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PuzzleHunt

Fourth Place in PuzzleHunt

Burt’s Bees

Every year Steve and I play in Puzzlehunt with a team called the Killer Bees. This year we placed a respectable fourth place, with a team of core and new players. I explained to Katherine that we were very pleased to place fourth, thinking this was a good way to reinforce the whole “have fun, its not about winning” message.

Here are Katherine’s remarks about PuzzleHunt:

“Maybe you should consider calling your team the I Want to Win Bees”

“I accidentally called your team Burt’s Bees…not the Killer Bees..” (to gales of laughter)

“Mama, staying up all night is crazy.”  (Yes, I know she’s right)

Katherine also proclaimed today that she had a dream come true today. She learned about the pbs.org web site, which has little games based on PBS show characters for young children. Katherine spent her 10 minutes of computer time tonight clicking around the site and playing the Clifford game. She was very focused, checking out the site by herself. Allison told us, “Katherine, it’s not fair. You dont let me use the computer at all!”

Our Fifth Carnival

Our Fifth Carnival

I can’t believe we went to our fifth Toby School carnival today. To be more accurate, my mom took Katherine to her first carnival while Steve and I played PuzzleHunt. Since then, Steve and I have taken Katherine and then Allison to the little toddler carnival down the road once a year for the last four years. This is largely because Katherine went to Toby School for two years. Now Allison is in her second and final year there as well. (And we went the year in-between kids too!)

It’s remarkable how much stays the same about this event. The kids run around, get their faces painted, decorate masks and bags, ride in little cars and then try to win a cake. For the last three carnivals, we’ve either had (a) really great luck and won right away OR (b) paid a bunch of $ for tickets to play the cake walk over and over. Neither occurred today. Katherine was so bent out of shape, she cried all the way to the car as we left. She had her sights set on a big cake with tons of goopy frosting and candy decorations. It probably didn’t help that I made our requisite cupcakes yesterday afternoon, with Katherine almost drooling over them.

What did we make? Heart shaped cupcakes with pink, purple and yellow frosting and different sprinkle, candy decorations. I made the cupcakes for the cake walk, and let the kids each decorate one extra cupcake for dessert. You can see their final products in these pictures. (Funny enough, Allison didn’t eat hers, claiming it was too “spicy.” So, I frosted another cupcake sans decorations and let her lick the frosting off.) The umbrella on Katherine’s cupcake is from the teriyaki restaurant nearby.

I’m a big girl

Allison continues to show us her independence. She gets really upset when we un/buckle her car seat, open the minivan door, put on her shoes, put on her coat, etc. She’ll say emphatically, “I can do it!! I do it!”

Two nights ago this culminated with her assertion that she wasn’t going to wear a diaper to bed (she’s potty trained, but not dry at night). Steve finally wrestled her into a diaper to her dismay. Last night we had a long discussion. I asked her why she didn’t want to wear a diaper. She replied, “because I’m a big girl…” And, then to every suggestion of mine to show that she could stay dry with a diaper, she would say “No.”

So, we tried it her way last night, and she went to bed without a diaper. I must have done two loads of laundry today. ๐Ÿ™‚

Tonight, Steve, Katherine and I all wrestled Allison to the carpet and put on her diaper. Allison was very upset, but understands that if she stays dry she can wear underwear to bed. Also, she decided that as a reward she’ll get a “book like Kafrine’s with a piano in it.”

You Just Memorized It!

Katherine is maturing quite a bit. She works hard at arts and crafts and her biking. Tonight she used a bunch of materials to create wrapping paper for a gift and a birthday card for my mom. We also spent 30 minutes in drizzling rain biking on the driveway this afternoon. Katherine can now get around pretty well on her 16″ bike without training wheels. The only hitch is getting her going, so we have to balance her for a couple seconds before she starts pushing the pedals.

She also likes to read to Allison, which can cause a commotion at times. Just for context, after hearing a book two or three times, Allison can memorize the words. This becomes a problem because Allison will sometimes finish sentences for Katherine when she’s trying reading the book out loud. Then, we’ll hear Katherine complain loudly, “Allison…you’re just memorizing the words. You’re Not Reading!”

Allison is turning into a speed demon on Katherine’s old bike. Since Steve adjusted the training wheels, Allison has gotten really, really fast. She wiped out the other day, tearing around the corner in our development going full speed and yanking on the handlebars. I was running next to Katherine and Steve next to Allison. I looked back just in time to see Allison come careening around the corner, tip the bike so hard that it fell over on its side. Allison went sprawling to the pavement. Steve caught up and scooped her up. Thirty seconds later, she was back on her bike trying to catch her big sister.

