Today T and A saw some ribbon on the dinner table. T said she thought that Santa might see it and take it. He would then put in his closet and go to sleep.
Amelia
Quotes on Xmas Eve
A to her new Star Wars Fin action figure “Fin I am going to play with you”
The W Sisters and Stories About The Letters A & T
At the time of writing this post over the past few days I’ve gone to both T and A’s school orientations for the year. At both girls orientation their teachers talked about things they would be doing and learning. T’s teacher talked a bit about what she would need to be able to do at the end of the class A’s teacher talked about the alphabet and I thought of a few things from the past that the girls have learned that I thought were funny and wanted to write down.
The details are vague over time. That’s why I want to start writing this stuff down sooner however while I still remember it at all here we go.
T when she started to learn her letters first would identify the letter T. It’s not really that surprising since whenever we would point out the T we would identify that it’s the first letter in her name, T. After a while she started to see it and then repeat T for me. To this day she still identify T in that way. Nowadays she’s able to identify all of her letters however I find it funny that that’s how she remembers.
With A I can’t remember if she first remembered the letter a or the letter T It’s no surprise that she was able to identify T almost as easily as she was able to identify a because of her big sister Even though I find it funny her that T would say “T for me” Amelio would identify “A is for A” With A she’s not quite there knowing all letters. One challenge I’ve noticed in identifying how much A knows is when you ask her question it’s almost like she’s deliberately not giving you the right answer. She does know several of her letters.
One of the things T needs to learn to do in pre-k is right her name. I know that our babysitter was spending time with her tracing letters of the alphabet. And then letting her free-form right letters of the alphabet. Hopefully that extra help will give her leg up. Of course like she really needs a leg up in pre-k.
While on stories about letters and numbers one thing I remember recently is that there is a book we read at bedtime about a boy named Oliver and his birthday party. It’s a counting book and each page has an kit coming and then going. At the bottom there is all the kids lined up and has you do a simple math problem when someone’s added or removed from the group. Most of the time when we read the book T insists on every page to count up all the kids to get to the right number. She still hasn’t figured out subtraction since when kids are leaving she counts out all the kids +1 since she does not realize that it’s subtraction instead of addition problem. I tried to explain it however I don’t think she understands the concept yet. On the other hand she does realize that there’s only one kid left at the end. Math was never my strong suit.
This amalgamation of stories isn’t as funny as some of the other ones I’ve written recently however it was topical in my mind and I wanted to write it down I have several other ideas I need to find time to sit and write about. At present I’m writing this article on 9 September and it is likely to be scheduled to post On 12 October so I have a little bit of time before need to write out a few more posts.
The W Sisters and The Story of The Last Day at The Beach for The Summer
The last day at the beach for the summer was a bit anticlimactic. We originally thought we would have Monday of Labor Day at the beach however due to the tropical storm the weather wasn’t looking good. Even on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend it was not looking like the greatest beach day however we wanted to get one last day in. I went with my mom and the girls to the beach since MC was not feeling well. In the morning it was pretty empty. By the afternoon some people it should however we didn’t use the key poles or go to the regular pool since it was too cold. I didn’t stop the girls from enjoying the sand and running around. I think they had a blast in the morning since the court was empty and they got to run all over without having to worry about getting in the way of anyone.
After lunch and A nap the girls discovered the world of the beach down the stairs at the end of the court. We normally don’t let them go down there however since it was pretty empty we were able to watch them from where we sat. The girls enjoyed running around near the volleyball court and looking at all the umbrellas and chairs stacked up since no one was really using them. The best thing for them however was the platform cart that the cabana boys use to move chairs and umbrellas out onto the beach. It had four big inflatable wheels and a large flat surface to stand on for someone that’s 2 1/2 or four years old. The girls quickly realized that if they stand on the cart and jump it bounced a lot. I had a blast just jumping up and down the cart. I personally as a parent wasn’t the happiest about them doing it however was relatively benign since it was on sand if they fell. It was better than T’s original idea of playing nearer climbing on the pile of chairs that I had to stop her from going to.
The girls kept moving out of view from my vantage point so I walked down the stairs and stood around where they were planning to keep an eye on them. At one point T went to the other side of the sand volleyball court where there was a plastic chair and look to be just goofing off with it. I was about to tell her get away from it when I had to step way back to the court for a minute. When I came back the chair T went to was now right by where I was standing in front of the sand cart. T then tells me “daddy sit down” as she motioned towards the chair. I was liking how good she was taking care of me and was glad that I didn’t say anything to her about going over to the chair in the first place.
