Milestone and Scavenger Hunt

Okay, to some this is no biggy, but to me it is! In a way it makes life easier! In another it tells me that my little guy is doing SOMETHING developmentally better than he was just a few days ago even! That makes me feel good because lately I have been concerned that he has no desire to crawl despite being able to get his knees under him. I know he will do it in his own time, but that is just where we are at!!! So on to the milestone for today! VERY early on, Jesstine was able to drink from a straw. This, to me, was great because I had heard that it is actually better to transition kids to straws rather than sippy cups because of speech development. It seemed to work for Jesstine (a 100 word vocabulary at 18 months!!!). So, I introduced water to Emmitt (and Jesstine for that matter) as soon as he was eating some solids. I did the same to Jesstine, but she NEVER cared for the sippy cup and I tried every one under the sun! Eventuly I started giving her little bits of water from my straw when we would go out to eat (by placing it in the water, covering the top hole and dropping it in her mouth). Soon she caught on that she could control the amount if she sucked it out herself. The rest as they say is history. I have been REALLY hoping to get to that point with Emmitt because he LOVES to drink water when he eats. He even likes it in an open cup...a mess, I know! So periodically I would give him sips from my straw much like I described above. Today we were eating donuts for breakfast and he put his lips around the straw (his mind you, not mine, I gave him his OWN water because he is MESSY) and sucked the water out before I could get my finger off the top hole! I was astounded. He only did it once though, so I was really sure it was a fluke. Later when I was feeding him his dinner, I had one of my sturdy straws in a double walled cup. I thought this might be better to attempt because I could keep him from sucking the straw down his throat and it wasn't a thin plastic that could hurt his mouth as badly. I gave it a try and he did it SEVERAL times! He is still learning the control part, but he actually sucked water down! I am so proud of him! See for yourself:

In other news, we are soon headed out for a family vacation. A while back, I picked up a wooden Melissa & Doug "Memory" game at a garage sale for $2. It reminded me a lot of the car ride bingo games I used as a kid. This was of course before DVD players in vehicles. Jesstine has a bad habit of begging for a video as soon as we are backing down the driveway because she is aware that if we are going on a long trip, she gets to watch a movie. Well, Stephen and I have often mentioned how we made up things to do in the car growing up. So, I thought it would be cool to turn this "Memory" game into a scavenger hunt that would force Jesstine to notice things around her. I scanned in one of the cards and did a google image search for certain pictures of things I knew she would recognize and see out her window. To test out her ability to do it, I simply opened all of the windows on the vehicle page (and later the color page) and had her try and find two of every vehicle. It took a little while, but eventually she was able to do it and even enjoyed it! The rule is that SHE has to actually see it! I can point it out to her, but she has to actually see it to cover the picture up. So pretty soon, she will get to try out the one I made. Here is the finished product (memory game on the left and scavenger hunt on the right):

Oh and I must mention that before I saw this at a garage sale, I saw THIS post on a blog I follow that had some travel bingo games by Melissa & Doug.

Hopefully you will hear about it when I post about our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Pieces of Us

Do you ever have those moments when you see yourself in your children? Sometimes it is the endearing qualities. Other times....not so much. Today was one of those days for me. Let me set the scene:

