Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex
Slew of Pictures
I finally got around to downloading a ton of pictures from our camera. ๐
You’ll see the kids diving off Ms. Suzi’s diving board and swimming across the pool, eating at the Mariners game, a bus trip to the Arboretum, Allison’s first day of school and a Storm Game.
Katherine is holding a signed Storm ball, which she got from a player during the pre-game player announcements…on the basketball floor. Way Cool!!
No…the kids don’t use their goggles anymore for swim lessons.
The Olympics and Katherine’s Scrapbook
I’ve been watching the Olympics just about every night, which explains my bleary eyes and tiredness in the mornings. This is probably because I have many fond memories of watching the games when I was a kid. I vaguely remember something about Mark Spitz when I was *really* young. And, I definitely remember Nadia, Olga and all the star gymnasts since 1976.
I suspect that Katherine will remember the 2008 Olympics for swimming and gymnastics. Thanks to TiVo, we’ve watched the big highlights of the games, and Katherine has been so impressed. She’s taken to flipping through our Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal to find swimming and gymnastics pictures. She’s also started her official 2008 Olympics Scrapbook. It consists of a dozen pages or so in a binder. The pages have carefully cut pictures glued to them…LOTS of glue. She’s got a cover page, a final page with the Olympic rings colored with dot paint and other art too. Tonight, she insisted on giving us the narrative of her book after dinner. She proudly told us about Michael Phelps and his 8 gold medals, Nastia Luikin and of course…Shawn Johnson.
Allison has gotten into this with her own scrapbook. Her pictures are a little more ragged, and some random newspaper copy has made it into her book. But, she’s very proud of her work. Allison also told my mom the other day, “Pau-Pau, you’re taller than Shawn Johnson!”
Katherine’s First Violin Lesson
My mom said that it’s payback time for all the violin lessons and practicing she endured when Sharon and I were kids. ๐
I took Katherine to her first lesson this Monday. We brought her rented 1/10 violin and her Suzuki Book 1. Katherine was very serious and listened to her teacher explain how to hold the bow. They worked on that for several minutes. Then she played the open E and A strings – four 16th notes and 2 quarter notes – “I’m a little monkey” – over and over again. The teacher kept checking her bow hand before every iteration. Frankly, while I was proud of her progress, it was a real exercise in patience and tolerance.
The good news is that I can coach Katherine using the teacher’s techniques. My goal is to get 5-10 minutes of practicing in daily for now. Biggest challenge is fending off Allison who is insisting on her own lessons (talk about clutching that bow! I could barely pry it out of her hand.)
Swimming Continues
We’re wrapping up our second week of swim lessons this week. Despite the rain during class, the kids are getting more comfortable swimming. Allison can now swim about 10-15 feet under water, kind of like a frog. She takes a big breath, pops under water, and then re-emerges on the other side of the pool. Katherine is still working on this skill – often standing up to take a breath every 5 or 6 feet.
On Monday, Allison earned her first red ribbon which states, “I swam the width of the pool.” Katherine earned another purple ribbon, “I dived off the diving board.” It was mayhem in the car afterwards; Katherine was SO bent out of shape that she didn’t get the red ribbon tool. Today, she managed once to get across the pool without standing up and got her red ribbon.
Both kids dived (belly-flopped) off the diving board and swam to their instructor at the end of class. Very cool.
I don’t know how to swim yet!
This is our second summer of swim lessons with Miss Suzi, who is a wonderful kids swim instructor. I took the kids this morning – both were super excited to hop in the pool and get going. Because Allison is now 3, she was able to join the class for bigger kids and Katherine. They started with kick board work and ended with the diving board. Katherine went first off the diving board, falling into the pool in diving position with Miss Suzi holding her. The instructor then backed up 20-30 feet for the next two kids, who dived off the board and swam to her. Next…we all heard Allison pipe up in her 3 year old voice, “I don’t know how to swim yet!!” The instructor then swam up to her, and she fell into the pool in diving position with assistance.
Allison’ sense of humor continues to be very quirky and unpredictable. The girls and I were working this afternoon on their workbooks. Allison flipped to a page that required her to know her vowels. The conversation went like this:
Mom: Allison, you know your vowels right?
Allison: No…
Mom: <starts to sing the AEIOU song from Leapfrog> AEIOU, we’re the vowels, we’re the glue, we stick words together, we’re very sticky letters
Allison: AEKIOU, We’re the vowels, we’re the glue
Mom: You mean I not K, right?
Allison: I can change the vowel song, can’t I?
Mom and Katherine: Uh No!!!
