Open Gym

Last time I had a date day with Clara, I took her to an open gym. This is something we can do for free through Infant Toddler Services. It is open to those who receive services through them (which Clara does for her weight/nutrition) and their siblings. Today was the last one of the year since they don't have them in the warmer months so we decided to go as a family. We had a great time.

The kids all had a really fun time playing with the various equipment and toys. Like so many things we do, it was all great until it was time to go. None of our kids ever want to go home. Even Hannah runs the other way. But we wrangled them all into the car and went home despite the protests. I am really glad we were able to go.

First Date Day with Hannah

For the last fifteen months, Meghan and I have been doing scheduled one-on-one date days with the kids. We switched off between Joshua and Clara and with the two of us to ensure that each kid gets dedicated special time with each parent on a regular basis. Hannah was just a tiny baby when this started, but we recently decided she was old enough to be thrown into the mix. So today was Hannah's first date day, and it was with me. Here she is enjoying a breakfast of bananas and Mulit-Grain Cheerios, which has been a long-time staple in our house, along with some Berry Berry Kix, which has been a recent addition.

The first part of our date was to go to Blockfest. I'm now a grizzled veteran of Blockfest, as I've been there with just Joshua, with Joshua and Clara, with Clara and Hannah, and now today with just Hannah.  I guess I'm a just-with-Clara and a Joshua-and-Hannah away from hitting for the Blockfest cycle.  She liked it a fair amount.  Like most kids that age, she mostly likes knocking down towers/stacks and occasionally throwing, though she did do some simple stacking, which was good to see.

For our main event, I wanted to do something that would encourage her continued verbal development as well as give her space to walk, since she's now doing a lot of walking, as it's a recent skill.  I decided the best place to do this was Walmart.  There are plenty of open aisles, and there are a million things in the store to see and discuss.  Sometimes we walked around hand-in-hand, but other times I would let her walk on her own if the surroundings allowed for it.

We walked all over the store, and I encouraged her to point out things.  She found everything from apples and bananas ("ahpoo" and "nana") to bikes and balls.  She really liked both bikes and balls, and we spend a lot of time in that back sporting goods corner.  Her voice is so cute, as most things she says have a hint of concern in her voice, even if she doesn't have concern.  She liked saying "bike" and "ball" repeatedly as she saw different ones, and even said "touch it" for a lot of things.  It's good for her tactile development to feel different textures, so I always granted those requests.

It was soon lunchtime, so we went to McDonald's for some food. She loves Chicken McNuggets, and I actually do too.  The over-processed, semi-gelatinous, tastes-nothing-like-chicken fried blobs are delicious, especially when paired with one of the sauces (I always chose Sweet and Sour as a kid, but now they have better options like Habanero Ranch).  So we shared a 20-piece and some fries, which she devoured.  We also got an Oreo McFlurry for dessert.  I told her it was called "ice cream" and the extreme deliciousness apparently drove her to instantly learn a new word and said "ice cream" as a request for more after every single bite.  It was really fun to spend some one-on-one time with my littlest baby girl, and I'm excited to now be able to do these with her in addition to the other two going forward.

Bouncin' in the House

We gave Joshua a bounce house for his second birthday.  We've used it quite a few times since, but recently the kids have become more excited about it, so we've been using it more.  Today Meghan got it out for them during the day.  As usual, Joshua and Clara loved it, and Hannah liked it, but because Joshua tends to get kind of crazy with his jumping, sometimes it distresses her, as you can see here.  We also did it again this evening when I got home.  I can see from the pictures that through the course of the day, Clara somehow lost a shirt and gained some pants, and Joshua lost a shirt and gained no pants.  That's pretty typical, I suppose.  The static electricity made Clara's hair go all over the place and reminded me of when I did the static electricity ball with her in St. Louis.

Serious About Shoes

The kids are pretty aware of who has what shoes, and they are pretty serious about it.  Recently I got some new shoes that vaguely resembled a pair that Meghan already had, and they informed me, "No, those Mama's shoes!"  Meghan recently got some new sneakers, and since I have several pairs of tennis shoes with bright colors, when they saw her start to put them on and saw the bright orange swoosh and shoestrings, they told her that she shouldn't put them on because they were Daddy's shoes.  But after Meghan assured them that they were in fact her shoes, everything was okay.  But that didn't stop Clara from immediately wanting to try them on at the first opportunity.  Here she is feeling proud that she was able to put on Mama's new shoes and walk around the house in them.

