This Blog Post is Called, The Beach

 The Beach

As our celebration for Chris finishing his first quarter of PA school, we wanted to find something fun around our new home. I searched around and found a beach only half an hour from our house and we took our adventure on Monday afternoon. All day we were telling Claire about the beach and playing episodes of her favorite TV shows that have the beach in it to get her really excited. When we got there, the walk down to the beach area was far but we had so much fun and found a previously built castle to build more on. Claire learned how to decorate with sea shells and Shay helped daddy dig in the sand to make some castle towers. We got to play in the water and walk out easily (except Shay who was pretty unstable and had to hold hands) to some rocks that little fish were swimming around that Claire had fun pointing out. Another fun thing was seeing a flock of geese coming and going a few times while we were there and Claire wanted to follow them around calling them ducks.

Claire

We have noticed that if Shay does something unique and we play with her, Claire has to come copy her and get the attention, like covering her face and playing pick-a-boo. She still has all her own crazy ideas like balancing the iPad she is watching between me and the couch so she can lay down and watch it. She also likes playing in my teaching material and sorting the colors as we are learning the alphabet.  We've been having learning time a lot lately and she can count to 10 all by herself even though on camera she got confused with 7. She can recognize some of the letters specifically a, b, c, m, s, t and x but likes to copy me to say the full alphabet and dance when I sing the song. I'm trying to find more things to add into my teaching time with her like drawing lines and shapes since she knows a lot of the shapes already. I knew I would never be a teacher for younger ages, but I'm enjoying teaching Claire because she is so cute and gets excited. 

Shay

Daddy taught her an old church trick today with our farm animal finger toys of suctioning them onto her face when we were in our zoom church testimony meeting. She saw Claire had some on her and wanted some too because monkey see monkey do apparently. She has learned the art of using the toy shopping cart as a stool to turn on all the light switches around the living room now. Some of them don't noticeably turn on anything (plugs and the fireplace) so she gets a little confused and then disappointed that nothing happened. There are some days that she is very clingy and cuddly when I come back from my biking or working out so I take those changes to love on her extra. Last but not least, Shay is now a wolf and likes to start a howl when we watch her favorite show that has a wolf in it.

Now the video needs a little explanation because you probably don't understand why she would be reading the trash can or why it is a good thing. About a week ago, I had written the alphabet on our fence with chalk and was teaching Claire and that turned into reading the numbers and letters on the trash can because Claire knows its a word so Shay is reading them on her own.

Halloween

I was going to wait until October but I keep seeing so many houses with Halloween decorations around when I'm out that I got jealous and pulled our tote out this week. Claire was excited about the pumpkins I was putting around and a little dancing Frankenstein was played 50 times in a row. Last I brought out the costumes and Claire played the lion while Shay played as Pikachu for a full hour and then a little bit every day after. I got Shay to sort of say "Pikachu" and Claire is great and roaring and scratching with her fluffy paws, and she even calls Shay "my pikachu" when I was trying to get them to bed. I was being extra the other day and cut her carrots into stars and pumpkins since she seemed to be obsessed with all the pumpkin decorations I brought out. She ate all the pumpkins first, hence the picture with only stars on her plate.

Final's Week

 Chris

This week ends the first quarter of our time in California and Chris's PA program! It is really excited to get through the first of most things and he ended with one B and the rest A's, and we have a much better picture of how things are going to be for the next year. We studied together a lot and it was great to see his hard work pay off in getting good grades, and now we can enjoy a week and a half off. Part of our time will be sitting around saying "what are we gonna do now?" but we plan on trying to go to the beach this week. Some plans are being able to relax in the cooling down weather and go to the park more often, and some is playing some games and watching some movies together. Either way, its mostly things that are free and fun.

Claire

She is learning things so fast and has started to collect one of each color of blocks and balls so she has a full collection. Whenever we go to a park, she likes to drive us using the wheels and have us sit somewhere close so we are in her car. She also loves making houses out of the magnets and cushions and making sure it has a door is very important to the play because she can shut it so Shay can't come in. When we build the magnet house, she likes to hold on to one of the pieces so she can be the finisher, which is exactly what I used to do with my mom when we did puzzles together. Like mother, like daughter. She loves reading time and enjoys when we do patty cake, sing the alphabet song, or count things together. There are also times where she surprises us with a full sentence in answer to a question out of nowhere, usually she will say yes or no and copy what we said but sometimes its a full new thought all on her own.

Shay

This little smarty pants is starting to learn some more words, too. She will now make the 'pss' sound when doing the sign for please when she is asking for more. Her favorite breakfast food is egg and she now says it really well and gets excited when we know what she is asking for. She is more reluctant to go to sleep nowadays and will fight for a later bed time more often even though her naps are 50/50 whether she wants to or not. In the morning she is usually brings her pillow and blanket to the living room and asks me to put the blanket on her to play peek-a-boo. When we go to the park, she is very adventurous and doesn't seem interested in the playground slides anymore, she only likes the swings and then wondering as far as we will let her go to sit on benches. Her hair is getting long enough that it is way too cute in piggy tails and I like matching all of us when we go out to the park.

