Yes, January brings two birthdays in our house. Our little Capricorns rounded out the multiples of 3 in our house, with Ivy turning 3 and Leif turning 9.
First there was Ivy's birthday. She asked for a heart-shaped chocolate cake with 7 candles on it. "Not 3 because you'll be turning 3?". "No, seven candles". Okay.
Then there was Leif's.
Hannah decorated it and made the birthday banner. She'd intended to write Happy Birthday on it, but when she brought it back to me she'd written "Shoot Your 9" which I think is hilarious. It can be either a curse or an exclamation. She made it herself so it rocks either way!
Leif was most excited to purchase his much-sought-after road hockey goalie helmet. Now he's set (but who to play with?).
Hannah worked really hard to make both birthdays fun for her sibs. She made gifts for each of them (Leif's pizza necklace and Ivy's Owl book) and helped bake their cakes and get things ready. What an awesome sister. She is really stepping out as her own person these days. You can see new aspects of her personality developing and her sense of who she is, seperate from her brother. Wahoo.
This week has been a week of getting back into the swing of things. Aikido and soccer started up again, as well as skating lessons. The kids are still working on the same skating level as before, having mastered some skills while others still need some work.
Leif's aikido classes are really challenging him to trust his Senseis, to push himself to try new things and better understand his aikido practice.
We picked up some great building blocks in Portland and spent lots of time this week building great things.
Leif's love of hockey has led to an introduction to the internet. He can now navigate his way to find the weekly game highlights and check scores on recent games. Hannah has finished Machinarium (I've told you guys about this way cool computer puzzle right?) and is now on a mom-imposed computer break.
We've gotten into a new cartoon series called Martha Speaks (thanks Peg and Mark!). I find it hilarious and the kids learn great words to add to their vocab, so it's a win-win. It's about a dog who eats alphabet soup and is now able to talk. It's been nice to find something truly cool for kids, and we appreciate the grandparents who tape it for us. :)
We've been finding time for lots of road hockey these days. Leif is in goal (of course) and Hannah gives him a real challenge as she shots tough shots into tricky corners. We've known Leif loves hockey, but Hannah is really good at it! Go little sister!
Kit has been working on the front patio this week. Hannah really enjoys helping him with it, and it's great to see her interested in his work and happy to lend a hand.
I found a great book series for Hannah called Ivy and Bean. She really likes the stories and we've worked our way through 4 of the 6 books in the series. I hope we can latch onto something equally entertaining when we're done. Perhaps I can motivate Hannah to ask the children's librarian for a recommendation.
Now that we've stopped reading Harry Potter Leif spends all his time memorising stats from his hockey magazines. It's incredible the trivial stuff he knows about the teams and players.
I've taken the plunge and hired a homeschooling teen to come and hang out with Ivy a few afternoons a week, so I can take the big kids skating and swimming, and be free to give them all my attention while we're there. It's been hard to juggle the needs of all three, and either entertain Ivy while the other two are in classes or deny the bigger ones an activity because it's too hard to do with Ivy along. I felt bad at the idea of singling her out of these new outings, but we couldn't do them with her, and she'll be getting much-needed one-on-one time anyway. Let's hope it all works out. :)
And this month we MUST get started on our goal of learning Japanese. Exactly *how* we'll learn it is still up in the air, but we at least need to try. Suggestions are most welcome. :)
C
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