any of the things that make them a mom?"  Isn't that true.  We ask for some time alone - away from the kids.  Restaurants are full because moms don't want to cook meals.  I simply wanted to have a day where I didn't do any dishes.  At some level this makes sense.  We celebrate moms and the work they do by giving them a day off.  But I also find it funny.  Really every day of my year should be Mother's Day and moms should have a day (or maybe a couple) where they can have a small respite from the 24/7ish of motherhood.  Maybe we should call it "Go ask your dad" Day or something.

My Reality
So how did my Mother's Day go?  It was fabulous.  I got flowers times 2, cards, and a small school gift from both Jon and Michael.



I got to spend the day with the people I love the most in this world (including Tim who was behind the camera for this shot).  :)


And check out the new background screen that was on my ipad when I got up in the morning:

Early May Thoughts

The weather is unpredictable right now - even for the meteorologists.  At least 50% of the time they predict rain we get sun (see the parade post from yesterday) or 50% of the time they predict sun it rains. The other day the kids went out to play frisbee with Tim.  After 20 minutes it started to sprinkle.  Everyone went on playing except for Jon who is so sensitive about those things.  I found him waiting out the rain under the slide.  :)


And speaking of Jon, guess who is getting really good at chess?


Check this out!  Do you see what is on our trees?  The buds are disappearing and the leaves are coming out.  I'm hoping that that and the rain we got at the end of the week will help settle down my allergies.  They have been much worse than ever before this year and last year.  This year I was knocked out for about a week, needing to lay down and close my eyes a couple of times a day.  I also got hives up and down both arms.  I love the look of spring, but I've had to hide out inside and even spend the money to turn the air conditioning on to filter our air.


Here is something else to check out.  For the first time ever, I french braided hair.  It turned out a bit wobbly looking, but held together pretty good!

Early Mother's Day

Look what my son brought home from school for me today!

The Last Week +

We've been shut up in the house with sick kids for a while now. Here is the run down: Monday April 8: *We arrive home at about 1:30am after driving from the Chicago airport. *We sleep from 2-6 am and I get up to help Tim get out the door and let Michael's school and carpool know I'm letting him sleep in and bringing him late. *Jon wakes up wheezing so we do breathing treatments every 4 hours throughout the day. *Things go pretty well except that I'm exhausted. *Kids go to bed 1/2 hour early. *It rained most of the day. Tuesday April 9: *Jon wakes up in the middle of the night with a high fever. I need to give him a breathing treatment and tylenol throughout the night. *By morning I figure I've gotten 8-9 hours of sleep in the last two nights. *Jon is feverish all day and can't get off the couch. *Jon and Becca watch a lot of cartoons and I actually get a morning nap on the couch! *It rained most of the day. Wednesday April 10: *I was up with Jon every 4 hours through the night for more medication. *Jon is again feverish and has no energy. He will try to play, but after 2-3 minutes lays back down on the couch. He barely eats anything. *Jon and Becca again watch a lot of cartoons. *Becca is getting restless. She wants to play but can't go outside and Jon is not making for a good playmate. *Michael's 1st baseball practice is canceled and he is bummed. *It rained most of the day. Thursday April 11: *Exact repeat of Wednesday! Friday April 12: *No kids wake up at night so I get to sleep through! *Jon and Becca both have runny noses and a cough. *I get a sore throat. *Jon is getting back to his usual self and his fever is gone. *In an attempt to get out of the house I take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner where everyone else thought it would be fun to go to get out of the house. Super busy but they do fabulous! *It rained most of the day. *11:00 pm, Michael wakes up screaming - he has just thrown up. Saturday April 13: *From 11:00 until 3:00 am, Michael throws up about every 20 minutes. I sit on the couch with him and watch you guessed it - more cartoons. *After making sure Michael fell asleep and was done throwing up, I finally sleep from 4-7am. *7:00am I kick Tim out of bed to be with the kids and I sleep for another 3 hours. *Michael is sick all day. *Becca is about ready to bounce through the walls. *It snowed. Sunday April 14: *Becca couldn't sleep and woke me up saying that her lips hurt. *An hour later Becca woke me up to tell me that she'd wet her bed. *Tim went into church for rehearsal and both services. *I stayed home with the kids. *I did as many loads of laundry as I could full of sheets and blankets from the bedrooms and the living room. *We sanitized every square inch of the house. *Michael had a mild fever, no energy, and no appetite. *We had our Bible study group over with the kids quarantined upstairs. *It snowed. Monday April 15: *I got a full night's sleep! *Michael woke up still feverish and lethargic. He stayed home and took a nap. *Jon is feeling great and Michael's energy returns by evening. *The kids play/fight/play/fight all day. *It rained, but not until the evening. So, if you have made it through that post (it overwhelmed me a bit to type it all) here are some patterns: *I did not get much sleep and I don't function well on lack of sleep. *My boys were each sick for 3 days with NO energy. *We had a few germs floating around the house, but now I feel like I have the best disinfected house and the cleanest blankets. *I don't function well on lack of sleep. *Did you notice that it rained a bit? *We "enjoyed" some mid April snow flakes. *I'm a bit nervous to take my kids out of the house, but I think we are on the mend. *Did I mention that I didn't get much sleep? Good night!

