The Arboretum

As part of my campaign to take advantage of the snowlessness, the girls and I visited the Arnold Arboretum after school one day.

That's Frances, reveling.

There was lots to revel about.

For the first time, we went into the Arboretum's welcome center and happened upon their discovery backpacks - great big backpacks filled with magnify lenses, drawing paper, crayons and instructions.  It's hard to see, but it's that big blue blob on Frances's back.

This is Frances, studying what was inside our hula hoop of study space.

And Chandler wandered.

It was wonderful.

Gore Place Sheep Festival

We caught the very tail end of the Gore Place Sheep Festival.  The girls very patiently watched a sheep dog herding demonstration - the presenter was a little heavy on information, a little light on pizzazz.

But the sheep (and goats) did flash by occasionally.

Old mom ran out of interest before the kids did.  There were lovely wares to be perused.

And then the kids had ice cream, because it was so warm they didn't even need snow pants!

Hiking-ish

I decided this Spring that the girls and I were going to do a lot of hiking as long as weather permitted.  I felt compelled to take advantage of every non-snowy day.  Being out of doors is good for the soul after a long winter.

One of the first walks we went on was a circumnavigation (is it circumnavigating if you're on foot?) of Houghton Pond. The whole trail around the pond may be about a mile long, but we're special so it took a bit.

First, we had to check out the pond.

No ice!!

We finally hit the "trail."

Spotting the yellow trail markers was a big deal.  I think Chandler mastered saying "dot" on this walk.

And then we lost focus, or at least focus on the trail.  Moving sticks from here to there turns out to be an important part of hiking for us.

It was a success.  Frances made it all the way around under her own steam, and Chandler nearly did.  Peaceful minds and strong legs, here we come!

'Cuz

Twenty-Six Months of Toddler Chandler

"Toddler" seems so inadequate.  If a kid can climb ladders, she can't really be described as a "toddler."  But "preschooler" seems a big premature, so I'll stick with "toddler."

Twenty-Six Months Fun Facts

• Hair: The hair-extraction started again, so we took her in for another cut.  After the hairstylist had completed a regular cut, Chandler still had a lot of hair that she could have pulled out, so we went ahead and shaved it.  Not a fun moment for mom, but Chandler didn't seem to mind.  We've gotten a few odd looks.  I'm afraid some people worry that she's ill, because frankly she looks it.  Many people assume it just hasn't ever grown in yet.  I let them think that.  Fingers crossed that this will break the cycle.
• Literacy:  I guess that's what you'd call this: Chandler points to letters and says "A."  We'll call it early literacy skills.
• Counting:  She can count to five, but it's all in rhyme.  So, "one, two, three" comes out "bun, rue, free."  And it's different every time.
• Humor:  Chandler told her first joke, sorta.  It went like this.  Chandler, "Knock, knock."  Mom, "Who's there?"  Chandler, "Baby."  Mom, "Baby, who?"  Silence.  But she's got the structure down!  Now we just need a punch line.

Sixty-Five Months of Preschooler Frances

They play nicely together, sometimes.

Sixty-Five Month Fun Facts

• Reading: No leaps and bounds, but steady progress.  I strongly encourage that she read Bob Books and we've been working our way through the second set.
• Movement:  Frances continues to take pre-ballet.  I feel her interest waning a bit, but she keeps at it.  That may have something to do with Darby being in the class, but reliable contact with Darby seems like a good enough reason to stick with it to me.
• Temperament: While I wouldn't describe her as having a completely smooth temperament, she is such an easier five year old than a three year old.  I see her struggle in some of the same ways I struggled.  It can be very hard not to grab her by the shoulders and tell her to relax.  (A time she burst into tears because someone had cut in front of her in line two days before comes to mind.)  But I refrain.  There's some things you can't be told.  She's a first child, for sure and for certain.

Tsoureki for All! (Aren't you excited?)

When I was a very little girl, some parishioner of St. Paul's Episcopal Church provided egg braid bread, decorated with bright pink eggs, for the reception every year after the Easter service.  It was one of those sticky childhood memories; I feel like I'll be able to picture the exact hue of the eggs on my death bed.  So I did a little research to find out why we had that bread.  I'm reasonably certain that it was a replication of Tsoureki, a Greek egg braid bread made to celebrate Easter.  I thought I'd give it a go with the kiddos.

Ours was a little different than the bread of my youth.  It had a lot of orange zest in it and a lot of slivered almonds on it.

And the eggs were dyed in beet dye, because who can resist beet dye?

The results were so-so, to be honest.  The orange zest was great, but I must have kneaded it much too much - very hard bread.  And the beet dye couldn't hold up to the heat of the oven.  The bread around the eggs was a lovely ruby color, but the eggs themselves were rather faded.

I still liked it.  I might try again next year, either with a different recipe or just much less kneading.  And I should probably give up on the beet dye, but I like it.  Why settle for unusual when you can be really weird, right?

Easter Egg Hunt?

The genius who came up with Easter egg hunts did not live in Massachusetts, I'll bet.  See these flowers?

That was about the extent of our flora the day before Easter.  The rest of the hunt field looked more like this:

Frances still tried, trudging through snow and kiddos.  (Chandler got left at home to nap.)

Frances didn't find much, but we ran into the Linfoots and Darby, bless her, gave Frances some eggs.

And then the kids consumed free ice cream and juice to cool off from the hunt.

What a weird tradition.  Maybe next year will be a bit warmer and Chandler will have given up napping?  Maybe...

One Weird Kid

Chandler likes to keep her shoes on as much as possible, and she's very fond of her purple coat.  So her naps turn out like this:

Chandler is in charge of keeping me not bored.  She does a very good job.

Mimi is here! Mimi is here!

My mom came to visit, mostly to help me tackle my over-flowing basement, but a little of this went on too:

Chandler dear's attention span isn't quite as long as Frances's.

While Mimi was here, we had the first day of Spring - thank the Lord - so Frances and I did our usual first-day-of-Spring-seed-planting.

This year, she chose to plant seeds from a yellow pepper.

After they'd been in the soil for what felt like forever, I read that sometimes seeds from non-organic peppers sometimes won't grow.  I was afraid this was going to be a very disappointing project.  Just as I was giving up hope, two tiny sprouts came up.  Parenting fail avoided!  The plants are doing well now.  No peppers yet, but let's not get greedy.