Category Archives: Leina

Last 4

I told Leina today was her last day of being 4 for…. EVER.  Never again would she be 4.  It was gone.  Gone baby.  Kiss it goodbye ’cause it’s half way out the door.  She looked at me a moment, and then started to cry.  Well, more like dramatic wail which she excels at really.

“I don’t want to turn 5!” she moaned, “I want to stay 4 forever!” And then she threw herself across my bed and proceeded to sob into my pillow.  Until Kevin yelled upstairs that her bacon was ready at which point she hopped of my bed, tucked her hair behind her ears, and pranced down the steps happy as can be.  And that, my friends, pretty much sums up Leina.  She is drama.  All day long.  All night.  Throw in a few fits and stops, and you’d have a pretty good idea of what 4 has been like for us.  So while I, too, will miss 4, I’m hoping 5 brings a bit more mellowness.   A bit more maturity.  Less crying tantrums please?  Alright, alright, I won’t over reach here.   But really, where does this drama queen behaviour come from?  I mean, Kevin and I are pretty mellow jello people.  We aren’t prone to random fits of despair or raptures of joy.  Neither of us can call for a cascade of tears on demand.  And yet, I have this little person walking through my house who can go from happy, to irate, to devastated, to overjoyed in the amount of time it takes to travel from the sofa to the fridge.  It’s unreal.  If this keeps up, I’m going to have to move to LA and enroll her in some acting classes ’cause the kid has some serious talent.

Tomorrow we have a mini celebration of the day of her birth with her girlfriends and then this weekend we’ll have a BBQ for the bigger folks.  When informed of the plan, Leina threw herself onto the ground and started to moan, “oh mooooooooom, I don’t waaaaaaant a birthday party…..Can’t you tell them not to come?”  This lasted until I reminded her that they would be bringing presents and which point she flicked some internal switch, jumped to her feet, and scurried off to make room on her bed for her new toys.   Some days, I feel like I have emotional whiplash people and she’s only 4!  Just the though of 12 makes my blood run cold……

Sunflowers and Presents

Kevin is still working crazy hours so I’ve been a little short handed around the house.  I’m afraid my posting here has suffered.  Sigh.  The girls and I have been enjoying our summer though.  They may just have their mama’s gardening gene because they love to help me weed and water and admire all the flowers in our backyard.  I decided to encourage this and bought them each their own sunflower plant.  They helped me dig the hole, plant, and water them and now every morning they can’t wait to run outside with their little watering cans and take care of their own flower.  It’s quite sweet.

We also received a surprise package in the mail from Nana Walls full of home knit love.  She made the girls their very own hooded ponchos!  When I opened the package, Leina declared she wanted the blue one and Kulia wanted the rainbow.  Which was perfect since the blue was larger.  Phew!  Don’t you just love it when it all works out?  So here are the girls modeling their ponchos.  They were quite confused by the lack of arm holes at first but quickly discovered how comfy they were and didn’t want to take them off.  Look out fall weather, we are armed and ready for you!  Thanks Nana Walls!

Good Times Rollin’

The Pops and the Toots have arrived!  Hallelujah!  Let the choir of angels sing!  The Grandparents are here!  They even brought some lovely hot weather with them so we decided to open up the backyard.  While Tutu entertained the minions, Papa & I set up the deck for summer.  This involved dragging out tables and chairs and sun umbrellas.  By the end of the day, our backyard was ready to play.

We broke out the croquet set and the art easel.  The kids adored both.  They loved whacking the balls and creating masterpieces.

Leina went with a realistic landscape full of flowers and butterflies.

By the time she finished her pictures, she had worked up quite a sweat and had to cool off swinging for quite a while.

Kulia, on the other hand, took her painting very very seriously.  Long after Leina had skipped off to the swings, Kulia was still diligently working on her brush strokes.

I like to call her finish project “Jellyfish at Sunset.”  It’s quite a smashing modern statement in my mind.

