another beautiful weekend for fishermen's festival

last night i took the girls to see the miss shrimp pageant. at first they were really into it. then after two hours, they were pretty done. and they were only half way through the talent portion! crazy!
this morning we got downtown in time to see most of the lobster boat races and the crate running. then the girls colored on boothbay house hill (the kids do a big chalk mural there now every fishermen's festival), then we were done.
it was so warm and sunny and wonderful though! we spent the rest of the day outside, except for a short stint inside wherein nick and i took naps and nina read amelia bedelia aloud to us. she's such a great reader, i'm so proud of her.

then it was dinner and more playing outside at mom and dad's. as we left for the night, maggie ran up to the living room sliding doors from the deck outside and shouted, "goodnight! don't get any mischief!!"

haha! such a funny little girl!

*oops, i wrote "don't get any trouble" the first time, but nick reminded me that she actually said "mischief."

so you've heard about the royal wedding?

well, as irritating as the coverage is, you should all know that it has served a noble purpose. this evening, nina hit her head on the closet door and was crying. my poor baby! so i said, "hey, did you know there's going to be a real royal wedding tomorrow?"
the crying stopped. "really?" she said.
"yes," i said. "a real live prince will marry a princess. well actually, she's not a princess just yet, but she will be after they get married."
"really," said nina, very deadpan.
"yes," i said. "really."
"you're really not joking?"
i nod.
"really. for real. really there's going to be a princess get married?"
(can you tell she didn't believe me? this kept going for a while. all deadpan. it was quite funny!)

woo hoo! she was very excited and totally forgot about her injury. now i have to turn on the TV in the morning and watch some recap, but she'll be excited. so, there you go, next time they interrupt real news for that rubbish, know that it perked up my little princess!

happy easter!

we got some fantastic pictures of the girls at easter. enjoy!

back to school today

nina wasn't thrilled to go in the morning, but i told her maggie and i would come for lunch, and then she warmed to the idea. i think maggie was as sad about nina going as nina was!
and who could blame them, they had such a great time playing together all day during vacation. maggie was lonely all day, poor kid. i'm just not as fun as nina, no matter how hard i try.

the weekend was also super fun. chester was here, so that was nonstop action, and then easter of course. nina had been looking forward to easter for a long time. we did easter baskets here, then church had an easter egg hunt on the lawn, i hid candy and wrote clues to it at mom and dad's house, and isabelle hid giant eggs full of candy for them. lucky little girls!

i must say, my clues were excellent. one clue led to the next, and i put little chocolate eggs that mom and bought with each one. the girls each had their own clues, too. nina's were written (in rhyme, of course, because clues are better when they rhyme), and maggie's were pictures of things i could draw (like, the fishtank and the clock in the dining room). doing pictures for maggie was nina's idea, she really wanted them each to have their own treasure hunt. it was a great idea!

i have pictures, of course, but i haven't downloaded them yet. i think i am too tired to get the camera from upstairs tonight so hopefully tomorrow. the girls looked adorable in matching pink easter dresses though!

also, i'll keep it quick, but there is much garden news. i transplanted the tomato seedlings to larger containers because they sprouted their first true leaves. the fennel is sprouting, the brussels sprouts look leafy and big, and i even have one cantaulope seed that sprouted. nothing from the watermelon or nasturtium, but i'm trying to be patient. those are what i've started indoors so far. i'm probably going to get a jump on a few more things by the end of this weekend, and then take a break until it's time to sow the post-last frost seeds directly into the soil. then i get to watch things die, lol!!!!!

vacation week!

well, it's been a lovely week. mostly sunny and in the upper 50s, with lots of playing outdoors, bike riding, and walks up the road to get the mail. maggie has been so happy to have nina at home and they've been playing so well together all day. melts a mother's heart!

today the three of us went to story hour at the library, where we enjoyed an easter egg hunt, snacks and juice, story, craft, and music and dancing. maggie was really in to the dancing. her hokey-pokey is adorable! she has also started hopping on one foot, which she's really excited about, AND has been happily wearing a jacket when it's chilly (for the most part). i've been getting a LOT of mileage out of the upcoming easter candy bonanza. i've told her that she'll get lots of easter candy if 1) she wears her jacket when it's cold, and 2) stops eating her boogers. i know, it's gross, i should keep it out of the blog. poor maggie's going to read this one day and be so embarrassed. sorry maggie.

and she's adorable, but she torments me. when i first started discouraging her from eating the boogers, she started putting them on her tongue and sticking her tongue out at me. i thought girls were supposed to be all sugar and spice? lies. i've probably made you all nauseous and erik swear to stop reading the blog forever, but so be it. i value an honest record of their childhoods above all else. maggie's just happens to involve an unpleasant amount of snot.

assorted cuteness

here are a few isolated little bits of nina and maggie cuteness:

scene: in nina's room, helping her pick out clothes one morning before school.
me: how about this pink shirt?
nina: no, i'm not too fond of that one.

