about a dream

not so much going on this week

2012-01-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

maggie had dance (she was very well behaved!), and while she was there, nick and i played tennis on the Y's indoor courts. very nice! we only got a half hour because there's a tennis club that practices on both courts at 10 every wednesday, but it was still fun. then we both ran around the track a bit, and i lifted weights, so all in all a very fit morning for us.

our only other news is that we got cable TV. well, we had the most basic package already, but that was just the regular networks, so we upgraded to full cable. it was a whim, but it's been fun. did you know they still show little house on the prairie? nina loves it.

that's all i can think of. oh, yesterday or the day before, maggie said to me, "your butt is ginormous. whoa. it's huge." just an observation i guess, i didn't ask for her opinion or anything. it's a really good thing i'm skinny, or else she might have hurt my feelings! i just told her that it's impolite to comment on other people's bodies. but then i told mom and nick what she said, so i'm sure that her takeaway message was that commenting on other people's enormous butts is a barrel o' laughs. i'm sure i will regret that. oh well, live and learn. or live and don't learn, whichever.

can you picture us with pet mice?

2012-01-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

well, we might have some next year. yippee. (sarcasm)

we took the girls to PetCo today (wow, they really love that place!), and the mice were an especially big hit. the girls were watching them run around in their little cages and laughing with glee. at one point two were in one of those hamster wheels, and they kept spinning each other upside-down, and maggie yelled joyfully "the mice are doing parkour! they're doing parkour!" and they both laughed uproariously. so yeah, mice, a bird, and nina still wants a dog. oh my!

yesterday, maggie and nina were playing this game wherein maggie was an orphan, and nina was a nurse who was taking care of her. they'd been playing for quite a bit when i heard nina say "maggie, i don't want to play this any more. it makes me sad that you don't belong to me."

aww! she's so sweet and loving, that she can't take even pretending that maggie isn't hers. so maggie said, "arrrgh, fine, i have parents." then they were sisters again and nina was happy.

too cute!

yesterday was quite a big day

2012-01-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

i tried writing this yesterday, but maggie woke up when i was just a few words in, and didn't get back to sleep until almost 10:30. so, i'm doing it now!

so, yesterday nina had a field trip to the planetarium in portland, and maggie and i went along too! there wasn't room on the bus for parents, so maggie and i drove. our friend jenn and her son wyatt drove with us, which was great. the two kids entertained each other the whole way there and back, and jenn and i got to catch up. win-win!

the planetarium show was fun. it focused on the solar system, and the size, temperature, and appearance of the planets. very appropriate for the 6 year old audience, and maggie liked it too.

after the show, we all ate lunch at the USM student union. the kids were very well behaved. they're all such good kids.

then, we drove to eartha (the giant globe at DeLorme in freeport). the girls love eartha, so this was fun as usual. and, we got 2 more glow in the dark rubber dinosaurs. can't have enough of those!

from here, nina drove back with us. we dropped jenn and wyatt off at the school, and then i took the girls to the ebb tide where they had a late lunch/early dinner by themselves! that's right, a sisters' lunch date! mom was there, and there we no other customers, so we decided to give it a go! i had to go to the bank, and they really needed to eat before the next half of our day (oh yes, there's more. much more!), so we decided to give it a go. they're so grown up!! they split a shrimp dinner and ate like champs.

then, it was off to nina's dance class. it runs from 3 to 4:30, so pretty long. maggie and i ran on the track and then shot some hoops in the gym. then, at 4:30, maggie's new dance class started. that's right, dance from 4:30 to 5:30. oh my! but it was a hit! this class is tap and ballet, and she loves the tap. running around the track and shooting in the gym for an hour and a half before dance class was helpful too, because she has so much energy that she actually needs to get some out before she can be calm and focused enough to dance.

then, home. whew! the girls ate dinner just before 6, and maggie was conked out on my lap by 6:30. three hours later she woke up and said, "i never got to eat dessert!" so, she came downstairs, had a few snacks, and was out again about an hour later.

it's friday now, and i'm still pooped!

it's not the end of the world!

2012-01-18T18:41:00.001-08:00

sometimes maggie's responses to life's dissappointments are--shall we say?--a bit overly dramatic. so i've been trying to teach her to take a deep breath, calm down, and get some perspective. "it's not the end of the world," i'll tell her.

well. today there was a misunderstanding, based on how similar "burrito" and "dorito" sound. when she realized that we had the former in the house, but not the latter, it was too much to bear.

"noooo!!!!" she wailed. "it's the end of the week! it's the end of the week!"

haha! she's so cute, even when she's distraught over doritos.

i told her i was sorry, but that i was offering her burritos, leftovers from dinner last night.

"nooooo!" she wailed again. "i want doritos. the orange ones that papa likes. in the blue bag!"

those are the "cool ranch" (or perhaps "cooler ranch") flavored doritos. nick was impressed that maggie knew exactly which ones she wanted.

well, nick can't take that dorito sorrow, so he picked up a bag for our little dear when he took nina out to Y arts. so don't worry, the week isn't ending after all!

finally we're in the calmest part of winter

2012-01-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

even though mid-january is typically the coldest time of year in maine, it's become one of my favorites. it's calm, quiet, and peaceful. the ice rink is finally frozen enough for good skating, and we even have snow on the ground. ahh. i tried to take the girls sledding after school today, but they didn't want to go, can you believe it? nina really wanted to get home and play some wii. i guess they'd been talking about it at school, and she was just in the mood. well, they didn't have to twist my arm about it!

monday was no school because of martin luther king day. nina had learned all about him at school, and said she wanted to celebrate by watching an episode of the wild kratts, a new cartoon on PBS, because one of the kratts brothers' name is martin. fitting! i told her we were going to have a playdate with the triplets too, and she said, "what? on martin luther king day??" so cute! i had to explain that it's a holiday, but it's not like christmas or anything.

BRRR!

2012-01-14T17:48:00.000-08:00

the coldest, darkest days of winter are upon us! it's supposed to go below 0 tonight (and windy!), with a high of 15 tomorrow and down to single digits again overnight tomorrow. good thing we don't have any plans to be outside!

this morning i went to a retreat for sunday school teachers, and mom and dad took the girls to brunswick. they had a great time! highlights were china rose buffet and a trip to petco (better than the zoo!) maggie did totally fine, she's in such an affectionate phase right now. the other day she told me, "i just love grandma so much!", and today she even wanted to sit on her lap! who is this kid?! i love it!

it's almost 9 and nina is still awake, coloring. nick's watching football, and i'm doing the blog and consulting on colors with nina for the picture she's coloring. such a peaceful evening at the halter house.

we had a snow day!

2012-01-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

what a fun day! of course, we went out in the snow (maggie for about 10 minutes. she likes the snow, but she doesn't like when it's snowing. can't say that i blame her, i'm not too fond of the shards of ice in my face feeling either). nina lasted much longer, but it was warm enough for the snow to be pretty wet, and wet makes for cold kids. so in for hot chocolate we went!

the girls have requested new pink princess dresses (sort of similar to sleeping beauty's dress), so i spent some time sewing today. nina really wants hers done tomorrow, maybe i'll have a picture for you tomorrow night.

thank goodness the hippo swing is still up, the time outside wasn't enough to expend all of their energy, so that got some more use. even i gave it a go!

oh, and we finally got to watch godzilla vs. the thing on netflix. "the thing" was, i think, an egg of mothra's. at the end it hatched two larvae. so, in case you were wondering, now you know.

"fingers crossed tightly"

2012-01-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

i was just looking at my previous post, and it reminded me of the way maggie has said both "i slept tightly," and "i slept with all my might!"
i love her little expressions!

today she also corrected my grammar. nina was saying that she saw her friend grace at chorus tonight, and i said, "oh, how was grace?" and maggie looked at me and said, "no, it's 'how is grace.'" can you imagine how they're both going to be correcting my german a year from now? they're going to be so embarrassed by me!

snow update: the forecast varies from 3 to 8 inches, depending on the amount of rain that mixes with the snow. i guess right here on the coast, it's a tough call. i'm hoping for 8, the girls would be so excited! either way though, most of the forecasts are calling for rain on friday, so that would pretty much ruin it. well, i'll keep you posted!

will it snow? will it??!!

2012-01-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

we have our fingers crossed tightly tonight!

you know what my number 1 clue to growth spurts is?

2012-01-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

the fingernails. they need trimming every other day (or so it seems) when the girls are growing more rapidly than usual. however, maggie's signs also apparently include more tantrums than usual (which is a lot), and crashing for the night at 6. duly noted!

nina finished reading beezus and ramona, and she loved it! she can't wait to start ramona the pest tomorrow. i think she really relates to beezus, and sees the similarities between ramona and maggie. what a perfect gift that was for her!

yesterday maggie was talking about being a grown-up (she's very anxious for that!), and i asked her what she wanted to be when she's grown up. "a scientist," she said.

that's my girl!

ice skating today!

2012-01-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

it was so beautiful today! who knew january in maine could be so lovely? nina was feeling even better today--she was mostly better on friday, except for occasionally have some nausea or stomach pain, and sneezing and sniffling--so we decided to go ice skating. what fun! nina is doing a great job, her skating is becoming smoother and smoother (more and more smooth?). she has so much fun!

maggie started out on her double blade skates, but she really wanted single blades. there was only one pair in her size in the skates shed, and i thought at first the the buckle on it was broken. anyway, i was happy, i didn't think she was ready for single blades. she agreed to wear the double, big mistake on my part. the doubles make being on the ice way to easy. first she got her friend casey's hockey stick and tried playing hockey. then she started running all over the place. then i looked up and saw her jumping up and spinning (and crashing on her bottom). what the heck maggie! you're too young for a triple toe loop. too young!

so, i asked her if she wanted to try the single blades, which were fine now because i righted the wrong buckle and they were fine after all. we started out holding hands, or nick and i each holding a hand, and she was really getting a feel for them. after about 10 minutes (maybe 10 minutes), she let go of my hand and took off on her own. i freaked out at first! but she really did a good job. her feet were getting cold and her socks were wet, so thankfully she wasn't out there for too long. that child truly has no fear, and i am going to put a helmet on her before she goes out again (don't worry, most of the kids wear helmets on the ice. no one will think i'm a crazy mom).

nina started to feel sick again during dinner, unfortunately (maybe fondue wasn't the best choice after all). her stomach was upset, and she took a while to fall asleep. nurse pat did say that this has been going around, and it lasts 3 to 7 days. hopefully this is just the last little bit of it, popping back up when she's really tired.

hippo swing, as promised!

