Hanging out with the Offspring

Frances had the week after Christmas off from school, so we did our best to use all our museum memberships.

These two aren't all bad at all.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas/Hanukkah/Birthday

Just your average Christmas around these parts.

First, we did the usual Christmas morning stuff - opened presents, set the oven on fire, threw away an eighteen pound turkey - and then our guests, the Linfoots and the Ishikawas came over.

The kids - Adler, Akea, Keala, Frances, Darby and Chandler (Peanut's whereabouts unknown) - decorated a gingerbread house...

...and then destroyed/ate it.

Then Rachel taught the kids to spin the dreidel and handed out presents.

Then we lit the menorah.

Then the kids opened Christmas crackers, or tried to open Christmas crackers.

I guess the crackers were hard to open, but the kids eventually prevailed.  Note the crowns and the heap load of cuteness.

And then we celebrated Peanut's third birthday.

Yep, just your average Christmas.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me!

We stayed in Boston for Christmas this year for many reasons.  Mainly, it is so much easier on all of us, but particularly me.  All the shipping of presents, the packing of children, the orchestrating of airplane entertainment. etc., etc., gets to be too much.

This is three of us, ready for the Christmas Eve service at church.

Frances had on a not-so-fancy dress, and she got jealous when she saw Chandler's tulle.  Frances and I made a mad dash to her closet to see what else we could find.  Saints be praised, we found a purple batik dress that Mimi had made.  I pointed out it was the color of Advent and Frances decided it was just the ticket.  Thank you, baby Jesus.  Tears averted.   

And here's two of us getting on the train to go to church.

The backpack is full of necessary distractions.  We arrived at about 3:30 to get seats and marching orders (I helped with Nativity crowd control) and the service didn't start until 4:30.  The girls were great, though.

Now, if I could just reliably predict distractions they'd like in cars and airplanes, we'd be sitting pretty.

And this is the way we pin the nose on the snowman

I think it's possible she didn't quite have her eyes closed.  Just guessing.

This is the way we go to school

It's Hot Chocolate Season

Actually, they don't care a bit about the hot chocolate.  They're after the marshmallows.  They really like marshmallows.

Eighty-Five Months of First Grader Frances

Eighty-Five Months Fun Facts

• Growing Up:  Frances's school hosted a Spirit Week recently.  On one of the days, the kids were invited to dress like their teachers.  Frances, being Frances, adores her teacher and was thrilled with the idea of dressing like her.  So we put Frances in her skinniest pants, her tallest boots and an infinity scarf.  She looked a lot like Ms. Coughlan.  More interestingly, at least to her mother, Frances looked very grown up!  I could easily imagine her as a young teen-ager.  It was a little exciting, but very sobering.  She really will be grown up before I know it.

Forty-Six Months of Preschooler Chandler

Forty-Six Month Fun Fact

• Social: Chandler seems very...neutral in social situation.  She doesn't mind being asked to be around other kids, but she's not necessarily going to interact with those other kids any more than she has to.  Her sister?  Fine, she will play with her sister.  Peanut?  You bet, she will play with Peanut.  She's fond of Keala and Darby, but she will lose her patience with them too.  She sometimes will disappear in her room to rearrange her animal figures and cars for an hour.  I'm afraid next year, when she'll be around kids for a full school day, will be exhausting for her at the beginning, but I also know she will adjust relatively quickly.  Maybe she'll even make some more buddies of her own.  Hopefully, hopefully.

Here Comes Christmas

About two years ago, I found instructions for making beautiful Christmas tree ornaments by imprinting natural objects on air-dry clay, then lightly washing the imprints with paint.  The examples looked just beautiful, so I thought we'd give it a try.   I even brought a tub of air-dry clay to Maine; I thought sea shells and ferns were obvious natural objects for making beautiful imprints.

This ended up being one of those projects where mom has to drop all expectations.  The kids did choose mussel and clam shells, but they mostly chose periwinkle shells, which don't so much imprint as gouge.  Didn't slow the girls down a bit and we ended up with lots of clay lumps (sorry, girls, that's the nicest way old mom can think of to describe them).

Then the clay lumps languished in the kitchen for about a year and a half.  We just didn't get around to painting them, until this December.

I really did admire the care the girls put into painting their ornaments.  Instead of washing them with thin paint, they just went ahead and painted them with regular paint.  Frances even painted scenes on the inside of her clam shell imprints.

In the end, I thought they fit in perfectly with our mostly DIY collection of Christmas tree ornaments.

And I may try this project again, when both girls are over ten and I've...mellowed a bit more.

The MFA this time

We spent Mark's vacation day following Thanksgiving at the MFA.  I was thrilled, thrilled! to find the museum had a small collection of Robert McCloskey's art.  I adore Little Sal - I even thought of naming Chandler "Sal," before she was Chandler - so I was very excited to see McCloskey's art.

It's possible Chandler is imitating Little Bear here, rather than merely crawling around on a museum floor.  A mom can hope.

