Happy Birthday Little Man!

Brody turned 2 at the end of August, and I wanted to show off how proud I am of him and how wonderful it is to have him as part of our family.

My little man, Brody Dennis Nelson, was born August 27, 2009 and I was immediately smitten.

One year later, we celebrated his first birthday with some exciting cake eating, which he really enjoyed! He was already walking, saying some simple words, and had lots of teeth to show off.

We decided to do some cake for him this year again, but we asked him what kind of cake he wanted, and like his answer to most things these days, he said, "cars", ... Lightning McQueen it was!

Lots of his cousins came over to celebrate with us! Brody loves his cousins!

They all helped show Brody how to blow out the candles.

And then we went to the pool to enjoy it for the last time this year. Even Daddy (Kevin) was able to swim with us for a while before he had to go back to work. (Perhaps birthdays in harvest season are not as convenient as other times in the year... sorry Brody!)

Brody is such a good swimmer now. He did really good this year.
I love my little man!

His cousins Zachary and Blake, and Auntie Kim were able to spend most of the week with us before Brody's birthday. These two boys are hilarious! They feed off of each other until they are both so wired it is scary! Brody had to show Zachary his favorite toy in the park... the quad/car!

One of Brody's birthday presents was a lightning McQueen sprinkler! He had a blast trying to drink the water without getting wet. Notice his new Lightning McQueen t-shirt and his McQueen crocs. Man, he sure was spoiled by his cousins and grandparents!

Lucky for us, Zachary had a birthday only a few weeks after Brody's, so we headed up to Edmonton to celebrate that, as well as Blake's baby blessing. Here are all the kids at the park enjoying their juice boxes in the hot weather.

We also had a picnic. I took about 10 photos of this, and Brody was jamming his face with peanut butter sandwich in every one. Nothing comes between that boy and his peanut butter and honey. I think he is learning his speed eating skills from his father too.

And, just for you, Amber, here is my 37 week photo shot of all my chubbiness. Kind of scary to look at it in a photo. I didn't realize I was that big, or that swollen. A few more weeks to go!! I hope they go fast!

Our summer of fun!

So this entry is more of a photo overload, but it covers our summer this year pretty good.

First, here is a picture of our farm's 5-legged calf that was born in the spring. It was still hanging around come summer, and the extra legg coming out of its shoulder didn't seem to bother it too much. Kevin hasn't seen it in the last while, but it is supposedly somewhere on out land growing big and fat with the other cows.

Brody has become a real chef and likes to help me make all of my baking. Here we were making pancakes for dad one morning and he did a great job of mixing the batter.

I found him like this one afternoon after I had left him briefly. Apparently it's more comfortable to golf in the nude. He figured out how to strip out of his pants and diaper at the beginning of the summer, but thankfully has only done it a handful of times.

Canada Day was fun, as always, in Raymond for the parade. We love that dad gets the day off to come play.

Brody took a while to figure out how fast he had to be to actually get any candy, but was doing well by the end of the parade. I heard the word 'candy' every day for the next month after this exciting event.

Me and Brody! He's not a big fan of looking at the camera.

We discoved quite early this summer that Brody reacts more severly than normal to mosquito bites. Unfortunately, one of his first bites was on his forhead, and the swelling spread down to his eye. This is how he looked for a few days after the bite.

We had fun with lots of the cousins while Kevin's sister, Lisa, was up for the beginning of July. We enjoyed a day at Writing-On-Stone as well, and Brody was especially excited to hang out with his new cousin, Ainsley. I forgot to take a picture of her, but she is adorable, and Brody loves her. Brody thought it was great to swim around with his cousins in the river there.

Stirling's celebration, Settler Days, was a lot of fun this summer. The family was involved in the family softball tournament. I was lucky enought to have an excuse not to play this year, so I wouldn't embarass myself with my lack of ability to throw a ball. Elena played with Brody while I watched Kevin and the rest play. We didn't win this year, but we'll make sure we bring it again next year.

Lots of the family participated in the Striling Parade. We decided to let Brody catch candy because he was pretty excited about the candy and I didn't imagine he would be too happy to throw it to other people.

The rest of the Nelson kids rode of the family float with the bull, or on their own horses. Brody sure got a lot of candy when this float passed by us!

Grandma Bennett came out with Grandpa and helped to monitor the candy eating throughout the parade while I took pictures.

Brody and I convinced dad(Kevin) to get on Gracie's horse to take Brody for a ride once the parade was over. I've only seen Kevin on a horse three times in my life, and so I'm hoping that we convince him to ride a bit more in the future to teach us how it's done.

The August long weekend was our Smith Family Reunion (my mom's family) in Fairmont, B.C.. We started the day with a lunch, and then my mom organized a pinjata for the great grandkids. They loved it. Here is Kim's oldest boy, Zach, having a go at it.

Next, we played a few games. One of the things that was planned was a Smith Family's Got Talent competition. Dad was one of the judges and got to wear a plastic head cap. We all had a great laugh. It took a while after he took it off to get the line to disappear around his head.

Mom's talent was a reading of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". She asked some unknowing family members to volunteer as helpers. This is what it looked like...

While their heads poked through the sheet, other family members acted as the character's hands to do what the story told them to do (put on lipstick, drink water, shave, brush teeth, eat pudding, etc.). Poor Dave... :)

We also had a family competition of "Minute to Win It", with a lot of fun activities. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here is one of Kevin picking up skittles with a straw and organizing them into cups for each color.

Brody really enjoyed the day.

Bennett Family Photo. Welcome to the family baby Blake! We're so glad that Kim was able to come with him so soon after he was born. What a sweet baby.

