Friday, March 20, 2009

Catching Up.

So what have we been up to? We've spent a lot more time outside -- at the park, riding our bikes or hiking. As soon as I pick David up from school, he'll insist on going to the park no matter how cold it might be on some days.








Once back home and I am cooking dinner, the kids are either at their craft table coloring (yes, we are still a bit obsessed with coloring -- 3-4 pages at one sitting) or turning the house upside down.



After dinner, Seth takes the kids for a walk, either along the train tracks or for a short walk in the nearby "woods." Sometimes I'll join them, but usually it is just three of them.




Back in November I was obsessed with knitting. I even received some requests from my relatives and friends to knit some things for their kids. Of course, as quickly as my knitting mojo came that's how quickly it went away. I started knitting Julia a pair of socks and never finished them even though it would probably take me another hour to complete them. Then suddenly my knitting mojo came back a few days ago. I came across this shirt and two days later my version of it for Julia was almost completed.



I ran out of yarn, so thus no straps. It is definitely too big for her right now, so I might end up unwinding it. I realized that I don't care much about the finished project, but I enjoy the process of knitting. I also want to try knitting this dress maybe even using the yarn as I knitted the shirt with.
We still do some art projects although not as many since we've been spending so much time outdoors. I plan the projects and then sometimes David comes up with his own project he would rather make. He works on his invention while Julia follows my lead every time and gets excited to see a finished project. Most of these ideas I got from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.











I've been trying to reteach David how to write his name using lower case letters as he used to write it with all capital letters. He was so frustrated at first, but I think he finally got it.
For the past few months, he also would write down 2 numbers, ask me "what number is it?" and after I would tell him, he would write 2 more and it would go on and on. That's how he taught himself how to count to 100. The problem is he reads all the numbers from right to left and he copies the words the same way. He likes us reading "Chicka, chicka, 1 2 3" book to him and on the back of it there are numbers from 0 to 100 and this is the only way he reads them right.

Julia's been saying "let me be" each time I try helping her put her clothes on or closing the games after we are done playing them. That's her way of saying "I am going to do it by myself". I kept thinking this phrase sounded so familiar and then I realized it was from Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs & Ham". She loves playing games, but now her favorites are the ones that involve numbers /letters, like Dominos, The cat in the Hat, a "Planet game" that came in with one of David's planet books, and Boggle Jr. Letters.




She always initiates playing the "I spy" game, either at the dinner table or in the car. I really don't sit down as I do with David and teach her, she's just always in the background doing her own thing (usually puzzles or looking through the books) but she quickly picks up what she overhears what I tell David. She loves doing arts and crafts although she doesn't care if it is on the paper or on the bathroom tile. She started coloring really well and it was a rare scene when we were sitting in a restaurant the other day and both kids were quietly coloring for a few minutes. I never thought a day would come when our table would be the quietest in the entire restaurant (even if it only lasted a few minutes.)
So, there will be probably less number of posts in the future, but hopefully, not as long as this one.


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