Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood
On Sunday we walked at our favorite spot. Tess insisted on wearing her backpack (which contained her baby doll), and she ran almost the whole way. She walked on the rocks, she ran with Maggie, and she played "chase" with Grace (who dropped her drawers, but that's another story). She even attempted to do a headstand. She was full of joy, and it was contagious.
Grace wore her tie-dyed shirt to school today, and on the way home, Tess called it her "mixed-up" shirt. Grace disagreed, and proclaimed it to be her "fireworks" shirt. As soon as we arrived home, Tess found her shirt, and the "fireworks sisters" were born. They did a cute little song-and-dance routine, with Tess shouting "fire, fire, fire" until Grace shouted, "works!" Then they hung Grace's star blanket over a chair and danced and sang in front of it. (If I had known this routine was going to be so photo-worthy, I would have removed Grace's eyepatch first. But you just never know when those two are going to gel creatively!)
Today it rained — poured, actually — most of the day. And then in the mid-afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun suddenly appeared. It was beautiful.
This afternoon, Grace got to ride a real Icelandic horse. And at her request, she was allowed to ride outside, through the huge puddles in the field next to the barn. Apparently, Icelandic horses love the water, something that is not always true of other breeds. We certainly don't want to hurt Lilly-T's feelings, but Gracie and I may have a new favorite horse.
Grace is in full birthday mode, telling everyone who will listen that her birthday is the day after Thanksgiving. And then she says, "I was born on Thanksgiving, even though I'm a vegetarian." And then I remind her that she eats bacon (and let's not even mention the hot dogs). Anyway, the other day she came up with this sweet little song:
"You will be six
When the crickets learn to chirp,
And the frogs learn to burp,
And the caterpillars learn to hustle in the leaves."
I just love her almost-six-year-old brain.
After school, we took advantage of the nice weather and walked Maggie in the park. When we arrived home, Tess sat down at the art table and started drawing pictures for her "friends" at school. Each picture was made with a specific friend in mind, then she drew about 10 more for good measure. Mostly she wrote her name and drew a person next to it (see the drawing on the right, above), but sometimes she just drew a person (see the drawing on the left — that person is wearing slippers!).
Grace put on her pajamas as soon as we walked in the door, then she started writing and drawing thank-you notes for her friends.
Today, Tess's preschool class went on a field trip to a local farm to visit their oxen. In class, they've been reading the book Ox-Cart Man, about a farmer packing up his ox-cart with goods and traveling ten days by foot to a harbor town to sell them. The kids got to meet a real team of oxen and see them in action — very cool! However, I think Tess's favorite part was helping to collect eggs — she saw three chickens laying eggs in the coop! My favorite part was seeing her interact with her friends, and to get a little window into what she's like at school. It's nice to know she's happy.
Grace's 6th birthday party was on Saturday, in the little barn used for education programs at Wolfe's Neck Farm. We invited her entire kindergarten class (all but two classmates came) plus two other friends. I was a bit worried about keeping this many kids entertained (without things devolving into chaos), so I planned several activities with Grace's help. This ended up being very good, since it was raining the entire time. We started with an art project (each kid created a barnyard scene using markers, rubber stamps, and stickers), then moved on to pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Hilarious! We had a bean-bag tossing game, played "what time is it Mr. Fox?" in the big barn, and played duck-duck-goose. We made pinecone birdfeeders and trudged through the rain into the woods to hang them in the trees. Of course, we ate cake and ice cream, and sang to Grace, who seemed quite thrilled with the whole thing. She was quite the hostess, explaining what was going to happen next, and practically exploding with thanks as she opened each gift. She was delightful, all the kids had fun, and there was not a single bit chaos (and, as one mother pointed out, no one cried!). Success!!
Tonight, something special happened: Grace read Tess a bedtime story. They sat together on the little rocking chair, Tess with her arm around Grace. Grace read "The Peace Book," which she has memorized, although I think she is learning to actually read it as well. She did such a nice job that even the bunny was listening. When Grace got to the page that reads, "Peace is giving a hug to someone you love," she put the book down and gave Tess a hug and a kiss. Seriously, can you imagine anything sweeter?!
Introducing… Daisy, Lily, and Cutie-Pie (bet you'll never guess who named that one!), our newest pea-brained, yet productive, feathered friends. They are about 5 months old and are just now laying their first little eggs (see a "new" egg below, compared to an "old" egg). The new girls are big, beautiful birds from an organic farm in Wells, Maine. They've had to endure some nastiness from our three older hens while the pecking order is established, but they've been holding their own. They also seem to be a bit scared of people, but I'm sure chicken-whisperer Grace will have them eating from her hand in no time!
Travelingjenny 