Falling in Love

Laika is concerned that she is not allowed to marry Leif.  She has been talking about it all day.  "Who will I fall in love with?"  I tell her I don't know, and she doesn't need to worry about it yet.  "But I already love Leif, I want to marry Leif."  Then she tried it out on other things.  "I think I'm falling in love with my new goggles.  Can you fall in love with goggles?"  I said that you couldn't really.  But her goggles do smell like cherries and come with a cherry carrying case, so I can see why she might be wondering.

How the Weekend Starts

Tomorrow morning Leif and Erik will begin the second set of soccer lessons.  The first session was so educational for Leif as he had NO IDEA about how the game was played.  In the first lesson he was on the Blue team, so he was so confused about why the Red team was coming over onto his side, and they were trying to score on the Blue goalie!  In his mind it was the Blue Team vs. the Blue Goalie, and the Red Team vs. the Red Goalie.  This is a hilarious idea to me.  The poor goalies all alone.   In team sports you need to cooperate with your team mates and be aggressive toward the other team (inasmuch as taking the ball is aggressive).  Leif is not aggressive AT ALL, so he gives the ball a wide berth.  When he sees the throng of boys coming in his direction he hastily hops aside.  Luckily in this class the parents are encouraged to stay with their player to point them in the right direction.  Erik does a good job pointing Leif the right way, and Leif does a good job trying to look busy.  He pulls on his pinny and runs around.  On his last day in December he gave the Coach a hug goodbye and the coach offered us some reassuring words about how Leif is a 'thinker' and an 'observer' and that this often results in the best kind of player.  Maybe.  Although when you see the bloodlust in the eyes of some of the other kids it's hard to imagine that he's ever going to go for it in the same way.  Fortunately Erik and I don't care if he ever gets really into sports, we just want him to understand about what a 'goal' is and why the kids are wearing different colored pinnies.  And we like to go take the kids out to the coffee shop afterwards.

First Swimming Lesson Ever

Today Leif and Laika started their swimming lessons.  They are so lucky to be in the same class of only 4 kids (all classes have only 4 students).  Lessons start at 11:30, but were a few minutes late as one of the babies in the baby class had pooped in the pool.  So they had all sort of vacuums and skimmers out and were changing the filter etc.  Very educational for our first day.

Before they went in we bought goggles.  These were a big hit.  They make them feel invinsible.

So, the instructional objective in the Starfish level is to get them used to water.  This means making them get their heads under the water . . . lots and lots of times.  The instructor was wonderful, she kept everything moving so fast and kept them so happy that they didn't have time to dwell on the fact that she kept tricking them.  Her number one tactic is to give them a rubber toy of some sort, then they put it on her head or shoulder, and then she stands a few feet back and they have to jump to her to get it back.  The trick is that she always steps back, so they flop into the water and then she picks them out and gives them the toy and they keep on going.  In 25 minutes both children had been fully immersed more than they have been in their lives so far!   They have these things called 'magic islands' which are big metal stools with bars on them that 4 kids can sit on.  They push these islands into the deep part of the water, so that the instructor can be working in deepish water and the kids have this handy island to jump on and off of.  The instructor would ask the kids to give her 5 and then when they slap her hand she falls right back into the water.  This is hilarious to them.  Getting into the water is easy as they keep the pool at bathtub temperature.

Both kids were chatting nonstop when they got out of the pool.  Their adrenaline was pumping, "I was the deepest kid!  I went soooo deep!  I could see underwater.  Did you see me go underwater?  Did you see us sitting on the island?  Next time I'm going to go under and try looking around.  When do we go back?"

Phew.

Christmas time was here.

We had a great time on our vacation.  Too much to write about so I will list it:

1 - Gifts had been 'hidden' in bathroom since October.  L and L knew, but didn't peek once!

2 - We sat on tarmac in airplane for 5 and a half HOURS before taking off for holiday.

3 - We were so excited to see cousin C and meet our newest family member.

4 - LO was very serious and well-behaved at Christmas Eve service.  LJ lip-synched to soloist.

5 - On Christmas Eve LJ decided she didn't want Santa coming down the chimney.  

6 - This year both big kids decided that sledding is actually fun.

7 - LO decided that he loves Lego 'one notch' more than Playmobil.

8 - LJ came up for new names for Nana N: Grammy Mixer, Grammy Caker, Grammy Breader.

9 - We went swimming twice and had a great time with the family.

10 - LO got a haircut (it looked like he had a wig on) and is a handsome little man.

11 - It was great fun visiting at the cousins' house.

12 - I got a nest of stainless steel mixing bowls!  I love them.

13 - We  also got two more wonderfully soft quilts from my aunt.  I love them too.

14 - There were all the cookies you could eat, and lots of feasts as well.

15 - We got to see my Mom and Dad just before Christmas during our Gingerbread decorating.

16 - Thanks to grandparents, we now have every kind of remotely operated vehicle you can own.

Godzilla!

Oops.

I said that something (I can't remember what) looked like Godzilla.  Then Leif said, "No mommy, Godzilla is a gorilla."  Then I said, "No, it's like a giant lizard."  Erik backed me up, and then offered to prove it by showing Leif some old Godzilla movie clips on YouTube.  You can guess how this might turn out.

Leif and Erik enjoyed the clips.  Laika did not.

Erik stopped the clip as soon as he sensed her tension, but the damage had been done.  She is now afraid of the giant fire-spewing lizard, and I'm just waiting for her to run to our bed in the night.  

We spent all evening talking about how Godzilla is actually a nice man named Jeff, who lives in Japan (but I thought that 'Jeff' sounded really non-threatening), has two kids and now works in a hot dog stand.  He doesn't even have that Godzilla costume anymore!  The buildings were made out of cardboard!  Then Leif sat down with a piece of paper and a felt.  He drew a picture of a tall building and a small man.  He said, "OK Laika, so this is how buildings REALLY are. But this is how they made the man in the Godzilla suit look big. . . " then he turned the paper over and drew a big man and a tiny building.  He said, "This building is made out of cardboard." Laika said, "I get it Leif!  I didn't know they were made out of cardboard."  So, she GETS that Godzilla isn't real, and really believes it, but is still worried that he might catch a plane to 'our village'.  This is part of being 3.

At least this fear is a little more understandable than Leif's big fear: 

the scary letters on the Curse of the Were-Rabbit poster.