Sushi and Frozen Yogurt December 21, 2012

Both kids are loving sushi right now.  I get a kick of asking them what they want for lunch or dinner and getting the answer, “Sushi!”  I’ve been getting packs of it from the grocery store, and it’s one of their favorite things right now.  I just get brown rice california rolls for the most part, and Hayden doesn’t seem to mind that he is eating rice and avocado – two things he tries to avoid normally.  The first time they tried it was when I was eating it at a restaurant, and of course I was eating fancier, fairly expensive stuff so I was really hoping they WOULDN’T like it.  “Yes, of course you can try it!”  Joke was on me.  I told them we will go to a sushi restaurant over Christmas time, which works out well because Hayden was so excited about the prospect and we also have a Groupon for a great sushi restaurant – yippee!

The picture here shows a common site at meal times around here – the kids eating frozen yogurt from a squishy tube, wearing gloves to keep their hand from getting cold while they hold it.  This cracks me up every day.

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Whoooooooooooo Halloween

Every since Halloween and every time it’s dark Layla will go ‘whooooooo Halloween’. You can turn the lights out, or just go outside when it’s dark, when we go into the garage and haven’t turned the lights on yet, or she will turn the lights out in our internal bathroom after she’s gone a pond potty and ‘whoooooo Halloween!’ We haven’t corrected her yet as it makes us laugh.

L-a-y-l-a December 17, 2012

Layla’s teachers have been working on teaching the kids to spell their names.  Here is Layla  spelling hers.  It’s like a Salvidor Dali painting – try to figure out where it starts and ends!

Who Is The Parent Here? December 14, 2012

Hayden is a good boy but obviously gets himself in enough trouble to understand the types of punishments he can find himself with. Have toys taken away, have toys thrown away, ban on video games, no books at bedtime, etc. This is all typically preceded with counting to 5 or 10 to give him a warning.

Hayden being Hayden has decided to become his own parent now to Layla when it comes to dishing out discipline. If Layla is being trouble then he will tell her off and start warning her what is going to happen. He will even start counting (Layla you have five seconds to stop doing x, or daddy will take your Minnie away, etc.). When she actually gets told off he will start jumping around in excitement. The other day he started to warn Layla that if she wasn’t good then she couldn’t come to zoo with us and we would get a babysitter.

Darth Vader

Much to my dismay Hayden has started to take an affection towards Star Wars. I think it really triggered from being at Disney World and going on the Star Wars ride there. Then from there he has watched the movies, and generally just got excited about it. Now he has Star Wars pyjamas, t-shirts, socks, posters, and even bed toys. Generally he loves Darth Vader the most but also gets excited about Han Solo and R2D2 and many others.

Halloween he wanted to be Darth Vader. However a little hiccup was that he didn’t like the mask. You can’t have darth vader without the mask. Luckily Kara came across an Angry Birds Darth Vader costume! Perfect combination!

Layla is not to be left out of this. She also seems to get excited about Darth Vader. I have a key chain and every time she sees it she will start shouting Darth Vader loudly and then she’ll start doing the Star Wars theme song “der der der der……” She is so funny!

Time for a Change December 13, 2012

We’ve gone to the same day care since Hayden was less than three months old.  We’ve had our ups and downs there – as you do with anything you stick with for 5+ years.  Hayden in particular has had a few periods of time where he REALLY doesn’t want to go, and we’ve had to work with his teachers and sometimes the director to sort through the issues he’s had.  Then he’s gotten back on track and we’ve coasted until we hit the next bump.  I’ve felt that it is only fair to let them know whatever issues we are having and give them a chance to address them before we leave.

Lately he’s been having a tough time again.  He is a gentle boy, and the boys in his class are pretty aggressive.  He says every day that the boys are mean in his class.  I’ve tried suggesting that maybe they are just playing, and pointed out how our dogs look like they are fighting when they play, but we know that even if it looks like they are trying to bite each other we know they are just screwing around.  Even when viewing it through that lens, he still keeps coming back to them being mean, and I feel that he is old enough and sensible enough to know if something feels like play versus aggression.

So, we’ve decided to try a new preschool.  I’ve toured this school before, in previous times of trouble with their current school.  I’ve always been impressed but our issues have always been worked through at the other school so I’ve never ended up taking the plunge and transferring.  Hayden is really excited about going to the new school.  There is one boy in particular who he doesn’t like in his current class, and he asked John if we could make sure he doesn’t switch schools, too, so he doesn’t have to deal with him in his new class.

They’ll start at the beginning of next year.  I’ll be off work for almost 2 weeks at the end of the year, so they only have one more day at their current school.  Hayden was sweet yesterday.  He said he wanted to get Carter – one of his classmates – a Christmas present.  I asked if he was going to miss Carter when he switches schools, and he said yes that was why he wanted to get him a present, because “I’m Carter’s best friend.”  I was glad to hear that he feels like he has a friend there right now.  That was another thing that has been bothering me about how things are going there right now – not only does he think the boys are “mean,” he doesn’t really seem to have any friends.  He was always excited to play with Oliver last year, but he’s now in Kindergarten at the public school.  When we first started back after the summer he was talking about Carter a lot and they seemed to be good friends, but when all this physicality started he was even saying Carter’s name when we were asking who was being “mean.”

So, here’s to change!  Let’s hope it’s a good one!

Miss Independent December 6, 2012

Layla is such an independent little lady.  She really wants to do things by herself, and it’s funny because I remember being like that when I was little, and I’ve always thought Hayden would get to that point but he never really has.  He would have been quite happy to let us do everything for him all the time – feed him, dress him, bathe him, etc etc.  Layla on the other hand, has got it covered.  She has done absolutely brilliantly with her potty training, and now she even wants to do all that herself.  If we go to a public restroom (and boy do we ever – she wants to see them all it seems), she will push me out of the stall and lock it.  The first couple of times I was pretty nervous about this – mostly that she wouldn’t know how to unlock the door, but now I know she’s got it covered.

At home she is varying between using the little training potties which require dumping the pee-pees into the toilet after use and going in the big potty.  Last weekend I was gone for a (very quick, unsuccessful, due to not being able to shake this darn cough) run and John was in the shower.  When I came home I could hear John praising her because while he was showering she’d gone potty in her Minnie potty, dumped the pee-pees in the toilet, and was washing out the little bowl in the sink.  What a star!

She also likes to bathe herself.  We’ve been coaching Hayden for months now on how to bathe himself, and she follows along with our instructions and refuses to let us help her.

She also has been cracking me up because lately we’ll be reading and she’ll need to go do something, and she’ll hold her hand up to me and say, “I’ll be right back, don’t finish it yet.”  Darn Layla, I was really looking forward to the end of this page turner where they show a picture of an object and put the word of the object underneath it.  What could be next, an orange?!  I did NOT see that coming!