At Araluen Playground

Logan, Isabelle and Delenn

After playing at the playground we went into the aviation museum
and Strewlow Research center (which has lots of animals).

Delenn, Elora and Logan

Out and About

A short outing to the claypans to ride bikes,
hike about and eat snacks.

Delenn and the Termite Mound

Logan took a couple pictures of us girls. Then we had a quick
snack before heading off to Kindergym.

Kindergym

Day-to-Day Funniness

This Saturday morning while eating breakfast, Daddy, Logan, and Delenn
were having a pleasant conversation. Somehow the subject of size came
up and Dad commented that generally men tended to be larger than women.
Logan found that interesting as he did not know that. He said that
women can have babies but Daddy and him couldn't because we were men.
Then Logan told Delenn that perhaps one day she would be a Mommy with a
baby. Delenn said (in her broken, hard to understand english), "When I
grow up, I am going to be a Mommy and have a baby. I will have Mommy's
milk out of my nipples and I will squirt milk in the baby's eye."
Logan (and Daddy) both laughed pretty hard at that as we have no idea
where she would've gotten an idea to do something like that. After all,
Mom has never done that to Elora (that Daddy knows of). Mommy nearly
choked laughing later upon hearing it.

Speaking of choking, the other night (just before going to her
Alexandria Quartet woodwind rehearsal), Mommy choked pretty hard on the
grape innards as it accidentally shot into her throat while biting down
on one. Mom banged on the kitchen sink and then moved over to the wall
and banged there to try to get Daddy's attention. At this point Daddy
noticed something wrong and jumped up and ran to try to help (with the
Heimlich), but just as he arrived Liesl was finally able to retrieve a
bit of air into her system. Talk about scary!

After dinner Dad asked Logan if he could be so kind as to clear all the
dishes from the dinner table, not just his. Both Mommy and Daddy nearly
fainted to his swift never-heard-before reply. "I'd be delighted!" Upon
completing his chore, he then stumped us again with, "Is there anything
else I can do to help you?" Dad thought about taking him to the
hospital to get checked out! No doubt tomorrow he'll be back to the
other boy we also love. Lately Logan has been quite good at showing
empathy and helping his sister(s) out (albeit tormenting from both sides
does continue). For instance, today, while riding bikes to a
playground, Delenn wanted her water bottle. Logan knew she couldn't get
it out of the holder by herself, so he ran over to get it out for
Delenn. Delenn screamed for him to stop as she wanted to do it. He
stopped and didn't move forward. Then, after Delenn gave up in
frustration at trying to get the bottle out, she asked for help and
Logan then moved closer (after having waited for her to ask for help)
and he summarily pulled it out and handed it to her.

After getting back from watching Mom's field hockey game, Daddy asked
Delenn to please take off her shoes and socks. Surprisingly she did so
(with some help), but when asked to please put her socks in the laundry
basket, she made a modification to her repeatedly used phrase "I'm too
dizzy" (you know, the one mentioned a few weeks ago that is done in a
slow southern style drawl whenever she doesn't want to do something)
Instead, her reply this time (in the slow southern drawl), "I'm tooooo
busy!"

These days Elora goes even more wild than ever when put down in her
little overhanging activity center floor mat. She bats and kicks and
coos at everything, sometime clinging on to an item, and sometimes
getting frustrated when she doesn't understand how to let it go. Today
Logan and Dad were cheering her on as she desperately tried to turn over
to get at something she could just see that was lying down off a bit to
the right of her head. So close, yet so far away. She really is a
happy babe, especially when outside and being rocked in our 3-seat
rocker. Then she'll give plenty of smiles, or she'll go right back down
to sleep. She also seems to not be too upset by noise. We went to
listen to a friend's band play music (it was a celebration of our
friend, Danny's, just completed CD album) Elora never got upset or
batted an eye the entire time :-)

Logan and Delenn watch Mom play hockey

Book Time Pictures

We posed for some pictures just after we finished reading
books this afternoon. Logan took the picture of me and Elora.

Masks Made for Kindermusik

Yesterday Logan and Delenn made masks for Kindermusik. They
were supposed to make a bird's mask. Delenn decided she wanted
to paint hers and then she decorated it with feathers. Logan wanted to
make a bat mask instead. Since bats can fly we figured that was okay.
He painted a mask and wings.

