Arwyn Week 95: Arwyn Likes to Shobel - 4/13/2017

Arwyn is getting very bossy and opinionated these days.  She still loves to tell me, "Mommy, you sit down!" when I'm trying to do something she doesn't want.  She also likes to drag out meal time, with lots of talking and playing, but very little eating.  However, when you try to take her food away, she yells at you that she's not done!  I think she takes after her namesake Nana (just with the slow eating and talking, not the bossiness)!  Arwyn has had so much hair since birth, but all of a sudden it seems like it's not growing so fast anymore.  It has been in her eyes for quite some time now, so we try to keep it pulled back so she can see, but inevitably it will fall down and cover them up again, but she never cares.  This week, however, I guess she's decided that she cares because she has finally started brushing her own hair to the side, away from her face!  It's some sort of milestone, I'm sure.  Arwyn is very into babies these days, including baby dolls, real babies, and books about babies.  Her favorite book is about all the milestones of a baby's first year, and she wants me to read it over and over every night.  She gets so pissed about my 2 story limit, and but I can somewhat pacify her by letting her take the book to bed.  She cradles is all night long.  Her favorite activity this week is shoveling, "I shobel!"  She was so psyched to help me shovel the entire hot tub deck twice this week.  She has such a different personality than Leia, because Arwyn is happy to entertain herself by helping me do tasks (like shoveling), while still allowing me to actually get the task done.  Leia has never once been able to entertain herself long enough to let me finish shoveling the deck, even when she was Arwyn's age. Arwyn participated in her first school Easter Egg hunt this week.  It wasn't on a normal school day, so  we just brought both girls to the hunt for Leia's class, and even though Arwyn was so much younger and only just figuring out what the heck she was supposed to be doing, so still got enough eggs to keep her happy.  Mostly she just liked people watching through all the chaos, and it helped her get prepped for the real event on Sunday.  Arwyn is still very preoccupied with using the potty, but the problem is that she never wants to get off the toilet, even after she's actually done her business.  Grandma, Grandpa, and MumMum came for a visit and took us out to brunch at our favorite diner in Truckee, and Arwyn threw the biggest fit afterwards when we had to drag her out of the bathroom to go home!  Little weirdo just needs a toilet to make her happy!

Leia participated in her first International Kids' Yoga Day at school on Friday, April 7th.  Kids from all around the world did the same yoga routine at 11:00 local time.  Leia had a great time, and Teacher Cathy sent some cool photos of the fun.  We finally got Leia to eat some meat this week.  We called it "Sugar Pork" because it was a little sweet, but really it was just boneless country style ribs in a Korean style marinade.  She ate it right up and asked for seconds!  Leia loves sledding these days.  I had a hard time getting her outside, but once I did, I couldn't get her to stop and go inside.  She was having too much fun sledding!  Leia's whining factor is off the charts these days; so much whining it's literally making me turn into a crazy person.  If she doesn't get the answer she wants, she just asks over and over, in that horrible whiny voice.  And every time I set the 5 minute alarm, she always wants another 6 minutes after the timer goes off.  It seems like nothing gets done without a fight these days, and it is truly exhausting.  She is also asking for treats every time I turn around, and coming up with all sorts of ridiculous reasons for why she's earned it.  Like being a good sleeper??  Sorry Leia, not gonna fly...you fight me at bedtime and you wake me up at 6:30 or earlier every day!  Like picking up a toy off the floor but just throwing it onto the couch?  Sorry Leia, that's not cleaning!  On the flip side, she's already falling into our plan of being a child prodigy who will make money for Mommy and Daddy.  The other day she found a quarter and a nickel, which are like gold in her world, but then she promptly handed it right over to me, saying "Here Mommy, I want you to have the money.  You need it more than I do."  So sweet!  Guess all my talk about my boss taking away my money if we are late to work (and school) has her concerned for me.  Leia's concept of time is a little sketchy (things always happened "last year" whether it was really yesterday or last week), but she was so excited about her grandparents coming that she really figured out exactly what the correct timing of their arrival was going to be.  "A Daddy Day, then a school day, then another school day, then a night nap, and then Grandma, PopPop, and MumMum will be here!"  And even as the days passed, she was able to properly keep track of what was left.  As I mentioned above, we went to her school Easter Egg hunt, and Leia was uncharacteristically shy the entire time.  Usually at Easter she doesn't hesitate to run around and get "more, more, more" eggs, but she was pretty reserved and not running around as fast as all her peers.  I'm thinking it must be the difference of being around them all day vs. showing up late in the game with mom and not feeling in the loop.

