A Snowman At Last

After several snowy storms this winter, we finally got the right kind of flakes for snowman making.  Finley and Dan made one snowman near the driveway, but the head collapsed while they were trying to add the face so they tried again out in the backyard so when I came into the kitchen after putting Dagny down to sleep, I had a great view!

As Dan applied the M&M eyes and mouth (the carrot nose was already in place), Finley went off in search of some stick arms 

and I was sent to the basement to get a construction hat.

Fantastic!

 Finley posed with his final product and was quite pleased!

 He couldn't wait to show Dagny when they both got up from their naps.  She was obviously impressed!

 Plus, we have a lovely, frozen snowball in our freezer.  What a great winter day!

Dagny Sings the ABCs

The title says it all, our little 18 month old girl is a singing machine these days and we managed to capture her in all her musical glory last week.

I showed this video to the kids in my kindergarten class and they were super amazed, mostly because it reminds them that I have kids and don't live at school, but also because such a little person could know so many letters.  Dan and I were equally as impressed and you can tell that Finley was, too!

Mixed Parenting Messages

After seeing this blog, you will think that we are grooming Finley for the NHL...but in fact, we are pretty sure we would NEVER let Finley play hockey since it is incredibly dangerous and violent.  With that being said, here goes:

Finley got a great hockey set from my parents that has players, goals, a puck, a rink mat and boards.  Last week, he used his beloved magnatiles to build his own rink - complete with bleacher, benches for the extra players, and a door for his zamboni. Later, he added two penalty boxes as well.

We managed to protect this from Dagny's purposeful or accidental destruction for several days and Finley had a blast with it.  It is so fun to listen to his storytelling as he plays and this was one of the few things that he would truly enjoy playing with by himself (as long as someone was nearby).  

We have a pond up the street (or is it a lake) and when we drive past in the winter, we'll often see kids out skating or playing hockey since some very kind parents will have shoveled off a rectangle and dragged out some goals.  Dan has taken Finley a couple of times with our little hockey sticks to walk out on the ice.   Here he is trying out the ice with a tennis ball.  Minutes later, the kids playing hockey nearby gave Finley his own puck!

They both had a blast and Finley thought he was pretty hot stuff.  We decided that since we have a couple of rinks nearby, perhaps Finley would like to try some real skating.  Last Sunday, Dan took Finley for his first ice skating experience.  They only had pink skates in Finley's size, but luckily that wasn't a problem for our little guy who was too intent on skating to worry about colors.  Dan snapped this photo before helping Finley around the ice using the little rail that is for new skaters.

 Dagny and I headed over after a stop at a nearby produce market and got to see the boys in action just before public skating was over.

 Looking good, buddy!

 They got back on the ice for us and took a lap around.

Finley was so proud when he came off the ice, it was priceless!!  Now you are really thinking that Finley will want to play pee wee hockey in a couple of years, right?  Well...we got to watch the zamboni clean the ice before an adult league game while Dan returned their skates.  Finley and Dagny loved watching it and after it was done, Finley enjoyed seeing some of the players come out to warm up.  That was, until they starting knocking the pucks around and slamming them into the boards -- which is really quite loud.  We exited with Finley covering up his ears.  Perhaps, he'll choose soccer, frisbee or baseball after all.

Or maybe hockey will be a hard habit to break :)

Dagny at 18 Months

Just before the blizzard of 2014 arrived, Dagny and I made it to the doctor for her 18 month check up.  Originally, Dan was going to take her and go in late to work but since we were all home for a snow day.  I was happy for him to take her so I wouldn't miss work and I wouldn't have to hold her as she got shots, but I was mildly disappointed that I'd miss this milestone check up so I volunteered to take her on my own.  At her 15 month check up, she cried from the moment the nurse weighed and measured her to the moment the doctor said "she you at 18 months" but this time she was completely relaxed. Can you tell?

She snacked on a cracker after weighing in at 25 lbs 5 oz and 34 inches tall (2 in in 3 months!!).  Her height puts her in the 99th percentile which is amazing and quite interesting since Finley was also exactly 34 inches at this age but was only in the 91st percentile (they rank boys and girls separately).

