A friend on Facebook asked if we had any tips after our long plane ride, so I thought I would elaborate a little on that.
First of all, my dad requested a bulkhead row for us, which turned out to be a great thing. We didn't end up getting our baby to sleep in the bassinet that came along with it, but we did use the bassinet to store all of our stuff! More importantly, we got lots of extra leg room in the bulkhead row, which saved us from worrying about the kids incessantly kicking the seats in front of them.
Finally, we had a three and one seating arrangement, with Sacha and the big kids in the three seats and me and our lap baby in the one seat across the aisle. We seriously lucked out in that there were some extra seats on the plane and that the guy behind us offered to switch rows so that the baby and I would have more space. We happily said yes to that one!
I did a lot of research on international travel with kids before we left, and one of the most valuable tips was to bring plenty of food. We devoted a whole backpack to food, including granola bars, sandwiches, and chewy candy to help with kids' ears on the way up and down. As we were on our long, long, looooong descent into Paris, Mateo and I had an extremely satisfying little candy party in celebration! It helped his ears and gave us both a little extra energy.
I think my last piece of helpful advice is just to roll with things. We had some long periods on the plane where none of the kids were asleep and all were extremely tired and it seemed like we would be stuck in plane hell for the rest of our lives! However, that, like all things, eventually came to an end, and we did eventually make it.
It helped to just take things one minute at a time and not try to think beyond that. I have been trying to remember that same lesson in the last few days, as we have been dealing with jet lag and wakeful kids at all hours of the night. I try to remember that this, too, shall pass, and that everyone has to succumb to sleep at some point, even if it is at 3 am!.
I'm sure there are many other things I'm forgetting, but those are the things that come to mind about what helped get us through.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
Traveling, part one
We have had quite an adventure over the past two days!
It started when Apa picked us up at home on Saturday morning. We drove to the airport and realized we were WAY too early, even earlier than the three hours we had budgeted for the airport. So, we made a detour to get coffee and fuel up for the trip ahead.
Then, he dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way. After stops at the check in counter, where the agent printed us out about a million boarding passes for all of our flights (five people times three flights equals a LOT of boarding passes!), and at the play structure before security, we breezed through security and set about waiting for our first flight.
We were first flying to Salt Lake City, then to Paris, and then to Barcelona from there. Our first flight was a breeze, except for the incredibly large woman that sat next to Rosie and me. Sacha and I mostly divided things up
so that I was with the baby and she was with the big kids, although there was some switching around.
Rosie, in keeping with the rest of the trip, was somewhat difficult on the flight, testing out her screeching voice at top volume and not wanting to be wherever she was. However, she finally fell asleep and things were relatively peaceful until we landed. The big kids did really well, reading and playing and watching videos with next to no fighting. They were champion travelers the whole time, really.
We got out at Salt Lake and headed for our Paris flight, expecting to have almost an hour to wait at the gate. Not so! It was boarding as we walked up. We didn't know if we would have time to gate check our stroller, but luckily we did, although we would find out later that that didn't really matter.
We got on to the plane and settled into our bulkhead row, with me and our squirmy "lap" baby across the aisle. In a great bit of luck, the guy behind us offered to switch so Rosie and I would have an extra seat next to us. We said yes!!
We took off and commenced the 10 hour flight. Overall, it went really well, although we all had our moments. The kids refused to sleep for a long time, thanks mostly to the huge, bright screen playing movies right in front of our seats. The baby had the hardest time sleeping, and spent a lot of time wailing when I wasn't able to be up and walking her, which was a lot of the time because there was a lot of turbulence.
Also, Sacha had some problems with a medicine she took to sleep, making her really shaky and landing her on oxygen (the airline's solution to everything!) for the rest of the flight. While she was out of it and the kids were fighting sleep and it was 11 pm our time, I had some moments iof wondering what we had been thinking!! But, eventually, the kids all slept and Sacha started feeling better, although by that time I was much too wired to sleep. I think I slept about an hour of the whole trip.
Finally, finally, finally, we landed in Paris! I was so proud of us, I just about burst into tears. We had done it! Who would have thought that we could fly for 2 hours and then 10 hours, along with another two hour flight later, with a 5-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a very wiggly 1-year-old? We did it!!
Mateo is about to go to bed and will need his music from the iPad, so I will continue about our flight to Barcelona and our first day and night here later. Suffice it to say that we have had a magical first day and night here, complete with a 3:30am wakeup on the part of the kids, and lots of fun sight seeing already, and now we are wiped out and hoping to sleep though the night. More later!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
It started when Apa picked us up at home on Saturday morning. We drove to the airport and realized we were WAY too early, even earlier than the three hours we had budgeted for the airport. So, we made a detour to get coffee and fuel up for the trip ahead.
Then, he dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way. After stops at the check in counter, where the agent printed us out about a million boarding passes for all of our flights (five people times three flights equals a LOT of boarding passes!), and at the play structure before security, we breezed through security and set about waiting for our first flight.
We were first flying to Salt Lake City, then to Paris, and then to Barcelona from there. Our first flight was a breeze, except for the incredibly large woman that sat next to Rosie and me. Sacha and I mostly divided things up
so that I was with the baby and she was with the big kids, although there was some switching around.
Rosie, in keeping with the rest of the trip, was somewhat difficult on the flight, testing out her screeching voice at top volume and not wanting to be wherever she was. However, she finally fell asleep and things were relatively peaceful until we landed. The big kids did really well, reading and playing and watching videos with next to no fighting. They were champion travelers the whole time, really.
We got out at Salt Lake and headed for our Paris flight, expecting to have almost an hour to wait at the gate. Not so! It was boarding as we walked up. We didn't know if we would have time to gate check our stroller, but luckily we did, although we would find out later that that didn't really matter.
We got on to the plane and settled into our bulkhead row, with me and our squirmy "lap" baby across the aisle. In a great bit of luck, the guy behind us offered to switch so Rosie and I would have an extra seat next to us. We said yes!!
We took off and commenced the 10 hour flight. Overall, it went really well, although we all had our moments. The kids refused to sleep for a long time, thanks mostly to the huge, bright screen playing movies right in front of our seats. The baby had the hardest time sleeping, and spent a lot of time wailing when I wasn't able to be up and walking her, which was a lot of the time because there was a lot of turbulence.
Also, Sacha had some problems with a medicine she took to sleep, making her really shaky and landing her on oxygen (the airline's solution to everything!) for the rest of the flight. While she was out of it and the kids were fighting sleep and it was 11 pm our time, I had some moments iof wondering what we had been thinking!! But, eventually, the kids all slept and Sacha started feeling better, although by that time I was much too wired to sleep. I think I slept about an hour of the whole trip.
Finally, finally, finally, we landed in Paris! I was so proud of us, I just about burst into tears. We had done it! Who would have thought that we could fly for 2 hours and then 10 hours, along with another two hour flight later, with a 5-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a very wiggly 1-year-old? We did it!!
Mateo is about to go to bed and will need his music from the iPad, so I will continue about our flight to Barcelona and our first day and night here later. Suffice it to say that we have had a magical first day and night here, complete with a 3:30am wakeup on the part of the kids, and lots of fun sight seeing already, and now we are wiped out and hoping to sleep though the night. More later!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, July 9, 2012
Natalia's four-year stats
Just a quick note to say that I took Tali in for her four-year well-child visit today.
An aside: we had had a brief excursion into the land of family-practice doctoring, which was great in some ways, but we could never get in to see our doctor, because she was so swamped. This meant that for anything that came up with the kids, we would end up having to take them to urgent care and wait for hours to be seen. We finally came to our senses and switched the kids back to pediatrics. We had the good luck to get back in with our beloved pediatrician. Her practice was closed, but she let us in anyway. Whew!
So, today was our first visit back with Dr. L. Natalia was pronounced to be in great health. She got four shots, and wow, she was amazing while she was getting them. She flinched a little but didn't cry at all. She didn't appear to bear any ill will towards the nurse afterwards either! She is a seriously tough cookie.
In terms of height and weight, she is holding steady at the bottom of the chart. She weighed in at 28 pounds even, which is the 2nd percentile, and at 36.5 inches, which is the 3rd percentile. Luckily, our doctor doesn't seem to be at all concerned about her tininess, and Tali perceives herself to be a Very Big Girl. She insisted on getting measured next to another little girl while we were at family camp, and even though the other kid was about a foot taller, Tali pronounced herself to be much bigger. It was adorable.
