ESC: SPRING EDITION

The weather is still BEAUTIFUL here! We figure we have another week or two of "spring" weather before the summer heat arrives, so we are taking advantage as much as we can. That meant dining al fresco for Ethnic Supper Club this evening. And oh man, was it NICE! We went with a Mediterranean theme (Greek, Italian, whatever) and ate light dishes such as grilled fish (Swai - a new one for us, and Sandy grilled it to perfection with lemon zest!), antipasti, hummus and veggies, grape truffles (red grapes coated in goat cheese and crushed pistachios - YUM!), and of course, Sangria! The kids did really well with all this (even the fish), mostly because they were allowed to just run free in Sandy's yard with chunks of cheese and meat and fruit. Finger foods made us all happy, honestly. And Sandy's setup out back was so comfy and relaxing, the mood was just right for a great meal.

Thank you Sandy and Erin for feeding us well tonight!

Lauchlin and Olivia came by with Mr. Grady near the end of the meal. He's getting so big! And Cora thought he was quite handsome, especially since he matched her in green :-) Our kiddos looked pretty cute themselves, all decked out for spring! (Gramma, her dress still fits her! Even better than last summer, actually, so she'll get a lot of use out of it in the coming months!)

SWIM LESSONS: WEEK 1

The kiddos are doing really well this week, and we're especially proud of James for overcoming some of his fears and trying new things. And we're especially terrified of Cora, for her LACK of fear! Crazy child just lunges forward off steps, barrels off the ledge, and sticks her entire face under water while blowing bubbles.

We think the kids will actually learn a lot more with these swim lessons than they did in previous years at the city pool. In just two lessons, James has already learned to float like a star while we hold him under his arms and rest his head on our shoulders (which we're hoping will transition to learning to float solo) and to scoop water (which we're hoping will transition to learning to dog paddle, something he spontaneously tried on his own as I was swimming him through the water at the end of lessons yesterday - he saw Manu doing it and had to give it a shot himself - Manu is a very good swimmer already). Cora does not like floating. In fact, she doesn't like it when we position her on her back at all. She does like to sit like the big kids do on the bench though, even though the water comes right up to her chin. They both LOVE jumping off the side into our arms (from a sitting position only so far in class, though Cora will happily leap from standing... quite scary when you're not expecting her to do so!) and all the songs (with swimming motions included, of course) that we sing. In fact, James has been singing the songs constantly since lessons started (Humpty Dumpty, 6 Little Duckies, Twinkle Twinkle, and The Goodbye Song).
The only bummer so far is that both kids are pretty shy of the instructors (two college-aged boys). And the pool water, while not cool to us, gives James the shakes and chatters, and turns Cora's lips and hands blue, within the first 20-30 minutes of class. But since neither is willing to get out of the pool to warm up, all we can do is encourage them to swim, swim, swim and warm up by burning calories. Needless to say, they've been sleeping good on swim lesson nights!

ANOTHER WELLNESS EXAM GONE AWRY

3 years ago we had our first appointment with Dr. Smith, and while I've lost count along the way, we can certainly say we've been frequent visitors over the years. Luckily, today's visit was a simple wellness exam. What a difference (and a surprise) it was to walk into that office today with my big boy, who was so willing to go along with everything and didn't put up a fuss at all. I was extremely proud of his behavior and maturity today. And a little sad to realize just how big he has gotten...

He stepped on the big boy scale and weighed 33.8 lbs fully dressed. He stood against the wall and was measured at 39" tall. They didn't do a head circumference measurement (I suppose it's not that important anymore?), but he came in at the 75th percentile for both weight and height. "Not too big, not small", as the good doc said.

He peed in a cup for the nurse. Happily. (He's very recently - like, in the past week or so - perfected the male art of peeing while standing. And he even remembers to lift the seat!) He had his blood pressure taken and just calmly waited for the numbers (100/68). (By the way, we have the class "pet" in our care this evening. Her name is Muffy. James decided she needed to sit up on the exam table with him because "She need to see Doctor Smith. 'Cause she have owies in her cheeks.")

Then we stripped him down for the usual full body exam. And all was well. (Though AGAIN, I had to correct Doctor Smith about trying to retract him, AS she was doing so, while I was praising James for being so good and not paying full attention to her. I really shouldn't have had to do that, and it made me pretty angry. She made my boy cry, whether in fear or pain, I don't know. I'm hoping fear over pain. Since we had JUST been teaching him how NOBODY should touch him there and he needs to tell Mama and Daddy if anyone ever does. And I heard about how "Doctor Smith touched my penis and gave me an owie" all the way home. Bad doctor!)

