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Water Color Resistance

One of the things we got Tabby for Christmas was a nicer set of watercolors … not extravagantly nice, but a good student-grade set. I’d read an article at some point in time about getting kids GOOD art supplies with the reasoning that it is more fun with them if the outcome is better and predictable. One specific example they cited was water colors and it hit home with me because I remember smashing my brush into those solid water colors you get in art class, trying and trying to get vivid colors and barely coming up with anything darker than dishwater. Grrrrr …

Since she got them we’ve used them a few times. They are definitely fun to play with and produce everything from nice vivid colors to beautifully pale colors depending on how much water you add. Anyhow, as is our tradition, following birthdays, we write thank you notes to those who sent gifts. We generally skate by on the notes for those who were present, though with some people, like my Grandma, Tabby wanted to write a note anyhow, so we did. Gratitude should never be discouraged, right?

The standard format is to cut 8.5×11″ cardstock in half and then fold the halves to make quarter-page sized notes. We have a box of envelopes that will probably last until the kids are in their teens that neatly hold this size card. Then we decorate. We’ve done everything from Tabby coloring printed images of Tinkerbell and Minnie mouse to thumbprint cards to stickers. And this year, I proposed we do water colors. I sent Tabby away and then I wrote THANK YOU! on a card with a white crayon and then brought her back in told her to water color the heck out of it. She did so and was delighted to see my written message appear. After that she directed what we write on the cards and requested “fancy writing” on the next one.

At some point in time, Ben came in and wanted to get in on the action, so I drew him a ton of sqiggles on a half page and he went at it in his 2-year-old way, mixing colors with abandon and cross-contaminating our paints. The result (below) was rather beautiful, but I had to get him out of there (Maaaaaatt!) so we could finish. He was about done anyhow.

Tabby decided she loved the squiggles so much that she had to do her own card with them. It was one of her favorites.

I loved doing this project with the kids and one of the things that I loved best about it was that just before we started, they’d been watching TV (something we don’t often allow in the evenings). Tabby instantly abandoned the TV when she heard we were going to create and Ben followed shortly after. Tabby cannot wait to watercolor again. She wants to play with some other techniques I mentioned like putting salt on the damp watercolors and blotting them with textured things. I look forward to it too.

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Five Years … Where did it go??

Oh where oh where has the time gone? Five years. Seemingly so long, but in a blink it has gone by. She isn’t the tiny baby we brought home, but such a big, capable girl. I’d be lying if I said I wish her baby days back. I don’t. She was lovely then, so small and cuddly, but she’s so much fun now. I love the questions she asks (all 392,281 of them) and the thoughts and ideas she has. I love the way she hams for the camera; the way she asserts herself; the way she plays with her brother; the way she eagerly helps and learns new things; the way she considers others; the way she loves to read; the way she loves to dance. Never  a day goes by when she doesn’t make me smile. She is such a delight. We couldn’t be prouder to get to parent this amazing little being. And though we miss the baby she was, we’re so incredibly happy to witness the sweet girl she’s growing into.

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The HAPS

As usual, it’s our own version of semi-organized chaos over here. Just a sampling of what we’ve been up to:

  • We’re busily planning our summer camping trips. Sites book up FAST. We’ve already got two trips planned, one to Sand Dunes in May and one to Rocky Mountain National Park in June. Add to that our trip to FL in May, two other camping trips we want to take, weekend trips to Vail, and a possible 10th anniversary trip and I’m pretty sure we’re going to spend half of the summer away from home. So what else is new?
  • Matt took Tabby to the store with him on Saturday to pick up some groceries. She spied a coconut and wanted to try it, so he bought it for her. He used a corkscrew to drill a hole in it and then she sampled the milk through a straw. She wasn’t a huge fan. Next they will do something with the flesh. For now it’s sitting on the counter.
  • I ran a 10 mile race on Saturday. It was very hilly which is unusual for me since I run mostly on the treadmill or a few tried and true outdoor spots, and I hit it HARD. My body hurt pretty much the rest of the weekend and I had to take naps and go to bed early. Good wake up call for my half marathon in April.
  • Most of our Nashville family (Matt’s stepmom, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece) are arriving on Thursday. I’m super excited to meet my niece, now 3 months old!! And it will be good to see everyone else too. We have some fun plans including, of course, skiing. Continue reading “The HAPS”
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Bead Bowls

So bloggy bud Nannette challenged everyone to stop pinning and start making. OK, well not STOP pinning. That would be crazy, but to definitely start MAKING in her Pinteractive challenge. I was going to do something with the kids this weekend, but it was rather full, so last night we got crafty and made bead bowls as inspired by this pin.

Here’s what you need:

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Tabby’s Turn

It’s been all about Ben this week and though the kids don’t read the blog yet, I didn’t want Tabby to feel left out in the future when she reads the archives (because I’m oh-so-sure she’ll be fascinated, right?). A quick rundown on the happenings in Tabby land.

  • All of a sudden, she gets the reading thing! she can sound it out and figure it out and put it all together! It’s slow, but it’s happening!
  • She is eating us out of house and home and I anticipate a major growth spurt soon.
  • She is super excited for her 5th birthday, coming up in about a month (?!?!) she has all sorts of plans. We probably need to get on a few of those, right?
  • We have started teaching her to use knives for dinner prep after her begging us to let her try. My sister read about a chef who taught his kids with one hand tied behind their back at first and that is how we’ve been doing it. She’s doing pretty well.
  • She has mastered the art of the high-five (her system for routine in the mornings and evenings) and is well on her way to earning a trip to the movies or a new DVD.
  • She is a wee bit jealous of Ben’s new bed and she will soon have completely outgrown the darling toddler bed Matt made her before Ben was born, so we are making plans to upgrade her room a bit. Here are the ideas so far on Tabby’s New Room Pinterest board.
  • She has been begging us to let her take dance lessons, but thanks to our rec districts short-sided scheduling policies (nothing after 4:30 PM), we can’t get her into dance classes. So she is happily starting ICE SKATING at the end of February (after another round of swim lessons). She’s totally excited. Which reminds me – I need to figure out about a pair of ice skates for her.
  • She’s been learning all about the months of the year and the days of the week at school, so we have been looking at her calendar together. She’s excited for her upcoming events (Valentines Day, her birthday, etc.), visits from her Nashville family and our friends and their baby, our upcoming trips (FL in May, Sand Dunes in May) and the big one … KINDERGARTEN!
  • The questions are getting harder to answer: Who was the first mommy? How does the music get in the car and to our ears? Why can’t babies talk and walk when they’re born (horses do)? I find myself babbling about evolutionary advantage and tympanic membranes way more than I ever thought I would. It’s hilarious.

 

 

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Kinder Registration

Today is the big day. Today we drop off her registration for Kindergarten. How is it possible that in just a few short SHORT months she’ll be ready for big girl school. ALL DAY school. It’s crazy!! Hopefully by August I’ll be ready. Tabby of course, would head off tomorrow. She’s thrilled.

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Vail. Weekend. Snow.

We had a lovely time away from home. It was great to have such a nice break after a crazy-busy month and a half (or so). We never did get a good “adult” ski day in, but the kids both got days on the mountain and in the case of Tabby we can actually ski with her.

So for two days, Tabby went skiing all day on the big mountain. She also spent time on the bunny hill whenever Ben was there. She’s really a bit beyond it, but she still had fun. It’s a good time for her b/c she can get on and off the magic carpet on her own and the first day we were there, they had CONES! She took it as her personal mission to ski around them as well as she could and she did awesome. I’m not talking about generally around the cone, I mean RIGHT AROUND the cone. Less than a foot between her and the cone.

Ben shows signs of having pretty great ability and was always gung-ho to “go skiing!” But once he got there he was quite a bit more apathetic about the whole situation, telling us sometimes even that he didn’t want to ski. Since we schlepped him all the way over there, he didn’t really get a choice but to make a run or two and when he did it, he enjoyed it. His balance is good and he seems to have some ability to control his direction, moving the direction Matt pointed to. But he tires quickly and is really still so very little. He was just happy to get outside and play in the snow, really.

With very little snow, we never did get a real day on the mountain just adults. But we got lots of TV watching, game playing, reading, cooking and even some exploring done. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Unfortunately, we woke up on Saturday to find this:

Gorgeous snow coming down, just in time for us to drive home in it!!! GRRRRRRR

The drive home was not terrible, but longer than normal. 2.5 hours compared to 1.5. Compounding the annoyance were our kiddos. As good as they were our whole trip, they were that bad in the car. Whining, crying, screaming, throwing, fighting, grumping. By the time we got home, our nerves were shot. Lucky for us, we had a bottle of premix margaritas in the fridge that we’d barely touched. We did minimal work to get the house back in order (it’s still not nearly back in order) fed everyone dinner and finished off our margaritas. Not often the way we roll, but not bad either.

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2011 Year in Review: Tabby

Well I completely forgot to do Tabby’s 4.75 post, so I will make up for it by doing her year-in-review first. At this age, they change much more slowly than they do when they’re teeny tiny babies, but still, over the course of just a few months, let alone a year, you can see huge changes.

I started to write a lengthy post about all her accomplishments, but I thought she could better tell you what 2011 was like for Tabby, so I interviewed her.

What trips did we take this year?
Sand Dunes. Nashville. and … ummm …. camping … and uhh … New York!

Which one was your favorite?
Going to Uncle Jimmy’s [house in Grandby] … because I got to see butterflies there.

What have you learned this year that you’re really proud of?
I learned how to make “Santa Stuck in the Snow in the Chimney” and I learned the S-A-N-T-A song.

Who is your best friend?
JJ and Avery and Liam and Wes

What do you like to do with Mommy?
do crafts! and put up Christmas decorations, for Christmas

What do you like to do with Daddy?
Go to Home Depot, but just if its just me and just him.

What is your favorite kind of outfit to wear?
a dress and leggings

What is your favorite sport to do?
skiing!

What is your favorite toy?
my flashlight toy thing

What do you most like to play with?
my new scooter!

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV?
Franklin

What is your favorite food?
roe sushi, salmon bowls, and pancakes and waffles and avocados

If you suddenly found yourself “Home Alone” what would you do?
scream!! run out of the house

What are you excited for next year?
going to dance class … oh, and KINDERGARTEN!

She’s awesome. We’re hugely proud of her. We love hanging out with her. We couldn’t be more blessed.

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Ben on Skis

This weekend we endangered all the guests on Vail Mountain’s Bunny slope by taking Ben up for his first go. Just kidding … our little danger “baby” did very well and had loads of fun. He has been trying to get on skis since last year, hopping on Tabby’s whether she was currently using them or not and trying on his gear every chance he got. Undoubtedly, his beloved sister’s love for the sport influenced him somewhat, but he is naturally into anything physical, he probably would have been gunning to get up there in any case.

We did the typical things you do with a first timer his age … basically catch and release. We ride up the magic carpet with him and take turns catching and releasing. He had a huge smile on his face practically the entire time or at least until he got cold and tired. He was his typically fearless self and even a few minor spills didn’t flag his enthusiasm. But his balance was something to behold and he could right himself quite well 90% of the time he started to fall. He asked to go back later in the evening on his first day and again when we asked him the next morning, so Matt took him back for another go. He didn’t make it long, but he had fun.

Tabby had new skis to try out and whether it was because of rusty legs or the new skis and boots, she had a few more spills the first couple of trips down the hill than the last time she was up. But in no time she figured it out and she was doing really well, moving beyond the “pizza” or snowplow technique and well into a nice parallel technique, beginning to turn and stop in parallel. She was super excited for us to get her up on the big mountain and neither of us can wait to have a chance to do so, but this go-around it was about our friends and their boys and Ben having a first go. Beyond that, the snow was pretty cruddy and we didn’t want to use our own skis so we would’ve had to rend which is a pain. But we have every confidence that she will be tearing it up when we’re back in Jan.

The rest of the weekend was lovely. For years we have done a “cookie weekend” with our friends and then as kids came, the kids as well, and my parents and sister. This year we backed off the cookies (we only made one type) and mostly just played around, watched movies and relaxing. Matt’s travel schedule meant we had to cut out one evening, but it was still nice and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

As always, it’s a bit hard to come back to reality. Oh well.