Six Months Later

WOW! I cannot believe I haven't blogged anything for six months! Has it really been that long? Guess we've been kinda busy. And hibernating for the winter. And I've been really far behind with sorting, naming and uploading photos, and don't like blogging if I don't have photos to go with it. The problem is that we do too much stuff, and then take too many photos of it, and then we get too busy doing other stuff to sort through the previous photos and before you know it there's 100+ photos to sort through. Plus we take all our photos on burst mode (takes five photos at a time) because the kids are always moving and it you take five at a time at least one of them will turn out ok. But I've managed to catch up on the photos and now I can blog again. Also I think part of the problem is Victoria not having naps any more. So that's an hour a day I don't have up my sleeve any more.

But where to start??? Well, let's see. There haven't been any real life changing events for us the past six months. We're still living on our little farm just outside Levin, Peter's still driving to Palmerston North and back every day for work. Victoria has just turned three and Kathleen will be five in January. The girls and I go to Playcentre on Tuesdays and Wednesdays now, and Kathleen goes to daycare Thursdays and Fridays. Victoria joins her on Thursdays and since her birthday has started going by herself on Mondays too. I chose to do it this way so that I would have one day a week with each girl on their own, and it would also give Victoria the chance to get used to going to daycare without Kathleen, before Kat starts school next year.

This term Kathleen has been attending "four-year-old school", which is run one afternoon a week at one of the local schools. It gives four year olds the opportunity to sit in a classroom with their peers and listen to a teacher, and also doing activities around a different letter each week. It's given her the chance to get used to sitting on the mat, putting up her hand when she wants to speak, listening to instructions, etc.

The last two weeks Kat has also been having visits at the school she will attend next year. She's been going for one morning a week, sitting in with the current Year 1 class. She knows at least five of the children in this class from the various preschools and activites she has attended. They won't be in her class next year, but at least she will have some friendly faces in the playground to look out for. When I've asked Kat what she's done at school, she has told me all about what she did at playtime but not so much about the classwork. Her teacher has given me her classwork and it's all been really good so I suspect she's just more interested in playtime because that's where she's learning the most. The first week she learnt to play hopscotch and the second week she learnt about tennis and bouncing a basketball. She has two more visits scheduled before the end of the school year.

Kathleen's learning is coming along really well and I think she will probably find school too easy. She is doing well at reading and can read several simple books, partly from remembering the story, partly from looking at the pictures and partly just reading. Her writing is doing well and she's working on her lower case letters. She absolutely loves drawing. Especially drawing people and faces. When she gets going she will sit down and draw picture after picture.

Even Victoria is getting in on it too. She has started drawing faces with eyes and mouths. She has also started wanting to write her own name. At Playcentre we write all the childrens names on their artwork and encourage them to do so if they want to. Victoria can draw a V and will attempt all the other letters (even if sometimes they don't look much like it). She is recognising some letters - V, K, M, and O for sure and I think maybe I and T, and I don't know what else. She also recognises most of the numbers too and can count to about 15.

Ok, so what have we been doing since I last posted anything?

Kathleen is still going to ballet. After a three week break during the school holidays, she was ready to go back again for another term and we are still going once a week. Have tried a couple of times to see if Victoria wants to do it too. She says she does, but as soon as she gets on the dance floor she freaks out and grabs me around the neck and won't let go. So I don't think she'll be the performer in the family.

At the end of July Peter's sister and brother and brother's girlfriend came to visit from Texas. The girls loved having Aunty Mardie, Uncle Richard and Taylor to play with and climb on and entertain them. We also took the opportunity to take the girls up the mountain to play in the snow, and take the Texans to Taupo for a few days. While there we also caught up with Peter's other sister.
We left home on the Sunday morning and got to the mountain in the afternoon. We went to Whakapapa skifield but the visibility was poor and it started snowing. We did a bit of playing in the snow and sledding but the weather just got too miserable and so did the kids. So we hid out in the chalet instead. Monday morning dawned bright and clear, and we went to Turoa skifield where we all had a lot of fun. Throwing snowballs, building a snowman, sliding down the slope. Tried some more tobogganing but the run was quite fast and neither girl enjoyed it too much. But overall I think they both enjoyed going to the snow and we'll have to do it again next winter.

September brought the Canterbury earthquake and thankfully all my relatives escaped unharmed. A couple of days later brought flooding to our neck of the woods. The rain on the Tararua's came down Potts hill and flooded our neighbours paddocks across the road from us, went across the road blocking it off, and flooded the cafe paddocks next door to us too. As well as many, many other farms in the area. Luckily we escaped unscathed since we are up on the hill. Which was one of the many requisites we had when looking for a property to buy in the first place.

