Marbles

Because daycare was going to be closed on Monday, and we're anticipating a snow day on Tuesday, we decided to go somewhere on Sunday also, just to get the kids out of the house. It was too cold to go to a park, so we went to Marbles. Unfortunately, every other parent in the triangle came to the same conclusion, and Marbles was really crowded.

We usually split up with the kids, since they do very different things.  I started with Alice, and we went to the exercise area.  She was so happy because she could pull herself up using this pulley system.

She enjoyed bouncing on the trampoline.

She did a good job waiting in line to use the rings.

Simon, meanwhile, demonstrated he is not afraid of heights.

It was exciting because this was Simon's first time at Marbles since he has been able to walk, so he wasn't confined to just the baby areas anymore.

He loved playing with the trains, and I'm pretty sure I heard him making vehicle noises.

Alice could have played at the water table all day long.

You're supposed to use the tongs to put blocks in the ice-cube trays.  Simon just grabbed all the pincers.

Simon used to take a nap in the stroller after being at Marbles for an hour.  This time, we just gave him his pacifier for a while and he kept on playing.

Simon loved this wall painted with lady bugs on the grass. He walked along it pointing at each lady bug.

The farm animals and pig trough provided endless entertainment for both kids.  Alice rode on all the animals, and spent a lot of time rearranging the stuffed animals.  Simon liked playing with the balls and even got in the trough.

How you know it's time to go home:

Side note: Alice is the one who put all the baby stuff pigs under the big pig so they could suckle.

Darwin Day

Saturday was also Darwin Day at the science museum.  We had all planned to go, but Simon was still coughing a lot and I was still feeling sick and achy, so we stayed home and just Zac and Alice went. These special events at the museum are so fun because they always have lots of children's activities and booths set up throughout the museum.

Zac reports that although Alice was afraid of the assembled skeleton (probably due to its resemblance to a mannequin), she was not the least bit timid when presented with a table full of bones.

She even took a bony hand and started crawling it up him.

Valentine's Day

Alice had been looking forward to Valentine's Day before the Christmas season was even over.  It's a little unclear why, other than she kept saying, "That's when hearts come out."  So I got the kids each a heart-shaped box.  Alice's has gummies inside, and Simon's has chocolates.  The blue shark on the front is for his blue fish obsession, although he didn't seem to notice.

This picture above is included just to show how atrocious Alice's fake smile is.  She looks like a demented rat. Luckily, her real smile is pretty cute.

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In the afternoon, Zac taught Alice how to make cut-out cookies and we decorated them after supper.

Alice pretty much just licks the frosting off the cookie and has no interest in eating it.

She is always upset by the fact that she only gets one, but at least she didn't have breakdown like last year.  Here, she lovingly gazes out over the frosted cookies, envisioning which one she will lick next.

Sick day with Simon

At the end of the day Thursday, I got a call from daycare that Simon had a fever. That meant he would have to stay home Friday, so I quickly put together some plans for the sub.  I like having sick days home with the kids, but it is rather inconvenient, since I'm still in debt on leave days at work, and Zac is super busy since his job promotion, and can't get off very easily anymore.  But, it is what it is, so I just enjoy the time with the kids.

This was like a typical sick day, where the kid is not actually that sick.  However, I got the same bug Simon did, and felt pretty lousy all day.  Luckily, Simon was in good spirits and was easy to take care of.

When I went in to get him in the morning, he was saying, "Uh-oh" because he had taken the sleep sheep off the side of his bed.  I love how kids tell on themselves.

Simon is starting to understand the idea of hiding, and he likes to hide behind this chair or under his bed.

Simon's latest obsession is playing with the remote for the color-changing lightbulb in his bedroom.  He calls the remote "yellow" because it can change colors, and all colors are yellow.

He also loves playing with tissues, and will go through a whole box if you don't intervene in time.

He played with the popcorn maker for a good part of the morning. He likes to open the lid and put the little bag of popcorn inside, then close it, then open it, then take it out again. Repeat.

Ok blog readers, now is the time to heat up your lunch or grab a snack and enjoy dining with Simon. This video is nearly nine minutes long, but he's so adorable the whole time that I couldn't bear to truncate it.  I took the video because this was the first time he really did a good job of eating with a fork. We might civilize this child yet.

We have this little broom and dustpan in the kitchen and make Alice sweep up the mess on the floor under her chair after she eats.  Simon, ever observant, has taken to sweeping the floor (and occasionally the oven) just like his big sister.

All in all, it was a lovely day home with my dear Simon.

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Alice had a good time at her Valentine's party at school. She was so excited to show me all the treats in her treat bag, and was in good spirits all evening.

Bathing beauties

Alice loves playing with Zac's rubber gloves in the bath.  When she fills them up with water they look like chubby purple hands. I find it creepy.

Valentine's cars

Alice's class is having their Valentine's party on Friday, and they're supposed to give cards and a little treat or toy to their classmates.  Zac had the idea of giving these hotwheel's cars, so on Wednesday night, he and Alice got to work turning the top part of the package into a Valentine's card.

