Funny Things

Forgotten blog post - written April 14, 2010

I'm not sure if I've changed my attitude or if the girls are just going through a more "fun" stage - but I'm really enjoying them right now. They're funny. And.. one should remember funny things.. it helps you get through the rough times. So.. here's a few things that have happened and been said around this house lately.

Kelsey.
The other day Marco and I were sitting around chatting after he got home from work. Kelsey was sitting in the rocking chair, insessently asking to go to the park. "Mom.. I think we should go to the park." "Dad, can we go to the park today?" "Hmm.. I think it would be a good idea if I go to the swings today." (you get the idea). Marco and I were trying to talk about something else. Finally, I turned to Kelsey and said, "Please don't ask again, daddy and I will talk about it and let you know!" So, I turn back to Marco and as we're gathering our thoughts, Kelsey says - with her arms folded in front of her sitting on my rocking chair like a little madam - "I don't hear any woo-ords". We almost peed ourselves.

 Kelsey is also jsut starting to use her imagination - although its funniest because its still "real" play - just imitating things that she's seen or have happened to her. So, yesterday, she was playing with her dolls. She lined them all up on the couch and first htey were crying, so she was breastfeeding them. Then they had to go to sleep.. but then.. then, they all started being "naughty". So, one by one she'd pick them up and tell them they were being naughty and needed a smack! Then she'd take them to her room and have a "chat" with them. "I told you no and you were naughty. You have a bad attitude so you need to sit here until I come back" Then she'd step out of the door and go back in and say, "now say sorry and give me a hug and a kiss". I was killing myself laughing. Maybe something is getting through to her!

Morgan.
Obviously, Morgan doesn't say cute things.. but she's still so funny. She's started this thing at the table where after I pray for the food, normally she's just supposed to say Amen. But she started to notice that we sometimes let Kelsey say her own prayer, and I guess she thought that looked pretty easy, becuase now, whenever I (or Marco) am finished praying she first looks at us, then puts her chin on her chest and mumbles to herself, then throws her arms in the air and yells "AMEN". So funny.

You know how when kids are learning how to walk they hold their hands up in the air - almost as if they're balancing themselves. Well, that's how Morgan walks - most of the time. The other day I caught her walking with her hands behind her back , strutting around the room like she owned the place and was overseeing everything. She has that air about her. We've also caught her walking around with her hands on her hips.. so cute!

Marco started teaching Morgan to say "Yes Dad/Mom" but since she doesn't say enough words, she just needs to nod.  So now whenever he is (or I am) telling her off, she's nodding her head like a little bobble head. makes it quite hard to keep a straight face!

Trio of Terrific Tools!

Occassionally, I have brilliant ideas that make my life - and occasionally, the life of my family - easier.  Most of the time, though, I just copy my ideas from other people!! Here's my latest three ideas we've incorporated into our home.  

Countdown Chain   

  This idea is TOTALLY not mine. I got it from here: Children's Learning Activites: Countdown Chain . But, its totally cool. We're heading "home" to Canada in a few weeks and despite my best efforts NOT to tell Kelsey about the trip until we were in the air - Grandma's have a way of letting the cat out of the bag. So, here we sit with a 2 year old who everytime we put our shoes on, says, "Is it time to got o Canada now?"

Funny side story: We were getting ready to go for a walk yesterday when she (kelsey) comes up to me and says, "Mommy, I'm just going for a little walk to Canada now. I'm going to give Grandpa a big hug and a kiss. But I'll be right back.". Yep.. so something had to be done. So, this chain was the answer. I cut up bits of paper in varying colours. Wrote the necessity things on a few - Go to Canada, Preschool and Church and while Kelsey was decorating those ones, we talked about diffferent things she could do on the other bits of paper - things like, Vaccuum bedroom, make bed, Hug Daddy, Skype Grandma & Grandpa etc. So, as she decorated the bits of paper, I wrote the words and then stapled them together to form a HUGE chain.
And now, every moring at breakfast, we take off a chain and that's Kelsey's "task" for the day. Unfortunately, every day when I ask her to "read"  her paper, she insists it says, "Go to Canada"!! Soon, Kelsey.. soon!!

