A day at the park

These girls are so fun together right now. Most of the time they truly enjoy each other's company. I know this won't always be the case.

Monkies

Amelia now can do the monkey bars as you can see in the video. As you can also see, Gemma is a little monkey and finds troublesome things to do every time my eye wanders for even a moment.

While the kids are away...

The toys will play. Or at least, the trains will play Pokemon cards.

Gemma on Easter Morning

Here is Gemma discovering the wonder of Easter eggs with a few jelly beans inside.

Honesty is the best policy

Amelia and I went to a birthday party for one of her classmates a few weekends ago. As part of the treat, there was cake and a variety of flavors of individual ice cream cups.
Trying to be helpful, I handed out the ice cream cups while the mother cut cake for the excited crowd.

The littlest party guest told me she wanted chocolate ice cream*. Chocolate? Yes, she nodded. I grabbed one from the bag and handed it to her before moving on the next child.

Then I noticed the girl's face. She appeared horrified. She had her hands up in the air as if there was a big spider in front of her instead of a cup of ice cream. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied that she had requested STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM! THIS IS CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!

I apologized and switched out the ice creams. As I handed her the strawberry ice cream I off handed my said, "I'm sorry- sometimes it's hard for me to remember things. I'm getting old."

Upon hearing this, Amelia's head popped up and she bellowed, "You're not SO old mom! YOU'RE ONLY..."

Which is when I clapped my hand over her mouth.

She pulled the hand away from my mouth and practically screamed in her excitement, "BUT YOU'RE ONLY 35 MOMMY! THAT ISNT VERY, VERY OLD!"

Thank you dear girl for announcing my age to a whole crowd to verify that I am only a little old. Not very, very old.

*I swear she said chocolate and I confirmed it before handing it to her. I think she changed her mind after her friend chose strawberry....

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Key, v.infinity

This has been an epic year for keys for me. Tuesday, I went to pick up Gemma after work at the babysitter's house. I packed up her things and buckled her into her car seat. I didn't have a pocket, so I tossed the keys into my cup holder so I would easily be able to find them. As I shut Gemma's door and walked around the car, I hear the van beep. I was busy thinking about laundry, dinner and the impossibility of a nap.

When I reached the driver's side door, it was locked. I peered into the door to see that my keys had fallen out of the cup holder, landed on the remote, and locked the door. What is the probability of that happening? Really! I'm not sure I could do it again if I wanted to.

So, Gemma is buckled into her carseat and locked in. She is locked in with the keys. I ran through my options and then went back in the house to consult with the babysitter. The easiest solution was to take her car to our house, pick up an extra key and then drive back while the sitter stood in the driveway watching Gemma.

All in all, it worked out. I do not recommend. At least it wasn't very hot or very cold, right?

Sent from my iPhone

"Sleeping in a thousand star hotel"

Title credit goes to the okiedokie brothers.

Alternate titles:

soccer game is cancelled, now what?

What should we do today?

The weather is perfect- let's go!

The great outdoors is calling, we answered

Cutie pie

At breakfast this morning:


Amelia: Hi there cutie pie! Mom! When you moved over, I saw Gemma and I said "hi cutie pie!"

Mama: that was sweet Amelia !(continues to eat cereal)

Amelia: Gemma is a cutie pie.

Mama: she is a cutie pie, isn't she?

Gemma: Numna! Aik a coo pie.

Mama: what?

Gemma: Numna! Aik a coo pie! Cu pie!

Mama: did Amelia call you a cutie pie?

Gemma: Yeah! (It is still so exciting to be understood. She is so happy and usually laughs/claps when we finally get what she is saying)

Mama: are you a cutie pie Gemma?

Gemma: Yeah! Yeah! Cu pie!


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William's field trip

Over a week ago, I was lucky enough to be able to go on William's class field trip. We went to an nature reserve nearby and hiked the woods, learned about the process of metamorphosis, and dug around in the pond for critters.

