Dad Teaches How To Jump Rope

First, Dad demonstrates how to jump rope.



Then, Xander jumps and holds a rope, therefore he must be jumping rope.




And, finally, demand that Josie learn to jump despite not being able to jump.




Sadly, I was not taped jumping. I did awesome though.

Soccer Ahead

We took the kids to a small park a couple weekends ago. Usually that park is fairly empty, it only has a small toddler playground and lots of empty space. However on that Sunday it was hopping with kids running around, an adult volleyball game and a kid soccer game.

After playing on the playground equipment for a little while, Chris and Xander wandered over to watch the soccer game. It was a game between two girl teams, maybe 10 years old. They sat and watched for quite a while. I'm pretty sure Chris spent the entire time ready to spring out and grab Xander if Xander attempted to run out on the field and play.

Right now it looks like Xander will grow up to be athletic. He gets up to exercise with Chris in the morning. Chris does a video and Xander will try to work out along with it or will sit on Chris to help with push ups. They watch sports on TV, ranging from football to baseball with basketball and soccer mixed in. Xander has even asked to watch golf and tennis. When he plays with his friend Dusty, he practices passing and keeping away and lots of running. He's even good at tackling, which we are really trying to put a stop to for the moment.

So when Xander asked to play soccer on that day at the park, I thought about it. And, for reasons ranging from moving to not paying to watch three year olds run around, I said no and he'll have to wait.

Have I mentioned that Xander has hit the question age? Everything is "Why?"

So he asked why he couldn't play. I said they already signed up for teams. Why? Because it's an all girls team. Why? You'd have to play on a boys team. Okay! But you have to be four years old. Really? Yes, really. Okay!

Now he randomly asks if he is four yet, so he can sign up for soccer.

Story Time: Reboot

After all of the drama of trying Story Time at the local libraries, we just stopped going for a while. The weather this week has been cold (fifties is cold here) and wet. On Thursday I decided it was time to try again. Xander likes going to libraries to get books, computer games and movies. I also figured it was time for Josie to learn to Sit Still and Pay Attention. Not that I expect her to learn that in a half hour at the library but we have to start somewhere.

We arrived about ten minutes early and the kids had fun playing with Legos, looking at books and running around. There were plenty of little ones running around. This story time was for 18 months to 3 years so Xander would be a bit old for it however I figured it would be easier to go to that one than to bring Josie to the 3 to 5 year story time.

As soon as the librarian called for Story Time so we could go to the appropriate room, Xander started crying. It took a minute to figure out, but I think someone stepped on his hand. I got him calmed down and we headed in and took a pair of seats so that Xander was next to me and Josie was in my lap.

As soon as the opening song began Xander began to wail. Oh. My. Goodness. So I carried Josie and led Xander out of the room. He couldn't explain why he was crying but he strongly stressed that he wanted to go home.

I wasn't about to give up that easily and I talked him into returning and sitting with me. The librarian was reading a book with numbers and I could hear Xander counting along next to me. Then she did a flannel board story, where cut outs are put up on the board. He found that entertaining. Then there was a song that Josie danced to, Xander wouldn't budge.

At one point the librarian stopped what she was doing and asked a parent to take a book away from a girl reading so she could pay attention. The rules at this library astound me. A little girl, less than two years old, gets in trouble for quietly reading at the library.

Then it went down hill again. Xander started saying, louder and louder, that he wanted to go home. Josie started squirming and wanted down. Since this is the library where we were reprimanded for letting a child quietly walk around during Story Time, I knew it was time to leave and we headed out to read a couple books together.

We made it fifteen minutes. We'll try again next week.

My Little Valentines

To prepare for Valentine's Day, the kids made cards for all of their aunts, grandparents and great-grandmas. Let me tell you, it was exhausting helping a three year old cut out 2o-some hearts and then gluing them to paper.

For the kids, I just wanted to make the cookies that my mom always made for me. They are heart shaped cookies with a cherry filling. After scouring the internet and making a couple calls to my mom, I had the recipe. Then I managed to nab the last heart shaped cookie cutter from Michael's.

During lunch today, I put the cookie cutter to good use.


For the cookies, I made the filling and the cookie dough ahead of time. This afternoon we invited Xander's friend Dusty, his mom and sister over to help make the cookies. They helped with the cut outs and taste testing.


Those cookies are just as delicious as I remember. The kids love them. I guess we have a new tradition.

Dealing With It

Josie busted her eye this morning.

She and Xander were helping me to sort clothes when she slipped and her head bounced off of the corner of a stool in the room.