 She then read some books while we continued to wait.  She likes to say "I do it" about lots of things and books are no exception.

 She pointed out all sorts of animals in the books and I was secretly wishing there was a video camera in the room so that the doctor could see all the talking she was doing just in case she clammed up in the doctor's presence.

Luckily, she continued to chat it up once Dr. Simon came in: telling me where to sit, asking for water, showing me books, and the funniest part was that when we were flipping through a book about a mouse chef, she was pointing things out saying "mouse cookin'" "stir in pot" "hot? hot?" and then blowing on the hot spoonful of soup in the picture.  The doctor was impressed to say the least. I shared my amazement that Dagny never talks in the third person like Finley did and many other toddlers typically do, she uses "I."  Finley used to say things like "Finley build tower" or "Finley water" but our little gal will say "I do it," "I want it, too," and "I have baby and milk."  The doctor agreed that she was above the language curve - which was lovely to hear since Dan asked me to find out from the doc if she was "gifted" or not (I figured this counted).

Dagny is truly "industrious" as her teachers have commented.  She loves cooking in our pretend kitchen, dribbling the soccer ball and jumping on the trampoline in the basement, carrying around her dog, bear and more recently a baby.  This baby gets lots of attention: she's fed milk, covered with a blanket, washed with a washcloth, and sung to sleep with "Rock a Bye Baby" that Dagny sings all by herself.   Dagny also tells us when the baby is "hungee" or "firsty."

 The magnatiles Finley got for Hanukkah have continued to be a HUGE hit and Dagny is finally doing some building herself instead of just telling us to make her a house or a tower.  She made this all by herself the other day.

 Then, she grabbed the mail truck and said "beep beep" and she drove it on her very own road!

She's proud to have her own backpack now (Thanks, Grammy and Granddad) and wears it out the car most afternoons right next to her big bro.

We went to a birthday party at a local kids' art place and she loved it!

 I could go on and go about Dagny-isms at 18 months, but here are just a few more tidbits:

1. She loves her loveys and gets excited for a diaper change since it means we have to go upstairs into her room where her loveys stay.  She's super interested in the potty and we are doing our best to encourage her without spending all day in the bathroom while she hangs out.  I did read "The Potty Train" five times just today...

2. She loves football.  She loves rolling the ball around in the basement and yelling "tackle me" before getting "pancaked" by one of us.  She tackles Finley (when he's already on the ground) and usually has to be forcibly removed from his back.  We also tend to watch football on TV on Sundays after dinner and she jumped into Dan's arms after a bath tonight when he asked if she wanted to watch.  She yelled, "YES, FOOTBALL!!"

3. She loves school and will wave bye to me before I'm even ready to leave in the mornings and all our friends who drop off their kids later remark how happy Dagny always is when they see her.

4. Her singing skills are awesome with "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Rock a Bye Baby" being her best. She'll sing along with you for the "ABCs"  and "Wheels on the Bus" and does hand motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Before bed, she makes song requests which is funny because she'll be totally relaxed and you might think she's nearly asleep and then "Spider? Spider now" Ha!

5. Her counting skills are AMAZING -- after hearing Finley and I count down the days until his birthday throughout November.  She can get to 10 going back and forth with you and sometimes nearly all the way there on her own.  

6.  She adores her big brother and they are closer to really playing together which is great.  She likes to do just what he does and, thankfully, is excellent at sharing and trading toys. Unfortunately, she learned the word "mine"a while back and that is a tough one...but Finley taught it to her so now he has to deal with it!

I cannot believe that this time last year, she was starting daycare and was learning to sit up!

Love you, Dagny!!

Video Backlog Blog

Dagny trot trots to Boston while Finley has his sports class:

Dagny (and Finley in the background) plays around at the table after dinner. Finley recently taught her the "hokey pokey" finger in the air dancing move.

I saved the best for last.  This video really captures our two kids in action these days, goofing around together with lots of squealing and laughing.