Meal Plan 

We've been meal plannign for a while now. The worst thing for me is standing in the kitchen at 4 or 5 pm and wondering what to make for dinner. I also hate making grocery lsits, having to go to the store for just one thing.. so.. to combat all those things, and to try to save money, we meal plan. I've always done a weekly plan. But its hte worst 1/2 hour of my week. Trying to come up with 7 meals that I want to eat at a time when I'm not hungry or motivated. Then, I had a brain wave. I thought, what if I had 4 weeks of menu's planned. I still shop once a week, and it was planned in such a way that I could still tweak the menu and have flexibility. Could it work?   So, I sat down and wrote down all my meals that I make. All the meals we like etc. At first I could only come up with about 14. That sucks -s o I checked with the hubby. He haed a few more ideas. Is tarted to throw them into a 4 weekly plan and suddenly, I realised I was done. I had done it. I had created a 4 weekly meal roster with flexibiltiy, but structure. There are a few repeats - we have always had pizza night once a week - however, even our pizza night can have variations. Firstly, its not always on the same night, sometiem we do mini pizzas, big ones, make our own crust, buy a crust, buy a hwole pizza, do a calzone etc. So many variations. 

Anyway, here it is for you:

Meal Plan

Just so you know, MPV stands for meat, potato, vegies. Talk about the ability to have variations!! 

Anyway, so far its working pretty good. Its not great for saving money, as you can't always predict what's goign to be on sale, however, if I know that next week we need a roast chicken, and its on sale this week, I can buy it early and freeze it. But, there are a few glitches to work out in that department - either that or I need a bigger freezer!!  

Magnetic "Schedule"

Finally, my last brilliant idea (or this week, anyway). I'm a sucker for structure. I love the idea of having a schedule for my kids, my cleaning, my work etc. I love routines, lists etc. I love knowing what I'm going to be doing, and I love knowing that if I do this thing now, I'll have time to do that other thing later. 

However, all that being said, I'm HORRIBLE at sticking to a schedule. I've made up so many schedules for me and my kids and stuck to none of them. They just don't work. My excuse is always that Marco's work roster interrupts my schedule, but, they jsut don't work. 

But now, I have a 2 year old. And there's something peculiar about 2 year olds - maybe especially first born two year olds - but they really like to have routine. They too, like to know what's coming next, what's going to be happening etc.  So.. I've done it.. I'm come up with somethig that gives my 2 year old the knowledge to know what's coming next, but me the flexibility to live our life. 

So.. here it is.. my magnetic schedule!

I made up all these little cards with the different things we do all day: One for each of the meals, tv time, Bible time, story time, nap time, roomtime, art time etc. I also made up some cards for different places we go to: Grocery store, Preschool, Church, Park etc. And on the back of each one, I stuck a peice of magnetic tape (which I had tonnes of lying around) I was going to do it with velcro, but I had the magnetic tape, and velcro dots were expensive! I painted a board from our shed, and my dear husband cut up some strips of metal and stuck it to the board so the magnets would have something to stick to.  Now, every morning I put up a few cards and go throught eh morning with Kelsey. First we'll have breakfast, then we'll watch tv, then we'll do some chores. Then we can do it again in the afternoon. I didn't want to have to do a whole day at a time, so I decided to only make the board big enough for a couple hours at a time. Kelsey absolutely loves it. The other day she says to me, "Mom, where's the black stroller?" I said, "Its over there. " She says, "NO, mom, the stroller on the card". She wanted to go out for a walk and wanted me to put up the "Walk" card first!! Isn't that cute?

Anyway.. that's it. These idea may be boring and stupid to you..but they've made a HUGE difference for me this month.

Morgan - 15 months

Well.. Morgan is 15 months old now. OK.. has been for a week or 2. She's fully done for her shots (until she's 4) and now that she's walking 90% of the time, i think its compeltely official - she's a Toddler!
We had her 15 mo plunket visit the other day (Plunket is the well-child nurses. You go there - or they come to you - at set intervals to make sure you don't have any questions and to make sure your kid is growing and developing normally). Anyway, she has 7 teeth (4 top, 3 bottom), with at least 2 more nearly through. She is 76 cm tall and weighs 10.24 kg. Hard to believe she started off at 3.5 kg and 51 cm!

Kelsey was along as well.. and thought it looked like fun to get weighed and measured - So, at 31 months she's 13.8 kg and 92 cm. At Kels's 15 mo check she was 10.12 kg and 77 cm - I guess they're WAY more similar than I thought. For some reason I think Morgan is a lot taller and skinnier than Kelsey.. but I guess not.
Morgan is also learning to talk. yesterday she said "Kelsey" for the first time. That was exciting. She loves saying, "Mommy" and "Bye bye" and she's said, "Amen" for ages.  but she refuses to say, "daddy" or "Gramma". She's quite stubborn!!