Now that Tali has turned four, she sees five as right around the corner. We think this is going to be a great year for her, and maybe she'll even crack 30 pounds at some point :)
An aside: we had had a brief excursion into the land of family-practice doctoring, which was great in some ways, but we could never get in to see our doctor, because she was so swamped. This meant that for anything that came up with the kids, we would end up having to take them to urgent care and wait for hours to be seen. We finally came to our senses and switched the kids back to pediatrics. We had the good luck to get back in with our beloved pediatrician. Her practice was closed, but she let us in anyway. Whew!
So, today was our first visit back with Dr. L. Natalia was pronounced to be in great health. She got four shots, and wow, she was amazing while she was getting them. She flinched a little but didn't cry at all. She didn't appear to bear any ill will towards the nurse afterwards either! She is a seriously tough cookie.
In terms of height and weight, she is holding steady at the bottom of the chart. She weighed in at 28 pounds even, which is the 2nd percentile, and at 36.5 inches, which is the 3rd percentile. Luckily, our doctor doesn't seem to be at all concerned about her tininess, and Tali perceives herself to be a Very Big Girl. She insisted on getting measured next to another little girl while we were at family camp, and even though the other kid was about a foot taller, Tali pronounced herself to be much bigger. It was adorable.
Now that Tali has turned four, she sees five as right around the corner. We think this is going to be a great year for her, and maybe she'll even crack 30 pounds at some point :)
Family camp
We got back last night from our annual week at family camp up in the San Juan islands. We always have fun, but this year was even more magical than most. Here are some of the things we did:
We ate delicious vegetarian food, helped with chores, and did arts and crafts. We played on the camp's rocky beaches. We danced to loud music in our socks and painted our nails. I escaped a couple of times to run with a friend.
We spent time with the group of friends that we went with, with Sacha's parents, and with new and old camp friends. Sacha has been going to this camp since she was a baby, so she goes way back with some people.
I re-learned to knit and got about halfway through a kid scarf.
All of our kids spent time in groups with other kids their own ages, with Sacha leading Mateo and Natalia's group and me going with Rosie to the baby group, which was just about as adorable as it sounds.
We went into town a couple of times to get ice cream with various combinations of kids. We swapped kids with our friends, allowing everyone to have some flexibility and even a little time off! Sacha's mom very nicely came to our cabin every morning to let Natalia sleep in while the rest of us went to breakfast. All the kids got some nice time with their grandparents, and Mateo had a great time reading with Papa and going to the beach with him for some boy time.
We threw bedtime to the winds and went to campfire every night, which we haven't done before. Mateo ran and ran and ran: around the meadow, on the beach, and, particularly, after the big boys. Natalia stuck closer to home, but opened enough to spend time with a few people without us. Both older kids did lots of art: painting, clay, building fairy houses, and painting some more.
Rosie, in her typical way, sought out as many new experiences as she could, eating everything she could get her hands on, playing naked in the baby pool, stuffing rocks into her mouth at the beach, napping in the Ergo, and holding court with the many bigger kids who wanted to play with her and cart her around.
Rosie and Natalia went nuts at the sock hop, staying to dance for quite awhile after Mateo fell asleep in Sacha's arms. The kids went to bed after 10 just about every night, which was huge for all of us. We didn't need to do a bedtime routine or anything. They just laid down and fell right asleep. They slept in in the mornings, which was even huger.
And, for the high point of the week, Mateo, Natalia and I got to watch the 4th of July fireworks together. I had been grumbling a bit about all of us staying up until it got dark, which is late that far north! However, all my issues fell away when the show started. It was simply magical to watch fireworks for the first time with a four- and five-year-old. It was all brand new to them, and SO exciting. In an extra bonus coincidence, the moon was rising at the same time as the fireworks were going off, and it was one of those huge yellow moons that you normally see in the fall. The whole experience was really amazing and I hope I remember it forever.
Speaking of remembering, I consciously didn't take photos while we were there. I could have brought my phone around with us and photographed things, but I wanted to just be in the moment and enjoy things as they unfolded. Of course, now I wish I had photos of our great week, but there's always next year!
