Trying to Fly

L has been talking about flying places for a while.  Not in an airplane, but rather like a bird.  Yesterday she decided it was time to give it a go.  She was skipping around the garden wearing her butterfly wings while I was making supper.  She called in through the window that she wanted to fly to Jamie's house and was that ok? "Sure" I replied with a smile.  She reminded me that I wouldn't be able to see her though.  We have a rule that she stays within view of the kitchen window.  "Oh, don't worry, you'll be up in the air where I can see you."  She started putting together a collection of treasures (flowers, rocks, grass) to take with her and give to Jamie.  "Okay Mummy.  I'm going now."  She decided for the best take-off she needed a large patch of grass.  She ran into the center of the lawn and jumped and reached her body skywards.  Nothing happened.  She tried again.  I could see all the muscles in her necks stretch taut as she pointed her nose to the clouds and tried to will herself into the air.  "Mummy, I can't fly" she sobbed as she ran to me for comfort.  She was devastated.  I was surprised.  I thought this was a pretend game.  I assumed that she knew she couldn't fly.  But the big tears, jutting lower lip and sad face told another story.  How wonderful to have such a firm belief that dress-up fairy wings could make you fly.  How dissapointed you must feel when that certainty crumbles.  We talked about Frank the Frog, a character in a book, who desperately wanted to fly.  The book's final line sums it up succinctly:

"Frank had wanted to fly.  But he was a frog.  And frogs can't fly ..... but they sure can swim!"
However, as L pointed out, Frank does fly.  Thanks to two birds who take him for a ride.  That's it!!  L ran into the garden and yelled "BIRDS, BIRDS, COME HERE."  No birds.  I pointed out that she might be scaring them away by yelling so loudly.  She didn't buy this argument.  I suggested that maybe they don't understand.  Did she understand their language?  This was a good point.  She shouted "CHIRP, CHEEP, CHEEP."  Still no birds.  She looked at me in frustration.  "Mummy, you need to call for the birds too so they can help me fly."  Hmmmm.  I figured now was about time to gently destroy the dream.  We talked about why we made airplanes, helicopters and hang-gliders.  She understood.  What other things does she believe she can do? What wonderful creatures are real to her.  She certainly doesn't believe in fairies, which I find a little sad.  But she is convinced she can swim ..... "But I CAN swim.  Like I did in the deep hot tub at the swimming pool" she informed J and I tonight at bath time when we were discussing swimming lessons. Time to sign her up.  That is at least one thing she will be able to do.

A Take-Out Kind of Night

Chaos tonight!

1.  Carry stuff (coats, shoes, diapers, blankets etc) in from car.
2.  Return for girls and carry one on each hip into the house (almost dropping L).
3.  Put A down and carry shoeless L into bathroom to wash her filthy feet and hands.
4.  Deposit L in the sink and retrieve A who has started climbing the stairs.
5.  Shut baby gates.
6.  Wash my hands and start on supper - running 20 minutes late!!
7.  Check A - she is fishing for toilet paper in the unflushed loo!
8.  Run into the kitchen to wash A's hands before she puts them in her mouth.
9.  L is yelling for me.  Yell back at her to WAIT!
10.  Rinse A's flapping and batting hands and race back to bathroom.
11.  L tells me she couldn't wait, couldn't climb down from sink by herself and sorry, but she peed her pants.
12.  Arrggghhhh!
13.  Strip L and throw her in the shower.
14.  Jon walks through the door - phew! We decide it's a night for take-out.

The First 4 Years

According to L:

When you are 1 you are a baby
When you are 2 you are a toddler
When you are 3 you are a big girl
When you are 4 you grow boobies!

Firsts

Sunday was a day of firsts! L ate her first curry, all of it, with no complaints. It went straight down without thought as though she were eating fish sticks or string cheese. And A climbed up the stairs to the very top, with careful supervision of course. Perhaps a trekking holiday in Nepal is just around the corner!