But back to good news. James wasn't due for any vaccinations and he got to avoid the blood draw, since he'd just had it done back in June (due to the Kawasaki's), and apparently they only require blood counts every other year. Unfortunately though, we discovered that his left ear is infected. Both ears have lost their tubes (as we already knew), and the left is completely gone, while the right is just sitting there waiting to fall out. It's not a bad infection (we caught it early), but infected none the less, so big boy is on a round of antibiotics. Poor buddy. Maybe that's why he's been waking at night (a VERY unusual event for him) for the past few nights. He never mentioned that his ear hurt, and since he hasn't had a cold or fever or any other symptom, we had no idea. Sure hope it heals quickly - we have big plans for a new adventure this weekend!

COLOR HUNT

I found this idea (from Pinterest - where else?) to create a Color Scavenger Hunt for the kids. All I had to do was use a couple of old egg cartons (which we hang onto for just such a project), rainbow-colored construction paper, and some glue. The kids (especially James) were pretty excited about this outside adventure.

First things first: explaining the "rules" to the kids (that we were hunting for colors, anywhere we could find them, to match the squares in our cartons)...

...and they're off!

James was SO SERIOUS about finding his colors!

Collecting pink flowers and brown leaves and yellow oak tailings and green leaves and white flowers and blue berries and red leaves and black rocks...

We found a green inchworm. James wasn't interested in touching it, but Cora let it crawl all the way up her arm without flinching:

We saw other animals too. I caught a skink to show the kids, and James spotted one of our resident Barred Owls (we have a pair that nests in our yard every year) even before I did (saying "Look up in the tree! It's a owl! Right there!"). Pretty thing was enjoying a mousy meal up above our heads:

Just because she's beautiful (runny nose and all):

James is SUCH a sweet big brother. He really is. Early on in the game he was getting frustrated because Cora was moving slow and kept asking to be held (and he wanted my attention too, obviously), so I explained to him that he is a big boy now and Cora is still a little girl, and that she needs our help to have fun doing projects. Well, my words sank in, because multiple times afterwards I caught him taking her hand and saying things like "Here Sissy, this is a orange pumpkin. It goes right here." and "Come on Co-wah, I help you." and "Let's go together and find colors." Makes a mama proud I tell ya!

We will absolutely be doing this game again. Probably inside the house too. James keeps asking about it, and was SO excited to come inside and show his Daddy all his colors. Success!

"SO MUCH LIKE DADDY!"

Guess what we did last night?

We tried to trim James' hair.

Since it was hanging past his eyebrows and was getting pretty long in the back and we'd noticed him sweating profusely in 85 degree weather and he hadn't had it cut in 3 months.

When he got scared of the scissors and wouldn't sit still and we realized that we couldn't cut straight lines and ended up cutting the front too short anyway, we tossed the scissors aside and pulled out the clippers instead:

I openly cried when I saw those long locks hit the floor.

Then Jay told me to stop because I was making James sad and nervous. Oh my gosh though, I had no idea how much a little thing like a (big) haircut would effect me! For the first time ever, Cora has longer hair than her big brother!

Showing James his new haircut in the mirror:

James, of course, LOVES it. He told me "I look so much like Daddy!"

Proud much? Oh yes he is.

Hope we recognize him when we pick him up at daycare tomorrow afternoon...

WHY GRANDPARENTS ARE AWESOME

There are MANY reasons that grandparents are awesome, of course, but here is my top ten list (in no particular order) for this past week:

(This cool dinosaur, not to be confused with the "Corasaurus", complements of Pawpaw. I didn't even know he could draw!)

1. They PLAY with the kids. They don't just watch the kids - they are constantly interacting and teaching and encouraging. They read books, build train tracks and Legolands, make chalk drawings, take them to parks and Playland, let them ride bikes in the driveway, set up Hotwheeels tracks, go for walks, play with the sensory bins, color, and so much more. They don't mind being silly and are great entertainers. Granted, we give our kids a lot of attention when we are with them as well, but the attention they get from their grandparents is extra special, and they know it.

2. They somehow find time to help with housework too. (We haven't had to do laundry all week, and my evenings have been spent just playing with the kids, relaxing, and enjoying my parents company, rather than dealing with chores. In fact, I've even gotten to bed early a few nights, while other nights I've actually READ A BOOK. That doesn't have to do with raising toddlers.)

