Santa Closet

We have been doing a lot of preparing around here.  I keep trying to stop and soak in the excitement that they have this year as Eli finally "gets it" and Myka still believes in Santa.  With her logical mind I'm sure that won't last long.  And with her desire to share everything she knows with everyone else, I'm sure Eli will know the truth within the hour of her finding it out.

We try not to overdo the whole Santa thing.  Any beliefs they have about him come from their own minds and holiday cartoons.  We don't go around spouting on about him and hope that even now they get that he isn't the reason for the whole holiday.  But we do take them to talk to him.  Once.  Otherwise, I try to avoid him as much as possible.

Once I knew we had a date set to go see him, I asked the kids casually about what they wanted to ask him to bring.  This is the part where I try to steer their answers to things we may or may not have already picked out for them.  It's delicate work, and it takes a few days.

Especially when Eli starts out with, "I want him to bring the big truck like at Chuck E Cheese!"

This is the one he's referring to:

So I had a little work to do.

Sometime during that week, Kurt took the kids to the mall and made a stop at the toy store to give Eli some more reasonable ideas for the big guy to deliver.  He came home telling me he wants a dump truck. I look at Kurt and he nods, letting me know they figured something out.  And he stuck with that decision all the way up to sitting on Santa's lap and even managed to say it out loud for him.  Done and done. 

Or so I thought.

Upon waking up the next morning, unprompted he declared that "next time I see Santa, I'm going to tell him I want an escalator!"  I quickly learned that they saw a lot of new things at the mall that day.  In the last eleven days since we have visited Santa, I have heard about at least a dozen other things that Eli wants to ask Santa for.  I guess he figures if there is a guy willing to bring him fun stuff he sees at the mall, he might as well go for it.

So now I'm down to ten more days of avoiding another live Santa at all costs.  The shopping is done.  This Santa is enjoying the rest of the season. 

And I don't have room for an escalator.

Learning curve

I'm not amazed that he wrote his name by himself.  A lot of three year olds can do that.  And he does have three of the easiest letters to write.  The only way it would be easier was if it started with an "X" instead of an "E", but that would be weird.

No, what I am amazed at is that this is the first time he has ever written it.  Or even attempted it.  And that he sat down and did it completely by himself, with no guidance and no example in front of him.  I actually accused Myka of writing it.  So then he did it again.

And I'm baffled by the fact that the only instruction he has had in writing these letters, other than me guiding his hand over the magnadoodle during church once in awhile, is that two evenings ago I wrote his name with highlighter three times and had him trace the letters with a pencil while we were "playing school".

So while it took him 8 months to learn to swallow food, it took him all of 5 minutes to learn to write his name.  Either we are getting better at this or we should have started with the hard stuff first.

Candy Time!

They were old pros by this point.  We had already taken in quite a haul and the church Trunk or Treat event the Friday before.  A few extra clothes were required based on the map Kurt and Myka made of the route they were going to take assuring them the most loot.

Ready to go!

I always love watching them walk away with Daddy on Halloween.  Not sure if I'm nostalgic for the memories of the all the excitement of the evening or if I just like being in my own house with some peace and quiet for an hour or so.

A short time after they left I saw our neighbor head out (she had already been by our house while the kids were home) and realized that Kurt never took the kids over there.  I texted him that they should stop there and he said they would swing back around.  He took the opportunity to dump all of the candy they had already gathered on the table so they again had three (oh yes, three.  But not because Kurt was asking for candy.  I don't think.) empty buckets to fill.  Then they stopped by the neighbors before hitting every house on the mile path they had mapped out on the way to our friends' house for dinner.

This doesn't even include the bowl full we still had from the church event.  Or the very picked over remains from the parade.  Or the twenty some odd pieces the adults in the house ate after the kids were in bed before they had a chance to sort everything the next morning.

Happy Halloween!

Baseballs and Butterflies

This was pretty much his idea with a little prompting from me reminding him that he had a totally awesome Joe Mauer jersey and would be able to wear daddy's hat.

This was pretty much her idea with a little help from a google search and an incredibly talented father.

Eli got to be first to celebrate the season with a Halloween carnival at preschool the Thursday before the big day.  He had a fun time playing the games and winning prizes to put in his bag, but I think he mostly loved that he got to be there with his good friend, Riley. 

