Swimming Lessons
Monkey and Bug started their first session of regular (not Mommy & Me) swimming lessons this week. I'd been really talking it up and we visited the pool (to tour and watch, not to play) where they take place last Saturday, so they'd at least be familiar with the space. Despite excitment leading up to it, Day 1 did not go well (cue Monkey's total meltdown poolside when the teacher arrived). They had barely gotten their toes wet as they huddled together about as far from the teacher as she would let them get. I've been very impressed by the lifeguard staff who would sit to talk with the girls to help them warm up to the idea and do things like bring them security objects--diving rings, floaty noodles, and rubber ducks--to play with. One lifeguard even jumped in to help with the reluctant swimmers (one little boy in addition to my girls). By the end of Day 4, they let the teacher tie a floaty around them and help them kick around the pool! Bug proudly informed me that she even got her hair wet. I'm excited about what improvements next weeks lessons will bring, and how they'll do in our neighborhood pool.

So Busy!
In addition to swimming lessons, this has been an extremely busy week. Here's the day-by-day rundown:

Sunday: We went to Sunday school and worship as usual at our new church. The entourage and I continue to enjoy it, and we're excited about bringing Daddy with us when he comes home. Monkey and Bug even received compliments about their good behavior during "big church," where they sit with me for 15 or 20 minutes before leaving for children's church. That night we were invited to a cookout with members of a Sunday school class I visited that day. We all had a great time getting to know some new friends.

Monday: After their first swimming lesson they asked if we could go to the library to "just chill and read books." We had a lovely, quiet time sitting at one of the little tables reading books that Goose brought us. I wrote down what we read, and we almost finished our summer reading program assignment of 35 books! That evening we headed to the Y, so I could attend a pilates class, and they all got to play in their classes.

Tuesday: We followed up swimming with another trip to the Y. Goose was excited, because on Tuesday our neighbors LA and H are in her class while Miss N and Miss J come to spin class with me. Monkey and Bug are a little jealous, but they're too old to play in the toddler class. That afternoon the girls and I celebrate Daddy's and my wedding anniversary by baking chocolate chip cookies. (That morning I showed the the card and present that Daddy hid for me before he left and told them how he sent me a note to tell me where to find it. This just a few days after he set up an Edible Arrangement to be delivered as a belated Mother's Day gift [we were out of town on the day].These girls are going to have very high expectations for their future husbands!) That evening we joined the neighborhood crew (four families this time) for a bounce house playdate at LA's house.

Wednesday: After swimming, we went to our little branch library for the first summer storytime (we skip the school year storytimes in favor of the homeschool playgroup which is on summer break now). We got to see lots of familiar faces, including the new friends that we made at the library party on Saturday, and we came home with these books:
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!
Jabuti (South American folk tale)
ABC
Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten
Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly

Thursday: Our new friends (Miss K and her boys, N (3 years) and G (20 mos.) came over for a playdate after swimming. I think all the busyness of the week was getting to Bug; she informed me before they arrived that she didn't want to play with friends and she didn't think she could handle sharing. I was very proud of her for being self-aware enough to realize that, and she found fun things to do while they were here anyway (sitting in my lap while Miss K and I chatted, retreating to the landing of the stairs with her bear where she could still watch everybody, and making a bracelet at the kitchen table away from the other kids). Monkey and N hit it off immediately. Within 10 minutes of walking through the door they were animatedly discussing how best to fight off monsters with their light sabers, and Monkey was cheerfully showing off her trucks and showing him the best ways to get to the top of the climb-and-slide. Miss K and I were thrilled to discover that we really are running our households and raising our kids in remarkably similar ways. Since they're only a few minutes away, I think we'll be seeing a lot of them! That evening the girls said they wanted to go somewhere, so I packed up our dinner and we headed to a new playground for a picnic. The girls didn't eat a whole lot, but that playground is really cool! Goose's new favorite word is now "Climb!" Despite the late hour, it was still really hot outside, so we decided to stop and splurge for ice cream for their bedtime snack.

These were not the most exciting parts of the playground,
but these were definitely the best photos I managed to get. These girls are fast!

Friday: No swimming lessons today, so we just had our usual trip to the Y, followed by grocery shopping. Goose got to sit in the car part of the cart at the front for the first time. She handled it beautifully. When we got home we pulled in at the same time as Miss N and LA along with some friends of theirs and they invited us for a bounce house playdate. Miss N and I pooled our leftovers to feed everybody and the kids had a great time.

Saturday: I decided to try something new today and stay home all day! I informed the girls of "the plan," and they were thrilled. They spent most of the day playing relatively quietly. Our only real excitement was going for a walk in the neighborhood and finding things to start our "collection." We filled a tupperware container with pinecones, magnolia leaves, a sparkly rock, a smooth piece of wood, and several dandelions. At home I set the girls up with their magnifying glass and handheld microscope, and spent the next 20 minutes or so listening to a chorus of "whoa!" "cool!" etc.

Pretend Play
Monkey and Bug's pretend play continues to get more complex. It involves actual storylines now (usually a cycle of bad guys attacking someone who is then rescued only to be attacked again). The really new piece is how they've incorporated external thing into their play. When Goose started destroying the series of roads, tunnels, and bridges they built, instead of getting upset, they simply declared her the "bad guy" and started rebuilding and coming up with defensive measures. Saturday morning when I turned on our iTunes Instrumental library to listen to while we worked/played, they started taking their cues from the music as to what should happen next, and even asked me replay songs that had obvious cycles of ominous then triumphant sounding sections.

However, my favorite pretend play moments of the week were the following: Bug requested that I make her a construction paper crown. Initially I wondered if this was the start of what I hear is the inevitable preschool girl obsession with princesses. Far from it! She carefully placed the crown on her head, stood on the couch, raised her arms, and declared, "I AM THE QUEEN OF EVERYTHING!" Who needs to be a frilly princess when you can have cosmic powers, right? (A few days later she walked into the room wearing the crown, and I asked her an unrelated question. She answered me, then politely requested that I address her "Queen of All." Well, of course, your majesty.) Monkey meanwhile was pretending to be a hunter. She gathered up a bunch of empty paper towel rolls which she explained was her gun collection and went off in search of animals. I don't think she ever "shot" anything, but she invited the Queen of Everything to join her, and they had a grand time.

