We’re trying to teach Owen to put the seat down after he pees so every once in awhile when he forgets Tom jokingly makes him do a few push-ups. 🙂
Category Archives: Kids
Snow Day 7.5
If you can believe it, we had a 2-hour delay today! On a day that’s supposed to be 63°! I think you could hear the collective gasp throughout the county as the text came in!
Following an assessment of roads and sidewalks throughout the county, despite rising temperatures today, a significant number of sidewalks and crosswalks remain impassable. In order to provide additional daylight for morning travel, including more than 40,000 students that walk to school, all Fairfax County public schools will open two hours late Monday February 1, 2016.
We watched a neighbor kid because his parents had to go to work…and Owen and Katie were in heaven. You’d think we never had friends over before!
Every night.
So this is still happening.
She says she’s afraid of the dark. We’re still trying to find a nightlight that she likes that keeps her in her room. (She currently has four little lights but apparently they’re not the right ones. Or bright enough. Or who knows.)
We tried a big night light that turns off after an hour. She got up in the middle of the night to tell us her light was off. 😐 We’re going to try a small lamp next. We’d leave the hall light on, but ironically she wants her door closed.
She’s usually fine after we put her back once. She goes there because she’s smart enough to know we can’t hear her or see her and she has the best chance of not being discovered.
Backwards ballerina
Katie saw me put her ballerina costume away in her room so a few minutes later this happened. Yes, it’s on backwards. 🙂
After the switch:
Katie showed me!
I was actually considering stopping Katie’s swim lessons because I wasn’t sure she was still progressing and $75/mo is a decent chunk of money for her to just be splashing around for a few hours. So of course she completely amazed me today! I asked the instructor to have her practice her floating (since she hasn’t done that in months) and she did great at that—along with actually swimming!! Holy cow! So…lessons continue!
Playing together after their lessons were over.
Pie Face!
We got the kids this game for Christmas and we finally played tonight! It was hilarious and well worth the $10. Poor Tom. Lucky Jen. Smart Katie.
And a few pics from the videos:
Thrift store scores!
We scored big at the thrift store today. We found Qwirkle, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, and Chutes & Ladders Sesame Street for $1.50 each!
Here, Owen is currently “battling” with the Qwirkle pieces (his own creation—nothing to do with the actual game):
Daddy Owen Game Time
Wow. Katie cuddles.
I’m chopped liver.
She didn’t want anything to do with me at Owen’s baseball practice…but as soon as daddy got there…
Snow Day 6: Flight
I had to get them out of the house to burn some energy. Thankfully it wasn’t crazy busy when they first opened.
She really catches some air when she jumps. It’s VERY impressive!
Owen catches some decent air, too!
Katie really wanted to play basketball with the kids, but they were older and weren’t interested in giving her a chance. The few times Owen gave her the ball, she immediately handed it off to someone else. 🙂
Katie’s fall really looks much worse in slo-motion.
I’m amazed Charlie allowed it.
Damn blurry photo!
And then of course she moved a second later so I missed it and had to set up the shot and it wasn’t as cute.
Jonas: Snow Day 4
It really warmed up today so with the melting, we FINALLY had the perfect snow to build a snowman! The government is still shut down as well, so daddy was home again, too! YAY!
While Owen and I were starting to build the snowman on the deck…
…Katie was building her own little mini snowman. 🙂
Putting on the headband that came in Gramma Jean’s Snowman Kit.
Dressing the big snowman!
Owen wanted to build “an ice wall” so I helped him. Meaning I pretty much did it all while he played. 🙂 Of course, it’s hard to see white on white, but it was a pretty impressive wall.
Sea Cow progress!
Progress! It’s slow going because he keeps stopping to play with the pieces and build other stuff with them. And while I hate telling him to stop being creative, he also keeps losing pieces. And we’d much rather have him build/lose random pieces instead of the $250 set of pieces.
Owen made a difference.
We were grocery shopping today and Owen asked what the bags were for at the end of the register. We explained they were bags of food for people who didn’t have any. He seemed interested so we asked if he wanted to get one as part of his birthday present (or using his birthday money). He eagerly said yes. 🙂
Jonas Day 3 / Snow Day 3
After MUCH drama getting dressed—in which Katie almost got banished to her room—we made it outside. We had hoped to be able to build a snowman, but the snow just wasn’t good. AT ALL. And Owen lost his boot again within the first five minutes…so I came in and let them play in the back yard. After about 20 minutes they wanted to go to the front, so they had to trek through the house (since there’s no way to open the gate, and even if we could get it open, the snow is 3′ deep between the houses). They played out front for probably a half hour before Tom went to check on them and then I went out to take a few pictures.
And this would be why we can’t see anything out our bedroom windows!
Jonas, Day 2
Subtitled: Too. Much. Damn. Snow. And that’s coming from a Michigander.
Plowed and sanded…but only one lane.
So here, the kids are technically playing in the street.
The bus stop is still a little buried.
Looking up the main street.
Snow angel…in the street. 🙂
Taking a flying leap…
The landing!
Rule breaker!
Playing across the street.
Tom wanted to check out the town…and see how his new car did on the roads. 🙂 (He said it did great!)
The Wall O’ Snow.
Pouting because I wouldn’t give her the water spray bottle she remembered using this summer.
Using a net as a shovel.
Brushing off my tires with a scrub brush.
So this keeps happening.
So this is what Katie does just about every night now. Yep, won’t stay in bed and falls asleep at the top of the stairs. GRRR.