The evolution of a Mom's shower

My kids are fairly early risers.  I am not.  What does this have to do with a shower?  Well, I have found it almost impossible to get up on a regular basis before my kids which means if I want a shower it has to be accomplished while the kids are awake.  I suppose I could wait until nap time, but to be honest, I don't want to waist that precious time on a shower, nor do I really want to wait that long in the day for one.

Taking a shower while kids are awake can be tactically tricky.  When Michael was a baby it wasn't too bad.  I carried the bouncy seat into the bathroom with me and he would lay in it while I showered.  If he started to cry I'd just have to hurry things along.

Then he got bigger and didn't like laying in the boring bouncy seat.  In came the exersaucer.  It lived right outside the bathroom for a while near the end of Michael's first year and the beginning of his second.  I could put him in there within ear shot and let him play for 10 minutes no problem.

But of course, he outgrew that too.  My next plan of attack was to bring toys into the bathroom.  He would play on the floor and I'd try to keep an eye on him while I showered.  Luckily Michael was never much into getting into the toilet or anything and usually did well.

When he got older I started giving him a bit of time in the morning to watch a cartoon show.  Turns out that with a snack in front of him and the TV on, he was one of those kids who wouldn't move.  So enter the perfect time to take a shower.  It would have to be pretty quick, but I could trust him for a little bit of time.

Soon, though I had two children.  After Jon outgrew the playing in the bathroom with mom I tried to have him join Michael by the TV.  This was a bit scary for me.  Not only does leaving them there keep them out of my line of sight, but with the water on it is out of ear shot for me - that is until someone screams.  And then what am I suppose to do.

For the last couple years, my shower time has been a time of interruptions.  While I try to provide snack and TV to keep the kids' attention, with two and then three kids in the room together without mom, there is bound to be fights.  One would pop their head into the bathroom every couple of minutes or bang on the door with "So and so did so and so" and I would try to officiate from the bathroom.  And then there is Becca who likes to come in all the time to see what I'm doing and try to jump in the shower with me.

Well, folks, today I am here to announce that I may be entering into a new phase of Mom showers.  Michael is off at school in the day and Jon and Becca have been playing so well together in the mornings.  They have games involving their stuffed animals that keep them busy for at least an hour.  And I took a long hot shower this morning without a whine, shout, or little face peeking in at me.

Making Valentines

So I know I shared with you already about Valentine's Day, but let me back up to the two days prior to that.  As I said, we had three parties and we were to exchange Valentines for all three.  Jon and Becca needed 20 each for the morning.  Jon needed 11 for his class and Michael needed 22 for his class.

I had been looking through one of my digital scrapbooking stores the other day and Michael saw these and thought they were really cool (especially the bat man one)!  I thought they might make fun Valentines.



So I purchased them and we attempted to make them.  The first 20 were great fun.  By 40 I was making mental notes to not do something that required so much work next year, and by the 76th (I wanted a few extra in case some fell apart) my fingers were developing scissors blisters.   I think this would have been a better project if more than just one of my kids could help with the cutting.  However, I think they turned out super cute (pun intended) and I even think I'd do it again.  It is kinda like going through labor.  When you're in it you can't imagine doing it again, but afterwards you love the results so much you think....  (And really this was nowhere near as painful as labor.)





The kids wouldn't let me turn off the camera until we got a picture of them flying!

Trains

We've had the train set upstairs from the basement for a couple of weeks now.  In fact Jon announced to me that he doesn't like trains anymore.  However their cousins were over last weekend and Cody and Luke are both train fans, so out came a lot of the train pieces.  Becca was very interested to play along and this week she has loved getting out the train set.  And lo and behold when I sit down to play with her Jon and Michael seem to materialize to play along.  I wish I'd had a video of it so that you could here the "thank you very much" said from one brother to the other while this picture was taken.  Of course after a while they turned into fights, but for a short while the train set brought out fabulous manners in my kiddos.   :)

Happy Birthday to Me

Today I am 36.  I'm very excited that we found a sitter, so Tim and I will be going out for a date night dinner to celebrate this evening.

