Valentine's Day

Zac and I awoke Valentine's morning to the wonderful sound of our kids playing together. We have Alice very well trained to read books in her room on weekend mornings, until she hears Simon, then she can go in his room and play with him. Their happy playing is what usually wakes us up on weekends, but sometimes Alice will do something to make Simon upset or cry.

This morning, the kids were both singing the "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song, and I could watch them on the spy camera and see that Simon was using his owls as the monkeys. Then, when the song lyrics indicated that the monkey fell out of bed and bumped his head, he would hurl the owl out of his crib. Then he would say, "How many left?" and he and Alice would say, "Two!" or whatever the right answer was, then go on with the song. Once all the owls/monkeys were out of the bed, Alice would conduct surgery on them, repair their broken heads, and send them flying back into Simon's crib, where the song would begin again. I tried to make a movie of this, but unfortunately the sound did not record for some reason, and I didn't realize this until I'd already uploaded the four minute video. Also, as always, by the time it occurs to me to make a video of something, the activity is winding down anyway.  You just have to trust me that it was the cutest thing ever.

Once everybody was up, we let the kids open their "Valentine's Surprises" as we called them.

After they opened their presents, we had pink scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Then, soon, Grayson came over for a playdate. We got out the bouncy house, which the kids took to a new level when Alice figured out they could elevate it on the couch and have a slide. Sliding didn't work, of course, by they soon figured out that rolling did.

It's always fun to have Grayson over and imagine what it would be like to have three kids. It's really not much more work than two, for a three-hour playdate, anyway. If I could magically have another four year old right now, I'd probably say yes, but there's no way I'm voluntarily going through pregnancy and those first few years again. 

For the most part, the kids did a great job playing together. Whenever there were disputes, I tried to urge them towards solving the problems themselves rather than figuring it out for them. My favorite part was where Alice and Grayson invented a game where he, wearing her superhero cape, was taken by Alice to each closet and room in the house where he had to fight the "bad guys" and be her "saver." It was a fun activity that kept them busy for a while, but at the same time I was surprised she was already so aware of the role of damsel in distress. Why couldn't they fight the bad guys together? Maybe I need to get more than one superhero cape.

After lunch, Grayson went home and we gave our kids naps. When they woke up, they got to eat apple halves and watch videos for a while. Alice's current favorite program is the Octonauts. 

After they'd played for a bit, Zac revealed Valentine Surprise #2: Their first real lego sets!

Window-cling progress

My parents have been sending the kids holiday-themed window-clings for as long as we can remember. In the beginning, they mostly ended up on the floor, balled up, collecting debris from the carpet. So it's been fun to see Alice progress over the years, to finally being able to make patterns and decorate with them.

This creation, below, she calls her "Heart Castle."

Simple Saturday, with cupcakes

On Saturday, it was sunny but very cold by North Carolina standards (high of 30). So we kept it simple. After breakfast and a morning snack, Zac and Simon went to Kroger to get groceries, while Alice and I went to the library to get a fresh batch of books.

Alice is really into the Avengers right now, so she was super excited that I had requested two Avengers books. Usually I just pick books off the shelf (a long and arduous process) but every once in a while, I will use the library search engine and request a bunch of books. It saves time, but since I can't personally vet the books (pictures, storyline, words-per-page) it can be kind of hit or miss. I have to say I'm getting better at judging a book by its cover, though, and I'm also able to find authors of other books that we've enjoyed, so there is a way to increase my chances of getting decent books.

After we got back from the library, Alice and I made a batch of cupcakes. Then after lunch and naps, Zac and the kids put frosting on them.

Bath masks

The kids had fun playing in the bath with their masks on tonight. Alice bravely even practiced putting her face in the water. It's good to know she finally has the idea of holding her breath!

School Valentine's Party

Alice had been looking forward to her school Valentine's day party for weeks, and she'd been planning to wear this outfit (note her "superpowers" around her wrists) for just as long. What was interesting was that in the weeks preceding the party, every time we picked out clothes, she would think out loud about whether or not she could wear this dress and have it washed again in time to wear for her party. I like that she knows she needs to plan things out, since I'm always on the lookout for emerging executive function skills.

When the kids got home from school, we made them wait until after supper to open their loot.

Owls in a bus

One time, I put Simon's three owls in the bus so he could drive them around. Now, on many mornings before school, he will load them into the school bus, then take them out when he gets home. He calls the owl in front the "engine" and the owl in back the "caboose." 

Simon at school

When Zac picks the kids up, he always gets Simon first, and then Simon might play in Alice's class for a few minutes while Alice is getting bundled up.

Here is Simon in his own class. He always seems so happy. When I (Sera) pick the kids up, I always get Simon last. Alice runs into the room and says, "Simon! Mommy's here!" and Simon will get a big grin, then put his work away (they are well trained at school) then run and give me the biggest smiliest hug ever. It's worth dropping the kids off every day just to see how happy they are when you pick them up.

Valentine's Preparations

On Wednesday evening, Zac and Alice got to work on putting together the Valentine's cards and heart-shaped lollipops for the kids' Valentine's day parties at school on Friday.

Meanwhile, Simon and I went into his bedroom to play his most recent favorite game of sending the yellow dog back and forth. I just love how cute and happy he is.

"Where are my superpowers?" and other stories of "Chinese Day"

Alice has been planning for Chinese Day for at least a week. It is the day her daycare celebrates Chinese New Year by having the kids make dragons and ordering Chinese take-out for lunch. This year was extra special because fashionista Alice had planned her outfit in advance. At some point, she had decided the brightly colored dress with sparkles from her dress up box (where I put any dress we receive that is too impractical for actual use) was her "Chinese dress" and she was so excited to wear it on Chinese Day. It is a summer sundress, but I just had her put a cardigan on top and pink leggings underneath to winterize it. We even practiced the outfit in advance to make sure everything fit and didn't look too ridiculous. Then, over the weekend, as Chinese Day drew closer, we were killing time in Simon's room and our little Pandora asked, "What's in that box?" It held a bunch of hand-me-down ribbons and hair bows from Zac's cousin Ella. Alice said, "Perfect! I can wear these for Chinese Day!" She selected one that didn't really match, but it was brightly colored, so it fit the theme, anyway. Then she noticed some hair bands that had ribbons attached, and wanted to wear them. I told her she didn't have enough hair for a proper ponytail yet. She said, "No problem. I can wear them on my wrists!" and put them on, declaring they were her "superpowers." It was soon time for supper, so I packed up all the other hair things and put the ones she wanted for Chinese Day on top of her dresser.

On Monday morning, she straggled out of bed, then grabbed her clothes, then wandered around distraught saying, "I can't find my superpowers!" I had completely forgotten what she was talking about, and I kept asking, "In your dream? Did you lose your superpowers in your dream?" She was was getting increasingly concerned over her disappeared superpowers until it finally dawned on me what she was talking about. I retrieved them from the dresser top, and disaster was averted for our Chinese-dress super hero. The only other bump that morning was that when it was time to put on shoes and head out the door, she was sad because she realized she didn't have any "Chinese shoes." Alas. At the last minute, I was able to find some black shoes with a little ruffle that somehow fit the bill (thank goodness for copious hand-me-downs, or this would be a perpetually disappointed little girl).

When I picked the kids up from daycare today, Ms. Georgiana, the head of the school, told me that Alice had told her that I had bought the dress for her in India while she was still in my belly. I told Ms. Georgiania it was a hand-me-down, but that Alice was a good storyteller.

Both kids said they liked the Chinese food and were happy to have paper dragons.

And I completely failed to take pictures of any of this.

Superbowl Party

Our friends Meg and Greg had a "kid and dog friendly" superbowl party on Sunday. We decided to go for a bit, since they live just down the road from us. It turns out there were about a dozen dogs, two kids (ours) and two babies. Alice was afraid of the dogs, but Simon really liked them. We didn't get to socialize too much or watch the game (no loss in my opinion), but at least we made an effort to show up.

Alice was very clingy, because of all the dogs, so we finally had her sit at this chair at the bar so she would be elevated above the dogs. Notice she is not dangling any toes over the edge!