Our Tender-Hearted Hannah

Joanna is 12 years younger than I am, so I remember when she was a baby. One of the things that was notable about her baby years was a period of time when she would cry about anything. In particular, slow and sad music did her in every time. Her crib played lullabies, which of course soothe most kids, but poor baby Joanna just burst into tears every time she heard the music.  She eventually grew out of that particular phase, but probably anyone in our family would say that she is, even today, the most tender-hearted person we know.  Very sweet and loving and caring, but still the most likely person in our extended family to cry in an emotional situation.  It's one of the many things I love about her, as I think it's a positive trait and indicative of her true heart.  Well, if that's somehow hereditary, we know who else got that trait: little Hannah.  For the past few months, Hannah will cry at the drop of a hat.  Possibly literally.  Like if you dropped a hat, she might be distressed about why it happened and what we might do about it that she would cry (I haven't actually tried this, but it seems plausible).  But if you look at her the wrong way, or even if you say something totally innocent and in a super-sweet and pleasant voice like, "Hannah, maybe you'd like to play with the cars instead of the trucks" she often starts crying, as if you'd just scolded and insulted her.  In particular at dinner, I tend to be the problem.  Sometimes we'll have her try a new food, and she and I will make eye contact, and I'll say something encouraging like, "Mmmm, is that yummy chicken?" and then any remaining happiness will drain from her face, and she'll stare at me, and then after what seems like forever but is probably only 5 or 10 seconds, she'll start crying.  It's as if she has to think about it, but the decision always seems to be the same.  Tonight we had a similar incident, though not about food.  On the left she was normal happy Hannah.  Then toward the end of dinner, after the bib was off but before she got down, someone said something, and she was then in tears, as you can see on the right.  She's actually starting to get over it, so maybe this phase is about over.  It's cute in a way, but I'd gladly give it up if it means she has a lot less sadness in her life.

Hang in There

There are multiple things I do not miss about school and am not very excited to experience with my own children. The worst of which is probably teachers who deeply regret their career choice and take it out on the kids they teach. Luckily I haven't had to deal with that as a parent yet, though I seriously doubt that will continue all through school. On the very minor side of things, there are lame and cheesy posters that are supposed to be inspirational. There are many that I remember from my years in school. One of the least objectionable ones was the cat one that said "Hang in There" . My least favorites were definitely anything with Snoopy, particularly this one because it seemed completely pointless. And this one was also never high on my list due to its ridiculousness. I mean even as a kid, I could see that college didn't quite work out that way for my teachers or anyone else I knew. Apparently Joshua is a child after my own heart. He got this poster with his book order. I asked him what he thought it was and he said, "Paper for ripping". Pretty much. I did not let him rip it because we are working on respect for property, but there is no way it doesn't end up in the recycling bin in the very near future.

A Hard-Working Boy

Yesterday under his sweater Joshua wore an undershirt, which I had him wear since I don't like to wash sweaters frequently and also they can itch without an undershirt. Apparently, he wanted to keep it on last night and sleep in it because it's his "Fix-it shirt". And then this morning when I tried to get him dressed, he refused and said he wanted to wear his "work shirt". This is super cute. Jason sometimes fixes things around the house in his undershirt so he doesn't get his nice shirt dirty and Joshua has apparently picked up on that. Joshua really wants to contribute and be productive, despite the fact he makes a mess everywhere he goes (probably 90% of the time he doesn't realize he made a mess). He often says, "I am doing hard work" (while saying "hard work" with extra effort and added volume as if to emphasize how hard the work is) when he is doing something (whatever it may be) that he doesn't want to stop. This picture was taken when he was taking a break from all the hard work. He was super excited about the shirt pretty much all day. However, two days is pretty much my limit so it's going into the laundry tonight. Luckily he has several identical shirts, though I am not sure he knows it.

Frozen 2: This Winter

As Meghan mentioned yesterday, she and the kids watched Frozen last night. I wasn't here yesterday, so I didn't see it, and don't know what it's about, but I'm guessing most of the movie takes place with a lot of ice and snow. Coincidentally (and definitely not ironically) we woke up this morning to see that snow had fallen overnight. It's late March, but at this point nothing is surprising with this winter. We'll probably still somehow get snow in April. Joshua was pretty excited about it, so before we left for church I got a picture of him standing on the snow. He was a lot happier about it than he looks in the picture, and he enjoyed stomping on it and kicking it.  Fortunately it warmed up quickly today, and all the snow was gone by the afternoon.

                                  I have no story for this picture.  It's just Clara looking cute, as always.

Joshua is a little daredevil, so we try to keep him somewhat restrained in his adventures, but one thing he really loves is jumping off of things. Tonight he decided he should fly, so he got out his K-State cape that Meghan had made for him and jumped off of the jumping chair down on to the landing cushion.  These are the types of things that probably escalate over time until you find yourself sitting in the hospital while they put a cast on your kid's broken arm, so we'll try to keep it under reasonable control.

