Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Winter Hiking!

We went hiking one cool but beautiful afternoon. It was cold enough that there was still ice but it wasn't too cold to be outside.
Icicles!
Ice!
Checking out dripping rocks.
We ended up chasing Quinn most of the hike like this...



Silly kiddos.
More "ice castles" as Aurora called them. :)
The gorgeous gorge that was our destination. I wish this picture could truly capture it. The green moss with the icy river was lovely.
Wil exclaiming, "You shall not pass!" with his massive walking stick. Quinn wanted to keep going, but we knew that we needed to be heading back.
Amazingly, both kids walked or ran almost the entire 3 miles. Quinn had to be carried a bit on the way back because he kept saying, "I stay here!" but once we started playing "run away from daddy", he did much better. Wil would roar at the kids and the kids and I would run down the path screaming until they needed a break, Wil would catch up and we'd do it all over again. It certainly worked well to get us through that last worst half mile to the car.



Quinn went to bed fairly well but Aurora informed me that the hike made her "not tired" and had a rough time going to sleep. Silly kid. Maybe we need to time our physical exertion better...

~Regina

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Bedtime problems with Aurora

I'm getting annoyed, so to keep my humor up, I'm going to record all the things Aurora needs from me before she falls asleep. All begin with her yelling, "Mommy!? MOMMY!!! MOMMYYYYYY!" She is swaddled in her special blanket from my mom, so she doesn't want to get out of bed...this is a GOOD thing. LOL....

1. "Shut my closet door!"

2. A: "How many princesses am I supposed to have?"
Me: "I don't know. We can count them in the morning."
A: "Why?"
Me: "I think you know the answer to that. It's sleepy time."
A: "I think I have 7!"

3. A: "My snack is missing!"
Me: "You lost it because you spit at Daddy."
A: "No I didn't!"
Me: *silence*
A: "I did it because I was trying to get rid of him...I wanted lay down time with you."
Me: "Well, I hope tomorrow you will not spit at anyone. Good night, Aurora."

4. A: "I dropped one of my princesses!"
Me: *I hand it back to her* "Goodnight, Aurora."
A: "Thank you!"
Me: *Walking to the door*
A: "You didn't say 'You're welcome'!"
Me: "You're welcome."
A: "Now say goodnight."
Me: "Goodnight."

5. A: "MOMMY! CAN YOU PLEASE BE QUIET! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
Me: "Daddy is putting away some groceries. He will be quiet soon."
A: "Well, tell Daddy to be quiet because I'm trying to sleep."
Me: "You tell Daddy, he can hear you just fine."
A: "DADDY, CAN YOU BE QUIET?! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. BE QUIET! DADDY! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP! PLEASE BE QUIET DADDY!"

6. A: *knocking on her door repeatedly* "DADDY! DADDY!"
Me: *opens door and stands there waiting*
A: "Tell Daddy to come in here and say 'sorry' for making noise!"
Me: "It is sleepytime Aurora. Goodnight."
A: "Tell Daddy I still hear buzzing!! Tell him to go bang on the fan!"
Me: "Goodnight, Aurora."

7. A: "Daddy! DADDY!"
Wil: *walks in and waits*
A: "The fan is buzzing! Hit it to make it stop!"
Wil: "The fan is still warming up, give it a few minutes."

Most of these were in rapid succession but there were a few breaks where, if I listened closely, I could hear her talking to herself. :)

The great thing is that this is actually an improvement. We've been working for ages to get her to simply stay in her room at bedtime and she has, finally, started controlling her impulse to dash out of the room and giggle maniacally about disobeying us while running in circles around our furniture... We want to encourage her to stay in her room, so contrary to popular parenting opinion, we do not ignore her but try to respond quickly to reinforce her staying in her room. :)

~Regina

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Snow Day!

It started snowing at about 9am this morning. I wasn't expecting it to last long, so I got the kids ready to go play. They were incredibly excited!

 Snow angels!



We went back in when we got too cold--it was 20 degrees, after all! But after warming up, the kids begged to go back out, so we did. We went on a walk and found an empty church parking lot to play in.


Walking home with a stick!
After lunch, we went out again, this time with the sled. I pulled the kids back into our neighborhood and got my exercise for the day!

Then, of course, Quinn had to have a turn!


After the sled ride, the kids went into the back yard to play, where they stayed for probably 45 minutes. I lured them back in with hot tea because they were looking cold. Quinn's cheeks get so rosy when he's cold. :) (Sorry about the fuzziness in the middle of the picture--a snowflake got on the lens and was still drying.)

We'd love for the snow to stick around for a few days but around here that doesn't normally happen. At least we got a nice day with what eventually became about an inch of snow. It was fun to watch it pile up!

~Regina

Monday, January 27, 2014

Kiddo stories this week

Quinn has named his time out timer "my tick-tick." He exclaims, "NO my tick tick!" when he's being taken to time out. When the timer rings, he has started covering his eyes or his ears because I always say something about the reason he was in time out before releasing him. Today, he covered his eyes and then, when I squatted down to wait for him to be ready to talk, he leaned forward and blew his nose in my face...good thing he doesn't have a cold! Crazy kid.
Quinn is obsessed with opening our windows...even when it's below freezing...

Aurora's philosophical questions one night at bedtime:
Why do people have to get older?
How can we keep squirrels from getting into bird seed?! (said in an exasperated voice)
She's got to take every detail in!

