It's been so fun being with my family in Corning this week. It's hard to stay on top of photos and blogging when I don't want to miss a moment of the memories!
But here was a big highlight of the week - Getting to go ice skating and having the rink all to ourselves in the beginning!
I've been skating at the Nasser Civic Center since I was a teen. I was joking that I remember the days when our flare jeans went over the skates and now all the cool kids wear skinny jeans tucked into the skates. That's the best "old lady" story I can come up with ;-)
It was a crystal clear and bitterly cold morning but we had such a blast. I was freezing and wiping up a lot of kid noses, but it was worth it to see the proud smiles on my girlies' faces!
Lily went from hand-holding, to chair-pushing, to triple axels and sit spins! It was a pretty awesome memory.
I could not stop laughing during the girls' first dance class this week. Their instructor Laura is infinitely more patient than I could ever be with such a gaggle of silly little girls. It's just beautiful to watch!
After she taught them a few new things, she reviewed and then had them dress up in fun clothes from Jenny's treasure chest! Then they all danced around and when Laura stopped the music they practiced their new skills. It's hilarious!
I can't wait to see how they progress during the semester. It's so cute! And I can tell Lily especially is just on cloud nine. Sweet little things.
"My whole name is Lillian Jayce Aiguk and Sam's whole name is Sam-ian Jordan Aiguk!"
"Mommy! At school there's a boy named 'Yo High Ness' (Your Highness)"
me: "Um, do you mean Johannes?" (pronounced yo-HAH-nes)
Laying in the sun, she says: "I'm gonna get a tan-burn!"
"My belly hurts, it's going to have a baby soon!" (first food baby after a brunch of treats AND hot chocolate!)
"MOM. Today I want to be the boss of YOU, okay? Just for today." (After a particularly rough morning in Momville when I had the nerve to require that she and Sam help me put their laundry away)
Crepes = "creepies" as in "Can I please have some more cinnamon-sugar creepies?"
me: "Sam, stop eating the egg shells!"
Lily: "Why not? They're like chips!"
me: "I'm going to make lunch soon."
Lily: "Okay! Make it YUMMY!"
Dad: "Hey Sam I like your bandana!"
Sam: (incredulously) "I'M not a BANANA!"
"Can we go to the zoo to see lions and tigers and triceratops?"
We have this cool book called The Busy Body Book (amazon affiliate link here) and so we're learning about fitness and the different functions of different body parts. So on the page where it talks about how our healthy food gets digested and used by the body, I had to explain to a 3 and 4yo what an esophagus was. Sammy said, "sof-o-gus? I yike dat word. Is dat a German word?"
I hope you got a little laugh out of these two crazy monkeys! Have a great day from our house to yours!
There are moments when my adult-self gets to remember how awesome childhood is. And it's usually when I'm watching my children almost pee their pants with excitement about some super cool experience.
"You mean we're having ice cream for DINNER?"
"We're going to snuggle and watch movies the WHOLE afternoon?"
"I can have AS MANY fake tattoos as I WANT?"
You know, stuff like that.
Last week Kirsten took us on a little adventure to a summer toboggan track about an hour from us. The track itself was an absolute blast. But this bungee-trampoline business was probably even MORE exciting to Lily and Sam.
My cheeks started hurting from laughing and smiling at them having the time of their lives! Observe...
Lily learned how to flip over and Sammy kept squealing that it was tickling her tummy!
Made me think about how awesome play is. And how I need to do it more. It really is great to jump and flip and twirl and dance and giggle and smile till your cheeks hurt.
If there's anything my little Monkeys are teaching me lately it's just that:
According to my girls, these "bird nest" swings are just about the best part of Germany. (Since tiny humans don't get to drink beer I won't argue with them on that)
We love that our village recently installed one right at our favorite playground. It is now completely impossible for me to get them to walk home from kindy without stopping at the playground for at least 15 minutes. Good thing we aren't usually in a hurry ;o)
It's also much longer to walk home without passing by the playground, so I'm kind of screwed if I want to be in a hurry anyways. But that's besides the point.
The point is: These two are not happy on that swing unless I am pushing them as high as possible.
It gets to the point sometimes that I have this little voice in the back of my Mommy-brain asking "is this dangerous?"
For example, I make them lay down which seems safe because theoretically, centrifugal force is going to keep them in the swing, right? RIGHT?
But Sam may or may not be airborne in this shot, so I'm questioning whether or not I'm remembering the principles of centrifugal force accurately. Which wouldn't surprise me in the least since I failed physics in high school. (I may or may not have been hiding my Harry Potter books behind my physics book during class) (Centrifugal force is physics, right?) ;o)
Anyways, neither offspring has fallen out of said swing going at said speeds/heights. So I'm going to stick with pushing them as high as I can so I get to hear their squeals of delight some more!
I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I will get the most-irresponsible-mom-of-the-year award if they do fall out ;o) but what can I say?
