Piggy Banks

I got the girls their first piggy banks this weekend.  Then we talked about pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  We played a game where if they could pick the coin I called for out of a pile of coins they got to keep it and put it in their piggy bank.    They understand that money buys things, but they think mommy has  money for everything.  HA!  After we put the coins in the banks, Sasha wanted to take hers to the store to buy a racecar.  Leeza just wanted to shake the coins back out.  She spent alots of time shaking it and would get a coin out now and then,  She would put it back in and start all over again.

Swim Lessons

 We took swimming lessons last fall.  Leeza did great.  Sasha decided she would rather sit on Mommy's lap than go swim with the instructors.  We are signed up again and went to our first lesson today.  Leeza is in the Eels class which is the second level since she already had the Pike class.  Sasha and me are signed up for Tadpoles which means I get to swim with her, but it covers the stuff in the Pike class.  There are a total of 4 levels from Tadpole/Pike on up for the 3-5 group. 

 Sasha was a little afraid at first.  That is so surprising since she loves the water at the waterparks, but the last time we took the class, one of the instructors took Sasha and swam with her around the pool.  I think she drastically underestimated the stubbornness of Sasha. If she didn't want in the water, you amking her was only going to reenforce the idea that she was not going to go swimming there.  But by teh end of the lesson today, she was jumping off the side and going under the water.  She was also kicking up a storm when we were practicing floating on our stomachs.  We were in Arizona for the first lesson, the second was cnacelled due to lightening(yes even though the pool was indoors) so today was our first one.  there are 3 more lessons.

Leeza did great, but I didn't get to see what she was doing most of the time.  She was on the opposite side of the pool.  I did see her swimming with a floatie on and doing well.  She only tried to come over to our side of the pool once.  Her class only had 3 kids in it so I think she got a lot of attention.  We only have 3 more sessions to go this time.

Things I want to remember

Since this has become my girls "baby book", there are some things I want to record so that I will remember them years from now.  Like how Sasha has said she is a puppy for the last several months.  Sometimes, I get puppy licks instead of kisses at night.  One day, she was caught at daycare licking the floor since Sasha thought it was something a puppy would do.  She crawls from room to room and barks.  Sometimes she is a kitty or a baby, but mainly she is a puppy.  Puppy is a good puppy and she normally is very good when she pretends to be a puppy.
Or how Leeza comes home with a treasure almost every day.  It may be a broken ring or a barret.  They are probably things from the playground, but she always finds something.
Or how Sasha likes to stand and dance on the glass top table on the deck despite my yelling each time she does it.  One day she was having fun and dancing on the table when she wet her pants.  Leeza came running to tell me Sasha peed on the table.  Boy can that girl pee alot!

What started this thought was an old email I recently reread.  It was about how hard it was to get the girls to sleep at night.   This was from the first few weeks they were home.  I don't remember that at all.  I remember that  it wasn't too hard to get them to sleep.  I guess it is just a matter of remembering the good stuff and forgetting the bad stuff.  So I am going to try to record some good and bad and so so thoughts here.  This post is more for me than for anyone else reading- although I think I am down to only a few readers. 

