Jupiter Training

Jupiter is modeling a Cats t-shirt, probably the first time he's worn clothing.  Simone is working on training Jupiter.  So far he can spin with a hand signal (the hand being full of treats).  He was very patient during the photo shoot.

8 Years Ago Today

A little girl was born.  

8 years ago today, I went to bed at 6am, and this morning I woke up at 6am because someone was very excited to be having a birthday.

8 years ago today, we looked out our window to see beautiful roses, blooming in the side yard - and we decided to give Simone the middle name "Rose." Today, Mary and I chopped up the remnants of that rose bush, a victim of the cold snap and snow this winter (sniff sniff).

8 years ago today, we didn't leave home for nearly two weeks, choosing to instead stay at home, getting to know each other.  Today we woke up after returning from a great trip to the beach, and spent nearly the entire day outside of the house, eating special meals and desserts out.

8 years ago today we saw family and friends, and we celebrated the little girl who has come into our lives.  Just like today.

Ice cream with Grandpa...

A sand castle with a swimming pool.

Our chef making a fruit plate (she made the chef's hat too).

Leaping lizards!

Watering the yard, among other things.

Peanut butter pie for the birthday girl!

At the waterfront.

With friends (Astrid and Bodhi).

My gals at dinner.

Downtown Fountain

At some point this summer, Simone and I had a trip down to the fountain.  She played and played, had a grand time.  We chased each other on the grass to dry off, and then finished up with fries and a rootbeer.

Simone is so zen

Caped crusader

A pink burrito underfoot

Finishing with fries and a rootbeer

First Grade

This is the year of first grade.  Yup, Simone began the school year with Mr. Highfield - who will be her teacher through 8th grade if all goes according to plan.  She and 16 other kids are all getting to know each other real well.

Yay, first grade!!!

It's been a little bit of an adjustment, she gets to sit at a desk, which is both exciting and challenging.  She's currently in the "gold" row, and every month she gets a new desk partner.

So far they've gone through a unit of reading/writing and a unit of math, and while she loves reading, she had some resistance to math initially.  It seems as though Mr. Highfield was able to get through that resistance and she had a good time.
Also, she learned to finger crochet, and then made some knitting needles and is now knitting like a mad woman - I think she's knit more than Mary has in the past week.  She's made a scarf for her stuffed animals, a small kitten and a momma cat.  I'm sure she'll soon learn the purl stitch soon.

Snow queen outfit

We had the Halloween celebration just last week, and tomorrow night we have the lantern walk with the 2nd and 3rd grade classes.

Gwinna costume - made by Mary

Early Morning

Everyone was up early this morning. I was the last to rise at 5:20. It's going to be an interesting day. 

Who's Ready For Ski Season?

Simone is!!!!

Question of the day

Jupiter came to our back door tonight, proudly displaying his catch (a small mouse).

Mary ran out and freed the mouse, bringing Jupiter inside. 

Simone asked Mary why Jupiter was so mean, and Mary explained about cats being born to hunt and all that. 

After watching the mouse recover for a while, Simone turned to Jupiter and solemnly asked. "Why do you have kill God's nature?"

Snow and Sun

I haven't skied in years, and Simone has never skied. We changed that a couple of weekends ago when we went to Hoodoo. Mary stayed home because she was feeling under the weather.
We got to Hoodoo at noon, ate a little lunch, got our gear on and headed to the lodge.
The conditions were perfect: no wind, just below freezing, and turned from high clouds to sunny blue sky.
I signed Simone up for the beginner class and left an excited girl in a room of strangers.
I hit the slopes and got in a fun hour and a half before Simone's lesson finished. Hoodoo is so nice - a full day and a half after a 9" dump, I was still able to find little pockets of untracked powder in the trees. It wasn't quite like riding a bike, but it came back pretty quickly.
I checked in on Simone halfway through her lesson - they'd just come outside from the instructions inside - and she was still having fun. I kept Mary updated via text messages.
I skied down to Simone at the end of her lesson to watch a little snowball fight and got the scoop that she was doing great. The lesson only progressed to them walking up a green carpet and sliding down 20 feet of practicing pizza slices and French fries (snow plow and parallel).
I asked Simone if she wanted to ride the lift, and she was game.
I think I was more nervous than Simone about getting on the lift. She hopped up with a little help from me, and as soon as we were up in the air she said, "this is FUN!!!"
We spent an hour skiing down the bunny slope together, and finished with snow angels and and a snowball fight in a huge patch of fresh powder.