Emmitt was due to wake up from his nap (he slept SUPER well today which he gets from Me Hehe) and Jesstine was eating her lunch. I fed her a bit earlier than usual because we had some grocery shopping to do as we will be leaving for our much anticipated trip to the Great Wolf Lodge soon. We shop at Target. At our Target, if you go to the bakery area and ask nicely, they have free cookies that they handout. I don't know how we discovered this, but you guessed it....Jesstine asks EVERY time! So today, I told her she had to eat a good lunch to get to ask for a cookie. (Great parenting move, I know!) We got some shopping done on the other side of the store first and then made our way to the food area. I always start at the produce and work my way to the dairy. It just is easiest for me. First stop was the deli (in the produce section) which is ALSO next to the bakery. There was no one in sight. I had just finished telling her that we may have to shop a little and then come back. She was on the verge of breaking down at that point because she was REALLY wanting that cookie. A lady walked by and overheard me. As she pretended to walk away she said, "We are all out of cookies and I am headed home!"......Jesstine IMMEDIATELY buried her face in her hands and began sobbing, real, big tears!! The woman panicked! I could see that she was joking, but Jesstine was either so focused on the cookie or didn't see her as she smiled....therefore she took it seriously! Needless to say, the woman felt TERRIBLE!! She not only got Jesstine a cookie right away, but she gave her TWO because she had been so "mean." We saw her a little while later and Jesstine gave her a funny look. The woman said, "No one here EVER takes me seriously...I never would have imagined that I would make a little girl cry like that! I have been doing this for years and have not ever had that happen!" I reassured her that Jesstine was just needing a nap (which was kinda true). We went about our business.

At that moment that Jesstine started crying, I saw myself in her! I was VERY sensitive like this as a child and I don't think I could sense sarcasm in words very well. If I did, I didn't know it! I was relaying this story to Stephen later and he could recall a story of himself at an even older age doing the same thing. I guess a part of that is just in all of us as kids, but still I have to wonder what part of it is being a kid or being a kid of one's parents!

I am so blessed to get to spend this time with my children! It is beyond what I ever imagined! I love seeing them grow and learn new things each day! I especially love seeing bits and pieces of their daddy and mommy in them; even the bad! I am sure we have years to come with this! Emmitt has been something to behold of late with his teeth giving him fits!

Until next time!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Moon Sand, Organization and Cousin Camp Part 2

WARNING!!! This is going to be a picture heavy post!

You may remember me posting a picture a post or two ago with a bag of flour and bottle of baby oil. I never got around to posting what the results of it were. Partially because it wasn't as big of a hit as I had hoped and partially because we got so busy with the latter part of this post, Cousin Camp! Here is the result of flour and baby oil:

Moonsand (Kinda like moon dough in the stores only....not. Got the idea HERE!)

It was a hit for Jesstine (for the little bit of time she spent with it), but she quickly started to shovel it out of the tub and made a mess. It got put away and came back out a day later only to be put away again because I didn't want a mess while we had Cousin Camp. This is a messy tub. It isn't the easiest to clean up, but Jesstine enjoyed it!

I also did this. What is it? Two different colors of paint in a plastic bag. She mixed them up to find what color they were and then she drew letters in the paint (with the bag closed of course). I found the idea HERE, but can't find the exact post....

The idea from the next thing came out of my frustration of teaching a 3 3/4 year-old to put toys away so I don't have to and seeing it at playgroup. Do you ever go to someone else's house and you don't know where to find a glass to get a glass of water? Imagine being a kid and going to someone else's house and being asked to put toys back where they go! So, I came up with this:

 I basically placed pictures of the item where it goes...

 Some included pictures of what items go in a larger item.

Some had a description since there were too many items to take a picture of or name. I completed it JUST in time for the cousins to come. I am thankful I did, because it made cleaning up SO much easier each night! We got into a routine where we would clean up the toys before showers and bed!

Now rolling into Cousin Camp:

 This car was temporarily moved upstairs in an attempt to re secure the key that had been broken off. Emmitt found it to be rather amusing!

 Grandma Griffee took the big kids shopping for their birthdays and picked up a few items for the little girls as well! They each got a water bottle with their initial on it. Lexi chose a Repunzal doll and pom poms. Charis got a new pair of knock off Toms and a furry talking friend. Jesstine got a pair of shoes and a furry talking friend as well!

 Emmitt was pretty happy most of the time. These two really hit it off and Emmitt probably kept Conrad from being OVERLY bored!

 Conrad got a haul of matchbox cars from Grandma Griffee!

 Of course Lexi had to get pictures holding Emmitt too!

