Santa Claus Has Skills and Other Things

Yesterday, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and as the Grinch was going back up the chimney, Audrey asked me how Santa got back up the chimney. I told her that going down was the easy part, but getting back up must be more difficult. She said very matter-of-factly, "Santa has skills." =)

Separately, Audrey now knows how to tie her shoes. I am so proud of her! I intentionally bought her new school shoes with laces instead of velcro so that she would learn to tie. She hasn't actually worn the shoes yet (saving them for the first day of school), but she put them on last week to practice tying. We went through it about three times with me still pretty heavily involved in the process. Today, she put them on again and I tried to show her. She said, "No, no, Mommy, I can do it." And she did. Amazing!

On Monday, we went to Sesame Street in Pennsylvania. We stopped to see Iain's Aunt Siz on the way (the Grinch movie is courtesy of her; thanks, Aunt Siz! =) ). We had a great time, as always, and Kai would walk toward her and throw himself on her. He does this with us regularly but I've never seen him do it with anyone else. Very cute!

We had a great time at Sesame Place, but the rides were closed a couple of time due to crazy thunderstorms that would roll through and then disappear as quickly as they arrived. Here are a few pix.

Kai pushing the girls; he's very strong

Kai was happy until the horse started moving

We meet the Count!

The girls' favorite ride of the day

Kai's fave part of the day: the kids' pool

Leaving the park; it was a bit wet

From tonight, just before getting ready for bed

 

Yesterday

Days honestly don't get much better than yesterday.

We started the morning at Audrey's soccer class, where she kicked her first ever goal during the mini-scrimmage at the end. She didn't like when everyone clapped for her, but I think now she's feeling pretty proud of herself.

We got home and Aunt Alicia and Uncle John had a little Skype-birthday-party for Avery, which she loved.

We ate lunch in a very haphazard way while Kai was sleeping (Iain and Audrey on the floor, working on Audrey's Dora-my-first-sewing-project, Avery running around pretending she was the tooth fairy and delivering notes and pennies to everyone).

When Kai woke up from his nap around 1, we left the house and did not re-enter a building until 7:30 last night (and only then because we really had to give the kids baths and get them in bed). It was in the high 70s yesterday with a warm breeze and the kind of day where you don't ever want to think about going inside.

We started by taking Avery's new fishing pole down to the stream next to our house with some bread and a bucket. We fished and waded in the water and chased Kai and clambored down banks to get our hook unstuck and washed off muddy news from climbing back up the muddy bank for about an hour. We didn't catch anything, had tons of fun, and decided to try another stream between home and the birthday party we were headed to later in the afternoon.

We drove past a little road, turned down, and found this beautiful stream down in the bottom of a deep ravine. It felt like we were long-gone from civilization, although we were only 1/4 mile or less from DC's urban sprawl. A little more fishing (no catching of fish), some scrambling across rocks, waiting for bugs to fall down the little waterfall (Avery was especially interested in not leaving until she saw the bugs go overboard, which unfortunately never happened), and more chasing of Kai. He can't stand to be held and doesn't really care that the only thing he has to crawl on are slippery rocks or mud. =)

We were there for another hour then headed to the birthday party, which was at a park. Very low-key, plenty of food, super playground (as an aside, I am an expert on all things playground these days, so when I say "super" playground, you should take my word for it ... big enough for Audrey and Avery to have fun, small enough that Kai also can have fun and will not immediately seriously injure himself, I can see all 3 of them at the same time, shady, close to clean bathrooms,...). Anyway, we had dinner, saw some friends, and just played. Outside. In the beautiful outside. Kai also thinks he's now big enough to go down a slide by himself. He was helped into thinking this the first time when he sat down at the top of the slide (which he's done before, but in the past has then turned around). Yesterday, when he sat down, Avery was behind him and just pushed him down and yelled "Yay, Kai! Mommy, did you see Kai slide by his self?!" She was so proud (I was terrified) and although I was watching the whole thing go down from about 4 feet away, there was nothing I could do about it (maybe I should reconsider my designation of this as a "super" playground). =) Anyway, he laughed the whole way down, ended unharmed, and the next time he got himself to the top of the playground (this time to the very top where the tall twisty slide was), he sat down and just scooted himself more and more until he slid down. Iain was there, watching closely and then grabbed his arm as he started sliding. Kai thinks this is great fun, but I'm a little worried about Monday when Iain is not with us to be his personal chaperone and I don't have long enough arms to rescue Kai from the slide, Avery from the climbing net, and Audrey from the monkey bars at the same time. =)

