May 17, 2013

Selfie

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

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.

May 13, 2013

Wow. Where has the time gone? It’s been so busy lately, and whatever free time I’ve had has been spent with some yarn. The non-sick free time, that is. I was laid low for about a week with some fatiguing tummy bug.  Good side was that I lost six pounds in a week.  Shame that once I started eating again too much came back.  Oh well.

I did finish the shawl I was working on, and was able to block it in enough time to give it to my mom on Mother’s Day:

blocking the shawl

Blocking the shawl on the dining room table

Blocking really helped the shawl – the detailing really came out once I pined it on the table.  I cheated a bit, and used a towel under some gingham material that was clamped to the table.  It worked wonders.  I would have liked a bigger checker pattern, but they didn’t have any material at the store when I went.  The smaller grid will work, it’ll just be a bit more difficult to block too.

I am almost done with the straps on Ashlin’s car blanket.  I should finish tonight.  They even have button holes!  Once that’s done, I’ll move on to either Teagan’s car blanket or the one for Ashlin’s bed.

More tomorrow, once I get this car blanket done.  I really want it to be done.  There’s also a draft or two that need fleshing out, finishing…

April 25, 2013

So, some random things…

  • In the car Teagan saw a bug of some sort, which she dubbed a cricket. She then went on to tell me that it was crawling on her hand, but when they do, they kiss you when they crawl on your hand.  With their feet.
  • One day when I had to leave early to work in Jersey, I left a note for the girls, and Stu.  On it I asked Teagan to be a good girl at nap time (we are still having issues – sad face), and gave everyone hugs and kisses.  Ashlin asked Stu for the paper, saying “ugg!  Ugg!” and then kissed the paper.
  • Ashlin cannot leave day care, or anywhere else for that matter, without hugging everyone she knows goodbye.
  • She also can’t walk past an open door without closing it.
  • On my drive home from Jersey the other day, Alt Nation played Josie Cotton “Johnny Are You Queer” and I had flashbacks of teasing my friend Tom incessantly.  I’m not sure exactly why the song bothered him, but it did.  My sister also joined in when she was out and the song came on.  I miss Tom.  He’s moved too far away from some of his friends and we don’t see him enough.
  • I finished Ashlin’s car blanket last night, the blanket portion anyway.  I used a crochet bind off, which was easier for me to control the tension, and the cast-off stitches look much better, looser, than those of the scarf.  I will need to work on that.
  • The button hole on the strap is throwing me for a loop – not a hole – unfortunately.  I will get it figured out. Soon.  I’m sure it has something to do with my mirror knitting and Eastern European style.  I moved on to the crocheted shawl for the time being.
Done!  Blanket at least. #knit #blanket

Done!

April 18, 2013

Today I had to drive to a the jersey campus for a meeting.  Instead of the usual 40 minute or so commute, it’s an hour and a half to two, depending on the traffic.  So, perfect time to surf Sirius radio stations.  Alt Nation, Classic Rewind, Classic Rock, First Wave, Kids Place and Lithium (or something) are on the first six buttons.  What?  Yeah, I have Kids Place programmed.  When they have music on, the girls enjoy it.  Anything that soothes the raging beasts in the car is fair game.

Anyway, Alt Nation was playing angry boy music (or something screamy), so I click down.  Classic Rewind had on bad Dire Straits, Classic Rock had on bad Tom Petty, so, Kids Place is next in the down button.  And they were playing…

Hampster_Dance_single

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!

It’s like I got Rick Rolled by the radio.  Well, not exactly.  And I like that song, so it wouldn’t have been that bad.  But the Hamster Dance?  Really?!?!?!?!?!  I thought I had escaped this evilness.  I haven’t stumbled upon that song in years.  Years.

Anyway, that combined with the crazy drivers made the drive to Jersey a fun time.

 

P.S.  They did play “Love My Family” by the Roots.  It almost made up for it.

April 17, 2013

Rough Nap :(

Rough Nap :(

We received three day sheets in a row with unhappy faces at nap time.  Twice, the teachers needed to reinforce the unhappy. :(

This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten a report like this.  It is the first time we’ve gotten three in a row.  Three days!  Gah!

We’ve spoken to Teagan before about how she needs to be quiet at nap time, even if she doesn’t nap.  About how she can ask to read a book quietly, if she doesn’t want to nap.  Letting her know that the teachers will let her read a book quietly, if she doesn’t want to nap.

Sigh.

She wasn’t quiet.  Three days in a row.

I’m not sure where she decided that yelling at the other kids who are trying to nap was a good idea.  She’s run around at nap time, singing loudly (she likes to sing*, she’s jumped on other kids cots.  Bad, bad.  We’ve talked to her too many times about this.   We’ve told her that she doesn’t want to nap that’s fine, but she doesn’t get to make that choice for her classmates.

Yesterday, after the purple highlighter and double unhappy faces, she was told that she’d lose her music at bedtime if we got another one today. Today, we got the third unhappy face for nap time in a row.

Tonight, Stu took away her cd player and box of cd’s.  No music at bedtime for her to go to sleep with.  Stu said that she was mildly curious when he unplugged the cd player, but lost it when he picked up the box of cd’s.  That’s when it hit home.  She will have no music at bedtime for a week (which she believes is only six days, but that’s another story).  A week may be a bit too long for a kid her age, but that’s what she was told the punishment would be.

She’s promised to be better tomorrow.  Stu told her as he tucked her in, that if she got a smiley face that she could have her music back tomorrow night.  We are going to say something to her in front of the teachers about how she needs to be good, especially at nap time.  We are going to let them know that we need to know how she behaved, that she’s gotten in trouble and could have her punishment reduced if she’s good.

Fingers crossed she’s good.  She can be so good.  She’s fun when she’s good.  I hate being mean.  It’s not any fun at all.

~~

* One time at lunch she was happy so she started singing.  Unfortunately, she chose to sing Cellphone by Beck.  The other children found the riff “One by one I’ll knock you out!” a bit disturbing.

April 8, 2013

#birthday #cupcake   Yay!

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.

IMG_0157

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!

Quack quack!!

April 2, 2013

Birthday cupcakes!  LaLa rocked!

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.

Coloring eggs

Yellow one

Coloring eggs

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!  #egg #hunt #easter

There!

I got them!  #egg #hunt #easter #hat

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 #easter #bonnet

Goof in a bonnet

Om nom nom #bunny #cake!

Bunny cake!

March 13, 2013

Crocus

Crocus

Today I took a quick tour of the garden at lunch time. Little shoots are coming up, tender green. Brown leaves rustle underfoot, begging to be cleared away.  Stu cleared off the fish pond and then I cleaned off some of the stray leaves.  We have at least two fish that survived this cold and long winter.  Unfortunately too many frogs didn’t, I scooped at least four out.

I can’t wait to start cleaning out the flower beds!

 

PS.  I’ve decorated for St. Patrick’s Day!

March 9, 2013

20130309-221934.jpg

When Ashlin apologizes she will rub her fist on the person she’s apologizing to, her version of the “I’m sorry” ASL sign.Then she gives the recipient a hug. It’s so sweet. Is is the closest I’ve been able to get of her doing her version of “sorry.” She had stabbed Stu with her fork at the restaurant at dinner tonight.

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate dad’s birthday. We ended up getting there late, it was super busy, food took a long time to get their, but both girls were still super well behaved. Stu and I surrounded Ashlin, my dad and sister had Teagan. It was a good restaurant night with them for a less than stellar restaurant service.

20130309-221840.jpg

Happy birthday dad. You’re a great PopPop!

20130309-222108.jpg