22 days and counting

I have been focusing on how old Kaitlyn is and how big she is and how much she can do and how in just a few months she will be starting full day kindergarten. I will admit that on occasion i have even pouted about this.
I have wondered why I have been focused on this so much. Why I have pouted and moped about the "march of time" concerning my oldest.
Well today i think i have come to the root of the problem.
I have been avoiding the fact that my youngest will be turning 4 in 22 days. That she is already the size of a 5 year old. And that any of the last remnants of baby and toddler hood have left long ago. She has been a full fledged preschooler since her third birthday and maybe a little before it.
I do believe that i have been focused on the lesser of the two issues in my "mommy no longer has any babies" issue. I enjoy these now older children and relish in the freedom that them being older brings and yet some part of me revolts at the very idea that i have no babies. My girls are definitely not babies. My girls are not toddlers. My girls are on the very top end of preschooler. Geesh if Kaitlyn's birthday had been 6 weeks sooner she would be almost done with Kindergarten. They are smart, capable, independent, with very strong senses of self young ladies. They make me proud every day.
Oh, i admit I'm selfish. It's me that's not ready to share their wonderfulness with the world. They are poised and ready to skip, hop, and jump into the next stage in life. The stage where you get a best friend and are attached at the hip till at least the 4th grade. It's when I get pushed to the back seat instead of the passenger seat. I didn't like being kicked out of the drivers seat either. Darling Husband keeps telling me I'm still in the car. I know he's trying to cheer me up, but that just reminds me that one day I won't be in the car at all. One day far sooner than I'll want I'll have to get out of the car and yes I'll blubber like a big baby when I do.

Valentine's Chocolates

This was the end result of my chocolate making fun. There were two of these darling little boxes for my two darling little girls on valentines day. I only have the one picture due to battery failure on the camera and the speed that little girls can eat chocolates. The finished boxes were two layers with the rose lollipop on top with one additional marshmallow lip. The bottom layer that you can see here had two lips filled with marshmallows, three cherry filled hearts, two blueberry roses, and two almond butter balls. It was so wonderful to see my girls carefully pick which chocolate to eat next and to see the joy on their faces from having an entire box of different chocolate candies. I am already thinking big for Easter. I am hoping that this year they will get their first chocolate bunnies.

mid november

So it's getting to be mid November...
The list of things i wanted to do this fall and winter are slowly being check marked off. In the next few weeks we have a flurry of events that I can't wait to take the girls too.

Train Ride in Ione to see the fall colors- done
Green Bluff for the apple festival- done twice
Disney on Ice- On wed
Ballet- Nutcracker in December
Lake cruise to see lights on Cour de'lane- starts after thanksgiving
Welcome Santa festivities with caroling and story time- on the 20th of November
Breakfast with Santa- Not sure?
Winter KPBX Kids Concerts- Nov 21 & Dec 19
Horse drawn carriage rides downtown
Ice Skating downtown

I love taking the girls out to experience these wonderful things. I love seeing their eyes light up with wonder. I cherish the squeals of delight even when they burst my ear drums. These fun filled winter activities really are the holiday season to me. Not the gifts, tree, or decorations but the rosy cheeks of happy girls enjoying all there is see and do.

Kaitlyn is 5 today!

My Katie Bug is five years old today.
How did this happen?
I swear it was just a few months ago that her and Eric were playing games and keeping me awake at night. Yes, she has always been a daddy's girl even before she was born.
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that she babbled to me all day in her own language and I understood about half of what she said and commented on all of it. We carried on lengthy conversations, even though she was barely one.
When did my darling little girl get to be so big?
Probably she got bigger when she was arguing her case better than any hardened new york lawyer. She may have gotten a little bigger when her sense of fashion compelled her to comment on my clothes. She may have grown just a little bitty bit while she wrote & illustrated her first book. Or when she decided that she wants to be a horticulturist and write gardening books when she grows up. She might have grown when i wasn't looking or when she was sleeping or reading me stories or creating the most complicated story lines involving all the princesses in the playroom or being the perfect little girl that she has always been.
No matter how or when it happened, It did. My baby is 5.

