Playing Band

Kiva being our angel as usual. she is very sparkly and upbeat. Singing around the house :-) We have been playing "band" with my rhythm sticks, recorders and psaltry....she (and we) are much entertained. [Joan]

EUUUUWWWW

Jack was quite the personality here today. You know his obsession with phones, and we have one that is his. Not connected to the phone system, but it does have a charger so it gives some satisfying beeps and lights. He was playing with it and put it down and forgot where it was. When he started looking for it. I asked him "where is your phone Jack?" and the little genius walks over to the charger, presses the "page" button, follows the beeping sound to the phone under the table and then calmly pushes the correct button to make the phone quit beeping! Now granted, he had been playing with the "page" button, and I had showed him how to turn off the phone beeping, but sheesh! That little cookie is smart!
Then in the afternoon after his nap we went up to the mall and the indoor play area (and the toy store) which he really enjoyed. When we got home he told me he wanted a bath, so upstairs we went. When he was stripped he was kind of swiveling his hips (like Elvis) and looking like he was trying to aim that little water pistol so I asked him if he wanted to go potty. Last week when he took a bath he deliberately peed on my sandals as soon as he got his diaper off. Jack looked interested so I put him on the toilet and he very deliberately peed. It was clearly on purpose! He was sooooo proud and I made a big deal out of it.
This morning Jack ate a good breakfast as soon as he got here...his favorite oatmeal and mango pudding. He didn't eat a huge amount, but a respectable bowl full of each. He was then playing around with us and his toys about an hour later when he quite suddenly stopped, hurried into the kitchen calling "eat, eat, eat" and trying to climb into his chair. I didn't have lunch ready, so warmed up the rest of the oatmeal for him. He couldn't eat fast enough! Jack kept making the sign for more, more, more, until he finished all the oatmeal. He was still signing more, so I got him more mango pudding and he ate that too. It was really funny, like he was struck by lightning...."hey, I'm still hungry!" and just dropped everything to fill up.
Jack is so much fun to have over, and I feel like we are really connecting every time he is here. Lots of playtime and books. Jack seems to feel more comfortable with us every week, and we are falling into routines that all of us enjoy. This morning Ken was drinking his quadruple espresso when Jack walked over and stuck his finger into the foam and took a taste. Jack then made a loud, dramatic, "EUUUUWWWW" sound and walked over to the towel to make a huge big deal about wiping his finger clean. Tooooo funny. [Joan]

Angel

Her little angel self as usual. we went to the mall with Ken to get a bathrobe and after he put Kiva in the car he turned to me and said "she is such a sweet girl". too true. Kiva and I cooked breakfast for the three of us (and her big bunny), scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, mango juice, and she ate heartily. Then playtime, trip to the mall and back for more playtime (we stopped at the mall toy store...what can I say, we have NO will power and she is so adorable). I made her lunch of steak, potatoes, cooked kale and broccoli. She took a few bites and then just ignored it while I was reading to her. I asked her if she wasn't hungry and very tactfully she replied "this isn't really my favorite, Grammie". So I asked her what she did like and amazingly it was more scrambled eggs and toast. So two more eggs went down the hatch. Then nap, ice cream, working in the woodshop with Granpa, working in the garden with me (we put out wool for the squirrels and birds to make nests from, she has some for your place too) and then watching her absolutely favorite movie...Planet Earth. I watch them with her so I can make sure any scary bits are skipped over, although she keeps telling me "I like the scary parts" I tell her that "I don't like them they are too scary for me" and she accepts that. [Joan]

Huge Vocabulary

Jack has an amazingly huge vocabulary! He can't say many of the words, but he understands hundreds. I asked him if he wanted to give Dancer a treat, he immediately ran to the laundry room door and when the door was opened tried to open the right drawer. When given the treat he carefully carried it out the living room and gave it to Dancer.
He is working hard on speaking many of the words too, and gets impatient when I don't understand. Like all good Americans he just says things louder and louder hoping that I will eventually understand.
He also knows what he wants, when he wants it. Jack ate another huge breakfast (fruit and oatmeal) and played with us til around 9. Then he told me "ni ni" and then "ba ba" pointing at the microwave. When I started getting his bottle out he ran to get his little blankie and then sat on the floor and pointed at his shoes saying "off". What a little genius! Also what a little sweetie. Off to bed and he went right to sleep while I of course am taking the opportunity to rest up for the remainder of the day :-).
Jack has learned to make that frowny face work for him too. When something doesn't work (like his cell phone), he tried to make it work and then hands it to me with the frowny face. When I put it in the charger and it starts beeping, he is all smiles. [Joan]

ba ba ni ni

Jack in a great mood, although he does look a little ragged with the sliced forehead and bumped lip. He ate a huge breakfast as soon as he got here...oatmeal and applesauce. He heads for the high chair as soon as he gets here bellowing "eat". I got a bunch of extra snuggling this morning as he came running for cuddles every time the window shook with the wind. At 930 he started demanding "baba ni ni" and is still sleeping now. I expect to hear him any minute and have lunch on standby for him. Jack his usual charming self. So self confident with me and grandpa...I just love it. Ken likes it so much when Jack just climbs up on his chair and snuggles down. [Joan]

