To boldly go where no five year old has gone before

Lucy turned five this past Sunday with a space birthday party that was, well, out of this world crowded.  After a three month spell of hardly any rain at all, we had rain, rain and more rain Saturday night into Sunday morning, leaving our grass-starved backyard a bit of a mud-pit.  We decided to clear out the playroom and turn it into a party room.  With two birthday girls (Kylee being the other) and 13 guests, it was a bit crowded, add parents, little siblings and games that were meant to be played outdoors, well, space themed, maybe, spacious, not!
Lucy didn't even seem to notice the chaos, she had a great time, loved all the games and prizes and loved having her old friends mix it up with new friends from kindergarten.  Of course, no 5 year old minds a mountain of presents and a mountain it was.  On Friday we counted 25 presents that were wrapped in our house for Lucy, add Gramzie and Pop Pops' which arrived with Gramzie on Saturday and gifts from friends, well, you can see she was a bit spoiled.  She recognized her good fortune, though and noted that she had "gotten everything she had asked for and even a whole lot of others- that's great!"
The sleeper hit of the day was a whoopee cushion sent from Uncle D in a birthday card. After reveling in money from other cards sent as well, she decided to try out the whoopee cushion.  You will see in the video that the entertainment value of a whoopee cushion is well worth the cost.  She may be the world's worst prankster, utterly incapable of sneaking up on somebody, but she sure does get a kick out of the game.
Among her favorite gifts were a horse stable and trailor, a pretend school set, littlest pet shop pets, a glitter Barbie, a Sea World Barbie and a set of princess figurines. She also loves an "astronaut headset" that she walks around wearing, counting down a forthcoming mission.

We celebrated in the morning with gift opening and then her party.  That evening we went out to dinner and sang over coconut ice cream, which she gave a big thumbs up.  Whoopee cushion fun followed and then it was off to bed.  She took Rice Crispy Treats into school the next day, the first day of the school year in which she had to walk into school all on her lonesome, it was a very "five year old" thing to do.

Harperisms

Harper is growing up so fast.  She is virtually a little Lucy and tries so hard to do everything her big sis is doing.  My favorite example of this is when we walk home from school.  Harper suddenly decides that she must walk, which means she has to practically run to keep up with Lucy and she says or talks about whatever Lucy is talking about.  She will even try to finish Lucy's sentences and if you watch her, she is mouthing the words along with Lucy as she listens to every little sound Lucy makes.  With that being said, she still manages to say things that are distinctively Harper.  Here are our favorites:

• "I gotta get my hair tuff!" or stuff
• "Where's my poon?"  or spoon
• "cackers" or crackers
• "Booty and the Beast" or Beauty and the Beast
• "Turn on the yite!" or light
• "I yike spawky tuff" or "I like sparkly stuff"

These things make her sound so little, all the while she can count to 20, knows all her colors, animal sounds, ABCs, some of her shapes and can sing the entire soundtrack from Mary Poppins (both the movie and theatre productions).  She sings all day and all night and makes up songs as well.  My favorite singing moment was when, for at least a solid minute or so she sang, while doing a dance similar to the "Roger Rabbit", "Hum Diddly Hum Diddly I!" from Mary Poppins' "Supercalifragilistiexpialidocius".  It was just that!

Baby Steps

Graham is getting so close to walking.  This is one of his attempts to walk to me.  As you can see, he can be pretty steady one second and ten loosy-goosy, falling on his face the next.  His confidence is building, though, and that helps a lot.  I will say he is tenacious.  He will make walking attempts over and over again for up to half an hour.  Of course, he loves the attention that the girls give him when he walks across the room.

First Day was a Success!

I think it is the best of signs when they are leading the kinders out of the building and many have on shell-shocked faces, some have signs of pure exhaustion and there comes Lucy, bouncing, smiling and chatting it up with a buddy.  She bounded over, said she had "the best first day of kindergarten- ever!" gave me a hug and then came the shell-shock.  She just stood there for a minute, I think decompressing, and then was ready to head home.  For the entire walk she talked about the tour they took of the school, the work they did, the library book she checked out, the rules of the classroom and so on and so on. 
She got home, was starving, ate, ate and ate some more (so did Graham, even though he did not have school today) and opened up a special box that our favorite farmer, Farmer Richard, gave to her as a back-to-school gift (it was a huge box of Asian pears).  Now she and Harper are playing together and talking as though they haven't seen each other in weeks.  She's already excited about tomorrow, that, along with the smiles, is the mark of a great first day!