Hiccups

Hiccups are about this big (about an inch) and they live in your tummy.  They are like a ball.  They are black, no white!  When you are surprised your hiccups jump out of your tummy and run away.  That's how you get rid of hiccups.  They run into someone else's body and then they have hiccups.

This is L's definition of hiccups.

Granny went home today.  We are all feeling very sad.  We had a wonderful time together.  We miss you Granny.

Not a Helpful Mama!

Monday - L needed to pee, but was still wearing her leotard from ballet (under her clothes for added complication).  I talked her through taking off her shirt and sweatpants and when I offered to help with her leotard she told me, "I know how to do that from when you were not helpful." Maybe I should be less helpful in future?

Tuesday - L's phrase of the day: "Excitingly helpful" she declared in response to my request to mist and water my house plants.

Wednesday - L's teacher read "Julius the Baby of the World" at circle time.  L was beside herself.  We have this book at home, as she pointed out to her teacher.  She beamed proudly at her classmates each time her teacher read her favourite phrase, "Julius is the baby of the world" and insisted that her teacher read all the words, even the ones accompanying the pictures. L frequently quotes from this book praising her little sister, "A is the baby of the world."

Look! No Hands!

Amelia is still not quite proficient at crawling, but this weekend I found her balanced on two feet, just for a couple of seconds.  But still!!  Slow down baby.  She is all about getting up on her two feet to explore the stairs, the TV bench, Lilli's bed, the couch, boxes, baskets, chairs.  She is finding all sorts of forbidden toys and objects.  She's loving it.  I'm nervous!  Her speed crawling is coming along too.  When she sees an opening to reach a denied toy or an appealing wire or even better an electrical outlet, she jumps into high gear and positively races on hands and knees.  She plays chase: chasing and being chased are equally fun.  She frequently nose dives into the ground in her haphazard rush to escape or catch you.  When we do catch her with tickling fingers she helplessly belly flops to the ground and giggles in squirmy delight.

A Dinner Story by Lilli

Once upon a time there were unicorns and deserts.  Dragons were mailed to towns.  A long long time ago.  Then a person decided that they didn't like dragons so they sent them away to a different place.  They were sad.  And then guess what happened?  Something happened ...

What happened is to the unicorns.  A long time ago they lived in the desert.  They got moved to England.  They changed places with with dragons so the dragons couldn't eat anybody.

The End.

By Lilli
Age Three and three quarters
At Supper
Inspiration from Jojo's Unicorns and Space birthday party, Grandparents who live in England, mailing Thank You cards and Valentines.  Dragons?  Deserts??

5 Shots and a Ballet Performance

5 shots for A today.  Poor thing.  She was understandably upset and lay in my lap helplessly crying.  As each new needle went in she cried even louder and looked at me as though she was thinking "please make this stop." L was a wonderful big sister, singing songs to A, bestowing kisses, supplying teddies.  A recovered quickly, but spent most of the day sleeping off the effects.
 
For L, today was the big ballet performance.  Adults were invited into the studio to watch the class. L was awesome!  She twirled, skipped, plied and chassayed around the room.  She loved having an audience and made sure we noticed her.  A sat on my lap and happily watched all the pink leotarded girls, even giggling as they rushed past.  L's ballet class was the highlight of her day.

For me, I am blown away by how these girls are growing.  A is pulling herself up to standing on anything and everything she can and causing me much anxiety when I find her clinging to a rickety chair.  L is full of questions.  We've been spending much time talking about life, death and birth.  She asked if a new L will grow when she dies, as though her body is a seed.  We had a long chat about what happens when you are a teenager.  She was very curious as to why boy's underwear have a hole in the front.  She asks for the definition of words.  Books take a long time to read these days since most things need to be explained and discussed and words pointed out.  I love her curiosity and her sudden interest in letters and words.

So much more to write, so many funny observations L has made that I could share that I would be up all night.  So for now, good night.

