She’s done a handful of letters at a time but never the whole set…but she’s very good at it so I dumped them all out and left her to it.
She did quite well until a little more than halfway through when she started whining that it was useless and she couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to help her too much, but I arranged them a bit and tried to put wrong letters in wrong pieces which got her interested again (to tell me I was wrong).
Finished!
Putting them away!
I’ve been trying to reach Katie how to pump for awhile, but she just got it today. Yay!
And some climbimg and sliding.
So you all know how much I hate potty training, right? Well, I hate teaching the kids to ride their bikes tenfold. It always ends up with whining and pouting and refusal to try because it’s too hard. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. But I keep trying.
So Katie finally got her reward for pooping in the potty!
Unfortunately, as usual, she forgot that it’s hard to ride a bike and it wasn’t any fun when I stopped helping her. So there was whining and pouting…and she had to drag her bike home. (Well, part way home down the sidewalk—I’m not a monster.)
Katie did amazing at swim class today! (We were here on a Saturday for a makeup lesson.)
And Owen actually had a one-on-one lesson so he got a lot of practice in—and did well with his side-breathing.
We taught Owen on the exact game board Gramma Jean taught me to play on 35ish years ago!
About mid-way through his first lesson today, the instructor said he was ready to advance! Yay Owen!
It was still really warm and humid after dinner so we took the kids to the pool. Katie was in a new bathing suit. 🙂
Owen practicing his swimming!
The school wants to prevent “summer slide” with the kids (what happens when young minds sit idle for three months) so I decided to create a reading challenge for Owen. If he reads 100 books in 100 days (we’re starting before school ends to get a nice 100 days) he’ll get a reward. He suggested 150 books but we’ll start with 100 and maybe give him a bonus if he reads more!
I’m also considering a 1st Grade Prep Challenge which would include workbook pages from his old kindergarten books and his new first grade prep books.
I wanted him to practice floating before his lesson…but it took some bravery to actually get in. He loves the water (and he could touch the bottom) so I have no idea why he was so nervous.
So the lesson started and I was poolside, half watching him and half talking to another mom. It looked like he was doing all the same things he’d done at his last lesson, so I wasn’t watching THAT closely. Then all of a sudden he’s in front of me with the instructor and he’s holding a red ribbon and a red swim cap and she’s telling me that he passed into the next level! (To do this, he had to successfully jump into the pool, flip himself over, and float for 15 seconds…three times.)
Then as a new Turtle, he started to learn actual swim strokes! He was actually in class with his friend Gavin!
This is a typical 15-minute time period of any given day.
This coming week the kids are finally celebrating the 100th day of school (a bit belated due to snow days) so Owen’s weekend homework was to count out 100 small things to bring to class. Since both kids HAD TO HAVE Froot Loops but it turns out neither really like them, we use them whenever we can for art and school projects (you may remember them on his disguised Thanksgiving turkey). 🙂
Counting out one each in 10 cups.
Thankfully it didn’t take that long to put 100 pieces in the cups one at a time. 🙂
Along the way I tried to teach him a little bit of math—reinforcing counting by twos, fives, and tens and how counting by tens relates to beginning multiplication (4 x 10 = 40 is the same as counting 10-20-30-40). We’ll see if it sticks. 🙂
With a little help. Owen had them down by this age, but we sang them to him all the time.
I found this on Owen’s drawing table. He had been practicing writing the names of his friends. Take a guess as to what this name is. 🙂
This was a Christmas present from Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim and today we finally decided to do it. Owen was SUPER excited: “This is going to be AMAZING!”
Reading the instructions. We should have done this part before getting Owen involved. 🙂
As you can see, the “test” explosion wasn’t very crazy and the goggles really aren’t warranted. 🙂
The compilation video:
I recently bought a pound of random Legos on eBay but didn’t want to just give them to Owen without a reason (since we just had Christmas and his birthday is coming up) but I didn’t feel like hiding them until his birthday…so today we told him if he learned how to fold kitchen towels and did a good job, he’d earn a treat.
