More Birthday

Several months before Chandler's birthday, she asked for doughnuts.  I promised she could get fancy doughnuts (meaning not Dunkin Donuts).  Mark remembered my promise and went to get a small mountain of doughnuts the Saturday before Chandler's birthday.  He dolled it up with some candles.

Someone was excited.

We have not been able to convince Chandler that she wants to blow all the candles out at once, but she is now successful with one at a time.  For awhile, she was having trouble with even blowing out one candle.  She kind of blew everywhere but at the candler.  I don't know.

After blowing out her candlers, she ate a couple bites of doughnuts and licked a bunch of frosting.

What an excellent four year-old!

Happy Chinese New Year/Birthday!

Keeping with our theme of lumping together special occasions (remember Christmas/Hanukkah/Birthday?), I decided it was completely kosher to lump together Chinese New Year, Mark's birthday and Chandler's birthday.  The birthday boy couldn't have cared less.  The birthday girl mostly agreed.

Here's dinner:

I can't really say what anything was.  I know there was a chicken and date soup and a shrimp ball soup.  There was a pork, perhaps with ginger.  There was fish.  There were greens.  It was all so good.  So good that it's a little hard to imagine asking the chefs, Andy and Cindy, to eat our meager offerings ever again.  The flavors were so bold.  Delicious.

Here are the kids, clearly thinking hard about food:

And then it was cake time.  Chandler had thought long and hard about what kind of cake she wanted.  Around mid-January, she was asking for an almond pistachio cake - she loves nuts.  She eventually settled on a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting that I had made for New Year's.  I guess it made a good impression.  The recipe could easily serve twenty people, so I was easy to convince.

Chandler seemed pleased.

We didn't get the girls home until long past their bedtime.  But they weren't interested in sleep.  No, they just wanted to count their New Year's money and play with the plastic Cindy got for Chandler.

Play on, girls.  I'll be snug in a corner eating leftovers all week.

Note to self:  This lumping scheme will not work next year.  Chandler asked several times on her actual birthday when her friends were coming to eat cake.

Another note to self:  Help Chandler make friends besides Peanut.

Making Frosting with Chandler

Chandler does not have the world's biggest sweet tooth (that honor belongs to my husband or my eldest).  She often leaves ice cream and cookies unfinished.  But, she does love frosting.  Loves, loves, loves.  So she was very eager to help me with some chocolate frosting for her birthday cake.

If she doesn't turn out completely spoiled, it will be a miracle.

We Marched

After Trump was elected, Mark and I had a conversation that went about like this:

One of us:  We should go to the march in Washington.

The other:  You betcha.

It was one of those moments of synchronization that holds a marriage together.  Luckily, my girls don't know the meaning of "sexual assault," but I didn't want the girls to one day learn that a man who bragged about committing sexual assault was elected to the White House and think we just sat idly by while it happened.  I think Mark believes this is all part of a sick ego-trip for Trump.  Mark wasn't interested in letting that breeze by either.  So we headed south.

I'm so glad we did.  It was a really happy day.  There was a general sense that together, we would survive.  The girls did great, despite the crowds.  They spent the next two weeks yelling "Show me what democracy looks like!  This is what democracy looks like!"  But even that was tolerable.

A month in....well, one can only fight so many fires at once and it's hard to keep up.  Our latest effort will be to bake cookies for a friend's fund-raising concert.  Cookies aren't much, in the face of it all, but if it makes the girls feel powerful, it will do.

Wednesdays with Chandler

I found a new program for Chandler and me to attend on Wednesdays.  It's about 15 minutes away from our house, costs five dollars, gets Chandler around other kids and gets all those kids outside.  Sold!

And they have Sammy the Snake.

Chandler is very fond of Sammy the Snake.

So on a recent Wednesday, we visited with Sammy...

...and then went home to pack for an upcoming trip.  Chandler helped me pack my circling everything on my to-pack list.

Such a darling!

More about the trip soon.

Frances, The Math Nerd

I could pretend that I'm not bragging here, but who'd believe me?

Frances got interested in place value, I believe after stumbling on some computerized math game.  She expressed her interest to her teacher, who immediately found some manipulatives for Frances to work with (they reminded me a lot of Frances's Montessori days).  So this was the scene at 6:30 a.m. the next morning:

I can't say I understand the fascination, but I applaud it nevertheless.

Eighty-Six Months of First Grader Frances

Eighty-Six Months Fun Fact

• Sleeping Arrangements:  The kid sleeps with a lot of stuff in her bed.  In the above picture, Frances has Gorilla, Stormfly, Ducky and two or three stuffed snowmen.  The snowmen cycle in and out; Ducky is long-term, used as a third pillow.  She also uses a comforter, a fleece blanket and a How to Train Your Dragon blanket.  I feel claustrophobic just thinking about it.

