Take-Me-Back Tuesday: Baylor's 2018 Talent Show Submission

Here is the Lego stop-motion video Baylor made for the 2018 talent show at their school.  He made it it all by himself, and I am so proud of him for all his hard work!

Summer So Far (This N' That)

This summer has been a great one overall so far.  We have been busy with camps and swim team, not to mention hanging out with family and friends here and there.

One of our more consistent activities has been swimming at Oma's pool.  

It almost always involves popsicles ... and Mollie almost always ends up with it all over her face.

And Baylor, dear Baylor, is almost never out of the water.  I call him my little manatee because he basically just comes up for air every now and then and spends the rest of his time lazily swimming underwater.  Even getting a picture of him has proved to be difficult when we are in the pool, not to mention talking to him.

But, for all his time underwater, he has figured out how to do a handstand!

In addition to the aforementioned camps and swim team, Baylor had a summer adventure camp of sorts at his school for five or six Tuesday mornings in late June and into July.  He actually rode the bus to it, something he's never done before, and Mollie and I enjoyed waiting in the driveway for it to arrive to pick him up.

At one of the later swim meets for the swim team, Baylor came up to me before the races started to inform me that he might not be able to swim because his tooth was excessively loose.  And loose it was!

While he waited for his sister's race, he spent a decent amount of time attempting to wiggle it out.  (It ended up not coming out for a few more days.)

After that swim meet, I got the kids a special treat from the concession stand and learned an important lesson in the process: when getting the kids a frozen treat at a hot swim meet, it is a good idea to give them said treat before they change out of their swimsuits ...

... otherwise your daughter will end up having to eat a melting mess while attempting not to get it all over her outfit.

We've also done some arts and crafts this summer.  Mollie worked on learning more about watercolors one day.

And both kids have learned a little how to type on a typewriter!

 Some of our days and nights are slow, but even then we have learned new things, had so much fun, and even made some discoveries.  For example, the other night at dinner, Baylor was staring out the window, as he sometimes does, when he remarked, "Is that a frog on the window?"

It turns out, it was!  Mollie and I went outside to investigate a little further.

We dubbed him Waldo, and Mollie spent a little time speculating about how great it would be to have him as a pet.  She desperately wanted to hold him and see how soft he was, but she was also terrified that he would get anywhere near her.  Needless to say, Waldo stayed outside.

While over the last few days we have struggled finding a rhythm - it's tough when there isn't a camp or a practice or even an appointment to get you going in the morning - it has been a really great summer.  I love spending time with the kids, teaching them new things and watching them grow.  Yes, my patience has been tested and I have had to reread one of my go-to parenting/mindfulness books (more on that later!) to regain my cool, but overall I think there has been more fun and love and happiness than frustration.  I've never been a fan of summer coming to a close, so I'm going to savor every last bit of it.

Hope your summer is going swimmingly!

Summer Swim Team 2016

The kids are on a swim team at the community pool this summer, and, to say the least, it has been intense so far.  Between the four-times-a-week practices and 10:00 a.m. swim meets, we have been busy, busy, busy.

The swim meets are an experience in and of themselves.  We get there an hour early so they can get their races written on their hands ...

... and warm up.

Then we wait for their meets.  Amalia is in the first race of the little kids races ...

... so she usually has a bit of time to wait for Baylor's race and then her second one.  Some of the meets have been downright cold, and one towel isn't always enough.

Baylor's races are always three behind his sister, and though he might not be the fastest out there, he really enjoys swimming and has fun at the meets.

Both kids seem to really enjoy the meets, and I am proud of them for getting out there, often in the cold, and doing their best.

Halloween (and Hair Cut!) 2015

This year's Halloween festivities had a rather interesting start; my mom got her very first "hair cut" from Amalia!  The hairspray my mom used earlier in the day gave Mollie a bit of a run for her money, but she worked her way through it in no time.

After giving Mom a trim, Amalia blew her hair dry because Mom asked her to "dye" her hair as well.

I know it's blurry and the color is off, but I couldn't help but post this one of Mollie "applying the hair dye".  Let's just say it was a bit of a wild ride for my mom.

I'm sorry, but this is just not a face you want your hairdresser making while she's cutting your hair.

In the end, the "cut" came out okay, and now Mom is considering hiring Mollie for all her hair needs.

After a bit of pizza, we got the kids into their costumes for a photo op.  GO GREEN!

Then we went and covered up all that beautiful green with their winter coats and some bright yellow ponchos.  It was a shame, but it was also totally necessary because of all the rain outside.  Once we got out there, it was quite apparent that there were way fewer trick-or-treaters out than usual and fewer houses giving out candy as well.  But we made the best of it, trying to make sure the kids kept their bags under their ponchos or under the umbrella.  A special shout-out to my dad for coming with us, holding the umbrella, and keeping things moving!

