gymnastics

Most of you probably know that I did gymnastics for 10 years growing up and also taught it for 4 years. I don't think I really want my kids to get into gymnastics competitively, but I will try to give them opportunities to do what they choose. However, I HAVE always wanted to have coordinate kids and be able to teach them some basic gymnastic tricks well. I thought nothing would stop me from teaching Isabel to do cartwheels when she was two..... I have tried hard to teach Isabel how to be independent and sometimes she just does not want to follow instructions. So, it has been more challenging to teach her gymnastics than I had originally thought. I decided to try doing a little gymnastics class out of my home with a few neighbor kids to see if Isabel would catch the other children's excitement and enjoy the class. I even got my husband to make us a beam and I made/gathered other equipment that I could use creatively. We did gymnastics classes for about two months and Isabel just didn't really care. The other kids, especially cousin Sofie, just loved the class and were so cute and good at it. Isabel would sometimes show interest and sometimes not want to participate fully. So, I finally decided to stop doing the class because she (and I quote) "just doesn't feel like doing gymnastics very much." Since we got a new bed, it has been a little more crowded for the stations. (Yes, I taught the class in my bedroom because it is the largest carpeted room in our house.) I experimented doing the class in our huge dining room, but the wooden floor is just too hard and the mats would just slide around a lot. So, with mixed feelings, we'll stop doing the class for now. Maybe Isabel will be more interested in it when she is older. (I will still try make sure all my female children can do cartwheels at a reasonable age.)

easter

Isabel loves putting stickers in the middle of her forehead. And she was most excited for her chocolate easter bunny. Ansel was very surprised to wake up to a basket full of candy. (Especially since we don't have a lot of candy and dessert in our house for the kids.) He kept opening eggs and shoving as much into his mouth as he could fit, probably in fear that this dream would soon end with us taking the basket away. We had lots of easter egg hunts, which Isabel and I just love and Ansel started getting into too. We dyed eggs with some friends which was also lots of fun.

ansel and his shoes

I didn't really think about putting shoes on Ansel until fairly recently. I think I waited a little too long to introduce them because Ansel screamed every time I tried to put shoes on him and didn't stop screaming until I took them off. (At first I thought I might be hurting him, but I tried shoes that were REALLY big for him and he was still upset.) With the weather getting nicer, we really needed Ansel to wear shoes so he could run around outside with us. And gradually he warmed up to the idea of wearing shoes. The first time I could really get him to wear them, he just stood there. He wouldn't walk at all. I held his hand and guided him a little... still wouldn't walk. Anyway, I persisted and I do have a little boy who wears shoes now. He knows that he cannot go outside without shoes so when he wants to go outside he will bring his shoes to me. (I don't know how he can ALWAYS find them.) One time Isabel was napping and he brought me his shoes and I said we needed to wait for her to wake up before we could go outside to play. Shortly thereafter Isabel woke up and came downstairs and Ansel immediately brought me his shoes. We have all really enjoyed being outside, but I think Ansel has enjoyed it more than all of us.... the new freedom.

pottery class

I was looking through a random community magazine and saw a parent child pottery class. It was four weeks long and 45 mins every Tues and Thurs afternoon. I was a little hesitant about signing up, but when my neighbor said she could "watch" ansel sleep while we went to class I thought "why not!?" This is our last week and this is a picture of everything we have made so far. It's been so fun and I'm glad we had the chance to do it. I wanted to get a picture of the orange horse asap because I don't really think I have to heart to enforce that it's only a decoration for looking at. It is her horse after all and she really wants to play with it. We'll see how careful she is with it. Hopefully, it will last. It was really fun to work with the clay and glaze our projects and then be able to take them home. The little greenish bowl Isabel made on the pottery wheel with her teacher. She didn't want to touch the clay on the wheel (it was much wetter than the clay we normally worked with.) I actually had to promise she could have some fruit snacks when we got home so she would work on the wheel. A little bribery/reward of fruit snacks can pretty much convince Isabel to do anything she is hesitant about.