1. The Hammerquists came over to visit briefly last week-and when I say brief, I mean brief, ie, 20 minutes or so! I was taking them to the airport so they could avoid a parking fee. Karianna was so excited to see Makayla, they had planned weeks ago to play dress up before they had to separate. I didn't have the heart to tell Karianna that they would only be here for a few minutes at 7ish in the morning! The girls surprised me though, they managed to get in a few good outfits before taking off to the airport-we even got a good pose in! I am so glad my kids are such good friends with their cousins. Sure, playdates can get loud and messy, but who cares when you see the rewards you reap? Priceless!
2. Karianna has been working on responsibility over the last several weeks, and I have been so proud of her growing independence. She has always been responsible for keeping her room and her bathroom clean. However, with her starting Kindergarten, we have been giving her more and more responsibilities and it has been great to see her grow in the process. She gets to keep her light on in her room for about 10 minutes after we tuck her into bed; when I knock on her door, she is in charge of turning off her light and going to sleep. She does great with this! She has recently put herself in charge of (pre) brushing Jordan's teeth and helping him get a drink of water-that one is pretty cute, especially since she initiated it. She has started to take showers instead of baths (she is scared of potential bugs in the tub for some reason), and she washes her own hair and washes her body off on her own. She will frequently go into JD and Jordan's bedroom to make their beds, and several times last week I caught her emptying out the drier to find some clean clothes for herself. There are tons of other little tidbits, I just love seeing what Karianna will take charge of each day.
Just one other Karianna tidbit, she has taken to the idea of promises lately. She'll tell me, "Mom, I need you to make me a promise, k? Will you promise to let me eat oatmeal tomorrow for breakfast?" Today's promise was a good one, "Mom, will you promise me that next time we come to this store I can bring my money to buy this dolly?" Sounds good to me, as long as i don't have to pay!
3. Jordan's continues to be in this months-long phase of ignoring every age-appropriate toy we have in the house in exchange for things he shouldn't be playing with. He's getting smart about it though and tries to disquise his antics for actually helping me. For instance, he loves to put away the silverware from the dishwasher. He does a great job putting the spoons, butter knives, and forks in the correct drawer. However, his hidden agenda is to pull out the very sharp steak knives before I can grab them. He thinks its hilarious. A few days ago Jordan apparently decided to help me clean out the fridge-did an awesome job helping me take everything out so I could clean the shelves. As soon as I flipped my back, he decided the fridge just needed to be rearranged all together. He put all of the door items on the bottom shelf-after removing the gallons of milk! I didn't realize he was so strong!
In other Jordan news, he officially starts nursery in two weeks-and we won't be at church this week, so we are essentially done having to deal with him for all 3 hours of the block! Woohoo! That will give me a 2 1/2 month break before having another baby to watch over during church...sigh. Jordan's favorite thing to do right now is to climb up on a child-sized chair and play with things that are usually too high up for his little body. He'll climb up on the chair and draw on our whiteboard. I love this because it keeps him busy, and he hasn't fallen off the chair yet. Hopefully that lasts! Unfortuneately, his more advanced climbing skills has also led him to climbing all the way up onto the kitchen table....
4. JD has been doing swim lessons for about a week now. I was initially worried that he was going to be a complete daredevil in the water and not listen to his teachers at all. On day one of swimming lessons, I realized very quickly that this wouldn't be a problem quite yet. He spent the entire first lesson very sad because he was having a late fit of stranger danger! He stoood in the hot sun for about 20 minutes with his little head down while each teacher tried in turn to coerce him into getting in the water. Nothing worked! He finally broke down crying and I went to sit with him at the water's edge for the last ten minutes. I didn't know exactly how to proceed, I want him to have this experience, especially since we have a pool. At the same time I don't want to push him and make it a miserable experience. I decided to become that annoying parent who thinks she is qualified to be the swim instructor :) I donned a swim suit for lesson two and just climbed in with him. At first, he didn't want to do anything and cried. However, i sat with him at the edge and every other minute I would scoot with him deeper into the water. Eventually, he started splashing around like the real JD I know. I even got him to go out into the water with the other kids for the last ten minutes. They had a race and played crocodile (whatever that is). He had a blast! Lesson 3 and 4, he actually got in the water right away and we mastered the assisted float (belly and back); he even let the teacher do it with him rather than myself. Great improvement for him, and hopefully at some point this week, he won't need me in the water with him at all. My only hesitancy is most of the kids in this class should be in the next advanced class (they already swim-well. Why the parents insisted on the toddler class, I know not, especially since these kids have to be 4 or 5.). Because of this, they are usually in waters that are too deep for JD's height. Hopefully the next three days will go well and we'll end swim lessons on a very positive note!
JD wants to do everything Karianna does nowadays! For the first time ever he wants to hang out in her bedroom with her. If she is playing candyland, he has to do the same. If she is putting make up on, he needs some too. A few days ago, Karianna was reading her levelled book. JD grabbed one as well, sat right next to her and copied her mannerisms-he pointed to each word on the page and read it. Problem is, he was just copying the words she was reading, so it resulted in major cuteness, but way low accuracy. :) JD has also taught himself how to dive. He will run along the edge of the pool like a lion-on all fours-and with no other notice, he will dive into the pool. I think somewhere in the back of his brain he is recreating a scene in Lion King when Mufasa jumps into the stampede to save Simba. Either way, it is pretty awesome!
5. Just a cute pic of me and the kids-all four of them technically! We took this picture before headimg to the Phoenix Zoo for "Winter in July!" Sounds so fun, right? Well, the kids played in the "snow" for about 5 minutes before becoming bored with it (I really couldn't blame them, it was awful nasty stuff). Karianna then decided to pick up a snowball-rock and launch it at Jared. Too bad her aim wasn't more accurate because it ended up hitting Jordan in the eye, inflicting several small cuts, and essentially ending "Winter in July" for our family. Thankfully, an hour of playing in the splash pad with the cousins remedied all the tears-and no one got sunburnt! I got just as wet as the kids and boy did it feel good in the baking heat!
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