Our B week

On Sunday we spent time at grandma & grandpa's house extracting honey. Honey made by grandma's Bees. Bees that had collected nectar from the Apple orchard. A wonderfully sweet transition from A to B.
Monday we had Biscuits with honey for breakfast. With honey still sweet on our lips we acquainted ourselves with the letter B. Bird, Ball, Banana, Bread, Bus, so many B things.
Tuesday we had Blueberry muffins and colored Two Blue Bears holding Birthday Balloons.
Wednesday we had oatmeal, because we were in the mood for oatmeal. We learned all about Butterflies and made a Buzzing Bumble Bee. Then we listened to "Flight of the Bumble Bee" by Beethoven while we had Bread with honey.
Tomorrow we will learn about Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox Babe.
Friday will be all about Bananas. Banana books, Banana Bread making, and banana eating.
Have a happy B week. :)

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
Won't my mama be so proud of me
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
Won't my mama be so proud of me

yeah

I am finally feeling better. Yeah! And so are my girls.
Kaitlyn has not had a tummy ache in four days.
Samantha is going on two days tummy ache free.
I am hoping that this means that my ability to drink coffee and still feel ok this morning is a good good sign.
To add to my overall feeling better good mood.
My house is clean. It hasn't been all clean since June. I know it may sound strange but I get a kinda zen feeling when my house is clean. To add a cherry on top I am caught up on the laundry too.
Preschool has been going wonderfully. My darling little girls are soaking up the lessons as fast as I can give them. Tomorrow will be the last day of "A" week. We are going to make an apple pie tomorrow and this weekend we will visit Grandma Bev's Apple Garden to finish off our week. If we are lucky we will get to see some honey extraction from her bee hives which will lead nicely into "B" week.
Happy learning all.

preschool- is fun

Alright, preschool has been going better than I could have hoped for.
It's really really awesome!
We haven't started our full fledged curriculum yet, but it's still going great. This week we have been working on the intro week. I am suppose to be introducing the alphabet to the girls. The girls are already very familiar with the alphabet. But sitting and having lessons for an hour is a new concept. So this week we have been creating a routine and doing various activities that we will do in our lessons, with no real focus on any one letter but just letters in general. I have been gathering up the materials needed for our lessons and storing them in a functional spot. Each time we do a sample lesson I think to myself, "______ would make this so much easier." Hopefully by Monday we will have all the kinks worked out.
The only unforeseen problem so far is, Kaitlyn doesn't want to stop at an hour.

Preschool, part two

I am going to do preschool at home!
I have found an online curriculum that is adaptable to both Kaitlyn and Samantha and doesn't expect us to spend more than an hour on lessons each day. It's called "letter of the week" and well we learn all about a letter each week. There are poems, songs, coloring pages, even letter themed snacks. http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html
I figure with some scheduled planned teaching instead of just learning based activities, I should be able to properly stimulate Kaitlyn. That along with a few extra curricular activities, like dance or art classes should be just about right.
I had been hoping to have her join girl scouts but the web site says Kindergarten is the youngest they take. Camp Fire has a pre-K group for three to five year olds. That may work but I really wanted her to be with other five year olds. I have sent off e-mails to both groups. Having been a girl scout myself, I know Kaitlyn would love it.
I am going to start with the intro week tommrow and do "A" starting on the 1st. Wish me luck!

preschool?

I have worried and worried about PRESCHOOL.

Well point blank we can't afford preschool. We earn to much to attend any state run facility and the private run preschools are out of our budget. If our children need something, Eric and I will do what ever it takes to make it happen.

But that is the essential question, Does Kaitlyn need preschool?

I have read so many books, articles, parent polls, parent & expert blogs, completed tests, answered questions, and anything else that is relevant to preschool that I can get my hands on, this has lead to many sleepless nights and one answer. No, Kaitlyn does not need preschool. Kaitlyn is a well socialized child that is confident and kindergarten ready.

Then the question became, Do I need Kaitlyn to go to preschool?

Her almost five year old mind, is craving, no demanding more complex and involved stimulation. So I returned to my books, websites & blogs to determine how I would cope with a five year old at home. Almost everything says, send them to preschool. I quickly learned that, keeping a five year old entertained at home with out the help of preschool is not for the faint of heart. I still can't afford preschool but my sanity is also a valuable asset.

