Just Mommy and Gloria

The last few weeks have been very busy.  It's fall, things start again: band, Bible study, Wednesday night church.  We're busy.  It means I haven't spend much time with my children.  Yes, there's breakfast in the morning, and we eat supper together, but that's not really much time.  I noticed that Gloria has been misbehaving lately.  She just doesn't listen, she pretends she can't hear what I'm saying, she picks on her brother, she's being just too silly.  And when that happens I know she needs some more attention -- some Mommy time.  So we skipped Wednesday night church last night and spent time just the two of us.  We went to the "play place" at the mall.  Well, first we went to the "red store" and bought an umbrella for Gloria.  It's Hello Kitty, she picked it out herself.  Then we went to the play place, and when it was time to go home we stopped for ice cream, I even let her put four different candies on it (usually the limit is two).  Just Mommy and Gloria.  It was a nice evening. 

Gloria

This is Gloria blocking my view
out the window, "Mom, you can't
see out the window!" And she laughs
 

I looked at Gloria the other day and thought, "whoa, my girl is so big.  How did that happen?"  And I thought about all the things she's done this year, all the things she's learned, all the things she's taught Colin, she's grown up so much. 

Within the last 12 months she has:

• started (and finished) preschool
• had her first swimming lessons and loved them
• played outdoor soccer for the first time
• gone to kids camp without me (although not for the first time, but this time it was for a full week)
• gone for a whole week to Nana and Papa's house
• learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels
• learned how to snap her fingers (self-taught too) and she is trying to figure out whistling (again, self-taught, that's one I can't help her with)



No training wheels

• started kindergarten
• learned how to crack eggs and make toast



First day of Kindergarten

She is such a little mom to Colin.  If he's crying and I'm busy she will go to him and give him hugs and ask if he's okay.  "Do you need your mom? I'll bring you to your mom."  She will get him out of his bed in the morning.  She makes sure he has toys to play with.  And they wrestle.  It's so funny to watch because Colin is just about as strong as she is, and it doesn't bother him to crash heads.  It bothers Gloria and she cries every time that happens.  So I just remind her that she's the want to started playing rough and Colin doesn't know how to be gentle, so sometimes owies happen.  Then she stops crying and starts picking on her brother again.  She gets over it quickly apparently. 

Wall climbing.  She climbed the
wall 6 times and made it to the
top three times.

It will be interesting to see what things she does this year. 







Forestry farm

We went to the Forestry Farm for a picnic.  The kids played at the playground until we tore them away and forced them to eat a hotdog and some watermelon, then we went right back to play.  That park is a lot of fun, much better than when I was a kid.  It was still fun, but it was more closed in and smelled a lot like pee.  The new one is much better, less pee smell, more structure to climb.  

Colin can go down this slide by himself, but Gloria is a little mother to him.  Sometimes that's very nice, and sometimes it annoys both me and Colin.  And even though Colin can go down most slides by himself Gloria thinks she needs to catch him at the bottom or she lets him sit on her lap and they go down the slide together.  I'm glad my kids like to play together. 

They also like to climb everything.  So up they went on the "boulder" at the playground and sat with the bear.  Colin looked so proud of himself sitting up there. 

Side note:  I must take a lot of pictures because every time I hold the camera up (or even my ipod) Colin stops what he is doing and wrinkles up his nose and smiles.  He holds for two seconds and then goes on with what he was doing.  I have a lot of pictures with Colin's nose wrinkled up.  Or the back of his head as he turns to do whatever I interrupted when I pulled out the camera. 

 

Swing

He's so big now.  He doesn't even like the baby swings anymore, he would rather go on the regular swings.  He needs help getting on the swing, but once he's there he sits so well, he holds on tightly to the chains.  And he has only fallen off once.  He's not a baby anymore. 

Preschool

Gloria “graduated” from preschool a few weeks ago.  Now she tells me, “now I can go to kindergarten because I’m super big Mom!”

Sliding at Grandma's house

Outside!

We played outside, it's one of the best places ever!