BLOG AUGUST 2011

Wednesday August 31, 2011

OK, so 2 posts this month is a bit lame. It's been a busy summer. With the kids back in school you'd think I'd have more time to post but such is not the case. Piper has become quite bored at school, with the same classroom, the same centres, the same kind of work. Both girls are reading really well right now and even doing some basic math (Am I bragging...ok maybe just a bit. The girls amaze me.) Rain is still quote the social animal and several parents have comment to me how the boys seem to be drawn to her. EEP!

Piper has started becoming quote the little helper and drew up her own chart (with about a hundred small check boxes on it...she checks off one box every time she helps me). She will help with chores, watching Torren and cleaning. It's wonderful having a helper. I'm not sure what will happen when she fills in every checkbox.

The other night I asked them if they wanted to mayeb get a kitten at xmas time. Piper's eyes widened, her smile widened and then she shouted at the ceiling, "Santa, bring me a kitten!!!!" ("psst...Mom, do they make kitten at the North Pole?")

We've had a busy social calendar the last while...all about the girls....1 birthday party, 2 pool parties, playdates, park dates...they have a better social life than I do. Piper has started swimming. She can swim about 15 feet out and then back again. I am amazed! Rain is fearless when it comes to jumping off the side of the pool into the water...cannonballs, belly flops and more. She still like the comfort of her water wings but I imagine not for much longer.

Torren is climbing...everything. He can climb up the big blue slide in the backyard to the top and then slide back down again on his belly. He is quite fast now too. I was weeding next to him when he picked up a ceramic mushroom. Before I could do anything he smashed it on rock, I moved to grab it from him when he brough it down for a second swing and got my toe, cutting it. On the third swing I grabbed it from him and started to pick up the broken pieces, and he grabbed a handful of dirt and ate it. So in 3 seconds, one broken mushroom, one bleeding toe and one kid with a mouthful of dirt. Nice.

He is also improving on his stick handling. He loves his hockey stick and seems to naturally want to hit balls with it. We sit on the back deck and knock it back and forth. He's so cute (when he's not armed with deadly broken ceramic mushrooms).

Torren has also started giving us a few sleep-though nights. I have been granted extra energy as a result and have even attenpted jogging a few times (ah I had forgotten what a nights sleep can do for a body)

I don't need to touch on the subject of "eating and Torren". As usual, he eats anything and everything. He eats about 6 times a day..and snacks in between all his meals). He likes his food like a big kid.....not in bits. He wants a whole peanut butter sandwich, a whole banana, a slice of cheese, a granola bar, a couple of pieces of watermelon...all in one sitting. YUM! FOOD!

Tonight Piper found 3 baby birds that had fallen from their nest during the thunderstorm. We got Krista and a ladder and she put them back in their nest. They were so tiny...baby sparrows. Peep peep.

Sunday August 13, 2011

Torren is pretty good at stairs. He's also figured out to climb up on stools and how to push them over to something he wants to get up to see. He wants to climb up on things as often as he can. He loves when the girls and I lie on the floor and he can crawl over one after another. He seems more intereted in walking with help as well. He's had a few tumbles and has gotten some bumps and scraps, but it' all part of the learning I guess.

We've been taking him out in the bike trailer which is he seems to like ok. He tolerates it for a short time. We all got on our bikes one day and went up to the grocery store. Daddy took the girls to playground behind the store and Torren and I went shopping. I loaded up the bike trailer with three bags of groceries, a watermelon and a bag of potatoes. Torren was sitting amongst a sea of food. I don't think he minded.

We want to try taking the girls training wheels off their bikes but they don't want us too...maybe next year or in the fall when they will be wearing longer pants. It's fun when we can all go out biking as a family. We have to start looking for a bike rack for the van I guess.

Torren's favourite game right now is throwing things off his highchair and then laughing at you as you pick them up. All babies do this I know...it's just his manaical laugh that kills me. He thinks he's such a ham. He loves when I chase him crawling on my hands and knees telling him "I'm gonna get you!" He also loves to hit any kind of ball his mini hockey stick. He doesn't like many toys but he loved balls and anything stick shaped. My gosh there are some strong genetics at work. His favourite food seems to be pita pizza Another obvious genetic trait. He can also slug away the watermelon quite effectively for a kid with only 2 teeth. He prefers to eat food unchopped. Baby food is rarely taken. He like to use utensils as well, something we still can't get the girls to use very often. His favourite thing in the house is probably the cat, who he pursues whenever he spots one. He puts his hands over his head when you say "pasta" (we tried to get him to do it to "touchdown" but he only responds to "pasta"), he can give high fives, wave and just now as I type this he's out on the deck calpping with Daddy for the first time.

Torren is also getting tha basics of language. He doesn't make any full words but lots of sounds..."dah, do, bah" etc...he recognizes quite a few words and will point to the item when asked to find it. His favourite things to point at are the ceiling fans and trees. He holds out his hand to have us "identify" an item, which to me looks more liek he's trying to use the force.

Both Rain and Piper can now brush their own teeth and hair. They are getting so smart and quick witted they catch me off guard with questions all the time. Rain apparently asked Uncle John, when he told her he lived in a forrest, if it was a deciduous forrest. I told her not to leave the screen door open and let the flies in and Rain corrected me....we should not let the common house flies in, as opposed to the deer and horse flies that live at the lake.

Rain has been having some issues with ghosts in the house, and has times when she won't go in any room alone. I think her sensitive hearing and over active imagination confuses her. She hears things she can't identify and assumes it a ghost.

We had a playdate at McKenna's house and the girls went swimming in an inground pool. They LOVED running and jumping off the deck into the water. The did cannonballs, belly flops, twirl jumps, star jumps and pretty much everything else they could imagine. They must have jumped in over a hundred times. It was great to watch. They certainly are more comfortable in the water this summer. Swimming lessons start again in the fall.

The girls are back in school as well and loving it as much as ever. They are happy to see all their friends again and meet the new JK's. They are a bit bored so far though since it seems to be a lot of basic repeating of last year. I hope it will get more challenging soon.

The girls spent most of this afternoon playing with the hose, the water table, the little pool and a container of dish soap. There is water and bubble pretty mcuh everywhere. We also had our first treasure hunt this morning. While Daddy took the girls to the park I wrote out 10 rhyming poems as clues each leading to the next clue. The final treasure were mini blizzards I bought for them at the Dairy Queen. They blasted through the clues one after another running upstairs, downstairs, outside and in. Afterwards they both thanks us and said they loved the treasure hunt. It was a huge success and fun for us all.

Torren is pretty mcuh weaned as well. He doesn't nurse very much anymore and I figure he'll be completely weaned by month's end. It was nothing that I chose...he simply decided he wasn't as interested I guess. However, that has not changed his poor night sleeping. He still wakes up several times a night and prefers a warm body next to him in a bed than alone in a crib. Hey don't we all?

Piper is now almost 4 inches taller than Rain. She complains of growing pains alot, mostly in her legs. She's taller than all the girls in her class and is wearing size 6 in most of her clothing. Tall, tall, tall.

Their love of books contines. I think they will pick reading books over anything else. Rain especially loves poetry. Dennis Lee, Shel Silverstein etc. Piper loves almost everything. We've also watched some more movies this month including some oldies like Labyrinth and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We've also picked up a DVD with a bunch of episodes of the old smurf cartoon. Now all I hear is "La la la la la la, sing a happy song, la la la la la la, sing it all day long."

Rock band is now a family affair. Rain and Piper both love singing and are quickly learning all sorts of songs. Even Torren is now joining in. One day I had the TV tuned to a radio station and Torren crawled into the room and grabbed on of the mics, ready to sing. He often picks up a mic when Rain and daddy are singing and joins in with some "duuuuuuhhhhs" and "baaahhhhhhhs". It pretty funny. Rain loves having the MP3 player on and rocks out with the headphones on.

The girls have been playing a lot with the ipad and the new aps we have downloaded. They have been doing math, reading, spelling, learning to read music, playing dress up, baking cakes and cookies and playing all sorts of games. Mom is obsessed with breeeding virtual frogs and Daddy loves playing in his little smurf village. It's certainly offers fun for everyone. (Geez do I sound like an ipad ad?)

Piper was tired today. I asked her if she was having trouble sleeping and she said yes. She was restless because she was excited thinking about what we were going to have for breakfast in the morning. Ha!

Oh...since starting this blog entry last week Torren has started being better at night. We've been sleep training him and he is doing better and sleeping longer stretches. Hopefully we'll get him sleeping through the night soon.

The treasure hunt begins.



The clue under the slide



The clue on the drums



All the clues that lead to the treasure (DQ blizzards in the freezer)



Daddy getting ready to launch our balloon effigies



The family that slides together, stays togther.



Daddy with all 3 kids on the bike.



Look out below!!! (swimming at a classmates house).



Two kids, a pool, a hose and some dish soap = fun.



"Pasta!!!".



Chillin' in my chair, eating some 'scream.



I can reach...hmm, what can I get my hands on.



My wonderful kids.