October 2004

Let's get to this October review before I look up at the clock and find that we're already into December.

    Ellen has had an up month.  The tantrums are still coming, but they seemed not as extreme somehow.  She's gotten through several naptimes with dry pull ups.  We've been letting her get up to take care of potty time on her own.  She calls us at night some times.  We go get her then.  Her diapers are certainly less full than they used to be.  So that's good.  She continues to gain in her motor skills.  She is writing her own name now.  She's also learning her lower case letters.  Her sight words are increasing as well.  "Happy Halloween" and "Boo" are words that she has learned to recognize this month thanks to the window clings that Nana and Bapa sent.  Ellen also moved into her bigger girl bed now too.  She was just way too big for her medium bed.  We got her a full-sized bed with a purple comforter and purple and yellow sheets.  She has to jump to get in, but she likes it.  I think she's just disappointed that she doesn't have the glow in the dark head board any more.

    Phoebe's vocabulary (or as we used to say back in the 'hood, "vocab") has been expanding this month.  She can say pasta, do animal sounds (always a crowd favorite),  milk, and "bye daddy".  She definitely understands what we are talking about when we ask her to do something or if she needs something.  She's very expressive with her face and head movements.  She's really growing fast.  She's into outfits now that Ellen was wearing well into her 2nd birthday.  We've moved the big girl bed from Ellen's room into Phoebe's room.  She seems excited about it right up until we offer to put her in it for nap.  Then she wants to be in her crib.  And, I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but she can run really really fast.  Just wanted to make sure I got that in there.

    We had several trips and things going on this month as usual.  We kicked off the month with a trip to Cannon Beach.  Jada had a conference there for her political action committee.  While she was in her meetings during the day, Ellen, Phoebe, and I went down to the beach to play.  It wasn't rainy, but it wasn't clear and sunny either.  It was a typical Oregon coast day - windy and cold.  We built sand castles and ran around on the beach.  Both mornings that we were there, we got up early to go to Pig 'n' Pancake for breakfast.  They had pigs in a spider web on a window.  Ellen really enjoyed sitting near that.  (You know, there's a Pig N Pancake in Tigard, but it's just not as much fun to go to one there).  The last morning we were there, we walked down to the big rock near the beach to look in the tidal pools.  We saw some anemones and barnacles, but no star fish or anything like that.  The girls seemed to enjoy the trip.

    Phoebe and Ellen started their fall swim classes this month.  Ellen had another new teacher, and didn't get in the same class with her friend, Emily, again.  Phoebe was a little wary of the water since it has been almost a year since the last time she was in the pool.  There was a new teacher at this session from the one that Ellen had when she was Phoebe's age, but the funny thing was that it was Ellen's favorite swim teacher from her first solo swimming lessons.  And Ellen's teacher was the teacher in training from when Ellen was in the baby 'n' me class.  Phoebe did ok in the water, but she wasn't much for the games.  She enjoyed holding onto a ball and floating on the kick board.  She started enjoying jumping into the pool after a couple times, but it was cold out on the deck, so we didn't do it all that much.  They'll have 3 more lessons this month so we'll see how it goes...  Phoebe really seems to enjoy swim class now.  She enjoys being in the water as long as she is floating on her front.  She likes to ride on the water noodles like they're a horse.  In the last class of the month, she was playing with a couple water toy animals and making them drink the water (while making the little eating sound that we always make when we have pretend dinners with her).  It was very cute. 

    Ellen had a class at the zoo that dealt with bears...not just bears, but her favorites, the Polar bears and sun bears.  I took the day off to bring her.  It was a little over 2 hours, and Ellen really enjoyed herself.  She listened and paid attention to the teacher.  We didn't get to go behind the scenes, but all three of the polar bears were out near the glass where we were standing.  The sun bears were back having breakfast, so we didn't get to see them.  Then we went to the class room where the kids listened to a story about polar bears, and then were able to paint polar bears and fish.  They also had a bin with water with "ice bergs" in it with little plastic bears, whales, seals, and penguins to simulate the artic environment.  Then to finish up the kids all painted a large picture of a polar bear and put cotton balls on it.  I think all in all, Ellen had a good time.  She did a really good job listening and answering questions.  The teacher was a former pre-school teacher who teaches all the 3-5 year old classes, so we'll have to sign her up for another one some time.  We also were lucky and had a really nice and sunny day.

    Ellen's pre-school had a field trip to the apple orchard that we happen to visit every weekend.  I took the day off to take both the girls.  The weather wasn't great (windy and cold), but it wasn't raining either, so that was good.  We went on a "hay" ride through the orchard, the girls tried cider for the first time, Ellen played in the big inflatable apple, and we each got to pick out a pumpkin and an apple.  Ellen picked out the "biggest pumpkin in the world" and carried it herself (I, of course, forgot the camera.  Who's the worst dad?)  Ellen was excited when she finally found her teacher there (we all met there).

   The end of the month brought us Halloween, of course.  Ellen had quite a few big days.  It all started with her pre-school party.  I took a couple hours off around lunch time to head over to the pre-school for Ellen's program.  They started off with a costume parade round the gym. (Ellen's costume was a polar bear.  She wore a foam Polar Bear hat that she picked out from the Zoo gift shop, a white short and sweater for the fur, and black pants because a polar bear's skin is black.  Not elaborate, but cute nonetheless.)  Then they formed up on lines and performed several short songs that they had been learning in class.  Then we all sat in a circle and we got to sing along to one of those old Halloween records with special effects and everything.  It's nice to be going to a pre-school that actually has a record player.

    The next day was the Conestoga Parks and Rec Center's Pumpkin Fest on Friday night.  Ellen wore her Polar Bear costume again, and Phoebe wore her little foam bat hat with eyes that light up (also purchased at the Zoo).  They have several rooms for the kids to go around in to do different activities.  It show cases that types of things that you can do at the rec center.  They have an arts and crafts room, ball sports room, play room in the gym, a room with a bunch of carved pumpkins that we could vote on.  Even Mr. Bob was there.  We carried around a sheet of paper to collect stamps that we could turn in at the end of the night for a little goodie bag.  We missed seeing the other kids from Ellen's playgroup somehow even though we took a last pass through the whole place before we left.

    Daylight savings time came and went again.  The bane of all parents who keep kids on a schedule.  We kept the girls up a little bit later than normal Saturday night, but they were still up before the new 6am.  They did adjust after about 4 days though, so it wasn't too terribly bad.

    Finally, Halloween...and it couldn't come soon enough for Ellen.  Ellen donned the mantle of the polar bear one last time, but this time, Phoebe was a Blazer cheerleader.  I put on my Blazers shooting shirt and a Blazers hat (I went as Richie Frahm) when Jada and I took the girls out to hit a couple houses in the neighborhood.  Ellen was scared by one of the kids in a scary skull mask (he didn't scare her on purpose, she was just scared of the mask.  The little boy was nice and obliged when we asked if he could take his mask off quickly so she could see it was just a boy inside.  We managed to miss the rain, but it was plenty chilly that night all the same so we packed it in after just a few houses of people we knew nearby.  Ellen and Phoebe got to answer the door with me a couple times as we were getting them ready for bed.  They thought that was fun.  We ended up getting a decent number of kids this year.  We still had left over candy though which I took to work the next day.  It was finished off pretty quickly by the end of the afternoon.

    And that was October.  See ya next month.

Journal Entry: November 6, 2004