go speed racer, go!

here she is, our little bike rider. she's doing such a great job!

another cold day in late march

cold and windy. at least the sun was bright and warm, when that frigid wind wasn't blowing!

this afternoon nick was outside with the girls, and they were drawing with sticks in the dirt. maggie was drawing a picture of nick. at one point she turned to him and asked, "do you have a forehead?"
"yes," said nick.
"because i drew you with a forehead," she responded.

she's actually getting very good at drawing people (well, very good for a not yet 3 year old). she gets veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerry frustrated when she tries to do something but can't do it the way she wants to, so she gave up on trying to write letters a few months back, but i'm really happy she enjoys drawing and coloring. they seem like the kinds of activities that might get her upset, but so far, no. whew!

in garden 2011 news, my leeks are sprouting all over the place. my brussels sprouts, not so much. i have 2 great-looking, nice and hardy ones, and 10 that are either dead, dying, or maybe maybe getting a slow start. i might have to google brussels sprouts and see if they are very sensitive or something. oh well, 2 isn't enough, so i'll try another batch this week if the mabye-gonna-be-ok ones don't perk up. well actually, i guess i'll have to start another batch no matter what, because no way will i get more than 5, and i want at least 10 (so a few can die when i transplant!)

thar's a cold wind blowing tonight!

this has been the worst winter ever. it's practically april, yet we didn't get out of the low 30s today, and there was a frigid wind on top of that. there's a disgusting crust of snow on the ground still, which is unsurprising as it snowed yesterday. we're a good 10 degrees below average every day. horrid. i've almost given up on spring, forget about summer. it's probably going to be like this for the next 10 years.

girls are good. happy. maggie has pretty much totally given up her nap, but the good news is both girls were asleep by 7:30 tonight. nick and i are gonna watch a movie! what else... we took them swimming at the wiscasset Y this afternoon, then had a fun family adventure at shaws. quite the day! a half-off special on japanese noodles inspired a lovely chicken and broccoli stir-fry for dinner. and we colored some easter eggs, because we picked up a cool shiny eggs egg coloring kit at walmart, and the girls were very excited to start coloring.

that's all, movie time!!

nina's good night musings...

i've written before about how nina comes up with the most bizarre things to worry about before falling asleep. lately it's mostly been anxiety over things going down the drain in the tub (toys, barbie, hair elastics). but here's the conversation nick reported tonight:

nina: so, aye-aye's can't reach the doorknob, right?
nick: no, they can't reach the doorknob.
nina: ok. but we always keep the two doors closed at night, right?
nick: yes.
nina: but if one came in and tried to take my shoes, i could just throw an apple at it.
nick: well you don't need to worry about it, they don't live in maine. they live in madagascar.

throw an apple at it! where does she come up with this stuff?

(an aye-aye is a kind of monkey from madagascar).

a maggie funny

this afternoon maggie took all her clothes off (or should i say, pajamas, since that's what she wore all day) after she went to the bathroom. which is par for the course, and half of why there is always a pile clothes in the bathroom. nina is the other half of the reason.
anyway, she was naked for a bit (does she not feel cold?). i kept telling her to get dressed but she didn't want to, and i didn't feel like fighting. pick your battles they say. finally though, it was time to go next door for dinner, so i told her she had to get dressed.

"do you want to put clothes on or wear your pajamas?" i asked. she stood up with her arms in the air and yelled:
"i want to wear:
EXCITEMENT!
my lobster dress!"

excitement! she is too funny!

as an aside, it snowed today! i sowed spinach seeds in the garden on sunday, but i think that's fine. they'll probably just sit there until it's warm enough for them to germinate. my book says to sow spinach outdoors as soon as the soil can be worked, so i did! i'll keep you posted of course!

the girls and i also started our leeks and brussels sprouts indoors on saturday. one of the brussels sprouts seeds was uncovered (they only go 1/4 inch deep), and i could see that it's germinating already! i added more soil, but i'm thinking they'll be above the soil within a day or 2. excitement!!!!!!!

