Sister Hunt, Piano Teacher

It's official. David has begun piano lessons.

He is as excited as I expected for them. He has some learning to do as far as letting the teacher do most of the talking. As for his interest in piano, he is ready to go. He'll mature in the other ways as he needs to--such as in discipline to play his assignment among the dozens of minutes (sometimes hours!) he spends at the piano each day. Right now, his motivation to learn is key to getting him to understand the other pieces to this puzzle. "If you want lessons, you have to practice your assignment." He'll do anything to keep Sister Hunt coming back for more lessons, so he's learning to comply with the discipline. I think this could be very good for our music loving boy! 

At the end of his lesson, he has asked for a classical piece from Sister Hunt. She has happily performed, but she told me she'll run out of classical era pieces soon, and she'll have to move on to Jazz. I think David will be thrilled to hear those jazzy tunes!

We have a little 1-year old friend that comes over every now and then. Right after his lesson, David pulled Paxtynn up to the piano and gave her a lesson about the piano.

Paxtynn loved the attention and David loved sharing what he learned with a willing audience.

Binky

 Neither of my babies have taken to a pacifier. It was hard for them to hold them in as newborns, and I probably didn't offer them much after they knew how to self soothe. I'm happy to not have to break a pacifier habit, so they've been kind of a non-issue.

Then Alina found this one tucked away in a baby drawer. She puts it in for something to do while we are on the changing table, and she is so amused with the feel of it, she'll giggle behind the binky. I think it's funny, so if she's ever grumpy about getting her diaper changed, I offer the pacifier to her, and compliance ensues.

Often it goes in upside down or sideways. She doesn't seem to mind--she just likes to suck on it. After we change her clothes or diaper, I ask her to put it back in the basket, and she willingly does so with an "ah un" (which is Alina speak for "all done.") Easy come, easy go. That's just the kind of binky use I can smile at.

Carpet

 We finally had carpet installed in our big family room downstairs!

While we still have a number of things to do to really enjoy the room (finish painting, put in better lighting, change out the blinds, etc.), we really enjoyed the first evening with carpet together.

I think that this swing will become a favorite toy all over again. The room is really dark, but just look at the glee on Alina's face. She was so cute with her squealing and excitement while she got a ride on the swing.

Hoping to get another turn soon.

Big brother came to the rescue. 

Then it was David's turn for the spotlight.

He's learned a thing or two about the swing in the last year, since we hung it up. (Including not to try and cut through the rope. Looks like we need to replace the rope and the bar again.)

We will be so glad when this room is ready for our use. I am definitely ready to reorganize our house to utilize this room. We expected carpet to come in 5 months ago, so I packed up all the toys and games that were down there. After five months, they have slowly been unpacked and now they are scattered into every room of our house, tucked away in corners and such. I will be very happy to have a functioning play room to keep the toys and books contained.

Dance Parties

Alina has rhythm and music in her bones like David does.

We've started having dance parties. One night for FHE, Daddy pulled out his old drum pads and gave the kids a beat to boogie.

But really, anything works. To keep Alina from crying at the sound of the blender, I've taught her to dance to the rhythm of the whir. So now she covers her ears and starts to dance whenever the blender turns on. Usually with an excited squeal as well, and it's an all-out party.

I'm so happy that my kids connect in their love for music. I think we'll have some pretty amazing dance parties in our future family fun!

Comb Over

 Even before she made it to her chair for breakfast, David lent some brotherly help to Alina in getting a "pretty" into her hair. I couldn't get her to look a the camera (she wanted breakfast more than a photo shoot!) but it was super funny. David pulled the hair over from her left ear to pin it on the right side.

It's amazing how gorgeous this girl is . . . even with a bonafide comb over, she still looks darling! And what a proud brother, to help her out on their way to the breakfast table!

Blanket Time

 Blanet time is a concept I am trying with Alina, and I am really happy with her success!

I began with 2 minutes of putting her on the blanket, and telling her it was blanket time. I gave her a few quiet books and toys to entertain herself. If she got off the blanket, I picked her up and simply put her back on, gently reminding her that this is blanket time. Within 2 weeks, she was happily sitting and quietly entertaining herself for as many as 18 minutes. It is something we practice every day, and the time is supposed to grow to be as many as 2 hours at a time for a small toddler to learn to sit quietly and entertain themselves.