After some more jumping on the cart the girl grew bored of that and proceeded to move there play over to a wooden ramp that went from another court entrance a little bit out into the beach. It was on an angle and both of the girls would take turns running down the walkway until they got into the sand. I don’t know what fascinated them about it but they did it for about 20 minutes. I didn’t move from where I was sitting since I was pretty comfortable in the chair taking got me. I would have to periodically yell for them not to go outside of my field of view. The walkway they would run up went into an enclosed area of the beach club and after they left the beach I couldn’t see them. I mentioned several times to both girls that they needed to stay where I could see them. After having a walk over there at one point to get A when she wasn’t listening T immediately said for me to move the chair. I asked her why and she said I should move it closer so I could see them better. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Soon after being asked to move the chair we had to go back to the cabana anyway since it was getting ready for me to pack up our stuff since the season was over and I need the girls to come be closer to me.
On an unrelated story that happened the same evening the girls wanted to play with ice. I’m not sure why. I think it was because I took ice out for a drink and they wanted to touch it. I decided to show them a little science lesson and had them feel the ice until it started to melt a little in their hands. I then tried to explain and probably didn’t do a great job of it how and why I ice melted. I then had them get their chairs and stand by the sink and show them how to melt it a lot faster with the hot water. That blurb isn’t as funny as beach antics however I thought it was cool to be able to show them something using science like that. I look forward to doing that more in the future.
The W Sisters and Stories From The Beach
I just finished writing another post about the last day at the beach this summer and I was looking over my notes about other stories from the summer. Two of them stand out in my mind. The first one concerns children safety and preparing the girls in the event to get lost.
When she can one day a week my mom would take one of the girls to the beach by herself. Sometimes she would take our babysitter and both girls however usually it was just one of them. This summer it was A since her camp schedule accommodated for it versus T’s that really didn’t. While together my mom tried to teach A her cabana number in the event she got lost and needed to tell someone where she could go. If our cabana was A40, A would always repeat back A28 when my mom asked her. What’s interesting is A always said A28. My mom and I for that matter are pretty convinced that A knows the correct cabana number but is just messing with my mom. Every time she would reply with the answer she would have a big smile on her face and giggle and tilt her head when she answered. The fact that she was consistently wrong helps that conclusion. There’s just enough doubt for us not to be 100% sure.
The other anecdote of note concerns both girls. I swore I wrote about this earlier in the summer however when I searched I couldn’t find any reference to it. If this is a repeat enjoy it one more time.
The beach club we goto is laid out where there are baby pools set up in the sand in the middle the court. That way little kids play in the water and in the sand while parents relax in the sun or in our case in the shade under an umbrella while watching the kids. When it gets really hot or we want to change of pace offer to the girls if they want to go to the Kiddie Pool that is next to the big pool where the adults can swim. After a few trips the girls caught on and began asking to go to the pool on their own. What was interesting was that they started asking to go to the Hello Kitty pool. For a few minutes we were a bit confused why they were asking to goto the Hello Ktty pool then it dawned on me that they thought we were saying Kitty pool so they assumed it was the hello Kitty pool. When I realize that I thought it was hysterical. I know they’re my kids however I thought I was pretty smart.
For the remainder of the summer whenever anyone talked about the pool it was the big pool or the hello Kitty pool.
The W Sisters and The Story of Assorted Stories From The Last Week In August
Now that I am trying to make a conscious effort to write some stories about the girls I’ve been trying to remember to take quick voice notes so I can remember details in order to jog my memory later. I’m not in a call that a success yet since I only did it two days this week. The result of that effort however is this post combining a few small events from Monday and Tuesday, August 29 and 30th.
Before I get into the kids antics at home I can’t help but throw in something from an email exchange with M’s sister-in-law from earlier this week. We spent the last weekend in August at M’s sister-in-law’s house in Pennsylvania. After we left she emailed asking if we had seen a magnet of hers that the girls were playing with. I haven’t but I really didn’t go through their luggage. I was gonna check with M however she hasn’t been feeling well. Before I was able to do that however I got another email from her saying never mind she found the magnet. It turns out the girls hid one magnet on top of another one. It looks like she was outwitted by one or both of the girls since tt took her a little while to figure that out.
One Tuesday (30-Aug) night after I got home and we had some playtime before bed the girls were playing with their dock McStuffin’s doctor toys. T insisted on me putting the pager on her. I then tried to explain to her what a pager was and how people use them especially doctors before there were cell phones. I’m not rly sure if it was the fact that T’s four and a million is 2 1/2 or that not having a cell phone was foreign to them however I got blank stares when I was explaining how page works.
