Gymnastics

Aidan started gymnastics three weeks ago.  She is only going one hour per week because I did not want to "waste" money.  After the first week and watching her little smile stay pasted on her face for the entire hour, I'm confident in the decision to sign her up.  Clearly it's not a waste of time.

She is no Shawn Johnson or Dominique Dawes in the making, to be sure.  She's not wiry like she probably needs to be to actually take to the sport.  But that is not why I enrolled her.  I just wanted her to be active and start to be aware of what her body can do.

She has a fantastic group of teachers (plaid pants) who make everything seem really cool and exciting.  And they have a theme they follow every week, like the barnyard or the beach.  They also gave the participants charts and start stickers, and every week they get to put stickers on the skills they learned that week.

So, it's only been three weeks, but so far, she wakes up early on Wednesday and puts on her footless tights and leotard right away.  Her lesson isn't until 10:15, so she is dressed up this way for a while.  When we get into the car, she encourages me to go faster:  "...or we're gonna be late, Mom, and I can't be late for gymnastics!"  We arrive, she places her shoes and jacket in her cubby, and the smile appears on the face and stays for an hour.  What mom could have a problem with that? 

Friday night movie night

Tonight we started a new family tradition. Terry and I decided that any Friday night that we don't have other obligations, we will have a family movie night. We decided that because The Wizard of Oz was on tonight.

I've been wanting to watch it with Aidan but have been a little hesitant because of a few things...is she old enough? Will she be scared of the witch? (answer: yes)

I can still recall watching this movie once a year on television (before Blockbuster and DVRs). As a child, there were a few things that scared me: those ridiculous flying monkeys, the red sand in the hourglass that seemed to be almost running out on every shot, and the green, martian-like head of the wizard in the palace. At each step, I remember thinking that she was sure lucky she had her dog and some friends with her. I don't remember ever fearing any of those things once the movie ended...

We ended up watching it in our unfinished basement because I got everyone DQ, and we didn't want them to eat it on our leather furniture. So we went down to the playroom area, brought a lamp and turned off the other lights, and the four of us snuggled up on the old couch with lots of blankets.

They both were mesmerized from the beginning, even during the black and white part, but as soon as it switched to color, they were hooked. Taylor called the munchkins "little babies" and the good witch a princess. Aidan seemed to be a little disturbed that Dorothy actually killed the wicked witch of the East, even if she was a witch, and she kept asking me a hundred questions about that for a while.

As expected, each appearance of the wicked witch of the West caused hidden eyes and "that's scary" remarks from both kids, who seemed to be easily calmed by Terry's words of, "It's just pretend," and "that witch is silly!" We'll see if there are any lingering effects, but so far so good. Taylor kept asking where the scarecrow was any time he wasn't on the screen~easily his favorite.

We shared a classic with the kids and it worked. We are out of town next Friday, but in two weeks...Wall E. Can't wait!

My helper

Terry and I have started shopping for groceries differently in the last month, and without going into the boring details, the goal is that we wouldn't have to go to the store all the time for things we're missing or whatever. It has been helpful, but doesn't always work. Like yesterday. I was making a dessert to take to some friends' house and realized I had no powdered sugar, a necessary ingredient for this particular dessert.

I sure didn't want to go to the store. I had already run around that morning, it was almost naptime for the kids, and Terry was working. It occured to me that I actually know most of my neighbors and their names and could do the old-fashioned ask-to-borrow thing. But I also was in that unfortunate position where I hadn't yet taken a shower and didn't really want to see anyone...or rather, didn't want anyone to see me.

I remembered that I have a four-year-old whose life mission right now is to be a helper. So...I wrote a quick note on a piece of paper in case she got confused and sent her to the neighbors she knows best across the street. It took her three years to walk the sidewalk around the cul-de-sac and get over there, and I watched her stop, look for the two pumpkins I had pointed out to make sure she was at the right house, and then she walked up and rang the doorbell about 5 times. They weren't home. I think she would have stayed there waiting, but I yelled across that she could come back. I then had her try the house directly to the left of us, where her friend Ben lives. They were also gone.

