The move

The move to a big girl bed hasn't been 100% smooth. No naps, of course.

So after I finally got rid of the children I was babysitting (I was told from 9:30 to maybe 12:30. Ten minutes to 3:00 I was finally able to say GOOD BYE! It was 5 hours I had the two boys. Wouldn't normally be a problem ... except that the younger is never away from mom and he cried from 9:45 -- dropoff time -- to 10:15; 11:15 to 12:45; 1:15 to 1:30; 1:45 to 1:50. Plus random cries and whines throughout the day. So ... about 2.5 hours of crying out of a 5 hour sit) ...

So anyway, I was able to say BYE to the children and let Q2 & C3 out of quiet time and we went for a walk to the park. As result of no naps, Q2 fell asleep on the way, and hung out in the stroller for a little while (please note the dog collar from the dog party):



While Q2 slept, C3 tried to climb the DNA structure.

First, she tried the outside, but it wasn't going so well, she kept slipping down. So I suggested she climb in the middle:



She didn't do it exactly as I would, but then, I don't fit in that thing any more, now, do I?









She made it!

Then she and I went to wake up Q2. I tickled, kissed, wiggled, jiggled, and jogged that girl and nothing. C3 did the same. Plus she licked Q2. No movement from Q2. Nada, nothing, zip, zingo, blooey.

And then C2 yelled, "WAKE UP, Q2!"
And Q2 rubbed her eyes and said, "I don't want to wake up!"

But she did ... and tonight, back trying to get her to stay in the big girl bed ... she fell asleep flat out on the floor. Just like her sister, in the next room.

Another blow to the head

When Q2 falls, she always always hits her face. Or her head.

So today when she decided during quiet time that she'd try to get out of her crib and stand on the doll cradle ... and hit her head.

So, we decided to take the side of the crib to avoid repeated blows to her head. Because I know it would happen again. And again. And again. At least we stopped it at two.

The Dalmation Party

My "Big Project" over the summer ended on Wednesday last ... and I promptly thought, what shoudl fill my time for the next 3 days? Planning a Dalmation Party for a soon to be 4 year old!



Lots of photos, so I'm going to post the small ...

We started by making dog collars; I loved this! I cut out posterboard, put velcro tabs on the ends, and had them glue stickers and pompoms on the collar. And in the middle I punched a star-shaped hole and threaded in a key tag ... one of those paper tags edged in metal. It really looked like a dog tag! Very cute.



C3 demostrates how to wear the dog collar and how to sit like a dog. She does it well.



As you can tell, we did some face (and body) painting. C3 has 5 dogs on her. Q2 had 3. Other children branched out a bit: Crabs, dolphins, waves. Mice. A fire truck and a car. And there I am in the background.



The kids played "Stick the Spot on the Dalmation" An incredible hit. They loved this!







Here is C3 and her best friend, Z3, Spotting up the dalmation:



And Q2 just hanging out.



Then C3 was ready to do cake. She had requested dalmation cupcakes ... you'll see I took the easy way out and made them with chocolate chips (the non-dalmation ones are buttercream mixed with marmelade and a tiny bit of orange oil ... really really delicious frosting)

She has been saying for about 3-4 months that when she has her 4th birthday she would throw away her candle (and stay 3). So when it came to blow out the candle ...



See K2 in the background there looking at the cupcakes? She ended up blowing out the candles because C3 wouldn't do it!

And here she is throwing the candle away (and K2 looking longingly at ... cupcakes, rubbing her hands together in anticipation).




Then we had the only peace we had the whole afternoon:



They sat and licked frosting for ... 15 minutes. It was calm and quiet. Weird.

Then the kids dispersed around and did their own thing. They found the doghouse.







Some baseball happened, even though Manny wasn't around:





And then C3 decided it was time to deliver the stuffed dogs that we bought as going away gifts. She hid them all (with some help from C39) and invited everybody to find them. This particular activity convinced me that next year she'll be ready for a girls only party ... girls that all love snuggly lovie fluffy dogs. Some of the boys were indifferent to the stuffed dogs they got. Because, frankly, they are boys, and a cuddly toy isn't their thing! But the girls ... they liked their dogs!!








Then as they left, we gave each of them a dog sugar cookie on a stick. This is a picture from last year, but the same thing ...