Logan and Delenn build a cubby house

"This is like a maze," Logan wants me to write. "It has a
super dark part." Then he darted off to his room to grab
the comforter off his bed to make it even darker!

Delenn fell asleep during Quiet Time

This was the first time in weeks she has napped. She had
crawled into the space in front of her bed where we keep
her stuffed animals and snuggled up for a snooze!

Jet plane is loaded with suppies...

and Logan and Delenn are ready for take-off!

Activities at Home

This morning we decided to make dioramas. Above Logan
is painting a night scene, while Delenn paints a day background.
Then we made oatmeal cookies together. All the while Elora
had a very long nap in her crib (for the first time!). Up until
now she has slept in her little reclining chair during the day.

The Finished Products

Logan drew, colored and cut out the planets in the sky. The
moon was made by gluing oatmeal to it. His has a hanging
kite, bat and space shuttle (which he made for Kindermusik
last week). His shuttle can move up and down. Delenn
decorated hers with butterfly stickers, a kite and a bird.

The kids were eager to play with them and were upset that
it was already bed time. We finished them up this evening
because we spent all afternoon (12:30 until 4:00) at a meeting
for Mommy. She's doing a two-day training session to be
a certified Kindergym leader. If not for the crockpot we
wouldn't have had dinner tonight!

Rock Climbing at Emily Gap

On Sunday morning we (Daddy and Logan) went
rock climbing with Mark, Jesse, Melissa and their
kids. Above Mark and Jesse are setting up the ropes.
The kids just clambored around the base as they waited.
Logan and Daddy did a climb. Then Logan did another
climb with Jesse. Unfortunately Logan and Daddy
had to rush home as Mommy had her first soccer
game around lunch time.

Jesse Climbs up With Logan

Mark belayed as Logan and Jesse scaled the cliff at Emily Gap.

Repelling Down the Cliff

Logan at Gymnastics

Logan Draws an X-Wing

Logan did a couple of drawings during Quiet Time today and
wanted me to post them on the website for everyone to see.

Logan's First Soccer Game

Play Dough

After a lovely play with friends this morning here
at the house, the kids spent time making things
with Play Dough while Mom cleaned up.

Delenn and Logan

Elora

Elora is really becoming her own little person. She's becoming
stronger every day. For example, she managed to sit in the chair
without being propped up with pillows for this brief photo shoot!

In the next photos you can see how well she holds her head
up when she's on her tummy.

I don't think we ever mentioned her strawberry; she has a
prominent one on her back.

Elora and her Strawberry

Logan Jumps on the Math Mat

Logan on the Swing in our Yard

DingoDen Update (Elora 10 weeks, Delenn 2 1/2, Logan over 4 1/2)

Today (Sunday, April 6th), Elora turned 9 weeks old. Everyone comments
how big she has gotten. She's begun to fill out to look like a proper
baby rather than a newborn. Her legs, for example, are plump with cute
little folds rather than the scrawny little stick legs she was born
with. The biggest changes though are in her awareness of her own body
and of her surroundings. She has beautiful smiles for the people in her
view. And just in the last week or so she has begun to coo. If Mom or
Dad does a sing-songy coo at her, she'll repeat the sound. She also has
better control of her arms and legs and spends hours during the day
hitting at her mobiles on the play mat or kicking the toys in her
chair. Last week she slept lots at night -- as I recall, she even slept
one night from 10:30 until 5am. Her sleeping habits are just a little
more routine. She seems to enjoy/need to spend time with the folks in
the evening after the big kids have gone to sleep. She won't settle and
go to sleep until she nestles into bed right next to Mom.

Mom has had an ample (overly ample!) milk supply for Elora. As a
consequence, Elora takes in large amounts of milk (often spluttering on
the copious amounts). As you might imagine, she burps much more than
the others ever did. Luckily Elora waves her arms like a windmill to be
burped.

As you'll see from pictures, Elora has not lost the dark brown hair she
was born with. Instead, she has very white-blond roots! A reverse dye job!

Last week Daddy had to go into work (March 31). This was after having three weeks off for paternity leave. The kids definitely missed him and would ask throughout the day where he was.

