13 months // 43 month update

You know what the hardest thing is about these updates? Knowing what I've already written about in the last one! I'd really hate to have like 20 of these in a row that say: So, Oliver is super into making inventions right now..

I'll do my best.

As I probably mentioned in the last update, we held a birthday party for Dakota. For her birthday we bought her some new clothes, a bike helmet so that we can go for bike rides (Ollie won't likely fit in my front baby seat this summer, plus he has his own bike to ride) and a new kid-sized couch. The couch has been amazing for movie nights... it unfolds into a bed which fits both kids side by side, so we can put on a Disney move and cuddle them up together. They love it.

One day while my mom was watching the kids, Dakota had a dirty diaper that went pretty rogue. Like, she destroyed every item of her outfit. My mom stripped her down, threw the clothes in the wash, gave her a bath and then did what any sensible grandma would do: she found an old outfit of Oliver's that she used to keep as a backup and put Dakota in it. So here she is in some clothes meant for a 2 year old boy.

Dakota was so precious at church last weekend, she kept singing along and raising her hands. I had to snap a sneaky photo of it!

Oliver is working through a list of "Kindergarden readiness" items that I collected. Before September I'd like him to be able to write his name, recognize his name written out by someone else and be able to spell it outloud. I'd like him to be able to write, recognize and list more letters and numbers. I'd like him to be able to fully get dressed without asking for help, and we need to buy him some velco-closed shoes since all of his are shoelaced. I'd like him to be able to use the bathroom totally unassisted (he can for "pees" but...) and open packages, like granola bars, by himself. I'd like him to feel more comfortable sharing, and listening to instructions, and being okay with it when plans change from what he was expecting. And other things like cutting in a straight line, tracing dotted lines in different patterns, counting objects in front of him, and sorting patterns. Some of this he's already really good at... like this activity we did about sorting jelly bean colours. I wasn't sure if he'd get it right away but lo and behold...

 "What, Mommy? This 'posa be hard?"  You can also see the fishing game we worked on, which was a series of x's and o's with paperclips that he would fish up with a magnet on a string. O's are points and X's are GAME OVER. Every point gets a jelly bean. That's how he earned them, then I made him sort them.


Oliver has been doing incredible in his skating/hockey class. At his age they only offer Parent and Tot lessons, so I (or Cal, or a grandpa) need to be on the ice with him, but he's totally independent and can skate on his own... now. That wasn't the case at first.

We are considering putting him in Timbits next year. Or doing another year of skating lessons. There's a floor hockey program that runs through spring but unfortunately Cal and I are both reluctant to commit to it since it's every Saturday and we both rotate weekends at work.

And lastly, here is our family motto for the month: