The art of faking it

I have often joked that I am raising Stephanie and Stephanie's tiny shadow Gwendolyn.  Gwen has become quite the little parrot, doing and repeating all of the actions and words around her.  She has learned to tell knock-knock jokes, as long as you supply her with punchlines, she hangs her head out of the door at random points in the day and yells "Ten minutes!" or "One minute!", she occasionally says "Mom, I have an idea!" and then tries to do a flip when I ask her what her idea is.  The other night, she was particularly excited about breaking into a new package of diapers, and when I told her it was time, she started taking the old one off and said, "Let's get this baby off".  You get the point, language gems abound, all words and phrases that she has heard us say, often times in correct context. 
I am particularly used to the concept of using what you see and hear in the world around you to join in that world as if you understand it, as Stephanie is a master at it.  Often times, we are so shocked by her apparent understanding of all things, and then she comes up with something totally and weirdly wrong, reminding us that she is mostly just faking her way through this young life.  Stephanie happens to be very good at it, and it looks like we have another young master in the making. 

Gwen has heard me spell words to Stephanie many times.  It goes like this:

Stephanie- "How do you spell happy?"
Me- "H"
Stephanie- "H.  What's next?"
Me- "A"
Stephanie- "A.  What's next?"
... and so forth.

The other night, while waiting for Kevin's bus, Stephanie handed out paper and pens, and her and Gwen were writing.  I am not sure who initially suggested spelling words for Gwen, but here is where I tuned in.

Stephanie- "Do you want me to spell 'Stephanie'?"
Gwen- "Yes"
Stephanie- "S"
Gwen- "S.  What's next?"
Stephanie- "T"
Gwen- "T. What's next?"
... and Stephanie proceeds painstakingly spelling her name for Gwen.  When she was done, Stephanie asked to see Gwen's writing.  Gwen dutifully handed over.  And Stephanie says, in a completely shocked voice, "This is nothing but scribble scrabble!" An absolute surprise for Stephanie and a moment of hilarity for me. 

I have been thinking about this for days, and I laugh every time I recall it, so I had to take a moment to add it to the blog!

Kure Beach, complete with little pockets and perfect moments captured in imperfect photos

As new(ish) residents of North Carolina, we decided that it was important to have one last beach hoorah.  Alaina couldn't come with us this time, but I am pleased to report we still managed to have a good time.
This time we tried Kure (which I was told by a single source is pronounced "Curry", but no one said it while we were there, so I feel that information is unverified), mostly because we could get a very affordable 2-room hotel on the beach for the weekend.  The hotel was very acceptable, the beach was what I expect a sandbar beach to be and reasonably not crowded in September, and it was only a 3 hour drive (and while I say only, there was about 45 minutes that Gwen made it feel like a much much longer drive).  The other selling point to this particular beach was that it was near an aquarium. 
We lucked out and had great weather, and it was almost a shame to spend 5 hours at the aquarium rather than the beach.  The kids loved having a pool, so we had to heavily encourage beach time and save pool time for when it was most suitable (like when only one parent was available).  The beach and sand is popular, but there is just something that draws them to a pool.
Without Alaina, I have fewer pictures, as she is far more likely to haul her camera out to the beach than I am, but I did get some beach morning time, pre bathing suit shots.  I am lucky to have kids that enjoy photos, and they are generally happy to be in them.  In fact, I told Stephanie I needed to charge the camera battery for the beach, and she said that taking pictures was one of the reasons we go to the beach... and I am glad she sees it that way.  Not surprisingly, I took an absurd number of photos at the aquarium.  I had envisioned this as an opportunity to capture some real gems. I ended up instead with several nice photos, but none that I really love.  It was a combination of missed moments and photography techniques needing improvement (blurry, off color pictures of Gwen petting a bamboo shark, pictures from the totally wrong angle while they happily made pressed pennies, and a reminder that sometimes you need to turn off the flash).  Happily, I just learned that Alaina is taking another photography class, so hopefully I will get the Cliff notes version of manually operating a DSLR the next time I see her.  Also, Gwen got to choose her own outfit, which wasn't in my vision of "gem" photos, but it is at least a slightly funny story.  The night before, we were going out to dinner and she really wanted to wear these pajamas that have "little pockets".  The kid is obsessed with "little pockets" and will normally choose clothes based on whether or not the outfit has "little pockets".  Mind you, I had only packed clothes with pockets for her, but she was really focused on this particular set of pajamas.  I somehow managed to get her dressed in real clothes for dinner.  Fast forward to the next day, we do the beach and pool thing, shower up and get dressed.  I get out of the shower, and there is Kevin, getting Gwen snapped into the pajamas for the aquarium.  At this point, I am kicking myself that I didn't let her wear them last night.  I had Aquarium clothes out for her, but while I was showering, she dug out the pajamas from her suitcase and brought them to Kevin.  Knowing nothing about my plan or the perfectly adorably photogenic outfit I had picked out, Kevin acquiesced to her choice.  Stephanie and I both tried to convince her to change, but she would hear nothing of it.  Stephanie suggested that I force her to change, and I told her that it was tempting, but that Gwen should be allowed to have a say.  And then I recalled out loud the Easter that I managed to convince Stephanie to wear the dress I really wanted her to wear by letting her pick out whatever accessories she wanted, and the end result was that there were so many accessories, you could barely see the dress.  The Easter pictures are adorable and remind me of how funny she was dressing herself, and one day we will look back at the aquarium pictures, in which Gwen's hair was a bit too long and had been styled by salty, windy ocean air and she was wearing beloved yet oddly fitting pajamas with "little pockets" to the aquarium, and we will all get a kick out of her finding a way to wear them regardless of our efforts otherwise, or so I hope :)

