Stryker at Family Fun Land

For the past 3 weeks or so, Stryker has been taking naps almost daily.  The trick is, I have to get him to be done with his nap by 1:00, or he has trouble getting to sleep at night.  So we’ve been having lunch at 11:30, and then he goes down for his nap usually by 12:15.  I then wake him at 1:00.  He usually doesn’t want to wake up, but it has to be done.  He is soooo much more pleasant in the afternoons and evenings now.  The downside of this schedule is that Peytra has been napping 10:00-11:30 and 2:30-3:30.  So their naps do not coincide.  As Keith says, this gives me lots of one-on-one time with the kids.  On Monday of this week, we used our 1:00-2:30 free time when both kids are awake to go to Family Fun Land, an indoor playground,  in Germantown, about 20 minutes away.  It used to be free on Mondays, but now it costs $1/kid, which is still reasonable.  A good time was had by all.

Peytra and Stryker at Family Fun Land

Peytra at Family Fun Land

Peytra saying "ohhhhh"

Stryker and Peytra at Family Fun Land

Peytra after eating spaghetti - she loves her carbs!

On Sunday, February 28, Peytra took her first independent step.  She was standing, and she took one step toward a duck puppet that I was holding.  Then she took another step later in the week.  On Saturday, March 6, she took 3 steps toward Grandma Hagy, and on Monday, she took 4 steps toward Keith.  She loves to walk around pushing her shopping cart, and she can even walk a little bit holding onto someone’s hand with one of her hands.  I guess this means we’ll have to buy her some shoes soon!  None of these pictures are of Peytra walking – they are just random cute pictures of her.

Peytra eating lunch with wild, sweaty-nap hair

Peytra on her favorite day of the week - Laundry Day! So many socks! But wait, which ones are the dirty ones she was wearing?

Stryker in his sandbox

We are having some very nice weather here.  The past few days, the snow has been melting, revealing the sandbox, the grass, and also a lot of dog poop!  We scooped all the poop we could yesterday, so that’s mostly out of the way.  We got out Stryker’s sand toys, and he sat down in the sandbox and stayed there for about an hour – a miracle!  I feel he’s old enough and responsible enough to play in the backyard by himself now, too, for a little while, so that really frees me up. 

Peytra and Defense watching Keith outside

While he was doing that, Defense and Peytra were by the front door watching Keith outside talking to the neighbor.

Peytra - Week 46

This week, Peytra is wearing a striped dress from Grandma and Grandpa Hagy, who visited this weekend and brought the tights, too.  It looks like Peytra is wearing a short-sleeved dress with a long-sleeved shirt under it, but that is all actually part of the dress.  I like that the colors are bright and summery, but it’s still a winter dress. 

Peytra laughing because she loves her book so much

Grandma Hagy and Peytra, who is making her new "oh" face

Peytra and Grandpa Hagy

Stryker and Grandpa Hagy

Stryker with his bread and PB birdfeeder (that spun around to face backward just before I took the picture)

This week was Bird Week, with the letter Q.  Stryker made a birdfeeder out of a stale piece of bread, peanut butter, and birdseed.  He pretty much did the whole thing himself, including spreading the peanut butter to save me the agony of it.  We hung it outside on a tree, but due to the snow and the lack of any mature trees in our neighborhood, we haven’t seen any birds yet.

Stryker painting with a feather

We happened to come across a feather last week during a hike on a trail that we took with our friends the Strams.  So we kept that, and I had Stryker paint with it this week.

He also played with some bird and duck puppets that we got from the library and the Family Center.  I tried to teach him the chicken dance, but he was a reluctant learner.  I did manage to get a few hand motions out of him for “Five Little Ducks.”  We also played “Big Bird Says…” instead of Simon Says.

Stryker opening up all the eggs after he matched them up with a picture of their contents

We did quite a bit with eggs, too, including eating a zucchini and egg bake on Monday (a recipe from a Sesame Street cookbook we got from the library), and playing a guessing game with Easter eggs on Wednesday.  Stryker had to guess what was inside the eggs, and match up the choices with the eggs, based on how they sounded when he shook them.

Stryker holding up an eggplant nibble.

We also ate EGGplant Nibbles – another recipe from the Sesame Street cookbook.

Stryker with a coconut nest (mandarin oranges and maraschino cherry inside)

And yet another recipe from the same Sesame Street cookbook was these coconut nests. 

Next week is Bear Week, with the letter A, and ironically, the last letter we have to study.  So after this, we’ll take a week to review all the letters and then focus on numbers.

Peytra and Grandpa Traska at Christmas

Today is Keith’s dad’s birthday.  It is also the birthday of Michelangelo, the painter, not the Ninja Turtle.  If Michelangelo was still alive today, he would be about 483 years older than Grandpa Traska.

Stryker typing while Peytra chews on a (brand-new) paint roller attachment

Last week, I got out an old laptop for Stryker to play with.  I just open up a Word document for him to type on.  He likes it, but he opens up additional windows accidentally about once a minute, so it’s not the independent activity I thought it would be.  Thank goodness Keith taught him to use the Escape button to get rid of those windows.  But he still asks questions constantly.  Still, it’s fun to teach him about the computer.  He likes to have the cursor “eat” the letters that he types (backspace), and he has learned to type “mom” without any help.  He can do the “str” of his name, too, but he needs help remembering the rest. 

Stryker looks up from his work

Stryker and Peytra wrapped in a blanket, watching Sesame Street

Also, both Stryker and Peytra like Sesame Street.  Stryker’s favorite part is the first 15 minutes, and Peytra’s favorite is the last 15 minutes because that’s when Elmo’s World is.  The best is when Elmo is a part of the first 15 minutes.  Then they are both happy.

Stryker and Peytra watch Sesame Street on another day

Peytra just learned to climb up onto the trampoline.  Here are a few pictures of her getting off of it.

She has also started standing without holding onto anything a lot.  Pretty much everytime she pulls up to standing, she lets go and stands independently.

Peytra standing and holding her current most prized possession - her monkey

Just a cute picture of Peytra

Stryker and Grandma Traska at Christmas

Today is the birthday of my dad, Keith’s stepmom Marcia, and Dr. Seuss.  Also in this week in history, the telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell on March 7, 1876 (before any of these birthday people were born), and the hula hoop was patented on March 5, 1963 (after all three of these birthday people were born).  So that gives you a rough estimate of their ages.  Happy Birthday, Grandpa Finke and Grandma Traska!

A cute picture of Grandpa Finke and Peytra. Too bad I can't get it to rotate the right way.

Stryker and Peytra with their Dr. Seuss books

This week, Peytra is wearing a pink corduroy jumper, a hand-me-down from my parents’ house, which means my sisters probably wore it.  Same for the white tights with the pink hearts.