We finally got home around 7, but as noted above, no one wanted to go inside. So we got out the bikes and took a walk. Kai was going for a walk anyway ... he's turning into a little runaway ... so we needed to catch him. =)

Headed to the stream

Finding a leaf

Leaving town

Audrey fishing

Avery getting ready

Avery's first catch -- a heart-shaped leaf!

2 random things

Kai LOVES to turn lights on and off. I had forgotten this stage and it's so cute. He also loves to turn off the master switch on the power strip of the computer at church (I help with the finance stuff there). He is silent and fast. This was cute the first time. Not as much anymore. =)

Audrey cannot wait to lose her first tooth. She keeps asking me when it will fall out. None are even loose yet, so I think we have a while.

McDonalds and Starbucks

If you know me well, you can probably guess which of these two my children know better. McDonald's is still a treat to them, but they have been there way more times than they have a Starbucks. With that in mind, two funny and separate quotes from today.

As we are driving past a well-known coffee establishment, Audrey says, "Look, Mommy, a Buckstar!" :)

At the grocery store today, we were in the ice-cream aisle and Avery shouted, "Oooh, Mommy, let's get that ice-cream that's brown, white and pink." I told them it was called neapolitan and had 3 flavors. Fast forward to tonight and I told them we would have ice-cream after they put away their folded laundry. As they were coming down the stairs, I heard Avery tell Audrey, "The ice-cream we're having isn't just TWO flavors. It's actually called a McDouble and has THREE flavors!"

Avery is 4!

Yesterday was Avery's birthday. Originally she wanted to have a party at home with just family but a few days ago, decided she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's with our next-door neighbor, Anders, and another friend, Ruby. She had a super time (Anders and Ruby were there with their dads, and I think the 3 dads may have had just as much fun!). =)

She told me earlier in the day that she didn't "want to see the man that lives there." So when it was cake time and they announced that Chuck E. was coming out, she hid under the table. She wouldn't come out until we asked the party hostess to have Chuck E. change his plans and not come to her party. =)  FYI, Wednesday night is an awesome time to go to Chuck E. Cheese ... there's pretty much no one else there!

She and Audrey got to go inside the ticket-blaster and grab tickets. They had tons of fun!

Avery is such a sweet girl with tons of spunk. It is impossible to be in a room with her for 5 minutes and not smile at something she says or does. She told me a joke yesterday: "Mommy, why did the elephant sit at the table?" "I don't, know, why?" "Because he was hungry!!" Peals of laughter from her followed, and the whole thing just cracked me up.

She's very proud to be 4 and when I told her that she was going to turn 4 in the middle of the night (she was born around 1am), she couldn't believe it. She was so ecstatic.

Here are a few pix from last night (the girls decorated the cake; Avery's request was a "B" in the middle (for birthday, in case you're wondering like I was) surrounded by circles):

Some pictures

I know. No pictures for 2 months. I do have some, split between 2 cameras and 2 other videocameras. In the last 2 months, the kids and Iain have been to Grandma and Grandpa's for a visit, my mom and I went to Alaska, we've had a month-long houseguest (a college girl from our church), John & Alicia came to visit, we've set-up and torn down our backyard pool, been to about a zillion parks, thrown a surprise birthday party for Iain, and had tons of fun. Here are a few pix from one of the cameras (I will have to go locate the other 3)...

 (this is not our guinea pig ... only babysitting)!

Daily Occurrences

I am kicking myself for my lack of posting lately. So many cool things have happened and I haven't documented any of them. In an attempt to help myself remember 30 years from now, here's a brief snapshot of some of the things the kids are doing:

Kai: Pushes the glass front door open and lets himself out into the front yard. (Don't worry, Grandma and Mim, we mostly remember to secure this door now).

