reanbean

4th of July Fun

This was Tiny and Buba’s third 4th of July, but really it’s the first one where we attempted to participate in any associated activities.

Their first 4th

Their second 4th

The first year, they were just shy of 4 month old, and I cannot even begin to tell you how we spent that day. The second year, we were visiting my family in Iowa. I remember that there was a big cookout, but I don’t believe we took them to any parades or festivals.

So this year, it was quite a change. We started out by heading over to a small carnival in a neighboring town on the 3rd.

an attempt to get a shot of the two with their first carnival prizes

playing the “pick a ducky” game

having fun in the bouncy house

riding their first carousel ponies

When asked about their favorite part, Buba said his favorite part was all of it, while Tiny’s favorite part was “eatin da fried dough.” If I hadn’t been so busy chowing down on some fried dough myself, I’d have gotten a picture of that too.

The next day we headed over to Grammy and Grandpa’s house. We went down to the town center to see the kids’ bike parade and then had a picnic in the park. After a nap, Buba and Tiny wanted to brave the heat and play outside for a while.

sprinkler fun

riding around the cul-de-sac

nature hike

With a 7:15pm bedtime, there were no fireworks to be seen this year, but perhaps in another few years I’ll brave the traffic and crowds and take Buba and Tiny to see the display on the esplanade.

Water Play Weekend

Saturday morning, T and I took Buba and Tiny to wash the fire trucks in the center of town. It’s an event organized by our town’s family focused organization and tends to happen once a year (maybe twice, we’re fairly new to this group). We got there right at the starting time and were pleased to see many of Tiny and Buba’s playmates from library storytime were there as well. The kids, however, skipped the hellos and headed straight for the buckets of sudsy water.

Both Tiny and Buba had a great time washing the trucks and playing in the water.

And they each got to take a turn sitting in the cab of the fire truck.

Before we left, the fire fighters passed out hats, fire safety coloring books, and stickers. After close to an hour, Buba was ready to go, but I’m pretty sure Tiny could have stayed all day.

Sunday afternoon, just as the Buba and Tiny were getting up from their nap, it began to pour as if someone had opened a fire hydrant in the sky. The kids stood watching the rain at the window and whined a bit about not being able to go outside to play. Fortunately the storm only lasted about 30 minutes, and then the sun was shining again. It was way too wet to play in the yard, but perfect for going out for a puddle walk.

There was a nice big puddle right in front of our house, and Tiny had the best time jumping up and down in it. It wasn’t long before her shorts were soaked all the way through, and we had to double over the waistline to keep them from falling down. Buba wasn’t much of a jumper, but he still loved dragging his feet through the water.

Our house is on a slight downhill, and it wasn’t long before Tiny and Buba started to follow the little stream near the curb down to the bottom of the street. There were some fantastically large puddles down at the end, and Tiny was in heaven (we didn’t get any still pictures, but I think T got a few video clips with his iPod).

Unfortunately the fun was cut short when Tiny fell into a puddle and came up screaming with blood dripping pretty heavily from her right hand. I picked her up and rushed her into the house. T put her in the bathtub and did his best to clean the wound and stop the bleeding. Honestly, he was completely calm and amazing, and I don’t know what I’d have done if he wasn’t there. My head was spinning in a crazy panic, and I felt as if I could throw up or pass out at any moment (no Mom of the year award for me). I managed to call the doctor’s office and got connected to a nurse at the affiliated hospital. She explained how to stop the bleeding, how to clean and bandage the wound, and how to know whether or not we would need to go to the emergency room for stitches. We determined that stitches were not necessary, and T continued to treat a hysterical Tiny while I did my best to calm her down. Buba was left completely on his own during this time and may have made several overseas calls, as I’d left the phone well within his reach. Fortunately, he didn’t talk long.

As soon as the bandage was on, Tiny calmed down enough to request a Popsicle.

