Arwyn is transitioning up to the next room at school, called Toddler2/Pre2 (T2/P2). Her new teacher in that class is Kara. She doesn't officially move over until 9/14, so we are still dropping her off in her old class, but they send her to the other room pretty promptly, and she does most of her eating and napping over there too. But the funny thing is, every day she still likes to tell me that she went for a walk with Heather, who is her current/old teacher. She really loves Heather and these walks because she won't stop talking about them, and she gets really pissed if you don't listen to her and acknowledge her story about the walks. In reality, she hasn't been for a walk with Heather in a couple weeks, but she just won't quit talking about them like they just happened yesterday. Despite her nostalgia for old class, she is doing very well in her new class because they keep sending home her daily report cards telling us that she's taking these crazy long naps in Kara's class, like 2.5 hours! She's never slept that long at school since her very first day as an infant! I questioned Kara, but she insists it's accurate within 5 minutes. Arwyn had a bad night for the first time in awhile this week. The kept waking up crying, and I finally went in to console her, and I was able to get her back down in her own bed, despite her instant request for "Mommy room." Unfortunately she woke up again only an hour later, and this time we did end up in Mommy room. We were lying there trying to go back to sleep when she tells me her mouth hurts. Ah ha, teething! No wonder she was waking up! I was so happy and impressed that she was actually able to communicate the problem to me so that I could properly treat it. When I looked in her mouth the next day, she did, in fact, have two new canine teeth popping through. Ouch! Ever since our trip to Wisconsin when I had to breast feed her on the plane, Arwyn has been so pushy about wanting Mommy milk when she's tired and cranky. I had wanted to give her some occasionally, but she's forced me to cut her off cold turkey. So sad. Arwyn has all of a sudden started suggesting that we call Grandma and PopPop all the time. She must really enjoy those FaceTime sessions! She loves to show off her skills, this week it was big jumps off the couch onto a cushion that was rather far away. "Watch dis pop pop!" Finally, Arwyn made me so happy this week when she finally ate and liked the "Sugar Fish" that I cooked for dinner (aka, Salmon). She's usually the less picky eater of the two of them, but until now, she would taste the salmon and spit it out. So glad she's finally come around.
Leia loves to be Arwyn's biggest advocate for stuff she thinks Arwyn needs, sometimes whether Arwyn actually wants it herself or not. Well now that Arwyn has been throwing tantrums over the lack of Mommy Milk, Leia has started trying to talk me into just giving it to her. I haven't been doing that, so Leia decided to take matters into her own hands, and this week started offering Arwyn some of her "Leia milk." All of a sudden I look over and see that Arwyn is trying to drink milk out of Leia's nipples! I tried to explain to both of them that Leia doesn't have milk, but Leia has been insisting that since she's a girl and has breasts, she does have milk. And Arwyn wants what Leia is offering, so she's staying quiet. Never a dull moment around here! Leia has been really good at sharing most of her stuff for awhile now, but all of a sudden this week, not so much. We had a fun day playing at the pond with Audra, and everything was shared, all kids were happy. Then Audra came to our house, and all of a sudden Leia decided that every single thing that Audra picked up and tried to play with was "really special to me," and therefore not something Audra could play with. So frustrating when you have backwards progress. On the same note, she keeps snatching stuff right out of Arwyn's hands, even if she hasn't thought twice about it before Arwyn picked it up. Then she gets all bent out of shape when Arwyn bites her and hits her. Well why do you think she's doing that, Leia? We decided to use some birthday money to buy Leia a new bigger bike without training wheels. It was going to be a surprise, so we kept trying to do little things to prepare her for it. Like strengthening her legs by pedaling more often when on the back of Daddy's bike. The only way we could get her to stop free-loading off him was to convince her that the only way she and Josh could beat me on their bike was if she helped pedal too. Being the natural competitor that she is, that worked great. Made the work out more of a game too. When we finally did give her the bike, she was so excited it was pink, but then got bummed out when she saw it didn't have training wheels. We had the seat all the way down, with no pedals on the bike, turning it into a balance strider bike to help her learn. It was so frustrating though because she wouldn't push herself on the bike any faster than a slow crawl. She kept acting like she didn't WANT to do what we were trying to teach her, but I finally realized that she was actually kinda scared and having a bit of a hard time. When she actually did have some small balance success, she was so fired up, but still not able to move past that. I was definitely a learning experience for us teaching her, having to be much more patient with slower progress than we imagined. The good news was that she finished the first session happy with her progress and excited to do more riding, so that was the most important thing. Being at the end of summer, the creek is way down, especially compared to the near flood levels we experienced most of the last 8 months. The nice thing about that is that it's now very accessible to go exploring in the creek with the kids. Leia and I had a fun rock hunting session together down along the creek bed. And finally, Leia has started talking about what she might want to be when she grows up for the first time, which seems like it must be some sort of milestone. She told me, "I want to be a singer ballerina riding a motorcycle." To which I replied, "Sounds like you need to join the circus!"
