2012 coming to a close

Well, this year has kept us all busy and I have neglected the ol' blog for more than a few months at a time, several times.  Here are some of the most current highlights of the year for Lucy, Harper and Graham:

Graham
Grammy is awesome!  This is what he would say if you asked him how he was.  For the most part, Graham is boisterous, loving, high-energy, loud, funny, sweet and tenacious.  He loves his cars, trucks and helicopters.  his favorite Christmas toys were Hulk Hands, Baseball glove and balls, Sock-n-bop Spider Man, his new books on cd (lion king, Polar Express), his cowboy figurines, his castle, his pirate costume and his matchbox car racetrack.  He has spent the holiday break tackling everything and everyone in sight, making pretend cookies in the play kitchen, playing with his new Ken or Firemen dolls, bugging his sisters and wrestling Ian or "playing football" as he calls it. 
He also misses school and talks about his teachers and his friends.  He has also begun singing all the time.  Right now it is Christmas songs, but his song selection also includes 1 Direction Songs, which he doesn't really know many of the words to, but he hums along when he doesn't or can't keep up with his sisters. 
Graham still delights in seeing me or Ian when he hasn't for a full 5 minutes.  I am almost always greeted with a hug when he has been off playing for a while and I come in to check on him.  He is the roughest person in the house, and also the most sweet, cuddly boy around.  He is known for "1 more hug or kiss" when I am trying to leave the house and he has gotten to be very helpful and eager to help clean up after himself.  His favorite chore is using the dust buster to clean up his snack mess.  Graham also makes his own bed, cleans up his own toys and helps me cook whenever I will let him.

Harper
The sweetest little devil around.  Harper can be the most quiet or the noisiest person in the house. She can be the most shy or the most bold.  She has a hard time making up her mind about anything.  She is Little Miss Fickle.  And she delights in exasperating all of us. 
Harper will be playing nicely one minute and throwing a giant tantrum the next.  She is all dresses and tights and glitter shoes or boots for a week and then will only wear sweat pants the next.  Unpredictable!
Harper loves to play Barbies, look at books. color, "write letters", listen to books on cd, play with her stuffed animals, Littlest Pet Shop or with Graham and his trucks.  Her favorite Christmas presents were her Mobigo, her Barbie Princess Pop Star castle, her new Barbie dolls (Belle and Ice Skating Barbie), her Etch a Sketch, and her Play mobile zoo, pegasus and horses.  Oh, and her purple sparkly boots.
She loves to play with her friends, Anna, Rachel and Anna H.  She hates to be cold.  She hates to be told what to do.  She loves staying in her pajamas for days on end.  She loves playing with Lucy.  She loves playing with Graham and she misses school.

Lucy
Lucy hasn't changed much except for getting more and more independent, smart and funny.  She is gaining a more adult sense of humor and she and her friends love to giggle at things they hear on the radio, or joke books, or each other. And they giggle and giggle and giggle.
She loves her Brownie Troop and is working on selling cookies so they can do a sleepover at the Baltimore Aquarium in the Spring, next to the Dolphin tank- Lucy's dream come true!
Lucy loves to play outside but during the holiday break she has played inside with her toys more than she has in months.  The down time has really given her a chance to be a bit of a little kid again, which is nice.  Her favorite things to do right now include swinging in the back yard, climbing trees, being with friends including Elizabeth, Kes, Spencer, and Sydney.  She loves to read, she loves to draw, she loves duct tape crafts! She loves to play chess!  She also loves to play school.
Her favorite gifts from Christmas were her blue sparkly boots, her Wii, her "Beast" Ken Doll, her Easy Bake oven, her Pogo stick (although she has been too nervous to try it out!), her new Lacross stick, her Wii games, Magic Treehouse books. her Playmobile horse set, and the cotton candy machine.
Lucy will be wrapping up Chess club in a few weeks and will be starting Mad Science club to take its place.  She is also hoping to begin Lacross in a few months and we will try to get her a few lessons before then.  We also hope to take her skiing.
Another one of Lucy's loves is shopping and gift cards or money burn a whole in her pocket.  She can't wait to spend them, even if it is Dec. 26 and she has just gotten a boatload of new things.  The also loves to make people pictures, pockets and animals out of duct tape and paper, or write us letters or songs.  Her latest song that she made up includes something like "I'm like a ball, you're like a bat" and a line that involves chasing Justin Bieber down.  It is strange, but she thinks it to be a real masterpiece. Speaking of songs, Lucy loves One Direction. She is a bit boy crazy over this boy band and has ranked them all in her mind.  She will tell me the one she likes the least (although she always adds that she likes him a whole lot still (poor Harry!) but won't tell me which one she likes the best.  This is where Harper adds that she likes Harry the best and Graham tells me that he likes Niall the best. 
I think that's it.  Our holiday activities have included water-skiing Santa, church on Christmas Eve, Zoolights, Botanic Garden trains, Mt. Vernon to see the Christmas camel, Gaylord Hotel to see the glass Christmas Tree, Shrek the Halls at ICE!, parties, all of our traditions, and more.  2012 was a great year full of great accomplishments and so much growing.  Graham and Harper have each grown  several inches since Thanksgiving! 

