A Girl.

I believe that our household is an excellent case study in the notion that gender-related personality attributes are innate, not taught.  Honestly, there isn't much "girly" to do in our house.  We are super-loaded in gender-neutral baby and toddler toys, and all things boy for the preschool sect.  Accordingly, my daughter loves playing cars and making truck sounds.

But make no mistake, she is a girl.

Exhibit 1: Painted Toes.

She been noticing and pointing and my painted toes for quite some time.  And then one day, as I sat down on the bathroom floor to begin painting my own toenails, she walked over, took a look and sat right down next to me.  She sat very still and watched very intently as I worked.  She even allowed me to touch them up with a Q-Tip.  The next time, as I finished the painting, she reached for the blow dryer.  And she even held her foot out with pride to Gommy to show off her beautiful toes.

Exhibit 2: Shoes.

Again, the obsession started several month ago.  While Sam enjoyed lining them up and moving them around as a toddler, Annabelle's enjoyment of shoes is much more fashion-oriented.  Any shoe that she finds on the floor she will try to put on.  Sometime she is even successful.  Sometimes she can even take a few steps!  She asks for them all the time.  Yes, although she doesn't have many words, "Shoe" is definitely one of them.  You can only imagine her excitement when I pulled out her new sparkly Toms!

Exhibit 3: The Finger

So I guess that I do hold up my finger in a "warning" position when I am telling her no.  So I guess that she has caught on.  So sister-child has started wagging her little index finger at other children when they do something that does no please her.  She wagged that finger at a child who tried to use her toy at swim lessons, and she wagged her finger at a friend who tried to take her turn on the slide.

Exhibit 4: The Cuteness.

Ok, This has nothing to do with personality, but I mean come one.  This is one stinkin cute little girl!

SHINE Like Stars for God!

The week after soccer camp it was that time of year again - Vacation Bible School!  I know that it is a ton of work (admittedly much more work for many other people than for me), but I really do love the whole week.  I love spending time with other moms/friends during the week, I love feeling purposed with a job to do, I love the high energy of the week, I love the lessons taught.  Most of all, I love watching the kids learn about and worship God.

Which is why I loved my job again this year.  For the second year I was "stage manager" for the big opening and closing productions in the sanctuary each day.  Sounds like much more work than it is (again, for me).  Someone else wrote the scripts and the songs and did the scenery and made the slide shows.  I ran copies, handed out binders, gathered props, directed the "motion girls," wrote cue cards and pulled falling pieces of scenery off of the motion girls (don't worry, we used copious amounts of painter's tape the second time).  And while I was overseeing everyone else's performances, I watched hundreds of children and youth grow more and more riveted in the stories of our pretend journey through space and our real journey towards the one true star of the bible, Jesus.

And this year, I also got to watch Sam and his little buddies.  As Pre-K's this year they got to come to the sanctuary for the opening and closing and then participate in the preschool program throughout the morning.  I watched these kiddos, many of whom have been in class together since they were 3 months old sing, dance and play during the songs.  I watched them recite their memory verse - and they can't read, so you know its from memory!  I watched them grow fearful and excited as the week's plot unfolded.  And it was all so. much. fun. to watch.

I'm not kidding about the fearful part!  On day 1 our actors, who also happen to be the "youth guys" and best friends, executed and trust fall from a balcony 7 feet in the air.  I had to go hold a few hands in the front row as I saw little lips start to quiver and eyes being covered by little hands.  By morning 3 it was evident that we needed a quick talk, so the 4's and 5's were held back.  Our Children's Ministry Director brought the actors out without costume, showed them there were no real buttons on the cardboard space station controls, and reinforced the idea of make-believe.  It was all so exciting, and it was just a little hard for them to understand which parts of the script were real and which weren't.  Precious little tender hearts!

Sam loved it and totally owned it this year.  While he was happy to help with my set-up each morning, he was more excited to go sit with his class.  He learned the preschool bible verse in his class, and picked up the rest of the verse, that the older kids learned, in the opening and closing.  He mostly told me about the games and snacks each day, but when prompted he would speak to the bible stories as well.