The Queen at her computer.
Monkey requested a pink crown, but it didn't last long after this picture was taken.
She requires far more durable accessories.

Math Games
Monkey and Bug invented a couple of new math games to entertain themselves. The first involves asking me at random times to count up to a certain number that they name. I have agreed to count up to anything below 20, and they've been greatly impressed by my skills at getting all the teens in the right order (this may be the only time I ever impress anyone with my math skills so I'm enjoying it while I can). The second game involves adding up different groups of people on their fingers. For example: They say, "There are four of us girls. When Daddy comes home, how many people will we be?" We count them up. "Ok, if Daddy's home and we go to Nana and Papa Bear's house, then how many people will we be?" This continues with increasing complexity to include any friends and neighbors whose names they know. At some point we added up quite a list, and Bug exclaimed, "Wow, that would be a very exciting party!"

Hooray for Family!
I realized yesterday that I forgot to write a post last week. My weeks kind of ran together since we spent my usual writing day on the road to my folks house. Which, in fact, brings me to the theme of the past two weeks: Extended family visits!

Nana arrived Sunday, May 6, and gave me a long much-needed break about a month into Daddy's "big trip." I don't think I cooked a single meal in the three days she was here, I had another adult around the house to help and talk to, and I think I totalled about eight hours out of the house without the entourage! The girls had a grand time hanging out with Nana, playing, reading books, playing games, and of course shopping. The highlight of one outing was the entourage getting to play on the quarter-fed vehicles in the mall (and unlike Mommy, Nana actually has quarters!). Their favorite: a simple, simulated roller coaster ride. Monkey was the brave one who tried the moving vehicles first and showed Bug how much fun it was. The other highlight of the visit for the girls was that Nana arrived with new books and accompanying buddies for each girl: Ladybug Girl for Bug, Cheeky Monkey for Monkey, and Duck & Goose for Goose.

Nana drove away in time to give us a day or two to prepare to hit the road for our own "big trip" to Grandma and Granddad's house--Uncle N, Aunt E, and Aunt A were also home. (The entourage are great travellers, which is fantastic because I see lots of road trips in our long-term future. Car trip only toys, movies, and snacks kept them happily occupied.) We were there nearly a week and had a lovely time. We visited the zoo. Highlights included: a great merecat exhibit, a turkey who was really into our wagon (he followed us around all puffed up and showing off), a peacock showing off his tail, howler monkeys, goats (the girls actually touched them this time! I think that might be a first), and tigers who were being very cooperative and visible. We also spent some time in the neighboring science center to check out the dinosaur exhibit and kiddie section, which the girls loved. They were most into the animal- and grocery shopping-related pretend play. Other highlights of the trip included going to church with the family (where Grandma stayed in the nursery to be the helper teacher since the arrival of the entourage doubled the typical size of the preschool class), visiting the local butterfly house (lots of butterflies, caterpillars, and chysalises to watch and we even spotted the elusive resident turtle), visiting Grandad at work and getting to see the mural with all the animals, listening to Uncle N's school band play a few songs at the end-of-year concert (it was bedtime; Monkey and Bug were interested, but Goose had had enough), and last, but not least--in fact probably their favorite event--hiking the trails in Grandma and Granddad's woods. We got to walk through a "jungle" (pawpaw grove) to see a little waterfall in the creek, find Jesus bugs and salamanders farther downstream (Goose was particularly into turning over rocks to find critters), hike to the old swimming hole in the river, see two turtles (a very brave baby one and a larger bright orange one), and admire an impressive spider web or two. Later that afternoon Granddad also took the girls around to the birdhouses to see the baby birds. All three girls are getting braver about Grandma and Granddad's dog too. This visit they were playing fetch, chasing her around the yard, and even trying to give her commands. Of course, they also spent lots of time playing on the playset outside, playing with the Little People town, playing Aunt E's baby grand piano (all three of them at the same time frequently while singing at the top of their lungs), and playing with all the bigger toys in the basement (kitchen, playhouse, bouncy horse, etc.). And I loved that they got to do all these cool things with lots of extra adults around to help!

Top: Dancing in Aunt K's old costumes
Middle (L to R): Chillin' with the merecats at the zoo, feeding geese after our picnic, petting the goats
Bottom: fascinated by the goldfish pond in the butterfly house 

Mother's Day
Daddy may not have been on hand to organize things (he sent an email, and an ecard, and an Edible Arrangement), but the entourage still recognized the day--even if unintentially. For example, when I woke up that morning, I could hear Bug trying to keep Goose quiet and checking on Monkey. When she heard me stirring in the bathroom, she peeked her head in and whispered, "Did you get a few extra minutes, Mommy?" They made special cards for me in Sunday school, and that afternoon they picked wildflowers from Grandma and Granddad's backyard for me. Even Goose participated, though she failed to bring the stems with her--just the flowers clenched her tight little fist. Made me smile!

Emotional Maturity
In Daddy's absence, it's become obvious who has the emotional maturity to keep this household running smoothly, and it isn't always Mommy. Bug has proved herself a Godsend in helping me keep it together. The first occasion was a real calling out, and provided the incentive I needed to beg a neighbor's help in giving me a break. Imagine Bug, hands on hips, admonishing me sternly, "Mommy, we do not have meltdowns. We do not scream. Take deep breaths. You need to apologize to [Monkey]." Fortunately, Bug herself was behaving perfectly, and I did as told instead of lashing out at Bug--an entirely possible outcome. (This had to be the most humbling experience of motherhood so far.) Since then she's become an expert at noticing my "tells" and appearing at my elbow to whisper, "Mommy, you need to stay calm." Just the reminder I need to take a deep breath and dig for those extra reserves of patience. It has at least been an affirmation that all the things I'm trying to teach them about how to handle themselves are actually sinking in--even if I don't always succeed in following my own advice.

On a related note, Bug recently made known that she was tired of sitting in the middle carseat and having to do things like help Goose and distribute snacks. I told her that she and Monkey were welcome to trade carseats, but that they both had to agree to it--I wasn't going to force anybody to move. And that was the last thing I said on the matter. The two of them worked out a compromise: Bug would sit in the middle for short trips, and Monkey would sit in the middle for long trips when that position requires more responsibility. They have since successfully negotiated who sits where every time we get in the car without any referreeing from me! It's been a couple of weeks since they started this, and I am still a little in shock about how well they've handled it all on their own.

