Thunny Fings

When the Tumbleweed was not quite four she would drop the "s" off the beginning of words when she spoke. And as I predicted, she outgrew it. It was cute :)

The Dandelion also has a few odd tendencies when he talks. He switches some of his consonants around. Not randomly though, he has very specific sounds that he switches.

F <-> Th: Free (=Three), Thruit, Thlamily

V <-> B : Banilla, Bacation, Vafing Suit, Pribacy, Cuvvy (=cubby @school), Neighvors


The switches don't make the words sound too unrecognizable, so he is not hard to understand most of the time. I love it when a cute word comes out :)

A few other cute word mix-ups he uses:

"Commander Oranges" = Mandarin oranges
"Toilet" = Toilet paper (he calls a toilet, "potty")
"Usually" = really
"Pacific" = specific
"Mercurtory" = Mercury
"The Hug" = The Hub TV Channel
"Twenty Ten, Twenty eleven..." = 30, 31... (he counts "twenty nine, twenty ten....")


But despite his mixed up words, he seems to be mastering his letters and sounds at school. He recognizes all of the letters upper and lowercase and knows most of the sounds. He will correctly identify that "B says 'buh'" so I guess he will be surprised that vanilla is spelled with a 'v'. And while he can identify his letters, he has no interest in writing them, especially at school. The teachers tell me that he never wants to go to the stations that involve writing, tracing, or coloring. At this point they don't think it is a problem, just a desire to do the more active stations. Only time will tell I guess.

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies!

Customer: "What kinds do you have?"

The Tumbleweed, listing them in the order of the rainbow colored boxes: "Thank You Berry Munch, Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, Lemon Chalet Cremes. They're my favorite. Dulce de Leche, Thin Mints, Trefoils. They're my brother's favorite. And Samoas." (Note - Dulce de Leche was a tough one to learn and if you asked her in January, she said "delech deleach")

To say that the Tumbleweed was obsessed with selling Girl Scout cookies is putting it mildly. I don't think I have ever seen her put so much energy into something for such an extended period of time. From the day they passed out the order cards at the beginning of January until we turned in the money this week, she has been talking about cookies. "I have to take my order sheet to school today. I haven't gotten to ask the [art, music, computer] teacher if s/he wants any cookies." or "Ooh, there is nothing on the schedule after school today. Can we do a cookie booth?" She made phone calls to relatives, stepped carefully over icy sidewalks in the neighborhood, took her order card to school no less than 8 times, asked all of her coaches/instructors and worked at 4 different cookie booths.

And when all was said and done, she sold 332 boxes of cookies. Thank you to all of our family, friends & acquaintances who supported her!

Island Fun

Another year has gone by and the Tumbleweed was excited to celebrate her 6th birthday. After very little convincing, we settled on an Island Luau party (not the previously mentioned Barbie Thumbelina party). And while the theme was pretty easy to arrive at, and to come up with things to do, making a guest list was a little more complicated. Each year her parties have gotten bigger, and at times I find myself wondering if I should put my foot down and limit the number to the number of guests we had last year. But I don't, and the number of kids rises by a few more. But the kids are also a little older and the numbers have been pretty manageable.

We had a great time, but my time estimates during the party were a little off. I guess as they get older it doesn't take as long to do stuff. We had done a craft, 2 games, pinata, had cake and opened all of the presents and there were still 45 minutes left! Yikes. I had been so worried that we would still be opening presents when the parents came to pick-up that we had finished too early. But it all worked out and I don't think the kids noticed ;)

Perhaps I should start planning the Dandelion's birthday...

Another Year, Another Cake

By now most people who know me know that I like to make the kids' birthday cakes. The Tumbleweed's 6th birthday was no exception, however unlike previous years, I did not have a specific idea in my head. Usually I look through the cake books at the grocery store or see a cake creation on the internet that inspires me. This year it was less than a week until the party and I did not have inspiration.

I tried searching the internet, but I really didn't find many luau/beach/island cakes but the couple I did find provided enough inspiration for this:


Along the way I came across the Cake Wrecks Blog. It is a hilarious collection of messed up cakes, and on Sundays they have a post with really well done cakes. A word of warning though, they occasionally have some posts that are a little distasteful.

We've Got Mail!

It has been over a month, but we are finally getting mail delivery again. Just as I had started getting used to going to the post office every week to pick up a big big pile of mail, enough snow has melted and the mail truck actually stopped at our mailbox again. Finally.

