March 28th What Sylvie has been up to

Sylvie has been doing all sorts of tricks. She has three new, oddly placed teeth. I keep thinking surely she will get a few more to fill in the empty spaces. Judging by her runny nose and slightly cranky self, At least one more is trying to come through.

She has been talking more and more. One of her new things is to get up onto a chair or bench and get stuck. Then she stands there calling "Get down! Get down?" increasing in desperation until you run to the rescue. Other words: dog, ball, ear, Dad, Jens, up, cow, toe. They all sound sort of similar, so you really have to hear them in context to know what she is talking about.

Playing the piano. She really likes to climb up on the bench and try out the keys. She plays for quite a while, and when she is done, she stands up on the bench and calls "Get down?" She also likes "singing" where she sort of hums a couple of notes over and over. She really likes it if you sing with her, and it is a great way to get her to open her mouth so I can look at her teeth.

Throwing a tantrum (!). It was pretty funny. I had to wake her up to pick Jens up from school on Friday and she was very displeased by it. She threw a fit while I was changing her diaper until I finally had to pin her to get a diaper on. She finally settled down in the car, but when we got to Jens's school, I got her out and set her on the ground to walk (my back has still been hurting, and the lump ways 30 lbs.!). She was furious. She held on to my pants and dragged herself on the ground so I couldn't walk, she screeched and had real tears. I picked her up, but she had to weep a little on the way in to get Jens, she was so indignant at her treatment.

Trying out new fashion looks (and talking on my camera lens)

March 28th What Jens has been up to

Playing in the back yard. The weather has been sunny and Jens has been out back, crushing pavers into little pieces, digging and hammering the dirt, and most notably, being a "Worm Keeper" (a title of his own creation). Being a worm keeper involves digging up worms, putting them into jars or buckets, then placing them in his worm house (built precariously from stacked pavers) so they "can be with their families." The worm house has only collapsed twice and only a few of his well loved pets have died under his loving care. We finally had to have a talk about how the thing worms love the very best is to be left in the earth.

Having play group. We have a fun bunch of little people Jens's age. This week play group was at our house, and you have never seen happier kids. They played and played outside, in the sandbox, on our little slide, with the dirt and dump truck, holding "Olympics" (one little girl won 9 gold medals!) and generally having a great time. We even had a little picnic snack.

Jens has been learning about the rain forest at school. He comes home excited about the animals and draws lots of pictures of them. Lately he has be pretending to be the animals. Here he is:

Being a howler monkey. This is accompanied by him howling "Hooowwwlll! Hooowwwlll!"

Being a 3 toed sloth. He kind of scoots himself slowly along the "branch" when he does this one.

Being a tree frog. He sort of hops and says "Ribbit"

Being a jaguar. This is accompanied by a very good jaguar growl.

The next one is probably my favorite Jens activity. Yesterday we built "skis" which he designed himself before our Florida trip. We had time to execute his design yesterday and he is very pleased. He mostly skis inside. Today he skied into the kitchen and asked "Mom, when can I try out the ski jump in these skis?" I must have looked a little concerned because he quickly reassured me "Not in the Olympics, Mom, I don't want to win a gold medal. I just want to jump."

I am not sure what to tell him about that, because he is pretty sure his skis are the real deal.

March 25

We had a great time IN Florida. Getting there and coming home, not so much. Plane rides with a family of four aren't easy or relaxing, I am afraid.

Everything went smoothly as far as the airlines went--everything ran on time, bags were where they were supposed to be, staff was friendly. Sylvie refused to nap on the way there which resulted in 30 minutes of screeching.

We thought movies would be great, but Sylvie just wanted to pound on the computer. She did get excited about the animals in the show, though, and definitely said "cow." Loren kindly picked us up in Tampa and drove us to Gainesville. Man, that felt like a long drive. We were excited to be there, though, and it was fun to see Grammy, Papa, Uncle Loren, and Uncle Peter. The Rhoduses arrived the next day and the family fun commenced. We experienced our usual health sorrows--my back hurt horribly the whole time, Jens got a big cold, and Sylvie cut 3 teeth. We are still waiting for the fourth one. Happily none of our health sorrows were bad enough to warrant an ER or Urgent Care visit. Progress!

Some highlights:

The butterfly garden. All the kids loved the butterflies. Jens especially loved the Blue Morphos.

It was clearly their hope that a butterfly would land on their finger, if they just stuck it out and waited. Jens had a couple land on his back, which was very exciting.

We also had fun "hiking" the La Chua trail.

The day was very sunny and there were tons of gators out.

We counted 20 in one location. They definitely give me the creeps and I was glad Sylvie didn't come, especially when one of the rangers informed us that gators can leave the water at speeds of 20 miles an hour. Sylvie is so soft and unsteady on her feet, she seems like the perfect gator snack.

