I blame the fuzzy head that has come with my cold, but I neglected to document the second part of our March 5th adventure which was to stop and visit Zach’s grandmother. She lives in Seattle and the interesting thing about her house is that every inch of it is covered with plates, music boxes, cuckoo clocks, cups and saucers, and other collectables. Nicole’s eyes were wide with wonder as she looked around at all the pretty things on the walls:
Ila enjoyed looking around too:
Ila was particularly intrigued by this little music box with a bird in it:
Isaac thought that it was neat that you could walk around in a circle in the house. I took this little video of him showing how you could start in one room and walk around and end up in the same room through a different door:
Here’s his class picture for his school here in Washington: Also, he wrote me this letter at school one day. At first I wondered who “Kathliny†was and then I realized that it was me.
Here are the cards my kids made for their Grandma Cochran. I love children’s artwork, especially when they start drawing more detailed drawings. It’s a unique expression of what’s inside their brains.
Here’s Isaac’s letter. He struggles with writing, but he is getting better. Next is Charlotte’s. Her card is my favorite because it’s the most unique and creative. It is composed one piece of paper folded into a card.
Front: Middle: She asked me to write “I hope you’re having a good birthday†across the top. The pen mark in the middle is Nicole’s unsolicited addition to the card. She drew the forklift and then scribbled some blue on it that represents the wrapping paper. She asked me to make a word bubble that says “I think this is a forklift.†When she drew the box on the other side she said it goes from black to grey and then she drew a bow on top. She wanted me to write that there are bananas in the box. Back: Both pictures are of grandma opening her box of bananas. The yellow things are bananas. Once again, she dictated the text that she wanted in word bubbles. The green grandma makes me laugh because of the detail she added. That grandma is sitting on a box and has a stomach, bottom, and hair. She also has very long fingers.Nicole’s picture: As she drew, Nicole said the following things:
It’s Grandma!
an elephant!
grandpa Bryan
I drawed an elevator
a toy!
She want draw a monkey (Did you find all those things in there? I think the grandma is the circles, the elevator is some veritable lines on the opposite side and I can’t even guess which ones the others are)
And finally, Ila’s drawing: Nicole reached across to Ila’s picture a few times, so I can’t guarantee that every scribble is Ila’s.
Perhaps I was a bit hasty. I realized halfway through the haircut that I was in over my head. I have cut my girl’s hair before with no problems, but as I cut, I realized that I had been gradually slanting downwards. I tried to fix it and ended up cutting it shorter than planned. I had a terrible time trying to even out the back and the front. I almost Just quit and took her into a salon with her hair half cut (looking like it does in the picture to the left). I tried sitting her in front of a mirror and a movie, but she kept turning or tilting her head just as I was going to cut. Anyway, it took way too long, end ended up shorter than I had planned, and it looked choppy. And they have also said to me that Vampire Hair Treatment is not that costly so people with baldness or frequent hair fall can avail that treatment at affordable price.
When Ila woke up from her nap, I fed the kids and took them to a grocery store that had a salon next to it, but Nicole had a bit of a meltdown as we were leaving the store because I couldn’t fit her and my groceries in the cart and I decided that taking all my girls in for a haircut was just not going to work at that moment. So I still haven’t taken her in to fix it, but here it is.
Before:
After:
Charlotte looked in the mirror and shook her head from side to side and announced: “I like it because it has lots of angles!†She said her father would get home and see all the angles and laugh and laugh. That evening she proclaimed herself “angley hair Charlotte.â€
Zach has made some good arguments in favor of switching our online photo storage from Flickr to Picasa. I have not uploaded any pictures to Flickr since he has made this recommendation and now I’m woefully behind. I thought I’d share some recent shots here with commentary as I mentally prepare for the switchover.
With the move and all, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and play with the boy as much as I’d like. Remember how I mentioned his favorite part of the Smithsonian was when they had these Snap Circuits kits for him to play with? Well, I got him a set for Christmas, and we’ve been working together on them. Here are a couple of videos.
So I’ve taken a few fun videos recently, but neglected to share them, so here they are:
This video of Ila saying the word dancing and dancing was taken before the first step videos that I posted yesterday:
This is a fun one of Nicole falling asleep at the table:
At the end where it looks like she bumps her head and wakes up, she actually stayed asleep and I carried her over to the couch where she had a proper nap.
Here’s some of Charlotte’s dancing (and some singing):
Here is one of Nicole spelling her name:
This one features Ila spelling her name:
Here’s the longer version so you can see it in context:
Ok, I think I got that out of my system. I promise that next post will not be full of videos!
I usually get really excited for my children’s birthdays, but sadly, this move put a damper on everything. I did my best to make her birthday special. I took a break from trying to pack and tried to find ways to spend time with her during the day.
School was cancelled for bad weather, so Isaac was home all day with us. He wanted to start teaching Charlotte school things since she was turning 5. He started making worksheets for her as soon as he woke up and then helped her work on them.When Ila went down for a nap, we made chocolate ganache for her cupcakes. After frosting the cupcakes, we used the leftover ganache to make a graham cracker/banana/ganache birthday treat.We blew up 5 pink helium balloons with our helium tank. I tried to spend time with her as much as I could during the day. In the evening we had the dinner of her choice (pasta) and cupcakes.She also opened her presents. The following Saturday we had a little party for her with friends from her primary class and her second cousin Jackson. They played games, had a snack, played with dress-ups, opened presents, and had cupcakes.