2012-01-07T12:45:00.001-08:00

i noticed after i took this picture that the butt had slid down, so i raised it back up before i took the next 2.

she's a thing of beauty, ain't she?

poor nina is sick

2012-01-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

she went back to school happy and healthy as could be on tuesday and was fine tuesday night and wednesday morning. then at 9:15 on wednesday morning, just as i was about to head out the door to take maggie to dance class, my phone rang. it was nina, and she said she had a stomach ache. i told her i was on my way out, and would pick her up in 10 minutes.

i had to take maggie to dance class, and i asked nina if she wanted to stay and watch maggie dance, but she said no, she didn't feel well enough. i knew we were in for some trouble then, because she loves to watch maggie dance whenever she gets the chance. so i ran her home, settled her on the couch with a pillow, blanket, and stack of books, and turned back around to pick maggie up from class. by the time i got home, nina had thrown up (props to nick for getting her to the bathroom on time!). her stomach really, really hurt too. for the rest of the day she bounced between seeming totally fine, to having strong stomach pains, to throwing up, and to feeling good again. she didn't eat much, but she drank a bit, so she didn't get dehydrated.

maggie had a tough time dealing with nina's sickness. but nina really understood how maggie felt, since she'd felt similarly about maggie's splinter. unfortunately, maggie reacted by throwing one tantrum after another, and climbing onto my lap (and trying to push nina off) whenever i was cuddling nina. yup, it was a loooong day. and, i really and truly am glad that in between bouts of illness, nina felt great, and energetic, and hopped all over the house... but can't i get a kid who just lays on the couch all day when she's sick? do mine have to have so much energy all the time? really, i'm happy they're so healthy... i just want them to be healthy and still every once in a while.

nina did amazingly though. she never once threw up all over everything. i've never had a sick kid before and not had to do tons of laundry. so nina, thank you.

it's been almost 24 hours since she threw up, and was doing really, really well all day (to the point that i had to create and install a piece of functional art that we have dubbed "hippo swing." pictures tomorrow, i promise!). i thought for sure she'd be all better and i could send her to school tomorrow. but then, out of nowhere at 4 pm, she spiked a fever of 102. poor kid! so, there's no way she'll be able to do school tomorrow. oh well, hopefully she'll be fine and we'll be able to play outside.

well, even though last night was great in the sense that i wasn't remaking the bed at 2 am, i was still up a lot, and i'm pooped, so i'm going to bed soon. cross your fingers that nina is 100% better tomorrow, and that no one else gets this! (though i have a nagging feeling i'll be posting about maggie puking in the near future. here's to hoping though).

a little post-christmas merriment

2012-01-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

maggie was trying to cheer nina up yesterday, so she sang some songs. i've put a video on you tube, since it's way too big to host on the blog.

unfortunately, something is wrong with the mic on our ipod, and the videos record really, really quietly. so turn your volume all the way up to hear it. then don't forget to turn it back down!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Ugc95QOoA&feature=youtu.be

enjoy!

dr. mommy to the rescue!

2012-01-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

maggie got a splinter in the bottom of her foot today. it was tiny, and at first i couldn't see anything, so i figured it was just a tiny scratch on her foot. but then about 15 minutes later, her body had pushed it out just enough to see it. barely, because it was so tiny. there was enough sticking out that i could get it with tweezers, and i asked nina to sit by her head and talk to her to distract her. she was totally willing, until she realized that i was going to pull the splinter out. then, she wailed, "no! don't do it! i can't watch!" and ran upstairs. this did not help maggie calm down.

so i decided instead to put maggie in the tub, in the hopes that the splinter would just fall out. nina couldn't even talk about it, except to say that she wished it was her with the splinter so maggie didn't have to go through it. what an incredible sweetie! mind you, maggie was totally fine. she only cried briefly when she got it, and briefly when it started to poke out and hurt (which is how we discovered it was there). mostly she didn't seem to notice or care. and it was so small that if it wasn't sticking out of her foot, perpendicular to her skin, i probably would have just left it.

well, it didn't fall out in the tub, but i could tell it was just barely in, and i knew a quick pluck would painlessly remove it. nina didn't want to be there, so she left the tub. i just hid the tweezers from maggie's sight and she didn't bat an eye when i pulled it out. there couldn't have been more than half a millimeter of it below the skin.

it was definitely more difficult for nina than for maggie!

happy 2012!

2012-01-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

we had our new year's day party today, what fun! what madness, but what fun. i don't even know how many kids we had today, i guess about 20. not all at once fortunately, but pretty close. our neighbors art and pat came at the peak of the mayhem, and they were totally scared off. they lasted about 5 minutes. fortunately it was beautiful today (high 40s?), and we just threw them all out when it got to be too much. the kids loved the ATV too.

tomorrow though, we are just going to relax. and eat!

nina's old enough now to be embarrassed when i tell funny stories about her

2011-12-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

but, as she doesn't read the blog (yet!), i'll continue to tell them here.

today after we went swimming at the Y, she was talking about drew, one of her classmates.

"he's half indian and half human," she told me.

"well, he's 100% human," i corrected.

"yeah," she said. "he's 100% human and just a tiny bit indian."

haha! i of course explained that indians are humans too. actually, the problem was that she didn't know how to describe the other half of drew. i told her she could say either white or Caucasian. maybe we should discuss race a little more around here!

fun with christmas presents!

2011-12-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

here are nina, maggie, and grandma, reading the alice in wonder land pop-up book that vanessa got the girls. wow, this pop up book is incredible! not like the pop-ups from when i was a kid. maggie got one on dinosaurs, too. she's not allowed anywhere near them unsupervised!

here are the girls and erik all cuddled under one snuggie. aww!

while they were in there, maggie said "i'm going to pee in my pants!" just what erik wanted to hear!! it was ok though, she scrambled off to the bathroom and made it in time.

the girls love the ATV. nina loved it right away, maggie didn't get on until today. but once she did, she loved it too! she let nina drive her from grandma's house, down to the path to our house, back to grandma's house "the long way" (that's via the driveways), then around grandma's house on the lawn. they did the big loop twice!

pics!

2011-12-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

here they are, pictures from christmas 2011!

merry christmas me and erik!

nina opening presents under the tree

nina again

this would make a good mug shot for nick

maggie and grandma. doesn't maggie look so big?!

a very merry christmas, 2011

2011-12-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

what a fantastic day! it started with nina sitting up in bed and whispering, "it's christmas!" at 6:41 am. i heard her thunder down the stairs, then gasps and squeals of excitement. she'd wrapped a present for santa and left it under the tree, and was very excited to see that he'd opened it and left a thank you note for her. what a sweetie she is! then she went through her stocking, and then maggie woke up, came downstairs, and went through her stocking. the clear glue, gum, and skittles were huge hits. maggie ate half of her skittles and chewed up all of her gum before 9. we were cutting gum out of her hair before 8!

erik, isabelle, mom and dad came over to watch the girls open the presents from us, and then we opened the adults gifts that were under our tree. after a brief stint at church, we continued the present-opening merriment at grandma and grandpa's. isabelle's mom and aunt joined us there too. they're very, very nice and very fun to have around.

toy hits were princess celestia, nina's baby doll, the remote controlled pony car, the mining hats, operation, the pop-up books, the ATV--pretty much everything! the kids just love toys! maggie hasn't ridden on the ATV yet, but nina loves it, and i can't wait to see her drive it at twilight with her mining cap on!!

then there was lots of food, lots of playing, more food, more playing, and general merriment. maggie conked out at 8:30 and nina is planning to spend the night at mom and dad's. she's even wearing her new pjs!

as for me, i'm wiped out, so i'll be holding down the fort at our place while maggie sleeps. merry christmas!

nina's camera

2011-12-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

last year, erik and isabelle got nina a digital camera for christmas. she loves it, and it's often been a great source of entertainment for the girls. a few evenings ago, they entertained themselves for half an hour while i was cooking dinner. here are some of the results:

nina was taking pictures of maggie jumping off the couch. she got some really great ones!

by the end, maggie was pooped.

funny kids!

nina's school christmas concert was this morning.

2011-12-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

so cute! she went just for the concert--last night was a little difficult (coughing, runny nose, and general malaise woke her up a few times), so we let her sleep in in the morning. and boy did she, she didn't wake up until 8! that's crazy late for nina. usually she's up at 6:30, school day or not. she's mostly better though, fortunately this is just a weak little bug. maggie stopped coughing at night a few nights ago too, and her nose is running less, so she's well past the worst of it.

the christmas concert was adorable. it was just grades K, 1, and 2, and nina's class sang "he's too fat for the chimney" and "all i want for xmas is my 2 front teeth." then all the grades together sang jolly old st. nicholas and frosty the snowman, and THEN all of us had a deck the halls and we wish you a merry xmas sing along.

while nina's concert was going on, maggie had dance class. so i had a hectic morning, getting nina to school and then running maggie down to the Y, then back to the school to see some of the performance, then back to the Y to get maggie, then oops, forgot something at the school, so back up the the school, then back down to the Y. and i wonder why i'm so pooped in the evenings!

i did manage to catch the part of dance class where maggie ran off and yelled over her shoulder to her classmates, "hey, let's make trouble!" and then began to climb on the tae kwan do equipment. that kid! what am i going to do with her?!

and now, christmas vacation has begun! we are so excited around here that we can't stand it! i'm not sure how i'm going to keep the girls busy for the next 2 days. tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-40s, so maybe a long hike in the woods, and perhaps a swim at the Y on friday. funny how the shortest days of the year feel like the longest!!

what a big day (for a tuesday)

2011-12-20T17:41:00.001-08:00

wow we had a big day today! first, nina's class went to see happy feet 2 for a field trip. what a treat! they walked over to the movie theater too, even though it was freezing and windy outside. well, it wasn't crazy cold, either high 20s or low 30s, but the wind was biting. tough maine kids!

then maggie and i met her at the school for lunch. first we returned some books to the school library, and since the kids were late getting back from the field trip, we sat in the lobby and read one of our new books while we waited. they were so late though that they missed their time slot in the cafeteria, so we all ate lunch down in nina's classroom. that was a fun change of pace.

then we stayed while nina's teacher read a story. this month, she's wrapped all of the books she's reading during class, and each day a different kid gets to unwrap the book. and today, she let maggie do it! isn't that so sweet? she's the sweetest teacher. she also let maggie open the advent calender for today and eat the chocolate. maggie was in heaven.

the story was fun too. it was long, and i was very impressed by maggie's ability to sit and pay attention. she did a better job with that than half of the first graders. one boy was wiggling around in front of us during the story, and out of the blue maggie smacked him on the leg. it didn't hurt him or anything, he thought it was kind of funny i think (he got this shocked look on his face and immediately told his friends that she'd hit him). i told maggie to not hit, but i didn't want to make a fuss or anything. later, i asked her why she hit the boy, and she said, "he was annoying me."
fair enough, he was being annoying. but i am a bit worried about how this bodes for her school experience.

well, busy day continued. maggie had had a little bug, and nina was a bit sniffly over night and this morning. during the story i noticed that she was fading out, and so i decided to take her home. she was feeling a tiny bit warm too. i'm sure that walk in the frigid cold didn't help any.

so, we came home, and nina and maggie both rested on the couches, ate chicken noodle soup and drank tea, and read stories for about 2 hours. then they felt better, made some cookies, and were pretty much their usual selves for the rest of the day. they're both coughing a bit in their sleep right now, and both have slightly runny noses, but knock on wood, this bug doesn't seem too bad.

but what a busy day!

warm winter pajamas for everyone!

2011-12-19T17:46:00.001-08:00

i made these adorable, warm fleece pjs for the girls. aren't they adorable?!

i initially made maggie a warm set of pjs because she's still in her shorts and t-shirt pjs phase. i was sick of fighting with her to put on a sweater, or a poncho, or her robe, because she was always taking it off. and she won't wear long sleeves or long pants; whenever she does put them on, she freaks out and strips them off eventually, even in the middle of the night. so as a compromise, i decided to make her a longish short sleeve (they're about down to her elbow) and longish shorts (they're just below the knee) warm fleece pjs. did i mention they're warm fleece? heheeh. so yeah, a compromise. or bending over backwards to accommodate her fixation, whatever.

but they're so awesome that nina wanted a pair too. hers turned out even cuter than maggie's i think!

and now the three of us have matching slippers too. it's that just the cutest?

quick cute story: the other night nina took a little while to fall asleep, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. after tossing and turning for a while, she turned to me and asked, "is the night almost over?" haha! it sure does feel like forever when you're having trouble falling asleep!

yet more zany maggie

2011-12-17T17:31:00.001-08:00

wow this kid is full of pip lately!

on thursday (or was it friday) maggie told me that my butt looked like a hippo's. i said something like, "did you just say my butt looks as big as a hippo's?" and she replied, "yes. your bit is as big as a hippo's."
wow, thanks maggie! if i wasn't fully aware of the fact that i am, in reality, quite slender, i might be offended. but to be honest, i was crawling around on the floor (cleaning up dust) in my grey shorts, so it probably did look pretty big to her!

then on friday (this time i'm sure it was friday) we were at the thrift store, and maggie grabbed her butt and announced, "i have to go poop! it's coming out!" "ok," i said. "let's ask if they have a bathroom here that you can use." so maggie turned to the nearest elderly lady and said, "do you have a bathroom here?" the woman laughed and told maggie she didn't know, as she didn't work there.