What to do, What to do. I am still figuring it out but I am close to a solution.

seattle fun

having a great time in Seattle.
we arrived at 7pm on Friday night and had dinner in the international district. It was good Chinese food and even more fun to watch the girls eat dinner with their chopsticks. Then with very full belly's we went up and did the space needle. Samantha's favorite part was the elevator and Kaitlyn's was the telescopes on the observation deck.
Today we went to the zoo and checked out as many animals as we could find. Samantha's favorite was the gorillas and Kaitlyn's favorite was the giraffes. Then we did the Music Experience and SciFi Museum. Eric and I are a bit of SciFi junkies so we really enjoyed seeing all the props from our favorite movies and TV shows. There was also the traveling Jim Hensen display. I must say Jim Hensen was an amazing man. The girls really enjoyed the Muppet's. They even got to do a little puppet-tearing themselves. Very fun indeed!! Next we looked at the Music Experience. We were very tired and worn out and very hungry. I think i would have found it more interesting in a different circumstance. We left quickly and had dinner at the Olive garden. I ordered the soup, salad, and bread sticks. Dinner was wonderful and for desert we had Italian donuts.
Now I have two girls sleeping soundly, a husband watching the shock vs Boise and me blogging. The shock are winning so far. Soon the game will be over and i will be asleep. Another big day tomorrow. We are going to the aquarium and a cruise of the bay. The girls love the aquarium, the otters most of all. And being a pirate on a boat is always a blast!
Good night.

growing

It's a rainy grey day outside. I should be taking advantage of the cool temperatures and get to digging up the remaining dirt in the driveway. However my girls have wanted to snuggle most of morning. I have felt the need very much to indulge them and have snuggled away the morning.
I admit that I am gleefull about all of the snuggling. We spent the weekend shopping for big girl beds for my girls. We have put away the toddler beds. We have assembled the bunkbeds. The girls are now sleeping in their bunkbeds. I will also admit that I cried. I didn't cry as much as I did when we put away the crib, but I did cry and blubber a bit.
I don't like this getting bigger and growing up stuff. I like my girls snuggle wanting and small enough to fit in my lap.
OK they don't really fit in my lap now, but they still snuggle. I don't like the idea of a snuggle free future.

my wonderful girls

DSCN0859, originally uploaded by senihtak.

My girls are so wonderful. They really do brighten every day with their smiles. They also drive me nuts. They ask for juice or a snack or help with things non-stop. I love being home and being with them to be asked constantly for things. Yet sometimes when my life is busy, the asking is enough to make me scream. I just want a moment, a moment to put the many thoughts spinning through my head in order. I know they will continue to spin in there, but in order would be nice. Then one or both of my girls does something so sweet, so wonderful, and i chide myself for being short with them. They are being the wonderful girls that they are; nothing more nothing less. Just because my life gets crazy doesn't mean that my girls change. Only my perception of the things they do.
Thank you for being wonderful, my girls. Thank you, for insisting i put on the rose colored glasses.

fun is good too

So it's Monday and i am feeling guilty, but not guilty for the level of things accomplished this weekend.
On Sunday we went to the children's museum and took a family nap. I did not dig in the driveway. I did however rearrange the pile of ex-driveway dirt. The slope from our fence line, to the grass level in the park, is quickly becoming an embankment. Don't worry now i am only dumping dirt on our side of the property line. Eventually we want a gate that goes from our back yard to the park. In order for that to be a reality we needed an embankment with steps instead of very steep slope. I have a large amount of dirt that needs a place to go, so an embankment i am building. Eric worked on the gate project by digging and hacking away at the stump that is exactly where we would like to put the gate. I also hacked at the very stubborn vine growing on the fence. I cleared it off the whole fence line and sprayed it for a 4th time with vegetation killer. The darn vine just won't go away. We bought some privacy fabric that we are going to put on the fence. I just have to get rid of that vine before we put it on. A simple project that so far, has been the hardest one.
On Sat we went to the liberty lake yard sale. The girls made a killing. We stopped by one place that was "fill a garbage bag for a dollar". They filled it with two castles, barbie stuff, a carriage, books, and some clothes. They also got a VCR for $5 (their old one was on it's last legs), some Disney movies for 25 cents, and a little tike's beauty salon for $10. Between all of their yard sale shopping and the "super why" party at Toys R Us earlier that day, they crashed for a good long nap. Meanwhile I tried to figure out, how to incorporate their new toys into the playroom.
Girls having fun and family nap taking. That was a good weekend. Maybe not as productive as it could have been, but it was fun. Fun is very important.

happy birthday Laura

My two darling little girls have lots of aunts and uncles. They are very blessed with how much family they have and how many people all over the country love them so very very much.
Today it's one of their auntie's birthdays.
The Auntie that makes them real princess dresses. The Auntie that bakes with them even if desert is already made. Plays tag with them when everyone else is too tired. Lets them take pictures with her very nice camera. Reads them bed time stories late into the night. And giggles at their jokes like it's the first time she's heard it, even when it's the 20th that night. I could go on and on, because she really is that great.
i hope she is having a wonderful birthday today. I hope that Jack smiles and laughs and makes her glow like only kids can make their mom's glow. I hope that Garth treats her to a wonderfully vegetarian dinner in an air conditioned restaurant. And if all the stars line up just so, something in claymation by Tim Burton is playing at the old second run theater that she likes so much.
Have a great birthday Laura. We love you

