Thump!

What does MissA say as her Daddy gently lifts her back into her bed?

"Stop it, Tom!"

Learn to Ride

I bought a "balance bike" for the girls a few months ago. I like the concept: instead of training wheels, start off with a bike with 2 wheels without pedals. The child learns all about balance and later just needs to learn the pedals. In our case, the pedals can be learned separately (we had training wheels on the smaller bike, and the neighborhood children have them), then the two skills can be meshed.

MissA loves the balance bike, but is getting too big for it. She can get going and coast for at least 30 feet. So, with the start of summer upon us, I decided it was time.

Yesterday, Ben had a long afternoon with MissA helping her overcome her fears. They and the bike disappeared for a couple hours -he said he had to remove her from her comfort zone to help her focus- and they came back, panting and sweaty, to announce that she loves me more.

Today, they went out for maybe an hour. And when they came back, she was riding the bike without help. Exuberant and proud of her mighty accomplishment. Thursdays' ride to the library should be a piece of cake (let's make it so by riding a little each day to keep up the new skill).

Daily Plate

Ben introduced me to a food-tracking service online. I'm trying to work on my nutrition a bit, so I'm giving it a go. The Daily Plate lets me enter the food I eat, I can even dig a little and find ways to enter healthy whole foods (like adding 'recipes' and using the 'fix' button to enter info that actually pertains to the foods I use -like "whole wheat, whole-grain" instead of just "whole wheat flour"). Most 'recipes' has the ingredients spelled out, so something like the first 'whole wheat flour' shows that it's someone's mix, not real whole wheat flour! I'm going to play with it awhile.. doesn't look like there are many NT-style eaters on there, but I may have just not found them yet.

Finished Class 1

It's been a while since I posted - a month today! I've been busy with class these last couple months and today was the end of the beginning class. Next month is advanced class - hands-on workshop, really.

I've been getting up early with TJ for homeschool. I can concentrate better in the morning (especially if I actually slept, so I'm going to bed after this post), and we actually get schoolwork done. I'm going to have to set little goals through the year to get work done on a good schedule! Especially as I'm adding MissA to 'regular' school -she'll be in first grade. He only has two more weeks (4 days) left of his co-op classes! This semester has just flown by!

I bought a baby seat for my bike this week. Tonight, TJ and I rode over to the store and I used the seat for the groceries to practice the high center of gravity. It worked out fine and the 2 minutes to the store really flew. Usually, we walk over there and it's more like 10-20 minutes (even when they roll down the little grassy knolls). It was nice to have that little bit of freedom - light breeze, powered by me, blood flowing, so much nicer than being cooped up in the car or super slow walking to the store! I'm looking forward to riding the bike to the library on Thursday!

We're looking forward to a visit from the children's Grandparent's and Uncle in early June! I'm finishing off tasks and trying to get the house in semi-order. It's refreshing to see the counter regularly again!

We've been having a lovely heat wave this week. Thursday it hit 103F near TJ's class. We went swimming when we got home. Friday the children and I went to the beach and left when we felt chilly there, it was only 101F when we got home. Saturday was a planned trip to Big Basin. Beautiful. Next time, I'm planning on going earlier (I prefer to hike in the morning or evening rather than midday). We were a little late and missed the group hike, but were able to enjoy a family hike. There's lots of campgrounds there, so we may try that later in the year.

I can't find most of my size 2 DPNs, something tells me the wee little one had a trash run with them (she's at that age where everything goes in the container, especially the garbage container!). I've started TJ's gloves on the size 2s, so I'm thinking I'm stuck buying more to finish the task!