All Things Supercinski

Josiah had a pirate party last weekend in honor of his fourth birthday. We originally planned to have his three sets of grandparents present for a small and simply family party, with lots of fun games. Two sets of grandparents were unable to come at the last minute, so we invited our homeschooling buddy. It was such a fun day!

Our little pirate:

Our big pirate:

Yes, Thomas dressed up as a pirate. It was hilarious, and thankfully none of the kids were afraid of him. He borrowed the costume from a coworker.

Josiah and his pal had a lot of fun with the games. We had a bean bag toss into a treasure chest, pin the flag on the X of the treasure map, a coin hunt (coins hidden all around the room, the kids hunted them, this was great for Annalise and her little pal), walking the plank (pictures below) and a treasure hunt. For the treasure hunt, I gave them a clue which led them to their next clue and so forth until they found the treasure. For example, “Even pirates have to eat. Look for your next clue in a place where your family keeps food.” It was taped inside the refrigerator. Their treasure was a chest full of party favors. Here is Josiah walking the plank:

I had too much fun burning the edges of this paper greeting:

The birthday boy with his pirate ship cake.

And another shot of the cake. It was much easier than I expected.

It was so fun! I’m glad we are still keeping the parties simple–I’m not ready to entertain masses of kids yet. Just keeping these two in line was hard enough. :) They are sword-fighting here:

Josiah,
It is hard to believe that you are four years old. You continue to amaze me with the new things you learn, your independence, and your love for others. Your laughter electrifies a room and brings smiles and laughter to all of us. You have such a sense of humor and love to tell us jokes, sing silly songs, and do just about anything for a laugh. You bring us such joy, Josiah.

You have become so brave over the past year. No longer the cautious and shy toddler, you are now a fearless little boy–ready to talk anyone’s ear off, climb on anything and then jump off of it. You love to talk with me and hear stories. You amaze me with your memory. You seem to remember everything from the plot of all of the Happy Hollisters novels you have listened to us read you to the time you threw up on your pillow at Grandpa and Grandma Mary’s house when you were two. This baffles me and makes me realize how important my job is.

You love your sister and play with her so sweetly sometimes. She adores you and wants to be just like you.

You are sensitive and compassionate–aware of others’ emotions and feelings with some strong feelings of your own. Your creativity and love for making things amazes me. I love to see the things your little brain and hands make!

You have gotten so tall lately–I have a hard time seeing the chubby little baby you once were in the midst of these long legs and arms. I keep telling you to stop growing, to which you reply, “but God is making me grow so big!” You are right, and God has certainly given me a wonderful gift in you. I pray that we raise you to love Him with all of your heart, soul, and strength, like your namesake.

I love you, Sweet Boy!
Momma

A few tidbits of hilarity from our oldest child as we near his fourth birthday.

After coming home following one of my Bradley classes, Josiah wanted to hear all about what we did while he was gone.
Josiah: Did you have fun with your teacher friends? (students)
Me: Yes.
Josiah: What did you do? Some wrestling? Tackling?
Me: (Speechless for a moment…) Um, no… we sat and talked about taking care of new babies.
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At Christmas, we spent some time discussing showing thankfulness to people who give you a gift, no matter what you think of it, even if it is clothes. I noticed that the lesson seemed to stick when we heard Josiah say, as he opened a shirt from one of his grandmothers, “Wow! This is just what I wanted!”
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Josiah loves playing with his Lightning McQueen cars, and recently got The King, whom he refers to as McKing. Get it, McQueen, McKing…
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Speaking of cars, we were recently driving and came upon a school zone. I slowed down for the school zone and then even more for some children crossing the street. From the backseat, Josiah asks, “What happened? Did you run out of gas?”
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Josiah loves to create things and seems to enjoy more mediums than mere crayons, paints and paper. The latest craze has been scotch tape, which he uses to make all kinds of interesting projects. Here is an example of one I found on the arms of our desk chair, making it into a rocket ship chair complete with buttons on the top. I have no idea what purpose the little man or golf ball serve, but it was a hilarious sight.

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While walking through the house wearing my running shoes, I heard Josiah say, “Whew! I’m running a half marathon!”
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We were running some errands as a family, and let Thomas out (in the rain) to run into the store to return something.
Josiah: Can I go in there and help Daddy?
Me: No, Josiah. It is raining and he is already in the store.
Josiah: Aw, give me a chance! Come on!

