Month: July 2009

Blue Hat and Green Hat

Ada’s Potty Training

Ada has been good about going pee, but rather than go poop in the toilet, she’d rather just not go. Well after three days of this, she finally has gone (just as Dalen was web-shopping for Pedia-Lax), and has been crying about it for five minutes.

When she finally got hold of herself long enough to say anything, she told us why she was crying:

“I sad because I poopied too hard”

Ada at Lake Calhoun

Ada and I took a bike ride to Lake Calhoun to throw rocks into the lake. We sat on the edge next to a small pier and dug up small rocks in the sand to throw.

Just as exciting, it decided to rain just as we were at the far end of the lake, although it was only for five minutes or so.

Getting Ready to Throw
Digging
Windy

Ada Sleeping

Ada has lots of funny sleeping positions.

Lately, she plays a game with me when it is time for bed. She hides under her blanket and calls for me. I usually creep up to her and put my face right next to hers so that when she lowers her blanket she sees me right there and giggles. This could go on for thirty minutes if I gave her the option.

I’m not going as far as saying that she’s still hiding on me when she falls asleep, but she looks pretty funny – almost night after night. Both of these were taken late with a flash. Somehow I don’t think she noticed.

Apparently last night she put all of her animals around herself and was sitting up when Dalen went to check on her.

Last Play of 2008-2009

We’ve seen a lot over the last year:

Children’s Theatre

  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  • Peter Pan
  • Madeline and the Gypsies
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  • The Gruffalo
  • Iqbal
  • Circoluna (Circus Moon)
  • Ramona Quimby

Stages Theatre

  • How I Became a Pirate
  • Peef the Christmas Bear
  • Goodnight Moon
  • The Shadow Thieves
  • How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back?
  • Baseball Saved Us
  • The Paper Bag Princess
  • The Wizard of Oz

Tonight we saw the last one, the Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy and the Lion

Dorothy and the Lion

Earlier in the year we went out to Boston Garden Restaurant near the theatre on Main Street in Hopkins. While Liam and Helena were watching other kids play video games, I took this.

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Ada’s Mischief

Tonight I went to brush my teeth and noticed that the bristles on my toothbrush were brown.

Helena had just come into the bathroom so I asked her if she knew what had happened to my toothbrush. She said that she didn’t, but she thinks that it looked like somebody threw up on it.

I went into the bedroom where Dalen, Liam, and Ada were. I asked them all if they knew what happened. Helena came in and then they all denied knowing anything about it…..until…..

Ada fessed up with a one-word confession: “Coffee!!!”

Dalen then said, “What *did* you do with my coffee this morning?”

Ada has been stealing sips of Dalen’s coffee for weeks now.

Helena’s Half Birthday

Usually I remember half birthday of each of the kids, although I never write it down. Luckily for the most part I remember a day or two in advance and make them a cake. Sometimes I cut a candle in half or something like that.

Helena’s seven and a half birthday wasn’t remembered until after dinner when I happened to look at the calendar to find out when Dalen and I would be paid.

So after dinner, I told her that I would take her out. I looked at the menu at the new restuarant in the neighborhood, whose name I don’t know, but it didn’t look like a nice place for dessert, so we ended up at Bryant Lake Bowl. Helena got a Shirly Temple (she asked for “the drink that I spilled on my wedding dress” which was really her flower girl dress from Libby’s wedding) and cheesecake, which she loves. Then she wanted to go bowling, but that wasn’t in the cards. We tried the next night, but the lanes were full but we did go to ZRS Fossils on Lyndale which both Helena and Liam loved and I was lucky to walk out of there with the same number of bills that I went in with (“Liam, which is your favorite one? I like this one!….Oh, look at this one!”) . The following night we tried flying an eight-inch kite (which was my father’s day present from Liam – slightly better than the can of pork-and-beans by way of Ada). By the end of the week, they had forgotten about it, so I thought.

Smiles
Shirley Temple
Cheesecake

Candyland Excursion

I take the kids to Candyland on occassion…well, probably too many occassions.

This time was on a Sunday, so it wasn’t as fun. The Crystal Court’s waterfall fountain was turned off, and there just weren’t a lot of people downtown. I promised that I’d take them downtown during the week over the summer so they get a better taste of what it was like. Besides, Helena started asking Liam (for me to hear), remember how good Key was (Key’s, which is a restaurant we ate breakfast at one morning while downtown last summer)?

The picture of Ada next to the table with the bags of candy was taken a second too late. Her look of non-guilt but ready to give me an explanation when I called her out on getting candy out of Helena’s bag was priceless. She’s such a coniver.

“I Love Candy”
Liam at Gaviidae
Looking Up
Helena at Gaviidae
The “Peeing Bird”
Enthralling
Now Liam is the Bird
She’d Climb Right In If She Knew That It Was Wrong
Liam and Helena Go on a Field Trip to Floor 3
Just After The “Well……”
Now She’s Explaining What Happened

Liam’s First Ride Around the Lake

Helena only has done it once, and it was earlier this year.

I didn’t really get a picture – this one was taken by me on my phone from behind him.

The first thing that I noticed when I saw the picture later was that despite Liam riding on the sidewalk from 32nd street to the Greenway (on Bryant), then to Lake Calhoun and back home, he wasn’t wearing his helmet. I suspect that Helena (who was also with us on her bike) didn’t either. So, the first time I took him on the street, he didn’t have a helmet.

The next day we took the same trip, and when I had them get their helmets, none of the three kids said anything about not having them the day before, so I’m not the only one who forgot.

I sure was proud of the little guy, though. The round trip must have been about five miles and he’s never gone anywhere except around Bryant Square Park before.

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Day at the Park – Bryant Square

I’m not sure why I didn’t get a picture of Helena.

I taught Liam how to ride a bike properly this year. Last year he could only go without training wheels by me pushing him – he couldn’t steer or stop.

This year I took him to Lake of the Isles to help him along, but he only could do more of the same. He took out a jogger as well. I had to run with him so that I could then turn him around with another push.

In early July I began him at the tops of the little hills surrounding Bryant Square Park to have him get a start. He began only going straight. I’d have to go pick him up at the other side of the park. This got old really quickly, but he began to learn how to turn, and then start himself on the hills.

Eventually, to my surprise (because I didn’t think that he was strong enough) he began to begin on flat ground by pushing himself. After that he wanted to ride his bike every day.

The pictures are from the park with Liam riding his bike and Ada making Dalen and me “food”.