i led maggie to a woman who does work there and she asked again (still holding onto her butt.) "do you have a bathroom here?!!" the woman said yes and pointed to where it was (the sign said no public restrooms, but very few people will refuse if maggie asks herself). then maggie said "is it a matic flush? i don't like a matic flush!" (that's automatic flush, but the way she says it is too cute). the woman laughed and said no, it was just a regular flush. whew! because she really doesn't like those automatic flushers!

finally, we had some fun today at hannaford. maggie likes to play "disappear/reappear" there. that involves her telling me she's going to disappear, running away, and then come running back saying "reappear!" so when she ran off, i wasn't too worried. she always comes back! except this time, she didn't. so i positioned myself at the fish counter so that i could see across one end of all the aisles, plus into the produce section, and i figured i'd see her run around eventually. but i didn't. so i went looking, walking along the meat end of the store and looking down all of the aisles. i still didn't see her and was deciding about what i should do next when i suddenly spotted her lying down on one of the shelves in the soda aisle! i just barely caught sight of her, she was in her purple snowsuit and blended in really well with the boxes of soda cans.

that kid!! she does this all of the time at home--hide quietly and not come even when she's called. i've tried telling her about always answering when she's called, but she just doesn't care. i'm really lucky i spotted her, we were probably about 5 minutes away from putting hannaford on lockdown. sheesh.

in funner news, we got some unexpected snow today! we took the girls sledding on the high school football field, i couldn't believe that we were the only ones there! there was only about an inch, but it was a nice damp (not soggy, just good packing) snow, so it pressed down (into the very green grass) to make a nice slick but not too fast slide. perfect for the kids! nina must have gone up and down a few dozen times. the girl has endless energy!

funnies

2011-12-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

that maggie!

when there's something she's looking for that she can't find, she has taken to saying "it's nowhere to be found!"

and a few days ago, she was upset that we didn't have something (i can't remember what. jell-o?), and she said, "oh man, we don't have any! arrgh! bummer!"

oh man and bummer! she's too funny!

it's getting closer to christmas!!

2011-12-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

the girls are very excited. presents are arriving and being shipped out on a daily basis, and the girls are finishing up the presents they're making. maggie really wants to make some cakes, pies, or cookies. or pudding. and definitely some jell-0, so i'm sure we'll be doing some cooking this week. fun times! i don't even mind that it's sunny and in the 40s, i can still totally get into the christmas spirit.

there's a terrible stomach bug going through town right now. mom has just a touch of it, but i know some kids that threw up for 24 hours straight with it. cross your fingers that we don't catch it!

and, some pictures of nina

2011-12-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

can you believe we forgot to bring the camera to nina's dance recital? we'll get copies of pics from friends, but until then, here are some recent adorable photos of the world's most beautiful 6 year old. enjoy!

also, here's a photo of nina's favorite hairstyle. she explained to me what she wanted, and then had me take a picture to make sure i did it right. who needs a mirror when you've got a digital camera? it's like the movie clueless!

it's a good thing she had me take the photo, turned out i'd gotten it wrong the first time anyway...

nina had a dance recital today

2011-12-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

the opera house is hosting the gingerbread festival, wherein they display gingerbread houses made my the local folks. they're incredible! i always dream about making one with the girls, but something tells me we'd have a disaster... maybe when maggie's a bit bigger. though she is a great help when it comes to cooking. witness:

note that the "two pigtails and a pony tail" look is completely maggie's idea.

anyway, i digress. nina's recital was adorable! she didn't quite have the routine down 100%, and i think she got a little nervous up there on the stage, because she didn't do it as well as she had been at practice. but she's now the little one up there--aside from her friend nora who's also 6, the rest of the dancers are 8 to 14 years old. and nina's the only one who dances just once a week, the rest take class at least twice a week. so all things considered, she did wonderfully. we can't wait for the spring recital!!

OH WAIT, i forgot! we made something even better than a gingerbread house. a marshmallow nativity!!!!

there are mary and joseph, with baby jesus in the manger, plus a sheep and an angel. truly a work of confectionery christmas art.

2 quick maggie funnies

2011-12-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

the first was about a week ago. maggie was just playing by herself when she looked at me and said, "papa's a real lady killer."

i'm not even making that up, she really said it.

the other was today, while we were watching a nature show about madagascaran lemurs. apparently there was a giant, 200-lb lemur that became extinct about 300 years ago. "why did it become extinct?" she asked. "Why and how?"

oops, i promised to write about saturday, and i never did

2011-12-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

i was just looking at my posts this months, and i realized that i promised to tell about our big day on saturday, but never did. alas! well, fear not, because i still probably remember most of the day, and i even have pictures, already on the computer and ready to upload, to go with it!

here it is, in chronological order: i tutor on saturday mornings, so nick took maggie to swim lessons and nina to Y arts practice while i did that. then, my parents took me into town, and i met up with nick and maggie at the historical society for some fantastic snacks. then we walked down to the public landing to watch the Y arts sing a few of their carols before santa arrived by boat. such fun!

(kids singing)

after santa arrived, we took a ride on a horse-drawn (or to be precise, horses drawn) wagon to the opera house to check out the festival of trees. there was one tree that was put together by the library group, and the girls had actually glittered pinecones for that one. fun fun fun. THEN we drove back into town (because we were getting a little tired by this point, and the car was right there anyway), got some snacks at the library, sat on santa's lap, and headed off to the church for the live nativity. the girls were angels in it!!

nina did a great job. maggie was too tired, and either picked glitter off of their friend ariel's wings or laid down on the steps of the altar for a rest. so, she didn't last very long.
coming soon to a christmas card near you! (not really, i thought it was too dark)

but our day wasn't over yet!! after the live nativity, at cookies at hot cocoa in the parish hall, we watched the lighted boat parade from the church lawn, and THEN went out to dinner at china by the sea. no wonder i was too tired to write about it all! i'm tired just typing about it!

another busy week

2011-12-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

today nina's Y arts group performed their christmas concert at the Y. they were fantastic! i will try to upload some video tonight, but it is kind of late and i'm tired, so we'll see. channel 7, the local programming channel, was there recording, so maybe they'll have it available on their website. i don't know if they do that... they didn't 2 years ago when i checked to see if nina's dance recital was there, but maybe now they do. well, i will surely let you know.

it was quite the big day for us though. first maggie had dance from 9:30 - 10:30. then she and i went to have lunch with nina. usually when we do lunch, we stay for recess, and we did today. however, today it was raining, so for the first time ever we got to do indoor recess, which meant watching frosty the snowman. quite the treat! well, not for maggie, she thought it was sad and never wants to see it again.

THEN we went home for a bit, then picked up nina at the top of dover rd ("the pick up spot"), then had a snack and played candy land, then headed back out to take nina to dance rehearsal at the opera house, then we grabbed some pizza at the bbay house of pizza, then it was off to the Y for nina's hour-long rehearsal before the hour-long show. maggie was exhausted by the end of it, but she was a real trooper. she had kind of a difficult morning, with lots of tears, but she really bounced back and was very happy in the afternoon. she cracked me up at the house of pizza--there was a little boy there with his mom, and maggie was sure that she was older than him. when she decided to get up and go ask him, i crossed my fingers, because it looked to me like a close call. fortunately, he was just 3. maggie informed him that she is three and a half. this kid was as outgoing as maggie, so there was a lot of back and forth while we waited for our pizzas. but at one point, maggie marched up to the boy and his mom, hands on hips, and announced "i'm always up to something!"

oh, how i laughed. it's true though!

i'm sure we'll all laugh about this some day...

2011-12-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

so, here goes.

i took the girls to church this morning. usually it's just me and the girls, and that was the case today too. maggie was in quite the mood, just being very energetic and silly, and nina was pretty restless too. but since we were up in the old choir loft in the back of the downstairs chapel, i wasn't too worried. we can kind of hide up there and people don't notice so much.

well, maggie was down on the ground and i was trying to listen to the second reading, when i noticed that she'd crawled under the pew and was heading down those few stairs to the back of the church. i quickly went around (of course, not under the pew!) and when i got to the back of the church, maggie was standing at the top of the center aisle. i gave her my sternest look and motioned for her to come back. she braced herself, then took off full bore down the aisle. everyone in the church was was quietly seated, listening to the second reading. i had of course just a split second to decide what to do, and so i ran after her. when she didn't turn left towards the stairs to leave the church i broke into full sprint. i was terrified that she was going to run up onto the altar.

i nabbed her just a few pews before the altar. i'm sure everyone was staring at us, but i was too embarrassed to look up, so i just dashed to the entry doors with her. fortunately during the scolding, the girls' friend mckenna came in with her mom. mckenna always comes to church with lots of toys, so i just let the girls play with her. they're always very quiet when they play. if she hadn't come in then though, i would have had to take the girls and leave.

ugh. either nick needs to start coming to church with me, or else i'm going to start leaving maggie home. it's just not worth it.

we had such a big day that i'm too tired to blog about it.

2011-12-03T17:16:00.001-08:00

tomorrow!!

but i will share one little gem from about a week ago that i forgot to mention here. the girls were in the car with me, and we were driving somewhere. the girls were playing or who knows what when nina said, "maggie, don't lick your boots--they're made in china!"

haha! it's funny because it's true!

maggie was in such a good mood today!

2011-12-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

i know i often blog about maggie's attitude (maggitude!!), but today she was such a doll. ok mostly. but i'll tell about the cutest parts first.

she is so social and outgoing. today at the playground, she befriended a little girl, just about 6 months younger than maggie. she was so cute and so outgoing, asking the girl what her name is, how old she was, and if she wanted to play. where nina has always been more shy and happy to play by herself, maggie always befriends the kids at the playground and gets everyone playing together. it's really adorable.

then, at big al's, so was so excited by the asile upon asile of worthless treasures that she kept running off (in tights but no shoes. i hadn't realized she'd kicked them off in the car and had carried her in without them. oops!). but she had the biggest smile on her face, and her earnest joy brought a smile to everyone there. one man even game mom $2 and said 'please buy that cute little girl whatever she wants!'. a happy maggie makes everyone happy.

she was tired on the way to brunswick though (we went to brunswick. it's fun to have 4 generations of brancato women eating lunch!). mom and i were talking and she was sleepy, so she shouted from her carseat in the back, "rule number one, no talking!!" in her grumpy voice. good thing she's even cute when she's grumpy.

tomorrow is a big day, nina's Y arts group sings before santa's arrival at the town dock! we will try to get a video of it for you!

i can't believe how warm it was today.

2011-11-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

well i don't know what the high was today, but it was lovely! mid 50s at least. 60 maybe. what a way to end november!

the girls and i were out hunting for a christmas tree this afternoon. it's been so warm that it's taking a bit of effort to get into the christmas spirit, so we're listening to christmas music, making wreaths, and hunting for our tree. so far there's nothing on our property, but we'll expand our search and maybe grab something from the neighbors. hehehe.

also, i have a break up to announce. i know, the blog is a terrible way to drop news like this, but... nina and gabe are no longer an item. she told me today that they've broken up. i didn't know they were an item. when i pressed nina for details, she explained that she assumed they'd broken up, since gabe doesn't follow her around "like this" (arms outstreached, eyes smitten, a pose that we've dubbed "the gabe.") it was funny to hear her say "broke up," and at first i assume she'd heard the term at school, but on second thought, she could easily have heard it here. but don't worry, she still has charlie, plus 4 other guys that she loves. papa, grandpa, uncle erik, and uncle micah! so sweet. when i asked, "what about ethan and wyatt?" she said, "oh yeah, 6 guys i love!"

tonight margarete also re-affirmed that she wants to live with uncle erik and aunt isabelle, who she loves best of all, and watch TV with them all day. promises promises! she wanted me to read a book to her (another book i should say, i'd already read at least three), and i said "i will, but first i have to change into my pajamas." and she said "NO BUTs!!!" i guess i should have just put on the TV.

we're getting in the christmas spirit around here!

