Top 10 from 2012

 Top 10 Egbert Moments of 2012

A quick update before getting to the good stuff:  Bobby turned 2 this December and hit the “terrible twos” right on cue.  Adeline turned 3 this summer and is just starting to get more independent.  I regretfully joined Rob in the 30-35 age group this year.   And Rob started his 2^nd year of radiology residency this summer.  We absolutely love living in Charleston and welcome visitors any time!

10.  Watching Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 eight hundred times. (Adeline and Bobby’s favorite movies)

9.  I can’t believe we’ve made it this long without cutting Bobby’s hair!  We love our little hippie. We’ll see if that hair makes it to 2013…

8. Adeline has a very vivid imagination and one morning kept talking about wanting to fly to the store. Later that day when it was time to get in the car to run errands she asked me to put her on the roof of the car so she could fly.  When I told her that she can’t really fly she burst into tears and sobbed “but Mommy, I promise I’ll be really careful!”

7.  Rob finally mastered the art of baking sourdough bread.  After years of nasty tasting bricks, the bread finally has a nice sour flavor, rises perfectly and has a fantastic texture.  Talk to Rob if you want to know his secrets!

6.  I have started a business working with the doctors who created Proactiv in their new venture, Rodan and Fields Dermatologists.  They are now in the anti-age skin care market and I LOVE trying out all of the fabulous products.  I work part time from home and am grateful to have something that makes me feel professional, even if I’m working in my jammies with kid snot on my shoulders!

5.  Bobby has finally learned how to use the word “no” correctly.  At the beginning of the year, he used the word no to mean either “yes” or “no.”  This has been a struggle for us, but he finally has incorporated yes into his extensively limited vocabulary.  Oh, and he still favors “no.”

4.  Adeline started dance class this fall and she absolutely loves its.  At “parents watch” day last week, we were happy to see our money well spent as 90% of the time Adeline was either laying on the ground or crawling around the room or running around squealing while the other kids were dancing.  Her spring recital should be very interesting…

3.  We met some random people who live about a mile down the road who volunteered to let us garden a large plot of their land in exchange for clearing and prepping the land for them for next year.  It was great, at first. Then the hot month of July happened and Rob was on call all month. Left to their own, the garden quickly became a battle between squash, melon, tomatoes and peppers. The winner? Last time we checked, sweet potatoes. No contest.

2.  I started a cooking club with some women from church and it has been a big success and so much fun. It’s been fun to teach a few classes myself and also to learn from some very talented people.  We’ve learned how to cut up whole chickens, make Japanese food, make authentic tamales, bake bread, cook with pumpkin, make a Thanksgiving feast, and even had our own version of cupcake wars!

1.  We celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary in Tulum, Mexico this year.  The beaches were absolutely incredible, and just our style.  We had big plans to do all kinds of adventurous activities, but quickly realized that there is something to be said for sleeping on the beach all day when you’re on vacation without your kids!  (PS…thanks mom and dad for watching our kids for the week!)

We have made some great memories in 2012 and look forward to making even better ones in the New Year.  It has been so much fun seeing everyone’s Christmas pictures and reading your letters and we hope to stay in touch for years to come!

Love,

Rob, Haley, Adeline and Bobby

Adeline's Birthday and a Few Extras

Adeline turned 3 last month!  We had a mini-party for her (really just a glorified playdate with cake).  Rob was working most of the weekend of her birthday so we decided not to do anything too big.  But I still wanted a chance to do the fun birthday stuff like a cake and a few decorations, so a low-key party was perfect.  She was thrilled and I enjoyed it too.  Here are the pictures:

Adeline and her greatly anticipated volcano cake.

Volcano party hats to match!

Friends!

These blocks have been a HUGE hit.  Adeline and Bobby both love them.  I think they're called Trio blocks.  I'm usually nervous about buying new toys (as opposed to consignment store ones) since I never know how much they will be used.  But these are worth it.  Money well spent.

Puzzles from Grandma

A super nerdy space book...with flaps!  She loves it.

Bobby testing out the new butterfly net that Rob got for Adeline.  I keep forgetting to send off for the caterpillars in the mail though!  Apparently we'll be able to feed them and watch them grow and become butterflies.

Her new easel.  This is her picture of the moon (with craters) and fireworks.  Pretty good drawing, if you ask me!

