Conferences

Monday was our first parent teacher conference for Anja. We met with one of her teachers, Miss Courtney, at the preschool for a little 15 minute conversation about our shy, non-vocal, insecure daughter who hates the color pink.

In actuality, the conference went very well. So far, we have avoided raising a delinquent. Unless you count her fashion sense. But apparently, while talkative and vocal, she knows when it's okay and when she needs to wait her turn to talk. Weird. I wonder how they taught her that. But apparently she knows everything they expect a kid to learn by the end of the year, so that's always good. She's working on writing her letters, plays with her friends Aria, Madeline, and Isabella, and doesn't stand out as the youngest in her class. Go, Anja!

Ian is clearly very excited by this news. His report card states that he is working on 4 teeth along the top (2 breaking through), still likes to taunt Mommy and Daddy by rocking back and forth while sitting as if he's going to propel himself forward into a crawling position (but never does), but really enjoys the activity table and practicing standing. Perhaps we'll have another non-crawler in the house.

Halloween

Better late than never.

This year, despite encouragement to go as Dora so Ian could be Boots, Anja was adamant about going as Snow White. Easy enough. It's amazing how many versions of the same costume Amazon has for sale. I wanted to be ambitious and follow through on my mom's idea for Ian to go as a dwarf, but that didn't happen. We were going to put a little flip chart on the front of his stroller and change it depending upon his mood: Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, or Doopy. I was going to go as Doc. But, well, I was just too lazy to figure out how to get crafty. In the end, he was asleep by the time I took Anja out for trick or treating anyway, so I'm glad I didn't invest much time into that. We did get him into a costume, however. He did go as a monkey. Not a particularly happy one, but a monkey costume was used for an entire 20 minutes. At 7 months old, he wore the same costume Anja *walked* around in when she 14 months old. Incredible. Now look at how it fit him.

Anja was an incredible trooper when we went out. I figured, last year we hit up 5 houses, so we'd double it this year. Nope. We went with the other cul de sac kids and their dads, so she stuck it out longer. In fact, the only reason we came home after walking approximately 1 mile's worth of houses was because of the rule I had to make up on the fly: Once you can't carry your own bucket, it's time to go home. And that's exactly what happened. She scored enough candy (and one random can of pop which she promptly gave to me) to fill her pumpkin bucket. I've been thankful ever since.

So here they are at Grandma and Grandpa's house, pre-loot. Dan's cousin, Bryant, gave her the apple to complete her costume. She apparently never saw the full movie. She just started eating it.

And here we are, after Anja enjoyed a sucker, the fruits of her labor. Can you guess what color the sucker was?

I've been informed on several occasions that next year she will be going as Hello Kitty. I've also been informed that next year I will be a witch. I better start working on my costume now.

Hats

Despite being adorable in this picture, Ian hates hats.

Hats have become a major source of entertainment for Anja lately, however. It started when she found her winter and mittens at Children's Place about a month ago. They are purple and pink and have owls on them (see previous blog entry). She loves to put them on and play hide and seek or try to scare people by pulling the hat over her eyes and running up to them and yelling "Hoot! Hoot!" It is rather entertaining. A hoot, if you will.

She also went with me to a high school swim meet a few weeks ago. She wore her owl hat, of course. We watched the diving and a few swim events and she was absolutely mesmerized. Although she's seen my swim caps before, she was fascinated by the fact that the girls were all wearing matching caps, but they all had letters on them (their last names). Add to that the fact that these girls were all swimming underwater, some even without goggles (!), she was suddenly a huge fan of the idea.

On our way home, Anja informed me (didn't ask, just informed) that she would wear her pink goggles to her next swim lesson and go underwater. Great, I thought. Now if only we hadn't lost her goggles over a month prior.

After a run to Target the next day where I learned from an employee restocking the golfing supplies that they don't sell swimming supplies year round since it's a summer activity (chew on that for a second), I decided to forget about it. I mean, really, it's not like she would remember that she wanted to wear them, anyway. There were still several days before her lessons anyway.

Then on Monday, the day of her lessons, I remembered who our daughter was. Not only would she remember that she wanted her goggles in order to be like the big girls, but that her goggles were a certain shade of "medium pink."

On the way to the mall after work on Monday, I remembered that there was one of those fancy schmanzy swim schools on my way home. You know, the kind with water that's warm enough so that the instructors can't tell that they just swam into a kid's pee? So I popped in and struck gold. Not only did they have the exact pair of goggles, medium shade of pink and all, that we had purchased the first time around, but they also had funny swim caps for kids. I found one that I thought Anja would approve of and took it home, expecting a "No way, Mommy!" when it came time to put it on.

I was wrong. She loves it!

Now, instead of screaming and crying at the thought of going underwater, she proudly wears her kitty swim cap and goes underwater free of will. With, or without, those goggles.