Kid Logic

The kids each got a chance to play "the claw" game at the bowling alley when we were there this week. Neither of them won anything and I didn't hand out more money to keep trying.

The Tumbleweed came to me this morning with $6 in quarters and asked how many turns she would get. We talked it through and determined that since it costs 50¢/play she would get 12 plays. Her response, "Ooh yay! When can we go?"

To that I said, "Honey, even with 12 plays you still might not win anything at all and then you won't have any money left. Wouldn't you rather take your $6 to the store and buy something?"

Her answer, "But mom, I could win 6, or even 12, prizes. I can't get that if I just go to the store." And she bounced off to the other room.

Oh well, I tried. We will have to revisit the discussion the next time we go bowling...

Taking a Break

The Dandelion had been taking a Parent & Tot gymnastics class since the beginning of the school year. Most weeks he looked forward to going, other weeks he fell asleep before we got there. Sometimes he wanted to do what the class is doing, but he almost always hated waiting his turn. I finally got to the point that it seemed like I was doing more chasing and discipline than he was doing gymnastics, so I pulled him from the class.



He still has a lesson every week during preschool, but now he waits in the lobby both of the days the Tumbleweed has her practices. It is still a challenge to keep him busy. I had really hoped that he would be sitting playing his Leapster or coloring by now, but that isn't his style. He keeps me on my toes wandering around the lobby, climbing on things, watching the bigger kids play DS and basically getting into mischief at every corner.

Pajama Days

One of the most anticipated days at school during the year is "Pajama Day". The Dandelion's class celebrated in January, and started a trend of not wanting to get dressed for school. Well, I guess that has been an ongoing trend since he started school, but he has worn pajamas to school on multiple occasions since.


The Tumbleweed's school had Pajama Day on the last day before February vacation. It actually turned out to be a nice day and she was quite excited to wear her nightgown for outdoor recess.

The Tooth Fairy Visits

The Tumbleweed lost her first tooth on Monday. It had been loose for a couple of weeks, and after numerous days of constantly wiggling it, it came out. She was so excited that she wanted to show everyone her tooth. Unfortunately, she lost it in the car on the way home from gymnastics and had no one to show but us. Apparently, this was not sufficient, so she wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy requesting a return visit last night so she could take it for show and tell.


It all worked out. The Tooth Fairy returned last night leaving 2 Gold $1 coins and a coveted "Japanese eraser". The Tumbleweed was elated.

As a side note, the Dandelion decided to start eating apples so his "teeth would fall out".

Snow Days 2011

The kids have had a lot of snow days this year. The Tumbleweed has been off 6 times and had two 2 hour delays, all in the past month. The Dandelion has only had 2 days with no school, but that is because he only goes 2 days a week. At first the snow days were fun, as these pictures from January 12th show:




But after a while we had too much snow to play in and the kids were tired of my attempts at "fun stuff" and having their activities canceled. By the time snow day #6 rolled around instead of cheers there were tears about the missed Girl Scout meeting. Of course I also know that we will be making up these days in June, which means less time to enjoy the warm weather.

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.

Why I Love Black Friday

Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year. The thrill of the victory, the agony of defeat. It is a bit of a gamble, but with proper preparation and planning there are many victories to be had. This year we had a few gifts to get, but our main focus was getting a vacuum cleaner.

So, with our #1 item in mind, we planned our morning around the Target 4am opening. And with an effective divide & conquer technique the Eagle got the vacuum cleaner while I got the handful of other items. Combining the awesome sale price with additional 10% and 5% discounts we made out like bandits! And we were out the door so quickly thanks to Target Kingston's wonderful line management. I wish I could say the same about the Walmart lines. Actually, I shouldn't complain too much about Walmart's line because if I hadn't stood there forever I wouldn't have found the $25 pink Leapster2 that someone left at the checkout (they were long gone from the toy aisles when I got there).

I love my new vacuum. Since I have so much extra time (OK not really, but I was curious), I vacuumed the family room with our old vacuum. Then I went back over the "already clean" floor with our new vacuum. What an amazing difference!

Catching Up

I know, not a lot of posts lately. Don't worry, there is plenty going on! I will be working to catch up on my posts and get started on my holiday posts. Meanwhile, you can read old posts to see what we did for the past 3 Christmases, here are some of my favorites:

The Gated Christmas Tree

My 2008 Christmas Card Goals - and no, you haven't been removed from my list. I have not successfully sent out cards for 5 years. One of these days...

"I Spy the Ornaments" Game



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