June 17, 2013

Sisters

Today I had to work late so Stu picked up the girls.  As he was gathering all their art and papers and things, the teachers talked about the girls’ day.  Ashlin did great pottying, Teagan was very good at nap time, though she asked to have her hairband taken off because her ponytail was bothering her.  (I had asked/instructed/warned her to keep it in all day.  We put her hair back in the morning, and she comes home with it down and all knots and full of food and icky things).

Yay for both of them!

On top of that good news, they also told Stu that one girl would call over the divider for the other.  Then they’d run up to the half-door that separates the two’s from the pre-schoolers, and give each other a kiss.  One girl would initiate then a little bit later, the other would start it up again.

Tonight after dinner, they snuggled up to watch some Max and Ruby and share my blanket. They held hands when it thundered.

So sweet.  I love that my girls love each other.

 

June 12, 2013

This morning’s ride to day care was fun!

Gotta love it.  Stu taught her a song that his dad taught him.  And then she adapted it!  My goof.

Ashlin wanted in on the singing too!

ABC’s are still her favorite song.  She dreams about the ABC’s, it’s her first request.  Yesterday when Stu asked her what she sang at day care, she bellowed ABC’s.  When asked if she sang anything else, she offered up ABC’s.  He asked if they sang BINGO, nope, ABC’s.  Wheels on the Bus?  Nope.  ABC’s.  Itsy Bitsy Spider (which she likes too) was also met with a nope!  ABC’s.

They’re both silly girls.

Cheese and peppers!!!

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June 11, 2013

So big!

So big!  My baby has gotten so big, almost overnight.  Or at least over the past week.  She’s now working on potty training, and though she’s a bit hit or miss now, she’s interested and trying.  As we did with Teagan, she gets her reinforcement in the shape of a mini-marshmallow.  Yesterday, she earned three marshmallows.  True to herself, she also asks for a high-five, or fives, as she says.

This morning, she walked into day care, proud as a peacock.  As soon as she stepped into the room she threw her arms wide and bellowed out “Ashlin pee pee potty!  Marsh-a-mallow!  Fives!”

I love how she says marshmallow:

Today, again, three marshmallows, which she decided to trade in for a dum-dum lollipop.  I was hoping to make her count out the marshmallows, one at a time.  I love how she says marshmallow.

So proud of her.  A bit sad that some of the last bit of my baby is going away.  But so proud of my little peanut.

Also, it will be nice to not change diapers any more.

June 6, 2013

Pomp & Circumstance

Today they had a graduation at day care for the littles that would be moving up next school year.  Although Teagan isn’t, she has three friends that will be, two will be going to a pre-K, one to a full-blown kindergarten.  I’m not sure how much Teagan realizes.  I mean, she understands that her friends are going to a different school, but I’m not sure if she actually understands that they won’t be at day care all day with her.  I’m pretty sure that both won’t be “clubmates” either, but will only be there occasionally when their school is out.

It was a cute little ceremony, they walked in to Pomp & Circumstance, sat in assigned chairs with the graduates chairs starred.  They sang a rocking version of Zip-a-dee-doo-da, which of course, Teagan got distracted right at the beginning and ended up shuffling wood chips around.  It’s not that she doesn’t know the song, she’s been practicing it, singing it at home, even though it was a secret surprise.

As she did last year, Teagan couldn’t resist running up and giving me (and her dad!) a hug in the middle of the ceremony.  The kid loves hugs.

Run for the diploma

After the song, they did a cute version of the tree little pigs, with the grads taking the roles of the pigs and the wolf.  Teagan was half of the straw house.  She dropped her prop with style.   After the min-play, they sat back down to be called up to get their diplomas – certificates actually.  Teagan ran up to get hers and then over to us for a hug before sitting back down.  Goof.

Ashlin watched from the sidelines behind the fence with the other little littles.  She really wanted to be on our side, and be part of the proceedings.  Goof.

After the little ceremony was a celebration.  Food.  Music and dancing.  We joked about how we were sugaring the kids up with the brownies and cupcakes and cake.  Hoped that they danced and ran and played some of the excited energy off.

I can’t believe she’s gotten so big.