Balls

Ian's parents sent chocolate balls in a Halloween gift they sent.  Graham and Harper were eating some and Graham kept saying, "My balls are so good.  They taste sooo awesome.  Harper, did you want to taste my balls?"  To which Harper replied.  "Graham I am not interested in your balls."  Good girl.

All Things Graham

Graham's schedule is easy- he goes to school Tuesday and Thursday mornings and hangs with me the rest of the time.  He loves to go to the Farmer's Market, the library, the grocery (especially Trader Joe's where he can push his own little cart and shop for what he wants- peanuts, dried fruit, fruit, chips, cereal).  He still gets at least 1 playdate a week with his best bud, Charlie.  They are hilarious together and it gives Graham time to be a boy without someone wondering why he is crashing his toys into theirs.
Graham loves to play doctor, cars, trucks, airplanes, trains and restaurant.  He likes to color and help cook.  He loves to be outside racing his big dump truck, sliding and playing basketball.  He also loves to look at books and to listen to books on cd. 
His favorite characters are Captain America, Batman, Superman, Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Fireman Sam.  He loves movies such as The Lion King, Cars, Nemo and Mater's Tall Tales.  He loves to dance to Harper's dance parties, or in department stores, or the car. 
He now outweighs Harper by 2 pounds, but she definitely isn't his little sister.  He loves to be with his sisters and will even play Barbies or babies to be with them (although this usually involves a car or boat as well!)
I ask Graham every day, "Who loves you the most?"  He says, "Mom and Dad, Lucy and Harper". 

All things Harper

Harper's weekly schedule:
Sat, Sun and Mon- free!
Tuesday: school and ballet
Wed: School
Thursday: school and usually a playdate
Friday: school

Harper loves school and ballet.  She loves all her new friends in both.  She has a new teacher in school this year and loves the changes that being one of the big kids brings: weighing things on scales, art projects, feeding the fish, banging the cymbols to get the class' attention.  She has repeatedly earned stickers for her going the extra mile behavior- helping a fellow student or cleaning up things that others had messed.  She is a leader in the class and that is exactly how she likes it.

At ballet she is a super rule follower.  Mrs. Houghton keeps a tight ship and Harper loves to show off how disciplined she can be.  Some of her best friends are in the class with her: Lila, Penny and Rachel as well as her past ballet friend, Hayden.  Recently I peeked behind the curtain to watch a moment of class.  When I commented to Harper later that I could see her "running around thr room" she stopped me in my tracks.  "Mom, I was not running.  We don't run in ballet class.  We arabesque, plie, leap, twirl and tip toe.  We do not run."  Many hand gestures, facial expressions and a mom-you-embarrass-me voice rounded out the exchange. 

At home Harper is all bout Littlest Pet Shop, Barbies, baby dolls, playing doctor and dressing up.  She also loves to look at books, listen to books on cd and "do homework" which are pre-k and kindergarten appropriate workbooks.  She loves to demonstrate how smart she is.  And she is very smart, can't wait until she is reading, she will absolutely love it.  When not doing these things she loves to dj house dance parties.  Her faves to play are One Direction, Kesha, Britney, and Katy Perry. 
And she eats.  The littlest one in the house often eats more than any of us on any given day.  Graham weighs 2 pounds more than her, but she easily eats 2-3 more plates of food than he does each day.  Hummingbird!

All things Lu

Here is Lucy's schedule for the Fall 2012:

Sunday: Soccer game in am, winter swim in the pm
Monday: School, Running Club and or Brownies
Tuesday: School, Chess Club
Wednesday: School, usually a playdate
Thursday: School, playdate with Kes and straight to soccer practice
Friday: School
Saturday: Soccer

Add in her first year for studying for tests, homework, chores and a super busy social calendar and we barely see her and she barely sits.  When she does have free time she usually heads outside to ride her bike, swing, or climb trees.  She also loves art projects, playing with her Jupiter Juice and reading, reading and reading.  She especially loves Magic Treehouse books or anything nonfiction involving American history or animals.  Her favorite tv shows right now are Brady Bunch reruns and Call of the Wildman (or Turtleman, as she calls him).  She also loves Animal Planet programs.

She loves being in second grade and her teacher, Ms. Stobbe who is young and energetic and loves to encourage Lucy's empathetic nature.  Lucy, for the 3rd year in a row has gotten comments from her homeroom teacher in the first month of school about her ability to empathise with students who are having trouble adjusting to being back in school.  She truly is a friend to everyone in her class and tries to include those who are often left out, at least while in school, as much as possible.  Good kid!

Super Graham is 3!

Graham turned 3 after 2 months of talking about his birthday.  He was pretty certain that he wanted a Super Hero Birthday for about 2 months.  What that really meant for a 3 year old party is that everyone wore their own capes (BYOC!) and Graham handed out masks and super hero shields to everyone.  We hung "bad guys" which were really Halloween mummies, witches and skeletons so the boys could battle them with bean bags and save the day!
Graham had a wonderful time and is already planning his birthday party for next year.  But he is cherishing being 3.  He knows how to show you "3" 3 different ways on his fingers and he constantly tells me that he is a big boy.  But a big boy that still hugs me everytime he hasn't seen me for 5 minutes, and who cuddles with me in bed nearly every morning.  He also says, "my mom loves me the most!"  That I do. 

Olympic Fun for 7!