However, Jon was devastated to find out that he would not be a part of the celebration.  He kept asking about cake or brownies or some birthday treat.  I finally found out that it wasn't the missing out of the treat that worried him so much as that he wanted to be there for the candles.

So, Jon, Becca, and I had a mini birthday celebration over lunch.  We made cinnamon muffins and eggs for lunch and put a candle in my muffin.  After helping me sing Happy Birthday, both Jon and Becca got to help me blow out that candle.

Christmas decorations

Putting up a Christmas tree is always a multiple day event for us.  As usual, we find an evening to go out and get the tree all together and then we get busy and one evening when Tim is working or at rehearsal I find time to decorate the tree with the kids.  Each year I promise myself that I will never decorate the tree with the kids again without a second parent around, but...

This year was no different.  I tackled the tree with the kids one evening.  I went in with Christmas joy and high hopes and left sending the kids up to bed and trying to vacuum and spread out the kid level clusters of ornaments by myself in frustration.  But in the middle we had a lot of fun!


Posing with the tree.


And every time I get the camera out they want to pose with silly faces.


The stockings were hung on the chimney stair rail with care.

October 29

October 29 is my least favorite day of the year.  Three years ago today my mother's earthly body did not wake up.  I still get angry about that some times.  Mostly this month, though, I just been a bit depressed.  There have been days that I just go through the motions of my day, getting chores done and interacting with my kids, but not feeling much at all except the blues.  I went to bed last night simply wishing I could wake up and have it be Tuesday already - I really don't like October 29.

I created these layouts about six months after she pasted away.  This first one is the heart ache:

Journaling reads:
   I will never forget that day - when I got the worst phone call I’ve ever received.   It was early in the morning and I was upstairs doing some last minute homework for class that night.  The fear and pain and confusion in my dad’s voice chilled me.  He told me he couldn’t revive her and that the paramedics were there.  I asked if they were taking her somewhere and he just couldn’t answer.  I feared she was gone but he hadn’t said it straight out so I wanted to hold on to hope.  I felt my way downstairs, shaking, calling for Tim.  I had to contact my brothers and sister but didn’t know how I’d have the strength.  Carefully I dialed each number and tried to sound hopeful but I had few specifics to give them.
   After some moments of confusion I went to take a shower.  My calm emergency adrenaline kicked in and I knew I needed to get ready for the day to start.  In the shower I prayed so hard for God to save my mother.  He told me she was fine - better than fine and my heart knew that she was safe in heaven with the Lord, but my brain fought back - NO!  I want her here with us.  Have them take her to the hospital and heal whatever is wrong.  That’s when the phone rang again.  It was my brother this time.  He had made it home and confirmed that she had passed away.  There was nothing the paramedics could do.
   The drive to my dad’s house was horrible.  I came into the house and gave him a hug and Tim went with me upstairs to see her body and to tell her I loved her so much.  Then there were the details - the funeral, her outfit, the obituary in the paper.  How are you supposed to do so many painful tasks at a time like this?  I wanted so much to hear her footsteps behind me, to turn around and see her smile.  She could always make everything ok.

Those days following were hard, but I'm so amazingly grateful for my family.  We were all together and we made it through by sharing God's hope and God's strength with each other.

This next layout holds the text that my siblings and I wrote to read at her memorial service.  This is the joy about my mom and the amazing woman she was:

Journaling reads:

