Bowling balls and paddle wheels

Grandma showing Oliver pictures on her iPhone.

Yesterday afternoon Paul's parents arrived at our house to join us for the evening adventures. First we headed to a bowling alley in Williamsport. None of us had ever been there before. The kids are allowed to bowl two games a day there for free. I purchased a family pass for $22.50, which means that we four adults are also allowed to bowl two games a day for free. We could have bought an unlimited shoe rental pass, but I didn't think we'd go bowling enough to make those worth while. Oliver was allowed to wear his own shoes. The other six of us rented shoes. The kids used a 6 pound bowling ball. I was hoping they would put us on two lanes, but they put us all on one lane (with bumpers), which meant it took us 90 minutes to play 9 frames of one game. We also ate dinner at the alley. We all had a good time! When the kids are older, I imagine we'll really take advantage of this program (and buy the shoe rental pass), but for now we'll probably just go a few more times over the next two months. Considering it costs about $3 to rent a pair of bowling shoes, Paul and I are thinking it would be wise to buy a pair as they will surely far more than pay for themselves over the next 20 years.


We then headed to the Hiawatha for a 90 minute ride on the Susquehanna River on a paddle wheel boat. We spent the first half of the cruise on the top half of the boat, and then we came down for the second half, which is when we were able to make and eat an ice cream sundae. When Oliver woke up this morning (at 5:55), the first thing he said (over and over) was "boat Pop Pop fun." I think that means he had fun on the boat with Pop Pop!

Grandma's bowling ball is heavy!

Gaining Independence

Watching kids grow up is synonymous with watching them become more and more independent. Here are some ways my three have been "spreading their wings" lately.

Oliver wants to swing on the big kid swings rather than the baby swing. He also has been trying to walk down the stairs holding the railing rather than going down on his bottom or belly. Paul is none too pleased with that development. Oliver also has learned to open doorknobs, and he likes to go into the pantry and get himself some food. We are trying to teach him the pantry is off limits.

Ian prefers to walk to the playground rather than riding in the stroller. Buckling his own seat belt is finally no big deal!

Nadia likes to turn on the tv and use the Roku remote when they watch something through Netflix, and she also likes to push the buttons on the dvd player in the minivan. She brushes her own hair, and she's started taking showers instead of baths.

Favorite Words

Last night I bought this picture (above) from Disney's photo pass service. It's the only one I was willing to pay $10 for. It shows Nadia roaring at Belle in her portrayal of the Beast. I forgot to mention in my Magic Kingdom post that Nadia also was selected from the crowd to be "Boo" when we did the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. She showed up on the screen several times. They had her play peekaboo at one point.

I thought I'd write about some of the kids' words. When it comes to big words, the last several months the two Ian has used the most are "gargantuan" and "hilarious." Both Nadia and Ian like to use the word "obsessed." A word that Nadia frequently uses that really isn't a word is "amn't" (aren't).  My favorite mispronunciation of Ian's is the classic "callepitar" (caterpillar).

Oliver's expressive vocabulary has really exploded in the past couple of weeks. The two words he says the most often are "choo choos" (trains) and "cars." As soon as he comes downstairs in the morning, he asks to go outside to play with the cars. I don't say yes to that request at 6am! The sentence he uses the most is "Mommy, it broke" or sometimes he says "uh oh, it broke." He uses the word "broke" very loosely. For example if two trains become unhooked from each other that qualifies as "broke." His favorite phrase is "one two go!" or sometimes it's "one two three go" and occasionally it's "three two one go".

Body part words to say - feet, knee, elbow, eye, teeth, nose

Color words he says - green and blue

Food words he says - cheese, milk, crackers, candy, brownie, water, juice, and cookie (He asks for foods like brownies for breakfast, ha ha. I obviously don't say yes to that request either). You'd think from this list he only ate sweets and snacks, but this boy continues to eat everything I eat except for fresh fruit.