Clever Cookies

The girls are sleeping, hopefully until 7am.  Last night was terrible.  Amelia was hungry, Lilli tormented by nightmares and the drunks outside were shouting, singing and playing a harmonica.  Still, they picked a good night to be noisy since we were already awake.  I have just swept up a large amount of Amelia's supper.  I didn't see any of it head floorwards and when I looked down I was surprised to see that I was marooned in my chair and escape would mean a leap over an ocean of potato, carrot and cheese bits.  Even though most of Amelia's first finger-food dinner was jettisoned from her tray, she did enjoy the change from purees.  She liked the grated cheese and each time I popped some in her mouth she looked at me in surprise as she gummed and sucked it as though she was thinking, "why am I only just trying this tasty delicacy?"

Earlier this evening both girls were giggling helplessly as I twirled, jiggled, bounced, spun and flipped them to "Twist and Shout" "Go Johnny, Go GO" and some other fun classics!!  It is so easy to make Amelia giggle.  Crawling chase, tickles, peekaboo, raspberries, dancing and her sister's silly songs always get her laughing.  She is an intrepid explorer.  I find her searching for balls behind the furniture, attempting to scale the stairs, trying to chew the electric wires poking out from behind the TV, climbing Lilli in pursuit of a toy. She intently watched Lilli playing her toy xylophone and as soon as she saw her chance, quickly crawled over, grabbed the hammer and played it just as well!

Lilli, when not obsessing over who she is going to make a Valentine's for and what colour it will be, is mastering her letters.  Today neatly wrote E, A and N.  We played a match the letter game yesterday and I didn't have to try to loose.  Lilli was fast and even tried to give me some of her cards since I was doing so badly.  When and where did she learn her letters?  She was screaming her matches, GREEN K, GREEN K, BLUE Y, BLUE Y before I had even looked at both cards!  Last week she was quizzing me on the operation of a piston engine.  "Oh, uh, injection .... compression .... ignition ..... um .... where is your Daddy??"

Proud Mama

I think aliens tampered with my kids brains last night. Both girls seem different today. Amelia is much surer and faster on her hands and knees and very curious. She tried to climb the stairs, but fell bumping her head on the skirt. Later she trapped her head underneath her jumpy exersaucer, but discovered the toys on the bottom shelf! Lilli was so helpful today and beautifully used her words to explain and ask for things. Perhaps because she now knows I am serious about taking away TV as a consequence of unkind words or lack of cooperation. Or maybe because I've been unable to understand whinese recently! Perhaps it could be because we have been talking about ok things to say and how to ask. Perhaps it's all of this ... Or those aliens ... Or she's just growing up! Either way I was so proud of her today.

Best moments:
After I sat down to lunch I realized I had no fork.
"That's ok Mummy, I can get you one" Lilli declared, and hopped off her chair and brought me a fork from the kitchen.
Lilli and I singing the Tooty Ta song to Jon at supper! Tooty Ta, Tooty Ta, Tooty TA TA!!

Sunny Winter Day

Lilli:
1. Playing with Jamie
2. Scooting at the playground
3. Watching Dora!

Amelia:
Tickles from Jamie and bouncing in my jumperoo.

Anna:
Chocolate treats and Anne's smoothie.
Sunshine and fun in the park.

Sister Giggles

Lilli:
Quiet time. Lying on my bed and looking at my books.

Anna:
At lunch today Lilli was playing with Amelia. Both girls were giggling with delight at each other. I was forgotten about. It was wonderful to see how happy they made each other in that moment.

Amelia:
Finally getting my hands (and teeth) on Lilli's new sparkly, colorful, flashing shoes!

Toad in the Hole

Anna:
Toad in the Hole for supper has made me very happy indeed!

Amelia:
Well Amelia has yet another cold, but between snotty sneezes and snuffles there were giggles during diaper changed and squeals of excitement while bouncing in her jumper.

