One up, one down

Thursdays are my work from home day. It’s a day where I generally have zero meetings, and can just hole up at home and get things done. Yesterday I had plans of getting the girls up early and downtown so that I could come home and get a run in before work. Except, as they were getting ready I heard someone make a sound that you never want to hear. I peeked my head into the bathroom just in time to get Laney over the toilet.

As we were gathering things in the kitchen she got that look on her face again so I shoved a bowl in front of her. Caden got the most terrified look on her face and ran out the back door. Caden has a pretty decent gag reflex when it comes to smells, so she made sure she was nowhere near.

We spent the day at home together and it was very nice. She watched tv for a while, she played on my laptop. I had one conference call so I plugged her headphones in and let her continue with her games. With about 15 minutes left in my call she asked if she could play her ipod in her bed. Sure! By the time my call was done she was fast asleep. Poor kiddo.

My kids aren’t sick all that often, so when it does happen I’m always a little thrown off balance. Stomach virus now? No other kids in her class are sick. Food poisoning? Doubtful. Either way it only lasted the morning, and for that, I’m extremely grateful because today is my birthday and my mom and I are going shopping. A sick kid would have definitely foiled those plans.

Oh! I took Caden to the chiropractor the other day. She’s been saying her neck hurts, and with all of her falls and head bonks (4 in one month) I felt it was prudent. Her back and neck were very off, so it was much needed. We talked about her clumsiness and her growing and he thinks she’s growing faster than her body can handle. We’re hoping monthly adjustments will help reset her nervous system and help her cope a little better.

Ready

Yesterday I had Delaney’s last parent/teacher conference at the daycare. Everyone has been telling us both girls are Ready For Kindergarten for a year now so I knew going into it that this would be a very straightforward chat.

She was last tested in October, so it was interesting to see how her handwriting and shape drawing skills had increased. Her R’s and Y’s have much better shape, but oddly her S’s are backwards now. But, she nailed her lowercase letters! And the math portion. The teacher was most amazed by that, but I told her math came very easily to me in my younger years, plus their Leapsters have a lot of math on them, so that part didn’t surprise me. The other thing that surprised the teacher was that she knew her address and phone number. Please, we drilled that in the car as soon as I knew they were going to be tested on it!

I’ve talked before about how Delaney has the friend that she fights with quite a bit. I told her teacher that I hadn’t heard much chatter about the friend lately, were they still playing together? Apparently, Delaney has gotten fed up with this friend and when she’s mean to Delaney, Delaney tells her she doesn’t like it and gets up and walks away. This has caused other friends to realize they don’t have to put up with her bs either, and also get up and walk away! Leading the revolution! So the friend has realized maybe she should be nice, and things have been much better. And when it’s not, Delaney hangs with the boys and dribbles basketballs.

She commented quite a bit on Delaney and her ability to use her words to express her feelings in a nice way. She can tell her friends that they are hurting her feelings, without hurting theirs. What an amazing gift to have, no? I could not be more proud of my girl!

Her teacher said if I wanted, she could think up some things to challenge her this summer but I told her no. She’s more than ready for kindergarten, let her be a kid and enjoy her summer of fun.

Switching Lenses

I have two lenses for my camera, a 50mm 1.8 and a 25mm 2.8. Both lenses were incredibly reasonably priced, and have served me well. Because of the camera body I have, the 50mm acts more like an 85mm, and the 25mm acts more like a 50mm. Consequently, while the 50 takes gorgeous shots with buttery bokeh, it also takes super close ups that just don’t work in a lot of situations where I don’t have room to back up. So for the most part, the 25 stays on my camera.

Since I was trying to get my photography mojo back I put the 50 on just to mess around with the girls. I kind of forgot that I had it on but kept taking pictures with it. When I pulled them into Lightroom I thought – whoa! That shot actually turned out! There’s Lucy! In all her glory that I’ve been trying to capture for years, but couldn’t do with my 25.

And hey! There’s my model Delaney with carrot juice around her mouth. I was going to do some sort of photo a day challenge in May, but then Lucy got sick and life just hasn’t really righted itself since. I kept thinking I would just start on the 3rd! Or the 5th! But that never happened either.

Instead, my photography challenge for the month of May is going to be to keep my 50mm lens on my camera, and find ways to take pictures with it this month. To see what shots I can find, to see what bokeh I can capture, to see which close ups find me.

Flower Planting v2013

Back in the day I shopped for and planted all of my flowers by myself. But that’s not that fun, plus it always needs to happen around my birthday and Mother’s Day, so might as well make it a family adventure. It’s fun to look at our flower planting adventures throughout the years. The girls have definitely gone from being mildly in the way to actually being really helpful.

We have our routine down. My dad loads up a wheel barrow full of dirt, I fill the containers 3/4 full with wet leaves, and my mom and the girls plant the flowers. My dirt was awesome this year, we didn’t have to augment with anything. Every fall I dump all of my pots in the corner of my backyard and let everything compost over the fall and winter. It makes for lovely dirt the next spring!

My poor dad. He was in charge of seeding the lawn. He had to push this heavy seeder thing and haul the big seed bags around. I’m now watering like a crazy person in the hopes that this is the summer my lawn makes a turn around back to green and lush.