These two are best buds.

Making sure they look good before the big party.

Eli and his "first teachers", Ms. Robin and Ms. Rochelle.  We are blessed to have had such kind and loving teachers for both kids' first preschool experiences.  A year ago I was thinking that there was no way Eli would enjoy preschool and that I would be dragging him there kicking and screaming every day.  It has turned out that when he finds out it is NOT a preschool day the tears start.  He loves it!

Almost as much as I love my two kid-free mornings every week!

Jack-o-Winta

The fourth annual Hoover-Bates pumpkin carving weekend was held the week before Halloween and was once again a huge success.  We added a new element this year as we got to carve four pumpkins that we had grown ourselves over the summer.  There was something extra satisfying about that, beyond the fact that I knew I had saved twenty bucks.  We had a fun time watching them grow and pretty much take over our entire side yard. And Eli, after learning about carving pumpkins in preschool, couldn't wait to make them into "JackOWintas" for Halloween.

Myka was eager to do her own pumpkin this year, so even though she was leery of the squishy pumpkin guts, she dug them out herself.

Eli woke up from his nap shortly after the fun began and waited off to the side for awhile to take it all in.

This was the look on his face pretty much the whole time...

Myka kept on working, drawing her own design

and cutting it out herself (with a little help from Grandpa).

Eli finally decided the cutting part looked fun (after I removed the guts from his pumpkin, of course) and picked up a tool and went to town.  After trying to get him to let me help him cut on the lines I had drawn, I finally relented to him wanting to "do it myself!" and turned the pumpkin around so he could stab it in the back of the head over and over.  Poor Jack never saw him coming.  When he was satisfied with his butchering I turned the pumpkin around and finished the face.  I'm pretty sure he thinks he did it...

The annual group photo.  The pumpkins get better looking every year.  The rest of us? Well, you can decide that for yourself.

Below, Eli's is on the left.  Kurt experimented with some huge seeds he found at T-Ball practice to make the brains for the guy on the right.

Below, Myka's is the one with ears.  Uncle Isaac wins the most difficult carving award with the skull on the right.

Bring on the trick or treaters!

Pick a little, eat a little

You know you're behind on your blog when you write a post about something that happened the same day as the previous post, but it is already a month later...

After our quick getaway from the parade, we headed out of town for our first ever apple picking experience.  We knew we were getting in on the end of the crop, so our expectations weren't that high.  We were more excited about the fact that we were all free to do whatever on a gorgeous fall Saturday.

The kids had their fair share of apples as we made our way through the trees, which worked out well since it was lunch time when we got there.

Myka got to take two turns on the giant jumpy pillow.  Eli had to sit this one out as, well, he had eaten at least four apples and there were only portapottys available for bathrooms.  I'm sure it's a surprise to no one that our little poop-o-phobe wasn't about to let loose in one of those.  And knowing that after about one minute on the jumpy pillow would have created a "situation", he was forced to sit out. 

But after walking out of the bathroom at home he proudly announced,

"I pooped.  I can go back and jump on the pillow now!" 

Guess we'll be going back next year.

Tips for novice parade goers

*Always sit at the beginning of the route.  Candy givers are well stocked, eager and generous.

 * Find a spot with no other children around.  Possibly away from the regular line of parade traffic if possible.   Not only is there no fighting for candy, but the candy givers feel sorry for the little kids who are out of reach and probably not getting anything, and then go out of their way to come over and give an extra helping.  Every. Time.  Also, find a spot with cops nearby.  Everyone throws candy at the cops.  They don't want it, so they give it to the poor, deprived kids who aren't sitting very close to the parade route.

 * Bring a big bucket.  Even if you have to leave when the parade is only half done.

 * And always, ALWAYS sit at the beginning of the parade route.

Graduation

Earlier this summer I spotted a boy toddler bike at a garage sale and asked about the price.  She looked at me and shrugged and said, "Two bucks?"

While the plan was to let Eli use Myka's turquoise toddler bike when she learned to ride her (also garage sale find) big girl bike, I couldn't pass up such a bargain.  We just needed to get Myka going on her big bike so we could put her training wheels on Eli's new bike.  Unfortunately, the weather, time, and lack of interest got in the way of that plan.  A few weeks went by and I finally just moved the training wheels to Eli's bike so he could ride it once in awhile.  Myka then resorted to walking, dribbling a soccer ball, or riding her scooter when we would take walks together.  She really didn't want to ride that two wheeler.

A few weeks ago we were all home and I mentioned to Kurt that we should work on  it again.  We took her to the perfect spot... a grassy basin that had about a ten foot hill and then 100 yards of wide open grass.  We started her at the top and let her ride down the hill over and over until she could pedal and keep the bike going once she got to the flat part.  It worked like a charm and in about 15 minutes she could ride half way across the field.  We moved to the sidewalk and worked on starting and stopping, then headed on our path around the pond.  Kurt walked/jogged with her while she rode, usually going about 10-20 yards before she would stop and try to start again.  The next evening we went back out and Kurt ran around the pond with her about 4 times.  I don't think he's run that far since he was 20.  The next day he followed her on his bike just to keep up, and the rest is history.

Lil Swimmers

I'm catching up on pictures that are stored on the new camera.  I have found that when I transfer them to the computer, the videos get lost in space somewhere.  Apparently the technology of the camera is past the level that our photo program recognizes, so I learned to be careful in how I upload everything.  And by "be careful", I mean, just don't do it. 

But I can get pictures safely off of the camera now, so here you go...

We had a fun summer in the water around here.  My kids are fearless in their 18 inches of hose water in the blow up pool and they will run through sprinklers until the ground is muddy.  Swimming lessons, however, are another story.  Myka was 5 for her first round this summer and was in an area of the pool where she could still touch, barely, so she was confident enough to try to learn the skills.  As a 6 year old, however, the exact same class was moved down to deeper water and she froze.  And it was 105 degrees outside.  The girl wouldn't move.  She did not like the fact that she had to learn new things and couldn't touch the bottom if it didn't work out.  Her teacher did what she could but didn't baby her (which I liked) but I was getting more and more frustrated with her not even trying anything, to the point where I told her she would be paying me back for part of the lessons if she was just going to sit there like a lump. 

Eli had to watch Myka's first session since he was still 2, but when he turned 3 he got to go in the preschool 1 class.  This class starts the kids in the baby pool with toys and games to get them wet, and then walks them down to the big pool for the last 15 minutes to work on floating and getting comfortable in the water.  The first day he tolerated it, but told me after that he didn't want to go in the big pool tomorrow.  The next 5 lessons he cried when they went into the big  pool.  There's a special kind of feeling you get when, above the laughter and excitement of the other 50 children in the water, you hear your own son wailing, "I want my mommmmmmy!"  Especially when you are wearing a shirt that says UNI Swimming on it.  Yep, that's my boy!

But since that week was so hot, we had plenty of opportunities to be in "big pools" and I had a chance to lay a little smack down with both kids about the fact that they just needed to suck it up, and by the last 4 days they were great.  Myka was swimming back and forth to her teacher who said, "where was that last week?" and Eli was telling his teacher not to catch him as he jumped in off the side.  We rounded out the summer with our annual trip to my aunt and uncle's pool where I finally had a camera to catch all the action.

Eli went off the board by himself about 127 times with just us to grab him and bring him up and help him to the side.  Myka did pretty much everything OTHER than jumping off without any floaties.  Guess we'll work on that next year.

In her words

  Two thousand, two hundred forty-eight days after she came in to the world Myka has finally started Kindergarten.  She has taken to it in her typical cautious-approach-to-something-new style that seemed to surprise no one, except maybe her teacher who looked at me with eyes that clearly said, "does she talk?"  to which I shot her a glance that apologetically spoke the sentiment of, "just you wait."

  Her less than enthusiastic response to all of my questions about the first day didn't surprise me either, as she seems to only get truly excited about dessert and our neighbor Haley.  It does seem she is having fun and making some new friends, so I count that as success. 

What is your favorite thing about Kindergarten?

     That I get to play with my favorite friend, Olivia.

What is your least favorite thing about Kindergarten?

     Riding home with my boring bus driver.
So what is your favorite thing about the bus?
     That I get to ride with Haley (in the morning).

What do you like to do in Kindergarten?