My immediate thoughts were: Rush to her side, push Xander out of the way if necessary, pick her up and cuddle her, get ice, wait there is no ice, what if it's bad, I don't have a car today, who can I call?! Where's my phone?!?

My immediate actions were actually: Set down laundry, ask Xander to please move back, cuddle Josie, notice there is a little blood, try to spot where blood is coming from but Josie is still in cuddle mode, carry her to the bathroom and get a wet washcloth to clean her and hold on her eye, contain panic that she'll need liquid stitches on her eyelid.

As you can see, my thoughts and actions don't actually match up so well.

Josie actually asked for Cookie Boo-Boo, which is a cold pack shaped like Cookie Monster. It wasn't cold (I hadn't thought to throw it in the mini-fridge) but I let her have it anyway. She happily put it on her eye and walked off to play.

Panic averted.

Losing the Name Game

Because we traveled for Christmas, a couple people gave the kids gift cards instead of gifts that would have to be packed and shipped when we came back to California. Yesterday we decided to was time to cash in on the Build-a-Bear cards.

It was our first time to try Build-a-Bear and it went pretty smoothly. First the kids picked out which animals they wanted. Xander picked a black bear and Josie went with a puppy dog. Josie loves stuffed animals, I was afraid she'd get upset and want all of them. She dealt with the whole experience really well.

Next, the animals were actually stuffed. This was the only part that was a little disappointing. The lady who stuffed them had them put a little heart in each animal and they have a little routine to go with the heart. Something like "Rub it on your knees so it's a good runner, rub it on your nose so it's silly, ....". She did the whole routine while gazing off behind us and saying it as one long run on sentence. Xander couldn't really keep up. Josie had no idea what was going on.

Next was naming the animals. Chris's suggestions to Xander ran along the lines of Riley (the name of a coworker's son), Rowdy (my brother's dog) and Rusty (the family cat who has passed). Xander decided to name the bear Dusty. Dusty also happens to be the name of Xander's friend here.


I helped Josie. And all I could think of was Sparkles. The creative portion of my brain completely shut down. Sparkles. Growing up, I always named stuffed animals, plants, cars, etc. Now with the kids the stuffed animals are just called whatever they are. Teddy Bear. Koala. Hippo. So put on the spot, all I could come up with was Sparkles.


Then we picked out clothes. Chris grabbed a soccer outfit for Dusty the Bear. It even included shin guards, which you can't see because of the black fur. I figured to Sparkles the puppy should live up to her name and grabbed her a sparkly ballerina outfit.


The kids love their new friends. Both had to sleep with their friends last night. Xander tried to feed Dusty at breakfast time. Josie carries Sparkles everywhere by her neck.

Monterey Bay

This weekend we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A friend we met at church was kind enough to lend us two adult membership passes and Josie was free. We bought and printed a ticket online for Xander (and really appreciated those free adult passes, saved us $60!).

When we arrived, we had just missed the otters being fed. Josie and I still thought they were the cutest things ever.

They had a big jellyfish exhibit which was amazing to look at. No fancy environment, just a couple of jellyfish (or in one case about twenty) floating around.


They also had a big seahorse exhibit. It went through stages of life and had a wide variety of species. These in the picture were crazy, their camouflage to look like plants was amazing.


There were penguins and flamingos. The coral reef had fish with amazing neon colors. The kelp forest was huge and the size of the fish was astonishing. The octopus was big and was crawling across the window. The kids didn't seem to caret but Chris and I were amazed to watch it.

Xander's second favorite part was the touch pool. There was kelp and other plants, shells and starfish.


Xander's favorite part was the splash zone. A huge 'wave' was released onto a glass ceiling and wall.


Josie did not like it quite as much.


She did like the flamingos and was rather upset when we left them. The penguins made her feel a little better.


There were several play areas for the kids, but we only made it to one section on whales.


To commemorate the day, we told the kids they could pick out souvenirs. Josie immediately grabbed a stuffed baby penguin. Xander played with a few toys. Then they spotted the sparkly cups with the twisty straws. Let me tell you, they suddenly love water (I will only let them drink water from the cups).


After the aquarium, we went to a park in Monterey Bay called Dennis the Menace park. Let me tell you, it was an awesome park. Several play structures, a garden maze, bridges and even a train engine to climb on. Since it was 70 degrees out, everyone else wanted to go to the park too. And it was a little big for Josie, who split her lip on the first slide she went down.


Overall, it was a good trip. The aquarium wasn't too crowded and the 1.5 hour drive went surprisingly smoothly. We may go back (but only if we get free tickets again).