Avery: Loves to hide from us. If we leave the room and come back 20 seconds later, she's gone. She waits about 5 more seconds then jumps out from the under the table and yells, "Surprise!"

Audrey: Is finally getting more excited about starting kindergarten. She has all of her supplies purchased and, with a few of her mom's genes, has organized them all in appropriate bags for taking to school. In another cue from her rule-following mother, a couple of weeks ago when I told her that she could take some to her classroom during the orientation and the rest on the first day of school, she looked suspicious and asked me, "is that what the rules say we have to do?"

Kai: Still uses crawling as his primary mode of transportation, but is taking more and more steps. He can pretty easily walk across the room if he's heading to Iain or I, but will rarely take more than about 4 steps on his own without encouragement.

Avery Is a reading machine. I can remember my family telling me that I could read at age 2. I didn't really believe them. Avery is about to turn 4, but in about the last 3 weeks, she has started picking up tons of books and just reading them to herself. Amazing!

Audrey: Her role as the oldest is really defining itself. She seems to understand that she needs to be patient and kind and set the example, and in the last few months, we've seen her mature in so many ways. Tonight, she went with Iain to buy a birthday present for Avery, something she decided she wanted to do and was genuinely excited about picking out something that Avery would really love. When Kai steals her markers, she doesn't get upset. She just finds something else for him to play with.

Kai: Honestly the happiest child and when Iain comes home each evening, Kai throws himself out of my arms to get to Iain while laughing all the way.

Audrey & Avery: They are practicing to sing with the other children in church in two weeks (My God is So Big and Better is One Day in His Courts). They both love to practice this for other people and will give a concert most anywhere. I think Avery may have a future in showbiz.

Kai: Still loves to swirl his hands in the toilet. Even (and maybe especially) if his sisters have forgotten to flush. Yes, yuck! But he's happy because then he gets to wash his hands, one of his other favorite activities (and if he can grab one of his sister's toothbrushes with his nasty hand before I can get the soap on it, even better).

Avery: Started tennis lessons last week. Came running off the court at the end with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen.

Audrey: In the middle of soccer lessons. She doesn't really like the game they play at the end because it's a free-for-all and she rarely gets a foot on the ball. But she LOVES all of the warm-ups and running through the cones and stopping the ball with her foot on top.

Allison: Broke her toe at gymnastics last week. Fell off the balance beam. The one that was lying on the floor. Genius.

Iain: Turned 36 last week. Continues to be the best husband ever! Children adore him.

McConnell Clan: Life is awesomely fast-paced and beautiful. Wouldn't want it any other way.

Skype and Other Things

I have to post this because I was feeling a little old tonight. I can remember getting our first dryer when I was 6 and our first microwave and dishwasher and VCR sometime after that. But tonight, Avery made me feel like I was really from a different century:

Me: Avery, do you want to skype Mim?
Avery: No. But Mommy?
Me: Yes?
Avery: When you were little, did you skype Mim?
Me: No, we didn't have skype when I was little. We had to either speak to people on the phone or see people in real-life.
Avery: Did you have cars?

Um, yes, Avery, we had cars when I was little. =)

Is it okay to lie to a pirate?

So a few weeks ago, Avery asked me if pirates really existed. I told her yes, but that they didn't look like the ones we see in cartoons, with patches over their eyes and peg-legs. She then asked what a pirate actually was. Audrey told her that it's a mean person who steals your money if you're on a boat.

We have talked about getting a boat one day, so Avery looked a little nervous. Audrey told her not to worry, that we just wouldn't take any money on our boat with us, so the pirates wouldn't be able to steal anything. I told her that we might need to take some money, because we might want to buy lunch while we're on the boat. Audrey thought about that for a second and said, "well, that's okay. We'll just hide our wallet in the bottom of our backpack and then when the pirates ask for our money, we'll tell them that we don't have any. It's okay to lie to a pirate."

So this was the first moment I can remember where I felt a little torn about what to teach them. Most of me wanted to clearly say that it's never okay to lie. But then I thought that, hmmm, maybe we would indeed lie to a pirate. Maybe not about our wallet, but perhaps about things that involve the saftey of our families.

So the question: is it okay to lie to a pirate?