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“I am not tired at all!”

June 27, 2009 – 10:37 am

The ride here was long. We hit what Julie called “the worst traffic I have seen in these parts.” Props to her for driving and not getting short-tempered. Paul conducted all kinds of medical-related calls from the front seat (with occasional wording that bordered gross to the uninitiated), and I sat in the backseat with Rhiannon and Matthew. Zoe all the way in the back-backest. Full car, long ride, someone was going to lose it. And midway through it became clear to all that that someone would be my kid.

In her defense, it was late, already 4pm, and her blood sugar was low, despite my snack attempts. Luckily for all the meltdown was quick, and she soon fell into a hard sleep. So hard, in fact, that when we reached our destination and I tried to move her from the car she simply mepsed, grunted, and fell back asleep, drooling onto my shoulder. Thank all gods for Zoe, big kid that she is, for helping me get through the door with a sleeping three-year-old barnacle and an assortment of backpacks while Julie was already inside checking in and Paul was driving off to a hiking adventure.

Midway between the lobby and the room Rhiannon sort of woke up, but not entirely. Whiney, fussing, she made it very nearly into our room (a  Kid Cabin room, no less — OMG, is this the funnest for kids or what?) when her knees buckled and she fell weeping into what I have come to term “a crying pod” (photo from February 2008 with Ethan and Cheyenne — more photos from that trip here.)

I picked her up, pod and all, and brought her into our room where her crying petered into weak weeping, and then into slight hiccuping, then I asked, “Sweetie, are you okay, or just tired?” To which she replied emphatically, “I AM NOT TIRED AT ALL!”

Oh, really? Because not three minutes later Zoe announced, “Rhiannon is asleep.” (Photo above). Inevitable psuedo-mocking ensued. (Photos below). She did finally wake up and then we were all off to dinner and then the waterpark, where we all played until it closed. Alls well that ends well.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (4)

All She Wants to do is Dance

June 24, 2009 – 11:29 am

Rhiannon started dance class last week. Yesterday was her second class. To say she loves it is an understatement. I have video (but again, that requires getting it off my camera and somehow viewable), but I think that this photo captures it: adoringly staring at her teacher, legs in motion, pretty scarf in hand.

I posted two pages of ballet photos (start here). I am way way behind on photos. I have many, many to post. (Working on it.) But I couldn’t go any longer without getting the dancing documented. 

She desperately wants a “sticking out tutu”, like this one (at right), but in order for her to be able to wear it in class it has to be all one piece — no skirts allowed (the last thing the teacher needs is to be chasing after falling down skirts). So I am looking. I figure a second-hand one is more than adequate and craiglist has some, but not in size 5. If anyone sees one, please forward the link.

She will have a recital on August 11. All are welcome!

Huge thanks to Gramma & Grandpa for the gift of the classes. She LOVES them.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (6)

Which Princess?

May 30, 2009 – 9:31 pm

“Mommy, which princess do you want to be, Ariel, Belle, or Cinderella?”

Please understand that neither Brian nor I support a Disney infiltration. Yes, I took her to DisneyWorld with her cousins when she was just two, but the princess of that trip was Zoe, Rhiannon’s beloved big cousin. And yes, her favorite pink sparkly shoes have the Disney princesses on the inside sole…. The fact is that Disney is everywhere, all her friends know all the princess names. It’s impossible to escape, and Rhiannon devotedly loves the princesses. I have tried to expose her to other princesses as well — many of her dolls are named for various princesses and queens: Mette, Sophia, Sonia, Beatrix, Tessy, Aiko, and of course her own middle name is Zara. And we have several non-Disney princess books, but she was having none of it during this particular discussion.

“Mommy, which princess? Ariel, Belle, or Cinderella?”

I looked right at her and said, “I want to be the Princess of Spain.” [Blue sash]

She actually rolled her eyes. “Mommy, that is not a choice.”

Don’t I know it!

“Which princess do you want to be, Ariel, Belle, or Cinderella?”

“Well,” I said, “I want to be the Princess of Norway.” [Blond hair... and her prince went to grad school at Cal!]

“Mommy!” voiced with more than a touch of exasperation, “that is not a choice! Ariel, Belle, or Cinderella?”

