"Mommy, why do people pee?"

And this is how unschooling works.

Dani is a few weeks shy of her 3rd birthday.  If you've ever had a toddler, I don't need to tell you how insanely curious these creatures are.  She wants to know everything, she wants to do everything "by myself", and she wants it all to happen now.

This past Monday I heard "Mommy, why do people pee?" from the backseat as we drove home after lunch at a Mexican restaurant (our power was back on, but there was no food in the house yet).  I gave her a simple short explanation and told her we'd look into it more when we got home. 

Once we got home I nursed Oscar while my laptop started up and then looked up a simple diagram of what the human digestive system looks like.  I showed Dani and we talked about what the different things did.  Then, we traced Dani onto a large sheet of finger painting paper and I drew in some of the organs so she could color it in and add stickers.

First thing, Dani added "green poop comin' out" and asked me to color in the stomach and esophagus pink with green stomach acid. She added food stickers from her activity book and then we drew in some food bits in the intestines.  I'm unsure what the green bit is under the arm though.  Obviously I kept it pretty simple here.

Aaron commented that he didn't learn that sort of thing til 5th grade.  I did the body-tracing and added in the organs when I was in 1st grade.  I remember them hanging on the bedroom door of the room my brother and I shared at the time.

Immediately after hanging this tracing on the wall Dani asked me to draw another one for her.  The second one was smaller on a sheet of 8 x 11 paper we had stacked on the art shelf.  She decided that one was her Daddy and colored it in.  The information seems to have stuck too!  The next day she talked about "food going in my body, and my belly, and poop comin' out" while pointing to the appropriate areas of her body.  She also talked to Aaron about chewing up her food and it going into her stomach while she helped him cook some dinner.

This particular happening has really showed me the power of unschooling.  I didn't think we'd be doing anything of the sort til she was at least another few years older!  But here we are....she's asking questions and we are doing our best to explore the answers with her.  She has no shortage of questions, I might add!  Dani had so much fun coloring in the very basic digestive system that I think I might cut out another tracing and some of the other organs she can stick on.  I also found some skeleton coloring pages online that she would probably enjoy.  Coloring is a favorite activity at the moment.  So is painting which I need to put out supplies for more often.

In other news....Oscar has decided he doesn't like to stay in one place.  He's not quite 3-months-old and already seems determined to wiggle and claw his way around on the carpet however slow a process it may be.  I give it a month before he's actually crawling. 

He is also very interested in toys...so Mama had better get sewing!

With the weather cooling down a bit now nature walks with both kiddos seems to be in the near future.  Oscar is digging the wrap so I'll wear him and take Dani around the neighborhood to collect things in nature.  Now seems like a good time to make some felted treasure bowls which I saw recently in Amanda's copy of The Rhythm of Family.  Gotta get knitting too!

Damn these children are amazing sometimes....<3

Stormy Weather

It's really hard to take photos in a hurricane.  It's a shame though, because Dani had a wonderful time playing in the rain!

Mother nature is having a field day with our neck of the woods, as of late.  First an earthquake on Tuesday (which is almost unheard of in Virginia) and now hurricane Irene passing through on the weekend.

Saturday for us brought a lot of wind and rain.  Oddly enough, nothing was damaged in our yard.  I thought for sure at least one of the many old trees that surround our house on all sides would have at least dropped some large branches on us....but they didn't.  Many of the other trees in the area came down though, sadly.


As of 2:30-ish on Saturday our power went out.  I was napping on the bed with the kids while Aaron ran out to the store.  We really weren't thinking the storm would do much in our area so we didn't really plan for a long-term power outage.  Later we had to make another trip to get some snacks that didn't require opening the fridge or cooking.  I also thought to grab an activity book for Dani while we were out.

I have to say, the Funky Sticker Backpack was a real lifesaver!  It kept Dani busy the whole weekend!  I was pleased with the variety of activities and themes it included.  Some were "girly", but most of them were gender neutral or even "boyish" (in some people's opinions).  We set her up by a window while it was still light and after dark we lit all the candles we could dig up and continued playing and coloring by flashlight.  At which point I did some experimenting with make-shift oil lamps...

Between these two tutorials I came up with a couple different types of lamp.  The first using a baby food jar, yarn, and some wire.  My favorite was made with nothing but tin foil, a strip of old t-shirt, and olive oil.  Just shape the foil into a shape something like a Genie's lamp and lay in the wick.  It works great and is truly the easiest type of lamp to throw together in an emergency!

 After awhile Dani and Oscar started getting tired out.  We played with shadows in bed for a bit and then read storybooks by flashlight til they both fell asleep.

The camera's flash was the most light we'd had all night!

Power was still off this morning and it was doubtful it would come back on anytime soon so we headed out for food and then took the contents of our fridge with us to see my good friend Amanda from Not My Expectations.  The girls had a great time and so did the littles!

We had a tea party on a lovely stump table and chairs

Dani and E

Oscar enjoyed the Storch Leo I borrowed

A in the Girasol

Surprisingly, the power IS back on now.  I much say I'm surprised....we had been told it wouldn't be on before tomorrow night.  I must say I've had enough wild weather for quite some time!

Mother of Two

I had the baby.  He's almost 2-months-old.

Oscar Kiel Harrison S. born June 7th 2011 born at home weighing 10lbs.8oz.

I'm just starting to get back into the swing of things.  It's hard sometimes being home alone with two small children.  Frustration runs high for me.  The baby is easy, but sometimes the needs of a toddler and a newborn don't mesh well.  It's wonderful to not be pregnant anymore, but it's an adjustment to be doing things again.  Being pregnant makes me lazy.  My lack of mobility is so bad that I just had to sit for a couple months....so now I have to remind myself to just get up and do stuff instead of putting it off til later.  My mantra at the moment is "if it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now".  I'm working on it.

Dani loves Oscar....sometimes a little too much.

So, back to blogging....I hope.  lol