Unfortunately, Tiny had a rough day today. She just wasn’t herself and seemed to fall apart at the drop of a hat. To make matters worse, she fell on her owie and it started to bleed again. Depending on what it looks like in the morning, we may be headed for the walk in hours at our pediatrician’s office first thing. Still, as T pointed out, we have to consider ourselves lucky. We made it over 27 months with nothing more than bumps and scrapes. And we have no doubts that, stitches or not, she’ll be good as new in a week or so.

I Wanna be a Cowgirl

Happy Birthday to You…

Although we’ve been celebrating since Wednesday, today is Tiny and Buba’s actual birthday. They’ve been having lots of fun playing with friends, visiting with family, and opening presents. We’ve been fortunate to have good weather (in the 50s) this weekend, and they were thrilled to try out their new bikes yesterday before going out for their birthday dinner.

Happy Birthday, Tiny! Happy Birthday, Buba! Love you!

Who Will Be My Baby?

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to arrive at the gym just a few minutes after the family swim time had ended. The women’s locker room was packed with mothers and kids of all ages. One little boy (maybe 3 or 4 years old) was having a ton of fun as his mother was trying to get him and his slightly older sister ready to go. Whenever his mother turned her back, he would disappear into an empty locker and then wait for her to find him. After she’d finally gathered all of their things, she turned to find that he had disappeared again. “Come out, baby!” his mother called.

The boy jumped out from behind a locker door and indignantly replied, “I’m not a baby! I’m a big boy!”

The mother dropped everything and scooped him up into her arms. “But if you’re a big boy, who will be my baby?” she asked. The boy didn’t have an answer, but just sat there snuggling with his mom as I (now dressed and ready to workout) headed out to the gym floor.

It was just a few days later when it occurred to me that we are in the same boat. We were at a sing along at one of the local libraries, and I actually got a little teary as I watch my two sing along and perform all the motions that go with The Wheels on the Bus. Tiny and Buba are not as old as that mother’s little boy, but they are growing up, and so so fast…

Still, I remember that day in early March 2008 when T and I brought them home from the hospital and placed them side by side in the crib that is now just for Tiny.

They slept swaddled and snuggled up right next to each other no matter how far apart we placed them in the crib. Tiny always found a way to get right next to Buba.

A few weeks later, it was warm enough to start taking walks.

And not long after, they were staying awake long enough to enjoy playing with toys.

But mostly, they just hung out a looked around.

Then, before I knew it, they were rolling over and supporting their own heads. We loved taking Buba and Tiny outside that summer to play with toys on a picnic blanket.

And we started solids just as summer became fall.

Soon they were sitting

then crawling

and then walking all by themselves

And as days went by, it became very apparent that they were no longer babies anymore.

They haven’t been for quite some time now.

On Sunday, Tiny and Buba will turn two. And while I’m do miss (a little) those days when they were so small and dependent on me for everything, I can’t help but also feel excited about all the things we’ll be able to do this spring and summer now that they’re another year older.

23 Months Old

Dear Tiny and Buba,

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two months since my last toddler update. The past couple of months have been filled with lots of learning, growing, and experiencing new things.

The thing that amazes me the most these days is listening to you sing. You both have learned to sing quite a collection of songs (including The Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and more!). Although it’s not uncommon for either of you to burst into song while playing or riding in the minivan, I still find myself pausing to pay extra attention to your sweet, little voices. I especially love listening to you sing our version of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. I’ve been singing it to you guys since you were infants, singing your own names instead of Bonnie, and now you are singing it yourselves. You insert each other’s names, Mommy, Daddy, Grammy, and Paw Paw and laugh and laugh as you sing. You also love to sing the songs you’ve learned through Early Intervention (Hiding Hiding and All the Little Ducks), as well as a song we made up at home (Bye-Bye Mr. Cry).

