Christmas

We had a very busy and wonderful Christmas celebration. We went to friends' house for Xmas Eve, opened presents with Grandma and Papie in the morning, served lunch to people in an elderly home across the street, and hosted 13 adults and 6 kids for dinner at our place. We enjoyed all of it!

The kids were surprised with bikes (the above picture with their eyes covered) and happy to receive more princess attire and airplanes. They picked out presents for each other and made paintings and books for the grandparents. We have all enjoyed our advent/12 days of Christmas candles, readings and hymns at night. Arthur sings Away in a Manger and Go Tell it on the Mountain in his sweet high yet raspy voice, and Adaline serenades us with a new original song and story afterwards. We are not ready for the Christmas season to end, but we hope to have an Epiphany party when it does. Merry Christmas!

You've been X-ed!

Adaline loves art. She can't pass by a marker or a pen or even a piece of paper without stopping to draw. I think she would prefer to draw and paint most of her waking hours (if she didn't have a brother who would prefer to play with her all of his waking hours). She processes the world through drawing. Often when we are out, she observes something and immediately asks me if I have something to draw with. She enjoys a sight briefly and then needs to get it on paper.(Granted, many drawings tend to end up as a princess or girl...as if everything she sees in the world becomes a muse for another pretty lady. Her subject matter is fairly narrow at this point.)

A recent development is Adaline using art to express her emotions...namely anger. When she gets angry at you for any number of reasons, she stomps away and huffs. Soon she returns with a piece of paper. She angrily hands it over to you and leaves with more stomping and huffing. The picture reveals everything: a drawing of the person in question with a large "X" over them. You mess with Adaline: you get X-ed.

If you're lucky, she "hearts" and "flowers" you after a brief separation. It's her artistic interpretation of forgiveness, I guess.

It was very fun to be with my dad the artist because he set the kids up in his studio to paint with stuff I'll never have in our apartment (pictures below). At one point the kids were on top of a huge drawing they were working on together. Some sort of argument took place, followed by mutual life-size X-ing out of each other, and resolved in hearts and flowers. They rushed to tell me the good news (that they forgave each other without my intervention). I wish all conflict resolution was that easy! Processing anger through art is much more calm than the hair-pulling and hitting that usually occur around here. Maybe I should market the "X" technique...for adults as well as children?

Both kids want to be an artist when they grow up after their experience with "Pa." (Although, they currently want to be a Rockette after going to a show--see pics on Jamison's blog.)

Reunions

Friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents...it was great to be reunited with those we love!

Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West

And just for fun...my family as the Wizard of Oz characters when I was a young Dorothy.

Double Trouble

One is trouble at home. One is trouble at school. I guess they have decided to divide and conquer in their spheres of influence.

Arthur: Trouble at home. Wow this boy knows how to test his parents. He's a smart kid who sets his mind to something and refuses to let go. That can manifest itself in positive ways (loves challenges and learning, steadfast and loyal and loving) and negative ways (still throws tantrums over any small thing if it is against his desire). The boy can't take no for an answer. And we never give in. I'm not saying we're perfect--I'm just saying that we have been consistently just as stubborn as him in refusing to give in to his protests. Yet he still hasn't learned to let go. I guess we just continue to hope that he matures into a person with the positive aspects of this characteristic. And he really is a delight when he's free of negative attention and doing something that he enjoys. He sort of has a double personality (as if we need more double language in this post).

Adaline: Trouble at school. I'm informally in perpetual parent-teacher conferences. Arthur is the model student. Adaline, not so much. She is officially the trouble-maker. They have introduced new discipline procedures for Adaline's unruliness (really just a behavior modification reward system). She orders her friends around--uses "teacher" words instead of kid words. She talks back to her teachers and argues with them. She has to be separated from her partner-in-crime J***. (As a side note--the kids are in a special needs school in an integrated classroom. They are supposed to be a component in preparing these special needs kids for regular kindergarten. J*** is one of these kids, and she is succeeding in misleading rather than encouraging him. I'm wondering if they might kick her out of Pre-K--Ha!) Adaline is a dream at home though. Well, maybe not a dream, but very easy. She just flits around in her own world, making up princess dramas and is generally an extremely happy child. I think the structure of school is going to go against her free spirit. Better get used to it, kid.

