Kids at the Park

These amazing photos were taken by Grandpa Faiola. They came up and took care of the kids for a a night so Chris and I could do an overnight date to California for a friend's party.

Jamisen has turned into quite a little dare devil; grandpa Faiola was astounded to see Jamisen's developmental progress since the last time they were at that park together.

Lily loves to do anything that Jamisen does and just follows him along everywhere. They are the best of friends.

Anyone that knows our family in the slightest, slightest bit knows that I think sugar is poison (no really and truly, I believe that with all of my heart). Sugar is limited in our house hold as is junk food or processed food.  Lily found my Xylitol based gum in my car (primer: xylitol has some research showing it helps to clean out your teeth in between brushings and inhibit bacterial growth, thus preventing cavities). She naturally wanted a piece. I gave her one. She of course, swallowed it.

Later, she said to me, "Mama, I want more gum! I want another piece of gum." Jamisen looked up and appeared rather puzzled, asking, "Mama, what's gum?" I'm not going to lie; my heart leapt with pride. He's almost five and doesn't even know what gum is (!). That said, xylitol based gum is probably something I should introduce to my kids. After all, if it's something I do for my health, I should do it for them too!

We're trying to figure out what we're doing with Lily and school next year. We know we want to put her in Montessori school but she has such a strong bond with her teacher at Hillcrest that we hate to break them up.

But, keeping her in school at Hillcrest for 2 days a week also seems like overkill (that's five days of school for her and it totally messes up the nanny schedule too) so we're trying to figure out what we're doing that is best for Lily, the family schedule and the needs of the nanny (he needs enough hours to stay with our family.

Baby Alise is growing up so quickly too. She's starting to talk a bit is super mobile now. Shout-out to Grandma and Grandpa Renoud who gave Jamisen the hat that Alise is wearing in the photo above. It's gotten a lot of love from multiple kids and still looks awesome. =)

Grandpa Faiola took Jamisen to the electricity museum. Jamisen LOVED it. Grandpa reports that he was very polite and interested in everything at the museum. He came away with an intense curiosity about all things electrical and quite a momento, courtesy of Grandpa. His plasma light globe has a place of honor in his room and it sure is cool when all the lights are turned off. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for coming up and taking care of the kiddos!

We Caught Two Leprechauns!

 

Our little karmic torpedoes are penance and payment for every transgression

Chris may have committed when he was younger. I lay it all at his feet since all I hear from my Mother is what an angel I was and I have heard some doozies of stories about Chris as a toddler. =) Two plus two clearly equals reality ...

We have been having some INSANE wind storms around here - like crazy gusts that cause the water in front o fus to turn into a foamy sea of white instead of a dark, green blue sea. Chris said to me the other day, "Wow, those waves are so big!" and Jamisen called out "Daddy, those are not waves. They are whitecaps!"  You know you're a PNW baby when you can tell the difference in classes of waves.

Our little leprechaun sprite (code named: Lily) is growing so much in her imagination and play acting centers. She will spend at least 5 minutes at a time playing with her two Ducky Luckies (one of them is a dog toy that I'm pretty sure we stole from her cousin Sammy). They are two worn, well-loved duckies (one of whom squeaks ... thus the dog toy suspicious). Lily makes up entire story lines for them both where they play, hit eachother, wrestle, kiss and go on adventures. I've also caught her doing this with two pieces of string cheese. Her creativity knows no bounds.

The other leprechaun pictured (code named: Jamisen) remains his sister's best protector. Just today, we heard him calling from the living room, "Mama! Glass! Lily, this is a NO GO ZONE! A No Go Zone!! NO WALKING!" and when I ran in, found him bodily blocking off the area with a broken Christmas bulb, both arms wide and legs in a wide stance. Why was there a Christmas bulb four months after the holidays nearby to be broken? That is an enduring mystery right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

 

In school right now, Jamisen is learning his numbers and comes home with many tracing papers full of numbers and just starting to learn sounds. He so badly wants to read, and asserts proudly that he is 'reading' whenever he finishes sentences of books he has clearly memorized.

Lily is loving boundary testing lately. Just today, she took two bites of her (veggie) hot dog and threw three pieces across the floor. When I promptly put her in time out and asked if she knew why she had thrown the hot dog, she proclaimed, "Because I wanted to get put in time out!" and when I questioned why she would want to be put in time out, she looked puzzled but was happy to agree that she had wanted attention and that's why she threw the hot dog. And then, in her time out, she managed to disrobe, pull her diaper off and throw it across the room. I imagine she was thinking something like: "So, take that! You give me time out? I will wreck havoc in the 6 inches you have put me in!" If she could have stamped her foot, she would have.

