The new hotness with the kids is bike rides. We go out more often than not. Sometimes Nicky and I walk to the park while the kids ride, sometimes we all 4 ride. AJ loves to peddle his little legs off. I'm personally impressed at just how good the kids are at peddling the little single gear bikes. I can't do anything without 4 or 5 gears, and they do it all with 1.
I bought 2 new board games, specifically Magic Labyrinth and Viva Topo!. Both are designed for kids ages 4-8, and I happen to have 2 of those. Magic Labyrinth is a memory game and Viva Topo is a little cat and mouse push your luck game. The kids request both of them daily, so I'm glad to hear they're a hit.
Last week I flew to New York for work, and was gone for 3 days. It's weird, before I had kids, it would have been totally awesome. It was still cool, but it isn't as cool as it could be, because I was thinking about hanging out with the kids and Nicky. Weird how that happens.
Yesterday, I was rough housing with AJ on the bed and he did a little spin kick move. I don't know where he saw that, or what gave him the idea but I'm always surprised by how much different AJ and Taylor are, when I don't feel like we parent any differently for either of them. Everyone says that, but it's different when they're your kids.
No pictures this time, talk to Nicky's photography skills!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Taylor learns to ride a bicycle
Taylor is 5 now, and has been for about 6 months. We heard that a 5 year old should be able to ride a bike without training wheels, but Tay has never been interested in learning. We didn't want to force the issue, and so she's had training wheels on her bike. We went to the park yesterday with Parker's mom, Marge, and Parker. Marge brought her wrench, and convinced Taylor that she could ride without training wheels, "just like Parker".
Maybe having taught 4 kids how to ride without training wheels teaches you some magic tricks, but in an instant, Taylor was riding without training wheels. Since then she has been out practicing, and now she's pretty good at it. She can stop without crashing, start without help and ride around with no training wheels! It's so awesome!
We also got AJ up onto a regular 2 wheel bike, bought him a helmet and got him a bike his size (Thanks again to Marge). So amazing that they're growing so fast, and I really look forward to family bike riding trips.
Maybe having taught 4 kids how to ride without training wheels teaches you some magic tricks, but in an instant, Taylor was riding without training wheels. Since then she has been out practicing, and now she's pretty good at it. She can stop without crashing, start without help and ride around with no training wheels! It's so awesome!
We also got AJ up onto a regular 2 wheel bike, bought him a helmet and got him a bike his size (Thanks again to Marge). So amazing that they're growing so fast, and I really look forward to family bike riding trips.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Happy holidays
Christmas time! First we went up to the Buda House, and everyone got together for Christmas celebration. After that, off to the Wood family for more celebration. The kids had a great time, but this is mostly a picture update.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Been I can't believe we haven't updated since July
So hopefully over the next week or two I'm going to get caught up on what's been going on. I really need to schedule this on my calendar so that I regularly update.
Today's Update: Taylor had her first season of Soccer. Her coach, Coach Alex, was awesome. He has 4 kids, 1 Taylor's age, and the little girl is in Taylor's kindergarden class. He was super patient and really pushed the kids to play soccer and have fun.
If you've never been to a 5 year old soccer game, it's awesome. A huge pile of kids surrounding a ball, then the ball pops out and the melee chases it down. It's great fun and really excellent to see the competition and fun the kids have. I really look forward to next year.
I have to write about this so I don't forget. Final game of the Season, Taylor's team had lost 1 or 2 games all season, her team was 2nd in her age group. We're facing the one team that beat us earlier in the season, and they were undefeated. Taylor wanted to win SOOoooo bad, and she played an amazing game. In 1 quarter, she broke past 3 defenders *3* times to get open 1v1 shots on the goal. The other team's goalie was impressive and stopped all 3, but watching Taylor weave through them like it was nothing was such a cool moment.
Taylor also played a quarter in the goalie box, and she had 2 amazing saves, including one where the ball got past her and she crawled on hands and knees and stopped it from going in. Then, later on, she thought play had stopped, and it hadn't. She turned around as the ball passed her and the other team got the go ahead goal. She was SO sad, it was one of those "Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat" moments, like you'd see on the cover of a sports magazine. She cried and I was proud and sad for her at the same time. After the game, like 2 of the other team parents came over and congratulated her on an amazing game.
At the end of the season dinner, Taylor was the last kid to get her award, and I remember what Coach Alex said. "When you coach, there are lots of good times, but sometimes a player comes who reminds you why you coach, and makes it all worthwhile. In the final game, that was Taylor. Thank you Taylor"
It was so cool, I love soccer!
Today's Update: Taylor had her first season of Soccer. Her coach, Coach Alex, was awesome. He has 4 kids, 1 Taylor's age, and the little girl is in Taylor's kindergarden class. He was super patient and really pushed the kids to play soccer and have fun.
