Saturday, March 27, 2010

cold in a snap


last week we had great warm springlike weather. (60∘, maybe) you girls were outside, playing house and having a great time. this week it is about 30∘ colder. yeah. you're not outside but you aren't watching t.v. -amazingly. admittedly, we let you girls watch way too much t.v. in the winter. when the weather gets nice you don't want to stay inside so i'm not that worried. you seem to learn quite a bit from our mixture of videos/pbs kids. that being said, i love nothing more than working on my chores while listening to you girls "let's pretend" this and that. today, you are pretending that it is summertime. this, of course, entails all sorts of outfit changes. why does all pretend play consist of pulling out too many clothes and then "pretending" you don't see them when it is time to clean up. i can't keep up. don't know what is clean or dirty anymore. THIS drives me crazy.
i was at a neighbor's house this week who has 2 small children. now given that just 2 of you can make plenty o' mess it should be that this house looks somewhat like ours. (maybe one less child cleaner) apparently, i am the most disorganized woman who ever had kids. she had everything in place. there was no paperwork stacked in piles on a table. no shoes scattered under couches. i didn't even get the hint of children living in the house (i.e. glass tables, breakable decorative baubles) until i saw the basement with a lovely little, everything-in-its-place, play corner. i wonder, why can't i do this?
it's not like i have a full time job (she does) it's not like i do tons of volunteer work (she does) heck, i don't even get sleep. it must be that she never watches t.v..... wait, i don't either. you girls are the ones that watch the t.v. some people have nice little organized minds and that appears in their lives while other people are a bit, well, more organic. yeah, that's it. while i admit that i would not ever like to live in a museum or hotel lobby where things are planned and sometime sterile, i could use some help in weeding. the house needs some selective pruning and i hope that as you girls grow up that we figure out this together. i will never get there on my own. i have a hard time keeping track of my own self that i am amazed at times that i remember to show up at work on time, showered. this does not have to be the way that you girls do things and i hope to help you find YOUR way. maybe in the process, i'll find a new way of living.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

first day of spring


it's March and unseasonably warm and all 3 girls are happily playing outside once the negotiations of what to wear were complete. imagine if you girls always want to wear "summer" clothes when there is snow on the ground, how giddy you were to discover the temps warmer and the snow virtually melted. it was hard to convince you that it was not time to pull out the sundresses and wear sandals. so you are wearing the sun/summer dresses with long sleeves under and sandals with socks. you can be quite the bargainers, i hope you use it for good.

so much happens in the course of the week and i should be writing more to let you know how incredible you are but i just sometimes have to let it all soak in and not comment. i have a bad habit of speaking before turn and i hope that i will somehow correct that and show you the proper way to discourse since at your age, you are famous for interrupting.

Since the beginning of the year V and B have taken ice skating and ballet. you did well in ice skating for first-timers and will probably do it more since the yard across the street and one two house down, have ice rinks in the winter. given that you didn't take advantage of the grand ice time though, you tire quickly and want to just play in the snow. i can't say i blame you and it is quite a lot of work to keep picking yourself up. but that you did and i'm proud of you for it. next winter we will start you up earlier so that you have some tolerance built up by the time the yard rinks freeze. that is my goal.

now that the ice has melted though, it's all about ballet. you go once a week at the Y and love it. i think you might even be learning some although quite informally. i don't know if it's the little leotards that you get to wear or the dance but you seem to be much more excited about this than skating.

i am going to guess that it is the clothes because with you girls, it seems to be all about the clothes. V, you were willing to give skating a great effort, once you got to watch the figure skaters and i told you that you had to practice and be really good to be able to skate in those "dresses". And Phoebe wants to always look like a princess. She wants a pretty dress because she "is a princess". And well B, you just sort of do things as you are told, but in YOUR way. (B, i think you will be the one who figures out how to bend the rules without breaking one. sort of)

i can't seem to remember all that i should write about since i am continually interrupted by girls needing to tell me a story about why a little girl is crying, or what they are doing and who i am in the story or just needing a snack. but you do play nicely together and have quite the story developing about "living in your playhouse with your animals, [i am] the mom in the main house, and the cow won't get off the roof." well,.... okay, then.

i do want to remind Beatrice that i will not die soon so she doesn't have to worry about who will take care of her when i die. (you also told me one day that you were going to get a cat when "you and papa die.")

And Phoebe, you like to ask me "are you the mama?" and Will "are you the papa?" it's a cute little game and i'm not sure how it got started but it does establish a sort of classification. thanks for the help.