Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Little Funny Things

I just hit publish on the previous blog post that I had started writing on Sunday but have to start another before I forget a few small things.

Sam has said for a while now that green means stop and red means go.  As in traffic lights.  And wrong, of course, so we try to correct her whenever she says it.  Yesterday, she and I were successfully finishing a school time shopping and Costco trip and were driving home to put groceries away before picking up Katie, and she said it again "Red means Go!!"...just as I was starting my left turn on a green arrow light, where the rest of the lights in our direction had just turned red.  It all makes sense now...using her kid perspective, we do often go when lights turn red.  Interesting how wrong can be right.

Katie said tonight, as we were reading books before tuck in..."I love B-O-O-Ks"...Aw...so sweet and JUST what a mom wants to hear.  She's also been telling me lots lately "I can spell Snack, Apple, Mom, Dad, Katie and Sam"...and then proceeds to spell them all.  I keep trying to gently make her read more of our easy books but she just gets mad and wants me to do more of the reading.  Which I do...don't want to ruin a good thing.

The girls and I were goofing around this evening before getting ready for bed (Ben had had a long day and a bit of a headache so i let me off early)  :) .  One thing we started doing was little races on the floor in our bedroom...snake races.  That Katie is seriously fast as a snake and she beat me every time.  The funniest thing was that as I watched her go by me, she was totally slithering and doing her army crawl that she did back when she learned to crawl in her own way.  Exactly the same.

Tonight we tried Mustard Asparagus Chicken for dinner...a recipe from my Alberta Chicken Growers cookbook...there are some real winners in there!...in the spirit of our new "Try it Tuesdays".  Partly to infuse a little fun into meal planning (I love trying new meals, but realize it is practical to stick with standards more often...for sanity and grocery shopping) and to help the girls branch out their eating.  Just a more formal, thematic way of saying You Must Eat (more than one bite of) This without just being a big meanie.  I should mention this is our first week...we'll see if we manage to keep it up.  Tonights meal was excellent, Sam ate quite a bit of it we don't even have leftovers.  (the recipe feeds 4...2 kid portions cancels out the marathon training dad portion, right?)(ok, you got me, I had a second helping too)

This morning, it wasn't a school day and we had no other plans, and I managed to ignore a bit of laundry (so hard to do!) and decided to take the girls to the museum.  We've been a few times before but usually on a playdate and without Katie if she was at school.  It was so nice to go just the three of us.  More freedom to go where we wanted when we wanted.  We managed to catch both story time AND craft time an hour later ( the girls made moose antlers by tracing their hands and glueing them to a headband).  The girls love the animal dioramas and live fish and even spent quite a bit of time in the aboriginal gallery today.  Really a wonderful time.

Anyway...I'm tired from such a busy day and need to to some reading or something.  (Hunger Games or finish up the Biography of Cancer...not sure which...)  Hope you have a good night and rest of the week.

Mid March Goodness

A few little things.  I can't believe it's mid March.  The weather has been extremely hopeful...the warm sun, longer days and melting snow...all wonderful. (though I curse last weekends daylight savings...whoever thought that up does not have little kids).  Anyway, we have recovered, no one is sick and the girls have been playing together beautifully.  

Katie wrote "I Love Dad" on our little chalkboard the other week.  Spelled it completely on her own.  You can bet that Ben was pretty pleased.
 My January birthday gift from Auntie Andrea was an annual pass to the science centre...i can't think of a better gift!  The girls had a great time in the new kids area.  Love the airplane and the building area.
 Sam and I met Steph, W and baby N at southgate one morning while Katie was at school.  Sam's holding one of the new snack bags I sewed.  They have been useful and super cute!
 We had a nice sunny day after a bit of a snowfall a couple of weeks ago and went sledding after school with some school friends.
 Katie loves making snow angels.
 Sam and I went to Starbucks last week...just the two of us!  We've had so many playdates/errands lately that we haven't really spent lots of free down time just the two of us.  It was really simple and relaxing...To have my full attention on her...both girls are so independent and play so well together that I can get away with doing other things around them and not actively playing with them.  It's great having that freedom but I do want to remember to take time to BE with them...I sometimes really feel like it won't be long before their teachers see them more than we do.
 Katie had her St.Patrick's day party at school on Friday.  There's something weird about this holiday that compels me to sew something for her.  Working with fabric I had on hand (and after Katie rejected the perfect kelly green linen blend) i decided to use this green and pink strawberry shortcake fabric.  It's a two layered skirt from my Sewing Clothes Kids Love book.  I think she really loves it!  It's got quite a princess flair and sisewise, I think it'll last through the summer.  I did end up buying cheap matching green t shirts for the girls too.  I can only do so much with my fabric stash, which leans toward the pink side of things.


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Science Girl

This morning, we are staying home because we have no plans and a hint of a cold coming on...myself and the girls. Lots of nice free play time. Katie has already counted a bunch of coins which I helped her multiply and figure out how much money she had. She wanted to know how much I was charging for lunch and could she afford it. (I wish!)

Now she has moved on to making her own scale...balancing a tray on our Bosu (an exercise ball type thing). She has put various objects on each side to see which is heavier. So simple but so complex...don't you think?

Sam is wearing a pair of butterfly wings and has, twice this morning, with encouragement, managed to get her own new panties and put them on herself. (we've had a few more wet panties lately...she's backsliding a bit on potty training...I think normal, we'll just keep encouraging her independence.). This is a task I know she can do but so often she asked us and we do it because it is faster. No more. I say "I KNEW you could do it!" and her proud smile and jumping tells me to relax and let her take the extra time to do it right.

We have us some lovely girls.

So far I have got bread dough rising and made a fresh pot of coffee. Maybe time to get to my laundry? Probably...with some Q the background I think. :)