Monday, January 21, 2019

Nonnie Camp Again!

This morning began a week of Nonnie Camp here at our house, as I take care of Judah, Asher and Charlie while their moms and dads are at JV Winter Academy, our staff development training week.


Since Academy is a two year program, I had Judah and Asher this same week last year, right after Tyler and Lara had moved here.


With Caleb and Haley arrival this past fall, this is their first year of Academy, and the first year I get to keep Charlie too!


Each day the moms and dads will leave around 7:30 in the morning and won't get back until after the kids have gone to bed. So that means the boys and I have got a lot of time to hang out with each other until Friday!


In preparation for camp I picked up a few things to have on hand as I invest in the boys, both in our relationships and in their development.


This was fun and simple "spot game" (at least that's what I called it!) to help them with their small motor skills, as well as color identification.


Charlie was fascinated by the challenge of putting the little "spots" into the holes, and I was amazed at how well he could do it! While you wouldn't want to leave them to play with this alone (I was watching carefully to make sure none of those spots went into their mouths!) it turned out to be a fun thing that all three of them could do.

One of the differences this year was having three year old Judah to help me! He could pick up things, go get diapers when needed, and entertain, which he willingly did!


I wish you could hear him in this photo, making animal sounds for Charlie, which sent him into the cutest giggles!

I had to laugh when I saw my cup of espresso that I'd made at 8 AM, still lacking its hot water at 12:30 PM to make it into an Americano!


I'm realizing once again what a tremendous amount of work (albeit, happily done) it is to have three little ones full time. I'm so proud of and impressed with my daughters-in-law who do this day in and day out for their little men!

By 2:30, all three boys were down for naps, having gone down one after another at different times. I thought about cleaning up, but opted to have that cup of coffee that had been waiting for me since 8 this morning. Good thing I did.


Because within fifteen minutes, the first one had woken up!


So goes life in a mommy's world (and Nonnie's world this week). Just when you think you'll get a few minutes to do whatever it is that you're needing to do, a sweet and happy face wakes up ready to go!


Within the next hour everyone was back up again, just in time for our friend El to come over and help me through dinner, baths and dinner!

El saved Nonnie today by putting together a farm that I'd picked up on sale for the boys, but couldn't put together!

While I prepared dinner, the boys got to watch one Winnie the Pooh episode. This was reminiscent of when I'd let 2 year old Tyler do the same thing as I got dinner ready many moons ago!


Our first day of Nonnie camp ended with happy boys, enjoying being together right up until the end!


I love that these cousins get this time together since they live in different countries. I hope they'll grow up with fond memories of coming to Papa and Nonnie's house for big JV events!

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