I was assigned 2 other sweet boys in addition to William. At the end of the day, I couldn't get over how well behaved two of my boys were. They listened carefully and stayed by my side for the entire day. My son on the other hand was so busy running between friends and checking out what EVERYONE else was doing that I hardly saw him!

Other than missing William, I really enjoyed putting my science teacher hat for a short period of time. We talked about trees, rocks, clouds, pond animal life and other science topics near and dear to my heart. Another mom caught me in full science teacher mode in a photo she shared with me.

It was a delightful moment when 3 little girls walked up squealing about the yucky stuff in their nets that they had captured in their nets. I took the opportunity to get down to their level and asked them to show me what they found. So we looked and poked around together. For several minutes we all poked around in the dirt water and tried to find evidence of the animals that live there (we found beetles, the hugest tadpoles I've ever seen, snails and fish eggs). It was the most amazing feeling until another little friend ran up to us while waving their net around, causing a shower of pond water to splash all over me.....

Gemma is Silly

Last week, I went on William's school field trip on Wednesday.  This required quite a bit of juggling as there are not siblings allowed during school events.  Our regular sitter watched the girls in the morning and John picked them up at lunch time.  I had to work the following day and I drop the girls off as normal.  When I went to pick up Gemma and the sitter's house, I didn't get the big smile I've come to expect.

When I put my hands out for her, she didn't run into my arms.  No.  She pushed my arms away, took two steps back and said, "No, Mama.  Dada. Broom, Broom."  This is essentially toddler speak for "Go away mom.  I want to go home with Daddy."  I'll admit it, my heart was a little sad!

Sadly for her, waiting for Daddy wasn't an option and she had to come home with me.

This isn't the end of this story.

On Tuesday when I picked her up from the sitter's house the SAME THING HAPPENED.  She told me quite forcefully, "No, Mama.  Dada. Broom, Broom."  And then she laughed.  Because she is hilarious.


______

Gemma still naps every afternoon.  Getting her to her bed has become more difficult, but once she is there, she usually sleeps for 2-3 hours.  Her latest stall tactics include:

Running away (while laughing)
flopping over on the ground
flopping over while in your arms (so much so you have to react quickly to keep her from throwing herself completely backwards)
demanding toys/books/blankets (book!  Bunny Book! Kitty!  Baby!  Baby diaper!  Kitty blanket!  Pillow! More books!  More baby!)

The most recent tactic is also my favorite.  I always try to read her a book before putting her in her bed.  Most times, she turns this option down.  She would rather play.  That is until today.  I offered to read her books, which she answered with a resounding "NO!"  However, once I started gathering up her sleepy time items, she suddenly changed her tune.

"Ree boos?" she politely asked.


How can you turn that down?  Once she found success, she played that stall technique again. "Ree mo boos?" (Read more books?).  It only worked a few times, but we may be in trouble!

Hoppy Easter!

We had a full family kind of day! We were up early hunting out the eggs left by our bunny friend and destroying the Easter baskets before mom and dad got up.

We took some pictures, a few of us went to church, had a special lunch, played and played and played before having some Easter pizza with friends for dinner.

Mama squeezed in a run, daddy worked on the patio project and mowed the lawn....pretty perfect if you ask me!

Even the weather cooperated. It was sunny and about 80 degrees. Wonderful!

How to make your kid happy

(100% not guaranteed)


A few Fridays ago, I was out running errands with the girls.  While we were running around, I realized we were going to be arriving home at lunch time.  I also realized it had been awhile since I/we/someone had lunch with William at school.  In order for this to work, I was also going to have to feed the girls or I would have serious meltdowns on my hands.  The quick food options along the way were very limited and didn't include anything I would typically consider as it was almost all fast food (see backstory below).

However, the pull of seeing William at midday was now stuck in my head.  I was going to make a sacrifice and pick up some McDonalds.  As much as I dislike McDonalds and go out of my way to avoid going there, I knew that William would be overjoyed.   Overjoyed child won and I hit up the drive through window and got a Happy Meal (hey, if you're going to go all out, go all out).

As expected, William was super excited to see us (Gemma, Amelia, Mom), but he was beside himself about the McDonalds.

