Katharine Lange: Arwyn Week 99: Arwyn Takes Charge!

Arwyn has become quite perceptive these days, or should I say, we are realizing more and more how perceptive she actually is. We usually give Arwyn whole milk, and Leia gets 1%, but if I run out of the whole milk, Arwyn can drink 1% without complaint. Until now. All of a sudden if she sees me trying to poor Leia's milk for her, she shouts "No! My milk!" The funny thing is, the difference for her has nothing to do with the taste, rather she sees me pouring Leia's green top milk instead of her orange top! When she doesn't watch me, she'll drink either one just fine! Arwyn has started wiping her own nose when she has a cold. She's so proud of herself too; she realizes her nose is running down her face, announces "I need tissue," walks over to grab one from the box, wipes her nose, and throws it away. And she should be proud, it's a good sequence from start to finish, even cleaning up after herself, but then she's so happy with herself that she wants to do it again, and again, and again (and keep in mind, each individual tissue is getting very little use). Finally I have to hide the box way up high. I've also been trying to teach her to actually "blow" her nose, and she's quite receptive to the process, but she usually just blows out through her mouth. Oh well, it was a good try; she'll figure it out soon. She also likes to wipe other people's noses with the tissue, the way that they wipe hers. The only problem is that she tends to use the same single tissue on all her patients!

Leia had a major cleaning breakthrough this week. Last week she had earned her "Good Helper" badge, but was then disappointed so see I had made it blue and green. So I made the "Good Cleaner" badge the requested pink and purple. I kept it hidden so she wouldn't try to steal it, but the day she finally saw it, her reaction totally blew me away. She saw a pink and purple badge looking thing, and when I told her what it was, she was so excited to earn it. When I told her that to earn it she'd have to clean her most dreaded thing, her room, she didn't even protest. She did, however, burst into the most genuinely upset tears I've ever seen her cry when I told her I might not have time to help her with the project before I left for work. This is the girl who always says "no thanks" or "later" about cleaning, and now she's the most upset I've ever seen because we can't clean right now!! So of course I said that she just needed to cooperate so that I could get all ready really fast, and then we'd have a little time. She cooperated so well, and then cleaned so fast. Seriously, she made such quick work of that mess, and actually put stuff away where it belonged! I've never seen her rally so hard! Daddy helped put a string around her badge, and she proudly wore it around all morning. I used to hate to leave the house with the girls because it was always so hard to get them out the door, but now they kind of like adventures so they cooperate, and I like adventures because they tend to be more well behaved then at home and there's no tv. So we spent a random morning playing in the lodge at Alpine Meadows (after an unsuccessful Lost and Found mission), and Leia had a blast. She basically spent the entire time searching all around for these pieces of glittery confetti that we kept finding. I signed up to go to this Mini Education Conference one day this week because they were offering free daycare, so it sounded like a win-win for everyone: I could learn something about better raising my kids, I could get a free break from them, and they could go on another fun adventure. Of course I knew I was living in a dream world thinking they would willingly go off with some stranger in a school-like scenario on Mommy Day, so I just tried to sell it as a party. That worked to get them out the door and in the car, and they were happy all the way there and through the breakfast buffet, right up until I tried to drop them off. I left Arwyn crying, and Leia insisted on staying with me. I explained that it would be really boring, she'd have to sit quietly, and could not try to talk or interact with me. She actually did that really well for the first part, but things deteriorated during the second class when she spilled her drink all over and kept interrupting me to get her stuff. And then they brought Arywn in for the student demonstration, and the whole thing went to crap. The two of them were fighting over who could sit in my lap closest to me, and then Arwyn wouldn't leave me when the class was trying to leave. I had to leave the class early, walk them out to the playground, and try to convince them to stay all over again! Finally the promise of watching the movie Trolls, and the nice older girls who wanted to play with her, convinced Leia that it might be ok to let me leave. It was funny though, because Leia was not really singing or participating during the first little class that she was with me for, but 3 hours later on the playground she burst out singing the little Spanish song that the lady had been trying to teach us. She's got such a crazy memory! Finally, we had a really fun little Mother-Daughter time at the Mother's Day Tea at Leia's school. She was so excited for us to go and have special time, and she even drank the tea (after she got her fill of juice)!

Woke up happy and cuddling with her baby.

Time to tow the Scout back home for the summer...hopefully we can get her up and running again soon.

Arwyn was so cute, insisting on wearing her backpack around all day at the Education Conference.

Always fun to play at a new playground.

An apple a day, or maybe 3, keeps the doctor away...both girls kept eating apple after apple all day!

Braving the big girl swing!

Fun new ladder climbs.

Loving this little cutie in her ninja head wrap!

Insisted on bringing her iPad to sleep, and looked at it for quite awhile despite it being off and out of batteries!

My nephew Carter and his date at Junior Prom!

Leia is starting to insist on picking out Arwyn's clothes...I was supposed to have a few more years of control over the style of the little one!!

With a little imagination, we can have fun anywhere!

These two were successfully taking 5 minute turns back and forth being either the baby in the swing or the mommy taking care of her...I love sharing!

Arwyn's turn to be the baby...all decked out with the essential supplies while relaxing in the swing!

Leia the Hairdresser!

Mini-monster does a powerful Cornhole double slam!

Oh yeah, successful slam, flex those pecks you animal!

Attempting the Cornhole down-the-slide variation.

Loving the rubber headband look!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn's Got the Shivers from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

She's one tough little cookie, but even Arwyn gets cold sometimes! Cutest little shivers ever!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn's Jump Rope Jumbles from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.
Arwyn is really good at watching someone do an action, and then figuring out how to do it herself. If only the jump rope was a little shorter, I think she would have had it!