Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

The other day I was cruising around facebook and noticed that other 3.5 yr olds or younger knew how to write their names. As a typical parent, I went "oh god, Charlie hasn't the slightest clue." Well, true, he has no clue how to write his name, he can spell it out loud when prompted by letters and knows that the organization of those letters spell his name. But hold a pencil, ha, use a scissors, double ha, hold up two fingers or three for either the peace sign or numbers, triple ha.  So, I kinda freaked out, well, not really, but I got very concerned. Should he be cutting, should he be able to hold up fingers, should he be able to write his name? Truthfully, I did not know. I talked to Charlie's speech therapist and she just gave me a few special scissors to get him interested and did not seem overly concerned. Neither did his preschool teacher. Apparently, none of this things are required until right before kindergarten.  I stopped freaking out. But, I did not and wi...

This last month, I feel many people I know have become ill with serious ailments. Not the typical, run of the mill flus, etc...but tumors, cancers, etc.. How sad this makes me. This people are not 80, they are, in fact, in their 30's and one in Charlle's preschool class. The first is my friend Ann's brother who has been struggling with Leukemia for awhile now. He just finished med school, got married, etc..now fighting. Prayers for this awesome man! The second is my cousins' kid, Alison who discovered a brain tumor in Dec. She starts radiation soon for a stage 2 brain tumor. She also faces many battles with her son Owen who has epilepsy. Prayers all around for that family! And lastly, Charlie has a classmate, Blake, who was just diagnosed with Burkitts Lymphoma cancer. So prayers to this family as they deal with chemo and a little person who will need tons of love! I wonder what causes this in young people. I wonder what is in our environment that we do not know, I wond...

Here are some pictures for the grandparents out there! And others who follow this blog. We have been spending a lot of time inside these past few weeks. Below zero temps, bad wind chills, or snow screwing up the roads have made for a long winter already. We spend many days jumping from the couch into the pile and playing in the "pile" together. Charlie is fairly aware of his sister and jumps around her and "plays" with her quite well. She loves to be interacted with, especially by Charlie. Some of their best playing comes when I go to the piano and practice, they bum around and play together. I just look over my shoulder to make sure no major accidents are about to occur. This is a old camera. Ours busted with a bad blotch on the screen. I am not a fan of it, but it will do now until we save up for a new one. I am a crappy photographer, I fully admit it. But, enjoy anyhow. Charlie jumping from couch onto pile.  Wrestling and playing in pile.  ...

This year can be summed up in one word: CHANGE Moving to a new house, a new community, starting preschool, all the changes that a newborn goes through, new job for Adam, new job for Nicki, new church, hopefully new friends (and some old as well!). All of it has been for the better, not necessarily easier, but for the better. Here are some of my bucket list items for 2014: --Go and visit Bob and Gene in Oregon (without the kids). --Create learning items for Charlie to improve his fine motor and speech skills (a post on this later). --Teach Charlie how to ride bike with pedals (he is great with balance on 2 wheels). --Start road biking again (maybe once a month??) --Convince husband that a 3rd child would not be a bad idea! (hehe) --Read lots and lots and even more books to my kids. --Maybe run a mile? or two? --We already eat very healthy, but growing a garden of our own is on the TOP of the list! --Create and try new recipes and plan out meals in advance so I am not scr...

Pretty much sums up our attempt at photos for Carrie! She is not a fan of the camera!

SCharlie has been working and playing insanely hard with his Colors and Shaping game which he calls his "Shaping" game. The idea of the game it to roll two dice and find the piece in the box that matches and place it on a place card. So you roll red rectangle and place it on your card. Everyone who watches Charlie has had to play this game. I play this game about 14 times a day so that my enthusiasm is lacking now. But, he is really good. He knows exactly what he needs to get to win and exactly what you need to get to win, which is good, because I am often playing while eating, cleaning, or other multi-tasking activity. This was my game as a child, however, I do not think I had nearly this obsession as it was in pristine condition still!! Here is a picture of his playing... Since he is obsessed with this game now, I decided to put the teacher in me to some use. So I created using the pieces from this game to learn patterns. He is now putting patterns together in a s...

Christmas was a nice time. We went to West Bend, helped host Christmas Eve at Barb and Cliff's house. The Ciriacks and Elaine and Rhode joined us as well. We had Lasagna and more. We also sang a stirring rendition of the "12 Cats of Christmas" for Charlie as a big family. He loved it. Charlie also set out cookies and carrots and milk by the fireplace for Santa. We then played Telestrations as a big group. That was a blast! More specifically, it was a ball to see Cliff and Rhode on a team. They were affectionately called the "dynamic duo." They reminded us of the old men from the Muppet Show. Here are a few pictures from the day (mostly Christmas Day at Barb and Cliff's)