Favorite verbs - go, play, read, buckle, poop, color, want, broke, stuck, row

Favorite animal sounds - moo, neigh, quack (attributed to all birds except owls), and hoo (he makes other animal sounds, but those four are his favorites)

Proper nouns - Mommy, Dada, Ian (can say it perfectly), Nadia (not perfect yet), Pop Pop, Grandpa, Elmo, Cookie (monster), Bob (attributed to both Bob and Larry), MoMo (Maurice), and Mickey (Mouse)

Common nouns - monkey, frog, cat, dog, book, car, choo choo, truck, shoe, cow, duck, slide, tv, tissue, bike, baby, goat, shoes, light, hat, clock, fish, bee (all insects), tree

Pronouns - I, my, it

Miscellaneous - hi, ni(ghty) ni(ght), bye bye, please, thank you (lately he has shown more manners without prompting than his siblings do at 4 and 6), no, uh oh

P.S. This list of Oliver's words is by no means a comprehensive list of all the words he says. It's a list of the words he uses the most often.

White Flag

The first four days of potty training went well, and then on Wednesday (his 5th day wearing underwear) things just fell apart. At first I thought I'd stay home on Thursday with Oliver while the rest of the family (with Paul's parents) went to the amusement park to get back on track with potty training, but Paul really wanted all of us to be together at the park, and we did have a very nice day. Oliver went back to wearing diapers on Thursday. Friday morning I tried to see if he could get back to using the potty, but I quickly came to the conclusion it was going to be the same as it was on Wednesday. Since he did so well the other days (even on Wednesday he stayed dry during his nap), I really wasn't expecting the progress to be so temporary. It was hard to throw in the towel because I really, really don't enjoy potty training and the thought that all I had invested the previous few days was going to be in vain was a bitter pill to swallow. I am also feeling very nervous about how things will turn out the next time we start out again. I fear that the same thing might happen, even though this never happened with Nadia or Ian. Ian was definitely the easiest to potty train. I wasn't sure whether Oliver would be easier to train than Nadia, but the answer is that she was easier than Oliver. Nadia was potty trained the earliest (she was day and night trained before she turned 2), and Oliver will be the latest of the three, as I trained Ian before he turned 25 months old, and I don't plan to try again with Oliver that soon. Hopefully things will turn out better the second time around. Oliver now announces to me every time he pees or poops throughout the day in his diaper, which again seems to indicate he is ready to be potty trained, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. It's so easy when something like this happens to feel like it was my fault, but I am trying not to go down that mental/emotional path.

This morning we headed to Lowe's for another workshop. Oliver and I did some shopping at Walmart while they were in Lowe's, and at the end I came in and snapped a few pictures of the kids. Paul was pleased at how much improvement they showed with their hammering skills. He said the only thing they had trouble hammering this time was the axle. This project (Taco truck from the movie Turbo) was easier than the dragon they did last month. This afternoon we headed to Central Oak Heights (where our pool is located) for their annual Acorn Family Festival. We didn't participate in all the events (ex. Native American dancers, Celtic concert, etc.), but the kids spent an hour at the pavilion where they had many musical instruments that kids could play (a professor from Susquehanna University brought them) and eight different craft stations. Nadia did two crafts - a dream catcher and a worry doll, and Ian made a Native American vest. After that we swam for an hour before dinner. It was so cool this morning that I wasn't sure we'd make it to the pool, but thankfully it warmed up to 81 degrees.

Foto Friday

Yesterday we made our second trip to DelGrosso's Amusement Park, which is about 1 hour and 45 minutes away from our house. Last year we went on the day Word Girl was there. We could have seen Daniel Tiger if we had gone in June, but I selected July 24 because the hand stamps were 50% off ($9.45) if you brought a non-perishable food item. Last year we only bought three hand stamps (Paul, Ian, and Nadia), and the rest of us just used tickets. It's similar to Knoebels in that the parking is free and it's free to get into the part with the dry rides. You must have a hand stamp to get into the water park. The park is smaller than Knoebels, but unlike Knoebels a hand stamp at DelGrosso's gives you unlimited access to the rides, pool, and water slides. Oliver could have gotten into the water park for free (since he's less than 2 years old), but we bought him a hand stamp so he could ride the rides as many times as he wanted. Last year when we went in June, the temps were in the 90's.

