School!

 

 

Nina has started all day PreK and while she seems to like it, she does have her ups and downs.  She gets to play a lot and gets to do her art, but it is a long day.  She puts in about a 9 hour day and eats breakfast and lunch there.  She has memorized her pin number for meals and has figured out other nuances of school.  The first day after school she wanted to journal about it in a book with prompts that Kara got for her.

We've had a few chances to get out during our busy weeks.  The library, the final pool run, a concert on the lake, and a trip with family to the zoo have been entertaining escapes.  The girls like to play together a bit more these days with hide and seek, legos, duck-duck-goose, and Simon Says.  Our new favorite quote happened when Nina said, "Hey Pip, let's play Simon Says, I'll be Simon."  Pip responded, "Okay, I'll be Says, I get to say all the words!"

This weekend, we walked for Uncle Mike to help raise money to cure pancreatic cancer.  He is a tremendous person and it was an honor to walk alongside so many people who care about him.

Summer through Nina's eyes

Nina has been taking photos with her fisher price camera on and off most the summer and it's been funny to see what moments she captures.  From going through her memory game one by one, to photographing shoes, to a picture of every DVD she can find, she can get into it.  We just now uploaded her 472 photos, which sadly meant she has deleted over 600, some of which were pretty good.  We haven't edited any, but you can see she improves a bit as time went on.

Ben starts school tomorrow, and Nina will start PreK on Friday.  We ended summer in classic fashion with 2 trips to the park with the neighbor boys, swimming for over an hour, an ice cream run, grilling out, and just playing outside.  Today Nina played a doctor/nurse, with her doctor tools and a keyboard to type the information in.  Pip played "yoga," which mostly consists of rolling herself up in the mat and shouting that she's a taco.  When Nina pretends to eat the taco, much screaming and laughing ensues. A new addition to the backyard is the argiope spider that is serving as our new watchdog.  Nina took some photos and I added one as well.

Finishing strong

Our summer is coming to a close, but we've still got our foot on the gas.  We've gone to pools, parks, museums, birthday parties, stores, school, and sporting events.  It's been a wonderful summer and we are feeling extremely fortunate to spend as much time together as we do while they're rapidly growing up.

Both sides of the lake

Portraying each character from "Inside Out"   -------   Growing too fast

We went to Nina's open house and she seems excited to start full-day preK.  Pip also enjoyed being there, so that could make for some interesting drop-offs with her in tow.  They do like to play together, but Pip seems to understand that she's one of the big kids now at daycare.  A funny back and forth between the girls today went like this:
Nina: "Let's play Simon Says, I'll be Simon."
Pip:  "I'll be Says.  I get to say the words."

 

"Are you serious?"     ----    Nina said, "look, I can draw curse words."

Nina's sketch of mom and Pip at Como

  

We took our annual trip to see the Saint Paul Saints play a game, but this time at the new stadium.  It was gorgeous, and they kept their crazy charm of a pig in a tutu, massages from a nun, awful karaoke, and games between each half-inning.  The girls won bags of chips and had a fun time seeing all the action.  Pip cleaned every seat in our row in a wet wipe and cheered hard from her favorite, yellow seat.

And college football is back

Don't look behind the curtain

As our summer is drawing to a close and we have some time to reflect, we see that we are extremely blessed.  With good health, steady jobs, and a fun place to live, we feel very fortunate and typically focus on these concepts when blogging.  But there is another side to our time with the girls that doesn't get published, but is a daily grind.  The girls are not always happy, nor are they always nice, and we don't always respond in the best way.  Raising kids can be frustrating, especially when you're doing exactly as they request and they're still unhappy.  From potty training failure, to occasionally refusing to respond to family members & friends, to the physical altercations, the girls definitely have their moments.

While both girls have strategies to dealing with their anger and frustration, it sometimes boils over.  Pip screams and yells a lot, but is quick to tell Nina, "when you whine, you get nothing."  She often will cry "that hurts my feelings" when she feels she's been wronged, and even when she wrongs others.  Pip's newest coping mechanism is to color a picture for you and say she's sorry.  Nina mostly curls up in the fetal position or goes to her room to cry whenever she feels she's being mistreated or whenever she's done something wrong.  She tries to compose herself, but needs some time away.  She then will try to come back and do something light-hearted to show her change in attitude.  She occasionally takes to art with her frustration as well, and will even draw angry pictures from time to time.