All hands on the World at International Kids' Yoga Day.

Looks like some sort of flying spin.

Circle of love.

Dinner tonight was no sitting matter...Arwyn had to take the serving into her own hands!

Another round of winter gardening, and apparently ski boots are the footwear of choice.

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Likes to Shovel from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn loves to shovel and she loves to say the words "I shobel."  She's even figured out the process of filling your shovel to throw it elsewhere, although I don't think she understands how that serves a purpose other than personal entertainment!

Arwyn fast asleep, clutching her favorite book at babies.

"Mom, take a picture of me drinking!"  "Ok."

Fresh snow angels in April, and I just can't get over how tall Leia looks in the picture!

Arwyn likes my little snowman.

Leia was pissed that we didn't make a "big" snowman, but was appeased after my wild goose hunt to find the appropriate facial accompaniments.

Ran into Leia's good friend Gazelle on our family ski day at Alpine...she was so excited to have a friend to ski with!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn the Narcissist from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn saw a really pretty little girl in the mirror today.  She just couldn't stop kissing and saying hi to this perfect little girl!

Arwyn doesn't rock the leopard print outfits as much as Leia did, but when she does, she looks just as cute!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Converses About Frogs 4-10-17 from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn makes really good use of her hands and body language to help convey a very engaging story about frogs.  You can tell she has a lot to say even if she doesn't quite have all the words.  Amazing!

Password = Arwyn

Dinner Chat With Arwyn 4-11-17 from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn chatting it up with Dad during an extended meal.  She's getting very bossy and ridiculously funny!

Password = Leia (below)

Leia's First Pledge of Allegiance from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

So cool to see that Leia has already learned the Pledge of Allegiance in school, but also disturbing to realize how inappropriate the whole thing seems...separation of church and state?  Not to mention that I don't think I've ever pledged allegiance as an adult, so why have they been brainwashing little kids into doing it for hundred years??

Grandma's here, it's dress-up time!

Leia was all about reading books and playing "twins" with MumMum this trip.

Concentrating very hard on her work.

It's Christmas at Easter!

"Oh my, I sure am a lucky girl!"

Looking cute in her new long braids Anna hairdo!

So many fun new clothes to go with the funny new hairdo!

More MumMum snuggles.

Leia was uncharacteristically timid as we lined up for the Easter hunt at school.

Arwyn picked her own jacket and hat today...seems to be picking up her sense of fashion from her sister!

Wahoo, Arwyn found an egg!

Being one of the tallest in her class, Leia definitely had the advantage on this hiding spot.

No amount of coaxing could convince Arwyn to nab this egg.  I guess she already had enough in her bucket.

Wahoo, score!

Found another, high up in the tree!

Fun hunt = big smiles.

Things were all serious business for Arwyn during the hunt, but when it was time to avoid posing in a sister picture, now that was funny!

Picture time? Nah, I think I'll pick my nose instead.

They want us to hug and look cute, what do you think?

Ok, maybe we'll stand near each other, just for a second.

Arwyn squeezes!

Leia liked being doted on by an "older" classmate.

I missed all the time when she was smiling, but Arwyn does actually love her Joe.

Luckily the restaurant was empty, because everyone needed their own trashcan of crayons..."mine!"

Welcome back PopPop, we missed you!

Oh boy, that enormous milk shake looks pretty inviting!

Getting ready to jump from the ottoman to the couch...she loves jumping!

Fun faces with Arwyn: "oh my!"

"Uh oh!"

Cute smile.

Big laughs!

