Bullet Updates

I haven't posted any random bits of information for a while, so I felt it was time. For most of these, the girls' tastes run very similar. In the rare cases where they don't, the differences are noted. And of course, as with all toddlers and kindergartners, these could be different in the next 24 hours.

Favorite activity: afternoon bike riding

Least favorite insect: ants. (Probably has something to do with the fact that they have inundated our house over the last few weeks. They are everywhere-the kitchen floor, the bathtub, in my freezer...)

Favorite song to sing: "Jolly Holiday" from Mary Poppins.

Favorite show/video: Kate-Blue's Clues Snacktime Playdate (today she watched it twice in a row)
Padyn-Martha Speaks

Most annoying quality: Kate-total and utter disobedience
Padyn-whining and growling when she doesn't get her way

Favorite "pretend play": Nigh-Nigh and Doggie (you really just have to be there to understand)

Favorite article of clothing: dress or skirt

Favorite dress-up item: Padyn's leotards and dance skirts

Favorite parent: Daddy

Favorite time of day: Kate-when Padyn is at school and she gets to watch whatever video she wants
Padyn-when Kate is sleeping and she gets to play on pbskids.org on the computer
Mommy-bedtime

Photo Friday-Fashion Trendsetters and Random Silliness

Let's see...what's new in our household this week? Well, Kate has latched onto her galoshes. I gave them to her for Christmas last year and she's never wanted to wear them before now. Nevermind the fact that it hasn't rained here in many many months. For some reason, she's decided that every outfit would be complimented by her pink argyle boots. She particularly enjoys riding her bike in them.

Silly faces-Kate isn't so good at it.
Speaking of bikes, that's been our favorite afternoon activity for the last couple weeks. Kate doesn't actually ride hers for very long. She rides it down the driveway and out into the street, where she promptly gets off and leaves it in the middle of the road. She then goes exploring in the bushes around the parking lot. It's even more amusing since she keeps her helmet on the entire time, whether she's picking flowers or chasing Padyn down the street on her bike.Padyn apparently does trust her training wheels now. She has been trying to go faster and farther all week. Yesterday as I was running along next to her, and she said, "Mommy, Alex wouldn't believe how fast I can go!" First, I'm not sure who Alex is (maybe someone in her class?) and secondly, why would he care?Notice her passenger? "Duckie" has been taken for a ride every day this week.The two ballerinas-here they are dancing to "ballerina music" (aka classical music).Kate copied every move Padyn and I made. It was very cute.I have another photo on my phone of Kate is the most stupendous outfit ever seen, but I have to figure out how to get it on my computer...

Happy Friday.

At Least Her Priorities are Straight

Since the pool is no longer heated, we've been riding bikes every afternoon for the last week out in our street. Padyn still has training wheels on her bike. The other day I noticed her tires were pretty low, so that night Daddy put air in them. Well, what I did not realize was that the low tires allowed for BOTH the training wheels to be on the ground at the same time.

When Padyn got on her newly inflated bike the next day, she was a bit distraught over the fact that only one training wheel touched the ground at a time. The wobbling back and forth really frightened her. I didn't want her to give up, so I kept saying, "You can trust your training wheels! They won't let you fall over. Just trust the training wheels!"

And her response as she rode by?

"I trust God more than my training wheels!"

Can't really argue with that one.

Photo Friday-Close Ups and Other Silliness

Here are some random shots taken over the last few weeks.

Kate enjoying her cupcake at Corinne's birthday party Padyn on her first day back at dance classSerious swimmer at Papa's houseNo-diaper buttOllie-Papa's new puppy, right after he's gone swimmingSilly girlContemplating the lake
Happy Friday!

Great Find

So, this morning Kate and I went to Ikea to look for duvet covers. As Kate is about to move into a real bed, I now need two matching comforters so the girls' room will look somewhat coordinated. (It will be difficult as it is in direct competition with all the books, clothes, papers and other crap that seem to be attracted to their bedroom floor, but I have to try.)

The duvet covers, they were cute, but they weren't the great find. No no...that was breakfast at Ikea. Seriously, you can get breakfast there. Are you ready for this? For as little as....$1! I got the regular breakfast, which came with scrambled eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, home fried potatoes and these french toast stick things. That came to a grand total of $2.16. That's cheaper than my half caff latte with whole milk. And it was TASTY! I was ready for it to be bland or greasey, but no. It was actually good. I'm thinking this should be our new ritual. Kate and I drop Padyn off at school, come home for a little clean up, then head to Ikea for breakfast at 10. Totally cheaper than Starbucks every day.

(Not that I go to Starbucks every day. That would just be wrong.)

Flickr Update

Over there, on the right...see that Flickr badge? Click on it and you'll see 300 or so new pictures that I just posted. No, they aren't really new...there from April and May of this year. And yes, some of them you've seen before, right here on this blog. But I'm trying to get current...really I am.

So, if you want to re-live Kate's 2nd birthday or our Oregon trip over Memorial weekend, then you should go look. Now. Right now.

Nothing Better Than Throwing Rocks in the Lake

Yesterday we spent the morning down at the lake. You may not notice it here, but in the course of an hour, the girls changed their clothes 3 times. We all started out in pants since it was still chilly in the house, then quickly put on shorts. Eventually, the shorts and shirts were soaking wet, so the bathing suits came out. Why didn't I just start out that way you ask? I guess there are just some things I'm slow to learn.Kate, the child who has been hesitant to swim all summer, was the first one in the lake. I wasn't paying attention as closely as I should have (I was probably taking pictures of Padyn) and when I turned around, there she was, walking around in the water. I guess the fear has passed.Apparently, this is a new beach dance. It's all the rage with the kids these days.Some weird walk she was doing up the beach. Who knows...
As soon as she had her suit on, she lay down in the water. Again...who knows?

Photo Friday-Race Day

We are taking time out from our real life at the lake this week. We drove up on Wednesday afternoon and headed to the Reno Air Races on Thursday. We had some inside connections there, so it made the hot race day much more pleasant.

One of the comforts was a hanger to hang out in. Here are the girls in their Great Uncle's airplane. At first Kate refused to get in, then, of course, when she finally got in, she didn't want to get out.

Joel's squadron had a plane on display at the races. Daddy and Padyn (and Grandpa) got to watch the Thunderbirds' show from the cockpit.
Here's how Kate watched most of the show...under the airplane. She didn't want to go up in Daddy's airplane until it was almost over.
Can you see Kate's ears? After a couple startling fly-bys, a nice gentleman came up and gave me earplugs for her. She amazingly kept them in the rest of the show. She's no dummy.

I have no idea what Padyn is doing with her shirt here. Tomorrow...more from the lake, including the three outfit changes that the girls did in under an hour.

Happy Friday.

Lulu's a Big Sister!

Little Lulu just had a baby brother. You can go check out pictures of Isaac and the rest of his family here. Congratulations you guys! Oh, and it may be time to change the name of the blog now...

Reenactment

I'm silently laughing so hard, it's difficult to type, but I'll try.


Padyn and her friend, Danielle, are in the family room right now. They are clearly reenacting something they have seen at school regarding safety and daily routines. I can't tell if they are both pretending to be the teacher or going back and forth, but here's a small example of the exchange taking place in my living room:


One of them will ask a question, then the other will respond with a emphatic NO!

Do we put our name tags on without anyone telling us?
NO!


Do we climb on the tunnel?
NO!



Do I jump on the trampoline at the same time as Danielle?
NO!


I've also heard snippets about happy bears and warnings. They must be enjoying kindergarten if they are pretending to be there on their time off, right?

Photo Friday-Comparisons

I just realized last night that Kate is the same age (actually a week or two older) than Padyn was when Katelyn was born. Very bizarre. Kate doesn't seem as old as Padyn did at the time. Maybe that's because I don't have another little creature to compare her to. The hair...that also makes a difference. Bangs and long hair make girls look older.

I haven't done comparison photos in a while, but here you go. Just because I wanted to see what they look like at the same age, you have to, too. (Well, actually you don't. You could click away right now.)

I see some similarities. There isn't a good comparison pic, but they do seem to have the same big open mouth smile. You can tell they are sisters, but that's about it.

Happy Friday!

Final Days of Summer

I haven't taken many swim pictures this summer. That could be because we’ve had an unusually cool summer and swimming in the afternoons has not been so appealing. But, the last couple weeks have made up for it. The weather, even in the late afternoon has been in the 80’s, so we’ve been in the water most days to stay cool. Here are a few shots from two weeks ago.

We bought the girls goggles because Padyn was jealous that all her friends had them and she didn't. She only swims with them about half the time she's in the pool. She had to have pinkKate thinks hers are fun, too, but she hardly ever wears them.I hope the complex decides to keep the heat on in the pool for another couple weeks. We need the afternoon refresher.

Recording for Posterity

Tonight, for no reason whatsoever, Kate decided to poop on the potty. First. Time. Ever.

She had managed to pee in the potty before her bath, which in itself is a big deal. That was something like the 3rd time ever. (She is not so motivated to use to potty.) I let her put a pull-up on for the first time ever while she ate dinner as a prize for the peeing. Then, I had her sit on the potty again before she put her jammies on. Of course, she had already peed in the pull-up, even though I had asked her 17 times during dinner if she had to go and repeatedly reminded her that we don't want the ladybugs to disappear (it's a pull-up thing).

So, she's sitting there on the potty, and I know she's not going to pee, but I count to 30 anyway, because that's our routine when she's on the potty. And she starts pushing. And pushing. And pushing. And before I know it there are 4 little nuggets in the potty.

Sure, it wasn't much, but it's a start. It's something I can reward her for and bribe her with more things to make it happen again.

And really-this is huge when compared to my other child. You see, this little potty...that was the first time it had been pooped in by my child. Padyn steadfastly refused to poop on a toilet until about 8 months after she was in panties all day long. She always went in her pull-up at naptime or when she woke up in the morning. And when I did finally offer the bribe that got her pooping in the toilet, she did it on the big potty. This little potty has never seen this much action!

We'll see if Little Miss Kate decides this is a new era in her life or just a fluke. Really, with her personality, it could go either way.

Big Ears

I was talking to Ella's mommy a couple days ago on the phone. She was asking me how I was handling the whole kindergarten thing. I don't remember my exact words, but I'm sure it was something about how it scared me that Padyn was old enough to be in school everyday already. I was alone in the kitchen while having this conversation.

A few minutes after we hung up, Padyn walks in and very seriously says, "Mommy, I'm sorry you're scared of me going to kindergarten."

My reply (while trying not to laugh), "Oh honey, I'm not really scared. I just can't believe you are old enough to go to school everyday. I don't want you to grow up so fast. I want you to stay my little girl for longer...forever."

And what did the little fountain of wisdom have to say about that? "Well, Mommy. That's just life."

So it is...but how does she know that?

What I Sent to School Today

I pretty much let Padyn choose her clothes everyday because it just isn't worth the battle. But some days, I wonder if I should reconsider. Here's what she went to school in this morning...

Let me just help you see this outfit for all its glory. Let's start at the top:

Silk flower barrettes, courtesy of C's b.day party yesterday
Blue shirt with brown polka dots-last season's favorite shirt from Target
Pink pants with sequins embroidery-hand-me-down from a friend
Hot pink boots (she references to them as her "cowgirl boots") with Dora socks (that you fortunately can not see)-Target, last season

Very stylish. Very NOT coordinated. I think she's ahead of her time.

Oh! I forgot the tattoo, also courtesy of the birthday party yesterday. It really just accents the whole thing.




At least she looks happy about it all. How can I argue with that?