The Upton section of the Hayward-Uptons was significantly less impressed.  The three of them breezed through in seconds and then started pestering me to hurry up.  Fooey on them.

The little Uptons weren't terribly more interest in William Merritt Chase, but they did like this photo-op the museum provided.

I have no idea what they're doing with their arms, those wretched children who rushed me through Robert McCloskey.

Another day at the Children's Museum

I never would have dreamed how much we've used that membership!

Chandler and I returned to the museum.  This time we by-passed the climbing structure entirely, shockingly.  We ended up in the little kids' room.  Chandler spent some time with the floating scarfs (they get blown up the plastic tube)...

...but she really liked the large wooden car.  We spent a long, long time with the large wooden car.  Sadly for Chandler, she ages out of this room on her birthday in February.  We will have to squeeze in as many visits before then as we can.  Poor car-loving Chandler.

Chicken Day!!

Clearly, I enjoyed the Drumlin Farm class.  I keep posting about it.

Chicken Day was so exciting.  First Chandler got to feed the chickens.  She fed and fed and fed those chickens.

Originally, the idea was that each kid in the class would get to find an egg, but the chicken ladies weren't cooperating.  I think two eggs were found in the approximately six chicken pens.  Very sad.

We retreated to the kitchen and made scrambled eggs with the previous day's eggs.  Chandler was none too sure about cracking eggs in front of other people, but she gave whisking a try.  And she loved eating the scrambled eggs.  Then the class officially ended and most of the other families left, but somehow Chandler and I latched on to one of the teachers.  She took us back to the coops and we did a little more egg hunting.  And Chandler found an egg, still warm from the chicken.  We were so very pleased.

We didn't get to take it home, darn it.  The egg had to be catalogued or some such.  Chandler was disappointed.  But she was consoled when I took her picture with the egg.  That way, Frances could see her egg, which turned out to be all that mattered.  Sharing or taunting?  Hard to know.

Green Goo!!

Can you guess the letter of the week?!

Hint: we made Green Goo!

I think she caught on to the letter G.  

I know she liked the goo.

Goat Day at the Farm!

Frances was able to join Chandler's Drumlin Farm class on Goat Day!  There was a tiny bit of whining (too cold? too much walking?  a mother tries to forget) but I think that she liked it overall.   She certainly participated well enough.  She fed the goats. 

And swept the barn.

And pet the goats.

I vaguely recollect that the snack involved goat cheese and that the girls liked it.  They seem to like anything on a Saltine.  Frances brought snack to her Sunday school class recently.  She choose to bring Saltines, never mind that the church supplies Saltines for back-up snack.  I shouldn't complain.  Saltines are one of her cheaper approved foods, manchego and pine nuts being her less cheap approved foods.

From Pride to Devastation

I was so excited for Frances to see the first woman president elected (Chandler, too, but I thought Frances might actually remember the election).  I waited until after school let out to go vote, even though I was worried about lines being longer in the afternoon.  I needn't have worried; we were just about the only voters there.  I was even able to allow Frances to fill in my ballot.

We've been devastated by the results.  Shaken.  It seems almost all our acquaintances have different reasons for feeling so stricken.  One friend is worried for the environment.  Another for civil liberties.  Another for immigrants.  Another for all women.  Education.  Health.  The list goes on.  Someone tried to reassure me that America would still be standing in four years.  But that hardly seems the point.

Forty-Five Months of Preschooler Chandler

Forty-Five Months Fun Facts

• Vocab: "Actually" is very big around here this month.  It is important to work "actually" into as many sentences as possible.  She mostly understands the meaning, even if she throws it in more than is necessary.
• Mobility:  The kid is a whiz on the balance bike.  She's not quite up to super fancyness, like figure eights, but she's got balancing down.  I have to brag a little.  The other day Chandler and I went to pick Frances up from school, with me on my feet and Chandler on her bike.  Another pedestrian approached us.  Chandler pulled right over and waited for the pedestrian to pass before continuing on her merry way.  A person driving down the street saw this interaction and cared enough to pull over and compliment us on Chandler's courtesy.  It made my day.

Eighty-Four Months of First Grader Frances: The Big Day Arrives!

Wow.

The kiddo is seven.

The day of, I brought brownies to Frances's classroom and all the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to her.  She liked it.

And then Mark brought her a fancy-dancy cupcake from a fancy shop.  It was big enough for the four of us to share.  She liked it, too.

