Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sibling love

Trying on shoes just like Amanda's!
Kevin idolizes his older sister Amanda.  It drives Mike crazy because Amanda is very girly -- into wearing dresses every day and pink princesses...and pretty shoes.  We went shopping for Amanda over the weekend to get some shiny black "dress up" shoes to go with her Minnie Mouse costume for Halloween, and another pair of tennis shoes for soccer.  When we were at the shoe store, Kevin insisted on trying on the same exact black shiny girly shoes in his size.  At first I resisted, trying to distract him with various tennis shoes with "boy" characters on them.  After about 2 minutes of him screaming at the top of his lungs (in the middle of the store) though, I gave in and let him try some girlie shoes on (see picture to left).  He immediately went to show Amanda and then just stood there staring at them. 

I continued with trying on various shoes with Amanda, and after about 15 minutes, I attempted to take the girlie shoes off of Kevin.  Seriously.  It was as if I was trying to remove his whole foot!  He refused to take them off!  I finally had to show him Amanda was taking hers off and putting her old shoes back on, and he eventually complied, but not without keeping a death grip on the shoes themselves.  Then we took the shoes to the counter (grasped tightly in his hands) where I showed him that the nice lady had to ring them up (telling her slyly on the side that I wasn't really buying them, thankyouverymuch).  He finally let go and ran off to play with something else that was probably breakable on display and I was able to have the sales girl ring up an actual 'boy' set of shoes with cars on them.

And guess what happened when we got home?  Amanda put on her princess tennis shoes to show Daddy and Kevin put on Amanda's 'dress up' shoes too.  I shoulda taken a picture of Mike's face.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Patience

pa·tience   [pey-shuhns]
noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.

I have decided I need to work on my patience skills.  This week has been extraordinarily hard for me.  We had a very busy weekend and I think the kids are still recovering from that.  Plus, I think Kevin is finally teething again (still no eye teeth!).  Then work has been very busy, with the end of the quarter looming.  I have lost it more than once, and I need to learn to take it all in stride.
 
I attended my mom's club on Monday and we began watching a video series by Rob Bell called Nooma (http://www.nooma.com/).  One particular quote really stuck with me:
"And an infinite, massive, kind of invisible God, that’s hard to get our minds around, but truth, love, grace, mercy, justice, compassionthe way that Jesus lived, I can see that."
 
I've been thinking about putting those 6 words in pretty fonts, framed around our house and just remind eachother every day to use them.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

One Week

I got one week off with the kids this summer.  We moved preschools and the new preschool is closed for one week at the end of August each year.  They remodel, clean and prepare their classrooms, take development classes, and everyone comes back renewed and refreshed and ready to start the new "school year".

I have to tell you, I was very apprehensive about taking a full week off with just me and the kids.  One adult, and two preschoolers seemed a bit overwhelming, especially when half the nights I come home from work and they drive me crazy!  But, we had a very, very good time, and I really feel like I got to *know* my kids!  We were all actually really upset about going back to work/school after labor day!

Monday, we went to a place called Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach.  Awesome little beach.  They pump seawater in to it's own secluded area (no waves!) where it never gets too deep.  There are fountains spewing water for the kids to play with, a play area, picnic tables, bathrooms, and lots & lots of sand!  I actually ended up making friends with several other moms here and the kids had a blast.  They each took really long naps this day as well!

Sea Lion swimming by at the Aquarium
Tuesday we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  Mike & I took Amanda once before Kevin was born and she didn't seem all that interested.  This time, though, she loved watching all the fish, sharks, sea lions, seals, sting rays...and especially the touch tanks!  She got to touch baby sharks and sting rays, and loved it!  Kevin, on the other hand, preferred playing in the play area, and wouldn't touch anything.

Wednesday we went to the new dinosaur hall at the Natural History Museum (NHM) of LA. Amanda absolutely loved this, and is still asking if she can go back!  They not only have a hall showcasing all the bones, but an interactive room where you can actually put the bones of a dinosaur together yourself.  They also have a working lab where you can see them excavating bones out of rock!  But Amanda's absolute favorite thing was the puppet show with the lifesize t-rex.  We saw the show twice!

Thursday we ran a bunch of errands, and Friday we stuck around home as we all felt a little under the weather.

Mike was really apprehensive about the week because he figured we'd spend a lot of money.  But even I was surprised how little we spent.  The lagoon was $16 (for all of us to get in) + $8 parking.  The aquarium was the most expensive at around $34 +$6 parking (only Kevin was free) and the NHM was only $12 (kids were free) + $8 parking.  I packed and brought a lunch each day, and we were always home by nap time.  So the afternoons we still had time to hang out and do stuff around the house.  Less than $100 and a lifetime of memories!

All in all, it was a great week, and although the kids did fight every now and again, we all had a ton of fun.  Looking forward to next year when we get to do it again!