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| Whitney holding "egg". They figured out how to unzip the bottom of the pillows and pull out the stuffing from the couches. For some reason they really like the feel of it. Thank heavens it's also easy to stuff back in and they got over liking it really fast. |
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| Tucker with Meow-meow |
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| Meow-meow watching Tucker lick the brownie bowl clean |
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| Playing shopping cart with their blankets in their chairs. The rings were the groceries |
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| Look closely. Tucker with"meow-meow shoes" on |
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| Getting Thing1and Thing 2 nicely situated |
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| Talking to the "fish" in the water. The swim instructor was having them practice blowing bubbles before getting their face wet. |
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| Swim instructor helping Tucker to remember to kid. Whitney is on the other side of the red head from Tucker. They love swimming around on this thing |
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| First day floating on their back with the help of the swim instructor. This is Whitney. She really liked it and was very relaxed and happy in the water |
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| Tucker floating. He hated this. Very stiff in the water and fighting putting his ears in the whole time |
The reason I think Whitney is catching on to my excitement is because we got a book from the library that talks about a kid taking swim lessons. She asked to read the "book about swim lessons". We also happened to have had a book about the dentist in the house before they went to the dentist. They got toys at the dentist. Every so often Tucker will say "thank you for the dentist" in his prayers, he had so much fun. I think Whitney is hoping for toys after swim lessons, too, but the pool will probably be cool enough. And the fact they get to have their suits on.
Joy school totally made Tucker's week this week. They had a day where they brought their favorite toy for show and tell. Tucker brought Dump Truck. Good thing he did. They also used rulers in their lesson to measure things. Awesome!!! But he wasn't excited so much about the measuring part as a ruler is a portable speed bump for his Dump Truck. When I picked him up, he was not about to let go of that ruler. The other kid's mom saw how much he loved it and said he could keep it. Even better!! When he got home, he carted Dump Truck all around the house rolling it over his portable speed bump in all sorts of locations. In the middle of the room, next to the wall, next to the window, etc. No longer does he have to be in a door jam. Oh no. He can even bring it downstairs while Whitney is playing uh-oh pillows. Although Whitney had to make that connection for him. When we got home, he only wanted to play Dump Truck and Bump-Bump in the hall, but Whitney wanted to go downstairs to play uh-oh pillows. Tucker said " I don't want to. I want to play Truck and Bump-bump". Whitney said "oh." and paused for awhile. Then she said, " There is a bump-bump downstairs, Tucker!" He said "Oh! There's a bump-bump downstairs? Ok." and followed her down. She is learning the art of convincing someone.
She practiced that art on me today. She was drawing pictures when I said that it was time to go to the park. She wasn't done drawing on all of her papers, so she said "I will go to the park in 2 minutes after I'm done drawing." Hmmm. My negotiation skills are no longer working in my favor. Whitney, by the way, doesn't like to be cold, so going to the park right now is very low on her list.
Another negotiation tactic of mine that may lost its effectiveness is Gunny. For any of you familiar with Gunny Sack through Joy school, this will be a review, but basically he cries if he can't eat toys to fill up his tummy. Gunny is a real thing for Whitney. There is a song about him and he is a reality in our house. Mention Gunny and she is cleans up very quickly. Tucker, on the other hand, gets that Gunny really is Mommy and doesn't like to play along. That is, unless it is in his favor. The other night I was pretending to make Gunny cry because Whitney was cleaning up her part, but Tucker wasn't cleaning up. Whitney was trying to get Tucker to clean up his toys and even told him to clean up so Gunny wouldn't eat the toys. Tucker told her he didn't want to clean up and that he wanted Gunny to be happy with a full tummy of toys. The problem is, that logic is flawless in all other situations. We talk about helping others feel happy all the rest of the time. But I think Tucker likes Gunny after all because Whitney ends up cleaning up all of his toys because she doesn't want Tucker's toys taken away by Gunny. Either way, Tucker doesn't usually have to clean up. I'm still working on my strategy with Tucker.
Another thing in Joy School that Tucker loves is the joy school rule song. In our last lesson, there were several songs I needed to download to get ready for the day. One of them was this rule song. When Tucker heard it start, he paused to say to me "Oh yeah! That's a good one!" Made me laugh.