Forty-Seven Months of Preschooler Chandler

Forty-Seven Months Fun Fact

• Cold:  This kid has an interesting relationship to cold.  On the one hand, her body seems to get cold really easily.  Every once in awhile, I'll realize her face is blue with cold.  Her hands and feet get icy.  On the other hand, the cold doesn't seem to bother her consistently.  Right before the above picture was taken, she was running around without a coat.  Then I noticed she was shivering and talked her into bundling up.  And she doesn't like to go swimming, even in indoor pools, because she's cold and starts to shiver.  (She is, however, convinced that she can swim without floatation devices.  Yet, she declines to take the swim test that would allow her to swim without floatation devices.  Oh, and she's not afraid of anything.  She tells me that on a regular basis.  She's a hoot.)  She likes to be bundled in her stroller, but yesterday was rolling around in the snow after another storm without a coat.  I cannot figure out a pattern.  She's got me stumped.

Three Kings' Day

The girls and I attended a Three Kings' Day event at our local library branch.  Many people in our neighborhood grew up celebrating Three Kings' Day, and it turned out to be a big, well-attended event.

First, the kids made crowns, naturally.

Then the band struck up a chord and we moved out to the streets!  We marched about two blocks and then were treated to sweets and free books.

I was really impressed with the turnout.  In fact, that was the only drawback of the event.  Our multitude overwhelmed the party space.  Many small children crowding around a sweets table at dinner time made for many unhappy campers.  We'll try again next year, without a stroller.  That was too much to maneuver, though it did carry a mighty load.

I believe that was our last Christmas event of the season.

Phew!

Still a New Year!

Remember yesterday, when I said we ate more than just cake in the New Year?

Here's proof:

Cake and Pancakes!!  Happy Breakfast.

It's a New Year!

Let them eat...

CAKE!

We saved our special meal for New Year's Day, rather than New Year's Eve.  And we did eat something besides cake.  I promise.

There were many rounds of cake, but there was food besides cake.

New Year's Eve At My House

It looks like just a regular gingerbread cookie session, but lurking in the background is a glass of wine!  Thus, New Year's Eve!

We had a game night.  Frances loves these.  We played several different games.  Headbandz was...interesting.  This kid got it:

This kid did not, at all.

But, Lord Almighty, she's cute.

When we tried to play Memory, all systems failed.  Chandler doesn't understand the fundamentals (like, she didn't understand she could only turn over two cards per turn).  Frances does and cares.  Chaos ensues.  Tears.  Wailing.  Gnashing of teeth.  Rending of garments.  Ashes heaped on heads.  The whole nine yards.  Everyone was in bed by 7.  Mom and Dad couldn't take any more.

Happy New Year's!

And then the Children's Museum

I remember loving the Children's Museum as a kid.  I credit their Japanese house with putting me on the path to Anthropology, which will always hold a special place in my heart.

As an adult, though, when Frances was a baby, I thought it was a little "meh."

Boy, have I changed my tune.  The kids love it.  And seeing their enthusiasm has softened me up a little.  During vacation week, the Museum had sock "ice" skating. 

The kids loved it!  Well, they loved it until a bunch of other kids started loving it simultaneously.  Then my kids got overwhelmed and we went to explore something else.

There are parts of the museum I still don't love, but between the specials, like sock "ice" skating, the climbing structure for Chandler and the interactive plays for Frances, we have a winner of a museum.

Vacation Week Goes On

After our day of necessity, we treated ourselves to the Museum of Science.  Last year, when Frances was done with school at 2:00, we went to the museum all the time after school.  This year Frances finishes at 3:00 and we hardly get anything done before dinner at about 5:00.  So, with a whole week off, the Museum was a clear choice.

Hence, Frances and Chandler, the forest animals, and...

Frances and Chandler, the bees.

My Most Grown-Up Day Yet

Right after Christmas, I turned 41.  Turning 40 felt like reaching a benchmark, an achievement.  Turning 41 just felt older.  Like a reminder that it's all older from here.  I know this is a just a state of mind.  But listen to my day.

I woke up and realized there was no escaping a trip to the grocery store.  Somehow, even with the glut of food the holidays brings, we were still out of food.  So the girls and I went to the grocery store.  

On the way home, we stopped at the library and picked up some books and a video on the upcoming Chinese New Year.  Then, while the girls watched the video - and then several other videos besides - I cleaned the stove.  You see, on Christmas, I'd set the stove on fire cooking a giant turkey in a tiny pan, and the stove was covered with fire retardant.

The self-cleaning feature was a no-go.  Anytime I turned on the oven, it started smoking and setting off the fire alarms.  So I chipped and scrubbed and sprayed and wiped.  For several hours.  The girls watched videos.

It wasn't as awful as it sounds.  The absolute necessity of the shopping and the cleaning sort of nosed out any room for self-pity.  But it did feel like a very Adulthood sort of day.

Winter Solstice!

I found more pictures.  A little out of order around here.

On the Solstice, the girls and I made our first batch of gingerbread cookies.

The girls and I had dinner by candlelight and Christmas tree lights.  

I did my best to explain why the daylight would be getting longer, thank all things good and holy.  Frances's school is trying to remake itself as a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics school, but no one at the school mentioned why the sun would be up after 4:12.  It seems like such a tangible lesson for kids: this is why you'll be able to return to the playgrounds after school in a few months, kids!  Hurrah!  I can't decide if mentioning this missed opportunity at her school would get me labeled as a genius or a kook.  All of the science, none of the paganism!  Think I could sell it?

BPS and I may not be destined to get along.