The beaches in WA aren’t quite the same as those in CA…ours is way better.  It’s very close to home – within walking distance, in fact – you don’t get sand stuck in your bathing suit, there’s fresh food close by, and it’s mostly private!

That’s right, it’s right in front of our house!  Parking is free, I don’t have to worry about Peyton wandering off or getting caught in the undertow, and as soon as he’s done, it only takes us minutes to pack up and go home.  We don’t even have to change in the super-nasty beach banos (that’s an n with a ~ over the top, by the way). 

For some reason, everything feels warmer here.  We say 40* in the winter, but a nice jacket over regular clothes will keep you warm enough.  We say 60* and sunny, then capris and a t-shirt will be just right.  70* and sunny, shorts and a tank top will be perfect.  80* though, is just too much.  In that case, cancel school (they wish!), don the swim suit and plug in the hose.  So the last few days, Peyton and I have been spending the afternoons (4:30 to 6:00 – remember, the sun doesn’t set here until 10!) with the Elmo sprayer on the hose.

Completely unrelated, on Memorial Day, Peyton was entertained by Uncle Brad and his dear sock puppet via Skype.  That night when Peyton was bathing, he realized he had a bubble goatee, and he raised his hand and started speaking in a wannabee Kermit the frog voice “Hi!  How ya doin’?  I’m Mr. Sock!” 

For a short time I was planning to teach high school Spanish; I ended up majoring in literature and teaching high school English.  In order to teach either of these languages, the best technique is immersion, which probably requires very little technique, but lots and lots of real world practice. 

Since Peyton is only 3 years old, we didn’t really plan on teaching him his letters and numbers, but it kind of just started to happen, so I figured we might as well jump in – he was having so much fun, and he was so proud of his success, why not!  He has loved learning his letters and numbers because all the learning happens based on what we’re doing around the house.  

A quick disclaimer and request – I’ve read various posts from those who are obsessed with starting school early and from those who want to delay school as long as possible.  Please please please don’t teach your kids that school is boring or learning is work.  The very best thing you can do for yourself, your child, and your child’s future teachers (:-) would be to teach that learning is fun, even if it doesn’t seem fun…even learning facts in a lecture can be fun in that the facts themselves are amazing and interesting.  Our experience actually summarizes the past few months; whenever we saw a teachable moment, we took it.

We started with his name, and we added a bit of rhythm to make it more memorable (which is also helpful when teaching Bible memory verses)…unfortunately, I can’t type rythm to give you the example   We would write it on everything we could, or we would help him to type it on the computer, or he would point to the magnet letters on the fridge.  He quickly memorized “P for Peyton,” and after a brief time he could recite and recognize all the letters in his name.  Then we talked about letters for his loved ones – M for mommy, D for Daddy, and all of our other family and friends.  Then we started reading alphabet books (Dr. Seuss’s is really fun), and he helps me to read the book when we get to each letter.  We also bought some alphabet posters (like teachers put above or below the chalk board) on ebay and put them in our hallway, so he begged to “jump” the alphabet on the way to his room: we’d say the sound (crescendo) and then jump…a a a a a A A A  Alligator!  bbbbBBBB Bear!  I often hear him in the hallway by himself singing the alphabet song while pointing to the letters.  We also have an aqua doodle that has a flip-chart with instructions for writing the letters, and each letter has a picture made out of the letter, corresponding with the letter.  For example, L is probably easiest because it isn’t hard to imagine how a few extra lines could be added to the letter L to make it into a ladder.  He likes writing letters with me because it’s coloring with Mommy, not boring or stressful.  He loves to type his name or email loved ones or talk about the letters on the computer keyboard, and he also has his own little kid’s “laptop” from Gramma and Papa, and on one of the games (one of the three he’s old enough to understand), he pushes the button and it gives the letter and a word to go with it.  He’s SO excited when he sees letters on magazines or other books or stores or signs while we run errands.  He’s so proud of himself!

Numbers have been easy, too.  We play hide and seek in the house, but since he’s too little to play the real way, we’ve mixed it with Marco Polo.  He counts to 10 (I count to 20), then he yells “Marco!” and I yell back from my hiding place “Polo!”  It’s a lot of fun, and he has 1-10 nailed, and he only misses a few numbers when counting to 20.  Another teachable moment occurs daily in the car.  He loves the Beatles One CD, and at first he’d ask for the song, and I would change it to the number and tell him which number it was (“Oh, you want number two?).  Since then he’s memorized which songs correspond to which numbers, so he’ll ask for number 6, Hard Days Night, or number 14, Cry-turn (Paperback writer).  He knows when I’m fooling him, which is sometimes unfortunate, as I’d like to listen to more than one song   Tonight he helped me with the microwave and counted backwards from 9 to 1 many times as the timer counted down.  He also loves to check the clocks and tell us what “time” it is.  Like with the letters, out and about he points at signs and talks about the numbers, and again, he’s so proud of what he’s learning.