Questions for Seven Year-Old Frances

• What is your name?  "Frances."
• How old are you?  "Seven."
• Who do you live with?  "Huh?  My mom, my dad and my sister."
• What is your favorite color?  "My favorite color is brown, I mean black, I mean yellow." [This is news to me.]
• Who do you like to spend time with?  "My teacher, my teacher."
• What do you like to do with your family?  "Um, I like to go out on walks with my family and go to a playground."
• Where do you like to go? "I like to go to the mall and have, watch Moana." [Frances and I did this for a special togetherness day right after Christmas.]  
• What makes you sad?  "Nothing!"  [Interesting answer.  About forty-eight hours earlier, she was sobbing because some kids at school teased her by hiding her scarf.  Sobbing.  The kid's practicing her denial skills.]
• What is your favorite toy?  "My favorite toy is a doll." [Mom asks for clarification.]  "My troll doll."
• What is your favorite fruit?  "My favorite fruit apple."
• What is your favorite TV show? "How to Train Your Dragon II."  [What she actually likes is the How to Train Your Dragon TV program.  I believe it's called Race To The Edge.]
• What is your favorite vegetable?  "Broccoli."  [This is actually true; she will eat broccoli.]
• What is your favorite lunch? " My favorite lunch is pepperoni, ranch, apples, carrots to go with the ranch and clementines.  I was about to say clams, but I don't like clams."
• What are your favorite clothes? " My favorite clothes is a unicorn shirt and the pants are polka dots."
• What is your favorite game? "My favorite game is tag."
• What is your favorite snack?  "Cookies.  My favorite snack is cookies."  [I live with cookie monsters.  We make about three batches a week.]
• What is your favorite animal?  "My favorite animal...well, I actually have a made-up favorite animal.  My made-up favorite animal is a dragon."
• What is your favorite song?  "My favorite song is The Best Day of My Life."  [I did some research.  She means "Best Day of My Life," by the American Authors.  Last year, the answer to this question was "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," just for some perspective.]
• What is your favorite book?  "My favorite book is The Three Little PIgs."  [Her class is studying The Three Little Pigs at school.]
• Who is your best friend?  "My best friend, well, I have lots of best friends.  One of my best friends is Darby. My second best friend is Kealakai.  My third best friend is Sophia.  And my other best friend is, my best, best friend is Natalia."
• What is your favorite sport?  "I don't have any favorite sports."  [At least that's honest.]
• What is your favorite thing to do outside? "My favorite thing to do outside is play on my scooter.  Zoom!  Zoom!  I go really fast on my scooter."  [This is kind of huge.  If we can't get her excited about her bike, at least she can be excited about her scooter.] 
• What is your favorite drink?  "My favorite drink is water.  Water is good, although it doesn't taste like anything."  [She's also really fond of apple cider, which is a pleasant surprise every time she ingests it.]
• What is your favorite holiday?  "My favorite holiday is Christmas.  I get a lot of presents." [This is reassuring.  Mark and I have been paring back the gift giving to avoid that icky, overwhelmed feeling.  Maybe we'll cut back a tad more.]
• What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "My stuffties and my pyjamas."  [She picked out some gnome p.j.s that are very cute, I must say.]
• What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? "Pancakes!"  [I've been making a lot of sourdough pancakes lately.]
• What is your favorite dinner?  "My favorite dinner is, I like ham.  And I like carrots and dressing.  And I like apples."
• What do you want to be when you grow up?  "I want to be a teacher!  A teacher!"
• What is your daddy's name?  "My daddy's name is Mark."
• What is your mommy's name? "My mommy's name is Morgan."
• What is sister's name?  "My sister's name is Chandler and she's so cute."  [Frances has to hear about how cute Chandler is a lot from her own school friends.  This is an unfortunate situation, but I'm not sure how to remedy it.  They also assume Chandler is a boy frequently.  Perhaps that balances out the cute comments a little?]
• Where do you live? "I live on 186 Amory Street." [She can usually recite my telephone number, too.  Progress!]

Boy, she's grown up a lot in a year.  I guess that's how she'll be old enough for college in eleven years.

And now I will weep.

Frances's Seventh Birthday Party, Part III: The Gang

We didn't take a group shot, unfortunately, but we had all the usual suspects.

Like Peanut.  I think he was a Jedi, or ninja or something.

Starting from the left, we had Leo, Sophia, Frances, Darby and Adler.

And here we've got Chandler, Peanut, Leo, Sophia, Frances and Darby.

There were others who avoided being photographed, like Ronan from upstairs and Isaac and Hannah from preschool.

There was one girl in particular from Frances's new school who Frances really wanted at the party.  Natalia wasn't able to make it, sadly.  Frances was somewhat devastated when she realized Natalia wasn't coming, but we will try again next year.  Switching schools in September and then throwing a birthday party in November is hard, at least for introverted parents.  I like to think she had a good time though.  She's already planning her next party, God help us.

Frances's Seventh Birthday Party, Part II, The Cake

We had some interesting food, this time around.  Frances's decided about a week before the party that she adores empanadas, so we ordered up a bunch of those.  And I found a recipe for Viking Bread.  The ingredients were a little suspect - did Vikings have baking powder? - but the bread fit our Viking theme, so I didn't think too hard about it.

The cake worked.  I was dismayed by the lack of How to Train Your Dragon cake decorations available at the stores, but the Internet came through for me.  This is what we ended up with: 

It said "Happy Birthday Frances!" across the bottom.  (I wanted it to say, "Happy Birthday, Frances!" with a comma, obviously, but the printers didn't cooperate.)  Frances didn't know about the cake topper ahead of time.  I think she was pleased.

Brilliance, that cake topper.  Brilliance.