Well, he learned how to fold towels AND did a good job. Amazing what Lego-motivation can do, eh? 🙂
And I knew he’d be excited but I completely underestimated just how excited he’d be about random Legos. He was POSITIVELY GIDDY. 🙂
He kept saying “Mom! Look! I have this piece!” or “Mom! Look at this piece! I don’t have this one!” It was adorable.
Level 8 of the parking garage across from the aquarium. Owen was pretending to swim like a turtle when I snapped this!
On the drive here, I saw that there was a Capital Grille very close by—a restaurant we both miss from Troy—so we decided to eat lunch there! We stopped at Panera first to get the kids a bagel, and then it was a few doors down for our fancy lunch!
The kids enjoyed the bread basket, Tom had a lobster and crab burger with truffle fries (which Katie ate most of), and I had scallops with wild mushroom risotto and a side of lobster bisque (and the obligatory food porn shot with the single lobster piece for mom):
And then on to the aquarium! (We actually bought a family membership because tickets for today alone would have been about $100 and if we want to go again within the next year—which we will!—it would be even more because Katie will be over the “free” admission age—and we got a discounted membership for $155. It also gives us discounts on parking and gift shop purchases.)
The kids spent the whole time running from exhibit to exhibit like crazy people. Pretty much all Owen said the entire time was “COME HERE! LOOK AT THIS! OH WOW! MOM! DAD! COME HERE! DID YOU SEE THAT? LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE! COME HERE! OH MY GOSH! LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE!” Katie was a little less vocal but enjoyed everything but LOVED all the turtles and the penguins and puffers.
The octopus actually looked fake but was definitely real!
Super cool looking star fish! I just want to squish him!
This was the view from about the third story. That turtle was HUGE—probably 6-7′ long. The guide told us she was only 16 years old!
Heading up into the Amazon Rainforest: “It’s raining! It’s raining!” (They had misters at the very top of the escalator so it did feel like it was raining!”)
Owen loved all the escalators!
Then it was time for the 4D Spongebob movie ($5 extra per person of course!). We couldn’t take pictures during it, but it was AWESOME. I hadn’t been to a 4D movie since Honey I Shrunk the Kids at Disney probably 20 years ago! This production had bubbles, rumbling, lightning, wind, snow, and jellyfish tickling our legs! 🙂 OWEN LOVED IT…but was confused when it was over so soon because he only knows movies to be LONG.
And then my favorite exhibit—jellyfish!
Owen had a bit of a meltdown after our trip through the gift shop because everything he wanted was either too expensive or stuff we just didn’t want to get (he just didn’t need MORE cars or stuffed animals or a $30 T-shirt or cheap plastic toys). We offered a handful of different items (books, a Lego-ish type shark to build, etc.) that he could get but he didn’t want any of them and was just in a total snit about it. We explained he didn’t need to get a surprise every time we went anywhere and we did have limits on what he could get, and if we was going to act this way after a big day full of special things, then we just wouldn’t do stuff like this anymore. By the time we walked back to the car he apologized. 🙂
Katie was out before we exited the parking garage:
On the way home we both decided we didn’t want to cook dinner, so we were going out to eat. The place we wanted to try at the mall had an 1:30 wait—NO THANKS!—so we went to a 4-star Yelp sushi place across the street where we were the only patrons! The kids made do with rice but balked at the shrimp and veggie tempura we got them (who doesn’t like deep fried anything?!). Owen made a puppet out of the bag from the chocolate we bought earlier:
And then after a whirlwind day…we finally headed home.
Tom was scheduled to receive an award at work (the Meritorious Service Medal) and we had decided we would ALL go, which meant taking Owen out of school. Since Tom knew he’d get the rest of the day off, we decided to make a special day of it and do something really worthwhile of missing school—take the kids to Baltimore to the National Aquarium!
