Saturday, August 30, 2008

first day of school

a very big day yesterday. Viv started pre-school. we loaded in the stroller and all of us walked her to school. it's actually pretty lovely. bright morning stroll on a path through a wooded area, then down a small residential street to the school. a quick 15 minutes away.

we settled her in and left as soon as we could scoop up B who was trying to make herself at home. looking back through the window she looked like the loneliness little girl. sitting at the table drawing with all the others scattered about her playing in groups. Will said that he wished a little girl would go up to her. i think V likes to ease into things but will be quite the action girl once she gets her bearings.

i called at lunchtime to ask how she was doing. i wanted to gauge the girls' naps with the ability to pick up V should i need to get her early. all was well. she was talking up a storm, making friends. no surprise.

i had a hard time getting the other two down for their naps so i didn't want to wake them to pick her up. in the end i put the two in the stroller while they were sleeping and went to get her almost at the end of the school hours. and there she was helping clean up with two other little girls. i was told that she did great...it was like she had been going to school forever.

B was a bit more of a handful today. it was like she wanted to make up for her missing sis. i think that in time will pass. it always does.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

early childhood training

most people think of early childhood training as something we do in order to work with kids and understand them better. i prefer to think of it as something we do with kids in order to help us, not them. after all didn't we all have kids so that we could teach them to do the things that we don't want to do?

last night Will found Phoebe in the bathroom. just as he was going to start in on the "no Phoebe!" routine he realize what she was doing and started laughing. she had the toilet bowl brush in the toilet, scrubbing. at least we'll have one clean toilet and one person in the family who will do that chore. actually this is the second time she has tried this. one day when i was with her in the bathroom she grabbed the brush and started waving it around. i had no idea that she knew what to do with it. unfortunately since she is not even one i guess i can't assign her chores yet. it's a pity, no one likes cleaning the toilet.

of course what this all means is that we'll have to start a routine check of the toilets making sure they are all flushed and closed. can't have Phoebe playing in dirty water.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

summer waning

this morning i was checking in with a few other blogs that i read. my neighbor and friend writes one that is about being a stay at home dad. he recently posted two of my favorite summer things. our kids attacking the ice cream scooter and blueberry picking. every tuesday night the kids dutifully wait outside straining to hear the bell of the ice cream lady. i work on tuesday so i have only been able to witness this a few times. i usually show up to see the smile on their ice cream smeared faces.
see...

Seasons change


and every summer we have a share at a local farm where we can pick flowers and some produce and have other things like carrots and zucchini picked and waiting for us. V like to show up and pick things like strawberries and cherry tomatoes, just for her own consumption. when we went blueberry picking with the neighbors she was supposed to help me fill our two quarts. i found that i was on my own. see...

Ode to summer's end

baby steps



Phoebe Odette is rapidly approaching her first birthday. you could say she will soon walk right into it. it's about time. she has been furniture surfing for a while now and will walk around gladly if you hold her hand. this morning she was so irritated with me taking away the remote that she took 3 steps toward me before she realized it. so roughly 2 weeks before her birthday she takes her baby steps.... V did it a week or so after her first birthday and B days after she turned one. Phoebe seems to be one step ahead which could be troublesome for this family since we seem to do everything right at the eleventh hour. maybe she will inspire us to get it together sooner.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

oh no! here we go

this morning i went to drink my coffee and a little stuffed bear was floating in my cup. (now i realize this says something about the size of my coffee cup and yes, it is a bit large. it is not enormous, the bear was quite small.) upon finding it, i began the query on how it got there. i got the run around, she-did-it routine. up until now Beatrice has always fessed up to doing things so either she honestly had nothing to do with it or i now have two little ones who sometimes avoid telling the truth. B has been really a handful lately and i can easily see her being the one who did it but maybe V speaks the truth when she thinks that Phoebe did it. fortunately for me the bear did not drink much of my coffee so i am able mull this one over my morning cup.