Seriously, there is no childhood memory so sweet to me as embracing a rainstorm as something fun to play in. We had some pretty epic downpours last week and the girls made the most of it one afternoon. They were soaked to the bone and totally happy after playing outside in the rain for 20 minutes.
In answer to everyone's questions: YES, it is in fact super fun to be living in Germany when they win the World Cup! Though I am not an avid soccer fan per se, I still greatly enjoyed not only watching the finals, but hearing everyone in my village setting off their fireworks when Germany won!
On top of that, my girls were frequently coming home with German flags painted on their faces and hands. They also were able to enjoy soccer ball decor on everything from bonbel cheese to bakery treats.
Sometimes I don't think they know that they're Americans... and that's okay for now ;o)
By popular demand (Hi Gigi and Gram!!!) I'm going to try to make more of an effort to do home videos. This is a random one from this afternoon. Just playing with their snack!
Cherry season!!! We have been eagerly watching our tiny cherry tree in the yard, hoping there'd be enough cherries for a pie.
And then we went over to Pedro and Julia's for dinner and had our faces melted off by how big their cherry tree is.
Exhibit A: Pedro and Julia's obnoxiously large tree. Please note that even with the ladder Lily and Sam could hardly reach the bottom branches.
Jesse and Pedro spent half an hour up in the tree and I don't think they really put a dent in the amount of fruit there was! Julia gave us a HUGE bowl full to take home :o) Cherry pie here we come!
Exhibit B: our cute little TINY cherry tree. Which the girls can almost harvest on their own.
And we only got this TINY bowl of cherries, not even enough for our pie! Good thing we robbed Pedro and Julia.
Jesse's Father's Day Pie = A SUCCESS! (after the pie rescue that involved re-baking an under-cooked bottom crust! oops!)
If you're curious about the cherry-picking outfits it's because I've been doing a lot of "photo shoots" with them and embracing the magic of letting them pick out their own outfits. Which makes them super cooperative and "empowered" I guess. With humorous and adorable results!
Man I love these girls.
Thanks Pedro and Julia! For spoiling us with an awesome dinner and for sharing your cherries!
So. So... I have a chronic problem of getting my hopes up way too soon in pretty much all areas. But if you've been reading for the past two years you know potty training has NOT gone according to said "me getting my hopes up."
I blame Lily.
And yes, I'm allowed to blame her. I earned that right when I gave birth to her and also when I got her pee on my hands for the 504,892nd time. (I will blame Sam, too, but mostly it's Lily, and here's why)
You see, Lily totally played me when she daytime trained BEFORE TWO YEARS OLD and in like two weeks! "This is so easy!" I thought. Psssssht.
Okay so now I know better. You can stop laughing at me. BUT. But...
Last night both my Potty Princesses woke up dry. In panties. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
Okay this is me reeling it in and reminding myself that because I'm risking a small blog post about this they'll probably both pee tonight but whatever, this is exciting! Lily was the one who finally asked to wear panties at night! And so we plunged ahead with both of them just to see how it'd go!
A HUGE difference now is that both of them wake up after wetting the bed. They are upset, they are grossed out. This may not sound like a good thing, but it is. Because last time we tried this cold turkey business Lily would get a rash on her whole body from sleeping through the accident until morning. So yes, I am hopeful that this is a good sign.
I kind of feel like I'm cheating a little because I wake them up for a brief potty visit before I go to bed and then I decided to start setting my alarm for 4am to catch Sam... after she woke up wet pretty consistently for a few days in a row between 5-6:30am. But then I thought back to when I was daytime training them and I literally forced them to just TRY to sit on the potty about every half hour for the first few days till they got the hang of the routine. So I'm viewing this 4am thing like that. Just helping her get in the habit.
And it sure beats soggy pull-ups and/or extra loads of pee-pee laundry. You know you're a mom when a) you talk about pee in public (hi, internet!) and b) you celebrate lack of pee. Three cheers for Double Trouble! I shall resist day-dreaming about throwing the rest of the pull-ups in the garbage and making plans for the potty-party!
I always chuckle when I hear people's assumptions about life with two little girls... especially when said assumptions imply that all my life is glitter and gold and peace and quiet.
Now there IS quite a lot of glitter in my life. I find glitter in every corner of the house, including [most humorously] the toilet seat and My Love's facial hair.
But there are other things... not so glittery things...
So they're in the "collecting stage" of childhood. The one where you have to be careful what random piles of paper or sticks you throw away because *gasp!* "Mom!!!! That's my COLLECTION!"
And that my friends, is the nastiest collection ever. All over our back window sill.
Now I'm certainly not complaining, because the hunting down and collecting of all of these snails from the various dark corners of our yard has so far provided hours of entertainment for my Monkeys. I will keep my slightly squeamish girly-girl thoughts to myself ;o)
I will not, however, let those chubby little fingers touch me until AFTER they've washed their hands! Cause snails gross me out.