And the music - the only word here is obsessed.  Honestly.  He requests it in the car, for nap time, he turns it on in his room for play time.  He stands on his bed, as if it were a stage, to sing and do the motions.  We listened to it for - literally - hours on end during our road trip last week (now Chris will sing it, too.  Hahaha).  This is no small thing - the child is very particular that music is only for the car and that he decided who is allowed to sing and when.  Perhaps all that is about to change...

Oh, and now he'll tell me, "I'm into space."

I must add that I am very impressed with the work done by our church staff this year.  They chose to write their own curriculum, which is a HUGE amount of work.  There are skit scripts, bible lessons, snacks, games, science experiments (which must reinforce the day's message!), station scripts, etc.  And they wrote and arranged music, produced a CD, designed and logo and t-shirts, etc etc etc.  That on top of all of the work that goes into VBS if you buy pre-designed curriculum.  Wow.  God is good to have placed us in such an amazing church!

Soccer Camp

In the spring, when I was super-emotional about moving, one of the things that I feared was a looong HOT summer in a new area with few friends close by and nothing to do.  Yes, we have a pool, but one can only swim so many hours of the day.  So I started planning and researching and scheduling to find things for us - which mostly means Sam - to do.  We invited friends "out" to the new house to play, we attended an early summer bible study, swim lessons, and of course there were the trips.  And Sam went to soccer camp!

Having very little exposure to the concept of camp, Sam really thought he might be sleeping there.  Even after I explained that the little kids only go for 1.5 hours a day, when we arrived he asked where the big kids sleep at the camp.  Insert explanation of week-long, activity-related summer "day camps" here.

Yes, so my friend mentioned a soccer camp back at our old gym, I googled it and found that there was a location in Katy.  And it was $15 cheaper than the in-town camp!  Signed him up.

He was very excited and he really did have a very good time each day.  Of course Mommy and Annabelle, who thought they'd be dropping him off each day, were a little too hot on the sidelines, but I enjoyed watching him, too.  The camp was sponsored by a league in Katy and run by a British-based company, so all the coaches had fun accents.

Sam's coach was great with the 4-5 year olds.  She had a nice balance of gentleness and get-over-yourself-ness that is totally appropriate for the crowd transitioning from preschool to elementary school.  He was one of the youngest ones in his group, but he held his own pretty well.  And he didn't cry when someone kicked his ball away, and yes that happened a lot.  To be fair - he did cry when they tried to switch hi to the other coach's group, so they let him stay.  I was embarrassed, but by Friday, actually really glad he did it.  The other coach was NOT good with that age group - Sam could sense it!

They play fun drills that involved surfing, superheros, monsters and sharks.  They play quick one-on-one battles and worked up to two-on-two.  Sam looked good in his individual skill work, but will need some guidance to really go after it in a game setting.  And he'll need improved focus, but that is true in EVERY aspect of his life right now.

As part of the registration fee each kid received a jersey and a ball.  The coaches wrote names on all of the identical balls first thing.  And then 30% of day 1 was spent listening to "she has my ball!" and "which one is mine!"  I told Sam on morning 2 that it didn't matter whose ball he used, just use one and we'll make sure we go home with yours at the end.  He was fine with that, others still struggled.  So Tuesday night we were given instructions to decorate the balls - no 2 alike!  Problem solved.

At the end of it all he got a certificate and a t-shirt and got right in the mix with all the big kids and teens at the closing ceremony.

And now he is registered for a soccer team this fall.  Organized sports, here we come!

Hilton Head Island 2013

We did it, we survived another one of our marathon drives.  This time it was 17 hours-ish (each way) to Hilton Head Island for a beach vacay with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law and niece.  11 People, 5 bedrooms, 7 days.  Lots of fun.

