We went camping in Sandbanks this past weekend and the weather was great! We went with a few other families to a group campsite which turned out great for everyone except Sophie. Juliette found a Best Friend For Life (BFFL) or in this case a BFFW (weekend) and they were almost inseparable. Nicholas had lots of boys to play soccer and tag with while Sophie is still spending most of her time with mom and dad. Sophie can walk when she wants to. Usually it's to/from her parents as long as we have our arms outstretched to catch her if/when she falls. Once she walked to her grandmother when she had an oatmeal cookie in her hand. So while the kids were playing and the parents were chatting, Sophie kept eating sand, sticks, leaves and everything else you would find on a forest floor. We tried our best to be vigilant in stopping her from eating this stuff, but when the inmates (kids) outnumber the guards (parents) you can’t stop everything. The water was freezing but the kids and I still found a way to get wet. The weekend of camping was exciting and exhausting.
Nicholas turned 4 a little while ago and we invited everyone from daycare to his party. We were to play games like duck, duck goose, piñata, musical chairs etc... But when the kids showed up, we realized the flaw in our plan. The kids in his daycare were between the ages of 2 - 4. The really young ones just did not function well in organized games. All they wanted to do was play with our toys, play structure and indoor swings in the basement. That's OK, the only person really disappointed was my wife because she loves to organize events and she loves it even more when everything goes as planned. Some of his more memorable gifts were a complete set of the incredible figurines and a very noisy toy gun.
Juliette had an end of year school outing to a place called Kiddie Cars. A few parents, including myself, volunteered to go along. When we got there the weather started to get bad. The activities included driving on a track with electric cars, playing in a sandbox, feeding goats, Lammas and other animals in a petting zoo and swimming in a wading pool with a water slide. The rain was coming down hard and the kids were getting cold but the kids loved it. After a few minutes on the electric cars Juliette found the switch that increased the speed. She had a ton of fun even though I thought the entire event was a disaster. We were just lucky that Juliette had an extra change of clothes. By the end of lunch, kids were shivering, crying and wet so they called off the rest of the day and went back to school.
Sophie can now walk and say a few words. She loves to say Oh, Oh after she intentionally throws stuff to the ground. Her walking resembles that of a drunk. She's got tons of teeth and she uses them mostly on food which includes steak and pork chops. She's not a morning person and if your name is not mom she's not interested in seeing you.
Nicholas hasn't changed much except he's been a bit of a pain in the but lately. He tends to cry a bit more when he doesn't get what he wants and in general not listening very well. Last week during a soccer game that I attended he scored three goals. After every goal he ran to me on the sideline and game me a high five. He yelled with delight "I scored a goal" and I celebrated with him. What was funny was when he scored his second goal; he came over, did the same thing and said, "I scored two goals". It was at this point I wondered, what? You're counting your statistics now? What's up with that? Will you be using these stats at an upcoming contract negotiation? At least he's found something he's relatively good at which gives him pleasure.
Juliette is still little miss goody two shoes (wow I've never spelled that one out before, it looks kind of strange). She loves to play will older girls and doesn't have much patience for rule breakers (AKA boys). She also loves to bug her brother until he's yelling and/or crying. She's also playing soccer and I congratulate her on her successful break aways but tease her about how she misses the net when she goes for the shot. At the beach she's usually building a small pool for Sophie and making sand donuts at an imaginary donut shop.
All my kids make my life worth living and even though I end up doing less video games, ultimate Frisbee, travel and movies now that their around, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.