March indoor and outdoor fun

St. Patrick's Day in the morning. Playing with her Tag reader and wearing a green diaper. She looked very cute and very silly with the headband on!

Some mid-March warm weather had us outside riding trikes and ride-on toys. There was still quite a bit of snow on the sidewalk, so I walked up and down the road with the kids so they could ride, and each warm day I'd shovel some of the snow off the sidewalk and toss it onto the grass in the sun where it would melt quickly!

 Morning pigpile. This happens pretty regularly.

 Finger painting! At first, both girls started off being very careful and serious.

 Then, as they got into it, they both got messy. Nora's hands were totally covered.

 Beth's face and hands got totally covered.

 Beth has been very interested in trying to dress herself. She's still been unsuccessful in getting a shirt or pants on without help. She can get socks and shoes on by herself now though. She does like to pile on the dresses and walk around.

 Beth's first pigtails. Super cute little girls she's turning into!

Nora's first big haircut

For awhile, I've had a friend come over (or I would head to her house) and she would cut my hair and trim Nora's. My friend G asked if we were interested in a mommy-older daugther date with her hairdresser and it sounded like fun. Nora had never been in a salon, and both of us really needed hair cuts. Nora's hair had become totally unmanageable between the curls and the length. It was just in constant tangles and there were tears every time we brushed her hair!

She did really well with her haircut. She wanted it cut short like daddy's, but we convinced her to go a bit longer than that.  It looks great now, takes much less time to brush, and best of all, no tears!

 Here's a before image. Long curls that were very cute, but very unmanageable.

 At the salon with her friend. The "goofball twins." They were both extremely well behaved the whole time we were there!

A photo from the day after her haircut. She looks a bit Shirley Temple like, brushing her hair took nearly no time and no tears, and she was very happy!

Kids are cute!

Nora and Beth have both started waking us up in the morning. Beth will shout "mama" from her room until someone goes and gets her. It's really cute, but not at 4:45am!

Nora gets up and comes into our room. She's been doing this for months. BUT the last growth spurt has allowed her to reach the light switch in our bedroom. She looks out her bedroom window and if it's light out, she comes into our room, turns the light on and says "the sun is awake, time to get up!" Again, really cute, and very sweet. Sometimes she'll climb into bed and cuddle for a few minutes before turning the light on.

Beth has reached the age where she likes to name everything. So, at dinner we hear "mama fork, daddy fork, Nowa fork, my fork (sometimes it's Bef's fork)" as she points to each person's fork. Repeat with spoon, chair, plate, and shirt. Then, she points out when an item on your plate is "all done."

It's these cute little things that are helping me make it through the end of winter!

Science Fun - Oil and Water

The food color I have is water soluble, but not very oil soluble. So...I put some food color, oil and water in a soda bottle and had Nora shake up the bottle. She got a "green" bottle and an "orange" bottle which separated into blue/yellow and burgundy/yellow (she chose the food color choices). We spend a long time shaking the bottles, making waves and watching the water bubbles float through the oil!

shake shake shake


more shaking

now some waiting

blue food color - partially separated

pretty much all separated


shaken just a little...notice the bubbles of blue in the oil...

the burgundy bottle...all shook up!

The two bottles, oil and water separated.

Playing with the bottles - making waves, bubbles etc and having a great time!

Another snow day!

February is drawing to an end. I'm so glad spring is just around the corner, it's just a matter of surviving until it arrives!

We were hoping to go to the Hilltop Circus today at Pine Hill. It's a great performance put on by the 8th grade class. It's always a wonderful show and Nora loved it last year. As I recall, Beth, at 6 months old, was pretty taken with it as well! We may try to go to the matinee tomorrow - but I don't know if there are tickets still available.

On this snow day, we have already had a rather interesting morning. We've build a "house" with play silks, brought some snow inside for play and dressed up to go outside. This was perhaps the most amusing. I told Nora she needed to wear her snowpants, jacket and boots to go outside. Perhaps I should have been more specific. Other than her underpants, that was ALL she wore! Silly girl. But, Nora did go outside while it was snowing and try to catch snowflakes on her tongue. I think her fear of "snow glitter" is finally gone!

While the kids played on the deck, I was able to take a bit of a break. I had a cup of tea, checked my email and then started doing dishes (I know, big break eh!). The kids came in dripping wet but happy. Once they stripped off the wet clothes, had a snack and a warm beverage it was just about time for Beth to nap. Nora and I enjoyed some special time just the two of us - crafts, reading and playing games. Beth's nap was unusually short, but they went back outside in the snow! The girls also played "night night, morning" on the couch. One of them would pretend to go to sleep, and the other would climb onto the couch to wake up the other one. It was very cute! Unfortunately, towards the end of the day, Beth took a swan dive off the couch and ended up with a bit of a goose egg on her head!

"night night" Nora pretending to sleep on couch.

Beth coming in for "goo morna" wake up time. They cuddle for a few minutes - super cute!