If you've never been to a 5 year old soccer game, it's awesome. A huge pile of kids surrounding a ball, then the ball pops out and the melee chases it down. It's great fun and really excellent to see the competition and fun the kids have. I really look forward to next year.
I have to write about this so I don't forget. Final game of the Season, Taylor's team had lost 1 or 2 games all season, her team was 2nd in her age group. We're facing the one team that beat us earlier in the season, and they were undefeated. Taylor wanted to win SOOoooo bad, and she played an amazing game. In 1 quarter, she broke past 3 defenders *3* times to get open 1v1 shots on the goal. The other team's goalie was impressive and stopped all 3, but watching Taylor weave through them like it was nothing was such a cool moment.
Taylor also played a quarter in the goalie box, and she had 2 amazing saves, including one where the ball got past her and she crawled on hands and knees and stopped it from going in. Then, later on, she thought play had stopped, and it hadn't. She turned around as the ball passed her and the other team got the go ahead goal. She was SO sad, it was one of those "Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat" moments, like you'd see on the cover of a sports magazine. She cried and I was proud and sad for her at the same time. After the game, like 2 of the other team parents came over and congratulated her on an amazing game.
At the end of the season dinner, Taylor was the last kid to get her award, and I remember what Coach Alex said. "When you coach, there are lots of good times, but sometimes a player comes who reminds you why you coach, and makes it all worthwhile. In the final game, that was Taylor. Thank you Taylor"
It was so cool, I love soccer!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Pre-4th of July
Getting ready for some pre-4th of July Fireworks. Mostly we just did some sparklers and a few of those spinning flower things.
The big hit was to do 2 sparklers at once, but had to get AJ in the habit of holding the sparklers safely away from himself.
This is Taylor's 2nd year of celebrating our independence, and she's even more excited about it this time.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Taylor Graduation from Preschool
Oh my, how time flies. Taylor just had her graduation from Preschool.
She looked so cute and did her little presentation. This is mostly a picture update, so here goes.
She looked so cute and did her little presentation. This is mostly a picture update, so here goes.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Father's Day
So, been doing lots of things with the kids. Today was Father's day, so we checked the kids in to Kids' Camp and went to lunch. Taylor made me a Father's Day cookie (Ritz cracker with frosting on top). Then we read Calvin and Hobbes together for a while. Taylor loved the idea of a Transmogrifier, so we made a sign for her closet that says "Taylor's Transmogrifier" and has some random clip-arts. We spent half an hour transmogrifying ourselves into fishes, cats, and disney princesses. I'm not sure the last one was part of Calvin's original design.
Somehow the kitten, who was called "Cookie" is now "Hobbes"... She's grey and white, and doesn't really have stripes, AND it's a she.... but somehow I'm still ok with it!
I bought a tablet PC and I'm hoping that Taylor ends up liking playing with it. From what I hear, kids and tablets go great together. If this doesn't work, it may be Nintendo DS time!
Recently, Taylor had a problem where her ears were clogged up, so she said it sounded like we were at the pool all the time. It means that for the past week, she couldn't hear ANYTHING unless you yelled it to her. I feel so much sympathy for parents of deaf children now. I can't imagine how much patience that requires in the long term. Thankfully, she can hear again, and it was just a temporary thing.
AJ has started a phase where he's learned ultimatums. So a typical conversation goes like this "Aj, you need to eat your food or you're going to have to get a time-out". "If you make me eat my food then I'm going to get out of my bed!"... UGH.... He's not supposed to understand IF-THEN's for years. He LOVES remote controls and he loves anything he can get into (sunscreen, liquid soap, markers). I joke that if we had had him first, we'd only have 1 kid.
No pics this time, so I'll leave you with one pic that I love.
Somehow the kitten, who was called "Cookie" is now "Hobbes"... She's grey and white, and doesn't really have stripes, AND it's a she.... but somehow I'm still ok with it!
I bought a tablet PC and I'm hoping that Taylor ends up liking playing with it. From what I hear, kids and tablets go great together. If this doesn't work, it may be Nintendo DS time!
Recently, Taylor had a problem where her ears were clogged up, so she said it sounded like we were at the pool all the time. It means that for the past week, she couldn't hear ANYTHING unless you yelled it to her. I feel so much sympathy for parents of deaf children now. I can't imagine how much patience that requires in the long term. Thankfully, she can hear again, and it was just a temporary thing.
AJ has started a phase where he's learned ultimatums. So a typical conversation goes like this "Aj, you need to eat your food or you're going to have to get a time-out". "If you make me eat my food then I'm going to get out of my bed!"... UGH.... He's not supposed to understand IF-THEN's for years. He LOVES remote controls and he loves anything he can get into (sunscreen, liquid soap, markers). I joke that if we had had him first, we'd only have 1 kid.
No pics this time, so I'll leave you with one pic that I love.
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