Keeping the Girls Busy

One of my main reasons for coming all the way to Virginia was to have easily accessible activities for the girls.  I knew the first week would be a jet lagged blur, so I signed Vivian up for camp starting our second week.  That meant we had to keep two groggy and grouchy girls busy during our first week here while the sole parent on duty was also jet lagged.  My mom still works part time, so my dad came to the rescue.  He played Elmo with Elena, and iPad with Vivi.

He was also great about taking Elena for walks, so that I could get some school work done.

It's nice to get the girls out of the house as much as possible, because they get a bit goofy after too much time spent inside.

The house is also not really set up for toddlers, so Elena can get into quite a bit of trouble when I'm not chasing after her.

We bought a gate for the stairs down to the basement, but figured she wouldn't be upstairs enough to warrant the expense of a second gate.  Of course, she took this as a challenge, and scared my mom half to death by escaping from where my mom was working and tumbling down the stairs.  Luckily the stairs are carpeted, and she rolled down them like a professional, so no damage done besides a fright for all concerned.

Another toddler problem we had was that my parents only have showers in their house, no tubs.  Luckily, they aren't the only people with this problem, so there's a whole line of cute inflatable baby tubs.  Elena is getting a kick out of her princess one.

Vivian has been a bit harder to keep happy.  She is very active, so before camp started, it was hard to keep her busy.  One of our best solutions was to have her wear herself out on the swing.

Thank goodness one of her best friends lives five minutes away.  They've had lots of play dates and adventures.  My sister Judy has also been a huge help.  Vivian absolutely worships her, so Judy and I took her to see the new Pixar movie, Inside Out,

and Judy had her over for a sleepover. 

Unfortunately, Vivian chose that next morning to wake up with a fever.  My kids like to keep us on our toes.  Of course, since it's Vivian, she was sick for a day and woke up the next day totally back to normal.  

For our second week here, Vivian went to camp, and I took Elena to Gymboree.  I was a bit worried since she didn't seem to like the Little Gym classes I took her to in Bangkok, but Gymboree was a huge hit.  She cried when we left, and when we came back, she was so excited that she practically jumped out of my arms trying to get into the play area.

Both girls had a great time with their activities, so week two has been a success.  We're moving into week three now, and Vivian doesn't have any camp, so we've got a list of fun activities to keep the girls busy and happy.  Hopefully it will go smoothly.