This weekend we had a significant swimming pool breakthrough! Alyce went down the slide all by herself! Up to this point Alyce would have nothing to do with the slide and if she did manage to get to the top of the slide she would wait for us to hold her hand before she would go down. Luke her younger brother of 2 years already goes down the slide by himself but Alyce would have none of it. All of that changed this weekend. I'm not sure if it was peer pressure or just the decision to do it but Alyce started going down the slide by herself. When she did go down the first time both Mom and I cheered and clapped for her. I think Alyce was proud of herself too.
On top of the slide Alyce also started jumping into the pool without holding onto our hands too! Before then she would jump in but always had to maintain contact with Mom or I. She'd still only jump when we were nearby and she wanted us to catch her but separating ourselves just a few inches away is a major step.
One item that has been the most help in getting Alyce to do these things is a hat. How can something as simple as a hat do that? Well our slide area has lots of sprays and fountains which make the whole area act like it's raining. Alyce hates getting her face wet so avoids the whole thing. This weekend I gave her my baseball hat and even though it was too big for her head it kept the rain out of her face and she entered the rain without hesitation. Her floatie also deserves some credit. Her floatie is a combination water wings and life jacket. It goes on easy, doesn't inhibit movement, and provides a lot of stability so she doesn't bob in the water. Both Alyce and Luke have them and they love them.
Good job big girl both Mom and I are really proud of you.
A while ago I wrote a story on Luke's blog about how we had a family morning. Even though that post focused on Luke Alyce did participate. One item we all played with was Duplo Legos. Alyce really took a liking to them this time. She took all sorts of Duplo blocks and made a spaceship out of them. She was so very proud of herself when she was finished and she was very unhappy when Luke eventually destroyed it.
Towards the end of family time I made a pyramid out of the blocks. Alyce noticed what I had made and she asked me how I made it. So I took mine apart and showed her how to put the pieces together with each piece offset from next. When finished we had made a pyramid together.
A few days later after quiet time Alyce walked out of her room holding a pyramid in her hand. She had made it all by herself. I was very proud of her at that moment. She took something that I had shown her, commited it to memory, and recreated it.
Every few weeks throughout the year Lowe's has a workshop for kids where they get to build something. School buses and snowmen are projects I've heard about in the past. A few weeks ago we heard from our friends Josh and Tammy that a three part train set of workshops was coming up. I thought it would be a cool father daughter project for the holidays; playing with Gideon would also be a nice bonus.
This morning Alyce and I made the first section of train, the caboose. Having never done this I didn't quite know what to expect. The recommended ages for the workshop was 1st through 3rd grade so I thought it might be a bit much for her. If I hadn't been there then it definitely would have been but working together we managed. All of the parts were pre drilled so the nails went in pretty easy. I got each nail started, then Alyce took her turn, and I would finish the nail off. Alyce's hammering skills leave much to be desired but coming from a four year I was impressed.
Towards the end Alyce was losing interest that was until we brought the stickers out. The kit included two sets of stickers, holiday and normal. The holiday stickers had Christmas colors and greenery for decoration. The normal was more like a standard caboose. Surprisingly Alyce chose the normal stickers over the holiday ones. I think the horse sticker for the window won her over. I would have preferred the caboose be left plain as the natural wood gave it that old time feel. Regardless the final product turned out great.
Lowe's design was just the right amount of time and complexity. Anymore of either and the fun factor would have declined. We are looking forward to next weekend where we get to make the middle section of our three car train.
In the past few days I've noticed a change in Alyce; she is starting to make her own stories. Last night we cooked dinner over at Gram's and Papa's and they handed me a piece of junk mail that had my name on it but their address. Most likely because we forwarded a few magazines to their house while we are living in the apartment and our new information hit a junk mail list. When we got home Alyce asked if she could open up my mail and I agreed she could. The junk mail was an advertisement for a home security system and one of the pages at the top there was a picture of a fire truck and a police car. Alyce, sitting in my lap pointed out the police car and fire truck and described aspects about them such as fire trucks are loud. She then proceeded to turn the page over to the blank side and started talking like she was reading a book even through there was nothing there. The story she was telling focused on firetrucks that were red, were loud, and come by our house every day. The story was only a few sentences long but every time she'd tell it she would add another aspect to it like there being more than one fire truck or police cars driving by too.
Earlier in the night while at the dinner table we were all talking about something that isn't important to the story with each person getting a turn to talk. When it became Alyce's turn to talk she started going off on some tangent where most of her words either didn't make sense or were being mumbled. This went on for maybe 20 seconds with the rest of the table just staring at her like lobsters were coming out of her ears. After those 20 seconds she just stopped, looked at us, and said "I'm gonna be funny. Bwak, bwak, bwak". "Bwak" being the sound a chicken makes. And while she is making her chicken noises she puts her hands in her armpits and flaps her arms like a chicken. It was hilarious! After she finished she asked the rest of us to do it too so going around the table we all made chicken noises, flapped our arms, and Alyce giggled the entire time.