Every time my kids make art, I wish my sister was here to see them.  I just know she’d love to dip in her brush and join right in.  They loved showing off their creations to their adoring grandparents and the grandparents loved ooohing and ahhhing over every color choice.  All in all, a very satisfying day!

For Liza

Liza emailed me to gripe about my lack of posting.  This from the woman who is so busy we haven’t seen each other in over a month!  So to appease her, I’m going to sum up my life for the last week in 2 words or less.

Hectic.  (Ha!  Less than two baby!)

No really.  First, my baby insisted on growing and having another birthday.  She is now three.  She says this proudly while announcing emphatically, “you have no more babies!  No more!  Alls big girls now!”, and each time she does another piece of my heart shatters.  She can’t be three.  Not yet!  I still have at least seven more years of baby snuggling left in me!

Papa and Manny threw her a birthday party with a bouncy house and presents.   She was in heaven.  Oddly enough, she really liked opening the birthday cards.   Most kids toss the cards and dive right into unwrapping the gift.  Not Kulia.  She loved opening each and every card.

Of course, she loved the gifts too.  The girls have been dying to try out the chalk animal print maker thing-a-ma-jig but it has been pouring rain here so no dice.  Sorry kids.  Maybe next month.

She fell in love with her little birthday teddy bear.  As soon as she opened it up, she gave it the biggest, sweetest hug ever.

Oh how I wish I was that little bear.

Along with Kulia, sweet baby Amelia is turning two this week.  We have to miss her party so I gave Anna her birthday present a wee bit early.  It’s the sweetest little summer jumper.  Of course, I probably should have knit her a sweater what with the weather we’re having.  Grrrr.  But it sure came out cute!

And then we had the last day of preschool for Leina.  Due to the excessive rain (did I mention it’s been pouring lately?), they had to cancel their field trip.  Instead, they had class as always.  Leina was hard at work making a masterpiece for her teacher.

You can’t tell from here but the petals on her flower had to be colored in like a rainbow.  Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple and repeat.  No amount of hurrying could daunt her.  She was determined to make it just perfect.  That’s my girl!

Finally, we had the last hug good-bye.  Teacher Michelle has been a dream.  Everything you’d want for your child’s first teacher – sweet, kind, loving and patient.  Leina is very interested to learn where teacher Michelle lives so she can go and visit her every day.  So far I’ve been able to avoid answering this question.  I’m sure Ms. Michelle doesn’t want a bunch of 4 yr olds camped out on her front lawn all summer long with reams of colored paper waiting to be admired.  We’ll see how much longer I can stall Leina.

And so, there it is, my life for the last few days. Happy Liza?  Good.  And don’t forget, we’re on for Tues!

Graduation Day

Last night we went to Leina’s little end of the year school party.  It was so sweet.  They all got up on stage and sang their little songs and then received a packet of school work they had made throughout the year.  When Leina started paging through her drawings she started to cry.  She remembered making the snowman and the ghost.  She remembered the Easter egg and the kite.  More than anything, she didn’t want it to end.

Like most kids, Leina fell in love with her first teacher, Ms. Michelle.  I remember way back when I began looking around for a preschool for her.  Everyone pointed me to teacher Michelle.  They all swore she was the sweetest, most loving, most wonderful first teacher ever.  Getting her wasn’t easy – I remember sitting in my car at 5:30am waiting for the doors to open so I could reserve a spot in her class of 10 for Leina.  At the time, I wondered if it was really worth it.  Now, I’m so glad I did.  If Leina could, she would stay in Ms. Michelle’s class forever.  Just the thought of leaving makes her face crumple and the tears start flowing.

Today was the last day for Leina to stand at the door, ready and ancy to hurry up and Go! already.  I’ve tried to entice her with the idea of summer! parks! zoo! but it’s no good.  She just sobs and wails and asks me “why?  why can’t I have teacher Michellle forever?”

So I’m bringing a camera today to take some pictures with her most favorite and best teacher ever.  One year of school down, so many more to go!