They stopped renting out the house we used to stay in, so we had to find a new one.  While there were things we missed about the other one, there were two things that made this one a winner.  Item 1: The bunk room.  Molly wasn't ready to join the party yet, but my kids slept in there together.  They probably didn't sleep as much as they would have if they were on their own, but they weren't in our room and THAT was a beautiful thing.  Plus, Molly and Sam really enjoyed climbing all over the beds, up the ladders, and playing "Bed" together.  I mean, how sweet is this:

Items 2: The view.  Its not an oceanfront house, but some skilled design allowed for beach views from a couple of rooms, including a nice balcony.  Not too shabby my friends, not too shabby.  And a nice short walk to the beach with all the short people and their gear ;-)

The beach.  We have two little beach bums in our house.  I am so very thankful!  Sam was in his element from the moment his toes hit the sand.  Every time we went down there he was non-stop, moving from one activity to the next without more than 30 seconds to pause in between.  There was football throwing with the boys and sandcastle building with mommy.  There was wave jumping and paddle ball with Papa and tide pool swimming with Baby Belle.  There was "beach wrestling" with Uncle George and Shark Spotting with the entire beach.  I'm not kidding, but more on that later.  The boy would get knocked down HARD by a wave - hard enough that I'd hurry over to pull him out of what I was sure was a near-drowning situation - and he'd pop up laughing.  He always wanted to go deeper.  And oh, there are treasures to be found on the beach!

 

Annabelle developed a real appreciation for playing in the water on this trip!  Those little tide pools that appear when the tide heads out were her very favorite spot.  The water gets all warm and its shallow enough for her to be on her own.  She found a little slide she liked to use to get in, and enjoyed the challenge of climbing out at the steepest part.  She would sit, walk, splash and crawl.  She even demonstrated a self-taught (assuming she learned through observation) skill for bubble blowing in the water!  Don't get me wrong, she also enjoyed the big ocean - so fun to have grown ups help you fly over the waves.  She would run towards them, too!  And she also enjoyed digging and filling her buckets.

The pool didn't get quite as much love this year.  Everyone enjoyed it just fine, but there were no elaborate games, or even really any times when all of us were out there at once.  I have no pictures of the pool.  But Sam did display his new swimming skills and Annabelle enjoyed floating in Molly's raft, and throwing the rockets to the bottom, announcing "Uh-Oh" and demanding that someone retrieve them so that she could repeat the activity.  The adults enjoyed lounging pool-side during nap time.

We did head out on the Island a few nights.  Once we went to "the place where the cook right in front of you" (Kurama, the Japanese Steak House), which was a huge hit with both of my children.  Turns out Sam is quite adept with the kiddie chop sticks (he calls them pork chops, and asked for a pair recently when I served pork chops for dinner) and that my daughter love hibachi shrimp.  One night we went to The Wreck of the Salty Dog, where the kids enjoyed some type of street performer outside the restaurant so much that it was difficult to get them to eat.  We're talking tutu's, hula hoops, wigs, silly songs and more.  And of course we did Harbor Town for dinner at Crazy Crab and a performance by Greg Russel.  My preschooler sat on this stage this year!  Yes, I was a few feet behind him, but he was up there, paying attention, listening to the songs and having a good time with it.  He's really getting into music for the first time, and its fun to watch.  Annabelle played in the grass during the show, but she had fun with that.  Oh, and Greg talked to me.  He asked who in the audience had come as children and was now back as a parents, and of course Kristen and I raised our hands.  He pointed to us and noted that we hadn't made it too far (still sitting on the edge of the stage with our preschoolers) and asked if we were nannies or moms.  Ha!  If only I traveled with a nanny!

We did a lot of hanging at the house as well.  The kids played cars and princesses, and poor Annabelle was constantly having something stolen from her by the two opinionated first-borns of the group.  Sam even dressed up in a princess outfit because mommy failed to bring a police outfit.  The kiddos did group bubble baths in Gommy's giant tub, and Sam participated in Molly's story time every night.  The grown ups played games, some nights in a much more slap-happy manner than others, and caught up on TV. 

Two anniversaries were celebrated, as well!  Gommy and Papa only got a key lime pie as recognition of theirs (and only after Kate stole their forks!), but Chris and I actually got to go out on a date to a fancy restaurant while the other 6 adults fed our kids and put them to bed.  Ahhh.

In order to optimize the timing of our return trip, the Hunnifords and Stegmillers didn't leave the Island until after lunch on Saturday.  The left us some time to kill once the house had been packed up, so the 7 of us hit Harbor Town again.  This time we got to climb the light house and play on the really awesome playground they have their now.  We hit up Hilton Head Diner for lunch (Sam went twice that day.  He got to join the early-leavers for their breakfast there as well.  He sat down with us and said, "Hmm, what should I order this time?!").  The table split an order of Oreo Pancakes, which was an excellent decision.