Arwyn Week 94: Arwyn Like's It! - 4/6/2017

Arwyn's speech is exploding more and more every day.  With her new found language skills come her new found command skills.  When we tell her to do something, she tells us to do something right back.  When I was trying to put her to bed the other night, she did not want to go, so she just told me to "sit down" instead!  She was playing with her plastic food and knife in her little kitchen, and she kept saying "I cut it."  She also tells us about everything she likes, which is a lot of stuff!  "I like ski," or "I like book."  She likes sunglasses too, "I like gassey," and the other morning I found her lying in bed in her dark room wearing her glasses.  She's starting to take more and more stuff to bed with her, which is a good thing because she wakes up and starts playing with it all again, so she plays in bed for awhile instead of crying.  She's still really interested in using the potty, and her daily school report card indicates that she's successfully using the potty multiple times a day.  I feel badly because she always asks me at home too, but I often don't let her because she takes so long and sits forever, and I don't always have the time to deal with it.  She had so much fun skiing on the Magic Carpet at Squaw in the rain again this week, so I'm really proud of these little stormtroopers of mine.  She was able to swing her arms and upper body around to turn the skis in a different direction.  You could tell she was trying to control things, but she just doesn't seem to really have the leg strength that she needs.  She's found other methods though.  She kept yelling at me to "go away" and "let go" so that she could ski by herself.  She clearly loves skiing, and it's funny because every time I ask the girls if they want to go skiing, Arwyn says yes and Leia says no.  Of course, they both have fun in the end, but possibly Leia even has more fun because Arwyn gets tired and cranky.  She still wants to go back for more though!

Leia, as I mentioned, did not want to ski, and put up an even bigger fight than usual.  She fought me every step of the way, including the final bathroom stop, but finally decided to join us outside, and had the best time.  She just kept lapping us on the Magic Carpet, trying to beat us down, which she did.  She didn't care to ride up the chairlift this time, but it was fine because she was able to be so independent.  Luckily she had Poppy to keep up with her while I stayed with Arwyn.  Leia learned about April Fools' Day for the first time this year, when MorMor played a little prank on her.  She  finally figured out how to drive her Jeep, and was enjoying it, so she and the Jeep made their inaugural trip all the way to Nana and Poppy's house (she'd never before made it past the next door neighbors' driveway).  She left the Jeep parked in Nana's driveway, and came out a couple hours later to discover some very large stuffed bears were trying to drive away in her Jeep!  She was pretty outraged until we explained the whole thing to her, then she thought it was brilliant!  She decided we should play an April Fools' prank on someone, and that the best candidate was Cousin Emmett!  So the next day (technically no longer April 1st, but when you are 3, who's counting, right?) we headed up to Emmett's with some Halloween pumpkin buckets filled with stuffed animals and other little "treasures" and hid them under Emmett's front porch.  We sat around like guilty criminals with big goofy grins on our face while he hunted all around trying to figure out what we'd hid.  Leia was so excited to have carried out such a great prank!  It was really cute, especially since it was so innocent and yet so well received by all involved...oh, to be 2 and 3 years old!  As she commonly does, Leia cracked me up again this week when grabbed her backpack and delayed our departure somewhere by yelling out, "I'm going to add a few essentials to my backpack!"  Whatever she needed was so clearly non-essential, yet so apropos to the scenario.  Where does she get this stuff!?  I finally had a clothing victory with Leia this week, which was hugely satisfying since Leia has dressed however she wants for so long now that I've mostly given up even worrying about it.  But I mentioned that she might want to change out of whatever ridiculous shoe she had chosen for school that day in favor of her "fast shoes," put them in the car, and left it at that.  By the time we arrived at school, she was apparently uncomfortable, and was singing to a different tune: "You were right Mommy, I think I should wear my fast shoes to school."  Hallelujah!

Da Belly Dancer!

So many great facial expressions!

So cute in her little fedora!

Reminds me of a picture from the 1950's of a working man kicking back, with his feet up on the desk, looking at someone in the background.

Leia and the Jeep's maiden voyage to Nana and Poppy's house!

Gently caring for a very antique doll named Sally.  Sally is wearing Papa's (Leia's great grandfather) christening gown, and she was given to Nana by Santa when she was 3 years old.  Nana says that Sally was already "antique" when she received her.

She's so old and fragile that it's almost like caring for a real baby!