Terrible Ones?

Ahhh, Graham.  He is turning 1 with a vengeance.  Let's see, there are the endless tantrums, the being naughty just for the sake of being naughty, the pestering of his little big sis, and don't forget the hitting, biting and just plain nastiness when he doesn't get his way. 

Graham's first time-out

Graham celebrated his last month of babyhood with his first snack at the table, out of his high chair, with his sisters; his first time-out and learning to say "No" and "Yes", although mostly preferring "No".

Let's hope the kick-off to his second year starts better than this one is ending, or he may be getting an attitude adjustment for his birthday.

KINDERGARTEN!!

The first two weeks of September always bring about much excitement around here.  Summer is ending so we pack in pool time, we wrap up our summer list and we host a shrimp boil at the end of August.  This year is particularly big because Lucy started kindergarten today, is gearing up for her 5th birthday on Sunday and Graham is right on her heels with his first birthday next week.  Today though, it is all about Lu.
For weeks now we have been going to playdates with new kindergarten friends, at the school playground.  Lucy now knows 10 or more faces and kids (mostly girls- can you believe it?!) and has been getting very comfortable with the idea of going into kindergarten.  We have shopped for back to school clothes and supplies, we have been to registration and open houses.  She has invited a couple kids from her new class to her birthday party and we have met her new teacher, Ms. Amico. 
With all that being said, when I asked her yesterday if she was ready for school and for starting kindergarten, she replied, "Tomorrow?!  School starts tomorrow!"  Who would have thought?
Thank goodness her seemingly startled self settled down and and just got excited about her first day.  She picked out her outfit, decided what she wanted for breakfast (oatmeal with dried apricots) and snack (babybel cheese round, wheat crackers and apple slices- thatta girl!) and packed up all her school supplies.  We went over where the bathroom was, where the water fountain was, her cubby, who her cubby buddy was and where her seat was (center table, center seat).  She was funny because when Lucy gets nervous or excited she gets chatty and this morning was no exception.  She thought everything on our walk to school was great, "Mom, look at those pretty red flowers.  And this grass, it is a really pretty green, isn't it?!!!!)  When we got close to school she was able to pick out new friends among the crowds of 750+ kids and was annoyed when we had to park the stroller and get her brother and sister out so we could walk her in the first day ("Can I just go ahead to my room?")
When we got to her room she walked right over to her cubby, hung up her backpack, took out her folder and went and found her seat.  She wasn't moving.  This is what she was told to do and she didn't want to mess up the first day.  She got excited to see her new friends Kate and Kyle were sitting at her table and that she could see her other buddies Taylor, Allyson and Spencer were there and acting quite cool as well.  (Side note, it must be noted that Harper was playing the coolest kid of them all in her purplicious sunglasses, hanging very close to her big sister's side and occasionally noting that she too would be in kindergarten when she was 5).  She allowed one more photo of her in her kindergarten seat, kissed each of us good bye and then began turning her attention toward the order of the day.
Since other kids were crying, hanging onto their parents and otherwise carrying on, I decided not to tempt the situation and we departed pretty quickly, so proud that our new kidergartener was indeed ready not just for the day, but for her first year in the "big school". 

Good-bye Summer...

With Labor Day signaling the end of Lucy's summer, I thought I would jot down her summer list and include a few notes along the way.

LUCY'S SUMMER LIST 2010 (as dictated to me on the last day of school in June)

1. Catch fireflies
2. Pillow Fight
3. Sprayground
4. Ladybug Release
5. Toy Story 3(with Kylee and Natalie)
6. Meet Daddy for Picnic
7. Building Museum (we went and saw the Lego exhibit and added our own scuptures to the Lego city they were building.  Lucy is obsessed with Legos.)
8. Visit Ms. Hazel
9. Ice Cream from the Ice Cream Man (this is one she wants to repeat every single time we hear his Christmas music playing)
10. Air and Space Museum
11. Sprinkler
12. Bowling (Lucy bowled an 83!)
13. Candy Store
14. Ride a Horse (in Lexington, at Horse Park, with Gramzie)
15. River Farm
16. Mt. Vernon
17. Go to Beach ("North Carolina, Surf City Beach")
18. Botanic Garden
19. See butterflies at the Natural History Museum
20. Baltimore Aquarium (we saw the dolphin show which all three kids loved and were enthralled by.  The girls also liked the giant sea turtle, the stingrays and the shark, oh, and the "Nemo fish")
21. Go see boats at the marina (we did this on Ian's birthday in Annapolis)

And let's not forget 2 1/2 weeks in Kentucky, some of which she was hanging out there without us, water parks, playdates, campout, shrimp boil, bike rides, playground, swimming, swimming and more swimming and getting ready for kindergarten.  We have dubbed this summer "Lucy's greatest summer ever!" and I don't think she would disagree.

