Pleasantly Surprised

The other night, as I got busy with housework, 

I began to notice how quiet the house was, and that I was missing one of my shadows.  I looked around the house for ms. Penny, but could not find her.  I opened Kaia's bedroom door to find Kaia on the top bunk, "shushing" me with her pointer finger.  As I approached her, I noticed, she was laying next to Penny...and Penny was ASLEEP!  

"What happened?" I asked.

"I got her to sleep" she whispered.

"How??" I gasped.

"I just said..'shhhhhh' over and over again" whispered Kaia, with a sheepish grin on her proud face.

So, Kaia lead Penny up to the top bunk and took the time to coax her to sleep.  What a girl.

Pen-Pen & Bah-Boo

These two are becoming great companions. They also seem to be going through a lot of the same developmental stages together(despite the age difference..).  They are both potty training.  Kaleb prefers to urinate on tires, or go "Peepee tire?".  Penny watches him and then copies it by trying to yank her pants down and stand like a little boy... peeing on a tire. She has also attempted to go in the dirt in public, after witnessing him do so.  Ironically, she is the one who has gone peepee in the actual toilet, just a few days ago. She loves to sit on her little training toilet, and make all the potty sounds. 

     They are also both going through the first stage of autonomy together.  They throw out that pointer finger, furrow their brow and give a firm "No!" whenever they get in a mood. Penny likes to say "Mine!" and clutch a possession close to her bosom (and then giggle... even she knows it is silly).

   They love to go look at worms together in daddy's worm bin. They both skip, shreek and holler when we open up the top and they hover over it calling out, "Wooooorms!"  We scoop out a cluster and then lay them on the ground to feed the chickens and they watch them peck them up hastily, with amazment.  Penny and Kaleb just love to be outside together.  Kaleb shows Penny how to do physical things like operate the toy lawnmower and drive the red car, and Penny models proper conversational etiquette for Kaleb.  They go in the playhouse together and cook and greet one another at the front door.  They push eachother with cars, bikes, and wagons.  They look at tomato plants and tell one another, " its not ready yet!", although they still can't resist plucking premature green jewels from their vines.  When I scold them, for the hundredth time, Kaleb just repeats what I am saying, and Penny looks right in my eyes, and says, " Why-eeee?" (The same response she has for EVERYTHING!).  They love to pull out a batch of legos or blocks and get to work (with mom ofcourse....God forbid they play by themselves.  They are my shadows.)  They also love to sit in my lap and read book after book.  They love animal books, anything by Eric Carle, and their photo ABC books from Auntie Carla.

  The only problem they run into from time to time, is when "Lennie" gets a little too affectionate.  He doesn't know his own strength and he assumes she like to be handled with the same roughness that he does.  Lately, he has been giving her these tight squeezes around the neck...choking her basically.  She cries and he laughs.  When I tell him to say sorry, SHE gives him a hug and immediately says, "Saw-eee!"

Kaleb the "Never-Not-Nude"

What's funnier than a naked 3 year old boy running around? A naked 3 year old boy with a bat-ears mask and a giant dinosaur prop effectively hiding his "junk". I could barely hold the camera, I was chuckling so wildly.  He didn't get it... at all.

Summertime Library Day

We enjoy going to the local library on slow summer days.  Kaia browses for comic books, chapter books, or books on presidents. Kaleb plays with the trains and reads big books about tractors and big machines. Penny visits with other families, and sits in a chair, reading like a big kid. Gabby wanders around grabbing books on random topics, such as handmade greeting cards, egyptian culture, and snakes and reptiles. Then the girls check all the books out, themselves, with their green cards, and we walk out back the park area. 

Alferness Family Camping 2010

We went to the Boardwalk on Thursday, after setting up our tent with the kids.  The girls bought plastic swords with their own money.  The kids went on several rides and got ice creams.  On Friday, we cooked french toast and bacon for breakfast, and then went on a long hike(Gammy stayed back with Penny), to a serene beachfront by a running river.  The walk was not easy, for Kaleb and Gabby, despite how many walking sticks they picked up and used.  At the beach, they played in the water with their cousins and collected sea glass, and Kaleb smashed rocks with Uncle "mo-mar".  The walk back was sweaty and miserable for Kaleb, Gabby and mom. Kaia walked ahead with the rest of the group, like a trooper.  Kaia put herself to sleep in her sleeping bag at 6 0'clock, well before dinner, that night. The others fell, not long after.  We enjoyed a campfire, smores, and stories.  The next day, we went to the beach and enjoyed a beautiful day of seals, shell collecting, getting buried in the sand, and even making a new friend named AJ. That night we went to the Henry Cowell Campground Campfire... but it was a bit slow for the kids this year, not enough singing and dancing. They pooped out early.  But the ranger did announce to the whole group that our family "had shirts", and he told us that we had "redifined tradition", and that another family had been there 18 years, but "they didn't have shirts or anything".  We felt pretty special.  We played catch phrase and apples to apples, made more smores and had some of Uncle Phil's delicious spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.  We also celebrated birthdays that night, and Kaia, Kaleb and Penny got gifts (as well as Megan, Max, and Omar).  Penny recieved a very special homeade ABC book from her Auntie Carla. The next morning, we packed up and went home, stopping at Fentons Ice Cream on the way.