Avoiding a Nap

I've found that if I need a few minutes to do something before putting Bridget down for a nap, I will tell her, "You have 5 minutes before your nap."  Today she played 15 minutes without a peep with the Little Pony Castle.  Then you hate to disturb her.  Funny how kids figure these things out!  I love the little "impish smile".

Pumpkin Carvers

We went to the pumpkin patch this Saturday, enjoying nice weather and a hayride. We carved the pumpkins that evening, and the girls even scooped out the insides of the pumkins with their hands. The girls insisted that the jack-o-lanterns have happy faces, but Daddy still put a mean face on his. Here's a photo of the kids with their pumpkins (Jillian's pumpkin is white with the traditional face, Bridget's pumpkin is on the right with the big smile, and Tor's pumpkin is on the left with the binky).

Busy, Busy, Busy

 

Give Tor two pans that make noise and he will be happy for a long time banging them together.  He now sticks his fist out to people, which looks like a fist bump, so he is getting lots of interaction with the boys.

 I put Tor in Bridget's doll bed and Bridget was tickled to have a real baby.  Tor was also quite amused most of the time.  She gave him rattle, put a bib on and gave him a play baby bottle, covered him up with a blanket, and fussed over him for a long time.

Ty came down Friday to play with Bridget and of course she wanted to do Starfall.  She would pick out games like Geometry and Ty would help her, no matter how difficult.  She is getting a lot of exposure to different concepts.

Drawing and Winking

 Catching up on posts.  Last week Bridget worked hard on drawing herself and I was impressed with the results because of the details she added.  She had hair, ears, arms with hands and two legs.  She also added a bandage on one finger since she had one on her own finger.  Super for her age.

Here Bridget is winking.  She had to try really hard to do it and most of my pictures were of her with both eyes closed.

First Lost Tooth

Jillian lost her first tooth today. She was having a little cookie biscuit for an after-school treat, and then starting crying for Mommy, saying "My tooth hurts!!! Mommy checked out her mouth, and found that her bottom tooth was loose. For a while, Jillian worked on wiggling her tooth with her tongue. Then, she had some pizza for snack, and that's when it came out. Jillian said that while she was eating, she felt her tooth in her mouth, so she spit it out.

Jillian is very excited, and can't wait to show everyone her smile. She's got the tooth nicely tucked away in her little tooth pillow (that came with a book we have about loose teeth), waiting for the tooth fairy's visit tonight.

Blue-eyed Boy

Just thought we'd post this little picture of Tor, showing his bright blue eyes and his auburn hair.

Rainbow Girls

Jillian and Bridget were excited to get to see a rainbow. They thought it was so cool, they were even willing to let Daddy take a picture of them with it in the background.

(Home) School

Every day after she gets back from kindergarten, Jillian tells everyone in the house that it's time for "school". She is always the teacher, and whoever is available (or willing) is a student. In this photo, Bridget and Torion were students (along with Daddy). Amazingly, they are looking pretty attentive ... normally school with them looks much more chaotic. If you've never experienced Jillian's school, you should try it ... it is quite a treat. And kinda scary!

As the photo shows, Jillian keeps a scorecard for each student, adding points for good behavior and taking them away for being bad. It doesn't take much to get  points taken away (saying anything, doing anything, etc.), so Bridget and Torion tend to be way in the hole all the time. When things get out of control with unruly students, then the "scary teacher" comes out in Jillian. We've taken video of it, but decided against posting it for fear of frightening young children (and even adults, for that matter). Jillian will resort to pointing and yelling "BE QUIET!!!!" and "I'M SICK OF IT!!!" Then she'll turn out the lights and order everyone to put their heads on their desks. By this time, everyone is spending recess "on the wall" because there have been a huge number of points taken away.

Other than these terrifying classroom episodes, Jillian will do some regular teaching of whatever comes to her mind.

No School!

 The girls were so excited to have Rielee come play since there wasn't school on Friday.  Here they are with the My Little Ponies set, sharing and inventing interesting scenarios for the ponies.  They worked on a bat tree, played school, and finally got to play outside when it was nicer.  When Tor woke up, Rielee carried him around and enjoyed his smiles.

For lunch they all sat at the counter and had Papa's famous smoothies.  He makes Jillian and Bridget one every day for lunch and when Jillian's at school, Papa has to put hers in the freezer to have after school. 

Music and Playing School

 Bridget wanted a picture of her new birthday outfit while she was playing with the musical instruments that had been put away for awhile.  She tried all the instruments while singing and dancing to the songs she knows.

After Jillian got home from school and Daddy had come, Jillian wanted to play school and be the teacher.  Of course, first thing she did was to make a miniature of her famous behavior chart.  She is not an easy teacher as if anyone talked without raising their hand she went right to the chart.  When things got out of control she would march over to the light, turn it out, and announce, "Everyone put their heads down on their desk!"  It was a fun school.

Sun!

Bridget is really getting good on her tricycle.  She even knows how to steer it-whew!  She wanted a helmet on (Dora helmet), maybe because she goes faster now.

 Tor had fun outside watching the girls ride bikes and run around.  It will be his turn, probably spring.

Jillian, the organizer, set up a course with jumping, shooting baskets, kicking down cones, and running and then challenged me to a race.  She won some of them and I won others. I was supposed to do it against Bridget but Bridget did not want any part of it.  Later Jillian discovered the witch's hats in the shed and grabbed a broom and played witch.  Bridget got one on too and used the push broom since it was the only one available.  Later we all walked up to the apples trees.  It was a delicious apple tree and as Jillian was eating one, she kept saying, "This is delicious."  Probably since I told her the name of the tree.  They didn't even want to come inside once it got darker and colder.

Yummy Halloween Bats

While Jillian was at school, Bridget helped make bat and pumpkin cookies.  We waited until Jillian got home to frost the bats and then they got to eat them for snacks before bedtime.  They did a pretty neat job frosting the cookies and putting sprinkles on them but the actual eating was a little messy.