Everyone says that you never get a break when it comes to twins. And why should you? It's double the fun.



*These pictures are from our recent camping trip with friends. Very fun!

City Cats

Our kids are obsessed with cats. Obsessed. Everything is about meowing and taking kitty for a walk and feeding kitty. They have actually tried to meow through an entire worship service. I've tried to explain to them that if they were cats they would just sleep all day and eat the same nasty food everyday. No such luck changing the annoying kitty voices.

I know I'm supposed to encourage imaginative behavior, but for how long? They've been cats for 6 months. I need something new. Dogs, bunnies, anything. Jamison has tried to get them to be fish, but it hasn't caught on. Well, at least they're cute all painted up as kitties.

Has it really been 2 months??

No wonder my family members have been nagging me about my lack of blogging. I had no idea that it has been 2 months. Oops! I guess we've been busy...
This summer "pop-up park" was genius. Fish tacos and beer by the East River with an enormous sandbox to entertain the kids while we enjoy the view...and perfect weather both times we went.
Rock sliding in Central Park.
First day of school!! We only have a 4-block walk to school. The kids go from 8:30 to 11 every day. They really enjoy their school...and I have somehow managed to enjoy my time without them. (Ha!)
Gazing up at their new school--trying to spot the rooftop playground.

The bigger adjustment than starting school is that they are in separate classrooms. Adaline has enjoyed her new freedom, but Arthur is struggling as was expected. I thought that he would express his loss in being sad or not wanting to go to school. Instead, he is angry and fights more with his sister. He is even more demanding of her--expecting her to play whatever he wants and unwilling to accept her refusals. He just chases her around screaming, "You're stupid! You're hateful! You hurt my feelings!" Try explaining that to the other parents at the playground.

Adaline pretends to be oblivious to his frustrations. I think she enjoys this additional power that she has over him. I'm fumbling around trying to correct both of their issues. I'm hoping that it all mellows out eventually because I'm not proving to have much wisdom in dealing with this. This is stretching them in new ways, and I think it is good for them to grow up a little. The Galt Twin Team is breaking up a little for the first time--sad, but necessary.
Oh, did I mention that my mom took me to Brasil to visit my aunt (pictured here)...10 days without the kiddos to fuel me up for the Fall! Can I do that every season?

Camping in the Catskills

We went on a two-night camping trip in the Catskill Mountains last week. We booked the most perfect campsite for summer camping with kids---boat rentals, lake swimming, remote hike-in campsites...we will definitely be returning to Little Pond Campground.

We do hope that our next stay will be free of some of the difficulties of this trip...namely RAIN. And we should probably purchase a couple more sleeping bags and a larger tent. Night 1: Suffocated under the rain shield with four wiggly bodies in a 2-man tent (translation: more like 1 1/2 person tent). Night 2: Opted out of the tight rain shield for air flow and instead fought for the 2 sleeping bags to stay dry and warm. Oh, and did I mention that we had NO food the first night because the closest grocer was closed? And we got delayed more by an electrical storm and had to set our tent up in the "lighter" rain at 9:30pm--dark. Yet we still had so much fun! We must have been desperate for some outdoor time.

The highlight of the trip for me was a 2.6 mile mother/daughter hike. My daughter hiked the whole time except for me carrying her 3 minutes through the mud on the way down! We forgot our hiking backpacks, so we didn't do any major hiking as a family. Adaline was begging to hike, so I took her for what I thought would be 15 minutes up and down the mountain. But she was a rock star. She kept saying, "I just can't stop. It's just too beautiful!" I agreed with her and we kept going--1.3 miles up the mountain. Finally I insisted on us turning around because I knew the trip down in the mud would be difficult. But she never complained the whole time. ---Now why can't I get her to walk a whine-free block from our house when I need her to??


