http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=1755139666841541603 about a dream: September 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

maggie has started dance class

yesterday after nina's dance class, miss melissa (the dance teacher) asked me if maggie might want to try dance class with her wednesday morning pre-K group. generally, the classes are for 3-4 year olds, so i thought it'd be best for maggie to wait, even though miss melissa lets kids start at about 2.5 if they're ready. well, this wednesday morning group, she said, is really little--all of them either just turned 3 or are turning very soon, except one who is still 2.5. so i said sure, that'd be great!

maggie was SOOO excited. she did a fantastic job too! it helps that she knows melissa and melissa's kids (the youngest of whom is also in the class), and that she's watched nina's classes for so long that she really knows the drill. she was just grinning from ear to ear the whole time. every 5 minutes or so she'd run over to me and say "i'm dancing! i'm dancing!" except at the very end, when she'd run over and ask "is it done yet?" an hour is still a bit long for her. but it's totally going to work, so we're going to enroll her. nina will be so excited to have a little sister dancing at the recital too!

on a different note, nina did the cutest thing for me this morning. i've been sick, as i pointed out yesterday. well this morning, while i was making nina's lunch, she told me to close my eyes and she led me into the family room, where she'd prepared a sick bed for me! she'd put a blanket and pillow on the couch, pulled out a tray table, put a banana on it, and turned on the TV. it was for me to rest and get better! isn't that just the sweetest thing? i love that she'd turned on the TV for me too, good morning america was on. what a sweetie pie!

Monday, September 27, 2010

siiiiiiiick

i'm sick. it started with maggie, then nina got a touch of it, but i have it the worst. as usual. well, maggie had a LOT of snot, but she didn't say anything about a sore throat, so i don't think she had one, at least not as bad as mine.

i kept nina home from school today though, she had an uspet stomach at bedtime last night, so i figured she'd better stay home so she didn't throw up or anything at school. and tomorrow is school picture day, i don't want her to miss that! she's SO excited for it. maggie was THRILLED that nina was home all day. for 2 1/3, she has a really good sense of time, because she totally gets that nina is home on weekends, but that today was a monday and nina should have been at school. so having her home today was a treat in a way that saturday and sunday weren't. and maggie was in a fantastic mood, just utterly delighted all morning. giggling, playing with nina, running around and shrieking with joy. it was so cute.

oh, she's writing letters on purpose. i didn't ask her, but this morning she drew an A and then showed it to me. she gets very frustrated when there's something she can't do though, so i'm not making too big a deal about writing letters. like, i'm not going to try to teach her how to write them, that would just upset her. just a few days ago she was trying to do something (what was it? i can't remember... mom was here, i'll ask her if she remembers), and she said "i can't do it, i'm too little!!" poor kid.

she also still talks a lot about going to preschool. on the way to church on sunday she kept pointing to different buildings and asking, "is that my preschool? maybe that one will be my preschool." i don't think she's really ready for preschool, she still freaks out a lot if i'm not around (the other day i went to pick up nina at the top of dover rd after school, and i asked her if she wanted to come but she said no, she wanted to go to grandma's. i asked again, and again before i left, and she insisted she wanted to go to grandma's, but then she freaked out when i drove away. so i really don't think she'd like it at preschool.

ok, bedtime for me!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

it was 85 degrees yesterday!

hot! today it's only about 60 and overcast, quite the difference. we went to a pig roast at an old high school buddy's of mine, and nina and maggie's good friend bernadette was there, so the girls had a fantastic time running around. they were tuckered out at night! not that they went to bed any earlier than usual, but they did sleep in until 8 this morning.

so, nina always tells me that she loves me more than any other kid loves their mom. and then i tell her that i love her more any any other mom loves her kid. well, yesterday nina told me that she loves charlie more than any other kid loves her best friend. aww!