This year we celebrated Halloween with our friends from Palmerston North. Lou hosted an Irish party with Halloween theme. We all dressed up and took the girls out trick-or-treating around Palmerston North. It got off to a bad start when we first arrived at Lou's house, to be greeted by Poppy wearing a Scream costume. Both girls were frightened. Victoria got over it pretty quickly when Poppy took the mask off, and was happy to be picked up and cuddled by Poppy even when she put the mask back on. Kathleen however got very quiet and mopey and grumpy. She didn't want to go out trick-or-treating. She would only go if I held her hand, and wouldn't knock on any of the doors.
After the first couple of houses where Poppy and I did the knocking, Victoria got the hang of it and was running up to the doors but Kathleen was still hanging back. Most houses we went to/past had no one home, but of the ones where people were home, all but one had treats to give out to the children. Some even really got into the spirit of it. I suppose we were out for about an hour. By the end Kathleen had relaxed and was getting into it too, also running up to the doors without me. They got quite a lot of lollies out of it and there are still some in the cupboard to be eaten. We've been sharing it out a couple of lollies a day (although I've actually forgotten about it for a few weeks now). I'm pleased they didn't try to eat the whole lot in one go, they are happy to have 2 or 3 lollies and then put the rest back for another day.

One of the girls favourite places to go in Levin is the lolly and ice cream store. If Daddy gives them some money they will keep it to spend at the lolly store. Their favourites are lollipops and bubble gum.

Also around the time of Halloween we had Guy Fawkes. We took the girls to see the big fireworks display at Manfeild and also had our own fireworks at home. Once again, Victoria got into it and Kathleen was frightened and grumpy. I was a little disappointed with the Manfeild display, mostly because it was on a bit too late and the pre-event entertainment wasn't that great. The fireworks were great but Kat didn't enjoy them and her mood rubbed off on me. Our fireworks at home went better. At first both girls were a little wary of the sparklers until they learnt how to use them and they both enjoyed that. Kat didn't like the noise of the fireworks.

Victoria turned three last month. It felt like she had been two for a very long time. Her birthday was on a Playcentre day and she had a birthday cake at Playcentre with her friends. Then she had a birthday party at home the following Saturday, inviting two friends from Playcentre and two friends from daycare. I will try and write about it in a separate post.

And now we are facing the countdown to Christmas. I'm really looking forward to it. I've already planned everything I'm going to buy and hope to get that done next week. I bought advent calendars and both girls are enjoying opening one each day. Of course for Victoria it's all about the chocolate but Kathleen understands that when they're all gone it is Christmas Day. We're not planning to go away or do anything special for Christmas, other than open presents and have a big dinner. After having had a really crappy summer last year, this years summer is shaping up to be a good one. It's been hot and sunny just about every day since Labour weekend (end of October). I've been planting vegetables in the garden and have had to actually look after them and water them regularly. But other than that we are loving the warm weather and spending as much time outside as we can, until the sun gets too hot.

And that is where I think I will leave this update. I promise I won't leave it so long next time! We've got lots of fun times ahead in the next couple of months, with the end of the school/Playcentre year looming, Peter's birthday, Christmas, and Kathleen's birthday. We're hoping to have an active, outdoor summer with lots of trampolining, bike riding and swimming. Both girls are now tall enough to stand on the bottom of the swimming pool in town and have their head above water. Victoria has heaps of confidence and will probably learn easily, whereas Kathleen's not so keen to learn but still has fun in the water. I'm sure we're going to have lots of fun.

Cheers,
Margaret

Ballet

(Written on 1st July, published in December)

Kathleen was involved in a ballet show last weekend. She did one show on the Saturday afternoon, one on Saturday evening, and one on Sunday afternoon. Plus three rehearsals during the prior week.

I started taking Kathleen to ballet about nine months ago. She enjoyed dancing around the house so much I thought she would enjoy it. Plus one of her daycare friends goes too. Term 4 last year we went to the 3.30 Tuesday class. I would pick Kathleen and Victoria up from daycare at 3, but inevitiably we wouldn't leave there till 3.20 and would be rushing to get to ballet on time. This year she was in the 4pm class. Which meant that I would pick them up and then even if we left at 3.20 we'd still have to hang around for nearly half an hour before ballet started. It wasn't enough time to go home but it was too long to sit around and wait. So in term 2 I changed their daycare day to Thursday so that we would be home all afternoon Tuesday and could leave at quarter to four. It worked most times although there was at least one time when I forgot about it altogether!

I think Kathleen enjoyed ballet but I'm not totally sure. She would sometimes complain she didn't want to go, but then she complains about going to daycare too yet when I pick her up she says she'd had a great day and loves it there. At the beginning of this term the girls learnt the dance they were going to do at the show. About halfway through the term they started doing nothing but rehearsing this particular dance. At one point I commented to Kathleen that I was finding it quite boring now just doing the one dance, and how did she feel. She confessed she didn't like it either. Did I put the words in her mouth or did she really not like it? Well, ever since then she has been really complaining she doesn't like ballet, doesn't like doing the dance because she gets tired, and doesn't want to do the show.

