photo shoot

another favorite

L. loves her magnetic erase-board. She teaches herself to spell, to draw, and now she makes up stories. She makes blocks for each vignette and then has me sit down so she can "read" me the story. Pictured above is one of my favorites. I don't actually remember the story line because I didn't make it past "Once upon a time, there was a pirate poivron rouge who was digging for gold." I guess that explains his enormous smile.

driving

there I am, one hand steering, one shifting, there's no way I can intervene. So someone pounces.

BR: "Waaahhhh!!!"
Me (losing it): "L.! A.! what did you do now? Can't you just leave him alone!"
L.: "But, Mommy! I'm just trying to love him!"

Gaga's visit

Gaga came to visit for a week and we did SO much fun stuff. We went to the beach, the zoo, a playground on the bay, the race, great-grandma's...

race day

the kids came to cheer us on as J and I climbed the hill at mile 12 of our Half Marathon on Sunday. If the pictures didn't turn out so well it's probably because we were lightning fast with a finish time of 1hr 53min. Yup, we pretty much rocked it.

(In the future we'll probably avoid races with hills, though.)

Out of 8,000 total runners, I came in as the 321st woman! This mother of 3 preschoolers was pretty darn proud.

this is too easy

L. and A. are pretty good eaters, and I don't often have to coax them through a meal. But sometimes I need to. This morning's conversation with L.:

"Mommy, may I be excused from the table?"
"No, you need to eat a few more bites."
"How many?"
"Uh, how about, 7?"
"No, I'm going to eat 10!"

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A., at age 2.5, is in that magical phase of desperately trying to express her wishes through any means and especially through, um, volume. There was some great disappointment for her yesterday and she wouldn't stop wailing. I guess her sadness was too much for L. to bear because after a few moments I heard her trying to soothe her, by commanding her:

A.: "Waaahhh!!"

L.: "A, giggle!"

A: "Waaahhh!"

L.: "Giggle, A., GIGGLE!! GIGGLE! A.: GIGGLE!!!!"

A.: "Tee hee hee!!"

L. & A: "Ha ha ha, hee hee!"

Wait a minute. That actually worked?

"i look likes Aunt Mer!"

(i'm pretty sure she means with the hat, not the bib)

masterpieces

L. calls this "hearts smoke":

L. is also teaching herself to spell. I give you two samples:

1. "WDR" (water, of course)

2. "L. RUDROWNAPAZO" ("L., are you drawing a puzzle.")

feel the love

A: "i'm sorry for hitting you, L."
L: "i forgive you."
A: "i forgive you."
L: "no, I forgive YOU."
A: "I forgive YOU."
L: "I FORGIVE YOU! A. you say you're sorry and I say I forgive you."
A: "I FORGIVE YOU!!!"

"hey mommy, i'm going to play that Beatles song"

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In other news, when we're out and about A. keeps us all informed about cars (pretty much each car that passes us or that is parked within viewing distance). There are three very important distinctions:

"hey, mommy! that look likes our car, it has a roofrack!"

"hey, mommy! that car has a VW!" (she recognizes the insignia--she doesn't actually know her letters yet)

or,

"hey mommy, that car's not likes our car, it doesn't have a VW and it doesn't have a roofrack."

thank you, Margaret and H.A. Rey

curious george once had to go to the hospital because he ate a piece of puzzle. he had to have surgery and then was in recovery for two days afterward.


now we play, "we're sick." it involves plenty of moaning and groaning and some ticklish surgery and a very attentive nurse who needs to be at the bedside at all times providing ice cream and jello and advice like, "now try and rest for a Really Long Time" and that sort of thing (the jello is accepted but the advice is never followed).
in the above photos, I think he had eaten "a piece of train" and she had eaten "a piece of teddy bear". hazards indeed.

at this rate...

...we won't even need a moving truck. there will be nothing packed anyway.

i'm learning!

L. likes to have "learning" conversations with me these days. She'll say, teach me something. And then I'll pick a topic (or I will be given one) and then she will start learning. So, we talk about volcanoes and how they work, or I discuss feelings and provide some new vocabulary words so that we can learn to talk about them, or something like that. tonight's conversation:

L.: "So, what is fair and what isn't fair? What does cheating mean?" I explain and then she asks for an example.
Me: "Well, like when I say 'close your eyes while I hide this toy and then we'll play hot and cold until you find it. But then someone opens their eyes when they're supposed to be closing them. That's cheating and it isn't fair."
L.: "Oh, I do that. I open my eyes."
Me: "Well, that's cheating. It isn't fair because then the other kids don't know where it's hidden."
L.: "Right. So that's how I can win."

