Cleopatra

Bohdin finished his family portrait art project over the weekend. My hair was the last thing he needed to do and to avoid spiky hair I told him to look at my hair and notice how it went down instead of up. I should not have said anything. I look like I was clawed by a bear. I
still love it. I told him I would keep it forever.



Cora woke up early Monday so it seemed like a good day to go to Cincinnati to see the Cleopatra exhibit and go to Ikea to get the new cabinets we needed. The trip there was easy. Cora fell asleep but not as quickly as I expected. She had a short nap and woke just before we arrived. I was on the fence about going because I didn't think Nyla and Cora would do that well. Bohdin really wanted to go so we went. Nyla was a little impatient and wanted to move quickly to see the things she wanted to see. Bohdin took his time since he could read what the objects were and any accompanying text. Cora was quiet for the first 2/3 of the tour. Then she was done. She started fussing to be taken out of the carrier. I took her to a quiet corner to see if she would eat but she didn't really want to. She wanted to get down and run. I apologized to Bohdin and said we would need to rush through the last bits. I tried to keep Cora from straying too far or touching anything but that was really exhausting. I hardly saw anything at the end.

Both Bohdin and Nyla enjoyed the exhibit. Bohdin was glad to see things he recognized like the statue of Bastet. The exhibit showcased things that have been dug up off the coast of Alexandria so there were large statues and pieces of buildings along with coins, small statues, and various things. My favorite was the stone canopic jar. Nyla liked the video we watched in the beginning and the two large statues. They were maybe 30 feet tall. Bohdin couldn't choose. Yesterday Nyla renamed one of her Playmobil kids Cleopatra and put her in Bohdin's Nile River project. Other kids joined her throughtout the day. Bohdin didn't like the name change because he wants the kid to be called Sunflower since she came with a sunflower. Lily is named Lily because she came with a lily pad. I don't know if Cleopatra will stick.



Cora is in full time one year old destructo mode. She is either all over me making it hard to accomplish anything or making messes. This morning she didn't want to sit in her seat and have breakfast. She wanted to sit in my lap and eat mine. She was very frustrated that I wouldn't allow it. She's ripping books, scattering things, taking dishes out of the kitchen and breaking them, and on and on. I don't like one year old behavior. Bohdin and Nyla dislike having her in the basement because she destroys the scenes they have worked so hard to create. We went to a playgroup last week with some new kids.  Neither Bohdin nor Nyla were interested in them.  Bohdin tried to play with them but he felt they were being mean or something.  I didn't get the whole story out of him.  Nyla stayed near me and played with their extensive doll collection.  Cora ran off to play in the playroom.  It was a nice break. Cora doesn't care for adults besides Buddy and I.  She often cries if they try to interact with her but she loves other kids. 

In a Rush

I only have a moment now because we are off to the Cleopatra Exhibit in Cincinnati. My life has just been so busy that I just need to take at least a few minutes to write or I never will. Buddy was out of town for most of last week and that coincided with our largest tomato harvest to date. I made 28 cups of tomato sauce and it weighed just over 17 pounds. I will do the same tomorrow. I don't think there will be time today.

Last week we received a very special package of horses from Buddy's cousin. When she was younger she was horse crazy and now that she is grown and doesnt' play with them anymore she sent them to us. At some point they need to go back to her I think so she can share them with her own children but in the meantime we will take care of them. I think Cora likes them the most. When they are set up she points at them and exclaims something.

Zoom

I should have zoomed in closer on Nyla's artwork.

Life

These are the pictures that didn't post last week. There was no big change over the weekend. We did discover that the cabinet run in the lower picture is too long for the electrical setup so we have to return a 30" cabinet and get a 24" cabinet instead. I think we may remeasure though one more time just in case because it would suck to be one inch off and not pass electrical inspection. We'll change out the upper cabinet also. This is what happens without planning.




Cora likes to climb on the bike outside and be pushed around. Both Bohdin and Nyla have done this. I know she has fallen off at least once when the bike toppled over during a turn. Cora doesn't care and gets back on. She gets very angry when the ride is over.





Cora isn't a big fan of solids yet. She generally does not like food that is small and will refuse food that has been cut. So she will eat a whole apple but turn her head at an apple slice. Although she is offered a variety of things, she mostly pushes it around on her plate. Last week she did find an old bagel on the floor and gnawed on that for a few minutes. Eventually she went to the low cabinet with the kid plates in them and took out a bowl for her bagel. It made me chuckle to see her put her food in the same dish that Bohdin and Nyla use.

