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Archives for 2007

They’re Sponges

They’re Sponges

It’s often said that of kids, and I’m a real believer. I had mentioned to my mom proudly yesterday that I thought Allison could recognize a third of the alphabet. Her response, “Oh, she knows more than that…” She does indeed. Allison knows almost all her uppercase letters, only occasionally mixing up N/H and not quite knowing E, I (“Ice Cream!”), V or X.

How did we figure this out? Katherine dug out an older toy, which consists of magnetic letters that affix to pages in a metal book. Allison got a hold of the toy today and started messing around with the letters. One by one I held up the letters and asked, “Allison what is this letter?” She’d eye the letter and then give her response. After a while, Katherine decided she wanted to play Vanna, so she held up letters for her sister to identify. Allison could identify just about all the letters correctly, even with grapes in her mouth! I guess it’s time to find those old refrigerator magnets and put them up again.

At that point, Steve arrived home to witness this exercise. He then arranged the little letters into simple 3 letter words for Katherine to sound out. He progressed to harder 4 letter words; we introduced her to the “sh” blend. Katherine was having a great time. Allison, missing the attention, grabbed random letters and yelling out their names like “O O O!” It was quite the scene at our kitchen table tonight.

Can’t Jump Josie

We have a pile of CDs in our family room, which the kids know how to insert and play in a CD player. Allison found a really old Kindermusik CD which includes a song called, “Rolling down the river.” It has lyrics, “One in the middle, can’t jump Josie (repeat)..Oh Susan Brown!” Katherine heard the song and started jumping up and down. Apparently, they learned this song at school earlier this year and have this routine where they alternate walking and jumping. Allison has taken to this song, saying “Can’t Jump…Jump Josie.” She’s gone to extraordinary lengths to get us to play the CD – putting random CDs in, pressing random buttons, pulling me into the family room, and hounding us to play the song.

New Family Member

Her name is Pinky Bear, and that’s exactly what she is. We went to Build a Bear last weekend to spend two lovely gift cards from Christmas. Katherine marched straight up to a pink bear, declared that was what she wanted, and quietly watched the whole stuffing/heart inserting process. Katherine also informed us that Pinky needed a bike helmet and purse, to go with the handful of baby clothes that I kept for doll/bear dressing purposes. Pinky has a nice set of clothes, which Katherine keeps nicely organized in her Build a Bear box and which she tries to get on and off the bear with varying degrees of success.

Did Allison get her bear? Not yet. She buzzed all around the store but wasn’t ready for the experience. She does really like Pinky, holding the bear on the way to school pickup and telling me “I can play with Pinky Bear….Pinky Bear Tickle!! Ha ha ha.”

Mother Daughter Day at Eton

Mother Daughter Day

Katherine and I headed over to Eton last Saturday for Mother Daughter Day. Similar to Father Daughter Day, it’s a chance for one parent to watch their child work in the classroom and see progress made. Despite fighting the last of a nasty cold, Katherine virtually bounded into the classroom. Her teacher had written down three works for her to show: Pink Reading Box, Metal Insets and Golden Bead Fetching. Steve had seen the pink reading boxes in December, and I was interested to see how Katherine laid out the 5 or 6 words with accompanying pictures. Then she had to sound out the letters and put the right picture next to the word. Katherine was on a roll until she got her lower case b and d mixed up, resulting in the word dog next to a bug picture and vice versa. Mrs. Fleming asked Katherine to sound them out; they switched the cards; Katherine put away her materials and we were finished.

The next work involved what Katherine described as metal pots and pan covers. Really, it’s just metal stencils inside of a metal surrounding base. She selected a wooden tray and placed a stencil, pencils and paper in the tray. Katherine sat down and then proceeded to trace the stencil with three colored pencils. After zipping through the work, Katherine determined that the math corner was in use, and asked Mrs. Fleming for another work. Katherine was extraordinarily busy for the next 10 or 15 minutes, doing a rock work, tracing/coloring a map of Australia, doing a practical life buckle work and putting/spilling beads on a multiplication tray. We closed the hour with Katherine showing me how she could create 1000, 600, 40 and 3 with different gold bead currencies (6×100, 4×10, etc).

