Our Fifth Carnival
I can’t believe we went to our fifth Toby School carnival today. To be more accurate, my mom took Katherine to her first carnival while Steve and I played PuzzleHunt. Since then, Steve and I have taken Katherine and then Allison to the little toddler carnival down the road once a year for the last four years. This is largely because Katherine went to Toby School for two years. Now Allison is in her second and final year there as well. (And we went the year in-between kids too!)
It’s remarkable how much stays the same about this event. The kids run around, get their faces painted, decorate masks and bags, ride in little cars and then try to win a cake. For the last three carnivals, we’ve either had (a) really great luck and won right away OR (b) paid a bunch of $ for tickets to play the cake walk over and over. Neither occurred today. Katherine was so bent out of shape, she cried all the way to the car as we left. She had her sights set on a big cake with tons of goopy frosting and candy decorations. It probably didn’t help that I made our requisite cupcakes yesterday afternoon, with Katherine almost drooling over them.
What did we make? Heart shaped cupcakes with pink, purple and yellow frosting and different sprinkle, candy decorations. I made the cupcakes for the cake walk, and let the kids each decorate one extra cupcake for dessert. You can see their final products in these pictures. (Funny enough, Allison didn’t eat hers, claiming it was too “spicy.” So, I frosted another cupcake sans decorations and let her lick the frosting off.) The umbrella on Katherine’s cupcake is from the teriyaki restaurant nearby.
I’m a big girl
Allison continues to show us her independence. She gets really upset when we un/buckle her car seat, open the minivan door, put on her shoes, put on her coat, etc. She’ll say emphatically, “I can do it!! I do it!”
Two nights ago this culminated with her assertion that she wasn’t going to wear a diaper to bed (she’s potty trained, but not dry at night). Steve finally wrestled her into a diaper to her dismay. Last night we had a long discussion. I asked her why she didn’t want to wear a diaper. She replied, “because I’m a big girl…” And, then to every suggestion of mine to show that she could stay dry with a diaper, she would say “No.”
So, we tried it her way last night, and she went to bed without a diaper. I must have done two loads of laundry today. ๐
Tonight, Steve, Katherine and I all wrestled Allison to the carpet and put on her diaper. Allison was very upset, but understands that if she stays dry she can wear underwear to bed. Also, she decided that as a reward she’ll get a “book like Kafrine’s with a piano in it.”
You Just Memorized It!
Katherine is maturing quite a bit. She works hard at arts and crafts and her biking. Tonight she used a bunch of materials to create wrapping paper for a gift and a birthday card for my mom. We also spent 30 minutes in drizzling rain biking on the driveway this afternoon. Katherine can now get around pretty well on her 16″ bike without training wheels. The only hitch is getting her going, so we have to balance her for a couple seconds before she starts pushing the pedals.
She also likes to read to Allison, which can cause a commotion at times. Just for context, after hearing a book two or three times, Allison can memorize the words. This becomes a problem because Allison will sometimes finish sentences for Katherine when she’s trying reading the book out loud. Then, we’ll hear Katherine complain loudly, “Allison…you’re just memorizing the words. You’re Not Reading!”
Allison is turning into a speed demon on Katherine’s old bike. Since Steve adjusted the training wheels, Allison has gotten really, really fast. She wiped out the other day, tearing around the corner in our development going full speed and yanking on the handlebars. I was running next to Katherine and Steve next to Allison. I looked back just in time to see Allison come careening around the corner, tip the bike so hard that it fell over on its side. Allison went sprawling to the pavement. Steve caught up and scooped her up. Thirty seconds later, she was back on her bike trying to catch her big sister.
