During the snow day yesterday, I tried to entertain the kids with as many activities as possible. We started the day with Playdough. The kids used Gillian's new Playdough set and they made cakes and frosted them.
The kids then got to play for a little bit. I went to find them to start our next project. I found them in John's room. John was reading to Gillian.
Next I set each kid up with a tray of baking soda. And I prepared 6 squeeze bottles of colored vinegar. The kids take the squeeze bottles and make designs in the baking soda. It's fun to watch the baking soda bubble and fizz. John and Gillian had completely different approaches. John made a picture and Gillian just went abstract.
I love their different approaches and final projects. They are both amazing.
Next we played outside. The kids got all bundled up and we were outside for about an hour.
The kids came inside and snuggled under some blankets to warm up. We ate dinner and then I made some snow ice cream for dessert. Gillian was not a big fan of it, but John loved it.
I put the kids to bed at 8, but around 8:45 John was standing in my doorway. He said "I'm just going to let the dog back in." I said "What?" He said "The dog. I'm going to let him back in." I said "Why?" He said "Cause he's barking." I said "That's funny, cause he's sleeping right here." And Duncan was sleeping next to me. John said "Huh, well I just wanted to snuggle you." I let him climb into bed and we watched the rest of MasterChef Jr together. I am thankful for my extra snuggles and my thoughtful boy.
On Saturday, I made some sprinkle cookies. These cookies need to be refrigerated for 24 hours before baking. John saw them in the garage fridge and said "So I saw these cookies in the garage." I said "What? Daddy, did you make cookies?" Daddy said "Nope. Wasn't me." John got very frustrated "Mom, I know you made the cookies. Why are they in the garage? When are you making them?" I said "I don't know what you are talking about." He was so mad at me.
After dinner, I asked Gillian "Do you want to help me make dessert?" Gillian said "Yes!" John said "Can I talk to you a second?" I said "Sure." He looked very serious and said "Just us. No one else." He dragged me into the living room and said "No seriously, what's going on with the cookies?" He's very persistent. I explained that the cookies needed to be refrigerated overnight.
Needless to say, he was very happy that I baked the cookies today!
Dinner at our house is always an adventure. Gillian insists on having a spoon at every meal. It's really annoying, but I allow it because she eats. Last night, we had pasta and chicken. I cut up the pasta so it was easier for her to eat. She had a hard time getting it on her spoon or her fork. But she figured out an easier way to eat.
We went to see Disney on Ice, Princesses and Heroes last weekend. I have never been and we have never taken the kids to see a show like this, so needless to say I was very excited. We told Gillian that she could wear one of her princess dresses. She said "Ok. I'll wear my new gold dress." She was referring to her Christmas dress. After we explained that she could wear one of her dress-up dresses, she proudly said "Elsa. I wear my Elsa dress." I was excited about that, because then she could wear her Elsa hat that Grandma made her for Christmas. Plus I was able to wear the Anna hat!
We arrived at the Prudential Center and found our seats. We got there a few minutes late and Aladdin was already skating. John was happy to see Aladdin and Gillian as super excited to see Jasmine. Basically, the actors would sing and dance on skates and perform a short version of their story.
Next up was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
In between the stories, Tinkerbell would skate around the ice and sometimes we would see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They would help introduce the next Princess.
The next Princess was Belle. Gillian was very excited by this point. She was jumping up and down. She saw Lumiere and leaned over to me and said "Him's got feet!" Poor dude had to skate around in that big costume and Gillian called him out within 30 seconds.
After Belle, we got to see Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Next, we got to see the Little Mermaid. John really liked this part of the show. The first part was the sailors on Prince Eric's boat. They did fun tricks on their skates.
So they showed the whole part where Ariel gives up her voice for human legs. Gillian, very loudly, said "But her's already got legs. See? Right there!"
After Ariel and Prince Eric were married, we had a short intermission and then got to see Tiana. Next was Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite fairy tale. Gillian was a little afraid of the dragon.
