Quite a week!

Can you say "winner"?!  Lucy has had the best week ever, at least in her eyes.  We started on Monday with an ice cream social where we invited another two Daisy troops to our meeting for ice cream, games, etc.  Lucy was so excited to have even more friends around and was beaming from ear to ear the whole time.  From Daisies, she went home with a friend and from there to her first track meet.  Yes, her first track meet.
Since this week began, I have had no less that 4 different people comment on how much energy Lucy has. She runs to school every morning.  She jumps up and down, climbs trees or engages her friends in a game of tag when we are standing outside of school.  She is ready for warm weather and being free to move around, a lot.  So we didn't know what to expect with her first track meet.  I actually missed her first event, the "women's 100 meter dash" (love the use of "women's") but Ian was there and reported a fine race, in which she stayed in her lane and finished third.
Her second event was the "women's 200 meter dash".  This one, not as successful.  No falling, no quitting, but not much speed either.  No worries, she can running off of the track happy as could be and said, "I didn't win, but I don't care, I just loved running."

Up next was the softball throw, known in older circles as shot put.  Lucy threw it a whole 13 feet.  We're not talking a far throw, but she thought it was phenomenal. 
She asked if she could stay around for another race.  She wanted to run the 400 meter.  Since we had two other extremely tired kiddos, we told her that she had to stop at her three events.  She moped and pleaded that next meet she be able to enter more events.  How can you disagree? 
Speedy, well, maybe not.  She doesn't really care about winning just yet, just being able to run made her happy as could be.

Next up, Tuesday.  Tuesday was Lucy's first science fair.  Only a handful of kindergarteners entered the science fair this year but there was no denying lu on this one.  She was excited from the day we got  the flyer describing the fair.  She decided to study the national zoo's baby lion cubs and took it upon herself to check books out from the library at school about lions.  She decided what facts to use in her presentation and then spent 4 hours one day putting it all together, writing out the facts, cutting and pasting on photos from magazines and really getting to know all she could about the pride.  She was so well rehearsed that when asked questions from a "scientist judge" last night, she answered very clearly and excitedly.  The judge came up to me afterwards and said, "Is that your daughter?  She did very well, she was very poised."  Lucy could not have been happier with the night.  She earned a ribbon for her project, learned about other's science projects and participated in a chemistry experiment in which she got to wear goggles- a highlight of the evening. In the car on the ride home she said, "Mom, I am so proud of myself."  And that's what it is all about.

Today, Lucy came out of school with a gaggle of girls following her since we were having three over for a playdate.  Lucy solemnly said, "I got moved today from my table.  I was chatting too much.  BUT, I got put at ELLA's table!"  I'm not sure this will stop the chatter, since Ella is a good friend, but we'll see.  In addition to her being corrected for talking too much (no surprise, really) she came home with her third quarter progress report.  Perfect.  No really, a perfect progress report.  She has "mastered" all kindergarten critera and has actually surpassed it in all areas.  Definitely my turn to be proud.  Not only does she do a great job at school, but she has been putting in a lot of time at home, on her own will, reading, writing stories, working on her science fair project, adding up coins, and teaching us all about what she has learned.  Yes, we don't actually know all about everything she is learning.  For instance, do you know what oviparous means?  Look it up, it will make you feel like you should have known it, but yet, still don't!

And this brings us to tomorrow.  We leave for Kentucky.  I think in Lucy and Harper's minds, the state of Kentucky is gilded in candy, folks hand you presents at every turn and there are always people around to serve you, fetch things for you, entertain you and give to your every whim.  Wait, that isn't just in their minds, that is an actuality.  So make that, quite a couple of weeks, because Kentucky, here we come!

Water!

After the cherry blossoms and a nap, the kids were ready to splash.  Beware of how Graham dunks the baby dolls head first over and over again. And yes, we had to go out and buy Graham his own water baby so that he too could wash a baby in the buckets.  The girls weren't sharing and I quickly tired of hearing him cry about it.  Lucy has been waiting for the day when they could run around with no shoes, splash in the water and enjoy the sunshine.  And here it was...

Cherry Blossom Festival

Lucy had a school holiday on Monday and since the weather was going to beautiful and warm and Lucy has been really wanting to visit the Lincoln Memorial, we headed to the Cherry Blossom Festival.  We took in the Washington Monument, (between the two we ran right smack into the Slagels who were visiting from KY!) the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial where we sat and had lunch on the steps.  Some playtime under the blossoms, and running around the National Mall and the kiddos were tired out.  Taking in the sights, holding hands, and really loving all the cherry blossoms, a holiday indeed!

Only one day old...

It just occurred to Ian and me tonight that Harper's 2nd day of life was such a forteller of her personality and demeanor. Harper was only in her second day of life when she had been asleep for 13 hours.  13 hours!  The nurses and I hung her upside down, tickled her feet, stripped off all her warm blankets and clothes, and tried to encourage her to wake up anyway we could.  And all she would do was smile in her sleep and continue to snooze. All she wanted to do was sleep and avoid eating.  Eating was just not important.

Flash nearly 3 years forward, Harper is just the same. I have to strip her blankets off of her and turn on the lights, open the window shades and sometimes even the windows, just to get her to wake up from nap.  And when it comes to eating, she generally just doesn't want to.  And yes, she will still give us one of those sly little sleepy smiles while we are waking her. And once awake, she likes to "wake up slow" by laying in bed, sucking her thumb and listening to what is going on in the house before she decides to get out of bed.  And she'll always cuddle, just like when she was just a baby.

The Megapost

Ok, so we have come out of the last two weeks with no vomit (and the crowds go wild!)  And I have finally gotten our lives back on track, house cleaned, sanitized, playdates resumed, full weeks of school and activities and I am now getting back to the blog.  Don't worry, amongst all the sickness we did manage to squeeze in some fun.  Here are some highlights:

For St. Pat's Day I took Harper and Graham to a storytime at the library.  They read all about trolls, rainbows, leprechauns and made these hats. Both loved coloring, glueing and showing of their new creations. They wore them for two straight days and Graham still goes and puts his on for an hour or so, usually when we have to go to the grocery.  A boy's got to look his best!

As the weather has started to warm up, the kids, especially Lucy, are looking for every excuse to be outside.  A tea party outside in the driveway keeps me from having to clean up the kitchen after the world's messiest eater (Graham) and keeps the kids happy as can be.  All three like to pour their own drinks from the tea pot.  Graham likes to pour his all over himself, the girls fare much better. 

A block with two cheeks.  Love it.  The mega-man among tiny little ladies.

Lucy with her Daisy troop at the playAnnie.

Graham and Harper wasting time at the playground waiting for Lucy to wrap up running club practice.

The little guys at Tate Butler's 2nd birthday party.  Sweet tally for the party: Graham 2 cupcakes, 1 iced cookie, fruit snacks, juice box, a handful of pretzels, 1 lollipop.  Harper: 1 cupcake, 1 iced cookie, crackers, pretzels, 1 lollipop.  Naptime was delayed by and hour due to sugar high.

New accomplishments:

-Harper can now climb the "big ladder" at the playground, "all by myself, because I'm almost 3!"

-Graham is picking up new words daily, my favorites are "ok!", "what?", "you silly!" and "get blanket"- this last one is his new requirement for when we are reading books, and he must be snuggled up with you under the blanket before reading.

-Graham playing and "choo chooing!" all over the house with his trains

-Lucy is participating in a running club

-Harper is learning the names of all the different flower types in the neighborhood

- Lucy went to her first "school dance" during their spring fling.  She led a group of her kindergarten friends as the head of a conga line for about an hour.  The best part was then a group of older kids, including 6th graders, joined her line.  She was pleased as punch.

-Harper has now learned the words to every song from the Annie soundtrack.  And she sings them over and over again all day long, usually with Graham chiming in from time to time. 

Daddy's boy

Graham has become such a Daddy's boy.  He asks for him all day, he cries when he leaves in the morning, he has started standing at the window in the evenings waiting to see his car and when he gets home, there are lots of jumps, smiles, exclamations and real joy at seeing him.  And this pretty much happened all because Ian decided two weeks ago to take Graham, and only Graham, with him to Home Depot and then to a bakery for a treat.  The next weekend they went back to Home Depot.  It seems they have bonded over looking for a new basement door. 
It really is cute, though, especially when he tries to mimic everything Ian does.  If Ian wears a baseball hat, Graham grabs his hand and shows him where his is so he can wear his too.  If Ian wears his vest, Graham yells "Best!" and grabs his as well.  Two peas in a pod. 
I'm not to worry though.  When Ian isn't here, I'm still tops.  Graham has taken to kissing me only on the lips, walks up behind me and yells "hugs!" and gives my legs a big bear hug and he walks by and says "love you!"  He may be Daddy's boy, but he's my little man!

What's new with Lu?

Lucy is obsessed with making books, having slumber parties and being outside.

Every day Lucy sits down at our dining room table with a stack of papers, a giant carousel of crayons and makes a new book.  They have plots, colorful illustrations and lots of details.  Each book is about 5 or 6 pages long, as a front cover or "title page" as she calls it and a back cover, where she usually dedicates the book or writes "THE END" in giant letters.  I wish we could keep every one of them, but for now, she insists they are gifts for folks for birthdays, teachers for "just being great" and friends. 

 

Slumber parties. We hosted our first slumber party a few weeks ago and had 4 girls, plus Lucy and Harper, slumber in our basement. Actually, Harper was allowed to partake in all the fun, but had to sleep up in her bed, "since slumber parties are for kindergarteners and other big girls".  They decorated cookies, painted their nails with glow in the dark polish, watched a movie and ate everything in sight.  Dance parties, freeze dance contests and lots of silliness and they were all asleep by 11:15 and awake at 7am.  Not too bad, although a bit like a zoo for a while.  I realized that this was the first party many of them had been to where adults weren't running the show the whole time and they definitely preferred when I was leading the way.  I'll take it.  In a few years, I'm sure I will be shut out of the room while they gossip about boys and talk about how weird their parents are.  For now, I was happy to be chief nail painter.

Finally, Lucy is crazy about the new warmer weather.  She wants to be outside as much as possible and since we are trying to grow grass in our backyard, we have been playing in the front for a few weeks.  Lucy and her friends have decided that a tree in our side yard is their "fort" and they have a pile of sticks in there for a "dogbed" and other randrom piles of odds and ends.  They love it and disappear into the fort for hours at a time.  My only concern is that it is a holly tree, but they don't seem to mind, as long as I don't enter the sacred ground.