Alyce is now making her own stories and her own humor. I give the credit to her being older and to preschool. I think her being in a structured environment with teachers trained in educating preschoolers has done wonders for her development. I couldn't be prouder of her.
A week ago Tuesday Mom and I were present for some epic cuteness; we got to watch Alyce during one of her dance classes. That day was Parent's Observation day at dance class. Up to this point and in the future Alyce's dance teacher keeps the kids and parents separated during dance class. I didn't quite understand why she did this until being present for one of Alyce's dance classes this summer. In that class it was pretty obvious that while Mom or I were within eye site of Alyce she would be extremely distracted. Alyce's dance class has about 10 girls in it so imagine 10 distracted 3 - 5 year olds and the image of someone trying to herd cats comes to mind.
This week we were brought into the class to see what we've been paying for and to fill up the memory cards of all of those in attendance. By the time I arrived the girls were at the end of the room waiting to start warming up. I snuck in a little wave to Alyce and she waved back. Also, I heard her tell one of the other girls "that's my daddy".
After a few stretching exercising the teacher went through a couple of routines that the girls had been working on. The teacher would stand in front of the girls doing the routine and the girls would mimic her actions. Pretty similar to an exercise class. The teacher also had lots of verbal instructions with directions like tap your left or right foot X number of times. However, most kids don't know their right from their left so there is lots of bumping going on. Alyce has made lots of progress since her summer dance class. She wasn't the best dancer in the class, but definitely not the worst. What impressed me most was her focus. There were a few times where it wavered but for the most part she stayed on task. The girls try to do the ballet moves very slowly and expressively seemed to be difficult for them. Perhaps they are so used to gross motor skills that moving slowly requires a lot of concentration.
After the routines the girls did some ballet runs across the room. Asking kids to walk on their tippy toes when they are used to heel toe yields mixed results. Alyce did pretty good even though we weren't really sure she was going to stop running at the end of the room.
Following the ballet section of class Alyce donned her tap shoes. In an instant the girls go from cute butterflies to bulls in a china shop. I don't know what happened, maybe just the noisy shoes but every girls steps became over exaggerated, clumsy, and loud. As their motor skills flew out the window so did their attention span. Alyce even fell victim loss of attention as she started walking around on her heels. Which is no easy task but not what she was supposed to be doing at the time.
As evidence that the fathers of today play an active role in their kids lives; when class was over all the guys got up, picked up their daughters, and gave them big hugs. Most of them, myself included pulled ourselves away from work to be there and I'm glad I did as I would have regretted missing such a display of dancing prowess.
There was one heart wrenching moment of class. One girl, most likely the youngest couldn't handle all the people in the room, or their attention, and burst into tears as the class started. She just stood there with her hands over her eyes, red faced, and tears streaming down her cheeks. The teacher in the class tried to console her as much as time would allow, but the mother just sat there rather than picking up her daughter and helping put her back together again. Mom and I think that this girl just turned 3 and isn't capable of calming herself down thus needing her mom's help. It was pretty heart wrenching to watch as I would have picked Alyce up at the first tear.
Today Alyce created her first artwork that is completely freeform and actually looks like something. As compared to the abstract scribbles she's done in the past. Mom and I are so proud of her and the picture that we are going to get it framed.
Last week, maybe even two weeks ago Alyce did something that left me speechless. Speechless both from surprise and because I didn't need to say anything. Alyce read a book to me. Well she really didn't read the book. She had heard it so many times she knew all the words to it and recited it from memory. The book was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The "Brown Bear" book as Alyce likes to call it is one of our favorites. Mom and I like it because it is short and we can get her to bed quicker than if we have to read something difficult like Dr. Seuss books. Fox in Sox is its own form of torture if you attempt to read it quickly. The book comes with a warning.
As I laid next to her and opened up the book Alyce just starts saying "brown bear brown bear what do you see?" and then continues "I see a ....". This is when I have to turn to the next page to show her the next animal. The page after the bear has a red bird. Once she sees the red bird she finishes the sentence by saying "red bird looking at me". She recites the rest of the book correctly identifying the yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, and goldfish. You could tell by the look in her eyes and the tone in her voice that she was proud of her accomplishments. Me gushing with praise probably helped.
