Activities over the last couple of months

Howdy all

So it's time for another big batch of updates, and today we'll have four separate posts. First a "things we've been up to" posting, followed by separate posts for Rachel and Daniel and a Rachel birthday post. As I'm sure you can imagine, a lot happens in three months of blog-silence, so we'll do our best to not overwhelm you.















Back in January, cousins Brayden and Kayla came up to visit from Texas, and that was good fun. They stayed over at Grandma Babe's place, and so Daniel got to go for his first sleepover.

When they weren't doing that, they played, built things and read books at our house. Older cousins are the coolest thing around.







The National western stock show came to town, and this year Anida got to take the kids. As usual, Daniel had more fun climbing on tractors and other farm equipment than actually looking at animals, but Rachel got to ride a pony and had a good time at that.


















In March, Grandpa and Farmor came to visit, as they usually do around March Madness. Daniel suited up in his Xavier gear (aka "the good guys") and took on all comers at driveway basketball. He's gotten decent at dribbling the ball.

As it tends to do in March, it alternated between sunny 70-degree days and snowstorms, so there was sledding and bulding of snowmen as well. Daniel wanted to put a beard on his snowman with red food coloring, but the end result was that it looked like someone slit the snowman's throat.








As a family, we all went up to Winter Park and spent a weekend at a Bed and Breakfast with a swimming pool, which was a nice break. One day we put both Rachel and Daniel in ski school, with the result that Anida got to strap on her skiis for the first time in 6 years. Good fun, though we made the tactical mistake of running into Daniel around lunchtime and that was the end of his willingness to stay in school. Rachel had a fun day on the bunny hill, but was most excited to tell us about the hot chocolate she'd had for snack.














We took a day trip down to Colorado Springs to go to the Zoo down there. Now, you might think that we have a perfectly good zoo in Denver, so why make the drive, but they have giraffes you can feed - which is actually a lot of fun.
Easter came and went. Rather than join the municipal easter egg hunt (which tends to last about 20 seconds while the big kids trample on the little ones), one of the preschool moms arranged a 10-family egg hunt in a local park which worked out wonderfully. All of the kids got to get something, and no-one was trampled.










We also had our own little hunt in the back yard, colored eggs and had Grandma Babe over for an easter lunch.



















Some old favorites repeat themselves, of course. Both kids like to go to the children's museum, and occasionally to the "Monkey Business" inflatable playground. There have been a number of birthday parties, and trips to the zoo as well.

With the warmer weather, and new bicycles (see later posts), we've started taking bike trips as a family. Rachel can ride her own bike as far as the local playground, but jumps in the trailer for the longer trips to the reservoir.

By the end of the summer, I suspect she'll be pedalling along with the rest of us, though it can be hard to remember that she's still just 3 years old.

The way that Daniel and Rachel play together has evolved quite a bit over the last couple of months. Daniel has gotten a little less bossy, Rachel a little more assertive, and so it's balancing out. Sometimes they can play wonderfully together for an extended period. And sometimes - well - not. Particularly if one or the other is tired.

And that'll do for general updates for now. Next, the kids.

A Springtime Daniel Update

There are a lot of things we could put in a posting about our almost-five-year-old, but it just wouldn't be right to lead off with anything except the new bike.

Daniel had pretty much outgrown his little 12" bike, although he was still having a lot of fun on it. On the larger wheels, he goes much faster and further than before.

We've taken several trips from our house through the state park, to the reservoir and back, and he just goes full speed up and down the hills with the biggest smile on his face you can imagine.












Daniel is sort-of reading books now. When he focuses, he can read simple sentences, recognizing a lot of shorter words and will sound his way through the longer ones. Some of it is memorization, some of it he guesses at, but there's no denying that he's really, really close to a reading breakthrough.

His favorite books have been the "magic treehouse" series for some time now -> he's read the first 28 adventures of Jack and Annie, and is apparently constantly talking about them at school. His teachers say there isn't a subject that he doesn't have an opinion on, and frequently starts a sentence with: "I learned that from my Jack and Annie books".

For those of you who are keeping track, Daniel did have another seizure here a couple of weeks ago. That makes 8 so far, and it'd been about 9 months since the previous one. So they're coming infrequently, and always triggered by a fever.

This was the first time we didn't go to the hospital at all, and it worked out OK, if a little nerve-wracking to do without the safety net of the nurses and doctors.

Daniel wrapped up the ski season with a third lesson, which didn't go all that great. He ends his first year of skiing knowing how to turn and stop, but not comfortable with going fast. That's OK, there's always next year.

In the last couple of months, Daniel's drawing abilities have really turned a corner, and it seemed to happen overnight. All of a sudden he's drawing recognizable people, houses, cats, dragons... He also writes his own cards and notes - you have to spell things out for him, of course, but you don't have to prod him anymore - he'll say "I want to write this.."

Daniel is now all signed up for kindergarten in the fall. It's hard to believe he's starting school already. He's ready for it, though.













Back in January, Daniel went on his first sleep-over at Grandma Babe's house when his cousins were in town, and most weeks have at least one playdate, either at our house or at a classmate's. Rarely does a play session last long before it somehow turns into a sword fight.

Speaking of sword fights, Daniel's birthday party will have a "Star Wars" theme to it, and 20+ kids will be running around the park with light sabers. We've bought up the entire local supply of blue pool noodles in order to make lightsabers for everyone.