fond! tea with the queen then!

scene: at grandma's house, watching a horror movie or something (i wasn't there)
nina: don't worry maggie, it's just fiction.

fiction! when i was a kid it was "pretend." or if we wanted to use more syllables, "make-believe."

scene: at the playground in sharon this weekend
me: nina, you really liked that spinning thing at the playground. do you want me to tell you about why it spins faster when you lean in and slower when you lean out?
nina: yeah!
me: well... (brief description of conservation of angular momentum)
nina: why do heavier things have more energy?
me: well, that's just one of the fundamental laws of the universe.
nina: so, you don't know.

oh snap! the girl's right!

i feel bad because i like to balance out nina cuteness with maggie cuteness, but i can't think of anything off the top of my head. no no no, never never never!

boston!

here are some pics from our sunday in boston:


this is why we didn't end up going to the aquarium. all those people in the photo are the line!! nope, not for us...

good thing there was a carousel just around the corner! that was just as much fun.

aww, nick is crossing the busy city street with the girls. don't they look so big and cute!!

this is a statue of some coach of the celtics. the girls got a kick out of it.

in front of quincy market. not my favorite place (boring!!) but a landmark nonetheless.

we went to boston this weekend

it was great fun! we drove down on friday afternoon, what an easy trip. we stopped in brunswick and ate at the china rose (nina's idea). then we went to boarders so nina could pick out a new book. she had to go to the bathroom there, but she's still not always OK with automatic flush toilets (she mostly is, it's not like when she was under 3 and i had to get really good at finding the manual flush toilets. just so you know, the handicapped stalls are the most likely place to find the manual flush. which makes sense when you think about it, people who need help or are going to take much longer to get on and off the bowl are much more likely to accidentally set off the automatic flush and get a cold, unwelcome bottom spray. i think it's insensitive to have any handicapped stalls contain an automatic flush, if you want my opinion).
i digress.
i decided to take nina next door to the old navy to see if they had manual flush toilets there. they didn't. but i did my trick of putting a piece of toilet paper over the sensor, and finally she went. whew.
while we were there, we picked out a few things for each of us. we don't shop very often, so that was pretty fun.
then, on the way back to the car, maggie had to go to the bathroom. sigh... so it was back into boarders since that was closer to the car, one more potty stop, and we were back on the road! it was after 4 by this point, but we totally missed boston traffic, so it was all good. the girls even slept from portland until south of boston (we had to wake nina up!!), what a dream trip. truly the best car ride we've ever had with the 2 kids.

boston was fantastic! the girls were so happy to see their furry cousin, and their aunt and uncle. in spite of having hit up the all you can eat chinese buffet, we were hungry again when we got to erik's, so he cooked us some dinner. what a nice brother!

i think i'll break this up and see if i can post some photos to go with the rest of our boston story... more later!

and an interview with nina!

me: how are you feeling today?
nina: good.
me: how do you like being in kindergarten?
nina: good. i like it very much.
me: what's your favorite thing to do in kindergarten?
nina: work. like, making spin wheels.
me: what's your favorite special?
nina: art
me: why?
nina: cuz it's good. we make lots of stuff.
me: how do you like mrs. mellor? what's she like?
nina: good. she's the goodest teacher.

me: are you excited for summer?
nina: yes!
me: what's your favorite thing to do in the summer?
nina: my birthday.
me: what do you want to do for your birthday this year?
nina: get a rose cake.
me: anything else? party?
nina: yeah, a beach day party. where i invite people and they go to the beach with me.

me: what's your favorite thing to eat?
nina: chicken nuggets and french fries
me: who's the best mom in the world?
nina: you. desiree.
me: who's the best papa?
nina: nick.
me: why is he the best?
nina: cuz he's so nice.
me: would he be better if he dyed his hair?
nina: no.

me: what do you want to be when you grow up?
nina: uh, lemme think. be a teacher!
me: what do you want to teach?
nina: students.
me: how old? what grade?
nina: first.
me: how many kids do you think you'll have?
nina: hmm... 18?
me: i don't mean in your classroom, i mean like giving birth to.
nina: oh um 1.
me: just one?
nina: mm-hm.

me: where should we go for our next vacation?
nina: california, to see anna!
me: anything you want to say to everyone?
nina: bye-bye!

an interview with maggie

me: what is your favorite thing to eat?
maggie: sausage!

me: what is your favorite game to play?
maggie: kids on st.... um... uno

me: do you know who is the president?
maggie: no, who is it?
me: it's barak obama.
maggie: let's have some wattie (water).

me: what's your favorite thing to drink?
maggie: chocolate milk.

me: what's your bedtime?
maggie: uuuhh.. next year

me: how old are you gonna be at your next birthday?
maggie: tell me a sentence. tell me a weight (???). more questions.
me: how old are you gonna be at your next birthday?
maggie: three!