2011-11-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

last night the grinch was on TV, so we let the girls stay up to watch it. they love it. their huge smiles as it was starting were just too cute.

we've also made some fantastic wreaths, which are easy when it's 60 degrees and we can make them outdoors! we even made one as a gift for erik and isabelle in boston. i wish i'd taken a picture of it, nina decorated it with painted and glittered leaves and pinecones, and it was a thing of beauty. plus it had this big yellow construction paper circle attached that said "happy thanksgiving aunt, uncle, chester." she didn't have space for the full names. such a practical child!

we have such a busy few weeks coming up. on saturday, the Y arts chorus sings for santa's arrival in town, which means cookies at the library, carriage rides, and sitting on santa's lap (maybe). plus there are the trees at the opera house, the live nativity at church that they're going to be in, and the harbor lights festival. hopefully we'll remember to bring the camera for once!

went to the boston science museum yesterday

2011-11-26T05:12:00.000-08:00

it was fantastic! we saw so much, i can't even begin to recount it all. the highlights for maggie were the 2 triceratops skeletons at triceratops cliff--one made almost entirely of real dinosaur bones (only a very few small bones were casts, like the toes and some small part of the skull. it was one of the most complete triceratops skeletons ever found), and the skeleton that was made as a cast of real bones. they also had a model tyrannosaurus rex, with skin and all, that was very cool. her other favorite was the donation thing they have where you spin the coins down, and the more precise model they had with steel balls in the math area. plus the demonstration of how items fall at the same speed regardless of weight, and the demonstration of how nanomaterials try to mimic properties of real materials (in this case, cabbage leaves). oh yes, and the balls rolling down the ramp, to see which shape ramp is the fastest.

nina was going to tell me her favorites, but she's having too much fun reading to chester. well, her favorites definitely included riding the escalator, the entire light exhibit, and the physics in the park exhibit, which had lots of playground toys. fun fun fun!!

there was in area in the human body exhibit with actual psychologists (from boston college!) doing research about children and the way they recognize emotions in faces. maggie and nina both participated. the women started by asking the girls a few questions about feelings, and with maggie's interview, it went something like this:

researcher: we're going to talk about feelings, like happy, sad, and pax (pax was part of the study, explaining would take too long). have you ever felt happy?
maggie: no.
researcher: have you ever felt sad?
maggie: yes. i'm sad right now. i want to naney.
the researcher continued without missing a beat, but i was kind of embarrassed. not much, because i'm used to maggie, but a bit. she has felt happy before!

almost thanksgiving....

2011-11-23T18:27:00.000-08:00

the girls are so excited. they've been hopping and running all over the house all day. it rained too, so i couldn't get them outside to burn off any of that energy in the great outdoors. instead, mom and i took them to ikea, and they spent about an hour in the giant ball pit they have in the kids play area. close enough!

isabelle and i made some cornbread and 2 pies tonight, dinner tomorrow should be good!

happy thanksgiving!

maggie is really something else with math

2011-11-20T17:18:00.001-08:00

she loves grapefruits. LOVES them. we're buying them by the big bag at the store these days, and earlier this week we were at hannaford's, and maggie asked for more grapefruit. so i picked up one of the big bags, and maggie wanted to count how many there were. 6. then she started saying, "i ate 3, and nina ate 1, so we have... 2 more left at home."

what the heck! that's some really advanced math for a 3.5 year old! nina hasn't brought anything like this home from school yet this year, but i would assume it's considered first grade level. i was totally blown away.

whew, what a busy weekend!

2011-11-20T17:05:00.001-08:00

on friday night we all went to a birthday party for one of the girls' friends, saturday was the early bird sale, frozen turkey hunt, and another birthday party, and today was church, sunday school, and some fun play with our friends the mosses. whew!

the early bird sale was kind of a bust for us, we got there after 9 and the 2 sales we were interested in (grovers and shermans) were over at 9. poop. but we still got what we needed, support local business!

i told nina that in order to get 25% off at shermans, i had to wear my pajamas. the conversation pretty much went exactly like the poo-poo platter one. she did not believe me. (i think that's the first time in the history of this blog that i've used bold. amazing). she let me pack my robe in the car, and was shocked to see that i wasn't lying. people all over town were in their pajamas! of course, maggie was too, but this time everyone thought it was intentional. i assume that since we went straight from the early bird sale to the frozen turkey hunt at the botanical gardens, people just thought maggie had her pajamas on from that. well, people who don't know us of course. and guess what, we actually got a turkey this year! amazing. ok, we didn't actually find an apple with a green sticker on it ourselves, it was kind of a pity turkey, but whatever, we got one. :-)

then it was home for just a few hours before we went back out to a birthday party for one of nina's classmates. nina had said the girl said that parents and siblings could stay, but i don't think that was accurate. luckily, the mom didn't mind if maggie stayed (she knows all of the girls from nina's class since we visit so often), so she did. what fun! nick and i ended up having a lovely dinner at mcseagull's with mom and dad. score!

and today, church and sunday school. maggie was quite the handful at church, twice trying to escape (one of our parishoners told me at social hour that when she was 2, she put on her hat and walked outside while her mother was up getting communion. the church was on a busy street in boston too! so see, it could always be worse!). then we made new angel wings for the live nativity in 2 weeks, with lots and lots of glitter. is it any wonder i'm so tired i can barely type?

but the weather has stayed beautiful, it was in the high 50s today and just perfect. yesterday was a little cooler i guess, but it had to be in the mid 50s when we were at the gardens. if it wasn't, it sure felt like it while we were running around!

we've got lots more coming up, too. the Y-Arts group is singing before santa arrives downtown on the 3rd, the weekend after that nina's ballet class dances at the gingerbread festival, and then there's the live nativity and the harbor lights festival. is it any wonder we actually look forward to january? it's the first time we really get a chance to rest up!

maggie loves dinosaurs

2011-11-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

the other night, nick was reading maggie a book about dinosaurs she and i had gotten from the library, and already read a few times. they got to part about this dinosaur, and nick said "oh, that's a baby triceratops that hasn't grown any horns yet." and maggie said, "no, that's a pro-TO-seratops." emphasis like that. i told nick that maggie speaks slowly when she's dealing with someone who doesn't understand. he's lucky she didn't call him stupid.

seriously though, that girl does not forget a THING. today at dinner we had chicken, and she wanted the leg, and started talking about whether the chicken was a boy or a girl. and she said, "oh, it's a boy, because the girls lay eggs so they keep those, and they kill the boys." i'd explained that to her a few weeks ago, and she just does not forget!

letters to santa

2011-11-16T15:50:00.001-08:00

nina wrote her letter to santa last night, and after she wrote her own, maggie dictated hers to nina.

nina wrote:
Dear santa
I want 10 books for crismis!

Anina Halter

and maggie's says:
I love you santa!
I want a little flufy dog with bows in her eres!

(that's ears)

but, that's not exactly what maggie said. when nina said, "maggie, what do you want for christmas?" maggie responded "a loving mother" (honestly). nina said, "maggie! you already have that. what else do you want."

so at least one of my kids thinks i'm a loving mother. the other one has requested a back-up mother, preferably aunt isabelle.

my happy birthday banner

2011-11-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

i made this banner a few weeks ago as a birthday present for wyatt, but i didn't put a photo up so i could surprise vanessa with it (because it was more for her than wyatt, really. but hey, she did all the work the day he was born! haha!)

but anne and erik and isabelle didn't get to see it, so here it is. i was so happy with the way it came out!

mmm, lettuce!

2011-11-14T17:41:00.000-08:00

last night we had sauteed escarole with dinner. maggie took a look at it and said, "what is this, melted lettuce?"

haha! an apt description!

One of the fun things about having kids is messing with their heads every now and then

2011-11-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

like tonight, i'm wearing a pair of grey leggings with a pair of gray and red striped shorts over them. nina thought the look was pretty dorky. i think i look like a boxer though. plus it's warm, so whatever.

the other day it suddenly occurred to me, in a brilliant flash of insight, that the girls would get a huge kick out of the fact that chinese restaurants often have "pu-pu platter" on the menu. pu-pu, but it sounds like poo-poo (or, at least i assume it does).

so i said, "nina, maggie, did you know you could order something called a pu-pu platter at china by the sea?"
and maggie laughed, and nina looked at me with that look... the one that says 'you're such an idiot,' and said, "no, you can't."
and i said, "yes, you totally can. it's a real thing and it's on the menu."
and she said, "no, it's not."
and i said, "do you think i'm making this up?"
and she said, "yes, i know you're making it up."
and maggie said, "i want to order a poo-poo platter! and a pee-pee platter, and a penis platter, and a fart platter!"
i said to nina, "i'll prove it to you. the next time we go to china by the sea, i'll ask the waitress for a pu-pu platter." i knew that one would really get a reaction.
she said "NO! do NOT say that to the waitress!!"

haha! she still thinks i'm making it up. i'm so mean!

looks like it's gonna be tofurkey for thanksgiving!

2011-11-10T07:12:00.001-08:00

in case you can't read the words, the turkey is saying "don't eat me."

and note the oven mitt on the left-hand side of the photo. the child spares no attention to detail!

today at hannaford....

2011-11-07T17:26:00.001-08:00

the guy a the fish counter gave maggie a cookie (they have them behind the counter for kids). maggie was very happy, but she wouldn't eat it because there was just one. even though nina was at school, she wanted one for her. so i told maggie not to worry, we could get a cookie for nina too, and i asked the guy if we could have a second cookie because maggie wanted one for her sister who was at school (explaining lest the guy think we were trying to scam two cookies), and he gave us one and said it warmed his heart to see such a sweet child, and congratulated me on raising such a dear little girl.

happy me! i love it when people see maggie's sweet side, she's such a wonderful little girl. :-)

of course, i was singing a different tune when she was up before 5 this morning, screaming about wanting to nurse and then wanting to put on different pajamas. the girls were out like lights by 7:30 and i'm sure i'll be in bed by 9:30 tonight. oh well, hopefully one day she'll stop screaming to nurse at night. most kids would just give up a few months into the weaning process, but not dear margarete. she has an iron will.

not much else going on. went swimming again at the new Y pool yesterday, one of the girls' friends had a birthday party there. it was fun! they love it, nina wants to stay in for hours but i still get chilly, even in the warm water pool. hopefully nick will be able to last longer than me. maggie loves it too, she swims around in her life jacket and walks up and down the ramp out of the pool.

the weather has been beautiful, too. it had to be in the high 50s today, with a clear sky and a nice warm sun. i could get used to novembers like this!!

wow, what a day today!

2011-11-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

it was non-stop from the time we got up. first i tutored jessie, then i took her and the girls to the YMCA to swim in the new warm water therapy pool. aaaaah! it was so much fun and so warm! usually i'm freezing the whole time that i'm in the water, but this time it took a solid 15 minutes until i even felt cold, and then another 15 minutes to have to get out. victory.

then, the 4 of us (4 being me, the girls, and jessie) and we went to the mall. first we stopped at chuck e cheeze (after that interview with nina, how could we not go?). then we did some shopping (poor nina was desperately in need of some sweaters and long-sleeved shirts), and then we went to the all you can eat chinese buffet (where maggie got to eat a whole plateful of her favorite thing--crawfish!).

we only got home at about 7:30. whew, we're exhausted! the girls had such a good time though, i'm glad we went. i probably would have backed out of going if jessie hadn't been so excited. mention a trip to the mall to a teenager and they get so excited! she also happens to love all you can eat chinese buffets, so all the better.

now i'm going to straighten up a bit around here and then go to bed.

another interview with nina

2011-11-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

nina had so much fun doing the last interview that she wanted to do another. this time she came up with the questions all by herself!

1. How do you feel?
Not too well, but well.

2. Who is your favorite author?
Roald Dahl. Because he writes scary books.
Which book of his is your favorite? The Witches.