Lucy celebrated her 7th birthday with an Olympic Birthday Party with 25 of her favorite friends.  The girls came in to the tunes of the Olympiad, donned glittery makeup and hair gel like the US gymnasts and nibbled on red, white and blue fare (chocolate covered marshmallows dipped in colored sprinkles were the crowd fave!) Once everyone had arrived the games began. 
Each girl first tried out their shot put with water balloons aimed at a target (bravely held in place by Ian who got his share of water balloons to the shoulder).  Once each girl had a go at it a few times, we moved onto the gymnastics portion of the program where they each had to walk across our newly made balance beam and give us a spectacular dismount- this was the girls' favorite competition.  Third, the girls broke into relay teams to do happy hopper races.  Finally, we broke out Lucy's favorite tunes to allow the girls to perform dance and gymnastics moves with their new ribbon sticks.
Soccer, tether ball, swing added to the sportiness and all seemed to have a great time.  Lucy gave out gold medals and red, white and blue candy (twizzlers, blue pixie stix and white candy stick) as favors and thanked everyone for coming.
Next year I'm aiming for a 3 girl sleepover!

Barbie says, "Shhhhh..."

Ahhh, our house.  I literally count the minutes some days until it is quiet.  We all know and it is well documented that Lucy has the gift of gab, even if she isn't talking to anyone but herself.  And then there is Harper who also likes to chat, and sometimes to herself, but also in a high pitched "this is me being a girl" voice.  Or she is screaming at Graham.  Or Lucy.  Or she is telling me a 23 minute account of a 25 minute show she saw 2 weeks ago.  Complete with hand gestures.  And then there is Graham.  Our once quiet Graham who couldn't hear the world but then got tubes a year ago and now talks perhaps more than anyone in the house, but with crashing noises, occasional falling down, repetition, and a sense of humor all his own.  Add Kidz Bop, Lucy's One Direction, Harper's ever going dance party, my talk radio and all the other household noises that just happen with 5 people around and you get one noise saturated house.
With that being said.  I had low expectations today when the girls were dropped off at school and I had Graham to myself this morning to be followed by Harper and her friend Anna for the afternoon.  So I was very surprised when my little man carried his Spider Man car downstairs next to where I was working and began playing.  But not with Spider Man.  With Barbies.  Folks, he played with Barbies for 3 hours today.  Even when the girls came home and they moved onto other things. He played with Barbies.  He took all of their clothes off and chose new ones for each one.  I helped him dress them but then he would disappear again to put them in the giant pink Barbie car and away they would go.  In almost silence.  So quiet.  So uninterrupted.  Work was finished.  Chores were finished. 
I know what some people think about boys playing with dolls.  But I will take it any time.  It made him happy but most importantly, it made things quiet.  Quiet, in the middle of the day. 

A great Swim Season Comes to a Close

Lucy wrapped up her second swim season last night at her team's swim banquet.  This was a fun year since her team moved up to division 6 (the lower the number, the better the division). They went undefeated and had so many team record breakers.  This year also marked the first time Lucy swam in an "A" meet, swimming butterfly and shaving 14 seconds off her previous time.  She received a trophy for her participation as well as a "paper plate" award titled the "mother duck" award.  She got this since she is one of the "little ducks" to one of the older girls on the team, Caroline.  She follows her everywhere and Caroline takes care of her at swim meets.  They have formed a great friendship this summer so the paper plate award speaks to her time on the sidelines at the meets. Another great award would have been "most likely to be found atop the coach's shoulder" since this is the other place she could be found during the meets.
At the completion of the season, Lucy was swimming freestyle, backstroke and butterfly in B meets.  She finished the last day of practice with a personal best in both butterfly and freestyle.  She is eager to add breaststroke so will be wanting to work on them in the off season.
She is sad to see the season end since it is her favorite of all her extra curricular activities, but it will be nice to have some down time in August before school and soccer, winter swim, Brownies, Lego club, running club... start.  Now its just time to swim and play and sleep-in (hear that Graham and Harper?, we are sleeping in!)

I love Lucy, but who does Lucy love?

Just when I begin to think Lucy is a tom boy through and through, we have a sleepover and I find out that the innocent drawing of a boy she made at camp the other day has "Lucy loves Charlie" on the back.  She says, "I can't help it, I have a little crush." 
Now I'm wishing she was that tom boy again.

Real Man

So says Graham, while standing in a very wide stance, "I'm a real man with my phone and sword!"  While wearing a necklace, holding a pink phone and a foam sword. Then he added, "And I'm going to Book Club!"

First "A" meet!