on a lighter note, we managed a successful trip to Grandma's house. the girls did not fuss too much on the road, slept some and chattered a lot. they got to honor Grandma for all the years of service she has done in helping out the Potsdam Housing Authority as a board member. without any state or federal funding, your Grandma (and others) has managed to help get housing (very nice housing) for a good number of low income residents of Potsdam. she would like to work on assisted living next. anyway you clapped and cheered "yeah, Grandma" and stayed mostly quiet for the speeches. i did ply you with food and crayons but i'm proud of you, really. everyone noticed how good you were since you were the only children present.

it was also fun to see the girls play with their cousin. it makes me wish we could have made it over when the others were visiting this summer. but the girls had fun with Sean, especially V.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

tea for three


this morning as i was trying to wrap my mind around the day, B announced that they were having a tea party. i stopped my attempt at bread making to take a look. i love that they are now capable of playing together. it doesn't happen nearly enough for me but i am seeing it more and more. and it is sweet that they include Phoebe Odette. so there was a little bit of tea and sisterhood served up this morning. it makes up for the fact that PO has been a bit needy and i've had to wear her quite a bit lately. and the fact that B has been sassy and i've wanted to run away from her lately.

i have to say that running away from Beatrice is a bit unfair. she is sassy. but she is also extremely funny. her latest phrase is, "scuse me. i have something to say." and she usually does....and if someone else is talking also she will say, "be quiet." which is sort of absurd considering she is one of the noisiest creatures i've encountered. she also likes to tell me she is "too tired" when i'm asking her to do something that she doesn't want to do, like clean up or eat a food she doesn't like. she will also pull from her bag of favorite phrases the "i'm too busy" if she doesn't want to do something.

today, she announced "bye, i'm going to school." and she mumbled something about needing her book and headed off in the other direction.

she is such the little talker. i'm going to have to do a lot of explaining as she gets older though. yesterday, she told Phoebe that she was going to cut her when they were digging in the yard. "WHAT!?" i said. then began to explain that we never cut people. and of course all she heard was, "Beatrice! blah blah blah. listen to me, blah, blah, blah. understand?" two year olds!

Vivi is my beacon of hope. she helps me when it's convenient and will listen and understand what i say if i get to her level. her actions tell me that it will not always be clinging and crying and shouting "no".

if i can just make it to four with the other two.

Friday, August 8, 2008

things that keep me going

Beatrice, last night you came to me while i was making dinner and asked if i was making ketsup stew. i was making barbeque so i answered in the affirmative. you said that you loved ketsup stew. (clasping your hands with a pursed pleased look on your face)
sometimes you are so cute that i momentarily forget that i was just annoyed with you for screaming and waking up Phoebe.
it's good that you kids balance out at the end of the day.
and Phoebe Odette you have started trying to duck and hide in your high chair when i try to feed you. you seem to do it only when we spoon feed you not when you get to feed yourself. i'm not ready to give the spoon over to you quite yet so this will be a charade we'll go through for a while. it does make me laugh although i try not to show you.

Monday, August 4, 2008

one tiny step forward

this could be the start of a beautiful thing. yesterday while we were searching for something in our scary room.... (a room in the basement where we shove things that we don't know what to do with and we don't want the girls to play with.) we came across the little potty that V trained with. B had been asking for it, or at least had said she wanted it when asked. so we break it out. she plays on it. moves it around like it's a new lounge chair and finally agrees to letting it sit in the bathroom. later B and V go into the bathroom and "practice" this is usually code word for play. much to our surprise B announces that she did poopie. this is doubtful to us since she does this all the time but in the big potty and she flushes so we can't confirm it. this time we could celebrate. she did poopie. and V was her proud coach. we couldn't be happier. could training B actually be easy? not so fast. later in the day she announce she had to go peepee and she had just gone in her diaper. but the thought is there.

meanwhile as we celebrate, Phoebe Odette has been joining in...she now claps when we do but certainly NOT on command. But it is so much fun to clap with her.