I know he doesn’t need to know it yet, but if he’s interested enough to want to talk about it, why not get the head start?  And he’s so proud of himself, as all pre-schoolers desire to be, so it definitely works for both of us.  For more WFMW ideas, check out rocks in my dryer.

Other toys you may have around the house that help to learn numbers or letters – remote controls, old telephones, old keyboards, be creative!

I noticed a few interesting occurences during our learning -

1- he thought the alphabet went “…h-i-jebble…”  Thanks alphabet-song creator.

2- he sometimes switches numbers around (61 instead of 16).  This is actually pretty normal for little kids who maybe haven’t mastered the “left to right, top to bottom” reading.

3 – his memory amazes me!

I bribed Peyton to ride to City Park with me today by hiding a lollipop in his bike trailer   To refresh your memories, this park used to have a very old, very basic playground, but this past year our community got together to update it.  Volunteers organized it, all project materials were donated by local businesses, and all work was completed by volunteers.  It ran surprisingly smooth from a day-worker’s point of view – usually tasks done by volunteers lack in one way or another, but this project was an incredible way to help the community.  After two weeks of building in May, the playground was finished!  Here are some pictures we snapped today.

  Here’s near the entrance – the “Tot Lot” is in the background. 

Notice the business names on the middle picture – they are real Lynden businesses.  Edaleen Dairy has the best soft serve ice cream, and it’s about 50 cents for a cone!

Apart from the Tot Lot, there’s another fenced in section for the bigger kids.  Peyton and I are near the top, where a treehouse and a swirly slide stand at the top of the hill. 

The handprints were done at some of the local elementary schools, so we look to see who we know.  When Peyton came with Miss Jenn and Jorren and Caden and Dylan, they found “Jorren B.”s handprint, so whenever Peyton and I go together, he shows Jorren’s print to me.  In addition to the kids’ prints, however, there are also some famous prints.  Do you see any in the picture above, taken inside the treehouse?

Peyton doesn’t like the huge swirly slide (it’s pitch black in the middle!), so he plays on the other two slides.

After our bike ride, I snapped a few pics of the front yard, since everything is bloomin’ beautiful.

Unrelated except that both have interested me on the same day.

Here are some pictures from City Park – unfortunately, I haven’t taken my camera there since completion, but here’s one of the creek and the trees next to the now-fenced-in playground.  I’ll try to get some pics this week of the new playground that our community built.

On another note, all of the hard work and money and time that I put into my CA state teaching credential is completely 100% worthless when switching to a WA certificate.  I have to start at the very beginning, along with those who haven’t spent thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours in class or on homework.  I’m really bitter about it.  But not bitter enough to move back to CA

I started walking again.  When I was pregnant with Peyton in ‘03-’04, I walked religiously, though I varied when I walked because I had an open schedule.  After Peyton was born I plugged his carseat into the stroller and we walked together until I was back to pre-pregnancy weight, but after that I walked on and off whenever it was convenient.  I started teaching full-time when Peyton was 8 months, plus I was taking classes for my all important California teaching credential (grrr – see next post!), so I was too tired most of the time for any regular exercise.

But I started walking again.  I walked almost daily while we were pregnant until we lost the baby, and then I gave up again.  I did want to walk, but I didn’t want to have to get up early.  After school every day I’d beg Peyton to ride in his stroller while I walk, but most days he declines – I guess three year olds are too cool for that.  Then I tried to bribe him – he could ride in the bike trailer and we could bike 20 minutes down a trail to super-cool City Park (sorry – when I upload our pictures, I’ll post them, but for now the blueprint will have to work), then he could play before we trek back.  He only took the bait once.

So I started walking again.  It SO works for me.  I feel more awake and energized throughout the day, plus I drink more water, which is also a good thing.  Plus the routine of walking, eating breakfast and having a cup of coffee while I read the day’s selection of the One Year Bible makes me feel like I’ve actually accomplished something really important, and the day hasn’t even started yet!  It’s gorgeous in the morning here in Washington, and I loved the smell of morning and trees and brisk air.  Walking in the evening is sometimes tempting, though – then I’d have the energy to do some grading before bed when I’d rather veg in front of the TV after Peyton’s tucked in.  Walking works for me!