maggie has started drawing more realistic people, which i think is really early. she draws a circle for the body, a circle for the head, stick legs with circle feet, and stick arms with circle hands. sometimes she even does eyes or hair. pretty detailed for not yet 2 1/2! she's also trying to write letters, i think. she's been making Hs and As, and i think it's on purpose. i'll have to ask her and get back to you. i'll take a picture of her writing (maybe the stuff on the wall, that's still there...), then you can see.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

nina's terrible day

nina gets pessimistic when she's tired. before she fell asleep tonight, she started to tell me about what a terrible day she had. "what happened?" i asked her. "well, first," she said, "i didn't like the way the wet grass felt on my feet." (that was this afternoon, when she and maggie were playing outside while i cooked dinner.) "so i just sat there and was bored. then, i didn't see grandpa for 2 days, and i didn't see grandma today. also, i thought school was going to be a short day, but it wasn't. it was a long day."
"but it was a short day," i said. "you got out at 1:30."
"no," she said. " i thought we were going to be done after our AM snack. i thought we were going to eat our snacks and then they were going to say, 'ok, time to go home to your moms.'" (aww! she does miss me!) "also," she continued, "i miss (everyone. i'm not typing out all the names, she misses EVERYONE. even yvonne and renee. she also missed charlie already, even though they're best friends and see eachother every day)."

i told nina that maggie and i will come to lunch tomorrow, and that after school, we can go to the ebb tide so she can see grandma. that made her happy.

before she got so tired, she was very happy and said she had a great day (best part: telling us a joke she heard at school: "a hippo was sitting on a fox and said, 'you're under arrested!' and the fox said, 'no, i'm under a big fat hippo!' HAHA!! worst part: the feeling of the wet grass and being bored). being tired always makes her feel more negative.

maggie also answered the best/worst part of the day question. best part of the day was picking up nina, worst part was the angelina halloween book (but i think she just said that because it was there and she couldn't think of the worst part).

Monday, September 20, 2010

a volunteering monday

mom and i volunteered at the elementary school book fair today. maggie came along, she was in heaven. all those books!! it's funny to compare the books she is drawn to with the books nina goes for. nina has fairly broad taste in books, but definitely prefers animal and princess-y topics. maggie likes those things too (everything really), but she grabbed 2 shark books and a ripley's believe it or not book with a lizard man on the cover. she's grandma's little girl alright!
maggie and i had lunch with nina too, always fun. maggie ate the cheese off her taco, nina cleaned her tray and ate some of my food. that girl can eat!

hm, that's all i can think of...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

we went apple picking again




i love fresh picked apples! so, we went again. besides i used up half of our thursday apples in an enormous apple crisp on friday, so we needed more anyway. this time we went back to the place we went to last year, rocky ridge orchards i think it's called. we got some pumpkins, some gourds for the table, some indian corn to decorate with, and only a few apples, because these trees were almost totally picked! they only opened up last weekend too, the maine apple pickers are like locusts!

there was also a ride on a cart drawn by two big horses. the guy who owned them was very nice and let the kids sit on top. these horses were HUGE, taller than the guy! they must have weighed 6 or 8 hundred pounds each. HUGE!!! he said they were belgians i think. (ok i just looked it up online, they weigh on average 2,000 pounds each!! holy moly!) anyway, the girls sat on them (maggie went first), and they got a huge kick out of that. so, lots of unexpected fun there, because they didn't have a horse ride last year.





we even stopped at the mcdonald's play place on the way home. what a fun-filled day!!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

field trip today

technically, this wasn't nina's first field trip ever; that would be the class trip to the queens county farm that she took with her preschool 2 years ago. but it was her first real school field trip! maggie and i came along as chaperones (maggie couldn't ride the bus though, only students and parents were allowed), and we all went apple picking. the kids had a great time, and the orchard women said they were very well behaved. how nice!

maggie and i stayed after the kids left and picked more apples. tomorrow i am making a huge apple crisp, mmmmm my favorite. i didn't take any pictures, i know i haven't put any up in a while, but i was in charge of nina and another girl on the field trip (plus maggie of course, who took 3 trips to the bathroom), so my hands were pretty full.

and wow was it a perfect day for apple picking! bright blue sky, barely a cloud, and warm once the morning chill wore off.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

dance class is back on

i have precious little to write about. i guess nina being gone all day really dries up my inspiration! well, it's been fun to have some just me and maggie time. i hadn't really realized how much having another kid in the mix changes the way we play--the different between me, nina, and maggie playing together, or just nina and maggie playing, and me playing with just maggie, is huge. today maggie and i played house under a blanket for a while, and it really reminded me of playing that with nina when she was 2. except playing with maggie involved more kicking the blanket, jumping on it, and rolling off the bed. we played that for a while, no wonder she napped for over an hour this afternoon.

nina is back to taking dance lessons, so our tuesdays are pretty busy.

that's all i can think of!! more tomorrow hopefully, after math team practice (i'm assistant coaching).

