Painting Helper

Luke is approaching 3 and because of that we are getting his big boy room ready. The first step in doing that is to get his room painted.

When I paint a room I like to do it by myself. I find the methodical quiet work very relaxing. When painting Alyce's room we hadn't moved in and I had the house to myself. For weeks now Alyce has been asking to help paint. Mom and I's response of "it's a Daddy job" has been falling on deaf ears.

This weekend I finally tackled his room and Alyce was ready to help. I started off cutting in the ceiling with Alyce sitting in the room with me. She was sitting under the desk because she didn't want to get paint on her head. What kind of messy painter does she think I am? As I neared the floor she started asking if she could help. I didn't have it in me to tell her no. I set up a drop cloth, gave a brief lesson, and let Alyce loose on the receptacles. I held her hand for the first one and needed to clean up her work when she was finished. But in all she did a pretty decent job. There was one paint splatter on the drop cloth from when she forgot to scrape the excess off her brush. Later on while Alyce was in quiet time I pulled her out to finish the last baseboard in the room. I wanted her to have one final chance behind a brush.
Alyce seemed pretty pleased with herself. I liked the bonding time. Even though I was kind of dreading painting with her in the room it turned out better than expected. The hard part in parenting is knowing what your kids are ready for. I didn't think Alyce had it in her. It turns out she did and then some.

Birthday Bowling

For my birthday, way back in December, we went bowling. I thought it would be a fun way to spend the day before New Year's. We picked up a good deal at the local Brunswick where for $60 6 people got two hours of bowling, shoe rental, a pizza, and unlimited soda. We thought we'd invite Gideon and his dad to join us to make 6. We also invited them so Gideon's Mom would have the house to herself and Sylvie so she could clean for the New Year's Eve party they were hosting later that night.

To make the bowling experience as fun as we could we had bumpers setup in the lane. The bumpers keep all of the balls in the lane and out of the gutter where balls usually go when kids are bowling. Josh being an old pro at this also brought over a bowling ball ramp. This ramp will allow the kids to put the balls up high enough that the ball has some decent speed when it hits the pins. The increased speed keeps the action up and the kids interested.

Even with all of that Luke's interest waned about 3/4s the way through the first game. Both he and Gideon thought the circular ball racks would be more fun than bowling. We made Luke finish his game and after that one of us bowled in his place. He didn't seem to mind. Luke was also a big fan of the ball return. So much so that he wanted to stick his hands down the hole. We had to explain to him a few times that it would be really bad if he left his hand where it was. Luckily he did figure it out without having any pain inflicted. Normally he has to learn the hard way.

Alyce did well. We thought it was going to be just normal bowling but instead it was Cosmic Bowling. Cosmic Bowling is when they turn off all the lights except for black lights and other special effects. Add in some music and you have a party; if you're a teenager. We thought Alyce with her delicate sensibilities would freak out with the instant darkness and noise but she handled it like a champ. Even last year while on vacation she was very fragile when her environment changed. Since then she has been able to handle that stuff a lot better. It's amazing how things change and so quickly.

Little Miss Modesty

Yesterday like every other day I brought Alyce over to Grams and Papa's house after dance class. We stop by to pick up Luke and to change Alyce out of her leotard. Most nights Alyce changes her clothes in the living room in front of god and everyone. Tonight was not one of those nights. When I got Alyce's clothes out she whispers in my ear that she wants to change in private. I have no idea why she wanted to do that. I guess she is developing some modesty. She didn't have any trouble changing in front of me so I guess her modesty only extends outside of the immediate family. While in the bathroom Alyce said she wanted to change in there from now on. It'll be interesting to see if her modesty is there next week. It's probably time she develops some modesty.

Registered for Kindergarten

This week we registered Alyce for kindergarten. Yet another step out of the nest. Alyce is pretty excited about it too. I think she would be ok if she just started going today.

We had the option if sending her to a full day of class but the school district doesn't pay for that. So she'll just have half a day every day. By state law they can't teach the full day kids anymore than the half day so we aren't missing much.

When she starts she'll be at yet another school. Her fourth one in four years. Alyce will also get to ride the bus! Sadly with scheduling the way it is we think we will have to drop her off at school because Luke's preschool starts 10 minutes after Alyce's.

It's pretty cool she's going to be going to school 5 days a week. At the same point I'm kind of sad that she's growing up.