Baby Steps

Today, with drool running down his bare chest and belly, Graham stood at arm's length from and walked 4 or 5 steps to me.  He got so excited clapped for himself, patted me on the back and then proceeded to do the same thing over and over again.  He tried to walk to Lucy but got scared and backed down after she let him fall once, so he turned back to me and repeated another half dozen times.  With his confidence gaining, he is right on track to walk by his first bday!

That's Sassafras to You

I often call the girls "Sassafras" when they are being cheeky or just sassy.  Last night at dinner I said something silly to Harper and she replied, "Ok, Sassy Trash!"  Unfortunately, Ian, Lucy and myself all laughed, which spurred her to say it over and over again.  I only heard it once today and while it is very funny, I won't be disappointed that she might forget to call me "Sassy Trash" at the playground.  Of course, if there is one thing that is true about Harper these days it's that she is completely unpredictable.  Sassafras.

She Just Doesn't Want to Know

Recently we pulled up to a stop light and Lucy yelled, "There's a mouse!"  and sure enough, clinging to a tree was a little mouse.  Us girls watched as the little mouse hung out on the tree in midday traffic until the light turned green and we were off.  Lucy said, "that mouse is much cuter than the ones we are trying to catch in the traps at our house."  Uh, sure.
Then, while we were entering a restaurant in Annapolis, "Look! there are lobsters! Why would they keep lobsters in a tank?"  I said, "so folks can eat them."  Her faced dropped.
We have had similar conversations about chicken, turkey, shrimp, etc.  She knows, she just doesn't want to know.

Can I Get a Cold One?

Why is my oldest daughter carrying around a big bucket of blocks yelling, "Who wants a beer?"  And why is my youngest daughter saying, "I do! I do! I do!" and jumping up and down.  Why is their little brother taking the cylinder blocks from his sisters and pretending to throw one back?

Honestly, where have they seen this and why do they know the routine so well that they look like a group of bachelors at a Redskins game? 

These are the questions I am posing today, should anybody have the answers.

Around the house

Just some video of some of the nonsense and fun that happens around here.  With an almost-one year old who insists on cruising and getting into everything and a two-year old who likes her own brand of mischief, you can either label our house a fun-house or a mad-house.  Either way, somebody is always doing something that will make you want to laugh at the sheer silliness of it all.

Harper putting on makeup and Graham in one of Harper's pool cover-ups after I forgot his clothes at home- doesn't he look pretty? (and a whole lot like Lucy's baby pics?)

Soccer Camp

Lucy and her bed bud, Ronin, did a week long British soccer camp last week.  Every day for an hour and a half they learned how to handle the ball, some of the rules of the game and did soccer drills, played games and scrimmaged one another.  Each day, she loved it, even when the weather was fiercely humid and hot.  On the last day they did an extended scrimmage for the parents and a short awards ceremony (think clapping, high fives and a glowing report card for each child).  Her coach was Coach Rufus, from Ireland, and he was great with the kids.  Lucy loved him and loved coming home and telling me all about him, Ireland, and his family ("Did you know that it rains a lot more in Ireland than it does here?  Did you know that Coach Rufus has 5 brothers and 3 sisters?  Did you know that Coach Rufus is going to London when he leaves here?).
The final scrimmage was great and they actually played better than I thought they would.  The funniest part is that they would celebrate so much after each score that they would allow the other team to score immediately afterwards.  Ronin and Lucy were also very concerned with keeping score and keeping tabs on who scored the most.  Not really competing with each other, more trying to make sure all was even.  I got a video of one of Ronin's goals and the other video shows Lucy scoring right at the beginning, it isn't very clear that it is her, but it is.  I think they each scored 2 or 3 goals.
It was a good week and a good second introduction to soccer and Lucy is asking if she can play more this fall.  We'll see.  She also has been asking for more gymnastics this fall and has actually been told by her current teachers that she has "natural talent" and is "very strong and athletic" and that maybe she should try a more structured gymnastics class at a real gym, not a rec center.  Add swimming to the mix and we have quite the budding athlete on our hands. 
For now, we wrap up tumbling this week and the pool will be closing in a few.  We'll look at fall soccer leagues to help her burn off some of her energy and to see if the interest continues.  Looks like I might end up being a soccer mom afterall. Or a gymnastics mom.  Or swimming.  Or whatever she tries next.