I want to do a post on this, but I kept my 50mm lens on my camera this weekend and was wowed with some of the pictures I got from it. Shots I’ve tried to get in the past actually came through! Love this close up.

This kid would not stop planting. Delaney took a break and went inside to listen to her music, but Caden kept at it. Shoveling dirt into the containers, sprinkling osmocote, picking out plants, digging and watering. Gardening is in her blood! She maybe pushed it a little too far though, since she had some trouble sleeping. I have to remember that this one needs more breaks than her sister.

At the end my mom gave her a pot and all the leftover flowers. It’s a mishmash of petunias, snapdragons, and impatiens but she is insanely proud of it.

So pretty! My goal for the summer is to teach the girls how to water efficiently enough that it can be their chore. I love watering for about a week, and then I lose interest. But I love my beautiful containers! So hopefully this can be Caden’s thing.

Weekend

It’s been a weekend. We all got haircuts (I’m almost a blonde again! It’s always fun to bring my hair color more towards the girls color.) which means a trip to Mankato and a few hours with our favorite stylist Sally. Caden slipped coming down the bunk bed ladder and I thought I was going to eat my words about needing stitches again. I think she just busted open her old stitches, but that was a scare I didn’t need. Needless to say, there are new bunk bed rules.

Mother’s Day we took a trip to our favorite garden center, planted flowers, seeded all the bare patches in my lawn, and got the garden ready for planting. That girl up there was tireless, planting and finding homes for every last flower we bought. Everyone was exhausted! More pictures tomorrow. For now, this girl needs a nap!

Weekly Menu Plan 5/12/13 – 5/18/13

Here’s our gluten free weekly menu plan.

Sunday – My neighbor brought over tator tot hot dish. I wasn’t going to eat it until I realized it wasn’t the normal tator tot hot dish! It appeared to be gluten free which was enough for me after a long day. Everyone loved it, need to get that recipe.

Monday - Overnight chicken. I marinated this for Sunday, baked it Sunday, but we’ll eat it Monday.

Tuesday – Honey Lime Shrimp

Wednesday – Chalupa bowls

Thursday – Scrambled eggs and waffles

Friday – Birthday dinner out!

Oh Caden

Last night the girls were taking a bath. They were playing quietly when all of the sudden Caden’s legs were in the air and her head was hitting the side of the tub. I scooped her out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel on my lap until she stopped crying. As I put lotion on her legs I noticed the many, many bruises running up and down them. We got her pajamas on, grabbed a bowl of Chex and walked to the living room so she could sit on the couch to eat her bedtime snack. Two minutes in, she gets up to see what Lucy is doing and promptly spills her entire bowl of cereal.

That scenario plays out in some way shape or form every day around here. Caden runs into things or spills things nonstop. As we were getting her pajamas on she said “I’m growing so I’m klutzy.” It’s at home, it’s at school, and she’s so aware of it which I hate. At least she blames the growth spurt and not herself, but these growth spurts seem to be lasting a long time. It would be nice to come out of this whole deal with only the one set of stitches.

Cannot wait for June

First, here’s a picture of Lucy I took on Monday. Can you see how she tilts to the right? That’s kind of her mode these days. She has her moments when she’s upright, but if she’s tired at all she lilts. We are one week out now and she’s probably about 80% recovered. She’s just starting to eat again, so I think there is more recovery to be had yet.

Soccer! They are both soccer crazy right now. Every day we talk about how much longer until June when soccer starts.

I realized tonight that our weekends are pretty booked up through June, so we probably need to hit a sporting goods store soon in order to get cleats, shin guards, etc.

I seriously cannot wait to see what happens to these two when faced with an actual soccer game. Will they cling to my legs? Will they get in and get dirty? Will they do cartwheels instead?

Daycare Parents

There have been a flurry of birthday parties from Caden’s class lately. I think we’ve been to four in the last month? She has a really great group of kids in her class, and I get along with all of their parents so it’s nice to actually have a conversation with them rather than just saying hello at pickup. But, it’s interesting to hear the stories their kids come home with because either my two are oblivious, or they just don’t tell me these stories.

From September until February (?) there were only 10 kids in Caden’s class, and two of those (both girls) were part time. Because they were such a small class they became really tight friends. Caden came home talking superheroes and Princess Leia and I loved it. Turns out, the boys think of her as one of ‘their crew’. The other girls they won’t really play with, but Caden is always welcome.

One of the boys thinks Caden is the most beautiful girl in the world! One day he’s going to marry her and then he’s going to kiss her on the lips!

Two of the other boys think Delaney is the most beautiful girl in the world.

A few of them are jealous of Caden’s lunches and go home and ask their parents to make them a home lunch “because Caden’s lunch looks so good!”

We’re all a little bummed that everyone is from different corners of the metro and come September, these kids won’t see each other again. We really are so lucky in that both girls have friends that are good kids, and both classrooms have a good vibe going. I’m hoping they can enjoy the next four months, but September is going to be rough!

Swinging v2013

I do love taking pictures of the girls swinging. I’ve got good light because the sun is setting, and the looks on their faces as they try to go higher and higher are always priceless. It’s childhood joy wrapped in a perfect bow.

It was the perfect evening last night. 70, gorgeous, no bugs. I threw my 50mm lens on and ran outside in my stiletto boots to grab these. Couldn’t pass up the shot!