So Busy

Here's Chandler, getting ready for school.

She doesn't actually go to school, but don't try telling her that.  She's fairly certain she needs to walk around the house with big sister Frances's lunch box and a lovey, just like Frances does before she goes to school.  Two loveys are even better.  Good luck breaking into school, kiddo.

Long, cold, lonely winter

We had an even less tolerable winter than usual.  And both kids had a week of quarantine due to fever.  Put them together and what have you got?  Projects!  Lots of projects.  Some of them were much more worthy of mention than others, but I'll include most of them here anyway.

This first one was awarded the She Thought of It Herself Prize! by a board of impartial judges.  Frances saw me making miniature flags to decorate Chandler's first birthday cake, so she got out her supplies and started working on her own.  Plus, in the background, you can see a ceramic sculpture she painted and then coated with gold glitter.  I can't even tell you all the places that gold glitter ended up.

We made play-dough out of grape Jello.  That got the Get Us Through The Day! award.  Unloading the dishwasher is so much faster when Chandler is playing with play-dough than when she's "helping."  I know I'm supposed to embrace her contributions, but I'm too worried about her embracing knives in the dishwasher.

This got the It's a Miracle! award.  I decided to make a Pane Francese, referred to on at least one website as an "advanced" bread.  It more or less started as goo, and, through much rising and kneading, became a bread.

Frances was a big help on this one.

The finished product:

Everyone agreed the bread was good, but for that amount of work I could have made about a dozen boules.  I think I'll stick to my boules.

For Christmas, I got myself a book of crafts for kids.  Frances has really enjoyed going through the book and picking out projects.  Sometimes ol' mom hasn't gathered the supplies fast enough and she's lost interest, but this particular project only required newspaper and glue.  And then some more newspaper and glue, with some discreet patching by said mom.  We'll give this the Are We Done Yet? award.

Frances pressed on and on and on until the bowl was ready for paint.

Now we have a new bowl to hold our keys.  Very successful.

The craft book also had instructions for building your own birdhouse.  I'm not going to even pretend I was tempted but it put the idea in Frances's head.  During Frances's sickness, we spent an afternoon at Target with Frances whimpering in the shopping cart and picked up this little gem for one dollar.  All I had to do was wait for Frances to improve a bit, spread some newspaper, step back and observe.  We'll give it the Yay Target! award.

This next project definitely gets the What a Waste of Time! award.  My friend Beka was about to have her second kid.  For her first kid, she had requested handmade gifts (she's a pain like that).  So I thought for this second kid, I would use natural dyes to brighten up these onesies.

There was much salt measuring...

...and fabric preparing... 

...and carrot chopping (the carrots were supposed to be grated, but that was so tedious).

And then the onesies looked almost exactly the same.  Well, not exactly the same.  They looked like a baby had eaten carrot puree while wearing them and the stains hadn't quite come out.

Grumble.

Moving on to the What Could Go Wrong! award.  After consulting the crafts book again, Frances decided she wanted to do tie-dye.  Target failed to provide the equipment the book required, but it did provide a handy dandy tie-dye kit.  Handy dandy tie-dye kit it is!  Frances got up on the dining room table for this one, so as to avoid her little sister's assistance.

Not bad, huh?  And all the extraneous dye was cleaned up within a week or two!

This last one gets the Why? award.  Our church celebrated Purim and I volunteered to bring in hamantaschen.  How many times in her life does an Episcopalian have an excuse to make hamantaschen?  So we gave it a try.

The results were quite pretty, if I do say so myself.  They may have tasted good too, but I wouldn't know.  I gave up white flour for Lent, so I couldn't try them myself.  So many "Why?"s....

That almost gets us caught up on the home front.  I realized in putting this post together that it looks like we don't have enough to do.  Don't be fooled: so much laundry was ignored in the finishing of these projects.  So much laundry.  Luckily, I've learned that no matter how much laundry I do, there will always be more, so there's no point getting upset about a load or four here or there.  

Spring!

After a freezing winter of Polar Vortexes, we were finally rewarded with the first day of Spring.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Frances and I did our annual seed planting, this year joined by Kealakai.