A family selfie before we headed out:
Thank heavens for the HOV express lane—this was the standstill traffic on the way into DC (well worth the few bucks it cost us):
Then we had about a 3/4 mile walk in to the Pentagon from the parking lot. Yeesh—Tom has to do that twice a day. Tom was obviously already cleared, but the rest of us had to go through a metal detector and get wanded. Then once we were inside the Pentagon, we had to walk clear to the other side. With my horrid sense of direction, there’s absolutely NO way I would not get lost if I was on my own.
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. 🙂 There were lots of wide open hallways and empty corridors with nondescript doors and exiting one ring to cross a “street” to get to the next ring. And while logically I know the Pentagon is HUGE, it didn’t seem as huge as I thought it would (if that makes sense).
And then we were in his office. No windows in the whole thing, of course, and a tiny cubicle:
Before the award ceremony we had a brief meeting with Tom’s commanding general (the Senior Communications Officer of the entire Marine Corps) where he met me and the kids and had a few get-to-know-each-other minutes. Owen was really great with him and shook his hand and answered questions.
Then it was off to the conference room to wait. The kids had fun checking out the big room and seeing themselves on the big TV:
And as more and more people filed into the room, Owen got more and more shy and hid behind me the entire time. Katie was shy, too, but at least sat quietly in a chair.
A coworker of Tom’s offered to take pictures so I wouldn’t have to worry about it so that was nice (even though I hated to give up control).
The general welcomed everyone and jokingly asked what time people were thinking of leaving and there was a pregnant pause while no one said anything so I piped up “9:07” (implying we’d be leaving as soon as the award ceremony was over) and everyone laughed and the general said Tom was welcome to leave and go celebrate and everyone else was to leave at noon. 🙂
The kids with free reign to run through the halls on the way back to daddy’s office:
The view as we are leaving Tom’s ring and heading directly across the courtyard to the other side to exit the building and head to the parking lot (this is where it seems much smaller than I thought it would be):
Letting Owen ride the escalators on our way out (since he loves them so much):
Then Tom gave us a mini tour of the food court area, some of the shops on that level, and we stopped at the chocolatier for some yummy treats! Then it was the long trek back to the car!
Then it was an hour’s drive to Baltimore for the next part of our adventure…
I was looking at Owen’s many sheets of drawing and writing and saw this.
What the—?!
I asked how/why he did it.
“I don’t know. I just did.”
I know it was completely by accident but it just makes me smile. 🙂
I ordered something frozen from QVC. It arrived with some dry ice remaining so we showed the kids what happens when you put it in water.
Katie LOVES cutting and if I don’t keep an eye on her, she’ll end up at the table cutting any paper she can get her hands on. Fortunately, she’s not half bad. 🙂
This is what my table (and floors!) are covered with all the damn time!
I told him I don’t mind him cutting, but let’s try for bigger pieces in the future. 🙂
I got this for Owen last Christmas for a project when daddy got home from deployment…and they finally got to it. I’m kinda glad they waited because Owen could now read all the instructions himself!
The finished product!
They were fighting over the alphabet blocks so I told Owen to help her with the letters. I knew she knew some letters, but I was amazed at how many she actually knew (or knew the sounds of)! 🙂
Owen’s class has been learning about pumpkins. (These pictures were stolen from someone else who was there helping out the class and posted them in Facebook.)
Today they cut some open!
And got to see what was inside!
And even helped scoop them out!
I have a Kindergarten app on the iPad that was for Owen but he’s way beyond it now, so I tried it with Katie. I was amazed at the stuff she knew (nouns).
We picked a local place we hadn’t been to yet. It’s a sports bar/restaurant and they had a paper football on the table, so we tried to teach Owen.
He doesn’t quite have the gist of flicking the football with just his finger, but every once in awhile he’d connect and he even landed one in my glass!
He was doing SO well on his own that I started recording…and then he kinda lost it a little bit…but finished with some help. You can tell he was getting VERY excited about getting to 100. 🙂
I don’t think he’ll have a problem mastering the Kindergarten first quarter expectations of counting to 10. 🙂
With a small side of “I can’t do it” tantrum.