3. What is your favorite show?
The Witches

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A teacher. First grade.

5. What is your favorite place?
Chuck E. Cheeses

6. What is your favorite game?
Stare.

7. What is your favorite food?
Meatballs and tater tots.

8. Who is your mama?
Desiree

9. Who is your papa?
Nikolaus

10. What is your favorite month?
August. Cause it’s my birthday!

11. What is your favorite princess?
Snow white, because I like snow and her name is Snow White.

quick halloween funny

2011-11-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

we were doing the halloween parade through town last night, and some of the boothbay harbor police officers were directing traffic and whatnot. maggie saw one and said, "he's dressed up as a policeman for halloween." and i said, "yeah, he is. is it a good costume?" and maggie said, "no."

haha. apparently the BHPD uniforms are not very convincing.

after that, we got some food at mcseagulls (free food for kids, nick and i ordered a pizza), then went to trunk or treat at the baptist church for more candy, 2 chili dogs (nick), hot cocoa, and a bounce house. what a fun halloween night!

halloween weekend continues...

2011-10-29T17:36:00.001-07:00

tonight was family fright night at the botanical gardens. lamely, our camera was out of battery power, so we didn't get any pics. but do not despair, mom and dad brought their camera, so there will be photos, just not tonight. tonight you'll just have to make do with my words, and let them create a picture in your mind. :-)

nina was the wicked witch of the east, maggie was pinkie pie (you know what that looks like), nick was charlamegne, and i was queen desiree (his first wife. it didn't work out i guess). nick had an awesomely authentic replica of the crown of the holy roman empire, which i made, and i had an awesomely original crown that nina made. we looked rockin. mom and dad were hippies.

it was tons of fun! lots of food, lots of fun (but not scary!) decorations. there was a costume parade with judgement (boo), which was dumb because the girls didn't win. maggie was so sure she had the best costume and would win best overall, and she was really disappointed when she didn't! she said, "i guess i'm not the bestest." heartbreaking. i told her i thought she was the bestest. then she said she should have worn her ming ming costume, since that won cutest last year. how the heck did she remember that?!! this kid is amazing. i told her that her costume stands a good chance of winning at the opera house on monday. i hate when kids with purchased costumes win prizes, i think prizes should only go to homemade costumes. but perhaps that's my bias speaking. i didn't tell maggie that though, i told her that since she'd won last year, it was nice that someone else got a turn to win, and she really liked that. so it's all good now.

nina didn't win anything either, as there were several witches, and i think the wicked witch of the east thing was too subtle and just went over the judges heads. maybe the opera house...

it's raining right now and we still have power, but who knows about tomorrow! it's supposed to switch to a heavy, wet snow (with all the leaves still on the trees, that could really bring a lot of them down), plus some strong wind. i'll keep you posted of course!

halloween weekend begins!

2011-10-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

maggie loves her ~~rainbow dash~~ pinkie pie costume! she wore it to story hour today and kept it on the whole time!

i'm not sure everyone realizes what a milestone that is. maybe you all do. but i'll expound on it for a moment, because this is a big deal. maggie has worn pajamas about 80% of the time for the last year. she loves her pajamas. she's particularily fond of her strawberry shorts and t-shirt pajamas set. it initially came with 2 shirts and 2 shorts, but one of the shorts now has a hole in it (she's been asking me to patch it), so we're down to one of those. i made a second pair of shorts by cutting down an set of "longs" (as they're called around here), and she was ok with that.

ANYWAY! i digress again. she usually screams, wails, cries, and gets thoroughly bent out of shape at the mere suggestion that she put anything but her shorts and t-shirt pj set. but she loves her pinkie pie costume so much that she was willing to wear it, even though it's got long sleeves and long pants, the whole time we were at the library AND at hannaford! i am so, so excited.

she wore it again this evening when we went to the coast guard for their bounce house and haunted house. the bounce house was a hit, but the haunted house was too scary, so the girls didn't do it (i previewed it just in case it was ok for them, but it was definitely too scary. people jumping out and yelling boo, dark hallways, scary faces). but, it was worth it for the bounce house. they were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home!

oh, also at the story hour halloween party, miss mary handed out some napkins that said "boo" on them, and maggie looked at it and said, "it says boo. b-o-o, boo." go maggie!

an interview with nina

2011-10-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

1. What makes you happy?
snuggling with you mama.

2. What makes you angry?
not snuggling with you mama. when somebody calls me names (me: does somebody call you names?!! maggie: i do! nina: yeah, maggie does. me: true)

3. How makes you laugh?
maggie saying potty words

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
a doctor

5. What are you really good at?
jumping rope

6. What are you not very good at?
making spiders

7. What is your favorite food?
tater tots!!

8. What is your favorite drink?
lemonade. no apple cider. actually, the thing i'm worst at is pumping. (me: pumping what?) pumping on the swing (me: you're great at pumping!!) ok then i'm horrible at getting my own things up on top of the refrigerator.

9. If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?
aviva

10. What do you and maggie do together?
um... play (maggie: computer!) computer.

11. What is your favorite color?
purple and pink!

12. Where is your favorite place to go?
ebb tide.

an interview with maggie

2011-10-25T04:44:00.000-07:00

1. What makes you happy?
din-din-din (pointing to naneys). nanas. this makes me happy! before i was sad and then i had naneys and now i am happy.

2. What makes you angry?
you. cause you yell at me too much (!!! i don't yell!!).

3. How makes you laugh?
you! you do funny things. (me: does nina make you laugh?). yeah. so write N-I-N-A. (me: what does she do) like, blllbllbl (sticks out tongue.)

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
an angel! (licks her arms) um, to fly.

5. What are you really good at?
playing computer

6. What are you not very good at?
playing frisbee. i always put it right here and throw it like that. but i'm getting it.

7. What is your favorite food?
spaghetti!!!

8. What is your favorite drink?
juice!

9. If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?
i don't know. (me: which one is your favorite?) curious george!

10. What do you and nina do together?
play ponies!!

11. What is your favorite color?
i don't know. all the colors!!

12. Where is your favorite place to go?
the fish playground

and one for papa

2011-10-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

scroll down to the post below for the story with these 2 posts.

1. What is something papa always says to you?
nina: nina honey, just stay away from my work area
maggie: no no no go to grandma's

2. What makes papa happy?
nina: me and maggie
maggie: ming-ming

3. What makes papa angry?
nina: when we climb on his chair when he has his new computer
maggie: playing sad

4. How does papa make you laugh?
nina: when he does the clown and falls down!! (laughter)
maggie: riding the rockey horsey!!

5. What does papa do when you're not around?
nina: work
maggie: checking his email

6. If your papa becomes famous, what will it be for?
nina: being daisy butt the flower butt clown
maggie: being a clown

7. What is your papa really good at?
nina: being daisy butt the flower butt clown
maggie: caillou

8. What is your papa not very good at?
nina: chutes and ladders
maggie: clifford!

9. What does your papa do for his job?
nina: make money so we can buy stuff
maggie: working

10. What is your papa's favorite food?
nina: tacos
maggie: soup

11. What is your papa's favorite drink?
nina: beer
maggie: water

12. If your papa were a cartoon character, who would he be?
nina: he would be nick (from the cat in the hat) because his name's nick
maggie: martha

13. What do you and your papa do together?
nina: we play kids on stage
maggie: play poisson rouge

14. How are you and your papa the same?
nina: 'cause our voices sound the same
maggie: i'm a boy!

15. How are you and your papa different?
nina: he's a boy and i'm a girl
maggie: because i'm a girl

16. Where is your papa's favorite place to go?
nina: hanging out with uncle erik and aunt isabelle
maggie: grandma's

an interview from a year ago...

2011-10-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

i can't believe i didn't put this on the blog! i had totally forgotten about this, and found it after i accidentally clicked on "notes" in facebook. so, here's an interview with the kids that i did on october 28, 2010. nina would have been 5 and maggie almost 2 1/2. it's so cute!

i found this on one of nick's friend's pages, and it was so funny. i had to see what my girls would say (i interviewed maggie separately from nina so she wouldn't just repeat her answers)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
nina: i love you (aww!)
maggie: you say, "maggie! where are you??!"

2. What makes mom happy?
nina: listening (as in, when nina listens to me. true!)
maggie: naney. and bird makes papa happy. papa makes you happy.

3. What makes mom angry?
nina: not listening
maggie: computer games

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
nina: by being silly. silly dancing.
maggie: rocking on the rocking horsey

5. What does your mom do when you're not around?
nina: clean!
maggie: sewing

6. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
nina: dancing
maggie: sewing

7. What is your mom really good at?
nina: hugging
maggie: playing computer games

8. What is your mom not very good at?
nina: dancing
maggie: stamping

9. What does your mom do for her job?
nina: clean the house
maggie: sewing

10. What is your mom's favorite food?
nina: won ton soup
maggie: noodles

11. What is your mom's favorite drink?
nina: juice
maggie: water

12. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
nina: hmmm... lemme think think think... the cat and the hat
maggie: sally (from the cat in the hat. she answered this independently from nina, so i guess there's something to it!). but don't make the sounds, just do it quiet.

13. What do you and your mom do together?
nina: play games like chutes and ladders
maggie: play poisson rouge and playing starfall. drinking coffee and i drink water.

14. How are you and your mom the same?
nina: we both have brown eyes
maggie: i don't know. good.

15. How are you and your mom different?
nina: i have blonder and you have black hair
maggie: i'm purple and you're green

16. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
nina: chuck E cheeses
maggie: at the fish playground

some more pics of the girls

2011-10-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

maggie playing with her dinosaur and blueberry

nina making a silly face on the slide

with a witch in salem!

sisters hugging

our sleeping beauties in boston.

one more!!

2011-10-22T18:14:00.001-07:00

oops, i forgot i'd already posted pumpkin photos! these were the ones nick took with the camera, but the ipod did a better job getting the glow of the candles inside just right. but i'm in this one! and you can see that maggie is wearing her snow white dress. she might even wear it on halloween. fingers crossed, because she looks so cute in it!

one more foliage post.

2011-10-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

happy fall!

fall, glorious fall!

2011-10-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

it's not a great year for foliage, but there are still some spectacular leaves in the woods out back. behold the grandeur of autumn! (can you tell i downloaded pictures this evening? more to come!!)

i can't get enough of these pink and purple leaves. the color is really true to life. they're so beautiful! unfortunately, they're restricted to some really small bush-like trees, so we don't get to enjoy a giant pink and purple tree.

i think they're maple trees? they don't all have quite the same shape though.

i don't remember these leaves in the backyard when we were kids. the first time i saw this bright pink and purple color was last fall. so, so cool!

a porcupine!

2011-10-22T17:30:00.001-07:00

a few mornings ago, we woke up and saw a porcupine sleeping in a tree in the backyard. it was so neat! it was sitting on its haunches with its head in its paws, sound asleep. adorable! we sneaked up really close and got a good look at it. we couldn't get too close, it was up pretty high, probably 25 feet off the ground, but as close as we could. i didn't get a picture though, it probably would be a let down anyway... lots of branches and leaves and then a furry brown lump in the middle.

oh well what do you know! nick took a picture of the little thing climbing back up. suspiciously what i thought it would look like...

but, that's not the end! we had already seen it waddling around at dusk a few times, so we knew it was around. but then the other day, i saw some damage to our pear tree--bark nibbled away and branches down, with the ends cut at an angle. behold, the damage:

damage to the trunk

missing branches up at the top!

the branches, cut at an angle

so i naturally thought to myself, did the porcupine do this? the branches are so narrow, could they support the weight of that fat little guy? but, i checked, and professor google says it was squirrels, so that solves that.

poor pear tree! i told nina we might have to cut it down and she said, "but that will kill it! you can't!" so i guess that settles that. it's not like it's big enough to fall on something and damage us. our house will look so beautiful, framed by 2 dead trees. oh well!

a maggie sweetie

2011-10-21T17:20:00.001-07:00

oma brought a box of our favorite cookies from austria, and the girls and nick were devouring them left and right (i only had one. really!). finally, we were down to the last cookie. maggie took it from the box and said, "oh, there's just one! i'll share it with nina."
then, she broke it in half. but the two halves weren't even (it was more like one-third/two-thirds) so she broke a little more off of the bigger one. but they still weren't quite even, so she nibbled a piece from the bigger one and then handed it to nina. so sweet!

wednesday already?