Last week I bought some greek yogurt and offered some to Cora. She loved it. I'm not certain how much she is actually eating but she is having a fun time using the spoon and making a mess.



Nyla likes to draw in notebooks and I have a huge stack of them just for her. Lately she has been drawing a lot of people. I've already forgotten who this is a drawing of and what the accompanying text is supposed to say.



Since the camera was out I took some pictures of Bohdin's recent art work. The first one is from his art class and the rest are just free art.





I took the kids to the fabric store so I could get a pattern for Nyla's fairy/princess dress along with some fabric. On the way back home I asked Bohdin what he wanted to be for Halloween. We all started throwing around some ideas. Nyla mentioned a grass costume which Bohdin thought sounded difficult. Nyla disagreed and said that all you have to do is get some grass and some glue and glue it on. It didn't sound hard to me especially compared to the costume idea that Bohdin settled on. He wants to be a woolly mammoth for Halloween.

Lumps and Bumps

We made some progress with the cabinets over the weekend.





Nyla has been talking about fairies for the past several weeks. They are going to visit us. We are going to visit them. We need to clean up before the fairies come. We need to get dressed up for the fairies. Monday we stopped at a store and Nyla wanted me to buy her a princess costume so she could dress up for the fairies. I refused. It was overpriced for a piece of junk. I told her I would make her one instead. She cried and cried. While she was crying, Cora was crying because I wouldn't let her run around the store pulling things off the shelves. Two crying girls was more than I could handle at the moment so we compromised on a cheaper piece of junk which was a dress up accessory kit. It had shoes, purse, necklace, earrings and a tiara. Our next stop was the bookstore where again Cora cried because I wouldn't let her wander off and pull books off shelves. Nyla cried because I refused to buy a book for the fairies.

When we arrived home Nyla discovered that the accessories were junk. The only thing she liked was the shoes which had a slight heel. When Buddy saw them he hated them. He does not want Nyla to wear heels yet. I had to break the bad news to Nyla that they would be going into the trash. She didn't take it well. I told her we could get a different pair of "princess shoes". She agreed but wanted them to also have a bump. So that conversation didn't go well. Later when she was complaining about her lack of princess shoes she said without them the fairies would think she was a lump. I don't know what that means but I banned the fairies from visiting the house. Imaginary fairies should not be judging our appearance and making us feel bad. That didn't go over well. I don't know where she is getting this from.

Lasers

Nyla woke up early Wednesday morning terrified of lasers.  She wasn't able to go back to sleep until it was light out I think.  She was hiding under the covers almost trembling because the lasers were going to cut her.  She talked about lasers on Wednesday alternating between being terrified and singing about them playfully.  That night she was scared as well but not as much.  Even today, Saturday, she is still talking about lasers.  She refuses to be anywhere by herself because there might be lasers. 

Thursday was a beautiful day.  After weeks of oppressive humidity and high temperatures we had a not humid day with lower than average temperatures.  It seemed like a perfect day to stop at a nearby park.  The kids didn't care for the playground so Bohdin asked if we could check out the trail.  The park has the best biking paths in the area and I thought it would be okay to walk on them.  I looked at the map and thought the playground loop would be perfect.  It was a really nice path and looked perfect for biking.  We did see a few and stepped out of the way in time.  After going for quite some time I stopped a biker and asked him how much further it was.  He told me I could get off on the road up ahead.  I was really confused by the directions.  Since we were on a  loop we shouldn't come out on a road.  We should come out at the playground.  We came out on the road and I didn't know which way to go.  I flagged down a car and he pointed me to the right way but told me it was pretty far.  He was right.  I checked the mileage on the way out and from that point it was 7/10 of a mile.  The path we took to get there had numerous switchbacks so we hiked about 2 miles.  As we were walking through the forest Nyla pretended we were going to visit fairyland.  Toward the end she became tired of walking and said "I'm tired of walking but I know we need to keep going.".  It was a surprisingly mature thing for her to say.  When we arrived back at the playground Bohdin said he never wanted to do that again.  I don't think it was that bad and I thought we should actually do it more often.  Then I came home and found a giant tick crawling on me.  Today Buddy found a tick behind Cora's ear.  There is no telling how long that tick has been there.  Now I remember why we don't do stuff like that more often. 