I find it funny that T almost always notices when I get a haircut. The night before I got a haircut and when I came home she immediately noticed that I got one. T likes to rub the back of my head since it’s been cleanly shaved and the hairs very short. The day I got my haircut T pretend wanted to cut my hair. I commented that I just had my hair cut and I questioned whether or not she thought Leon my hair cutter had done a good job I thought he did a great job.
The next night as we were playing with the Doc McStuffin’s medical set T insisted on cutting my hair again. This time she commented that “ the man did a bad job”. I’m going to have to remember to tell Leon he’s got a critic.
At the same time I was getting my hair cut A was cutting my nails. She likes to do that. That consists of taking the place that tweezers and snapping at my fingernails. As she is getting stronger it really does hurt sometimes when she does it but I find it so funny that she keeps trying to do it. After hurting my hands with her nail cutting I did get a checkup. I showed her where to use the stethoscope to listen to my heart.
Since I had bug bites from being out at M’s sister-in-law’s over the weekend I bought some aloe ointment to stop the itching. After my medical checkup by the girls two days in a row they got a cup and proceeded to put ointment on my skin to help my itching so I didn’t itch at bedtime.
After all this I am gaining confidence that I will be well taken care of when I get old. Fingers crossed!
The W Sisters and The Story of A’s Paddington Bear Origin
I previously wrote about T and her Dee Dee monkey http://scottodyssey.com/2014/11/29/the-story-of-dee-dee-and-that-other-monkey-we-will-never-speak-of/. Today I wanted to write a bit about A’s favorite stuffed toy. For one thing I believe it’s a good story however my driving force for writing it down is so I will remember it.The first thing I want to get out there is I thought I wrote about this a while ago however searching my own blog I noticed I never actually wrote any stories directly mentioning how A came about to have her Paddington bear.
The story begins with a trip I took late April into early May 2014. I went to London for some training with my group right after a reorganization. Since I was going to be in London that week I was missing in other culture training that was being held in the US at the same time. As I was canceling that culture training it was mentioned that the same training was being held the following week in London. I wasn’t sure it would’ve been possible to stay for the training since I would already be in London however I figured I would ask. It turned out that my boss thought very highly of the training and said it was worth it for me to stick around if I could for the second week in London. What I didn’t realize at the time of booking the trip was it was a national holiday in the UK the weekend I was staying over. Apparently I found out later that means if you’re “in country” you get a holiday. This is all relevant because usually when I’m traveling you do not have a lot of time to do anything other than work. For this trip I ended up having a three-day weekend to myself. It was an odd change of pace since home I had a five month old and a year and a half-year-old.
One of the things I want to do while I was there was some shopping. As I was wandering around the city I stumbled across Hamlets. I really didn’t realize where I was or that it was a famous store. I was walking by and I saw there was a toy store and figured I should really get something for the girls. It was a pretty cool place however walking in I had visions of FAO Schwartz in New York City. Both are cool places, even though FAO felt more over the top I have bad memories of being stuck there listening to the welcome to our world songs over and over again so children’s toy stores aren’t exactly on the top of my fun list. Since I took the time to get a local Sim card for my iPhone I was able to have high-speed data coverage my entire stay. Since we live in the age of wireless data I decided to Face time with M at the store to see if she liked what I was thinking about getting.
For T I saw a cute bear book bag. For A I saw a my first little stuffed bear. When I showed M she was like oh yeah it’s Paddington Bear let’s get it or something to that effect. I had not really known what Paddington Bear was. It made sense that he was famous since the store had tons of them. With those gifts picked out I paid for them and went about my sightseeing for the weekend. I was just glad I remembered to get something. Side story it took me until being at Heathrow on the way home to find what M had been asking for.
When I got home we introduced both gifts to the girls. Writing this years later it’s hard to remember if A immediately took to Paddington Bear or not. That of course is the reason why I am journaling in the first place so I can remember the details over time. What I do know is definitely within a few months A had herself a Dee Dee. That was the name of T’s lovie animal. We were not wondering where A got back from. Once it became apparent that Paddington bear was the one and only stuffed animal for A I scrambled to order additional clones of him. I’ve written about how we did something like that with T. I was lucky to find a store on the Amazon marketplace that was selling the British version of the my first Paddington Bear. I bought two of them so we had enough of them in case something happened to one or even two of them.