William: MCDONALDS?!?!?!  MCDONALDS?!!?!?!?  WOW!!! MCDONALDS?!?!?! (turns to kids on either side of him with an expression of disbelief) My MOM brought me MCDONALDS!  Can you BELIEVE IT?

Other kid: Huh.  Yeah. 

William: MCDONALDS!  I can't believe it is MCDONALDS!  This is the first time I've ever had MCDONALDS before.  YOU GUYS I'M SO HAPPY.

At this point people are starting to look at us funny.  There are two other kids at the table with McDonalds happy meals who aren't even blinking an eye at their meal.

Eventually, William ate his lunch and occupied himself with the toy inside the meal as well as the box it came in.  He is insisting on keeping the Happy Meal box itself in his box of special treasures...




Boring, but necessary backstory:  I have a thing about fast food.  I don't especially like it and it doesn't especially like me.  My stomach usually doesn't handle the fast food burgers and fries very well.  Sure, I will eat it from time to time, but I'd usually rather eat something else.  Slowly over the years, we have cut out most fast food.  I think the last time I ate at McDonald's, William was three years old*.  As a result, William has not ever had a Happy Meal.  Every few months it seems like we cycle through an increased interest of the fast food places that have a lot of conversations like this:

William: Mom? Why don't we eat at McDonald's today?
Mama: That isn't my favorite place to eat.  They don't have very many healthy choices for food.
William: But, they DO!  They have APPLES!
Mama: They do? How do you know?
William: My friends told me.  They also have vegetables.
Mama: They do?  Which vegetables?  Which vegetables that you would eat?
William: Ummmmmm.....
Mama: Hey look!  A bird!

--and the conversation is usually dropped for a short while--










* We eat at home most of the time and when we travel, I pack lunches whenever possible.  If we do end up stopping, we usually choose a sandwich shop.  If we are going out for dinner, we usually pick a kid friendly restaurant in our area.

Gemma

Tonight I gave the girls a bath. Despite my efforts, Gemma managed to drink a large portion of the bath water (as usual).

I pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her up in a fuzzy towel. As I jostled her around to snuggle her up, she let out a very extra large burp.

At first Gemma appeared startled by the noise. However, so seconds later, she was trying to repeat the noise. She wriggled this way and that way. She made a variety of noises with her mouth. None were what she was exactly looking for.

Mark that one down for the baby book: baby's first fake burp.

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Amelia at the dentist

Amelia went to the dentist this past week for a check up. This is notable for a few reasons:

1. I had a tough time keeping Gemma out of the chair. She wanted very badly to be big like Amelia. They were awfully cute together in the big chair.

2. Amelia was lucky enough to accompany John to his dentist appointment last week. The dentist remembered her clearly as she apparently talked to him the whole time about everything under the sun. Most notably, she gave him mostly accurate directions to the park by our house. He was so impressed, he asked he for the directions again and she did.

3. Amelia is working on her 6 year molars. Which is awesome because she has been 5 for almost a week at the time of the appointment. The dentist was pretty excited about this fact. Unfortunately, you don't win anything or get rewarded for having those teeth early.

Do you know...

What happens when I try to go to the bathroom by myself? I was gone for 3 minutes or less. Amelia and Gemma teamed up to remove a styrofoam sheet from a box and the destroy it. Original, the sheet was roughly 3 ft by 3 ft.

The worst part was trying to clean it up. I tried to sweep it up and the process of it rolling across the carpet caused it to become charged with static electricity. Then it was able to stick to everything. My hands, the floor, my pants, arms and eventually Gemma after she came to roll around in it (no picture of that as I had lost my sense of humor by that point). I got out the vacuum and while it did clean up the tiny pieces, the exhaust from the cleaner blew the tiny particles around even further so they were able to stick in my hair and to the walls.

I have a feeling this story will be funny one day. Just not today.

Amelia conversations

Amelia has been particularly hilarious lately.  The things that come out of that girls' mouth.  One of the reasons is probably linked to the fact that she doesn't. ever. stop. talking.  Ever.  She always has something to say.  She chatted me up for the whole 30 minutes to a soccer game the other day without any interruption.  As in, I didn't say anything.

