Shopping Outing

Sylvie and I went with Michelle and Ruth to look at couches. We topped off our fun with two rides on the Galleria carousel, a real hit for the girls.

After giving me a full report on Sylvie's behavior during the prayer (arms folded, eyes closed--aren't we impressed!) Jens casually added "I have laser beam eyes, so that's how I could tell."

Who knew my son was so supernaturally gifted?

Hanging out at Soccer Practice

September 19th

Well. Last week was one of those weeks. It actually started out great. Soccer Monday, Sylvie and I went shopping and lunching with friends on Tuesday, then Tuesday night Jens was up most of the night with a terrible croupy cough. He was so sad. I was so grateful to have his inhaler! I am pretty sure it saved us from an ER visit. He stayed home the rest of the week and was uncharacteristically quiet and immobile. He spent a lot of time laying around and watching movies. I think he watched Kung Foo Panda 5 times. By Saturday he was perking up a little, so Mike took him to watch his soccer game and do soccer pictures. Then they got Jamba Juice and went to watch a Cyclocross event, which Mike reported was awesome. (It has been Cyclebration here in Folsom this past weekend). Sunday Jens was bouncing off the walls and today he went back to school. Last night I told him how glad I was that he was feeling better and would be able to go see his friends at school. "But then I won't be home with you!" He pointed out. I quickly added that we would miss him, but that he needed to learn.

Sylvie has finally gotten into her terrible twos, it seems. It was a long time coming, but her cute little face disguises a serious attitude! ie:

Me: "Sylvie, clean up your dress ups."

S: "No. You do it."

After peeing on the couch and Mike:

M: "This is so gross, Sylvie."

S: "That's okay. You'll clean it up."

Screaming frantically in the back of the car.

Me: "Sylvie! What's wrong?"

S: "Jensie is pointing at me!"

She did manage some potty success this week, but only enough that she got her Ariel princess from the top of the fridge. She is now happily back in diapers after the aforementioned couch-peeing incident and another accident on the floor. She doesn't seem to mind.

In other news, Mike ran a zillion miles this week and I cleaned the attic and garage. You can now walk completely around our car unimpeded. It will be even better after the Goodwill pick up on Friday and the Neighborhood Pick up on Oct. 13th. Now if only the inside of our house would get (and stay!) clean and organized.

Sylvie Says:

On a loaded diaper: "My poop wanted to come out of my buns because it wanted to play."

On our doubts about taking Ariel to a public location: "Ariel won't get lost in my hand!"

Ready for the Game

Please admire his sideways shorts and his awesome "summer" hair. He has gotten so blond! And it sticks out so fiercely! He played great in the first game and had a fun time.

A Bathing Beauty and a Fish

Ready for "school!"

Showing off their backpacks

Overheard

Jens and Sylvie are having a light saber duel.

J: No, no Sylvie. You have to shing it out, like this. Shing!

S: Shing!

Now she calls swords "shings."

In Jens's room.

S: What's this?

J: It's an inhaler.

S: You were sick.

J: I AM sick.

S: Awww. You cough in there.

J: No, it's medicine and you breath it in here.

S: Oh.

I later realized that during this conversation she was puffing out the inhaler so when we went to use it for Jens later, it was totally empty.

September 12th

So. Another week past. Highlights include:

Swimming at the pool. It was in the high 90's all week, so we went a few times. Jens swam across the pool by himself 4 times on Saturday night. It has been amazing to watch his progress this summer! I would love to put him into swimming lessons for a couple of weeks this fall, but I think Sylvie might be insanely jealous if he is swimming and she isn't allowed. In the spring she will be able to take lessons, too. Crazy!

Seeing Laura Yund Dean, meeting her husband and her baby Sylvia. I hadn't seen Laura in 11 years--living across the country and rarely making it home does that, I guess. But she and John were in the area for a wedding and came over for dinner. It was really fun to catch up and see her cute little baby.

First soccer game! Jens played his first game on Saturday. His team looked great. You could definitely tell it was not their first year playing, and you could see that they had learned things from practice, which Mike says was very rewarding. Jens even got in there and kicked the ball a few times, which resulted in brilliant smiles and zero follow through. Everyone had fun, though, and that is what counts.

Golfing. Mike organized a successful Intel golfing activity for several member of his group on Friday. They went up to Apple Hill and spent the afternoon which he says was fun, even though it was hot.

Sylvie had her first "School" Playgroup. The girls were so cute and eager to play. We read, sang, talked about the letter D, colored, and did some stretching exercises, which Sylvie loved so much we have been doing them every day since. She really is a smart little cookie--she would have been ready for preschool this year--if she were potty trained, that is! We are going to try to tackle that this week. I let her pick out a potty treat at Winco today--candy corn. I hope it helps because so far she is not interested, not even for the princess dolls we have sitting on top of the fridge. I'll let you know what happens.

Jens has been reading to us for 15-20 minutes each morning. It is amazing to see him improving over night! This part was funny, apparently. Sylvie was wrapped up in her dog blanket, which has regained popularity recently.

Sylvie also has the reading bug these days and will sit and listen to stories for as long as you will read them.

Jens's advice for the weekend:

(This is his chore board, where we put his jobs and responsibilities--he finished them all early on Labor Day, so he erased them and gave himself a new job.)

