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

Potty Training Part IV

This week I bought Victoria her very own big girl knickers. Not that it was that big of a deal as she has been wearing Kathleen's knickers for about a month now. Before that she was in Pull Ups for about a month.

This time round I've been a bit more hesitant about potty training. With Kathleen I just took the plunge and put her straight into knickers (after making a big fuss and taking her out shopping especially to buy big girl knickers). But with Victoria I was a little more scared to take the plunge. So we took the intermediate step of wearing Pull Ups first. However they didn't seem much different from wearing nappies. She was mostly dry but on the times she had accidents she didn't seem to really notice.

The other thing holding me back was the timing of when Victoria would go toilet. While she was good at doing wees when I would put her on the potty, she would usually do number twos only in her nappy. I didn't quite know how to handle this. I finally settled on bribery. Now if she goes in the toilet she gets a lolly. I'm thankful to say she has never had an accident since we started this. Now every time Victoria goes to the toilet she sings to herself "I go poos on potty I get lolly". Not sure how I'm going to get out of giving her lollies when the time comes but for now I'm still happy to do so.

Victoria also learned quite a while ago (like maybe six months ago?) that the best way to get out of eating her dinner was to announce she needed to "go toe-lit". Because like the good "stick-them-on-the-toilet-every-time-they-ask" parent, I would quickly grab her and take her potty as soon as she said she needed to. She very quickly learned that if she had had enough of eating and sitting still, all she had to do was say she needed to go toilet and I would get her out of the highchair and take her off to the bathroom. Now we're not stupid, we knew exactly what she was doing and how she was trying to manipulate us. So a few months back we called her bluff and said no. She wasn't bluffing and proceeded to go in her pants. Gross! This made me even more nervous about putting her in knickers. However we seem to be doing a lot better now. No more highchair accidents and we often try and get her to go toilet before dinner. This hasn't stopped her trying to get out of dinner by professing a need to go. But she has been able to hold on if we say no, so that is an improvement.

Over summer Victoria also spent a lot of time running around outside naked. If she needed to go in the grass she would, no big deal. Last week I took her and the dogs to the dog park. She needed to go toilet so I said to go in the bushes. So she walked in, squatted down and went wees. Without taking her trousers off first!!! So the poor little thing had to walk about with wet trousers until we got home. That'll teach her.

-Megz

The End of Summer

Another summer, another vacation is over
A September morning with the sun and the smell of the clover
Down by the gate we sit and we watch all our friends go by
And pretend we don't hear the bell that rings through the summer sky

"Heartbeat" - George Michael

Except that summer has only just begun in the last couple of weeks, and it is February not September. But the sentiment is the same - the summer holidays are over and it's time to go back to preschool, and yet I don't really want to.

Kathleen and Victoria went back to daycare last week (1 day for Tora, 3 for Kat). Playcentre and ballet start back this week and playgroups next week.

When the summer holidays began six weeks ago I thought it would be a very long summer with two pre-schoolers at home every day. But it's actually turned out to be pretty good. Except perhaps when Kathleen wants to play Sleeping Beauty for the umpteenth time.

We've been keeping pretty busy. We've gone for a long drive about once a week, to either Palmerston North, Paraparaumu or Wellington. I thought the car trips would be difficult but Victoria is generally pretty happy in the car and Kathleen now enjoys playing games as we drive. Plus we've listened to copious amounts of Wiggles, general kids music and ABBA. Yes, both girls are big fans of Mamma Mia the musical. Sometimes when we've had a bad day I'll put the singalong on, and we'll all dance and sing and shout and be silly, and it really lifts our spirits.

The weather for the first half of the holidays sucked, very wet and cool. But the last couple of weeks have been hot and sunny. Victoria has spent most of January naked. Her potty training is coming along quite well, and most times she'll use the potty rather than have an accident. But I'm not sure I'm ready to take the plunge into knickers just yet.

I guess one thing that has helped the holidays go quickly is all the distractions we've had with Christmas and Kathleen's birthday, Peter being home for a couple of weeks over Christmas, and Peter's mum coming to stay a couple of weeks ago. Plus we've been to the zoo, movies, library, playground. There's been no shortage of things to do.

I think the thing I've enjoyed the most over the summer has been just not having to rush out anywhere in the mornings. We've been able to get up and take our time over breakfast, sometimes even watching TV while we eat. And if we don't finish breakfast or get dressed till 10am, then that's fine. Or if we don't get dressed at all, that's fine too.