On our way home, we stopped in Seattle to see my brother and his fiancee, which added more lovely moments to the trip. We got to see their apartment for the first time, and their refrigerator magnets, which were a big hit with the younger crowd. We were craving burgers after our weeklong foray into vegetarianism, so they took us to a fun burger place near their apartment, and then to a nearby park. Mateo and Tali played themselves silly while Rosie impressed/terrified us all with her fearlessness!
Then, we piled back into the swagger wagon and made the long, long, long, loooong drive home. It wasn't really that far, but those last three hours in the car seemed like an eternity. We had gotten up at 5 am to catch the ferry off the island and we got home right about 5 pm, so it was a long day.
Now, we have the rest of this week to do laundry, take care of last-minute things and pack again and then we are going to hit the road...well, the airport...for Europe on Saturday! I just looked at our tickets and realized that we are going to have a bassinet for Rosie to sleep in on the way over, so that should be a very good thing. It's going to be a big adventure. Let's hope we're ready!
We ate delicious vegetarian food, helped with chores, and did arts and crafts. We played on the camp's rocky beaches. We danced to loud music in our socks and painted our nails. I escaped a couple of times to run with a friend.
We spent time with the group of friends that we went with, with Sacha's parents, and with new and old camp friends. Sacha has been going to this camp since she was a baby, so she goes way back with some people.
I re-learned to knit and got about halfway through a kid scarf.
All of our kids spent time in groups with other kids their own ages, with Sacha leading Mateo and Natalia's group and me going with Rosie to the baby group, which was just about as adorable as it sounds.
We went into town a couple of times to get ice cream with various combinations of kids. We swapped kids with our friends, allowing everyone to have some flexibility and even a little time off! Sacha's mom very nicely came to our cabin every morning to let Natalia sleep in while the rest of us went to breakfast. All the kids got some nice time with their grandparents, and Mateo had a great time reading with Papa and going to the beach with him for some boy time.
We threw bedtime to the winds and went to campfire every night, which we haven't done before. Mateo ran and ran and ran: around the meadow, on the beach, and, particularly, after the big boys. Natalia stuck closer to home, but opened enough to spend time with a few people without us. Both older kids did lots of art: painting, clay, building fairy houses, and painting some more.
Rosie, in her typical way, sought out as many new experiences as she could, eating everything she could get her hands on, playing naked in the baby pool, stuffing rocks into her mouth at the beach, napping in the Ergo, and holding court with the many bigger kids who wanted to play with her and cart her around.
Rosie and Natalia went nuts at the sock hop, staying to dance for quite awhile after Mateo fell asleep in Sacha's arms. The kids went to bed after 10 just about every night, which was huge for all of us. We didn't need to do a bedtime routine or anything. They just laid down and fell right asleep. They slept in in the mornings, which was even huger.
And, for the high point of the week, Mateo, Natalia and I got to watch the 4th of July fireworks together. I had been grumbling a bit about all of us staying up until it got dark, which is late that far north! However, all my issues fell away when the show started. It was simply magical to watch fireworks for the first time with a four- and five-year-old. It was all brand new to them, and SO exciting. In an extra bonus coincidence, the moon was rising at the same time as the fireworks were going off, and it was one of those huge yellow moons that you normally see in the fall. The whole experience was really amazing and I hope I remember it forever.
Speaking of remembering, I consciously didn't take photos while we were there. I could have brought my phone around with us and photographed things, but I wanted to just be in the moment and enjoy things as they unfolded. Of course, now I wish I had photos of our great week, but there's always next year!
On our way home, we stopped in Seattle to see my brother and his fiancee, which added more lovely moments to the trip. We got to see their apartment for the first time, and their refrigerator magnets, which were a big hit with the younger crowd. We were craving burgers after our weeklong foray into vegetarianism, so they took us to a fun burger place near their apartment, and then to a nearby park. Mateo and Tali played themselves silly while Rosie impressed/terrified us all with her fearlessness!
Then, we piled back into the swagger wagon and made the long, long, long, loooong drive home. It wasn't really that far, but those last three hours in the car seemed like an eternity. We had gotten up at 5 am to catch the ferry off the island and we got home right about 5 pm, so it was a long day.
Now, we have the rest of this week to do laundry, take care of last-minute things and pack again and then we are going to hit the road...well, the airport...for Europe on Saturday! I just looked at our tickets and realized that we are going to have a bassinet for Rosie to sleep in on the way over, so that should be a very good thing. It's going to be a big adventure. Let's hope we're ready!
Monday, June 25, 2012
First day
Mateo had his first day of kindergarten summer camp today. It's at his new school; a chance to get to know the place and some of the kids before the school year starts. I dropped him off this morning and while I know that it wasn't the official start of kindergarten, it felt like it was. It's full days all week, which he has never done, except for the occasional full day at preschool. Of course, we had a feeling he would love it, so I got over the "but he's our baby!" feeling and let him go off to have fun.
He came home bursting with stories of what he had gotten to do and all the different places they had played. This place is a fantasy-land of a school, complete with a woodshop that even kindergarteners get to use. Mateo learned the first basics of using a saw, a hammer, and a hot glue gun today! Needless to say, he was VERY proud. He brought home his glue gun project and promptly played with it so hard that it fell apart!
We are just so relieved and grateful that he will be at a school that is going to challenge him and expose him to all sorts of different things, other than what he is already good at. And, so thankful to my mom for making it possible! Today really showed us that this is going to be a great place for him. Yay!
Meanwhile, Sacha, Tali, Rosie and I had a girls' day and took Tali out to get some new sandals for summer. She picked purple, her favorite favorite color, and ran and skipped all over the store in delight. It's so much fun to see her opening up and showing her personality outside of our house.
I should also say that we had a fabulous weekend with my parents and brother and future sister-in-law in town for Tali's birthday. We had a lovely time with various family members over the weekend, and I even got some special one-on-one time with both my parents on Saturday and Sunday, which was really wonderful. Rare these days, so especially appreciated.
I love summer. Can you tell?
We are slowly getting ready for our big trip and are also getting excited for our week of family camp, which will start in exactly a week. We'll be going with two sets of good friends and will hopefully making some new friends there, too, so it will be great. It's such a beautiful and relaxing place. As always, we've been looking forward to going back since the day we left last summer. This year, we will have a four- and five-year-old on our hands who may not even need naps in order to stay up late for campfire! We obviously have a long way to go until Rosie is that age, but the big kids are just seeming so, well, big lately!
I guess that's all for now. Good night!
He came home bursting with stories of what he had gotten to do and all the different places they had played. This place is a fantasy-land of a school, complete with a woodshop that even kindergarteners get to use. Mateo learned the first basics of using a saw, a hammer, and a hot glue gun today! Needless to say, he was VERY proud. He brought home his glue gun project and promptly played with it so hard that it fell apart!
We are just so relieved and grateful that he will be at a school that is going to challenge him and expose him to all sorts of different things, other than what he is already good at. And, so thankful to my mom for making it possible! Today really showed us that this is going to be a great place for him. Yay!
Meanwhile, Sacha, Tali, Rosie and I had a girls' day and took Tali out to get some new sandals for summer. She picked purple, her favorite favorite color, and ran and skipped all over the store in delight. It's so much fun to see her opening up and showing her personality outside of our house.
I should also say that we had a fabulous weekend with my parents and brother and future sister-in-law in town for Tali's birthday. We had a lovely time with various family members over the weekend, and I even got some special one-on-one time with both my parents on Saturday and Sunday, which was really wonderful. Rare these days, so especially appreciated.
I love summer. Can you tell?
We are slowly getting ready for our big trip and are also getting excited for our week of family camp, which will start in exactly a week. We'll be going with two sets of good friends and will hopefully making some new friends there, too, so it will be great. It's such a beautiful and relaxing place. As always, we've been looking forward to going back since the day we left last summer. This year, we will have a four- and five-year-old on our hands who may not even need naps in order to stay up late for campfire! We obviously have a long way to go until Rosie is that age, but the big kids are just seeming so, well, big lately!
I guess that's all for now. Good night!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Natalia's 4-year-old letter
Dear Tali,
You, big girl, are four years old! You turned four this past Friday. After you woke up, which was around 9:30 am, you came down the stairs and sleepily said, "this is my pretend birthday, right?" We reassured you that it was really, for real, your real birthday! Since then, you have been reveling in being four. In fact, you have already set your sights on the big FIVE. Not so fast. You still have a lot of four to take care of! You have been up to a lot of things lately, and we want to write them down.