Library Party!
The entourage and I headed to the library today for the kick off of the summer reading program. It was a perfect sunny day for it. The librarians had sidewalk chalk and crafts to do, a free hot dog lunch, and of course picking up our summer reading packets and the usual checking out of books. We came home with:
The Doorbell Rang
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
The Barn Party
George and Marth: Round and Round
Fiesta Babies
This Is the House that Jack Built
While the entourage was oblivious, my favorite part of the morning was striking up a conversation with a fellow Christian, military wife, and homeschool mom who has a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old, who just moved into a house maybe three minutes from us. I see playdates in our future!

Zoo Day
Beyond a doubt Monday was our favorite day this week. I decided to venture to the zoo with the just the entourage and I, and it was a huge success. The zoo was a lot less crowded this time, so the entourage actually got to see more animals and to see less of the backs of people's heads or knees. We got an earlier start this time around, so we also made it into the fish and reptile house--very popular! Some highlights of the day: getting face-to-face (through the glass) with a 6lb. bright blue pigeon (exciting because Pigeon is one of our favorite book characters), getting to see the zoo's two gorillas up close (they were napping right by the glass and we had the gorilla house to ourselves), watching a baby baboon wrestling and chasing with his parents, playing on the bronze animal sculptures scattered throughout the zoo, noting that the zoo had lots of billy goats with a bridge but no troll, and seeing lots of fish/sharks/rays like in Finding Nemo.


Enjoying the real animals



Enjoying pretend animals

Projects
At some point this week Bug requested that I come up with a project for her--something more complex than her usual throwing paint around. Here is what we came up with:

Cotton ball clouds + raindrops from hole-punched aluminum foil + a construction paper person with umbrella built from shapes (Bug told me what shapes to cut out and she took it from there).
They also wanted to do something with tissue paper, so we made butterflies (tissue paper strips + wooden clothespin).

Art in the Park
This Saturday the girls and I attended the annual arts festival at the park beside the "big library," and it proved a great low-stress way to take in the arts with the entourage. We started the morning by watching the county ballet company perform in the amphitheater (the girls didn't have to be still or quiet--particularly good since Bug asked completely appropriate questions throughout and Goose just wanted to run back and forth on the grass). Then we perused the artists booths. There were a number of kids arts and crafts activities available, but the entourage was more interested in seeing all the local artists, which suited me just fine (paintings, pottery, wood carving, etc.). We did stop to acquire some balloon creations from a local radio station, though (We came home with a purple dog and a pink sword. Anybody want to guess who requested what?) The big event at this festival is the chalk art contest. A Star Wars drawing done by a high school artist was definitely the entourage's favorite entry. The festival also designated a section of pavement for the preschoolers to have a chalk art free-for-all, which all three girls loved. And of course, we couldn't leave without playing on the playground for a bit.

Bible Verses
Monkey and Bug seem to have mastered their first verse, so I added a new one this week: Be kind to one another (Eph. 4:32). Bug was very excited when she discovered the new "special verse card" up on the fridge one morning and insisted we sit down, talk about it, and learn it immediately. They both enjoy going over the verses everydat before naptime, but in very different ways: Monkey wants to sit in my lap, snuggle up, and chant or sing them softly with me, while Bug is incredibly proud of the fact that she can stand up and say them all by herself. Goose just picks up on the happiness of her sisters and cheers from the sidelines. One of my favorite moments of the day.

Classical Music
I forgot to mention this last week, but I added a new CD to our rotation in the car. The girls and I have been enjoying Dvorak, particularly his Slavic Dances.

Pool Time
Our neighborhood pool isn't open  yet, but it is HOT. So the girls put on their bathingsuits and went swimming in the bathtubs and in the kiddie pool.

Library Day
Monkey and Bug requested that we go to the big library again this week. They were even ready to leave early, so I agreed (it's a bit farther away, and there's a playground we can visit before the library opens). We didn't actually stay in either location very long though. The playground was getting overrun with playdate group, and the girls decided they weren't up for that much competition for the slides. Then in the library Goose started getting tired and decided the best way to keep herself awake was to start pulling books off the shelf and throwing them. We cut that visit short, especially since she managed to nail Bug with one. We did, however, still come home with these books:
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Alphabet City
What's Your Sound Hound the Hound?
Velveteen Rabbit (The girls declared that it didn't have enough pictures, so we may or may not make it through this one.)
Brownie and Pearl Step Out
Arbor Day

Sometimes you just need to pull every book off the shelf and read them all.

[This belated blog post brought to you by uncooperative photos. I had a couple more pics I wanted to share, but I finally gave up.]

Alice in Wonderland

A while back Nana gave the girls several Disney books, and the favorite hands down has been Alice in Wonderland. I ordered the actual movie from Netflix, and we had a pizza and movie night. All three girls were enthralled! Even Goose actually watched most of the movie. Partway through I had to give them a spoiler though. Bug was really concerned about how Alice was going to get home. She loved the idea that it was just a silly dream. We had a number of conversations afterwards in which the girls listed things in the movie that "don't usually, really happen." Since then, Alice and commpany have found their way our everyday lives. Perhaps the most amusing incident was Monkey racing across the house, waving her arms and yelling, "I'm late! I'm late!" before settling onto the potty. A couple of times I've found them dancing around their climb 'n slide singing "We're painting the roses red!" Bug pointed out that the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book has a purple cat just like the Cheshire cat ("only he doesn't have stripes, and he doesn't disappear"). Toward the end of this week we went to a McDonald's that featured a huge twisty slide. Monkey and Bug emerged from the bottom bursting with excitement: "We fell down, down, down, and our shirts bloomed out like Alice's dress!" They spent most of the time there "playing Alice" and going down the rabbit hole. For the evening's purposes they also decided that Goose was Dinah (Alice's kitten--it makes sense: they're both small, mostly nonverbal, and unable to follow Alice down the rabbit hole).

