Our Kids

We are blessed here in AZ with many places to cool off in the summer. Tons of pools equipped with really great slides and water features suitable for tiny tots all the way up to adults. We normally swim at a neighbors house but decided to meet some friends at a pool this week. It went about as well as I expected. Piper warmed up after a bit and started swimming, Lela was almost walking on water and Landis was unsure.

While we were walking around the pool to go and watch our friends go down the BIG twisty slide something happened. In true Lela fashion she was walking and looking back at someone or something, I had Landis in arms and Piper by the hand and then I heard a crack and crying. I turned back to see poor Lela holding her eye and crying. Sure enough the next day she had a little black eye. Sigh…….that poor child.

The other day Piper was sitting at the kitchen table and I was on my computer (Jason was on his too) and she said, “Mom, do you know what the word cumbersome means?” Now Jason’s head snapped up as quick as it can and looked right at me.

I asked Piper what it meant and she said it meant that something was heavy. Yes, that is right my four year old is using words like “cumbersome,” do you think this means I am in for some real trouble? I think by her teen years she might be chewing me out with words I don’t even know:) Well I can hope so anyway:)

We are still enjoying a very mild June, even though the temps get in to the 90s during the day the mornings and evening are wonderful. Tonight we headed over to the park by the school (since school is out) and had a great time. The girls are 3 peas in a pod most of the time making themselves and us giggle or laugh out loud. They were climbing up the slide and Landis was sliding down the same slide and then when they all met somewhere in the middle they just cracked up. It was a hoot.

The post is meant to be about Lela though. Lela has finally mastered swinging all by herself! She still needs a push to get going but once she is going she can lean back, pump her legs and go, go, go. It is awesome! Piper is still working on it and is almost there but she can’t quite get the momentum going….but she will soon.

Lela has been asking multiple times a day for multiple days if we can make paper mache. Now we are crafting machines over here and we love to craft but I don’t remember ever making paper mache. We decided to give it a try and went to our trusty Family Fun Magazine to get a recipe.

We made the paste by boiling water and then adding flour and 3T of sugar. We let it cool and off we went. The experiment was a quasi success with 2 out of 5 pieces coming out. I discovered that the paste we made was great for making forms but not so good for coming off our molds. So we will try again with another paste, it was kind of fun.

So all you grandparents out there start clearing off your desk for some “lovely” paper mache:)

Well as my friends up in Montana are “enjoying” a late season snow, we are enjoying a relatively “cool” June. With temps barely hitting 90 and plenty of cloud cover we are in heaven.

Today the girls and I headed out for the zoo. We had such a wonderful zoo trip, we caught the wild animal show and then went the opposite way that we normally go around the zoo. Landis is really in to spotting the animals now and that is a cute development. She wants to be held up so she can see what the girls are looking at and really peers on with interest.

I finally created my snack tray in the cupboard and that was a dream. It has a bunch of those snack sized bags filled with pretzels, nuts raisins, fruit leathers etc. I just grabbed a few of those some bottles of water, fresh cut veggies from the fridge, our swimsuits and we were off.

Piper decided to go into the wild lagoon which is a splash pad complete with spooky cave, mini waterfall and slides. It was a bit to “wild” for me since I kept losing sight of her and it was a bit crowded. Lela and Landis were happy to sit on the sidelines and just watch.

Up to this point I had been getting the girls snow cones without syrup but this time they wanted snow cones WITH syrup. I decided to let them have one, must be the cool weather it has gone to my head. Anyhoo, after our trip around the zoo and the splash pad we stopped for a snow cone and got caught in the briefest of rainfall, which was fun. After the girls ate a few bites of their cones they both told me that it tasted funny. HA! I said yes it does taste funny, it is all those artificial flavors! Score one for me, I don’t have to buy those anymore, the ones without syrup are FREE.

After the snowcones we noshed on our goodies brought from home and called it a day. On the walk back to the car Landis started to fall asleep. She has this little lion doll and it was on the tray of her stroller, she had leaned forward and put her head on it and was dozing off, so cute.

I haven’t updated much on Landis lately. She is certainly changing and growing at a rapid rate. She is quite a ham, she will throw herself down on the bed, fling herself on the sofa, pretend to burp or do any of a million other things just to get a laugh.

She is starting to just repeat words, still only in a “language” that a mother can understand but she is adding words daily. She still signs for the things that she wants/needs but she is learning to say words.

Landis is still very mobile and loves to climb on everything, the dinner table, the coffee table, the side table, all the beds….everything! She loves to play by herself almost as much as she loves to spend time with her sisters. Piper and Lela tend to dote on her most of the time, sometimes she follows them to be met with a door to the face but mostly they tolerate her.

She is a real hoot and we are so lucky to have her:)

A good friend gave us her tickets for the symphony since she and her girls were going to be in Wyoming. Generally we only have two tickets and alternate who we take to spend one on one time with each of the girls. I have to admit though it was nice to go as a family. We even took Landis and she got a kick out of the music.

The girls personalities are really coming out, their likes and dislikes and their individuality. Lela was drawn in by the music today and so was Landis, several times Lela was conducting and was on the edege of her seat the entire time. Piper could be found lounging in her chair, twirling her hair, climbing on Daddy’s lap but also paying attention to the music just not wrapped up in it. It is a wonder to see how much they are changes.

This is what I heard this morning when the girls wanted to go and play in their room (that is where N and G were staying). Piper started heading back there and then wondered out loud where they were. I told them that N and G had gone home, then they said, “oh, I forgot.” I think they miss them.

We had a good visit with them. I need to get together a scrap book for the girls to look at, we like to do that so we can remember visits. Just last night Lela and I were going through her scrapbook from last summer’s visit and she could remember it all, thanks to the book.

Yesterday and today we have just been hanging around the house, sorting things out, putting things away and chillaxin’. Landis opted out of her nap this afternoon so I am expecting a “great” afternoon, lol. But we have also built a fort, played in our car (which we built out of boxes) and done some princess and fairy crafts. Ahhhh….now this is living;)