Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. Morning commute

2. Happy Katie

3. Go Texan day (Katie got tired waiting for Si to smile for the camera)

4. Mommy’s helper

A friend’s birthday party

5. Jumperoo

6. Despite the face, she went straight back up

7. Si mostly played basketball with himself

8. But he isn’t adverse to sliding either

9. Quality control isn’t too happy with something

10. When it’s too late to play basketball outside, he plays baseball inside

11. Season ticket holder

12. Quality control isn’t sleeping on the job

13. Time to read

A video for Rhonda

My little singing star agreed to do it on video today. For those of you that haven’t figured it out, the “cc” button turns the caption on, which make it easier to understand

I’m brining home a baby bumble bee

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. Little diva chose this dress for the reunion with other divas

2. Not just a diva, but a dancer as well

3. Basketball player made me promise that I would inform the world of his talent

4. Valentines from family. (Having gotten a five dollar bill in the card, Katie said “mama, open my money”)

5. Rockets game, and their biggest fan

6. Belated, but beloved, Christmas present

7. Snow princess

8. Feeding baby Oksana

9. Ready..

10. set, go

11. Of course I am better than the Rockets players

12. I am great as well!

13. Aren’t I ?

14. Not a happy princess

15. The party is over there

Since my princess decided to throw me a show instead of sleeping tonight, here are some of her latest hits. The videos have no image, as it was dark in her room, I just don’t know how to embed audio files

1. Mary had a little lamb

2. Itsy bitsy spider

3. Twinkle Twinkle little star

4. ABC

Katie

Katie was transfered to a older group this Monday. She wasn’t supposed to yet, but apparently there is a little group of girls that the teachers affectionately call “the Divas”, and Katie was the only little diva left in her class after the older ones got moved. Well, that was not a happy situation. However, since Katie magically potty trained, the divas are now reunited and Katie is ecstatic about it.
Speaking of potty training, NO accidents for a week with absolutely zero effort from us. She tells us when she needs to go and uses any toilet available without using her toilet seat anymore. She is in underwear only during the day, and I never even think about it anymore. Those mom that are thinking “what on earth am I doing wrong with my child” I assure that it’s absolutely luck of the draw. This time around I got a magic child. And those that are thinking that she should’ve been potty trained a year ago, pfft!

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. My young pizza cook

2. Observer

3. Want some?

Simon has collected a small sum of money, thanks to various gifts for various holidays, so we went to the store to see if he could spend it. Well, he zeroed in on one particular toy, one that cost about twice what he had. So we figured it’s a good time to have “the money talk”. Not only did he start getting an allowance of 3 dollars a week, but he also got an opportunity to learn the word “retroactively”. He got just enough so that he would have to wait for a week to have enough money for the toy. Si steadfastly held to the decision to wait, even telling me this weekend that if he doesn’t have enough yet, he’ll wait till he does. His patience was rewarded by a trip to the store to get the coveted space shuttle.

4. First bought toy

5. Doesn’t she look ready to go to school?

6. Katie’s haul from mama’s trip to the store

7. Railroading

8. Writing valentines

9. I am a little hedgehog, short and stout

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. Red robin

2. I’ve been told that I don’t post pictures of cats anymore. So here you go. My boys

3. Puddle jumper

4. The rain doesn’t stop me

5. Pizza making at it’s finest

6. The kids also had a hand in it

7. And why shouldn’t I sit on my butt?

8. Great fun

9. What else can I get into?

10. It’s a family affair

11. Things got a bit colder and wetter, but that was easily cured by a change of clothes

12. Cookie

13. Big boy

We went to the zoo today. Since it was cold, and don’t you dare laugh at our 50 degrees, it was practically abandoned. But the animals loved it, and so did our children

14. Washing hands in the restroom (Si is freezing). I didn’t even notice that the toilet ring is visible in the backpack until I looked at the photo.

