Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Arwyn Week 101: Arwyn Says, "Later!" - 5/25/2017

Arwyn likes to pretend she's headed out on a little trip.  She'll grab some stuff, and call out, "Bye, lay-yer!" (as in "see you later"). It's so cute that she's picked up that phrase, but it's also funny because when she pronounces "lay-yer" (or even "lay-ter" sometimes), and "la-lo" for yogurt, she says her 'L' perfectly, but when she says Leia she still pronounces it "Yay-ya!" I'm not sure what's going on with her, but twice this week Arwyn has woken up from her nap to 45 minutes or more of inconsolable screaming. She doesn't want milk or food, she doesn't want to be held or rubbed, but doesn't want to be let go either.  She kicks and screams and cries, and has no sign of giving up. The first time I took her outside, which calmed her down, but the second we came back in she started up again. The second time I waited longer before going out to give her more time to get it out of her system, and being outside did calm her down, but I had to walk around forever before she was finally ready to go inside, and only because she wanted to find Leia to come back out and play with. Really weird, no idea what her problem was since both times she got normal length naps; she just seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed!  Arwyn's new word and infatuation is "boo-bus" for the big yellow school buses we see driving by in the morning.  Unfortunately she doesn't see too many of them because she's usually looking out the other window and is more preoccupied with "I see water!" (i.e. the rushing river).  She's also been singing the words, "Happy ju ju!", and it's sort of to the tune of the happy birthday song, so we think she means "happy birthday."  She's actually starting to sing a lot these days.  I keep hearing her singing to herself in bed in the mornings; it's so cute.  Between Arwyn and Leia, they are both having a huge paranoia about bugs, which is a bit of a problem since the bugs are out in force this spring.  They just start screaming and pointing, you'd think someone was getting seriously hurt.  So overly dramatic, both of them!  Finally, Arwyn suckered me into breast feeding this week.  She hasn't even asked or fussed in a whole month, and then out of the blue she wanted it again.  I was feeling sad about having stopped anyway, so of course I caved and allowed her.  Luckily it seemed to be mostly an isolated incident, and didn't take us backwards in our weening progress.  Clearly both of us just needed a little special bonding time again.

Leia had her first "hair cutting" experiment, but luckily for everyone it didn't actually involve real hair.  She clipped the string off her new Yo-Yo and wrapped it all around her stuffed dog as "hair", and then proceeded to cut it more to give him a haircut.  I was, of course, pissed about the whole yo-yo damage, until she explained what she was doing.  Then I decided I was pretty lucky that all she cut was the yo-yo, and that was actually pretty good use of a toy she couldn't use properly anyway.  Obviously regular string off the roll of string would have been most ideal, but that probably doesn't factor in an innate need to do damage.  I'm just crossing my fingers that this will ward off any thoughts of giving Arwyn a haircut!  We had another fun day at the park this week, and Leia made herself some new friends.  A little boy and his Uncle were there, and once she finally got them to play with her a bit, she just started talking their heads off!  She was seriously telling them her life story for about 30 minutes straight.  The Uncle seemed a little out of his element with the whole baby sitting thing in the first place, so I think he was happy for a little distraction and entertainment, and the kid didn't quite know what to make of Leia, but also seemed happy to not be playing all by himself.  And I was happy because Leia was entertaining herself, so I could play with Arwyn and keep her happy.  Josh and I finally had a date night for the first time in a few months, so Leia and Arwyn stayed with Nana and Poppy, who were finally recovered enough from all their winter injuries to at least attempt to take the kids on.  Emmett ended up coming too, and between the three of them, they must have really given Nana and Poppy a run for their money because we got the call that we needed to pick them up after the movie night was over.  And when we got there, all of them had just barely gone to bed!  Late night for everyone!  We had a really hard time getting out the door on time this work week, and with the construction delays on the road, it was really stressful.  Leia was doing so well with the whole sunscreen process by the end of winter, but now is back to her running away tricks.  I was so mad at her for making us late, but she didn't seem too phased by any of it, and simply stated that she would give me all her money if my boss Pete took away mine for being late.  Nothing seemed to get her to worry about the consequences of being late, so I finally told her that they'd take me off to jail if I was late.  Even that was ok for a day, but when I said no, a week, that finally did it.  The thought of no Mommy for a whole week made her burst into tears, and she cried frantically for about 10 minutes straight.  I actually started to feel a little bad about it, but she sure cooperated to run across the parking lot and go straight to class with no fuss when we got there.  Luckily I wasn't late!  But then she was right back to her shenanigans the next time, so I guess it didn't really work like I hoped.  Leia officially moved back up onto her real bed and off the floor Tuesday night.  I don't remember exactly when she started, but seems like she must have lasted about 5-7 days, which is pretty impressive.  Finally, Leia made us laugh so hard one night this week.  Josh was cooking dinner, while I was playing with the kids, getting them fed and ready for bed.  She wanted Josh to play house with her, but we kept telling her no, he was busy cooking.  Her reply?  "Let's play house, Daddy.  You can be the Daddy cooking dinner in the kitchen, and I'll be the Mommy sitting and drinking wine!"  Ha, she has no idea that taking care of her and Arwyn is the hardest job in the household!




