Our Kids

Okay so here is a shameless call for help. The whole family is walking in the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) to raise money to find a cure. If you feel so inclined to give a buck or two please click on this link, it is for a good cause:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87169886

Thanks in advance for your generosity, c’mon it’s tax deductible:)

Well its official (not really, it won’t be official official until after 11PM tonight but I will be snoozing by then) Landis is ONE! I can’t believe it has gone by so fast. I don’t think the girls first year went by so fast but I suppose it did. The girls have changed a ton mentally but not physically this last year and I think that helps speed the time, you can barely catch up before they have learned something else. Landis has gone through a tremendous physical and mental change over the year. She is a healthy, bouncing, almost walking 22lb bundle of JOY. We should have named her JOY because that is what she is! She has her moments but only when she has a need. A lot of the time the “need” is me but I kind of like that, it offsets the constant yelling the other two throw my way. LOL! Anyway, happy birthday little angel, I am glad that you came to live in our little flower garden:)

Piper took her first official swim class this week. I say official because before if she wanted to do it okay and if not okay but this one is only her and the instructor so it was pretty much sink or swim and swim she did. Without any lessons she swam face under water kicking to her instructor like a little fish. I was amazed, I knew she was ready but I really would not have believed she would do that. Now she was upset and wanted out BUT she swam each time the instructor put her in the water. We are going to stick with it but only because it is her safety I am concerned with not her ability to swim. She is too bold in the water not to have some training. We are going back next week much to her dismay and we will take it from there.

Gymnastics went really well, both of the girls did super and really enjoyed it. It is at a big gym facility where several elite gymnasts train so it has all the cool equipment. They got to jump on the big trampoline and jump into the big pit full of foam blocks. This class is to develop their coordination and help them to fall correctly etc. They are growing and as such they lose their balance frequently, my hope for this class is that it helps them to develop a better sense of their size so they can be safer on equipment. I had planned to split them for this class but they did not want to and that was really okay with me, I want to present the opportunity to split but not force the issue.

They seem to be enjoying their preschool class on Tues and Thursdays. The other day we were playing and they said, “now who here is a good jump roper” and then the other raised her hand and her sister said, “that is great.” So they are picking up with the teacher says and so far that is all good. During the class they are learning about manners, good hygiene and the like, it is mostly a social grace type of class versus an ABC type of class. They are making the cutest little crafts that have to do with manners, I have to post some pics soon but first I have to get a new camera, errrrrrr.

We have a funny thing that runs in my dad’s side of the family, it’s the little pinky toe that sticks up. It doesn’t touch the ground, in fact it leans a little to the left on top of your other toe (on your right foot and vice versa on your left foot). It is a silly little toe that causes just enough grief as the bony knobs and bumps on the other side of your foot from my mom’s side of the family. Needless to say I would NOT have been a good foot model. Anyhoo, Piper has been telling me that her shoe was hurting her, of course they were the $50 pair of Stride Rite tennis shoes I just bought but kids grow fast. I did some investigating and it turned out that her little toe is on the upward trend to follow my little toe and my dad’s little toe. So her shoe was hurting not because it was too small but because her toe is on the move. Now when we put on her shoes we push the little toe down and she is learning to curl it under in the shoe when it hurts. Pretty soon she will have that groovy callous that we all have on that little toe, he will always be red and angry at her but in the end he will just be her cute, red, little toe that is always at attention:)

My turn!

Saturday morning, 8am, I’m off to the park with the girls for their weekly soccer extravaganza. I was a little irritated at the parking when I got there… it’s the same park where pee wee football and some sort of track meet is happening every saturday so a lot of people are trying to park. Because our girls’ class was signed up through the city of chandler, though, I’m supposed to be allowed to park in a cordoned-off area to avoid that mess. However, that little tidbit of information was not relayed to the 20-something year old kid coordinating the parking and I was turned away. Man I was annoyed. Not a good start.

Once we got to the soccer area, though, I knew more trouble was coming our way. It was already hot and we hadn’t even started yet. We start soccer off by stretching… it’s fun watching the girls follow directions, touching the left foot when it should be the right, etc… Right near the end of stretching Piper got a bit bored and seemingly chose a new mood to be in. That mood was needy. So she came and sat right with me and started hugging me. Yeah, cute, but I knew what was going on.