15. There are lots of warm indoor places at the zoo

16. Are you sure he won’t eat me?

17. Lone riders

18. Want some salad?

19. Hey, that’s my hand!

20. Hey, any more salad down there?

21. Don’t let him eat my brother!

22. And then we met up with friends at natural science museum

23. Pink witch. Her words, not mine

24. All underwear, no accidents!

25. Watching Superbowl

26. It was a tense game, but they won!

Potty

After a long and tragic potty training with Simon, I pretty much thought that parents who said “we just gave him m&m one weekend, and that was it” were just straight out lying. I mean that couldn’t be true could it? Well…

Two weekends ago, we’ve decided to see if Katie was ready. The daycare was beginning to try, so we figured why not, and put her in underwear. Six pairs of underwear and leggings later, plus a few fits about not wanting to sit on the potty EVER, we decided that it’s not time yet. Oh well. If it’s not, then it’s not, no big deal. And then, a week later, or rather on Friday evening, Katie suddenly tells Stacey that she needs to go potty, they run to the bathroom, and success! The next day after that she goes potty again in the morning, voluntarily, and then the miracles just kept happening. She pooped on the toilet(voluntarily) before we went out, then told me at the zoo(!) that she needed to go, and what’s more importantly did in fact go! Do you think that’s impressive? Well, as we were pulling away from the zoo after our visit, Katie told me she needed to go potty. Obviously the parking lot was crazy, so there was no option right then. Mental inventory of available restrooms nearby showed that my work is less than 10 minutes away, and that’s probably the closest available bathroom. Katie told me that it would work, so we drove there, hitting every light red along the way. Shockingly she did in fact wait till I sat her on the toilet, and went. As an aside, we do have a potty seat ring, so I was very happy with myself for having brought it!

At daycare she went on the potty at least several times a day every day this week, and a day or two even stayed dry there. That’s not to say that there are no accidents, but after we come home, I just switch her into underwear, and she does pretty well. It amazes me that Katie will actually tell me that we need to find a restroom long enough before she has to go that we can actually find one, like she did at the store today. And at home, she didn’t even tell me one of the times, she just went by herself, did her business (including washing her hands), and just informed me that she needs m&m’s. What? I haven’t told you that it’s all because she gets m&m’s afterward? That’s because now I am the parent that says “we just gave her m&m’s one weekend, and that was it”

Tragedy

Simon has the best teacher in the world. Every parent and child love her, all the kids in her class are happy and doing extremely well. So what’s the problem you ask? The problem is that she quit! And it’s a tragedy of enormous proportions, and I am not kidding. I am pretty sure that every mother, and maybe even a few fathers, of her students cried today. I hope the next teacher is at least half as good.

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

Doing some xplaining.
If everything would’ve gone according to plan, the pictures would’ve been done before my overnight guest arrived. Unfortunately the plan got rather modified when we heard crying out of Katies room in the middle of her naptime. The picture below shows you the creature that emerged from her room. That’s diaper cream people, it isn’t watersoluble. If that wasn’t enough of a distraction for me, you should’ve seen the bed and the walls.

2. She saw this dress at the store, and refused to let it go. And then she threw a huge fit in the morning, until we finally understood that’s what she intends to wear.

3. Mommy, take a picture of me, but kick him out of it first!

4. Dresses are indeed popular at my house

5. Once I get this camera thing, I’ll be the family photographer.

6. Just so that I remember what she looks like when she laughs

7. We were baking last weekend, so this weekend was Katie’s turn.

8. Grandpa definitely got her the right colored car

9. Post cleaning stage

10. Hunting for pictures of a little boy. Said boy is hard to catch

11. Cinnamon roll and Snowwhite

12. Auto mechanic

13. Everything in our house is about princesses.

14. The new  popup superhero book warranted whipping out the reference encyclopedia, and comparing notes.

Pink Fish

When I picked Katie up from daycare today, she burst out crying that she doesn’t want to go to swim lessons. I’ve explained that we have to go, because Simon wants to swim, but she doesn’t have to get into the water, and she cheered up again.Once at home she was very keen on changing into the swimsuit, but in the car again saying that she doesn’t want to. I was a very confused mommy by then, especially when at the pool she wanted the cap and goggles on and informed me that crocks don’t go into the pool. Once it came time to actually go, she sort of whimpered, but went with me willingly and dropped off at her teacher without a glitch. After the lesson Katie was actually upset that it was over. I guess we’ll see what will happen next week, but so far so good. Undercut you can see a phone pic of Katie in her swimming attire

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

For those that complained of too few pictures. Here are some. And a few stories as well.