Age = +6 months, weight = +1 lb 11 oz, length = +1 1/2 inches, head = +2.5 cm
Her length and weight were so low that they were well below the line (they don’t have a specific percentile for her). The doctor said it was normal for kids to dip and wished we were sticking around so that he could see where she was on the Chart next time. After testing her blood for iron content, he wrote her a prescription for Iron supplements.
Today Isaac was building Lego creations and wrapping them in paper for Charlotte’s birthday tomorrow. He said “I love Charlotte more than anyone else because I made her the most presents. I love her more than Grandma Bunny, Grandpa Bird, uncle Bryan, Grandma Cochran, Grandpa Cochran, . . “
I thought that was sweet. Isaac and Charlotte are the best of friends.
Ila seems to really like Charlotte, too. They are roommates and Charlotte is a good big sister to Ila. She likes to try to sing to her and comfort her sometimes at night when she cries. Here is a video of Charlotte making Ila laugh:
I am exhausted right now, but I expect to write more about Charlotte soon.
Did we mention that we’re moving to Seattle at the end of the month? I’m more than a little worried that I might not be all packed up in time, but turning my focus from parenting to packing results in things like this:
I thought Nicole had fallen asleep when I hadn’t heard from her for awhile. Apparently she rejected my nap idea in favor of her own idea which was to empty out all Isaac’s drawers and her clothing and books and then pour baby powder all over everything. She was so happy and proud of her little disaster that she galloped down the hall happily yelling “big, big mess!â€
What can I say, I adore my little Ila. Her sweet smiling face melts my heart and I love that she’ll let me hug and cuddle her almost any time I want. There’s nothing better than cuddling a sweet baby in your arms.
She says “ma ma,†“da da,†“iya†(Ila), “uh, oh†and “no, no, no.†The last one I think she picked up from Nicole because she sounds just like Nicole when she says it. She also makes a “meow†when she sees a kitty. She loves to play games where I make a noise and she repeats it or I repeat a noise or sound that she makes.
She crawls with ease and can walk along furniture. She likes to stand in a squat sometimes and can balance for a few seconds while standing straight. She also recently learned how to stand up in the middle of the room from her squatting position. She does not walk and I’m predicting that she’ll be my slowest walker.
She likes music and when she hears it she often dances by shaking her hands up and down or nodding her head. She likes to splash and play in the water, but is scared of the bath. I think it’s because I tried bathing her with Nicole one day and Nicole would not stop pouring water on her head.
Ila is unique from my other children in several ways. She’s more resistant to other people than my other children were. Most of the time if I’m holding her and someone reaches out their arms to hold her she will cry, bury her head in my shoulder and cling to my clothing. At one point she’d do that to people who just talked to her. If another adult is visiting the house, she acts as if the visitor’s presence is a threat of me leaving and becomes grumpier and clingier. When I sit on the floor and play with her, she often holds onto my clothing with one hand as she plays.
She loves the gals in the childcare at my gym and it astounds me that she accepts them so willingly. She usually doesn’t cry when I drop her off and she doesn’t cry and reach out for me when I pick her up. She will even wait contentedly in someone else’s arms while I finish signing her out.
Ila is also my pickiest eater to date. While all of my girls refused to take a bottle at some point, the other two girls accepted sippy cups. Ila is content to only drink milk from her mom. I have tried a variety of sippy cups holding my milk, formula, and cow’s milk and after weeks of setting them out for her and offering them to her, she finally took one sip yesterday. That was a huge improvement from crying at the sight of a sippy cup (which she did do seveal times). I’m still waiting to see if she’ll take a second sip.
Her favorite finger foods are Cheerios and Ritz crackers and she will only eat a few other things. She refuses to even taste any new food that I place on her tray. I’ve come to appreciate that stage where babies put everything in their mouth because it means that they actually taste new foods. She even rejected her birthday cupcake. She does like baby food, but has become very particular about which food. If she sees me try to feed her from a jar, she rejects the food before I get it to her mouth. Her favorite foods come in a little round plastic container. So if I want to fool her into tasting a new baby food, I have to put it in a plastic container or risk getting the spoon knocked out of my hand.
I plan to write more about her later, but for now you’ll have to settle for a short video. In this video you’ll see how she makes kissy noises (fish face) and hear her say her name:
Isaac loves to read. He enjoys reading books in bed, reading scriptures at night with the family and pretty much any words he sees. He has started reading billboards and signs everywhere we go. He’ll read the name of a restaurant or other such place and ask me what it is or say something like “what does see red, save green mean.†Our most interesting billboard conversation to date was on Sunday when he saw a sign that said “Stop Drinking.†He didn’t understand why they would want people to stop drinking and thought it meant to stop drinking anything (including milk and water). This sparked a rather lengthy conversation where I described all the ill affects of drinking alcohol and tried to be as honest as I could and he asked a lot of good questions like “why would anyone want to drink that†and “do you know anyone who drinks alcohol.â€
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Zach: There’s a bus coming
Isaac: If it’s 279 don’t hit it. . . Actually, if it’s going out to pick up kids or coming back from the school full of kids don’t hit it either.
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Charlotte (after learning about/eating a fortune cookie): I knew they had cookies, but I didn’t know they had cookies that could tell the future.
From Isaac: Isaac was originally going to write a chapter book about Grandpa’s birthday in which he surprised his grandfather by jumping out of the cake.
From Charlotte:
I wanted her to write her name on the back. She refused to write it and said that if she wrote her name on the back then her book would be fiction and she wanted it to stay nonfiction.
From Nicole: Nicole sang happy birthday as she colored, but stopped coloring when she recognized another opportunity to eat.