~*~

There’s been some gems from Teagan lately:

Driving home she saw some garbage – or landscaping cloth, whatever – on the side of the road.  She shouted “garbage!  Garbage, mama!  If the birds land on it they will die!”

Last night, as Stu was putting her to bed, she asked for socks.  Stu said with the heat, she didn’t need socks.  ”Yes, dada, I do.”  ”Teagan, it’s 80 degrees, you don’t need socks.”  ”Dada, when it’s that number in the house, my feet get cold.”  Stu put socks on.  How can  you refute that logic?

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May 28, 2013

Teagan’s imagination is becoming quite, uh, colorful?  Interesting?  She’s telling more and more elaborate stories.  The other day we passed a fire truck on our way home.  She told us that if you touch the side of the fire truck, it would open and inside there’s a box. When you open the box, there’s fire inside.

Just tonight, as Stu was putting her to bed, she came up with another one.  Trying to nudge her to a better behavior, Stu asked her if princesses were naughty.  Of course, he expected her to say no, they weren’t.  She decided not to be lead, but to be contrary.  As she always does with me.  Teagan told him that some princess are naughty.  When Stu asked who, she said that Snow White is naughty.  That she wakes up in the morning, gets out of bed, opens the window, then farts on the birds.

Stu burst out laughing.

My beautiful princess.

You gotta love her.

May 22, 2013

This morning, Ashlin was too hungry for hugs! It may be one sign of the Apocalypse.  She had already had her first breakfast at the house, but it must not have been enough. Ashlin will usually hug everyone at day care when she comes in. Today?  Nope, she had no time for suck niceties. She even walked past two of her favorite teachers.  When Teacher S asked for her hug, Ashlin simply raised her hand and said “hi!”.   She then went right up to the table where breakfast was waiting, picked through the stack of bowls until she found the right one. She held it up like Excalibur and announced “pink one,” grabbed a handful of cheerios from the big bowl and put them in hers. Then she sat down, like a princess, waiting for someone big to pour her milk.

Such a personality.

 

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May 17, 2013

Teagan’s Selfie

Today we had our first parent teacher conferences. Day Care let me schedule both girls back to back at drop off. It worked out perfectly! After the seemingly endless hugs and kisses the girls ran off for breakfast – they had pineapple! – and we settled into (big) chairs at a table behind a divider.

Other than a few blips, both conferences went well. Teagan knows her letters, shapes, numbers, can write her name. Usually. She needs to want to do it, to focus on it, but often loses her focus. More often than not at day care, there’s something to pull her attention away. She loves to color, do art. Her pictures are detailed and creative – she even included her freckles when she did a self-portrait. A possible solution to her bad nap time behavior may be to have her color after she gets bored reading books to herself. Her teachers say she’s very smart, but easily distracted. Teagan was the first of her classmates to complete a sequencing project, (a rainbow!), and asked if she could color it in. She’s outgoing and quick to make friends. My sweet baby.

Weaving a web

Ashlin is much like her sister, outgoing and empathetic. She’ll hug everyone as they come in, and as they leave. She made some parents feel better about dropping off their kids as she ran up to hug the crying children, trying to make them feel welcomed. Ashlin is also very smart, knows all her colors, most of the letters and can count to 11 (which she pronounces “luvyoo”). She’s the youngest in the class, and also the smallest, but is right up there with the rest of the kids in her class. Outside, she’ll run laps with them, and although she falls behind, she never gives up but keeps plugging along. Although she’s a little peanut, she has no problem being physical with her classmates. I’m sure the nightly half-naked wrestling matches with her sister at bedtime prepped her to roughhouse with her classmates. The teachers would like her to be a bit more interested in potty training. We’ll do what we can there :D

All in all, good things. We learned a bit about each girl, saw how others see them, how they interact with their teachers and their classmates.

In preparation for Teagan’s 4th birthday, we bought her bed last night. She’s getting too big too fast. They delivered it this morning! Crazy fast! We’ll be swapping out her crib mattress for the full tomorrow, once we get the toddler bed frame converted. She doesn’t know yet…

Also, they both love the “Hamster Dance” song. Save me.

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April 8, 2013

Cupcake!