Nana recovering from her Achilles Tendon Repair and rocking her new scooter!

Leia was having fun with Nana's scooter too; it was surprisingly maneuverable!

April Fools from MorMor!

So outraged that some bears had gotten into her car...just like what would happen in real life if bears got in your car!

Password = Leia

Leia the 3 Year Old Driver from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Leia finally took her jeep for it's maiden voyage all the way to Nana and Poppy's house. Arwyn was alternately laughing her head off and scared for her life!

We are in big trouble because apparently crashing into a snowbank is totally hilarious!

So great for Leia to finally have a little sidekick!

Arwyn's first time actually being old enough to participate at the gym...her eyes lit up when she saw all the great possibilities!

So impressed by her climbing skills, and especially by her ability to hang and swing for so long!

It was hard to photograph Leia; she was running around everywhere at very high speeds!

Really fun birthday party snowball fight...Arwyn took her time watching and figuring out what it was all about, but then she let loose and really fired off those snowballs!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn's First Snowball Fight! from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Ok, it was an indoor snowball fight with foam balls, but with all her great new throwing skills, she killed it!  Also helped that she wasn't afraid to take some cheap shots!

Nice puppy ears Dad!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Talks About Reading a Book from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn was very interested in Daddy's big book, so much so that she was flipping through the pages trying to read it, and was loving telling us about how she was reading it.

Leia demonstrating her favorite pose from her yoga class: Unicorn.

Arwyn has never had any formal yoga training, but wanted in on the action...clearly she's a natural!

Good yoga session, guys! Namaste!

Glad Leia is finally getting a little taste of her own medicine...can't lie down on the floor around this house without someone jumping all over you!

Taking advantage of a little bit of spring melt to play on Emmett's slide structure.

Emmett hugs!

Arwyn was a little intimidated by the steep slide that ended right in a huge wall of snow, but once she figured out that Mommy would catch her, it was really fun!

Stacia and Emmett standing in the hole where they had to dig out their spare wood supply mid-winter...pretty deep hole there guys!

Josh's athletes on the podium at the Far West Championships.  Good job girls!

Like I said, big trouble here...already thinks it's ok to drive a car in ski boots!

Decided to ride a bike in a bathing suit and ski boots too, but she actually had more success with this venture...she was able to pedal better than she ever had before...maybe the extra weight of the boots gave her more strength and force??

Cool cat Arwyn heading off to work in the "no" (snow) with her "gatchey" (glasses).

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Heads To Work from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

After fumbling with her glasses, her handbag, and her keys, Arwyn heads off to work in the snow (aka, "no").  Bye bye Arwyn!

Fast asleep with her purse still hanging over her arm!

Breast feeding first thing in the morning, and she still has that purse wrapped tightly around her arm...can't risk having Leia snatch it away!

How cute is Arwyn in her little hooded ski mask...mini Darth Vader?

My dedicated little stormtrooper getting ready for another day of skiing in the rain!

She loves skiing so much now that she even insists on carrying her own skis!

After the epic battle of convincing Leia to come out skiing, I had such a fun morning with 3 of my favorite people: Poppy, Leia, and Arwyn!

Poppy and Leia spent the morning racing each other down the hill, and trying to find the most stickers on the walls of the tunnel.

My little ski buddy!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Improves Her Ski Skating Skills from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn kept telling me to "go away" and "stop touching" her, so when I moved on down the hill, she figured out really quickly how to get those skis moving downhill!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Attempts a Turn and a Stop on Skis from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

It was a lot of whipping around her upper body, but Arwyn was able to turn her skis in a new direction and slow down with something like a hockey stop!

Thanks Poppy for treating these goofs to their requisite muffin and juice treat after skiing!

Fun new "scary daddy" (aka Darth Vader) water bottle!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn Likes to Ski from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn likes skiing so much that she's started carrying her own skis so that she can ski whenever she wants!  And she's found the words to talk about it!

Round 2 of skiing for the day...I think she likes it!

Happy snuggle time!

Whoa, what do you see there Arwyn?!

Leia's homemade Dream Catcher.

Cool mirror art.

Multi-media masterpiece!

Leia said this one was a picture of "Daddy's Spaceship."