Saturday with dad

Rachel had a YMCA thing today all day, so I had the kids. After a trip to get donuts, the kids still in their jammies, we got down to the business of the day. We spent much of the morning filling the dining room with elevated train tracks. It started with just me and Parker, but then the girls got into the swing of things.







After the girls chose not to nap, we had craft time in the kitchen, and made masks. I thought I was very clever to cut strips of colored paper for them to glue on.









The kids played really nicely together for the most part, and I even had enough time during the day to battle the kitchen drawer that has been stuck shut for the last few months. I was worried at time that I was going to break the drawer in half trying to get it free, but I prevailed, and the drawer is now once again functional and looking good as new.

Math Festival

A few days ago, I saw a posting for "Family Night Math Festival" at a local YMCA where Ebba lives. I had no idea what it would be, but it sounded too perfect for Parker to pass up. So last night, Parker and I met Ebba and Lincoln (age 7 and who was prepped that Parker might be good at this stuff) there and Parker was in heaven. They had about 10 tables set up with math games on them. It was very simple. Most tables had dry erase type worksheets on them where the kids had to write something or put blocks on it or do something else. Parker jumped right in and after having a little trouble with one table (it was an event for slightly older kids) found some patterns that the kids had to finish. You know like it says 2, 4, 6, ___, ___, ___ and the kids has to fill in the blank. Obviously this was ridiculously easy for him. They had his favorite series of course (1, 2, 8, 16, ___, ___, ___ , ____, ____) which he filled in so quickly it freaked some people out.







The boys went to various table trying everything out, but when they got to the scales, that was it. They both loved it. They had to figure out how many blocks were the same weight as various containers which were all the same size but not the same weight. When the festival closed, they were both still doing it.





Afterward, I let him climb the rock wall for a bit and then we went to have ice cream. Ebba got me some fries and shared her orange sherbet free which was delicious!

Max, Emily and Sarah

The kids have made friends with three kids from gymnastics. Emily and Max are twins who are 5 and there sister Sarah is 3. We play with them after class every Friday. This Friday we had an extended playtime and the kids all just had a great time. They all get along well and Elizabeth appears to have a slight crush on Max who doesn't notice her existence and who openly admitted he couldn't tell the difference between the two girls. Our two families take up more than half the class.

You shouldn't compare.

Yesterday, for the first time, Elizabeth said as we pulled into the driveway...

"What does 3 8 6 3 mean?" I told her I was impressed that she knew all those numbers and then tried to explain addresses to her.

For those of you who remember, Parker started noticing these at age 2 1/4 years old.

Blog from April 2007

TPS: Prop 8 opponent

"When I'm an adult and have kids, we are going to have two daddies. I'm going to be one of them."

That was a close one!

Although I have completely lost the Dora battle (and have been official scolded by my parenting partner), I am holding strong in the anti princess war. At a recent playgroup, many of the little girls were dressed up in dresses and my girls had no interest. Yay!

But then, later that day Elizabeth came to me with one of the big pieces of fabric Amy gave them when they were 2 and said, "Can you make this into a princess?" Oh shit, I thought! This is it. The moment I knew would come.

So I ask, "What is a princess?"

She says, "You know, when it is short like a skirt, with my arms out."

"Oh, thank god," I mutter under my breath as I tie it around her like a sarong.

Soccer

When Parker was a young 4, we took him to soccer class. He never really got into it. He could do the actual skills, but he wouldn't pay attention. After many weeks of frustration (more mine than his), I said enough. He understood the deal and said that when he was five he wanted to try soccer again. I figured he would forget until I remembered it was Parker (who doesn't forget anything). Sure enough, when he turned five he started asking about when he would do soccer again. I ignored him for about a month and was planning on ignoring him longer when a mom at the preschool said a local city parks and rec had tot soccer at a perfect time for a perfect cost. Her kid would do it if Parker did it. So I signed him up. I couldn't go to the first class since I had a dentist appointment so she took them both and said they both did fine.

