Cowboy Zebra

We broke out the slip-n-slide and the kids have been playing on that all afternoon.

The rest of this week we've made wave makers in bottles (one with colored water and oil and one with colored corn syrup and oil), experimented with waves in the horse trough, read lots of books about oceans, and worked on a poem. Here is Ian's poem which is a result of me asking him to describe sights, sounds, smells, etc.

Things on the Beach
By Ian Bailey

I hear waves. I hear the motors of boats. I hear seagulls.

I see a seal. I see sand. I see crabs. I see sticks on the beach. I see an eel fish. I see shells.

I smell the seawater.

I feel how the shells hurt my feet. The water feels very cold.

I like to fly kites there. I like to skip rocks. I hunt for clams. I like to look for shells and crabs under rocks.

The crabs walk sideways and they try to pinch me when I pick them up. The birds fly around and catch fish. The fish swim with their fins.

The tides go in and out. The gravity by the moon pulls the water.

I wish I could stay all day.

Maggie loves to sing along with the fridge magnet ABC's.

I was preparing a whole chicken for supper tonight when Maggie walked in and saw the bird and said, "Wook! A Fwoggy!" I pointed to the chicken and said, "This is a froggy?" "Yes! Wook, Eh-yut (Elliott), a fwoggy!" She left the room and came back in holding a train. As I was bending down to put the chicken into the oven, Maggie said, "Here fwoggy, a twain, see fwoggy? Wook!" I told her I was putting it in the oven now and she said, "Ok, bye-bye fwoggy!"
Maggie does like frogs and pretends to be one often, hopping around and saying ribbit. She also loves to wear the froggy towel after bath time. Try to give her a live frog, though, and she squeals and runs away.

On the way to the library today, Ian shouts out, "Hey! There's a Starbucks over there!" Elliott replied in his Grover-like voice, "Starwars Bucks?". "No" Ian said, "STARbucks. And it's a wonderful restaurant. They have really yummy chocolate milk and they have sandwiches...I think. And they have really sweety things, too! That place is just the best!"

So now we have Starwars Bucks, Old McDonalds, Red Robinhood, The Women's Retreatment, and Father Abraham Lincoln in the repertoire of funny mispronunciations from the boys.

So a friend and I signed up to be in a triathlon this summer. The one we are doing is an all women's event and it starts with a 1/2 mile swim, then a 12 mile bike, then a 3 mile run. The biggest reason we are doing this is so that we will have a goal to work towards and stay motivated to keep exercising! While I've got a ways to go until I hit my goal weight, I have lost 30 pounds since July! While not fast, I can swim at least 1/2 a mile in the pool (when it warms up we'll try some open water swims). I can certainly run 3 miles (most Saturdays I go on a four or five mile run). But it's been 10 years or so that I'd ridden a bike anything more than a few miles. Last Saturday when I took my new bike out I got a flat at mile 7. I took it out again yesterday, but it was raining, windy and cold, so I only went 6 or 7 miles again. Today I was able to go just over 12 miles and it was GREAT! It took me 63 minutes. It feels good to have that one under my belt. But even more, the ride was just fun! Ok, the hills going up, not so much, but the scenery, the smells of the saltwater, the woodsmoke, the freshly cut grass, the sounds of the birds on the quiet country roads, the pastoral countryside...it was all just wonderful. And Charlie, I didn't pass any wackos, and I had my cell phone with me and had mapped out the route for Nathan ahead of time. Anyway, when I got back I decided to try to run for a mile. I felt like a square blob trying to run after biking. But after about a half a mile it started to feel more normal!

Nathan played Happy Birthday on the guitar. After the party he practiced and now can play it without all the stalls!

Ian asked if we could eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch on his birthday. The biggest reason was because 2 years ago for Elliott's birthday, the waiters all came to sing Happy Birthday to him with a candle stuck in some icecream. Ian usually doesn't want to draw attention to himself, but he wanted to be sung to! The first thing he said to the waiter when we got there was, "Are you going to sing Happy Birthday to me?" We got to sit in the trolly car inside the restaurant which the kids thought was very cool.