Finger Painting

We made finger paints this week (flour + water + food coloring). This was a brilliant idea I found online somewhere. Not only did the girls love making their own paints, but it's cheap, easy, and edible--that's the preschooler activity trifecta, folks!

Emerging Social Skills
My little introverts faced several socially challenging situations this week, and they handled them all gracefully (over the past couple of months interactions with new, if very friendly people, have resulted in total meltdowns.) We've been having lots of discussions lately about appropriate responses to new people: We do not fall to the ground and start screaming. It's nice to say hi and tell them our names if they ask--that's how we make friends. If they're not up for talking, they can hide behind my legs if I'm there, and simply walk away if I'm not. This week when we had this discussion before attending an event, Monkey noted that we could also remember our special verse (Ps. 56:3), and God would help us be brave. Talk about a proud Mommy moment! The first event was a birthday party--a rained-out pool party, which means about 50 people (mostly under the age of 3) crammed themselves into a little 3-bedroom apartment. Monkey and Bug managed to make their way out onto the relatively quiet balcony several times during the party. They didn't actually try to play with anyone, but we had not a single meltdown! Then Sunday we visited a new church. Not only were there no meltdowns, but they both introduced themselves properly to several new people. We attended another birthday party today (Saturday). This one was mostly people they knew, but Monkey informed me ahead of time that she didn't want to talk to or play with anyone. She stayed within arm's reach for a long while; we had a few iffy moments, but she kept her cool, and dashed off to play outside as soon as her best buddy LA arrived.

Tent

When the girl's beach tent kept blowing over in the backyard,
we pulled out a big sheet and made the climbing dome into a tent.

For-the-Car Toys
Since Daddy's been gone, I've been working on a collection of toys that the girls can only play with in the car. We have road trips planned for this summer, and the church we're looking at attending is a bit farther away. I'm hoping it'll save me having to listen to the whining, and make it for happier car rides for them too. I bought magnadoodles, which have already been keeping them entertained on shorter trips. I also bought 3 small cookie sheets, which are perfect for magnet-based play, in this case puzzle cards (line up two or three to build words and/or form pictures) and a set of roads and tiny cars. I have more magnet activities in mind, but this is what I've gotten done so far. I also punched holes in several sets of flashcards and strung them on binder rings for the girls to look at.

Library Day
The girls asked to go to "big library" this week, and we had lots of fun--especially since storytime is on a hiatus. There were only a few kids, so the girls could have a little more freedom and no competition for the favorite toys (puppets and oversized checkers). They even made friends with another three-year-old roaming the children's section (more positive social interactions!) She sat down with them at the checkers table and Monkey and Bug cheerfully handed her a stack of checkers, so she could build too. They don't really get competition yet, so I haven't bothered attempting to explain the game. We came home with these books:
Pigeon Wants a Puppy
To Market Street (alphabet book with really neat illustrations--people made out of objects beginning with each letter)
1 is One
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub! (Interesting, both this and the previous book are about kings behaving badly and the page boys who solve the problem. Monkey and Bug distinguish between books by referring to the "naked king" and the "king with clothes.")
Elsie's Bird
Prehistoric Life Size (full of life size illustrations of dinosaurs--or parts of them. We've watched some episodes of dinosaur train lately, so the girls thought this book was awesome.)

Moments:

• A fire truck came down our street! No emergency, so I'm not sure why they were there, but the driver was kind enough to turn on his lights when he spotted three excited preschoolers.
• Bug "teaching" me colors when I joined her in doing coloring sheets (I'm colorblind--all crayons look brown to me once the papers come off, and I needed her help finding colors.)
• Monkey and Bug successfully cooking a sidedish for dinner tonight. They made roasted asparagus (spread out asparagus, "paint" on the olive oil, sprinkle on the seasonings). All I had to do was put them in the oven, and they disappeared quick once they came out!

Bye, Daddy
We took Daddy to the airport on Sunday for his "great big trip." And we all miss him already! Fortunately,Daddy had the foresight to create some "Daddy TVs" for the entourage to watch, and I think that held off some of the early meltdowns. Using a webcam, he recorded himself reading some of their favorite books aloud, and we have watched at least one of these everyday. I also made a couple of videos of Daddy and the girls rough housing (like the one posted last week). Monkey had an "I miss Daddy" moment today that involved really wanting to wrestle with him (Mommy wasn't good enough--no surprise). We broke out those videos and she loved them! She laughed hysterically every time she saw herself "squish" Daddy. Unfortunately, it kind of backfired with Bug; she ended up curled up on the floor crying that she wanted to really rough house with Daddy. We snuggled for awhile, then I distracted her with the possibility of helping me cook dinner.

Adventures!
We went for lots of walks this week--often two a day! With the exception of Wednesday, the weather has been gorgeous, and the entourage loves nothing better than pulling out the trikes and stroller and going for a long walk in the neighborhood. One day the girls declared that we were going on an adventure. This seemed to mean that we would stop frequently to pay attention to things like wild flowers, prints and tracks on driveways, broken sidewalks, spilled birdseed, jet skis, and other people's chalk art. Monkey and Bug insisted we take pictures of all of it, so here is a photo collage of one of our walks:

Bible Verse
One of the things I value most from my own education is the numerous Bible verses I was forced to memorize and still remember. I've been thinking about when to get that started for the entourage, and this week I decided to give it a try. Our first verse (posted on a card on the fridge) is Psalm 56:3: "When I am afraid, I will trust in you." It seemed appropriate given that last time Daddy was gone for this long their fears of everything escalated. We sat down, read the verse from the Bible, talked about what it meant, and repeated it several times (we've repeated several times everyday). So far it's going well, and the girls are definitely learning it, although they can't say it by themselves yet. It helped that one of the books they picked out from the library this week dealt with being afraid, and they noted that Piglet should have "trusted in God, so he wouldn't be scared."

Projects
Once again it was all freeform art this week, and mostly the girls decided to paint with a few stickers thrown in for good measure. Previously the girls have always just picked one color each, but it suddenly occurred to them this week that they could paint with more than one color per painting. A new era in the entourage's artwork has begun! Of course, Goose insisted on getting in on the action. She even figured out the logistics of using a paintbrush; although she kept calling it a spoon and did in fact put it (and a glob of non-toxic paint) in her mouth. She won't be doing that again! All this painting made me very thankful for the plastic tablecloth I bought from Walmart a few weeks back and for not having to scrub all the paint off our kitchen table!

