Kiersten

The girls like to play little role-playing games where they change their names and act out various scenarios. Most of the time up until lately, Jorja has picked names for both of them, but Ginny is starting to exert some Independence. For the past two days, she has been Kiersten. (She has an older cousin named Kiersten that she is pretty fond of). She has taken this game to a whole new level though - she never stops being Kiersten.

"Ginny, it's time for supper."

"Actually, I'm Kiersten."

"Ginny, time for bed."

"You can call me Kiersten."

"Ginny, clean up the toys."
"Actually, I'm still Kiersten."

Last night, she woke up at 4:00 am and wanted a drink of water. So I got her one, tucked her back in, and said, "Good night Ginny." "Actually I'm Kiersten." At 4:00 am?! Really? She's persistent anyway.

Julie went to a conference for work today in Regina, so I was flying solo. The day went pretty good, but it's nice to have this quiet time now. The girls wanted to go somewhere, so after lurch we went to the pet store. They wanted to see the sharks. Never mind the cute kittens and such, they are more interested in the lizards, tarantulas, snakes and fish. They had fun looking at everything, and then we came home so CeCe could have a nap. I got them all out of the car, locked the car, locked the garage, and then went to look for my house keys. I felt my pants pocket. Nothing. Jacket pockets. Nothing. Pants. Nothing. Jacket. Nothing. Okay, this is not good. I've got three little girls in the backyard and I'm locked out of the house and the garage. We always meant to hide a key somewhere outside, but never did. So I had to break in. I got in through a window, and then had to call upon my Backyardigan ninja training to get to the alarm without setting off the motion detector. I made it, opened the door, disarmed the alarm, and got the girls all in safe and sound. I put CeCe down for her snooze, the girls played some computer games, and then I had to break into the garage. After I did, I saw my keys sitting right there on the front seat of the car. At least they were there and not at Petland.

After all that, the girls wanted to make a craft. Puppets actually. I asked what this entailed, and it was just a piece of paper cut out glued to a popsicle stick. I guess I could handle that. So I asked them what kind of puppets they wanted to make. Jorja wanted to make a heart. Ginny wanted a triangle. I'm not sure what kind of puppets those are, so I made an octopus. Anyway, they had fun, but soon were wondering where to put on the puppet shows. Then I remembered the dishwasher box was still downstairs, so I cut out a hole on one side for a stage, made a door on the other side and voila, a puppet theatre. I even made a sign which the girls decorated. All in all a pretty good day. Later.

More rain = more crafts

I'm going to start today's post yesterday. We were driving home, and listening to the radio. It's kind of a battle between Julie and I - whenever one of us is out of the vehicle, we switch stations. Anyway, yesterday I had won, and we were listening to the '80's station (satellite radio). Def Leppard came on with 'Pour Some Sugar on Me.' I was trying to educate the girls that this was good music, and maybe they should get into it a bit, you know, bang your head a bit. Jorja replied, "I'm not grooving Dad, because I don't like it." All right then.

I'm amazed at the power of a sticker. We've been having some issues lately with bedtime (and by issues, I mean crying, wailing, tantrums, getting out of bed, general carrying on), so we decided to try a different approach. Ginny's issue is going to bed. Jorja's issue is getting up too many times during the night, and too early in the morning. We got them this big book of stickers and each special book to put their stickers in. All they had to do was stay in bed all night, and not come out till 7:00 am. IT WORKED!! If CeCe hadn't been so snotty and up with that, it would have been my best sleep in years. As it was it was actually pretty good. Jorja got up once in the night to pee, and didn't get out of bed till seven. Then she asked if she could go downstairs by herself and play computer games. I was kind of in shock. She would get up by herself and let me stay in bed?! I was all over that. She cam back up after about half an hour and asked if I would get up. So I went down and dozed on the couch. Ginny came down at 8:00, and I turned on Sesame Street, and dozed on the couch till 9:00 while they watched that. I was in heaven.

It was still raining today - will it ever end? Oh well, at least we didn't get snow. After preschool, Jorja was wanting to do something special again on the rainy day. I knew exactly what she wanted, but I was playing dumb. What would be special I asked. I don't know, she would say. This went on for a while when finally I relented. Would a craft be special? Well, that was apparently the answer. We did a quick internet search, and found some egg carton caterpillars. It went quite well - she is definitely in her element with glitter glue in one hand and sequins in the other. Ginny had fun too, but most of her decorating consisted of stickers. That's just as well too. I didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to use your imaginations, put they are pretty awesome.

Hopefully it's nicer tomorrow - I'm not sure how much more Martha I have in me...

Craft Time

Well, I have to say that last night I was feeling exactly the same as Julie's post. I'm not sure what had gotten into the kids, but it wasn't good. Today is another rainy, dreary day, promising to keep us all cooped up in the house, especially since we took the car in for an oil change this morning (we couldn't go anywhere if we wanted to).

I decided to bring out my inner Martha Stewart or whoever else is crafty these days. I'm a little out of the crafting loop. I looked up some ideas on the internet, altered them slightly to suit what we had for supplies and to accommodate a two year old and voila! We had lady bugs complete with googly eyes and pipe cleaner legs and antennae. Not only was I impressed with myself, but it killed almost an hour. My co-worker at the brewery would be proud of me I think. She ran a daycare before coming to work at the brewery and was telling me about craft websites before I left work.

Anyhow, it's time to start thinking about lunch now. Anyone up for fresh buns?

Preschool

Today was Jorja's 'special day' at preschool, which means she gets to bring a special item for share time as well as a parent helper. She gets quite excited about these days (they happen once a month), but I am really not that crazy about them. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind helping out, and I gladly do it for her, but they leave me drained. Today was worse than usual.

First of all, there are the bathroom breaks. I dread them. You have to take whatever kids have to go to the same bathroom, and just supervise. So I have to take them all to the 'boys'. Well, these kids never lock the doors, so I end up standing there holding one door with my hand, reaching the other with my foot and trying to keep an eye on the ones that still have to go or have already gone. It's very stressful. And yes, when one has to go, usually a whole herd has to go. I had three bathroom breaks today.

Then there's the snack time. It's the parent's job to get set up (clean table after craft time and set out place mats) and clean up when it's over. There was a term that was used at work on days when nothing was going right, and it was a general disaster. That term was s**t storm. And it applied to snack time today. One boy's iced tea had leaked all over the inside of his backpack. One girl's spoon had punctured the top of her pudding, so there was pudding all over the inside of her lunch kit. One girl had a yogurt tube, and it exploded all over her face and shirt while she was attempting to open it. One girl spilled a glass of water. One boy had no straw for his juice box, but insisted on drinking it anyway. Ahh, good times.

Craft time itself today was pretty benign, just some glue sticks, scissors and markers. No paint at least.

Then there's the clean up after - sweep, mop vacuum. All in all, a fun filled 2 hrs 20 mins.

This morning the girls all wanted to get into Jorja's bed together (well, I'm not too sure about CeCe).

This evening Ginny was a rock star. I don't know why, but she always puts sunglasses on upside down.

That was about it for today. Time for bed.