tawbubby

We got out today to bike a couple of times around a pond.   Some more pictures are here: biking!

The approach looked good, but was very snowy when we got down to the path.  We had to scramble a bit to get to pavement.  3/4 of the trail was bikable.

A water and granola bar break.  Daphne has figured out the coordination of bike pedals and did really well yesterday going back and forth on our front walkway at our house!

Amelia is a pretty good rider.  She has some muscles in her legs.  Her training wheels are slightly above her regular back wheel, so she rides leaning to one side or the other.  Which makes her off balance on a curve.  She took two tumbles.

She said she would wear knee pads and elbow pads when we take off the training wheels, when she is “much much older”.

Daphne is our brave one.  She does things like put her head under the running fawcet!

And help wash the cars on a (really nice) February day.  Amelia wanted nothing to do with it!

We gave Amelia a science kit for Christmas.  We have done some little experiments with paper airplanes, air, and the spectrum.  We started a longer term The Cress Garden experiment this morning.  You grow some seeds on a wet paper towel for several days, and watch them.  So, we made a chart to track her observations.

Her observations for today were:
2/20/10 Saturday

“A seed is like a speck but it grows”  and

“It looks like seeds are made from wood”

She remembered I won a little light up magnifying glass at a workshop, and asked for it to make her observations.

Will keep you posted on her progress!

2/21/10 Sunday

“The seeds get bigger each day.  Each seed has a little yellow line.  I think they are roots.”

Not bad!  She also noticed a clear goo ball around each seed.

2/22/10 Monday

We forgot to check the seeds this morning before school.  Got back to it before dinner tonight.

Amelia said “Some of them have buds!  They’re green.  Some are fuzzy.”

She drew some tiny ones with a root and a seed case still connected to the new green leaves, and I showed her how to draw an enlarged image of the fuzzy part of the root.

The science went haywire, and with a flick of the wrist, ended up all over her and the floor.

She was squealing and squirming like BUGS! were on her.  I told her it was just like vegetables, called her Daddy in to see her squealing and squirming, but it didn’t really help.  Pretty hilarious.  All was salvageable and maybe we’ll even grow new and more interesting things from stuff on our floor that got into the dish.

2/21/10 Tuesday

We had a lot of green stuff tonight.  She found some numbers tonight.  She counted 6 leaves on one of the stems, and measured one entire plant at 1 1/2 inches, or about 4 cm.  She couldn’t understand what a centimeter was, but had no problem with inch.

She said “A bunch more leaves turned green! (please put an exclamation mark there) There are more leaves on the seeds and roots.  Maybe the seeds are glued to the paper towel.  (she tried to pull one off, successfully) Hey, the fuzz feels a little slimy.”

The girls have been taking gymnastics.  This was a pretty fun trick for today: Amelia sat on this foam thing, and then rocked back to help learn how to do a back flip.

I love to watch Amelia swinging on the rings, too.

Daph didn’t get to go to gymnastics today, with strep case #2.  But here are some pictures of her from a couple weeks ago (the day we discovered strep case #1, actually!) climbing an inflatable slide.

We hadn’t been there in a while, and she couldn’t climb the slide herself last time.  Very cool for her.

The reward.

Lots of love and lots of candy makes the world go round!

Daph loving all the red!

Amelia’s conversation ‘heart’

Reading the map

This kid…she is so much fun.  She loved the latest batch of snow.

She became a Kid Who Can Sled By Herself.  No surprise, given how much she loves a slide at a park.  She outlasted her sister by 30 or 45 minutes in our first round of sledding, through the snow that was still falling from the sky (onto her eyelashes- so beautiful!).

We made four sled runs down our front yard.  Every time she climbed back up the (small) hill, she would say “I have to use my climbing muscles.  I climb!  I climb! I climb!”

Crazy Kamikaze Amelia really got into sledding head first.  It was fine because we had so much soft snow the first day.  Sort of ok on the second day because there was still a lot of snow.

Tonight she wanted to sled down our neighbor’s backyard head first- with one small pop over a snow pile which would land her in a creek- so I didn’t let her.  She is so fun.

Sometimes they sledded together.  Here, the saucer was toppling and Amelia lost Daphne!  I love this shot.

We spent a lot of time sledding with a kid on our  laps.  Ending in a pile of snow and human. I love how they make us 30 years younger.  Until we are so sore the next day and they are not.

We made snow sundaes with syrup and rainbow sprinkles, reminding Amelia of our trip to Grannie and Grampy’s last year.

The girls and their Daddy the super sled run maker!  He made our best and fastest track and many grilled cheeses and hot cocoas.

Those sweet feet.

The girls had their own ballet practice today since we had a snow day.   It was two hours of mostly “Mama, watch me!”  They danced to Amelia’s Nutcracker record.

My girls are so different.  This one is so much drama (and gorgeous!)…

and always has an inner story going on…

And this one is pure joy, everything on the surface.

This one is for Aunt Melissa.  Remember leaping over the row of shoes with Mrs. Mole?

Amelia enjoyed dancing with her shadow.  And I might have let her try her tap shoes on our wood floors.  She has some tricks I didn’t know about!

Dance class always ends with Dead Bug!

I liked Dead Bug much better than 4 Corners.  According to Amelia’s 4 Corners rules, the teacher never says the same corner number twice, and therefore, the game never ends!  She goes to the corner I just called, each time.

Daphne’s just getting started.  She’s really cute.  But, I really can’t believe how well Amelia moves her lanky limbs.  Maybe this is normal, but this is not her parents.