She also does whatever her big sister does. Lately its feels like I have twins around here. Whatever one does, the other imemdiately copies. One takes off her socks, the other socks are close behind. One starts screaming or shaking her head "no" - the other thinks its a fun game and is close behind. We certainly try to encourage their getting along, but some days.. well... they're a little too close for comfort!!

Road Trip

We went on a road trip the other day. OK, for most people, not that exciting, maybe even not that out of the ordinary. But for us - this was huge. We have a strange tendency to fly if we're going to go somewhere. However, on this occassion, we did not.
You see, one day, my dear, lovely husband bought some car bits and announced that he was taking his family on a road trip to pick up these bits. oh yippee, I can think of nothing I'd rather do than sit in a car with 2 small children for mile upon mile of curvy, hilly, car sick -inducing road. (Please note the sarcasm in that last statement). But, I ma learning that a husband should be head of the home. And, a husband needs to be treated with respect. So, I agreed.
We packed up the kids one fine Monday morning and hit the road. Mr. Google map told us that our first car bit was to be picked up 289 km from home - a mere 4 hours and 4 minutes away. We hit the road at 8:45 (right after Blues Clues).

Hit our first city just after coffee time, so a quick leg stretch, small walk for everyone by the lake side ("no going in the water, Kelsey!!"), and a coffee and hot chocolate for mommy and daddy and we were back on the road in 15 minutes. Thankfully Kelsey has an iron bladder and didn't need to go althought here was a minor tanty when seatbelts were put back on again!

Back on the road, this time following Google maps directive explicitly as we tried a new road. It was brilliant. No traffic to contend with. Lovely tree lined road, ok, the hills and curves were still driving me nuts, but at least we could go a steady pace. We arrived at our first stop just in time for lunch at McD's. OH joy! But hey, they had an indoor playground for under 3's. Brilliant. Spent almost an horu having lunch - but that's what you do when you drive with kids. Quick stop to pick up daddy's brand "new" leather seats for his project (new to daddy, more dried and carcked than desert sand). And, back on the road again.  By 4 we'd reached Auckland where we'd stay with friends of ours for the night.
3 years ago, Marco and I made a similar road trip to Auckland to see these same friends. That one was spure of the moment.( "Hey.. let's get out of here for the weekend" "OK" and 5 hours later, arrive at friends). This one took 8 hours to drive the same distance and we had accumuatled a LOT more stuff (and people). Since our last trip to see them, we'd had our 2 children, and they'd had 2 more as well - they're latest arrival appearing just 4 weeks prior to our trip. I was about to get my baby fix!! Unfortautnely, I left my camera in the car and couldn't be bothered to get it. So, no pics of our friends. With 7 kids of their own, my 2 "extras" had no problems fitting right in. Within seconds of arriving, my girls were whisked off to various bedrooms to play various games and be amused in various ways. Love it!! By 9pm.. all the kids were tucked in for the night and we could finally have a bit of adult time.
The next morning dawned a bit drizzly and rainy, but no biggie. Kids had a great morning and were suitably worn out by the time we hit the road at 11:30ish. We opted to take off right before Lunch because yours truly had a cravign for Wendy's. And Wendy's can only be found in 2 cities in this country - Auckland being one of them. I have to admit though, mostly becuase we were served by a non-english speaking person who got my order wrong and I was too much a wimp to say anything, we were all pretty dissapointed. Maybe, but only just maybe, my tastebuds have evolved in the last 3 years.

Hit the road and within seconds (ok, maybe minutes) the girls were both asleep. It was rather short lived, unfortuantely, because within 15 km we hit a small town and as soon as Marco started to slow down for an impending red light, Kelsey woke up - that child will not sleep under 30 km/h!! Unbelieveable!!
Thankfully, we had borrowed a portable DVD player from a friend for the trip, so we could zone Kelsey out with some horrible kids movie (which we promptly tried to ignore). It is REALLY hard to ignore Dora, however. Just so you know.

Only had to make one stop on the way home, that was our dinner/supper stop.. and we took our time a bit there and let the kids run around a bit. Again, we're so grateful that Kelsey has a strong bladder. Both up and down, she only went when we stopped. Perhaps, she doesn't know how much control a small child's bladder has over her parents, but so far, she's not exercising that power!. We hmade it home around 8:30. Kelsey was enthralled by the pink clouds during the last part of our trip. i guess its easy to take sunsets for granted, but for her they're very cool.