I KNEW it.  I KNEW that the moment I blogged on his potty-training success he’d have another accident.  And, as usual, I was right.

3 am.  My bedroom.  Peyton’s door squeaks open, pitter-patter down the hall, breathing on James’ side of the bed near the door.  I feign sleep, waiting for the Breather to make the next move.  He doesn’t, so I roll over and look at him.  “Mommy, I sorry…I wet!” 

Poor little guy – he felt so bad!  “I forgot to wake up and go potty…I sorry, Momma!”  He was so sad, not to mention wet and cold.  Poor guy…I should have held off on blogging about his success until the weather was warm enough to enjoy a cold bed…ew!

Potty training is completely done now.  Last summer it began with Potty Training in Less Than a Day, which worked perfectly.  He had step one done, within a few days step two was also mastered.  We left it at that for a while, considering the day-time training taken care of.  During the night he still wore pull-ups, up until several weeks ago.  His pull-ups were almost always dry in the mornings, and I was tired of paying for disposable underwear, so we quit. 

He had a couple accidents.  One night I was so asleep when he came to me wet that I told him to take off his wet clothes, get his own underwear (pitter-patter down the hallway…dresser drawer opens…pitter-patter back), I changed him, then I told him to go back to his own bed.  He said he didn’t want to, so I told him I’d tuck him in and hoped he’d take the bait.  I followed him down the hall, running into walls along the way because I was still in sleep mode.  He climbed into his bed but scrunched himself against the wall with a frustrated and confused whimper.  I still didn’t understand until I grabbed his disgusting wet covers.  Hello!  He wet the bed!

I knew we were finished with training when a week or two later I heard him open his door.  I saw the bathroom light flick on.  I heard the toilet seat slam.  Then I didn’t hear anything.  After a few minutes I went to check on him – I thought he was playing in the bathroom.  The light was out and he had tucked himself back in bed without help.  Without help!

And that was it.  As long as we make sure he doesn’t drink too much after dinner and he uses the bathroom before bed, he stays dry. 

And we save a small fortune in pull-ups money!

When it rains, it pours?  Not in Lynden.  Bill Sybesma used to say “when it rains in Lynden, you don’t get wet.” 

Seldom does it really rain.  It’s really raining right now.  I suppose we deserve it – it hasn’t rained since April.

Though it seldom really rains, it seems that figuratively the saying is more than true, especially right now.  Grading is mostly finished (except 60 quizzes I just collected), and there are few days left in the year that need planning.  JSB has been over since several weeks ago; NHS is over half-way done, since we spent most of today in Vancouver, BC at the Pacific Theatre and Earl’s Diner on our fine arts outing.  Thursday’s Awards Ceremony marks the end of this year’s NHS work.

Other than all the minor things going on, not much seems to be happening, hence the irregular updating of this blog.  Sorry?

James and I took Sheri and Steven out to the Angels game against the Mariners at Safeco Field in Seattle.  Go Angels!  We bought the tickets from a season ticket holder, but we wondered later if she ever attends any games, or if she just sells them off for her own safety – each seat was backed with a disclaimer: “Keep alert for bats and balls leaving the field.”

A couple from our small group had offered to watch Peyton, so Peyton went to Owen’s house to play.  We knew he would have a blast – Jeannie told us to send old clothes and boots so he could play in the mud while she worked on the irrigation system they’re putting in. 

James, Sheri, Steven and I sat through batting practice and pre-game warm-ups, we ate Major League Mariners dogs and nachos and pizza and crackerjacks.  The Angels won.  James and I enjoyed cheering for the Angels while Sheri and Steven wept over the Mariners and their inability to get a single runner in. 

We left in the bottom of the 7th for the two hour drive home; after dropping Steven and Sheri off by their car at the LC parking lot, we stopped by to pick up Peyton.  Jeannie said he was so sweet, and the boys loved playing together.  Peyton woke up on the way out the door and he said he had fun, and he loved playing in the mud, and he was a hard worker, and he wants to go play again at Owen’s house while Mommy and Daddy “play baseball.”

Yesterday our small group got together to build a giant lollipop for VBS.  While the Dads sawed and drilled and painted, and the boys (all 5 of them, plus one 10 month old girl) played in the sandbox and chased eachother around the grass and rolled their cars and dumptrucks contentendly, the Moms enjoyed one long coffee break.  Amazingly, Peyton rarely came in to check on me, he was so content to play with the other boys, all his age.  Until he fell off his little bike (or something?) and scraped his knees a bit.  Just add it to his list of wounds.