The entourage beginning their projects

The projects completed

Library Day
We actually managed to visit the library without making a complete mess of the children's section this time. We came home with these books:
Jack and the Beanstalk (a favorite, Monkey requested we check it out again)
Circles of Hope
The Busy Body Book: A Kid's Guide to Fitness
Don't Be Scared Piglet and Roo
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late!
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog
Snow Friends

Reading books at home. Bug actually had memorized
whatever book it was she's reading to Goose.

Pigeon at the Wheel!
Daddy wasn't around to take them to the playground this week, but we still made it there. They did the usual playing on the slides, bouncy toys, and monkey bars, but this time they were also inspired by the mounted steering wheel to pretend to be characters from one of their favorite books, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Bug decided to venture outside the storyline, though (in the book Pigeon never succeeds in driving the bus; he just "interacts" with the reader in trying to convince them to let him). At the playground however, Pigeon/Bug snuck onto the "bus," grabbed the wheel, and shouted "Pigeon at the wheel! Oh no! Crash! Bang!" Bus Driver/Monkey came racing across the playground and took back the bus. After some friendly and hilarious negotiation, they decided that Pigeon could still ride the bus--if she paid for the ride in bits of mulch.

I declared it too chilly for the pool, but the entourage desperately wanted to play with water.
We compromised.

Quality Time
After the mostly wonderful craziness of last week, I tried to keep to the "normal" routine as much as possible with lots of family quality time thrown in. Daddy deployed this weekend, so we tried to get in as much time with him as we could. Their Daddy date this week involved watching him mow the lawn, which for a trio of preschoolers is actually a fascinating activity. Daddy even made sure to get in lots of rough housing time with his girls. They are going to miss evenings spent like this!

Thanks to our wonderful neighbors even I got a date night with Daddy this week! The entourage was thrilled to spend an evening hanging out with LA--eating alphabet soup for dinner and playing princesses.

Project
The entourage was incredibly excited about the project this week. I threw into a shoebox the following items: a few sticker sheets, a collection of cut outs from magazines, a couple of glue sticks, two pairs of scissors, a handful of crayons, and a few pieces of construction paper. I gathered the entourage around their table in the study, opened the box, and told them to have at it. They were far more proud of their finished products than they have been of any formal craft project I've led them through. Of course, the "finished" products were cut into slivers before I could take pictures of them, but they had the best time letting their creative juices flow. We will definitely be repeating this with a variety of things in the box!

Trucks
Monkey in particular spent a lot of time with the toy trucks this week: parking them in various locations, creating different arrangments and patterns, vrooming them from one place to another, and occassionally lining them up and naming them.

Toddlerese
I've officially lost track of how many words exactly Goose says now. She's constantly popping out new words, and life is slowly getting easier now that she can communicate a little more effectively. Her most frequently used phrase: "I want . . . " This usually ends in a request for food (and yet the doctor thinks she isn't gaining enough weight. I don't get it.)

Little Techies
In addition to all the new words, Goose has discovered that there are several apps on her big sisters' iPods that she can play with (her current favorite is a shapes game, but she really enjoys the coi pond too). Monkey and Bug continue to play games are Starfall, and I recently showed them the Paint program on the old laptop. I had to laugh the other day when I looked around the study to see Monkey playing a JumpStart program on the desktop, Bug painting a picture on the laptop, Goose playing with the fish on an iPod, while I worked on the netbook.

Library Day
We were back to our usual library day today. The big girls claimed a table in the kids section and spent most of the time picking books off the shelf and quietly "reading" them. Goose didn't play with the puzzles at all this time--she too was busy pulling books off the shelf, but she did a lot less quietly reading than her sisters. We're trying to teach Goose that books are taken off one at a time and looked at, not dumped off the shelf by the armload. It's going to take a while. (It probably makes it harder that I have no problem with her doing the same thing at home. Only at home once she's emptied the shelf she plops herself down in the middle of them and spends a long time flipping through them.) Anyway, we came home with the following books this week:
I Love My New Toy! (An elephant and piggie book; this series is one of our favorites)
Horton Hears a Who
Where the Wild Things Are
Five Little Chicks
The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything
Good Night, Engines! / Wake up, Engines!
The Very Grouchy Ladybug

Routine? What Routine?
This week looked a lot different than normal. It was spring break where we live, so some of the weekly activities were cancelled (homeschool playgroup and church night supper). Nana came to visit (much excitement! It's been the longest time they've ever gone without seeing her), so the entourage didn't do their usual Daddy date night or come to the Y with me. We didn't go to the library this week, because we decided to spend that morning at home with Daddy since he went out of town again (just two nights; he's back already). And to top off the week, we cancelled our usual Friday activities to go to the zoo with our neighbors Miss N, Mr. S, and LA. Next week we'll be back slightly closer to "normal." The poor entourage won't know what to do with themselves!

Nana!
Nana's arrival was the first major event of the week. She arrived Sunday night after they went to bed, and they were so excited to have Nana here when they woke up Monday morning. Nana drove down in the convertible, so the entourage got to ride up and down the street a few times with the top down. We played outside alot, and got to try out the girls' new bubble bucket.

We also dyed Easter eggs while Nana was here. Monkey and Bug helped with the whole process--from boiling the eggs to eating the finished beautiful product. Goose was very disappointed that she didn't get help with the dying.

 The last morning of Nana's visit proved particularly eventful: The entourage got to see a sheriff up close and in person when I got into a fenderbender (no one was injured, there was minimal damage to the cars, and the officer was merciful enough not to give me a ticket), we went to the bank to take care of some paperwork, and Nana bought us frozen yogurt (she decided we all needed a treat--yum!)

Puddle Jumping
Thanks to a couple of really hard rains we had two fantastic puddle jumping days. There's a dip in the road right in front of house which creates the most fantastic, huge, mud-free puddle. The first time the girls mostly did just jump--with vigor. In fact, they had to stop a couple of times to dump the water out of their rain boots. Toward the end of the water play Monkey and Bug decided to reinact the "fetch a pail of water" part of Jack and Jill. They scooped water into buckets with sand shovels, and they were kind enough to let Goose join in. The second time they still jumped quite a bit--enough to get soaked head to toe, but they also floated boats and other objects, collected and examined rocks found in the puddle and surrounding area, scooped water into buckets and watered the street, and discovered that when you draw with chalk on a wet street it makes for really vibrant colors.