Alice does not put much thought into her artwork yet. She just loves smearing glue everywhere and scribbling, so Zac had to do a lot of supervising to make sure these were not a total mess.  The hearts and flowers are from some paper-cutting tool they have at school. Alice had been bringing baggies of them home, so I saved them and she re-used them on the cards.

Simon saw the art supplies come out and started crying for crayons.  He loves crayons, because they are little sticks you can draw with. He's not very good at coloring yet, and mostly just puts the crayons in and out of the bag, drops them everywhere, picks them up, etc.  He calls every color "yellow."

Simon at the chalkboard

Zac usually picks up the kids since the daycare is very close to his work and right on his way home, but about once a week I try to get them.  It's easier to pick up Alice first, but sometimes Simon sees me through his window, so then I have to get him first, like today.  When we went to Alice's classroom, I talked with her teacher for a few minutes, so I put Simon down. He went right over to the chalkboard and got to work.

AV watching TV

On the weekends, after her nap, we often let Alice watch an episode of Dora.  This is our way of allowing her to watch shows, but not having her whine for them all the time, because she knows she will watch them at a certain time.  Plus, it often coincides with the time we are cooking supper and finishing up the laundry, so it's nice to have the electronic babysitter take care of her for a bit.

Usually she sits on the couch, or stands up, but today I noticed her sitting a bit too close.  She has been desperate for snow all winter, and we haven't even had a dusting, so I think she is trying to merge herself into the snowy scene on the TV.

Bond Park Play Date

On Friday at daycare, Zac picked up the kids at the same time as two of Alice's good friends' parents were picking up their kids, Anna and Grayson. The kids started playing a bit in front of the school.  Zac was talking to the parents, and one suggested an informal playdate at Bond Park on Sunday morning.  A few e-mails later, we had it arranged to meet at the boat dock at 10:30 a.m.  And I actually remembered to bring bread to feed the ducks for the first time ever.  

Simon could not have been happier seeing all the seagulls flying around.

Grayson, Alice, and Anna had fun feeding the buns to the birds and ducks.

We had to walk through the woods to get to the playground, and the kids came across a fort.

They decided to fortify it some more.

These first two videos are actually just two angles of the same log-carrying event.

They worked at putting big logs on the fort for a long time.  Then they all had a snack together inside.  I was a bit worried it would collapse on them, but luckily it didn't.

Then we all walked over to the playground.

Simon liked playing in the tunnel and going down the slide.

The kids loved playing in this little house connected to the sandbox.

All four kids really loved the swings.  And they all cried when it was time to go home.

It was so fun watching the kids interact throughout the morning.  They get along really well and are finally able to actually play with each other, rather than by themselves or with the parents.  Grayson and Anna are only-children, so there were six adults hovering over 3 1/2 kids, which I found to be a bit intense at times (since my method of parenting--in public anyways--is to only intervene if there's imminent danger or really bad behavior).  But we really like this set of parents, so it was a lot of fun because we got to visit with them while the kids were playing in the woods.  We did all joke a bit about how a generation earlier, the kids would have been playing in the woods completely unsupervised.  I wouldn't consider any of us helicopter parents, and in fact we're all pretty laid back, but it's just how it is these days that respectable parents can't let their kids run off into the woods.

Pond and park

Zac took Alice to the pond this morning while I went on a walk with Simon in the stroller.  I'm not sure how it happened, but she fell in a muddy puddle.

After my walk, I met up with Zac and Alice and we all went to the park.  Simon still wanders around a lot, but he really likes the slide and swings.

I think he's saying "Up-a whee" at the end.  Translation: "Get me up the slide so I can go 'Whee!' again!"

Two of my favorite things

Simon with his treasured flag and beloved "blue fish."  He walks around with these all the time.

Bad choices

During supper sometime this week, Zac and I were discussing when Alice might move up to the next room, because we know of one kid who is leaving to go to another daycare.

Alice chimed in with, "I can't go to the big class until I make better choices."

Zac and I stopped talking and looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

Alice noticed our response, and suddenly became aware she had just ratted on herself.  She immediately started backpedaling: "It doesn't mean anything.  Mom, dad, it doesn't mean anything.  Bye-bye."  And she turned her head away.

We started asking some follow up questions.  "Alice, what bad choices did you make?"

Alice immediately started talking about all the bad things her nemesis/scapegoat Max did. (Sometimes I suspect we're in one of those child-based horror films where at some point it will be revealed that Max is not a naughty boy at daycare, but really Alice's alter-ego.)

Zac got out his serious voice and said, "No, we don't want to know what Max did. We want to know what you did.  What were Alice's bad choices?"

Alice then easily started rattling off a list of offenses: "I was running into people on the playground, knocking them down, not sharing, not sitting down..."

Zac then gave her a brief lecture on behaving and getting along with people at school.  Alice started getting antsy, and when things seemed to be winding down, she interrupted with, "Are you done now?"