Saturday was beautiful. We loaded up four bikes and the bike trailer in the back of the truck and headed to the Cushman Trail, a paved walking/running/biking trail. I'm excited that Maggie is old enough to ride in the bike trailer and we have more than one adult bike! I took my new bike and got to test it out. It can fly! Without very much effort, too. It's a blast! Nathan towed the trailer and stuck with Elliott, and I got to go faster with Ian. Ian thought that was great because the week before when we went without Nathan, he had to stop and wait a lot. But Elliott is getting better and better and this time he didn't even have to get off and push his bike up the biggest hills (and there are some pretty big hills!). About 3/4 of the way through our ride we stopped at a shopping center and ate tacos, then went to the Baskin Robins to get ice cream. Ian had a free ice cream coupon from being in their birthday club, so he proudly presented that. We rode a total of 4 miles. I'm proud of my boys! Maggie LOVES the bike trailer and begs to get in. She fell asleep in it before we got to the lunch place. That afternoon, I took my new bike out for a 12 mile bike ride (what I'll have to do in the triathlon), but at mile 7 I got a flat tire. I'd planned my route to stick close to home in case that happened. At that point I was just over a mile from home, so I opted not to call Nathan to rescue me, but just jog home. Good intro to the triathlon, and certainly not easy! Besides, I didn't want to change my first flat on this bike on the side of the road. I was able to take my time and do it at home, learning a lot as I did so from instructions on the internet. Now that I've got that first flat fix under my belt, I feel a lot more confident taking it farther away!

Maggie is 20 months old now and she loves to talk. She loves to pretend to talk on the phone. If her toy phone or a real phone is not available, she'll use anything else: a hairbrush, her cup, computer mouse, baby monitor, or even her hand. She also practices her multitasking and holds her "phone" between her shoulder and her head while doing something with both hands. Most of her talking on the phone is unintelligible, but when talking in person, she can say just about any word you ask her to say. She's also already talking in complete sentences for some stuff. "I want cereal", "look it Ian!", "I like it", "Thank you SO much", "I poo poo potty" (note that this hasn't actually happen, but she likes to practice), "I want some milk", "I go outside", "That's funny", "I hold it", "I fall down", "What is 'dis?", "I hungry" (without the "r"), "Daddy home!", "What you SAY?" (a current favorite of hers). She can say both boys names and the dogs names as well. Her favorite thing to do on her changing table is to knock on the wall and say, "Isaac! Kimber!". I think she does this because Nathan knocks on the window and yells their names when they are barking too much. She also says many other two syllable words like flower, dolphin, airplane, chicken, etc. The boys could say a few words by this age so it's quite different for us having a baby talk so much! Her current favorite books are "Hand hand fingers thumb" and the Jan Pfloog Animals book. She'll ask to "read a book?" when we're on our way up the stairs for naptime or nighttime. Then she'll tell us which book she wants to read before we get to the room. If it's "Hand hand fingers thumb" she says, "Hand pick apple" (part of the book), and if she wants the Animals book, she tips her head up and says, "MOOO!". Maggie is also starting to sing parts of songs with us. She often will join in our blessing song before meals, and she can sing along pretty well with "Jesus Loves Me" as well. She loves to count and can get to 3 and sometimes to 5 in the correct order, then she starts saying other numbers randomly.

Last week on Presidents Day, I was teaching the boys about President Lincoln and President Washington. They made little puppets with the two presidents on them. That evening during dinner I asked them to name their president that they had made. Ian said, "That's Father Abraham... Lincoln". Yes, he's been singing lot of Father Abraham at AWANAS! The boys also call the McDonalds restaurant "Old Macdonalds" or "Old Macdonalds had a farm". I'm waiting for the day that they ask me why it's called that since there's no farm there!