Peter and the Wolf

The kids were singing the same song over and over at dinner, driving each other and their parents crazy.  So I put on our Peter and the Wolf CD (narrated by Sting) to distract them.  Erik got engrossed in the story and after dinner I brought a chair into the kitchen so he could sit by the CD player and listen.  The chair is one my grandparents gave me for my first birthday.

Weekend Fun

Joe and Erik are going camping with the Cub Scouts and I'm excited for Erik to experience this.  I'm getting excited to have special time with Adin.  We're going to watch a movie and eat popcorn, maybe go on a field trip tomorrow, and that's all I have planned so far.  I hope he's as excited about the movie as I am.  He and I baked some apple crisp earlier this week and he was super proud of himself, so maybe we'll do that again.  Ooo, I could take him swimming at the YMCA.  I kind of hate to take them both because it's hard to keep an eye on both of them.  Gotta go. 

Kindermusik

I actually think there's a music program called Kindermusik.  This is not that program.  This is a song with actions that Adin learned in Kindergarten.  When Erik was learning Spanish, he kept it all inside and didn't want to tell us much.  Now that Adin is learning, most of what he learns he says and/or sings at home. 
Anyway, after I started videoing Adin singing this, I realized I should have turned on more lights, but I was afraid if I stopped him, I would never get him to do it again.  Enjoy.

Kindermath

Adin seems to have gotten bored after he finished his work in Kindergarten today.  He made himself some math problems to work on.  I particularly like 55+55=1010. 

We're adjusting

Having two kids in school is as much of adjustment for me as it is for them, although it doesn't make me as tired and cranky.  The kids are settling in well.  Today was the first day Erik had homework, and although he was unenthusiastic, he did it all and was not upset when I pointed out one arithmetic problem he needed to redo.  It was interesting, on one side was a list of arithmetic problems, on the other side were word problems in Spanish.  He got the word problems correct, but when showing his work, he set up the problems incorrectly.  I'm not sure why that is.  His homework is more complicated this year, more different types.  We will have to work at staying organized so we don't accidentally miss something!

Adin has been thrilled to tell us what new Spanish words he's learning and will quiz us to see if we know them, too.  Now that reading is considered homework he complains about it, (where did he learn that?) but he still enjoys reading independently.  We can tell Adin is exhausted, because he is more emotional than usual, but starting school doesn't seem to have rocked his world as much as it did Erik when he started.

The kids thought it was funny that I missed them today, and turned on "Sesame Street" in the background while I did housework.  I told them what the first story was, and they enjoyed acting it out because it involved someone knocking down a friend out of eagerness. 

Getting on the bus

First day of school 2013

 Adin was happy as a clam to go to school and was happy as a clam when he came home again.  I asked if he learned any Spanish and he said, "abajo, arriba".  I think they sing a song on the way to lunch about hands up in the air (arriba) and hands down low (abajo).  He did a worksheet matching letters - b, p and d - tricky!

Erik was little happier the day he could come straight home, vs. the day he had to stay at after school care for an extra hour.  He has some math worksheets, and a couple friends gave him comics they'd written.  He thinks they don't make any sense.  (Unlike the ones he writes - eyes rolling.)  I was thrilled to read that they won't have homework for the first two weeks of school.  Yay!

Screen time

I find it absolutely hilarious when screen-time-loving Erik scolds Joe and me for using too much screen time.  He'll tell me worriedly he thinks I'm spending too much time playing an online game.  He'll tell Joe that he uses his phone too much.  That's right, Erik!  You tell us!

planning for the future

The kids and I walked to the park tonight.  On the way, Adin asked me, "How long until I can marry?"  I said, "hmm, maybe about 20 years, at least."  We thought for a while.  I was curious what or who he was thinking of, so I asked, "What kind of person do you think you'll marry?"  He answered, "A nice one."  Good answer.  We thought for a while.  He said, "I have three people in mind. One from Sunday School, one from day care, and one from preschool."  I knew who each of those little girls are, and they certainly are sweethearts. 

