Katt-a-blog: We've got ants!

I love these cool kids! We are having so much fun in these last few weeks until Jacob starts Kindergarten. He is so excited about going, but I’m the one who will have a hard time with it. I remember when I started Kindergarten in the Orange Birds and I cried on my first day of school because I didn’t want to leave my mom…this won’t be the case for Jacob! This past week we had our last swim lesson, to which I’m happy to say that Gwyn took 3 breaths on her own while swimming, so we’re getting there! Jacob finished up his reading class and has become very interested in math, constantly asking whether 6 and 3 equals 9 and things like that. I told him math and science were my favorite subjects in school, so we’ve been doing some sort of math just about every day. We are counting down til Kindergarten, both Jacob and Gwyn have become very interested in the calendar, what day is it, what month is it. Jacob and Gwyn also tried out tennis this week:

Jacob did great, loved it, and wanted to practice as soon as we got home. Gwyn, not so much. I made the mistake of bringing them each their own Gatorade, which they never get to have, and from the start (really after about 2 minutes), Gwyn just had to have her Gatorade. She went another 5 minutes and then again, HAD to have her Gatorade. Needless to say, after about 10 minutes, she was done and totally content to sit on the side with Annie and watch Jacob. Jacob liked it so much that we did it twice this week. We'll probably end up doing it twice a week for the next two weeks til school starts, then we've signed him up for soccer for the Fall, I guess I'll officially be a soccer mom, ha! The kids also had two birthday parties to go to this past week, one at Chuck E Cheese and the other was a gymnastics party. They love parties, cake, and most importantly...the party favor!

The biggest news of the weeks is that our harvester ants arrived in the mail and we put them inside their ant farm. We've had constant "ant checking," where Jacob and Gwyn at random times throughout the day decide they need to go check on the ants. This is what the ant farm looked like when we first put the ants in there, it is a see-through gel that is their food as well, and it is lit up with a blue led lights:

About 48 hours later the ants had made several tunnels in the gel, all the stuff at the top is bits of the gel that they have carried up on top as they moved it out of their tunnels...Jacob is mesmerized!

I have to watch Annie, she is always trying to take the lid off and says "open it please!"

The kids think it is the coolest thing to pop their heads up through the sunroof in my car (don't worry, I'm parked, not driving!). I thought this was a sweet picture of them having so much fun with something so simple!

Gwyn has continued her mothering role with Annie. She takes care of Annie, picks out her clothes, gets her milk out of the fridge, gets her yogurt drink each morning, and just loves playing with her. When Gwyn talks to me about Annie, she says "my baby sister." It is pretty cute. Annie is regularly saying 2-3 word sentences now, and is surprisingly proficient at the iphone. She will start playing a game, and if she doesn't do something right, she holds out the phone and says "fix it." Gwyn and Annie like playing with all kinds of babies, the other day Gwyn sat her doll in time out for "20 months" and then Annie walked over to put her monkey in time for "20 months."

Jacob, Gwyn and Annie have so much fun playing together. I discovered they had converted Annie's closet into a restaurant and Jacob's closet into a school. Jacob usually makes up the rules, and then Gwyn tattles on Annie when she doesn't follow the rules. Annie is further establishing her obsession with shoes, so much so, that Brian says 2/3 of all of her whining is about shoes (needing help getting one on, fixing one that she put on wrong, etc.). Annie is 21 months now, and still wrecking havoc on everything! Jacob got a new card game, Annie tore up the instructions leaving us only the Spanish instructions...thankfully you can find anything on google! When Brian told them we couldn't play it because we don't speak Spanish, Gwyn said she does and says "oncho oncho." Whatever that means!

We joined an organic produce co-op, that we pick up each Thursday about 1/2 mile from our house. It is all local fresh veggies and fruits. You don't know what you are going to get each week, it varies depending upon what is in season, but we've liked it so far...I even got Jacob to eat some kale! Annie made their weekly newsletter this past week, she's so cute!