GNO

The Tumbleweed is dancing at a new dance studio this year after I looked high & low for a class that would fit in our busy schedule. We finally found a class for her, and much to her excitement, it is a Jazz & Hip Hop class. She loves the energy of the class, and that there is very little standing still, but she still has a hard time containing her energy and paying attention at times.

The studio divides the year into two halves and has two recitals, which she also found exciting. For the January recital, they danced to "Girls Night Out" by Miley Cyrus. She loved her costume and was excited to go on stage. She seemed pretty comfortable up there too. She can't wait until the June recital!

You've Got Mail. Not.

Yet another snowy morning in New England. The roads were untreated. The school bus was 20 minutes late. My driveway had be shoveled (again). Everyone who was out on the roads said "stay home!" So I waited (which mostly means "shoveled" in this sentence) an extra hour and a half before venturing out to take the Dandelion to preschool.

The roads were not great, but we got there without incident and I ran an errand in the brief time he was at school. I picked him and and returned home to find our mailbox empty. Again.

We had gotten a note in Friday's mail that we needed "to do a better job shoveling out our box". Wonderful. Despite my efforts after each storm, I was not doing a good enough job shoveling out the mailbox. Grrr. Apparently they have not tried shoveling the multiple feet of ice and snow.

I didn't have time to do anything on Saturday and wouldn't you know, we got no mail. So Sunday I shoveled. I hacked. I did anything I could to make a better path to the mailbox. I thought it looked pretty good. That is until we got no mail on Monday.

And of course, we got snow this morning. I took a shot at improving the mailbox area as I shoveled myself out, and thought I did a fairly decent job. Especially if a salt truck and some traffic could melt a little of the new stuff.

But no. When we got home, there weren't even tracks in the snow that fell after we left for school. They didn't even try! I was so ticked. I kept the Dandelion in the car and we headed for the post office. As I drove down our road I noted all of the "not well dug out mailboxes" that had tracks in the new snow to them. I am fuming.

After parking quite a distance away, dragging the Dandelion across the slushy and busy main road, I find out that they do not have my mail at the post office either. Our carrier "must have taken it to attempt delivery", except that she didn't even attempt it. "You can try to come back around 2:30 or 3:00." Are you kidding? With the Dandelion whining and yelling at my side, I kept back my anger best I could and told the guy that I would not be back later today and that our mailbox is cleared just as well as my neighbors and I do not see why the mail was delivered to them and not us.

Than I went home and took out my anger with a shovel. It didn't accomplish much. I want my mail!

Potty Training Wheels

On January 1st we tossed all of the Pull-ups in our house and embarked on a new journey. It has been a long road with lots of bumps. We aren't quite at the final destination yet, but here are some of the places we've been:

Laundry Mountain - Days 1-2
The Dandelion wasn't so sure about the new adventure and didn't quite know how to begin. We went through a lot of clothes during the first few days.

O.K. Corral - Days 3-4
Finally he was at the point of knowing that he had to run to the bathroom when he had to go! Laundry mountain is shrinking in our rear view mirror.

Defiance Canyon - Days 5-7
The Dandelion didn't want to play my new game anymore and we circled back around watched laundry mountain grow again. I started to think we would never get across.

De Nile - Days 8-17
The Dandelion got the hang of No. 1, but he flat out refused to try No. 2. He was now able to go out of the house in his underwear for school and errands, but he didn't do so well when we got home. Rewards were earned, rewards were taken back. I thought we would never see the end!

Victory Lane - Days 18-20
Finally! The Dandelion finally figured out how to do No. 2 on the potty. Victory dances all around. Laundry mountain is almost a distant memory.

Route 66
We are cruising along pretty well at this point. He's fairly trustworthy as long as he is awake. We have had our fair share of accidents, but they are getting fewer and further between. Phew.


Unfortunately, both kids still have their learner's permits at night. We have had lots of dry nights, but not without a lot of steering. It is humorous to watch each of them in a deep sleep try to navigate from their bedroom to the bathroom. I think the road to dry nights might be a long, long one...

Level 2 Mid-year Report

The Tumbleweed is on the Level 2 team at gymnastics this year. There are 10 girls on her team, which at times seems a little too large to me. She is making steady progress though and still says bars is her favorite event. They don't spend much time on beam & vault this year, but her floor skills are improving a lot now that they are spending more time on them (they didn't have a floor rotation very often as Level 1s).

Cookie Kick-off!

The Tumbleweed is a Daisy Girl Scout this year and she is super excited about selling cookies. In fact she has been talking about it since the day we went to buy her uniform, when she assumed that going to the Girl Scout Store meant a store that sold cookies, not uniforms.

She hit the ground running with her cookie sales, asking teachers and coaches and calling family members. She can't wait to set up a table and sell cookies "to everyone who walks by"! She was also excited to attend the Cookie Kick-Off event at the Worcester Sharks hockey game. I am pretty sure she thought that she was going to get to sell cookies at the end of the game, but she did enjoy skating on the ice before the game.


The Dandelion also skated - on his new skates!

New Toys, New Storage

Santa came and delivered new challenges, I mean, toys. I had been anticipating their arrival for over a month and hand been purging outgrown toys. Among the toys moved out were all of the Tumbleweed's dress up clothes. Removing them allowed for some major changes in the room once the Christmas toys arrived. Here is the new cube system to organize everything from Barbies to Legos to Silly Bands.


Even the American Girls have underbed storage now :)



In the Dandelion's room we made room for a new art desk. Additionally, with the elimination of diapers, we were able to remove the changing table and diaper pail. He now has additional drawer space for his underwear.




Now if we can just keep it clean!

Best Buds

The Tumbleweed has always had a whole bunch of "friends". Whether from playgroups, sports or school, she has always had little playmates. The Dandelion, on the other hand, doesn't have very many activities of his own and usually tags along to the Tumbleweed's activities. I don't know whether it is because he is the second born or a boy or lack of opportunity or just his personality, but he doesn't seem to have the same connections with other kids as his sister.

Recently though, he does seem to be talking about "my best buddy" or "my good pal". He even helped one of his friends who was afraid to go down an inflatable slide. They went down over & over again together. My little guy is growing up!

Obsession

Anyone who has met the Dandelion knows that he loves Lightning McQueen. I guess loves is an understatement. He is obsessed with everything about the movie Cars. Not just the movie and toys, but also clothes. Cars pajamas, slippers, socks, sweatshirts, pants, shoes, hats, jackets and, most importantly, t-shirts. After Christmas I counted his Cars shirts and found 23. Some a little small, some with room to grow. Some short sleeved and some long. His shirt drawer only contains Cars shirts (All others hang in the closet).


If there is one thing for sure, he's a boy who knows what he likes.