We did some dribbling drills which the girls are really good at. They line up with all the other kids and wait for the coach to blow her whistle. Once she does they dribble down to the goal, but their foot on the ball to stop it, then kick it into the goal. Then they run back and give me a big old hug.

We get plenty of water breaks during the 45 minutes of ‘practice’ but the girls just get worn down as the time passes. The other kids were getting beat down, too, and the coach saw it pretty early on. She resorted to the old parachute-trick… every kid loves parachutes for some reason, me included!

We all got in a circle, grabbed the parachute, and started waving it up and down with a ball in the middle. The kids got into that… and they loved it even more when the parents were doing the waving while all the kids were underneath the parachute. It had nothing to do with soccer, but it was fun nonetheless.

After the parachute time we went back to passing and dribbling but with about 10 minutes left in class our girls were just done. No interest at all… barely kicked the ball through the tunnel, and as class wrapped up the girls didn’t want to kick the ball into the goal and do their goal dance. Oh well. They did, however, walk up to their coach and high five her and say goodbye. I thought that was nice.

Went back home, later left for lunch and started prepping the girls for separation. Piper, Landis, and I were going to go to Target while Lela and Mystique went to the “instruments” as the girls called it. Piper immediately saw that she “just” got Target, but she softened a bit and was ok with things when I told her we were going to get her new goggles for swim class and a soccer ball for her and Lela to share. Lela was fairly excited about her “time with mommy” and “seeing instruments”. She tried to rub it in a bit, I think, but Piper didn’t fall for it.

Lela and Mystique left and Piper, Landis, and I hung out for a bit waiting for a load in the dryer to get done. I think we started to leave for Target around 2pm or so.

Got to Target… and that’s where my afternoon broke down. Piper saw in parking lot one of the cool carts that had the double seat in the back for toddlers… she immediately wanted to ride in one of those. I thought that sounded like a good idea but instead of picking a hot cart outside I told her we’d get one inside. That went over just “ok” — she really wanted one of the ones in the parking lot. So of course we get inside (remember it’s hot out) and see that there aren’t any of those cool carts inside. Piper gets upset… I tell her we’ll go outside and get one… so we walk back outside (it’s hot) and find one.

Turned out to be a moot point — those carts don’t have any leg holes for Landis so I refused to use one. There was no way I was going to carry around Landis and push a bigger-than-normal cart… i just couldn’t do it.

Piper had a different opinion. She. Wanted. That. Cart. “We can’t use the cart, there’s no place for Landis.” “But I want one!” “Yes, I understand Piper, but there’s no place to put Landis. Would you like to ride in the front of this cart?” “BUT I WANT THAT OTHER ONE.”

Then she sat down. Right in front of the doors in target. And started mewing and fidgeting and all those things that 3-year olds do in public.

After five minutes of that… we left. I said “Ok”, took her hand, and we walked back to the car. Frankly I was surprised that she actually walked with me, so that was nice of her.

Got back to the car… and exploded in tears and yelling “No, daddy! Go back! Go back!” Wheee! Good times. Still hot out!

I talked to her for a bit and she agreed to ride in the front of the cart. So we go back in, get eggs, cream cheese, and a soccer ball. No goggles. Luckily for me Piper didn’t focus on that.

Get back out to the car… unload the girls, head on home… and both Piper and Landis are asleep as I pull into our neighborhood. Fine by me… I whip out my iPhone and do some tech news reading, emails, etc… after about 20 minutes I figured that was enough time… pull into the garage, get out…

And I realize I left my target bags in my cart. In the parking lot. At Target. And it’s hot.

I couldn’t believe it. Went back to target, of course nobody turned in my bag… re-bought everything, and as I’m driving home I get a call from Mystique about meeting up for an early dinner. Sounded good to me! My charges had been napping for a bit, should be just fine… ran home, dropped off the target bag… and headed over to meet Mystique and Lela.

I loved seeing Piper and Lela hug when we came in the restaurant… so cute. I just wish it wasn’t so short-lived

The girls that is:) This was the first weekend of our time alone with mom or dad. Honestly I don’t think we handled it too well but we learned a lot. We did not properly prepare the girls or ourselves for the day and we pushed the limit of our kids. Jason and I fared the worst and maybe Landis because her naps got all wonky.

