Favorites

Before I forget, I wanted to write down a few of Sadie and Linus' favorite things at the moment:

Sadie loves ducks and kitties. All things related to ducks and kitties. She is currently sleeping in duck pajamas with duck shorts on top, with a duck stuffed animal, a block with a picture of a duck on it, 4 little rubber ducks and one large rubber duck, kitty slippers, a stuffed kitty, another stuffed kitty that makes noise when you squeeze it, her beloved towel with a duck hood, and about 15 books that have pictures of ducks and/or kitties in them.

(She just noticed that clothes from Old Navy have dogs on their tags. It's a good thing it's not a picture of a kitty or a duck else she would have her entire wardrobe in bed with her right now.)

Linus loves his Mimi (aka giraffe). And he loves talking about his Mimi and just about anything else giraffe-related.

Right now he is sleeping with his "old" Mimi and his "new" Mimi and a book that has a picture of a giraffe. Oh, and he has a blanket and a towel with a cow hood - not sure how those fit in.

Sadie loves strawberry ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.


Linus loves chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles.
(I keep thinking they need to branch out, so we go to get ice cream a lot in case they feel like expanding their horizons.)

Sadie's favorite food is sushi.

(As a matter of fact, a couple of days ago she boycotted lunch because I didn't have any sushi for her. Seriously. She sat down on the floor and refused to come to the table because I went to the store and didn't buy any sushi for her, so she opted not to eat lunch rather than eat a sandwich, mac & cheese, or quesadilla. Seriously.)

Linus' favorite food is a hamburger. Which he will try to convince us to make every single day.

Both Sadie and Linus' other favorite food is chocolate cake.

(And really, who could blame them.)

Sadie loves the color orange. And pink. And yellow.

Linus loves the colors brown and green. And black.

They both like playing dress up.

(Sadie doesn't quite understand that you can keep your regular clothes on and still put your dress-up clothes on top. Luckily she hasn't felt the urge to strip down to play dress up at school yet, but I'm sure it's coming).

Sadie and Linus are the best of friends.

They make up their own games to play with rules only they understand. They have their own secrets which they find hilarious, but I wouldn't know since they won't tell me. And they have even developed their own language which gets very confusing sometimes, but luckily it isn't a secret so they will eventually translate for me.

I get worried sometimes because they would rather play with each other than anyone else. But, I also realize how special their bond is and how lucky they are to have each other.

...And I'm sure there will come a day when Sadie won't want to wrestle and Linus won't want to play princess.

(ETA: Sadie and Linus played dress-up at school today, and I'm happy to report that they kept their clothes on. Phew...)

Summer sports

Over the summer I signed Sadie and Linus up for a few different summer sports camps. They were excited to try something new, and I was excited for them to have another outlet for all of their endless energy.

First, we signed them up for swim lessons twice a week. I also bought the family a pool pass because I figured that in between their lessons we could have fun practicing what they've learned while cooling off. (Little did I realize that we would not have a summer in Chicago this year).

They had only one relatively decent day to swim...

...and the kids loved it. They loved splashing around and trying to kick while riding their floats.

But, every other time they had a lesson or we tried to go to the pool, it was absolutely freezing. (And I mean, cloudy in the 60s with the pool not much warmer than that). These poor kids would immediately turn purple, start shaking and scream. Not just cry, but hysterically scream from the top of their lungs. It was horrible.

Finally, after a few of these lessons, I decided to stop taking them because they weren't learning anything except how to hate the pool. What did I learn? That anything outdoor pool-related in Chicago is a complete waste of money. Next summer we'll be taking lessons at the indoor pool at the high school and I think we'll skip the pool pass.

Next summer sport: sports camp where they learned a different sport each week.

This was a weekly exercise in hilarity.

First off, Sadie was the only girl, and she's not too crazy about sports to begin with. But, she's a trooper and will try anything once.
She held her own in a class full of boys. That's my girl!

Linus, on the other hand, loved it.

With three college guys patiently trying to explain to a handful of 3 and 4 year old boys and a girl the fundamentals of each sport, I'm not sure much sunk in. Regardless, Linus thought it was the coolest thing ever and I think we'll at least be signing him up again next year.



Towards the end of the summer, Sadie and Linus participated in a week-long soccer camp taught by a couple of players from Chicago's professional soccer team. Once again, Linus loved it.

At that point, Sadie just wanted to be left alone so she could pick flowers.
I thought about not signing them up for anything else for awhile, but then I remembered how quickly it gets cold here and how miserable we all are stuck inside all day.

So, right now they are both taking gymnastics once a week. This a sport that they both love. When you spend an hour playing in a foam pit, swinging from a bar, jumping on a springboard and doing somersaults down foam ramps, what's not to love?

The downside? They refuse to walk anywhere. Why walk when you can jump or somersault to your destination? And they have learned to hang upside from the banister when I'm not looking, and their beds have officially become trampolines. Hmmm...while I'm happy they are getting more coordinated, I'm not ready for them to be doing flips off the chandeliers.

Fourth Installment

Even though it has taken me forever, I have finally finished the kids' fourth video.

Grandparents, check your mailboxes...

Enjoy!

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