Running around like a couple of crazies

Dirty girl

Serafina has developed a strong aversion to being bathed. She won't tolerate the tub, shower or even the sink. You'd think I'm trying to dip her in a vat of acid by the way she screams and fights. It wouldn't be a problem if she was a dainty little girl but she's not. She's a dirt-loving, sloppy-eating, magic-marker-wielding, barefoot-in-the-yard kinda girl.

See...chocolate face.
Cherry face.
Marker face. (Okay, I might have had something to do with this one, but she started it.)
Leo needed one too.
Admiring themselves in the mirror.
In addition to her anti-bathing stage, she's also a difficult eater. It's beyond frustrating at times. She will see the pediatrician later this week and I'll tattle about all this. Kids are not typically seen at 21 months, but the doctor wanted to check in with us about her language development. When I made this appointment many weeks ago, I was completely convinced I'd be canceling it because she would have an explosion of words and our worries would vanish. (I felt the same way about the hearing test). Well, here we are and she only has a few more words since her 18 month appointment and most of them are hard to understand. I filled out and mailed a large packet for the Early Start program, which will conduct an evaluation if they feel she qualifies. It was a stressful process to work on all those forms. They wanted a lot of information and I had trouble objectively articulating the "problem". I hope to hear from them later this week about what the next step will be.

Hike and Arts Center

I'm a fan of hiking with the family, but I'm not a big fan of having to drive far to do it. When planning a hike, my goal is to find somewhere we can go in 30 minutes or less. Today's gem was just 20 minutes away and the hiking trails were part of the Montalvo Arts Center, so there was lots to see.

This stone gazebo was at the trail head and Leo thought it was the perfect place to sit and eat even though we hadn't started hiking yet.
Serafina in the carrier on the trail.
Walking through the redwoods.
Bouncing on a log.
At the top of the trail, looking out at the Silicon Valley.
Finding rocks.
And bushes.
I asked the kids to smile. I got lucky with Serafina but Leo flatly said, "I don't want to smile."
After the hike, we explored the grounds. Leo sang "We Will Rock You" on the amphitheater stage and then asked to go back to the stage the entire rest of our visit.
Cool gazebo thing.
Tom reads up on the history of the place next to some lovely flowers.
The kids check out a sculpture.
Leo greets a lion head on the arm of a bench.



You can see the main Villa in the background of this video of Leo rolling down the hill. His dad got him to do that.


This egg sculpture raised a lot of questions for Leo (what's inside? will it open? why is it in a trash can?), which was probably the artist's exact intention.
Mommy trying to wrangle the kids for a picture.
She was so happy going up and down the various steps.
Leo called this the elephant sculpture.

Last Day of School

Today was Leo's last day of school. I can't believe his first year of preschool is over. It feels like just yesterday we were taking him for his first day. I was snack mom so it was my last official day of bringing food for the kids to reject. I made some cookies to celebrate the special day, which a few of them actually ate.

Here he is riding his bike to school.
He got to pick any of his name tags from the last nine months. He picked the Christmas tree. We got to take them all home, though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them.

Singing songs.

Final picture with Mrs. Hessler. She is so amazing and fully prepared to take on Serafina in two years.
The yearbooks were printed and handed out today. I was happy with the final product. I took a look at the afternoon class's yearbook while I was there. I definitely like some of the choices that yearbook mom made and will keep them in mind if I'm brave enough to sign up for it next year. She clearly had more pictures to work with than I did.

I thought I'd be a little sad to see the completion of his first year of "school" but working in the classroom kept away any weepy-ness. One kid pooped his pants twice. I was spared having to deal with either accident, but I was in charge of making Shrinky Dinks with the kids to be turned into key chains for father's day. A little girl turned the toaster oven temp up to 500 when I turned my head, which isn't good for dinks. I'll be enjoying some summer vacation time.

School picnic and open house

Next Tuesday is Leo's last day of school. I can't believe he's almost done with his first year of school! It's been an amazing year and today was the end-of-the-year picnic.

We brought the watermelon. It was a big hit.
Here's Leo with his buddy Kennan.
A special treat.
Swinging with Kennan. The woman in the blue pants pushing Leo is Mrs. Rasmussen; she's Brielle's mom and his teacher next year.
Kennan, Leo, Doug and Brielle. Doug came to play at the park with his mom and sister since it was a nice day. Leo was pretty occupied with his school friends and I think that was a little surprising to Doug.
And if the picnic wasn't enough, it was open house at the school this evening. Tom came home early from work (which is normal time for most people) so he could join us and Leo was very excited to show him everything in his classroom.
Serafina loves Leo's classroom but, according to "the rules", she isn't suppose to roam around during drop off and pick up. Sometimes she does though, and she'll sit right down and start coloring with the kids or play with some toys. I have to drag her out of there screaming and crying. Tonight she got to explore all she wanted, but the room was crowded. It will be her classroom before we know it.

Here's Leo finding his self-portrait with his teacher, Mrs. Hessler. I have such a crush on this woman because she is simply amazing. So patient and kind to all the kids, even the annoying ones. Mine isn't one of the annoying ones, of course.
Showing daddy the book he made.

Potty training

Muddy

We've had some rainy days recently, so when the weather was looking clear today, we headed out to a park. The last time we were here, Serafina was in a cast. It was a little chilly when we got there, so Maia and Serafina wore their silly hats.
The girls always seem pleased to see each other and then proceed to mostly ignore each other.
This frog started spraying water spontaneously and since it wasn't very warm out and I didn't have a change of clothes, we herded the kids away from the water.
Did some teeter-todder instead. Leo gave Serafina a kiss.
Despite our attempts to keep the kids from the water, they found a big mud puddle anyway. It was a major mess but a fun time. Serafina was actually so occupied with the muck, she didn't pester me for snacks for 20 minutes. But that eventually changed, and I cleaned her hands enough to give her some crackers.
"What? There's something on my pants?"
They had to drive home almost naked and go straight to the shower.
"Smell my foot"

Leo the elephant

I had made some of those little felt monsters, but it wasn"t very fun. They never turned out as cute as I envisioned in my mind and the sewing machine took up almost the entire dining room table. So I decided to start crocheting again. I gave it up years ago because it hurt my wrist, but motherhood has made me tougher, so I thought I'd give it another try. All I had made previous were scarves, since they were just long rectangles. And they weren't very good. But I found a book of little crochet stuffed animals and the reviews claimed it was good for beginners (which is pretty much what I am). I picked the elephant to make just because it was cute. I wasn't sure if he was going to turn out okay and if he did, which kid would be the lucky recipient. After I started, I read the little description by the author and she said she was inspired to create the pattern by an elephant named Leo at the zoo in her hometown. Well, that pretty much made the decision. Leo tried to be patient while it came together piece by piece, but he was excited and even carried around its little head for a while before the body was made.

Here's the end result. Not perfect, but pretty cute.


The author didn't give a clear explanation why the elephant wears a scarf, but it helps hide the joining stitches.