On Tuesdays, Rachel has school, and Daniel doesn't, so it's Mama-Daniel day. On one recent tuesday they decided to go ice skating at the local rec center. Daniel was well-prepared with kneepads, elbow pads and a helmet, but quipped "Mama, I wish I had a butt-pad".

Like his sister, Daniel has a "Chart" of things we'd like him to work on, and upon completing it, he gets a reward of his choice. Past rewards have included various toys, experiences, etc. On one of his playdates at a friends house, he got to play with a nerf gun, and that's ALL he wanted.

We were pretty apprehensive, having previously laid down a "no guns, no shooting" rule. Not that that was working all that well - he would still make a gun from his index finger and thumb and run around going "piew, piew" until he got it trouble.... So he earned the nerf gun, played with it for awhile and got that out of his system, and now he doesn't rebel with the finger guns anymore, so this is all good.

Daniel has been taking Spanish lessons after school from Senora Cardoza, and that's been interesting. He knows colors, numbers and some other things. Some words he's learned are different than what is used in the Dora and Diego books, and when we asked about it, he said "Dora is just wrong".

Daniel and Papa got to go see Monster Trucks when they came to Denver, and that was a popular event. Much smaller than the Houston event from last year, but still fun. He particularly enjoyed the motorcycle tricks. Between the bike and his fascination with cars/engines, I suspect we're looking at a future gearhead.

Finally, Daniel's preschool class held a father-child ice cream social a few weeks ago. The dads got to come to the classroom, hang out for a while and eat ice cream. The highlight was that each kid had written a little essay about their father and what they liked about them, and the teachers made that into a laminated poster. I'll have to try to scan and post a picture.

And that'll have to do for the Daniel-specific updates for now.

A Springtime Rachel update

Every Wednesday is "Mama-Rachel Day" when Daniel is in preschool, and Rachel gets to decide what to do all day with Anida. From her choices, we can get a pretty good idea of what would make up a perfect day.

It would involve books. Lots of books.

Almost every wednesday means a trip to the library to pick out new books. Rachel has her own library card and knows how to use it. She will frequently check out 20-25 books in a week.

Then, if she can convince an adult to read them all to her in a single session, taking occasional snack breaks, that would just be heaven. Grandparents are particularly good for this purpose, and have been known to read 10-15 books back to back before finally calling it quits.

More recently, Mama-Rachel day has involved going to the pool to practice swimming. Rachel is in her second set of swim lessons, and is working on the whole concept of kicking with straight legs and floating on her back. She's doing very well, and has a great time in the water.

Rachel has taken up the tricycle, and has started zooming around the driveway and cul-de-sac like her brother. She particularly enjoyes it when Daniel is in the mode to play bicycle with her. A few weeks ago, we decided it was time to get her a bicycle, and it didn't seem fair to give her the hand-me-down bike that Daniel outgrew, so a pink princess bike showed up. Probably a little too early - she rode around on it for a day or two, then reverted back to the tricycle, which is fine.

We've also put the training wheels back on Daniel's old bike, so that she has a smaller one to learn on.

Rachel dresses herself these days, and has a unique fashion sense. Most of the time she'll select matching tops and bottoms. Still shows a distinct preference for the color pink, and really, really doesn't like wearing jeans - choosing tights and a top or dresses.

Our little girl can be a little shy, particularly when first meeting people, but quickly warms up to them if she's not too tired. She's usually very, very sweet - she likes giving out presents, and will frequently give up her toys if some other kid wants to play with them. Still, she's capable of throwing HUGE temper tantrums/fits, and can keep them going for quite some time.

It's easy to forget that she's "Just 3", because she's about the same size as her older brother. Both of the kids have "Charts" where they can earn a sticker for completing certain activities, at the completion of which, they earn a prize that they select themselves.

Rachel's activities have been focused around getting dressed, helping with chores, avoiding accidents and learning the alphabet, a few letters at a time. For this, she's earned a trip to the ice cream store with Papa and the right to watch a Dora the Explorer movie from Netflix, both very popular. Rachel has extremely good counting, sequence and pattern recognition for her age.

Where Daniel was a whiz with the alphabet and letters, Rachel is showing a preference for numbers.

We don't have cable or satellite TV at home, so the childrens programs on PBS are the extent of what our kids know of television, and it's pretty limited what they get to watch.

A couple of times a week, they get to watch a show, and the current favorites are "Dinosaur Train" and "Sid the Science Kid". Rachel has a keen sense for when the show is about to end, and will inevitably say "Pwease, one more" as it starts wrapping up. The format of Dinosaur Train is that there are two episodes in a 30 minute show, so there she'll try to negotiate "Can we watch 2 shows"?

And that's about it for the Rachel-specific update.

Rachel is Three!

Friends

So, Rachel has been three years old for almost three months now, but I'm going to call that "getting things in perspective" rather than apologize again for the tardy posts.









On the morning of her birthday, she woke up to find the floor of her room completely covered in balloons, which was a big hit - she ran into our room and said "There are BAWOONS in my woom".

Yep, still working on the "R" there, but definitely making progress.


Our little girl is getting big on us. As of her 3rd birthday she was:

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  37.87" tall (64th percentile)
  33.25 lbs (75th percentile)
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  Which is, of course, perfect.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For dinner she got her favorite food of "Chicken Nuggets and Peas" accompanied by a pink puppy cake.