1. Pink and purple berry eater

2. Any guesses on her favorite color?

On Tuesday the kids went to the dentist. Simon just for a  regular check up, and Katie for the first check ever. There are no pictures of Katie’s actual time with the dentist, let me explain why. With such little ones, the dentist doesn’t sit them in the chair by themselves, as I guess it’s too scary. She asked me to sit Katie on my lap, facing me, with her legs around my waist. After that the dentist sat across from me, with her knees touching mine, and I leaned Katie all the way back. This way the child can still be hugged if necessary, but with my daughter it was enough to hold her hands. Katie willingly opened her mouth, and let the dentist got a great view of everything. The last molar is still a bit covered by the gum, so we are officially recommended some pain relievers, but the end is very much in sight. They also don’t do thorough cleaning at that age, they just floss, brush, and cover by some gel thing that I assume helps prevent cavities. All in all, both kids were very compliant and well behaved, so we are done for the next 6 months.
3. Playing Wii in the waiting room

4. There were also toys for smaller kids

5. The dentist takes a picture of the kid at every checkup. Katie wasn’t too impressed with the need to model

6. Yea, they weigh the kids as well

7. Open wide

8. The presence of the dentist didn’t dampen the enthusiasm

9. First ever banana muffins. In our house noone has made them before. Surprisingly, they came out quite well!

10. Pinkey pie now lives in Katie’s bed. I don’t recommend taking him out, if you don’t want to be awakened in the middle of the night by a little girl that is looking for her pony

11. A family that reads together (requires someone to take the picture)

12. He won’t let me steal his toys!

13 David Beckham

14.  Girls vs boys

15.Boys vs girls

16. Slightly deranged dandelion

So on Saturday at naptime I left Simon doing his reading lesson in his room. After a half hour, I saw that he is done with the lessons (it’s webbased, so I can access his records) and that he gone all quiet. Well, stupidly I assumed that he is probably dozing off. At exactly the end of naptime the child came out, carrying the nook. “Look”, he said, “It showed me that it has netflix on here!”, and demonstrated to me that the nook was playing a fireman sam cartoon. “Oh really”, I replied, “so have you watched anything else?”. “Oh yea! I watched two curious georges, one bob the builder, and when this cartoon is over I’m going to check if it has Dora on here!”. You should’ve heard him! He was so genuinely tickled, excited and proud of his ingenuity. I laughed so hard that I couldn’t stop, and tears were rolling out of my eyes. Needless to say I logged out of netflix, so there will be no repeat performace of that.  You would think this would be the end, but no. Today he came out showing me that he got a book to read on the nook. Yup, he figured out how to buy books for himself, and bought a couple. My son is four, and he is smarter than me. I have password protected the shopping ability, and now eagerly awaiting next weekend to see what else my nook can do in Simons hands.

17. Watching fireman Sam

18. How much does a human head weigh?

19. Do these make me look even more like mommy?

Many faces of Simon

20. This face is a pretty common sight. He usually does that went telling us a joke, and trying not to look into our eyes. And also when we ask for his attention while he is watching cartoons

21. Smiley

22. My sunshine

23. Sunday morning cartoons

24. Оh, oh, I think I am finally moving this thing!