This past week while I was at clogging, Tucker and Whitney were playing with the dress up pile at the person's house. I heard loud, hysterical laughing over the music and peeked over to see a cute thing. I wish I had my camera, but no. We were dancing to a semi-country song and they had cowboy hats on, one with a red star and one with a blue star. They were so cute! The reason they had been laughing so hard is because they figured out how to let the hat slide over their face, but the hat didn't fall to the ground due to the string that looped behind their ears. Absolutely hilarious, right?
Another time I wish I had my camera was when they were totally falling asleep in the car shopping cart together. They were leaning their heads together. I knew they had totally fallen asleep when I kept passing strangers and they had this "oh look how cute" smile on their face. So I would wait for the stranger to pass until I rudely awoke Whitney and Tucker. My strategy to keep them awake was to have Tucker push the cart and Whitney get the food. Worked better with Tucker than with Whitney.
Tucker is getting better at pushing the shopping cart around. He manuevers it quite well as long as he can see me to follow me. Whitney is patient in letting him push her around. They worked as a team to get the groceries and then pay for them. Tucker was trying to scan non-existant barcodes on produce. I had to teach him how to use the self check out with produce, too. He kind of got the weighing thing. He is already adept at using the barcodes to scan. All that practice of scanning the books at the library is paying off. And he's been watching me go shopping for too long, now. Whitney thinks self check outs are funny. She always exclaims "This one has no man!" and laughs.
This past week we went to the doctor for the ultrasound that is detailed enough to tell what kind of kid. They say it's a boy. I'm not too convinced. I don't think Jim is either. We'll see, I guess. It's just that it was so obvious with Tucker, but not this one. Mom, maybe there is still hope for you to have another granddaughter. I think Whitney is a little bit disappointed and Tucker may be excited. Whitney stopped talking about the baby and my stomach in general these past three days. Kind of ignored the stomach, in fact. Tucker, on the other hand has been much more careful to take care of my tummy, something he has never verbalized as of yet until this week.
In preparation for swim lessons I got flip flops for the pool this week. Because, of course, they are selling them in the stores. For once I agreed on when they had things for sell at the right season. For indoor swim lessons, right? I let them pick which flip flops they wanted. It was a little hard for me to do that with Whitney because there was only one style I liked with the girl ones. But she picked that one anyway. Should have known. The tread was the only one solid pink. They are Hello Kitty ones. Tucker picked Mickey Mouse ones. They like them so much, they want to wear them all the time. I finally told them they could wear them in the house and to swim lessons only because it is too cold outside. That is somewhat of a satisfactory answer. It just gives Whitney yet another reason to not play outside.
The part that is funny is that Whitney picked out cat ones. Grandma in the Attic sent Tucker and Whitney stuffed animals for their birthdays. She sent a dog and a cat. Tucker loves the cat. It is his new stuffed animal that he plays with all the time. The stuffed cat's name is Meow-meow. Perfect. Whitney picked out meow-meow flip flops. They must be his. Whitney put up a fight the first time Tucker wanted to wear her flip flops around the house. But then, for some loving and kind reason, she decided to tell Tucker it's ok for him to wear her flip flops. Once she said that, he did not remove them, but wore them all day around the house. They are named meow-meow shoes and are played with in the same loving manner as Meow-meow herself. He also has been heard to call them his dancing shoes. I think it is because they are made of hard plastic, so they make noise throughout the house. But, he seems to have picked up on boy/girl rules a bit. When it is time for swim lessons, he makes no fuss but puts on his Mickey ones right away.
I'm not sure how much Whitney likes swim lessons. The first day I would have said she loved them, but then the second time, she repeatedly asked not to go to swim lessons. I think she hated how cold she got. They are all shivering violently by the end of the half hour. I think it is because they are standing in the pool, but not swimming vigerously like the rest of the swim classes. Getting out only makes it worse. The second time I had a better, warmer system set up and they didn't seem to be as bothered by the cold as long. We'll see what the comments are next time.
