Hobbies

Allison’s Birthday

Allison celebrated her birthday this year with a small family gathering and a little party for a handful of girls. Despite fairly low key events, we ended up with two very tired kids today!

Steve and I were thinking back to Allison’s first birthday when Katherine delighted in opening Allison’s gifts. Allison didn’t really seem to mind. She just loved the attention of having a birthday. When Allison turned two, I remember Steve holding Katherine back so Allison could open her gifts. One moment stands out for me: Katherine wriggling and crying as Allison opened her dollhouse. Now at three, she clearly wanted to open her own gifts. Katherine sat to the side and watched. Her biggest concern: would Allison share her gifts? I guess this is one of the first times that Allison has received interesting gifts that Katherine wants to share! Throughout the day, we’ve had conversations with both kids as they’ve debated and argued about whether they shared or not.

We’ve got a ton of pictures from the weekend that I’ll post tomorrow, when I have time to process the pictures.

Mother’s Day

Like every year, I woke up to find two kids sitting on top of me and breakfast served in bed. This year’s breakfast: cold cereal, cut fruit salad, coffee, juice, veggie sausage….and a big decorated cookie. 🙂

Katherine sat next to me and talked all thru my breakfast. Allison practiced jumping off the bed.

For mother’s day, the kids gave me a new purse. Their thinking: the bigger the purse, the more I can carry on their behalf! New additions to the purse include Band-Aids, various lollipops collected this week and hair bands.

Skinned Knees Every Day

Now that the weather is finally almost spring like, the kids have started to bike more and more around the driveway and neighborhood. Katherine still needs someone to start her off on her bike, while Allison is self-sufficient and fairly possessed on her training wheels. Yesterday Katherine went for a bike ride with Steve around the neighborhood. Katherine ended up riding all the way to the local choo-choo train park (in Redmond Ridge) and back – probably a 3 mile trip total with a couple pretty big hills. Steve jogged next to her in street attire and shoes (ouch), while Katherine “slowed down” so he could keep up. (Note: she is a very fast cyclist once she gets going.)

Allison meanwhile had a total of 3 Band-Aids on both knees yesterday. She probably skins a knee once a day, whether from running full tilt on the driveway or biking. Katherine managed to even scrape her hand, trying Allison’s 18 inch bouncing ball on the driveway.

We also added Band-Aids at the Ice Cream Social this week at Eton School. This was our third social and probably the busiest yet. Steve was about an hour late, and I spent the full hour making sure the elementary kids didn’t mow Allison over on the playground. From kids running around fueled with sugar to Allison climbing a fort popular with lots of boys, I was convinced she was going to get hurt somehow. She did skin a knee somehow. And, Katherine somehow got a cut on her finger. Luckily we escaped further injury. The kids were exhausted the next morning.

Allison’s Development

Allison is a busy kid these days. She has swim lessons, soccer class and music class – and we’re thinking off adding gymnastics back now that she’s 3. One of her greatest joys is preparing for soccer. Allison received a soccer jersey and shorts that she wears with pigtails to a 3-4 class every week. After class she leaves the jersey on for the rest of the day. 🙂 For her birthday, we gave her a set of small Pugg soccer goals. My mom got her a size 3 soccer ball, which we saw her moving down our lawn to the goal.

Her other favorite outdoor activity is weeding. Yes, bending down and picking small weeds! Our neighbor has a big maple tree which lost many seeds last year. These helicopter seeds blew into our beds and germinated into small 2″ trees. We had them all over the beds. Allison was a huge help picking them the last couple weeks. She’d gather up her plastic bucket, find a spot on the bed, hunker down and pick until I told her it was time to go in. She would say, “we don’t want trees all over our yard! look there are more weeds!”

Allison is still a very easygoing kid and likes to entertain the family. She spent this morning’s car ride playing with her new “silly” toy from McDonalds. She would move the doll arm and the toy would start blaring music. Allison would yell out, “Dance Mama Dance” and then go off in Spanish. Thankfully Steve understands what she’s saying, because I have no clue!

Last week, I took her to her third study at UW I-Labs. The researchers asked Allison to participate in defining a new protocol for a behavioral experiment. Allison was very patient throughout the 20 minute process, interacting with the research assistant. I think she was a bit puzzled by the repetition – “Allison where would you put the horse if you wanted it to be green? etc. etc. She answered most questions accurately, but began to get confused at the end of the experiment.

Katherine’s Development

Katherine’s big area of focus is emotional development. We’re working on identifying feelings these days and sympathizing with others. It’s gratifying to see progress. For instance, Steve was teasing me about something the other day. Katherine piped up, “That’s not nice. You’ll make mom feel bad!” On the other hand, she’s also working on testing boundaries, for instance around sassing, which we’re working on.

From an academic perspective, she can decipher different words in situ. On Friday, we sat at a light watching a school crossing guard. Katherine asked what she did. I asked her to read the back of the vest, which she did – “School Zone.” She will also occasionally read a few pages at night with Steve. She also practices basic addition/subtraction at school.