*let's have a tiny moment of silence for the snails that have perished from rough handling*
I guess the moral of this story is that little girls are still grossI hate snails my girls are exploring nature and that's super cool!
Apparently it doesn't matter that they have two bikes, the WHOLE yard, bowling pins, balls, sidewalk chalk, and a slide at their disposal... they're still going to make up new games to play together. I stopped this game after a little while though because I was relatively certain it would only take a matter of time for Sam's fingers to get pinched in the gate.
Lily's been asking some really hard questions lately...
"Mom, am I bew-ful?" [beautiful]
"Mom, do you yike dis dress, is is bew-ful?
"Dad, yook, I'm a princess... a bew-ful princess! Do you yike me?"
She's even gone so far as to ask "Will they yike me at school with this dress?"
When she first started showing us that she was concerned what others thought of her appearance I wanted to run for the hills. Seriously, I almost choked on my coffee. I just wasn't ready!
See, I thought I had years YEARS I tell you! I was supposed to figure out ahead of time how to teach and explain to my [much older] daughter all about good godly character and how it's WHO WE ARE not WHAT WE LOOK LIKE that makes us beautiful.
But she's just four! And she's wearing a blue princess dress. And you know what? I think she IS beautiful! One of the most beautiful creatures in the world!
So when she asks if she's bew-ful, everything in me wants to shout "YES BABY! You are sooooo beautiful I just LOVE your dress and you have the prettiest crown EVER and let me smooch your cheeks cause you're just so. darn. BEAUTIFUL."
But I know I have to stop. (Or at least reel it in somewhat) Because now I see that she's already old enough and now is the time... now is the time to talk about what really makes us pretty. I remember watching this video awhile back. It still gives me chill bumps.
My four year old is already picking up on our culture's obsession with outward appearance. And I'm her first line of defense. And oh boy you guys should SEE how terribly I screw up these conversations!
I stutter and stammer my way through what I hope are coming out as age-appropriate sentences that explain the vastly complex situation we're facing here... and I feel like she's thinking this...
So yeah. Thank God these conversations will happen often and will change in complexity over the years. Just like our conversations about what a man's you-know-what is for. Ahem. Yep, that's already happening, too.
I'm trying to be mindful of what character qualities make us beautiful... I'm drawing more attention to things I see in myself that I want them to emulate. But it's surprisingly hard! Because no matter how much you try to think you DON'T buy into culture's message of "external beauty trumps all", you do. At least a little. At least I do.
So it's kind of interesting actually... I'm re-learning what makes me beautiful as I try to teach my daughters about beauty. "Mommy is smart and always trying to get smarter. Mommy loves to read, do you want to read with me?" "Mommy is strong and working out to get stronger. Do you want to do yoga with me?" "Mommy is kind and caring and friendly and sacrifices time for others..."
...and these things are more beautiful than what her makeup looks like or what clothes she has on or what the number on the scale is this month.
If I sound overly dramatic here, fear not. We don't take ourselves too seriously in this family. And I'm not throwing out my makeup or ditching all our Disney movies.
We are always striving for balance... and with the mother they have (hi, I'm Jessica, and I tend towards extremes in all areas of life!) they are going to be constantly learning THAT right along with me, too!
So yes, my girls will grow up knowing Momma likes to wear makeup and high heels when she goes out. But they will also hopefully see many many more instances of a joyful inner strength of character. One that serves and cares for others, instead of being afraid of opinions or appearances!
Germans are celebrating Fasching this week... so they're getting all dressed up and hopped up on sugar (and booze) while my poor Monkeys have been sitting on the couch melting their brains with Pixar.
So. much. sickness. February was one of those "where did the month go?" kind of months - mostly thanks to the on-and-off-again sickness from these two cuties. They've missed a good bit of school and are currently driving me insane suffering from fever/coughs. Thankfully the fevers are done, just the coughs and whining remain ;o)
Lily, my passionate sufferer, is quite ornery during this most recent illness. And Momma, also a passionate sufferer, is quite ornery because she's quite ornery and I keep begging Jesse to "let" me go run any and every errand possible just to get out of the house! It's been five days and I feel like it's been 50.
So they were NOT able to dress up cute and celebrate the end of winter with candy and sweets at their school's Fasching party yesterday. They've watched so much tv this week they're actually getting bored of it - gasp! Anyways we're all feeling lazy and gross.
February was supposed to be my "let's get back to that regular cleaning schedule" month. And my "let's blog more regularly again" month. And my "let's start exercising more regularly" month. Yeah right. Maybe March will be a less-sick month.
But at least I can cross "read 'The Gruffalo's Child'
5,000 times" off of my bucket list! Sometimes SICK happens.
and so we're learning about fitness and the different functions of different body parts. So on the page where it talks about how our healthy food gets digested and used by the body, I had to explain to a 3 and 4yo what an esophagus was. Sammy said, "sof-o-gus? I yike dat word. Is dat a German word?"
5,000 times" off of my bucket list!