     Go to the gym.

What do you play there?

     The game that I don't know the name of.
What is your teacher's name?
     Mrs.Hurley

What do you think of her?

     She's nice.

Who are some of the kids in your class?

     Fatima, Dylan, Rachel, Olivia, Mujeeb, Reed, and Ella

What do you want to learn in Kindergarten?

     How to read and write.

 And that's all I can pull out of her at this point.  She keeps going back, so I guess she likes it.  Good thing, since she has about two thousand, nine hundred eighty days to go.

Role Model

Within 24 hours of the previous conversation, I heard this:

Me: (checking the backyard to make sure neighbor Haley, Myka and Eli were OK) Everything OK?
Haley: Yeah.  Eli just said he wants to be like his mom when he grows up (head tilt, raise eyebrows) and play on the computer all day (shrug shoulders and make a face like, "that's not good for you").

So I went out and bought a new camera. 
I need to get back to posting pictures, all this visual honesty is making me look bad.

I give up

Our camera is totally broken, so no pictures on this post. 

However, this little conversation will paint a picture all by itself:

Myka: How do bad kids learn to be good?  Like when they get older, everyone is good, so how did the bad kids learn that if their mom and dad didn't teach it?
Me: Well, they probably had somebody in their life teach them, like a teacher, or a grandparent, or a Sunday School teacher, and they learned it from them.
Myka: (short pause) Will I have someone like that?

Birthdays 2,3, and 4

I have separate stories started for all of these events, but none of the posts were going anywhere and therefore never made it to the blog.  So here is a rundown of how we celebrated the kids' birthdays in July.  You know, their June birthdays.  And we're still not quite finished yet...

We met my parents and brother's family at a park in the Quad Cities for an afternoon to hang out, play in the water, steal the only pavilion from all other park-goers, eat, open presents, and catch up. 

It was a sunny yet windy day and we decided to try a brand new park on the river for a little BBQ.  One would not have known there was only one shelter and no grills on site based on the web site's praise for the beautiful park.  Thanks to "proper prior planning" (there are 4 more P's that go with that I will leave to your imagination.  A big thank you to my club swim coach for instilling that in me and for the fact that the whole phrase still comes to mind at least once a week) we had 2 grills of our own.  We also had my sister-in-law and I staking out the 1-year-old's birthday party group that had rented the shelter for the day.  Let's just say we helped them shut their party down a couple hours early, scored their rental permit so no one else could use the pavilion, and had a lovely dinner in the only shady spot the new park had to offer.  Never a dull moment with this group! 

July brought our good friends back from their vacation in California, and therefore the friend birthday party.  This year we celebrated both kids, since Myka got a friend party at age 3.  We invited 4 families that knew both kids, and all 14 of them had a blast.  We went back to the archives of 2 years ago and had a backyard, pool themed party.  And therefore my dream of a simple beach ball pinata.  I guess I got a little cocky because I didn't leave myself enough time for any mistakes and of course the first try shriveled up like a dried grape. (or a raisin...)  So I was literally gluing on the outer layer the morning of the party, but as long as candy was promised to come out of it I don't think anyone really cared.

 This is Eli's "ball sprinkler" that he picked out when we went to grab a new pool at the beginning of the summer.  That orange dot above the blue part of the sprinkler is a ball that was suspended there for about 20 seconds.  That is how the sprinkler is supposed to work.  This is the only day we ever made that happen.

 The group with their "one piece of candy each" they were allowed after the pinata broke, about 5 minutes before supper.  Somehow I was able to whisk away all the bags of candy into the party favor buckets without any tears...

And you know it's been a good  party when it ends with a broken chair and table...

Our final stop on the "Tour de Birthdays" was the annual Big Girl Day in the Quad Cities with my college roommates Emily and Sarah and their oldest girls.  This is the third year we've been able to get together for a special day and we realized they have sat in the same order at the same table every year.

 Myka -6, Kelly - 5, and Michaela - 5

And they never fail to entertain us...

 Apparently pony tail girl couldn't wait to get that cup of water.  Doesn't she know how important this picture is?!?  I mean, they aren't going to fit in there much longer...

Happy Birthday to Everyone! 

And may all of your birthday's last throughout the entire season as well!