And some cute shots I just had to post!  This kid cracks me up!  He's just learning to say "cheese."

Not very happy to have accidentally stepped in mud at the lake.  This picture makes me laugh!

Tears are almost gone from the traumatic mud incident.

Besides the small party, we did presents with Rob when he got home from work and then took Adeline to a restaurant to get her favorite meal: fried chicken and french fries and "spicy juice" aka soda.

Other things that we've been up to lately: 

Taking a quick trip to Atlanta, which turned out to be the perfect relaxing break from Rob's hectic work schedule.  He's working nights this rotation.  14 hour overnight shifts are rough.  Between work and sleep, we are lucky if we see Rob for 3 hours each day (and that is usually during the kids' nap time, so they have seen him even less!).  But luckily he works for 4-5 days and then gets about 4 days off, then work, then days off, so it's not too bad.

Buying a minivan!  Well, almost.  We just got all the details worked out today and we'll probably buy it next week.  Our CRV is just getting too old.  The AC is going out (which makes driving around Charleston in the summer with the kids borderline child abuse) has 187,000 miles on it and is 13 years old now.  I can't justify buying a new car now and then needing a minivan a couple years down the line, so we're just biting the bullet and buying one now.  But, we did find one that happens to be the luxury edition so at least I have all the fancy minivan bells and whistles to make me feel better about it.  Yes, I am 30 years old and getting a minivan.  I'll just turn in my "fun young person" card now.

I signed Adeline up for dance classes starting the end of this month.  I've decided not to put her in preschool this year, so we've decided to do dance instead and see how she likes it.

We are so excited to have Hannah and Garrett and kids come to visit this month!  Hopefully we'll have family come in September and maybe even a few more visitors!  We love having company and September/October are GREAT times to come to the beach here.  So if you're looking for a little vacation and don't want to pay for a hotel, let me know!  We'd love to have you!

To Homeschool or not to Homeschool...

The more I read and research about homeschooling, the more I feel like that is what will be best for my children.  I used to say there were 2 things in education I would NEVER do.  The first was homeschool and the second was substitute teach.  I'll eat my words on the homeschooling one, but I still don't think you will EVER see me substitute teach.

I am not trying to put anyone down who chooses to put their kids in public school.  I went to public schools.  I taught in public schools.  I know MANY fabulous public school teachers.  I've read 3 books on homeschooling now and I've been reading a lot of blogs and forums, so I feel like I have somewhat of an idea of what I'm getting myself into.  Here are some of the arguments for homeschooling that have caught my attention and helped shape my new opinions.

First off, my children are not the property of the government.  It absolutely blows my mind that if I choose to teach my own children, I have to get permission from the government to do it.  Why is the government so threatened by the fact that I don't want my kids in their schools?  What do they have to gain by my child being enrolled in their schools?  That in and of itself, is a HUGE reason we want our kids at home (or in a nontraditional private school...more of that later).  Rob and I have had many discussions over the past year about the proper role of government and we both strongly feel that telling us what our children have to learn and when and by whom and for how many days of the year is not something the government has a right to do.  I could go on and on about my thoughts on this, but I'll spare you here.  If anyone is up for some good debating, give me a call!  I love it!  That's the end of that soap box...for now :)

Secondly, think about all the extra time your child would save by not going to school.  Time will be saved by not being on a school bus for 30 minutes every morning and afternoon.  Waiting in line to use the restroom.  Waiting until the whole class is paying attention to learn something.  Waiting for another student to be disciplined before the teacher can help anyone else.  Waiting for the whole class to be quiet before walking down the hall.  Waiting for papers to be passed out.  There are literally hours of wasted time at school.  I know first hand, because I taught elementary school for 5 years.  As a basic guideline, at the beginning of each school year, I didn't start teaching new material until 2 weeks after school started.  Those 2 weeks were needed to teach the class the rules, how to line up, how to hold a lunch tray, how to raise their hands, how and when to sharpen their pencils, etc.  This may seem a little over the top, but ask any teacher and they will tell you that in a classroom of 20-30+ students, these things have to be specifically taught.  We would review things from the year before, but the "real" teaching had to wait.  There just wasn't time to do everything.  And not to mention the time saved from not having homework to finish.  Think about all the productive things a child could do with that extra time in the day.