Emmett's first day of ballet class! Warming up with a little butterfly stretch, and sizing up the cute girls at the same time...this guy knows what's up!
Leia loves to be Arwyn's biggest advocate for stuff she thinks Arwyn needs, sometimes whether Arwyn actually wants it herself or not. Well now that Arwyn has been throwing tantrums over the lack of Mommy Milk, Leia has started trying to talk me into just giving it to her. I haven't been doing that, so Leia decided to take matters into her own hands, and this week started offering Arwyn some of her "Leia milk." All of a sudden I look over and see that Arwyn is trying to drink milk out of Leia's nipples! I tried to explain to both of them that Leia doesn't have milk, but Leia has been insisting that since she's a girl and has breasts, she does have milk. And Arwyn wants what Leia is offering, so she's staying quiet. Never a dull moment around here! Leia has been really good at sharing most of her stuff for awhile now, but all of a sudden this week, not so much. We had a fun day playing at the pond with Audra, and everything was shared, all kids were happy. Then Audra came to our house, and all of a sudden Leia decided that every single thing that Audra picked up and tried to play with was "really special to me," and therefore not something Audra could play with. So frustrating when you have backwards progress. On the same note, she keeps snatching stuff right out of Arwyn's hands, even if she hasn't thought twice about it before Arwyn picked it up. Then she gets all bent out of shape when Arwyn bites her and hits her. Well why do you think she's doing that, Leia? We decided to use some birthday money to buy Leia a new bigger bike without training wheels. It was going to be a surprise, so we kept trying to do little things to prepare her for it. Like strengthening her legs by pedaling more often when on the back of Daddy's bike. The only way we could get her to stop free-loading off him was to convince her that the only way she and Josh could beat me on their bike was if she helped pedal too. Being the natural competitor that she is, that worked great. Made the work out more of a game too. When we finally did give her the bike, she was so excited it was pink, but then got bummed out when she saw it didn't have training wheels. We had the seat all the way down, with no pedals on the bike, turning it into a balance strider bike to help her learn. It was so frustrating though because she wouldn't push herself on the bike any faster than a slow crawl. She kept acting like she didn't WANT to do what we were trying to teach her, but I finally realized that she was actually kinda scared and having a bit of a hard time. When she actually did have some small balance success, she was so fired up, but still not able to move past that. I was definitely a learning experience for us teaching her, having to be much more patient with slower progress than we imagined. The good news was that she finished the first session happy with her progress and excited to do more riding, so that was the most important thing. Being at the end of summer, the creek is way down, especially compared to the near flood levels we experienced most of the last 8 months. The nice thing about that is that it's now very accessible to go exploring in the creek with the kids. Leia and I had a fun rock hunting session together down along the creek bed. And finally, Leia has started talking about what she might want to be when she grows up for the first time, which seems like it must be some sort of milestone. She told me, "I want to be a singer ballerina riding a motorcycle." To which I replied, "Sounds like you need to join the circus!"
There is always some sort of new lounging apparatus being created on a Daddy Day!
Fun dress up trampoline time with our friend Audra.
They love to line up all the furniture and create new Evil Knievel type jumping obstacle courses. Good for the athletic skills, but scary to watch!
Creek is looking a little bit different these days...perfect for exploring!
They've finally figured out a way to share the swing in a way that makes everyone happy!!
Random cool picture that Josh found.
Afternoon slip n slide party and dinner date with Cousin Emmett.
Emmett just has the best smile, and more importantly, he loves to flash it!
So tired after a busy afternoon (and late night), that they almost fell asleep on the wagon ride home.
Password = Arwyn
Arwyn's new favorite song to sing is also my new favorite song to hear. It's called "My Mom is Cool." They learned it from a TV show, but it's a show about science, so it's ok. And I love hearing Arwyn sing about how cool I am for 10 minutes straight!
She always has the biggest smiles when she's about to get a surprise!
It's a sizable object, and we are in a big, empty parking lot. What could it be?
Wahoo, a new big girl bike! Pink, light weight, hand brakes, and no training wheels.
Arwyn loves zooming around on her little bike.
Pretty picturesque spot to learn how to ride a bike!
Slow progress, but progress non-the-less, and we are ending the day with a big smile and a yearning for more!
Emmett's first day of ballet class! Warming up with a little butterfly stretch, and sizing up the cute girls at the same time...this guy knows what's up!
I love how he decided he wanted to do ballet, such a cutie pie!
Leia loves ballet, but hates going to class (well, at least on Mommy days).
Arwyn wishes she could go to ballet, but also loves a little one-on-one Mommy/Daddy time instead.
Climbing maniac...she does get a little nervous, but loves the challenge of overcoming her fears and succeeding!
Password = Arwyn
Arwyn is so strong, confident, and nimble as she climbs up the corkscrew at the park. By the end of the hour at the park, she was even jumping from the top of the corkscrew over to the play structure all by herself (which was a good thing since it's much harder for short little Mommy to help)!
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