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The next night, as I was putting Alice to bed, I asked Alice what bad choices she had made at school that day.  Now that we know what language to use to ask the question, the flood gates are open. Once again, the information came pouring forth: "I was pushing Anna, I was hurting Anna's fingers, I had to sit down. A hundred times they told me to sit down...."

I gave Alice a lecture on the importance of being kind.

At the end, Alice said, "I don't like being kind. I don't want to be kind."

Then she whispered some weird incantations into her pillow.  I'm telling you: Horror film foreshadowing.

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Another night this week, I was trying to wrangle Alice into her pajamas.  After her bath, when she is still naked, she always likes to wrap herself up in her soft purple bed blanket.  The problem is, she wants to curl up in a ball on the floor, and doesn't want to put on her pajamas.  Some nights I have the patience and energy to deal with this, and other nights I'm a bit brusque.  This was a brusque night. But Alice was in no mood to be removed from her purple blanket ball, and she started screaming at me, "You're not my friend anymore!" She must have picked this phrase up on the school playground.

But I was nonplussed, and retorted calmly, "That's OK, because I'm not your friend. I'm your mom and you're my daughter."

Alice then started screaming, "I'm not your daughter. I'm only daddy's daughter!  I'm not your daughter!"

I told her she should start calling me "Sera" then, if she wasn't my daughter.

Well, she kept calling me "Mama" and eventually calmed down once I got all the pajamas on and we had a pleasant story time.

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So, of course I don't really think we're in a horror film, but Alice has certainly shown a new side of herself this week.  We're predicting the teenage years are going to be rough.

Simon Sad and Simon Happy

Simon is starting to fuss a lot more when he doesn't get what he wants.  Here, he is crying because we had to put away his beloved (one might even say "precious") blue fish, so that he could eat supper.

But most of the time, he is still our beloved, and definitely precious, giggly, happy Simon.

Revenge of the Dinotrux

Before I had kids, I imagined reading books would be one of my most cherished times.  And it is, sort of. But I failed to realize two things: Excellent children's books are actually kind of hard to find, especially when hurriedly and randomly pulling books off a shelf at the library while screaming kids are all around (possibly one of them mine).  And what I had also failed to realize is that when I do bring a book home from the library that Alice really likes, she wants to read it Every. Single. Night.  Usually she's get a attached to a book for a week or so, but this one, I swear it was at least three weeks straight. I guess she liked this book so much because she likes trucks and dinosaurs and impending doom.  And the book ended with the Dinotrux building the kids a playground.  She loved looking at the playground page at the end, and would be very upset if you closed the book too soon.

Trips to the library are often prompted by the fact that we cannot stand to read the same book one more time.

Mannequins and blouses

Every morning, Alice comes into my bathroom and finds this picture in The Atlantic. Alice has always been terrified of mannequins, but they've been featured more prominently since we went to the mall a few months ago.  She loves talking about this picture.  "Mom, look, the mannequin is going to put on the happy head!"  But she also has lots of questions.  "Why does the mannequin have two heads?  Why is one sad and one happy? Why is the mannequin going to put on the happy head?"  She never questions the pink hair though.

Alice got this blouse for Christmas from Grandma Shogren, and since it's been hanging in her closet, she's been bugging me to wear it.  I kept telling her to wait for a warm day, since the material is kind of thin and breezy.  Finally a warm day arrived, and I let her wear it with her beloved purple jeans.

Here she is when Zac picked her up at school, cutting hearts out of construction paper with some special heart-shaped cutting machine.  But I think it was a rough day, because when I asked her if everyone liked her blouse, she immediately got defensive and said, "I don't want to talk about my blouse."  So my guess is she got a lot of comments, and even though she loves attention, she also can get shy about it.  She never explained it, but that's my best inference based on her reaction to my question.

Blue fish and bouncing

Well, we eventually recovered from the mess on Saturday, although as I write this my show Downton Abbey is about to start in 6 minutes and there are still piles of unfolded laundry on the bed, and baskets of un-put-away laundry stashed in the hallway, so there really is no hope.  But we keep chugging along, making new messes and new piles of laundry, and documenting it all.

Alice and Zac in their hoodies.  Simon saw me taking that picture and started smiling and saying "EEEE" so of course I had to take his picture, because there's no such thing as too much of that smile!

Although Simon is doing OK with drinking his milk, albeit from a glorified bottle, he seems like he would be happier drinking coffee.

After breakfast, we set up the bouncy house (we inherited from the Arcaro-Burbridges) for the first time.  Simon is pretty scared of it, but Alice likes it.

After Alice wore herself out jumping, and we had a couple of loads of laundry started, we went to the park because it was a nice day.

  Simon dug in the sand a bit, but mostly walked around.  It's undocumented, but Alice fell in a big puddle in the woods and walked around with wet pants for a while, so we made it a relatively short trip to the park.

Simon has become increasingly obssessed with his "blue fish"--the robot shark Cam got the kids for Christmas.  It automatically swims in the water, but if you hold it just right in your hand, you can also make the fin flick back and forth.  Simon walks around with it all day.