After Sleeping Beauty, Goofy came out and announced the arrival of Cinderella.
Cinderella's step sisters were hilarious and Gillian really loved Cinderella's carriage.
Mickey and Minnie came out all dressed in very fancy clothes and announced that the next princess was Anna!
All the kids in the arena were singing along. It was adorable.
Olaf got to sing his song, Summer. This is John's favorite and he sang along as well.
Tinkerbell came out after Frozen was completed and then all the Princesses and Heroes came on the ice. Along with Mickey and Minnie.
The kids loved this part. Tinkerbell sat in Cinderella's carriage and it rose up in the air and "Fireworks went off!"
We had a great time with our favorite Princess and Hero.
Tonight I was talking to Gillian. She said to me "Remember when you used to pretend that I was Clover?" I know exactly what she is talking about. I would snuggle up in her bed and pretend that she was a stuffed animal. She would laugh and laugh. Anyways, she asked me tonight if I remembered. I said "No." She stared at me and said "Memember? It was a Tuesday!"
On Friday, I picked up the kids from school. Just as I arrived, Gillian and her friends were getting ready to play Pictionary. Gillian begged me to let her stay and play with her friends. Luckily, they let her go first. I was able to get a video of Gillian drawing.
Later in the car, I asked her if the circles she was drawing were jewels. She said "Yes. Them sparkles. The other was a design. I didn't have time to draw a bow."
We put new pajamas on the kids tonight. Gillian's were blue and purple striped and said "Princess Sleepyhead." John's had a blue shirt and said "What's canoe with you?" And had a moose in a canoe on it. Gillian loved her new pajamas and kept posing in them.
We put her to bed and John was still up watching a show in our room. She got up after about twenty minutes and walked into our room. Daddy asked "What's the matter?" Gillian said "I can't remember what it says." And she pointed to her shirt. Daddy told her. She smiled and went back to bed.
John had a half day of school on Friday. On half days, he spends the time from dismal to 6:00 pm (or when we pick him up) at TimePlus. TimePlus is the aftercare program at his school. TimePlus is a peanut free program, so we can't pack John a PB&J for lunch. We normally buy him a lunchable. He thinks it's a special treat and it's easy for mom to pack. Daddy went to buy one on Thursday and they didn't have the "big kid" lunchable (the sub sandwich kind). So Daddy bought turkey, cheese and rolls. Daddy picked the kids up from school and he told John "Sorry no lunchable. But don't worry Mommy will make you a turkey and cheese sandwich." Gillian asked "Can I have a sandwich too?" Daddy said "Of course. John just can't have peanut butter." Gillis asked "Am I allowed to have peanut butter?" Daddy said "Yes." "Ok, then I just want peanut butter with cheese." John meanwhile is saying "Thats disgusting!" Daddy questioned Gillian, "Oh do you want jelly with that also?" Gillian confidently said "Yup." John started gagging and said "I'm going to throw up."
She was pretty adamant about it. When I got home she asked "Can you make me a peanut butter and jelly and cheese sandwich for school?" I asked "Are you sure?" We convinced her to wait until this weekend to try it out. Hopefully she will forget all about it and I won't have to make that disgusting sandwich.
Tonight for homework, John had to read a story and then answer some questions. The story was about two sisters, Rosa and Blanca. They both had gardens and picked all types of vegetables. One of the vegetables was a chile pepper. John was putting a lot of emphasis on the e. Daddy and I giggled. And Daddy argued with him about how to properly pronounce chile. John said "That's how we said it at school. It's Spanish!" I got some video of him reading to us and Daddy arguing with him.
On Tuesdays, I drop off Gillian and pick up both kids from school. Since I don't drop her off daily, my drop offs are miserable. And today was no different. She didn't want me to leave. She clung to me and the teachers and I ended up distracting her so I could leave. I hate drop offs like that. I feel guilty about leaving her and I spend the day looking forward to to picking her up all day.