It's a wonderfully cold, rainy, gloomy in a great kind of way day here. You can take a deep breath of freshly washed clean air. All of the puddles around the house are yellow from all of the pollen, which is great because it's not in the air.
I made great progress on the driveway project yesterday. I filled and Eric emptied the wheel barrow 11 times. That was about 330 shovel fulls. My shoulders are a little tight today. I don't mind. I like sore muscles from good honest work.
With the rain I think i will get the girls working on their lessons. We tend to get a little behind with all the sunshine. Kaitlyn can write her own name now and it's legible. She is very proud of this. I am beaming. She can also write mom and Sam. She wants to master dad, Samantha, to, and from. She draws pictures and writes poems. I feel so special when my name is at the top and she puts her name on the bottom, so i know it's just for me from my Katie bug. She is also doing great with her number recognition and is loving doing dot-to-dots right now. Samantha knows all of her capital letters and most of the lower case. She gets stumped with the d,b,p,g,q's. She knows it's one of them so she always gets it by the 5th guess. She is also now doing mazes, one of these is not like the others, and what's missing worksheets all by her self. It's been fun to watch then figure out these new skills.
Have a great day everyone!

odd things in the ar

So this bug that the girls have is a strange one. They have a cough, pretty normal bug stuff. They have a temperature, again pretty normal. They are really congested, once again really normal bug stuff. The strange part is they are as energetic as ever. In fact i would wager that they have more energy than normal. That is odd. Sick children should resemble sick children, not hyper children that are bouncing off the walls.
There was almost a revolt in my household tonight. I have been enforcing a "you are sick, you must rest & relax" rule. Hyper energetic children do not take kindly to this.
To stop the revolt, i put the girls to work. I gave each of them a swiffer and now my floors are very clean. The girls are happy because they had a reason to run around frantically. I am happy because the girls are happy. And as an added bonus the floors are clean. That would be a win-win-win situation.

is it time for bed yet?

Kaitlyn spiked a fever on Saturday and developed a cough. Samantha and Kaitlyn do everything together. So by Monday morning Samantha had spiked a fever and developed a cough.
So why is it that right now i can barely keep my head up and both girls are running around the house happy and giddy pretending to be fairies.
Granted a half hour ago this was not the case. A half an hour ago both girls were given Ibuprofen for their fever, Mucinex for the sinus congestion, and covered in Vicks because nothing makes you feel better like Vicks. Now a half hour later all the drugs have had a chance to do their magic and i have two happy, giddy fairies running around my house.
Now if only there was a medicine to fix over tired, covered in drool spots, snot, and Vicks mommies in half an hour.

Connecting the dots

The girls are very aware that things come from the store. When my response is not to their liking, example “We do not have any fruit snacks.” I am often told, “then we need to go to the store and buy some.” They also understand that Farmers grow our produce and Ranchers raise our meat. The dots that they have trouble connecting together are that the stores get the produce and meat from the Farmers and Ranchers.
You see we frequent the Farmer’s market, where we buy fresh meat and produce direct from the Farmers and Ranchers. The girls who are very social, ask the farmers and ranchers questions about their items. They understand that the farmers grow/raise their items and sell them at the Farmer's Market. The girls know how much better this fresh food tastes from store bought food; it is a contrast we have talked about a great deal.
The girls have put all this information together and determined that the food in the stores can't possibly come from the Farmers. The girls are completely convinced that the Store being a Store instead of a Farmer just grows less tasty food. I have no idea how to dispel this assumption. I have tried and only strengthened their opinion.
Hopefully our current science lesson: growing our own vegetables, “from seed to table” will help. Only time will tell. At the very least Farmers market season is starting again, the girls may not believe me but i bet they would believe a farmer.

practically perfect in every way

Samantha had her 3 year well child check up today!
She is in the 96% for height at 40.5 inches and 60% for weight at 32.5 lbs. She is very very tall. She has 20/10 vision in both her eyes. She also was able to answer all of the questions, with no trouble at all on the developmental questionnaire for 2-4 year olds.
So she is smart, healthy, tall, and has good vision. All things that this proud mama already knew but it's nice when the medical community confirms it.

Kaitlyn and Mr. Giraffe

DSCN0721, originally uploaded by senihtak.

My big brave girl. I am so proud of her. She did great.