Winter PE

We set up an obstacle course today! The first step was going through a tunnel.Then climb up on the chair and jump off.
Then 5 jumps on the mattress.
Now another chair to step up onto and jump off
for 3 hops on one foot. This is one of his favorite new skills. :)
Then under this chair. He had gone on his stomach every time until this one.
Now 10 bounces on the rocker
and crawl through the tunnel table.
There is an eye in there somewhere.
Grab the duck and run around the fireplace
And toss it in the hole!

Done!

Hot off the Press from Scientific American

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids&print=true


It is so great to see an article like this in such a scientific magazine.
It is a broad article, but careful reading finds all sorts of criticism about praise and rewards. Some of my favorite quotes:

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

In 1972, when I taught a group of elementary and middle school children who displayed helpless behavior in school that a lack of effort (rather than lack of ability) led to their mistakes on math problems, the kids learned to keep trying when the problems got tough. They also solved many of the problems even in the face of difficulty. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded for their success on easy problems did not improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These experiments were an early indication that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and engender success.

And to wrap it all up:
People also communicate mind-sets through praise. Although many, if not most, parents believe that they should build up a child by telling him or her how brilliant and talented he or she is, our research suggests that this is misguided.

My Little Poet

This happened a few days ago, but I am just getting around to it. It was a really cold and windy day, and we were walking into a store. Orion said, "I'm tasting the wind." Then he was moving his open mouth around in different directions and said, "It's like a cold drink in my mouth." I told Kristin, and she said we have a little poet on our hands. :)

Impromptu playdate

I had to take Tiff something, so we went in to play for a little bit. Figured I would share some cuteness. I liked this picture because Tiff had told Orion to pick a story, and she would read it, so I thought it was neat with her kindof waiting in the background.

Addy cuteness.
Niamh cuteness. She is not a newborn anymore!

We have a heartbeat!

Yesterday I went to a group prenatal with the amazing Pam. It was neat because there was a big group of expecting moms there, both clients of hers and others. Tiff also went with me so she could tell her rockin' HBAC story. The subject was hormones in pregnancy. We missed the beginning, but what I caught was pretty cool. At the end, we paired up to do exams. The mom I was with is due in April, and I got to use the Doppler to find her baby's heartbeat. I felt so professional haha. I wasn't sure if we would find mine because I am still fairly early and I know my uterus is tipped, but we did hear it in one spot, faintly and briefly, but it was there! Pam said it sounded about 144 - nice and healthy. :)

Ice and Frost

It's that time of year! I took a quick walk at one of our local nature parks because I was looking for an opp to take pictures for a photo tutorial I have been working on. I didn't find what I needed there, but I did get some other neat shots. I am finding out something about myself - when I need to take photos for an assignment, they all pretty much suck! I seem to do better when I just take what the moment presents me. Or it might just be because I have been feeling terrible lately. So I am going to stick with it.

Anyway, I thought these ice patterns on the water were really cool. And one for my silly fern obsession.
And some even cooler frost on leaves.
And I did get a couple decent shots for the assignment. I was supposed to be working on slow and fast exposures. It was really too light for super slow and too dark for super fast, but it is still neat to see how different the same subject can look.

Refugee Thanksgiving!

This turned out to be a very nice Thanksgiving. :) I knew I really wanted to have it at home, but a couple weeks ago I got to thinking how small it would seen with just the three of us. Then I realized there are lots of families in the same boat, so asked a couple families to share it with us who also have no extended family in the area. It turned out great for me as they were more that happy to bring a few dishes each, so I ended up having it pretty easy as far as cooking! Good thing since I ended up nauseous most of the day. I was really bummed about that as I am exactly 12 weeks and was hoping it would be mostly gone by now.

My table! So the chairs don't match, but I got to use my china and stemware for a group for the first time! Ron and I have used it several times, but it was nice to give it the kind of use it should have haha. I even got black melamine plates for the kids so they would match, and I looked up a fancy napkin folding online haha.The knife wielder! Notice the patches of skin off the turkey. I used a bag again, which seemed like a good call as it was pretty tender, but we had a moment of comedy getting it out. I needed the juices for gravy, so we wanted to try cutting a hole in the corner and draining them out like that before taking the turkey out. Um, yeah. Ron lifted it up and it help for a few seconds, then the bottom came out and it dropped into that pan (thankfully) and splattered turkey juice all over both of us! Good thing it had been sitting out awhile, as it was done much sooner than it said, or we probably would have been burned. Ron had a blast carving it with our old family knife, but I swear he ate so much I was surprised he could have dinner!
My only complaint was all the stupid football. But that seemed to be what all the menfolk wanted, so I guess it was OK.

Pics of Pics :)

I managed to get Orion to the mall for his 3 year old pictures! Last time, everybody gave me a hard time about the hair in his eyes, so I decided to use his cute matching sweather and hat outfit for this one. I thought it would work as an outdoorsy looking picture since I am going to give them out at the holidays, and I do think they came out adorable! Here they are...

Orion Mac Daddy

Wow, I have been a picture and blogger slacker. I am feeling much more nauseous this time around, and just don't feel like doing much of anything most of the time. But we did go to a birthday party today, and I got this cute picture of Orion and one of his many girls haha.

Funny Tati

We went to a playdate today. No interesting pics of Orion, but this one of Tati cracked me up. She looks like a biker chick.

My funny boy

Today Orion informed me, "When I grow up, I want to be a planet."

Oh, and, "I think we should name the new baby Whiskers."

Um, kids are so strange.

Chews!

Also knows as shoes.Orion and I went to a cool vegan festival today, and we spotted these on the way out. They were cute on their own, but flanked by the autumn leaves, they looked really neat.

Lots of people had gluten free stuff to sample, so Orion had a great time. But the best part was going to a cooking demo. Orion likes watching cooking shows, so he actually got into it. We talked about all the different steps she was taking and what foods she was using. It was so cute!

Look What We Got!

And what was I thinking?! Orion loves it of course. But what does he love most? Throwing the balls out of the pit. Of course. So mom has to decide if she is just going to chill out and keep it and accept a destiny of picking up balls. The problem is I am worried my patience with the balls is going to keep going down the farther along in pregnancy I get! But look at that happy punum.
Fwoosh!
Beware the power of the ball....