Sunday, September 12, 2010

a lazy weekend

yesterday a trip to the playground was the highlight of our day (followed by a trip to hannaford). oh wait, i take that back. the girls went in the hot tub, i'm pretty sure that was the highlight of their day.
nina confessed that she has been making up the new letters (there is no indiocha!) and the new numbers! when i told her i'd been telling people about them (how embarrassing!), she looked at me with such contempt. a, "wow, my mom is duuuumb" look. might as well keep her expectations low so she isn't disappointed later!

today we're also lazing around the house. church in the morning (maggie had to go to the bathroom during mass, so nina and i took her. outside of the church doors were elizabeth and her daughter allison, who's 9 i think. maggie walked up to them and said, "i have to poop. do you need to go poop?" and they busted up laughing. it was too funny).

other than that, not much going on!! maggie woke up this morning and asked, "why doesn't papa have his own bed? why does he have to sleep with nina?" and i explained that actually the big bed belongs to me and papa, but papa goes to sleep with nina when maggie comes into our bed. she totally rejected that. "no!" she said. and then, "why doesn't papa have his own bed?" sigh........

Thursday, September 9, 2010

late and tired

another good day at school for nina, another lonely day with me for maggie. i pulled her up the road in the wagon to meet the school bus, and she was so excited when it pulled up. she started squealing "nina! nina! i missed you!!" and ran to give her a hug. and we'd even had lunch with nina at school today, so it had only been about 3.5 hours since we'd seen her! well, tomorrow's friday, that will make the little one very excited.

today nina told me about a new number. i forgot what it's called, but it represents the distance, in miles, from maine to new york to the south pole, back up to maine and to new york again. really really far, 192 far. she's learning so much!

hahaha. hopefully she actually is learning something, but how would i know?

millions of peaches, peaches for me

millions of peaches, peaches for free!

(erik, non-gardeny update continues below)

we got a TON of peaches from our tree! ok, not 2,000 lbs of peaches. maybe 10 lbs? maybe 12, 15 if you count the ones we harvested last week. all in all, a pretty good haul. i'm cutting some up and freezing them for later, i figure we can put peaches on top of pancakes and waffles and the like, or use them in smoothies, or make a peach pie in the middle of winter. yum! if i get a better garden harvest next year, i'm either going to have to take up canning (highly unlikely, i'm afraid of botulism) or get a big chest freezer for the basement. how fun!

school continues to go well. nina was SO tired yesterday that she fell asleep before 7, poor kid! she's still getting adjusted to the schedule, but since she wakes up at 6:40 i wouldn't be surprised if she was in bed at 6:30 and asleep by 6:45 when it all shakes out. on the days maggie doesn't nap she's asleep by 6:45 too, so i am crossing my fingers that nick and i will soon have leisurely evenings!

i asked nina a few days ago if she learned anything new at school that day. 'i don't know,' she said. 'did you learn any new letters i prompted?' 'Yes!!,' she said, 'i learned about a new letter called indeara. it looks kind of like an H and a J put together. i'll draw it for you.' and she did. it comes after C in the alphabet and it makes its own bizarre sound that i can't quite recall and i'm sure couldn't spell out accurately if i could. i guess the old 26 letter alphabet is very 1985 and things have changed since i was a kid. haha. she's keeping it up though, every day she tells me about 2 new letters they've learned and draws them for me. if i were very organized, or had more free time, i'd photograph them and show you, but that would take too long, so just take my word that they look like a cross between a stick figure and a chinese character. funny kid i have!

Monday, September 6, 2010

labor day weekend

hmmm.... what to write about. well, it's labor day weekend, and for the first time ever on this holiday we were able to go for a nice long swim in the parents' pool. yay for global warming! it was in the low 90s last week, but today only hit the high or mid 70s.
earlier today we got ice cream for $1 at wannawaf, they're closing for the season and were getting rid of everything. then we picked out treats at sherman's and took a short trolly ride. how summery.

wow for the first time i think i can't think of anything to write about! i'm even losing interest in the garden (an animal ate my cantaloupe, it was the size of a baseball, maybe a softball. sad). i'm still getting some tomatoes, and i'll harvest 3 small turnips soon. that's it! the peaches are ripe though, so that's very exciting. gotta get dad's ladder again to pick the rest.