Sister relaxing time.

She's so strong to always be able to swing and hold herself up!


So fun to hold a baby!

Harkin looks a little nervous...don't worry bud, Leia's holding you tight!

Arwyn loves babies more then anything else these days, so of course she needed a turn to hold the real one too!

"My baby!"

Fun afternoon of wine and bocce for Lizard's Birthday!

Did you find a ball Arwyn?



Getting a little confidence on the balance beam!

Password = Leia

After 2 years of gymnastics, Leia has become very speedy and confident on the balance beam!

Password = Arwyn

She was a little nervous at first, but with a little coaxing and some big success, Arwyn became quite the little ninja on the balance beam!

We stopped for a little Indian take-out and they treated the girls to some yummy mango smoothie!

She still likes to close her eyes and peek out!


This weirdo doesn't like mango!

Cutest little penguin ever!

The princess is smiling!

It's funny to stand up in your seat and stress out your Daddy!

Scrunchy eyes...so silly!


Heading to the park with your lunch bag, it's serious business!

Social butterfly at the park!

Time time in the play house.

Peek-a-boo!

The small tunnel slide is a park favorite.

Snack time with Biby and Kyle.

So wistful.

Arwyn's taking over the house, and it's time for a little spring cleaning!

Password = Arwyn

The view from the top of this huge slide is a bit intimidating, but luckily it's not as fast as last year, so it's no problem for Arwyn.  Up the ladder, onto the small landing, and down she goes...lapping it over and over all by herself!

In training for Wisconsin with a delicious Summer Shandy!

Here Mom, I made you a snow cone!

Password = Arwyn


Arwyn Heads Out, "Later!" from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.
Arwyn loves to pack her bag and head out the door.  We are loving her little "Bye, later!"

Awesome spring corn on KT until 7:00 PM...this day was one for the history books! 5/21/17

Fun crew of peeps (Ryan and Malcolm), and a long line at 6 pm? Who would have thought!


Katie and Lizard enjoying a beautiful spring evening on KT!

Mealtime antics...raspberry fingers!

Monkey see, monkey do!

Loving the warm spring weather!



She's got her bucket-o-bubbles, and she's ready to go!

These two seem to be very interested in something under that water!

Looking so tall, sleek, and elegant in her Nana's beautiful skirt! (and don't worry, it's only a tiny scratch under that huge bandage!)

Loving her new knitted pirate bandana from Aunt Joanne!


Early birthday with some Pirate sass!

It's a play dough BBQ party!

Leia makes delicious hot dogs and beans, as long as you don't mind the purple, orange, and yellow coloring!

Look out, it's a catfish!  Aghhh!

Password = Leia

Hard to believe kids think this is fun...just watching makes me want to vomit!

First family hike of the spring.

Fun to try to get the kids to like our favorite activities.

The creek and falls were raging up Shirley Canyon!

It was especially fun for Arwyn, who loves water!

So much water!

It was very loud!

Leia loved the adventure on the way up, but after not finding a single treasure, it took a lot of convincing to keep her motivated on the way down!

Nature's balance beam.

It's a dual, who will fall off first?!

Big hugs, everyone's a winner!

Sometimes Arwyn really wants to walk by herself, and other times, she's perfectly content to just be chauffeured!

Every day's a costume party around here!

Nice hat Arwyn!

Password = Leia

The hot tub used to be relaxing, but now it's a new adventure every time...today we are demonstrating a new kind of water aerobics...great for core and leg strength, as well as a good laugh!



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