 

Every letter makes a sound, the A says ahhh…

Every letter makes a sound, the A says ahhh…

For the last couple months I’ve been working on letter sounds with Katherine. The conversation would go like this…

Christine: “Katherine, what sound does Aaaallison start with?”

Dead Silence

Christine: “It starts with ahhh…Aaaallison starts with ahhh..”

Dead Silence

I was starting to wonder whether Katherine had entered her “sensitive period” for phonemic awareness or not. I was also wondering how long I’d have to have one way conversations…which is pretty unusual with Katherine. Thankfully, we borrowed a great Leapfrog DVD from Audrey two weeks ago which has worked wonders in a very short period of time.

What’s up with the Letter Factory DVD? Well, it uses Leap, Lily, Tad and a Dr. Quigley to sing the entire alphabet and the letter’s sounds. The great news is that Katherine has learned many sounds of the alphabet. If I ask her what sound a letter makes, she can make the correct sound about half the time. When we ask her what sound a word starts with, she can also nail it half the time. The bad news is that this song is stuck in my head and it probably will be for the next few months!

Katherine is also very excited to identify her letters. She can identify half of her letters now…mostly those associated with our names like A for Allison, B for Bisco, D for Daddy, K for Katherine, L for Lambey, M for Mommy, P for Patty, Q for ??, S for Steve, W (upside down M!), X for ?? and Y for who knows!

Yesterday we hit a big milestone as well. Katherine wrote her first letters! She was busy scribbling with her big pencils on some paper. She turned to me and said “Mama, I wrote an A!” I looked casually over and there was an A!! I came home yesterday afternoon to find another piece of paper on the table with several As, an M (or W) and X on it! Needless to say, Steve, Patty and I were very proud of Katherine and she just beamed at us.

Finally eating cereal!

Allison has been working hard to get her hands on some food for a while now. Whenever we hold her at the table, she’ll pull the plate towards her and reach for food. Now she can eat as well…we started rice cereal last Monday and then switched to oatmeal on Friday. Katherine was probably the most excited of any of us. She tried to help by shaking the formula for the cereal, getting the bib and then trying to convince me to let her feed Allison!

Allison has eaten a good meal maybe three or four times over the last week. She’s very strong willed about food and milk, only eating when she is super hungry. This perhaps helps to explain why she is still only 5-10% in weight (13 lbs 0.5 oz) and 50% or 25.5″ in height at her 6 month checkup. Sigh.

Katherine’s birthday
Katherine celebrated her birthday three times last week! The first time was actually on her birthday after Steve and I got home from PuzzleHunt. The second time was at Patty’s sister’s house. The third time was with her friends this past Saturday at an arts and crafts studio in Bellevue.

My mom was a huge help over PuzzleHunt weekend, watching the kids on Sunday until dinner time. Yes….we were solving puzzles for two straight days and didn’t even finish by 5PM when Steve and I had to leave! Anyway, that aside, we got home to find Katherine running around and fired up to open her twelve gifts. She had been planted by the dining room table all day, counting her presents and telling my mom about the chocolate ice cream cake in the freezer. It took her about 10 minutes to rip thru the gifts and then she spent the next hour or so examining games and puzzles from family.

Saturday’s official party was more riotous, with kids running around making dragon masks, butterfly wings, fuse bead artwork and tiled flower pots. Katherine came home with artwork, with lots of help from mom. She also got lots of cool gifts (some to remain in the toy closet for a couple weeks) and had a great time.

Another preschool cold

We’re on our fourth preschool cold this year. Katherine brought it home and promptly gave it to her sister. For the last week, we’ve had runny noses, interrupted sleep (primarily Allison) and some general crankiness. Steve and I are fighting it…fingers crossed we don’t get the full blown cold. As a result of all this interrupted sleep, Allison has been getting up regularly during the night. Steve and I were just exhausted and decided to try formula at night. Allison got up only once last night at midnight to drink formula before waking up at 6AM. We’ll have to try this again. Maybe Allison will decide that formula isn’t worth waking up for and sleep through the night. If that doesn’t work, then it’s time to Ferberize!

