Sweet

I got a new haircut today, and when asked if she liked it C4 said "it is a perfect haircut for a woman like you" ... sweet!

Milestones

Did I tell you C4 figured out the zipper? Yay!

Friends or Food?

At the museum on Monday, C4 was pretty much done eating lunch and was wandering around our table and a nearby table. The occupants (a mother and a maybe 9-10 year old) didn't seem to mind, so we just let her wind around us.

Until the mother at the neighboring table pulled out a bag of Biscottini from Trader Joe's. And my daughter's eyes just were drawn to that bag: SNACKS. She sidled up to the table and started talking to the woman. So of course I asked her not to ask for food from strangers. C4 protested stringently.

C4: I'm NOT asking for food.
Neigboring mother: She isn't asking for food, she was telling me her name.
me: OK ...

So, C4 shared her name, asked the woman's name, and all was merry. But of course, she wanted the cookies. At which point I had to remind her that we don't take food from people we don't know. Her response?

C4: But, I introduced myself!

Mosaics

Me: C4, do you want to make a mosaic?
C4: No, I won't make one.
Me: OK.
Me: You don't want to make a dog mosaic?
C4 (in gravely squeaky voice): Of course I do!

it's a volcano

We went downtown today, to visit the museums. The kids wanted to go to the American Indian Museum, but I don't want to do that one alone with both of them, so we ended up going to the National Gallery, which was lovely, and not busy at all. We started in the West Wing, and I wish I had remembered the camera, as they spent about 10 minutes zooming around the fountain in the rotunda, over and over again, smelling the flowers and "racing" (C4) and just zooming (Q2).

Finally they got tired, and our friends showed up. The girls roamed in multiple directions (my kids), yelled (my kids), ran around like crazy (my kids), and climbed on the sofas, by the sofas, over the sofas, and under the sofas (all the kids!), looked at a few paitings, and we managed to get to the Pompeii exhibit in the East Wing.

Where ... Our friend's daughter sat on an exhibit (between two table "legs" made of marble). My girls were getting hungry and were dragging and whining. So we left, went downstairs and out via an exhibit downstairs, where T3 touched a painting, and then threw the bunny and HIT a Matisse (and thank GOD the alarm didn't go off!).

Bye bye bunny, and bye bye us! Pompeii and the East Wing were not a hit ... over to the cafeteria to eat, a swing by the West Wing to see the Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copely for Q2. Unfortunately, it was down, but survived that particular trauma & came home.

Love those pearly whites

I don't know why ...

Unworthy palette

Can you see this? Nice Qs, right? Q2 is coming along with her letters.



Sure. But then take a closer gander and notice that she wrote on the wall.

Good hair day

You'll always be short, my dear

Somewhere along the line C4 started having these little aches and pains which we told her were growing pains. I assume they are. But they don't seem to bother C4, she just lets us know about them and then moves on.

So today, C39 has both girls at the grocery store. At the checkout was a very Very VERY tall woman (6'6"? 6'7"?)

C4 looks up at her (wel, let me revise: First C4 was looking up at the woman's behind ... but then she walked around her and spoke to her front--even if she couldn't really talk right to her face) and said to the young woman, "Wow. You must have had a LOT of growing pains!"

Indeed. C4 does not have to worry about having that many growing pains ever.

A need to be filmed

We pull out the camera and they instantly turn in to table banging, foot raising, wiggling, tounge-sticking-out, twirling girls with no other redeeming qualities.

Oh, yeah, and there's me, looking sick, with a puppy hat on.

Puppy love

The school that C4 & Q2 attend is having their open house this weekend. C39 was talking to them about it, because I'm volunteering at the open house and he is taking the kids to a museum.

They both were curious as to why the school needs to recruit new children, so C39 was explaining how the children in the 4-year-old class will go onto kindergarten, the 3s class move up to the 4-year-old class, and the 2s move to the 3s. So we need new kids in the 2 year old class, and additional children to fill slots of children who have moved.

We have had brief discussions about children moving. One of Q2's friends moved away this year, and a new girl took her place in school. And C4's chosen future husband T4 will be moving within a year, although C4 has professed that she will never forget him and will always want to marry him.

So, faced with the idea some children might be leaving her class next year, C4 mused: "Maybe J4 will move and T4 won't want to play firefighter so much and maybe then he can play puppy!"

Just cuteness

This is how much C4 loves her dogs.