However seeing the smiles on the girls faces when I picked them up from daycare last week, not smiles of being happy to see me (although there was some of that) but smiles because they'd had a great day, reminded me that although it can be a pain being having to rush out the door every morning and being so busy, it is actually worthwhile for them to interact with other kids. So while I may be sad that our special time is at an end, I know that they're still happy and enjoying themselves wherever they are. And that's all that matters.

-Megz

Four Years Old

Tomorrow Kathleen will be Four. Such a big girl. She seems a lot older than that sometimes. Her friends are all older than her, some are four and some are already five. I worry a little what will happen when her four-year-old friends turn five and go off to school. She will just have to play with some of the younger children I guess. Kathleen is practically ready for school already and I think this is going to be a very long year waiting till she can go to school. She knows her alphabet, can read and write all her letters. She can read some words and knows how to sound the letters out to read the word, but gets frustrated sometimes. Over the school holidays we've hired a couple of board games from the Toy Library. One is called Bus Stop and you play by adding or taking away passengers from your bus whether you land on a + or - sign. So Kathleen has been learning some maths basics as well.

Last weekend Kathleen had her birthday party. She had a lot of fun. It was my first time hosting a children's party so it was a learning experience for me. Kathleen invited three friends - Erik, who's 5th birthday party she went to in November, and Carmel and Jamie-Lee from her preschool, and all our Palmerston North friends. Unfortunately Carmel had to cancel at the last minute. So there were three 4 & 5 year olds, plus Victoria and Phoebe who are both two. Victoria has been watching her big sister a lot so she joined in on the game of Simon Says (Dimon Dez), but mostly it was just Kathleen and Erik playing all the games. Everyone joined in for Pass the Parcel, which was very popular.

Tomorrow is Kathleen's actual birthday. She doesn't know it yet but she will be getting a brand new bunk bed. Followed by a trip to Palmerston North to buy the duvet of her choosing (please, please don't choose Princesses). She is still sleeping in the same Touchwood cot (with sides removed) that she's had since she was born. But her feet now reach the very end so it is time for an upgrade. We're getting bunks that convert to single beds. The idea is that when Victoria is older they can share a room and Kat will have the top bunk, but for now the second bed will live in the spare room.

If I were to make a prediction, I would say Kathleen will have a career in the performing arts, whether as an actress or as a writer. Her passion is definitely drama. Today for example all she wanted to do was to play act the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, etc, etc, etc. I wish she could get her toys and play the stories with them, but she needs human interaction and feedback and so I got roped in to play these games with her. She has always loved play acting, whether it is simple pretend games or playing out fairy tales like we did today, or acting out the movies and TV shows she loves to watch. When she's not acting or watching TV or playing computer games, she likes to look at books and make up her own stories. She has quite a vivid imagination. We've gone for a lot of long drives lately and Kathleen likes to talk the entire time. When we get sick of playing eye spy or guess the song she will just start talking to herself and telling stories. I'll even suggest a title for the story and she will make up something appropriate.

Just before Christmas we travelled to Wellington so that Kathleen could audition for the TV show Giggles. You can see a copy of her audition here. Giggles is a silent show so you can't hear anything. You just have to imagine she's being told to jump or fly or roll, etc. Towards the end I got so caught up in watching Kathleen that I forgot to hold on to Victoria, and Vicky wandered in to the shot too. It was more of a fun opportunity for Kathleen to see what it's like to make a TV show. We weren't seriously hoping to get on the show (although it would have been nice). Haven't heard anything back from them so assume this means she didn't make it.

Kathleen's other loves are Princesses, Fairies, Barbie movies and Barbie computer games but not Barbie dolls.

I am debating whether or not Kathleen needs a haircut. Her hair is beautiful but it also gets messy and knotty a lot and she hates having it brushed (nowhere near as much as she used to though). She got given a ton of hair ties and things for her birthday but the only thing she likes wearing are headbands. Her hair is now reaching down her back and is a good length. I don't think I would like it to be any longer than this. But I can't bear the thought of cutting her baby curls off. The curls are only at the ends of her hair now, maybe because of the weight but I'm afraid if we cut them off then they'll be gone for good and I would be very sad. So I'm not sure. When I first suggested it a month ago she was all for it, but now she doesn't want to. So I guess I'll leave it for a little bit more and see how she feels in another month or two.

Cheers,
Megz

PS: More photos to come soon