Travelingjenny

Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood

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  • Meeting the cows

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    Last Thursday, Grace didn’t have school, so one of the mothers organized a field trip to a local farm for a presentation about where milk comes from. The most fun part was petting the heifers – young females who haven’t given birth yet (I learned something new, too!). They have very long tongues, which I learned when one licked me down the side of my face. Delightful. Grace declared that she doesn’t like cow slobber, so she offered the curious heifers her elbow, or petted them while they were eating. And Tess simply maintained a respectful distance. Apparently my children are smarter than me – and that’s a good thing!

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  • Sunday morning sisters

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    Adam plays soccer every Sunday morning at 7:30, which has come to mean that the girls and I make an apple pancake together and listen to my iPod during the first mellow hours of the day. This morning, when it was time for breakfast, Tess pulled her chair up right next to Grace’s, so they sat elbow-to-elbow at breakfast. Afterwards, they helped me by doing the dishes. (Okay, so they actually did more harm than good as far as the kitchen cleanup was concerned, but it was cute to see them standing on the chair together.) These sweet moments were made even more adorable by the fact that Grace was wearing her fairy wings all morning. And by the way, just when I was getting used to the name Penelope Kitty, she has now changed it to Francesca – no clue where that came from!

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  • Kitty, it’s cold outside

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    Grace decided that her new favorite friend, a stuffed kitty named Snowflower, needed a winter hat. (You know, for all of that snowshoeing she does through the woods.) Grace cut and rolled a piece of paper, all by herself, and affixed it to kitty’s head using – you guessed it – scotch tape. Tess thought that was a pretty good idea, and set about making her new favorite friend, Molly the monkey, her very own winter hat. Only Tess isn’t old enough to use scissors and tape, so she ripped a piece of paper and held it on the monkey’s head. She was quite proud of herself – and I was proud of her, too.

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  • Fire car

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    “Grace, what a beautiful picture – what is it exactly?”

    “Well, as you can see, this is a very special car called a fire car. And it is driving into its fire ‘partment.”

    Ah yes, a fire car. How silly of me not to recognize it. Clearly I need to work on my art interpretation skills.

  • Stealing a kiss

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    Tess has started pulling a chair up to the kitchen island in order to open the drawer where I keep my pen, notebook, and calendar. The other day, she was happily adding to my to-do list, so I left the room for a moment. When I returned, she had unwrapped a Hershey’s kiss and was quietly enjoying it. Brilliant – but now I’m going to have to find a different place to hide my personal treats! This is the same child that carefully removed the chocolate chips from a cookie, and didn’t eat the rest of the cookie. I love her.

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  • Teacher in training

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    Tess and I went to school today – in the living room. Our teacher was Ms. Grace Penelope Kitty. We learned how to write “Hana” and all about the wonderful photo of Ms. Grace Penelope Kitty with her favorite cousin when she was just a baby. And then it was time for recess, and our teacher attached herself to her baby sister so they could walk around together. I’m sure that Ms. Grace Penelope Kitty knew this was a good exercise in teamwork. If things continue like this, we won’t need to send Tess to a real school – Grace can teach her everything she needs to know!

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  • MumblingJohnny:: Wishing for spring

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    I talked to Joe from Colorado the other night, and he asked me how much snow we had. I told him somewhere between two and three feet on the ground. That night it was snowing, again, and the next morning on my way down the driveway to go to work, I noticed that the mailbox was in the snow bank, snapped off the post by an avalanche of snow that the snowplows piled onto it. So last night, I set to replacing it. In yet another snowy downpour, armed with my Petzl headlamp, headlights from my car and a hammer, nails and a snow shovel, I got to work. Thoughts of Spring entered my mind. Winter in Maine this year has been the real deal, and lots of snow has been falling. I’ve shoveled and shoveled, and shoveled, and we are expecting more snow this weekend. Oh yeah. Florida is looking better and better. With that, I offer you warmest wishes for March, and spring, which hopefully is only another three months away.

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  • As long as she’s not Gertrude

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    Grace recently started asking to be called by a name of her own choosing, and not her given name. This really doesn’t bother me, as I am not completely convinced that Grace is the most fitting name for her – it simply doesn’t seem spunky enough. The first name she chose, a couple of weeks ago, was Susannah (as in “Oh Susannah, don’t you cry for me…”). One day when I picked her up from school, all of the artwork in her cubby had the name Susannah written on it. I stood there for a few moments, perplexed – how did she end up with someone else’s work? And how is that even possible when there is not a child in Grace’s class with that name? I asked Grace why she had Susannah’s artwork, and she replied, “That’s my name, Mommy.” Of course – what was I thinking? What I find most hilarious about this is that Grace’s teachers play along with her name changes. The other names she has chosen are: Rain-bee-ah (similar to rainbow), Daisy, and – get this one – Penelope Kitty. Depending on her mood, she will actually correct people who try to call her by her given name: “I’m not Grace.” This afternoon, the kind teachers at the kids’ art studio got the hang of this right away, and even made her a nametag with her chosen name. She has stuck with Penelope for several days now, and I have to admit I kind of like it – it’s unique, and maybe even a little spunky.

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  • Imagining grass between their toes

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    Tonight before bath time, I had the girls try on a couple of new summer dresses that I bought to take to Texas next month. They were thrilled to put them on, and insisted on wearing the dresses until I had to forcibly remove them from their wriggling bodies. The two of them danced and spun around the house – barefoot – then ran circles around the table, laughing and squealing the entire time. It must have felt really good to finally be unencumbered by heavy sweaters and tights – they clearly enjoyed feeling the breeze on their arms and legs. Grace is counting down the days until our trip, and we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll finally be able to dance outside!

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  • Avoiding lunch

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    I said, “Tess, come on, it’s time to eat lunch.”

    And Tess replied, “Hide.”

    Smarty pants.