Saturday, December 24, 2011

Kali wants to go to bed!!

This is headline news in the Myers-Benner household. Kali just said, "Let's get to bed." This was after explaining how she was willing to go to bed after we finished our game of Sequence since that meant an extra long Matilda story and that Christmas morning would come sooner. We have one VERY excited 8 year old in our home. It's been a very fun-filled day with us together here at home. I had just commented to Jason out in the kitchen how our girls are really the best Christmas presents ever when Kali, who was in the living room playing with Alida, exclaimed full of joy, "I think Alida is making this the best Christmas ever." We couldn't agree more. And to prolong our suppertime tonight we gave her first present (a great $1 Gift and Thrift find). Here's what she thought of it:



The next stage of the present opening will get added to this post on Christmas - afterall Kali is wanting to go to bed and the video is still uploading!

Merry Christmas all! Well, Kali is still sleeping (she doesn't take after her Aunt Anna on Christmas morning). Here's the next stage in the Christmas present opening last night. I think we were all right about what part of the presents Alida would like the most.



Now she really did end up having a good time with her duck, once I had to take the tissue paper away as she was attempting to consume pieces of it...

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Family times

Yesterday we started putting the rocks into the "water recharge pit" in Nora's garden. It felt really good to work side by side as a family again, this time with Alida along for the ride. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems that we all get great pleasure from collecting rocks from our rock pile and moving them to another location. Soon after Nora died we build our parking space by hauling load after load of rock from the pile in the woods to their designated spot near the house. Hard work! Good times! The same was true of yesterday, though Jason was the main one who worked hard. After a number of loads I took the girls to the swingset and then in to make lunch while Jason carried on with the task. But it was a taste of things to come, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Last evening then Jason and I enjoyed an evening just with Alida. Kali had a sleepover with friends and I was initially going to write that we enjoyed a quieter evening than normal, but then realized that would not be true. Alida seemed to want to make up for the lack of Kali's noise in the mix. She also was enjoying having Mommy and Daddy's attention all to herself. So much so that she didn't sack out to almost 10pm. Here she is doing her "old man voice" at dinner and then a fun game of peek-a-boo an hour or so after I thought she would be ready to sleep. Jason and I are both convinced she was calling for Kali to come say goodnight for awhile. I tried to walk around the house with her to let her know Kali was gone until the next day, but I'm not sure it soaked in.



Friday, December 9, 2011

Kali update!

Well with all the changes in this household with the rapid growth and development of a baby, there is another gal who is growing and changing by leaps and bounds. Below are a few snippets that I don't want to lose.

On Nora's fourth birthday my dad had sent Kali some "math problems" on email and here they are with her responses. Kali continues to be a pretty "private" gal and does not often open up regarding her feelings. And she rarely talks about Nora. Her answers to the adding up of various persons was all I needed to see on that day.

242 + 242 =you must WHIET it DIFRETLEY
242 – 242 =0 of corse
242 X 242 =you must WHIET it DIFRETLEY
242 ÷ 242 =1
Kali + Nora + Alida =little kids
Jason + Janelle =groenup kids
Jason + Janelle + Kali + Nora + Alida = a famlae
Grandpa + Grandma =birds&flaowrs
Sadie + Milo =doggies
Write 1 trillion as a number = 1,000,000,000,000,000

The other day I was working on an excel document and Kali saw me. She had never seen one and she got quite interested in making her own. I have no idea how to put an excel spreadsheet here but what she wrote amused me! Here are the columns separated by commas.

favorut math thing to do, why do you like to do it

multuplay, don’t know

do calcualadr math, it,s easy

find aainguls, brack from numbers stell math

find pattrins, it,s fun

do anneything, freedom!

do puzzles, brack from numbers stell math

long diveigon, don,t know


Currently the big project around here is Kali working on Alida's Christmas present. It is the first year that Kali is really getting into giving gifts - and ones in which she is thinking more about what the recipient would like than her own tastes and preferences. That combined with her keen interest now in sorting and getting rid of things is a huge breath of fresh air for one of her parents. :)

So the other day she cooked up the idea to create a book for Alida in which she will help Alida learn the difference between "pet" and "pat." (see previous video). So far the lessons have been completely unsuccessful - Alida is great at "pat" and amused by Kali's attempts to get her to "pet" something. Anyway, we've been taking photos and making plans and I think it has the potential to be about the sweetest present ever.

Sisters

These videos speak for themselves. Loving watching these two gals love and enjoy each other!