Mom and I attended the fair on Friday without the kids for a date night. We had lots of fun and even rode some rides. But we knew we would enjoy ourselves even more if Alyce were to experience the wonder of the fair as well. On Sunday we packed up the family and attended the fair on the hottest day of the five day event. The temperatures by the time we got there were around 96 degrees in the shade. There was the occasional breeze but the day was still pretty miserable temperature wise, however, we persevered and had a great time.
Walking the few blocks from the parking lot to the fair grounds we first went into Agriland. Agriland is tent full of kid friendly farm related stuff. There are lots of farm animals to look at and pet like baby cows, sheep, goats, and pigs. Other animals such as baby chicks, chickens, and bunnies are there but are either in incubators or in cages so you can't touch them. Alyce was a big fan of the animals. She reached out and touched the ones that she could reach and got face to face to others. Alyce seemed rather interested in the baby chicks. I don't think she quite understood that they hatched from the eggs in the incubators. After looking at the animals we took Alyce's shoes off and she got to play in big bins full of wheat, corn, or soybeans. Alyce was first in the wheat bin and commented that she was standing in sand. Her analysis was correct, the wheat did look and feel like big grains of sand. While sitting in both the corn and the wheat Alyce filled up buckets full of material and then would dump it out. I would say that Alyce enjoyed her time in the tent but she was ready to go when asked if she was ready. We probably should have checked her a bit closer when finished. After the fair we found bits of wheat between her toes and a kernel of corn found its way into her diaper. Neither of those could have been comfortable.
After Agriland we brought Alyce to what we think the fair is famous for, waffle ice cream sandwiches. A waffle ice cream sandwich is exactly what you think it is. Take two fresh waffles, add a bar of ice cream between them, and viola a waffle ice cream sandwich. The biggest downfall to such a treat is that you are putting something warm next to something cold. That leads to a big mess unless you eat them quick. With Alyce's help we consumed ours quick enough that the only mess needing to be cleaned up is some sticky fingers.
Following the ice cream we showed Alyce the motocross that was taking place in the motor arena. She was interested at first but after a few minutes she was having more fun playing on the bleachers than watching the races. Reminiscing to when I was a child I remember playing on and underneath the bleachers. Either the bleachers are irresistable or it's like father like daughter.
After the motocross we reached the main event, the rides. Up to this point Alyce's ride experience is almost exclusively rides on a carousel. Almost any other time we've tried to get her on a ride it has ended in unhappiness or tears. But it has been a year since we've tried her on anything new so it is time to try again. The results were better than Mom and I could have dreamed. To ease Alyce into the rides we first put her on the carousel. I asked which animal she wanted to ride and her response was the "giraffes". Luckily for us we were third in line and were able to get the one she wanted.
Following the carousel Mom and I were in for a big BIG surprise. After Alyce got off her giraffe then walked over towards a roller coaster running next to the carousel. As she was watching the coaster finish up a cycle I asked Alyce if she wanted to go. She responded with a nod. Mom and I were both sure this was going to end badly so we wanted to give her as many outs as we could. We recommended that she watch the coaster for a little bit just to make sure she wanted to ride. As it was running I informed her that Mom nor I would be able to ride with her. After all of that I asked again if she wanted to ride. Her decision remained the same, yes. Or in her case a quiet nod. So I bring Alyce up the stairs and strap her in to the coaster. Before I have a chance to take her picture she is off like a rocket. Alyce wasn't ready either and for her first lap she was holding on for dear life. Mom and I thought for sure that she would be crying after the first lap started so abruptly. Instead as Alyce finished her first circuit, we get our first view, and she has a smile from ear to ear! Mom and I were both flabbergasted. Here we were expecting the worst only to experience the best. Our little girl was riding a roller coaster all by herself and enjoying every minute of it!
There were some downsides to Alyce's time at the fair and with the rides. She had her first taste of disappointment. Alyce wanted to go down the big slide and I wanted to go down with her. However, the rules of the slide stated that riders had to ride alone (no doubles) and had to be taller than the fence (which Alyce wasn't). So Mom and I had to break it to her that she wouldn't be able to ride the slide and naturally she was disappointed. Throw in the heat and no nap and she was moved to tears. For reasons beyond this blog I knew what she was feeling and I could only offer my apologies at not being able to ride the slide.
After the rides the entire family was toasted. We were hot, thirsty, and tired. We had a good time and I am glad we went. If it weren't for Alyce I doubt that we would have gone to the trouble. I don't know if she will remember this trip to the fair but Mom and I will remember it as the day our little girl rode her first roller coaster.
While we were at the mall Alyce climbed up the slide! To my knowledge this is the first time she has done this. I know it isn't a big deal, but Alyce sure thought it was. The first time she got up there and stood up she looked so proud of herself. I was proud of her too.
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