What is the fascination?

For some reason all children seem to have a fascination with balls. Now you can get your head out of the gutter...I am talking the round toy variety. We have just about 100 balls in our house. I know this because I recently tried to organize our toys here. I ended up cleaning out our toy boxes and rooms and rid ourselves of some older less used toys. It was in this toy cleaning mission that led me to my discovery of just how many balls we have in our house. We have the typical outdoor variety of swirled pastel colors, wiffle balls for the t-ball set up here, some fun squirty ones that we have for the pool, little ones that rattle, some that go round and round in other toys, you get the drift.

So I organized our toys as best as one can with two active little girls with fantastic imaginations that like to stuff things into pocketbooks. One of the bins I reserved just for balls and I was amazed at how many I ended up putting into it. Now comes the love of all things round. The first thing that my kids do each morning it seems is to empty out this one bin of balls. I can't figure out why they do this. It's very intriguing to me.

Outside in the yard we have a few bigger balls to play with. Again it is fascinating to me to see the girls play with these balls too. Especially to see how the hand eye coordination comes together for them. Kicking a ball is something I have probably always taken for granted as something you just do, but apparently it is yet another milestone for children. Learning to throw, kick and hit a ball are all gross motor skills they have to learn. Who knew? Reason #1502 for why I am again not going to get mother of the year award.

In other news, we finished our long weekend away in New Hampshire. We did Storyland again and I am afraid we may have scarred Aimee for life by taking her on the log flume ride. She loved all of it until she got wet. She will get knee deep in sand and dirt and get any type of food on her shirt. But when the slightest bit of anything wet gets on her pants or shirt she wants to immediately change her outfit. Another toddler/preschooler quirk I have found.

We also had a family first for us. We all slept together in one room while in NH. We have access to a family house that my parents built forever ago before they had us kids. However, this weekend both my parents and my brother and sister in law were up there as well. So we were in one room with a double bed, pack and play and aerobed. This is the first time Aimee has slept in a bed without a side rail. Of course the bed was technically on the floor and to be completely honest we did find her at one point face down on the floor after rolling the 6 inches off the mattress, but she did a great job with it overall.

Next up for us is preschool. We go to a parent orientation on Thursday and then a visitation day next Tuesday to gear up for the big start next Thursday. So we'll see how it goes. Why oh why do I have these terrible visions of Mister Mom where I go the wrong way for drop off and pick up? Stay tuned for our adventures in preschool.

As for my own quest, I am down 2 lbs from last week at this time. So it's a start. Not quite what they see on the biggest loser but then again I don't have 4-6 hours to devote to exercising everyday.

Weekend Review

Since I do have the beauty of working part time, the girls and I are together on Fridays which gave us a great opportunity to meet up with a friend of mine and her son to have a day at a local pond with a beach. When I tell you that the girls had a fantastic time, I am not exaggerating in the least bit. They are in love with beach, sand, water and picnicking.

We met up with my friend and her son at their house in Plymouth and went to a section of Long Pond where there is the cutest little beach set up. Now the toughest part of this is trying to cross an albeit quiet street with a toddler and preschooler whilst carting our stuff to and from said beach. Admittedly it was a bit easier to get to the beach because of the anticipation of going to the sand and water. Coming out of the water and heading to the dreaded car with thoughts of going home don't quite elicit the same response. As we were gearing up for the ride home, Aimee informed me that she had to use the potty and of course there was not a one in sight. So I had to do some quick thinking and she squatted next to the car and we did okay. I even was able to dilute the puddle with some bottled water and I am sure with the temperature outside that day it was evaporated fairly quickly. Though in the back of my mind I knew this action of letting her squat would come back to me and but being hopeful I dismissed it quickly. You see she also learned at the beach with some friends a few weeks ago to pee in the ocean. I am not too fond of this way of thinking but what is done is done and I am sure we have all done it.

Saturday the girls went to visit Gary's parents and I took a quick trip to the mall in search of an outfit for a reception we were going to later that day. The couple eloped on Nantucket over the 4th of July in what looked like from the pictures to be a perfect type of day. But the reception was Saturday and when I put on the outfit I had assumed I would wear, I instantly hated it and the fact that my thyroid issues as well as the two pregnancies...oh all right and my lack of self control in the eating department...have left me with at least 25 pounds that I desperately need to shed. So I went in vain to find the perfect outfit to wear. I found some clothes, hoping to supplement with what I had at home to put together an outfit. I can do the really dressy and the really casual no problem but a simple backyard reception eluded me as to what to wear. Most ladies said easily, wear a sundress but my large arms, chest and upper body make me look awful in a sundress. In any event, I did manage to squeak an outfit out of a pair of capris I bought as well as a shirt I had in my closet and away we went to the reception and lasted until the rain started to come in at about 5PM and then went home to relieve my brother and sister in law of their babysitting duties and thank them over and over for doing that favor for us.

Yesterday I woke up alone in bed, which hardly ever happens but when it does I know that Gary is up before me and is taking care of the girls. So I rolled over, looked to see it was 6:30 AM (on a Sunday people, do any kids sleep late. Never mind, I don't want to know) and I closed my eyes for a few minutes to try to get back into sleep mode. But I was jolted awake by Gary's cries to Aimee of "Why did you do that?"Now if anyone has done any psychology of the child brain, they would know that why questions don't really get answered until at least the age of 4 so we have about a year to go. So I jumped out of bed, threw on my glasses to investigate and see Aimee in tears, Nicole searching for a lost toy and Gary perplexed with a puddle on the living room hardwood floors. When I asked what happened, Gary said " she just stood there, squatted and peed." Now you all remember my teaching her that outside the car. Apparently the preschool mind cannot separate when you do which type of pottying and where to do it. So I had to admit amongst my fits of laughter why she did this. Gary was none too pleased and I told him hey, it's part of the whole show. You bought your ticket for parenthood, you got two beautiful girls and this is how it is goes. I am not sure if it was the tears of laughter rolling down my face or the puddle (that I ended up cleaning up) that really got to him.