Veggies
Last week we planted microgreens; this week we harvested! The entourage was thrilled to eat the veggies they had grown themselves. I have plans to put them salads and on sandwiches, but the first harvest was snipped and eaten immediately. The girls didn't even want to go inside first; they sat on the front porch in their PJs and ate every last leaf. I highly recommend gardening as a way to get your kids to eat their greens!

Wheels on the Bus
Monkey and Bug have been singing "Wheels on the Bus" a lot lately, but they get very creative. One recent rendition involved a bus whose passengers included the usual people, babies, and mommies, but also a tiger, bunnies, a sloth, a clown, a dinosaur, and of course Diego, who showed up to rescue the people from the tiger and the dinosaur, who were apparently wrecking havoc on the bus. They were cracking themselves up!

To the Zoo!
Monkey and Bug have been begging me to take them to the zoo for a while now, and we finally made it! We borrowed a big wagon from some neighbors, caravaned up with our next-door neighbors, and the entourage had a blast. They were extremely good travelers (an hour and a half in the car with just me and three 3 and under: I was a bit nervous, but they did beautifully. I even wore them out enough that they all slept the whole way home). At the top of their to-see list were elephants, monkeys, and zebras, and this zoo did not disappoint. We also got to do cool things like walk through the kangaroo habitat, feed goats (Bug was so brave!), and get face to face with a hungry giraffe (sadly we didn't have any food for him, but being at eye level and maybe a foot away was pretty nifty). We didn't have time to see everything, but since this trip was such a success, we're planning to get a membership, so you can look forward to more zoo reports.

The entourage plus one (LA) were very excited to "ride the elephant"!

Goose Is Flying!
Down the slide at least. This girl is fearless and a lot more mobile than other kids her age or at least her size. On the zoo playground and on our neighbors playset, while the other toddlers were sitting hestitantly at the tops of slides and grasping at the edges while they slid to their mommies at the bottom, Goose was flinging herself onto the slide on her belly headfirst, controlling her speed to slow at the bottom and tumble off into the rubber mulch/grass, bouncing up and repeating endlessly. She freaked out more than one parent on the sidelines who seemed to think she was zooming toward certain death or at least a bad fall, and more unfortunately inspired a few bigger toddlers/preschoolers to do the same with considerably less success. She's pretty tough too: At one point at the zoo, she got knocked over in the rush of bigger kids. A preteen girl tried to be helpful, pick her up, and carry her off the playset. Goose was indeed crying--not because she got knocked over (she wasn't phased), but because someone was trying to take her away from the slide! She squirmed out of my arms and right back up the stairs as soon as I "freed her" from the preteen.

Daddy's Gone . . . but Grandma's Here!
Daddy was out of town this week, but the entourage had the happy distraction of Grandma visiting which made things a bit smoother. It's always fun for them to have a new grown up around to do things like read lots of books and build super tall towers.

The evening before Daddy left we decided to have a "Daddy Date" that I got to go to as well. We took a picnic to the park, then went out for ice cream. Perhaps the biggest excitement of the evening was getting to witness some fascinating weather. We could actually see and hear the rain coming toward us from across a baseball field! It's a good thing we had the warning too, because it turned out to be a hail shower. The girls got to watch the hail bouncing around and look at one up close. Fortunately, it didn't stick around for long and we got to keep playing outside for a bit.

Daddy's teaching the entourage to do the monkey bars.

I managed to catch them mid-dandelion blow.

Playdate to Pizza
Monday turned out to be a very social day for the entourage and I. In the morning we were invited to crash a Mom's Club playdate that Miss N was hosting next door. It involved playing in LA's bounce house and getting to eat one of Miss N's practice cakes (she's taking a cake decorating class and a had a final that night). Needless to say, a great time was had by all. Then Grandma arrived in the afternoon to find three very excited little girls waiting for her in the front yard. To top off the day that evening most of our neighborhood friends gathered in our backyard for pizza and play until bedtime. Two other families had grandparents visiting this week too, so it was quite the gathering!

All the little ladies created a pizza eating train.

Library Day
We decided to go to storytime at our little branch library again this week, since it was a more Grandma friendly event. And, of course, we got to see some of our neighborhood friends too. All three girls made paper caterpillars as the storytime craft project. We came home with these books this week:
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
From Seed to Plant
The Foot Book
Green as a Bean
The Neighborhood Mother Goose
Aesop's Fables (renewed)

Gardening
Plants and gardening proved to be the theme of the week. Grandma arrived with a collection of pinecones to examine as well as an assortment of vegetable and flower seeds. She helped the entourage put together baggies with damp paper towels and a variety of the seeds, so they can watch how different plants germinate (at this writing a few of Goose's are actually starting to sprout). We found a book about the life cycle of plants at the library. I happened across a bunch of veggie themed worksheets that the girls enjoyed working on. Grandma brought a self-watering planter we had hoped to get set up, but it leaked too much (maybe if Grandma can fix the leak we can try again later). We actually did plant a bunch of lettuce and radish seeds in a couple of berry containers to see if we can succeed in growing microgreens (I'm keeping my fingers crossed--I have something of a black thumb and even managed to kill a cactus once).

Easter Eggstravaganza
Our church had it's big Easter party this Wednesday. We had a bit of rough start in getting the entourage involved in activities, but once they got into the egg hunt things went smoother from there. It was a drop-in egg hunt for preschoolers, and  the entourage wasn't aggresive and/or fast enough to snag the eggs as soon as they hit the ground. Once the initial crowd cleared out, we had a lot of fun though. Perhaps more exciting than even the candy in the eggs was that some of the "eggs" were actually plastic cupcakes that you could take the tops off of. I think about half a dozen of these have joined the pretend food collection in the kitchen. (As a result, Goose uttered her first two word phrase: "My cupcake!") The party also involved several inflatable activities; the bounce house and the huge slide were favorites. I think Monkey and Bug went down the slide at least a dozen times each. Goose mostly spent most of this time sqatting on the ground getting eggs in and out of her basket. We got to meet live chickens and a bunny to meet and do a craft. The Easter Bunny was also there. The entourage didn't want take pictures with her, but we observed from a distance. Bug noted with excitement that it wasn't a real big bunny--it was just a person in a costume!