The swan dive boo boo. She's a tough cookie like her sister though. Pardon the pasta sauce on her face!

This is from a different day, but Nora and Beth, after destroying the house decided to just stop and read. Nora read Beth "Giggle Giggle Quack," one of our library books. Pretty sure she got every word right - she has a great memory!

Nora playing with beans in our sensory table. She made all sorts of things. I'm going to use the beans to make bean bags for the kids as Easter gift!

Preschool!

Nora loves preschool this year. I think her favorite part might be the ride with Daddy in the morning to carpool and then the ride with Nell to school. And it's a special treat when Nell's daddy gets to drive in with them as well! We just had our parent conference, and as usual, Nora is very quiet at school. When she speaks, it's in a very soft voice and her preferred location is either helping in the kitchen or watching the other kids from the outskirts of the play area. Like me, it sounds like she may find it a bit difficult to join in. However, she seems happy at Bluebell. Her teacher is working on encouraging her to join in with the other kids, and some days Nora does and some days she doesn't. We did learn that a few days ago she laid down in a box and started happily singing and ignoring the chaos surrounding her from all the other children's play. She's usually the first one dressed and ready to go outside - and insists on doing it all by herself. But, when it comes to the daily hike, she totally takes up the rear. I'm not really surprised about either of those either. She is very independent and does everything on her own schedule. She also enjoy looking around at everything and taking her time when walking on a hike. Plus, the teacher who follows at the end is also the teacher who does all the kitchen work...and I think that plays a bit of a factor in Nora's pace!

Getting Nora up and out of the house by 7am, however, has been an absolute nightmare! Especially recently because of all the snow days (and the holidays, and now winter break is coming up!). She goes to bed pretty early - and often she initiates the bedtime routine starting around 6! It's also been rather difficult to get into any sort of nap routine with Beth. She would most prefer to nap from 11-1, right at mid-day, and right now 3 days a week, I'm in the car for that entire time. Beth doesn't really nap all that well in the car, so she ends up getting a 10 minute nap and a nearly 2 hour rest, which is really not enough. It has made 4-5pm on school days really difficult!

We've decided for next year, we are going to move Nora to 2nd Nature Academy. It's right in Nashua, and because she's actually 3 (she misses the deadlines by 10 days), it's open to her now. It's only 2 days a week, but I think she'll still enjoy it. I really struggled with making the switch. No matter what you think of Waldorf style education, Bluebell Cottage is just an absolutely amazing place for a child to grow and play. Both my kids have enjoyed a parent and child class there and Nora has now been blessed with a year of nursery. I almost wish that we could just move the bluebell cottage somewhere closer to us, but I don't think that will happen. Between the drive time, morning struggles and really needing to consider the whole family (Nora and Beth), it just doesn't seem fair to send Nora to Bluebell to run around while Beth gets to be strapped in a car seat.

February - the longest month

It's been a very long 6 weeks! Since January, we have been hit with enough snow that neither of my kids were able to manage walking in the yard - snow was up to Nora's hips, and for awhile, was fluffy enough that she would just fall straight through to the bottom! We shoveled out a snow fort for the kids and the walls, at one point, were up to my eye level! The snow banks, even now that some of the snow has melted, are still shoulder height. Nora can manage climbing on the crusted over snow we currently have, and with the warmer weather arriving this week, I'm hoping we can play in the snow and make some snowmen!

Cabin fever has certainly arrived in this house. We had a very cold and windy day yesterday, so once Nora got home from school, we stayed in for the afternoon. We read books, played with glitter glue, drew spots on ladybugs, colored, read more books, played house (Nora was the mommy). It was really pretty good afternoon. Then, we hit 4pm. Multiple double meltdowns. Both kids struggled for about 90 minutes. It's really amazing how that can really make it feel like a no good horrible bad day, even though it was such a short time.

I am very much looking forward to spring. It'll be easier to take Beth outside (she's not a huge fan of the snow this year - and I don't blame her!). Outdoor playgrounds are free and are also much more fun than indoor playgrounds - for some reason Nora will play much better at an outdoor playground than most of the indoor play spaces that we've visited recently!

Here's a video I found on you tube. It's a song I've listened to since college and it seems rather appropriate.

Beth is 18 months old!

Happy Half Birthday to my sweet Rosebud! She's outgrown her super attachment to mama and will often become more comfortable in a new environment before her big sister! She is constantly on the go. It's really amazing how different she is - both from her big sister and from 3 months ago!

Beth is still very petite for her age. Her well visit isn't for another few weeks, but she's still in 12 month clothing (moving into the 18 month clothing). For reference, at this age, Nora was in 2T clothing! She eats very well, but only if she can feed herself. it has made for some rather messy meals, but she is totally getting the hang of it! Yogurt and soup is still very messy. We give her mostly greek yogurt because it's thicker and when we have soup, we strain out a lot of the broth so she can just scoop up the veggies. She eats all sorts of veggies, fruits, grains and meats. One of her favorites is millet. I think she would eat millet or scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese every day if we let her! She also LOVES freeze dried fruits, fresh berries of any type and frozen peas. She will even ask for peas by walking over to the fridge and pointing at the freezer "peas peas" - or peas, Please.