After walking our usual route, we came home to check out their haul and take inventory of their sweets and treats.  Both kids did very well for themselves.

The adults enjoyed a shredded apple tart, courtesy of my dear sister, and then we chatted ... and some of us snuggled by the fire.

For the fourth year in a row, Mother Nature has tried to keep us down on Halloween.  But with good company and sweet treats, it's tough not to have a good time.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Baylor at Bat

I am so sorry for how little I have been posting lately.  Things have gotten unbelievably busy since before last Christmas and they haven't let up since.  One of the things keeping us busy as of late has been baseball.  We signed Mollie up for tee ball and Baylor up for coach pitch baseball this spring, and with both of their game schedules we have been up to our ears in bats, balls, and bases.

Mollie has had success playing tee ball, in no small part because they cannot strike out or be thrown out ... ever.  Each kiddo gets to swing until they hit and then run to first base, then second after the kid after them hits, then third, and so on until they go home - or until the last one in the lineup hits a "home run" and they all come home.  So it'd be tough to do poorly playing tee ball.

But coach pitch baseball is a lot different.  They do the usual three-strikes-and-you're-out rule and can get thrown out at any base.  Needless to say, Baylor, who had never played a game of baseball in his life before this spring, has struggled a bit.



Getting hit in the head during one's first batting practice doesn't make for a particularly good start, mind you.



More than that, he has struggled with this more than he has with anything else in his entire life.  The thing is, struggle is good for a person; it builds character and teaches perseverance.  But too much struggle, like an entire season of it, and the fun can drain right away.  We were starting to see improvement in him at each game, but I was also starting to notice here and there that he wasn't enjoying it; he was dragging his feet when getting ready to go, he was a lot more emotionally volatile on game days, and he seemed a little more dejected when walking away after striking out each inning.  We were all hoping he'd finally get a hit and start enjoying the game a little more.  Even his coach, who had seemed to give up on our boy a few weeks back, started pitching a little closer and giving him an extra pitch here and there to see if he could just get one hit.

And then it happened.



He got a hit!!!  You can hear and see just how excited the coach is that he finally did it, and at the end of the video you can hear his teammates say, "Baylor got his first hit!!"

And even more than that, he made it around the bases!  He ran for home with one out left, running better than we've ever seen before, and only got out at home because the other team made a very heads-up play at home plate.




It was a big day for the little man, and his team even voted to give him the game ball because of his efforts!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of more hits for Baylor, but even if it isn't, I am so incredibly proud of my little guy for sticking with it and working hard to achieve something that is so tough for him.

Way to go, Baylor!!

Miss Mollie at Two

I was combing through some of our old vacation photos when I found this gem of a video.  It's hard to believe she used to be this little and say so little when she is growing taller by the day and talking up a storm now.  It's a sweet memory, and I thought I'd share it this afternoon.  Enjoy!

Little Robots

This morning Baylor got his hands on the box our new garbage disposal came in and decided he wanted to turn it into a robot costume for himself.  (On a side note, I didn't realize how momentous this was until I was actually typing it out ... Baylor has NEVER liked wearing costumes!)  So we made robot costumes!  I found a box for Mollie, albeit a much smaller one - sorry, sweetie, and we set to work.  I cut out the head and arm holes, and then later on I made all the little cutouts for them to glue to their robots.  (I would have let them do the cutouts, but they were busy cleaning up almost every toy and book they own, and we were pressed for time.)

After dinner, we finally got to assemble the robots.

Mollie's came out great, complete with buttons for stopping, going, dancing, and sleeping!

Baylor's came out wonderful as well, with buttons labeled "wings", "flight", "timer", and "fold in".  That last button, when "pushed", makes him draw in his arms and head and shrink down so he is entirely in the box, legs and all.  It's awesome!  He also glued wings to the back of his, which prompted Mollie to eventually glue wings to the back of hers as well.

My two sweet little robots!

The Poem Tree

Last night as I was saying goodnight to Baylor, he said he had a poem for me.  The poem he recited for me, that he had come up with entirely on his own, was amazing.  I sat there in absolute awe of the rhymes, the cadence, everything.  I wish I had had a video camera with me to capture it, but, alas, I didn't.  I only had the hope that he'd still remember it in the morning.

When he woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as he is most Sundays, he bounded downstairs and informed me that he wanted to make a poem tree in our house.  I asked him if he remembered the poem from last night, and he said that he did but that he didn't want to write it down until we had the tree finished.  So, we made a tree.  I knew all that construction paper from Costco would come in handy someday!

