Giggle With Me

Smiles, Swim, Snow

On Saturdays, Will has swimming lessons at the "Y-men-C-A" (as he pronounces it). Mom tries to get there 15 minutes early to take Will in for a bit of one-on-one swimming time. He used to be a great independent swimmer in California, but taking so much time off this summer while moving/traveling/having stitches in his chin seems to have set him back a bit. He's still not afraid of the water, but he has to teach his muscles what to do again. That, combined with a different instruction method, means we're really glad we started swimming lessons this winter to be ready for summer when it gets here.

When we got home, we had lunch and then decided to try out the recipe for snow ice cream. Get ready, New Englanders, here's one way to eat your way out.

Ingredients:

8-10 cups of fresh WHITE snow (a big mixing bowl should do it)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Serve. It tastes a bit like an icy soft serve and it's really cold, so sensitive teeth beware.

Meet the Mrs.

For the record, one of our children really loves going outside to play in the snow and the other, well, not so much. Here's a hint:



One was born in Massachusetts and one was born in California. Can you tell which is which?



She was a sport about it for this afternoon, though, as long as Mommy held her...after making a Mrs. Snowlady to go with the snowman. Just after lunch, it suddenly became very urgent that we go outside and make the snowman a lady friend. No idea why this was so very important at that very moment, but who am I to argue with this face?



So, Mr. Snowman, meet your lady friend. Behave yourselves out there tonight.



Just after we finished the snowlady, we heard a call from across the street, "Hello over there!" The two little girls across the street were outside playing and called out to Will. He was gone. Like, in two minutes, he was gone. He traipsed all over the two yards with the girls and Mommy and Kylie got to meet another mom on the street. Thus far, we've only met the men folk on the road, so it was nice to finally meet another Mom from the neighborhood.


Tonight we put a very tired Will to bed (dressed in his firefighter costume and alligator gloves). Kylie is happily in bed WITHOUT her snowsuit. She's more of a capris and t-shirt girl.

Kylie Meets the Snowman

Well, Mr. Snowman survived the night. Will is convinced that every time the train goes by (we can hear it from our house in the distance), the snowman waves just like in the Polar Express. He swears he sees the snowman come alive and wanted to invite him in for breakfast this morning. Overall, it looks like we got about 5 inches of snow which is nothing to you New England folks, but it sure is nice for our first official storm in our new house.


Mommy and Daddy took turns shoveling the driveway and pulling the kids on the sled this morning (the shoveling was the lighter of the workouts). Kylie's been napping ever since we came inside and Will and Mommy have made chocolate chip cookies and watched movies and played games while Daddy headed into work for a half day.


Despite losing power last night for about 3/4 hours, we enjoyed our first real snow storm in our house and Will is just itching to get back outside.

A Gorilla, a Snowman and a Couch

Today started off as any typical Wednesday...Will proudly proclaimed he was a gorilla and not a boy anymore and then asked for lettuce for breakfast. Coming right up, Mr. Gorilla. He ate three and a half leaves of lettuce and a bowl of cereal and then walked around the living room on his fists and feet, pausing to beat his chest every now and then.

Eventually, he turned back into a little boy. We spent the rainy morning at the YMCA while the weather folk went back and forth about rain vs. snow. After lunch, we were scheduled to have our new couch delivered, and Will was so excited, he couldn't take a nap.

Then the rain turned into hail and then into sleet and then into snow...all within 45 minutes. And then the couch came.

The snow flakes were as big as cotton balls and when it fell on top of the sleet, it made perfect building snow. Will has been DYING to build a snowman, so after dinner, in the dark, Mommy and Will headed out with our snowman making kit from Grammie.

Not bad for a snowman made in the dark, right? Will was SO EXCITED to make the snowman and he kept asking, "Mommy, do you know what you're doin'?" "Have you maked a snowman before?"

Luckily for Will, Mommy has made a snowman or two in her day, so there he stands, guarding our front door while the snow continues to fall and school is already cancelled tomorrow.

Standing Room Only

Miss Kylie has a new hobby: standing and cruising. She has very little interest in crawling, but sit her next to something she can pull up on, and there she goes. Luckily for Mom and Dad, she's much more cautious and aware of gravity than her brother was at this stage.

She LOVES LOVES the basement playroom. She'll holler at the basement door and squeal with delight when we open it to head down there to play. This afternoon, she spent a great deal of time standing on her chair and then switching to standing on the musical play table. She even got brave enough to hold on with just one hand, and then, she braved standing unassisted for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, upstairs....we painted the eat-in kitchen area. It was hard to get a good picture of it because there are so many windows in that space that the camera was confused about the lighting.

First Report Card

Will got his first report card/progress report today! There are a few things he could improve on, but, overall, he's achieving great things at school. The teacher assesses them based on several categories:

Self-Help Skills: using bathroom alone, washing and drying hands alone, putting on own shoes, holding a spoon and fork

Gross Motor Skills: running without falling, jumping with two feet, walking backwards, hopping on one foot, climbing a ladder, catching a ball with arms and body, balancing on one foot

Fine Motor Skills: scribbles, staying on paper, holding a pencil not fisted, making snips with scissors, folding paper, stringing beads, assembling 3-5 piece puzzles

Language Skills: identify pictures of objects, identify body parts, follow single step directions, give first and last name, ask simple questions, use 4-5 word sentences

General Organizational Skills: listen well, follow directions, plays well alone, plays well with others, sensitive to others, not frustrated easily, pleased with success, able to wait for short periods

We're so proud of all Will has learned and accomplished at school and home recently; he's really growing into a nice, polite, funny young man.

Tu-Tu Cute

Last week, Kylie got a package from her second cousin, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn is 6 months older than Kylie, so she has the edge on what's in and what's not for fashion. Lucky for Kylie, Kaitlyn was willing to share some tips and her first tutu!

Kylie is learning a new skill this week and it's one we can all appreciate (Mommy the most of all): SLEEP! The time has come for Kylie to be enrolled in Mommy's sleep camp class, and she's turning out to be a great student. Thank goodness!

Ice, Ice, Baby

Last night, it snowed iced. When we woke up this morning (after a beautiful night's sleep from Kylie!), everything was blanketed in a coat of ice. School was cancelled, so we took our time having breakfast and exploring the deck in our PJs and jackets/boots.

We decided the roads weren't that bad, so we headed off to the Y for a morning of playing and exercising. Will likes it when there's no school because the gym is overrun with "big kids" and they let him play dodge ball with them. It's pretty bittersweet to look over and see him really hanging with the big kids and holding his own. Where is my little boy?

When we got back home, we had lunch and then had an icicle hunt in the backyard. Will collected a bunch of icicles in a cup, which he left on the table to periodically check on and see what happens.