Lucy is 6 this summer which means that she swims in the 6 and under category for swim meets.  Her team has "B" meets on Monday nights in which the kids all swim all their able strokes and then the top 3 times in each category swim in the "A" meet on Saturdays.  But they don't have 6 and unders in the "A" meets so the chances of Lucy besting times of girls who are 2 years older than her has just seemed out of her reach.  Until this past week.  With one of her rivals absent from the meet and Lucy's ability to swim butterfly, she got her chance.
She started the week at Monday's meet swimming a time of 47+ seconds swimming against 8 and under girls and boys.  The coaches got to work.  If the team was swimming freestyle, Lucy was swimming fly.  If the team was working on starts, she was too, but with the intent to start at fly.  We asked one coach to give her a private lesson on Friday afternoon.  In just half an hour, she went from looking like she would tire quickly to looking like she actually knew what she was doing.
Saturday morning we arrived at our pool at 7:50.  It was already 95 degrees outside.  Lu was going to swim for less than a minute and we were going to sweat it out for 4 hours.  But that didn't matter, we just wanted her to be happy with her race.
Backstroke.  Breaststroke.  Butterfly. 
First the 8 and under boys.  Then Lu was up.  She usually looks around to see who is cheering.  Not this time.  She was very serious.  She even donned her swim cap, which up until this moment, she had refused to wear.  She was ready to bring her "A" game. 
And that she did.  She hung in there with the older girls and as one coach put it, "barely missed placing" since she finished in synch with 3 other girls, even flat out beating 1 of them.  And the best part- her time was 33+ seconds- she had shaved 14 seconds off her time, in 5 days.  Unbelievable!
Needless to say, we are very proud.  She is very proud.  She is certain that she'll never get to race in an "A" meet again this year, being only 6.  But if you look at her time, you'll see that she has a real chance to go every week. 
We found out today that she ended up DQing in her race.  She is not happy about this and is wanting to ask her coaches why.  When I explained to her that the judges are tougher in "A" meets.  She said, "I don't care.  I wanted to win and I wanted to make my coaches happy."  Looks like she has a new challenge ahead of herself.  And knowing that she can make great progress when she wants to, I have no reason to doubt that she will swim another "A" meet this season, and it will be a clean race.  And it will be faster than 33 seconds.  And it will make her coaches proud.  And us, too!

Lemons

Graham is the epitome of summer.  Tanned, flip flopped, baggy shorts and many a nautical t shirt.  But the real reason why he looks like a "surfer dude", as Lucy would say, is because of his giant head of floppy bleached blonde hair.  Everyone loves his hair.  Strangers shake it when they walk by.  Folks talk about it at the pool, the playground, and Bible school.  But if you ask Graham, he is not blonde. 

"I'm not blonde!!!"
"Graham, blonde means yellow or whitish hair."
"I'm not blonde!  I'm lemon!"

And so it goes.  He has very strong opinions about this, and other things like this. 
He is not handsome.  He is "awesome".
He is not strong.  He is "big muscles".
He is not cute.  He is "cool".
And now he is sour on blonde, but he IS lemon.

Summer Update

I know, I know.  I need to blog more and used to be soooo much better.  But we are busy.  It ain't easy squeezing in time for much of anything, much less recording what the kids are doing since they are always doing something!
Here is the long and short of it!
Graham

Graham potty trained in May.  It was all his idea.  He woke up one morning and said, "I don't wear diapers anymore."  The truth was, he spent 3 days not going in the potty either.  When I said, "I give up, time to go back to diapers."  He resolved to go on the potty- and we haven't looked back.  Since then, he has become obsessed with trying out the bathrooms in every restaurant, store, or other public space that we go to.  He also is obsessed with his under roos- from Buzz and Woody, to Cars, to Thomas the Tank Engine to Batman, he likes them all and likes to change them several times a day to give all his favorites a chance to be worn.  My favorite potty training quote from Graham in the early days of training, "Mom, Batman is a bad guy.  He is on my underwear.  I can't wear those, because Batman is going to get my penis."  He has since changed his thoughts on this and Batman is not a bad guy.
Graham is a liar.  I mean that in a sweet way, but he is still a liar.  He makes up stuff all the time and truly believes that if he is exited enough or says it loud enough, then it will be true.  For instance, at the pool the other day I told him it was time to wrap things up.  His reply, "And go to Charlie's Super Hero Birthday Party!!!  I can't wait. We are going to his house for the party, eating cake, playing games and I am going to get goodies!"  Charlie was not having a party.  Nor has Graham been invited to a party for Charlie.  But Graham felt that if he gave it his all, it just might happen- that afternoon.    He also likes to make things up like:
"I have never eaten carrots."
"I don't have any sisters."
"I'm really sad.  I've never had any treats.  Ever."
"I live in a tunnel."
"I don't have a bed."- told to another mother at the pool
"I've never been to sleep."
 "I have a brother named Ben."- told to a stranger at the store. 
Liar.  Liar. Liar. He also tells everyone that he is 5. To which Harper always replies, "He isn't 5, he's 2. He just likes the number 5. I'm 4, I'm bigger."
Graham loves to lay on his floor and play with cars. Or trains.  Or airplanes. Or dinosaurs.  He also loves to listen to books on cd.

Harper

Harper is a pest.  This is her favorite thing to do.  i should stop here since this is pretty much what she spends her day doing.  And loving every minute of it.  With a smile. And graham takes the bait.  Every time!
But of course, there is more, not much, but I have to mention that she loves coloring, drawing pictures of dogs, rainbows, people walking dogs under rainbows...
She also loves riding her bike, learning to swim, putting on jewelry or makeup.  Harper loves ballet and playing doctor with Lucy and Graham.  She loves helping me cook and is relishing helping me shop at the Farmer's Market where she likes to choose the veggies for dinner and try all the bread samples.  She is growing up and sounding and looking bigger, just not getting any bigger!