We recently had an invasion of the 13 year cicadas.  At first Leeza was scared of them as they dive bomb you continuously.  Then Sasha and Leeza were mashing them with their plastic golf clubs- yucky bug guts!  I talked to them on how we shouldn't kill anything and just let the bugs be.  That afternoon, I saw Leeza out there petting some cicadas on the tree trunk.  She repeatedly tried to carry one inside.  She was always carrying one around whenever she went outside.  They only lasted a few weeks and are now gone.
Leeza still wants to have anything Sasha has.  Sasha gives in most of the time, but the fights are bad when she doesn't.  Sasha is very determined and usually wins the fight.
We have quite a few dolls.  None of them have clothes on.  Even the ones we have multiple outfits for are usually naked.  So much for plaing with all the clothes they have.
It is also hard to keep clothes on the girls.  We have a rule that you must have pants and shoes on to go outside.Leeza tries to break this rule every weekend.  Even when they leave the house dressed, you cannot count on them not taking off their clothes once they are outside.  They usually say the clothes got dirty!  One day they were out swimming.  I went in for a few minutes and when I went back out they were completely naked and splashing in the pool.
One day, Leeza went in the bathroom for a long time.  I called for her to come out and went to find her.  She had put her head under the faucet and got her hair wet.  When I asked her why, she said she wanted to go swimming.  I guess as long as her head is wet it counts.
One of the teachers at school calls the girls butts, their booty.  I do not like this so I decided to try to make the girls NOT say this word.  This was going to be a test for when real swear words came up.  As you probably guessed, booty is now Leeza's favorite word and she sings about booty butt all the time.  I guess I need a new technique for naughty words since my current one is a miserable failure.
The girls have torn down almost every sticker or other decoration I have put in their bedroom.  The walls are so plain, but anything including Dora that I put up, they(leeza usually) pull down.
Our bedtime routine is: bath, put on lotion and PJs, read 2 books, sing Baa Baa Black sheep twice, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, rock a bye baby, and Muffin man.  We used to add Silent Night in there until I had a cold for 6 weeks.  We sometime sing Farmer in the Dell, 3 blind mice, wheels on the bus, tea pot, or several other songs.  Sasha has been requests Our Story a lot which it my version of the story of me going to Kaz and meeting the girls.  Except they have told me they were princesses and not little girls that I met.
The girls are good travelers and not not make too much fuss on long car trips now or on planes.  They don't get excited about take offs or landings at all.

Another zoo trip

 The zoo is about 5 minutes from the house so we go there often.  Today they had a clown who made balloons for the girls.  The balloons are pink rabbits.

 The girls played a game where they threw washers at a bucket.  They got one in so they got a free ride on the carousel.  You got to toss until you won, but they did it with less than 4 tries.

 Afterward we went to the playground at the zoo.

 The girls spun each other on this for a really long time.

They climbed and run and went down slides.  It had rained that morning so not that many people were at the playground. 

Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's

We were at Grandma and Grandpa's house last week.

The girls had a lot of fun playing with the turtles.  This one is Charlie the smallest.

Leeza liked to carry him around which I am sure Charlie loved!

There were 2 pools one for kids and one for dogs.  They spent a lot of time in both pools.

Aunt Debbie was there also visiting.  These two look and act more alike every day.

Cousin Kelsey was there also,.  She painted the girls fingernails- Leeza purple and Sasha blue.  They also went swimming in the big local pool.

Across the streeet was a playground with swings and a merry go round.  They spent a lot of time playing in the sand.

They also liked to play with the  Clea's kennel.  Not sure why, butr they had a lot of fun locking each other in it.

Cousin Niki and her new puppy visited also. 

THis is the pinata that took a 3 year old, 4 year old, 13 year old, 19 year old, 23 year old and 49 year old to actually break open.  Guess that candy was really protected.

Kelsey really hit it hard, but it just kept going.

It took a while, but finally it broke and everyone grabbed for the candy.

This is Grandma and Grandpa and all the grandchildren.

It was a fun trip, but lots of activity and no naps finally caught up with them.  They passed out while watching TV.

New Pool

 It took 3 hours to fill this pool, but I had the hose only partially on.  The girls enjoy playing with the hose so the longer it takes the better.  It does hold a lot of water though.

 I thought it might be deep enough to swim in, but they can only float a little.  It is great for splashing.

 We put our slide in it and made our own water park.

 You can make a splash and they had fun until Sasha got cold- they were in it for over 3 hours and the water was about 50/60 degrees.

 Yes, Sasha liked the new pool.

We went back in after dinner for a little while.  Leeza was done swimming so she watered the garden.  One little bucket at a time.  Of course, then Sasha had to water the garden and leeza had to slide again.  They want to do whatever the other is doing.
The cicadas were out today in full force.  I remember calling them the 17 year locust, but I guess they really come out every 13? years??  Anyway, they are out and sasha does not like them.  Leeza goes around catching them and trying to squish them.  Yuck!  We are working on NOT squishing bugs