3. We didn't have to wake the kids, get them dressed or pottied (or diaper changed), pack their school bags, make breakfasts or lunches, or snacks, or deal with naptime battles. ALL WEEK LONG. I felt like I was on a sort of vacation, regardless of having to go to work each day!

4. We got to go to the gym and workout TOGETHER for the first time ever this week while the kids hung out with their grands. It almost felt like a date. Except that Jay made me lift weights and grit my teeth. One day, they even met us at the gym so we could take the kids to the pool and get them used to it, in prep for the start of their swimming lessons next week.

5. They LOVE our kids so extremely. They can do no wrong. They are adorable and entertaining. They may spoil them, sure, but a little spoiling never hurt anyone!

6. They love us too. Even though we know we're lower on the totem pole now that they have grandkids to dote on, they still make us feel special and loved and missed.

7. They spoil us too, with dinners out and treats at home. ("Diets" and vacation just don't mix, and we weren't too concerned about that!)

8. They are more than happy to sit and brag about our kids, and listen to us brag back with full agreement. They tell us stories about the things the kids said and did during the day, amazed at their intelligence and creativity and cuteness. Every parent loves to talk about their kids, but it's even better when others want to talk about your kids and agree with you about how incredible they are. Makes us feel like we're doing a good job as parents, since the kids are obviously making a good impression.

9. They made it possible for us both to work full 8-hour days all week (and not have to do 7-hours here and 9-hours there due to daycare scheduling), carpool (boy was it ever nice to have adult conversations on those 10 minutes car rides without having to remind the kids about "no screaming in the car"), and thus leave early enough that we could play with the kids in the afternoon TOGETHER!

10. They are each unique (Grambot, Pawpaw, AND Gramma), and we love that their specific personalities and strengths are shared with the kids in different ways. It's fun for us to see how James and Cora respond differently to their grandparents: who they prefer for bedtime snuggles or stories or at bath time. I know that Jay and I treasure the relationships we have with our grandparents, and it makes us very happy to watch those relationships grow for our own kids.

It's been a great week and we sure wish they could have stayed longer! We know they're exhausted though (our kids are the opposite of sedentary and quiet) and have commitments back in Cali. And poor Pawpaw left with a cold (or something...) - sorry about that Dad! We feel very lucky that they were able to come out here and help us this week while the kids were on Spring Break. As hard as it is to live so far from family, it IS nice that when we do see each other, we get a whole ton of quality time in by staying together 24/7. They really get a taste for what life is like in our home, from sunrise to sunset and in between! Thank you both SO much for taking this time with us!!

And those of you out there who live near your parents or grandparents or siblings or cousins, please know that we envy you. In a nice way, of course!

SHAMROCK SHIRTS

Sorry for the unexcited faces (they were just starting to say "CHEESE!"), but this was the best photo I snapped of the shirts I made for the kids while they were still clean this morning. They really did like their "leaf" shirts, I promise!

RIVERFRONT PIT-STOP

After Rocky Springs, and picking up Jay, we headed over to Riverfront Park for a quick stop before dinner. Talk about spoiled! The kids got to go to TWO parks (Grambot and Pawpaw had already taken them to our favorite Glenwood this morning) AND go on a hiking/splashing adventure. Not to mention getting two meals out at restaurants. That's a BIG day in their worlds!

I'm glad the kids got to spend so much time outdoors this week with their grandparents. They SO love to go to playgrounds.

Cora's favorite is swinging:

And James loves to climb:

He nearly gave his grandparents heart failure with this move (turning around at the top of the structure), but Jay and I were so proud of him for learning how to successfully and safely navigate climbing up, over, and down all by himself. He thought he was pretty hot stuff too.

ROCKY SPRINGS ADVENTURE

I worked a half-day today so that I could spend some extra time with Mom and Dad before they have to leave tomorrow, and we wanted to do something different with the kids this afternoon, so we drove down to Rocky Springs to take a nature walk and let them play in Little Sand Creek. We hadn't been there in almost a full year, so it was like a brand-new adventure for the kids.

Cora was too scared to leave the edge of the creek, even with her big brother's assistance. (And she hung out in her pull-up because she had been wearing pants, not shorts.)

They both loved throwing rocks into the water, of course.

And playing with sticks.

Good thing we had extra clothes and diapers, since James fell in and Cora's pull-up was completely soaked from sitting in the water.