nina is riding a 2-wheeler!!

she loves it! she'd been practicing a bit in the basement over the winter, but it's really hard to ride in circles in a small area, so that didn't contribute much. now that it's nice out and the snow is melted, she's finally had a chance to practice outside. she caught on so quickly! we spent some time early in the week practicing on the driveway, and then we took bikes over to courjon road so that she could practice on the pavement. then yesterday and today, she was riding! she still gets nervous after 100 feet or so and stops to look back and see how far she's come, but she's really doing it! we're so proud of her!

yesterday, we went to dinner at the new thai restaurant in wiscasset, it was soooo good. maggie was hysterical; when mom ordered a glass of wine, she said to the waitress, "i'll have some wine too." the waitress looked surprised for a second and then said, "um, i don't think so!" haha, it was too cute.

then a bit later, a couple came into the restaurant, and maggie and nina noticed that the woman was carrying a purse that was very similar to mine. so maggie began to loudly comment on how it was different ("BUT THE ZIPPER IS DIFFERENT!" and "OH HER'S HAS A BUCKLE!") and then nina began to speculate on how old she might be. fortunately she was guessing about 20, so the woman couldn't have been offended. funny kids! of course, i told them it wasn't appropriate to discuss other people at the restaurant, and they stopped.

another fantastic report card!

nina got her second trimester report card, and it is amazing! all check plusses again from mrs. mellor and her gym teacher, and all but one check plusses from her art and music teacher (i think the "usually"s were in "stays focused," so i think nina's true colors are emerging some, haha).

her reading level is listed at 10, with 6 being the target reading level by the end of the year. this would put her at a mid first grade level, which i think is about right. she reads very well, but she is still learning some of the short words (especially the ones that are exceptions to pronunciation rules, and the ones that are just strange english words that you pronounce the way you do because you just do. she's memorizing those very quickly, but there are a lot! also, she still gets tired of reading anything more than a children's book, even though she's capable of reading a page out of most children's chapter books.)

the only thing i didn't like was that mrs. mellor listed her "uses basic computation skills to 5" and "recognizes basic geometric shapes" as "developing." hm... she's done those things since she was 3 or younger! i'm probably going to have a quick talk with her teacher and find out why she went with "developing" (as opposed to "independently").

uh-oh, there's a broken egg in the fridge. guess i need to go!!

spring was in the air today!

50 degrees, it felt so good! nina stayed home today. she's been impossible to wake up in the morning. totally dead to the world, reminds me of trying to wake up erik. so we've let her sleep in. she's going to bed at her usual time (7:45), and this morning she didn't wake up until almost 8. i figured at that point we'd be so late to school that it'd be too embarrassing. plus her nose was a bit stuffy overnight, and i knew it was going to be the best day in months, so all signs pointed to taking a day off.

maggie was delighted! she's in the best mood when nina's home. and of course nina was too. we still do "home school" when she stays home, i don't want to make it a vacation. but she's so far ahead in reading and math that it's not necessary, i just want to keep a focus on working even if she's at home.

still, we were outside for most of the day. rode bikes in the morning, walked in the woods, and in the afternoon we went to hendricks head to see some crazy people swim in the water for the lepruchan leap! maggie and nina desperately wanted to swim too, even though it was FREEZING at the beach with a horrible wind, but i had to put my foot down. tough mom that i am! i told them next year.

summer is on its way and i can't wait. also, report cards tomorrow!!!