I attended the second class yesterday and boy, oh, boy was it a doozy. It started off fine with some games and drills, but when about 15 minutes before the end of the class they started to actually try to play a little one on one, it all fell apart. Parker couldn't get the ball from the other kid (his friend) and started freaking out, crying, screaming. The coach tried to calm him down, but it was too late. Parker couldn't pull it together. The coach paired him with a 3 year old (there are only 4 kids in the whole class) to see if Parker would do better with him, but no, continued hysteria. He came to sit with me and sobbed and sobbed about how he didn't want to do this any more and it was too hard and he wasn't fast enough. I told him he could just sit with me. They were all playing one more game where they had to kick the ball around and when the coach said something put a body part on the ball. I asked Parker who was still crying if he wanted to try it. He said no, but then changed his mind a few minutes later. But when the ball got away from him when he tried to sit on it, he lost it again. He couldn't recover. It was actually quite sad and I did my best not to start crying myself.

By the time we got to the outside (the class was inside because it was raining), he was ok. Then his coach walked by. I explained to him that Parker wasn't used to not being good at something immediately. He said he understood and added that he didn't understand the competition aspect of the game yet. He said he has seen it before and they usually get it in a couple weeks. He also told me he was actually good at the skills. I told him we would try again next week but if we got a repeat I wouldn't torture the poor kid by making him come.

Then the coach turned to Parker and told him he did a great job today and Parker burst into tears again. Thanks coach.

Later that day, we talked about soccer and how it is like checkers and connect four and how trying to beat someone while they are trying to beat you is the whole game. I also got him a soccer ball and some cones so he could practice. Then today we played a game where all four of us named 3 things we were good at, things we did easily and 3 things we weren't as good at or that were hard for us. He didn't actually say Soccer for the one of the three things, but I think it helped to hear what the girls and I weren't good at.

We'll see how next week goes, but I predict repeat chaos.

Said while in the bath this morning.

Miranda: I put fire on you!

Elizabeth: No, I don't want fire on me.

Miranda: But I'm the fireman!

Elizabeth: No. I'm the fireman!

Miranda: NO!!!! I am.

Elizabeth: But Fireman can only be boys.

Rachel: Naw, girls can be firemen too.

Elizabeth: We should both be the firemen!

Chart

After seeing the success and happiness brought by Miranda's poop chart, Elizabeth requested that she get a chart. Since Elizabeth doesn't really help doing anything except being nice, she picked something on her own. She decided she wanted a hair brushing chart. She said that she is going to brush her hair twice a day (which is two more times than I brush mine.) She asked that we put her name on her chart and that no one else be allowed to write on it. Then Miranda said "Well, you can't write on my chart either." To which Elizabeth replied, "You can write on my chart a little if you want, Miranda."

Miranda Sings

Although this video is long and not much happens, it amused me to no end. She was doing this before I started videoing and kept on doing it after I stopped. I think it shows the happy, delightful Miranda that has emerged over the last few weeks.

Parent teacher conference.

We had Parker's parent/teacher conference today. They gave us a report card of sorts. A list of things that either had a check or a plus on it. The plus meant he did them well and the check meant more development needed. There were a few check pluses too.

In general there were no surprises. In fact, it appears that his teachers don't fully understand what Parker is actually capable of. We got that impression when they told us that "Parker is quite good at patterns." Really? No shit.

Although it was kinda lame, it was nice to hear that he wasn't this super weird kid that just shouted math formulas all day.

They did say he played by himself a bit still doing his drawings or whatever. We told them that was fine with us. I asked Parker about this later. I said, "Mrs. Kelly says you like to play by yourself a lot. Is this true?" Parker said, "No, I want to play with other kids, but they don't want to play with me." (His lip was quivering when he said this.) So I replied, "You can play with them if you want." Then he said, "But I don't like the games they play." Which is funny, because that is what I said to Mrs. Kelly.

I'm sure this is only the first of many conferences where we find out nothing.

Snow!

Pizza Night

I've become friendly with some women from bootcamp. They are all the really fit people who can do everything 10 times better than I can so when I started to get invited to activities to them, I was quite pleased they thought of me as "one of them." Two weeks ago, we had a pizza night where we all got together and made pizzas from scratch. I made two, one with others and one on my own and both turned out pretty damn good. I even made the dough. The one below is chicken pesto and garlic. My favorite was the potato with caramelized shallots. Delicious!

One of the ladies made us all our own short 50's style aprons. You can't see mine, but it is a Hawaiian print since she knew I just went to Hawaii. It was too sweet.