2011-10-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

nina stayed home from school today because it's oma's last day. we haven't talked about that too much, so i'm not sure maggie realizes that at all. hm, i'd better tell her first thing in the morning so she has a little time to adjust.

maggie had dance again today, and because nina was home, she got to dance with her again. and i got to watch again, hooray! maybe next week maggie will dance all by herself. hey, you never know.

not too much to report really. maggie's new thing is that when nina's bothering her she yells, "mommy, nina is antagonizing me!" and it sounds really cute coming from a 3 year old.

oh, tuesday we went to the fish playground after school, that was fun. nina was a monkey on the monkey bars, but i made her stop before she got another blister like in boston. i've instituted blister checks every 10 minutes now when she's non-stop monkey-barring. good parenting call i think.

maggie has been really, really good to oma. whew! she didn't swear in front of her, didn't call her stupid or horrible (i got "horrible mom" a bunch of times though, so maybe anne wouldn't have been fazed by it). yup, she was a real sweetie! the only real down side of her visit is that we can't find snot rat for our little gag, and the girls wouldn't let me cut up squiggy-diggy to improvise. some day i'll explain what this means. after we find snot rat....

i downloaded photos from the ipod today

2011-10-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

i didn't remember that i had brought the ipod with me at maggie's first dance class (maybe i thought i could use it while she danced. haha!). but luckily, that means i have pictures. isn't she just the cutest thing??

we carved our pumpkins today

2011-10-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

maggie's is a princess, and nina's a scary face. boo!

we had a great time carving these today! first the girls drew the pictures they wanted carved into the pumpkins, then we scooped out the seeds and pulp (we know it's called pulp because nina brought home a book about pumpkins a few weeks ago. very educational). i did the carving, you can tell because it's so amazing. :-)

THEN, we toasted the seeds AND steamed and pureed the pumpkin we took out of the jack'o'lanterns and made 2 pumpkin pies! on top of those, we have enough pumpkin puree left over for at least 3 more pies. i'll save some for thanksgiving so we can have another fantastic pie.

overall it was a beautiful fall day. maggie did get mad at me for a minute during pumpkin carving (i took away her marker for coloring on nina's pumpkin). she stormed off into the house where mom informed me she called me a "horrible" mother and said she didn't "love me any more." fortunately, she forgave me not too long after, and she told me she loves me again. whew! i'm sure she called me stupid too, that's her number one insult. that and dammit, when she's really really angry.

oma is here!

2011-10-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

the girls were so excited all day. and so far, maggie has been in a great mood! it was a close call this morning, the girls woke up for the day around 5:30 am so she was kind of tired and grumpy by 8. but she had a long nap and has been a total peach. whew! so oma can enjoy her wonderfulness before (maybe) meeting the other side.

nina is having a great time showing Oma her latest things and reading to her (she had to read her favorite funny part from deep trouble, one of the 3 goosebumps books she's reading right now, and the viper story from scary stories to tell in the dark). also, nina went to the pumpkin patch with her friends charlie and hattie duing maggie's long nap and picked up 3 really big pumpkins. so we'll carve them up soon and put pictures up. i know it's been a while since i've done pictures, it always feels like so much work in the evenings to download them from the camera, or phone, or ipod. and i'm so tired in the evenings!

anything else? i don't think so... yesterday maggie and i went with mom to brunswick to visit great grandma, it was a good trip. rainy, but we went to the mcdonalds with the indoor playplace. won another free medium fries too, i love when they're doing monopoly! then home for a half out, back out to pick up nina and jessie for a marathon tutoring session, dinner and bed! kind of a typical friday.

a fun day at home yesterday....

2011-10-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

.... and tons of rain today.

so, nina was home yesterday due to the water main break at the school. it was fun because she went to ballet class with maggie and danced with her. so i got to sit and watch like a normal mom! and nina was so sweet, holding maggie's hand and encouraging her to pay attention and not lie on the floor. it worked, somewhat. after class nina expressed her shock at what a terrible listener maggie was. i had to laugh and tell her that maggie had done a good job (for maggie!) that class.

the down side is that dance class always tires maggie out and she ended up napping, waking up grumpy (but finally cheering up) and staying up until 9 (which actually isn't so bad at all). nick wanted to take a shower, and came into the room where maggie and i were playing wearing his bathrobe without his lounge pants underneath (the green robe over his lounge pants are kind of a nick uniform). but instead, he came into the room with just his hairy legs sticking out from the robe. maggie stopped what she was doing to look at him and announced, "who is that weird guy?" it's even funnier because she says "weird" like "wee-ahd."

no school tomorrow!

2011-10-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

apparently a water main broke over at the elementary school and it'll be closed tomorrow. the girls will be so excited! and hopefully will both sleep in.

they actually slept wonderfully last night. i think maggie is finally coming through the other side with regards to dropping that last nap. for the longest time she was grumpy in the evenings if she didn't nap (understatement!) and then slept badly at night. but if she did nap, she'd be up til 10, so it really felt like a lose-lose situation (though i preferred a nap and bed by 10, because she'd sleep so much better at night. nick preferred that she nap, but since he wasn't the one being woken up 10 times per night, he didn't get a say there). ANYWAY, now, she's not napping AND sleeping well at night. fingers crossed that i'm not jinxing this and we have another good night tonight.

ironically, there's a little critter in our attic that had me awake from about 3:30 to 5:00 last night, so i didn't sleep very well. the trap is going in the attic tonight with some crackers, so hopefully it'll be quiet tonight. i'll be sure to update in the morning. there's nothing like a battle with a chipmunk or squirrel in the attic to spice up a blog!

maggie was also totally adorable today. she's such a happy child when she's well rested. i think she only talked about shooting nick once today, and that was after 6:30 when she was exhausted.

she was asking me today why some things stick to the walls, and you know that's a really hard question to answer. glue i had a pretty easy time explaining (well, i think it was easy, i'll have to google it and see if i'm right), but tape, not so easy. i was speculating that the molecules that coat a strip of tape might covalently bond with the molecules in the wall when maggie interrupted to suggest that "tape probably just has a lot of stick-ish-ness."

yup, that sums it up much better. :-)

anyway, it turns out i was wrong! check this out: http://www.whyzz.com/why-is-tape-sticky

remind me to explain it to her tomorrow.

if you don't want to click on the link, i'll give you the quick answer: tape works by suction!

this is really some october we're having!

2011-10-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

it was in the low 80s yesterday and must have been in the high 70s today, if not 80 again. i could get used to this!

well, we got back from boston late saturday night. we stopped at one of those all you can eat chinese food buffets for dinner and the girls loved it. maggie has been asking multiple times per day to go to "the place where you get your own dessert and crawfish." yup, they had crawfish there, and maggie loved them. i guess we'll have to go new orleans with her eventually!

yesterday we did the fall foliage festival and then a cookout at nina's friend emery's house. it was fun and we stayed out way too late, so we slept in a tiny bit this morning and then bummed around the house, enjoying the warm sun.

not so much is planned for this week, just getting back into the routine.

!

2011-10-08T05:59:00.001-07:00

it's so hard to keep track of the days over these long weekends. ahh, yes, it's saturday!

we had a very fun day yesterday. in the morning i took the girls to the playground next to erik's house. they had a great time, nina is a champ on the monkey bars. she was going forward, backward, alternating hands, and spent so much time on the bars that she developed a blister and ripped it open. :-( poor girl! she didn't notice the blister until it opened, and by then it really hurt. right in the middle of palm of her hand too. it hurt a lot, so we went home to put some ice on it. thankfully i had the boat bag in the car, with the new boat first aid kit that erik and isabelle had gotten for us, so i was able to antibiotic ointment and bandaid it right there at the playground.

but, before long nina was feeling better, so it was off to boarderland with erik and chester for a nice long hike. chester even rolled in poop! what fun! but then he went for a swim and it all came off, so it was all good.

after that the girls were kind of tired (at least, they weren't hopping around the house for a few minutes), but nick and i wanted to squeeze out the last bit of energy, so we took them to the playground in sharon (in the morning i'd taken them to the one closest to erik's house). after that we got some ice cream. what a day!

needless to say, the girls were out cold by 9. they probably would have gone to bed earlier, but they were so excited to hang out with erik and isabelle a little longer, so we let them.

another big day today, i'll update again in the evening if we're home early enough!

a harmonious household!

2011-10-05T17:04:00.001-07:00

that's sarcasm, because right now the girls are fighting over a glow-in-the-dark rat (a rat whose tail is about to fall off, this is not going to go over well), and maggie just called nina STUPID!! however, that's pretty tame for maggie. my favorite is when she gets really mad at nina (or anyone) and says "nina you're dammit!" i know, it's poor language, but she thinks dammit is an adjective, and that is kind of funny.

so, not so much going on today. my dryer burnt a load of clothes, so that sucks. dad says he'll take it apart this weekend and see what happened. i'm afraid there's a mouse nest in there or something, and they/it will just move to the washer and mess that up. we'll see. in related news, i know what i'm getting for my birthday. haha. the good news is that i smelled the smoke when i was getting maggie into the car to go pick up nina, so we turned off the dryer before it burnt the house down. yay for not burning the house down!

yesterday was school picture day, that was exciting. stay tuned, i'm sure it's going to be the most beautiful school picture lifetouch has ever taken!

oh, and i had dance class today. i mean, maggie had dance class today. but since i have to dance with her (because maggie does not tolerate me being more than an arm's length away), i kind of consider it my dance class. i haven't taken ballet since i was three, but you know, it's coming back to me. hee hee. that's a joke. but really, i actually enjoy it. i like the stretching, i'm so not flexible that it's really good for me. i'm trying to stretch every evening now, we'll see if i can touch my toes by the end of the class. probably not. i'm flexible like a lead pipe is flexible. which is to say not at all flexible.

and, what else... monday was a good day i guess, i tutored a new girl, so that was fun. i think it'll work out, mom is home on mondays so the girls can go there if they're not leaving me alone, or just play here while i work with her if they (maggie) are feeling cooperative. it's advanced math/pre-calculus, so something a little different from what i've been doing with jessie, which is fun.

no school tomorrow or friday, it's teacher inservice days! then of course no school on monday (colombus day for my out of country readers), so she has a 5 day weekend. woo hoo!

rain, rain, rain

2011-10-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

what a weekend. total washout! but, we've been having fun just kicking around the house. we only went out for church and sunday school today, and then just stayed in and relaxed. mom and the girls and i watched the wasp woman on netflix, nina loved it. and mom had actually not seen it before, what are the odds? seriously though, it is so great that she and nina have another thing in common. whenever nina wants to watch some B-horror, she has a friend to watch it with. i love it!
(by the way, if you click on that wasp woman link, you should know that the cover is entirely misleading--the wasp woman had the face of a wasp and the body of a human. kind of like a female the fly.)

yesterday was a busier day though. nina had a birthday party, we had our road association meeting, i had to do sexual abuse awareness training for the church in order to be a sunday school teacher (moral: the perverts are everywhere, and they don't always seem like they're going to be perverts. trust no one!) AND i tutored jessie in the morning. busy busy busy. but it rained most of the day, so it was good to have stuff to do.

nina had a field trip on friday, so that was fun. her class went to see a dolphin tale at the harbor theater. she really liked it. she said it was happy, sad, and funny. she gave us a good run down of the plot but said we have to see it for ourselves. maybe when it comes out on netflix.
also, she had a good week at school, but she's still not excited to go tomorrow. i mean, who's excited about another week of school on a sunday night? i know it's totally normal. but she was saying she didn't want to go tomorrow, and i asked her why, and she said, "i'm busy tomorrow..." and i had to chuckle. busy! hehehe.

ok nick wants the computer back. oh but one last thing: a few weeks ago, maggie wanted to add a new rule to our list of family rules (there were 6 but she insisted that this be rule number 8, so it just skips). rule number 8: no shooting anyone. but even though maggie is the one who proposed this rule, she still talks about shooting people when she's angry (especially when she's angry with nick. there's just something about him that really gets to her sometimes). so now when she says she is going to shoot him, i say "rule number 8, no shooting anyone." and so she has taken to saying "i'm going to gun you" instead!
that girl, she obeys the letter of the law, but not the spirit. now if you hear her threaten to "gun" you, you'll know what it's about. you're welcome.

dance class went well!