Worksheets
I happened across a bunch of veggie themed worksheets this week that Monkey and Bug were pretty excited about (mostly matching and counting). The only difficulty with saving worksheets as records of jobs well done is that the finished projects usually look like the've been done incorrectly. They haven't been; Monkey and Bug just like to go above and beyond. For example, one of the sheets this time instructed them to circle the veggie in the row that matched the one in the column on the right. They did this perfectly, then they informed me that they wanted to practice drawing circles and circled every veggie on the sheet. Little overachievers!

At some point this week I was working on the computer upstairs,
and Goose decided to grab several books, climb into the butterfly chair,
and snuggle in looking at books for 30 minutes or so.



Gardening
We finally tackled the landscaping in our postage stamp of a yard, and the entourage is very excited about this. I heard many requests to "go play in the dirt!" this week. We have a stash of sand toys that resemble our real gardening tools, but of course the entourage (including Goose) knows the difference and wants to work with the "grown up tools." All this dealing with the plants led to discussions about root systems ("these stringy things that suck food out of the dirt") and photosynthesis ("leaves soak up sunshine, so the plants can grow"). At some point most of the neighborhood crew (at least 8 adults plus kids) ended up in our front and side yard. The grown ups chitchatted, and the kids pulled out the riding toys and helped dig up our flower beds. Good times.

Prayer Beads
A few weeks ago I attended a prayer bead workshop at church (We're not Catholic, so we're not talking about the rosary--just different beads to help you focus and remember different things to pray about, like being thankful, confessing, etc.). My beads and prayer journal are usually sitting out in the living room when the entourage comes downstairs, and they are fascinated by the beads. Many mornings they touch the beads one by one and ask what I pray for with each bead. At some point Bug declared that she wanted prayer beads too. So on Monday we finally acquired an assortment of wooden beads and Bug and I sat down to make a set of prayer beads. I let her decide everything: which beads, how many, and what they stood for. She doesn't remember consistently which bead means what and she usually repeats one or two, but she wants to remember to pray for: something she's thankful for, something she's scared of, something she's frustrated about, something she wants help with, and people she knows. It was one of those moments that made me feel really good about Daddy and my ability to pass our faith on to our kids.

Projects

Monkey and Bug were feeling very crafty one morning this week (inspired by my cleaning out the craft chest and rediscovering what cool stuff we have in there), so they did some free style painting and sticker collages this week. They wanted to do something with the pom poms, so I suggested making caterpillars with craft sticks and pom poms. They turned out really well.

Water!

One day this week Monkey and Bug declared it warm enough to pull out the little wading pool. They were right, and they had a blast! They got a big kick out of being big enough to fill up the pool by themselves, but their favorite part was discovering that if you throw a basketball or soccer ball into the pool, it makes a really BIG splash!



Playdates

The entourage actually attended a playgroup without me this week. Since Daddy's deploying soon we had to get some legal things taken care of, so one of our neighbors took the girls during a morning when she was hosting a Moms' Club playgroup. Fortunately, the girls knew several of the moms and kids, but I was a bit nervous about leaving my little introverts (Monkey and Bug--Goose would be fine) in such a potentially overwhelming situation. They did beautifully, and Miss J said they did a great job of looking out for each other. Later in the week they went next door to Miss N's house to play with their friend LA while Daddy and I finished paperwork, and again when I took Goose to the doctor. (I actually intended to take the whole entourage to the doctor as usual, but Miss N wanted to keep Monkey and Bug because then they could keep 2-year-old LA busy and she could actually get something done. It's so nice that they've reached an age when it's often easier to have more than one!)

Library Day

We had another exciting library day. This week our homeschool group got cancelled, so we headed to the library on Wednesday and got to attend storytime at our little branch library with some of our neighborhood friends. As usual they were enthralled by the storytelling and merely tolerant of the get-up-and-wiggle times. Bug and Goose did the craft afterwards (gluing tissue paper blossoms onto a construction paper tree branch), but Monkey opted to sit on the floor and look at books with her teddy bear. The girls had fun, but admitted afterward that they like it when there aren't quite so many kids at the library. It's definitely a different atmosphere! This week we came home with these books:

Horton Hatches the Egg

It's Picture Day Today!

Perfect Pancakes, If You Please

I Will Surprise My Friend!

Aesop's Fables

Doesn't everybody have days when they want to get mostly naked and play with playdough?

Easter Flowers
Monkey and Bug made Easter flowers this week (construction paper hand & footprints + rolled construction paper + tape). They were supposed to be lilies, but these creative girls would never go so ordinary as white :-) It was Bug's idea to try it with footprints. I was skeptical at first, but she was right: they actually made nice pseudo-Calla lilies.

Games
I recently made several games for the entourage. Tic-tac-toe (white paper grid + contact paper + milk caps) is popular. They understand the concept of getting three in a row, but they fail to see the point of getting in each other's way. Mostly, they play with patterns and shapes on the grid and see how many milk caps they can stack without knocking them over. Good times. The alphabet game (ABC wheel + contact paper + clothes pins with abc's on them) was actually less of a challenge for them than I anticipated. Score another for unschooling, right? I had no idea they could match almost all the upper and lower case letters! The pom pom game (sour cream container with holes in the lid + half a dozen mini pom poms) is actually a bigger hit with the big girls than I thought it would be. Goose loves it of course, and Monkey and Bug having been using it to start teaching Goose her colors.

More Words
Additions to Goose's vocabulary this week: uh oh, balloon, all done

Music
I started a new thing this week. I put a couple of classical music CDs in the car to alternate with the girls sing-along CDs as we're out and about. This week I introduced them to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and was very impressed with the reception it got. Not only did they want to hear every note (a challenge when I don't want to blast them out of their carseats on the crescendos), but I heard comments like the following from the backseat: "I like those loud cymbals!" "That trumpet surprised me!" "The bestest instrument is all the instruments" (translation: They prefer when the whole orchestra plays instead of the solo bits.) They also made their own music with homemade shakers (toilet paper tubes + pistachio shells + dry rice + paper + packing tape). Early in the week Bug noticed the nice sound that pistachio shells make when she ran her fingers through them, so I offered to teach her how to make an instrument out them. It was a very popular activity!