Did you hear Dagny say "top on" as soon as it was finally off? She just loves this hide and pop out game!

Jamming at JamTime

There's a small indoor playspace near us called JamTime and we end up there once a month or so -- sometimes to escape the rain, cold, or just to take a break from our own indoor basement playspace :)

When we went in November, it was Dagny's first time in a bouncy house and she loved it!

When we went last week, Dagny climbed into this foam circle on wheels and quickly said, "push push" so Finley kindly obliged and pushed and pulled her around for a while.

 He'd stop to catch his breath and Dagny would adjust her position, put her feet back up, and say "push push" and Finley would again be a good big brother.  On the third or fourth request, Finley wised up and said, "Okay, Dagny, but just one more time"- if only he could see the irony!

Hard to believe that a year ago, Dagny would go to JamTime with us sound asleep in her baby carseat!

The Snow Bowler

Last night with snow in the forecast, Finley Dan and I headed out to the Agannis Arena downtown to see a BU hockey game with some company seats from Dan's office.  The driving was slow at times, but we made it in time to snap a photo before the BU team took the ice to play Bentley.

The game was fun and Finley even high fived a mascot, the BU terrier.  This was shocking since Finley is 100% afraid of costumed people, but when the mascot pretended to cry since Finley didn't want to give him a high five, Finley said, "Oh alright, I'll do it!" He is a compassionate guy, afterall :)  We had left Dagny home with a neighborhood sitter, so during the third period - we headed home in the snow.  It was a painfully slow and somewhat slippery ride, but Dan was an expert driver and we made it home in just under an hour.  Finley was totally exhausted and so Dan put him to bed while I chatted with the sitter and sent her on her snowy way.

It snowed all night, while all of us (yes, all four of us) slept peacefully. The kids were super excited to see the snow covering all they could see when they woke up.  Dan occupied them in the basement while I cooked up enough waffles for breakfast and some to freeze.  Finley had barely finished his first waffle when he told us that he was ready to go out and shovel.  It seemed to take forever to get all four of us dressed for the snow, but Dagny won the prize for being ready first and not asking to go to the bathroom right after.

Finley was a close second.

They were quite a bundled pair!

Since Dagny was an infant this time last year, we are counting this as her first real snow experience. We got outside and she showed her naivety in terms of snow -- as she didn't want a shovel and preferred a broom. 

 The kids moved some snow around near the garage but Dagny wasn't too excited to be walking around in it and Finley wasn't thrilled that Dan was firing up the loud snowblower.  So Plan B: put Dagny in the baby sled and tow her down to the mailbox with Finley trudging along beside us.

We put the mail behind Dagny in her sled and then made our way over to our nearest fire hydrant to dig it out, our civic duty.

Oh, we also saw rabbit and chipmunk tracks in the snow, which fascinated Finley.  We then made it back up the driveway where Dan had snowblowed us a path, but both kids were pretty much done being outside.  Sigh.  I took them in and Dan finished snowblowing.  Dagny LOVED watching Dan and the "bowler" through the window, she kept asking me "bowler all done?" "Daddy do bowler?" "Where bowler go?"  Yes, bowler instead of blower.  Pretty cute.  I made some warm (not hot) chocolate for the kids while they watched the snowblower and slow moving cars pass by.  Dagny was an expert at scooping out her marshmallows and then drank most of the cocoa through a straw.  Hooray for Ovaltine!

Finley, on the other hand, did great dropping in and scooping out his marshmallows but wanted nothing to do with drinking the cocoa itself.  

Then, Dan came back in to tell Finley he was done snowblowing and the boys suited back up for more shoveling.  Finley was a champ "helping" Dan tidy up the driveway, front walk, and stairs.  Plus, he hung out on the driveway while Dan used the roof rake.  They came in for lunch and while Finley was disappointed that the snow wasn't a good consistency for snowman building, he had had a blast outside with his dad.

Nice to have all this snow on a weekend so we can enjoy it, clear it away, and then take naps!