2011-09-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

my plies and re terres are really coming along. oh yeah and maggie did well too.

heh heh. maggie was reluctant to dance at class today (she was reluctant to go, and then reluctant to participate. then she was suddenly excited to put on her new dance outfit, and i have no idea what made her suddenly excited). still, she didn't want to be more than an arm's length from me, so i danced too. it was quite fun actually! maybe ballet will teach me some grace. you never know!

she was adorable in her little pink dance outfit, and she did a great job. then, she got home and fell asleep for nearly two hours. i really appreciated that, because dance class had worn me out too and i really needed the rest. i'm still mostly better, coughing a lot but i don't think it's bronchitis. i did have a lot of pain in my upper chest (probably bronchial tubes) on monday and tuesday, but it was better today. so, i'm ever so slowly on the mend, and i need all the rest i can get.

an unrelated cutie:
maggie and nina were both cuddled up on my lap last night. maggie was nursing and nina was doting on her. she was saying how adorable maggie is, and how much she loves her. then she said, "and i can tell by looking at your eyes that you love me too!"

the sweetness! it's out of control!!

oh, but i can balance it out. i asked maggie to get me, her poor, sick mother, a tissue yesterday. "i'm not your mom," she responded. "get it yourself."

nice.

i have a new title too

2011-09-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

i'm breaking this into a separate post both for emphasis, and to increase my post count. i take pride in my number of posts.

the other day (friday?) nina wanted something, and addressed me as "dearful mother who borned me."

dearful mother who borned me! how cute!!

a busy weekend

2011-09-26T18:40:00.001-07:00

health wise, we're almost all better. nina and i are still coughing a lot, and still have intermittent (but mild) sore throats, but hopefully it's safe to say we're over the hump. hopefully.
on saturday morning we were feeling so much better (especially me). this was due in a large part to the fact that both girls had slept in their own beds until 6 am, thereby letting their mommy sleep THROUGH THE NIGHT!! do you know how huge this is? i have no recollection of having slept through the night since before maggie was born. i'm pretty sure there were some nights when i was pregnant with maggie that i slept through the night. i don't recall exactly, and neither does nick, but i think it must have happened. surely this wasn't the first time in 6 years and one month that i've slept from 11 to 6, uninterrupted? sadly, it could be, but it doesn't matter. it hasn't repeated since, and i don't even want to know how long it's going to be until it happens again, but it did and i am glad. isn't that sad? it's ok if you think that's sad, i do, but such is my life.

(*edited to add: oh my gosh, i just looked back at what i had written on friday night's blog post. i'll copy and paste it here so you don't have to scroll down. i wrote, " i've had some rough nights with maggie and could really, really use a good night's sleep tonight. but i'm glad that i've had the energy in the middle of the night to take care of maggie."
wow! if anyone read this that night and said a prayer for me, thank you. and please feel free to add my sleep to your prayers any time!)

anyway! i woke up with energy. we all went out to breakfast at the ebb tide since we had almost no food in the house (being too sick to shop, with 2 sick kids and all). what a treat! then we headed home, packed up some sandwiches, and visited the gray wildlife park. what a fun place! i'll let our pictures tell the story:

agghh! a bear! and what a cute little face it has!

after we saw the deer, an albino raccoon, looked for a woodchuck but couldn't find it, a skunk, and an opossum, we took this nice wooded trail through the woods.

a moose! this was the second moose actually, the first had the nice big antlers. but we didn't get such a cute photo with the first moose, so you can see the littler one. this was probably a child moose.

the canada lynx! they were everyone's favorite. spunky! and dangerous!

on the way home (after some yummy chinese food) we stopped at DeLorme, which has the world's coolest globe. the moose thing was just too much fun, but maggie had wandered off by the time i convinced nick to do it. so don't be expecting this pose on the christmas card, i can tell without even bringing it up that nick won't go for it. and that's the kind of compromise-minded wife i am, so i won't even bring it up, even though i think the 4 of us making moose antlers with a moose in the background would make a fantastic christmas card. well now i've brought it up, but that's just what happens when you have a blog.

we're still siiiiiiiiiiiiiick

2011-09-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

we're getting better, slowly. nick is better, and so is nina. maggie is getting there, and i'm coming in last place, as usual. i've had some rough nights with maggie and could really, really use a good night's sleep tonight. but i'm glad that i've had the energy in the middle of the night to take care of maggie. nighttime sore throats are miserable for an adult, they must be so many times worse for 3 year olds. also, being sick makes me a more restless sleeper (harder to get comfortable, and my restless legs syndrome really flared up again last night. it hasn't bothered me in ages), and it sure does the same for maggie. i'm beginning to think she might have restless legs syndrome too. in time she'll tell us!

nina stayed home from school again today. she was mostly better, but had a cough in the morning and her nose was running constantly, and she really wanted to stay home. i figured that if she was going to spend half her time coughing and blowing her nose anyway, she might as well be home, but she had to agree to homeschool with me today. and she did, she did great! maggie didn't want to join us, so she spent her time painting her ponies, cleaning her ponies, painting on paper, and playing with her ponies. she really, really, really loves those ponies. nina did math, reading, and science with me. it was also really warm today so we got to be outdoors a lot. all in all, not to bad for a sick day.

we're all sick

2011-09-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

:-(

and then to make matters worse, the power was out for about 5 hours due to an accident on route 27! fortunately it was really, really warm, and we spent most of the day outside. i was glad that nina could be home to enjoy it.

hopefully we'll all feel much better tomorrow, but i think nina will still be home. maggie got this little bug first and it took her a few days to feel better. even then, she still has a runny nose. but her fever is gone. the other symptom is a sore throat, but i don't think she ever mentioned that (note to vanessa: the first time nina ever described a sore throat, she said "my mouth hurts." i was initially confused and thought maybe she had a canker sore or something, but after i caught what she had and got a sore throat, i figured it out. so if you hear this from wyatt one day, now you'll know!)

i'll update tomorrow, hopefully to tell you that we're all on the road to recovery.

serial posting!

2011-09-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

sorry, i'm going to go to bed after this. but i had to tell you all that nina watched all of godzilla the other day, and some of rodan the day before that, and loved it! she's totally hooked on the old monster movies, and can't wait to see the old dracula with bela legosi (i probably bungled the spelling of that, but looking it up would take too much time. maggie's a bit sick today and i'm definitely fighting it off, and i'm going straight to bed after this!). then she told us that she wants to see "franklinstein." franklin-stein!! it is too cute to correct her.

sisters in love

2011-09-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

i was sitting in the living room one day not too long ago, while nina and maggie were watching TV. i heard nina say "aww, are you scared? come here little one." and i crept in to see this scene.

nina is the best big sister in the world!

the new deck!

2011-09-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

here it is! we're also repainting the house. it's basically the same color--a little more green and less brown/gray. it looks spiffy though!

my girls, the naturalists

2011-09-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

no, this is not going to be a post about them getting naked, fortunately.

a few nights ago, nina and i were out on my spacious new deck before bed, watching the moon rise. it was really a beautiful night--warm, with the moon full and still orange, reflecting off the water, framing the trees in black. we could see a few stars and hear the wind rustling in the trees, and it was unusually warm for a september evening. i said to nina, "i like the sound of the wind in the trees." and she said, "yeah, watching the moon, listening to the wind and just... livin'"
aww!

then today, we were down at the used bookstore, and maggie sat down on their front steps. i asked her, "do you want to go play?" and she said, "no, i just want to sit her and watch the world flutter."

i'm not making this up! my kids are deep!

oh, but i lied, i do have a naked story. maggie was at her first dance class, and things went really, really well for the first 4/5. then maggie decided she was done and stripped out of her dance clothes, quick as lightning. one of the dads, waiting for class to be over, said, "i didn't know it was that kind of a dance class!" it was funny. i promptly changed her back in to her pjs, of course.

edit: oops, i didn't realize i'd already told the naked story. i kind of glossed over it on tuesday though, and didn't include the dad's funny observations. so i'll just leave it.

it was the first day of dance class

2011-09-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

for 2 little ballerinas today!

first up was maggie. she was so, so excited for class to start when we got there (before, at home, she said she didn't want to go. but her moods change).

initially, she said she wanted to wear her pajamas (of course). but, i packed a dance outfit (actually 2), just in case. then when she got to the dance studio, she really got excited. she wanted to change into the pink leotard and ballet skirt i'd brought, put on the pink ballet slippers, and danced around happily until the rest of the girls got there (among them, her good friend iris). she did a GREAT job in class, too! she listened so well! well, until the very end, when she was suddenly done, stripped out of her dance clothes, and wailed for her pajamas again. she didn't have a nap though, and nina had arrived for her dance class, and i think she was suddenly overwhelmed. we're going to do it again though, only there weren't enough kids to keep the tuesday class, so we'll have to move to wednesday morning. that'll work better though i think, she won't be so tired.

after that, it was nina's turn. there were 15 little ballerinas in that class! but they all did wonderfully, and nina's really excited to be dancing again.

well, there's maggie making some noise, so i'm off!

i can't help it, a few more cute pics

2011-09-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

aren't they adorable?!

some photos, for the heck of it

2011-09-12T18:09:00.001-07:00

Maggie did these all by herself! well, i helped with the spelling, but it's her handwriting. adorable! and, it was a few months ago, but nina took these pictures and i finally downloaded the stuff off her camera, so here they are. better late than never!

that's "tree," "elephant," "parrot," and "princess," in case anything isn't totally clear. the word choices were maggie's. she was going to do clown next, but got tired.

to squirrel island, or not to squirrel island?

2011-09-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

yes, that is the question.

you see, nina's class has a field trip there, and of course one must take a boat to the island, so at first nina didn't want to go. we talked about it, and talked about it again after she was so brave at funtown. but on sunday she said she still didn't want to go. "what day is it?" she had asked me. "friday," i'd said. "oh, i can't go," she'd responded. "i'm busy on friday."

that kid is such a riot! she was planning to run a lemonade stand on friday by the way, in case you're wondering what keeps a 6 year old busy all day on a friday. (she also asked if we could move to town, so that she could do a lemonade stand in our front yard and still have people come by).

but then, today, she came home from school and said she did want to go. wonderful! so as long as we can file a new permission slip with the school, i think she's set. nick will even go with her (little sibs are not allowed to come)

also, the local whale watch boats both spotted a blue whale this weekend. a blue whale! they're rare wherever you are, but they're very rare off the coast of maine. we might try to catch a whale watch this week or weekend in hopes of seeing it. how cool would that be!

funtown!