Preschool Progress

As you can see, we had a wonderful Harvest Fest right before Halloween this year. I co-chaired the event…learning all about how to manage a preschool project! Anyway, Steve’s parents were able to attend and it was a very special event. Katherine was at first standing in the back of her class until Miss Julie pulled her forward to the stairs. Katherine was a trooper and sang “The Cat came back” and “Earth my body” while mimicking the hand motions of her classmates. It was way too cute.

Last Thursday we had our first student-led parent teacher conference with Miss Tammy. Katherine showed us almost 10 different works from around the classroom in an hour. First she led off with a water project that involved many steps (a) fill the pitcher (b) pour water into bowl (c) use dropper to put soap in bowl (d) use hand mixer to make suds (e) use sponge to wipe mixer (f) pour water into sink. She also showed us how she washes her face in class – which was hysterical – and how she sorts, matches various objects with different works. She’s learning different shapes by feel and stacking the pink cubes in order. She’s learning the basics of counting through 1:1 correspondence. Steve and I had a blast watching Katherine’s progress which Miss Tammy said was phenomenal. (Yes, we’re very proud parents!!) I’ll have to make a point of dropping by the classroom and watching thru the 1 way mirror more often.

Our Weekend

Over the last several months, Katherine has found it a bit difficult to let go of both Mom and Dad. Case in point we went to the movies in January and she howled when we left. This month we’ve made a real effort to have extended family take care of Katherine, so she becomes more comfortable in a non primary caregiver environment. Coincidentally, Steve and I played in the annual MS PuzzleHunt with a group of friends this weekend, which turned out to be a great opportunity for her to spend time with my mom. They had a great time – no separation anxiety, no tears or asking Mom or Dad to stay home. I asked her afterwards “did you have a good time?” and she nodded. After PuzzleHunt on Sunday afternoon, Steve’s mom dropped by and took Katherine out for a couple hours – again she had a blast. We feel like we’re making progress.

Speaking of PuzzleHunt, our team (Killer Bees) came in 4th place. Not bad given that 60 odd teams played… ๐Ÿ™‚

Becoming a “Big Girl”

We have the most interesting conversations with Katherine these days. A few days ago, Steve and Bisco were wrestling and Katherine declared “Mama play with Bisco.” Listening from the kitchen I heard the following exchange…

Steve – “Mama is carrying the baby right now. She can’t play with Bisco…”
Pause
Katherine – “Mama put baby in car seat. Mama play with Bisco…”

She is also very proud to be able to do the things that we take for granted, like spitting. Now after we brush teeth, she takes her little plastic cup, tries to gargle and aims for the sink. She makes it most of the time. Sometimes her PJs get a little damp before bed.

Pie Book

Katherine now goes to the library every week for Story time and the ritual of picking out and returning library books. The first couple times we had to keep explaining the concept of borrowing books and how she has to keep the paper covers on. Now she gets it and really enjoys reading different books. On one of our first trips, I picked up a book called Sweet Dream Pie because it was written by the same author who wrote Silly Sally – a favorite book. The “pie book” is for a bit older children, and it’s story line is a bit fantastic; however, it’s now on Katherine’s hot list of books including Officer Buckle and Gloria as well as The Old Woman who ate a Trout (Pacific NW version of the spider book). She’s memorized her favorite parts of these books (like all the sweet ingredients that go in the pie!) and requests to read them again and again at night. Before her nap we hear her dragging her books into her junior bed and the thump of the books on the floor when she’s done with them.

Katherine stands up (with a little help)

Katherine has her First Sleepover

We played in our annual PuzzleHunt contest with friends and co-workers this weekend. As part of this contest, we pulled an all nighter, and Patty spent Saturday evening at the house with Katherine. Katherine and Patty stopped by on Saturday to say hi and for Katherine to get a quick snack. Christine drove home briefly Saturday evening to put Katherine to sleep for night. While we missed Katherine terribly during the weekend, it was nice to spend time with friends pursuing the type of activities we used to engage in prior to having Katherine. It’ll be good to spend extended time with her this coming extended weekend.

Katherine stands up (with a little help)

We discovered this past Friday that Katherine can now pull herself up from sitting to standing position. We took turns holding on to her hands, and she would push down on our hands and wobbly pull herself to a standing position. Although she had been pulling herself up lately, we had been helping her a little bit. For the first time, she did it on her own successfully, and spent the remaining portion of the evening and next morning practicing her new skill. She was extremely excited. ๐Ÿ™‚