Baby Kicks

I love teeny, tiny baby kicks.  They make me smile.  Right now they're at that fun stage where they're just a nifty little secret between the little one and I.  We find out in a few weeks whether were having a boy or a girl.  Joey told us the other day while Danny and I were discussing baby names that if we have a girl baby, we should name her Mary Poppins.  It's her favorite new movie, which just tickles me because I love it too.   Now, I just need to get her hooked on The Sound of Music and we'll be all set.  I've been a very sappy mommy lately.  But I can't help it when I tell Joey that she's my little snuggle bunny and she goes, "no mommy, you're MY snuggle bunny!"  What's an emotional pregnant lady to do? It just washes away all the temper tantrums and kicking fits of the day and just leaves me so happy to be her mommy.
The other day, I got one of my monthly baby updates: What's your 31 month old up to?  I was floored. They tell me that she should be stringing together 2-3 word sentences and following 2 step instructions by now.  So, I sat there and thought about that a bit.  Just a few days prior, told me a story (presumably a dream she had) using a sentence with two prepositional phrases in it.  Now as I sat there thinking about this, I got this overwhelming sense of 'what on earth am I going to do with this kid?'
Where do I begin? because she's memorizing her books left and right and we've started home-school for her to prepare her for Pre-School in the fall.  She's breezing through all of it.  Still a little slow on hand eye coordination in regards to tracing but how do I keep ahead? I'm totally stumped.  I know that I was always bored in school and in private school, they'd often give me extra work to do just to keep me busy but how do I do that with her?  I know that she's not likely to get that kind of attention in Public School just as a sheer matter of numbers.  And if I have to work, I can't home-school like I'd like to.  Oh, I'm overwhelmed.
Then to top all that off, Joey's had a cough for a while and children's tylenol hasn't been doing any good.  Tonight I tried a little vicks on her feet under her jammies and a spoonful of honey a few times today.  She likes the honey, but I don't know if it's doing any good.  I'd like to try some more homeopathic stuff but I can't think of anything at the moment.  And of course this just leads to me being more anxious.
Ugh, maybe I'm just being oversensitive, I am seriously hormonal at the moment.  I welcome any and all suggestions.  My brain seems to be on overload.  AHHHHH.

Lazy Saturday

Danny's off brewing beer with his friend Matthew.  He's been so excited to have a child free space to brew.   Not that he can't brew here but it's ten times more difficult with a little one under foot.  Especially with hot malts bubbling away.  So while he's off having fun I should be cleaning up and organizing but I'm not.  Joey's down for her nap, first time she's gone down without a fight in three days.  I've missed nap time.  I've got dinner bubbling away in the slow cooker, I'm watching 'Step It Up' on TV, and am enjoying the quiet while it's lasts.  I know it won't last long.  As soon as Joey's up she's going to be ready for a snack while dinner's finishing up and I want to do some cleaning with her and I want to do something fun with her too but I don't know what that might be yet.  I was thinking maybe something crafty but I can't think of what to do.  I'm having a slow brain day.
I need to have more planned activities that I can throw together in a pinch.  I need to get her ready if we're going to sign her up for pre-school in the fall.  She knows all the alphabet song by heart but she doesn't recognize the letters by sight yet.  She can count to eleven with no help but again she doesn't recognize them by sight yet either.  She learns really well by song and she's starting to pick out melodies and she's starting to sing along with us rather than repeat lines after us or jump to the next line, which is a lovely step but I still feel like I should be doing more.  Well, I'm gonna go enjoy the rest of this quiet while it lasts.  

Teaching with movies

So, I am on a mission to teach my little one things that are important.  Like History and Science and Reading and Memory skills.  All of these things, I'm sad to say, I feel like I did not learn well in public school.  Right now I'm watching Newsies

 with her.  I know it's a fictional movie but it does follow through a real problem that this country went through.  And she really likes movies where good triumphs over evil.  I'm so proud of this fact.  She loves to watch Enchanted and other 'princess' movies but I'm happy to say she loses interest after the the dragon is slain or whichever evil villain happens to be in the movie that she's watching and cares nothing about the happily ever after.  Her favorite are the movies with dragons though.  I do need to find more movies that can be used to teach.  I want to get The Sound of Music and I want to find some fun movies that teach science and things. I want to be able to make learning as fun as I can.  I try to teach her things like water displacement in the tub.  And she's getting really good at matching games.  She's started memorizing her favorite books and I'm just amazed.  I'm so proud of my little one and I want to be able to do right by her.  I want to keep her constantly challenged. And now, I'm off...She and I are heading to my folks for the day.  Danny's going to be gone all day with class and visiting his grandparents and his band Memorare has a gig tonight from like 9pm-1am.  If it weren't so stinkin' late I'd totally be there.  But the punkin needs to be in bed at a reasonable hour.