I often wonder how many books I read in a year. I read a lot last year, but our “now reading” part of our blog wasn’t working and I forgot to tell my webmaster for many months. So, I am going to attempt a monthly book review, or at least list of completed books for that month, mostly out of curiosity of how many books I read in a year. One of my goals for this new year is to manage my time better and read more, let’s see how long it lasts.

Breastfeeding and Human Lactation by Jan Riordan - I plowed through this 850+ page textbook in a mere six weeks. I fell asleep many nights with that book in my lap, but I learned so much. I am pursuing certification as a lactation educator, and this was required reading.

The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning by Kathleen Huggins and Linda Ziedrich - another lactation educator book and one that I was interested in reading to gain some encouragement in nursing a toddler, not because I am interested in weaning anytime soon, but for ideas when the time comes. This book met those goals, and could be a good resource to a mother considering weaning at any point in her nursing relationship. I really enjoyed their insight into why Western countries nurse their babies for such a short time compared to the rest of the world. From the authors:

Americans tend to fear their children’s dependence… the same fear provokes questions and warnings from well-meaning people about the wisdom of long breastfeeding, and drives many women to wean before they are ready. We should remind ourselves that American individualism, in many of its forms, is not born of confidence and trust, but of alienation. As Elizabeth Hormann (1982) points out, ‘We are bent on weakening bonds in the name of growth and independence, then spend our adulthoods wondering why we have trouble getting close to other people.’”

Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna
I read half of this book earlier in the fall and finally finished it this month. I found this book to be very interesting, but I read it through the lens of knowing the authors’ agenda–the house church movement. Basically the authors are making three points: 1) A great deal of what we do in church today does not come from the New Testament. 2) Much of what is practiced originated out of Greco-Roman customs and traditions (paganism, not Judaism), and/or human-made inventions. 3) Many of these practices actually hinder the church from being what God designed her to be. The over-arching question the authors seem to be asking is: Do the practices of modern institutional churches reflect a God-ordained/inspired development, or are they a departure from it?

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
This was my mom’s group February book. It was entertaining, but I’m not sure if I would recommend it. It only took two days to read it, and I just realized this was made into a movie to be released soon… hmmm… it was okay but I’m not sure I want to see a movie about it.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett — I loved this book and could not put it down. I was so sad when it ended as it was one of those books where you feel like you know the characters so well. Based in Jackson Mississippi during the early 1960s, this book is about three main characters–two black maids (”the help”) and a young white woman recently graduated from college who sets out to write the stories of black maids working in white homes during the turbulent beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. It was thought-provoking and very well-written. I highly recommend it.

January total = 5 (not counting the four Happy Hollister books I read aloud to Josiah… please, let us move on from Happy Hollisters soon, son!)

Our sweet girl is growing so fast. She is very social and talking up a storm these days. I attempted to catalog all of her words the other day, but I gave up, there were too many. Some of her funniest words involve emotions. Every so often, she will scream out “Appy!!!! Appy!!!!” and squeal. She knows happy. She also learned “scared” well this month. When Daddy gets home, they play a variation of hide-and-go-seek that is more like Daddy-go-hide-and-jump-out-and-scare-the-kids-to-death. Now, Annalise lets me know when she is “scared” (with a ‘w’ instead of an ‘r’) often. Things that scare Annalise are dogs, cats, garbage trucks, loud trucks going down our street, the heater turning on, and dogs again. It is precious that when she hears these things, she yells, “Scawed!” and comes and runs into my arms. She also learned “shy” and will say it while pretending to hide her head when strangers talk to her… sometimes. She loves attention, so it seems she is just practicing her emotions.

Some of her favorite things continue to be digging in dirt or sand, swinging, playing outside, coloring, reading books, dressing up, Baby Love, babies, other kids, tea parties, Josiah, Mommy and Daddy. She carries Baby Love (”Baby La”) everywhere she goes. It is the first thing she asks for when she wakes up and the last thing she puts down before bed.

She and Josiah have been playing together more and more. I love this picture, though the quality is horrible–I took it from the kitchen across the living room. Josiah was reading books to her one night while I got dinner ready. They read several books together and laughed and talked. When Josiah is upset, Annalise is the first one to give him a hug, pat his back say, “Sowwy… okay…. awww…”

She has also mastered taking off her shirts (no matter if they are snapped on the bottom) and socks. Thankfully, the pants and diaper tend to stay in place! She is very interested in all things potty and tells me if she is dirty and sometimes if she is peeing. I’m not ready to start potty training, nor do I think that she is, but it’s nice that she is showing interest.