Our camp site--fairly far away from others, lots of woods to play in, and right on the lake.
We broke the rules a little and left our kayak at our campsite overnight. The early a.m. kayaking great. We had the pond to ourselves most of the trip.
On the way home, we enjoyed a 2-day visit with our friends on vacation at a beautiful house. I had so much fun playing in the creek by the house. I could have stayed down there all day catching fish and swimming in the waterfall. It is so much fun vacationing with other families because your kids get to play together during the day and being trapped in the house at night is fun when there are others to party with.

Check out my adventurous daughter swimming towards the waterfall (she has a flotation device):
If I ever have to leave the city, send me straight to the woods with a creek and I think I'll be happy. I seem to like the extremes--urban or rural. They do have something major in common: no driving. The ideal plan for me is to live in the city and have a vacation home in the woods...ok, i know. It's only a dream...

Block Party

I always look forward to our annual block party when they shut down our block from traffic and we get to play in the street. We've met so many of our neighbors during this event. This year the spraying fire hydrant was a great surprise, especially since it was a nasty hot day. Summer fun!

4th Birthday!

We had a great 4th birthday party in the park. 13 friends plus younger siblings came and celebrated with us. The cake was a treasure chest that "cracked" when it hit the ocean floor (actually it fell apart in transit from New Jersey). It was still a beautiful cake with jewels and such--thanks to Aunt Glenda.

The highlight of the party was the treasure hunt that I planned and daydreamed about for weeks. I'm tempted to scan the maps just to prove how much I love my kids, but I won't. (It was a little embarrassing how much effort I put into it!) Actually, I just had the vision and Jamison's aunt drew the maps. Here is a picture of the kids studying their maps to see where to go next:

The parents were happy because the kids got lots of exercise chasing their treasure. (They might not have been happy that they were forced to get exercise along with their kids...)


Unfortunately I did not learn from last year and forgot to get a group picture. One of these days we'll remember...but the kids had a great time and felt loved by all of their friends.
On their actual birthday we went to the Bastille Day street party. Arthur spotted an ice cream truck and Daddy caved.
And last night we went to the Philharmonic performance in the park followed by amazing fireworks. We're done celebrating and going to bed early tonight!

Texas heat

NYC has actually had a few days of warmer weather than Texas...one of the few times that we were happy to be in the Texas heat. We're surviving just fine with plenty of sprinklers and pools and ice cream. And you can't beat the air conditioning in Texas--they do everything bigger and better! We're all having a blast here.

"Gone Daddy Gone"

Daddy is gone. He has been out of town this weekend. We miss him when he's gone. The family is not complete, as the kids say.

Arthur has been sick, so we sent Adaline to church this morning with friends while I got some rare one-on-one time with my son. At one point we were doing our separate things--Arthur zoning in on a toy and me in the kitchen. We were listening to Gnarls Barkley (our favorite uplift-the-mood band). He suddenly commented on the lyrics of a song: "Mom, did they say, love is gone? Love is gone away?" Yes. "I don't like that song." OK. Separate time continued.

Seven hours later at dinner, he randomly teared up pleading, "I don't want love to be gone. It can't go away. You can't stop loving me!" He was trembling and genuinely concerned that love could be taken away. I assured him that I would never stop loving him for any reason.

I can't believe how sweet he is! Did he worry all day about that song? Why bring it up 7 hours later? Until that point, all he knew was that Mom and Dad love him and that is true and can't be undone. That is the safe world that he lives in...Until Gnarls Barkley announces that love is gone away, and his world is turned upside down. It's both beautiful and terrifying how much your child's outlook on life is influenced by YOU as a parent.

Arthur told me that we should never listen to that song again. Thankfully he never connected the "love is gone" phrase with the title of the song: "Gone Daddy Gone." That would have really thrown him in a tailspin.