25.Watcha baking now? (Somehow this week we baked more than the last few years combined)

26. He is not a one sport man!

27. Good weather for a swing

28. Mommy, eat this one

29. Waiting

30. Simon had a good weekend

31. Throwing frisbee

32. It’s clearly a hat!

33. Catching frisbee

34. He is actually quite good at it.

35. We had fun, I hope so did you

Gold star

You know all the times when you feel like you are a terrible parent? Well, maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. However, today I am feeling the opposite! After her first official swim lesson without me, Katie said that she is NOT going to swim again and she was quite insistent on that for a week. This is rather strange, as usually she likes it, and looks forward to Mondays. While we decided that if she doesn’t want to, she doesn’t have to, I just really want her to learn how to swim. Katie has been throwing fits about getting water on her ears while washing her head lately. So I decided to stop at the sports store to see if they have better ear plugs that what we have already, because those she refuses as well. They didn’t, but they did have swimming caps. It’s pink, and purple, of course, and while it looks totally silly on Katie, it is tight enough to cling to her head. I put it on her at home, and poured a bit of water on her head so that she would know that her ears are safe. This was enough to convince her that swimming lessons might just work out OK. Once we went inside, I told her teacher what I thought the problem was, asked her to keep reminding Katie that her ears would not get wet, and handed over my hesitant daughter. I saw Katie get really upset when Erica asked her to float on her back, and then I saw Erica touch her hands to Katie’s ears clearly explaining to her that she’ll be protected by the cap. Luckily Katie is rather trusting, so she laid back. I could see her body go from rigid with tension to completely relaxed as she realized that there is no water in her ears, and from then on she happily did everything that was asked of her, and played while waiting her turn. She was also thrilled after the lesson to see that her hair is dry. On the way back she told us that she is definitely going back next week, and all the weeks after that. SUCCESS!

Language test

Simon has two speech therapists, not because we don’t like one, but because we need a fairly specific appointment times, so when we upped his sessions from two to three a week, his regular therapist wasn’t available at a convenient time. Anyway, one of them quit last month, so Si got a new one. That is important, because the new one had to read Simon’s file in order to see what he needs to work on, and it turns out that he has completely met his goals that were set a year and a half ago. So they decided to do a new assessment, to set goals, and have a benchmark. They do the test in two sessions, as it’s really too much for a 4 year old to do at once, and today they did “language assessment”. We can’t really get much out of Simon on what it is, but he said that ms Sheeba would tell him something, and he would have to point to the correct picture. From what I’ve gathered, it’s probably a receptive language test(maybe PPVT?), but I’ll have to ask about it. Well, the therapist was so excited that she called Stacey right after. They look for a score of 80 to 120, and Simon scored 135! This is in the 99th percentile of his peers! So even though his enunciation is terrible, now we know that he doesn’t miss out on what people are saying. The second part of the test is in a week, and I am guessing it’s going to be expressive language. We’ll see what the results are there

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. Hanging out with her girls

2. It’s mine, you may leave now

3. Guess what’s in the red box. Nope. Wrong. It’s actually popcorn

4. Seeing if her new backpack goes well with her hair

5. Poor little one

6. Do kangaroos eat avocados?

7. Self reading book with self smiling boy

8. He got to choose a few cards from the pile that I was putting away

9. This one doesn’t have a date, but it sings!

10. Helping put the Christmas stuff away

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

1. I don’t need a nap mommy

2. Taking friends to see the only worthwhile Houston attraction

3. Simon didn’t care. This is how he spent his entire time there

4. Katie saw other people pose, so she demanded to be photographed as well

5. Lets go.

6. On the way to a different museum I told the kids about fine arts museum that we were passing, and all of a sudden they decided to go there instead

7. Wow, what a headdress

8. Look, an angel

9. The kids got glasses from their grandparents that make the Christmas tree look like this

10. We were reading Cinderella, with her beautiful dress, when Katie declared that she has a beautiful dress as well, and she’s going to wear it to school the next day. And that she did

