Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
May 25, 2006
Creative Movement
The activities have started. As kids it invariably starts with dance, gymnastics, or piano lessons. As they get older it becomes sports, karate, the violin, skating, or any other myriad of activities. But how do you choose what your kids should do? Should she learn foriegn languages? Should she continue with dance, or start an instrument? The fact is that with limited time and a finite budget you can’t send your kids off to do the countless number of fun activities there is to do.
Kaley has been taking a kid music class (called Music Together) since she was little, and now Maizy is doing the same thing. They both have fun, I think it’s valuable, and most importantly the music is very good - and not just for kids.
This past Winter, we decided it was time for Kaley to give Dance a try. The class, called Creative Movement, got her working on basic ballet steps, and now tap. The final dance piece the class put on for parents wasn’t exactly very active (at 3, what do you expect? They end up mostly standing there not really sure how to act in front of all these people), but most importantly she enjoys the class a lot. Perhaps she enjoys dressing up in the outfit even more then the dance class itself. I’d like to get her trying Kung Fu this next year, but maybe we’ll just start with Gymnastics.
November 12, 2006 - I added pictures from dance classes in May and the beginning of June
May 15, 2006
The Girls Together
While I have in fact taken less pictures of Maizy by herself then I had with Kaley I do take a lot of pictures of the girls together.
Push-up Pops
playing
painting
poking
in purple
December 19, 2005
Rick Charrette and the Bubble Gum Band
Rick Charrette is a bit of celebrity in Maine, at least amongst the kid circuit. For years he has been singing and performing his songs for kids. I personally don’t remember Rick Charrette from when I was a kid, but there are others my age that do. Perhaps his fame never quite made it to the sleepy town of Hampden. Kaley and I were first introduced to him when he played last Christmas at the Portland tree lighting. It was a very cold and crowded square of people that squeezed in to see the lighting of the giant 60′ tree and Bubble Gum Band in action.
This past November we were invited to take Kaley and see him in concert at York High School. But not only that kaley was invited to go up on stage with several other kids during his “Alligator in the Elevator” song. She was the yougest of the kids and we met Rick before hand so he could meet the kids and tell them what they were to do. Kaley was a bit scared and I really didn’t think that she would end up going up there. But when the time came around I just nudged her in the direction of the other kids and away she went. She got to stand next to Rick and had a great time as can be seen in the pictures.
November 28, 2005
She’s 3
We had a kid birthday party for Kaley last weekend, the theme of which was ’shapes and colors’. Cake, ice cream, presents, and games were the order of the day. Also in this gallery are pictures of Kaley on her actual birthday, the day after Thanksgiving this year, when we were at Me-Meres house.
The Terrible Two’s?
While the age of two is usually called the ‘terrible twos’, the time between 2 and 3 was when Kaley underwent an amazing transformation from baby to an independent communicative toddler. This ia an amazing time of language development where they start off with perhaps a couple words at the age of two, and by 3 they have an extensive vocabulary and talking in complete sentences. Kaley continually uses words that I wonder where she learned them from. She knows colors, shapes, can count by rote to 20, and can actually count things to 3 or 4. It’s amazing how far she’s come in a single year.
Potty training is another big devlepmental milestone and I cannot stress this enough…take your time and you will have less problems in the long run. We waited until Kaley was showing an interest, about 2 and a half. In about a month she was fully potty trained. The terrible two’s are present in all children I’ve ever met - referring to the tendency of them throwing tantrums and the difficulty in communicating with them. Encourage them to use words and don’t respond to communication via whining, or tantrums. But perhaps we just had it easy. Despite the occasional difficulty I am looking forward to watching Maizy through her two’s and am curious what the similarities and differences will be.
September 23, 2005
The Dentist
Kaley had her first visit to the dentist Monday and she was off to a good start. Kim went off to get her teeth cleaned while I hefted Maizy and followed Kaley into the exam room. I wasn’t sure if she’d be obstinate or not. She jumped on the chair and was delighted when Dr. Vogel blew up a glove into a glove-balloon and drew a face on it. After that she was easy. She listened well, did what she was told by the dentist and had her teeth checked out and polished with the teeth-tickler.
Today’s kids, when they go to the doctor or dentist have to get some sort of prize in the end. It’s all about the treasures and more often then not the offices have treasure chests filled with all manner of cheap gumball-machine style prizes. Kaley got a plastic ring which, several hours later, was lost and completely forgotten. More important to her was the glove-balloon. With a piece of floss as a leash it became her pet for the day, until it popped. She even named it…beegomba.
September 4, 2005
The Hanson Girls
It’s nearing the end of another summer. Kaley is approaching three fast and Maizy nearing one.
This summer has seen Kaley get fully potty trained, a huge addition to her vocabulary and speaking skills, riding a tricycle, drawing faces, swimming (with arm floaties) around the whole pool by herself. She’s a smart girl and loves to be a big sister to Maizy. This week she’ll start going to a playgroup/”school” twice a week which will give Kim more time to spend with Maizy.
Maizy has seemingly outgrown her previous ‘wheezing’ problem, has had tubes put in her ears and can now hear a lot better. She likes to talk now, but to her talking means yelling really loudly. She’s just starting to crawl and now we need to babyproof the house all over again as she finds new things she wants to play with. She’s eats well and is bigger then Kaley ever was at that age.
All in all both girls are doing very well, growing fast and learning new things quickly. They both sleep well through the night and while they get up earlier then we would like they are both usually very well behaved and a joy to have in our lives. I’m sorry I haven’t taken more pictures of Maizy - I’ve taken a lot fewer pictures overall and I’m trying to rectify that situation.
July 30, 2005
Summertime
So far it’s a been a very nice summer after a rainy spring. The weather and the pool water warmed up wonderfully. Here’s some misclleaneous summer pictures, with lots around the pool.
January 31, 2005
November 26, 2004
November 24, 2004
September 30, 2004
Family Visits
Here’s a couple set of pics taken in September. We went over to Portland to visit my mother one weekend. I finally got some good pictures of Kaley with her. Then Kim’s uncle Keith (Tarleton) and family came over one saturday to see the new house and we had a BBQ. It was also the last day we used the pool, which was a steamy 68 degrees…brrr.
September 12, 2004
Goats, Fisher Cats, and Lynx, Oh my!
Charmingfare farm is a petting zoo located in Candia, NH. I’m not a big zoo fan but it was a good time. Kaley got to see a bunch of animals and a lot of time hanging out in the goat pen. One of them tried to eat my shirt! They also had some bears, fisher cats (not as ugly as I thought) and some Lynx (what’s plural for Lynx?). The Lynx growled at us and barred it’s teeth!
August 31, 2004
Swimming and Blueberries
It wasn’t a hot August but was nice weather. We went blueberry picking, Aidan Morrill and Jewel Belanger came to visit Kaley one fine Saturday, and we also did some swimming.
August 25, 2004
August 8, 2004
Surf and Sand
Since we live over near the seacoast area (close to where Kim grew up in Wells) Kim was quite excited about getting to the Beach a few times. We only got a chance to go once, and it was a bit on the cold side (all in all it was a cool summer). Here are pics of the day we went, mostly of Kaley and her first trip to the beach. She really enjoyed the surf and sand.