She had her first ever ballet recital in June.  Gramzie and Pop Pop were able to see her at her dress rehearsal and Bon Bon and Grandpa and Aunt Taylor were all present for her full recital.  She did great!  While her class consisted of 1 girl who cried and ran off the stage, 1 who fell and had her tutu flip over her head, 1 who pretty much just stood there and 2 who half did the routine, Harper stood out.  She did the entire routine, with a smile and in perfect time.  Next up, she goes to Ballet Camp for July.
And did I mention she is a pest?  She loves to switch seats in the car to make Graham scream.  She loves to walk over, take a toy that Graham has put down and casually walk away with it, making Graham scream. If Graham says, "I don't want to read Dumbo.".  Harper will quietly whisper, "We're going to read Dumbo."  40 times.  Until he is crying and screaming.  If Graham hears a song and says, "this is my favorite song!"  Harper says, "this is my song."  And makes Graham scream.  See a pattern here?
Hence the reason why Harper is spending more and more time at playdates is simply to give Graham (and Me!) a break.  She went to a friend's house last month for "Princess Camp" where they donned princess dresses and then dusted the house a la Cinderella.  She loved it.  Then she wanted to host her own camp.
She chose Christmas in the summer camp. She had over 4 friends and they made ornaments for our palm tree xmas tree, decorated stockings, listened to Christmas music and books, watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, drank frozen hot chocolate, decorated sugar cookies and ended up with opening presents- which they jumped to the conclusion that Santa had brought to them. 

Lucy

Lucy ended her first grade year on a high note, finishing some stories she had been working on, having a great field day, running in her second track meet, and earning a certificate for always being kind to others in her class.
Ending first grade meant ending Daisies (and moving on to Brownies).  For the big Daisy finale, we took the troop camping with 200 other girl scouts.  It was cabin camping and the highlights were a group challenge course, a stream hike (where Lucy was the first to jump into the stream and get her feet wet in looking for critters in the water), hours of campfire cooking, a big campfire with skits and songs, a hayride and lots of giggling, singing and running, climbing, and skipping about- oh, and I killed a black widow spider that was found hiding inside the roll of toilet paper the girls had been using for 2 days.

With school over, that means swimming is in full force for Lucy.  She has practice 5 days a week and a meet every monday night.  She still hasn't finished worst than 3 in any race and has scored personal bests every meet in at least one stroke.  And she has added butterfly to her reportoire.  She is the only 6 and under swimming fly and this means that we are at meets until 9:30 every week while the rest of her friends leave around 8.  She loves fly and is found practicing all the time.  And being the only 6 and under means that she always gets a blue ribbon!
Lucy loves meets.  She loves being independent  and on the other side of the pool with her team mates where she is usually found flirting with teenage boys or sitting and playing cards with teenage girls.  But a good chunk of time she is found sitting upon her coaches shoulders while he coaches the team from the side of the pool.  Independence means that she has her own dinner, her own card games, doodle pads, money to spend at the concession stand and pretty much acts as though we are aliens if we dare cross over the team line.
In her spare time, she is reading up a storm.  Her favorites are the Magic Tree House chapter books.  She reads about 3 or 4 a week.  She also loves to help with chores around the house (I love that she LOVES to dust and vacuum!), swinging in the backyard and she just started up her tennis lessons for the summer.  She has mastered going across the monkey bars, wrapped up her soccer season, and is still climbing everything she sees.
Oh, and she LOVES Turtleman.  What started out as letting Lucy watch Animal Planet has ended up with her begging to watch Call of the Wildman at all hours of the day.  She thinks Turtleman is awesome for these reasons:
-he's from Kentucky
-he "looks like Pops"
-"he sounds like Pops"
-he catches wild animals
-he makes crazy noises
She can now be caught in the basement with a wooden knife in her teeth, a riding crop that she is poking at some innocent stuffed animal and yelling, "Live Action!"  Lord help us.

 
 More photos to come.  I got a new fancy camera that I have no idea how to use!

Spring Update

Wow!  It has almost been 2 months since I posted.  What to say... Well, we have had a very busy couple of months, here's the short of it...
Lucy

• Lucy's schedule includes Daisies, winter swim, running club, book group, soccer
• Her favorite activities include riding her bike, reading, roller skating, climbing trees, climbing the walls (literally, she can climb up the doorways in our house), practicing soccer,, making art out of recycled materials, looking through her ribbons book from last year's swim season, helping make dinner, making her siblings go along with whatever scenario she has cooked up.
• Latest scenarios she has cooked up: "Mom, we are firemen astronauts in a parade who like to sing"  Said while wearing her astronaut flight suit, headset, juggling little bean bags, a fireman's helmet, rain boots (without socks as she kept pointing out, guess that is suppose to make her tougher) and singing "Dynomite" at the top of her lungs while Graham wears his rain boots, shorts, a few strands of mardi gras beads, and sings chorus for her.  Harper was curled up in her pajamas on the living room chair pretending to be watching said parade.  
• Sports notes
• Swimming- Lucy is taking off in the pool.  She is a speedy little freestyler, backstroker and her dives are awesome.  In addition, she is learning butterfly- butterfly!  
• Soccer- she is a great little dribbler and is speedy when she gets the break away.  BUT, she is so darn polite that she often gives the ball to other players to take off with.
• School notes
• Still chatting her way through the day
• Working on a story called "The 3 little crabs and the big bad lobster"
• Loved learning about money, time, and geometry and fractions
• Is mastering the spelling lists suggested by her teacher.  They don't have spelling tests in first grade, but she loves spelling.  Our game: for every 5 words she spells correctly , she earns a piece of candy for after school.  Her game: spell 10 words correctly because "I like like even numbers.  If I spell 15 right, then I really need to spell 20 correctly, because I like 4 better than 3 pieces of candy."  Whatever works.
• Big incentive for the end of the year- work on less chatter at school and more finishing of stories, morning work and other writing assignments and she gets to go to the Baltimore Aquarium with a friend to see the dolphins
• Science Fair project in March was "Tracking trash, how trash ends up in the ocean"
• Favorite outfit: Too small Superman tshirt, shorts, no shoes, neon yellow jacket when chilly
• Favorite quote: "Mom, your fancy.  I'm just not.  Look at that jewelry, those shoes.  Fancy.  Hey, for my birthday will you get me one of those charm necklaces?"  She then proceeded to pick out about 10 charms she wanted.  She's "fancy", she just doesn't want to admit it.

