Our Kids

We have some great neighbors who have a couple of girls aged 7 and 10.  Last Friday night we made an Asian feast between the two of us.  I made homemade wontons that turned out fantastic.  Earlier in the week I had also made some seitan for the first time and used that in the wontons and the stirfry I made.  Erin and I also made sushi in the form of california rolls.  We made both types the one with seaweed on the outside and with rice on the outside.  It was loads of fun and quite a feast when we got it all finished.

So as we converged at Erin’s house to eat, Piper took her place on my lap and Lela on Jason’s and we chowed down. Erin had some training chopsticks and she gave them to Piper since Piper wanted my chopsticks.  I’ll be darned if she did not pick those up and go to town.  She picked up noodles, veggies, wontons and even edamame with those buggers.  I have to admit I was quite amazed that she got the hang of it so quickly and was so good at it.

We had our checkup at the cardiologist yesterday.  After a tense 20 min or so we got her settled in for her EKG, Echocardiogram and blood pressure tests.  Jason had to lay on a hospital bed in the most uncomfortable position while holding Lela.  She stayed still for almost a half an hour while the doctor did all the tests.  She was very good and very happy.  There was an Elmo video going and a life-sized (for them) Dora and Elmo that mommy made sing and dance and tell stories until she was settled.  Piper enjoyed the whole thing sitting on a chair with giant Elmo at her side.  I think she was just glad it wasn’t her on the table and I am sure Jason was wishing it was me, and that he brought an extra shirt since Lela had cried and snotted on the one he was wearing.

The good news is that they could not find the VSD on the echo (which is like an ultrasound).  Her EKG was perfectly normal and of course her blood pressure was good as soon as she calmed down.  The doctor could hear a murmur that he said sounds like a VSD but he could not see it on any of the pictures.  Some funny blood flow that might be a VSD but he can’t be sure.  So the great news is that she is fit as a fiddle and we will go back in 2 years to check again.  It causes her no pain and does not interfere with her running, jumping or any activity.

Today we went out for breakfast and the girls ordered their own plate of mini pancakes.  That was a first so Jason and I ended up with way too many adult pancakes to finish.  Its funny when some little birds have been eating off your plate you don’t realize how much food they eat and how much you have leftover when they get plates of their own.  After breakfast we went to the deserted mall play area which quickly got crowded.  But Lela was very outgoing (for Lela), she actually played near some other children after watching them for about 20 minutes.  I felt proud of her progress.

After the play area and walking around the mall a bit we headed to Build A Bear.  Where the girls got to pick out their very own animal, stuff it, put a heart in it, wash it, clothe it and name it.  Of course they did not pick a bear, they picked BIG BIRD.  So now we have our very own stuffed Big Birds, one with an Arizona Wildcat shirt and one with an Its a Boy! shirt.  It was fun but crowded and mommy and daddy were getting very hot.  Check out the flickr site to see all the action.

Well yesterday I was apparently very very hungry for some humble pie.  That is what the girls served up all day long.  Every so often you have one of those days where it all falls in to place.  You are having fun, the girls are learning, they are eating well, the sun is shining and you think to yourself smugly, “I have got this parenting thing down, I am so AWESOME!”  And that is where it all starts to go wrong.  Sure enough as soon as the sun on that day sets and you are patting yourself on the back, the kids start scheming.

Yesterday I could not do a thing right.  The wrong food, the wrong fun, the wrong clothes, you can’t catch a break.  One wants this, for a just a second and then she wants that, then this, then that, then this until you feel like your head is going to explode if you don’t scream at them.  Well most times I can control the urge to scream at someone (maybe that is why I got a dog:) but by the end of the day I am so exhausted and so are the girls.  So here is one to me, don’t be a moron and think you are blowing sunshine up the arse of the parenting gods because you ain’t.  Eat some humble pie, kiss the girls and go outside to play.

Okay so that is a class they are teaching at the Community Center that I want to take but it is full (which stinks for me but is good for all those parents that are taking the time to take it).  So I have been scouring books and reading online to make sure that we don’t just horse around all day without actually learning something while we are playing.  I have a list of about 22 or so activities that are good for learning and fun.  That is on top of playdoh, imaginary play and all the other things we do like puzzles, blocks etc.

Today we learned to blow bubbles through a straw into water, then I added dish soap after they showed me they would not drink the water.  Then we really blew bubbles.  This taught them about how to blow soft for little bubbles and hard for big bubbles.  This is supposed to help their language skills by making the blowing face and doing “w” and other letters.  Then we also learned to walk sideways, backwards, stand on one foot, ribbit like a frog, sidle like a crab and other fun motor skills.  I like adding new things to our routine to make sure we don’t get bored.

Last weekend we painted different signs for red, blue, green and yellow for the playroom.  The girls can readily pick out 10+ colors; red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, black, brown, white and gray.  They can also do the sign and say all the colors.  They are getting more and more fun everyday.

We have made much progress in the bath department over the last couple months.  Lela will actually bathe without any clothes on which hasn’t happened since she was about 1 year old.  She still won’t let me wash her hair without TONS of drama but we are working on it.

Piper has always been fish-like in the water.  She can blow bubbles and sticks her head under and when you want to wash her hair you just dump a bucket on her head and she closes her eyes and laughs and laughs.   Well last night we were having a humdilly of a bath time when the girls were standing up and playing.  Then Piper got a funny look on her face and then she squatted and I thought, hmmmmmm I wonder if she is going to pee.  Well she did not pee, she started to poo.

What was I to do?  I hoisted Lela out lickety split and then let Piper finish her business.  Then it was fun time.  After getting Piper out of the tub we had to let it drain all the way out and then pick up the poo package and put it in the toilet so we could flush it away.  Needless to say I was a bit grossed out but did not show it.  Piper was fascinated by the whole experience.  Now every time Lela goes into the bathroom she looks in the tub and says PooPoo.  I sure hope this doesn’t set her back again, she was not fascinated, I think she was rather appalled at the whole incident.  HA!

This happened a week or so ago but I kept forgetting to post about it.  Piper got her first black eye.  Now it wasn’t too noticeable because like her mom she has an olive complexion that looks kind of green in the winter with darker bits under the eye, so it was kind of like nature’s cover up.  But here is what happened.

For Christmas she got a cup from Disney that has a water filled part on the bottom with Tigger in it and some glitter.  So like any two year old would she would just shake and shake and shake it to see Tigger and the glitter.  I have a question here, what sane person would put a snowglobe type thing in the bottom of a childs cup?  A complete moron is the answer.  Anyhoo, Piper was shaking her cup away and hit herself square in the eye, ala black eye P.

The iMac is in the shop and it will be about 5-7 days before we get it back (you care about this because w/o our iMac we’re too lazy to do pictures).

So, in the meantime… I put together a Flickr Set of my favorite pictures of the girls together… you can view the slideshow here.