A Grand Old Time

All is going well, Kiva napping. She was quite intimidated by all the ladies, so I wound up carrying her on my hip like when she was a baby to keep her close. When Chris arrived they disappeared with the dogs upstairs and then outside. What a sweetie that guy is, he and Kiva had a grand old time with all my buttons, rubber stamps, toys etc. [Joan]

Where did this tomato come from?

Scene: Kiva and I having dinner, she is fully enjoying her chicken as she is asking me lots of questions:

Kiva: Where did this tomato come from?

Mom: A farmer grew it and delivered it to the store, I picked it up from store.

Kiva: How about this mushroom?

Mom: Same as tomato.

Kiva: Where did the chicken come from?

Mom: Well….some people eat animals…interruption from Kiva..

Kiva: WHO EATS ANIMALS????

Mom: Sigh…well our family eats chicken and chicken’s an animal

Some families eat animals, some families choose not to eat animals and that is fine too.

Kiva: Well I LIKE animals, they taste GREAT!! [Vanessa]

Oh, I Love Tofu

We went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I put some of the tofu from the miso soup on Kiva's plate and she said "oh, I love tofu" and ate it right up, using her chopsticks! The waiter had rubber banded them together at one end for her. She wouldn't try the miso soup until I told her it tasted like tofu, then she drank the whole bowl. She was a little sweetie again yesterday, and the grumpy grampa was heard to say last night after she left that she was an "enchanting" child. Kiva ate well, slept well, and we had a long laughing soak in the hot tub in the rain. She has learned many of her letters and I told her that when she knows them all we will do something special, maybe a train ride. Also, I have some lovely Madame Alexander dolls, the characters from Little Women, and I told her when she can read the book the dolls are hers to take home. Kiva really is a very very intelligent little girl even if I am a biased grammie. When we read stories, she will stop me at any word she doesn't know and wait for a definition.
Hope Jack is feeling better and I get to see him today. I really noticed how much he pays attention to his big sister last Wednesday. He is learning a lot by watching and trying to do everything she does. His language is really moving along. When he was finished with his snack on the way home I heard a loud "all gone" from the back seat. [Joan]

The Bad Lotion

Your girl tooooooo funny this afternoon after nap. Kiva played out in the yard while I weeded, Ken worked on his wood stuff, Chris working on his art, dogs romping around. Kiva making the rounds of all of us, visiting, chatting, helping, then moving on.
Later when it was getting late, we were playing on my bed with a bunch of stuffed animals, when she said "I'm going to put some bad lotion on". I was mystified, and said, "I don't think the lotion is bad honey, it looks ok". Kiva answered, "no grammie, it's the kind of lotion that when I put it on I'm bad". So she proceeded to put some lotion on, jump up on the bed and growl, pinch and bite all her animals. Absolutely hilarious. Then she looked at me and said, "I'll put some good lotion on later grammie, then I'll be Kiva again". And later she put some more lotion on and was the good girl again. Where do these little growing brains think of this stuff? When we left the weavers meeting this morning, she said "I didn't know people had white hair grammie, it is very beautiful".[Joan]

Noodle Soup with Mice

Kiva REALLY enjoyed the home made treats (pumpkin delight and chocolate chip cookies) at the meeting, sat quietly with me for about 15 minutes, then colored, then watched her strawberry shortcake dvd. It took her a while to get brave enough to look and move around, but she was just fine. When we went to the bath room, she whispered to me "this is such a nice house grammie". It's a typical 60ish years old widow's house. Lot's of pretty things, flowers, birdhouses, absolutely nothing out of place (not like here) etc. After a while she sat on the bed (right off the living room) and watched her video and played with the dog. Came home, ate our lunch out in the yard, into the hot tub and now she is sleeping.
They are so surprising; Kiva and I were playing with her stuffed toys this morning. She has some stuffed birds and said they were sick. I asked her what I could do for them and she said...make them some soup. I asked her what kind and she said chicken, then no wait grammie, make noodle soup and boil some mice in it for one of them, and boil pine cones for the other one. Hilarious. [Joan]