play by play

for those of you wondering what exactly we do all day, here's a day in the life:

07:00 - girls wake up just in time to see daddy off.  this is the early end of the spectrum for them.  they've been known to sleep in till 9 or even later.  one of my favorite moments:  waving and blowing kisses to daddy from the balcony.  i start some pizza dough for tonight.
08:00 - breakfast and obligatory 'amelia bedelia' reading are over, and i've caught up with last night's dishes.  the girls break into our new supply of foam stickers from the dollar store and commence various 'projects' (their favorite word).  i test out a new pinterest idea of making stamps from foam stickers on soda caps (works great)
08:45 - approximately 56 sticker backings cleaned up off the floor and wondering what to do before a 10:00 work call.  a gust of wind and a gift of a kite provides the answer.
09:00 - we head out to the small square on the next block, kite in hand.  it's almost too gusty, and the wind is too erratic to fly well, but it easily pops up and bobs around like a deranged bird before crashing back to earth.  c is delighted and can handle the kite herself.  l is more interested in collecting woodchips in a container she smuggled out with her.
10:00 - an hour and a half on the phone with my now former boss in a crash course on what i might need to know.  the girls do a fantastic job of entertaining themselves in their room, and later in ours.  when i go to tell them so, i'm told this is the 'hotel' and that i should go away (quickly transformed into a request to read all the books they've brought with them on this 'vacation')
11:30 - we pack up to run errands.  dry cleaning, vacuuming out the car, car wash, post office.  rounded out by a trip to the playground for a picnic lunch
1:45 - playground time curtailed by nature calling.  restrooms are locked, so we head across the street to the ice cream shop, which, as it turns out, has a half-price special on the 8th of every month.  a mango-pineapple and a lemon italian ice for $1.08.  score!
2:45 - back at home for another work call.  girls in their room, supposed to be resting, no such luck.
3:30 - leotards on, shoes packed
4:00 - cutest little dancers greet their little friends enthusiastically and take their places in class.  parents are banished to chat in the lobby.
4:45 - we reluctantly bypass the playground and head home.  l falls asleep in the car, and continues her missed nap on the couch.  i get some things ready for dinner.
5:45 - skype with our bestest buddies from cleveland.  yay for technology!
6:30 - daddy comes home, unexpectedly early.  i'm grumpily fixing the pizza dough with two helpers on the counter.  usually, i love their participation, but we're having an ant problem and the prospect of cleaning up flour from every nook and cranny was not exciting
7:30  - dinner is served.  the girls do a good (and relatively speedy) job on their dinner, having been denied after-nap snacks due to lousy performance last night.  they choose 7 jelly bellies apiece for dessert.
8:15 - an unusual evening bath, followed by the requisite cleaning up, mostly in the 'hotel' room tonight.  last night, i crawled into bed to find a bead bracelet under the covers.
8:45 - bedtime story followed by lambies, lions, coopers and pandas duly located and tucked in with their mistresses, prayers, hugs and kisses, indication of 'how i want the door closed'.  final exit just after 9pm.  that's about as early as i can seem to make it, but as you can see, i'm a night owl too ;-)

rinse, lather, repeat =)  this was a particularly eventful day, in the sense of reportable doings, but every day finds us busily occupied with our small goings ons.  i can't always tell you how exactly the time goes by, but you very rarely see the girls uninvolved in some private plan of their own, and even more rarely hear a complaint of boredom, so i'm satisfied that they are day by day growing and playing and learning to order their lives into useful pursuits (though the adult eye is often blind to the particular 'use' ;-) ).

luxury, part I

in the last couple weeks, i've felt the meaning of luxury in a way no millionaire could understand.  well, no millionaire who hasn't been a mom =)

two weekends ago, we dropped the girls off at my godmother's and headed down to staunton, va for our first event with the dartmouth alumni club:  a showing of Richard III at the Blackfriars Playhouse, complete with pre- and post- performance discussion, wine-tasting, dinner, and breakfast buffet.  oh, and accommodations at the fantastic Stonewall Jackson Hotel next door.