ok well, maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

the rest of the week was equally successful

yup, it's official, nina likes kindergarten. she's ridden the bus to school every day, and home twice (once i picked her up at school). on friday, mom, maggie, and i joined her for lunch at school. it was great! she was happy to see me (in spite of instructing that i not come after her first day. but after day 2, she was happy with the idea of getting lunchtime visitors). so, we all got the hot lunch (pizza), which looked like it tasted really good (not the old rectangle pieces from when i was a kid, this was real triangular pizza!), but since maggie ate nearly all of mine, and nina finished off the rest, all i got to try was crust.

maggie is adjusting to nina being gone too. on thursday she wanted to pretend i was nina, which was really cute. it's been so, so hot (90+) this week that we've primarily been swimming at mom and dad's. amazing! the pool at 80 degrees in september!! maggie and i also went to the beach on wednesday morning, but it was too hot to play there for very long. crazy.

we also had a hurricane come through these parts last night, but it fizzled out or stayed offshore, so all we got was some rain overnight. not even twigs down or anything, which is very good. especially for my garden, which i have grown tired of and have been neglecting through this heat wave! i should have watered it this week, it was so dry, but oh well... not much is left producing anything. i still have a fair number of tomatoes, but that's about it. nothing's coming from the zucchini plants, the peas are long since done for, the carrots never gave me much to start with though i still have a row i can dig up, and i have a couple of turnips that i can harvest soon.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

kindergarten!

today was the day, nina's first day of kindergarten! i won't keep you in suspense, it was "fun." that's about all i got out of her, no details of her day. oh, wait, she did tell me that she is drawing an apple in art class.

well, here are a few pictures. the first is getting ready to head out the door. pretty excited!!

then, waiting for the bus. she was feeling a little nervous here! but not as nervous as she looks, it's that combination of her forced smile/being sick of pictures, along with the nerves, that made her look especially anxious.


and finally, after a long day, she came back to me! so little in that big bus!


and relief! what a happy kid after a big day!!



she had been SOOO excited to start school. yesterday was the practice bus ride, which she'd been waiting for for weeks. it was a trial run just for kindergarteners, and it picked some up at the catholic church at 1:00 and another group at the center cafe at 1:15. nina wanted to be on the first group so that she could get the longer ride.
we parents picked up the kids at school at 1:45. when i walked into the kindergarten class and found nina, she looked up at me and said, "what are you doing here?" so yeah, she really missed me. i told her it was time for me to pick her up and she said, "well, i'm not done playing." i lured her out by promising a trip to the playground (oh by the way vanessa and erik, there IS a good playground! it's just that it's at the upper playground, now all the kids go there. the lower playground is abandoned. i'm not sure why...) on the way home nina was so excited to get back to school that she asked "is it bedtime yet??"

well, today went really well too. i was pretty nervous! i took maggie to hendrick's head to keep my mind off of everything. but when i picked her up at the bus stop, she said school was fun and that she'd had a good day. and that she was hungry and tired and hot (because we're in the middle of a heat wave, and it was over 90 again!). that was pretty much all i got out of her at first.

later, she told me about how the teacher walked them down to lunch, that they played outside, and that they sat in a circle. she also asked me, "is charlie my boyfriend?" (nina and charlie sat together on the bus. he's her friend from just up the road). i asked her did someone ask her that and she said yes, a kid on the bus. bus kids!! i told nina that since she and charlie were going to get married, she could tell kids he is her fiance. haha, no i'm just kidding.

at bedtime, i asked the girls what the best and worst parts of their day were. nina said the best parts were when anna picked her up at the bus stop (anna took those pickup photos) and we all went swimming, and when emily gave her the princess sleeping bag (which happened yesterday) and the worst part was when she "got a stale tomato" (she'd eaten a cherry tomato from our garden that had been sitting on the counter a little too long and was squishy). so, i guess no part of her day was worse than a stale tomato!!

maggie said the best part of her day was when emily gave her the tinkerbelle costume (also yesterday), and the worst part was that she missed nina. aww!! she really did too, she talked about her all day long, talked yesterday about how she was going to miss her, and then squealed with delight when nina got off the bus and ran to give her a hug. they are so sweet!!

so, hopefully another positive day tomorrow. i think she's really going to like school!