Another thing that is very important to us is that our children develop the skills and creativity needed to become entrepreneurs or innovators or inventors or scientists.  Public schools try to teach kids these things, but there is such a tight limit to what can be taught in a one hour class period.  There is never the time to really get into an experiment or design something or try things and fail and then try it again and fail again and then maybe try it again and finally get it.  I am not trying to put down school teachers, because there is just no way around it.  You cannot do things with a class of 30 kids with a 1 hour or even a 1 day time limit that you could do with your own children or a small group of children in a non school setting.  We want to be able to give our children the experience and opportunity to figure things out, to spend hours working on a project or reading a book that they're interested in.  We don't want our kids to be groomed for traditional jobs.  The way this country is headed, I want to be sure my kids know how and why things work and how to build something from scratch if need be.  Whatever they choose for their eventual careers is fine, but I want them to be exposed to more than just the traditional jobs like doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc from a young age.

Now for the part about socialization.  This seems to be the main reason most people have negative views of homeschooling.  The conclusion that I have come to is that most homeschooling parents want to give their children social interaction and they make every effort to get their children involved with other children.  There are tons of homeschooling groups who get their kids together to socialize.  Homeschooled kids are involved in sports and classes and clubs.  They interact with people of all ages and learn appropriate social interactions within the real world.  Traditional schools have created a false atmosphere of "socialization."  Think about it.  You're in a classroom with children who are all your exact same age.  If you are friends with kids younger than you, you might be teased for hanging out with "babies."  From my experience with 4th grade girls, the drama associated with friendships and social interactions in school is a huge distraction from learning.  But it has to be hard to make true friends in the 15 minutes of time during school when you are actually ALLOWED to socialize.

Yes, I admit that I have met some socially weird homeschooled kids.  But I have also met some socially weird public schooled kids and my heart absolutely breaks for those ones because I've also seen how they are treated and I've been there as a teacher who desperately wants to help them, but my hands were tied because I didn't have documented proof of bullying.  You would be APPALLED if you knew your child were being treated the way I saw some children treated.  So then I would spend my whole day documenting all the bullying I saw in the classroom and that's just more time wasted for the other kids as I wrote down every mean and hateful word or gesture.   All this to get a bully suspended, appease the parents of the victim, and in the end the bully comes back to school even more mean spirited and out for revenge.  I would venture to guess that the self confidence levels of homeschoolers is much higher than those of kids in public school who have to work so hard to fit in or try even harder to stay out of the way of others if they don't fit in.  I still feel sick to my stomach when I think about 1 of my past students in particular and the fact that I didn't and couldn't do more for that child.  He was one of my favorite/brightest students and I fear for what damage mean kids have done to him emotionally (and possibly physically).  I don't know what personalities my children will develop over the years, but I don't want them in that kind of hostile environment 7 hours a day, 180 days a year.

The next issue, I didn't even think about until reading about it in multiple books, but it makes sense.  Many homeschool parents in the books I read talked about how their relationships with their children changed when they moved from traditional school to homeschooling.  Arguments decreased because the stress and pressures of school were removed.  The fights about getting homework done disappeared (I'm sure there is still some of this over getting homeschool work done).  Trying to drag a grumpy kid out of bed early in the morning and get them to school on time became a nonissue.  Being with their child and knowing what they are learning and sharing in that learning became a great relationship builder.  Many parents admitted that they liked their child a lot more.  Homeschooling may not do this for everyone's relationship with their children.  Being home with your child all day may be a nightmare for some parents and/or children.  Homeschooling doesn't work for everyone.  But we feel like it could work for us.  We feel like if we keep our kids home from the start, this healthy relationship can be the norm.  If I look at my child as a real person whose worth is equal to, if not greater than mine, then staying home with them and being around them all the time shouldn't be so hard.  That is not to say that we wouldn't provide other role models and teachers and opportunities for our kids to have a break from us and for us to have a break from them.  But think about the hours and hours you miss with your kids when they attend school full time.  I don't know that I've explained my view of this issue very clearly, but it has been an eye opener to realize that while sending kids off to school all day long is what society expects and accepts, that doesn't mean that it is the best way to raise children.  Its just what has always been done in our modern generations.  Our modern society just hasn't ever tried any other way.

