October: Settling into our New Home and Enjoying Time with Grams/Gramps

October12:

We love our new home and all the outdoor activities we can do. We have
lots of space and the kids spend oodles of time outside playing --
riding their bikes around the house, using the swings and trampoline,
playing in the little 'sandbox' area, playing ball and generally looking
around for treasures.They both help Mommy water the plants and as it has
gotten warmer have used the water table and little swimming pool.

We haven't even begun to rave about the extra space we have on the
inside. The kids each have their own rooms. Delenn has the doll
house/bookshelf in her room while Logan's room has the craft table. We
still have the train table set up in the living room. The kids run up
and down the hallway and have done many laps around the kitchen/hall
area (it makes a big circle). We notice a big difference in how they
play together having this extra space (both to get away from each other
and to run around.) That's not to say there aren't the normal sharing
issues and so forth, but it's wonderful to be able to separate them for
a couple of hours during quiet time. Logan plays extremely well in his
room on his own. He plays elaborate jet/rocket/star fighter games.

It's finally been warm enough to go to the town pool. Logan went for
the first time on Saturday (Oct. 6) with Mommy. He did great. He spent
a lot of time swimming down under the water for a diving torpedo. He
was quite comfortable in the water and jumped off like a pro! Delenn
went to the pool for the first time this season on Monday when we met up
with Bradon, Seth and Connell for the morning. She was a bit timid
about getting in the water at first, but after a while she got in the
water, then used the kick-board to swim. Eventually she was even
jumping into the water as well as she was at the end of March last
year. She had a great time jumping in and swimming after Grams. She
did that again and again. After we'd been there for a couple of hours,
we went over to the toddler pool. Delenn just loved that! It was hard
to get her out of the water (despite the blue lips!!).

After nearly a month or six weeks of not napping in her bed (just in the
car), Delenn has actually napped three days in a row! We think Grams
and Gramps have a wonderful effect on her -- tiring her out so everyone
can have an enjoyable quiet time. Today we were even able to transfer
her from the car seat to her bed. Let's hope this trend continues!

There was so much going on this past month or so, that there are a
number of things we need to mention for the blog:

*In mid-August (at about 22 months), Delenn started counting to 10
in the car on her own. Now, two months later she is also trying to say
the alphabet as well. She's starting to learn her colors (though she
more often than not gets the color wrong!). She also can sing a song
that's in the beginning of lots of books "Come to the magic castle, when
you are growing tall. Rows upon rows of books, line every single wall.
They reach up high, as high as the sky -- you want to open them all.
For every time you open one, a new adventure has begun." I wrote that
out so you could see, it's not just repeating the words to "Happy
Birthday" or something like that!

*The kids started Kindermusik with a new teacher named "Ms.
Jennifer." She is wonderful and the kids both love their class.
Logan's class encourages lots of imagination and he really seems to
enjoy himself. One day at Kindermusik, the kids were asked to come up
with a motion when it was their turn. "Jing, jang, jing jang I have an
idea..." Logan said, "I have an idea, let's WADDLE!" We were surprised
at such a creative choice since most kids say "walk, skip, clap and
things like that!"

*Oct. 3: Logan is very thoughtful and comes up with great questions
these days. One day at lunch, he looked thoughtful and asked, "Mommy,
why do we need to sleep?"

*Oct. 17: One night, Delenn sat up in bed (around 11pm), looked
around and said "READ! Read, read, read!" Mommy gave her a sip of water
and a pat and Delenn lay back down and went to sleep. That shows how
passionate she is about books. She spends a lot of time sitting on her
own looking through books. Sometimes she'll even snatch a book Mommy or
Daddy is reading to her and say "NO! Lenny read it" and then turn the
pages and look through it on her own. If you listen closely, she'll
often be talking to herself about the book.