a little story i'd forgotten to share

on our way down to NY over february vacation, we stopped at a costco in connecticut. we got some dinner, some food to bring with us to our friends' house, and used the bathroom (like, 4 times. they had these crazy loud hand dryers that scared maggie, AND automatic flush toilets, which both girls hate. so maggie was too scared to use the potty at first, and we ended up making several trips. also, multiple trips are necessary because i usually take the girls, then return them to nick so i can go by myself. if i'm lucky i can go by myself anyway, lately maggie has been even clingier than ever, and can't stand to be left with nick for even 2 minutes so she comes with me.)
and that's where we were at that fateful costco evening: i had gone to the bathroom, and maggie had accompanied me to try again (she didn't go). there is a strict rule in public bathrooms--"touch mommy only." it was "don't touch anything," but nina as a wee lass had pointed out that this was inaccurate, since she held on to me in while she was sitting on the potty, for balance.
"touch mommy only!" i reminded maggie. she did a great job. then, while i was washing my hands, i looked over at her, standing at a sink maybe 2 over from me.

then in a flash, she licked the sink!!

EWWW!

i yelled, louder than i meant to, "NOOOOOOOO!!! MAGGIE NEVER EVER LICK ANYTHING IN A BATHROOM!!" and she started crying. i think the panic in my voice scared her more than my yelling. i felt awful.

ah, sweet maggie. maybe it's a good thing that she was already on antibiotics!

at least she didn't like a toilet! and of course, we have amended the rule. and now when she sits on a potty in a public bathroom, she clasps her hands in her lap and firmly shuts her mouth. it is really cute.

photos from boston!

saturday already?!

how on earth does this happen?

well, spring is here! the snow has ALMOST melted, temps in the 40s for the last few days, and tonight we set the clocks forward. woo hoo!

nina stayed home from school on wednesday. she had a tummy ache on tuesday night and was a bit warm overnight, so i thought she might be coming down with whatever maggie had had. she slept in on wednesday and then seemed fine, so it was nothing.

thursday and friday were typical, nothing of note. and today is nick's birthday, the girls are very excited. they got up early to set the flowers out and set out the cards they made him, then we all had eggs. it's supposed to be in the mid-40s so i'm not sure what we're going to do, but it's definitely going to be outside.

Maggie is funny!

this morning maggie and i were hanging out with mom. maggie turned to me.

"who's your sister?" she asked.
"tante vanessa," i replied.
"no, your sister is aunt artica!" she said.

wow! what a clever joke!! i think that is better than anything i've ever come up with.

poor little comedienne's temperature was creeping up again as she was falling asleep. even worse, nina was starting to feel warm (though the thermometer read normal) and she had a touch of diarrhea before bed. something tells me i'll be sleeping between two steamy little girls tonight and home with both tomorrow. my poor babies!

poor little maggie is sick

:-(

she had some really, really mild diarrhea a few times over the last 3 or 4 days, and last night she woke up at 2 am with a fever. poor little girl. i didn't want to bother her to take her temperature, but it felt like it was about 102. she still had it this morning, a little lower, and this time i took it. 101.5. not to bad, but she said her tongue and her cheek hurt, so i gave her some tylenol. her tongue looks fine, so i'm not sure what that's about, but i'll check later and she if she gets any blisters. hopefully it's just a little stomach flu, i know of at least one kid in nina's class who had that last week, so it would make sense. now she's sitting happily next to me watching the cat in the hat. she looks a little out of it but is sipping some apple juice and generally happy, so it seems pretty mild.

well it's colder again today, the high is only supposed to be in the mid-30s, so it's not a bad day to stay inside!

it's finally getting warm! it's finally getting warm!!

wow, what a winter! just never-ending cold and snow. so many days where the highs didn't get out of the single digits and overnight lows were well, well, WELL below zero. brr! the mist sure looks pretty rising off of the water on those -15 degree mornings, and the frost that coats all of the trees, shimmering in the early morning sunlight, is just gorgeous. but BRR! and with the price of oil these days, downright painful.

anyway, that's not the point! the point is that this weekend it was finally warm! 40s and rain, that might not sound like much, but it feels like spring. a foot of snow must have melted this weekend alone. which means that there's still another foot or so of snow on our backyard, and the snowbanks the plows left are only 4 feet tall, but that's ok, it's only a matter of time. spring! spring! next weekend we even change the clocks.