You’ve both discovered the fun of pretend play. You like to use the Laugh & Learn Learning Home as you pretend to go off to work in the white car (our Corolla).You come to me and give me kisses as you announce that you are going to work. Then you wave bye-bye as you crawl through the door of the house and close it behind you. But only moments later, you burst through the door announcing that you are home and then the fun begins all over again.

The play kitchen you received as a Christmas present has also provided hours of fun. You both love to prepare meals with the plastic food and bring them to me for a tasting. The smiles on your faces when I say, “Yum! Yum!” are just priceless. And you love to use the phone from the play kitchen to call relatives and friends to chat about your day. You say, “Hello? Mmmhmmm, Mmmhmmm. Sit down and read books. Love you! B-bye!”

We’ve had several fun adventures at new places these last couple of months. We bought a multi-pass at a toddler gym, and you both enjoy climbing, running, and jumping in this playspace just for toddlers.

You also had a ton of fun at the gymnastics birthday party for your friends, and you especially enjoyed running and bouncing on the long trampoline and jumping into the pool of foam blocks.

Tiny, you are all about asserting your independence these days. You want to dress yourself, put on your own socks and shoes, and put away the toys you’ve claimed as yours. This can sometimes be a problem if we need any of these tasks to be done quickly, but your determination served us very well during our potty training weekend. At 22.5 months old, you decided, “No more diapers.” We devoted an entire weekend to helping you learn to use the potty, but you pretty much had it down in 5.5 hours. And it’s been smooth sailing ever since. What can I say? When you’re ready, you’re ready.

And finally, it is probably your language development that has continued to wow me the most. You’re constantly rehearsing and repeating the new words and phrases that you hear, and it’s usually not until I hear you say them that I realize you were listening when I thought you were ignoring me. And although we don’t have 100% accuracy, you’re getting pretty good at remembering events from our days and telling Daddy about the things we’ve done when we sit down for dinner. I know he enjoys this part of the evening very much.

Buba, you continue to make tons and tons of progress with both gross and fine motor skills. Although I don’t like to see it, you are building lots of strength as you practice climbing up and down our couches. You love to climb so much now, that we decided to move our Kangaroo Climber into the living room so you and Tiny would have something inside that is appropriate to climb. This climber keeps you busy for hours each day. You love to climb the steps on the outside of one side, and you climb through the big, round opening on the opposite side while hoisting yourself up to the platform at the top of the slide.

And your fine motor skill have improved dramatically. Just a few months ago, the Busy Poppin’ Pals toy was a major source of frustration. You wanted to make all those animals pop up, but you were only able to get the panda by pushing the big button in. Now you can slide, flip, turn, or push to make all the animals come up. It is so nice to watch you enjoy playing with that toy. And I love, love, love to hear you sing. You pick up new songs after hearing them just once, and I know if we could find a sing-along that lasted all day, you’d be in heaven.

It’s hard to believe that you’ll be turning two in just two more weeks (March 7th). The old expression is definitely true: The days are long, but the years are short.

Love you!

Mommy

Our Year in Pictures 2009

When I was teaching 4th grade, my students and I read the Time for Kids magazine together every week. It was a great way to learn about current events while also learning about the style and structure of nonfiction writing. The first edition in January always had a Year in Pictures for the previous year’s events. After reviewing it as a class, each student would choose a significant personal event from their own life that year, and we would create our own Year in Pictures display.

It wasn’t until I saw Goddess’s post this morning that I realized that I could still create a Year in Pictures display using photos of Tiny and Buba from 2009. So here you have it, Our Year in Pictures 2009:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Happy 2010!

Snowed In

Most days, I make sure that we all get out of the house for at least a little bit of time in the morning. It has become part of our routine that I clean up the breakfast mess, I change Buba and Tiny’s diapers, and then we go somewhere. Anywhere. Some days we are fortunate enough to have plans with other kids their age, but most of the time we just run an errand or stroll around the shops in the plaza half a mile from our house.