Harper

• Harper's schedule includes: school, ballet, Monday playdates with Anna, Wednesday playdates with Rachel, morning playdates with Penny
• Her favorite activities include Littlest Pet Shop, Barbies, baby dolls, playing restaurant, looking through books and retelling them like she's reading to Graham, looking through jewelry (mine and hers), playing in the backyard, painting her finger nails, putting on makeup, playing with Graham and Lucy, watering her flowers, picking flowers, collecting pine cones, learning the names of flowers, playing princess
• School notes
• Harper is a definite leader in her class and loves all the kids in her class, she loves choosing "Weather helper and snack helper" as her jobs in the classroom.  She has taught all her school friends to collect flowers and pine cones while on the playground.  She comes out of school every day with a handful of flowers to be put in a little vase that she puts on the bookcase next to her bed in her room.
• Her favorite area of the classroom is the science area. She also loves the art area.  
• Science Fair Project: (only preschooler to do a science fair project!) "How zookeepers take care of giraffes"
• Ballet notes
• Harper missed a few of her regular ballet classes when we traveled to Kentucky for spring break.  to make up the classes, she dropped into another class.  They are practicing their recital routines at the moment so when they would get to that part of the class, she would practice with them. Then, one day, her teacher asked if she wanted to show this class of strangers her class' recital routine.  And that's when my shy little thumb sucking 3 year old stood up and did her recital routine, all by herself, for a room full of other 3 and 4 year old girls.  I think ballet might just be the perfect outlet for her.
• Her class is learning a routine to a song called, "I'm a pretty rose."  Harper loves the costume- white, sparkles, tutu and roses.  Of course, SHE loves it!

• We just got our caterpillars for our butterfly house.  There are 5 so we all got to name one.  The names: Lucy- Creepy, Graham- 5, Sara- Iggy, Ian- Homer, Harper- Cinderella Tinkerbell Sparkle Glitter.  Quite a name for a fuzzy brown caterpillar! 
• Birthday on the brain!  More to come on that later, but know that she is obsessed with talking about her birthday, the party, the presents, how big she is...
• Favorite outfit: anything sparkly, pink, purple, frilly.  She loves clothes.  She loves sparkly sandals and flip flops, but also loves mary janes in any color.  She loves a tutu like skirt from Bon Bon that has pink, gold and sparkles- really, it was made for the Harpers of the world.
• Favorite Harper quote: " Mom, there's only one Harper- and I'm all yours!"

Graham

•  Graham's schedule includes: schlepping back and forth to school 3 times a day, schlepping to Mom's errands, playing with his buddy Charlie, Friday boys' playdates, more schlepping
• Her favorite activities include tackling, tickling, and wrestling, playing basketball, coloring, playing soccer, playing trains, cars, trucks, airplanes, looking at books, listening to books on cd, riding his scooter, playing restaurant, playdoh, playing super heroes.
• Grocery- this is Graham's favorite outting, well, favorite errand.  He loves the car carts at the grocery but more importantly, he loves the child sized carts at Trader Joe's where he does his own grocery shopping.  His cart always includes berries, granola bars, cinnamon bread, peanuts and bananas.  He once tried to add a bottle of wine, "for Daddy".
• Birthday on the brain.  Yes, HIS birthday.  You can ask him, he will tell you that his birthday is in September, but since we are planning Harper's birthday, he wants a piece of the action.  He knows that Charlie will be at his party.  And Knox.  That's all her really cares about.  Oh, and the fact that he will be 5.  Yes, you read that right.  5.  Favorite number.
• Favorite color- orange.  Orange everything.  
• Favorite outfit: Super man shirt (yes, I wrote that for Lucy as well!), Mickey Mouse tshirt, anything that Max used to wear, shorts, black "Kangaroo" shoes or gray flip flops- because they were Max's
• Favorite Graham quote,"I love you Mom."  I reply, "I love you Graham."  He answers, "We got a lotta love, right?!"  Right.  I also love when he yells at his buddy Charlie, "You're my best friend, right?!"  Hilarious.  