Frozen

This evening Jason went to go help a friend move some things in their garage/basement cleanup project so the kids and I were on our own. I decided it was a good opportunity to watch Frozen, which I had bought last week. A lot of people with kids Joshua's age made it a first movie at the theater, but he is easily scared so I wasn't sure about it since I wasn't sure how scary it would be. However, it really wasn't scary because there is no witch and a lot of the scarier stuff in that movie goes over his head so he doesn't notice it. Both he and Clara liked it a lot. Hannah doesn't really watch tv much yet so she mostly played, though she likes it when a song comes on. As soon as it was over, Joshua said he wanted to watch "Anno" again, which apparently is what he is calling the character Anna. I definitely enjoyed it for a cartoon. I probably wouldn't make an effort to see it as an adult, but you could do worse. My goal for the last few years has been to watch 6 movies a year that are new to me. This is number one for 2014. I really struggle with meeting the goal and last year I barely made it by watching Elf in December to reach 6. But this year Jason isn't going to kickoff which is when the kids and I watch a lot of movies and we as of now aren't planning on going on a trip as a couple which is also when I watch movies. So I am a little worried about getting to 6 this year. So I am definitely glad to add this one to the list. And I am guessing I will see it another 30 times or so by the time the year is out.

A Dive-y Date Night

Tonight was our date night for this month. We went to dinner at Torreon, which is a restaurant we don't get to go to very often, but we've been there a few times before.  It was too chilly to eat outside tonight, so we ate inside.  The inside is very dark, and we were in a back corner, so there wasn't a good opportunity for a picture.  But after dinner, we wanted to watch some March Madness somewhere, as K-State was playing Kentucky in the first round (technically the second round, but I reject this "First Four" nonsense).  It was an 8/9 match-up (we were the 9), so I expected it to be close and wanted to see the game,  We found a little dive bar near the restaurant that looked like it would have a TV and some cheap beer.  It was just what we wanted.  I had to drive home, so I couldn't have much to drink, so we didn't stay too long, but it was fun to be there while we were.  There was an interesting mix of people there, so I'm not really sure what kind of bar it normally is, but it was perfect for the second half of our night out.  What wasn't perfect was Kentucky suddenly playing like the talented team they are and knocking K-State out of the tournament.  But hopefully Wichita State can put them in their place in the next round.

Spring Break Picnic

Today was the second day of Joshua's spring break and it was a bit nicer outside than it had been on Tuesday. Halie took the kids to the park to play and to have a picnic, where they had a really fun time. I really feel like they wouldn't be all that disappointed if we gave up living in a house and became permanent residents of a park. The only hard thing about taking them outside is getting them back in. Even Hannah says, "No, no, no" when you tell her it's time to go inside.

After playing outside, they had a picnic in the park, by the lake. This was a fun change of scenery for lunch and also involved pickles and strawberries, which are some of Clara and Joshua's favorite lunch foods. Hannah actually hates both of those things so she stuck with a sandwich.

A Safe Haven for Eating Granola Bars

We try to provide the kids with healthy-ish snacks when possible.  Among the options we have are granola bars.  Joshua loves them, and on some days he has one for a snack.  Usually he eats them downstairs at the table, but sometimes if we are not yet ready to go downstairs in the morning, such as if we are still getting ready, we let him bring one upstairs.  Terrence is generally very sleepy in the mornings, but one thing that can quickly wake him up is food.  And when Joshua brings a granola bar up, Terrence turns into an alert bloodhound.  Joshua's not tall enough to keep it away from Terrence, so we quickly get to the scenario where Terrence is jumping up trying to snatch the granola bar from Joshua's hand while he runs around trying to avoid Terrence.  So Joshua never gets to eat the granola bar because he's trying to avoid Terrence, and Terrence never gets to eat it, because Joshua's just quick enough to avoid him.  To solve this mini-problem, Joshua now eats his granola bar in the bathtub, which is a pug-free place, because Terrence (and Natalie) haven't figured out how to get in there, which is also why we keep Alex's cat food in there.  Clara was up this morning, so she joined Joshua it eating the granola bar in their safe location.

Spring Break

Today Joshua did not have school due to spring break so Halie wanted to take them somewhere fun. We had talked about maybe the aquarium or Legoland, but I wasn't sure they would get full enjoyment out of that at this age and it was sure to be super packed with big kids, so we decided to maybe try that in May after Joshua was done with school, but before the big kids get out. Today Halie took them to Little Monkey Bizness. All three kids had a great time, including Hannah, which I wasn't sure how that would go. But Hannah has become quite a toddler of late and she loved it.

After playing for awhile, they went to Fritz's (the train restaurant) for lunch. That's always exciting for kids because a train circles the restaurant and drops people's food off at their tables. Plus, my kids love fries and to some extent hamburgers, so they wouldn't turn that down regardless of delivery method. I am glad they got to have a fun little outing during Joshua's break.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today we celebrated St. Patrick's day. The kids wore their green, as did Jason and I.

After nap, we had a hunt for a surprise. We followed a rainbow string around the house and ended up in the living room where the kids found their new spring golf clubs (these were the best $5 we spent last year. This year they were $5.88 because inflation I guess. But I imagine we'll still get our money's worth).

For dinner, we had our traditional Irish stew and colcannon. I often make mint chocolate chip ice cream, but since we had dessert on Friday and Saturday, I didn't make a third dessert and we just had lime floats with dinner. We had a fun day.