There was another celebration for Ashlin this weekend. He he he. I think that makes three parties, for turning two years old.  Sounds about right.  We always joke about how birthdays last an entire week.  And so they should!  And there should be cupcakes.

Ashlin had a very good time with her friends here, coloring with chalk, eating pizza and chips and cupcakes, swinging on the swings, playing with balloons.

Boon!

Thanks to Aunt NayNay, we were able to go to the zoo on Sunday.  Both Ashlin and Teagan had a great time.  Ashlin was was very excited to see all the animals.  We went into the Research Center and got to see a legless lizard, some baby aligators (or were they crocodiles?  I forget).  Chomp chomp!  Ashlin would point to each as we told her what they were.  She was intrigued by the bearded dragons, I think because they didn’t look like the ones in Mike the Knight.

As we wandered through the zoo, Ashlin would greet each animal as we came up to them, calling them by name, sometimes adding their sound. “Hello goat!  Meh meh!”  Then as we walked away, she would tell each “bye bye.”  It was so sweet.  ”Hello monkey! Ooh ah ah!”  I think her favorite area was the farm area, with the loud cow, the piggies – ick! – and the chickens.  And ZOMG!, her head whipped around when we told her there were sheep.  Baa baa!

When we got to the lynx, Teagan bounced like a rabbit after hearing that that’s what they ate.  She bounced up to the fence in front of the tiger, who stopped pacing to look at her.  Like she was a snack.

We may have only been there a couple of hours, but it was a good time.  Ashlin has never been so aware of the animals.  Teagan was great walking through the zoo, only taking one or two short rides on the sit n stand, listening well, being a very good girl.

It was a very good weekend!

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April 2, 2013

Birthday cupcakes!

Stu had another fun drive into day care this morning.  As he fires up the car,  Take a Walk by Passion Pit comes on. One of Teagan’s favorite songs!  And one of Ashlin’s too.  They both love singing along to the chorus.  Anyway, Teagan barks out a loud, urgent “Dada!” startling Stu. Long pause.  Eventually she follows up with her 27 ums, trying to get all the words that are swirling through her head out. “Um um um um um.  Dada, if this song was written by bunnies, it would be “take a hop” not “take a walk.”

Smart kid.

We had a great weekend.  Saturday was filled with the girls decorating eggs, dinner out (again!) and cupcakes.

We had each girl color eggs separately, first Teagan then Ashlin.  I was hoping to minimize the chaos!  Teagan did great, listened pretty well and had fun.  Ashlin had a blast coloring her set of eggs, though we needed to adapt a bit.  Getting the eggs out of the cups wasn’t too easy for her, and she may have dyed her fingers orange.  Still, she thought she was teh bomb, and really enjoyed it.

Yellow one

Lellow!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashlin didn’t quite understand about the candle on her cupcake though, that maybe she shouldn’t try to touch the fire. She went and put her finger in. Poor baby.  She got over it quickly enough though, cupcakes totally take all boo-boos away.

Sunday, we had our egg hunt.  We hid eggs in pairs, and told the girls that if they found any, they could keep one and give their sister the other.  It worked pretty well!  Often they went together and Teagan would hand over one of the two eggs.  Ashlin was pretty happy to let her, though every now and then she’d go off on her own and find an egg, which she’d let Teagan come over and pick up.

There!

I’ll get them!

Breakfast was fun, lunch was better.  It was followed by a special cake my mom made.  The girls loved it!  Ashlin wanted to eat the entire ear!

I think they both had a good Easter!

Goof in a bonnet

Bunny cake!

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April 1, 2013 ~ Car Talks

Goof

This morning when Stu drove the girls into day care, he and Teagan had one of those talks.  One that when you hear about it, you really wish you had been there too.  This morning, it was scientific.  Teagan told Stu that there were two types of worms that come out when it rains.  One type the birds like to eat.  The other is a wiggly worm, but this one has feet.  The wiggly worms feet are so tiny that you can’t see them because they’re so tiny.  If you do see the feet, don’t tickle them! If you do tickle the wiggly worms’ feet, they will suck your bleed [blood].

Her mind works in the strangest ways, sometimes.  And often, blood is involved.