Pictures Publishing

I think I might have forgotten a step in publishing the pictures, so they’ll be up later today (fingers crossed). When they are published properly, you’ll notice that the kids are growing like weeds. Katherine has shot up at least a 0.5-1.0 inch. Allison has got to be a pound or two heavier, and her face and body are filling out. Must the non-stop eating…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today was a very special day for Katherine. She and her classmates at Eton had a big party – including a valentine swap, lots of snacks, face painting, games, crafts…She and Audrey climbed in the car at pickup today regaling me with the contents of their bags. Little did I know that a valentine swap including swapping candy and treats! Katherine’s bag was a hodge podge of valentines, candy, chocolate, pencils and such. We spent quite a bit of time in the car, with Audrey and I trying to convince Katherine that she should share some of her treats with Allison. Audrey’s reasoning…”Katherine, it’s greedy not to share.” Katherine finally came around and decided to share her non-chokable candy with Allison. Allison received one M&M and one Smarty – and of course wanted more. “Please …. Katherine, Share…Please…” I then settled matters by bringing out dessert, a little box of candy with four pieces of chocolate. All discussion of M&Ms and the M&Ms went away. Katherine took the cake for slow chocolate eating, finally finishing her little caramel after 10 minutes. Allison ate her coconut candy in about 5 minutes. She finally stuffed half of the chocolate in her mouth and went off to play.

Allison celebrated as well at Toby School yesterday. The little ones swapped valentines, brought in snacks to share and spent much time eating. According to Patty, Allison had a very proud moment where Ms. Ginny sings a song and then throws a stuffed snake. Having seen this myself in previous years, I can attest that this can take the kids and parents aback. But, Allison rallied, ran and brought the snack back to her teacher.

J…All Gone…Meola

Allison has been working with a little wooden alphabet puzzle for a couple months now. At first, she learned which pieces went where, often trying to put the H in the N and vice-versa. Then, she learned to put the puzzle together more and more quickly – now finishing the puzzle in a couple minutes very steadily in one sitting.

Little did I know that this puzzle was so attractive to the dog. A couple weeks ago, Katherine shrieked, “Mom…Bisco is eating the puzzle!” I ran into the family room to see Bisco chomping on a puzzle piece. I extracted the letter J from his mouth and threw it out. Allison quickly learned what happened. For the next couple days she would work on the puzzle, point at the J area and say, “J … All Gone” or “J…Meola.”  I finally found a replacement puzzle that doesn’t make sounds, have lower case, or any other fancy features. The old puzzle is now serving as spare parts (Bisco ate F the other day) and Allison can complete her puzzle at home. Interestingly enough, she has also started to learn her letters. She can recognize “A, B, H, J, K, M, Q, S, W, Y” and is trying to enuciate the letter sounds as well. She’s well on her way to learning her letters!

Do It Again! Read Again!

It’s becoming quite clear that Allison’s strengths are her spatial, verbal and musical skills. She often speaks in three word phrases and is picking up slang. For instance, Steve was roughhousing with the kids when we heard her pipe up and say, “That Cool!!” Or, she’ll run around and say, “Superman! Garbage Can!” (long story) or when playing with Katherine, “Share” or “My Turn” or “Allison Turn” or “Do it Again!” For instance, the other day Katherine originated a new game. It involves attaching a Slinky to the top of Allison’s little marble run with balls. One adult holds the run, another holds the other end of the Slinky allowing the kids to stuff balls down the Slinky and into the ball run. Allison was beside herself. She squealed; she danced in place with her little feet going up and down; she talked incessantly “Do it Again! Do it Again!” Speaking of spatial skills, other favorite games are building blocks, new Wedgits and Little People Amusement Park. Allison will call out “build house” and then run to her building blocks – looking for her cylindrical, colored wooden blocks. We try to see who can stack these blocks end on end and when they fall, Allison squeals “KABoom.”

Musically speaking, Allison’s repertoire of songs is long and growing. She sings many of her favorite baby songs and others from Toby School (Fish Swimming in the Water), songs that she’s picked up from my Mom (like Row, Row, Row Your Boat or a little Chinese song about Tigers), and songs that she’s picked up from Patty. Allison learns useful songs from Katherine like the Days of the Week song – starting out strong with Sunday and then petering a bit out with Thursday, Friday and Saturday before she belts out “These are the days of the week!”