it sounds great, doesn't it?  and it was - the introduction of the play (which i'd never read) by one of dartmouth's premier professors made it accessible and even entertaining.  the show was amazing - the troupe was doing a special series simulating shakespearean era performance, i.e. the players staged the whole production with no director in just 30 days.  the company was good - even though we knew no one, at every table we sat down to, we had no trouble joining in on a friendly, lively conversation.  we're both introverts, so that is fairly unusual ;-)  i don't know if it was the common experience or the college connection, or if there really is something about dartmouth people.  maybe a combination thereof =)

it took me a few hours to realize why i felt like i'd stepped into an alternate reality.  a semi-intellectual (by which i mean comprehensible to lay people; to be distinguished from pseudo-intellectual) literary discussion is probably not most people's daily life, but it was more than that.   it was the first time in a long time, i'd say oh, about 4 years, that my primary definition wasn't mom.  at dinner and breakfast, the kids came up in conversation, but as a piece of the puzzle, not the theme.  we talked about places we'd lived, about the middle east, about ben's research, about interviewing dartmouth candidates, and a few times about how the kids did away from us and such things.  it wasn't just that they weren't there, it's that they weren't front and center.  this was probably not a strange thing for ben, but for me, just about every situation i find myself in, whether it's church, friends, grocery shopping, and obviously playgrounds/ballet/bike riding/zoo/library/crafts (you get the idea), i'm mom.  work is a possible exception, but i think because there's so little social aspect to it for me, it doesn't weigh much into my relational consciousness (yes, i just made up that phrase).

i don't mean this to be a complaint; there is nothing i'd rather be right now besides mom.  it just felt like a flash to the future (or a blast from the past?), reminding me that, while mom feels all-consuming now, it is a role and not an identity.

which leads me to part II.. when i get to it.. next time i put down my mom hat ;-)

20 questions

this idea has been circulating in the virtual mom community, and i thought it'd be fun to try.   the idea is to ask the same questions every year.  i added my answers in gold, since sometimes i think they just picked whatever was in sight =p 
c, two weeks shy of 4 (still 3 1/2 in my mind)
l, three months shy of 3 (that's still 2 1/2, right?)

1. What is your favorite color?
C: blue
L: pink

2. What is your favorite toy?
C: the bunny walker [puzzles, craft box]
L: the music toy [crayons]
3. What is your favorite fruit?
C: ju zhe (oranges) [blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, pomegranate, etc.]
L: pu tao (grapes)

4. What is your favorite thing to watch on TV?
C: Sesame Street
L: Dancing in Chinese (chinese song DVD from the library)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
C: bread and butter
L: mian bao (bread)
6. What is your favorite outfit?
C: my green shirt with pink rose and my red pants
L: short sleeves and shorts
7. What is your favorite game?
C: Old Maid
L: Pine and Sink (hide and seek)
8. What is your favorite snack?
C: cat cookies (trader joe's)
L: snapeas!
9. What is your favorite animal?
C: chang jing lu (giraffe)
L: horse
10. What is your favorite song?
C: Joy to the World
L: Xi li xi li hua lua, yu shia lai liou
11. What is your favorite book?
C: Arthur books [any and all!]
L: Arthur Goes To Camp
12. Who is your best friend?
C: Nate and Natalie
L: Nate
13. What is your favorite cereal?
C: Kix
L: tsao mai (Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries )
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? 
C: i like to swim in the swimming pool.  i really want to learn to jump rope.
L: play on the playground
15. What is your favorite drink?
C: pink lemonade
L: juice! (apple)
16. What is your favorite holiday?
C: i don't have a favorite holiday!  that's hard to answer.  valentine's day
L: none
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
C: my wa wa (my doll) [and lambie and cooper]
L: my abigail
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
C: cereal
L: cereal cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
C: potatoes and asparagus and steamed broccoli
L: i want to be a ghost on my birthday
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
C: when i grow up, i want to be a dancer
L: mommy! like you!