Once we were done with the stretch of time for the day (it varies depending on her mood, but it lasts anywhere for 10 to 20 minutes right now), I give her a hug, and with a lot of animation in my voice, I tell her how happy I am that she did Blanket Time! Then I offer her a marshmallow. I then give her another marshmallow, and ask her to go share one with David.

A couple times she's made it all the way over to her brother and shared without any help. But often, she'll get close to him then stuff the marshmallow in her own mouth. I will then help her share a marshmallow with David, and give her one more for doing it.

I was noticing in church this week that Alina knows how to sit still a lot better on my lap since we began blanket time together. She still babbles and is very busy with her hands, but it's a lot less trying to climb around on the bench, turn around, or get off. I really like this blanket training.

Birthday Evening

 Clearly I need a personal photographer to attend my family's events, because when I host, I don't seem to pull out the camera enough! For David's birthday dinner, we invited over some of our favorite people--Joshua and Shasta Petersen and Amy Russell. They showered our boy with love and gifts on his big day. How on earth did I let the evening pass us up without getting David in a photo with each of them? Oh, how we love the people in our lives that love our boy so well.

The menu was vaguely familiar from previous years . . . Tortelini (plain for David, with Pesto for the rest of us), peas, and ice cream salad.

For his cake, David requested a chocolate train cake. I'm currently teaching cake decorating at our homeschool coop. I know how to make beautiful cakes. Somehow my kids still settle for the simple. They don't seem to mind, but maybe one of these years I'll plan ahead enough to make an amazing cake for my kids' birthdays.

It officially takes two hands . . . this boy is growing up!

David had been anticipating his presents all day, and I kept telling him that he would open them after we ate dinner. The second he finished his serving of plain Tortellini, David walked over to the present pile and helped himself. Some of the adults were still serving up their plates for dinner, and he was already opening gifts. I let him go with the momentum, then the next day I explained the courtesies of waiting to be given gifts, not just helping yourself. But a the time, it was innocent enough--and the birthday boy was very grateful for his new toys!

He didn't waste any time getting those boxes opened and trying a few things out. The straw set with all the connector pieces was really fun, and provided some of the funniest laughs of the evening. By the next morning, it was designated as a bath toy only since David had more fun blowing water out of the straws than he had sucking it in. That kind of fun belongs in the bath tub, not at the dinner table. But it sure gave us some good laughs for the evening!

One of the connector pieces was a "T", which meant 2 people could suck out of the same straw at the same time. I was the brave soul that humored my boy. Let's just say that David's mouth was closer to me than the cup of water, so I lost my appetite for the fun when I realized the route of the water through the straw. Funny? Absolutely? Disgusting? Yep, that too.

While the adults continued to chat, David broke out one toy at a time. He didn't waste any time on opening up the wood building kit from Nana and Pappy.

We also took some time to sit David down and interview him on camera.

David loved the attention of having the spotlight on him--with all the adults and the camera watching him, he really hammed it up. I'll have to go back and watch the interview to capture a few of his answers in a blog post sometime.

Happy Birthday, David! We love you, and we love having you in our family!

Birthday Wake Up Call

 David woke up to our tradition of a decorated door. True to form, David was careful to leave the streamers in place. We've done this for him several years in a row now, and he has yet to try and run through the streamers and pull them down. . . . Maybe the streamers will be vertical and horizontal on his 7th birthday.

But that's jumping ahead. This is the year that we celebrate SIX!!! Happy 6th Birthday, David!

(and Tanya, your little birthday friends are the gift that keep on giving at our house . . . )

I pulled out the aebelskiver pan, and I think a new tradition has been born. Little pancake balls with jam in the middle? Yes, please. 

Also true to form, David's request was that I light the candle several times so he could blow it out again and again. We had a slow morning, so we whittled that candle down to nothing, one Happy Birthday song at a time, followed by a huff and a puff from the birthday boy.

David approved of the aebelskivers.

And of the repeated use of the candle.

The rest of the day was ahead of us, and we had lots of excitement to anticipate. By this point, we had already gone ice skating as a family over the weekend and David had already chosen his helium balloons. This year, instead of a themed helium balloon, David chose four solid colors . . . one representing each member of our family. David's was green, Daddy's was blue, Alina's was pink and mine was purple. He was very thoughtful with his selection, even if we failed to get a photo of that celebration bouquet.

Celebrating SIX!!!

