Sand Box

These pictures were taken one day last May. Maia's ballet class meets really close to a very nice park. On nice days, Tai and I would go to the park while we waited for her. Often, she would feel disappointed that she did not get to join us at the park. Her class was over around 5:15, so we would usually rush off to make dinner.

One day I decided to let dinner wait and let both kids enjoy the park together. This was during a time that I was taking two difficult classes and had been working very hard on my coursework. I felt that we all needed a break to play together and have quality time. Typically I tell the kids to go play and sit down to watch and relax. This time I got into the sandbox with them and helped them dig huge holes. My clothes got so messy, and Maia's ballet leotard has never been the same, but that is one of our best memories. Suddenly, Tai got into one of the holes and we got the idea to bury him. Then Maia needed a turn. We all had an amazing time, and I felt restored taking a break from worrying about studying and writing.

 The best part? It was all free and within a few minutes of our house. Sometimes I feel that the kids are bored unless I take them to destinations like the children's museum or zoo, but this goes to show that all they need is a little sand and a helping hand from mom. On the way home, we picked up a pizza. The perfect end to a spontaneous evening of fun. And I didn't even have to cook dinner!

Creek Adventure

This summer, the kids and I kept busy by exploring a lot of local places. One of our favorite finds was a creek just 20 minutes away from our house.  Maia and Tai could spend hours exploring the creek and collecting wildlife.  We always caught a couple of things, but when we brought Daddy along, things got serious.

Tai with his a green bucket.  Green is his favorite color.

Yoshi checks out the inhabitants of the creek.

Tai got quite attached to this little guy and even picked him up with his bare hands to transfer into his own bucket.  He wanted to bring him home as his pet, but we did not know what kind of fish it was and were pretty sure it would eat everything else in our aquarium.  He was pretty devastated to leave his new friend.

Yoshi holds a crawdad as Maia and another little girl check it out.

Tai could do this for hours!

This is the only picture I got of Maia because she was running around so much.  She loves to go off on her own to explore while Tai still stays close to mom.

Tai took this picture of me.  You can see a small belly bump.

Tai shows off everything we caught.

I think Yoshi and I had just as much fun as the kids did.

We caught a lot of interesting things!  After the fun was over, we returned them to their environment.

 

Art in the Yard

This is the first summer that Maia and Tai could both be allowed to go into the front yard alone. Often, I will watch them from the living room window as I work on my computer or peek out at them as I'm tidying up the house. It's a nice feeling to know they won't bolt across the street or do anything crazy although I do check on them often. For some reason, the back yard is not nearly as appealing to them as the front is. They pull their chairs as close to the sidewalk as possible and wait. Like me, the kids are social beings. They want to see people walking their dogs, packages being delivered, and all of our neighbors coming and going. Sometimes other kids will emerge from their houses and spontaneous play dates will be arranged. The front yard is a good place for the kids to be.

Maia and Tai regularly play with other kids from our neighborhood, but they are just as content to hang out together.  Both of them love arts and crafts, but sadly for them, their mom is not a crafty mom.  At least I provide them with plenty of materials and freedom.

A slight slip of the paintbrush and an idea is hatched. Hmmmm.... Why stick to the paper when our bodies can be canvasses? 

This is Tai's "Who me?  I didn't do anything wrong" face.

Smearing make-up together. 

Love!

"Oh yeah, I look good," says Tai.

Last year, these pictures would not have been possible because I spent the entire summer chasing Tai around.  I could not have trusted him to play nicely in the front yard without possibly escaping or running into the street.  Beginning when Tai learned to walk until he reached the age of reason (about 6 months ago,) it was very difficult to keep up with him. I do love babies and miss the special toddler years, but boy am I glad the kids are a little easier to keep track of these days.

Sharing Noodles and Love

These days have been a little harder than usual.  For so long it seemed that Maia and Tai would never be the kind of kids that fought or had jealousy issues.  I'm not sure what has changed, but somehow our house has had a lot more arguing lately.  Maia has been heard saying things like, "Tai is so annoying!"  It is tough to deal with because, quite frankly, I was not realistic in my expectation that the kids would always get along.  But hey, we made it 3.5 years, so I guess that is something!  In order to make myself remember that the kids do actually have good times, I am sharing some pictures of them eating noodles together. 

Maia comes home from lunch every Tuesday.  It is a lot of fun to have her join us for lunch.  On this particular day, the kids were eating ramen noodles.  Maia finished hers and Tai still had a lot left, so she asked him if she could have some of his.  He pushed over his bowl and shared with his sister.  I could not resist taking the following pictures:

I know that as the kids continue to grow up, they will have occassional rough patches where they don't get along perfectly. It's only normal. I hope, though, that they will continue to have a close relationship and be good friends when they get older.