Sunday, May 23, 2010

FIrst Big Boo Boo


Kate and I had a big day the other day. She had a special outing with Martha at the park and slipped on the slide and did the chin split that I know too well. It is one of my least favorite spots to stitch so I really was shaking when I looked at it and knew it definitely needed stitches (or sutures for Lucy). So I was a little shakier than normal, but we both did better that I thought we would and it actually looks great. Plus, Kate is now excited that she has a scar that matches her Mama's. I think Ella has a small hint of jealousy over that. That's when you know you have true sibling rivalry.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Knock Knock

Plain old silliness

Girls Fun




Both girls have been trying new activities which has been so much fun. After a couple years of asking to go to "napstics" like Ella, Kate finally had her shot at her own gymnastics class. The first one was pretty good but the subsequent classes have had many tears about Mommy not being able to be there. Luckily, that gymnastics place has a cupcake shop next door, so the day always ended well. However, we decided to find another spot where Mommy can come in and this is resulting in many smiles for Kate. On the drive down, she asks "Mommy, can you come in with me?" approximately 37 times. Ella continues at the orginal gymnastics spot and is doing great. Once a month we get to see a little show of what she has been practicing and we are both pretty impressed with our strong little girl.

Also, we are overjoyed that Ella currently likes soccer and is doing awesome. If you weren't able to experience first-hand the thrill of our first attempt at soccer with Ella, let me recap. We tried at 4 in VIrginia in pretty much dead of summer time, and it was co-ed. Obviously a recipe for disaster with my heat challenged child, especially when I showed her her green and yellow androgenous uniform. Throw in some boys kicking dirt ("yes, they did do it on purpose") and all I have to say is yikes.

Needless to say, Ryan and I barely mentioned the word "soccer" so as not bring up the memories and in hopes that something would later motivate her to want to try again. Yay! She wanted to play and luckily Ryan has been able to coach. We have a great group of girls, or shall I say Red Tigers, none of whom have played before. It has been great to watch them improve every week. Though I missed the first game, it was apparently disastrous, crying girls, nobody wanted to even kick the ball, and Ryan had to borrow several players from the other team just to have enough players. This weekend was the turning point. They won their first game, and though we are not supposed to keep score, Ella clearly knew they won 5-2. 2 of those goals came from that little diva herself, and she did not even redo her ponytail once the whole game- yes! Those little girls had the little taste of victory, and they really looked like they liked it. It is just so much fun to see it in them. We have a couple more games left so I sure hope they keep having fun

Oh Ryan

This is my Ryan- always up for a good challenge. A couple pushups with about 100 pounds of six-year-old on top.

Disneyland






Then we were off to Disneyland. This started out rough. Kate is not the adventurous soul that Ella is. Ella went on every fast roller coaster that she could. Poor Kate- we started with the Peter Pan ride and the whole 30 minutes in line she cried saying she did not want to go and all she wanted was a lollipop- yes, it was 10 am. Well, I conceded with the lollipop- yes, it was 10 am, but what the heck it's Disneyland. However, I made that kid cry her way through the Peter Pan ride. As we got off, she was still in tears, and she was a little difficult to understand, but through the gasping tears was a "I want ....to ....do that....again." See, a little torture teaches kids that the Peter Pan ride is indeed fun. She is definitely an It's a Small World kind of kid, but that's OK. Ryan and Ella hit the super fast rides as many times as they could. I even rode SpaceMountain which was always my favorite roller coaster. Luckily, I had the row to myself so that I could brace myself, hold on widely and tightly, engage my core, and ensure no back injury. It's still as fun as I remember.

Catching Up






I have been a very negligent blogger, but we have had a hectic last month. Brad warned me that this was the hardest part-keeping up. So I am going to try to fill in on some of the fun stuff over the last month. The rest of our California trip was full of adventure. We had great fun at Legoland with Gramps. Kate drove a car all by herself- which is how she likes doing pretty much everything these days.