We have found a new weekly love, and just in time for winter - the Langley Events Center has open freeplay gymnastics for birth - age 6 twice a week, for an hour each time (WAY too short). Their facilities are AMAZING - you know, since actual professional gymnasts train there - we are so fortunate to live less than 10 minutes away from this wonderful wonderful space! Do you see that track there that Kiernen and Annie are running on? The whole thing is a trampoline. at each end of it are these huge foam pits into which the kids are LOVING jumping and falling. And they don't fuss at us when WE, the parents, run on the track. I tell you, I would SO be a runner if I could run on THAT thing every day. 
There are four trampolines - three? Three and that amazing track - in this place. The rules are only one kid at a time, which is just fine. Mats surround everything, all different shapes and sizes.
Over one of the big foam pits there is this wonderful hanging rope - Annie briefly tried it and Kiernen thought about it, but neither of them found it appealing. also over this foam pit are several large mats of varying sizes. GREAT fun!
The first time we went, Kiernen wasn't sure really - it takes him a bit to warm up to new things, and even with his friend Annie there, he wasn't so sure about it all. Knowing he would LOVE it if he just went in and that we only had an hour there, I took a chance and flung him into the foam pit. It worked! He was hooked. He even held my hand and jumped from the 4-foot-high mat into the foam pit - over and over again.
Also this week we went to check on our bees, to make sure they were okay and that they had enough food for winter. This is our first year having them, and we've learned SO much about bees and what it takes to keep them going and what they need from us (really to be left alone mostly). Kiernen took this photo of a bee covered in pollen on our hive. We were of course delighted to see them flying in all covered with pollen - it was one of the rare sunny days we've had recently and they of course need all the food they can stoer - especially since we took two of their boxes off (in the future you'll be getting some fun photos of the honey straining process).
Now, of course the "safest" thing to do would be to wear a bee veil anytime one is peeking into the hive, because you know, the one time bees WILL sting you is when they're defending their home and/or their food stores. I'm told especially when it gets cold, and I've seen the same, be safe/careful.
And then there's us. We opted to not even bring our bee veils, because I reasoned, we'd just be peeking into the hive for a minute (it turned out to be a bit longer) to see about their food supply, etc. (Even though I took two of their boxes of honey, I am saving them in case the bees need them. I took them off of the hive in order that the bees wouldn't have to worry about maintaining the temperature (and therefore expending more energy and using more resources) of four whole boxes. It is important that they be able to conserve as much energy as possible, but that they also have an ample food supply over winter to maintain the colony's strength and health.
Anyway, back to the bee veils. Bees, like other animals, sense fear/anxiety/intent. they can also smell it on you. Kiernen and I have a very relaxed attitude around the bees - neither of us is in the least bit afraid of them, and we both know to make our movements slow and gentle and our voices quiet and calm around them. We're both pretty good at it, so we both have a laissez faire attitude around them, and around wearing bee veils. and sometimes frankly, I just plain forget, because of all of the above.
So we didn't wear them, and it was only when one did actually land in my hair that I remembered to at least tie up my hair so they couldn't get caught in it (if they get panicked, they will sometimes sting). Our little girls were flying all around us at one point (after I'd removed a partly empty bag of food and shaken the bees out of it - I did return the rest of the food to them and they calmed after that). They weren't angry, just more like, "What are you doing? This is a warning..."
I told Kiernen and I also held very still and just was calm and still until they also calmed and let us be. Since it was a sunny day and they were flying, occasionally they'd land on us - in our hair, a couple of times there was one or two on Kiernen's head, on my head - and Kiernen managed to take this photo of me when one was on my forehead. I sadly didn't get any of him when they were on his head, because he was mostly holding the camera. I just got one or two of the bees themselves on their hive.
We concluded that the bees were good for now - I might go and bring some food to them just in case, but they do have good stores it looks like, so I think they'll be good there. We studied them at one point for awhile - just watching them come in and out of the hive, bringing in pollen. there was a wasp that REALLY wanted to get into the hive (those !@#$s are notorious robbers and killers, but a strong colony can fight them off no problem). Note:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjp31TwooSM&feature=player_embedded
We found it a good sign that the bees kept kicking the wasp out and he never did manage to get himself in there.
We had a great impromptu dress-up party this week - one of the joys of living in couhousing is having times like these. There is a large bag of costumes we keep in the playroom cupboard that I'd all but forgotten about - but Kiernen hadn't. We'd been playing some games from the same cupboard and Kiernen asked me to take out the bag of costumes so he could play with them.
Within minutes, another child who lives here had appeared and joined. Within a half hour, just about every kid who lives here was dressing up in those costumes, parading around and having a grand time, and several adults had joined in the audience part. Kiernen loved trying on all sorts of different costumes and pretending this and that and making up whole scenes and stories around the costumes. It was brilliant - and all instigated by Kiernen.
Kiernen has made some leaps in his drawing skills lately - rather than just sort of scribbling things, he has begun to really draw things - his family, animals, maps and stories. many of his drawings are on the bathroom wall in the tub - he will draw a map of somewhere and then draw a story on it: "this is daddy and we're camping," etc. so he'll draw the trees and the tent and a vehicle and tell stories about them.
The other day he came to me with a picture he'd drawn and said, "I wrote on it in kid language," which meant (to me) that he'd written something only he could read.
He told me the story of the bear, how it was running and went, "Aaaaaaahhhhh!!!". I was floored by the bear - I've never seen him draw anything like that, I'm so proud!
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