 

Oh!  I promised more about the shark watching.  I tell ya, this was the year of drama - thankfully always near us, but not us!  One day we heard an ambulance getting closer and closer, finally we realized it was on the next street over and they were heading to the beach path on foot with stretcher and equipment.  We used the excuse of "Our Old People Are Down There, What If It's Them" as a reason to send Matt and Kate to find out what happened.  Poor man tripped in a tide pool and tore his Achilles tendon.  We saw another ambulance at one of the restaurants, turned out a guy had a seizure!  And finally, there was sharky.  Probably 3-4 feet, so shallow that the water was only calf-deep.  It was Wednesday when we first saw him, us and the mound of people that followed him up the beach, yelling at fellow swimmers as we went.  My dad motioned to one guy to pull his daughters out - he saw the crowd and didn't know why, but he started moving FAST.  We ended up seeing sharky several more times, so after that we were on high alert when anyone was in the water.  One time Uncle Matt swooped in and grabbed Annabelle when he spotted the swimmer.  Frightened SamMan a bit, but we'll still credit Matt with the save.  My first time ever seeing one in person, so it made me nervous.  They are so shinny! 

 So there we have it, Hilton Head Island 2013.

 

A Swimmer, or Two

Sam can swim.

How about that?  Sam can swim!  No, he does not have a beautiful, competition-ready stroke.  No, he can not get in the pool unattended.  But YES, he can get himself across the pool, face in the water, safely to the other side.  Yes, he can swim to the bottom of the pool to retrieve a toy.  Yes, he can float on his back.  Yes, he can turn from his stomach to his back when he needs a breath.  Yes, he can jump off the side and swim to the wall.  Yes, he can do a somersault in the water.  Yes, he can dive.  Wait, he just thinks he can.  Fortunately he thinks belly flops are fun.

These are large accomplishments for the boy.  At the end of last summer's swim lessons he could move around the pool as long as he was firmly attached to his noddle.  Take the noodle away and he was once again helpless.  He had little confidence under the water, preferred to swim with his head above.  He never really got the hang of the arms.  He would NOT float on his back.  He was capable, but something wasn't clicking.

This year we signed up with Houston Swim Club.  I'd seen success with friends in the past, and I am now 100% sold on their methodology of teaching small people to swim.  You can watch a video on their website that explains how it works, but the gist of it is this: they ring a bell and your kid walks through a door to a pool area where he meets a teacher that you've never spoken to.  He takes a class while you watch through one-way glass (the kids can't see you) until they deposit your child at the exit door, lollipop in hand, 30 minutes later.

Our first day was probably the busiest day I have ever seen at this place - loud, dark, and crowded in the observation room, the boy was visibly nervous.  I encouraged and comforted and explained and nearly cried myself when I showed him to the door.  Then I almost broke protocol and went in after him when he slipped past a lifeguard and went the wrong way around the pool, unable to find his class.  He looked lost and scared.  Finally a guard scooped him up and carried him to the right spot, and he was fine from there on.

Sam is two months into his lessons and he earned his Guppy and Goldfish ribbons, earning him a place in a Dolphin class.  ("I'm a dolphin now, so I can dive!"  <>  huge belly flop).  He is comfortable with any of the teachers and struts around the pool like he owns it.  

I would be amiss if I did not note that there is, of course, added motivation and opportunity for Sam this year: our back yard pool.  While I'm sure he would have made progress in the program regardless, swimming every day certainly helped.  In fact, I can point to one single day in our pool as the one where Sam learned to swim.  It was a Saturday, and he told me that he wanted to try himself.  He made a conscious decision to put into practice all that he had learned at his lessons.  It was the first time he said he could do it without me in the water, and he did.  I can't wait to see where he goes from here!

We have yet to start lessons for the little lady, mostly because I can't decide which kind I want to do.  There are mommy and me options (not sure you get anything out of these), and the kind where they teach your baby how to back float (some great successes, but also some seriously traumatized children).  Even without lessons, we suddenly have a second water lover on our hands.

