Little Songs

Harper sings all the time.  Lately, it has been a never-ending version of the "Little Einsteins" theme song.  Cute, until you have heard it about 15 times an hour for the past 2 weeks. Lucy and I beg and plead with her to take a day off from it, "Sing anything else you want.  Sing Mary Poppins or Annie or 5 Little pumpkins, anything but Little Einsteins today" is Lucy's cry for mercy.

She has other favorites, but she often returns to Little Einsteins.  I have to admit, it is cute, all of her sweet little inflections (no r sounds, missing s sounds and adding randon words when she doesn't know the real ones).  I also love when it is completely off-key and strained or when it seems that even she is tired of singing, but for some reason, must sing on. 

This video was not caught spontaneously. I realized that I didn't have any video of her singing and since it is so much of her (and all of our) life then it needed to be captured.  She is more shy and tentative in the video, usually she is singing as loud and as unashamed as any great singer.  

Don't look at it!

For some reason whenever Harper poops in her potty she makes some absurd statement as I clean things up.  The most common is "Don't look at it!  Don't look at my poop.  I'll just tell you that one is really big and the other is really tiny.  Just don't look at it."  Don't worry I don't want to, is usually my response.
Other bizarre statements, and yes, they come pretty frequently, are:
 "Don't put your foot in my poop.  That would be gross!"
"We are not going to eat the poop.  That would be really yucky- wouldn't it be really yucky?"
"Is Graham going to play with my poop.  Graham is a monster.  He probably wants to play with my poop."

And it goes on and on.  Hopefully the commentating will end before she goes to school next year or her teachers will wonder what we do in the bathroom.  But whatever they do, they definitely shouldn't look at it!

Clean-ish

I had a conversation with a mom of one of Lucy' friends today outside of school.  She said that she got up every morning at 6:15am to clean her house.  She cleans for an hour and a half every morning and the house is always clean, she can always have folks over without worrying about the status of her house, etc.  I was thinking, huh!  Anyone  who knows me knows that I couldn't get up that early every morning to clean, and we still have little kids that will wake if they hear that someone is up in the am and so on and so on.  What my mind failed to mention was what a joke that would be in my house. It would go something more like this: wake up, clean for a couple of hours, then watch as the kids destroy the house in ten minutes.  Don't believe me?  Here is my actual day- today.  Yes, all of these events actually happened TODAY, in one day, actually in just a couple of hours.

• Get kids ready to school, with Ian's help. 
• See Lucy off to school with neighbors as I get Harper ready for dance class.
• We have 15 minutes to kill so I make beds, clean up breakfast mess.  Clean up after Graham poured Harper's milk all over the floor.  Walk around house to pick up pajamas, random socks, toys and books.
• Go to dance, grocery and back home
• Unload and put away groceries.  Start load of laundry, put away consignment sale items so that Lucy doesn't see what I am selling and reclaim it all as her own.
• Walk to get Lucy.  Stopped twice to pick up Graham's shoes that he tossed out of the stroller. 
• On way home, stop once to pick up Graham's socks that he tossed out.
• Make lunch, clean up an entire bowl of applesauce that Graham tossed over his high chair.  Clean up applesauce that Harper "cleaned" off of her tutu and leotard.  Clean up lunch dishes, table, floor.
• Clean up second milk spill of the day- this time it was Lucy's.
• Notice that Graham has a wet shirt.  Continue cleaning up toys, dusting and sweeping floors.  See Graham come walking out of my room, with Harper's toilet insert.  Realize what that WET spot was on his shirt.  Go into bathroom.  See that Graham has poured out Harper's full potty, on himself and all over the floor.  Clean up urine from the bathroom, off of Graham, off the floor of my room, off the floor in the hallway, Graham's room and then search for the missing potty insert that Graham somehow got ahold of again.  Grab toothpaste tube from Graham's quick little hands before he actually makes another mess.
• Clean windows.
• Notice Harper and Graham making rasberries on just-cleaned windows, then watch Graham lick his hands and "write" on the same "clean" windows.  Watch Harper take off Halloween window clings, lick them, and then put them back onto the window.  Wonder why I bothered.
• Take out recycling, and diaper trash.  Walk back inside and notice that Graham has on a lethal-smelling diaper.  Put nasty diaper into the once-was-fresh-diaper pail.
• Notice that there are not one, not two, but three (and a half!) snot smears on the new couch.  Clean them of and then notice that Harper is sprinkling fairy wing glitter onto the same couch.  Sweep front room, again, to rid us of some of the glitter.
• Get kids ready for nap.  Pick up toys, wipe down kitchen.

That was the first half of the day.  I think I'll skip the am cleaning sessions and stay in bed and dream of a clean house.

Wanted: Friends

Lucy is all aflutter these days with friends.  She is averaging 4-7 days a week with friends, playdates, activities, etc.  She talks about her friends all the time, she calls them on the phone to arrange playdates, they are around or she is over at their houses all the time.  All of this is great, unless you are her little sister, just trying to keep up, just trying to get a little bit of attention, just trying to be part of that whole scene.
This is why I am on a full force mission to find Harper her own set of friends, not just tag-alongs of Lucy's or castoffs that happen to be sitting next to her. 
When we have friends over it is heartbreaking to watch Harper try to get in on the conversations.  If the girls are talking about their favorite princesses, there is Harper yelling over them, "I like princesses, they are pretty.  I like Ariel and Belle, they are my favorites!"  She will then repeat this same statement over and over again until they acknowlede her (or I point out to them to do so).  This usually ends one of two ways, one, they are overly patronizing and talk to her like she is a baby, or two, they laugh because of the way she said something.  Either way, it never is the response she is looking for and she ends up sulking or trying even harder to be cool in their eyes. 
She says she has a "playdate" every Thursday.  This is really her dance class, where she doesn't really know anyone, but she is dying to have a "playdate" that doesn't have anything to do with Lucy.  When Lucy asks he who she played with on her "playdate" Harper says, "I dunno their names.  Ask Mommy."  Lucy scoffs and usually tells her that they aren't really her friends or something else big-sistery.
We are working on it.  She has been playing with a little boy down the street some and there are a few little girls we are working on setting up playdates with.  The only problem in Graham- because around here there is always another little sibling waiting in the wings needing some attention.

The best 25 cents I ever spent

 I have been on a yard sale/ flea market/ auction site kick lately.  And Lucy has been all too happy to tag along at times.  Yesterday we were headed into Old Town when she spotted a yard sale and urged me to stop.  We did and after several reminders that we were not going to be buying any toys, I saw a little superman sticking his head out of a box.  I quietly asked the owner how much and he replied that it was 25 cents.  I took the superhero and handed it to Lucy, who was thrilled.  She paid for the man in tights and we got back into the car.  For the next 2 hours Superman was on the adventure of a lifetime.  While I completed my errands, Lucy told me (for 2 non-stop straight hours, mind you) what Superman was up to, how he was going to fight The Incredible Hulk, how Wolverine was his father, who he liked to fight and so on and so on.  Keep in mind that Lucy has no real knowledge of any of the superhero stories, their powers, etc, she just likes the idea of superheroes.
Just as we were heading home she suddenly stopped, handed me Superman and asked that he take a break in my purse.  She was finished with his adventure for now.  She then rode home very quietly in the car.  Being a superhero might be tiring, but telling his tale is purely exhausting.

Sssssssssssssss

"Oooooo, der it is!"  Harper is covering her eyes with one hand and sucking her other hand's thumb.  "I'm so cared!"  She is gritting her teeth into a wicked little smile.  "Momma, aren't you cared?"
No, I am not scared.  We are walking home from taking Lucy to school, it is 9am and we are passing the same houses we pass 4 times a day on this same journey.  But I pretend because it is Halloween time, afterall, and the girls absolutely love the thrill of getting a bit spooked.  But the conversation gets too cute to be frightening at all.  "I'm sooooo cared.  Dare are pooky piders and pooky keletons.  Do you think it is pooky, Momma?"  Not spooky, but not being able to say the "s" sound before all sorts of halloween words is indeed Boo-ti-full!

The Little Phantom

There is a period of time after babies stop cruising and actually walking where you think your mind is actually playing tricks on you.  You know, the baby is in the other room playing and you step out to start dinner and then out of the corner of your eye you see this little person go walking down the hall.  It is sort of like having a little ghost or phantom around.  They are there one minute and then not, and they are so short that it is sort of like they weren't there at all.
This was my experience the other day when Graham went tip toeing down the hallway- there one minute, gone the next.  All was silent. 
I decided to go and check out what the little ghoul was doing.  I checked out his bedroom, not there.  Not in the girls' room or our bedroom.  Then I heard a little shuffle in the bathroom.  And there he was, sitting on Harper's little potty, hands neatly on his chunky little thighs.  When he saw me he started clapping- this is what we do, afterall, when Harper sits on the potty.  My little man already trying to be a "big boy" on the potty- that's not spooky at all- premature, maybe, but not spooky.

Sean, Sean, Sean

Here is the background you need:

• Our neighbor is Sean.  Sean is over our house every single day these days.  Sean joins us for lunch, dinner, snacks and sometimes just sits with us while we eat so that he can stay longer.  Lucy and Sean log up to 8 hours a day together.  They walk to school together.  They are together ALL THE TIME.
• Lucy's class does something called "Pass the Dolphin".  It is where the teacher passes a stick with a dolphin on top of it and asks the students a question of the day, as the stick gets passed, the kinders take turns answering the question.  Every Monday the question is, "what did you do this weekend?"
• Saturday, we have no plans so I decide to take Lucy out for the day.  We go to see a children's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the National Theatre, we go out to lunch, we shop, we get candy treats and then decide to head over to a local art fair.  While at the art fair, Lucy paints a pumpkin, water colors a leaf, plays a violin and a cello, buys a few little knick knacks, gets a cake lollipop and declares "this is the best day ever.  I liked it all the best!"
• Sunday we do nothing but play with neighbor friends (yes, Sean), work in the yard and get out Halloween decorations.

Here is the story: Today as we walk home from school and I get the lowdown of Lucy's day, I ask, "What was the pass-the-dolphin question today?"  She replies, "what was your favorite part of the weekend?  And I said, 'Playing with Sean!!!!!'" 

I have no reply.

One Good Apple

We celebrated Graham's first birthday twice, once on his actual bday and then again on his birthday party day.  His actual birthday was celebrated with balloons and gifts throughout the day and then a peach cobbler.  Peaches being his vice, it was a very satisfactory and messy treat. 

For his birthday party day, we headed out with friends to our favorite u-pick farm for apple-picking, farm animals, haystacks, wheelbarrows and lunch.  As you can tell from the photos, Graham was not pleased with my idea that he should ride around in a wheelbarrow (Harper, on the other hand, was quite content to play Queen Cleopatra for the day, riding in the wheelbarrow and darn-near napping on the way back from apple-picking.)  So while wheelbarrows weren't really his thing, cows, goats and pigs were.  He squealed high pitched squeals at all the animls, shook the fence in excitement and was very happy just sitting back and watching the animals do there thing.  When we got to apple-picking, he sat very happy in one spot and gnawed on an apple, watching as his sisters and buddies filled their bags.  For lunch, he hunkered down with Pop Pop and showed him how to eat one bite, smear one bite on your clothes, or the clothes of the person who is holding you. 

Cupcakes, goody bags and a nap on the carride home rounded out the perfect fall birthday.