This concludes our final portion of Cousin Camp...They left this morning. The littles are in bed so I think I may take this opportunity to get some shut eye as well!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Cousin Week

At the beginning of June, my nephew, Conrad, was headed to church camp for a week. As a special treat his two sisters were going to have camp Aunt Lacie/Grandma. Well, my mom had spent too much time off taking my younger sister back to North Carolina and seeing my brother in Louisiana before he heads to Afghanistan to accommodate that plan. It happened to also be the week that my in-loves were visiting AND we were getting our roof replaced. I agreed to have the kids come to my house if it was any day, but Monday and Tuesday. Turns out those were the days she needed me to let the girls come play. Needless to say, I offered to reschedule. SO this week is what we rescheduled to and my nephew got to join us as well! It has been a busy, but mostly good last few days. I will admit, it has been stressful and it quickly became apparent why I am a mom of two children and not 5! Also, it has been SUPER hot here, so it has been a challenge to keep 5 kids 8 and under occupied without over heating or making things more stressful than they need to be!

 Emmitt has thoroughly enjoyed the extra attention from all of his cousins and LOVES playing footsy with his friend and only fellow BOY (not including Daddy) in a house FULL of girls!

We had a great treat of Otter Pops after dinner Monday night.

Followed by a couple of trips through the sprinklers:

 Today, the older kids went to spend some time with their other cousins in town. The little girls stayed with Emmitt and I. Our friend Kara came over and we went to the mall on the east side of town because it was SO hot our original plan to go to the splash pad was foiled because we didn't want Emmitt to be out in the heat. We had to do SOMETHING fun for the girls though! So we took them to play! After that they took naps. Then we headed to Walmart so I could get a new bathing suit for our upcoming trip to Great Wolf Lodge. These two were jewels all day! At one point I looked back and saw this! It was so cute! All day people were making comments about how theses "sisters" looked like such good friends! I informed them that they were identical cousins! See:

Tomorrow my mom is taking my sister's kids for the morning, but they will return after lunch in time to take naps and chill before it is time to go to church.

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Father's Day and SO Much More!!!

Sunday was Father's day and I think Daddy liked his gift. He especially liked his big girl helping him put the puzzle together!

The rest of this post is pictures to show what all we have been doing this week:

 "SUPER BABY!" (Bib is backwards)

 What do you get when you cross an ice tray of water, toothpicks, food coloring, white crayon and cardstock?

 A new way to paint!

 Write a secret message and.....

 paint!!!!

 Finished product.

 Emmitt got some new kicks in the mail.

 Sweet potato face!

 Sweet sibling bathtime!

 Where's Jesstine!

 Peek-a-boo!!!

FINALLY felt like Jesstine was old enough to be responsible with this, so I finally added it to her room!

Found a Johnny Jump Up (or whatever the Graco version is) at a garage sale. I think he likes it (see below)!!!

And stay tuned to see:

 What you can do with a bag of flour and most of a bottle of baby oil.

And I am trying to teach Jesstine to be more responsible in picking her toys up and putting things away (after this week when I asked her too and asked Daddy to supervise only to find out that she shoved it all in her closet in a big mess). I remember seeing this at playgroup and I am going to give it a try....stay tuned to see what exactly THIS is!

As Tigger says, TTFN (TahTah For Now),

The Hutchins Family

Homemade Father's Day!

It is Father's Day. I wanted to do something different this year than I did last year. I made everything by hand and had the kids' (well, Jesstine's anyhow) input. Last year I had cards made for my Handsome Husband (HH), his dad and my step dad. I didn't even get a card this year. I put two ideas together. The first was a puzzle of the kids' picture! I got the idea from my friend Kaylee, HERE!

 First I printed one of my favorite pictures of the kids at Walmart as an 8x10.

I had some poster board leftover from Jesstine's summer bucket list.

I used rubber ceament to past the picture to the poster board. (In hindsight, I may have tried a different method. I am not sure what, but this proved to not work so well when I cut the pieces out later.)