I have NO idea what’s going on. She’s been amazing at bedtime forever so I guess it was only a matter of time before it went to shit for some unknown reason. Hopefully it will rectify itself or we figure something out. (Owen went through something similar and we ended up having to sit by him at bedtime and rub his arm for 15 minutes…for about three months.) I actually wouldn’t mind if this happened every night and we just picked her up and moved her to her bed…if she stayed in bed after we moved her there. But most times she wakes up, whines some more, and leaves her room again. Gah!
More lounging in front of the fire…
Katie says “These are my animals!”
Owen’s thank you to the Mythbusters
We watched a recent Mythbusters with the kids. Owen drew a picture and wrote a thank you to Adam and Jamie and wanted me “to send it to them in California.” I told him I’d take a picture and tweet it to them. I briefly thought about asking a friend for insider info to get it directly to Adam (they’re acquaintances) but figured I’d save any potential favors for something a bit more…serious. 🙂
So I tweeted three different times:
And a few hours later, we got this:
How cool is that?! Owen was super excited!
Unfortunately, we haven’t “heard” anything from Jamie yet, but we’re still crossing our fingers. 🙂
Q&A with the kids
A friend posted this on Facebook and I did it with the kids: Without ANY prompting ask your kids these questions. It’s a great way to see what they think. (I asked them separately but they were in the same room at the same time.)
Owen, 6
Katie, 3
1. What is something I always say to you?
Owen: I love you.
Katie: Be polite.
2. What makes me happy?
Owen: Being nice.
Katie: Being polite.
3. What makes me sad?
Owen: Not being polite.
Katie: Not being polite.
4. How do I make you laugh?
Owen: Telling jokes.
Katie: Like this <cackles>. Donuts.
5. What was I like as a child?
Owen: Reading.
Katie: Playing dinner.
6. How old am I?
Owen: 42
Katie: I don’t know.
7. How tall am I?
Owen: 4.5 inches.
Katie: I don’t know. You’re big.
8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Owen: Going to the beach.
Katie: Play games with me.
9. What do I do when you’re not around?
Owen: Watch Ellen Degeneres.
Katie: I don’t know.
10. What am I really good at?
Owen: Reading.
Katie: Putting the tv on.
11. What am I not very good at?
Owen: Playing video games.
Katie: Making dinner.
12. What do I do for a job?
Owen: You don’t have any jobs.
Katie: Something amazing.
13. What is my favorite food?
Owen: Pizza.
Katie: Chicken dog. I mean pizza.
14. What do you enjoy doing with me?
Owen: Playing board games.
Katie: I don’t know.
The Effects of Jonas
So, it’s hard to tell in the pictures because everything is white on white on white, but trust me, there was A LOT of snow out there. The end of the driveway was plowed in with at least 3′ of snow (and, unfortunately, we couldn’t find ANYONE to tune up the snowblower, so Tom has been shoveling for about two hours). It wouldn’t be quite as bad if there was somewhere to actually PUT the snow. The yards are so small there’s no room for any of it…and we’re not supposed to put any of it in the street (which would, really, make the most sense, so the plows could take it away).
I have a few pics of the kids, but it was blowing so much when we first got out there that it was difficult to take anything good. The kids were excited and did have fun (and at least we were outside for longer than it took to get them both dressed) but of course Owen had snow up his gloves and arms within the first five minutes (even though I carefully tucked everything in) and then proceeded to lose a boot within the next five minutes (which necessitated a trip inside to change socks and get a new boot—thankfully he has a backup pair). They loved sledding down the hill and it would have made for awesome pictures…but you can only do so much when you’re fully bundled, it’s snowing, and you have to catch the sled before it gets to the main street.
Snowed in…from brushing off the car itself.
Lounging
We made a bed on the floor a few days ago with about six blankets and a bunch of pillows…and everyone loves it. If a kid (or two) aren’t in it, an animal (or two) are. Or both.
A few days ago (a better shot of the whole thing):
Starting the 2700-piece Sea Cow.
Then of course sister wanted to do hers, too. Which means I get to do it…because Owen is normally the one to help her.
Taking his first break:
They HAD to go out and play in the snow.
We had a 2-hour delay that turned into a full snow day (the first of the year!). We didn’t have much snow, but what little we did have made things super slippery. Of course, the kids had to go out and play in it. 🙂
Star of the Week project
So, aside from printing the pictures he wanted/needed, I decided I wasn’t going to help Owen at all on his Star of the Week. I mean, it’s his project and he should be able to handle it. Except after a mere 10 minutes, I was getting jittery just looking at it.
And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let it go. Yes, it was his work, but I knew he could do better if he took more than a haphazard attitude.
I asked if he liked it and was proud of it. He said yes. I asked him to get last year’s and see which he liked better. Once he saw them next to each other he realized he didn’t like his first effort at all.
So all I did was gently guide him and suggest he place everything first—in groups—before gluing.
And now we’re both happy. 🙂
And then what happened this afternoon…
For three hours!
What Tom found downstairs this morning.
Notice the time stamp of this post: Just after 4am. 🙁
Someone hasn’t been staying in her room until her clock turns green…so she got up at who-knows-what time, turned on the kitchen lights, was up for who-knows-how-long doing who-knows-what…and fell asleep on the couch.
Stinker.
Dancing Fools
Who knew an old desktop would be that fun?
Tom is getting rid of an old desktop and just had it sitting temporarily in the living room. The kids were completely enthralled with it. I was at my computer and I heard Owen behind me clicking away on the keyboard, saying he was texting dad and playing music. He also kept plugging and replugging the mouse and keyboard cords.
Then, of course, Katie got involved. When she wasn’t clicking away she was “on the phone” (the mouse). 🙂