Sleep Rituals

Earlier this week, my friend Dan blogged about the rituals that young kids have that are so specific, unless you're the parent, you have no chance. The details he shared about his own daughter made me giggle, so I thought I should write down what our kids do so I can embarrass them later.

About 3 weeks ago, Ian would go to sleep then wake up about 3 hours later. He'd nurse, then go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Finally fed up, I took him in to the doctor to make sure he was perfectly healthy before beginning sleep training. While there, I mentioned our sleep issues to the doctor. She mentioned that Mommy was no longer allowed to get up to comfort him in the night and that only a bottle of water should be allowed if he was actually thirsty. She quickly became my new best friend. We started that night. I was banished (gloriously) to the extra bed in the basement where you can hear absolutely nothing. After one horrible night, Ian adapted quickly. With only a few nights of minor regression since then, he's been sleeping 10-12 hours at a time. The only ritual he needs is food or milk sometime shortly before bed time and put him down drowsy. Other than that, he could care less.

On the other hand, when it comes to Anja's rituals, some things are seemingly easy. Jammies, book, hygiene, bed. Simple formula. Then the details start to come into play:

Book: One long or 2 short. Books that are downstairs must be read on the couch. Books found upstairs are to be read in her room. Unless it's her 4 book set of Curious George. That is read on our bed and is either 2 or all 4 of the books. She must pick the order and put them back in the box. Also, she wants to hold whichever book you will be reading or have already read while you read the other. And if you're reading Curious George and the Rocket Ship, she must turn the book and read "Blast off!" at the appropriate time. Oh, and if she only gets 1 book, you can bet that she'll want a story once she's tucked in. The story must be told by Mommy and is almost always Snow White and Princess Anja go to the park.

Hygiene: Brush hair. Simple. We must use her pink princess brush or blue comb or pink comb. But you must brush her hair while she's brushing her teeth. She gets to pick her toothbrush and gets it wet. Then we put on the My Little Pony toothpaste and she "brushes." Once we finish brushing her hair, she picks out a different toothbrush for us to use to actually brush her teeth.

Bedtime: Then it's tucking in time. This must be accomplished by Mommy. She must have her kitty and kitty's blanket. Also, Mickey, puppy, and penguin. God help you if she's hidden them. Especially the penguin. She only sleeps with one, but has around a dozen penguins in her room. Once tucked in, the door must be left open "little bits."

Bedtime v.2, 3, and 4: Approximately 5 minutes after tucking her in, you will likely here little footsteps approaching the stairs. She will come out of her room with her Kitty and Kitty blanket in hand and stand or plop down at the top of the stairs until you notice her existence. She will not usually speak, just stand/sit there quietly. Luckily, she's a heavy breather. At this point, she informs us that there are Scaries in her room. We must then escort her back to her room, tuck her back in, wave our arms around while saying "Get away, get away, get away!" and then put a spell on the door to keep out the Scaries by waving our arms up and down (only once) while saying abracadabra. Then say good night, close the door "little bits" and leave.

5-10 minutes later, she'll appear again. This time is for a variety of reasons. Now the threats begin. 1st threat, we'll close the door. If she appears again, we put the toddler lock back on the inside of her door. At some point in time, she'll fall asleep.

Anja is definitely one of those kids with rituals, but the rituals only need to take place if she's at our house. So when you start fighting over who is going to get her for an overnight, might I suggest your place?

Flyin' High

Updates on Ian:

- He is a total ham.

- He is definitely, definitely a Mama's boy.

- He now says Mama and Dada. He started saying Dada about a week ago.

- He loves food. A lot.

- He started being able to feed himself some finger foods, like puffs, earlier this week. This is huge, considering how much he loves food.

- He is a giggly, giggly, giggly little boy.

- With his bottom 2 teeth fully in, he decided to go for the gusto and go for 4 top teeth as once. Despite this, he is still a happy, giggly little man.

- Anja is his hero and can make him laugh or stop crying at any given time. Simply hearing ABCs from her will make him stop crying within seconds.

Updates on Anja:

- She is becoming quite the dare devil. Please note the pictures above. One of her favorite activities these days is jumping. She calls it flying. Any location will do, but the stairs are her favorite. Especially if she is wearing, well, something abnormal. Or nothing at all.

- Sassiness comes in spades with this girl.

- She loves classes of any type. Right now she is in dance class with Miss Gwen, swim lessons with Miss Paulette, and preschool with Miss Courtney and Miss Sandy.

- Forts are another favorite hobby. Luckily, she's learned how to build them herself.

- She is a great big sister and a wonderful little lady 95% of the time. The other 5%, well, she's a preschooler. That's allowed. And no matter what she just did, a simple "I love you so much, Mommy!" will melt my heart.

- She still talks a mile a minute, has a vocabulary of a 5 year old (just ask her doctor), and is incredibly bright. Sometimes freakishly bright.

- Speaking of freakishly bright, she's into learning German! She is upping her vocabulary daily and is excited for our trip to Germany this summer.