Halloween

Simone is often figuring out who she wants to be for Halloween. It might be a pig, or a ballerina, I can't remember all the crazy ideas she's had.
Tonight she came out of her room because she couldn't sleep. So I tucked her back in. As I was leaving she said, "I have to tell you one more thing. For Halloween I want to be Elvis. We have to get the wig and the big eyebrows."

Where did she learn of Elvis?

Snip Snip

Nana was down a few weeks ago, hanging with Simone. I guess there was a lull in the action, and Simone zipped off to find a pair of scissors and some space in the bathroom to take care of a tangle in her hair. And her bangs were a bit long too. Snip, snip.

Tsk tsk nana. This comic strip is for her. http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/put-on-ice/

Patting Your Head And Rubbing Your Belly

Tonight I asked Simone if she could rub her belly in a circle and pay her head. I forgot how fun it was to watch someone try that the first time.

No luck this time. We'll work on it in Mexico.

I Just Whistled

Simone has had a few nights of difficulty falling asleep, and tonight is no exception. Mary and I are on the couch, talking about the day and the books we're reading. We've got the washer and dryer going to provide some white noise to help Simone.
Suddenly I hear a high pitched whistle.
"I just whistled!!!" shouts Simone, at the top of her lungs.
We cheered for her and told her it was bed time.

Kitty Paddling

We went to the wave pool in Springfield today, much to Simone's delight. She immediately took to the wave pool and was as happy as a clam there, floating around with her life jacket.

We then went to the shallow pool to recover from papa taking Simone in too deep (she held on tight like I asked, but then I didn't float over the waves like she does...) the respite was more for me and Mary than Simone. She seemed food to go and after we were done, she reported her favorite part was the wave pool.

Next we went to the slide, and after the first slide together, Simone rode the rest if the time by herself. Her first ride down was incredibly slow because she was sitting up and all the water was just rushing around her a d not pushing her down the slide. She had to pull herself along. The next slide was much faster and seemed even more fun.

While we were in the wave pool, Simone was splashing around - swimming between me and Mary. I asked if she was dog paddling, and she corrected me saying she was "kitty paddling." It made even more sense after I thought about the costume she made up earlier today.

Simone Rides Again

Simone went on a ride on her two wheeled (plus training) bike. It'd been a good six months since we last tried, and at that time Simone wasn't very excited.

But this morning she was interested in riding her bike (and not just the tagalong) so we took advantage if the nice weather and headed out to the Midge Cramer path.

Long story short, she rocked the ride. She was fearless and full of energy. She made it up the hills and kept her cool going down the hills.

I've a hunch that with a few more rides and she'll be ready to ditch the training wheels. I'm not crazy about training wheels. As Simone gets going faster, the training wheels get in the way of making any real turns. At one point she got going a little fast and pointed off the trail. She slowed down but wasn't able to get turned back onto the path. She spilled in slow motion, almost landing on her feet. We were happy to see her bravely brush herself off and stand up.

We turned around at that point, not wanting to push it, plus it was starting to sprinkle. She did a great job biking back, taking her time when she felt uncertain and racing when she felt strong. At one point she wanted to ride with her eyes closed.

Definitely looking forward to our next few outings, and I can't wait until the wheels come off.

Halloween Celebration

We were getting ready for the Halloween celebration at school tonight, and Simone was full of ideas for all of us. She painted Mary's face with cat whiskers, and she herself was dressed as a butterfly.

While pondering my situation, Simone said, "you can wear your fanciest shorts!" Simone sure knows me.