I made C3 & Q2 save theirs until after dinner. A dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches (soy cheese and Parkay for Q2). Which was not the best of ideas, I think, considering all the fat and rich foods they'd had. But there it was. Q2 ate nice and slowly and refused to finish her grilled cheese ... but C3 managed to shovel the grilled cheese down and horked down her cookie.

And promptly threw it up again. In multiple ginormous waves of vomit all over my back, hair, and foot. Oh, and the whole room. While she was doing this Q2 was eating her own cookie and asking "Why C3 (gag) spitting up her cookie (gag)? What my nose (gag) smell?"

Lovely.

I think he was wrong

A friend of mine once told me that he was happy to capture his daughter's vomit in his hands. It didn't gross him out; he was happy to do it.

I can tell you that I, on the other hand, am not 100% happy to be vomited on, nor would I capture it with my hands if I could help it.

Down my back, in my hair, on my toes? Well, that is a different story, I suppose.

STILL discussing that same visit from 2 weekends ago

I've been very busy. But thankfully that big project JUST ENDED YESTERDAY!!! Yipeee!!!

So, back to Ninoo & Papa's visit ... the girls took them to the College Park Airport Museum. I never let them stand on the exhibits like this, but grandparents like to indulge, I guess ...



Then later on Q2 got a bath in the sink. Ninoo liked this photo A LOT. And I admit, it does look like Q2. That hair! It hasn't grown since she was an infant, it seems. It is still short. I just just just cut a few long wavy-curly bits from the top/back that didn't seem to know which way to go ... but it didn't take away from the length at all ... it just makes it less crazy looking. I'm enjoying her blond curlies as much as I can for now. Here's the picture!




Notice the gorgeous tomatos on the window sill? They aren't from my garden. The squirrells eat all of mine. Nutovores, my foot. Those things are evil tomato chow-hounds. No, I take that back, not hounds, because if I mention that a squirrell is a hound C3 will be asking for one. Pronto.

Little girl yesterday, big girl today.

About six months ago C3 told us she could put herself to bed. Which she did. And hasn't done again since. Which is fine. But I know she is getting more independent daily, as she likes to do thing on her own, and I feel comfortable letting her do them.

About 2 months ago I asked C3 if she wanted to go into Glut by herself, since she wanted to buy something very very badly and Q2 was asleep in the Big Blue, and thus I wouldn't fit through the doorway. I would have stood at the door and watched her the whole time, because the dried pineapples are just a few feet from the door, as is the checkout. But the whole incident set C3 off, she was so upset, insisted she wasn't big enough to go into a store by herself, she was just a little girl. She cried practically the whole way home, very upset because we didn't get the dried pineapple and she was too small to get it herself.

Today she told me she could walk to our neighbors house by herself to deliver a letter (both girls had drawn pictures and decorated envelopes for Miss J, our wonderful neighbor). Not that the house is far; she is an immediate neighbor. But she has 3 plots of land, so she isn't within whisper distance, either. I can't actually see her front door from my porch. I went to the porch as C3 left. She promptly turned around to tell me she didn't need me, but I told her I was just tidying the porch up, I wasn't going to go with her. Watch her like a hawk, yes, follow her no.

C39 came out and watched, too. He walked down to the sidewalk so he could see C3 at the door. Where she stood for a while trying to ring Miss J's door. The doorbell is difficult, and she turned around and saw C39 and yelled for help, and they went in together.

But I like that she wanted to do it herself. And that we can let her.

Manners

Today I said:

"If you must eat your boogies, you might as well eat them with a fork and a knife!"

D'oh!

Back to regular scheduled programming ...

Wednesday nights are (usually) fountain nights here in town. A band plays very loudly, there are places to get food, or we bring our own, and the kids run in the fountain and climb on the turtles.

The girlies got to go to the fountain with Ninoo & Papa while they were here; check it out:

Getting ready to go to the fountain ...



I think they were looking at my feet here; but I don't really remember. Maybe they were looking at the ginormous bag of french fries that Papa brought back from 5 Guys?



You can't exactly tell, but Q2 is sitting on one of the many turtles that are mostly used to climb on and jump off of. How much do you want to bet that when she pulls that shoe off she is going to bonk her head and she'll fall off the turtle?



It is really quite fun. These photos make it look empty and not busy; this was a Friday night, I think. Wednesday nights are packed with kids & parents. And because the music is so loud, you can't talk to your friends, either.