Quinn is "counting" the people around the table...
Quinn: Do, wee, do! Wee, do, wee!
Me: Try this--1, 2, 3!
Q: Do, wee, do!
Me: 1, 2, 3!
Q: Do, wee, do!
Wil: 1, 2, 3!
Q: Do, wee, do!
Yes, I took your cup and, no, I'm not going to look at you.

It was almost bedtime for Aurora, Quinn was already asleep, and Aurora was supposed to be sitting quietly looking at books. Instead she was jabbering away, talking to me and Wil, who were both double-checking a couple things on our computers...
Aurora: Daddy, why is it doing that? What are you doing? How can you make it do that? (Rapid barrage of more various questions related to "why" and "how.")
Me: Aurora, Daddy is very focused on fixing a bug for his work. He can't think and talk to you at the same time.
Aurora, glancing at what I was typing: Are you thinking, too, Mommy?
Me: Yes, I can't talk to you and think about what I'm typing at the same time.
Aurora, after another series of questions which got very little response: Why am I the only one not thinking here?!
Someone turned 5 this week!

Quinn has discovered that spinning makes the world move strangely. He likes to spin, try to stand still, and point at things that are funny. When it settles down he asks, "Is all done? What hap?" (happened) Then he exclaims, "Moe-wa! Moe-wa!" (more) and spins more. After a few spins, he starts trying to chase the moving things, which is simply hilarious.
Quinn really, really enjoys his food sometimes. SO GOOD!

A conversation with Quinn just before dawn. He was pulling back his curtains to look outside...
Q: What dat? What dat?
Me, sleepily: It's the night time sky. It's still sleepy time.
Q: O-way.
He wanders away but then goes back and looks out again.
Q: What dat? What dat?
Me, going to look: Oh! That's the moon. It shines when it's sleepy time.
Q: Moooonuh? It moooonuh?
Me: Yes, the moon. It's part of sleepy time. Come lay down.
Q, coming back to bed: Moooonuh. It up high. Moooonuh.

~Regina

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Happy 5th birthday, Aurora!!

Aurora turned 5 years old today! She had a hard time going to sleep last night so she ended up sleeping in late. When she woke up, she came out carrying her special birthday dress, which she was so so excited to put on.
 I took some pictures of her in her pretty dress and Quinn, of course, had to join in. "Me too!" is one of his favorite phrases right now.
 Spinning, spinning, spinning. I think this must be one of the little girl tests to check if a dress is a good one or not. :)
 And eventually, after a trip to Dunkin Donuts with Daddy and lunch, it was time for presents. She'd been impatiently waiting for this all day long.
 My mom made her a new quilt and she was just thrilled with it.
 And a cute little shawl/poncho for keeping warm.
 And some baby doll stuff since she's finally started playing with baby dolls in the past couple months.
 Later, after some friends came over to play some boardgames, it was cake time! She wanted Rosie the Tank Engine from the Thomas and Friends series. After I finally completed icing this cake, I swore I would never do a character cake again. I think I'll stick to making fancy dresses and make simpler cakes from now on. :)

And, after much excitement and fun, it was bedtime...which went like it always does after such a day with little children. But at least she's finally asleep (or at least quiet and staying in her room).

Happy birthday, my sweet girl!

~Regina

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Cute kiddo stories from this week

 I was working in the kitchen one morning when I heard Quinn start crying quite hard. But it didn't sound quite right; it sounded a bit fake but I've never heard Quinn fake cry before. I peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Quinn laying on his belly with two hotwheels cars in his hands. It appeared that the cars had crashed and he was indeed fake crying for the cars.

Lounging in his car seat with a chocolate face.

We've been working with Aurora on various social things like making eye contact and facing people when talking to them. We've been focusing more on helping her remember to face people when talking with them because that's the easier task. I keep trying to come up with ideas to help her understand what it means to face people when they're talking. My most recent idea was this: "Point your nose at them when you're talking to them!" Aurora liked that idea. A little later, I was in the kitchen with my back turned and I heard her talking to no one in particular. After a while, she exclaimed, "Mommy! MOMMY! I'm facing you and talking to you! Why aren't you talking to me?!" Next item on our "To work on" list: remembering to get someone's attention before launching into a one-sided conversation with them. ;) (Actually, we have been working on that but there are just a lot of social interaction things to remember!)

Someone got a bump on her chin.

Quinn has started using "oh dear", "oh my", and "shoot!" in proper places. It cracks me up and makes me glad we don't use bad words. He gets a kick out of it, too. It's hilarious when he drops a toy and exclaims, "Oh soot!"

This makes me so, so nervous.

A dinner time conversation...
Aurora: I love you, Mommy!
Me: I love you, too, Aurora!
A: I love you MORE!
Me: *silent, choosing not to engage the battle*
A: Mommy, what are you going to say?
Me: I'm not saying anything because no one can win a "I love you more" battle.
A: You say flower!
Me: What? Flower?
A: Like that yellow one! What's it called?
Me: A sunflower?
A: Yes! I love you, Mommy!
Me: I love you, Aurora!
A: I love you MORE!!
Me: ....SUNFLOWER!
A: DANDELION!
Me: ROSE!
A: ROSE! You won, Mommy!

A girl and her doll.




~Regina

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Picture a day blog for 2014

I have started the picture a day blog for 2014. I'll likely keep up with that more than this blog but I'm going to try to write some fuller posts soon. Here it is: Snapshots of 2014

~Regina