Sleepover

It's 10pm, 5 kids asleep.  All is so peaceful.  Here is how the night really went down:
-one kid whizzed all over the floor in the bathroom.  Her reply:"accidents happen!", a big smile and off to leave me to clean up her mess.
Ummm. make that 4 kids asleep- Harper was just found roaming the upstairs looking for a drink and a bathroom break- and another drink.
back to the earlier events...
-Graham digging his heels in because it was his night to choose the movie.  Yes, that is correct, but when you are a 2 year old boy who likes to watch Cars and the guests are 6  and 7 year old girls, you lose your choice for the night.  He screamed, "it's not fair!"  And ran to his room only to resurface less than a minute later with a ridiculous smile and nodding his head that, "I do want to watch a movie with the girls.  Lucy can pick.  I will choose Nemo- tomorrow.  Yes, I will choose Nemo tomorrow.  That's ok.  I will watch the movie with the girls."  And then hugging me and avoiding eye contact for 20 minutes.
-one girl crying because "she doesn't like the way Lucy talks to Harper"  This coming from a little sister and not liking how a big sister (Lucy) was talking to her little sister (Harper).  My reply: You're right, it's not nice, but Harper IS being a pest and sometimes big sisters aren't very nice to little sisters.  to which both Harper and Lucy agreed.
-one girl claiming that she was probably going to fall asleep during the movie (which was not Nemo, but rather Dolphin Tale) and then promptly jumping on the couch and getting out every toy in the basement- so much for sleep!
-One girl coming to me after all were in sleeping bags and off to sleep to tell me, with tears, that she missed her mom.  I asked her to give it 10 minutes and then we could call her mom.  She was asleep in 5. 
-Graham saying to me as we cuddled on the couch at the end of the movie, "Mom, I love you.  I don't know why.  I just do."  And then he burped in my face.
So yes, they are asleep, but I am the one exhausted!

Oops! I forgot something!

Picture this:  Harper, out of the bath, brushing her hair, putting on some red santa socks and her one piece pajamas that snap all the way up. It takes her 10 minutes to get dressed. Then you hear, "Oops!  I forgot my underwear!" And the process starts all over again.  Only in a 3 year-old's world.

Watch out bad guys!

They are a fierce threesome: Captain America with his big muscles, Super Girl with her green cape and mask, and Captain America 2 with her karate chops and kicks.  We are definitely safe in this house, until the princesses take over.

Friends in funny hats

See a theme here?  Short.  Two years old.  Big cheeks.  Funny hat.  Hanging with your best bud. 

Awesome shirt

Uncle Hunter made the kids awesome t-shirts for Christmas.  Lucy's is an astronaut outfit, without having to wear the whole enchilada.  She wears it about once a week- she loves it!  harper's is a purple tshirt with fairy wings painted on the back and Graham's is green with tiny little T Rex arms painted on the front.  They are all awesome and they each love that they are made special for them , with their interests in mind. 

Daisy trip to Gadsby's

Lucy with her friend, Spencer, at Gadsby's tavern where they learned how to "Prepare for a Ball".  The girls learned an 18th century dance, talked about grace and manners and made "hedgehog cheese".  The best, Lucy got to take her friend, Spencer who isn't in our troop.  They got a special trip to the candy store after the field trip where they terrorized the poor teenage boy working the register by asking him over and over again about every piece of candy in the store, just for giggles. 

Cute day

Zoo with Charlie

Harper had a play date on Monday with her new buddy, Anna, so Graham and I grabbed his buddy, Charlie and headed to the zoo.  The boys loved chasing the meerkats, watching the orangatans going across the O-line, and seeing the lions.  Wagon rides, waterfalls, snacks and chatting about moms in the backseat of the van and you've got a pretty good day with your buddy. 

Tethered

Lucy got a tetherball for Christmas and it has changed her life.  Literally.  She is obsessed.  It doesn't matter how cold it is, if it's raining, snowing or windy.  She wants to be out there.  It started modestly enough.  We put it outside about a week after Christmas and she took a few miserable swats at it.  Lots of whiffs.  Not much game.
But now, watch out.  She can hit it forehand, backhand, with power and with finesse.  She is a tetherball pro.  She, of course, commentates the entire game and only hits her brother in the head with the ball a few times a week. 
It will be interesting to see her tennis game this spring.  For now, we are tethered to the tetherball.

Gonna make you itch

Last week was a doozey.  We were wrapping up a busy weekend with Lucy going to swim practice.  After swim she heads to the showers.  She changes and since she had been quick I put her under the dryer to dry her hair.  I am combing through her hair when I see it.  A bug.  Not just any bug. Lice.
Never in my life have I gotten out of a place faster.  Within minutes we are in the car and I am calling home to tell Ian to keep up the little ones before bedtime and I have notified her friend whom I am picturing over and over again with her head against Lucy's as they tell secrets.
I get home and the worst case possible lies before me: all 3 kids have lice.
I begin treating them and Ian goes to the store for more meds, sprays, etc.  I then spend the next 4 hours picking nits out of the kids hair.  Gross.  I mean really gross.
12:30am I finally put the last one to bed and Ian heads off to bed (he had already done several loads of laundry, treated all the mattresses, vaccuumed, etc.)  I then continue to de-lice the house until 3:30am.  Thankfully we were out of school for a few days due to teacher work days and the kids didn't have to miss school.
Several days of nit-picking and 21 loads of laundry in 3 days, vacuuming every soft surface every day for a week...
I don't wish it upon anyone and dread getting it again.
Sorry.  I know, it makes you itch just thinking about it.  Feel free to scratch now.

Is today Monday?

We were riding down the street the other day listening to the radio and the song, "Moves like Jagger" came on.  Harper declared, "I like this song, but I choose not to sing it today.  I usually sing this song but only on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays". 
Total nonsense, but that about sums up many of Harper's grand statements these days. 

