Katharine Lange: L&A Years 4&2 Week 32: Snow Play Fun

Leia has fluctuated slightly as far as which tasks she chooses to do, but what hasn't really changed is her desire for independence and responsibility. This week she stopped making her bed in the morning, but now she feels really proud to wake up, get dressed, and brush her teeth all by herself in the morning. We had a fun snowy adventure up to Paige Meadows (or Misty Meadows, as Leia likes to call it) with Emmett, John, and Stacia, and Leia did a fabulous job of hiking all the way in by herself. The girls were so excited to play with Emmett, and especially to have him over for lunch afterwards. Leia was feeling super generous too, because she decided to give him one of her nice stuffed animals as a present to take home. She's so generous to give her stuff away to friends, but she never wants to throw anything away, it's kind of weird. The girls had a blast at the Martis Camp Family Barn with all the other kids for Sabrina's 40th birthday party. Leia was very upset when it was time to go because all the other kids got to stay and stay up later. And she spent the entire car ride home complaining and crying about when we would be able to go back and how could we get a membership. I agree Leia, it's a very cool place! Despite all these fun adventures, in between them we/she had a very tough weekend with whining again. I'm just not doing something right with that one, even though I try not to respond to it like they taught me. Leia got a little cold this week, and decided she didn't want to at school all day because her voice sounded funny. We told her that tea would help her get better, so she decided she wanted to go to school with her own thermos of hot tea for the day. She was really happy to have it, and brought it a couple days in a row. I'm so happy that she likes drinking tea so much!

Arwyn doesn't really cry at bedtime any longer, but what she has started to do is pick up some of the classic toddler stalling tactics. Every time after I finish our bedtime routine and start to leave, she calls out, "Wait, Mommy! I ana tell you sometine!" She doesn't even have anything to say. I tell her ok, tell me one thing, and she has to think of something to say. A while ago, Arwyn started to want to take stuff to school, and like we did for Leia, rather than an outright no, we try to prevent the impending tantrum by saying she can just take it to show her teachers, and then she has to give it back to me to put in my car for the day. Leia always went along with it because she hoped we would forget about it and she'd get to keep it. And then she'd defeatedly show it to one teacher and hand it back over. Arwyn, on the other hand, has really taken this "showing" thing to a whole new level, and genuinely loves to show her treasures to every single teacher and friend that she see's in the classroom. She won't hand it back until every single person has seen it. She no longer really cares about actually having the toy, now she just wants to be able to show it to everyone. So funny how different they are sometimes. But Arwyn also learns so many tricks from Leia too. Like now she's adopted Leia's "it's special to me" about every little toy, which creates so many squabbles. Arwyn was a super helper this weekend. She helped me with unloading the dishwasher, and even the shoveling. I was so happy to have a little sidekick, even if we are just in the training stage. Arwyn has gotten fed up with Leia always just taking stuff right out of her hand when she's playing with it, so now she gets very protective and possessive with her stuff. One morning she had a toy that she absolutely didn't want to share with Leia, especially after Leia tried to grab it from her, and guarding her toy from Leia was taking all her attention and energy, preventing her from eating her breakfast. Finally I offered to hide it for her, and assured her that there was no way Leia could get it, and only then did she actually relax and enjoy her breakfast. And by the time breakfast was over, she shared the toy with Leia anyway! It's just that fight or flight response that gets these two so fired up with each other, when they are relaxed and happy, they are both so sharing and generous.

It's official, for the first time of I'm sure many more to come, I'm actually jealous of my daughter's outfit today! Fancy new boots from her Cousin Jordan, and she just put the whole ensemble together so well. Who wants to give me some fancy hand-me-downs???

Yay, fun ski day! But I can't believe my first powder day isn't happening until January 25th, and that KT and Headwall still aren't open! Snow dances are still in order...

I even hiked up Granite Chief Peak for some great freshies!

Arwyn cuddling up to sleep with her favorite Marco Rocks #1 Fan Finger!

Big smiles on our trek into Paige Meadows.

It was perfect snow for actually rolling snowman balls!

We had lots of good little snowman helpers!

Arwyn the Snow Angel.

Pretty good little angel!

You have to get him shaped up just right.

They almost ate as much snow as they put into the snowman!

Aunt Stacia putting on the finishing touches.

Wow, Arwyn, what do you think about that guy?

Good looking family with a good looking snowman!

After all that hard work, it's snack time!

Enjoying the movie room at Martis Camp with the Lawrence kids.

First Father-Daughter pinball game!

Learning about the ball trigger.

Leia and Arwyn are part of the new generation of the "kids table"!

Art room, theater, game room, gymnasium, bowling, video games...this place has it all...and the adults get to eat a nice meal at the same time!

I love Arwyn here, relaxed yet attentively waiting for that "choc-et" cake!

Fun singing happy birthday when the birthday girl is so entertaining for her singers! (Love the looks on Leia and Arwyn's faces.)

Little cutie pie! Classic picture of a toddler being a toddler.

Finally we have two sets of wired headphone, so now they can use the double jack and listen together! Look how Arwyn is watching what her big sis does.

Ok, maybe I'll stand next to you.

So proud to have picked out her own outfit and gotten all dressed by herself.

Riding triples on the sled!

So fun when you actually have fresh snow to play in!

And don't forget about fresh snow for eating!

This big girl can sled all by herself now!

The sled master and the track master.

Happy to finally have some fresh snow to play in, we hit the yard with sleds in hand. Leia was not afraid of our awesome sled track!

Practicing for her future luge career.

Don't look now, I think Leia is stuck!

My little shoveler.

Got the full sequence documented.

Agh, tricky to get it up and over!

But she did it; successful dump!

Big smile, let's do it again!

Arwyn loves to help around the house with Family Contributions. She even loves to help me outside with the shoveling. It's tough work trying to shovel all that snow when you are little!

Little goof!

So excited to go skiing...charging outside carrying her own equipment!

"Hey, that's my sister!" (Not really, but it could have been)

She knows the drill: you get outside, you pull the skis apart, you drop them in the snow, and you click in!

Arwyn was fired up to get on the slopes today, charging out the door carrying her own skis! She even tried to put her skis on herself. When we got on the slopes she made some great turns, and even made her very first hockey stop!

I asked for a thumbs up about our great ski day...got a pinky's up instead...I guess that still means it was good because at least she didn't flip me off!