Thankfully with T her three monkeys have been plenty. A on the other hand has grown fond of biting her Paddington bear. She will bite his hat. She will bite his arms. She will bite his arms until he frays and then she will pull all the stuffing out of his arms. That is what she did to two of the three original Paddington Bears. M
sewed one of them up but he had stumpy looking hands. We could really use him since he wouldn’t look like the others. Then A ate the second one and we had to with defects. For some reason we couldn’t find the third one and we were getting very concerned. That is when I bought two more of them online.
We warned A that she has to be careful since we might not be able to “fix” Paddington if she keeps biting him. We said that as we gave her a new one. A proceeded to destroy the arms of that one. My memory is a bit fuzzy on if we did give her yet another one and she destroyed those arms as well. I could go check in my stash of Paddington bears however is lazy so let’s call it that she definitely eat one if not two more of them. It was then that I ordered yet another one or two from the same shop. At that point I said I’m done and no matter what she does these things I was not going to buy another one.
I do not know if we just got lazy or we wanted A to understand the consequences of the biting so we have not replaced her bare with no stuffing in his arms. I had the idea to take the hands with no stuffing and stick them inside the coat that the bear wears. She’s been generally good with that so we haven’t replaced the ripped bear with a new one. We still have at least one if not two new ones in a box. After I got the last batch of bears I just left them in the shipping box that they came in and through them in my closet somewhere.
T is probably too smart for her own good since she is almost ratted us out on the whole Bear conspiracy a few times. At one point she told A that daddy was going to buy her a new bear. T also hinted at the bear replacement a few other times however specific details are eluding me as I write this. I’m not really sure if she understands what we’ve done or if she’s just saying stuff. I don’t recall ever actually talking about buying a new Paddington Bear in front of T so either she’s guessing or we’ve slipped up. On the other hand on some level I feel like A knows and doesn’t care that Paddington is more than one bear. To be safe nobody reading this should say anything about it to her. By the time she finds this post and can read our own am pretty sure it’ll be safe for her to know what went down.
The W Sisters and The Bedtime Stories Circa 15-August
What I have realized even before I had little kids was that parents of little kids find the most normal or minor actions from children to be pretty funny. Even when I was not apparent I could totally get the point. I am not sure of everyone else does however I keep saying my kids are my entertainment budget. They really are. And I love it. Instead of writing little blurbs on Facebook like I know some people do I’ve been trying to turn comments are funny things I remember in two small stories.
I’ve been in a good place when it comes to writing recently so I have a backlog of things to publish and write about. This scratch that these minor anecdotes are from August 15.
Prior to getting ready for our bedtime routine T was complaining to me about something Amelia was doing wrong. I think Teagan takes it upon herself as big sister to do that. Or she just wants to annoy us, I’m not really sure. Now that T is understanding things more I try to explain to her stuff. That is probably not the best use of my time in a lot of instances however I try. In this case I tried to explain to T that she should worry about herself and not worry about what Amelia was doing if it’s not directly impacting her. I will give myself credit since I thought but didn’t say to her and nobody likes a rat. Teagan’s response to my commenting to her was that I shouldn’t worry about her and I should worry about myself. Touché Teagan, touché.
Later that evening I was reading stories to the girls. In recent months A likes to snuggle and have my hand around her waist. She says that she’s buckled in when I do that. T is hit or miss on the smuggling. For a few weeks she will needed to do it and then she stopped for a little while. As I was reading A blurts out “no, no, no, hold on”. She then proceeded to take the book and flip back a page. She had unanswered questions about the picture that she wanted me to address.
I believe this was also the same night that the girls insisted on having me have Alexa (aka our Amazon Echo) play the song “Fight Song” about three or four times. They danced around during the whole song. They even got crazier in their dancing is the temple of the song picked up for the chorus. I was lucky enough or smart enough to remember to take a video of one full song so I could send it to M and share it with our parents. I think Teagan started liking that song from Morgan’s bat mitzvah otherwise I have no idea where she heard it from. I would like to give a shout out to my brother-in-law Michael for the “Dance Party” idea. I can sometimes get them to dance around to other songs however this is their favorite one. Based on the lack of response from our downstairs neighbor pretty sure he works late during week.
The W Sisters and The Story of Their Love of Cake, Cupcakes Work Too
I am not really sure where or when it started. On Teagan’s first birthday M made her own smash cake. It took a little bit of prodding to get T to dig into it. We had to cut it before she would grab a big piece of it. A week after her first birthday we did a photo shoot with a cake smash. Half the photos she’s having a blast kicking and grabbing the frosting. There are others that she’s a little disturbed by the cake.