*Oct. 20 to Oct. 27: A trip to the Gold Coast with Grams and
Gramps. We had a wonderful time enjoying the beaches south of
Brisbane. We stayed in a timeshare in Coolingata (south of Surfers
Paradise). We arrived on a Saturday. The next day we spent lots of
time on the beach and swimming in the pool at our place (the water was
slightly heated). Delenn really enjoyed the pool too -- and was
*insisting* on swimming on her own in the pool. The problem was, the
water was very deep and she had no floaties, but it was hard to convince
her that she doesn't know how to swim on her own yet!!! On Monday we
went to Dreamworld -- and both kids enjoyed the rides, animals and all
the excitement and hub-bub of the amusement park. Tuesday was a more
restful day. After starting off the morning at a pancake house (YUMMY
-- a true treat for the DingoPack!!) we again spent lots of time at the
beach and at the pool, etc. Wednesday was another action-packed day at
SeaWorld while on Thursday we went to a bay and spent a couple of hours
paddling about in a canoe, using the wind-surfer and digging for little
crabs in the sand. Grams and Gramps took the kids back for Quiet Time
while Liesl (and then later Tony) spent time at a mall. Liesl spent
oodles of time browsing in the bookshop (sans kids!!!). On Friday we
went up to a playhouse/cafe and the kids had a wonderful time playing in
the indoor playground (complete with a huge play structure, jumping
castles, a huge toddler area, a mini race-track with little motorized
cars, and several small rooms with kitchen/cooking sets, a puppet
theater and computer games. One of the most amazing things about the
week (aside from being with Grams and Gramps) was also the wonderful
opportunity Mom and Dad had to go out in the evenings while Grams and
Gramps fed the kids and put them down to bed. It was SO refreshing --
especially since we haven't been great about going out on dates
(especially after our babysitter left town more than a year ago!!!!).
What a wonderful treat for us. And, needlesstosay, the kids really got
a wonderful opportunity to get to know their Missouri-grandparents.
Since we arrived home, both kids have asked where "Gramps and Gramps"
are. This morning (Oct 30), Logan wanted to know "Why did they have to
go back to America?"

Oct. 27: The day we arrived back home, Delenn said she wanted to take
her clothes off. We took off her dress and she insisted on taking her
diaper off as well. We told her that she would have to pee in the potty
if she took her diaper off. So, as soon as we took it off, Delenn went
running out of the room with Mommy following close behind (no pun
intended!). Delenn went straight to the bathroom, sat down and peed in
the potty (for the first time)!

October 30: Once again, I just have to mention how thankful I am for
this great new house. It makes it so much easier in so many ways. For
example, Logan was outside smashing bees with a baseball bat (not that I
didn't try stopping that, mind you!) while Delenn ran through a small
sprinkler toy getting wet. That was followed by Logan jumping on the
trampoline while Lenny looked at books inside. Soon the activities
changed again and Logan and Mom played tag and then played catch. After
a while, Delenn came back outside and we all did some chalk games
together (Logan even made up his own game -- a series of circles that we
had to step into without touching the lines). The kids are happy and I
don't have to be right on top of them arbitrating every moment. They
have space from each other. As we mentioned before, Logan and Delenn
each have their own room. Logan even asks for "Quiet Time" to play on
his own (while Delenn plays in her room). In fact, when we got home
from the grocery store this morning, Logan declared it was Quiet Time
and played a long jet game on his own. It makes such a difference having
so much space both inside and out.

Logan is very proud of the fact that he homeschools and doesn't go to
preschool. He'll tell most anyone he sees (meaning even the clerks at
the grocery stores or people who say hello to him)... "I'm four and
Delenn is two. I don't go to school. I do homeschool!" (This morning
Mom chuckled when Logan instead said, "I do homework.")

Speaking of homeschool -- the kinds of activities we do with Logan
(besides just playing together inside and/or outside, going to parks,
Kindergym and Kindermusik, etc. etc.) at this point include working with
the abacus and tally sticks (ie grouping sticks by 5s), dot-to-dots,
mazes, writing letters/tracing words, sounding out simple words, reading
"science books" like "Why do Germs Make Me Sick?", and reading lots and
lots. For quite some time now, weve been reading Logan chapter books
(like the Magic Tree House series and easier books like Stuart Little.
We just started a new set of books about an elf-like boy named, Tashi
that Logan just loves). When Delenn is sitting with us we read lots and
lots of story books. We try to read while the kids are having breakfast
(and/or lunch). And of course we always read together before Quiet Time
and for 30-45 minutes before bed.

When we first moved across town, the kids were watching a lot of TV --
more than this Mom really wanted. We had such a tight window to move,
though, that it was essential for us to get as much done (in the two
weeks before we had 5 weeks of house-guests) as possible (not to mention
the fact that all four of us were sick in that period). Now, though
things have settled back in to a more comfortable rhythm... Mom reads a
couple of books as the kids eat breakfast and then we play and/or go off
to do morning activities (ie. no morning TV time now, for the most
part). After lunch, everyone has Quiet Time -- which means playing
quietly in their rooms (while Mom sacks out on Delenn's bed hoping that
Delenn will nap -- mostly she doesn't and Mom does!). So, it's not til
around 3pm or so that the kids watch something while Mom scurries around
picking up and starting to think about dinner. --Not that any of this
is set in stone, mind you.