After School Specials...

I'm so grateful to be a stay at home Mom.  It's truly something I always hoped to be.  And I feel lucky that I have so much one on one time with Hope during the day while Brian is in school!  That is such a treat.  I really put off a lot of things both inside and out of the house just because I love to hang out with her at home.  Some days we are still in our pajamas at lunch!  We love to read...

...and laugh.

Hope loves to "sing" and dance, put things in and pull things out of containers, and play with her Little People toys.  Here she is in what I like to call her "Little People Party Pod."  Ha!

Sometimes she even tries to rock and dance and sing when she's on her rocking caterpillar!

But what I think I do most of is follow her.  Everywhere.  And it's my honor, really.  I feel honored - privileged, really - to be able to follow her every hour of every day and see her grow and develop and learn.  It's the best gift.

With all of that said - the two of us are in love with the same boy and we miss him a lot during the day!  When I announce "Brian's bus will be here soon!" - Hope stops what she's doing immediately and I have her attention.

Here's what happens as soon as Brian comes in the front door.  He takes off his shoes, his coat, his backpack - he runs to the bathroom to wash his hands - and then he announces "I'm going to play with Hope before homework, Mom."  I would never dare argue with a man on a mission!

(notice he lost tooth number two?!?)

Yesterday, he created a train - and even made a ticket that he handed to Hope who, right on cue, handed it back to "the conductor."

Today was a whole different scene!  Brian's school let out early for what was supposed to be more snow than we actually got - but who cares!  Brian was coming home early and we were psyched!!  Hope was napping when he arrived so instead of rushing in to play with her - he rushed OUT to stand in the snow...

...and try to eat it!

And then the two of us quickly got to work finishing his first big school project - a Diorama.  Brian was able to choose an animal for his Diorama and he picked the Lion.  The two of us did some research about lions on the internet and he chose three topics to focus on.  He had to create the diorama (with help, of course) and then write a three sentence report that he will be reading to his class tomorrow!

We enjoyed working on this together over the past week - from the research to the crafty parts.

Going to "Michael's" for supplies was really fun!  We found tiny cans of spray paint and decided we would spray the entire shoe box to make it look less "shoe-boxy."  Brian chose spray paint that would make it look like sand in a desert...

...which then led us to find the ground cover that looked like sand.  Then we used lots and lots of tape and sticky glue to hold everything down... even the Lion that had caught and is about to eat the Gazelle.  Hey - it's the circle of life.

He is so proud of the finished product!  And he worked SO hard to write his report with neat handwriting!!

We practiced his presentation so many times - including the "tour" of his diorama in case he's asked to explain it to the class.  Here was his final practice today...

I can't wait for him to walk in the door after school tomorrow to hear how it went.  I'm sure this will be the answer I'll get:

"good."

Either way - his two cheerleaders will be here waiting with a fun snack and a big congratulatory hug!

Good luck, Brian!