Keeping Rolling in September

 Claire

Our picky girl that doesn't know what she wants will call every food 'yucky' if she's not in the mood to eat, and then tells me she is hungry but says no to everything I offer her. We've been trying to just put food in front of her and let her decide to eat it or not during meal times, and it has worked really well and only led to a few weird snacking habits (like full sized carrots). Her favorite new game is 'daddy monster' or 'mommy monster' because we chase her around and she hides under a blanket or in her toy box for a break. She has also started to come up to us and say 'come on mommy lets go' when she wants to play in her room or outside then will pull our cloths until we follow her. She often asks to go to the park so she can play on the slide, but honestly its really smokey here in California and its hard to want to be outside breathing it in. 

Shay

I've had two mornings this week that she was really cuddly and I've missed it so much that I made sure to get evidence and enjoy it fully. Claire was close by because she is a mamma's girl too and couldn't let Shay hog my attention, but that just made it better for me! Daddy found a funny new game that fits her in the toy shopping cart and Claire can push her around slowly while we watch close by. She did get really mad when we were tired of it and tried to pull her out because she liked it so much even though she looks uncomfortable. Shay constantly eats as big or bigger meals than Claire, but only when she is in her high chair since its too much of a distraction to get to roam around. Anytime we are in the kitchen, even to do dishes, she comes and expects us to open the fridge or pantry for her to hang out in. She is also just really goofy sometimes and I caught her doing the funniest elephant crawl this morning...enjoy :)

Popsicle

I've been on a homemade Popsicle kick and finally want to share what I do to make them because I got pictures. Since I got the super professional green mold for my birthday a couple months ago, I've tried a few different things such as chocolate fudge pudding, strawberries in strawberry yogurt, and blueberries in vanilla yogurt. Each are messy in the hands of Shay, but they hold together quite well when Claire is eating them, and its a great way to use yogurt and some fruit for more nutrition! When I was looking for ideas (yes, on Pintrest) I came across jello popsicles too and I've had fun making those as well with the other types of molds I have from my mom's Tupperware. The batch makes more than I have containers for so I got creative and made my instant pop accessory into mini popsicles and then some plastic cups as well. I've done mostly strawberry or orange flavored in the past, but this time I did lime and can't wait for the girls to be suspicious about the flavor...mahahaha.

More Things

I don't have pictures of it, but I did another thing this week. This time it was for Chris and I in our garage gym! In our attempt to have a good workout at home, we have been looking for a way to get a pulley system and add some workouts we haven't had since gyms shut down and we started working out at home. We did some research, measured, and then I made my way out to the hardware store and found the materials. While I was out I found Halloween in stores and had to take a picture for Chris because he likes this holiday and one day we will get to spend money on cool decorations. Back to the story, we set up and was able to use the pulley this week for a few new/old workouts!

Starting September

Claire

Our girl is doing so much more talking than I'm used to and it is really fun to be understanding what she wants. Then there are some other things that we have to listen to her over and over again with to try and understand what she is meaning and still she has to show us. Luckily, I understand a lot because she wants me to acknowledge that I understand what she is showing me before moving onto the next interesting thing. We enjoyed great weather early this week but it has started to heat up this weekend and on Friday, she wanted to wear a coat for some strange reason and Shay followed in her footsteps. It was funny seeing her in my huge hoodie and makes me laugh the games she comes up with for herself and Shay. She has her collection of dogs that she doesn't like to share, but with most things I have her play with her sister instead of letting them fight by telling her  to show Shay how to do things.

Shay

Like I mentions, she loves to do everything her sister does and one was climbing in their new lion toy box to hide, even though it started as Claire hiding from Shay. Shay likes taking the stuff Claire usually hides in there out and then when Claire finds out she will put it all back in. Playing together doesn't always turn out good because a lot of the times they have differing opinions on what should be happening and we have to stop their fighting by taking away the box or toys they are fighting over. When we are outside they have a lot of fun fight over those toys too but a lot of times they go around the corner or in the dirt areas to play together. I'm glad they have each other even though they seem to not like it at least half the time!

Crafting

I did another thing! I was bored and kept thinking how fun it would be for the girls to have a playhouse to play with and I had a bunch of extra fabric from when I used to work in a fabric store and could never sell. So I measured, cut, and sewed this really simple design for an over the kitchen table hut and cut the door out as a finishing touch. Claire was really excited when I put it up and showed her what it was for and we take it down at night so our robo vacuum doesn't catch the edges. She likes when we re put it up in the morning and let her have hiding parties with her dogs and tigers. I wish there were cushions because sometimes she wants us to come in there with her and the floor isn't exactly comfortable.