We shot some baskets at the park.  The hoops there are really great, you can turn a crank to raise and lower them!  We had it about 7 feet up and after a while, the kids begged me to lift them up so they could pretend to dunk.  Erik was pretending to be Kevin Love.  I don't remember if Adin was anyone in particular, but after many unsuccessful tries at shooting he decided he was a player that just passed the ball to taller players so they could shoot. 

Calgon, take me away!

Erik and Adin had a bath tonight, and while I was sitting next to them reading, Adin managed to pour about half a bottle of bubble bath into the tub.  The water was pink.  When I looked up and commented, Erik said, "I know!  I tried to tell him to stop."  He must have been trying telepathically, because I didn't hear him say stop.  Oh well.  Erik got cold and got out of the tub, but Adin stayed and played longer.  He had me cover him with bubbles, and I think he looks like he should be in the 80's commercials for Calgon. 

Also, it seems Erik is a good enough reader now, that we have to keep an eye on his room after lights out at bedtime.  He was sitting up and reading when I came to check on him tonight.  Fortunately, after karate and baseball practice, he was pretty tired and fell asleep quickly.

Happy May Day!

My dad has been in Norway for two weeks, so the kids were excited to be invited over to my parents' last night for lasagna.  I have a flower wreath with ribbons that I bought a year or two ago when I decided that I'd better buy myself something I would buy my daughter if I had one!  I mostly just wear it on May Day and tell the boys I'm the Queen of May.  After dinner they couldn't take it anymore and had to try it on.  When they are teenagers they may be mortified by these pictures, but they smiled so nice I can't help sharing. 

Head spinning

It's so funny how variable Adin's maturity is.  When we are transitioning from one activity to another or from one place to another, if I don't give him a lot of mental preparation time, he can throw a fit worthy of a two year old.  However, other time his coping skills and problem solving are remarkably mature.  Playing a new game on my Kindle, each time he loses, he says cheerfully, "I did my best."  When I came in from taking out some lawn waste and commented on how cold it is outside and how cold my fingers were, he suggested I might want to make myself some hot cocoa, which I think showed a nice ability to put himself in my shoes.  Last month, when I was upset that I couldn't celebrate Erik's birthday by buying myself a coffee, he suggested I find a different way to celebrate!  That one really made me laugh because I was the one fussing like a two year old and he was the mature one putting the situation into perspective.

Erik's teacher told me last night how pleased she is with his oral Spanish.  Now the classroom expectation is that the students speak only Spanish.  She said many of the students are not yet confident and so they mumble when they speak, which makes it hard for her to hear and understand them.  She said Erik speaks out clearly.  I told her that Joe and I felt Erik seemed to turn a corner at spring break.  He seemed to miss speaking in Spanish, began using some Spanish with us, and told us he thought he was losing Spanish skills during the break (which he would not have cared about earlier).  Since then, he's been using more Spanish at home with us.  I wish I spoke and understood more Spanish.

Baseball! Wait, I already said that.

Joe took Erik to the first Little League meeting today.  They divided the kids into teams.  Erik has a school friend and a neighbor on his team, so I'm pretty excited about having people I know to talk to at the practices and games.  Erik said that at the meeting they already taught him some new things about catching and hitting.  While they were at LL, I took Adin to the park and practiced hitting off his T ball Tee.  We saw a neighbor in his yard with his mom on the way, invited them to join us, and they did!  St. Louis Park has such a small town feel to me.  As soon as the temperatures rose to the 60s, the neighbors all came out and it's great to see everyone working in their yards and playing in the alley again.

Baseball!

It looks like it's going to be a baseball filled summer.  Today we signed up Erik for Little League and Adin for T-ball!  Joe took them over to the park tonight to practice, Erik has 'try outs' tomorrow.  They want to keep the teams fairly evenly distributed with ability levels.  I got out of practice because I ran a 10K this morning and developed blisters on the bottoms of my feet!

