Someone is turning 5 today!

Happy birthday Amelia Ann!

Amelia funny

At lunch, I was helping attempting to help Gemma with her cup.  She was insisting on doing it herself and making a giant mess.  While I was trying to prevent milk from coating every single surface in the kitchen, Amelia had this conversation with me:

Amelia: Mom! Mom!
Mom: Whaaa... Gah!  Gemma!  No! Stop! Here!  Let me helppp...argh! No! Let! GO! Blech! (wipes face).  Sorry.  What did you need Amelia?
Amelia: I just finished drinking my juice.  It was delicious.
Mama: Oh?  GEMMA! Wait!  Stop!  Here, I'll hold.....fine.  Do it yourself.  Yes that's right....NO. STOP!  You can't....well.  You just did.
Amelia: Now I'll say it in English so you can understand me (she says this to me like we are having a normal everyday conversation and I am not wrestling with a giant, slippery, stubborn, shrieking, desiring independence type octopus).

Mama: Sure.
Amelia: I just finished drinking my juice.  It was delicious.  See?  Now you can understand me because I told you the words in English. You didn't understand me before because I was speaking in Spanish.
Mama: You were?
Amelia: I WAS!  Isn't that great?
Mama: It was (I have no option but to agree here because while I am certain she was speaking English both times, I was so distracted, I have no idea what else was said or what I missed in wrangling Gemma.).

Backwards Facing Navigational System

This is a compilation of a few things I have been noticing recently that I haven't had a chance to write down yet.  Better late than never, right?


1.  Background: This was in January.  On Fridays, Amelia attends a Spanish class at her preschool for an hour.  We drop her off and then pick her up just a short while later.  Usually I drop Amelia at preschool on a Tues/Thursday and then bring Gemma to our sitter's house.


Gemma and I walked out of the preschool and I juggle her around in my arms to unlock the car.

Gemma: Baby?
Mama: Baby? (I look and do not see any babies around.  The door is open and I start buckling Gemma in her carseat).
Gemma: Go! Go! Baby! (Points out the window).

Suddenly, I realize Gemma is referencing our sitter's granddaughter, whom Gemma refers to as "baby".   Unfortunately, we don't have plans to see them today and Gemma is now quivering with excitement about seeing her baby friend.  I try to explain to her we aren't going there, but it isn't sinking in.

It doesn't sink in until we leave the preschool and turn right instead of left.  The instant we turn right (to go home) instead of left (to go to the sitters house), she is screaming and crying : "NO!  NO!"  "NO!  GO BABY! NO!"

This is crazy to me that at 19 months while sitting in a carseat facing the rear of a vehicle, Gemma can determine the direction we are driving.  Absolutely crazy.



2.  We go to the library a lot.  Once a month the local library has a baby story time in which one of our favorite librarians reads books, leads some rhymes, and sings a few songs.   One of the songs we do every single time is called "Shake and Stop".  The whole group of kiddos are given little tiny maracas.  The song starts and tells the kids to shake their instruments in different ways.  Then it tells them to stop.  Which is totally hilarious to observe.  The parents are trying to stop the noisy shakers and the kids just want to keep on making noise.  The silence only lasts for a few beats and then the shaking starts up again, a pattern which is repeated several times before the song is over.

When we went to story time in January, I noticed that Gemma was able to stop shaking on her own.  I figured it out by accident as I had Amelia and William with me.  I was distracted by something and couldn't get to Gemma in time to quiet her shakers.  But, she did it on her own.

This might not sound like a big deal, but this is HUGE.  This is massively huge because this is the first sign that Gemma is starting to exhibit self control and regulation.  A whole lotta exciting child development has to happen before self regulation occurs.  And it IS exciting.  This child will someday be able to control her impulse to climb the refrigerator and resist eating toothpaste.  It won't be today or even this month (year?), but it is coming.

As the second pause in the song approached, I held my breath to see what would happen.  I was surprised and proud : Gemma held her shakers close to her chest to quiet them.