2011-09-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

we went to funtown today and we had SO MUCH FUN! totally lived up to the name. :-)

we weren't sure yesterday if we were even going to go, because at 48 inches (in shoes) a child is considered a "big kid" and, according to the website and the woman i talked to on the phone, not allowed on the "little kid" rides. nina is 47.75 inches tall barefoot, so we figured she wouldn't be able to go on most of the rides she was interested in, and that maggie wouldn't go on rides without her. but, we looked at the rides on the website, realized that there were quite a few "family" rides that big and little kids, and grownups, could all ride on together (antique cars, merry go round) that it was worth a go.

and it sure was! it turned out that they did make nina get a "big kid" bracelet, but that most of the "little kid" rides allowed bigger riders so long as they were accompanying little kids. there were a few of these rides that nina wanted to go on but maggie didn't, but nina just went as an accompaniment to some random little kids. a loaner big sister, if you will. the parents of one 2 year old little girl were very happy that nina could sit with her on the ride!

and beyond that, nina really surprised us with the rides she went on and LOVED! she rode the astro-shpere, the flying trapeze (swings), the thunderbolt, and the log flume. these are not for the faint of heart! and she loved, loved, loved it. i loved watching her huge smiles on the flying trapeze as she flew through the air.

even better, jessie, the girl i tutor, came with us. so i had someone to go on scary rides with me while nick watched the kids, and nick and i even got to do the log flume together while she watched them. it was so, so perfect. jessie is such a sweetheart, so much fun, and the girls love her. hooray for a wonderful day!

even maggie pushed herself some. she went on the baby bumper boats, a floating canoe ride, a boats ride (and so did nina. who knows, maybe all of this will open her mind to our boat!), multiple carousel trips, antique cars, and on and on. she had a wonderful time. at one point, when nina was on the frog hopper, maggie and i were sitting on a bench with a woman whose grandson was also on the frog hopper. she was eating some utz party snack from a small, individual-sized bag. maggie smiled at her, said hi, and asked "can i have some of your snack?" that girl is such a hoot! not the least bit shy. and of course the woman gave her some.

the weather was perfect too, sunny and warm but not too hot. now the girls are asleep and i am almost ready to pass out too.

maggie slept in her bed all night!

2011-09-08T04:50:00.001-07:00

i don't think this is the very first time that has happened, but it's certainly one of 3 or less. and it could be the very first time. either way, what a milestone! i feel so rested!

not too much else going on. one cute: we were watching the beginning of wheel of fortune (the girls like to catch vanna's dress), and it was being filmed from new orleans, so they were showing a bunch of clips from there. nina was watching with rapt attention and then asked, "where is that? it's magnificent!"

haha! i think it was the brief clip of beignets from cafe du mond that really inspired the comment. i can't wait to take her there one day!

school is still going well. nina was less than enthusiastic about going this morning, but by the time she was heading out the door she was smiling, so hopefully that was just the morning sleepies talking. hopefully i will get a chance to talk with her teacher soon and work out a plan for her to get some work on her level so she isn't bored.

fishing!

2011-09-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

we went fishing today; me, nick, maggie, erik, isabelle, and chester. only isabelle and i really fished, though maggie did help me reel my empty hook in. we just went up to oven's mouth and then trawled around some, but we didn't catch anything. we did see a seal swimming around though, so that was a highlight. maggie really enjoyed herself, which was exciting. now all we need is for nina to get excited about the boat (unlikely. maybe next year though), and then we'll really be able to go places.

actually, nina is getting ever more nervous about water. she doesn't like to be on any kind of deck that is built over the water. she is hesitant to walk on the wharf, and tonight she didn't want to eat at lobsterman's in east boothbay. she did though, mostly because their deck is entirely made of sheets of plywood and not planks with spaces in between. she wasn't excited about it, but she went along with it. well, at least she's not afraid of tigers in the bathroom any more.

nina's first week of first grade is done

2011-09-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

it was a good week! she's very happy with her teacher and classmates. i was a bit worried that she would be lonely on the bus ride, since her good friend charlie, who gets on one stop before her, is now going to private school. but quite the contrary, she told me she enjoys the bus ride more now without him, because she "can relax now." i guess it's more fun to sit quietly by herself and look out the window than it is to deal with a chatty 6 year old boy. who could have guessed!

maggie is not enjoying the days without nina so much. all day long yesterday she'd run from one room to another calling, "nina?!" she even declined to eat the cookies nan had baked for her until nina was home. such a cutie.

and since i never blogged about nina's birthday

2011-08-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

here's a few photos of that!

blowing out her candles.

and here's a close-up of the cake. we didn't take enough photos!

first day of school photos

2011-08-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here they are!

ready to head out the door. she's so cute!!

the 4 of us went to wait for the bus together

nina is a first grader!!!

2011-08-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

her first day was "good," she said. nina is not one for giving details about school, and i ask a lot of questions, but still it's hard to get information out of her. the highlights were that her teacher, mrs. spaulding, read them a story in the morning, and that they had gym class. she also really likes a new girl in her class, hannah, who is meredith roberts' neice. she and nina had dance together 2 years ago, so they remembered each other.

i would have first day of school photos to go with this post, but i downloaded them onto the other computer, which is having some difficulty starting up (the old gateway. the screen of which, by the way, is now in full color again. how weird is that?). so here i am using nick's computer. but mine looks to be starting up properly now so hopefully by the time you read this, pictures will be up and this paragraph will make no sense. haha!

speaking of "haha"s, i have been remiss in blogging about the girls' cuteness. so here some of it is, in no particular order:

maggie, after listening to me recount her wakings up at night: "but then i fell asleep and slept with all my might!"

nina, in the car, when we were discussing a large caterpillar in a junior high classroom that will grow into a very large moth: "what's the difference between a moth and a butterfly?"
me: "uh, i don't know."
nick: "i think butterflies are prettier than moths."
nina: "oh, i think it's that moths come out at night and butterflies come out during the day."
me and nick: "wow, we're dumb."

i'm not sure if that's even the technical definition of the difference, but it's obviously far, far better than anything nick or i could come up with.

also, maggie says "ridiculous" like "ruh-dick-lee-ous" and it's just too cute.

ok i'm gonna switch to the other laptop and see if i can put up the photos.

busy busy busy!!!

2011-08-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

where to start? well, we still have our last company of the summer, though nina is especially ready for them to go. she's having trouble mostly with the 3 year old, who doesn't listen to her as well as maggie does (i guess i never noticed that as strong-willed as maggie is, she listens to nina very well. she actually listens to me pretty well too, compared to other 3 year olds). so, nina's pretty frustrated. yesterday day she told me, "i'm at the end of my rope. i've used up a thousand ropes!"

it's cute, but i feel bad that nina is so stressed. i'm doing as much as i can to give her a break from everyone, but she just wants them gone. and now there may be a hurricane headed here in a few days! it's looking promising that it'll veer far enough west of us that we don't get much, so please keep your fingers crossed!

plus, my washing machine broke. however, both sears and lowes are offering 10 - 20% of washers this week, so i'm in luck!

so as you can see, busy busy busy here. i will try to write more often though. unless of course we lose power for a week!!

botanical gardens today

2011-08-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

what a fun, exhausting place. we spent most of our time in the children's garden, as usual, but also go to the garden of the 5 senses. saw frogs in the ponds, some tadpoles still (must have been some late egg laying?), and of course lots of plants.

yesterday we went to a concert at the congo church that sam schwehm put on. he's such a great piano player! then we took the girls to get some ice cream. we only stayed for 4 or 5 songs, the girls were being so good but i didn't want to push my luck, and i wanted to leave before they got bored, so they don't develop negative feelings about piano concerts.

saturday we did the tidepooling class at the aquarium, but i think i wrote about that already. so then, all caught up!

i can't think of anything they've done or said lately that made me chuckle and i have to share. oh yeah, maggie was annoying nina one night (probably whining because she was over-tired), and nina said, "that's it, you're not my sister anymore! you're fired!" which was pretty funny. she's never even seen the apprentice!

i guess the blog has become more of a weekend update

2011-08-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

my good intentions go so quickly by the wayside. oh well.

but we've been busy this week because our friends the mascias are visiting! they're the ones with 2 little girls (all 4 girls are now giggling hysterically over some potty talk. at least maggie isn't whining to nuuuuuuuuurse!)

this morning we did the tidepooling class at the aquarium. so fun! we caught a bunch of crabs and hermit crabs in our nets and put them in a bucket. then they were going to tell us all about the animals we caught, but we had (foolishly) left the house before eating breakfast II, and we were all too hungry to listen. nick had gone to the grocery store for a few things while we were tidepooling so we waited outside for him to come back and promptly devoured a half-dozen muffins upon his return.

yesterday we had a fun day of hendrick's head and swimming at mom's house. before that is starting to be a blur.... i'll try to back update over the next few days, especially to tell about nina's 6th birthday. she's six!!!

the kids ran off to grandma's house

2011-08-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

so i'm blogging.

what a day it's been. maggie got us all up early, but then the 3 of us girls took naps this afternoon. i turned on the old laptop (the one i use, not the one we finally got rid of), only to find that this one's screen is suddenly broken too! not cracked, but the blue color is gone, so it's all in shades of pink and yellow. kind of pretty once you get used to it actually.

but before that, nick and i had a little issue hat needs some airing out.

what happened was, there were 7 bread and butter pickle chips left in the pickle jar. nick took 4 of them for his sandwich and "generously" said to me, "I left you some pickles. finish them so we can throw out the jar."

so i grabbed a fork, and do you know what i saw? three ends. that is, pickle chips cut from the ends of the cucumber. i (of course) immediately opened up his sandwich and saw that he had 4 lovely pickle chips cut from the more tender center of the pickle.

i said, "gee nick, thanks for leaving me the ends."
and he said, "what? i didn't notice."
not one to let things like this just slide under the table, i responded, "yeah right."
and he said, "no really, i must have just happened to get the good ones."
and I said, "you really expect me to believe you just happened to pick out the 4 good ones?"
and he said, "yes. i didn't pick them out on purpose, i swear."
and i said, "maybe subconsciously you grabbed the good ones."
and he said, "no."
and i said, "fine, but do you know what the odds of that happening are?"
and he said, "no."
and i said, "small."
and he said, "whatever, why are you still talking about this."
and i said, "it's the principle."

so what are the chances that nick accidentally got the 4 good pickles? they're smaller than you think. i'll admit i didn't do the math in my head, but knowing more about probability than nick, i was setting him up a bit by asking him if he believed it was pure chance, since i did know that the odds were much smaller than he would guess.

but quickly, let's just run the math. we had:

4 "good" pickles
+3 low quality ends
____________________
7 pickles in total

what are the odds of pulling the 4 good chips?

(4/7) x (3/6) x (2/5) x (1/4) = 24/840 = 1/35

which is just under 3%

so, there's just under a 3% chance that he took the good pickles by chance. not impossible, but not likely either.

in conclusion, we're kind of at a stalemate right now. i can believe him (and buy a lottery ticket tonight), or i can write sarcastic blog posts while my children are (probably) over at grandma's.

isn't math fun?

been busy with guests, having fun

2011-08-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

today we took the gregorios to ocean point. the kids had a great time throwing rocks in the ocean, climbing on the rocks, and playing with the little crabs in the tide pools.

as we were leaving though, a man came up to me. he said, 'i was standing here, watching the kids play, and reminiscing about my kids when they were little. and your little girl (gesturing to maggie) caught my eye, and i watching her. and i guess she caught that little boy over there's eye too (gestured to a little boy on the beach), because he went over to her with his bucket and told her he caught a crab. and she said to him, "who cares?" and walked away.'

oh my gosh, i laughed so hard! that is so maggie. she's gonna be a man-eater!

let us all remember that cotton candy gives the girls tummy aches

2011-08-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

today was the family fun festival at camp knickerbocker, and the girls had a blast jumping in the bounce houses and eating their hamburgers. then, we had to finish the day with some cotton candy, and they both got tummy aches. :-(
no cotton candy next time!!

nina had a big day today though, so she deserved the cotton candy. she finished her first grade workbook! it has 156 pages, so that was a LOT of math. go nina!
she also finished her first goosebumps book, the werewolf of fever swamp. she loved it, and checked out another one: piano lessons can be murder (she keeps pronouncing it 'mudder')

ok now we're watching horders on netflix, so no more typing!

we're into playing Wii again

2011-08-03T18:23:00.001-07:00

and today nina and i were golfing before bed. neither of us are especially good, and we continually hit the ball into the rough.

well, one time nina hit it out there and said, "oh, i hit it into the ruffles."

haha!