21. What's your favorite dessert?
C: tang guo (candy)
L: cookies

remaking

i've been on a crafty kick lately, and the object has been my overflowing paper/cardboard recycling...

project #1: it's been in the back of my mind that i haven't made any effort to teach l her letters the way i did with c.  not that i doubt she'll learn them in due course, but i thought i should at least give her the opportunities.  having seen a few activities online, i looked around the kitchen and it clicked:

cereal box + junk mail + always-underfoot-letter-magnets = letter sorter box

just cut the front panel off and use it to make the dividers

it's been gratifying to see that she (and of course her sister) genuinely likes it.  she has no problem sorting them even though she doesn't know all the letter names yet.  guess we need to make two more for the rest of the letters!

projects #2 and #3:  homemade puzzles.  obviously, we go through a lot of puzzles around here ;-)

my first attempt involved a granola bar box and a catalog:

while i was quite pleased with the aesthetics, it didn't stand up to real play. the pieces were too thin to stay together well, so i added another layer of thin cardboard (a magic hat six-pack holder to be precise ;-) ).  i just used a glue stick and heavy duty scissors for this one. 

double sided ;-)

with the extra backing, it's a usable puzzle for c, but you have to be a bit careful to hold the pieces together.  so i kept looking..

#3:  aha! 

used coloring book cover + jumbo granola bar box =

the key was the corrugated cardboard.  i used an exacto knife for this one.  i won't lie - it took quite a long time to make this 24-piecer, and i wouldn't do it just for fun, but i'm looking forward to making some personalized ones for special occasions.  a more artistic person could cut design some really cool shapes too.  i thought about hiding the letters of a name, for example.

the corrugated cardboard made this one suitable for real use =)

c's only complaint was that the granola side made her want to eat some ;-)

postscript:  my recycling is still overflowing, but having found it so useful, i hate to take it out now and lose that stash of materials ;-)  so maybe i outsmarted myself =p

tender hearts

we bought daddy a birthday present today.  a sort of surprise, not really a surprise, birthday present.  at dinner, little l starts to say, 'daddy, we got you a ----'

'lucy!' i must have said it a little too sharply because she splutters, 'but i just want to tell daddy..' she can't finish because her little mouth starts quivering, then drooping, and a stream of heartbroken tears gushes out.  we both rush to comfort, but i can't tell if it's her tears or mine dripping down my face.

may you always have such a sweet and tender spirit.  may you always want to tell your daddy everything and anything in your gentle, loving little heart.

of kool-aid and ice skates

one of the best things about these few short preschool years is the abundance of firsts.  there are those you put in the baby book - first smile, first tooth, first steps - and then there are those everyday firsts, so many more, you could spend all your time just recording them. 

like a few weeks ago, when lu suddenly showed up having put her coat and gloves on herself (fingers all in the right holes), for the first time. 

like the girls' first valentines that they made for their little bible study friends.

like c tugging on my sleeve to say, 'i want to bring my treats [valentine's package from grandma and grandpa] to j's house, so we can share them with our friends.'  all the more precious because i know it was a meditated decision, not a natural impulse.

like lu saying out of the blue, 'mommy, you're the best!'

like overhearing c introducing herself to a girl at the playground.  'i told her i'm 3 1/2,' she told me afterwards.  this may not sound like a big deal, but initiating a friendly gesture out of her familiar circle - maybe there's hope for our little introvert =)

like our first pitcher of kool-aid (more properly speaking, our first blender of kool-aid, since that was the only container i could find =p).  we read a book that mentioned it, and ben found the girls' ignorance unpardonable.  so on the next shopping trip, we found this:

like our first try with ice skates.  c did well, with the help of a walker they had out for tots time.  her sister was less excited =p

and.. our first time on a zamboni ;-)

dupont circle

an old friend came through dc this weekend, and we met up at dupont circle near his hotel.  we only had a few hours, so we just strolled around the neighborhood, which turned out to be embassy central.  for reasons i can't quite articulate, i found it fascinating, this microcosm of the world.  the rest of you might not, so apologies ;-) 

we had a pastor who used to say, 'we don't have to go to the world anymore.  the world is coming to us.'  so here you are, a taste of the world in 5 blocks:

neat old architecture

albania

costa rica

 

laos

ireland

myanmar

pakistan

cyprus

the netherlands

chad - the rent for this must cost a quarter of their gdp

cote d'ivoire

south korea

venezuela

comic interlude ;-)

lesotho

turkey

lebanon