What else? Allison and Katherine are so excited to play with the neighbors’ kids. As a result, they can get rather zealous in their recruitment of other kids for playtime. Case in point…I was cleaning up after dinner tonight while Steve was watching the kids. I went outside to find Steve in the garage, Katherine on the driveway, and Allison’s bike next to the neighbors driveway. I ran across the street and found Allison standing in front of the neighbors door asking, “can you come out to play with us??”
Their favorite activity is biking up the cul-de-sac near our house and then zipping down the hill at full speed. Katherine is thankfully in control of her bike and uses her brakes well. Allison has decided the best way to descend the hill is to barrel down the hill full speed and then come to a screeching halt at the bottom of the hill. It’s just heart stopping…
Allison’s 3rd Birthday Weekend
Party planning began last month when I asked Allison what she wanted to do for her 3rd birthday. She said promptly, “bike on the driveway with my friends.” So, we planned a bicycle-themed party for little friends that consisted of:
– making foam license plates for bikes/trikes
– decorating butter cookies in the shape of bicycles, hearts, flowers
– pinning name on the road (pin the tail on the donkey)
– hitting a pinata
The kids had a blast decorating cookies. We had frosting, decorator frosting pens, and sprinkles on the table. The kids and adults used all the cookies and supplies – and took the cookies home with them.
Also memorable was our pinata. Steve hung it from his basketball hoop and provided the kids with a piece of PVC pipe. They must have each hit that pinata 5 or 6 times to no avail. So, he offered his baseball bat to Allison. Unfortunately, they whacked the pinata so hard it flew up and hit the basketball backboard. I think the swing also hurt Allison’s shoulder, and she cried for several minutes afterwards. Needless to say, one of the kids finally got the pinata down intact. The dads broke it apart for them.
Roller Queens
Since it is winter break, Patty took the kids skating while I had my violin lesson and worked on school stuff. Allison wore the smallest skates they had, and Katherine wore her new purple and pink roller skates. The kids had a blast, both skating by themselves. Allison apparently clomped around the rink occasionally falling down, and shook her booty to the music. Katherine says she only fell, “Four Times…but Allison fell a hundred times!” Patty had to peel the kids out of the rink. Needless to say, they were exhausted tonight. Katherine’s new favorite place is Skate King; she just adores it.
The Plan
Katherine decided this weekend to plan out our day. I’ll decipher the phonetic writing that she taped to the wall: “First, we will watch the weather forecast. If the forecast is rain, we’ll build a fort. Then Allison will take a nap. Then we’ll go swimming.”
We get lots of little pieces of paper with scribbles on them. For Valentine’s day, we received lots of “I Love You Dad and Mom” pieces of scrap paper.
Funny Moments
We get a lot of them these days. This morning, I found Allison in the TV room with Steve. I asked her to join me for breakfast downstairs. Her reply was hysterical, “I have stinky feet.” No reason or explanation given. But she felt strongly about it and reiterated it downstairs.
The kids and I made potstickers a couple weeks ago…really wontons since I didn’t have round wrappers. They were so excited to stir the filling. Allison must have dumped a ton of sesame oil in the filling, which I fished out. And, they each got their own tray with water bowls and a little filling to wrap. Katherine finally got the hang of it, as you can see. Allison made one correctly, thanks to coaching from Katherine and I. She was very imaginative with the rest. “Look Mama, I made a double double.” or “Look…I made a burrito!!”
This morning Katherine asked me in the car, “Mom, what’s a fault?” I guessed that this had to do with an earthquake reference (Busytown?). So, I asked her if she had heard of earthquakes. She launched into a whole explanation, “We put our hands on our heads and wait for the safety lady to hold up a sign….” Then upon being asked again, she said…”That’s when astronauts in space shake the earth!” My explanation of plates moving against one another probably didn’t sink in. But, she was very interested in my story of Loma Prieta.
Sunday with an E
Or, is it Sunda-e? Katherine went to a birthday party yesterday at Build-A-Bear, and it was just the bees knees. She picked the $10 bear, which allowed her to pick an outfit for the bear. I heard her ask the employee, “How much do I have left on my tag?” I told her later as we shopped, “Remember Katherine, you only have $10 to spend!” The reply was priceless, “Yes, Mama, I know…”
Swimming Picture
I have to include it in the blog because its just priceless. When Allison does ready-downs and swims in the water, she keeps her eyes open. The person to whom she’s swimming sees Allison bug-eyed coming up for air, often with a big smile on her mouth. You can see her in the ready-down position, where I’m about to let her go to swim to Steve. ๐