 For good measure, I sprayed it with this stuff. I remember my high school art teacher spraying everything with this stuff to protect it. I got some when I was redoing Jesstine's name sign for her bedroom.

After it was dry, I drew puzzle pieces on the back. I used a ruler as a straight edge to evenly space them (the spacing was mostly by eyeball). Then I used a puzzle piece to draw the round parts randomly. Afterward, I cut it out (and here is where I had to reglue several pieces that were coming apart).

After that, I created a label on my computer. I used publisher, but you could use just about anything.

Here is the finished product! The hearts next to it are interviews that I did with the kids (I interviewed Jesstine, but made up the ones for Emmitt). I got the idea for the interview on Pinterest from THIS website. I remember folding these hearts in HS to pass notes to friends. Decided to fold them like that and put them in the jar with the puzzle pieces.

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy I have ever known! You aren't my daddy, but I prayed for you for so long! You are the perfect daddy for my children and they know you love them! It is obvious by the look on your son's face when he sees you and the squeals of delight from your daughter as she watches you "SPUDOW" on the XBox! :-)

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Check on the Bucket List

Well, this week we are able to put another check mark on the bucket list. Jesstine has been attending a VBS that is being held at the church where her school is located. They post pictures of all of the daily activities on a VBS blog. Yesterday, I was excited to see...there were some close ups of HER!!!! Here they are:

Also, Jesstine has really been using her imagination. She has been calling me "Shower" lately. I guess she thinks that we are the "Bathroom Family." Jesstine is "Sink" making Dumpty "Faucet" of course. Emmitt is "Bathtub." I am "Shower" and that makes Daddy....yup, you guessed it, "Toilet." Hmmm....perhaps we can call him "Door" instead!

In Him,

The Bathroom er...Hutchins Family

7 Months

Yup, it is that time again. Yup, you read it right. Emmitt Boyd is 7 months old TODAY!!! My how time flies!! He is such a joy! We were right to dub him, "Joy Boy Jr." We have reached that point where we are LUCKY to get a good chair picture because he moves so much. After our experience at the Y, I am not really keen on leaving him there by himself for very long before I have to put a hand on him to make sure he won't lunge out of the chair. So this is the first month post to feature some bloopers!

Emmitt, at 7 months, not much has changed since 6 months. You are eating 4-5 bottles a day, 7-8 ounces each about every . You have tried squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, pears, peaches, peas, apple sauce and bananas. The only thing you didn't care for was peas. You also have taken to Baby Mumm Mumms and puffs. That gives us a little bit of a break while we eat because you like to eat when we do.

You are still in size 4 diapers and we have had to by overnight diapers and you still leak out of them! Not sure what that is about! You are half and half when it comes to clothing sizes. Half of your clothes are 6-9 month and the other half are 9-12 month. You are pretty much a size 3.5 or 4 in shoes, but you won't keep them on! You are sitting quite well, but still fall over after a little while. No crawling yet, but you kind of army crawl and you roll EVERYWHERE!! You do get up on your side though and cross your ankles, while propping yourself up on your elbow.

(He can prop himself up higher than this, this was just the best picture I could find to illustrate it.)

You still have NO teeth! You are teething pretty badly though and have two swollen spots on your lower gums. One tooth has been trying to come in since you were 4 months old, but it keeps ducking back under the gums! As a result, your sleep pattern has been thrown off. Despite all of my efforts to get you to sleep during the day, it is still hit or miss. It stems from the fact that Jesstine is doing SO much right now that I am always here or there trying to get her to where she needs to go! At night, you still MOSTLY sleep like a champ!

Favorites: Mommy is your favorite person although you give great smiles to Daddy and giggle at Jesstine quite often. You don't really have a favorite sleeping buddy/blanket. I have found you latched onto a different toy/blanket each time I put you into bed. Mr. Dumpty is still in your bed and you like him almost as much as you like your lovies.

So, now to the 7 month pictures as well as the blooper photos!

And the monthly chair pictures which are nearly bloopers anyway:

In Him,

The Hutchins Family