Initially, we were going to put it up in the dining room, but I worried that the masking tape and the sun would eventually change the paint color, so we moved our creation to the basement door.  It fit perfectly, and both kids were really excited about it and thought it looked great.

I had grand plans to make an adorable sign using the sun and a couple clouds, but as it often goes with kids, I had to let my expectations go and follow the little man's creative trail.

His first little sign to go with the tree read, "Made by me".  I asked him if others were allowed to contribute to the tree and he said they were, so I suggested he modify it.  So he added, "And evreone!  Becuse Im good" (And everyone!  Because I'm good).

For some reason, he felt it necessary to add number labels to the tree.  I really didn't want him to do that, and I had to fight all my urges to stop him and make it look "perfect"; it's hard for me to let go of control like that sometimes, and this whole thing really ended up being an exercise in patience for me.

Ordinarily I would have made him write out his poem himself, but the leaf he made (that he was very excited about) was much smaller than it should have been for him to write on it.  I have incredibly small handwriting, so I stepped in and wrote it for him.  It isn't exactly the same as it was last night; the original version was much smoother and a bit longer, but it often happens that the first jolt of inspiration is nearly impossible to recreate.  Regardless, the poem that is currently on the tree is all his and remarkably awesome for a five year-old.  And here it is ...

Bedtime
by Baylor

Instead of staying up and doing bedtime math
I'm going to go to bed without a bath.

I'm gonna brush and floss
Then I'll get in bed and I might turn and toss.

Then I'm gonna turn from dreams to snores.
Then when my mom opens the door

I'll get up and go down and play
And today's the new day!

The other leaf is actually a song he wrote called, "1,2,3 Rock!"  Basically you count as fast and lyrically as you can to ten, yell, "Rock!" and then yell, "1,2,3 Rock!  Rock!  Rock!"  It's not quite as developed as his poem, but I do love to hear him sing so I'll take it.

Now that this tree is up, I can't wait to see what else the little man comes up with!

2013 Catch-Up: December Doings

The set up and decoration of our tree is much, much different than that of my parents'.  Every year I try to employ the kids' help, and most of the time it ends up being a whole lot of this:

Mollie did try to help out a bit this year, but for the most part she was more interested in watching whatever movie was on at the time.

I helped Mollie write her Christmas list early on in the season, and I have to say it was one of the easiest I've ever done.  She only wanted one thing, a piece of rolling luggage like she saw in Toy Story of Terror.  Funny girl.

My parents and sister invited us to go with them to see our city's symphony put on their annual Holiday Pops concert, so the four of us got all dolled up to go out for the afternoon.  I seized an opportunity - us being ready early and so dapper-ly dressed - and set up my camera to snap a few pictures.

Then Mollie requested to take some of us, and one of them turned out quite well.

It was really cold out, but the atmosphere inside the performance hall was warm and festive.

Right before we left the house I grabbed Baylor's binoculars, and he and my dad put them to good use watching the musicians tune their instruments.

I wish I could say that the kids had a blast at the Pops, but in all honesty they were a little bored with it.  They didn't recognize a lot of the songs, and there wasn't much else for them to do besides watch.  With that said, they were very well-behaved and more patient than I realized they could be.

A few days later, my mom and sister whipped up some cake to serve as the base for a couple of extra large "gingerbread" houses.  Baylor had lofty goals for his, dreaming of Chicago.

He settled for making Shedd Aquarium.

Mollie took the reins and led Oma through a whirlwind decorating session.

Baylor, too, was the creative mind behind the design and the placer of all candy and crackers, while I wielded the piping bag.

Mollie came up with an adorable, creative little cottage.

While Baylor made both Shedd Aquarium AND the Sears Tower, pictured left below.

We piped the kids' names on the base of their respective houses, just in case anyone wondered who made each house.

Then Mollie put two and two together and pretended the extra candy canes were actual canes.  Funny little lady.

Later on in the month, I finally got a carton of some good-quality egg nog.  I asked Mollie if she wanted to try some, and she said yes!  I jumped at the chance to get her to try something new and poured her a small glass of some deliciously thick egg nog.  After the first sip, she declared she didn't like it, but as we sat there chatting she kept taking longer and longer sips of it.

Still claiming she didn't like it, she let her doll Sally try some.  A couple of sips for Sally, though, got her a bit "noggy" and she spilled on her pajamas.  Tsk, tsk, Sally.

If I thought November flew by fast, December was an absolute blur by comparison.  It didn't help that Thanksgiving was so late this year, but I think having so many activities makes the time feel like it's flying by that much faster.