The school had the gym full of tables and two guys were playing music (which Simone danced to quite a bit). We then took tours of different rooms - each with a different story. One had a pretty pirate who was full of himself. One was a spider catching a fly (scary). One had a song about looking at the donut and not the hole. And little red riding hood met the wolf - who then went to grandmas house to find a pig - who told wolf he had horrible breath (solved with a toothbrush). Al the rooms were very imaginative, and everyone had a good time.

We'll see what treasures Simone got tomorrow morning.

December Has Begun

It's already December, so we got a tree from the farm down the street, and after eating a traditional (?) lunch of  Mexican food we came back to the house and set it up.  I'm not sure if Mexican food will be the tradition, but it sure hit the spot for Mary and me.

And then today, we went to First Christian to listen to Simone sing in front of the congregation.  Toward the end of the service, Simone and 3 other kids went up to the front and each sang a line from the song "When God Is A Child".  Simone did great, with her high pitched voice coming through microphone.

Afterwards we ate treats at the coffee hour and then decorated an advent wreath.  Many people came up and told me how great Simone sounded.  A few of them actually told it to Simone.  At bedtime, Simone said singing was her favorite part of the day, and she can't wait until the she gets to sing again.

And at night, Simone snuggled up with Lilla to sleep tonight.

Lost tooth club

Simone lost her first tooth today. To say she's excited is an understatement.

Brushing Simone's Hair

This morning I was brushing Simone's hair to get ready for school.  There were quite a few snags in her hair and I commented on them.  She remarked,

   "Oh no - I'm getting dreadlocks!"

Kid's Day For Conservation

It turns out there's been an event going on annually for 10 years that I had no idea existed.  Today was Kid's Day For Conservation, which is an event that educates kids about a huge variety of things in the natural world.

Simone and I biked there and met Mary (who ran some errands first).  Immediately upon arriving we heard the pounding of hammers so we went over to check it out.  You could build your very own bird house.  We hopped in line and waited our turn.

Simone did a great job hammering the nails in - not a bent nail to be had.

16 nails later we had a bird house and a very proud girl.  Now we have to figure out where to hang it.

Right after making the bird house we ran into an old friend, Maddie.  Simone and she hugged - it was like the  meeting of long-lost sisters.  Simone and Maddie played together during outside time last year nearly every day, but Maddie is at a different school this year.

Inside the fairgrounds there were all sorts of tables/booths.  You could make a seed bomb, a hairy buddy (nylon filled with seed and dirt which grows "hair"), paint, touch snakes and turtles, pet goats, learn about recycling, wetlands, listen to a story inside a huge inflatable fish, and even dress up a an animal and participate in a parade.  Simone chose to be a beaver:

On our way back to the bike to head home we saw a pretty butterfly in the flowers next to the bikes.  It flew away before we could get close, but I was able to snag a photo of a bee.

We'll probably check it out again next year.  I got to talk to one of the guys responsible for the wetland restoration project which is right next to the fairgrounds.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Abbreviated Fall Festival

We went to the Fall Festival this year, but got there a bit later than planned.

Right when we got there we saw a dance exhibition from Mexico - which was fun (and just try to keep Simone away from dance).  Then we ran into some friends, which was also very fun.  The downside was we didn't get time to actually view the art.  On our way back to the Burley (we did walk there and back which was lovely) we did a quick scan of about 1/10th of the booths - a number of which were new (to us) artists.

Maybe next year we'll make a little more time.

While hanging out, Simone and her friends were climbing trees.  I was very proud that Simone climbed up and down all on her own.  One of her friends quickly got into the "I'm stuck, I can't get down" mode where she didn't want to climb on her own any more.  Simone got a little of that - especially when she made a decision to climb into a really awkward position.  With a little coaching and encouragement, she got herself turned around and made it down to the ground safe and sound.  I was very proud that she stuck to it and did all her own climbing.

On the way home we found a tree that was shedding conkers - they are so pretty when they're bursting out of their cover.