Logan had his last day at the Steiner School kindy (preschool) on
Thursday (April 3). He enjoyed the party, but since he never settled in
we decided it'd be easier to have him home. In the mornings when it was
time to go off to kindy, Logan would say he didn't want to go. It
always took some convincing to get him to go -- and then once we were
there he wouldn't let Daddy or I leave. To be honest, Daddy and I are
happy with the decision too. Logan's much happier and more settled.
Now we're truly homeschoolers.

APRIL 16th:

I said I'd get back to writing this blog entry -- and well over a week
has gone by!)

Logan continues to do well with his reading. He's gone through about 50
or 60 small readers (Bob Books, Animal Antics and some generic readers
we bought) -- which mostly still entail short 3-5 letter words. He's
trying hard to read words whenever we're out and about. As for other
"schoolish" kinds of things we do -- I'd say we excell at "recess" and
"free play." Just where we should be as a preschooler, right?! You
think I'm kidding, but with Elora in the picture now it's harder to find
too much one-on-one time. We still read lots of books. Often we'll read a book or two during snack time. We always read for about a half hour before "Quiet Time." And we also read for about a half hour before bed. Daddy excells at telling wonderful stories as well. He takes the kids on "Logan and Delenn" adventures (that usually has them zooming off on a star fighter while tending to or bringing along some kind of animal... a few nights ago it was puppies, tonight it was a rabbit.) If Elora is awake, she shares in 'book time' as well, sitting in Mommy's lap as we all read together.

I'd say I get about fifteen to twenty-five minutes of quality alone-time with Logan and Delenn. Logan does quite a variety of things, but generally only one thing per day. For example,
we've read science books (funny kid's books on the skeleton or blood or
volcanoes, etc.), done math (working with an abacus mainly --
recognizing the double digits and sliding that number of beads over (65,
27) or doing simple addition (2+3, 4+5) -- again using the abacus. Our
current lapbook is on bats, but this will probably be a work in progress
for several weeks! I try to take the kids outbush or somewhere a bit
different once a week or so. Last Saturday we went to the Desert Park.
We were going to go to Emily Gap earlier this week but got sidetracked
with the starfighter play in the backyard so went on a picnic instead.

As a cute aside -- Logan wanted to play in the dark and we closed all
the windows and shutters and doors to the house to make it as dark as
possible. Before playing the 'ghost' game, Logan proclaimed, "Wow, this
is as dark as a dead rat!" Don't know where that came from, but now
Daddy can't help but think of things being as dark as a dead rat anymore.

Last week Logan started playing soccer. He was very excited. Daddy is
his coach for the Under 6 team (he coaches 7 kids; 4 kids play at a time
in the soccer games). Mom is the assistant coach. Practices are
Wednesdays at 5pm. Luckily Delenn and Elora have been splendid the
first two practices so Mom was able to help out 97% of the time. With
so many exuberant kids it definitely takes two adults (if not more with
the parents that get roped into helping!) It was funny watching the herd
move up and down the field in our first little practice soccer game.
Games against another team will be on Saturday mornings (11:30am).

As for Delenn's special time with Mommy -- has usually been "doll house"
(as we mentioned in the pictures). Sometimes Mommy brings in other
things (like puzzles, beads, etc.) and we talk about colors, letters (on
the blocks) or whatever, but mostly we just play together. Delenn can
identify about 10 letters or so (has been singing the alphabet song for
ages) and can count easily up to 12 -- and sometimes to 20.

Lest you worry that Elora is not getting quality Mom time, she is with me during "Quiet Time" and I revel in the smiles and coos she shares with me then. Daddy and I enjoy alone time with her when the older kids go to bed as well.

Delenn often calls Logan 'Boy'. Like, she'll say in the morning, "Eat
your cereal, boy", or "Come on boy, let's go outside" and she'll always
put an strong emphasis on the word boy (as if she was talking down to
her 'boy' slave). Also, she uses the word dizzy a lot for anytime she
doesn't want to do something. Like when it's cleanup time and Daddy
asks her to help, sometimes she'll get up and put the back of her hand
against her forehead, while feigning a womanly fainting spell, and say
aloud, "I'm dizzy" or "I'm too dizzy" in a slow southern drawl.
Anything to get out of something.