Here's what you are like at the ripe old age of four:
First of all, you love to paint. We have slowly accumulated a paint library of many colors, and a tray to hold lots of different colors at one time. You sometimes like to mix colors and paint more than one color on a page, but mostly you prefer to paint a sheet of paper all one color. Then, you move on to the next page and the next color. We might call this your solid color phase.
In fact, art is probably your most favorite thing in general right now. If you're not painting, you're asking to draw or do stencils or do something with glitter. YOU LOVE GLITTER. If we're not careful, you can make a holy mess with glitter, paint and water, that your baby sister will then come along and dump on the carpet.
Speaking of your baby sister, you and she have quite a love affair going on. You are quite possibly the world's greatest big sister. I think we always knew you would be a wonderful older sibling. You have proved us right time and time again. You help take care of Rosie, give her hugs constantly, help her walk, help her eat, and help keep her out of trouble. You are going to make a fantastic mommy someday. We are already looking forward to when Rosie is a little bit older, because we think you two are going to be great friends. You love, love, love your "stister," as you call her, and tell us at every opportunity.
You also love your brother and are very protective of him. In fact, you are protective of all of us. When Mateo fell off his bike recently and was bleeding all over the place, you calmly told me that he was bleeding and proceeded to get him a bandaid, reassure him, and show that you are just great in a crisis. Really, you were so helpful that I could hardly believe it. I think you were less freaked out and more calm about the blood than Mama was!
You know Mateo inside and out and always keep in mind his personality, reminding us when a video might be "too scary for Te Te," or marching me off to "look for my brother" when he wanders away at the Children's Museum.
You are Mama's little shadow when we go out somewhere, sticking close and always wanting to hold hands. It is incredibly reassuring to know that you are reliably going to be close by and that you are also keeping an eye out for your siblings. Family relationships are more important to you than anything right now. We love you and all the hand-holding and snuggling and cuddling you bestow on us. You are the most loving, caring, observant little - well, big! - girl.
Speaking of your size, you feel that you are very big by now. Especially now that you are four, you are practically all grown up! You continue to be tiny in physical stature, holding steady around the second percentile for height and weight. You are dwarfed by kids your age, but it doesn't seem to bother you and it doesn't bother us. You are wonderfully healthy, strong, and full of energy. It is clear that you are thriving, and probably are just meant to be on the smaller side.
In personality, you have made it clear that you are one introverted kid. You prefer to play with your brother and sister over most other kids, with a few exceptions. You stick close to those you know and are very wary of those you don't. You take an extremely long time to warm up even to people we know well - sometimes staying clear of friends we have known for a year or more! We don't know if that's something you'll grow out of or if it's just part of your personality, but we will be very interested to see if it changes over the next year, at your new preschool. It's going to be a small, intimate setting with just a few kids and a great teacher, and we hope it will encourage you to expand your circle of relationships by some.
Another way you express your introvert nature is the way you get energy - from being by yourself. You have started coming downstairs in the morning around 9:30 or 10 am, which is late for a little kid! We have realized that you often wake up much earlier, but like to spend an hour or so just playing by yourself up there. We think it's actually really good for you to get some time to recharge alone, since most of your day is spent interacting with the rest of your family, so we take care to protect your morning alone time as much as we can.
Speaking of sleep, you are a champion sleeper still, sleeping through the night every night without fail. You are unique in that regard among your siblings. Thank you!!!!!! One thing we appreciate about your sleeping is that, even if you've taken a late nap and aren't tired, you still go to bed peacefully and play independently upstairs until you are ready to go to sleep. You will even take yourself to the bathroom if you need to go, and then just lie down in your bed, under your cherished red blankie, and sleep when you are ready.
This speaks to the level of independence you have achieved. You like to get yourself dressed, get your shoes on, make your own sandwiches, turn the pages of books on your own, and generally do things for yourself. You are working hard to learn to buckle yourself in to your carseat, which will be a great thing once you learn to do it!
You are a here-and-there eater, frequently skipping meals because you just aren't hungry or are too busy playing to eat, but then making up for it later. You can eat a shocking amount for your size when you are hungry! You continue to be great at self-regulating and listening to your body for how much and when to eat.
If we are being honest, which we are, we should say that you mainly prefer white foods! Or, at least, light colored ones. Bread, tortillas, cheese, cream cheese, bananas, mac and cheese, etc. We offer you all kinds of other foods and you sometimes consent to a few bites of other things, but mostly you stick with the tried and true.