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming

To bring you the following program: Find the Baby

I went to each of the girls rooms tonight after C3 & Q2 had gone to sleep. I found two very different scenarios.

C3 was easy. Although she wasn't in her bed, she was right out in the open. I haven't figured out why she is sleeping on the floor these days, but really, I don't care as long as she is asleep:



Oh, and notice that pink, virtually see-through blanket covering C3's legs? That is "brown blankie" something I slept with and played "blanket people" with as a child.

Q2, however, I couldn't find at first. Oh, that is because she has taken to sleeping with EVERY SINGLE animal and doll to be found within a 100 foot radius of her bed. With the exception of the dogs that C3 cannot sleep without (see above):

Out without me

I love to take the girls to the building museum. It is a gorgeous building. Big. Good to run around. I love the indoor fountain. The arches on arches on arches march along and I love it. The stairs are like stone waterfalls, all worn and soft. The place is just wow. And the kids love to play in the building zone, where they have big building toys for children.





My favorite photo from the day ... C39 getting clobbered by C3 & Q2 because they won't walk, are tired, won't be carried by Ninoo or Papa.

More fun that I missed!

We love taking the girls to the Building Museum. That place is amazing, huge, beautiful, and just a great place to let them run around. I love the stairs, all worn down and like a waterfall of rock. I love the indoor fountain. The arches on arches on arches are fantastic. I love the Building Zone, where they have tons of building toys for the kids to play with.

Anyway, here are the photos! C39, Ninoo, and C3 & Q2.





Leaving the building you can see that C39 is being clobbered by C3 & Q2 ... He really puts up with a lot. Lately Q2 has been prefering him to me. Which is a bit disconcerting for both of us, but I think I'm reconciled with the fact that I might have a little breathing room again. And C39? He is just happy that she is starting to choose him over me once in a while!

72 hours with us

But I think I saw my in-laws for about 6 of those 72 hours. I was at work all day Friday, all day Saturday, and tonight I'm working at home.

But, this is what I signed up for when I agreed to work full time for 2 months. Two more weeks of this, tops, then things will settle down again and the pressure will be gone, as we'll have turned the thing in.

So, I'll update the weekend in installments.

Apparently the first thing they did after I left was watch TV. Most of the time C3 &Q2 watch TV only as a treat ... in the car on a LONG trip (Maryland to New England) or an after dinner video if they have been gentle all day (no hitting, biting, hair pulling, kicking, pushing, headlocks, or other untoward behavior that could cause physical pain or harm). But apparently they enjoyed the show with Ninoo.

As you can see they can't keep their eyes off it.



Must have been very good.



But, anything with Ninoo is fun!!

New snacks

I often had a bowl of bananas and milk when I was a child. A sprinkle of sugar didn't hurt it, either. I still like it. And so do Q2 & C3. So today they asked for it, and then when that was gone they asked for apples and milk.

C3 ate hers all up. Q2 left most of hers.

So what am I to think? Is it worth trying?

Weekend visit

Wow. Busy. Work. I am decidedly decided against working full time. But, on more interesting fronts, we had weekend visitors, J & C, my aunt & Uncle. We went to the National Arboretum again (I never get tired of that place), we did the monuments with the girls, and we had dinner at the fountain. I didn't bring a camera to the monuments, and between their clinginess (sometimes I was carrying 2 girls) and their crying (that one is self explainatory) I didn't have a chance to take any photos. And then we forgot at the fountain. Of course.

But here are the Arboretum photos!

Me first ... at the National Columns. I worked really hard to climb up. Not that it was super difficult, but I wasn't sure I could do it ... it was high, and I am short! And it was wide, so not much to hang onto.

Anyway, I got up, and I was happy!



C3 was all over C ... uh, a lady never reveals her age! Actually, I don't know her age! But C3 loves her to pieces. And it is easy to see why ... C loves her to pieces, too!



Q2 had her moments this weekend, but one this she consistently loved was the Koi. Feeding. We fed and fed and fed. And fed some more. They fill up the feeders on Saturday, and by Sunday the food is 2/3 gone. By Monday you are out of luck. So we brought a pocketful of quarters and fed the fish. And you can see how much Q2 loved them.




I didn't get good photos of C39 or J54!