Finally, I told her to go to the house to the right of us, and she said, "What are their names, Mom?" I went blank but quickly remembered that I have a list of everyone in the cul-de-sac on my computer, so I found it and told her, "if a man answers, say, 'Hi, Mark!' If a woman answers, say, 'Hi, Beth!'"

She slowly made her way over with that I'm-so-helpful smile on her face, my measuring cup tucked under her arm and the note in the other hand, singing, of course, and disappeared behind the trees. (it's hard to explain, but we can't see the front porch of this neighbor from ours). I knew that they were home because it took her longer, and soon she came out from behind the trees with a very full cup of powdered sugar, smile on her face, singing. As soon as she saw me, she yelled, "I got the flour, Mom!" It was powdered sugar, but whatever.

I asked her who answered the door and if she said, "Hi, Mark!"

"No," she said. "I said to him, 'Hi, I'm Aidan, and I live next door to you. Can we borrow some flour?' and I gave him the note. He had a big smile and was happy to see me."

I made a big deal about how much she really helped me out, and the rest of the day, she kept saying, "Do you need any more big favors, Mom? You just let me know."

Chopsticks!

My birthday was last Tuesday, but as we all know, the older you get, the less the actual day of your birthday matters. We were so busy Tuesday...Terry worked all day without even a dinner break, Aidan had preschool, I taught two classes at the gym and did vocal practice with two different teams that night. So...we knew that we'd celebrate on a different day.

Sunday night we finally went to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse here in town. That is one of my favorite "special" meals, but 1) there's only one here that is just okay, and 2) those kinds of restaurants are expensive!

Aidan has been to Nakato in Springfield quite a few times, and the last we went, she was scared of the fire. After that, she was fine. The same thing happened Sunday night. I think she sort of remembered once we sat down, and she started looking around the other tables at the chefs and what they were doing. Taylor thought it was so cool and kept saying, "I want that guy to come right here." But Aidan, she wasn't so sure.

As soon as our chef came, she turned around and put her eyes in her hands and would not turn back around until after the big flame at the beginning of the presentation. After that, she was our chef's biggest fan, ooohing and aaahing at every single thing he did. Loudly. And they both loved the food. So did Terry and I! It was much better than the other time I went to this restaurant.

My biggest surprise was that they both managed to actually get food in their mouths by chopsticks! We showed them how before the food came but just thought they'd never get it to work, but they did. I had to share the pictures.

We ended the night by coming home and having brownies in lieu of cake. It was a fun night!

Halloween 08 + pink eye

Well, it wasn't a super happy morning when we woke up Friday. Taylor had come down with a horrible eye infection the night before, both of his eyes swelling almost shut and, well, oozing (sorry, I know that's so gross).

That Thursday night, both kids kept crying throughout the night because they'd wake up and realize they couldn't open their eyes.

Friday morning, Aidan's was worse than Taylor's. I know that it's "just Halloween..." but I was in bed that morning waiting for her to wake up, just thinking about it from her perspective. It's only one day a year, and she was going to have to miss her preschool party, the party at the gym, and who knew about trick or treating?


Terry actually told her because I was with Taylor when she woke up. When they came out of the room, she seemed fine, and so I asked him what he came up with to say. "We're going to DQ after she goes to the doctor." Oh. Good idea.

We could not get into the doctor until 3:00 that afternoon, and we had to wait for a really long time. I guess most doctors have Halloween off. :)


At that point, Taylor's eyes looked almost normal, but Aidan was just awful. We got a prescription, our family flu shots, and were on our way. The doctor told us trick or treating would be okay because it's not an airborne illness, only touch.

The kids just had a blast that night! Terry and I were talking about how last year on Halloween, Taylor had just started walking on his own. In fact, we kept trying to carry him last year so we could go faster than 1 house every hour, but he wanted to walk because it was his new thing. This year, he and Aidan were practically running from house to house.

We went to Dairy Queen after and then passed candy out at our house. Not much was ever said about those missed parties in the morning!