But today was different. Today it was snowing. And not the beautiful, fluffy, white snow. No, we had to get the wet, wet kind. The kind that you have to look at closely to determine whether it’s actually snow or just rain. Plus, we had someone coming to the house at 11am (an appointment that got cancelled at 11:15 because the person’s car couldn’t make it up the hill to get into our neighborhood). So today, we stayed home.

Now Buba didn’t really seem to care that we weren’t going out, but Tiny knows our routines by heart and it didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on, and subsequently, to begin melting down. The standard toys for everyday play just weren’t cutting it, so I had to get creative. Luckily, I had some things stashed away that totally saved the day…

1: Sunglasses from last summer

Tiny’s glasses no longer had lenses (in fact, I’m pretty sure the lenses popped out the very first time she wore the glasses last June), but she didn’t seem to care. Even as I gave them both their sunglasses, I expected that they would rip them off immediately and then cry for me to put them on again. While that did happen a time or two, I was quite impressed that, for the most part, they enjoyed playing while wearing the glasses for a good 20 minutes. Somehow the glasses made those everyday toys more fun again.

2: Connect Four

This is not something I every would have thought of on my own. But Buba’s occupational therapist has one of these games and uses it to help him improve his fine motor skills. So T brought this one home from his classroom. Tiny loves hearing the plink when the game pieces fall to the bottom, so this was another 20 minutes or so of indoor fun.

3: The Tunnel

We picked this tunnel up at a yard sale over the summer. It’s suppose to connect to a playhut, but the kids have more fun just crawling through the tunnel by itself. It’s only 4 or 5 feet long, so completely doable in our living room. This was also tons of fun for 10 to 15 minutes.

And last, but not least…

4: Snowblowers

We may be the only homeowners on our street who do not own a snowblower. The noise combined with the spraying snow, made it completely fascinating to watch the neighbors snowblow their driveways. And this allowed me just enough time to make lunch.

I certainly hope we don’t have too many inside-all-day days this winter, but it’s nice to know that we can survive (and even have fun!) without getting out of the house.

Our First Snowy Day

Yesterday, there was snow in the forecast for the first time this fall. Sure, we’d had some early morning flurries back in October, but this was the first time we were expected to get 2-4 inches. The first snow of the year is always exciting, but I found myself getting even more excited, knowing that it would be Tiny and Buba’s first opportunity to play in the snow EVER!

The snow started falling early in the evening, and even though it was tough to see, I held each kid up to the window and said, “See? It’s snowing.” Tiny just stared blankly, not really sure what she was supposed to be seeing, but humored me by reiterating, “Snow.” Buba looked out the window, then looked at me and said, “Dark!”

When I woke up at 6:30 this morning, I could see trees covered with beautiful, sparkling snow. I went into the kids’ bedroom, and pulled up the blinds to give them a glimpse of the snow covered front yard. But it was still dark, and with condensation on the windows, it was still tough to see the snow.

So, while Buba and Tiny drank milk, I read The Snowy Day (a classic favorite) and The Snow Ball. I pointed out all the fun things to do in the snow- crunching through the snow, making tracks, building a snowman, and making snow angels. I was trying to make Buba and Tiny as excited as I was about the snow. But it wasn’t until we got out the snowsuits and boots that they started to show signs of excitement (and most likely, it was just because they knew we were going “Outside! Outside!”)

First there was mostly looking around…

Tiny decided she liked snow…

Buba decided that he did not (and sadly, there were some tears)…

Tiny decided to go exploring…

Buba was okay if I held his hand….

Or if he was sitting in T’s lap…

Then, both Buba and Tiny helped T build a snowman…

And a good time was had by all.

Beautiful Blustery Day

I had no idea when I posted yesterday that we would be experiencing even more beautiful weather today- sunny, mid-sixties, no-need-for-a-coat weather.

It was quite blustery…

but still nice weather for playing with a wagon…

mowing the lawn…

and running, running, running!