Girls Weekend

The girls and I spent a lot of time together this weekend having special outtings.  On Friday, the girls' bffs, Ronin and X invited them to join them for an outdoor showing of Wizard of Oz at the neighborhood pool.  Needless to say, Harper's favorite movie, free popcorn, glow sticks, lemonade and cookies and best buds, the night was a late one, but a huge hit.  They talked nonstop on the way home about how much fun they had.
The next night, it was a true girls night out.  We started getting ready around 5pm.  Getting ready included the selection of princess dresses, tutus, jewelry, the "right" sticker earrings, purses, objects to fill purses and lots of glitter for face, nails, eyes and hair.  Harper went through 3 outfits before settling on the fourth, a "princess ballerina" ensemble that she felt was appropriate for the occasion, complete with purse, plastic high heels and leg warmers.
Lucy said, quite solemnly, "Mom, I think I need to wear a dress tonight", a concept that would normally go against all her principles.  She ended up choosing a fetching pink princess gown, blue star wand, a pink wooden box purse and navy blue sunglasses.
For my part, I decided to dive right in with them.  They chose a tiara, jewelry and a purse for me.  I decided that a dress-up dress might be too hot considering it was very likely that I would end up wearing half of their accessories before the night was over so I wore as much pink as I could muster to make up for the lack of princess dress or tutu. 
Once dressed and covered in much cherry lip gloss, glitter and vaseline-based make-up, we headed to a local church production of "Cinderella" where we ran into many other little girls dressed in their costume-finest and little boys who (for some reason) were all dressed like magicians.  One said magician did performa  trick for me, which included punching me in the nose- quite the trick I might say!
At one point during the show, the performers called all the little girls who were dressed-up onto stage.  Harper would not budge and so we sat back while Lucy stormed the stage, with purse and wand in hand to show off her gorgeousness and to "curtsy like a princess".  She was quite pleased with herself, to say the least.
After a show that never seemed to end, and, as predicted, my being handed one accessory after another to keep tabs of, the girls were thrilled to get in the car and tell me all their favorite parts. Harper's favorite part was when one of the stepsisters feet werer stinky when she tried on the glass slipper (I know this was her favorite part because she said, "that was my favorite part" and retold the story 10 times in the 5 minute car ride home).  Lucy's favorite part was the stepsisters endless fighting.  She said, "I loved when the stepsisters were fighting all the time and their mom would come in and yell at them." I thought it all sounded quite familiar and Lucy said, "No, it's not the same at our house, you aren't old like the stepmother."
One night in Oz and the other a pinkalicious play, it was a very fun girls weekend.

By the way, if you are wondering what the boys did while we were out, I was told their was wrestling, and lots of milk-slinging on Graham's part, and then off to bed.  Oh, and Redskins. 

And he walked on the ceiling!

After many months of anticipation, we finally took Lucy to see Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center.  She chalked up the fact that she was the only kid going to the fact that she is a soon-to-be-kindergartener and therefore quite eligible for such big outtings.  She loved "Let's go fly a kite" and "Step in Time" but her favorite was definitely "Supecalifragilistiexpialidocious"- she is still singing this one over and over again.  The magic in the show did not dissapoint either.  She loved when Mary flew over the crowd, when Mary pulled a coat rack out of her carpet bag and when Bert danced on the ceiling. Now we have the soundtrack to both the movie and the theatre production and the girls listen to one or both every day.

Prince of Peaches

You are what you eat

If the saying is true that "you are what you eat", then Graham is a peach.  You see, we have made friends with a very generous farmer at the Farmer's Market and he sends home oodles of free peaches, nectarines and plums for us each and every week.  For instance, this week he sent home two crates of peaches- free!  You might think that with weeks of free, never-ending, bottomless crates of peaches, the kids would be tiring of anything with a pit. But no, they love peach ice cream, peach jam, peach salsa, grilled peaches, peach cobbler, peach slices, frozen peaches, peach popsicles, and just fresh out of the crate.  Graham especially.