Bohdin was excited to do his Playmobil setup of the history lesson on Friday.  He made one scene with a cave and showed the food sources nearby and then he did the first farmers with their mud brick house.  I reread the history lesson and then had him narrate a few sentences about it.  I plan to print out the pictures and put his sentences underneath to make a history book he can look over any time he wants.  He is having so much fun with it and is eagerly anticipating getting new toys for it.  I'll pick up some people next week with the Three Wise Kings and maybe Nativity set.  I bought a Roman the other day at the store but won't give it to him until it is needed.  He is so antsy he begged to do history today.  I couldn't say no so we did a history lesson.  He then went downstairs and set up the scene.  He wanted to do the battle between the Upper Egypt King (white hat) and Lower Egypt King (red hat) but Playmobil only has the hat for the Upper Egypt King after he conquered the Lower Egypt King (red and white).   

Nyla was tasked with keeping Cora occupied while Bohdin set up his scene.  Cora was laughing hysterically until I took the picture and ended the fun.

Bohdin's cave people

Bohdin's early farmers.  It doesn't show up well in the picture but he set up every person to be gathering food in a different way.  One is picking wheat, one is fishing, one is picking apples, and one is feeding the sheep.

Nyla makes herself chocolate peanut butter sandwiches but often leaves the jar open on the floor.  It is one of the few foods that Cora likes to eat.  I never offer it to her so she takes full advantage of Nyla not putting it away.

The Upper Egyptian King after he has conquered the Lower Egyptians.  The Nile river is to the right with crops growing beside it.  The guy on top of the building is watching the Nile river for flooding.

Nyla wanted me to take a picture of her scene as well.  Those are sheep sleeping in beds and one baby.  I don't know what the back story is but wish I had asked. 

Hating photograhps

Cora doesn't like having her picture taken. There is no faster way to break up a good time than pulling the camera out. She and Nyla were playing together happily in a box the other day until I had to pull the camera out. I put her back in the box to try to get a shot but she just cried and climbed out. I wanted to try again today when she was having fun with Bohdin and the chair. He was spinning her around on it. I was able to get some pictures taken before she noticed. Once she did though the fun ended.



Once Bohdin and Nyla were having fun with it she went back over. I like how she was going to use Nyla's neck as a stepping stool. She was stopped before it happened. She seemed in a fine mood even with the camera around so I thought I could get some pictures of the three of them. I never did get a good one and there wasn't much opportunity. That was the last straw and she walked around fussy the rest of the time.





Bohdin and Nyla were more cooperative and I have several shots of them being silly until something happened to make Nyla mad. I don't remember what it was. Her anger didn't compare to Cora's anger at me not giving her the camera. She wanted it and did not want to take no for an answer. Her crying face was my last shot before I stopped.











Here is the kitchen cabinet layout so far. The cabinets are the light birch color on the inside but darker on the outside. The cabinet next to the pantry unit has a bit of drawer front peeking out. The kids immediately took the empty cabinets over for a house. Those blankets are the roof.



After Cora climbed over the bag of insulation at the top of the stairs we doubled up to make it taller. It is more than three feet tall now so there is no way she can climb over. She realized that so she just pulled it out of the way instead. I caught her climbing down the stairs. The insulation buys us time but I don't know what we'll do. With our stair and hallway configuration, a gate doesn't really work.

Nyla continues to love school. I am so surprised at how much she has learned since Zippy has arrived. I hope I can survive an entire year of him. Bohdin' schooling is going fine. He likes Zippy as well so whenever I'm doing school with Nyla he comes over and tells Zippy random things or asks questions or answers the things I ask Nyla. I thought he would appreciate a bit more fun in his school so I'm going to get a few Playmobil figures and we'll recreate history. He seemed pretty excited about the idea. They just came out with the three Wise Men figures and those costumes do well for that ancient history. I think one of them could definitely pass as a Sumerian King. We already have Egyptian and Roman stuff so that will be fairly easy. Playmobil doesn't make ancient Greeks so the Romans may have to do double duty. Since we discussed archaeology last week he thinks I ought to get him the dinosaur eggs he's been eying for years.