Crazy day

Our A/C has officially bitten the dust. So today we've had an indoor temperature of 83-86F. Needless to say, we didn't spend much time here, and have all been a little cranky because of it. We have a new unit being installed on Friday so we only have to make it through one more day of this.

We visited the dollar movies and R- very nicely took the girls to see Evan Almighty while I went to see License to Wed . G- Slept through their movie and A- liked the part where the guy kept growing a beard "God made him, but I don't know why."

Our bedtime, while of course a little edgy (86F at bedtime), had it's usual cute moments. When I tell them a bedtime story, A- always wants it to be about a bad guy taking something and she has to think what he takes. While she's thinking, G- says "bah bah" because she wants it to be a ball that he takes. Then the girl needs to have a "conversation" with the bad buy (which A- thinks means an argument) and G- says "ba ba" for the girl saying to give it back. And "no no" for the bad guy saying no. It's kind of an interactive storytelling. Meanwhile A- interjects things like "make him have a mean voice" and "make her find evidence."

Wildlife

The girls have gone to Kids Kastle two days in a row. We all went yesterday and R- went to Target and bought some picnic fixings and we ate on a picnic table. They do some serious playing, lots of climbing stairs and sliding and watching out for witches. A- has a thing about witches and bad guys and monsters these days. But she's not scared because she's a karate girl. G- has apparently graduated to be a karate baby.

They love to feed the ducks. G- gets right up to the edge and throws the piece of bread and says "dat dat" for "quack quack". It's quite a nice wildlife lesson - we see ducks, turtles, big catfish, small minnows and about a week ago there was a white egret hanging out also. We looked at the footprints from the egret in the mud and we even saw what looked kind of like a big kingfisher? I need to take my bird book with me to look up the species.

R- took them today and they were there for 3 hours. G- fell asleep in the bike trailer on the way there and slept for two hours while A- found a playmate. I cleaned some floors in the house and did yoga! We had a lovely dinner and even made peach cobbler. A lovely, peaceful evening with happy, tired kids and the whole family spending time together. It made for a relaxed bathtime and bedtime.

Pictures

Here are some pictures:

G- and A- with their babies before we left for church. Notice G-'s pigtails that got lots of oohs and ahhs at church on Sunday. She took baby and the kittycat purse too. Baby got left behind when she went up with A- to children's time but she took the purse. A- actually sat up with the other kids on the steps for the first time (and she can say "first" now instead of "worst", she catches herself and repeats if she messes up) and G- went up with her but stood in front watching. She started to go back up later in the service but I intercepted her in time.

G- at bedtime one night. Wearing A-'s pj's, with the hairband, with the baby in the sling, with the necklaces, and the bracelets. It takes awhile to strip her of the accessories so she can actually go to sleep. She reached the real toothpaste that was on the counter with the elastic arms and had the lid unscrewed while I was checking A's teeth. I can always tell when she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing, because she gets very very quiet. And then has a guilty, "am I going to get in trouble" look on her face when I finally notice.

A- polishing silver during her preschool time today which was very brief due to a distracting daddy. But she had lots of fun playing to make up for it.

Some pictures

A- with her thank you letter she sent to Laura. Notice the decorated side borders, in matching order on each side, pink, then yellow, then blue.

A- working on punching a geometric shape out with a push pin. She traced the shape from the geometric inset and then punched holes very close together with a push pin. Notice the concentration.

A- working on cards and counters. She needed help to get the number cards (1-10) in the right order (she can do 1-5 but gets confused on 6-10), she then counts out the right number of counters (flower arranging stones aka gems) underneath, making sure to match up each partner in sets of two's. She really liked this one and wanted to show daddy what she was doing.



A- made a line of trucks and cars on the counter tonight. Apparently they were all getting ice cream. G- came by and helped them move along a little faster in line!

A- is also in a writing explosion! She traces letters in the air quite often with her finger at random times (in the carseat, at church). We were riding back from the lake today and she had two "walking sticks" that she and daddy found that she crossed and said "look it's an 'x'". Yep, it sure is. At my suggestion, she then madea 'T' and an 'L' but then lost interest at 'v'. I think she couldn't remember how to do a 'v'.

She also wants to know what things spell. We were winding down at bedtime, after lights out, but before story, and she traced letters in the air and asked me what it spelled (she does this with pencil and paper also). I made the sound for each letter (pha I think it was) and she asked what that meant. Nothing, I said, but p-a-t spells 'pat.' She was fine with that, then did another one.

We were eating supper and A- was finishing a bowl of cantoloupe and says "there are 4 pieces left". I asked how many there would be when she ate one more and she did it with her fingers. So of course, not to be left out, G- holds up her fingers too and gives us her little grin.