I gave in with… “How about Ariel?” I could be a red-head. And her hair always looked so pretty billowing in the water. And besides, I don’t see either the Crown Prince of Spain or of Norway leaving their stunning wives for me.

Rhiannon was quite satisfied with my answer. “I will be Belle. And Cinderella is my Mommy.”

“*I* am your Mommy.”

“I have two Mommies. You and Cinderella.”

Really? Hmmm.

Tonight when I tucked her into bed, I reminded her about her friend’s birthday party tomorrow. She cooed her excitement and announced, “I will wear my blue dress with the princess sleeves and my princess pink sweater and my princess shoes…”

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (3)

Field Trip!

May 20, 2009 – 12:02 am

Last Friday I was one of the parent volunteers for the preschool field trip to the Lawrence Hall of Science for the Grossology exhibit. I had with me Rhiannon’s friend Maya. The two of them held hands the whole way across town. I kept hearing this from the back seat: “You’re my best friend.” “You’re MY best friend.” “Well, you’re my BEST friend.” “Mommy, Maya’s my best friend.” And so on. Nothing but love all the 15 minute drive there.

Parking was easy, paying for parking very tedious. The girls waited about as patiently as three-year-olds possibly could, and when I could finally let them loose in the play area I swear they whooped.

Then they saw the whale. It’s life-sized. They stopped short. There was an audible intake of breath. “Can we play on it, too?”

“Sure,” I said. “You can run as fast as you can to get to it, if you want.”

They needed no further prompting.

A few more photos from the trip:

And six (!) new pages of photos from the last couple of months to enjoy, too. Start here.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (2)

“I have a lot of Ns”

May 12, 2009 – 8:20 am

Rhiannon has been able to write all the letters of the alphabet for quite some time. And for a couple of months now, so long as someone sat with her and fed her the letters, she could write her lengthy name — or, more preferably, “Nana,” which was easier.

Then, just last week, this happened: “I am going to write a note to Pobba,” she announced. She is always writing notes to Pobba. And so with determination on her lips, she created an ‘R’, went right into the ‘H’. I stood by, because for the past week or so the ‘A’ had preceded the ‘I’ and I was anticipating a request for guidance, but she didn’t ask so I didn’t offer and the I appeared.

I held my breath. A smile started. ‘A’. ‘N’. Then another ‘N’. Each growing in size. Then she raised her head and looked at me, head cocked to the side, lips slightly pursed.

“I have a lot of ‘N’s, actually” she said, almost apologetically. “More than Nana,” –nodding– “Yeah, a lot.”

“Yes,” I agreed, nodding in unison with her. “What comes next?” I asked.

She looked down. “‘O’,” she stated, and then drew it, followed by the final ‘N’. Then she put her finger on the ‘R’ and swiped it across the page to the final ‘N’. “My name is really really big.”

“It is!” I agreed.

“It’s bigger than ‘Nana’.”

“It is,” I agreed.

So she got to work writing “Nana,” which came out “ANHE” when reading right to left, which is how she wrote it. So we have a ways to go, but at only 3 years almost 4 months, Rhiannon spelled and wrote her own long name — complete with silent ‘H’ and double ‘N’ — which I think is amazing.

I am very proud. I hugged her three big hugs, one for each ‘N’. She thought that was very silly, but hugged me back with gusto.

Anyone want a sample? Let me know. We have a lot of artwork here to send out. I am sure Rhiannon would happily write all her ‘N’s for you — and other letters, too.

By Emily •• Posted in Family, Milestones •• Comments (3)

Things you can only get away with saying during the preschool years

April 28, 2009 – 10:20 am

“Picking your nose and eating it will never be cool.”

“Okay, no more talking about poop at the table.”

“Do you need help wiping?”

“Stop touching your penis while you are eating.” (This from Abi to Ethan.)

“I’m gonna get your tush!”

and, “Oh, what kind of fairy are you?” to which the answer was (and I scribbled this down word for word with a crayon):

“Well,” Rhiannon said with emphasis, “My friends are fairies. With purple wings, not Knot Fairies**. We’re just picture fairies so we can send pictures to everyone.”

