Snippets from home....

Being around these kids is hilarious and some day they will be whiney unreasonable teenagers with somewhat more adult behaviors so I'd like to write down some of the sillies that they do just being at home on a Thursday and Friday without school.....

*Sylvie has covered her legs, arms, and fingers slowly with bandaids over the past 2 days. Every time she walks by she has more.....

*Logan randomly got bored, rolled the legs up on his jammies, then rolled them down and walked around like a duck with his jammies and undies around his ankles.

*They both fought over who would get to keep the yellow power ranger (with a skirt) long-term. As in their house when they are adults.

*Sylvie put makeup all over Logan. Logan tied Sylvie's dress. Sylvie got Logan's silverware. Logan got Sylvie a snack.

*Incessant fart jokes.

*Sylvie was showing me a castle she said belonged to mermaids. She flipped it around and showed me the living room, the bedroom for mermen and mermaids and the bathroom. Then she giggled and said she wondered how the mermaids pulled their tails down to pee. Then she said maybe there is a special hole on their tails for that. She's smart as a whip I tell you.

*We were watching a scene from Epcot where they have a globe and Sylvie wanted to know how we can tell what the earth looks like when we're standing on it. Logan and I said the astronauts see it. Logan said "but, that earth on tv is made of lights. The astronauts see the earth that is green and blue." So I asked him to clarify why it looks green and blue for Sylvie. He said the green is trees and grass, but "the astronauts are so far away they can't tell the difference between grass and trees." And then I explained the Ozone Layer to the kids. And then Sylvie told me she absolutely positively needs to go back to the Apricot (Epcot ball) and do the ride there. Soon.

*We're going away to a hotel with bunk beds and I showed the kids so they would be prepared. Logan helped me ease her mind about not being the kid to sleep on the top by reassuring her that all the ocean dreams happen on the bottom. Then Sylvie decided that princesses sleep on the bottom and Mermen hang out on top.

I love these kiddos!!!!! And as a side note, how the heck did they go from looking young to old in 6 months since the Disney trip!!!!

School-ish Evening

After a very physical day of running, playing, ballet and los Abuelitos, the kids played here and then easily transitioned into school-time. I found a great Kumon workbook for numbers and Sylvie flew through it. It's great practice writing and recognizing the numbers, with connect the dots up to 20. She did really well!

Logan found his Transformer Sight Words workbook and the tasks are complex but he's doing well with them. We also have some flashcards and he matched up all the upper and lower case letters. Dd, Pp, Qq and Bb gave him a bit of trouble, but to his credit, they all looked the same in this font to me as well!

Anyway, I love when they are feeling engaged in an activity, and if it's a learning one, even better. And since I took my thyroid pill later today my attention span is still here at 8 pm. Kinda crazy how much I notice the difference!

Feeling Sappy

.....and sad to see different phases of my kids' lives pass. They are growing up so quickly. Their awake hours are not 100% ours so they come home with all these things to tell us, show us, and make us laugh. Tonight both kids were showing us how they can do cartwheels, splits while in a handstand, and walk on their hands!!!!! After years of "My Gym" they are moving quickly through the ranks of Flying High Gym. Sylvie is in the kinder-stars class already, and Logan is moving up to the next level as well.

Miss Sylvie had her ballet recital that was just adorable and Logan is getting so good at golf. A huge piece of all these extracurriculars is my in-laws doing. They are doing the legwork, the signing-up, the paying and keeping the kids' spirits up about attending all of these lessons. It feels like the world is in front of them, they are being exposed to all these amazing things. In school they are just learning so much, given so many opportunities to better themselves, and push themselves. Even religion is coming into their vocabulary. And we are getting all the million "how does the world work" type questions from our free-thinkers.

They are real little people with real personalities and real goals. Things like "do I push for them to go to college or be happy with them following their dreams" and "Do I help them with their homework" are entering my mind. Today we were talking amongst the moms about when they get married and that person entering our families as "daughter- and son- inlaws." Not that these things are anytime soon, we have a virtual lifetime ahead of us. And so many experiences.

I was reading an article about the experiences of 2 French High School exchange students. They were saying in America we are pushed to think, to have ideas, to have an opinion. We have clubs, teams and so many ways to form the hours of our lives. I got Logan's yearbook and there are so many clubs to be joined as early as this upcoming year! The French students also spoke of America not having as strong of an educational base. I know it's not as important for life or all jobs, but I think having a general knowledge of life, culture, other places, other people, and current events, is important. I was at lunch with co-workers and some new interns and felt like I was discussing things others had never even considered experiencing. And they were all right here in Chicago. Maybe it's the fact that I lived elsewhere before, I appreciate what Chicago has, just as I voraciously ingested what Seattle had to offer, I want to soak it all in here as well. We got a list from the art department on what there is to do in the area and I plan to bring the kids to many of the places.

I feel our kids are lucky and blessed to have so many people, places, experiences and so much love in their lives daily.