The reason I thought she loved it was her relaxed body language in the pool. She seemed to really grasp how to move the way the instructor was telling her. Tucker was very stiff. I wasn't sure if he was afraid or didn't want to get his ears wet. Weirdo. It's one of the things he hates in the bath, getting his ears wet. When she got home from the first lesson, she gave me all sorts of play by play of how they moved their arms and how they talked to the fish in the water. She also repeats stuff the teacher showed her.
Here's another description of a video I wish I had captured. Tucker was at the bottom of the stairs and Thing 2 was "singing" to Tucker. Whitney had Thing 2 leaning over the bannister, moving him and singing ABC's at the top of her lungs to Tucker at the bottom of the stairs. It was entertaining to watch.
Tucker had a great time this week playing with an older kid. This kid is 4, almost five. Tucker loved his ideas of games. First he showed Tucker all his knowledge of static electricity with a balloon on his head, the wall, etc. Then he played keeping the balloon off the floor with Tucker. Tucker loved it. Then they were chasing each other. Tucker also loved "playing smash". The other kid rolled our exercise ball over Tucker's back while Tucker was laying on his stomach on the floor. Looked scary to me, but they weren't being too rough and had a grand time of it. See. Tucker just needs another boy to rough house with. The two of them didn't bother Whitney at all during all this play.
Tucker's favorite thing that happened to him today was feeding the cat. I brought him with me to visit a friend for a bit who has a cat. They let him feed the cat cat treats. Tucker loved that. Earlier in the day Tucker had been feeding Meow-meow chips before he fed himself the chips.
Web camming with my mom today was pretty fun. Whitney was apparently very excited to tell Grandma about her heart pencil and her sun smiley face pen that has a cap with a necklace. It is what she got from the dentist this week. Whitney had two cavities on the front of her teeth. She went to the dentist to get them removed and filled and did it no problem. It took them all of 1/2 hour. The dentist was so impressed with how well Whitney did, they told her she could have two prizes out of the treasure box. I was shocked, too. She does better than Mommy. I was also very relieved they didn't have to give her a shot to get those cavities out. That would have been hard for me to watch.
Jim made it back from being stuck in New York. His flight was delayed 24 hours due to the storm and his co-workers that he was supposed to meet with didn't come into the office Friday due to the city shutting down that afternoon. I have a really hard time feeling sorry for him, though. He pretty much didn't leave his hotel room for a couple of days. But he still managed to see multiple movies. He easily named 5 off the top of his head. Plus a broadway show. Plus all the sleep in time, dinners alone in restaurants with food not prepared by his truly. I just looked at him and kept my mouth shut about all that. I'd have to say I've never done that in my life and I've definitely never done it in the last three years. No further comments.
He said he was bored and I definitely believe him in that respect. He's not a fan of talking, let alone talking on the phone for long periods of time. Or about random things. He was so bored he called and talked to me 3 times in two days. Part of one of our conversations was him giving me a short play by play of what he saw from his hotel window. A couple of car crashes he witnessed from way up high and lots of police flashing lights from all the other wrecks around town.
When he got back today, he let Tucker and Whitney play splash with him. What this entailed was Tucker and Whitney standing on the arm of the chair and jumping between Jim's legs at the shin level with a blanket stretched over his shins like the top of the water. At the very end of their last swim lesson they got to stand on the edge of the pool and jump into the water. The teacher let their head bob underneath for a bit so they could get used to the feel of jumping in water. They must have loved it, because they incorporated it into their play.
Another thing they incorporated into their play is how they have been taught to look down when water is splashing over their head while water is being poured over their head. Whitney lets Tucker wash her hair while practicing this skill. So awesome. There are much fewer bathtub fights, a side benefit of swim lessons I hadn't anticipated.
At Joy school they also had Scrabble cheese its. Very, very popular with Tucker. Similar in taste to gold fish, but each one has a letter he yells out and pronounces the sound. It takes him longer to eat them, so he finished about the same time as Whitney.
He also grasped the concept of the date on that particular day. He still goes around the house saying January 28th. It's always January 28th. When I correct him, he'll sometimes change it to January 29th or just say oh. February must be really hard to say or something. Whitney grasps the weather. She likes to look out the car windows and tell me all the different types of weather she sees.