And this is how much Q2 loves noodles.

New favorites for Q2

Q2's new favorite song: Little Boxes (aka the ticky tacky song) and You're driving me crazy (by the Squirrel Nut Zippers)

Q2's favorite saying: "Naw" and "I will not"

Q2's favorite item of clothing: the twirley dress with leaves on it. Beyond that, any dress that is twirley.

Q2's favorite activity: Sticking stickers

3 -2 -1 countdown

New skills we didn't know she had. I love that she makes a mistake and goes back to correct herself. Cute!

Oh, Terrible!

Lately I've been reading the Wonderful Wizard of Oz series to the girls (mostly C4, as you can imagine Q2 gets bored if there aren't enough pictures and climbs on the books). We are currently on the 4th book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

Occasionally bad things happen in the story, or she imagines something. Such as the description of the Gargoyles (which Dorothy calls Gurgles). They are all wooden beasts with wings that hook on. At that description C4 said "Oooh, Terrible!" which seems to be her new exclaimation of choice. And it cracks me up.

Words.

I was posting to facebooks, about my dearest husband, who happened to use a curseword today after I annoyed him greatly. That's another story. I blame it on being sick. Him, not me. But I included the word in my facebook post ... and C4 was reading over my shoulder. I guess I know that she can sound out words. I guess I really know it now. She's never ever had the chance to read "fuck" before. But ... she can. Because she just kept reading along when she came to the words "Fuck it" and then starting saying ... "Fuck - duck. Fuck - duck" kind of practicing the words and sounds.

Q2 on the other hand, can't read. She's just making sure people know who she is.

At the pharmacy tonight she blurted out to the pharmacists "I'm not a boy!" Was there a question about that??? Not with all the talk about her particular girlish anatomy, I think not.

Grouch

Sunday mornings I take a walk with my friend E. Sometimes we take kids, sometimes we don't. Today I asked Q2 if she wanted to come.

Me: Q2, I'm going for a walk with E. Do you want to come in the stroller?
Q2: Naw. (continues coloring)
Me: OK. I'm going now.
Q2: (drops coloring stuff) I'm coming!
Me: OK, get your socks and shoes on.
Q2: OK (goes back to coloring).
Me: (start to walk out the door)
Q2: (jumps up and really drops coloring)

It was cold this morning, and riding in a stroller isn't particularly warm. So, I told her she had to put snowpants on.

She didn't like that so much.



But she complied when we said we'd video her. Sure, no problem.

C4 heard "video" and came booking over to crash the party.



In the end, Q2 took the snowpants off, refused to wear them, and told me she wasn't going until I put my jacket and hat on and then she came running back over and put her purple snowpants on.

Learn how to tie knots the easy way.

With all this talk of vomit, dizziness, fevers, and aprons you are probably ready for another topic.

Well, here it is. Ankle warmers. New trend in the 4-year-old set. Well, the 4-year-old set named C4 anyway.




Yes, that is just a second pair of socks tied around her ankles. She's even put a pair on Q2. I guess I won't show her what a "real" pair of ankle warmers and leg warmers that we wore in the 1980s were like ....

This is for Papa

Sorry, 5 days late. But we were thinking of you!!

Wrong

I can't believe it ... I thought today was going to be a vomit-free day ...

Finally ...

Finally! The girls are better. Ooops. C39 is down. I think he's been asleep about 9 of the last 12 hours. And fell out of bed once.

Three girl night.

Last night I babysat for a 3-year-old girl friend of Q2 & C4 ... she's in the babysitting co-op and a very sweet child. But three girls was a little too much for me. But, the good thing is it gave me an excuse to tell Q2 that she just needed to stay in bed while I dealt with T3 (and I couldn't stay there).

Actually, bedtime went fairly smoothly, and Q2 was fine being left alone once I gave her a box of tissues.

C4 attempted to stay up until T3 left, but failed around 8:20 when she finally fell asleep. Phew. Because I'd promised her I'd read more to her if she was still up when T3 left.

After I went to bed though Q2 started her nightmares: "No, don't throw it away!" (talking about me recycling her multitudes of drawings?) and "No, that's not my Dinosaur! I want MY dinosaur!" Two nightmares I didn't think we'd encounter, too much recycling and wanting but not getting a giant reptile type thing.

Three apron day

How did I get so productive, you ask? Nobody threw up, I retort. And the girl who woke at 4:30 AM also took a 2.5 hour nap. Oh, that and two of the aprons had already been started.