Ah.

Moving on to the next topic:

L. "I want to learn about how my feelings get hurt sometimes. So, what hurts my feelings?"

Me: (Hmm...that sounds maybe just a little negative..? Think of a happy topic, quick...)

Me: "Uh, let's talk about something else... I know, how about you tell me where different foods come from. Blueberries?"
"Bushes."

"Milk?"
"Cows."

"Cheese?"
"I don't know. Cows?"

"Great. Apples?"
"Apple trees."

"Good. Chicken?"
"Uh, cows?"

"No... try again."
"I don't know. Cows?"

Four years old and doesn't know this. Either we've lived in the city way too long or mommy needs to be fired.

lazy Sunday afternoon

while waiting on the curb for our ride...

...the kids found ways to entertain themselves.

(notice how Riceball is diligently watching and making a mental note to try this out in the future)

"look, mom, we're like astronauts!"

zoo...quake

we went to the zoo this morning and L. must have been sensing the seismic shifting going on and she had a giant meltdown right about quarter to noon so we had to come home and then I learned on the news about the quake. the timeframe seemed about right when I thought about it. she's perceptive, that one...

A. (still obsessed with spiders): "Look, L.! There's something exciting! It's a baby longlegs!"

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L.: "When I am big and I'm a mommy, I'm going to be the boss and I'm going to go running."

puzzle mania

we are so proud.

and so is she.

at the beach with B. & C.

snug as a bug in a rug

A.'s world

I cannot possibly capture all that she says, let alone the little chipmunk voice, but here is a little sampling...

"close your eyes and go to sleep, A."
"ok, and I'm going to dream about panda bears and dolphins and L. is going to dream about dinosaurs and ponies..."

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"I spy something that is...red! Is it that shirt? No... Is it the firetruck? No..."

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many long and complex sentences...
"Here's a Dr. Seuss book for you to read to me, Mommy. And here's another Dr. Seuss one. How 'bout after you read this one, then you can read that one. No! Riceball! Don't break my 'Red Fish, Blue Fish' book!" (yes, she actually calls him 'riceball')

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and here is one of my favorites that I've overheard a few times in the last few days. oh and very honestly, i do NOT know where she got this from. maybe from her experiences with bugs?

she is waddling around doing something--that is no doubt very important--and in the background somewhere a little ball of Rice topples over and lands in a heap on the floor (for some reason. wait, do 1 yr-olds NEED a reason? seems like they do this every few minutes...). She'll look over and casually say, "Oh, he's dead." and then back to whatever she was doing.

trauma-free

I prepared L. for her annual visit to the pediatrician with a case for a small amount of pain from a needle in the arm or leg versus the great amount of suffering and hardship one might endure should one contract such an easily preventable disease. She felt this was a fair trade and went to her checkup, accompanied by dad, feeling pretty ready to face this small trial.

When she got back, I asked for a report:

"Well, they were out of pony stickers so I had to get a truck one, but it was ok."

Sounds ok so far, but let's back up; how about the actual exam?

"My leg was asleep when we got there, but a little hammer woke up my knee."

I think she was fine.

(And yes, ponies are all the rage around here.)

he speaks!

the Riceball was trying to get my attention this morning and I thought it was the typical baby babble he usually thinks are words. Then I realized he was asking for something: "Ball!"

How appropriate that this should be his first real ("uh oh" and "da da da da" don't really count) word.

fun with grandma

fun with grandma's camera

(photo credits: L.)

i am so proud

they're watching a show, an educational one thank you very much. Every day they learn something new. There are skits, a few songs, some older kids answering some questions and showing off what they've learned.
It's a great show, they probably watch it two or three times a week because they love to learn. Today's topic: habits. Plenty of examples of good and bad habits and some tips on how to break the bad ones, too. Like I said, great show.
L. walks over to me: "Look, Mommy, I have a habit!"
finger in her nose.

things I will miss in a few years...

A: "Mommy, come see something exciting! It's a spider!"

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could she be more adorable!?!