Tali, you are cherished by your parents and your siblings. You are so loved. We love you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. We love your fuzzy back, the last vestiges of your round toddler belly, your delicate hands, and your beautiful brown eyes. We love your sweet voice and all the cuddles you give us. We love you just as you are and just as the big girl you are becoming. We will always love you just like this, no matter how big and grown up you get. You are our Tali, now and forever. We love you so much!
Here's to a great year of being four. Four! Can you believe it?
love, Mama and Mommy
You, big girl, are four years old! You turned four this past Friday. After you woke up, which was around 9:30 am, you came down the stairs and sleepily said, "this is my pretend birthday, right?" We reassured you that it was really, for real, your real birthday! Since then, you have been reveling in being four. In fact, you have already set your sights on the big FIVE. Not so fast. You still have a lot of four to take care of! You have been up to a lot of things lately, and we want to write them down.
Here's what you are like at the ripe old age of four:
First of all, you love to paint. We have slowly accumulated a paint library of many colors, and a tray to hold lots of different colors at one time. You sometimes like to mix colors and paint more than one color on a page, but mostly you prefer to paint a sheet of paper all one color. Then, you move on to the next page and the next color. We might call this your solid color phase.
In fact, art is probably your most favorite thing in general right now. If you're not painting, you're asking to draw or do stencils or do something with glitter. YOU LOVE GLITTER. If we're not careful, you can make a holy mess with glitter, paint and water, that your baby sister will then come along and dump on the carpet.
Speaking of your baby sister, you and she have quite a love affair going on. You are quite possibly the world's greatest big sister. I think we always knew you would be a wonderful older sibling. You have proved us right time and time again. You help take care of Rosie, give her hugs constantly, help her walk, help her eat, and help keep her out of trouble. You are going to make a fantastic mommy someday. We are already looking forward to when Rosie is a little bit older, because we think you two are going to be great friends. You love, love, love your "stister," as you call her, and tell us at every opportunity.
You also love your brother and are very protective of him. In fact, you are protective of all of us. When Mateo fell off his bike recently and was bleeding all over the place, you calmly told me that he was bleeding and proceeded to get him a bandaid, reassure him, and show that you are just great in a crisis. Really, you were so helpful that I could hardly believe it. I think you were less freaked out and more calm about the blood than Mama was!
You know Mateo inside and out and always keep in mind his personality, reminding us when a video might be "too scary for Te Te," or marching me off to "look for my brother" when he wanders away at the Children's Museum.
You are Mama's little shadow when we go out somewhere, sticking close and always wanting to hold hands. It is incredibly reassuring to know that you are reliably going to be close by and that you are also keeping an eye out for your siblings. Family relationships are more important to you than anything right now. We love you and all the hand-holding and snuggling and cuddling you bestow on us. You are the most loving, caring, observant little - well, big! - girl.
Speaking of your size, you feel that you are very big by now. Especially now that you are four, you are practically all grown up! You continue to be tiny in physical stature, holding steady around the second percentile for height and weight. You are dwarfed by kids your age, but it doesn't seem to bother you and it doesn't bother us. You are wonderfully healthy, strong, and full of energy. It is clear that you are thriving, and probably are just meant to be on the smaller side.
In personality, you have made it clear that you are one introverted kid. You prefer to play with your brother and sister over most other kids, with a few exceptions. You stick close to those you know and are very wary of those you don't. You take an extremely long time to warm up even to people we know well - sometimes staying clear of friends we have known for a year or more! We don't know if that's something you'll grow out of or if it's just part of your personality, but we will be very interested to see if it changes over the next year, at your new preschool. It's going to be a small, intimate setting with just a few kids and a great teacher, and we hope it will encourage you to expand your circle of relationships by some.
Another way you express your introvert nature is the way you get energy - from being by yourself. You have started coming downstairs in the morning around 9:30 or 10 am, which is late for a little kid! We have realized that you often wake up much earlier, but like to spend an hour or so just playing by yourself up there. We think it's actually really good for you to get some time to recharge alone, since most of your day is spent interacting with the rest of your family, so we take care to protect your morning alone time as much as we can.