The last realization I will share in this post is about myself.  I have always felt a little regretful that I have not found something that I can really excel at.  I have many talents and many more interests, but I always wanted to have the potential to be great at something.  I am starting to think that the area of my life where I am meant to rise to greatness is in my family.  (A little sappy, I know!)  But I really feel that all the little talents and interests I have are meant to be taught to my children and used to help them grow and develop into well rounded adults with skills to really excel in whatever path they choose.  If you truly want to be great at something you have to work for it like crazy.  I feel like homeschooling might be an area I would enjoy putting all my energy into.  I love learning new things.  I like finding fun ways to teach different concepts.  I love projects.  I love making grand plans.  I love my kids.

I briefly mentioned non traditional schools earlier in the post and I want to share one school that I came across in my research that I think would be amazing to send my kids to.  If I only had $20,000 for the tuition (per child, per year!!) and lived in San Francisco.  I think it would be really fun to start a co-op or even a very small private school like this.

http://sfbrightworks.org/

Thanks for reading (for those of you who still are).  I enjoyed writing this post and getting my thoughts organized.  I welcome any and all comments.  My mind is not 100% made up yet, but I'm 85% sure Adeline will not be going to public school for kindergarten in 2 years...

Lazy Blog

 Love this picture!

This one is pretty funny though!

Our little diva??

This is much more true to Adeline's personality than the previous picture!

We have a fence!  Rob and his dad did a great job!

A sneak peak at the playhouse we've been working on for the kids

This is how Adeline shows her muscles!

We had so much fun with Rob's family in town a couple weeks ago.  Adeline LOVED playing with her cousins.  

We picked a ton of blueberries.  This picture does not even show half of what we picked!  Bobby was in heaven.  I was not when I had to change his diaper the next day...

The kids helping grandpa harvest the potatoes.  I love this picture with Jack throwing one in and Bobby throwing one out.  My kids weren't much help!

Rob being the "fun uncle"

The father's day "cake" we made for the guys.  We celebrated in Sumter with Rob's family.

Adeline at the children's museum dressing up "just like in Fantasia!"  Fantasia is still an obsession at our house.  This is also Adeline's new "pose for the camera face."

My little boy looks all grown up.

Journaling

First off, let me say that I love that you all (whoever you are) read my blog.  Thank you for finding my life interesting enough to keep up with.  I use this blog as a small journal of our lives.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just bragging about how funny and cute my kids are (which I am) but I'm doing it more for my own record (and for grandparents) than for your reading pleasure, so if you get bored of these posts, I understand.  I like reading these type of posts from my friends, but I know not everyone does.  But I'm still going to keep writing them :)

So here's a little bit about our life these days..

Rob is doing his interventional radiology (IR) rotation right now and is loving it!  He actually gets to do procedures (surgery type stuff) and isn't behind a computer in a dark room all day.  Not that he doesn't like the regular radiology stuff, but according to him, IR is really cool.  He only gets one rotation through IR each year, so it will be a while before he gets to do it again.  He is also doing a ton of studying lately.  Rob and his dad have been working on a HUGE garden plot as well that I'll post about soon.  I will also post all of the handy projects he's done around the house too (building Adeline a bed, making a playhouse out of an unfinished closet, making bookshelves, etc...my man does it all!)

I am having a blast organizing a cooking club with some of the ladies from church.  We have had 2 classes so far.  I taught the first one on trussing and cooking a whole chicken and cutting up a whole chicken.  Then another lady taught us all kinds of bread recipes.  Next week we're learning how to make Japanese food!  I have also been reading a few books on homeschooling and we have pretty much decided that is the route we'll end up taking with our kids.  I'll have to post about that later too.

Adeline is hilarious as always.  She has some new favorites lately, so here they are:

Favorite TV show: Go Diego Go--she LOVES Diego.  Its a full on preteen girl/Justin Beiber type crush.  You should see the way she gets so excited when Rob talks to her in Spanish, "just like Du-wego!"  When we eat Mexican food, its "Du-wego food" and everything she sees she says is "just like on the Du-wego show."

Favorite number: 5.  She always wants 5 of something.  5 jelly beans, 5 pieces of fruit, etc.  Not 6 or 7 or any other number.  She only wants 5.

Favorite Movie: Fantasia 2000.  We checked this out from the library and she has watched at least once a day (twice a day on many occasions) for the past 2 weeks.  She is still a little obsessed with volcanos and there is a segment with a volcano in it that she loves.  I had to return it to the library today and I'm not looking forward to breaking the news to her tonight when she asks to watch it.  Luckily, its not annoying to watch/hear over and over again because its just classical music.  Which brings me to her next favorite...

