The L.A. Dime

It rained on Saturday afternoon so I tried to find my inner “crafty mom” and decided to have a Halloween cookie making session for Sophie and Willa. The cookies got a bit dry but the girls had a great time adding icing and sprinkles.

It was a beautiful day where we played in the pool, and the sandbox, and ate ice cream!

While we already had the kids’ combo bday party in LA before we moved, we’re going to have a little ice-cream social for Miss Sophie to celebrate her real birthday on Sunday. Here’s what she’s like on the brink of turning 4:

• You are an incredibly big sister! You are always looking to see what Clay is doing, want to help take care of him, make him laugh and tell me when he “has poopoo”; you enjoy having him in your room to play with you and although the sharing of toys isn’t always the easiest, you do involve him in whatever you’re doing
• You have entered the “why” stage! While it sometimes feels a little like you are questioning us about things we tell you to do, or not to do, we think that you’re actually just trying to understand why things need to be a certain way
• You do well with the “5 more minutes” approach – whether that’s getting out of the bath tub, leaving a play date or finishing up something up that you consider fun
• You have done wonderful with this cross-country move from CA to Baldwinsville, NY – we spent a bit of time leading up to the move talking about what was going to happen and what your new life would be like….at first you would just listen but after a few weeks, the questions started….I was worried about leaving your friends behind and while you still periodically ask about them (and your CHA teachers), you are embracing our new neighbors, school and friends with your typical happy-go-lucky smiling face and ask “do you want to play?”
• You wake up asking what our plan for the day is – you absolutely love, love, love school and get annoyed when it’s the weekend; you are always ready for an adventure, doing something new or just being out and about
  • That need for “doing something” can sometimes make it hard for you to play in your room or settle on an activity at home
  • We allow a little TV here and there – your favorites are “Dinosaur Train”, “Dora”, “Sesame Street” and any movie that has Princesses in it
• You still like to play with your Barbies, dolls or wooden animals and will make up stories for them to act out; you’ll often ask us to be one of the characters and it’s always exciting to hear the conversations – many times that’s how we learn what happened at school or events that really had an impact on you
• Your new favorite toy is my old phone – we set it up so you could play music on it and we can often hear you listening to it in your room and dancing around or taking pictures
• You are very confident – you happily walk into a brand-new classroom without fear, sit down next to someone and start playing; you also just had your first all-day play-date without us and the reports back that night were that you were more mature and better behaved than some of the kids 2-3 years older than you
• You have been in the water as much as you can this summer – you’re not swimming yet but as long as your floaties are on, you are good to go….even in the Gulf of Mexico while visiting Nana & Opa

Took a quick trip to Venice where we had a ton of beach time — Sophie loves being in the ocean and just floats around with her swimmies on and Clay, boy, he loves to sit and splash — and visited Mickey and the gang at Disneyland.

…are sleeping through the night and even if you have to go up to use the rest room, you do so all by yourself (without yelling “mama, I have to pee” anymore)
…amaze us with your thought process…when I asked you last week where your money was to pay for your new shoes, you said that you didn’t have any but I had some in my wallet or when one of us leaves the house, ask immediately who is going to stay & take care of you and Clay
…love to play teacher or parent….you’ll line up all your dolls and will sing to them one by one, or take them to school one by one, etc.; you’ve even been called “little miss donna” for always volunteering to help your teacher and often helping get the other kids lined up or started in an activity
…enjoy playing with Clay – now that he can sit, you hand him toys or include him in your games of making lunch
…love to play dress-up princess and twirl around in dresses or skirts
…always ask to have your hair down (“like sleeping booty and arial”)
…outrun other kids your age every chance you get; you also enjoy kicking the soccer ball or learning how to play catch
…have really enjoyed the rain this season, asking to put on your rain boots and jumping from puddle to puddle
…ask for your favorite breakfast of “nutella with bread” daily but will settle for cereal or a waffel (with chocolate chips of course)
…still want to read a book to us first before we read it to you
…have mastered the days of the week (in order) and the alphabet (recognizing letters and knowing at least 2 words that start with that letter) and are getting familiar with recognizing numbers; you can count past 10 now too but still miss some numbers here and there
…love bath time and would stay in the tub for hours to play with your various bath toys if we’d let you

…wake up in the morning and ask what we have planned for the day
…like it when we build robots or houses with you out of Lego’s or Bristle blocks

…prefer to wear a dress or skirt over pants (but did get in a bit of trouble at school today when you decided to show everyone your underwear)

…are a happy pre-schooler who continues to ask lots of questions, loves to go on adventures and runs through life with full gusto!