She loved getting a flower from Daddy one day. Now, if she sees a flower, she says her word for flower and “tank too Daddy.”

We eat a lot of yogurt and granola around here. I perfected my yogurt-making skills (seriously–the huge thermos makes it such a breeze!) and have delved into the world of granola. I tend to prefer expensive granola and can run through a $5 box in a few days. For snacks. Anyway, I tried a bunch of different recipes and never really liked any of them… until now. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I’ve made at least a batch a week. It is a little expensive to make with all the maple syrup in it, but you can get maple syrup for at Sam’s at a huge savings compared to the grocery store. I’m talking pure maple syrup here, not that HFCS flavored with artificial maple flavoring junk they pass off as food. This is my modification of this original recipe.

Granola
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut (not the sweetened kind)
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted on the stove
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix oats, almonds, shredded coconut, brown sugar and salt in a large bowl. Combine melted coconut oil and maple syrup and pour over dry ingredients. Stir to mix. Pour onto a large, rimmed baking sheet. (I don’t worry about using two sheets, it’s okay if it is not all in a single layer.) Bake 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. If you follow the original recipe’s baking time, you will end up with a nasty burnt mess.

This is great with milk or yogurt, fruit or by itself. Enjoy!

Since Annalise was a few months old and wanting to be upright at all times, I have always held her that way. However, she still lets Thomas hold her like a baby. He says, “Can you be my baby, Annalise?” and then cradles her and walks around talking to her about her day. It is so precious. She babbles to him and answers his questions with rapt attention and sweet little grunts and words. They do this almost every night. I finally got a few pictures of it. And this was just some snuggling and reading time the other night.

Can you tell? Did the cookie residue around her mouth give it away? Or was it the balloons?

I saw this on my friend, Megan’s, blog, and I thought it was so interesting that I had to do it myself. Our blog tends to be a little kid-focused these days, so perhaps this will give some of you a bit more information about me than you ever wanted to know.

2000
Celebrated Y2K asleep in a recliner at my best friends’ house on my first outing after back surgery.
Spent about four months in a fog recovering from said surgery.
Started my freshman year at Texas A&M University, majoring in education, thinking I was going to be a math teacher or go to nursing school.

2001
Spent spring break in London.
Decided teaching wasn’t really what I was supposed to do, changed my major to community health intending to go to nursing school someday.
Spent eight weeks in Nepal that summer. Got worms, made some great friends, experienced an earthquake and was robbed at gunpoint by Maoist rebels who stole all our stuff and attempted to burn down the house I was staying in. It was a life-changing summer, if you couldn’t tell by my brief description.

2002
Junior year of college, got really involved in the college ministry at our church, met Thomas and made more wonderful friends.
Applied to a bunch of nursing schools to transfer to a BSN program. Didn’t get into a single one though my grades were really good. God firmly closed that door, though it was shocking to me at the time.

2003
Lived with a wonderful family who taught me a ton about marriage and family.
Thomas and I started dating in November.

2004
Internship at Hope Pregnancy Center the semester before graduation.
Thomas and I got engaged in August.
Graduated in December.

2005

Thomas and I were married on January 8th. Had an awesome two-week honeymoon in Paris.

Found out we were pregnant in early May.
Bought a house in September.

2006

Josiah was born in February.
Made some great mom friends who helped in the transition to motherhood.

2007

Lived it up with one kids and lots of fun friends (that picture is horrible, but one of the few I have of most everyone.)
Started training to become a Bradley Method childbirth instructor.
Found out I was pregnant with Annalise in October.

2008

Annalise Claire was born in May.

Became fully certified as a Bradley instructor.

2009

Enjoying life with two beautiful kids and a wonderful husband.

We have been traveling a lot this month (one more trip to go tomorrow), and we have had a great time with family and friends. We have enjoyed visits with friends from far away…

and farther still (and Elizabeth didn’t drop them!)

We reflected on our Savior’s birth and the events leading to his coming. The Jesse Tree was a hit and will be carried on next year.

We have been busy baking and making…

and taking time to sip some tea.

Speaking of tea, I must show off my mom and Woody’s amazing craftiness. Isn’t this table the cutest?!