The kids had such a great time at the creek!

But honestly, for me, the best part was the nature walk. At one point I turned around after hearing James say "I got my fire on my head!" to see this:

Apparently he pays more attention to Survivor than we thought, since he was imitating their torches (by holding his water bottle on top of his head).

You know what was even funnier than that though? When Grambot was trying to encourage Cora to keep moving on the trail and told her to "March, march, march!" But she was marching with her hands on her hips. So Cora followed right along and imitated her Grambot.

Yup, these kiddos are complete entertainment, all the time. LOVE it!

UNLESS...

After taking his 3-year portraits this afternoon, Jay and I took James to his first movie theater experience. Fitting, we thought, that his first movie be an adaptation of our favorite Dr. Seuss book, which we own 2 copies of (that we each received as gifts at the end of our time with SCA in south Florida), and which is the book I read aloud to James more than any other book when he was an infant (and was too little for interactive board books). James was pretty pumped for the adventure (we talked it up for a few days in advance), but was a little concerned that Cora and Grambot and Pawpaw weren't there. He got over it pretty quickly though. And the bonus for us was that he got in free!

We splurged with popcorn and nachos and Slurpees. We let James pick our seats (a few rows from the back, on the end - though he had us move way up after the movie had been playing for 15 minutes or so). He sat still for about 2/3 of the movie, then started getting antsy (he doesn't get much screen time at home, so he's not used to being still and watching the TV for long stretches - even when he watches movies at home, he's up and moving around and only half paying attention). So he climbed up and down from our laps and his seat (by the way, 33 lbs is not quite heavy enough to keep our theater seats in the open position...), talked about the movie, and eventually told us he was "done with this movie" and "ready to go home". By that point though, we could tell the movie would be over in 5 minutes, so we stuck it out. He was a good boy and very well behaved, but I think we'll likely wait another 6 months or so before we take him to another theater.

Honestly? His favorite part was the bag of gummy Care Bears we bought him!

"I HUN-WEE!"

Last night, Cora seated herself at the table and declared that she was ready to eat. She saw her tray on the counter where I had been preparing it, so she knew it was ready. (I was letting it cool a bit.) She started pointing to the counter, then to the table, saying "My dinner!" It was so funny that we decided to pull out the camera and record her bossiness (while also encouraging her and feeding her lines so that we could capture some of her silly faces). Sure hope she doesn't talk like this to her teachers at lunchtime when she goes back next week though...

FIRESIDE DINNER

Since we ate chocolate and caramel apples and ice cream for lunch (no really, we did), we figured we might as well continue the fab food fest and eat hot dogs for dinner. Cooked over an open flame. On skewers.

It was pretty awesome.

Besides, we had a wood pile just sitting in the fire pit, ready to go!

ZOO DAY!

Nevermind that Grambot and Pawpaw just arrived late yesterday afternoon, or that Grambot just had surgery about a week ago, they were ready (and willing) to go brave the zoo today. On ZOO DAY. You know, when it's free and everyone and their brother goes?

(Cora got the most AWESOME pair of Tom's from her grands. She loves them. LOVES them! Me too - 'cause you just can't beat sparkles on little girls! And yes, she IS actually outgrowing her 18-month pants finally. Lengthwise, anyway.)

Our first stop at the zoo today was the Creepers and Crawlers toddler class. We've been interested in doing it for months, but the dates have never worked out for us until now. Bummer too, because the kids really enjoyed themselves! The lesson was on textures, so they got to touch soft (a ferret) and smooth (an African bullfrog) animals, sort toys by texture, sing a song about textures, sort pictures of animals by texture, and make an animal craft (frog faces). I was impressed with how well the kids did (BOTH of them) at participating and sitting still. It was a pretty cute group:

Being Zoo Day, they had their usual carnival-type games set up. James did some bean-bag tossing. And some bowling. Poor kid has his Mama's lack of skills though. 3 tosses and not a pin down. Not even close.

Cora, on the other hand... 3 tosses and 3 successes. Only 1 pin left standing. She sure doesn't get that from me!

Other carnival-type attractions included bounce houses. James was WAY excited when he spotted the first one:

(Yes, he had his hand in his pocket. He's kinda pocket-obsessed these days. Pockets are good for keeping hands warm AND for storing little toys. Or random trash... He gets THAT from his Daddy!)

