THREE

Happy birthday, Alice!  

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Alice's third birthday is more than a little bittersweet.  I am, of course, so very proud of what an amazing little girl Alice has been and continues to be.  She is just so very.... ALICE.  Funny, silly, joyful (so joyful!), loving, bright, impish, energetic, kind, and entertaining.   And she's grown so richly this past year -- her conversational skills and vocabulary are astonishing (later to start than Lizzie, but light-speed development); she (finally) conquered the potty, ridding our home of all diapers and related paraphernalia; she's started school and is already thriving (her teachers tell us she's very popular, whatever that means for three-year olds); she's so very helpful, and often (but certainly not always) accommodating.  

But it is hard -- very hard -- to let go of Alice-the-toddler.  She is now very much Alice-the-preschooler, wonderful in every way that entails, but she's not two anymore.  She was so wonderful at two (and one).  It is hard to let go, forever, to that littleness.  Don't get me wrong - Alice is perhaps more who-she-was in who-she-is than anyone I've ever known. There is a continuity of pure Alice-ness that is completely undiminished by the new trappings of her more grown-up self.  You can still see clearly in her eyes her toddler-self, just as her eyes have always betrayed who she has yet to become.  She is a timeless soul.   It was just so wonderful to enjoy her personhood, that beautiful little spirit, in the pre-verbal distilled essence of toddlerhood.  

Of course the flip side is that with her newly developed capabilities, Alice can more clearly express (and act on) her underlying ideas (brilliant and often impish) and approach to the world.  And THAT is such a joy to behold, too!   

I'm eager to watch Alice continue to emerge ('grow' is not the the right word -- her skills will grow, but the rest of her is already there, just making her entrance slowly) over the next year.  But I can wait.  I'm in no hurry.  Time is already passing far, far too quickly for me.

Spring!

The winter and early spring months flew by!  A quick recap:  

Winter:  January and February were hectic (frantic?) as usual, as I (Emily) was busy with teaching and an otherwise demanding workload.  The girls were pretty great about it, though there were many (many) weeks of illness -- nothing serious, just colds, stomach bugs, and the like.  Oh, and pink eye for both kids, timed to coincide with spring break.  Charming.    

Lizzie began reading and writing in earnest, and I now get daily notes from her.  (I'll post a pic soon.)  Mostly they're very sweet ("I missed you while you were at work today" themed), but when she's feeling grumpy...  boy, watch out.  She'll draw some pretty evil little pictures with accompanying notes ("this is me, crying, and this is you, the mean monster...").  [Yesterday morning I got a note explaining that I was stinky, poopy, and that Lizzie no longer loved me.  Ever.  (I think I'd suggested that Lizzie needed to share the barrettes with Alice (since all hair accessories are shared in our house...))  But at least she's expressive!]

In March we took a family trip to Mexico -- first time on a family vacation by air, and the girls' first time outside the US/Canada.  They. loved. it.  (And so did we.)  Stayed in a nice family resort south of Cancun, with a great beach and perfect-for-little-ones pools.  Eric and I had grand plans of staying up on the balcony every night after the kids went to sleep, but truth be told, we were too tired!  Fun in the sun with little ones is exhausting.  (But boy is it nice when the waiters will bring cervesas and smoothies on the beach while we're all making sand castles!)  We'll be going again...  

Later in March through May were again busy with teaching for me, and resuming work travel (DC, TX, DC, DC...).  Again, the kids were (and are) pretty darned good while I'm away.  Eric is a super hero.  We'll leave it at that.  March and April were their usual muddy mess, but by May the weather improved, allowing all to go outside more and more often.  Eric built a sandbox, which has been a huge hit with both girls.    

The only major challenge these past months has been Alice and the potty.  Oh my.  This is not easy.  She manages pee just fine -- more accident prone than Lizzie was early on, but otherwise amenable to the idea and procedures of getting herself to the potty in time.   But poop is another matter entirely.  She has tried so hard, so many times, and she just can't quite get the mechanics.  And indeed, it got so frustrating that it was backfiring (more literally than you want to know...).  So about 3 weeks ago, we took a time out from potty training and put her back in diapers, just to try to defuse her stress about it all.   She's been back in undies for about a week now and is doing well on the stress side, and has few pee-accidents, but we're still waiting on, umm, solid success...  

This month, June, promises new excitements and challenges.  Last night was Lizzie's spring school concert and (tra-la-la!) she sang!  Fourth concert is a charm.  She was standing right in the middle (and very proud to be in the second row, not the first (the youngest in chairs)), and SINGING (mostly).   Delightful.  School lets out early next week.  