Highlights of the trip:

• the girls did WAY better than we ever imagined. Maybe we don't give them enough credit, but they did great!
• I got my baby fix in. Such a sweet lovely new baby. Huge thick dark hair. Very sweet. Kelsey also got to hold the baby and was loving on the baby. So nice to see. 
• Marco got his car bits and bobs. To be honest, I don't even know what they all were. Maybe I'm supposed to care, but its easier not to. 
• It was great to catch up with our friends. Its hard as parents with young kids to stop and go away and catch up with people, but its important to do so. I'm glad we did. 
• Marco is starting to finally know more of the words to kids songs. This may not seem like a highlight, but there has to be a positive side to listening to awful kids music for 10 hours. 

That's it. I can think of nothing more. Glad we went. Glad we're home. One more thing crossed off the list of things to do before we go away... 

Morgan Walking

                      I did it!!

Well.. march 2010 was a big month at our house. the 8th of the month drew bright and sunny and started out as most days do. As the day progressed, I put the girls down for their afternoon sleep and went outside to help Marco with some gardening. After I'd been out there "working" for a few minutes, I decided that it must be getting time for the girls to get up soon. So I went inside to wait. Lo and behold Kelsey woke first (2 hours later) and Morgy soon after. We all went outside and had an ice cream cone on the front lawn (while daddy continued gardening). Kelsey managed to get hers down with limited mess so she stayed out with daddy. I took Morgy in to get cleaned up and washed off. So there I was, in the house, "watching" Morgan (while playing on the computer) when she just stood up and took a step. Because i was at the computer already (being the active and involved mummy that I am), I grabbed the camera and started shooting.



Now 2 weeks has passed.. she's finally taking a few more steps at a time. In fact just yesterday (24th) she'll now walk across the room to get to one of us. Her favourite trick is to walk a super long way to me or Marco and then walk right past and pretend like, "what, so I walk.. I wasn't ocming to you anyway!" And then she turns around wiht a big dumb grin on her face. Or she walks all the way to you and then starts playing peekaboo. Its SO funny!!

Suddenly now Morgan can reach things she never could before. She's such a little toddler. And Kelsey's loving that her little sister "walks". If hse's not imitating Morgy's "walking", she's grabbing Morgan by the wrist and saying, "Come On Morgy, you can do it!" and then dragging her across the room!!

Anyway, I'm super pleased that she's finally walking. I never worry about my kids walking late. Secretly, I prefer it in a lot of ways. But, with a trip next month, I was dreading being on an airplane with a crawler - there is NOTHING more disgusting than crawling up and down an airplane aisles - especially long-haul!!

Olympic Fever

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics has hit our home - BIG TIME! I was completely stoked to find out that a local tv station was actually going to air it this year - 4 years ago I was shocked at how little kiwis in general cared about the winter olympics. Even now, most people barely know its on.. but one tv channel has been my lifesaver and is airing coverage from 5:30am until 6 or 7 pm every day! Its awesome. Ok.. sometimes their choices of what to show are a little off.. but.. they're trying to sell their paid stations too.. so i can't blame them too much. (I did write a letter though.. )
We have a unique situation in our home where we can choose from several countries, when deciding who to cheer for. I'm quite obviously smitten for Canada, but I feel some small tug to let my family cheer for the country we live in.. so we gotta cheer for those kiwis - even though the chance of getting a metal is null and void. And the one thing Marco and I have in common is our dutchnewss.. plus they're pretty good at speed skating.. So.. there's the 3 countries we cheer for.

However.. just to show the world who I'm cheering for.. I did this while Marco was outside one day..  Note the little face peering out the corner.. :)

Anyway.. I'm having a ball with the Olympics. We do Olympic crafts.. wave flags, shout at the TV (which is currently on ALL DAY LONG - I'm probably destroying my kids brains).

Our normal routine is completely gone. Its gotten so bad that I've been putting off having people around for coffee 'cause  I know I'd have to turn off the TV. (true friends wouldn't make me turn off the TV). I get to teach Kelsey what snow is, what skating is, what skiing is... she doesn't really grasp it.. but we're having fun.
We've even created our own little medal board now and I'll have little medal ceremonies because well.. I'm a geek.
Please note the obvious lack of medals under the kiwi flag - losers. Ooh.. and one more gold to be put up tomorrow for Canada.

I finally completed Kelsey's video. I spent a couple days trying to catch her talking to me. It seems a bit dumb, but when she gets into "conversation mode" she gets this weird facial expession at times.. its hard to explain but I never did manage to get a video of it. Oh well. I did get some good conversations, even a bit of singing. Its a bit long.. sorry. Oh, and its from back in December 2009. Odd that its already dated.. oh well, that's life with small kids. Hope you enjoy.