(Cora went right along with her big bro, but got stuck in the middle for FOREVER because she couldn't reach the spaced "steps" to climb out the other side. She tried. And tried. But once enough kids piled up in there, she got nervous and scared and I had to go rescue her. It's hard being little sometimes.)

Cora was such a lover today. She walked a LOT, but also wanted lots of hugs and kisses from her grands (and her Mama, of course). Full to the brim with sweetness, she is.

(Dude. Please note the clip in Cora's hair. WITHOUT a headband. Yup, just enough wispy locks to hold a tiny snap clip in for an hour or so. Sweeeeet.)

The kids rode the Merry-Go-Round (Cora rode the frog with Pawpaw holding her in place, and James sat in front of me on the leopard) AND the train. They crawled through a tunnel, talked to the monkeys, and played in the dome at the beaver pond. By the time we left the zoo, it was 1:00pm and the place was so packed that folks were parking out on the main street outside. The kids barely stayed awake until we got to Broadstreet for a late lunch, were WILD (AKA overtired) the whole time we were there, but loved going up to the bookstore to pick out a book from their grands. Then, predictably, they crashed in the car once we were finally on our way back to the 'Burg. A quick nap later, James joined his Mama and Grambot at the grocery store while Pawpaw stayed in the car with a sleeping Cora. Little sweetie slept until 4:30pm. Which means she was up late, of course. But oh well. They only get so many nights for snuggling and stories on the couch with Grambot.

Well worth a late bedtime, if you ask me!

GRAMBOT AND PAWPAW ARE HERE!

And they were met at the airport by a pair of excellent suitcase assistance technicians!

POTTY LAUGHS

Remember how I said back when we were potty training James that I had heard lots of funny potty stories, but honestly didn't find anything amusing about the experience myself? Well, perhaps that was because we were so gung-ho and focused and bootcampish about it. Because with Cora, it's funny.

Take Saturday night, for instance, at James' birthday party. Jay and I fully succumb to the concept that "It Takes a Village" to raise kids (or at least to keep track of them in public and crowded situations...), and since we don't have any family nearby, that Village often becomes our friends. Anyway, apparently at some point during the party, Cora realized that she needed to pee. So she tried to go potty by herself (Because that's how she does it - no help from us, at ALL. Not allowed. Unless she wants to sit on the big potty, then she lets us get her up there.) Problem was, she was wearing a one-piece outfit with leg snaps. She obviously couldn't get it off by herself. Al noticed her trying to do something in the bathroom (situating the potty seat up on the toilet), but being the uninitiated dad of a son (though soon to have a daughter too!), he stood there unsure what to do. When Dawn saw what was happening, she of course told Al to help Cora. Instead, Al said "We need to get somebody." Sorry to call you out Al, but that totally cracked us up! Dawn too, obviously. Meanwhile, as this discussion was occuring, Cora couldn't hold it any longer and ended up peeing in her pull-up. Poor Sissy. At least she tried!

She IS still having potty success (yay!), though it's sporadic. She uses the potty successfully at daycare about twice a day, which is pretty consistent (at snack time, and after nap), so she's only using 1-2 pull-ups per day there. At home, it really just depends. Some nights she's all about it, other nights she couldn't care less. Weekends are a total grab bag. We were actually quite shocked (and pleasantly surprised!) on Friday night when she told her Daddy that she needed to potty, let him help her up onto the big potty, and proceeded to POOP in the potty. That's right, I said poop. GO CORA!

Of course, being that she likes this whole potty business (at least some of the time), that means that she also DOESN'T like having wet or poopy diapers (most of the time - not that she ever did, really). She came crying to me Monday night about poo-poo because she'd gone in her pull-up and hadn't meant to. Again, poor Sissy. She'll probably be just as happy as us once she gets the hang of going potty in the toilet full time.

In the meantime, we're just celebrating her successes (high-fives and dancing and praise and M&M's, of course) and not worrying about the need for diapers and trainers and pull-ups in between. And we're reading lots of potty books with her. Including this new one from her Auntie Robyn and Uncle Stephen (which was tucked into a box of birthday gifts for James), all the way from Hawaii (the kids are actually growing a really cool collection of Hawaiian children's books thanks to their buddies in paradise!):

Who knows how this potty training adventure is going to end (or when), but we're actually kinda enjoying this time around, so we'll just let things roll as they may. Keep your fingers crossed for us that Cora finishes training herself sometime soon though, because otherwise we JUST MIGHT have to invest in more cloth trainers (we HATE spending money on disposable pull-ups!)