[Narrative pauses for some emphatic wand waving]

“I’m just a fairy. I hang my magic flag right here–” [she pets the wall hanging that she has slipped over her arm and hangs to the floor] “– and these are my magic wings. And I flap and flap and flap my wings into my room and I take off my wings and go to bed. But not yet–” [It's only 1030 in the morning] “–And I brush my teeth and NO STORIES!”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Why no stories?” Losing stories is high punishment.

“Well,” she said with emphasis, “actually yes stories. LOTS of stories. Fairy stories. Because I am a fairy. And I flap my wings and I flap and flap and flap…”

And this went on for some time. The flapping and the wand waving until we had to quickly remove the wings and extricate the wand from her fingers in order to get on the potty quickly.

And that is one more thing I can only get away with during the preschool years: saying “potty” to adults.

[[Note: photo above is 15months old. I didn't get a photo of the moment described above. But it included these wings, since mended, and this wand, recently re-done. I will try to add a photo this week as the fairy thing is happening a lot.]]

[[**The Knot Fairy is a book we read pretty regularly. The storyline is how there is this little fairy with purple wings who sneaks into your room while you are sleeping to tie knots in your hair. We refer to this fairy a lot while attempting to detangle Rhiannon's curls. She absolutely believes in this fairy.]]

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (1)

Faces (ahhh, artwork)

April 11, 2009 – 12:39 pm

Rhiannon is quite the artist. I am sure that all parents think this. But Rhiannon has this thing about drawing faces. She is remarkably consistent with her structure.

This painting — that I love — is from early Autumn 2008:

And then somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas she drew a series of these faces (below). There were dozens of these. I picked a few of my favorites.

Note the lettering under the face. Rhiannon was remarkably consistent in “reading” these. While I no longer remember which drawing was which, but when asked what the letters under the drawings spelled, Rhiannon would answer always the same with each drawing. Brian or I would ask her, “What does this say?” And Rhiannon would then read off the letters. “And what does that spell?” “Mette!” (One of her favorite dolls), or “Pobba!” It really didn’t matter, except that she was consistent. The drawing of Mette remained Mette even when asked at a later point.

Make sure to scroll down for what she drew last week, too.

And then she narrated this one below. Daddy (at twelve o’clock), Mommy (below on the left), and Rhiannon (lower right). The empty circle between her and me is for our kitties, I am not joking. I have no idea why we are all in space bubbles

Then last week Rhiannon drew photos of the three of us again. I list them below, her, then me, then Brian. Note her hair is “curly” (she pointed this out to me), my hair is long, and Brian’s is quite short.

These are just a sampling of her facework. I have many other paintings, rocket ships, and various three-dimensional things to post as well.

Artistic commentary is welcome.

By Emily •• Posted in Artwork •• Comments (2)

Rhiannon’s new cousins: Miranda and Henry

April 8, 2009 – 3:10 pm

Rhiannon’s new little cousins are smaller than her baby dolls: Baby Sonia and Baby Beatrix, though they might weigh a little more. Maybe.

Miranda Jane Bowling and Henry Miles Bowling entered the world early this morning. Follow links for stats and more photos. For immediate gratification, enjoy these photos here.

Henry is sticking out his tongue. Miranda is in the striped cap.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (3)

Rhiannon to gain a couple of cousins in a couple of hours

April 7, 2009 – 10:40 pm

I am at Uncle Doug’s and Aunt Gail’s, which is less than ten minutes away from where Abi will deliver twins tomorrow morning. Dad and I brought Ethan here. Abi, Jack, and my mom have to leave from Saugus for the hospital tomorrow morning by something like 530am. Dad and I get to sleep until 7. Ethan will probably sleep until after nine.

Abi is so ready. These last couple of weeks were really hard on her. About a week ago she ceased to be able to fit behind the wheel of her car and safely reach the pedals. She is huge and hormones have completely taken over. She bawled four times in the hour I was at her house and who could blame her. She has a cold and a cough. I would say, “at least she has her sense of humor,” but that’s gone, too. She is 100% excused for that. I mean, did you see that belly?

This is Abi, on the last night she has to carry over twelve pounds of baby in her five-foot-one-inch frame, taken moments after her bouncing-off-the-walls four-year-old left the building.