I felt really bad and considered letting her stop. But I said to her that she just had to keep going till the end of term, do the show and then if she still didn't want to do it then we wouldn't go back next term. I felt torn - I didn't want to push her to do something she didn't want to do, but I didn't want her to think she could just give up everytime something hard came along.

Last week we had rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at the theatre where the show was going to be, rather than at the ballet studio. Kathleen was very nervous / anxious / upset. She and the other six girls from her class had to sit together on the chairs, and the mums had to stand at the back of the hall. Kathleen didn't make a fuss, but when I checked on her she had tears running down her face saying she wanted to be with me. But I had to stay at the back and keep Victoria out of trouble. Soon it was time for them to do their dance and then we went home. That night she had nighmares. The second rehearsal went better, and the next one even better, as she got used to what would happen. She still kept saying she didn't want to do the show but I said she should.

Saturday afternoon I took Kathleen along to the theatre. I bought myself a ticket to watch the show and showed her exactly where I would be sitting. Then I took her backstage to get changed and ready. When the show began I ran around to my seat and was so proud watching her dance. I had tears pouring down my cheeks I was so proud of her. All the girls looked so good. Ok so they weren't in time and kept looking at the teachers to show them what to do. But the point was they were all there and looked so cute. They were mostly four or five year olds, with one three year old and one two year old. Afterwards I helped Kathleen get changed and then the two of us went back to the audience and watched the rest of the show.

By the Saturday evening and Sunday shows Kathleen was loving it. Her old fears had gone and she was her usual excited self. I'm very proud of her for sticking with it, even though she didn't want to do it. I'm glad she did it and found it was enjoyable after all. I hope she remembers this lesson in the future when she's up against something new or scary.

She still insists she doesn't want to go back to ballet next term, and I'm not going to make her. I think I'll enjoy not having to rush out each week as well.

-Megz

Potty Training Part V

Victoria is now 100% potty trained, both day and night. As I previously blogged, she has been going toilet during the day for quite some time now. I have now stopped giving her lollies every time she goes poos on potty as she was getting so good at it. It didn't turn out to be a big drama after all. I just said things like "it's too late at night for a lolly now" or "you still need to finish your lunch/dinner" and progressed to "you're a big girl now, you don't need lollies any more". And she just accepted that without question. Every now and then she still asks if she can have a lolly for going toilet.

Kathleen was never night-time trained until she was almost three and I was in no rush to take Tora out of nappies. Especially with the upheaval of moving bedrooms recently. However a few weeks back she woke up in the middle of the night and came upstairs to our room. "I need go toe-lit" she said. So we decided if she was capable of waking up in the middle of the night and knowing she needed to go toilet, and of holding on, that she really didn't need nappies any more. She'd been dry 90% of the time anyway.

So two and a half weeks ago I changed my last nappy and it feel GREAT ! Peter and I were going to have a No More Nappies party but got kinda busy with other things in the end.

However it has not meant the end of washing nappies. I still seem to be doing a load every week, as we now use them to clean up any accidents that the dogs have! Guess Tora ended up being toilet trained before Timmy after all.

-Megz

Catch Up

Well I have not blogged for quite a long time and have a lot to catch up on. Where to start?

Winter has just arrived here, and I am still grumbling about the lack of summer and wondering where it went. Summer didn't arrive till mid January, and then in mid March we were hit with a sudden cold spell. I said "it's ok, this will last a week or two and then we'll get one last hot spell before autumn really kicks in". Well 2-1/2 months later I'm still waiting for that hot spell, have stocked up on firewood, gotten the heaters out of storage and am still shivering after the frost this morning.

This kind of thinking has left me a little confused - I can't believe it's going to be June tomorrow because in my mind it's still the end of March and I'm still waiting for my hot spell of weather.

We have got a new family member. A new dog. Her name is Skye and she is about 11 months old and is a Border Collie. A girlfriend for Timmy (who is 15 months old now). They have been getting on like a house on fire. Absolute best friends who are inseparable. I have worried a lot about Timmy being on his own so much, so it is great having Skye to keep him company. However I think he's also teaching her a lot of his bad habits.

We are now halfway through school-term 2. The girls and I have had some rearranging in our weekly schedules. We now go to Playcentre two days a week, and my day off is now Thursday (when both girls go to daycare) rather than Tuesday. Kathleen goes to daycare three days a week but I will be cutting that back to two days next term I think. She is enjoying both preschools. Originally I didn't want to go to two preschools but the daycare is good because it is near her future school and it gives me a break, whereas Playcentre is great because it gives me adult company and opportunities, plus the kids have the choice to play with me or do their own thing. I am getting a lot more involved in Playcentre now and am working on completing the Course Two training, which I am enjoying.