Allison’s new favorite books: Any Dora book she can find, There’s a Wocket in my Pocket (She calls it “Pocket”), Twinkle Twinkle (lights up and plays music), Chugga Chugga Choo Choo (an old favorite from Katherine) and Where’s Coco (otherwise known as “Coco”).

We’ve also reached a milestone. After virtually everything being yellow, Allison is learning her colors. We’re starting with primary colors for now, and her batting average is increasing.

Get Down PLEASE

I must say this at least 20 times a day. In the late afternoon, I let the kids play in the family room while I cook in the kitchen. This works out pretty well because I can see just about everything that goes on – like when Allison climbs over the sofa to reach the window ledge and back again. Or, Katherine will lay out a blanket on the floor and practice jumping off the couch with her sister. Their new trick is having one of them sit on the little blue chair and then the other pull the back of the chair down. Needless to say, I’m not as efficient as I’d like to be because I have to intervene at times.  I’m hoping that common sense will kick in soon before someone truly gets hurt.

Snows Days…

7 Days of School

It’s a wonder I have any hair left on my head at all. I think I might have pulled it all out the last several weeks. Why? We’ve had only SEVEN days of school since December 14th. Between holidays and at least 5 snow days, our school routine is almost non-existent. This has resulted in very squirrely behavior of late, which I seriously hope dissipates as we get back into our school routine. Today was Katherine’s first day back at school in a week, and she had a hard time getting back into the swing of things.

Katherine Bush

Allison loves to say her sister’s name. A few weeks ago, Katherine told us that she wanted to nap in the minivan on the way to the Museum of Flight. No sooner did we leave the driveway did Allison start in…”Kathrine…Kafrine…Kathrine…” On and on this went. Finally, Katherine complained, “I can’t sleep because Allison keeps saying my name.” Now this has progressed. Allison runs around saying “Katherine Bush!!!” She’s so proud that she can say her sister’s first and last name.

Holiday Pictures

I’m not sure if we’ve uploaded all the Christmas pictures yet, but this is a sampling. My favorite picture of the kids is the one in front of the Molbak’s Poinsettia tree. They had just mowed down a scone and milk and were in good spirits. My other favorite is of Allison stacking crayons, because this gives you a good idea of how she plays. She’s very deliberate and concentrated in her efforts. She’s since moved on to stacking wooden blocks – counting as she stacks her cylindrical blocks higher and higher until they fall!

More Changes

Steve is back at work. After 6 years away, he’s back at Microsoft…but this time in Research. It’s only been 2 years and 2 months since I left, but it seems the company sure has changed a lot. Of course, if we think back to when we started years ago, the change is even more marked. But, all that said, I’m looking forward to the routine. Katherine is going thru the adjustment of not spending as much time with Steve, but I think she’ll be fine in a couple weeks (fingers crossed, knock on wood).

From the Mouth of Babes

From the Mouth of Babes

Two very appropriate remarks came today from our daughters when Steve and I turned on the presidential speech tonight.

Allison’s reaction: “Monkey” She may have been trying to tell us to change the channel to Curious George, or maybe she just thinks George Bush is a monkey.

Katherine’s reaction: “His face looks red.” We explained that with our new TV we would see things that we hadn’t seen before and that the red was from his makeup.

What Else is New?

Over the course of four weeks, we’ve had a 8 night power outage followed by Christmas, New Years, The Flu (Christine), and then The Snowstorm. Newspaper articles claim this is because of El Nino and not global warming…I think it’s all of the above and plus some bad karma.

1) The 8 Nights Without Power. Outside of family in Duvall, we seem to have set the dubious record among friends for the length of time without power before Christmas. In a nutshell, everything was fine except for no laundry, oven and no high-speed Internet connection. Oh, and Allison had a nasty cold and couldn’t breath or sleep without a humidifier, which we couldn’t run at night (since we tried to turn off the generator before 10PM each night). So we shipped her off to my mom’s for a couple nights. We were starting to get a bit worried when we STILL didn’t have power as we headed to bed the Thursday before Christimas. Thankfully all was restored that evening before Sharon and Jamey arrived the following Friday night. One last aside: we lost a rather large pine tree in our back yard which didn’t hit anything.