Teenage Dream

Harper is very eager to become a teenager.  She asks me everyday "how many days until I am a teenager?"  She also wants to know what a teenager is.  She also wants to make sure that teenagers are not adults, but does not like the explanation that they are "big kids".  Whatever, she thinks they are awesome. 
Another favorite topic?  When her hair is going to change color.  After looking at baby books and seeing that her hair used to be darker brown and seeing pictures of me when I was little and seeing that my hair used to look like hers does now, she is obsessed about her changing color.  She says things like, 'I wish my hair would change color!  It's just not fair.  I want to be a teenager with brown hair."
If only she could see into the future and add up all the money she will one day spend to have hair the color she has now, she would cherish it!

Thumbelina or Ballerina

She's tiny enough to fit into the palm of most adult's hands, but our little Thumbelina has become a bonafied Ballerina!  Here she is waiting for class to start.  And yes, those are legwarmers on her arms.  She has decided that she would rather not get a long sleeved leotard, she likes the versatility of having legwarmers that can not only be worn on her legs but also her arms.  That girl is all about fashion.  No tutu either.  She noticed that the 'teenagers' that help out at the ballet school don't wear tutus and since she is all about wanting to be a teenager that means tutus are out, unless you are just going to the grocery store, then they are totally appropriate.

Better late than never

Ok, so I've been slacking in the blogging department, but here are some photos from the Fall, more to come...

 Lucy with her friend Ashleigh, as pilgrims, for their Thanksgiving feast at school.

 A little bathtime with the cousins.

 Harper in her Cindy Lu Who candycane ears at her school holiday party. 

 Graham chillin' with Chloe, on her bed.

 Lucy with her Build-A-Bear dog, Sean, which she created for her birthday present from Pops and Grandma. He now has a mini friend who looks just like him that she named, "Ice". 

 Graham and best bud, Charlie, in the leaves.

 Harper and Graham at bottom of slide after chuting into a giant pile of leaves.

Lucy at her school's Boosterthon.  She did 36 laps!

Good Kid

This is the third of such letters or emails I have gotten since the beginning of the school year about Lucy.  I thought it was about time to share them with family and friends.  We couldn't be more proud and are happy that Lucy takes my mantra to heart, which I repeat to both she and Harper everyday before school: "Do your best and be a good friend".  Read below a letter from a mom of one of Lucy's classmates:

Hi Sara,
I wanted to share with you something Antonio told me yesterday...very sweet! Antonio wore his cub scout uniform to school (all scouts were instructed to do so for cub scout anniversary). "Brian" started laughing at Antonio's uniform and said how stupid he looked and had everyone laughing. Antonio was in tears and Lucy spoke up and said how much she liked antonio's uniform. Antonio said what a good friend Lucy is!!!  She is the best!

Busy little bees

Harper starts ballet this Saturday.  I will be sure to post pictures.  She has been asking for this day for months and is terribly excited.  She keeps trying on her ballet shoes, just to "see", as she says.  We are also starting a swap with one of her friends so that they can get in a playdate every Wed and the other mom and I can take turns working in Lucy's class.  She also has other playdates lined up- finally, we have 3 year old girls to play with!  In the meantime she is obsessed with tights and dresses, wearing makeup, dressing up in her new princess dresses.  See a theme?

Lucy is busy with school, playdates, Daisies, selling Girl Scout cookies, participating in her own book group, swimming and starts Cheer club next week.  She loves all her new Lego sets she received for Christmas and has been mastering her new tetherball game.  She also still rides her bike and climbs trees every chance she gets.  In addition, she is now too cool for school since she was given an ipod filled with "her music" for Christmas.  She likes to walk around the house, singing at the top of her lungs.  She thinks she is so cool and always wants to make sure somebody sees her with her iPod when she is listening.  Her favorite songs are "tonight, tonight" and "Dynomite".

And Graham.  Graham is obsessed with his new train tracks and plays with them for hours everyday.  Who knew that having dozens of trains still wouldn't be enough?  The kids all still fight over who has more trains.  He loves his new scooter and wagon.  See a theme here?   Wheels, wheels, wheels.  In addition, Graham is growing.  He has outgrown his shoes, his pants and his belly is starting to stick out of his shirts.  He can now climb up onto our bed and he has a big boy bed of his own now.  His gang of friends will start getting together again next week and in the meantime, he is squeezing in some time with his best bud, Charlie.    Graham is much loved up at school where half the teachers know him by name and are looking for him every morning as we wait for the preschool to start.  And the kids flock to him as well.  And he knows he is magnetic, funny and cute. 

I Love You!

When you have nothing else to say, why not say, "I love you"?  This is Graham's strategy.  He tells me a thousand times a day that he loves me.  He says it when he sees me as I walk into the room, he tells me when he says thank you, he tells me as I change his diaper, when I give him snacks, read him a book and especially when he is in trouble.  And I don't mean he does this during one of these times each day, I mean every day, at each of these times.  And then some.  And I think he actually means it.  He knows that love to him means hugs and kisses, smiles and being nice.  And when he is in trouble he can even be desperate to tell me that he loves me. 

For now, it works on me.  And Ian.  And his sisters.  Who all eagerly tell him we love him right back.