Here are the aprons ...

C4's apron ...

(C4 also wants a large C on the top of the apron like Q2 has on hers. But, she put it on before I could do it. Tomorrow, maybe.)


... and a mommy/daughter apron pair that I just love. I made every mistake in the book on the daughter apron one because at 5:00 tonight I just decided, hey, that mommy apron needs a daughter apron to go with it and here's how I'll do it. Oops, nope. Gotta rip that out. Ooops, forgot to do that. Ooops, didn't get the bias tape on real well, better rip and sew again. Seriously, if I'd even stopped and planned for 5 minutes it would have been better. But finally I did it. And I love the pair.


and



Also today my mom reminded me that it is good for kids to have a little discomfort, and I know that, but it is good to be reminded. So, Q went to bed tonight without me sitting in the room. She spilled water on herself and needed to be dried once. She unzipped herself and needed to be zipped once. She came out of the room twice. A little crying/whining. But that was it. I reminded her that there was just one of me and I needed to be where I could hear both girls ... not in her room. She bought it, enough, I guess!

Constructive criticism received and acted upon, CHECK! Let's see if I can keep this up ...

Talking about volcanos

They like to talk about volcanos. C4 was wondering why the people of Pompeii left all their stuff when Vesuvius erupted (We kind of glossed over the fact that many of them died and were buried along with their stuff, so that wasn't an issue), and I tried to explain how if our neighbor's house was a volcano, and it erupted C39 & I would grab C4, Q2, and evacuate so we'd be safe.

C4 then got stuck on the idea that we needed to take ALL HER DOGS and STUFF.

But quite smartly Q2 said "We'll got to Safeway and we'll be SAFE!"

How to spell Exasperating

Here's a hint: it starts with Q.

Don't know what to do ... She pushed a friend totally completely absolutely unprovoked yesterday. This whole week has been difficult ...

**UPDATE**

She's not just grouchy, mean, and grumpy. She's sick. Vomitous vomit proves it.

Sports

Me: Daddy's going to Tennessee for a couple of days.
C4: Tennessee?
Me: Yes, Tennessee.
C4: Do you play a lot of Tennis there?

One size fits all. Or not.

I made this for Q2, but c'mon, it fits C39 pretty well, don't you think?

Can they smell it from the next room?

I spilled a box of 100% chocolate jimmies this morning.

In a flash, my puppies were there to clean it up.

Happy Groundhog Day

Best thing from the day ... NEW BOWS! Wow, the girls received a boxfull (more than I anticipated!) of bows ...

Cuteness ...

C4 with FOUR bows in her hair. She was eating, so she couldn't smile.


and Q2 ... in a series (she couldn't stop making frowns after she says "cheese!")(although in the spirit of full disclosure she was also on the potty ... very very busy on the potty)

Countdown

All week, C4 has been counting down, 5 days, then 4, then 3, then 2 days, then one day, then it was tomorrow and today it was TODAY! The day ME62 arrived! So, the minute the girls woke up they were ready to go pick her up at the airport. Since her plane didn't come in until 1:30, we did some silly things ... like, take a bath! Wash hair! Dance!

Here are the girls dancing ... dancing ... dancing. Both in their own unique style. Note Q2's blue lips. She was in the bath, and said "I'm shivery!" but wouldn't get out of the tub. So, blue lips.

I can't get the vid of C4 to process, so here is one of both.

First birthday party

Q2 went to her first birthday party of a friend from school (that is, not one of my friend's children!). The party was at the College Park Aviation Museum which was kinda nice, although I think it wasn't such a good idea for a 3 year old. We had a party coordinator, and did the following:

1) Free play
2) Make buttons/badges
3) Line up to get stickers for buttons/badges
4) Mini tour of the museum/visit the museum (but this was only 10-15 min!)
5) Wash hands, use toilet
6) Eat lunch
7) Do piñata
8) Have cupcakes
9) Make airplanes/decorate a flying disc (er, frisbee)

So, I felt as if we were up, down, go here, go there, do this, do that, get back, come here, ok fine you are free to go. Q2 enjoyed herself, I think, and she seemed on the ball with all the directions, but I thought it would have been better with more play, less directing us around. These are 2 and 3 year olds, after all.

But, since I forgot the camera to document Q2's first party, I thought I'd share the excitement BEFORE the party.