Bug also discovered the shaker could double as a "microphone" and put on a concert for me.

Computer Skills
Monkey's and Bug's computer skills continue to improve. They mostly play with Starfall and have discovered many more games besides the alphabet ones (calendars, nursery rhymes, counting, classic kids songs, holidays). I don't have to help them at all anymore: They discovered that the website will read aloud any word they click on, so they don't have to ask me for instructions, and they even know how to open the link to the website I put on the desktop. They've also figured out how to use the mouse for the desktop computer. Since Monkey and Bug have been playing Jumpstart games on the desktop, even Goose has figured out that fun things happen when you push buttons (or bang the keyboard).

Playing Tag
Needless to say, the girls took a good nap this day. (And Bug was just fine after her face plant. She jumped right up without even crying and kept running.)

Hooray for Pocoyo!
We discovered a new favorite TV show. It's about a 2-year-old, Pocoyo, exploring the everyday things in his world. For some reason (maybe the simple storylines and bouncy music?), he has the entourage captivated. I have no idea where it originated, but it's quite an international experience: The characters' names are Spanish, the animation style is Japanese, and the narrator who interacts with Pocoyo is British. (It gets additional Mommy points for each episode being only 7 minutes long.)

Library Day

Library Day was quite the expedition this week, because we decided to go to "the Big Library" instead of our little branch library. We went early in order to have time to play on the playground, but the entourage chose to all but ignore the actual playground. Instead they ran past the playground to the gazebo overlooking the turtle pond. We saw two turtles and two geese, which we got a better look at through the fence than we could at the gazebo.

They then decided to run all the way around the pond (even Goose walked most of the way). Following the path all the way meant we went past the amphitheater, and what preschooler can resist a chance to run around an empty stage!

We also discovered that Goose has the balance to handle shallow steps all by herself.

We returned briefly to the playground and ran into some friends of ours from church before heading into the library itself. Monkey and Bug insisted on going to storytime, and seem to enjoy it despite the fact that they don't participate in any of the hand rhymes/songs/get-your-wiggles-out stuff (I think they view those as merely tolerable interruptions to an otherwise lovely time). The theme was rainbows this week, and they got to glue together rainbow caterpillars afterwards. Actually looking for books to bring home is a little more challenging here, since there are so many distractions (lots of puzzles, stuffed animals, a puppet theater, oversize checker games, etc.), but we came home with the following:
Hey, Mama Goose
Curious George Gets a Medal
Circus Parade
Cat the Cat, Who Is That?
An Invitation to the Butterfly Ball: A Counting Rhyme
Little Red Riding Hood
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A Book of Changing Seasons
The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight
They also took some time to share the stuffed animals with the library statues.

Dinosaur DayMonday turned into a very dinosaur day, which started by watching Dinosaur Train. It inspired Monkey and Bug to pretend to be dinosaurs throughout our trip to Walmart, much to the amusement of the employees who thought two little girls stomping and roaring through the store was hilarious. The girls spotted a couple of T. rex sippy cups that in a weak moment I bought for them, and it absolutely made their day. Then during our reading time before nap we just happened across a dinosaur poem or two in a kids poetry book we got from the library last week. We talked a lot about dinosaurs, and Bug was particularly fascinated by the fact that some dinosaurs fly and live in nests like birds. Monkey concluded the day by wearing her triceratops PJs to bed.

Monkey accomplishing her first "all by herself cooking job." She made snack mix by measuring and mixing the ingredients I set out for her. Side note: she is also wearing the triceratops PJs here.

Aunt E Is Here!
Much to everyone's excitement Aunt E came to visit this past week. The entourage loved having the additional adult playmate to read to them and take them outside to play. And as usual, watching E practice clarinet was highly popular. Mommy and Daddy even got a date night!

More Words for Goose
Pleae note, these words can usually only be understood in context, and she hasn't said any of them frequently, but she has said them spontaneously (as opposed to repeating after me): chewie (pacifier), dolly, sisters, bear, book, thanks, cheese

We Can Ride Bikes Now!

Monkey riding her bike all by herself for the first time.
She had moved on to other things by the time I got the video camera out.
Bug was happy to show off her skills in the video below.

International Wednesday
Wednesday morning started off with the discovery of a fun new (to us) tv show to watch: Pingu, a Swedish cartoon about a young penguin. Pingu never actually talks, but we're not sure if the adult penguins are just making noises or speaking Swedish because the dialogue of the adult penguins is unnecessary to following the plot. The entourage was enthralled. Later in the morning some of our neighborhood friends came over for a Japanese-themed playdate hosted by Aunt E. We sampled really yummy Japanese snacks (Poky sticks and shrimp chips were favorites), let the kids paint cherry trees with dot paints, and the grownups tried origami. Monkey and Bug really loved helping Aunt E make things by creasing her folds for her. We followed that up with homemade Chinese food for lunch (egg foo young and fried rice--extremely popular with this crowd! I think Goose ate as much as I did!). To top it off, that evening at bedtime they chose a Spanish/English book for their bedtime story.

This is what our playdate looked like. The laptop is out so we could show the kids what real cherry trees look like. That's Bug's tree in the foreground (Monkey didn't make one; she was focused on the origami E was making.)

Even Goose painted a tree!

Library Day
Aunt E came with us to the library before she left, so of course she spent a good hour reading book after book to the entourage. Here's what we came home with:
Night Rabbits
Tiny & Hercules
Yoko's Paper Cranes (Aunt E found this one, and Monkey and Bug love that it has cranes "like [Aunt E] makes!")
Farm Alphabet Book
Toddlerobics
Counting Birds
The Elves and the Shoemaker
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (This is one of my favorites that we've checked out before. It doesn't have any text, but the illustrations are so rich you don't need words. It follows the parallel adventures of a little girl touring the museum and her runaway balloon finding recreations around the city of the famous works the girl is seeing in the museum.)
Night House, Bright House (The girls picked out this one, but it too incorporates famous works of art)