me: what do you like about living in maine?
maggie: playing computer
me: what's your favorite thing to play on the computer?
maggie: clifford.
me: what else do you like about outside in maine?
maggie: ummm i don't want to tell you. sliding!
me: anything else besides sliding?
maggie: no

me: where is your favorite place to visit?
maggie: the hotel
me: what did you like about the hotel?
maggie: watching TV
me: anything else?
maggie: uh no. nothing.
me: not even the pool?
maggie: YEAH! even at the pool.

me: do you like these questions?
maggie: mm-hmm.
me: who's the best mom in the world?
maggie: you!
me: who's the best papa?
maggie: him. he's the best papa.

me: what do you like to do in the summer?
maggie: slide! um, i like to play ball in the summer.

me: when are you going to stop wearing footies?
maggie: i don't want to stop wearing footies.
me: what do you like about footies?
maggie: nursing.
me: you like to nurse in footies? what else do you like to do in footies?
maggie: sleep. i like to sleep. like this (lies down) ahh....

me: what's your favorite thing to dress up as when you play dress-up?
maggie: umm... hmm... uh.. BELLE!
me: do you like your belle dress?
maggie: yeah, i don't want you to sew it.
me: but i have to fix it.
maggie: ok, you can knit it when i'm wearing it.

me: how much do you love your mom?
maggie: this much! i love you and you're my mom.
me: don't do snot eyebrows.
maggie: i'm not, i'm just doing snot cheeks.
me: ok, don't do snot cheeks.
maggie: ok. (wipes snot on my hand.) i did snot cheeks!!

me: is this interview over?
maggie: na-na-na-na!!!!

me: is there anything you want to say to everyone?
maggie: no! there is nothing i want to say. naney!!!!

a little bit of nice weather and i totally forget about the blog!

finally, FINALLY we have some nice 50-degree weather to enjoy! we've been outside as much as possible, riding in bikes, running in circles, and stomping the what's left of the snowbanks because we're sick of looking at that dirty crusty snow!

we had some friends over on friday-jenn and ian, and their kids jackson, ella, and wyatt. maggie was really excited to see ella, she was talking about the playdate all week, and when ella finally got here maggie said, "ella! it's good to see you!" cute!

the kids had a great time playing, and we even lit a fire in the fire pit and toasted marshmellows.

now we're going out for a walk. hopefully i'll update again in less than a week's time. when i stop writing here every night or every other night, i totally forget about it. sigh...

maggie is learning to read.

i guess she doesn't want nina getting too far ahead of her!

first i noticed that she's learned the letter sounds. i didn't teach her phonics, so at first i couldn't figure out where she'd learned it from. tv? listening to nina read? nina doesn't do much phonics, she's pretty much a memorize-the-whole-word kind of kid (that's how i read too. i still struggle to pronounce a word i've never seen before!). then i realized that it was from the website starfall, and the starfall app we'd downloaded on the ipod.

anyway, she likes to tell me what sounds each letter makes. the other day she said to me, "E says Eh, Eh. Like when i have to poop." funny kid.

today, we were at my friend eve's house, and there was a magnet on the refrigerator that said "cat." maggie looked at it and said, "that says cat!"

wow! so i guess she's learning to read. nina was recognizing some 3-letter words at this age too, so it still could be 2 years before she's reading like nina was going in to kindergarten. or who knows, it could be sooner. i will continue to do my excellent work of doing nothing and letting them work on it at their own pace. seems to be working so far, and i don't want to push them.

the deer

it's monday and the snow is almost gone!

saturday and sunday were beautiful: saturday in the 50s and sunday reached almost 60. lovely! the snow melted very quickly, now it's mostly all gone.

we had a pretty lazy weekend. mostly we played outside and enjoyed the sunshine (though with all the snow on the ground on saturday, it was too bright to be out there without our sunglasses!). on sunday we went to see a performance of pinnochio at the opera house. the girls really liked it, and nina said she wants to be in the play next time. i hope she doesn't change her mind, that would be so fun!

the down side of all this lovely weather is that i found a tick on me on saturday. :-( i hate ticks! it was one of the really little ones too, i'm lucky i saw it. it was on my skin. if that tiny thing was in my hair, i don't think i'd ever have found it. good thing the girls still have nice light hair, tick patrol will be much easier with them.

there were 4 deer in our backyard yesterday. i took some pictures, but the computer keeps freezing and i can't download them right now. i will later, after i restart.

snow! on april fool's day!

it should be a joke, but it isn't. we probably got about 6 inches, but the rain pushed it down to a slushy 4. ick. the girls and i were outside for a bit building a snow man, but it changed over to rain while we were out there, and we got soaked. then we went inside to discover the power had gone out! what an awful day!

fortunately, it came back on after about 4 hours, so it wasn't too painful. maggie didn't have a nap, so she fell asleep quickly at 7. i read to nina for a while, and then she got into bed at about 8, at which point maggie woke up. i spent an hour trying to get her back to sleep, but now she's downstairs playing. what a fun night!!!!!!!

:-(