Spring Things - a list of children stuff

My kiddies sharing a snack and waiting by the window for daddy to come home.

Iris can now say:
Hi
Hey
Bye (and bye with waving)
Ma, MaMa
Da
Ot (hot)
ashide (outside)
duck! (duck)
ack (quack)
ah-gie (doggie)
ah-le (dolly)
she eats with a big "ahhhmmmm" noise, the one you make when you are trying to get them to open wide. 
she can accurately nod "yes" or "no" to adult questions.
she tones a very high pitched "eeehh" when she objects to something you are doing, or making her do (like stay in your arms, or not climb out of the pew and crawl around the aisles at church)
she says many things that sound like sentences, which aren't in English but communicate desires none the less. She will eagerly point at something and say a bunch of goobley gook which means, "look at that cool thing" or "oohh! That's fuzzy and I want it! Its cute!"
She continues to do what she wants and eat what she wants. She's resistant to discipline. I don't remember if Clark was, but we also spent more time setting him on the right path prior to him getting into things that we didn't want him in.

Iris lays the smack down on Clark.

Iris can walk and runs around corners with a flourish. She totters around like a drunk man. Its adorable.
She loves to climb on things and is quite ambitious. She can climb off of our bed - something Clark just learned to do.  She can go up and down the stairs with no problem - although she did fall down them once.

We just built a sandbox and both kids are loving it!

Clark making sandballs

Iris objecting to us telling her that she isn't allowed to throw sand out of the sand box.

The Fam in the Box. It looks good doesn't it? Don't we?

Clark frequently asks for me to tell him stories. I am working on my memory of child's stories, but I find that many of them are pretty horrible, with animals or bad parents or bad witches eating children, really.  He loves the 3 pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. I made a modified story of Hansel and Gretel which cuts out some of the badness of the parents and witch, and quickly frees the children from her clutches.
I have been reading to him from chapter books. We've read Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Right now we are reading James and the Giant Peach .

Clark is really interested in puzzles right now, and can do 12 piece ones, and kind of do 24 piece ones. Its amazing to see our wild boy sit at the table for an hour and do puzzle after puzzle.

Clark loves outside, talking walks, reading stories, digging in the sandbox, singing songs, and cooking with me.

We are taking a music class at our parish called Making Music Praying Twice. It is mostly modeled after Music Together classes, but incorporates some church songs too, like the Ave Maria, Angus Dei, and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It was cool to see him singing along with the Angus Dei during Holy Week.  The kids get to play with musical instruments, shakey eggs, scarves, and a parachute. We do songs with hand motions and learn tonalities too. Overall, it is awesome.

Today we took a class at our Nature Center. It was about turtles. The first 30 minutes is "free stations", with parents, the kids go to various stations: books, art, blocks, turtle shells, and pretending to be turtles. Then there is a group story time, craft (finger puppet turtle), and then we go on a hike. Today we hunted for turtles but didn't find any.

In the past we've taken other classes including insects (turning over logs and rocks to find whats underneath), woodpeckers (listening to pecking, and finding holey trees), animal homes (looking for nests), and animal detectives (looking for scat and tracks).  A few months ago, the whole family went to a class on Maple Sugaring. We're having a lot of fun at our nature centers!

We also continue to do our little co-op preschool Here are some photos from Costume Day.  The kids are Owen, Clark and Emily. 

Poo, Dragon, Unicorn

Dragon, Belly Dancer, Astronaut

Rasta Man, Astronaut

 And here are some photos from Easter. We had a beautiful weekend and are looking forward to what the rest of Spring brings!

An interview with Clark

An interview with Clark about the Meadowside Nature Center Preschool Field trip on Tuesday where we played in an indoor outdoor exhibit featuring caves with a slide, eating lunch outside, and playing with dishes.  

Clark, tell me what you did today.

Today, Kathryn said no pushing. I push Owen. No pushing. 

Tell me what we did today. 

We saw Owen and Emily and Kathryn and Sara and we went down the slide.

Where was the slide? 

In the dark cave.

And then what did we do?

Lunch. We ate lunch outside. 

What did you do after you ate lunch?

Sticks with Owen. We picked up fireworks. We collected fireworks. (referring to firewood. Then he sings) What's gonna work? Team work! What's gonna work? Team work! (because they worked together to move giant sticks)

Anything else?

Mommy, then I chopped fireworks for you. Then I made some coffee for you. Then we went down the slide. Then we hit. No hitting. 

Pictures finally!

I tried to load some photos using Firefox instead of Explorer and it worked! This is Clark and Bernadette enjoying some yummy gluten free chocolate cupcakes. I found him a birthday candle (kind of) like the one my brother had when we were growing up. You light it each year and let the candle burn down to the age. I got one for Iris too!
Here are Clark and his cousin, Jordan, having fun at the Postal Museum! It was awesome to have her here! Jo-jo, we miss you already!
Here is Clark and his new bestie - Owen Farmer.

Here am I with my babies at the Nature center.
Here's Tom with the kids. Clark loves to hold Iris. He is a wonderful big brother!

Clark's last day as an only child.

So, I think I need to turn my phone the other way, but alas, next time I'll have to do it. This time I already blew it. (hey, a poem!)

This is footage I took on January 6th around lunchtime. Clark and I took a long walk to get some fresh air and to see if I was in labor or not. There are things I really want to remember in my life - and one thing I really love is the light in winter. I love Clark as a toddler. I love how fast he runs and how joyous he is. These little videos aren't really "interesting" but they make my heart happy - so I'm sharing them.

I wish I had filmed that one a few seconds longer. Right after I turned the camera off, he turned around and said, "Let's Go!"

This was later on that same walk. He really likes running over the bridge. I love the sound his feet and the metal make. Sometimes we throw things into the river and watch them float away. (Don't I have the most awesome life?)