2) Christmas. We have many stories which I’ll take the time to writeup later.

  • We only broke four cheap and one really expensive glass ornament this year putting up the tree. I view that as rather a pleasant surprise – but then again we put all the ornaments in the top half of the tree!
  • Katherine was extremely disappointed that we didn’t have lights outside the house. Given the state of our power and having just watched “An Inconvenient Truth”, Christmas lights just didn’t happen this year.
  • The girls had fun playing with their pink advent calendar, wrangling over candy for the gingerbread house, and going to Seattle to see the Christmas sights. It may have been day 6 or 7 of the outage when I told Steve we needed some holiday spirit. We bundled up the kids, dragged them to see the gingerbread houses built by architects, the Teddy Bear Suite (“where are the sweets??”) and the holiday carousel.
  • Sharon and Jamey stayed in town for 3 days. We made pies, took the kids for a long walk, had hot pot, watched a Seahawks game, made oatmeal cookies for Santa and generally played with Christmas toys and gifts.

3) The Flu. I also managed to come down with a mysterious 30 hour flu. There were no symptoms otherwise – fell asleep in the playroom while the kids were running around and then started to feel chilled. Steve had just shipped Katherine to my mom’s house for a sleepover. When he came home, I gave him Allison and then went into quarantine in the bedroom for 2 days. The kids were great. Katherine wrote a get well card (mom, we will take care of you!). Allison charged in whenever she could find the door open. I would see her bounce up on to the bench and shout “Mama!” with a big smile. Steve took care of the kids (with help from my mom and Patty) and provided bus service for Tylenol, water, etc. All is well now. Fingers crossed no one else gets this very strange bug.

4) The Snowstorm. Tonight we learned a valuable lesson – to not procrastinate before snowstorms. Steve and I had an errand that had to be completed before dinner. Well, we didn’t head out until 4PM, just as the snowstorm started to hit. We had some difficulty coming home, steering around cars stuck in ditches, accidents, cars parked on the side of the road. And, this was all on a 1 mile stretch of Union Hill Road! We were very glad to pull into the driveway unscathed. I suspect tomorrow will be full of snow day activities – snowmen, food dyed snowballs, tromping around the neighborhood.

“I’ll get it”

Allison’s development continues at a rapid clip; she’s now 20 months old. Rather than editorialize, I’ll just give some sample conversations from the last day or so…

Mom: “Allison, I think some of the missing puzzle pieces are in your sister’s room. Shall we go upstairs and get it?”

Allison “I’ll get it.” (crawling up the stairs)

———-

Dad: “Allison, did you go pee-pee or pooh-pee?”

Allison: “I did.”

————-

Mom: “Katherine, would you like apple juice or orange juice?”

Allison: “apple juice”

—————-

Dad: “Allison, what comes after sixteen?”

Allison: “Sefenteen”

———-

Other items of interest

  • Regularly we hear 2 word phrases like: “Daddy’s coffee”, “Sister backpack”, “Get it”, “Coming!!” She can repeat almost any word reasonably well. She also has been heard to holler for her sister, “Sister…Sister…Kathfrine!!” or the dog “Bico!”
  • She can count up to 20 in English now and tries to count all sorts of things including pieces of food, stairs…anything!
  • She also intersperses Chinese in her conversation, letting me know “maola” when she’s finished her food or “hi yow” when she wants more or “diowla” when she’s dropped food. Hopefully, our little conversations will have affect with Katherine too.
  • If I had to guess, because I’ve totally lost count, I’d say she easily has a 250-300 word vocabulary. She can sing the ABC song start to finish including “LMNOP” and is trying to learning the Leapfrog alphabet song from Katherine and me.
  • She visits the little potty seat in the downstairs bathroom once or twice a day with clothes on. She will also get herself a bit of toilet paper and pretend to wipe herself when she stands up.
  • Allison loves to play with the alphabet wooden puzzle. She can put all the letters in their correct spot and say a few of the letters unprompted and correctly.

All in all, the girls are doing really well. Katherine continues to love full day at Eton. Lots of works fall out of her backpack each day – and the stories are really too precious.

I’ll sort thru pictures tomorrow night and post before the weekend.