the wheels go round

We went for a bike ride this morning. I thought it was great that it was only in the 80's at 8:30 am.

I pulled Ella's bike out of the garage and had to pump up the tires, but nothing else needed fixing. Isn't it funny that in Arizona the off season for biking is Summer? Usually you fix your bikes up in the Spring after not riding them all winter, but it is the opposite here.

Ella did mention a couple of times that she was hot and sweaty, but she still had fun and has agreed to bike to school tomorrow as long as we bring lots of water and a towel to dry her off when we get there.

Eli was excited to ride his red bike. This consisted of him sitting and holding the handles and trying to keep his feet on the pedals that kept moving as I pushed him. This is asking a lot of coordination from a two year old. I only wish that the handle that I push him with also steered the bike.


Of course the best part of all was the strawberry orange julius we enjoyed after the bike ride. =0)

Monsoons

Monsoons in Tucson are amazing. Sudden torrential downpours. Ahhhh.

What kid wouldn't think they were in heaven while running through puddles in a monsoon with their daddy?

School days!

Ella's first day at her new preschool was today. We went to a meet the teacher "party" last Thursday and Ella has been overly excited for school to start ever since. Preschool is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for three hours. There are three girls and two boys in her class (a good 1:5 teacher student ratio.)

I love that this school (located in the teacher's house) is a close 0.8 miles walk from our house. Today I pushed the kids in the stroller to drop Ella off, but drove to pick her up. When the weather is cooler though I hope to not ever drive there.

Ella was happy to wear a new outfit to school today. This one came from her closet...her Grandma Oregon gave it to her last year but it was way too big and now it fits. Thanks Grandma!

Ella asked me about the shirt. She was concerned that it didn't cover her shoulders and thus wasn't modest. I was torn. It is extremely modest if compared to other tank tops. Plus I wore tank tops up until I got married so who am I to veto them? In the end we decided that since she is so young she could wear a mostly modest tank top, but once she goes to big kid school she will need to dress more modestly. I suppose when she is a teen we will have to negotiate again.

This is Ella and her teacher, Ms. Amber

Eli had a hard time leaving Ella in preschool today. A big part of the problem was that the classroom had the worlds best choo-choo train table and he did NOT want to leave it. Then when we got home he looked around and asked, "Where's Ella?"

So what did Eli and mom do for three hours all by ourselves? We spent the first twenty minutes walking home from dropping Ella off. When we got home from our walk we sat in the backyard and ate a Popsicle. Then we came inside and I gave him lots of loves and grubbies --Grubbies are much better if your big sister isn't trying to get some at the same time. (For those non-Williams' out there grubbies are back tickles.) Next Eli and I went to the grocery store. I had been putting this off, looking forward to just one child with me in the store, but Eli was more trouble without his big sister there and had to be confined to the top of the cart rather than in the car (the carts at our grocery store have cars in the front for toddlers to pretend to drive). After the store we had enough time to put groceries away, have a snack and set up the train track before picking Ella up.

Nothing could have made Eli happier than to have Ella come home and play trains with him...and she did!

Arts and Crafts

Ella wanted to do a craft project today so I suggested some options and she chose to make a flower necklace. I traced the flowers onto construction paper. Then we both colored them and cut them out. Next I cut up straws to space out the flowers and Ella strung them onto some yarn.

Eli wanted to help with the project, but after his many fits over not being able to use the scissors I decided that this was a good project to do while Eli took his nap. He was happy to wake up and find that we had made him a necklace too.

On a totally unrelated note we went to the zoo on Monday. Yup, for those of you who don't live in Tucson you might be surprised to learn that August is NOT our hottest month. Here are my children doing their ritual pose at the gates of the zoo:

Now is the time for you to leave a comment telling me what a fantastic mother I am. And thank you. =)

Pretend vs Reality

So I was putting Ella to bed last night. She crawled up onto her bed to discover that her pillow had been folded in half. She exclaimed: "Who did this? I didn't do this. "

I responded that I hadn't done it.

She mentioned that her next question was whether or not I had been the one who moved her pillow.

"Maybe it was sleepy bear" I suggested.

"Mom, Sleepy Bear isn't real. He can't do things."

"Oh, we only pretend that he is doing things?"'

"Yes."


It is interesting to watch a child go from having real and pretend mix together to having them separate. Why must she grow up so fast?