Officially declaring this one as my favorite photo of the trip!

We all loved the jellyfish, of course, but Gwen claimed one in particular to belong to sister and one that belonged to her.  And then she was able to track hers around the tank and continued to point it out to us.

I had nearly forgotten about the dinosaurs outside.  They were new to the aquarium as of this past spring, and they moved, roared, and this particular one spit water at you.  They were pretty crazy, and Gwen was only a fan while at a healthy distance.

Yup, there she is, our little Hurricane Bertha. 

They just kept going back for more sea turtle pictures!

And they had a butterfly house.  It was smaller and less temperature controlled than the one at MLS, but it was loaded with butterflies.

This little one was a fan of Kevin's face...

And my buddy liked my camera, making taking a photo of him tricky.  But I prevailed with a cell phone. 

Why yes, that is an albino alligator.

We were all pleased that they did a "Darth Vader" in the tank talk.  Gwen was actually super excited this time instead of fearful, and is still telling us about it.  Here, the diver was illustrating how thick the wall of the tank is (8 inches) and if I had turned off my flash, I think this would be my all time favorite aquarium picture.  But it is still a really fun shot.

Gwen really wanted Darth Vader to high five her too.  He didn't, but she sure made for a cute picture while she waited, this time sans flash. 

That is it, likely the last the beach will see us in 2016!  But we will be back as soon as weather permits in 2017. 

Labor Day at the Museum

Stephanie, of course, had Labor Day off.  It is a little close to the start of school, and I think we would have appreciated the day off more if it were further into the semester.  That doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy it, though, spending the day, as we did last Labor Day, at the Museum of Life and Science. 
I know you must be thinking that there is no way I have any pictures of spots from the Museum that I haven't already posted.  You would be wrong.  I believe all of the photos that we took on Labor Day were in areas we have never photographed before.  Additionally, I had two young photographers help taking pictures, so I managed to be in a few! 

If the photo seems cute for one child, double down.

Stephanie took her turn with the camera and there were lots of nice pictures of me with Gwen to choose from. 

And we played with the timer on the camera.  We had a hard time convincing Gwen to be in the picture with us, because she was really committed to sitting on the yellow chair. 

So we adjusted the camera and managed her vision. 

A bit later, we gave Gwen a turn with the camera.  Mostly she took pictures of the ground, our feet, and the occasional unflattering shot of poor unsuspecting museum patrons.  But she managed to get just a few of Stephanie and I. 

We could tell her lens was slowly dropping, so we followed it for a few more shots.  It was definitely good for the laugh and the photos.

This water area is a favorite of Gwen's.  She rinses the rocks off and makes a stack of them, and takes the job very seriously. 

And then there are the new favorite construction planks.  Gwen played very nicely and let Stephanie build the tower.  Gwen was promised that she could knock it over after it was complete and many people were admiring her patience, because, as you can imagine, it took a while to build.

Stephanie had called her over in preparation for the final touches.  She stayed posed like this (to knock it down with her head) until she was given the all clear.  It reminded me of one of those dogs that will sit with the treat on their nose, which is probably a moderately unkind comparison, yet none the less accurate.

And that was it for the tower, and for us.  We headed home for a later than it should have been evening, thanks to all the fun, and then had to settle back into the school routine, which is going just as well during Week 2. 