what else... took the girls swimming yesterday and then in the evening, my friend eve and i went to the hootenanny at the opera house. it was fun! nick stayed home with the girls, but i had to come home early because maggie missed me and wouldn't go to sleep for nick. we're getting closer though, she ended up falling asleep in bed with us but she was cuddled up with nick and not me. maybe one day someone else will put her to sleep and i'll be able to stay out late. someday!!

just now i was settling down to check facebook and perhaps update the blog

when maggie, sitting next to me, took over the mouse pad and said, "ok, here's the plan," then tried to open up one of her favorite websites, poisson rouge. what a funny kid!

ahhh, finally friday. maggie is still sitting next to me, looking at my ear. she said, "oh, you have a hole in your ear. why do you have a hole in your ear?" and i said, "where's the hole?" (because i wasn't sure if she meant the ear canal or the piercing) and then she said "here. OH maybe it's for your EAWINGS!" i love her little voice!

now she wants me to sit on the floor so she can have my seat on the couch. she's been ordering everyone around all night. at mom and dad's she demanded the middle cushion, as usual (have i blogged about her middle thing? she has a fixation with sitting in the middle. it can get ugly. and it's hard when she, nina, and i are cuddling in bed and maggie wants to be in the middle but nina wants me in the middle so we can cuddle). anyway. she kept ordering everyone to different seats. she tried to get nick to sit on the rocking chair right next to the TV and he said, "no maggie, i want to watch TV." and she showed him how he could sit there and crane his neck and still see the TV.

ok, time to get this little monster to bed!

i just found out something very disappointing.

wait, make that 2 things that are very disappointing.

1) i had the very exciting idea to print out my blog. there's this website that does it, it's not called book-your-blog, but it should be, because that's what they do. this blog, as i might have said, is my prized possession. i intend to read through it a million times in my golden years, and to give it to the girls to read when they are older. i mean, how cool is it to have a diary of your early childhood? very cool.

anyway, you're probably wondering where the disappointing part comes in. i'm building this up way too much, i am the only person that's going to find this disappointing. but what happened is, the book-your-blog website tallied that i had 476 posts. if you recall, i recently celebrated my 500th post, based on the fact that blogspot tells me on my dashboard how many posts i have. but it's wrong! the 476 is right! i added up the post count on the left-hand side of the page there. so when i had my exciting moment of hitting my 500th post a few weeks back, i was wrong. and that's disappointing.

oh well though, my plan now is to order the book of my blog once i complete 500 posts. that's a nice, convenient time to archive.

and

2) nina is convinced that the tooth fairy gives $5 to $6 per lost tooth. she's said this a few times. she asked me a few weeks ago if the tooth fairy was real, in a tone of voice that indicated she does not believe that the tooth fairy is real, so i said no. it's just me. but she still mentioned the tooth fairy giving her $5 (or maybe $6) when she loses her tooth (this is not happening any time soon by the way. the tooth wiggles like, half a millimeter, but she's convinced it's coming out any day now). i don't know if she forgot i told her the truth about the tooth fairy, or if she just doesn't care, so long as she gets her $5.

dinner conversation

over dinner tonight nina said, "we're poor, arent we." (it was a statement, not a question).
"how can you tell we're poor?" i said.
"well," said nina, "we don't have very much food."
"why do you say we don't have very much food?" i asked.
nina walked over to the fridge, held it open, and gestured.
"see," she said. "there's not much in there."

ouch! the girl takes after her father. he's always complaining that our fridge is too empty, and accuses me of keeping it that way on purpose. which is kind of a valid accusation, i don't like an over-filled fridge, i find we end up wasting food that way. i like to be able to see everything in there with just one glance. if it's so full that things get hidden, i forget about stuff and it goes bad. but anyway, no one in this house is under-fed!

sheesh, kids!