Sunday Funday

Nana left this morning, and the girls (and Steve and I) were pretty sad. We know we will see her and Yoinkie again this June, but the house seems a little empty and quite boring without her there.

We decided to get out of the house and head to our standing weekend playdate. Late in the summer when we were new to the area, we randomly met another family at a playground. All of us would show up to the playground at about the same time every Saturday, and after a while it was something all of us looked forward to each weekend. Eventually it became too cold to head to the playground and they very nicely invited us to their house instead. Since then we have been to their house, they have been to our house, and we have met elsewhere to eat, see Santa, etc.

Anyway, today we met at their house for bagels and then headed to a local nature center which features a number of animals. All of the girls had a great time (they have a daughter in between Lucy and Caroline's ages and another on the way) and we even managed to get out before Caroline had a meltdown.

Bunnies

Caroline loved the cow

 

 

and the goats

Throwing food to the horses

She loved all of the animals, but Caroline actually cried when
we made her leave the horse. Nana would be proud :-)

It wouldn't be a Soden outing unless we stopped to play with rocks.

And then Lucy randomly stopped to lay down in the middle of the path:

"What are you doing?"

"I guess it looks like fun. I'll try it too."

What a goof.

Birthday ... Again

I have joked with Steve that Lucy has celebrated her birthday approximately 200 times in the last two weeks. Between Nana's visit, our visit to Cookie and Grumps' house, and her celebration at school on Monday, Lucy has been made well aware of her birthday.

Today we started with a visit to our favorite local establishment, the diner.

Checking out the menu

Waiting for breakfast with Nana

Shoveling it in

A smile that big can only come from chocolate chip pancakes

We then went to Lucy's soccer game. You can see the highlights (and lowlights) here.

We then came home to regroup - and by "we" I really mean the adults more than the kids.

Sweeping

Sidewalk chalk with Nana

Focus!

After lunch while Lucy and Caroline took a MUCH needed nap, Steve and I went out to get some gardening supplies and a cake for Lucy. I would like to say that I made the cake myself (like the awesome cake that Cookie made), but alas, I am not that crafty and I am super lazy to boot. So, Steve had the honor of going to the counter and asking the 20 year old guy working if he could have the "yellow princess cake." I guess he didn't want to admit that he knew it was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Here he is proudly displaying our purchase:

This man loves princess cakes.

Once the girls woke up, we gave Lucy our big birthday present for her: a basketball hoop. After our soccer woes, we worried that Lucy wouldn't want to do anything athletically oriented but we were pleasantly surprised. Lucy loved it and played with it for a long time.

Jordan-esque

We headed inside to eat dinner, have cake, and open some presents.

Steve was being obnoxious with the camera. I am unimpressed.

Belle!

She loved it.

Don't mind my shoulder taking up half of this picture. She
leaned into the cake and almost set her hair on fire.

Posing with Nana and her new Barbie

Lucy loved her presents, and Caroline loved grabbing them and
calling them her own.

 

It was a great day and now everyone is in bed. Here's hoping that 4 is kinder to us than 3 was.

Progress

As I have documented on this blog time and again, Caroline is battling us each night at the dinner table.

We have now reached an important stage where we can require Caroline to eat a certain number of bites of her least favorite foods (typically this is the meat portion of her dinner). In most cases we are bribing her with some sort of treat, but I am hoping to move away from this soon. It certainly is not the best parenting strategy and I'm not recommending it, but it works for her right now (and it is hilarious to watch).

Tonight, for example, we required Caroline to eat two bites of chicken before we would let her share a cookie with Lucy. When we told her that she had to do this, she lost her mind. She screamed, cried, pushed her chair away from the table, and said, "All done!" When Lucy finished her dinner and was given half of the cookie, Caroline realized that we were serious. So with an annoyed look on her face, Caroline stared us down while shoving both pieces into her mouth.

If you look closely, you can see tears in her eyes.

All smiles now that she has a cookie

You know who always makes out like a bandit in these situations?
This girl.

I ate a dinner I really liked and I get a cookie? I'll take it.

An Exercise in Patience

A few months ago we signed Lucy up for a youth soccer league. Basically, the kids run around for 45 minutes while their parents drink coffee on the sidelines and yell at them to go the other way (note: 4 goals were scored in the wrong net in today's game).

The first game was last weekend, but we were unable to go because of our trip to Marion. Yesterday we told Lucy that she was going to play soccer today, and that is all she has talked about since. She was excited to wear her new soccer clothes and to see her friends on the team. This morning we went out for breakfast to celebrate her birthday (more on that later) and then came home to grab our stuff and head to the field. Here is a picture of Lucy before we left:

Still really excited to play soccer

When we got to the field Lucy was fine, but when we took her soccer ball out and one of her friends took it away from her (ya know, like someone might do in a game) she lost it and threw herself on the ground.

When her coach, the father of one of her friends, had the kids do a few drills, she laid on the ground and wouldn't participate. I won't get into specifics here, but Steve and I tried just about everything to get her on the field. We tried the stick, the carrot, and everything in between. We finally got her out there, but one of us (mainly Steve) had to run around with her. She certainly was not the only kid who had this issue and there were many adults on the field, but this was not the way we envisioned the game going.

Here are some highlights:

Me trying to get Lucy to run with her friend, Caroline, and
her coach

Steve helping her get to the ball

Steve getting a workout

Everyone is cheering because our team scored (on the correct goal this
time!) but Lucy is starting to pout because she "didn't win."

Pouting after the game

This was an interesting exercise in patience for me and Steve. Both of us are pretty competitive people, and as Steve said, "I didn't expect her to be Mia Hamm but I at least wanted her to play without crying or throwing herself on the ground." 

I have reminded Steve that this is how Lucy operates when she is put into a new situation. If she is forced to jump in right away, she freezes. When we went to the water park for the first time she would barely go on the kiddie rides, but after a few hours there she would do just about anything. There is a gymnastics place where many of her friends had birthday parties. The first party Lucy refused to do anything but sit on the sidelines with me. This lasted a half hour until she realized that her friends were having fun. Now when we go there she is willing to participate immediately.

Unfortunately for Lucy, she operates much the way I do. I can handle change, but it takes me a while to warm up to the idea. When we first moved I had a pretty tough time just letting go. I worried about a lot of things that weren't worth worrying about, but now I look back at it and laugh. Steve, on the other hand, does not have this problem. Neither does Caroline. While the two girls have a lot in common, it is clear that they handle things in very different ways.

So next week we will go back to the soccer field, and while I do not expect Lucy to turn into Mia Hamm, I do think it will be a more positive experience that will involve less running for me and Steve.

Quick Question: Part II

Quick question: When you look at this picture, do you also see her mugshot 16 years from now?

 Notice the black eye to complete the look

Old School

While Nana was here, my camera's battery ran out. I borrowed her camera and while I was uploading the pictures to my computer, I noticed that she had some old pictures of the girls. Below are some pictures of the girls last summer while we were in Minnesota. I couldn't help but laugh at Caroline's massive thighs and marvel at how much they have changed in just under a year. This period of time seems like so long ago.

This slip and slide was the best $5 we ever spent.

Two thoughts on this:
1. Swim diapers are gross
2. Caroline needs to lay off the cookies

We tried to get Lucy to go head first but she wouldn't -
even though Steve demonstrated while fully clothed.

I can't look at this and not laugh

She loves it.

Helping Nana water the flowers