Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood
Today Grace was not satisfied with her selection of slippers, so she made her own – using paper and scotch tape. She liked them so much that she decided to also make her own hat. Unsatisfied with the “boring” green hat, she made a new, improved version. I think her homemade accessories are anything but boring – isn’t it amazing what a four-year old can do with scissors and tape?!
We started the afternoon with ten new, pristine tubs of Play-doh in a variety of colors. An hour later, we were left with a crazy hodgepodge. Being the particular person that I am, I tried (in vain) to separate the colors back into their neat little tubs. Grace, on the other hand, was thrilled with the result of all of her hard work. In fact, she was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the “birthday cake” she created that she simply could not even bear to look at it.
The girls have been playing with a bouncy blue elephant. It is not new, but it had been in exile – I mean, in recovery – for quite some time, due to flagrant misuse and abuse. We allowed her (name: Rudy) back into the house as long as certain rules are followed: elephant must remain on the floor; elephant must remain downstairs; elephant may not cause tears or fighting. So far, the girls have been doing well taking turns with the elephant. This morning, Grace spent quite a bit of time trying to find the perfect hat for her – she tried buckets, purses, and even a homemade paper-and-tape hat, before landing on her very own winter hat. But then elephant got hot and supposedly declared that she does not, in fact, need a hat. So then Tess decided to adorn her with stickers. Nice. This time around, Rosie may decide to go into self-imposed exile just so she can get some peace and quiet!
Grace just had her last soccer practice of the session (don’t worry, another session starts next week!), which meant that it was time for the parents to play the kids in a game. This thrilled Adam, who of course loves any opportunity to show off his skills, and it thrilled Grace, who loves the chance to run around like crazy for an hour. Although I think she liked hanging out with her new friend even more than she liked running around (and look how much smaller she is than the other kids!). The few times she did decide to go after the ball, she did quite well, and showed a willingness to get right in the middle of things – when she wasn’t chatting or adjusting her shin guard. Apparently she hasn’t learned about defending the goal yet.
Tess watched the game with great interest, and almost can’t wait to be old enough to play too.
On Saturday we made the big trek down to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to visit their very fun children’s museum. There is something about crossing state lines that makes a simple outing really feel like an adventure. Well, that and the fact that Grace and Tess got to dig up a real pretend dinosaur! And deliver real pretend mail!
I admit that it’s pretty sad to call it a heat wave when the temperature doesn’t even reach 50 degrees. But, it was close, and in mid-February in Maine, we’ll take what we can get, and we’ll enjoy it!! Once it stopped raining today, we all headed outside for some fun in the very wet snow. Adam and Grace made a snowman, then the girls played on their playground. We topped the afternoon off with a walk through the woods to check out the ice and water in the brook. All of the fresh air (but no sunshine) almost made me forget that both girls were sick with what we think is food poisoning (bad blueberries?) – at least, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that it’s food poisoning and not some nasty stomach bug. That would really put a damper on vacation week.
One day about a month ago, Tess heard us talking about how it was time to feed the dog, and she walked right over and picked up Maggie’s bowl all by herself and carried it to the closet where the food is kept. She has been helping her daddy feed the dog every day since then. She even pours the food into the bowl. Tess seems to view this as an important job, and actually gets angry when Adam does it without her. This is good training for her – next winter I’ll be sending her out in the snow to feed the chickens!
And yes, that is a skirt she’s wearing on top of her overalls. She and her sister have new, adorable, matching plaid skirts and since Grace was wearing hers today, Tess insisted on wearing hers, too – but she refused to put on tights (and hello, it’s VERY cold here!). We appear to have another funky dresser on our hands!
Grace and Tess helped me bake and decorate cookies to take to Grace’s playdate with Elyse this afternoon. Both girls stood on chairs and used their own rolling pins to roll out the dough, and Grace even used the cookie cutter and transferred the cookies to the sheet herself. Later, Grace iced and decorated several of the cookies while Tess practiced with one of her own. Most importantly, we all enjoyed eating the fruits of our labor, and Grace was kind enough to share her cookie with Tess. Now that is a good big sister!
We awoke this morning to a foot of new snow, and yet another snow day for Grace. Tess was thrilled to have an entire day to play at home with her big sister. And I think it’s safe to say the feeling was mutual.
On that note, we are sending you love this Valentine’s Day – we have more than enough to go around here.
I learned something interesting about baby dolls the other day – they like to dance. And they really know how to boogie. They like to wear hats, even though their shiny heads can make this very difficult (oh, the tears when a hat slides off). Also, they like to be partially naked – or at least Tess’s baby does. They don’t seem to care if their names are changed – “Hofiah” is now “Dia” (???) – or if they are simply called “Baby.” They DO care if they are accidentally given a black mustache with a dry-erase marker. That is not good at all. The most important thing about babies is that they don’t mind if they are tossed aside for a few days in favor of a stuffed duck, lamb or kitty. They know their time will always come again.
Travelingjenny 