Starting shortly thereafter, summer camp.  Lizzie has been to this morning day camp before and LOVED it, so she's really excited to go.  More exciting, Alice will be going too.  This will be Alice's first (!) formal out-of-home program.  She's over-the-moon excited and so are we.  (Especially Eric...)  About that potty training, though.  cough cough.  Well, fingers crossed.   This will be good training for school in the fall, when Alice will join the East classroom, across the hall from her sis.  

All in all, it's been a great 2013 so far.  Some (rather acute) potty training woes, some whining, plenty of viruses...   but truly, Al and Liz are great kids.  They play together beautifully, help each other (Lizzie gets Alice dressed many mornings!), and are just really great friends.  I'll keep `em.

Oh, and even though we rarely update this blog (insert assurances of improvement here), we DO keep the pictures relatively current.  Check out the links.  ---->

  

Valentines sharing

One of the traditions at the Montessori school is that The kids pass out valentines to each other.  Some contain candy...  On the way home,  I told Liz that she could keep the candy in the bag, or that if she wanted to eat some she had to share it with Alice.  Apparently she decided to keep it in the bag.  10 minutes later, Alice had a huge meltdown over I don't know what.  Liz took it upon herself to open up the bag and give Alice a piece of candy.  Meltdown over.

The next day, there were a few more valentines from kids who were sick the previous day.  LAter that day at home, Liz decided to share the pop-rocks candy in one of those valentines.  The difference this time is that she was doing her quite time in her room, and she tried to share the pop-rocks with Ginger, who was sleeping on her bed.

Reading and Writing

Lizzie's reading and writing has taken a big leap forward recently. Well, mostly her writing, but she has been reading to her sister a few times when lately. It was very sweet to see her reading to Alice. I tried to take a video, but she saw and came running over to look through the camera... Her writing is amazing.

Here are a few samples:

"O pichr for bokbbr grof from Lizzee" Transaltion, "A picture for doctor Groff from Lizzie." Note that "bokbbr" is really "dokddr" with backwards d's, so thats a good try at "doctor".

"Alma and lizie r hge so we ea rselvez o snak." Translation, "Alma and Lizzie are hungry so we made(?) ourselves a snack."

Christmas

Yes, it happened a couple months ago. I remember lots of toys, lots of wrapping paper, candy, and a couple good meltdowns. Alice didn't quote get it that all the presents weren't for her, and she was not happy when told she couldn't open them. Liz was very professional, methodically opening and playing with each of her gifts.

From Grandma

Grandma's comment from a recent visit: Just have to make a note of it while I remember, because I probably won't tomorrow. Alice had me in stitches this morning at snack time with her insistence on having "heavy pretzels" - not just ANY pretzels, mind you, but HEAVY pretzels. Fortunately, Lizzie serves as Alice's interpreter when needed, doesn't she: "She just means she wants a lot of them, Grandma. They don't have to be heavy or even big ones. Just put a lot in her bowl." Thanks, Lizzie!

2 lovely quotes

Alice: blah blah Daddy: No, I want to play with you Alice: I'm not a toy. Daddy: Lizzie, are you doing downward dog? Lizzie: No, look at my butt.

Birthday muffins

One follow up to Lizzie's birthday. At school there is a birthday celebration, and children bring in muffins or cupcakes to share with the class. Lizzie brought in more pumpkin muffins. On the way home from school, I asked here about the birthday celebration and the muffins. She said they "tasted like fart." When I asked her if that was a good thing she said, "Yessss, I ate it."

Finally 4

Lizzie has finally turned 4. Seems way overdue, all her friends from school have been 4 for a while. We celebrated with Irene, Ronan & Sarai, Alma & Axel, Liam & Ruthie, Emma & Abby, Olivia & Maddie. Lizzie liked the idea of a cooking party, so we did the following. Phase 1: kids decorate aprons and chefs hats with markers and fabric markers. Phase 2: kids decorate pre-baked pizza crusts with toppings of their choice, cook the pizzas, and then eat their pizzas. Phase 3: kids decorate cupcakes, and eat the cupcakes. Lizzie chose pumpkin muffins, no loud singing and no candles because she might get shy. The party seemed to be a great success. There were no tears, no fights, and everyone had a great time with the activities. Yay!

New Pictures Posted!

Finally -- we've posted some new pics for the girls.  You'll find some summer vacation pics that hadn't already been posted, then new pics through fall.  Enjoy!

