Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pool Days, Cool Days!
Ladybugs!
Pickle Breath
Lucy loves foods with a little punch and now, so does Harper. Here is Harper's first dill pickle. We figured she would take a bite, throw it to the ground and never ask for one again. Wrong. Now if she sees the pickle jar she won't eat anything else until she gets one.
Cherry Picking
We headed to Homestead Farm with our friends the Wells last week to pick cherries. They were so tart that the kids mostly refrained from eating them by the handful, but no worries, they still got plenty down the hatch. We used ours for cobbler and crisp.
Lucy and Parish picked cherries for about 30 seconds and then spent the rest of the time running through the orchard and hiding in the trees. They spotted a birds nest and helped keep and eye on the little girls. Caroline and Harper did most of the eating, and once I convinced Harper that picking cherries was like cleaning up cherries, she was on board for picking. It was her personal mission to make sure that each branch she could reach was rid of cherries and that they ended up in our box. The kid loves to clean up!
Lucy's first soccer camp
Lucy started soccer camp this week. Or, I should say, Lucy, Harper and myself started soccer camp this week. Nobody mentioned that it involved parental involvement. The first day entailed me, 6 months pregnant, holding Harper and practicing my passes and traps with Lucy. Not exactly what I pictured. Thank goodness that Lucy has decided that she wants to do camp all on her own and I have been sidelined. She will even go to the far side of the field away from us so that she can have the one of the coaches as her partner. Fine by me! In all actuality, the parents are more optional in most of the lessons but some just can't stand to sit it out. I think I have my hands full enough since Harper likes to spend the hour each day picking up all the cones the coaches have put out, eating, and chasing kids in the middle of their drills. She also likes to line up with the kids or just hang on to Lucy while she is getting instructions. I think she thinks she is part of the action as well. She hasn't noticed that not everybody runs around with a naked baby doll or a cracker in their hand.
So far, so good. Lucy is wiped out a the end of each camp day. She has learned passes, traps, dribbling and other skills I can't even name. She loves her coaches and finds them very funny and they liven up the camp by playing games about dragons and pirates, having wacky hair day, and having all the kids decorate their soccer balls. They are British and many times the kids have no idea what they are saying or talking about, but I think that makes Lucy like them even more. Her favorite game so far is "Blast off" where they place their soccer ball on a short cone and take 5 big steps back from it, then countdown and the whole group runs forward at blast off to kick their ball down the field.
I'll post photos of the rest of the week later, but here it is so far.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Off to bed
Saturday, June 20, 2009
When is it our turn?
Repeat
"Get down"- used when she actually wants to get down from a chair or your lap, but also when she wants to get up onto something, like our bed. Can get confusing.
"Stop it"-she likes to say this whenever I tell her to do something, or not to do something. She also says it when she is at the top of stairs to signal that we should all stop before going down.
"More, mine"- she uses this a lot when she wants more food. The problem is that it is always unclear what she wants and she will usually throw herself to the ground kicking and screaming if I don't react properly. And all drinks are "milk", even if she wants water. More tantrums if I get it wrong.
All of these are said daily, although on any given day they are said a million times. She begins to say something and until you respond correctly she repeats it over and over again, or falls into a tantrum. Another case of easier said than done.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Don't tell the Secret Service
Then he asked, "Harper, are you stinky?"
Harper replied, "No!"
Ian, "Harper, did you toot?"
Harper, "No!"
Ian, "Well, if you didn't toot, who did?"
Harper in the clearest voice said, "Barackobama!"
Now, you can say it was babble, and maybe you are right, but we like to think that she was blaming her stink on the president.
Name that boy
Me: "Hi, how are you?"
Adult #2: "Great, how are you?"
Me: "Fine, blah, blah, blah, blah..." (I hear a murmur to my right at about this time in a mouselike voice)
Me: "Excuse me. What Lucy?"
Lucy: "What are we going to name our baby brother?"
No joke. This happens a lot. In pretty much that same order and usually with people that I don't see that often. Why this pops into her head the second I try to have an adult conversation with a seldom-seen friend, I have no idea.
The other time she brings this conversation up is when she doesn't have anything else to talk about. This is when she likes to offer her suggestions. So far, the best (read WORST) suggestion she has is to name her sweet baby brother Toenail. Other suggestions are Mushin', Bushin', and Cushin' as well as Alex, Reggie, and Melon. She honestly can't understand why we wouldn't consider the name Toenail for her brother. She likes the name, why wouldn't we? But why Toenail? I don't know, but what I do know is that Toenail has to be clipped from the list.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
City Kids and Capers
Then she said, "Me and the city kids are searching for the truth." I asked who the city kids were and she said, "LaLa and Heart" (Heart is her stuffed dog that she drags around on a "leash"). When I asked what "the Truth" looked like she said, "I don't know, but we're gonna find it!"
All of this was said while she looked under beds, behind doors, in cabinets and in her toy bags. Harper followed. She was not a City Kid, but the child with the spooky eyes, so her role was limited. I'm not sure if the truth was ever found, but Lucy was busy looking for it for a few hours.
They look alike, they talk alike...
I don't do this much, dress them the same that is, but when I do, it is funny to see this tiny little shadow of Lucy following her around. They are starting to look more alike and dressing them alike only enhances that fact. I don't, however, think they look like twins (I have been asked that on numerous occasions. It seems people think I have one petite 3 1/2 year old and her twin dwarf sister who, well, acts like a baby!) Lucy, of course, notices that they are dressed the same and Harper has started to as well. If they are sitting next to each other Harper will touch her outfit, then Lucy's and repeat over and over again. I'm sure that as a little sister, who just wants to be like her big sister, it is a thrill to look like her. You can always tell them apart though, Harper is the only one that likes to play in the toilet, trash, recycling or dirty laundry.
A slice of life...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Big Chill
Our pool was closed due to a broken pipe for the past few weeks. Today it opened- much to Lucy's pure delight! But let me give the background. They fixed the pool, then filled it Thursday. It rained Thursday and Friday with high temps around 70 degrees with very chilly nights. You can do the math, that means the temperature of the pool today was something like FROSTY. To top it off, the morning was cool and cloudy, not helping the temps. But she was not to be deterred.
The minute the clouds parted and the sun came out Lucy and I were on our way. To say it was cold is an undertatement. It was too cold to put a toe in. But there she was, in all her purple-lipped glory dunking herself into the icy waters. It was a polar bear plunge. She spent about 20 minutes running crazy and screaming in the water, even fully submerging herself a few times. Then it was time to warm up and she only went back in up to her ankles after that. But she will be back tomorrow. And the next day and all of those after that. It doesn't snow in June, right?