My mother was comforting. [Nate]
   In times of frustration and in need of strengthening my mom was always there.  I would come home on weekends to ask questions about school work, but the conversation of education would consistently change to a conversation about my personal life.  My mom was not the woman to ask about my personal life until I said something about it.  We would be sitting in the dining room and working on a paper or a unit plan, and all of the sudden I would feel stressful and stop what I was doing to tell my mom something.
   She would look at me with her concerned eyes, and I would break down into tears about how my life was not like the rest of my brothers and sisters.  After I finished with what I had to say, my mom would give me a hug and sit with me in silence for just a moment.  Then she would tell me that the life I led was what God wanted.  And that God had plenty of special times left in my life for me to view.
   And even though I felt lonely, she comforted me with her words.  During my last breakdown, she told me that in times of need that I encountered away from home, I would feel better praying about it.  So now I feel away from home, because she is not here to comfort me.  I love you and hope to see you again, Mom.
My mother was devoted to the Lord. [Michele]
   In a house with five children and a full-time job, every morning she would get up early while the rest of us were still in bed, sit on the couch with her Bible and spend time with God before starting her day.  My whole life people have told me how exceptional my mother was.  The reason she was so effective in everything she did was because she led a very purposeful life.  She was focused on the Lord.  She knew what it meant to let God lead her in every decision.  When I didn’t know how to handle life’s struggles she taught me that God doesn’t expect us to control our circumstances; he only asks us to control our response.  When I was struggling with my faith she taught me how to believe.  She was the greatest example of a Godly woman I have ever known and the most influential person in my life.  My greatest desire is to live my life the way she lived hers.
My mother was wise.  [Andy]
   I had the opportunity to see her wear many different hats in life: mom, wife, daughter, sister, principal, leader, friend. Despite this multitude of hats, God always enabled her to make wise decisions in each role. When I was in fifth grade, two of these hats collided: mom became principal. As principal, she saw everything I did. She had eyes everywhere. Which, on more than one occasion, landed me a visit to her office for disciplinary reasons. On those occasions, my mother was a principal. She was a stern and dedicated leader of the school, explaining to a student why punching a classmate is not an appropriate means of problem solving.
   On the other hand, when the baritone player elbowed my French horn during band class, and my small metal mouthpiece slammed into braces, my mother put on the mom hat. She ran down the hall to get me and drove me straight to dentist, regardless of what her work schedule was.
No matter the situation, she always made the wise decision. I can only hope that God gives me wisdom like hers.
My mother was intentional. [Christy]
   She understood that parenting five children didn’t mean treating us all the same.  Instead, she knew who we each were individually and wanted the best from us and the best for us.  One of the funniest memories I have of my mom was her taking me into her bedroom when I was in college to talk to me.  I had done very little dating through high school and college and she sat me down on her bed and said, “Christy, I think I need to teach you to flirt better.”
   Whether we talked about my life, my career, or my faith, I always left feeling uplifted and challenged to think about something just a little bit differently.  Most importantly, though, I always felt loved – no matter what.  Not once in my life did I ever doubt that she loved me.  What an amazing gift she gave us.
My mother was embracing. [Brian]
   It didn’t matter if you were relatives, friends, or friends of friends: if you came into her home, she surrounded you with love and gave you her full focus.  You were the most important thing to her.  You weren’t just welcomed; you were embraced.  When my wife Emily switched from friend, to girlfriend, to THE girlfriend, Mom wholeheartedly embraced her as a daughter – no hesitation, no reservation, 100%.
   Mom also embraced her grandchildren.  When my son Cody was born, Mom barged into our house with a “Where’s my grandbaby?”, picked him up, and refused to share.  Whenever we brought him over to her house, it was a brief hello for us but a swooping hug for him.
   My mother embraced life like she did her family. We teased her about how she could never give less than everything to anything she did.  There was no middle ground with her – she was in all the way, whether she was teaching, leading, educating, mothering, playing spider solitaire on her laptop, or playing tennis on the Wii video game system.  She lived life All In: no hesitation, no reservation, 100%.

I love you so much Mom and my heart aches for the day when I can wrap my arms around in a great big hug again.

Washing machine thanks

I know I tend to complain about laundry (especially the putting of it away), but today I thought I'd give thanks for my laundry buddies - the washing machine and dryer.



I'm thankful to whoever invented these brilliant machines.

I'm thankful that these were just left at our house for us by the previous owners.

I'm thankful that my dad was able to install them on the main floor for us.

And most of all I'm thankful that I can put a load in the washing machine and then sit on the couch feeling productive while the machine does all the work.

Flower sandwiches

I feel a lot like I'm entering a new phase of child raising.  I think back to when we just had baby Michael.  I remember feeling like it was a lot of work to care for a baby 24 hours a day, but I didn't feel as busy as when I had a full time job.  There were plenty of times when he napped or was happily playing that I could attend to the house or have some time to read, scrapbook, or whatever.  In fact, I often enjoyed having other kids over when I did child care because it gave me some more work and purpose to my days.

Then along came Jon and being a stay at home mom felt like a full time job for me.  I would feed Jon, tend to Michael, change Jon, help Michael, entertain Jon, repeat.  There were brief times when I could check e-mail or whatever, but I found that to do chores around the house I started including one of my kids to give them the attention they needed.