Whitney showed her eye for color and patterns in joy school. She was given a blank paper and cut out shapes to put on the paper like a drawing she was shown in a book. Copied that in no time, kind of like a puzzle.
They like to play snail. This entails crawling in the bottom of the bar stools and then crawling around the floor, half in and half out of the bottom of the bar stool while the bar stool comes along with them. Jim asked who taught them that. That's just an inventive three year old for you. Another game they like to play is "stinky diaper" They put these small pillows between their knees while lying on their back. One of them "checks" the other to see if this diaper is stinky or clean. Ongoing differentiation between big kids and babies.
Tucker really likes this red maternity shirt I have. He wants me to wear it every day he wears red. He wears red most days. I don't particularly like that shirt right now. It is one of those tent shirts meant for the last 2-3 months when you are really big and it makes me look that big now. No thanks. But one day I humored him and wore it when we didn't go in public anywhere. He was so amused with it matching his Thing 2 shirt. He said, "Mom, are you thing 1?" But then he got confused because Whitney is Thing 1, so he decided I was thing 3. Whatever. The reason I'm wearing it is because of a Thing 3, so it works. But then he also liked to tell me that day "Stop Mom Stop! Your shirt is red!" from the Go dog Go book, just changing the wording a bit. Made me laugh.
One day they really liked practicing their drawing skills. Tucker can easily trace his hand and his foot. He doesn't like marker on his hand, so when he uses a marker these outlines are really big but with crayon, it's pretty close to the real deal. He also likes to trace my hand, which takes the whole sheet of paper since he is careful not to get marker on me. Then he asks if I want my name on it. He does a squiggly line when I say yes. Whitney doesn't mind the marker so much. Tucker can write a T. He also does the up and down, small, in a line, for his "writing your name" which is something I remember doing when I was little for words. Whitney likes to spell out Papa. It sounds like this " P-A-PA, Papa!" but sometimes it's "A-P-A-P Papa!" In joy school they wrote the word Dad on paper a bunch. The teacher did it for them, then they kind of traced it, but it is on the refridgerator. Tucker likes to look up at it and sound out all the words.
One heavenly thing that Whitney did this past week is figure out how to put on her own seat belt. Tucker has been doing this for many months. He is very fast at it now. Now I need to wait for Whitney to figure it out. But I still love it because I can open the door in the parking lot and let them in, then shut it and jump in the car myself, instead of standing in the rain for forever until Whitney crawls in and sits down in her seat to buckle her in. I love it, love it, love it!!!! First her shoes, then her carseat! Now it only takes us 10 minutes to get out the door and driving.
They were invited to a Valentine's Day party. The mom was brillant and did a simple but cute craft that involved something mechanical as well as artsy. She pre cut some construction hearts. They were supposed to hole punch them themselves to string them up as a garland. They could decorate them with the heart confetti the hole punch made, or put other sized hearts on by using a glue stick. Tucker was all about that hole punch. I showed him one and he did the rest. Amazingly he also grasped the concept of where to put the holes to string up the hearts and did them in the right places. Whitney did great putting on her own glue and confetti hearts. Then they decorated one cookie. No prob. Pros from all the cupcakes they made for their birthdays.
Tucker loves to help with the neighbor's newspaper. I don't know what I'm going to tell him when her husband comes home in 3 weeks from the care center. I think it will work out because he usually gets it early in the morning. He can even put it in the spot she has upstairs without help and likes to do it by himself. Our other neighbor had a grandbaby born recently, so we grabbed her newspaper for a few days and put it in her garage. She has a manual door that Tucker likes to help with. Ever since we did her newspaper a few days, he thinks he's supposed to pick up all the newspapers in the neighborhood. Very cute helper big kid.
They have often played Give-Mommy-Food with their toys. This week they had pieces to Trivial Pursuit in their hands and were feeding me grapes, cheese, crackers, etc. Then they said, Here, Mom, have some fruit snacks! Whitney then exclaimed, "we're the home teachers!" I got a good laugh out of that because our home teacher brings fruit snacks over every time for after the lesson. They have to listen to the lesson then they get some. I think it worked, though, because last night they repeated some of the lesson back to me in their play because they were paying attention. Yes. It's a great idea. I also am still motivated by treats, too.
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