mathmom's blog

If all our biking trips go as well as they did today, we may never get up on wheels again. It started with me actually getting on my bike to ride with Ella, Amanda and Luke just in our neighborhood. I planned a 1 mile ride around the block---no problem, right? Amanda was high on riding her 2 wheeler, Luke had said at Grandma's that he loved going for bike rides. Ella was on her scooter, ready to have fun and encourage. Well, it turns out that the smallest, least steep hills in our neighborhood are larger than the ones on the trail in WI. Amanda would stop her bike when it got hard, and having stopped, couldn't get going again. Luke wouldn't actually push down on the pedals, it seemed, or at least he would push down on both pedals at the same time... I got off the bike and coached him up the hill: "Stand on this foot. No, THIS foot. Now the other. Keep looking ahead. Don't stop! Switch feet!" I had to physically lift up his other foot, or he...

Ella now has glasses. She sees fine out of one eye, but the other eye needs correction. What that means is that often she'll take off her glasses---when she's sweaty, when they're uncomfortable, when they are inconvenient. Yesterday, as we were packing, I noticed that she didn't have her glasses on. "Could you find them please?" I asked, thinking that this was a reasonable request. What followed was actually a pretty thorough (and needed) cleaning up of all the toys all through the house. We put away the books, picked up all the craft sticks and tinker toys, cleared all the plastic animals off the window sill, put back most of the National Geographics ... All we got was a cleaner house. Ella cleaned out her suitcase, which she said was not useful because she won't put her glasses just anywhere---she only puts her glasses "on tables, or bookshelves, or desks or windowsills or things like that." We did eventually find the glasses in the crack...

For the kids' cousin's birthday, we planned an outing to the local swimming pool. When we got there, however, it was closed due to contamination, so we needed a plan b. We were already in swimming suits and it was hot (well, hot for WI), so we decided to put the sprinkler on. My sister-in-law had the great idea of water balloons. We found them at the 2nd store we tried ($1 for 250). Grandma had laid in a supply of squirt guns (Grandma is always prepared). It was a great plan! There was running through the sprinkler. There was putting water down the slide for a "water slide". The water from the hose was very very cold, but that seemed to make it more fun. After filling what seemed like hundreds (actually a few dozen) water balloons, there was a water balloon fight where no one got very wet: I recommended filling the balloons less full, and they didn't break on the people, only when they hit the ground. There were squirt gun wars. My favorite was the bucket....

It is all in the presentation. Luke is perfectly capable of getting dressed by himself. He is perfectly capable of finding clothes to wear in his dresser---not always appropriate clothes, but that's ok with me. Unfortunately, lately he's been complaining that he needs help and could I come help him? Pleeeeeaasseeeeee mommy? The other day I was doing too many things getting ready to go, and this was one thing too many. In exasperation, I said, "Luke, your clothes are playing hide and seek in your dresser drawer. Can you go find them? First, close your eyes and count to 10." I really didn't expect much, but he stopped right where he was, put his head down and counted to 10. "Now say, 'Ready or not, here I come!'" He yelled, "Ready or not here I come!" and raced up the stairs. A few minutes later he came running down the stairs. "Mommy, mommy, I found my clothes! I found where they were hiding!" I wonder how long I...

This summer I had 2 goals for my children (I know, making goals for your children is incredibly arrogant, but I made them anyway). I wanted Luke to learn to swim and Amanda to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. Well, Luke is not doing so well in the swimming department, but Amanda has ditched the training wheels. I actually removed the training wheels from her bike a few months ago, but she has responded by not riding her bike. For the past few weeks we've been visiting Grandma and Grandpa, where everyone rides bikes. I asked Michael to test Amanda and help her learn to ride without training wheels. He came back and said that Amanda was capable of riding without them, but she wanted them on. Apparently she was afraid of falling. The problem is that training wheels really interfere with riding fast and without falling. We would ride down the long sidewalk near GM and GP's house, and she'd be stuck with Luke, while the big kids were riding fast and furiou...