First Day in the Big K

Yesterday marks Stephanie's first day of school!  I wanted to take the traditional first day of school pic, and told her I would cut out the letter K for her and let her decorate it.  I envisioned an extended craft period for this project as an anticipatory event leading up to the first day.  Instead, at 7pm, on our way home from the Greensboro Science Center, after I informed her that we were eating dinner and going straight up to bed, Stephanie says, "What about my K?"  Oh, right.  Whoops.  I promised her I would get it cut and put supplies out, and if she beat us up, she could work on it, otherwise we would do it at breakfast.  We made it at breakfast, the morning of the first day, but we made it!

We got her off to school, with plenty of time to spare.  We parked in the side lot, which is fun because you can walk the nature trail to the school.  Gwen woke up just in time, so her and Kevin were able to come as well.  Stephanie settled right in, and barely took the time to say goodbye.  

I was really pleased with our well run morning and our prep the previous night to make it happen.  We are generally really good at this, and I am rarely late for early morning appointments, even with both kids.  Late last night, though, it hit me.  This wasn't a dentist appointment that we have to manage to arrive on time for once every six months.  This is now a five day a week job for many years.  On the bright side, this morning went just as smoothly, so we are off to the right start.  It really helps that Kevin doesn't have to leave for work until after Stephanie has to leave for school and Gwen doesn't usually wake that early, so I can focus on her while Gwen sleeps AND I can leave Gwen home while I drop off.

Gwen is managing okay without Stephanie.  Stephanie went to camp this summer, so we had some practice.  She is happy just wandering around the house and hanging out with me.

Oh, and how did Stephanie like school.  Initially she said it was not that fun.  And then she spent twenty minutes enthusiastically telling me all of the things they did, at which time I pointed out that it sounded like fun to me.  She then corrected her original statement and said that it wasn't as fun as she had thought it would be.  Maybe she thought there would be carnival rides? 

Sporting her well rounded school gear.  She has all of her bases covered- Star Wars to Hello Kitty.

This post sponsored by Staggered Start

We have had a busy and fun summer, with many things on our must-do list, many of which we did, and of course, some that we did not.  As the last days approached, Stephanie asked when we would go back to the Greensboro Science Center.  Unfortunately, we were out of time.  Which is where Staggered Start comes in, the delicious breakfast cereal that will let you too miss the first day of school... Okay, it isn't actually a breakfast cereal, but, at the end of May, I had our start date of school as this past Monday, only to find out about staggered start in the middle of August, a new (at our school, at least) program that splits the K classes in half, so 50% of the kids start on Monday and have Tuesday off, and 50% of the kids have Monday off and start on Tuesday.  Stephanie was assigned to the latter, and suddenly we had a new day on the calendar when the museum was pretty much guaranteed to be super quiet, as it was the first day of school for all of the other grades. 

First stop, a Q&A period with a diver in the shark tank.  She spoke through a microphone and her breathing was loud (Darth Vader like, as described by the employee out of the tank that was coordinating the Q&A), and it flipped Gwen out.  She hid her face, and I eventually just stepped around the corner because I felt bad for her.  When I told her it was over, she looked back, saw the diver still in the tank (not talking, and thus "over" in my mind) and quickly informed me it was not over and hid her face again.  Later, we went by the tank again, the diver was gone, and she said "Darth Vader not in there" and was okay with the tanks again. 

We got to pet the bamboo shark, and then later in the day, we got to hold the eggs they laid that day.

Gwen always rushes to be in pictures and then becomes fascinated with the scene behind her.  I have a lot of photos like this!  This water fountain was set to music and fun to watch.  We were last here during colder weather, and this was tucked away a bit in the zoo area, so it was a total surprise find for us this time.

Stephanie really wanted a photo with one of the loose peacocks, and managed to plan a nice one without disturbing the bird. 

So I do stage some of my very favorite photos, but this one at the Meerkat exhibit was a natural moment of them standing the same way. 

Stephanie the frog.

Notice the adorable red panda in the enclosure.  They were so very cute, I could have watched them for much longer than we got to. 

Gwen initially refused to go into the goat enclosure, and then became very agitated outside of it (with me).  Finally I realized she was saying, "I brush hair", and so we got her into the enclosure with a brush, and she was very pleased. 

Gwen climbed into the tunnel and requested a picture. 

Back at the tanks, post Darth Vader.  Stephanie really wanted a picture with the very large stingray, and we had to wait patiently for some time for it to come into view, but we prevailed. 

Catching a good breeze from the "air machine" as Stephanie called it. 

So that was it!  Our last big adventure before the first day of Kindergarten, and I am grateful that we had it!