A few weeks ago Daddy severely sprained his ankle which means that he
will not (cannot) play soccer this season. That leaves Mom pretty busy
with hockey games on Saturday late afternoons and soccer on Sundays.
Daddy is a real trooper taking on all three kids (and a bottle of
expressed milk on hand in the fridge). Mommy is SO happy to have the
outlet to run around and think only of chasing a ball around for a
couple of hours! Mom also still plays (oboe) in the Alexandria
Quartet. That has been quite fun lately as we've been learning a number
of new pieces (Haydn, JS Bach, Berlioz, among others). We have a concert
coming up at the end of May.

Get Ready to Blast Off!

Logan and Delenn continue to enjoy their imaginative play
outside in the back yard. Logan is about to enter his rocket
ship. They played star ships for more than an hour before we
headed off for Kindergym this morning. After Kindergym
we went to a playground and had a picnic at the park. It
was a full, busy morning!

Will you play doll house?

At the end of Quiet Time Delenn almost always asks Mommy if
she'll play doll house. Yesterday, Delenn and Mommy had to go
to the grocery store. We built one out of blocks, loaded it with
food and then Maggie (Delenn's doll) had buy the food.

In today's adventures (pictured above), Delenn is building a
corral for the animals. After that the dolls headed to the
playground where they played hide-and-seek, tag, went down
the slide and so forth. Elora looked on. A while later Logan came
in upset that he had missed the fun of "hide-and-seek." He
was relieved to hear that just the dolls were hiding!

Elora looks on

Elora watched Mommy and Delenn playing doll house. She
had fun with Delenn's pet penguin (that is until Delenn realized
she was holding it and said she needed a turn!)

Quiet Time for Logan

"That's me playing star fighters" says Logan.

Daddy and Elora

Daddy and Elora spend some quality time together after work.

Soccer Season Has Begun!

Last Wednesday, April 9th Logan and Daddy had their first
soccer practice. Daddy is the coach for Logan's "Under 6" team.
Logan enjoyed it so much that he has been asking every day
whether it's time for soccer practice again. It's great to see
him so excited and enthusiastic!

Flying Kites at the Claypans

We spent the morning out at the claypans with
Bradon, Seth, and Connell. The kids had a
wonderful time riding bikes and flying kites.
The weather was beautiful (high 80s) and we
all came back home quite tired after running
around so much! Top two pictures are of
Bradon (left) and Logan. The third picture is
Seth flying his kite. The last picture is of Logan's
batman kite -- he just loves Batman these days!
Below is another picture of Logan followed by one
of Delenn with buckets.

Delenn had a great time flying her Dora kite, but unfortunately
I didn't get any pictures of her. I must have been preoccupied
with Elora.

Biking Out at the Claypans

More biking pictures

Logan is on the orange bike with training wheels. Bradon
is on the red bike. Seth is on the tricycle in the last picture.

Elora Models her Dark-Haired Mohawk

You can't see it yet, but she has blond roots!!

Playing Doll House

Mommy went in to spend some quality time with Delenn playing
doll house, but Logan decided he wanted to play as well. Here we've
created a hotel and restaurant that the family flew to in an airplane.
Soon after this, Logan decided that he was going to pilot a star fighter
that would fly around the house trying to get the "bad guys."

Logan writes a book about a star fighter

Logan drew the pictures and Mom wrote the story as he dictated it to her.

Logan, Delenn and Elora

All Smiles

Elora charms us with her social smiles. Sunday, April 6th
(She just turned 9 weeks old. In addition to impressing
us with her smiles we also delight in her coos and are
impressed with her batting and kicking abilities! She
enjoys making her hanging toys move around.)

Pretend Play -- Star Fighters

Logan and Delenn built star fighters. Logan's destination was
the Bat Cave (as most days he dresses up in his batman costume).
Delenn, on the other hand, was heading for the Princess Palace. (4/6)

Delenn Plays Hide and Seek

Do you think Daddy found her??!

Mom and Elora

Logan took these photos. I haven't cropped them or anything!
This shows life with #3. Elora spends lots of time in the sling!

Just Hanging Out

Delenn and Elora hanging out together (4/2)

Elora Fell Fast Asleep...

and Daddy dared not move or she'd wake up! (4/1)