 David was so excited to go ice skating for his birthday this year. As per tradition, we started the celebration a few days early and went on a family outing. We did this same activity for his 4th Birthday. For some reason, his memory of ice skating was such that he was anxious to do it again. We encouraged him to branch out last year and choose a different activity, but he's had birthday activity planner's remorse since he did. So this year there was no question--we were going ice skating!

David made two laps, and fell about 19 times. Or more.

For the first 14 falls, this is what he looked like after he got back to his feet. He was a real trooper and kept trying to stay up.

But after about fall number 14, David was growing weary of falling all the time. Next time we'll put him in pads. I could hear the thud of his little bones with each fall, and I knew it had to hurt.

Meanwhile, this one stayed on the sidelines with Daddy and was achin to strap on a pair of skates.

When we came to the Ice Chalet two years ago, Alina's birth mother had just contacted us by email, and I had written her back. I had set my heart on the fact that we might not hear from this birth mother ever again, so I had really braced myself to go on as if nothing had happened. Sam met us from work at the Ice Chalet, and told me that right before leaving work he had checked our email, and there was a very nice email from LW. My heart absolutely sung as I skated around this rink that night. Maybe, perhaps, possibly, it might be that this birth mother would stay in contact with us. I had nothing but 2 emails, but suddenly my guard was down. What if she chooses us? What if it's a baby girl? What if . . . what if . . . the possibilities swirled around my heart as I raced across the ice. My head was in the clouds, and my feet not much steadier. It was so fun to be back with Alina in tow and relive the excitement of the news that a birth mother had contacted us for the second time.

Right before we got off the ice (after only 2 laps), we convinced David to stand in for a picture with us. I was worried that David would become unsteady and that I would fall while holding Alina. Thankfully, everyone stayed upright while we captured the moment.

Once we had our shoes back on, we went down the hall a bit and found Baskin Robbins for a little birthday treat. Alina was not shy about helping herself to our ice cream with her tiny pink spoon.

David's birthday was two days after our ice skating activity. In all seriousness, he awoke that morning and said, "Well mom, I'm six now. I think if I go back to ice skate today that I won't fall as much, because I'm older now." I hope we make it back there soon, buddy, so you can start racing around the ice just like you want!

Field Trip--Anchorage Museum

 We went on a field trip to the Anchorage Museum with David's school. David had a great time, even though he gave the chaperone a scare by wandering away from the group to do his own exploratory tour. I was required to be on-site during the field trip by Raven, our correspondence school, but the museum wouldn't let me stay with the group of kids since I had a younger sibling in tow. I'm grateful that one of our ward members was present with David's group, so he noticed when David went missing and alerted the chaperone-in-charge. It only took a few minutes to locate the independent and curious kindergartener, but they called me in a panic before they found him. I knew that it wasn't the fault of the chaperone--I knew that David had been carried away from the group by his own curiosity. Anyway, even though we were there for David's field trip, the photos I took were of our sweet sister. After all, that is who I was with for the 3 hours while David was learning with his peers.

Alina was excited over the giant turtle swimming around.

Just a couple of minutes of water play, because it was cold outside and I didn't have a way to dry her off before our walk back to the car.

This one is a dumper. She loves to dump liquid out. She has mastered the use of the regular cup, but every now and then she asks for a drink, and promptly dumps it on the floor in front of her before she takes a sip of it. I think she would have emptied the water table if we had spent much time here.

She tried her hand and stacking and throwing balls, but both were very short lived.

Alina's favorite thing was in the room for bigger kids to explore science, where they have light weight playground balls sucked up through a tube created by a vacuum of air. She loved that, and kept running all over when the balls shot out the top to pick them up and put them back in.

I think I need to rethink this, and let go of my annual pass for the zoo, where it's cold, and buy an annual pass to the museum, where everything is indoors. I do, after all, live in the arctic climate of the North.

Indulgence

 For all of the squealing that David gets out of our girl based on his teasing, every now and then he comes through as a real champ.

This cracks me up--look at the way his mouth is as wide open as hers!

Alina enjoys the mouth full, a little snack still left on her chin . . .

Then they start it all again.

Now that's what big brothers are for!

Last little Bit

She doesn't miss too many meals, or overlook any last drops.

She was doing this, then stopped as soon as I grabbed the camera.

In order to get her to do it again, Daddy encouraged her along. (No, these are not his typical table manners . . . )