Today, we had the following conversation on the way home from preschool.

Amelia: Mom!  How long is a minute?  Is a minute 89 seconds?

Mom: What? (driving) No.  Why?

Amelia: Mom!  I KNOW a minute is 89 seconds.

Mom: It is?  I think a minute is 60 seconds.

Amelia: You are wrong.  I know it is 89 seconds.

Mom: Hmmmm....why do you think it is 89 seconds?

Amelia: (dramatically) Welllllll.... today at school Ms A was talking to Ms F.  Someone asked for help and Ms A said "Just a minute." She kept on talking and talking.  While she was talking I counted to 89.  When I got to 89, she was done counting.  THAT is how I know a minute is 89 seconds. 

Mom: Hmmm...

Amelia: See! You were wrong!  A minute is 89 seconds!


Oh my goodness, this girl.  You need to watch everything you say because she takes it so literally!

More Math

Amelia thought it was fun to find more math problems that Gemma would know the answer to....pretty impressive for our 5 year old!  That girl picks up on everything!

Baby does math

Lunch time seems like a good time to work on math, doesn't it? It's never too early to start working on those basic facts.

PS the real story is we've been working on basic facts with William a great deal and Gemma loves to play along. The only number she ever says though is 9. As long as you ask the right questions, she'll always get the right answer!

Today

Today it is raining.  Gemma is fascinated by the rain.  She grabs my hand and drags me to the kitchen window, then points outside.  We have sat there together for a long time this morning.  I keep getting up to attend to assorted chores (sadly, laundry and floors will not clean themselves).  She is right behind me, dragging me back to the window.

Our conversation always goes the same way.  We had this exact conversation at least 25 times this morning:

Gemma: Wraii (rain!)
Mama: Yes!  It is raining outside.
Gemma: Wraiii (Rain!)  Twee, twee? (birds?)
Mama: It's raining.  Do you think the birds are getting wet?
Gemma: No.  Wraii.  Twee, twee.  Nigh nigh. (no.  rain.  Birds.  sleeping).


-------

On Monday, the library had a baby storytime program for kids aged 12 months -24 months.  Amelia and I took Gemma and she loved it as usual.  We were back at the library today for big kid storytime (which, I had wrong, it wasn't today.).  Gemma made a beeline straight for the storytime room.  When she found that it was locked, she turned around to me and asked, "Door?".

I tried to explain storytime was all done.  Not happening today.  She wasn't buying it.

Just then, she spied one of our favorite librarians walk by.  She is the one who leads the baby storytime.

Gemma made a beeline for her, grabbed her hand, and dragged her to the storytime door.  After physically putting the librarian's hand on the door, she stood back and looked up at the librarian with wide eyes in anticipation.  The librarian thought this was hilarious.  Which is good, because Gemma did it over and over again.  And again.

I'm glad our kids love storytime.

-------

After Gemma was sleeping this afternoon, I sat down with Amelia to read some books together.  She read the first book to me and I read the second book to her.  The second book was a Mo Willems book.  I put everything dramatic I had into reading the book and was enjoying myself very much.

When I was done reading, we had the following conversation:
Mama: I liked that book!  It was so funny!  Did you think that book was funny Amelia?
Amelia: (big sigh) Did you hear me laugh?  I didn't laugh because it really wasn't that funny mom.


If this it what I get at 5, I cannot wait until this child is 13.

Pick pocket

Yesterday I was putting Gemma down for a nap in her room.  I like a few minutes of quiet cuddling before putting her in her bed.  She was not in the mood for that yesterday.  I could have kept my hands on a (insert a slippery, wriggly animal here) more easily.  Every time I got her settled in for a few minutes, she would throw herself backwards or wriggle sideways while twisting her torso to the side.

Finally I just set her gently in her bed and tucked her in.

Mama: Good night Gemma
Gemma: (big belly laugh)
Mama: What's so funny?
Gemma: (holds up my cell phone, which had previously been tucked into my back pocket.)