A work friend of mine recently started a photography business on the side and asked if she could use Clay to practice taking baby pictures and using a few new props. We were happy to help, knowing that if we got just one great picture out of it, it’d be well worth it. After a 30 minute set-up that involved a blue background, a mini bean bag and lots of super cute hats, it was Clay’s turn to show off those baby blue eyes. He was a trooper through several hat changes, lighting adjustments and prop switches….here are the results….

Oh, big sister Sophie also had her time in the spot light!

A huge Thank You to Diana for reaching out to us and coming to the house — if you’re in the LA area and would like to get some beautiful shots yourself…check out www.dianalundin.com

Yes, Sophie’s been in pre-school for a whole month already and I am just now getting to posting the pics from her first day…

Since she’d been at CHA for summer camp, the transition to “school” was fairly simple. She is in Room # 1, has 8 other class mates and her teacher is Miss Donna. While she doesn’t typically tell us what she did when we first pick her up, she does share more as the afternoon/evening goes by…there are lots of songs, counting to 20, the alphabet and shapes. She also has the opportunity to participate in 30 minutes of Spanish, 30 minutes of PE and 30 minutes of Library time each week. Last week’s lesson was on “family” so we all worked on creating a family crest that she then got to explain to her class mates. So far, she absolutely loves going and gets sad when she doesn’t get to go on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Hopefully this excitement and joy in learning continues!

Last Saturday we celebrated Sophie’s 3rd birthday at Underwood Farms. We’d reserved the morning session thinking that late August in LA would be hot, however we got very lucky and had a wonderful overcast morning with the sun starting to peek through just as we were packing up. Sophie and her friends were able to enjoy a horse-drawn wagon ride, feed various farm animals, ride ponies, jump in a bounce house and run free throughout the farm’s beautiful grassy areas. Mom-Mom and Pops were still in town to celebrate this special day and were especially helpful with getting the food set up and Clay entertained. The one request Sophie had for her birthday was purple cupcakes…and purple cupcakes she got….and some purple nails too.

To give Sophie a little one-on-one time, we set up a little pool party on our patio yesterday afternoon. She put on her bathing suit, took all her “swim friends” and had a great time getting wet.

The adjustment for her has been going well – one of her first questions upon waking up every morning and when getting picked up at school is: “Where’s Baby Clay?”. She asks to touch his hand or hold him every chance she can and wants to watch or be involved with everything we do with him.

There have been a few times where we’ve had to tell her to be more gentle or that right now wasn’t a good time to hold him, which has made her very sad. Brad and I are still adjusting to having 2 kids that we want to give our full attention to and some days are better than others..

She absolutely loves her new school though and asks to go all the time. While there, she gets to swim every morning, make a ton of various art work (she calls them her “art projects”) and learns new songs daily. They have a different theme to focus on/learn about every week – Beach week, Recycle week, Space week,….but her favorite so far seems to have been Dinosaur week. It feels really good knowing that she enjoys going there and is happy to learn and grow.

As I hold my newborn Baby Boy and have a conversation with my Toddler Girl, I feel a little overwhelmed by the big responsibility. However, I also feel extremely thankful to be given this opportunity and grateful for my hubby who is there every step of the way, ready to tackle this challenge as a team.

….include food and anything that goes fast – swings, her tricycle & carnival rides. Below are a few pics from our recent adventures with our little toddler….and a visit from Opa & Nana. Hover over the pic to read a brief description