Our Kids

Tonight we attended the 8th grade carnival at Desert Marigold. This was our first time attending so we did not know what to expect. It was a really fun time for the kids and I would take this over trick or treating any day of the year:) With Halloween on Sunday we are finished with the festivities for this year, we will not be trick or treating on Sunday.

So tonight we arrived and purchased our tickets. Then the girls used the tickets to play games, take a tractor ride around the school, do a cake walk, and jump in a bounce house. They also got to trick or treat at the early childhood classes and meet up with some of their friends. All in all they had a great time and their little pile of candy is on the front porch awaiting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin.

November here we come:)

Phoebe keeps changing every day as babies do but it still takes you by surprise. She is loving to stand and is eager to pull herself up with your fingers, she will also do it in her bassinet so we will have to move her to a real crib soon. On Thursday she was pulling herself up and I let her go for a second and she stood there, I was shocked. Since then every time I let go she gets scared so we don’t do that much:)

She is all smiles and giggles for Piper and will even turn her head to look for her if I ask her, “Where is Piper?” My friend swears she heard her say Piper but I dunno. She does mimic the girls a lot, if they are whining she will chime in, singing also gets her to chime in.

Tonight we took her with us to the girls school for a festival and she rode along in the Ergo. She kept her eyes open the whole time maxing out at an impressive 5 hours of awake time! She was sooo tired but did not fall asleep in the car. This seems to be her modus operandi lately, if something is going on she ain’t hitting the hay. She is still easy peasy to fall asleep/put to sleep when she is snuggled in her woombie, in her quiet crib with her music playing and soothie pacifier.

The other day we headed out to Marley Farms for some fun with friends and horse rides! The girls had fun, we saw a monster pig one that was so big it would make you feel bad for eating bacon, seriously. Anyhoo, it was fun and all the girls rode horses even Landis. I have some pics on the camera and as soon as I find it I will post them:) At the farm they got a little goodie bag of candy. That night after we put them to bed I found a little pile of candy out on the sidewalk for the Great Pumpkin. HA! It was so cute, unprompted and unexpected (by me). So that night the Great Pumpkin left them 1 dollar each for leaving out their candy. So cute. (FYI the great pumpkin takes candy and exchanges it for gifts).

Yesterday was the Penny Faire at the girls school. I can’t tell you how much I love this school, sometimes I still feel like an outsider but we are working our way in to this vibrant, exceptional community. Anyway this was our first Penny Faire and the girls had a blast. This is only for the early childhood group (preschool and kindergarten). The 8th year in Waldorf is a year of service so the 8th graders manned all the games. Each game was based on a fairy tale/nursery rhyme and the kids had to pay a penny to play and then got a trinket at the end (smooth stones, acorns, wooden gnomes, felted necklaces, glow sticks etc). So there was Rapunzel who let her hair down from the climbing structure with a prize basket, they slid down a slide holding a pail of water for Jack and Jill, crossed a troll bridge, played little Jack Horner and more. They had a blast. We also carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds and had a picnic lunch. The rest of the kids in the school came through the yard in a costume parade. A wonderful time was had by all. I have to say I was exhausted but the girls were over the moon. We all had an afternoon meltdown and early bedtime and felt much better this morning:)

Big shout out to Jason for taking Landis to Michele’s house, Michele for watching Landis and Elise with only 5 days until her due date (big hugs) and to Phoebe for chilling in the Ergo and being a wonderful companion during the whole day.

Holy rollie polly batman! This girl is ready to G-O! Yesterday Phoebe did a face plant on the patio out front. She was sitting up and started reaching forward as she has been doing for a bit and then she kept reaching, reaching and finally splat her legs shot out behind her and her forehead hit the pavement, OUCH! She was more surprised than hurt and was easily comforted and not even scratched or bruised.

Today she was really trying to go places. She is now going on to her tummy and then she can spin herself 360 degrees to grab on to what she wants. She likes to stand and stand and stand but can’t pull herself up on the furniture yet. She can pull herself up holding on to your fingers and she likes that, she also likes to stand at the ottoman and look around until her legs get tired and then she cries to be put down. She is becoming increasingly LESS bendable and won’t sit when you set her down, she keeps her legs stiff so that you have to hold her standing.

I dunno about this one she might be a mover.

