maggie has started dance class

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

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

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

siiiiiiiick

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

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

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

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

ok, bedtime for me!

it was 85 degrees yesterday!

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

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

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

nina's terrible day

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

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

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

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

a volunteering monday

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

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

we went apple picking again

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

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





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

field trip today

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

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

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