Here is the long and short of it!
Graham
Graham potty trained in May. It was all his idea. He woke up one morning and said, "I don't wear diapers anymore." The truth was, he spent 3 days not going in the potty either. When I said, "I give up, time to go back to diapers." He resolved to go on the potty- and we haven't looked back. Since then, he has become obsessed with trying out the bathrooms in every restaurant, store, or other public space that we go to. He also is obsessed with his under roos- from Buzz and Woody, to Cars, to Thomas the Tank Engine to Batman, he likes them all and likes to change them several times a day to give all his favorites a chance to be worn. My favorite potty training quote from Graham in the early days of training, "Mom, Batman is a bad guy. He is on my underwear. I can't wear those, because Batman is going to get my penis." He has since changed his thoughts on this and Batman is not a bad guy.
Graham is a liar. I mean that in a sweet way, but he is still a liar. He makes up stuff all the time and truly believes that if he is exited enough or says it loud enough, then it will be true. For instance, at the pool the other day I told him it was time to wrap things up. His reply, "And go to Charlie's Super Hero Birthday Party!!! I can't wait. We are going to his house for the party, eating cake, playing games and I am going to get goodies!" Charlie was not having a party. Nor has Graham been invited to a party for Charlie. But Graham felt that if he gave it his all, it just might happen- that afternoon. He also likes to make things up like:
"I have never eaten carrots."
"I don't have any sisters."
"I'm really sad. I've never had any treats. Ever."
"I live in a tunnel."
"I don't have a bed."- told to another mother at the pool
"I've never been to sleep."
"I have a brother named Ben."- told to a stranger at the store.
Liar. Liar. Liar. He also tells everyone that he is 5. To which Harper always replies, "He isn't 5, he's 2. He just likes the number 5. I'm 4, I'm bigger."
Graham loves to lay on his floor and play with cars. Or trains. Or airplanes. Or dinosaurs. He also loves to listen to books on cd.
Harper
Harper is a pest. This is her favorite thing to do. i should stop here since this is pretty much what she spends her day doing. And loving every minute of it. With a smile. And graham takes the bait. Every time!
But of course, there is more, not much, but I have to mention that she loves coloring, drawing pictures of dogs, rainbows, people walking dogs under rainbows...
She also loves riding her bike, learning to swim, putting on jewelry or makeup. Harper loves ballet and playing doctor with Lucy and Graham. She loves helping me cook and is relishing helping me shop at the Farmer's Market where she likes to choose the veggies for dinner and try all the bread samples. She is growing up and sounding and looking bigger, just not getting any bigger!
She had her first ever ballet recital in June. Gramzie and Pop Pop were able to see her at her dress rehearsal and Bon Bon and Grandpa and Aunt Taylor were all present for her full recital. She did great! While her class consisted of 1 girl who cried and ran off the stage, 1 who fell and had her tutu flip over her head, 1 who pretty much just stood there and 2 who half did the routine, Harper stood out. She did the entire routine, with a smile and in perfect time. Next up, she goes to Ballet Camp for July.
And did I mention she is a pest? She loves to switch seats in the car to make Graham scream. She loves to walk over, take a toy that Graham has put down and casually walk away with it, making Graham scream. If Graham says, "I don't want to read Dumbo.". Harper will quietly whisper, "We're going to read Dumbo." 40 times. Until he is crying and screaming. If Graham hears a song and says, "this is my favorite song!" Harper says, "this is my song." And makes Graham scream. See a pattern here?
Hence the reason why Harper is spending more and more time at playdates is simply to give Graham (and Me!) a break. She went to a friend's house last month for "Princess Camp" where they donned princess dresses and then dusted the house a la Cinderella. She loved it. Then she wanted to host her own camp.
She chose Christmas in the summer camp. She had over 4 friends and they made ornaments for our palm tree xmas tree, decorated stockings, listened to Christmas music and books, watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, drank frozen hot chocolate, decorated sugar cookies and ended up with opening presents- which they jumped to the conclusion that Santa had brought to them.
Lucy
Lucy ended her first grade year on a high note, finishing some stories she had been working on, having a great field day, running in her second track meet, and earning a certificate for always being kind to others in her class.
Ending first grade meant ending Daisies (and moving on to Brownies). For the big Daisy finale, we took the troop camping with 200 other girl scouts. It was cabin camping and the highlights were a group challenge course, a stream hike (where Lucy was the first to jump into the stream and get her feet wet in looking for critters in the water), hours of campfire cooking, a big campfire with skits and songs, a hayride and lots of giggling, singing and running, climbing, and skipping about- oh, and I killed a black widow spider that was found hiding inside the roll of toilet paper the girls had been using for 2 days.
With school over, that means swimming is in full force for Lucy. She has practice 5 days a week and a meet every monday night. She still hasn't finished worst than 3 in any race and has scored personal bests every meet in at least one stroke. And she has added butterfly to her reportoire. She is the only 6 and under swimming fly and this means that we are at meets until 9:30 every week while the rest of her friends leave around 8. She loves fly and is found practicing all the time. And being the only 6 and under means that she always gets a blue ribbon!
Lucy loves meets. She loves being independent and on the other side of the pool with her team mates where she is usually found flirting with teenage boys or sitting and playing cards with teenage girls. But a good chunk of time she is found sitting upon her coaches shoulders while he coaches the team from the side of the pool. Independence means that she has her own dinner, her own card games, doodle pads, money to spend at the concession stand and pretty much acts as though we are aliens if we dare cross over the team line.
In her spare time, she is reading up a storm. Her favorites are the Magic Tree House chapter books. She reads about 3 or 4 a week. She also loves to help with chores around the house (I love that she LOVES to dust and vacuum!), swinging in the backyard and she just started up her tennis lessons for the summer. She has mastered going across the monkey bars, wrapped up her soccer season, and is still climbing everything she sees.
Oh, and she LOVES Turtleman. What started out as letting Lucy watch Animal Planet has ended up with her begging to watch Call of the Wildman at all hours of the day. She thinks Turtleman is awesome for these reasons:
-he's from Kentucky
-he "looks like Pops"
-"he sounds like Pops"
-he catches wild animals
-he makes crazy noises
She can now be caught in the basement with a wooden knife in her teeth, a riding crop that she is poking at some innocent stuffed animal and yelling, "Live Action!" Lord help us.
More photos to come. I got a new fancy camera that I have no idea how to use!
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