We also got brave and went to the YMCA. We wisely got there about 30 minutes before the pool closed, which was great for two reasons: 1. they didn't make us pay since we were going to be there for such a short time, and 2. we HAD to leave after 30 minutes, which was right around the time things started to feel really cold. Sylvie's new swimming suit didn't disappoint--it looked just as cute as I imagined. What I didn't imagine was how much she would love the water. She was all smiles and excitement. Jens was suddenly Mr. Fearless. "I want to do it myself, Mom. Don't catch me." He did great, except that when he tried to come up for air he couldn't quite get above the surface. He jumped and jumped and swam and swam, though. It was really fun to see him so happy.

One of my old students was life guarding, which was fun.

That night we stuck the kids in front of a movie and had a fondue dinner with custard for dessert. Yum!

Some other highlights included how well the kids played together, beating Loren in Scrabble, watching slides, getting Gator gear (Jens picked out a hat which he wore non-stop and even tried to wear to bed), making leprechaun traps--which, might I add, were very creative and used interesting boxes, aluminum foil, tape, and saran wrap, and apparently caught a few leprechauns who just managed to escape, but had to leave some gold behind,

going to the Natural History Museum with Jens and Abbie, hearing Sylvie learn a few new words and figure out how to sign "more," which she does whenever she sees food, eating at Satchels,

and getting to see our family.

Monday night we stayed in a hotel in Tampa. I didn't sleep well, but I was glad to be so close to the airport the next morning. Flights home went smoothly, although they weren't fun. We were very grateful to make it through Denver before the big storm came in and canceled 160 flights. I can't imagine trying to sleep in the airport with our kids.

We are all happy to be home. It is amazing how absence makes the heart grow fonder. Our house has lots of problems, but it sure looked beautiful to me when we got home. Jens was giddy with delight to be home. We have been settling back in, doing laundry, and enjoying our own beds. Jens had a dentist appointment yesterday and did a great job. He also played really nicely with Sylvie. I am hoping that our trip has helped him get out of his unkind-to-Sylvie rut. Today was play group here. The kids played outside for the whole time, running around and playing in the dirt. We got a little slide from our neighbors and I laughed at those big four and five year-olds lining up to go down the tiny slide over and over. They had a lot of fun.

Sylvie looked so big in her Gator gear and jeans.

Florida here we come

Ready or not, we are going tomorrow! I have a lot of packing left to do, but somehow found time to find this swimming suit for Sylvie. I can picture her already . . .

March 12

We have been staying busy this week with the normal things. Mike has been riding his bike like a fiend, I have been jogging, Jens has been drawing and swimming like a fish, and Sylvie has been cute-ing. Some art work by Jens:

This is him pushing Sylvie in a chair. I like how he gave Sylvie a little hairbow, and I am impressed he was able to draw her sitting down. I also like that he gave himself eyebrows--it definitely makes his drawing expressive.

The dragon he made for Chinese New Year

The farm he drew for Dad. It includes a barn, tractor, and myriad animals.

Jens has also been in swimming lessons this week, and he has suddenly figured things out. He is so proud of his efforts and it has been amazing to watch him submerge and kick and try things.

Lessons have been really great because they have been inside in a very shallow pool where Jens can touch, which has been great for his confidence.

Sylvie has been chattering and walking and running and climbing and eating and playing. It is amazing how big she looks sometimes. Something about the jeans makes her look extra tall.

This is her favorite way to be--blanket in tow, animal tucked under her arm.

Our Sylvie drama for the week was allergy testing. She was so good for the whole experience. We were in the doctor's office for 2 hours and she was happy as could be the whole time, even when she had itchy stuff on her back. The worst allergy that showed up was peanut, and apparently her reaction was quite large and extreme. Enough so that the doctor wrote us a prescription for an epi pen. The other two things that showed up were milk and soy, both at equal levels of irritation but not extreme, which explains why switching her to soy didn't help with her problems. The doctor asked us to go to the lab for a blood draw, and I decided to get it over with as quickly as possible and made an appointment for the same day. I was really glad I had an appointment when I got there. There were at least four people waiting and 3 or 4 more came in while we were waiting, and they called us back first. I will ALWAYS make an appointment! I felt a little guilty, like I was cutting in line, but oh well. I was dreading it, so I was glad to get it over with. Sylvie sat on my lap and one nurse held her arm while the other one drew blood. I think she filled 4 vials. It felt like it lasted forever, but Sylvie didn't cry even once. She just made a whimpering sound and looked sad. As soon as we got up to leave she was all smiles again. The nurses couldn't believe it, and I couldn't either. We will find out more about her allergies next week when the results come back.

We went from there to the park to play and she had a ball.

Today it is very rainy. On our way home from picking Jens up, we stopped to visit a friend who has puppies. I waited until they all had homes before visiting, and it is a good thing I did. They are adorable! I could have taken one home with me right then. Jens and Sylvie loved them, especially Jens. He really wanted one.

Now we are home and we are having a fire and Jens and Sarah are making more of those repellently colored sugar cookies.