Cleese, Clackers, Lions & Bears. Ah-some

Well, that is what it sounds like when a 2 year old (Alice) is trying to say the following words: "cheese, crackers, wine & beer. Awesome." Yes, Alice's favorite snack is cleese and clackers. Her favorite (non-bedtime) book is "cleese book," aka Ratatoulli mini-book about food. The other day, Lizzie and Alice were saying lions and bears back and forth across the table. It was a funny day, especially because when a 2 year old says lions and bears, it sounds like wine and beer. Actually the game may have started with Alice saying wine and beer... Ah-some!

Pop-Pops

In a previous post, Eric wrote about 'Cair', Alice's love of the before-bedtime ritual of 5-15 minutes of time with either mom or dad in the rocking chair.  Officially, it's a time to cuddle and settle down; unofficially, Alice often uses the time to jump in my (or Eric's) lap in a weird sort of cuddle-mosh-lovefest with her bunny and the parent du jour.

Recently, through some joint initiative, Alice and Lizzie have established their own bedtime 'cair' routine.  But it's not called `fair' at all.  It's called "Pop-pops."  (I have no idea why, of course; I never do.  I am an obtuse parent with an opaque atrophied sense of imagination...)

In Pop-pops, Lizzie gets on the rocking chair and invites Alice to climb up with her in a sort of nested straddle, then the two rock together while Lizzie says sweet soothing things to encourage sleep.  In true young-kid fashion, the gentle snuggle quotes suddenly when Lizzie says in a totally matter-of-fact tone, "Okay Alice, that's it.  Tim to go to bed now," while unceremoniously shoving Alice off of the chair.  So sweet.  Sort of, anyway.  We don't raise the bar too high around here!

It finally happened.

One of Alice's favorite activities this fall (and late summer), has been picking and eating "teeteetoes," or tomatoes. She'll lift the electric fence over her head, and go into the garden and start picking and eating cherry tomatoes. She's pretty good, and gets ones that have turned mostly orange or red. Strawberries are a different story...she likes them green. Anyway, today she was picking teeteetoes when I looked over and she had a thai dragon chili pepper in her mouth. She bit off the end, and I yanked it out of her mouth. I don't know what made her cry, the pepper or me prying her mouth open to fish out the end of the pepper. Luckily for her, and true to form, she picked a green one, not a red one, so it wasn't that hot (I checked).

Crash!

Alice fell down the stairs the other day. A real fall. You see, going down on a small riding tractor doesn't count (Alice did that a few months ago). After she fell, she cried, I comforted her, then she climbed from my lap onto the side table, jumped onto the couch, and did a somersault off the edge of the couch. I told my lithe Ron law that I wished she would get hurt sometime so she would have some fear instead of none at all.

Cair

Alice's new cair game is to stand in my lap and press Bobby to my face and then press her face against Bobby. Its very cute, but unfortunately sometimes she gives me a head-butt. Update, she also likes to take my finger and point to all the "tars" in yaddie when we read it during "cair." She'll alsopoint to the sharks face.

Me and Mommy and Daddy and not Alice.

Today on the way to school, Lizzie proclaimed that she wanted to do pasting work with Mommy and Daddy while Alice was sleeping. Then she turned to Alice and said, "me and Mommy and Daddy and not Alice." So sweet!

Potty-mouth

Yes, Lizzie is almost 4, so she is learning her swear words! Just kidding, although we have heard a few... On the other hand, Alice is spending a lot of time on the potty, and she is learning lots of new words from the books that have been dedicated to the bathroom. Good thing...her vocabulary could use some improvement. She seems to be interested in animals the most right now. A week or so ago it was colors -- she knows most colors, but gets them wrong most of the time. There's a page in Yaddie (where's that fish) that has many different colored starfish. First she wanted to look at the stars ("tar, tar, tar"), but then she started getting interested in the colors. Now we need to get some ABC books and some counting books...

Bou, Teedalee

Lizzie and Alice's favorite games to play together are Bou and Teedalee. Bou is the game of bouncing on their beds before going to sleep. I'm sure there are some movies on Picasa. Teedalee is the game of romping on the couch, or other piece of furniture, or Mom or Dad. Very silly. Update, there are two other games similar to teedalee. They are called teedala and teedaloo.

2

Alice's birthday isn't for a few weeks, but oh my she is acting like a 2 year old. During a meal she'll exclaim "yucky," then "more," then "no," followed by eating whatever is in front of her. Its very funny. Sometime she'll say "yucky" and then throw her bowl...

Writing

As well as the recently mentioned drawing spree that Liz has been on, she has also been writing words lately. Mostly this means she is stringing together random letters, but she's trying. When we coach her, she can sometimes put together a simple word. As well as her own name, I think she can write Mom and Dad, and maybe Alice.