A on the other hand had an epic meltdown when she did her first cake much on camera. M even put rice crackers in the cake that she loved hoping that she would grab at them. We think it only made her sad that the crackers were surrounded by this sticky stuff. My favorite photo of A’s cake smash is her off to the side of a photo studio where you can see the edge of the backdrop. Amelia is lying on her side looking sad and exhausted the little bit of frosting on her nose.
From those humble beginnings of cake eating to today is somewhat fuzzy. This is one of those instances where I should’ve written about this a long time ago and of all the story as it happened. That way I would remember more details.
For T at least ever since she could speak she would be interested in cake. Whether it was someone’s party where she would ask “Cake?”. Or as she grew older “We have cake?”. She always seem to be interested in parties and the inevitable cake or cupcake that go along with it. My unscientific theory is that we limit the sweets the kids can have. Parties with cake or cupcakes are generally where have them most regularly. I can see where they would grow fondness for the cake and cupcakes because we limited their exposure overall. It’s not like we don’t let them have anything ever. M and I love cupcakes. And since M is a fantastic cake maker we love cake too. Maybe that’s why the girls love it. They see how much we enjoyed it as well.
A has also come along way. For her second birthday and more recent cake eating experiences she will clutch the cake and frosting in her hands you cannot get rid of it until she’s done without an argument. A still doesn’t like frosting on her hands. She’ll ask for or motion to you to get wipes to clean your hands shall forget about that while grabbing hold of a piece of cake were eating frosting right off of it.
My children are if anything but persistent. Whenever we say we’re going to a party to matter what kind of party it may be T asks will there be cake. For my niece Morgan’s Bat mitzvah I was describing all the awesome food that would likely be there. All T wanted to know was would there be any cake. To get to the bottom of that question I called my sister and put her on speaker phone with T. T was sad to hear that there likely wouldn’t be cake even though there would be tons of other sweet desserts. In the end there was cake and T had a blast of a time. A was interested in the cake question also was not is generally focused has Teagan was on it.
As I write this T’s birthday is coming up. She’s been talking for months about what kind of cake she wants M to make. Now M did originally bring up the topic however T has been consistent on her answer for some time. She wants and Elsa cake. For her third birthday she wanted elephant and piggy. For her second birthday she got a monkey like her favorite monkey stuffed animal. For her first birthday she got duckies. A on the other hand got Paddington Bear for her second birthday. She got a winter snowman and snowflake theme for her first birthday. Even though we’ve been talking to T for months on what she wants for her cake I do not recall A having an opinion one way or the other at this point. I am going to have to remember to ask her about that.
So please if you’re going to invite the T & A to a party let there be cake or cupcakes work too…
The W Sisters and the Assorted Stories From 19-August
Having a 2 1/2 & almost 4 year old makes for great entertainment. I like to say they are our entertainment budget. I have been making a more active effort to journal the funny things they do and say. Up till last week I didn’t take the time to clean up the writing to make it more “presentable” for public posting. I am going to keep trying to do that because it is funny stuff (at least for me so I want to share) and it contrasts the geeky technical stuff I typically post.
This post is a collection of a few brief stories from 19-August 2016. Some of this stuff wouldn’t be as amusing if it wasn’t for the fact they were from a 2 12 and almost 4 year old. It amused me anyway.
While I was changing Amelia into pajamas Teagan was by my computer. Both girls like to watch the photo slide show that plays as a scream saver. Teagan must’ve seen something that she wanted to show Amelia so Teagan called out to Amelia to come see. From across the apartment on the changing table. Amelia replied “I’m busy right now”
A few minutes after finishing changing her when I put Amelia down on the floor she slapped my arm a couple of times. It was playful and didn’t hurt however I cautioned her that hands are not for hitting since we do not want her hitting even if playing around. Her response was crying out “I don’t want to hit the couch”. I assumed that was something she was told to try when she wants to hit someone. I later confirmed with MC that was correct. I asked her then what she wanted to hit if not the couch. Instead and she told me her Dee Dee (Paddington Bear). I gave her Paddington bear and she proceeded to lightly slap it two times and walked out of the room.
Later that day playing with he really big Legos that are bigger than the duplo Legos the girls were arguing. Teagan wanted to walk out of the room. As she was walking out Teagan asked me to keep an eye on Amelia. I said okay and glanced at Amelia for a second and continue cleaning in the kitchen. I was trying to complete cleaning all the 30+ year old lego so the girls could play with them. Teagan then looked at me again as she was walking to her room and scolded me and said I need to look at Amelia. She continued to insist that i keep eyes on her the whole time. For an almost 4 year old it was pretty persistent.
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