Smith Family Photo

We always make sure we spend a day at Wasa Lake when we go to Fairmont. Brody was especially excited to be able to have Dad around to swim with. He loves playing in the sand, and got really good at swimming by the end of the week.

What a fun week we had. I will miss seeing all of my cousins for another two years.

I'll update you soon on the rest of August and the other things we've been up to.

School's Out For the Summer!

So it's finally true! My one, and for now, my only, year of teaching full time is over... and I have no idea what I am going to do with myself. I've been going in fast-paced mode for so long that I seriously almost felt guilty last night when I didn't have anything to do to get ready or any marking to do. My only job for the next week is figuring out where in my house to put all of the stuff that I've accumulated this year. Let me tell you about my year though, because it has definitely been a great one.

I've been teaching grade 2 at Stirling School since September. Grade 2 was a new experience for me at first, but it ended up being absolutely perfect for me. I have got to admit that I was originally expecting to have a few more 'accidents' and a lot more shoes to tie then I actually did. I had more than a few different qualified, excellent, hard-working teacher assistants and work-experience students in the room throughout the year, which was a HUGE blessing. I don't think I could have asked for more perfect fits in my classroom either. 20 little bodies keep you busy all day long, but despite my tired feet/knees, and the occasional headache, I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. I am really going to miss seeing all of those kids on a regular basis. I am so proud of all that they have accomplished this year, and for the great people they are becoming. They put together the most adorable "Memory Book" for me to finish off the year, which I am totally going to cherish and love to look back on.

It's funny, once you become a teacher, to find that you've picked up some "must do's" what to do and not do when you have kids that start into school. I am SO grateful I got some insight into this before I had kids in school, because I now know how terribly important some of these things are.

1. Read at least 20 minutes every day with your child (either them reading or you).

• students who do not have parents who are available to read with them on a regular basis seem to struggle in ALL subject areas, eventually affecting them socially as well. Reading carries over into everything.

2. Take more responsibility for your own child's education. The teacher can only do so much.

• Have high expectations, and if they are not able to reach them, then seek opportunities to help them as much as possible to get them to achieve their best.
• If your child has a specific area of need (speech, language, learning, etc.), don't be a push-over with the school. Parents that are advocates for their child, especially if they remain positive and not accusing to the school and administration, will generally get their child the extra help that they need to succeed.

3. Don't over-schedule your children, but do involve them with some outside-of-school activities.

• Generally, students who were involved in out-of school activities seemed to be more socially well-adjusted, but also seemed to have more energy and more interest in the in-school things that we did. It gives them something to make them feel special.
• Students that were over-scheduled often seemed tired, and seemed to do slightly less-well than somewhere in the middle.

4. Have a consistent and managed bed-time for your child.

• Wow! Students/children who did not have a consistent bedtime or who seemed to have a less-structured routine at home were behaviorally extremely irritable and had a very difficult time with school work and even seemed to have a higher number of clashes and confrontations with friends. It seemed that this behavior could always be led back to one of two main reasons. Either the child admitted that they were tired and didn't get a good sleep, or else they missed breakfast/had an unhealthy breakfast and were hungry.

5. Therefore, kids need a healthy breakfast to do their best work. Also, send healthy snacks just in case.

6. Send your child to school with an extra pair of pants AND socks when the weather is really wet.

• okay, so this year wasn't a typical year for southern Alberta, but honestly, K-3 students could NOT stay away from the puddles. It is kind of humiliating when you have to have a child call home for the second or third time in the same week (sometimes the same day), because they "fell in a puddle" or "got wet because my friend told me to". I currently hate the smell of wet, dirty socks. It is possibly just easier and okay to assume that kids will be kids and that they WILL get wet, so sent them an extra pair of clothes so that they can be comfortable in order to do their work for the rest of the day as well.

7. Therefore, gum boots are essential!!!!

8. Offer to volunteer in the classroom, especially as a reader. If possible, make the time consistent so that they kids come to expect seeing you at a regular time.

• I loved my volunteers... enough said.

9. Give your child responsibilities.

• students that were most helpful and most well behaved seemed to have developed a sense of personal responsibility for their actions.

10. Praise your child often.

• nothing brakes my heart more than to hear a parent talk negatively about their child. It's important to know your child's weaknesses, but to criticize them for it instead of helping them improve, does no good.

I think that's all. But seriously, read with your children, nieces, nephews, siblings.... just read.

On a side note, I am now 24 weeks pregnant (woo-hoo!), and expecting a baby on October 13th this fall. We did not find out what we were having (Kevin's choice this time), but Kevin had an impression that it is a girl and that it will look like me, so I guess we'll see if he's right. In the mean time, I can make a few girl things anyways, because I already have all of the boy things that I need. If I don't have a girl, then some lucky friend of my that does will get some things.

Brody is growing up super fast lately. He is getting to be a really good talker, and even said our family prayer this morning with the help of dad guiding him what to say. I don't always understand what he says, but it is getting better. He learned how to climb out of his crib and play pen this week, so bed times are becoming a big struggle. Any suggestions are welcome. He does have a bed in his room that he can climb onto, but he doesn't seem to love sleeping in it yet. I probably want to move his crib out of his room sometime in July. It is really strange to look at him, especially over the last month, and to be amazed this this talking, strong-willed, funny boy is the same baby that I held in my arms less than 2 years ago. In the same amount of time he will be just about old enough to be in pre-school! I am so grateful to have had a wonderful day home care-giver to send him to every day that I worked (THANK YOU STEPHANIE!!!), but I am so sad to have missed a lot of his life over the last year. It will be so wonderful to be with him for a few months to ourselves before this new baby comes at least.

Any ideas for some cute baby girl crafts/things to buy/make, let me know! Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last year!