Ride, ride ,Ride your bike

For some reason Alanna has taken it into her head that she really wants a scooter. (Everyone else she knows has one, or two, think that might have something to do with it?)for Christmas she and Asher got perfectly good bicycles. Asher was doing pretty good at riding his but Alanna was balking and wouldn't do it.

Finally I told her that in order to get a scooter she had to learn to ride her bike and be able to go on family bike rides. Evidently that's all that it took. Almost every day she has been outside riding her bike. Asher too, and even Lydia is getting into the spirit of things. We have yet to go on a family bike ride since Lydia does not have a helmet and I can't find one for her yet, but it actually worked. I'll need to remember that for the future. Alanna seems to be pretty goal oriented as long as the prize is right.

We finally did it

We have been talking for a year or so now about getting bunk beds for the kids. Initially Alanna and Asher will use then and then Alanna and Lydia. Well, we finally did it. We got bunk beds for our kids. They have to be delivered so they are not set up yet or anything. Now I have the fun job of finding bedding. I am a little excited about this idea. What I find interesting though is that when you search for girls bedding you get about 60 results. For boys maybe 20.

Lydia's Birthday Videos

Thumb sucking all done

Asher has a little callus on his right thumb. It's from where the teeth hit when he sucks his thumb. Now that he is three I had started to think about when the thumb sucking (and accompanying playing with my hair) were going to end. So I started mentioning things like, "someday you are going to need to be all done sucking your thumb", you know, hints. And usually he would say something along the lines of, "someday, but not right now."

Well about two weeks ago Asher told me that he needed to be done sucking his thumb because of that little callus. And guess what? He totally did it by himself!!!! For the first few days and nights he would pop it in, and then I would look a him, and he would pop it right back out. And he stopped playing with my hair at night because it has to have the thumb involved. Seriously, he did it all by himself, and he has not sucked his thumb for about a week. So proud.

But at the same time so sad. He used to snuggle when he sucked his thumb. Now he doesn't want to any more. I guess that's the trade off I get.

Annoying little swimmer

Alanna and Asher are still in swimming lessons. Every month is a new session. Well this session there is another little girl who cries when she even sees the pool. She sees the pool and cries. She gets in the water and cries. She freaks out when it comes to doing some of the exercises. And she is screaming the whole time. The pool is indoors. So for a half hour I have to listen to her. She has her own personal teacher because someone has to work with her personally, and then my kids only get one of their teachers to work with them. Hey, I paid for this people!

Admittedly today the little girl didn't cry, but while it was going on it was very frustrating.

Okay, venting done.

Lydia's Birthday

So we celebrated Lydia's birthday tonight, even though her birthday is actually tomorrow. We had ladybug cupcakes and presents. We gave her a cupcake and the first thing she did was take it in her two little hands and squeeze it. And when she was all done she smeared what she hadn't eaten on her tray.

When it came to presents she was so serious. She took her duties seriously. Of course that may have been in reaction to the fact that Alanna and Asher would not let her open her own presents. They had to "help" her.


So here she is with her cupcake.


Messy face


Asher "helping"


The tissue paper was the easiest thing for her to handle.

Smells

So I was walking through my house this evening and noticed that there were some really distinct smells in my house today:

In the living room/ dining room/ kitchen
- Dirty diaper (in the trash, just time to take out the trash)
- Maple from one of Lydia's snacks
- Refried beans from dinner

In the downstairs bathroom
- toilet paper

the kids room
- Sweaty kid

The toy room
- normal

Master bedroom
- hairspray, though I am not sure why, I wasn't wearing any today