You done good, little sister. And tomorrow it’s a whole new ballgame.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (3)

All in Good Time…

March 21, 2009 – 4:35 pm

I suspect that this is a common manifestation of the human condition, but comfort with the status quo at the expense of progress is alive an well in this preschool-oriented household in two significant ways:

A) She is still refusing to give up her pull-up for pooping. I’ll not regale you, gentle readers, with any of the messy details, but know that she can, she simply won’t, and it’s driving me nuts, especially as pushing on this is developmentally a big no-no.

B) Swimming.

Today was Rhiannon’s first swim lesson without me in the pool. The photo above was this morning, shot by me (all dry and perched in the observation deck) on my phone (sorry, no telephoto), of Rhiannon and her instructor Christina, an inordinately patient woman who spent 25 minutes in the pool with Rhiannon… without me.

Normally, we are in the Tadpole class. This is babies from 12 months to that teetering edge between toddlerhood and preschool… and their dads. It’s a Saturday morning class so it is almost all dads, and me and maybe one or two other random moms. There are three-year-olds in these classes, but not many. Most kids get comfortable enough in the water to move up to being in the Starfish class by their third birthday.

Rhiannon, however, has been showing no interest in letting go of me. For the last month and a half, her teacher Tommy has been taking her from me every chance he could to get her to do things without me in the water. And sometimes it worked and sometimes she wailed. Finally last week she had a stellar class. She went under without sputtering. She went to Tommy no problem. She said, “Okay” when “Let’s do it again” was suggested.

The problem, of course, is that Rhiannon is comfortable with being in the water with her head safely in the air and me to hold onto. It’s the same thing with pooping — the pull-up works just fine, thankyouverymuch, and whyEVER would we want to change this comfortable setup for some unknown?

But while pushing the pooping can easily result in all kinds of repressed behavior, pushing swim lessons might just result in some crying. And the kid needs to move on from being a Tadpole.

So we took a chance. She started just fine. But the flippers threw her. Starfish kids wear flippers — the resistance helps strengthen and promote muscle memory. But Rhiannon was just plain freaked out by it. I called Brian a few minutes into the lesson to say it was going fine, but as I was hanging up I realized she wasn’t really doing anything with her legs except crossing at the ankle (”Like Ariel, Mom. Like a mermaid princess.” Sigh.) So as soon as Christina tried to get her to actually use her legs, pandemonium ensued.

Screaming. Wailing. Pleading for “Mommy! Mommy!”

And upstairs in the observation desk, where I was chatting on the phone with my friend Teri about this major milestone, I suddenly realized things had turned south and simply said, “Uh-oh.”

The lesson was supposed to be a half-hour. But Rhiannon was done and after ten straight minutes of crying we pulled her five minutes early. But we are not giving up. The instructors said that this is not unheard of, and it’s certainly not the first time Christina has been wailed upon, and if we were game then we could certainly try again next week.

“Do you want to try again next week?” Christina, still in the pool, sweetly asked Rhiannon, snug now in her fluffy towel.

“I want to swim with the babies,” she sniffled into my neck. Please don’t make me leave this comfortable status quo!

“Sweetie, but you are a kid now. You get to swim with Christina now.”

Plaintive wailing. “But I want to swim with the babies!” Note: Both adults worked hard not to giggle at this.

“Does she have to wear the flippers?” I asked Christina.

“In the starfish classes, well, yes. But with me right now? No. We can work up to that.”

So I worked for a minute to reel in the wailing. Finally, “Rhiannon? How about next week, if you swim with Christina you don’t have to wear the flippers,” I negotiated.

“I don’t like the flippers.”

“But you like Christina?”

“I like Christina.”

“Will you come swim with me next week?” Christina asked Rhiannon.

“And the babies?”

“No.” Christina said. “Just me.”

“Like a big girl,” I added.

She looked at Christina. She looked to me. She looked back to Christina. She chewed on her lower lip. “Okay.”

Baby steps. She’ll be in that starfish class in a matter of months. We aren’t almost there, but it won’t be forever. And I am confident she won’t be going to her prom in a pull-up.

By Emily •• Posted in Family •• Comments (6)