Swim lessons

Erik had swim lessons tonight.  The instructor has been having the kids put float noodles at their waists and swim the short length of the pool, sometimes on their stomachs and sometimes on their backs.  Today she had them basically race back and forth several times.  Joe and I were very proud of Erik.  He was persistent, didn't get frustrated when he wasn't the fastest and listened well to the instructions.  When he was swimming forward, he often had his head up out of the water and was more doggy paddling, but when he put his face in the water and actually scooped with his hands he was swimming pretty fast!  Then on his back, he popped his head up every few seconds to make sure he wasn't about to crash into the wall, but again when he was actually swimming, he was really fast.

His albatross has always been jumping into the pool.  He doesn't have a lot of trust.  Today, the instructor had them swim along the side to the deep end, get out and form two lines.  Then she had them jump in two at a time and swim the short length of the pool in races at the deep end!  The final task was to jump off the starting block at the deep end and swim to the shallow end.  She held his hand while he jumped in, but Erik actually jumped in and swam the whole length of the pool.  That's easily the farthest he's ever swam before.  He was very proud of himself.  The video is sideways but it's fun to see him go for it. 

President's Day

 We went to the playground on Monday.  Adin's cheesy grin.

 Erik is working very hard to climb onto a playhouse.

 The plows leave a nice sledding hill when they plow the parking lot.  The school left some sliders on the playground, so we did a little sledding.

 Erik found a football, so we tossed that around too.  I think the blur in the corner is Erik tossing the ball at me.

 He's almost made it to the top.

 Adin loved being surprised at the window. 

aaand he made it!

Read!

Erik and Adin are in fun stages of literacy right now.  Adin is a voracious reader.  Today at the dentist, he sat with a book and read Richard Scarry while I had my teeth cleaned.   Tonight he sat in bed and read for 30 minutes after bedtime and really only put down the book and turned off the light under extreme duress. 

Erik is learning to read at a more normal rate, and is slowed a little right now by being in Spanish Immersion school, where he won't have English reading instruction for a couple more years.  However, he is becoming more and more adept at decoding words.  I love when he reads me a simple picture book.  Adin comes and sits on one side of Erik and listens to the book, too.  It's very sweet.  I coach him a little on the odder vowel combinations, and on putting a little dramatic flair into his reading. 

Scholastic Books had a great poster:
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy books, and that's kind of the same thing.

Adin goes to Chipotle

I took Adin to the YMCA today.  He has swim lessons on Saturday mornings.  I'm trying to take him to the pool on Fridays to remind him of what he worked on the week before, so that Saturday goes slightly smoother.  We sort of took turns being the teacher.  I would have him work for about five minutes and then he got to tell me what to do for a minute.   He had the last turn being teacher, before open swim ended.  As we climbed out of the pool, I said, "Thanks for the swim lesson.  You're a good teacher."  And he said  back to me, " Thank you for the lesson.  You are a good teacher, too."  I thought that was very sweet of him to think of saying.

When we were ready to leave, we went across the street to Chipotle for lunch.  As usual, Adin read everything around him, menus, drink cups, etc.  He asked me questions about the funny stuff on the cup and why the restaurant was called Chipotle.  Adin's meal came with a mini bag of tortilla chips.  As he ate, he said, "I know why they named it the Chip part, it's because you can eat chips here.  But I don't know why they named it -otle."  (pronounced OAT-lay). 

He cracks me up.

Adin's Train

Santa brought each of the boys a building kit.  Yesterday Adin put together the train from his kit.  It's pretty simple, he just had to pound in the axels and the smokestack.  It was perfect for him.  He was pretty proud and then he loved painting it.  As he painted each color he talked about whose favorite color it was and how much they would like that part of the train.  This morning he even played with it!