I think something clicked for Annabelle on vacation.  She spent a great deal of time hanging out in the tide pools during low tide and she grew rather confident playing around in 6-12 inches of water.  She even demonstrated her ability to blow bubbles in the water - a skill learned 100% through observation as no one in the house had ever thought to teach her!

Gone are my days of allowing Sam to swim while Annabelle and I hang on the side.  She displays a growing amount of displeasure they longer he is in and she is not.  She likes to "jump" off the side and "fall" off the step.  She likes to motor around the pool.  She does not mind at all being dunked under water.  She giggles constantly.

She can't actually do anything, of course, but it is a true joy to watch her have so much fun.

So the backyard pool?  Probably the best decision we made in purchasing a new home.  Yesterday i asked Sam, "Do you want to move to a house without a pool?"

"NO!  Why would you say that?!"

4th Of July

We had a lovely 4th of July this year.  Really, I'm not sure I would have changed much about it!

We began the day by decorating two small bikes.  I think we did a pretty nice job!  The pinwheels on front were great - the spun the whole time the kids rode.

A little before 10 we peddled down the road to line up for the bike parade.  We met up with other neighborhood families at the park to parade down on of the main drags through the neighborhood in true patriotic style.  The kids got to check out a fire truck (the lead vehicle) and a police car (the sweeper).  Of course there was no way that Annabelle would make the full way on her too-big-tricycle, so Daddy happily bailed with her at the turn off to our house.  Sam and I pressed on, all the way to the pool (which you may refer to as 1. The Big Pool, 2. The Swim Team Pool or 3. The Pool That You Go To.  Any of those will differentiate it from the pool in our back yard).  Believe it or not, Sam finished almost at the front of the pack, I'm pretty sure almost 10 minutes ahead of some other riders.

Sam and I swam at The Big Pool for the first time, for an hour, by ourselves.  We had so much fun!  I love swimming with Baby Belle, too, but sometimes its fun to just play with a big kid.  There was a DJ, snacks and a fun crowd to celebrate the day.

After lunch, some good naps and a small list of to-do's (its amazing how having a party can motivate you to get things done) we welcomed some friends over for a pool party.  It was mostly our old community group, the one we hosted for 6 years at our old house, with a few additions.  It felt good and "right" to have our community group in our home once again.

We swam, chatted, grilled, ate, the kids played.  The kids even played inside while the parents chatted outside.  Glory!  We let the kids try out some sparklers, which are not nearly as cool when its not dark out yet.  But bedtimes were upon us, and most were going to work the next day.

Once everyone was gone I told Chris that the one thing I missed was fireworks.  Just a few minutes later we started hearing some go off in our neighborhood.  Then we heard some close - really close.  As in 10 feet from our driveway.  GOOD NEWS!  In the burbs there are very few rules about fireworks and you can set them off in your street!  So we watched our neighbors set off their stash, and some from a few streets over.  Next year we may even get a supply of our own...

Happy 4th of July!

Wipes

I bought baby wipes today.  I understand that this is not generally considered to be a blog-worthy accomplishment.  After all, I have small children and wipes are very much a part of our every day existence.  However, I feel the announcement becomes a little bit more interesting when I tell you this:

Today was the first time that I purchased baby wipes since before we potty trained Sam.

That was 21 months ago.  Really, I'm not kidding.  How, you ask, is that possible?  Because some lovely friends threw me a Diaper and Casserole Shower when I was pregnant with Baby Belle.  And because its hard to know how many of what size diapers a child will need before she is born, many of my very intelligent friends brought wipes.  You can never grow out of wipes.

So here we are 16 months into Annabelle's life and we just ran out of wipes.  Its actually possible (oh please, let it be possible) that the shower gifts supplied 50% of the wipes she will use in the entire course of her diapered life.  Not too shabby.

For the record, we also received about 5.5 months worth of diapers from that shower.  As well as almost two weeks worth of dinners that went into our freezer.  And a few cute gender-neutral clothing and lovie items.  So to any moms prepping for their second child and thinking they don't "need" a shower (which of course, you don't) - you might consider going this route!