Favorite Music: "Class-ti-cal music"  I've been playing a classical station on pandora lately while we play in the mornings and she loves it.  She loves to listen for the instruments and tell me which one she hears.  She usually guesses piano or violin and with classical music, those are both pretty solid guesses :)

Favorite Food:  She still doesn't like food.  Breakfast is by far her favorite and frosted wheats, rice chex, raisin bran, and oatmeal are her favorites.  At least they're healthy!  I can't say the same for the rest of her meals.  And she loves fruit.

Favorite Animal: Frogs.  We have TONS of tree frogs around our house and Adeline loves to catch them and hold them and chase them and try to feed them crickets.  She's not a girly-girl at all.

And finally, a couple funny quotes from Adeline.  We were sitting around and I may have accidentally passed some gas and she said "Mommy, are we friends?"  I said yes and she said "Mommy, we don't fart at our friends.  We can only fart at our family and grandma Sherie and grandpa Bob!"  Love this girl!

Second quote--Rob may have been studying some radiology stuff in church (I told you, he's been studying a lot lately) and Adeline looks at the iPad and says "Daddy, are you looking at the insides of people's bodies?"

And now on to Bobby.  He is 17 months old now.  He is growing up fast!  He's finally starting to try to say words, although pretty much everything he says sounds the same.  He still says I love you.  He also says "up", "out", and is just figuring out "more."  And the answer to every question is "nooooo."  If he's smiling or looks happy, it means yes.  If not, he actually means no.  Gets kinda confusing.  We still haven't cut his hair, so he's usually a scraggly mess (but such a cute mess).  He is shy around other people and definitely still a momma's boy.  I guess I'll appreciate this when he's older, but it gets kind of old sometimes.  He loves to be outside and to run away from me just to turn back and laugh when he sees he's in trouble.  He is also a climber.  This kid has some serious monkey skills.  He will use anything he can find as a step stool to get up to whatever he's trying to get.  He will stand on boxes, bowls, toys, the dog, chairs, the coffee table, pillows--anything that will get him higher up than standing on the ground.  He will eat almost anything.  He eats parsley, mint, tomatoes and peppers right from the garden--as in, while we're playing outside he wanders to the garden and gets himself a snack.  We have to watch him close so he doesn't pick all the veggies before they ripen.  He also wants to do everything that Adeline does, however, the kids haven't gotten to the phase where they like to play together.  They still just fight over toys all the time.  Hopefully they will start to like each other a little bit...Bobby is starting to entertain himself with toys lately though, which I am loving!

No pictures today, but next time, I promise some photos!  And hopefully soon I'll post some pictures of the house because we've been working hard to finish projects and get it organized and decorated.

What We're Up To

I've been very lazy about blogging lately, but I figured I'd give you a small glimpse into our lives and what we're doing lately, and finally, a whole bunch of pictures! When I skip so much time between blog posts, I just end up with really long posts once I do blog, so here it is! We have been very busy lately, traveling to Atlanta for Easter, doing a million projects around the house (all at the same time), starting up a cooking club, going to the beach any chance we get, major gardening, all of us being sick with colds that never go away, and chasing 2 very active toddlers around all the time! But enough reading about it. Here are some pictures of our activities.

Our sweet angel!

Our beach is awesome for riding bikes!

We saw this bald eagle in a tree in our yard!

"The Farm"  We met some really nice people that offered to let us use their land for extra garden space!  They live really close so we plan to take the kids out a few nights a week to work on the "farm."  Rob and his dad are planning on filling the whole space up with veggies!  I can't wait until harvest time...which as you can see from the picture, won't be for quite some time!

Bobby's funny facial expressions!

It was raining the other day and the kids wanted to go play in the rain so we ran to put junky clothes on them and by the time we got outside, it had pretty much stopped raining, so we improvised and made some fake rain.  The kids LOVED it! 

Easter

I love the drool from a mouth full of candy dripping down his belly

A perfect evening for pictures at the beach

For some reason I can't get these pictures in the right order, but these are more Easter pictures.  Dying eggs, decorating cookies, and hanging out with Nana, Papa, and cousins.

I can't bring myself to cut his hair!  I think he's so cute with long hair.  But its starting to get a little out of control.

Sometimes you just have to let them run through the tide pools fully clothed!

A recent family photo