Photo credits of the little sweet leprechauns in green to Grandpa Faiola.

Little Karmic Torpedos

Our little kiddos are growing so fast. Lily's emotional grasp is growing by leaps and bounds daily. She ascribes feelings to the deer in our yard now, "I think they're missing their brothers and Mommies; the Mamas are not going to come back" when she sees lone baby deer in our yard, for example. She also loves to be a big helper and is really grasping the concept that she can be useful. It doesn't mean she happily cleans up after dinner but she's starting to get the concept.

Our kiddos love play dough (so much!). It's fun to see their creativity really blossom. Jamisen is especially good at creating the things that he sees on the boxes. He concentrates impressively for his tasks.

Despite that concentration, it's not quite enough for the adults in the house to do any actual work. The other day I had some documents I needed to focus on for work so I gave the kids iPads (aka: electronic babysitters) so I could focus-focus for twenty straight minutes. And before you think that putting the kids down with play dough or a book gives me 20 straight minutes of focus time, you'd be wrong; they still require supervision and active parenting. After about 15 minutes of playing quietly with the iPads on games, Jamisen looked up and said, "Mama, we're playing too much games." I agreed with him and he turned to Lily and said, "Lily, close the iPad, we're done."

The kids got to go to the MALL for the first or second time in their lives the other day. What a treat! They got Orange Julius Strawberry shakes (the lowest sugar option they had) and loved running up and down the hallways of the mall. Of course, I couldn't quit looking for danger around every corner with every baggy pant'ed youth walking by in a big coat; the hazards of modern life.

Behold, one of Jamisen's proud Play Dough creations - a beautiful pizza!

The days are getting longer and the rain is staying away for multiple hours at a time so we are thrilled to get more playground time. Even with 2 hours at this playground, the kids did not fall asleep earlier than usual; the Faiola Renoud kids are the energizer bunnies of the toddler world.

Jamisen continues to figure out the power of commerce. At least once a week, he sets up a full station selling passer-bys random food packets (bananas, snack packs etc.)

Chris and I had a great night at the Boys & Girls Bingo night. Both of our companies sponsored table and our respective teams came and played bingo (which is surprisingly fun and fast paced if you play with multiple cards). We so rarely get date nights that even though we were sitting at different tables, it was still super fun. PS - I made the nail polish on my fingers there (green and gold for St. Patrick's Day!). =)

Book Launch & Grandpa Winston Visits

A big thank you to my family for coming out to support my book launch party for Pure Soapmaking and for the support all the way through the book writing process. The event was well attended and it was thrilling to have soapmakers from as far as Oregon come. My parents got me the most amazing flower arrangement (ever). It was larger than Jamisen with multiple Bird of Paradise and a lovely banner (yes, it was big enough for a banner). It was so nice to have Cousin Alise and Erik and Cheriss and Grandpa Winston come to the party too. The book has already sold 12,000 copies so that's super exciting and we're thrilled about the success. 

  

The other day, we were all driving in the car and Lily was jabbering, singing and talking at the top of her teensy tiny lungs. Her teensy tiny lungs have quite a lot of talking and singing noise capacity though, making it virtually impossible to carry on any sort of conversation. Chris said to Lily, "Wow, you have a lot to say." To which Lily replied, quite happily and decisively, "I have a lot of power!" And then, fell asleep no less than 42 seconds later.

 

Jamisen received this awesome NASA space suit from Uncle Weston and Aunt Anna for Christmas and he very much enjoys dressing up in it. It's amazing; he's almost outgrown it!

Grandpa Winston visited for dinner and we loved having him visit. He has a large capacity for reading and the patience of someone who has raised 8 children.

The kids enjoyed being extra silly with him, showing him their bouncy house and building blocks with him. Grandpa Winston was there for full bedtime routine, including the always fun 6:45 to 7:30 time period of brushing teeth and 'But, I'm hungry' delaying tactics. It was great to have his gentle support during that point in the night and the kids loved having him visit.

Our little silly kiddos are way into making forts out of anything and everything. They made a 'fort' by draping a blanket over Lily's Pack 'n' Play crib (still her preferred bed of choice) and designed a very elaborate game involving multiple entry points, steps and ways to dive into the fort.

This is Lily's favorite teacher, Jana (pronounced Zjhana) from Hillcrest. Lily has gone from crying and dreading being dropped off to running into teacher Jana's arms and barely even acknowledging that we're still in the room and walking out. It's such a relief to have her loving school and being delighted to be there.