Then came Becca when Jon was still so young.  By this point someone wanted attention all the time.  Even to check e-mail I often had Becca in my arms or Jon on my lap now.  I found myself working hard to schedule everyone's day so that nap and rest time for all three would overlap, so I could have a small break in the afternoon.

Now, Michael is at school full time.  Jon goes three afternoons a week.  When Jon is home, he and Becca play together so well that I often find myself folding laundry alone or sitting on the couch with nothing to do.  It is so fun to see them growing up, but sometimes I just need to pick one up and force a bit of cuddle time.  :)

So with my free thinking time, I decided to come up with some fun activities for Jon and Becca to do.  There are so many things that I did with Michael at this age, but when I had super young Jon and Becca the days were mostly just too busy.  First up is a fun lunch.  We decided on sandwiches cut in the shape of flowers with carrot stems and lettuce leaves.  Then we used grapes to make rain drops (since it was a rainy day outside that day).  Jon and Becca had a blast with it.

Routine

Vacations are done with for us now and we are starting to settle back into the school year routine.  I love vacations, but I have to say I do love returning to routine also.  There is a rhythm now to our days that allows for peace and productiveness that just aren't always there in the summer.

Michael has been very excited about going back to school.  He has spent many hours in the past few weeks on Khan Academy.  This is a math website (although I believe it has broadened beyond math now) that has instructional videos followed by practice exercises, and you earn badges by how well you work through it all.  Michael has long since left the beginning levels and has been challenging himself with multiplying decimals and learning about conic sections.  He finally got stuck when he couldn't understand the distributive property, which we assured him was like sixth grade material and it was ok for his first grade brain to not get it yet.

I did feel a bit bad for the poor kid in the neighborhood the other day.  Michael was trying to talk to him about all the different math problems and he looked totally uninterested.  So Michael has taken to talking to pretend students around him while he is on the computer.  He narrates through how to click on different things to find the videos or practices problems.  Then he explains how to solve the problem, how to enter the answer, and so on.  (I know what you are all thinking - Like parent like child!  And we love it!)  The other day he talked Jon into joining his class.


Jon is still my child that plays the best by himself.  He loves playing with Michael for a time and Becca for a time, but it is always broken up with some time on his own.  And what does he do?  Car races, car football games, car boxing matches, car soccer games, car whatever.  I use to think that after Michael's one track mind for sports it was so refreshing to have a son who liked to other things, like play with cars.  I'm now realizing that his mind is equally one tracked, just around cars.  Here is blue team vs. red team.


Becca has been getting into puzzles recently.  She won't try it on her own yet, but we sit down and pick out the pieces one by one and she carefully puts them all together.

Mother's Day

I know Mother's Day was a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to share the layout I did with pictures from the day.  I love my kids so much!!!

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Day post comes in two parts.

Let me start by saying that I love my mom and I miss her terribly. A little bit after she passed away my dad gifted a piece of her jewelry to each of the girls in the family. I got her wedding ring. The special thing about this ring is that it not only has the stone from her engagement ring but also the stones from my grandmother's wedding ring. I spent the last year and a half trying to decide a memorable way to wear this ring. I thought seriously about combining the stones with mine into one special ring or using the stones to create a special necklace.

Back when I was first married I had two rings that I wore. On my left hand was my wedding ring and on my right hand was a ring with a cross on it. My cross ring is no more. I can't even remember what happened to it and I've always wanted to get a new one. A few weeks ago I was thinking about that ring and my mom's wedding ring popped into my head. I instantly thought what an awesome way to symbolize my faith - by remembering the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us from Hebrews 12.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up."

I have been thinking about the ring a lot recently and it just seems perfect. So I tried it on and it fits on my right hand.

"And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."



So now on to the second part of my post. My family made this a wonderful Mother's Day for me. We had some wonderful family time and I had some great alone time. Michael has been dying to show me the Mother's Day gifts he made for me at school.



And check out the present Tim got me for Mother's Day and graduation.



That's right a new iPad. And to top off the weekend here is what I have on my welcome screen for my iPad - a beautiful card made for me by my family on a scrapbooking app for my iPad.

The kiddos

Today I have two random things to share with you about why I love my kids.

First, here is a layout I just made with their pictures from Easter and I have to say that I think my kids are the cutest ever!!!


Layout Credits: Family Time by Penny Springmann, font is Cinda Script by Darcy Baldwin

Second, I am in love with that fact that they are loving books so much.  They will sit down and look through them a lot on their own and we read them throughout the day too.  And best yet, Michael is loving that he can read now and I find them often just like this with Michael reading to Jon and Becca: