Work

Kardynn apparently thinks that Dwight goes to work "at the gym" and "plays basketball".  He wishes that was his job!

I can't remember what prompted it but last week the other kids and I got into a discussion about work and jobs.  Oskar said, "Being a mom is a really hard job.  You have to discipline people." And that was the extent of his description.

We had some big milestones last week and all of them happened at the gym. The first big milestone is that Oskar and Annika went down the enclosed water slide. A few weeks ago Annika tried the open water slide and she had a hard time getting out of the water at the base of the slide. So I told her she wasn't quite ready for it. But she's been making great headway at swim lessons so I encouraged her to try it again. She did great. After a few times down that I told her I thought she'd be fine to do the other one too.  She and Oskar both decided to try it. They went down several times. Oskar loved it. Annika got water up her nose on one of descents and she didn't like that but I think overall she liked it. On the weekend we dragged Dwight to the gym with us and they all rode the waterslides together numerous times.

They had another success which I initially forgot about (and that did not happen at the gym).  We went swimming at a neighbor's house and they both swam in the deep end (sans life jacket).  Annika tended to make sure she wasn't too far from either the edge of the pool or a float but she certainly does not lack for confidence.  Oskar, on the other hand, swims much better than he realizes.

The second success at the gym happened on Thursday. I met up with my friend to work out. When we dropped the kids off at the child care center, I realized that Kardynn's diaper was wet. I no longer carry a diaper bag - of course - so to spare me a trip out to the car (in the rain), my friend gave me a pull-up to use. About 50 minutes into our workout, I got paged to the child care center.  When I got down there, they told me that Kardynn needed help in the bathroom.  I said, "Oh, she's not potty trained".  In the meantime, she had spotted me and came running up shouting, "Mommy, I need to poop."  Alrighty then. So I took her into the bathroom. And guess what?!  She used the potty!  Hurray!  Now I need to teach her the difference between peeing and pooping.  *hehe*  When she informs me that she's poopy, 90% of the time she's actually wet.  When she does poop, her trend is to flat out deny anything is going on. Strange child.

Whole Grain Pancakes

I made whole grain pancakes for breakfast this morning. When I tasted them I thought, "Oh man, the kids are going to pitch a fit."  But I was wrong. If they noticed a difference, they didn't mention it. I added frozen blackberries to part of the batch and Oskar and I both agreed that was delicious.  Anyway, point is. Sometimes our kids aren't as finicky as we expect them to be.

Growing Up

Annika amazes me with her seemingly fearless approach to life. Last week she and Oskar did a rock climbing camp and she easily conquered that challenge.  She had no trouble reaching the top of any of the routes they did.  Oskar said, "Mom, she's younger than me and better than me!"  (I admire him too for the way he wants the best for everyone around him.  He's a very selfless person.)

Yesterday Annika went down the waterslide at the pool again and this time had absolutely no problems. I encouraged both of them to try the covered waterslide and they did.  Oskar loved it.  Annika was not as sold but she still tried it several times.

Speaking of Oskar, yesterday we were walking out of a building and Kardynn pitched a fit for some reason or another.  (Who knows why?)  I started walking away (making sure she was safe from cars, of course).  But Oskar was so upset. "Mom, she can't get up. She needs you to pick her up."  Twice he tried to go pick her up himself but of course she shooed him away because she was having a tantrum.  He's an amazing kid. I went back and picked her up.  Not because SHE was demanding it but because HE wanted it.

Oh my...they're all growing up so fast!

Busy Week

The past week has been busy, busy, busy. Last weekend I took photos of sweet baby Cameron. He was such a cutie! And it was a really good learning experience. Mainly I learned that I still have a lot to learn!

After the photo shoot, the kids and I went to Dad's place for a sleepover. The sleepover part was a bit of a disaster in that it was nearly impossible to get my girls to sleep. But when that small detail fades from my memory, I'll have nothing but fond recollections!

On Sunday we went to the Natural History Museum downtown. We took the metro to add to the adventure...which turned out to be a mistake because they were doing maintenance and single tracking. We spent entirely too much time getting to and from the museum and not enough time wandering around it but such is the substance of all the best adventures, right?!

The three big kids had camp this week. Oskar and Annika did a rock climbing camp and Kiersten did an art camp. After day one Oskar said to me, "Mom, Annika is younger than me but she's better at rock climbing! Can you believe it?!" Yep, Annika took to rock climbing. Today when I picked them up, Oskar pointed out to me a smiley face that Annika drew at the top of one of the climbs (is it still called a pitch on a wall?). She went to the top many times and Oskar wondered whether next time she should do Advanced Rock Climbing. Today I watched the kids climb and Oskar would climb up quite comfortably and then all of a sudden he'd reach a height that felt uncomfortable to him and he'd just stop. But he told me he knew he could reach the top because each time he went a little higher than he did the time before. I'm very proud of him for stretching his comfort zone a little. And it makes me happy that he loved camp despite his fear of heights. Several times I said, "I'm sorry you don't like rock climbing buddy" and he'd say, "I love it Mom!" So it was a good lesson for me to back off and stop putting my grown up spin on things. He also drove me crazy all week telling me that he wants to do "Rock and Swim" (which is an all day camp that starts at the rock wall and ends up at - you guessed it - the pool).

I uploaded pictures to Flickr but it's getting very late and today is another busy, busy day so I really need to get to sleep. I'll have to add some photos later on...maybe Sunday?

Kardynn-isms

Kardynn is quite articulate for a two and a half year old. I figure it's because she's a girl and the fourth child in a family of condensed children. But sometimes this sophisticated vocabulary leads to funny results and her vocabulary gets the best of her. For example, she thinks a muffin is actually called muffin man and she's started using the word bathtub for the verb bath or toenail polish for toenails or hangnails for fingernails.

Examples:

K: "Mommy, remember when we ate the muffin man?"

or

K: "Mommy, I love to take a bathtub."

I need to remember to jot down some of her other little sayings because they always make me smile.

Convos with the Kids

The kids were calling Independence Day "Appendix Day".

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Last night Annika slept on the floor in our room. She'd made some deal with Dwight while I was away. I was quite amused when she informed me that she'd packed for the occasion: her sleeping bag, her pillow and a change of clothes for the morning. (She just came down in her change of clothes.)

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Earlier this morning:

Kiersten: Thank you Mom.
Me: For what?
Kiersten: For everything you do for us.

Ah...that was nice.

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Oskar: J. told me that his Grandma is rich.
Me: Are any of your relatives rich, Oskar?
Oskar: Nope.

Happy Birthday Oskar!

Yesterday we celebrated Oskar's birthday with a scavenger hunt with friends. (Thank you to Because...I'm the Mom for reminding me how much I loved this kind of stuff as a kid.)

You can see all the photos at Flickr but here's the condensed version.





One lap around turtle pond.



Supper at Red Robin.





$10 shopping spree at Target.



I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.