Anyone need mail stickers?

A- just got a letter in the mail from Oma and Opa and she just wrote a lovely thank you letter with pictures and decorated sides. She said she needs a mail sticker for it (aka stamp). She wrote her name out and got every letter to look quite good except for the 'k'. She sounded it out afterward.

Preschool today was lovely... R- took G- on a bike ride for an hour so A- could work uninterrupted and she did lots of works (insets, lacing, what's missing game?, geometric solids, art 3 part cards, window cleaning, mystery bag with geometric solids). She wasn't interested in numbers or letters today but that's one of the beauties of Montessori - she works on what interests her at the time.

G- was just in here playing with her bus she got for Christmas last year, pushing it around and humming a little tune. It's close to naptime and she usually has one of two imminent naptime behaviors. She's either really cranky or really cute and plays by herself. I think she's trying to fly under the radar so no one will remember to get her down for a nap!

Some pictures from last night:

Finally, a good bedtime!

Finally, a good bedtime! With no crying from anyone, especially me! The girls are currently sleeping basically on each other in a single mattress next to my bed. At least it's better than in my bed! Although last night G- woke up saying "mama mama" and stood up and crawled up into my bed. She's so sweet though that I didn't care. A- finally had a good night last night. Her eczema itches her so bad that she wakes up and freaks out and it had been an hour several nights in a row before she'd go back to sleep. So I don't know if it was being nearer in the single mattress that made it better last night or the fact that I gave her some of the antihistamine that the pedi gave me for G-'s eczema. But I was glad!

A- asked me today on the way to La Leche League about why the rain falls, so I launched into a lovely explanation of gravity and why things fall toward the earth. So, she follows with "Then why don't the clouds fall too?" Hmm. They're light and all, but really, why don't the clouds fall too? To really explain that gets pretty complicated about fluids and bouyancy and floating. She keeps me on my toes.

And G- tries to imitate A- and me when we make letter sounds. G- points to the letters on my Ohio State t-shirt and makes letter sounds, usually "duh duh"s but I'm impressed she knows letters make sounds! She loves to turn the pages in books too and make noises for all the animals and point to and say "ball" for all the balls or anything that looks remotely circular. And of course, to sign "baby" for all the babies.

A- was showing me at bedtime today how her babydoll could stand up, she just had to hold its hands. So G- does the same thing with her baby.

A- and I played the geistlein (little goat) game that she got in Germany today while G- was napping. I beat her twice and then I read the directions and realized we were playing slightly wrong and she was well on her way to beating me the third game when she lost interest.

It's never dull!

First day of homeschool preschool

Yesterday was our official first day of school. While G- was napping, A- and I sat on the line and talked about the rules for school and we played the silence game. Then she chose to do sandpaper letters (c and m) and she traced them successfully and said the sound and wrote them in colored sand so we added "t" and "a" at her request. She can't get the sounds correct 100% of the time, but she has the idea. She then chose to do the spindle box and counted out popsicle sticks for spindles correctly but she wasn't sure about 6 through 9. She finished the very abbreviated first day with some lacing cards.

Today we babysat her neighbor friend so we didn't officially do school but she did a number tracing sheet for fun. She makes a great 4 and is getting the idea that you have to start in the same place each time and not just make marks til it ends up looking right. Hopefully that will progress with letters too. She writes lots of letters but not always in the correct order.

G- is still obsessed with babydolls and bathing suits. She's sleeping in one of A-'s bathing suits right now. She lets you know when she wants her baby by signing baby and if she's upset she signs it emphatically. She is saying da-da more, and she makes shhing noises to tell me A- is sleeping. She communicates an awful lot. She also shakes her booty like A- does, sort of, with a big smile on her face. She wants to do everything A- does, of course.

On Sunday, A- had a nametag from Sunday school and she told me about it on the way home. Pause. Then she says "It doesn't have an A for A- on it." I looked and the teacher had written the A kind of like a cursive A or a large lowercase A with a loop so it didn't look like what she's used to. I thought that was pretty insightful.

Tonight's bedtime discussion was about God. A sampling of her questions: Who wears the orange dress again? (this is referring to Jesus in the children's Bible we have) Where is God? Is God real? Does the rain get on God?

The conversation then moved to being powerful and she said she was powerful. I said but not as powerful as God and she said she was because she is a karate girl. And that she needs tennnis shoes for being a karate girl for kicking monsters.

Yesterday she said "Who are the weak ones again?" Referring to "they are weak, but He is strong" in Jesus Loves Me.

Her questions are amazing but unending. By the time R- gets back from a 3 day trip I'm usually tearing my hair out. But I love her curiosity!