Tumble! Flip! Hop! Jump! Swing!

The boys took a kiddie gymnastics class once a week for the past few months.  Here are a few photos from one of their last days (we had to stop the class to trade in gymnastics for preschool!).

Gus and I were in a class together, which pretty much meant he got to run around and explore all of the various obstacles and equipment while I chased him around.  It was pretty fun.

Gus was a big fan of the various slides hidden around the gym

Arjen had his go at his first ever solo class, where he went off with the teacher by himself with the other kids in his group.  It was always a small struggle getting him to leave me and go with his group at the beginning of class, despite the huge grin he always had at the end of every class.  Hopefully we'll get to go back to gymnastics at some point, as I really think I saw some impressive gross motor development come out of it.  And it was fun!

Working on a backwards spin around the bar!

I was never fast enough with the camera to actually catch him in mid-swing on the parallel bars

Tarzan!

Have nap, will travel.

What, you think taking me out of my car seat while asleep will wake me up? Nice try. 

You think a hard, cold shopping cart will wake me? Ha!

You think those yellow bumpy things between the drive and store entrance will wake me? Fooled you!

Oh, you asked me to take a nap earlier today and I didn't? Hmmm...well, I'll take it now please. 

The next American Idol!

This video doesn't really require much introduction, nor explanation.  It's just pretty awesome! Well, the audio part at least…the visual is a little upside down-sideways-shaky, as I was trying to go unnoticed with the camera to avoid having our little rockstar get camera-shy.  He even had his very own back up singer/accompanist!  Oh, and when he seems to be looking right into the camera and says "put it back up" (or something to that effect), he's asking me to fix the airplane library book he has right now that I was holding while also trying to hold my incognito phone/video camera.  It's a picture book of airplanes, but tonight, it was his sheet music and I was the music stand.  Love this kid's imagination and creativity!

It's practically our backyard!

This past weekend, we decided to pay a visit to our favorite NorCal windsurfing spot, Sherman Island County Park (aka Rio Vista), just a quick 20 min drive from home.  We had no intentions of actually windsurfing though.  We can see the wind turbines that are across the river there (which happen to also be the background for this blog) clearly from our house, and there wasn't even a breeze.  But we wanted to go anyways, to see how it was, and figured it could be a good spot for the boys to get to ride their bikes around without having to deal with hills.  

Gus, of course, decided it was a better time for napping than for getting out to play, as he spent the entire hour we were there in this position:

   

Arjen, on the other hand, took a couple of spins on his pedal bike (no pics unfortunately), then decided he'd rather go check out the sand and water.  Didn't take long before he was splashing around having a good ol' time in the river.  And it definitely didn't bother him that the water temp was only around 50 degrees, and outdoor temp barely 60.  You wouldn't find me in there, but he was having a blast.  Had to bribe him just to get him out of the water!  Glad I was a good girl scout and had extra clothes in the car and even a couple of beach towels.  

Even the poor, neglected Pole-dog got in on the action...

Cinderella!

Lately, Arjen has been really into "helping" when he sees me working around the house "Mom?  Can I vacuum?"  "Mom? Can I help make dinner? Can I cut the vegetables?" "Mom? Can I clean the windows?" "Mom?" "Mom?' "Mom?"….

So, I'm doing my best to get crafty with ways he can feel helpful, and actually be helpful, and minimize my need to supervise closely/maximize my ability to still get done whatever it is he's wanting to help with.  He's able to help feed the dog.  I've sprayed the windows with window cleaner, then given him a rag to get after it.  I mean, the only smudges are all coincidentally at his level anyways.  I've allowed him to vacuum, after he made sure to pick up all the bits and pieces of toys around.  Oh, and that was an interesting side note and glimpse into my future…instead of putting a set of large building blocks back in their usual home, he decided to just stuff them all under the piano bench to clear the floor so he could vacuum.  I fear that I have closet avalanches of toys awaiting me in 5 years.  And he finally figured out how to fold towels, and as long as he gets to "smooth" them first, he seems to get a kick out of helping with the laundry now too!  I'm trying really hard not to get too excited over the helpfulness…just incase it goes "poof!" into thin air...

Most recently, he really wanted to use a spray bottle, so I gave him one full of water, and a rag, and challenged him to clean up all the various spots that had accumulated on the kitchen floor (that had been driving me crazy, but I hadn't gotten around to mopping up yet).  This is my new favorite!  He actually did a really good job, it kept him busy for a good 15 minutes at least, and did I mention he actually did a really good job??  Cha-ching!  We have a winner!

The Proof!:

The physical therapist mom in me cringes at the poor body mechanics in this one, but I'll let him get addicted to being helpful before I start harping on his posture! 

He laid out the purple towel and folded each of the towels you see on top of it!  (After smoothing them with his handy dandy black and decker toy sander of course!  He made the connection between using the sander to smooth things - our limited definition that we gave him of it's function - and figured that it must be the same thing you use to smooth clothes then!)

 So, this isn't to say that we're ready to make up a chore list/schedule in this family yet, but, I hope I can manage to stay creative enough with house chores that his willingness to help keeps growing!

Fun with friends

My friend Kelley came over with her kids the other day. The kids got along really well, which was great, because I felt like I was actually able to finish at least one conversation topic with Kelley, without having to restart it five times! They also managed to soak themselves within the first five minutes of playing out in the dirt/mud backyard, so the rest of the play date was spent sans pants. Arjen got a kick out of this, because I've heard mention of it even a couple of days after the play date. 

Oh, and Arjen decided to serenade us all with his version of "I won't back down" by Tom Petty.  I'm still trying to get blog-worthy video if that one!

It's a bean bag party?

Grandpa Dave saved the day and came to watch the kids so I could make it to a second round interview on very short notice.  (Yup, this momma is about to be a working mom again!).  So, I come home to find this scene…not quite sure who tired out who more!!

Thanks again Grandpa!!  

Oh how times have changed

Having a home again means we get to host our annual Super Bowl party again! Only now, there are about as many kids as there are adults, which means halftime entertainment consists of decorating football cookies!