11. Morning exercise

12. We got Katie up, but forgot to awaken her.

13. Simon’s favorite pastime now days. Reading lessons

14. Lemon crop

15. and child labor

16. King Queen of the mountain

17. Vortex of toys

18. I told you it was his favorite

19. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade

20. Shooting hoops

21. Just the right height

22. Playing together

Twits

1. Simon is completely enthralled by the reading lessons (readingeggs.com). He thinks it’s the coolest thing ever, and instead of me making him learn how to read, he begs me to allow him to play. I am SO happy!
2. The eating habits of this family have gotten so horrible that I just had a breakdown. When my little Katie, who used to love fruits, wants nothing but “dessert”, it’s time to banish all candy. So now the kids really don’t have a choice, either they eat what they are given, or there is literally nothing else to eat, no matter how much of a fit she throws (it’s always always Katie). We’ll see how it goes, but it can’t get any worse, can it? And who knows, maybe I’ll even start fitting into my clothes again.
3. Simon’s speech is getting much clearer, to the point where I understand almost everything he says. And he has a good vocabulary and extensive conceptual knowledge. However, when I hear his classmates speak, I see just how far behind he is. It sucks that speaking is so hard for him. On the bright note, his teacher says that he is very smart, and she has to give him extra, or just extra hard, assignments. Of course that makes me start thinking that maybe we shouldn’t hold him back from kindergarten, but then there is the speech problem.
4. Katie is about ready to give up her nap. Fortunately she is doing a few hours of “quiet time” in her room. Unfortunately she ends before her bedtime, and just about anything sets her off

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

Happy New Year everyone! Last weeks decision to post before Christmas ended up being a smart one. I have tons of pictures from Christmas
1. Was Santa here already?

2. He was!

3. And he brought candy

4. And not just candy!

5. Dora jewelry from grandma and grandpa

6. Wow, a doll

7. Caroling

8. and now for background music

9. thank you, thank you, we are here till Monday

10. Not quite sure which way is the right way

11. I don’t even have to look to unwrap my gifts

12. Thank you

13. All this gift unwrapping makes me hungry

14. Look Kuku, it’s a merry-go-round (Kuku is the penguin) 

15. Tired

16. Trial run of the new transportation method

17. Eternal train and a curious boy

18. Who is that one for?

19. Big gift from parents

20. There aren’t any more?

21. OSU football is rather popular

22. Who is this card for?

23. Si doesn’t know how to do this yet, but it doesn’t stop him from trying

24. We need pedal extenders!

25. You missed a spot

26. Main reason for this photo is that Si informed me in the store that he is getting “The Grinch and Max” box, and then pointed to the right words when I asked him about them. I think he is reading a little bit!

27. The masses are having fun while mommy is cleaning

28. Gift from the other grandma and grandpa

29. Pretty impressive books!

30. Simon really likes the dinosaurs right now, so we read for a while

31. A good song always helps things move quicker

Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates. I hope you get everything you wish for

Weekly portion of Simon and Caitlin

Since we are on vacation and lots of things are happening, there are lots of pictures. Add to that that there will be more from Christmas, and that I won’t have time to do anything with them as we’ll be driving back, this weeks portion is a day early.
1. A wildlife zoo on the way to grandma and grandpa. We also saw reindeer, but I guess they weren’t hungry.

And then we found the superhero museum!

2. I really want to be spiderman

3. Wish granted!

4. Well then I want to be a pricess!

5. Wolverine!

6. Even pricessess get hungry

7. The ultimate hero

8.  Oh please, I’ll just be a witch

9. Batmobile and a little Robin

10. After all that, kids get hungry!

11. Waiting for food

12. Food came in nifty little cars

13. When grandparents are away, and it gets boring, one can always talk to friends on skype

14. Buddies

We also visited a childrens museum

15. Go little ball, go

16. Young architects club

17. Big hand, little hand

18. Pouring Katie

19. Bracelet making

20. Alright, lets see what we have here.

21. Making rounds

22. Some things have to be checked under the microscope

23. Seeing how good Katie looks as a doctor, I immediately started teaching them anatomy

24. Where else can you milk a cow?

25. Slides are fun

26. Especially if you do it the way they tell you not to

27.  I’m the coolest dude around

28. Helping grandma make cookies

29. It’s really fun

30 M&Ms, Si’s favorite part

31. Oh cookie, you are so funny

32. Don’t worry, I’ll leave some for Santa

Paci update

Last night the little girl woke up every two hours, screamed, and fell promptly asleep as soon as Stacey put a blanket on her. Today, no paci at nap, no problem. During the day Katie mentioned a few times that she has no paci’s anymore, and that she gave them to Santa  but she didn’t request them at bed time. Hopefully she’ll sleep all night. So far it seems very easy. Too easy really