The girls started out by painting their pots.  Paint is supposed to be very good for seedlings, I hear. 

 (Yes, Frances is wearing her scarf inside on this first day of Spring.  We live in Boston, after all.)

Thick as thieves, these two.

Once the pots were nicely decorated, it was time to spread around some dirt.

After sprinkling in copious amounts of basil seeds, the girls watered their dirt.

Mom then did some hasty vacuuming while the big girls galumphed around and the littlest girl ate dirt off the ground.  More dirt than usual.

Then we waited for the annual miracle of seedlings.  Such joy to my heart.  I have never cared about the first day of Spring like I have since moving to Boston and having kids.  Frances even seemed to remember that this is our annual ritual.  Such joy!

Dancin' Machine

This winter, we entered the world of Kids' Saturday Morning Classes with a ballet class for Frances.  We liked having one day a week completely unscheduled (church and Sunday school clutter up Sunday), but we thought Frances might really enjoy ballet and I'd heard good things about this dance program.  I use the words "dance program" loosely.  The first class in particular more closely resembled herding cats.  One little girl spent most of the "class" standing in front of the mirrors yelling, "I have legs!"  I laughed 'til I cried, but wasn't favorably impressed.

Gradually, the kinks were ironed out; a vague sense of order was established.  I think for Frances, it is mostly an excuse to dress in pink.  But I like to think it's a good way for her to enjoy using her long, skinny self.  There's lots of prancing around.

There's a little barre work.  Picture a barre class at the New York City Ballet.  This is not that.  Every time the barre is brought out, the girls are reminded not to put their faces on the barre.  Frances's little friend Kealakai is to her right.  Keala is a big plus for the class.

Frances is demonstrating a classic ballet move called la nouille humide, or the wet noodle.

I think the props are the most fun.  Lots of scarves and streamers and hula hoops.

Maybe the best part for Frances?  At the end of every class they get a really high class stamp on their hands.   Big excitement.

Ah, well.  Frances enjoys it.  And Keala's mother, who knows more about dancing than I do, says Frances has really developed some poise over the course of the class.  So we'll keep it up, though Frances did tell me this morning that she wants a Freisian and I'm not sure if the ballerina and equestrian musculature are compatible.   She said good ol' dad could build a "wooden" (I think she meant "barn").  Mark, get out your hammer!

Fifty-Two Months of Preschooler Frances

Fifty-Two Months Fun Facts

• Reading:  Frances is just starting to pay attention to the first letter of a word and using that letter to figure out what a word could be.  Her brain is really working on puzzling this stuff out.  I'm so proud of her.  And she has become interested in the Magic Treehouse Series and can read "Jack," one of the main characters.
• Writing:  Frances can write "Frances"!  She needs some visual cues and her "n"s are rotated 90 degrees, but she's getting it.  I think there's still a bit of a disconnect between what she sees and what she can make her hand do, just as there's a disconnect for me between hearing a word in a foreign language and speaking that word, but she's getting it.
• Arithmetic: Not so much.  But I'm sure it will come, too.  I suppose I could start playing "fun" math games with her.  I'd rather go searching for unicorns, as long as we're making stuff up.

Thirteen Months of Toddler Chandler

There were four in the bed and the little one said...

Thirteen Months Fun Facts

• Language:  Not really.  But I'm not concerned about her hearing.  She gets all excited when a siren wails or a dog barks.  Chandler will get it eventually.  In the meantime, Frances is relearning all sorts of signs.
• Teeth:  Not really.  She still has the two bottoms, of course, and the two tops are further in than they were last month.  This kid's teeth have glacial timing.
• Obsessions: Pacis, naturally, and Merlin, the stuffed black Lab.  He's the black fluff in the first and second pictures.
• Firsts:  We bought her a pair of outdoor shoes (not just baby slippers) so we'll be ready for playgrounds when the weather improves.  Come on, weather!

Second Children

I had a grandmother who really preferred first-born kids.  She would freely admit it to me, a first-born.   Now that I have kids, I have to say, "What a nut!"  Second-born kids put themselves to bed!

                                    

Or at least they try.

Neglected?  Self-reliant?  Who am I to judge?