After a morning of soccer and playtime, Lela and I headed out to see Natalie MacMaster at the Phoenix Symphony. It was HOT, I parked in the wrong garage (which cost me an extra $7 and got me peeved) and we hoofed it over to the Herberger Center where the Phoenix Symphony plays. Once we got inside I was overwhelmed with the amount of children, it seemed to get hotter as we stepped inside and it was a madhouse. We checked out where all the events were going on and headed up to the instrument petting area where we got in line for the clarinet which is what Lela wanted to see most.

We stood in the line for an eternity (literally) as we watched the violin line zip through and even the flute line. The kids actually got to play the instruments so it took for freaking ever. Parents behind us started to get antsy and as parents do grumpy, they were crowding up on me trying to get their kids to play the instruments, it was getting hotter and after standing in line for an HOUR the lights dimmed for us to go in. It was Lela’s turn so I had been standing there sucking her reed and we finally got up to the instrument and Lela got serious stage fright. So after all that I learned a valuable lesson, I should have known she would not play it and never stood in that line, she did not care and I had gotten all ratcheted up for nothing. Thank goodness I was only steaming on the inside and not the outside like other parents.

I had to scoop Lela up and run downstairs as fast as I could to get to our seats on the main floor. We had great seats. The symphony started just as we sat down. Lela covered her ears because she doesn’t like things to be loud but after a few bars of music she uncovered them and started to tap her foot. She really enjoyed it with the fiddle player came out. I really enjoyed it too. About half way through she wanted to go. We made it 3/4 of the way through and then I decided we would just go, no need to make her stay if she was done. So we happily left the hall and headed back to the car.

In my mind I was saying, “you know I should have just taken her to get bagels” and other such things. I mean it was fun but a lot of work for me and it was damn hot out. As these thoughts ran through my head, my beautiful, perfect, unique, almost 4 year old looked up at me and said, “Thanks mommy, that was fun, I really enjoyed it.” All of the sudden the beauty of the day was clear and I was so touched by her spontaneous thank you.

We texted Jason that we were leaving and headed to meet him and the rest of the fam. When Lela saw Piper they ran up to each other and hugged, it was a very sweet moment. It quickly went downhill from there with overstimulated Lela and hot and tired Piper but in the end it was all worth it.

We are in a bit of a transition stage with Landis (I don’t like transition stages:). She just went through a rough patch so it is hard to tell what is going on so I am really guessing. She is so cranky, which isn’t like her, but I don’t think it is really cranky it is more like she is not getting her way and is not afraid to tell me about it. She is so different from the girls which is expected but as mother’s do I am “comparing” them in my mind from a milestone perspective. She is very vocal about what she wants and very particular.

Now I know that all parents think their kids are smart and I am not saying that Landis is a genius but comparing her to what her sisters were doing at age 1 (and they were 10 weeks early) she is really different. Yesterday she actually picked up Piper’s shoes and then put them on her feet. She knew they were shoes, she knew where they went and she was putting them on, it was kind of weird. Then today she purposely picked up the cell phone and put it to her ear and then started to chatter away. I know that kids do that all the time but the girls did NOT do that at one for sure. Another thing that she does is manage all her toys very well. All the toys with balls she knows exactly where the ball goes, picks it up, drops it in, and then leans down and looks up the hole where it comes out. She is way more active, curious, and engaged than her sisters were, I think I might be in trouble:)

Yes that is right, the camera is down AGAIN! Both times have been my fault totally. This latest faux pas occurred when Piper got the camera out of my diaper bag, I had brought it along because I have been horrible at uploading and was finally getting on the ball again and taking it with me, at the doctor’s office. She was taking photos and Lela wanted to take photos, I was trying to facilitate a compromise while Landis was on the exam table and the doctor was talking to me about her Rosela. Apparently I failed on all accounts because Piper dropped the camera and it broke, Lela did not get to take any photos and well I guess Landis survived and is cured so chalk that one up to luck. So you will all have to wait a while until I get ANOTHER new camera. This time I think I won’t get one with such a good zoom lens because that is what always gets broken, or maybe one with a good zoom but not a lens that comes out 2 inches (which is apparently too much lens for me to handle). Sigh…if it ain’t one thing its another.