Uh oh

We learned several new things over our spring break trip to Minnesota:

1. Amelia has grown a lot this winter. I knew she was bigger, but none of her swimsuits from last summer fit her at all. Of course, that is all we had with us to swim! She didn't seem to be bothered by the snugness of the suit, but on my list of things to do is pack away the too small ones and locate the ones I got on clearance last fall.

2. Who knows what was supposed to go here?

3. Gemma can crawl out of her crib. With her sleep sack on (it doesn't have legs. That should make it harder to climb anything. Anywhere). I should clarify here: I have noticed for awhile now that Gemma has been CAPABLE of crawling out of her crib. She scales the couch and all kids of equipment at the park. I knew she could climb out of her crib. She hadn't until this week. I heard a noise and when I went to check on my sleeping baby, I was greeted by her smiling face instead.


Update: huge relief as this skill doesn't seem to have transferred to her crib here at home.

William and his buddy

We went to Quarry Hill to check out their new dinosaur exhibit. On the way in, we were greeted by some very friendly stick bugs. I was very shocked when William agreed to hold one on his jacket. He was careful and gentle, not at all nervous. He is so surprising sometimes! We are very proud!

Spring break fun

As part of our Minnesota spring break, we went with grandpa and grandma to a waterpark near the Mall of America. We let Grandpa and grandma tell the kids - they were so excited!

Of course, the kids were so excited about the hotel room. It had 2! Sets! Of! Bunk beds! Each kid got to sleep on a top bunk- even Amelia was allowed to sleep on the top bunk. Our family rule is that there is no sleeping on the top bunk until 5 years old. Seeing as her birthday is in another 2 weeks, she was allowed. She was BEAMING and handled it wonderfully. As an added bonus, the bunk beds were in a separate room with a TV, so the kids could wake up early without waking the baby. Or mom and dad.

The waterpark was so much fun. There was a lot of attractions that William and Amelia enjoyed and there was a few things for Gemma too. There were several things for bigger kids as well- a surfing section and some bigger waterslides we avoided.

The hardest part was having 2 parents and 3 non swimmers. Keeping track of everyone and having everyone happy was a little challenging.

Interestingly, Gemma wanted NOTHING to do with any of the water fun for the first hour. She did not want to be out down and wanted to be as far away from the water as possible. She hated the lazy river and moved to a deck chair when I tried to sit with her at the edge of the pool. However, after about an hour, she was ready and back to her old self. She wanted to do everything. She wanted to slide, splash and climb. We went down the same slides over and over and over again. I don't have a video, but I know grandpa does have adorable video of her sliding. We will have to work on getting that put up here.

So behind

I have some things on my mind that I would love to get down here.

I haven't worked out in a month and it is time to get back to keeping healthy.

The kids started soccer. We had to buy soccer supplies while in Minnesota last week. The guy at the store thought I was a little crazy when I said our soccer outdoor program starts this week. The soccer field in Minnesota was still covered by 2 feet of snow.

We made a whirlwind trip to Minnesota. We found out we could make it work on Tuesday afternoon and left town Wednesday morning. We were home again Sunday at dinner time in order to jump feet first into this new week.

The summer calendar is calling. I have plans. Big plans. I need an hour to sit down with a giant calendar and all my plans to see if I can jigsaw them all into our shorter summer (snow days=more school into our summer).

Gemma is frustrating and adorable. All at once. I want to tell you about it.

Amelia is almost 5 and is just beside herself with happiness and all the new things she will get to do when she turns 5. Soon. I'll get to it soon.

William is growing like crazy. He suddenly announced that he "isn't really into dinosaurs anymore, I like Legos now." Immediately after he made this epic announcement, he sat down and read a dinosaur encyclopedia for almost an hour. I had to peel him away from it and put it away on the shelf in order to have him eat dinner. He has also recently made a request for his own room. We're working on it.

It was St Patricks day. We are green stuff. The kids think John and I are...crazy. We might be.

Finally, the picture is documenting the largest amount of legroom I have had on a car trip in many years. The black bag is pressed up against the back of the seat in front of it as is the canvas tote bag.