Speaking of sleep, you are a champion sleeper still, sleeping through the night every night without fail. You are unique in that regard among your siblings. Thank you!!!!!! One thing we appreciate about your sleeping is that, even if you've taken a late nap and aren't tired, you still go to bed peacefully and play independently upstairs until you are ready to go to sleep. You will even take yourself to the bathroom if you need to go, and then just lie down in your bed, under your cherished red blankie, and sleep when you are ready.
This speaks to the level of independence you have achieved. You like to get yourself dressed, get your shoes on, make your own sandwiches, turn the pages of books on your own, and generally do things for yourself. You are working hard to learn to buckle yourself in to your carseat, which will be a great thing once you learn to do it!
You are a here-and-there eater, frequently skipping meals because you just aren't hungry or are too busy playing to eat, but then making up for it later. You can eat a shocking amount for your size when you are hungry! You continue to be great at self-regulating and listening to your body for how much and when to eat.
If we are being honest, which we are, we should say that you mainly prefer white foods! Or, at least, light colored ones. Bread, tortillas, cheese, cream cheese, bananas, mac and cheese, etc. We offer you all kinds of other foods and you sometimes consent to a few bites of other things, but mostly you stick with the tried and true.
Tali, you are cherished by your parents and your siblings. You are so loved. We love you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. We love your fuzzy back, the last vestiges of your round toddler belly, your delicate hands, and your beautiful brown eyes. We love your sweet voice and all the cuddles you give us. We love you just as you are and just as the big girl you are becoming. We will always love you just like this, no matter how big and grown up you get. You are our Tali, now and forever. We love you so much!
Here's to a great year of being four. Four! Can you believe it?
love, Mama and Mommy
Monday, June 4, 2012
Preparation
As I have mentioned before, we are going to be traveling to Europe this summer with my parents and my sister. The trip is just about a month away, which we can hardly believe!
We are wildly excited about the time in Europe itself, and have some accompanying trepidation about the plane flights getting there and back. On the way there, we are going to have a marathon of a day, flying from Portland to Salt Lake City to Paris to Barcelona. On the way back, we fly direct from Paris to Seattle and then just have a short hop to get home to Portland.
As is my way, I have turned to Dr. Google for reassurance and found stories of people successfully traveling internationally with three young children. In my searching around, I've also found a number of specific tips for being on the plane for a long time with young ones. As well, we have some friends who recently moved to Germany with their little one and passed on some good advice on flying.
Among things I wouldn't have thought of:
Can you tell that I am all about planning for this? I think a little work now will probably really pay off when we are on the plane. And, I thought it would be good to post about this now so that we can look back later and laugh (or cry) about how it really went on the planes.
Luckily, once we get there, we'll be with my parents and the adults will outnumber the kids, so hopefully we'll all be able to regroup. Then, we'll have two weeks to explore and make memories in two amazing cities and one country inn in the middle. I'm sure we will come back with some great stories!
We are wildly excited about the time in Europe itself, and have some accompanying trepidation about the plane flights getting there and back. On the way there, we are going to have a marathon of a day, flying from Portland to Salt Lake City to Paris to Barcelona. On the way back, we fly direct from Paris to Seattle and then just have a short hop to get home to Portland.
As is my way, I have turned to Dr. Google for reassurance and found stories of people successfully traveling internationally with three young children. In my searching around, I've also found a number of specific tips for being on the plane for a long time with young ones. As well, we have some friends who recently moved to Germany with their little one and passed on some good advice on flying.
Among things I wouldn't have thought of:
- bring a change of clothes for everyone (as you never know when a child might puke on one of you or themselves),
- bring magnetic board games,
- don't pack too many activities,
- bring stickers,
- bring lots of the thin children's books that you can find on the rotating racks at any bookstore (Mateo is particularly into the superhero genre at the moment),
- bring a lot of food, and
- definitely bring that iPad or DVD player.
Can you tell that I am all about planning for this? I think a little work now will probably really pay off when we are on the plane. And, I thought it would be good to post about this now so that we can look back later and laugh (or cry) about how it really went on the planes.
Luckily, once we get there, we'll be with my parents and the adults will outnumber the kids, so hopefully we'll all be able to regroup. Then, we'll have two weeks to explore and make memories in two amazing cities and one country inn in the middle. I'm sure we will come back with some great stories!
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