Twenty Months of Toddler Chandler

Twenty Months Fun Facts:

• Binky-Be-Gone!: Yes, I yanked the pacifier, Chandler's dear friend.  Chandler had started chucking her pacis out of her crib at nap and bedtime, because I would come into her room to replace them.  Two days of that was my limit.  The yanking has gone much better than expected.  She's only looked for them a few times, and went on her merry way when they couldn't be found.  Her napping has yet to recover, but she's maintaining her good mood even with much less sleep.  I've been dreading this move for so long and I'm so glad it's over.  I may feel differently on our plane ride home to Arkansas in December, but for now I think every one is happy.
• Language: She's learned my/mine.  I'm oh, so very pleased with that.
• Sleep:  Another round of sleep training coming up!

Natick, Or...

...Why Frances Is Not a Candidate For Home School.

All of us went to Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick, just to stretch our legs.  It was a Saturday, so Frances had been "alone" with just us for several hours.  At the sanctuary, she immediately glommed on to another family with a little girl a tad older than Frances named Ariel.  Frances and Ariel spent at least an hour running around Broadmoor together like the best of friends.  Frances just loves togetherness.*  (The camera was resting in the car, so no pictures of Broadmoor.)

We left Broadmoor and went over to the Natick Community Organic Farm, and Ariel's family came with us!  This was some very successful glomming.

A bunny had escaped its enclosure.  Big fun.

And Chandler came too.

*A few nights ago, Frances broke down in tears and told me she didn't like her new school.  Her complaint?  It ends too soon in the day; 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. isn't enough school for her.  She sobbed and said, "I want to go to afterschool!"  And here I was thinking our afternoons together were so much less painful than I expected.  What a dummy I am.

Walden Pond, in the Fall

Mark had an afternoon off, so we chose to drive out to Walden Pond.  Not a bad choice, if I do say so.

The trees were lovely, obviously, but the girls found many things to do besides quietly contemplating the trees' loveliness.  Can you imagine children who quietly contemplated lovely trees?  It would be so strange.

I am not sure what Frances was doing, but she was very intent on doing it.

Right up until she got very intent on doing this something else.

Oh, look!  Lovely leaves!

I got fancy and tinted this one.

At the very last minute the girls found a large puddle left in a sand fort.  Wet feet for pizza night!

Apples Apples Apples

I organized something!  Well, kinda.  These things grew...

...and I invited a bunch of families to pick them with us.  Two families, the usual suspects, took me up on the offer and we were good to go.  The Hayward-Uptons arrived first, because cider donuts were involved.

And, then we headed into the orchards.

After a bit, the Linfoots (a.k.a. Darby's family) showed up.  Doesn't Frances just blend?

Back at the farm stand, we met up with the Ishikawas (a.k.a. Kealakai's family), but I failed to get any pictures.  I was distracted by the various calorie transfer mechanisms - caramel apples, kettle corn, cider donuts, apple cider, and plain old apples.  The choices were dizzying.

Frances managed to keep a cool head and dove right in.

The Big K1!

We were very lucky to "win" the Boston public school K1 (pre-kindergarten) lottery; Frances got a spot at the William Monroe Trotter Innovation School.  It was not our first choice (or our second or third or...), but I talked to many Trotter parents who raved about it, so we decided to give it a try.  Plus, half of K1 applicants don't get a spot at all, so being ungrateful wasn't an option.

Here's the big girl, the morning of her first day of Boston public school:

The Trotter, like almost all Boston public schools, has a uniform style policy.  I understood this as blue on the bottom and white on the top, so Frances went to school as you see here.  When we got to school, I realized I had interpreted the policy a little too loosely.  We spent the next weekend tracking down more sedate, yet still comfortable, clothes.  No one seems to mind when Frances wears my loose interpretation of the dress code and then she occasionally fits in as well.  It's a balance.

School seems to be going well, on the whole.  After several weeks of school, I found out Frances was having trouble transitioning to specials, meaning she was weeping at the beginning of every computer, art, music, etc., class.  But, when I found out, I said something like, "It's hard being passed around to different teachers, isn't it?" and that was the last we've heard of weeping.  What a mystery kids are.  Now, she regularly reports that she loves her new school.  Thank goodness.  Sometime in the near future, we have Parent/Teacher Conferences and I will give another update.

Nineteen Months of Toddler Chandler

When mommy forgets to take the baby's picture before bedtime.....

Nineteen Months Fun Facts

• So Coordinated:  Chandler has been trying to take over Frances's scooter for months.  On her Nineteen Months birthday, she started using it properly, with one foot on the scooter and one foot propelling her.  I was impressed, obviously.
• First Sentence: Well, kinda.  Chandler brought me her sneakers and said, "Baby go."  She's a genius.  Likewise...
• First Party Bail:  We went to some friends' for dinner.  Bedtime came and went, but not by much.  Chandler made her desire to go home known, not by breaking down, but by asking for her hat (by hitting herself in the head) and then her shoes.  Finally, she brought Frances her shoes.  Mark and I are always the first to leave a party.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Fifty-Eight Months of Preschooler Frances

Back at the ranch, Frances turned fifty-eight months the night before she started K1, Boston's version of pre-kindergarten.  She chose to have shrimp and bacon for dinner.  Ever the optimist, I threw in polenta and tomatoes.

Fifty-Eight Months Fun Facts

• A New Era:  Frances can now put on her own seat belt.  Huge improvement.
• First Teen Moment: In Maine, Frances said to me "Step on the chemical rocks."  I said, "You mean barnacle rocks?"  Frances responded, "Whatever."  Can't wait for the teenage years.

Beech, again, again

We went up Beech Mountain, you know, again.  The only thing different about this trip was that we did it quite early in the morning and almost had the mountain to ourselves.  It's the way to do it.

Frances got quite hot on the way down.  The couple people we met on the way down kindly pretended she was in her bathing suit.

After the mountain, we stopped at the farm stand. 

This late in the season, it was fairly quiet, but there was still plenty to tempt.

Frances settled for some herbed popcorn. Mmmm, herbed popcorn.