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BIG trouble!

Now the kids want to get into BIG trouble. They want to make Josh get (pretend) mad. Really mad. Aviva wants to get into her pajamas, or get out of her pajamas, or sit on the toilet, or actually pee, or wash her hands - she doesn't want to do these things, and then when Josh tells her not to, she'll do it right away. And while she's doing whatever it is, she's smiling and telling me that Daddy is going to be so mad. She loves this game. They both do.

These are my birthday fingers

Aviva knows that her birthday is in January and she likes to tell people. Anytime she's asked how old she is, she says she's three and her birthday is in January. 

But how many fingers? Five. How old is she? Five. This is how old she is, and her birthday is in January. Granted it is difficult to show three fingers. but she's not getting the correspondence with her fingers and how old she is.

When there's two of something, she shows her two index fingers next to each other to show "two." And she can show "one." Three is tricky, so we've started working on it. 

I showed her how my thumb can hold down my pinky, and what's left is three fingers. That takes a lot of coordination and concentration, and she could sometimes do it but not always. THere was a moment yesterday when she got it, and she showed me three fingers the right way! She said, "Look! They're my birthday fingers!"

Now trouble me!

Josh has been getting Noah to change clothes, by pretending to be mad. Josh says, "Whatever you do, DO NOT get into your pajamas." Then Noah does it and Josh pretends he's mad. It works for getting into pajamas at night and getting out of pajamas in the morning. Noah loves it and tries to do it so fast. Sometimes Josh says, "I want you to get into your pajamas before I count to 10. Do you hear me? That's what I want you to do." And Noah does that so fast also, and gets a kick out of being done before Josh even starts. And then Josh can again pretend to be mad and disbelieving. 

Now Aviva wants to play the same game. This morning she asked, "Daddy I want you to trouble me!" She liked that and got a kick out of "getting in trouble." 

Ha ha ha!

Yesterday, I picked up Noah from school. We were walking back to the car, and he was telling me something about how it was someone's birthday that day, but not Camilo's. He got a goody bag and it had a notebook in it and some stickers and he really liked them. He opened the car door and I helped him get in. I got in and turned the car on, and he started laughing hysterically. 

"Mama!!!!!! Look!!!!" He pointed to his seatbelt, that I had forgotten to fasten. I was distracted with our conversation and I forgot, and this was the funniest thing in the world to him. He was laughing so hard and thought it was so absurd that I would forget to fasten his seatbelt. He was laughing so hard he was panting, and couldn't breathe properly. 

Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park

Returned today from our travels. It's late but kids are sleeping so I can write a little.

Valley of Fire was very cool. We need to investigate the possibility of going there for a long weekend and camping. Zion was also great in a way that national parks are great. Visitor centers, shuttles, lots of signs explaining things, even a short film that gave some history and showed computer animation of geology, which I was hoping for. Valley of Fire was almost quaint, compared to Zion. We liked them both.

We flew in and out of Las Vegas. That was full of flops:

• Overall, Las Vegas is so sad and depressing. Slot machines everywhere. But there was a buffet dinner and I thought that would be great. $16 per person for this huge buffet. Sounds good. But they count children 3 years old and up to be the same as adults. We're either cheap or practical and we skipped it. 
• Our hotel had a pool so we all put on swimsuits and tromped over to the neighboring hotel where the pool is. We were walking down the street, in our swimsuits, and realized that Noah was in his socks. Had such a hard time finding the pool, and walked through so many gaming rooms to finally find it, and there was a sign on the door that said CLOSED 
• Josh got a hotel that was close to a children's museum, and they have a reciprocal membership deal with a science museum we are members of here. So we had a few hours that we planned on going. But the museum told us we'd have to pay full price because our membership card didn't have an "R" on it, and wasn't the right kind of membership
• We went to a playground this morning (which was very cool, with a splash pond and lots of good climby things) and we were sitting on the ground eating. Things were fine for a few minutes and then Aviva started screaming and fussing; she was getting bitten by ants. We swatted them all away and moved, but she still had 30 bites or something. And this was after she ate some bad grapes and threw up. 

But, other than Vegas, things were good. We saw:

• so many flowering cacti and interesting pokey cacti and the desert flowering
• a cool mini-ghost town where there were 5 Mormon families living and they set up a schoolhouse made with adobe bricks they made
• Noah got a Junior Ranger Handbook/Activity Guide for kids 4 years old and up, and it was great for him. It was a little challenging for him but he understood it. He showed the guidebook to a formal guide-person and he answered their questions (about littering and how Zion was formed and other questions) and he got his own little badge. It's wood and pins onto his shirt and he is really proud of it. He's been wearing it for the last 3 days. 

Other notes re: Aviva:

• She's singing to herself throughout the day. Ring around the rosie, the ABC song, Rock-a-bye baby, Wheels on the bus, Old MacDonald... Often she does the hand motions too, if there are some. She does it while we're hiking and when we're walking up the stairs and at breakfast and just about all the time
• She has been asking us to find her: "Where is me?" or "where are me?" and she loves hiding, even if it's behind her hands, and she's still wanting us to count for everything. Throughout the day, I probably count backwards from 5 about 30 times. It's important to her that when I count down, I say "Zero" at the end. She'll usually do whatever it is I"m asking her to do, if I count down. 

Other notes re: Noah:

• There have been several times that Noah corrects me when I"m reading, if I've said the wrong word. At first it was small words like serious/curious, or smiled/sighed, but there are more often more words -- and this is with books that he has read only once or twice before.
• He made up some yoga moves and named them. His favorite one is with two hands and one foot on the ground, and one leg up. He calls this "standup krispie with one finger up" (and it's true; he has one finger up and that's part of the stretch.)
• He asked the other day what is the difference between a pattern and a repeating pattern. Aren't they the same? It's true; there isn't a difference so there's no point in saying "repeating." 
• At one of the hotels there was a breakfast buffet with little plastic containers of fruit cocktail. He was really excited about this and said he's been wanting this for months. 
• He LOVES offering things to people. Rocks and leaves, mostly. He approaches strangers on the street (or on the trail) and asks if they'd like this very special rock that looks like an earplug. Or maybe this stick that looks like the letter T.

Walk the line

With you in mind, they walk the line.

Owe-ee

Weeba discovers that owe-we, aka lovee, still kind of functions as its former use

Yona

Dressed for the occasion

Sand pit

Noah told everyone that we passed on the trail that there was a sand pit at the start of the trail.

Apple does not fall far from the tree

Noah learns about snap crackle pop

Valley of Fire

Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park