At Kristin's Request

Here is a picture of our new bed. We have a headboard coming someday--it is on backorder. But it is just a plain walnut colored headboard. So just imagine it. I think at some point I will paint our room a blueish color. But not today.

August 21-25

I notice that since Jens is at school all day I have a lot of pictures of Sylvie.

So angelic! I curled her hair for church this day. Her hair is so healthy and smooth that it won't hold curl, but she still went around feeling super fancy and saying she was like Sleeping Beauty, who has curly hair. She crashed hard for her nap and around 5 I finally had to go in and wake her up. But I took a picture first.

This has been one of the princesses' favorite activities lately. They are really good swimmers. And lets just notice and appreciate that Sylvie is dressed and her hair is done and she is not wearing any dress up clothes.

Unlike this picture, where she did her own hair and wanted to dress "like a princess." The princesses like to play in a barn as they do not have a doll house. Sylvie is good at improvising.

September 6th

We are gradually getting back into the swing of things around here. Jens has been back at school for three full weeks now and is having a happy first grade experience, although his teacher was badly injured in a car accident on her way to back to school night. She has been gone for the past two weeks and will probably be gone for another week at least, but in first grade you roll with the punches and Jens thinks the subs are really nice. They do have an aide who is always the same and is always there, so that helps, too. He packs a lunch this year and doesn't get home until almost 3, which has been a big change for us. On soccer practice days I feel like we barely have a minute to sit down, what with homework, chores, dinner, and getting ready for bed. Jens's reading has really taken off--he is supposed to read to us for 15 minutes a day as part of his homework, and it is amazing to see the progress he is making so quickly. He also has very neat handwriting, which he works hard at.

I was worried that Sylvie would miss Jens or be bored with him gone all day, but she isn't and she doesn't. She is happy as can be in the mornings, dressing up, dancing, playing the piano and singing, playing princesses. She loves reading books and playing games with me and also looks forward to seeing friends. She doesn't usually want to go anywhere--she would rather stay home, but we do run errands and get things done many mornings, and once we get started she is generally a cheerful little helper. Today we went to story time, something I used to do faithfully with Jens. She was intrigued the whole time and was very disappointed when it was over, requesting more songs although she sat silent and solemn during all the songs, refusing to sing along. We picked out several books to bring home and I picked out some books on cd and some dancing music, just to change things up a little.

Some fun events from the past week or so:

Mike and I did our summer triathlon. It was a 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike (with some really killer hills) and a 2 mile run, although Mike elected to do a 3rd mile on the end of his run. Last year we had a good time just staying together and finishing. It was all experimental and the open water was a real surprising challenge. This year we were more prepared for that and didn't stay together for the race. We both felt really good about how we did--me especially. Mike didn't catch me until the very end of the bike leg :) I finished in 1:14 and Mike finished in 1:18 (with that extra mile--what an over achiever). Maybe next year we won't procrastinate until the end of summer to do this so we can fit in a few instead of just one.

Our new bed came. The first night we both hated it. The second night we were just slightly dissatisfied. Since then I have been sleeping pretty well but waking up with a stiff back. We have to keep it 30 days to give it a fair chance, and I have a feeling that by then we will be used to it. It is bigger and taller than our old bed, which we like, and I bought all new linens (out of necessity) which I greatly enjoyed. I just made it all up today and it looks so pretty, but the bed skirt was a real stinker to get on and isn't laying quite straight in spite of all my exertions. On a side note, this means our guest room now sports a queen size bed, for any of you who have been hesitating to visit because you didn't want to sleep in the full.

We took Jens for 6 year pictures. He was charming and cute, and he and Sylvie took one at the end that Mike and I adore. Then we had Panera Bread for dinner, which is always a fun treat.

I have rediscovered a love for chocolate milk that I didn't know I had

Mike is running a gazillion miles a week in marathon prep and loving it--really. He is kind of a running addict.

I am trying to bike more often in preparation for a 100k ride Mike and I are doing in October (What? Who thought 4 hours on a bike seat was a good idea?)

I am spending a lot of time picking up (or thinking I should be picking up but not) because our kids have become even better at making huge messes.

Mix in our regular play dates, dinner guests, soccer practices, farmer's market excursions, endless laundry, occasional swimming outings, etc. and that is what we have been up to. Pictures tomorrow.

Iron Hills Kids' Triathlon

On Saturday Jens competed in the PeeWee Kids' Triathlon in El Dorado Hills. He has been very excited about doing this race. His training consisted of trying to swim across the pool by himself. He managed it a few times this summer, but we were still a little anxious to see how he would do, especially without one of us in the water with him. He did great! He used big arms and flipped onto his back when he got tired. He was cheery and loved the whole thing. He was in the last group to start, so he never had anyone around competing at the same time, which was fine, although he did ask Mike if he was ever in the lead. (The answer to that is no--he was last the whole time--but he had fun and we cheered loudly, which was the important thing).

He got into the pool in style.

He didn't worry about hurrying through the transitions.

He cruised (slowly) away on his bike, smiling and nodding at me. He later informed us that the bike part wasn't part of the race. Hmm.

He did a great job on the run.

And was greeted at the end with a fancy medal. We will be back for this race next year!

Sylvie, after complaining all morning that she wanted to go to the race, immediately decided she did NOT want to be at the race after all. She did like playing on the playground afterwords, though.