Yesterday it was in the 70's, which made our time spent with the rides far more comfortable, but Paul's parents and Oliver never put on their bathing suits due to the cooler temps. Ian is still too short for the big water slides. Nadia was able to do three of the five big slides with an adult. She went down those slides a total of ten times with Paul or I. We spent 7.5 hours in the park, and a good time was had by all! Ian's favorite ride was the Wacky Worm (kiddie roller coaster) which he rode with Grandma, Paul, and myself. Nadia's favorite ride was the Free Fall which she rode with me and also many times by herself. Oliver's favorite ride was the Whale ride. That was Ian's favorite ride last year. Oliver laughed his little head off while riding it this year! Nadia wasn't tall enough to ride the Crazy Mouse roller coaster last year, but she was *just* tall enough (44 inches) to ride it this year with Paul. Once she hits 48 inches, she'll be able to ride almost everything. I was afraid it might be more crowded due to the 50% off sale, but it was actually less crowded than when we went last year. We had no wait for almost all the rides.

Today I took the kids to the playground for the first time in more than a month. I never went that long without taking them last summer! There is an older couple whom we say hi to on the way to or from the playground, and the wife commented to me today that she had asked her husband if he had seen Mrs. Kennedy lately. Our absence was noticed. I'd like to get into a routine of going to the playground in the morning and the swimming pool in the afternoon.

This evening Paul and I went to the final waltz class. Becki babysat for three hours because the instructor lengthened the class since it was the final one of the season. At the end we had some time to also do some rumba and swing in addition to the waltz. I learned some new steps for the waltz! I'm SO glad we are dancing again. The class is less than 5 minutes from our house, and the teacher (from Williamsport) is excellent! As long as we can find a babysitter, we plan to continue during the school year.

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul figured out that the reason Ian's car wasn't working was because the battery charger was broken. He was able to pick up a new one on Saturday at no charge because it was still under warranty. His car is working again!

2. Oliver is back to going to sleep without crying (thank goodness!), and all three kids slept until 7:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday morning!

3. Nadia made a lot of progress with her swimming skills during her swim lessons! Her instructor (who has many years of experience) said that Nadia has a lot of "innate ability" with swimming, which caught my attention because generally with physical skills she tends to lag behind. She signed a card saying Nadia has passed the Red Cross's Level 2 of swimming skills, and she said that Nadia has also mastered 10 of the 15 skills needed to pass Level 3. Depending on how she progresses the rest of the summer, I will sign her up for either Level 3 or Level 4 next summer. She learned many new

skills including diving head first, treading water, etc. On Sunday I watched her jump off the diving board several times in a row (without any assistance), and then I felt confident that she could do it on her own, and I went back to the other part of the pool with Ian. She is very proud that she can now jump off the diving board whenever she wants, without any adult being down there waiting for her in the deep end. She usually uses the back stroke to get to the side of the pool. Next year I'll sign Ian up for Level 1!

4. We've been enjoying our pool membership. On Tuesday afternoon Tommy (lifeguard) had Nadia and Ian laughing hysterically when he played with them in the pool with a garden hose (that was adding water to the pool).

Elmo and Bees

Oliver's vocabulary has been growing very quickly over the past couple of weeks, and he's also been using phrases and sentences far more often. Sometimes he lumps many things together in one category. For example, all insects are "bees." He has no fear of any insects. He picks them up and plays with them whether they are alive or dead. I just have to remind him not to eat them. Another example would be that he calls both Larry and Bob (VeggieTales) - "Bob" and he calls almost all of the Sesame Street characters "Elmo." The exception is Cookie Monster. He always calls him Cookie!

Nadia and Ian turned in their completed summer reading program sheets today. They had to do a variety of tasks in addition to reading books. Ian had to tell the librarian a joke, count 1-10, hop on one foot ten times, say the ABCs, tell a nursery rhyme (he did Humpty Dumpty), and tell her when his birthday is. Ian's joke was "what do trees like to drink? A: root beer". Nadia had to do a science experiment, attend a library program, etc. Paul did a kinetics experiment with her regarding the effect of temperature on how long a glow stick lasts. The other library's summer reading program is just about reading 10 hours. Nadia has completed one sheet and is working on her second. We haven't been reading as much as usual lately, but I have been having her read one book to me each morning (such as Billy and Blaze or Nate the Great or Mr. Putter and Tabby). Ian wrote his first thank you note yesterday. Although we are definitely in summer vacation mode, we are still trying to do a little bit of schoolwork now and then so they don't regress too much over the summer break!

Foto Friday

Have I mentioned this boy loves to climb?

Ian did this puzzle on Thursday that I got for $1 at a yard sale on Wednesday.

Woody and Buzz have joined us at the kitchen table at EVERY meal this week.

Ian loved the bumper cars!

Feeding the ducks some bread at the playground