Lilli:
Making a seed garden at school.
Lilli also picked out a pair of sparkly new shoes that have flashing lights. She was pretty excited about those!!

1st Day of School

Lilli:
1. My present from Teacher Kris (homemade super-soft PURPLE playdough!).
2. Mummy coming to get me!
3. Writing books.

Amelia:
Ouchy .... gums hurt ..... no smiles today.

Anna:
I cleaned the house!  And even found time to wipe the kitchen cabinets clean.  No more pancake batter splatters, no more flour dusting the grooves, finger painting splotches all gone.

Jon:
Making Amelia and Lilli laugh at dinner.

Finding your Ribbon!

Lilli:
Ballet!!!

Amelia:
Crawling!
(hand, knee, hand, knee, hand, knee, flop).

Anna:
This was a two glass of wine kind of day.  Though loved hearing Lilli tell Daddy all about Ribbon.  Rhythm was today's topic at ballet class.

Scary Peter

Lilli:
I liked scooting with Daddy at Greenlake. I liked treats at Whole Foods.  I liked playing at Anya's house.

Amelia:
Big, loud, scary man.

Anna:
My attempts at a nap this morning were frustratingly futile.  Poor Amelia is unsettled with I suspect more teeth growing.  Jon, Lilli and I had a great time at Shannon & Pablo's football party, Amelia was terrified of Peter.  It is the first time I have seen fear on her face.  Her little bottom lip popped out and her wide eyes looked so scared.

Green Beans

Anna:
Finally finding time to play, tickle, coo and kiss Amelia while Lilli and Jon were out.
Entertaining! Love having friends over to play and share dinner.
Baby Nora's tentative steps.

Amelia:
Chewing on Daddy's green beans.
Lots of playtime with Mummy and Daddy.

Lilli:
Playing with Gemma and Emily.
Having Anya and Nora over to play.

Scooting and Pooping

Lilli:
Playing with Jackson at the playground and sharing my scooter all together with Jackson and another new boy I haven't seen.

Amelia:
Daddy's tickles at dinner.
Pooping in my jumper .... aahhhh .... finally!

Anna:
Watching TV.
Going to bed (today was trying!)

Warm Toes

Jon:
Reading long bedtime stories with Lilli snuggled in next to me.

Amelia:
Sleeping.
And eating!

Anna:
My new slippers! I had warm feet all day!
Playing animal charades with Lilli was lots of fun.
Mexican meatballs ... yum!
Going to bed.

Lilli:
Playing in the tree house at REI.
Playing Princesses and Dragons.

Bath Bliss

Lilli:
Seeing Jamie, playing with Jamie. Another favourite part of the day was having a bath!

Amelia:
Getting out of my nap early to play with Mummy.

Anna:
Listening through the baby monitors to Lilli singing a nice song about Amelia during Quiet Time.
Jon coming home from work!
Lilli rhyming at dinner "Bubblegum bubblegum, Bob the Builder's bottom is BIG!"
Amelia, clean and wrapped up in her towel after her bath, chunky legs kicking, red cheeks and nose and a beautiful smile and so happy eyes.
Amelia mmmmmmming to every mouthful of lentils!
The return of the Daleks on Doctor Who.

Jon:
Amelia kicking and splashing in the bathtub. 

Quiet Times

Amelia:
Splashing my feet in the bath!

Jon:
Lying with Lilli on her bed at Quiet Time and enjoying a peaceful moment together.
Hanging out with Eric and Gail.

Anna:
Lilli groggily climbing into bed and cuddling as close to me as possible while we dozed for a little bit longer before breakfast.
Enjoying tasty snacks at the Barcan residence while watching dusk fall over Seattle and the city lights start twinkling.

Lilli:
My favorite part was playing with Daddy in my fort and having dinner.
I liked the presents Eric and Gail gave to me.
(Clarification: Jon made a very elaborate fort involving a clothes horse, dinner was in front of the telly and Eric and Gail gave Lilli a camera which she loves!).