With counterspace a precious commodity in our house, the crates often get put onto the ground to get them out of the way.  This is when he plots his attack. 

Yesterday, I went down the hall to wash my hands.  When I returned, there he was, in a middle of a giant puddle of peach juice, covered from head to toe with three half eaten peaches at his side and his next victim in his slippery little paws.  This was 5 minutes after he had eaten a marathon breakfast that, yes, included peaches.  He then threw his best tantrum to date over the fact that I told him no more peaches.  I put them up on the table to get them out of his easy reach and this is where I found him moments later.  His little hands inside the crate, clawing at peaches.  He can't get them out when they are on the table, but he gets tiny little handfuls and eats them through the crate.  He is obsessed.  As I was telling Ian about his troublemaking a couple hours later, we looked over and he was doing it again.  A peach thief in his own right. 

All of his clothes tell the story.  They are stained terribly around the collar and then his booty tells the story of his juice puddles.  The floors are a sticky mess, I find peach pits in the corners and I won't even tell you about his diapers. 

We will enjoy peach season while it lasts (I'm told we have another month of Graham's vice) and then it is on to apples and pears. We'll see if he shares the same enthusiasm for tree fruits lacking pits, in the meantime, he's just peachy keen.

Little Ladies and Little Lady Bugs and a pest named Graham

We went to our second ladybug release at the Native American Museum a couple weeks ago.  The girls were so excited about it and talked about ladybugs and bees, butterflies (and cockroaches) for days leading up to it.  Once there, Lucy was all aboard.  She walked up, got several handfuls of ladybugs and let them crawl all over her.  Harper, not so much.  She was excited to see them, but was not going to let them crawl all over her.  She would tolerate one at a time on her hands and no further than that.  If they crossed her palm then she was screaming and carrying on.  For his part, Graham made sure that the world did not become overpopulated with polk-a-dotted friends.  He helped those that were having a hard time taking flight by putting them out of their misery.  I tried to keep him away from them, but with thousands swarming and crawling on everything in sight, it just isn't possible to keep him at bay.  I do think I managed to keep him from eating them anyways.

After the ladybugs, we went to meet Ian for a picnic. The girls ran wild around a fountain and park and Graham made himself a muddy mess. Then, he decided that a little head-banging was in order and proceeded to dance, without music for several minutes by himself. Then he decided the old trick of pretending to lay down and go to sleep was called for. This was after he tossed some of Harper's lunch into the fountain, found some of Lucy's and helped himself to it and chewed on a few sticks.

We were suppose to then head over to Ian's office for a visit, but with Graham covered in everything a park had to offer, we decided that we would have to visit some other time.

 

Left behind

Sometimes it hurts when your big sisters get to go and have fun without you.  This is the typical scene when Lucy and Harper leave Graham behind. Not so typical is his lack of pants, but it does make for a good video.

Heard on the court...

• "Mom, I look so cold.  I look so cold in these sunglasses!  Don't I look cold?"- Harper
• "Actually...", "Honestly...", "Obviously..."  These three words begin many many sentences around here these days and are used by both Lucy and Harper and only used correctly about 1/3 of the time, actually.
• "My soccer coach's name is Coach Rufus. I wonder if they call him that because he likes to dance on rooftops like Bert from Mary Poppins.  I will have to ask him."  She did indeed ask him and his response was awesome: "Yes, I do like to dance on rooftops.  Most people don't get that reference, but you did.  Very smart." She grinned and walk away, glad that another man in her life likes to dance on rooftops.
• Lucy: "Harper, I start kindergarten very soon. When I am at kindergarten you will be the big sister and will need to tell Graham what to do."  Harper said, "Ok, I will tell him what to do.  No problem."
• "Blarf!" This is Graham's go to word to get everyon to laugh at the dinner table.
• So, if you add the word, "head" or "poop" to anything, then it makes the statement a joke.  Giggles will abound and multiply and will encourage more usage of these two words.  Try it, see if you laugh.  If you don't, then try it again, because if you don't then you are just a "poopyhead".

Graham's words as of 8/10/10: Momma, Dada, shark, bye, dog, hey or hi, plus more if you count mimicking.