Jiwon's party at Marbles

Sunday morning we attended Jiwon's party at Marbles. The kids all had snacks and cake in a party room, then headed out into the museum to explore. Marbles is really fun now since both kids can fully enjoy playing, and we don't have to hover so much.

Simon doing the laundry

Simon really loves to help with the laundry now. He insists on putting it in the washer and taking it out of the dryer.

Crepes

The kids love crepes now, so Saturday morning Alice requested that I make some, but then of course both kids wanted to help.

I'm happy to report that despite their best efforts, the crepes came out just fine.

Simon is singing "Happy birthday to Big, happy birthday to Little."  Big is the bigger water balloon, and Little is the smaller water balloon.  Alice is copying Simon.

Beverage consumption

Simon wanted to try drinking out of a real cup. He made a mess, but had a lot of fun. We need to try this more, to get him on to the next stage, but we're lazy and sippy cups are so easy.

Alice is drinking her smoothie with a straw decorated to look like a firework. This was a gift from one of her friends.

Owl in my belly

Zac plays this game with Simon where he steals one of his owls and says he ate it, and then shoves it in his shirt. After Simon fusses for a minute, Zac will burp out the owl with lots of sound effects.

Simon is trying to reenact that game here, but the burp sound is on a bit of a delay.

Simon and his scissors

Simon loves cutting with scissors now. As far as I can tell, he doesn't really cut out anything, just does little snips into the paper.

Scientists and cemeteries

I was reading Alice a bedtime book about Jupiter, and we were on the section about its moons. I love how Alice will talk in all seriousness about which moon she plans to visit.  She likes Callisto, the "old sparkly one" but has no desire to go to Io because it has too many volcanoes.  She thought it was hilarious how the surface of Io was described as looking like a cheese pizza. We were having a great conversation about how Alice could develop a spacecraft to go to Jupiter's moon Europa and discover what's under the ice and if there's life there.  She first suggested there would probably be sharks, but then conceded that there would maybe just be coral. At some point in this conversation, Alice declared, "I'm going to be a scientist when I grow up."

I said, "That's a great idea."

"Will you work with me?"

I hesitated, remembering how science was always my toughest subject. "Sure," I said. "I'll ask questions and you can figure out the answers."

Alice pondered this for a moment, and then said, "Actually, mom, I think you're going to be in the cemetery by then."

I burst out laughing, which made her embarrassed, so then she said she was just kidding, and I said I planned to be alive for a long time.

Team pteranodon

I drove the kids to school today, a rare occurance, and once we were all finally buckled in the car, I said, "Ready to go, team pteranodon?" I like to quote from Dinosaur Train.

Simon said, "Yeah!"

Alice said, "Mom, humans don't fly except when they jump out of an airplane before their parachute opens."

Princess Mole

Two facts about Alice:
1. She loves to dress up as a princess with super powers.
2. She loves to dig.

This is her favorite spot to dig at school. Her teachers joke that she's either trying to escape under the fence or dig to China.

Alice's art

Ba-boo!

Simon has been playing this game with me in various forms for a very long time. The original formula was that Simon would say, "Close your eyes please, Mommy" and I would close them. Then he would say, "Open your eyes, Mommy!" and I would open them suddenly in a dramatic way and he would be startled and giggle. He would always want to play this came at the table.

Then, at some point it mutated. A week or so ago, I was laying on the couch, nearly falling asleep. Simon said he was going to sleep on the other couch, so I closed my eyes and tried to get a thirty second nap. The next thing I knew, Simon was in my face saying something, and had startled me.  And a new version of the game was born. In it's most complex form, it involves a reenactment of the initial startling event, where I have to lay on the couch and close my eyes, and then Simon will lay on the other couch, then get back up and sneak over to me (I'm pretending to sleep) and then shout "Ba-boo!" right in my face while I pretend to be startled. We do this over and over.

So then this new game got transferred back up to the table, which is documented above, where I close my eyes and Simon tries to startle me. We had already played it a dozen times before I started the video, so this is a more subdued version.