Kathleen's reading is coming along well. She enjoys playing an online game called Reading Eggs where children play games involving letters and words (e.g. "Click on IS") without even realising that they're learning. I don't know how much of it she is retaining - some but not all I suspect - but aren't too worried about it. I'm not pushing her to learn to read, I don't want her to be too far ahead of her classmates, but she enjoys doing it so I'm not going to stop her either. It's hard to say how many words she actually knows because I think most of the time she is guessing what things say based on the first letter of the word and the context. Another part of Reading Eggs she enjoys is writing her own stories and entering the competitions. She is also enjoying having chapter books read to her at bedtime now (books with no pictures, just story).

Victoria is growing up so quickly. She seems to have gone up a new level recently. It's hard to put a finger on what has changed. She is talking in full sentences (e.g. saying "I want to go there" rather than "want go there"). She is partaking in conversations. She is talking to other adults and being understood a lot of the time. She seems to be coming out of her shell a lot more (although with some people she just clams up and hides behind me for some reason).

And the big news is that in the space of about a week, Victoria has dropped her nap, started sleeping in a big girl bed with no sides, and moved into Kathleen's room. We'd been planning the move for a while anyway. About a month ago the girls and I had a sleepover party one Saturday night and the three of us all slept in Kathleen's room together. Tora was in Kathleen's old bed, and I left the bed made-up afterwards.

Now Victoria's been ready to drop her nap for a while. A lot of the time I'll put her to bed after lunch and she won't go to sleep so I'll get her up after an hour. We're at that difficult inbetween stage - when she doesn't have a nap she's usually pretty tired and difficult by dinnertime, but if she does have a nap then she's not tired at bedtime.

Last week Kathleen said she was tired and asked if she could have a nap with Victoria. So they both got into Victoria's cot together and promised they'd go to sleep. I fully expected a lot of giggling and no sleeping. However, Kathleen climbed out of the cot, pulled a stool over and not only helped Victoria get out but taught her how to do it herself. They both came running out of the room giggling. So a few days later I put Victoria to bed for a nap (Kathleen was at daycare) and 10 minutes later Tora comes running out all by herself having climbed out of the cot. So that was the end of that. The sides came off the cot and now it is very difficult to get her to stay in bed.

Last Wednesday night Victoria decided she didn't want to stay in bed at nighttime either and came running out. I tried to catch her but she ran to Kathleen's room and jumped into the old bed in there. She refused to get out and said she wanted to sleep there. So that was that, and now the two girls are sharing a room. The logistics of which we are still working out. Kathleen likes listening to chapter books at night whereas Victoria doesn't. So still trying to figure out how storytime should work. And figuring out how to keep Victoria in bed. The other morning Kathleen woke up at 6.40am (very unusual) and called out for me, which woke Victoria up too. So we're still not even sure if sharing a room is really such a good idea after all. The reasons for sharing were: It's winter so we only have to heat one room instead of two; Victoria's room is small and Kat's is big, and Tora is going to want more room eventually, but the only other bedroom in the house is the guest room and the coldest room in the house.

Most days I've now stopped offering Victoria the option for a nap (the exception being when she's at daycare of if she's really tired), so that she will be sleepy at bedtime and go to sleep pretty quickly. The days she has had a nap it has been very hard getting her and Kathleen to go to sleep.

And one final development is that the girls are actually playing together now and becoming friends. They still have very different interests - Victoria loves to play with dolls and the dolls house whereas Kathleen likes creative endeavours. They also both LOVE playing computer games and will fight over the computer or watch each other play. However when there is nothing else to do they'll play with each other. Their games are often physical and involve either running around the room, running up and down the hall, or jumping off things. It's so great to hear the giggles and laughter as they enjoy themselves together. And it has freed me up a little bit too. Only a little though, as I soon get called back to sort out disputes. Lol.

Cheers,
Meg

Board Games

Playing Ludo with Kathleen
She has got three pieces home and just needs a 2 to get her last piece home. I still haven’t even thrown a 6 yet to get my first piece out of the starting box. I’m facing a down-trou and Kat’s chanting “I’m cheating, I’m cheating” (obviously having no concept of what cheating means, because she wasn't). I finally managed to throw a 6 and got one of my four counters halfway around the board before she got a 2 to win the game. She had great delight telling me I was PWNED.




Playing Snakes and Ladders with Victoria
Not far into the game she decides she doesn’t like the yellow square she’s on and that she likes the blue square better. The blue square is number 91. I go along with it and she happens to land on a snake and comes all the way back down to the bottom with me. Tora throws the dice and I move the pieces. It seems to be working well until she decides that she is mother and she should move the pieces to wherever she feels like. Then she announces the dice is a baby bird and she cradles it in her hands saying how cute it is. Needless to say the game is now over.

-Megz