decorating eggs

i had to make a special trip saturday to the store to get white eggs. i forgot to plan ahead and only had brown ones in the house. don't think the brown ones dye very well. you girls were very patient while waiting for the eggs to cool down. who knew you had to have cool eggs to decorate. at some point in my motherhood, i will actually plan ahead.

Viv, you are becoming very competent assistant and helpful especially when it comes to a special project. thank you. this year at school has done wonders in many ways for you. you follow direction better and like to teach your sisters. you also have become pretty good at writing stories. you really like to write stuff. the words are not spelled perfectly and it takes quite a bit of guesswork sometimes but the "stories" are fun and i like them. the illustrations always rock.

Beatrice you are becoming very good with your drawing. I have the best collection of mama portraits ever. and i'm evolving in the drawings every day. i finally have arms and a body. it's the best.

Phoebe you are very good at coloring and drawing. you make great straight lines and seem to like the color blue at the moment.

here are my little artists in action. it's a bit lengthy so you can get the whole process. after all, art is all about the process. scratch that. apparently the video is too long so i can't load it. i'll try to edit it and then add later... here's the short story.

easter egg "hunt"

we met up with the Easter bunny in the park yesterday. Viv, you and Sophie ran right up to him. Beatrice had to be coaxed just to stand in the picture frame and Phoebe needed to be bolstered -by mom.

words cannot describe the ridiculousness of what i did with you girls yesterday. we had fun. the video speaks for itself. (as you can see, Sophie joined us for the momentous event) please excuse the video quality. at times i forgot i was holding a camera. obviously, i am not a film maker, i'm an historian/hysterian at best. it does, however, capture the feel of the event...

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.

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.

letting go

it would seem that the end of the year is a good time to let go of things no longer useful. Viv, you decided that two of your baby teeth could go. of course we know that you didn't decide this but we can pretend you had something to do with it. your first one fell onto your tongue when you were outside building a snowman with papa. it was not the one that i thought would go first. the really loose one hung on one more day and papa pulled it out while you were taking your bath. so you had a visit from the tooth fairy 2 nights in a row. the first night you got a shiny gold dollar coin. you tried to give it to me but i insisted you put it in your piggy bank. this morning you got two silver quarter coins. you don't know anything about the value of different monies and are happy with anything you get. i like that. you immediately give your second quarter to Beatrice who is now excited that the tooth fairy came. you both are planning the next tooth "outing" so that the tooth fairy will return tonight. you currently have no more loose teeth. when Phoebe woke up you decided to give your second coin to her. what a generous little girl. we'll see if that holds true when you discover the value of each coin. hope that doesn't change. so we put coin in all your piggies since you gave your two away, i found a coin for you to put in yours. it was a morning of celebrating.

while we are letting go of things, you girls could let go of whining and i will let go of impatience. i could also stand to let go of a few pounds but that is not all that important.

nice surprises "under" the tree

Christmas has many mixed emotions for me. i love the season, the lights, the parties. i hate the retail, the mean people and the whining.

you girls get invited to a santa party every year. santa is perfect and you always get a small gift. V, you were funny since you actually got what you had been asking for, you were concerned that you wouldn't get anything more on Christmas. B, you wanted what V got and couldn't enjoy your little playmobile unicorn/ carriage. And Phoebe, well, you were just so excited to get to see santa and get a gift. i know you like your magnadoodle cause you throw a fit when you have to share.

you girls were cute because i made chex mix and chocolate sauce for gifts and gave you a choice on what to give your teachers. B, you were definite about wanting to give chex mix to your teachers and i even gave you the option of both. and V you wanted chocolate sauce even though i gave you the option of both. i'm glad to be raising little girls that have an opinion although it makes me crazy at times.

you all were introduced to the Polar Express movie and seem to love watching it. i have to admit that it is well done, magical and fun to sing. asked for it almost daily. the very monkey Christmas was also a big hit. curious George has a way with songs that you girls love to sing and dance to. watching movies in our house is rarely a passive thing.

V, you had a winter celebration at school where you all sang. it was nice and you seemed to love the songs that you learned for it. you were very happy that i made it there and wanted to show your little sisters how to behave at school.

Phoebe, you like to sing the most. PO will break out in jingle bells anytime you hear some "tinkling" i love that you find a song almost all the time. and join me when i sing silliness.

it's quiet this year. no extended family to hang with but that made it for a little less stuff as well. although your papa's family loves to bestow the gifts. you girls were pretty good with the gifts stopping to play and appreciate the gift instead of just ripping through it all like crazy. you seemed to be more interested in seeing me or Will open a gift too than you have in the past.

V, it was important to you that you and papa go get me something special. after W got off work on Christmas eve you went to the mall and got me something. W said that you were looking at stuff for you as much as for me but that it was fun to hang with you. he even bought you an ice cream because it was a special date for him and he wanted to just take some time to chat. you ended up getting me a hip purse, raspberry with fringe. i love it because it makes me a cool mom. thank you.

now in the quiet that happens after all the gifts are opened, you girls flicker around between drawing and playing and watching videos. mostly getting along. a good Christmas gift for sure.

Naughty or Nice

ah Beatrice, there isn't a day that goes by that you don't make me smile with some little nutty thing that you do. you truly are a coo coo bird. of course that makes up for the little things that you do that make me want to pull my hair out but that's not what this post is about.

today you are sitting in on the toilet with a toy phone in your hand. i overhear you say, "hey baby, whatcha got going?" i wonder who you are imitating since no one i know speaks this way. you continue with your one sided conversation to the point that i have to remind myself that there is no way anyone is on the other side of a toy phone.