She's become quite adventurous with climbing recently. Unlike her sister, she does not seem to have the timid/cautious side to her. This, of course, means trouble! We have had quite a number of spills recently from trying to jump off the couch, climb into and out of the high chairs and jumping out of the learning tower. Ever the engineer, she has been working on her problem solving skills as well. She was playing with a pounding toy and is really still too uncoordinated to pound the pegs with the hammer. But, she wasn't deterred. She toddled over to the wooden blocks and grabbed a rectangle block. she tried to balance the block on a single peg to give herself a bigger landing bad for the hammer. When that didn't work, she put the block on two pegs and started pounding away, very happy with her modification.

Beth, like her big sister, loves books. She will bring me books and say "read book" a few times each morning. It's really quite nice to have the mornings 3 days a week with just Beth. The recent snow days have made those days few and far between, but they are really nice to have! We play for a bit, clear the breakfast dishes and get dressed, start a load of laundry and then play some more. Sometimes we run a few errands on our way to pickup, some mornings she decided to nap for a bit and some mornings we pop over to the library or a playdate for some much needed fun!

Here's some photos of Beth. I've been keeping the smugmug (see link to photos) up to date, so you can look at plenty more photos. I've got lots of January and Feb. photos in the kids section, as well as some photos from a recent snowstorm that ended in a sunny morning with snow covered trees - simply breathtaking. I got some nice photos, but they didn't do justice to how beautiful the morning really was!

Beth, refusing to sit next to her bear for an 18 month photo!



I just think Beth looks beautiful in this photo.


Beth loves to wear all sorts of hats, in all sorts of ways!





Messy messy. But, she's learning a great skill - feeding herself.

Oatmeal


Cranberry-blueberry pie!


Yogurt!


Nora and Beth having a snack together in the kitchen. They move their furniture all over. They will often push these two chairs together and take turns inside the "boat."

Once again, I have THE best dad and THE best in-laws!

One of the things I love about my family is how close we are! Even though I have family in Maine, Oregon, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts, we try to keep in touch - through Facebook, blogs, phone calls and emails. One of my (amazingly smart) cousins in Oregon is getting married - on my 35th birthday! Andy and I originally thought we would try to save up to take the kids out for a week and visit and go to the wedding. But, the more we thought about it, the more we thought it might be nice to have a short vacation without the kids, and plan to take the kids for a week when Nora won't miss school and we can concentrate on doing fun stuff with the kids. We talked to Don and Cherie and they agreed to watch Nora and Beth while Andy and I went totally across the country - with my dad and my sister - to attend the wedding. I was extremely excited. Then, a few weeks back, our sewer backed up into the downstairs bathtub and we ended up having to use our vacation savings on the plumber. I didn't realize how much I had been looking forward to that trip. My dad called a few days later and offered to purchase our airline tickets so that we could still go. He remembers how important it is for parents to have that break every once in awhile. I totally burst into tears I was so happy - I felt like I had just won the lottery! I'm so very much looking forward to going to Portland. I LOVE Portland and it has been far to long since I've been there. I don't think it would take too much to convince me to move out there - except for the whole living so far from grandparents and the much beloved Aunt Danielle and Uncle Jeff!

And so it begins...

I really think I need to read the book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" by Peggy Orenstein. Nora's favorite color has been blue for a long time now. Her second favorite, green. I knew that she would likely change to pink or pink and purple with school exposure, but I didn't realize how quickly it would happen!

At Rugged Bear, we were looking at the winter coats. I saw the coat I expected Nora would pick out. It was bright blue with a white stripe on each side - the stripes had peace and love symbols. Totally Nora! Well, she walked right past the coat and picked up a pink coat and said, much to my dismay, "Mommy, I should get this coat because it's pink and I'm a girl." I almost cried right then and there! Was it happening already? But, she's only 3 (and 1/3, of course!). We sat down and talked about how pink was a popular favorite color for girls, but that she didn't have to get pink just because she was a girl and she should choose any color that she liked. After a looooong series of questions from Nora, she decided that she would pick out the coat she liked. And big surprise, she liked the blue one I initially spotted!

There have been a number of other similar situation where she "couldn't" do something because she was a girl. I knew it would come, I just wasn't ready for it.

Another thing that has happened is we watched a Thomas the Train video and Nora was instantly hooked! At Target a few days later, she had a meltdown because she couldn't get a new train set. She really wanted a blue train with a silver face. We try to maintain a fairly commercial-free home, so all of our current trains are simple Ikea or Montgomery Schoolhouse trains. Made me realize just how good the marketing people are when it comes to kids and how difficult it's going to be to combat it. Luckily, the library has plenty of Thomas books and we have many friends with Thomas trains so she can get her fix. And really, there are far worse things out there than a Thomas train!