Tonight, I arrived at school and found Gillian playing with two boys at a table. She looked up when I walked in, looked at me and continued to play. I let her play for a few minutes and then said "Ok Gill, we gotta go get John." She said "I just want to play more." I said "I'm sorry, but we gotta get Johnny." She continued to play. Then Miss Denise, her teacher, said "Start cleaning up." Gillian continued to play. I attempted to help her put away the toys. All that did was aggravate her, and she ran across the room. Miss Denise said "I will have to write Miss Lisette a note letting her know that some of our friends didn't have a good night. And she won't let you play tomorrow." This statement scared Gillian and she apologized and started to clean up. But then she refused to put her coat on.
Ugh. All day I think about my kids and I can't wait to spend time with them and then she treats me like this. I wrote about this tonight, not because it's a memory I would like to remember but so years from now when Gillian has a stubborn little girl that refuses to leave school I can remind Gillian that she once did it to me.
Tonight, I picked up Gillian from school. In the car I asked "How was your day?" She didn't answer me. I asked again "Gillian, how was your day?" She said "I don't want to talk about it now." Ugh. I hate that. So we sat in silence for awhile until she heard something on the radio. "Mama, can you make it louder?" It was a commercial for the new Imagine Dragons song. She said "I want to hear it. Mama where did it go." Unfortunately it was just a commercial, and we didn't get to hear the whole song. So again we sat in silence. Then she said "Can we play the duck game?" About a month ago I blogged about how she was quacking in the backseat and I kept asking her about the duck. Well that's what she wanted to do. So she quacked and I asked "Gillian, did you hear that?" And she laughed. Then she quacked again and again. I played along and questioned if she saw the duck. She thought it was hilarious. Finally she said "It was me! I am the duck!" Love her.
On Friday, the kids went to Grandma's house during the day. I woke up Gillian in the morning and all I had to say was "Today you go to Grandma's" and she sat up and there was no complaining.
We got to Grandma's house and once they saw Aunt Betty and Grandma they forgot about me. Aunt Betty sent me a text in the middle of the morning. The kids had completed their first craft project.
When I picked them up that night, I heard that Gillian got to go to the beach with Grandma and Aunt Betty.
While the girls were at the beach, John was "babysitting" Grandpa. The girls came home and Gillian counted up all the rocks she found. Gillian loves rocks. It took her a couple times, but she determined that she found 21 rocks. John did not believe that Gillian could count to 21 and said "Well I can count to 100."
Gillian didn't want to leave. "I just want to stay here forever!" I'm so glad she had a good time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Betty. Don't worry Gillian you will get to go back again.
I brought John to work with me the past couple of days. Sharon asked him on Monday, "Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?" He said "No. And I'm not going to tell you what I wanted." Sharon laughed about it when she recounted the story to me later.
That night when I had both kids in the car, I asked them "Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?" Gillian said "No! I wanted a big Minnie Mouse like my Mickey Mouse!" I said "Sorry, I didn't know that you wanted a new Minnie. You already have a Princess Minnie." She said "Yea, but she's little. I want a big one like my Mickey!" I asked "John, did you get everything you wanted?" He said "Yes." I said "Really? Then why did you tell Miss Sharon that you didn't?" He said "Oh yea. Well I didn't." I pressed and said "What did you want?" He wasn't budging. So I said "Did you tell Santa when we saw him the other day?" He said "No. But I did write him a friendly letter at school telling him about it. But I'm not sure if it got mailed." I said "Ok, well it's hard to get you something if he doesn't know. Can you tell me about it?" He said "I'll give you a hint. It's something you can do with a toy." Well that's vague. I asked "A table? You know so you can do your Legos on it?" He thought this was a crazy suggestion. I guessed a few more random things and then it dawned on me. I said "Did you want to give someone a toy?" He said "Yes, I wanted to do a giving tree. I wanted to give a toy to someone." He just melts my heart. I said "Johnny, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I promise next year we will do a giving tree and you will help pick out the toy." My sweet little boy didn't want something else for himself, he wanted to help someone in need. What a wonderful little man!