Well I might regret this cooking with the girls enthusiasm and decision (not really). Tonight was Pipers turn to cook and she made a really good faux Pho. Piper loves Pho so we decided to make some. She chopped up some veggies and soaked her rice noodles. Then we heated up some stock and added our chopped shrooms and noodles, when they boiled for about 5 minutes she pulled apart some already steamed broccoli and added it to the pot. A little asian inspired seasoning and voila, faux pho:) Everyone enjoyed it and we even saved a bit for Jason:)

I have a healthy, bouncy, big baby girl that loves to see everyone and everything in the world. All that is well and good unless you are the designated carrier of said bouncy baby girl. I fear she is in another growth spurt as evidenced by her 2.5 hour twice a day naps of late. Sigh…say it isn’t so.

Landis was quite a dream to carry and still is because she cuddles inward and holds on, Phoebe is the opposite. I think we would have found Lela to be that same way if we had the opportunity to hold her as much, we certainly did hold her but with twins things are just a bit different.

Anyway back to Phoebe, she does love to be carried but she wants to look at things and soak in the world (just like Lela). She gets HEAVY and that is an understatement, thank goodness for my Ergo:) So we will let her sleep away and hope my back holds out until she learns to walk and maybe she won’t wait until 15 months like Lela did (although waiting to walk is preferable to me:).

The girls have had a bit of the ickies lately, either something they picked up at school or at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix last week. Either way the ickies have made them a little cranky with each other which makes me a little cranky. So I have been playing referee or mediator for the better part of a week. That leads me to the story of helping.

The kids all get jobs in the girls kindergarten classroom each day. The jobs range from table setter, sweeper, dish carrier, table clearer, table wiper and chair wiper. They also have the opportunity to fold laundry, iron laundry, bake bread, cut fruit and other activities if they are interested. Generally the teacher dumps out the laundry and the kids just come over and fold if they want to (and surprisingly most of them do). Along those same lines we have been adding in things to complement what they are learning at school.

So the other night we were out front and Piper and Lela could not get along so I asked Lela to come inside with me. I gave her a towel, a box of mushrooms and a knife. I showed her how to wipe them off and cut them and she proceeded to do the whole box. Then she sauteed them on the stove with olive oil and salt and added the green beans and sauteed those. She also boiled the water for the pasta, broke the pasta and put it in the water and stirred it and even tested it to al dente. Then I added the spinach and vodka sauce (our fave sauce from Trader Joes) and cut up a cantaloupe. I was so impressed she basically cooked dinner by herself with just my guidance. She felt so good about herself, so proud!

Then after dinner Piper wanted to get in on the helping action and cleared the table and helped with the dishes, she even wiped off the table. The best thing about it all is that they did it with joy. I really love how the school is teaching them how to be good people all the while preparing them for academics:)

I posted a bunch of pictures of their class on the flickr site, so check it out if you are interested.

Landis had her 3 year check up a couple weeks ago. Here are her stats:

Weight: 30.6 pounds
Height: 36 inches

She is of course healthy in the eyes of conventional medicine. In my eyes she could eat a lot more veggies than she does but baby steps with this one are warranted:)

She had been complaining of upset tummy right after meals for some time and I mentioned it to the ped. We talked about her and how she was as an infant and came to the conclusion that she might have acid reflux that can be treated with prevacid. We haven’t started that and may not as she seems to have stopped complaining about her tummy for a time. She also had a virus start up a few weeks ago that leaves tiny little warts, it isn’t your typical spreading wart but something that is dormant in all of us and triggered by some event in the body. Hmmm…..I don’t like the sound of that, makes me think her immune system is compromised. So being the diligent detective I am we talked more and decided to do some food allergy tests. I don’t think they will come back positive but she does have some indicators of either acid reflux or food allergies so we are investigating further.

On the food allergy front I had Jason take her in for the blood draw. Of course she held out her arm had the blood drawn and did not shed a tear, a perfect patient. She did poke her lip out and tell her big sisters about it when she saw them later in the day but otherwise seemed unphased. Of course it couldn’t go that easy and the lab called and somehow they did not have enough blood to complete the entire test and asked did I want to bring her back for another draw. Well let me think about it……um NO! Argh! I was a nervous wreck just thinking about her getting the draw (probably remembering her horrific draws as a 4 day old baby, not fun) and now that she knows what happens I wonder if she will handle it so well.

Anyhoo, the ped is back from vaca this week so I expect to hear partial results from her and also talk to her about the test that did not get done. All in all a pretty good 3 year check up, she is catching up on her vaccinations since we delayed, are selective and only do one at a time and is a super duper little trooper.