holiday

Happy Birthday, America!

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Happy 4th of July!Independence Day fell on a Wednesday this year, and we all had the day off from school and work.  Having a holiday on Wednesday threw everyone off a bit.  I though it was Saturday and started sprinkling the yard in the morning, Saturday being the only day we can legally use the sprinkler in Austin.  Five minutes later, I realized it was Wednesday and had to run out and shut off the water.

Kit also thought it was Saturday, which is odd when you think about it, since she will be flying out of town with the girls on Saturday, to go visit Grammy and Granddaddy in Washington state.  If it really were Saturday, then Kit would have been scrambling pretty hard to make the plane.  It was that kind of day.

Claire thought it was the weekend too and was a bit surprised that she had to go to school for the next two days.

At dinner, we discussed how it would be cool of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln could have met each other, and they probably would have liked each other a lot.  George and Abe are subjects of two of Claire’s favorite books lately: Young George Washington: America’s First President and Young Abe Lincoln: The Log Cabin President.  Claire likes when young Abe leaves footprints on the ceiling of the log cabin, as a joke on his step mother.  These gentlemen are also subjects of my occasional outbursts of admiration around the house, especially when reading a history book on the topic.  Boy, did those guys have trouble, and boy, did they take care of business.

For her part, Molly was also excited about the Fourth of July.  At dinner, Molly chimed in loudly, “Happy birthday, America!  Way to go!  Flag!!!”  Then she smiled proudly at the rest of the family as we laughed at her “flag” comment.

It was a good day, and although the fireworks were too late for the girls to see, we did enjoy a nice, slow day all together, even if half of it involved dragging the girls around on errands the big trip to Washington, which they are super excited about.  We even finished off the day with steak, watermelon, and an evening walk.  Way to go!  Flag!

Mothers Day 2012

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Waking up Kit on Mothers Day 2012
Waking up Kit on Mothers Day

Kit was woken up by her girls on Mothers Day with breakfast in bed.  This was Claire’s idea, and she helped prepare Kit’s breakfast and brought it into her room on a tray.  We also fetched Molly to help celebrate, and of course Kit received a number of hugs and kisses.  Molly, perhaps encouraged by the presence of some helium balloons we had picked out the day before, kept trying to sing Happy Birthday to Kit, and then to herself.  She eventually gave up only after a few explanations that this was not Kit’s, or anyone’s, birthday — Mothers Day is similar but different.  Molly eventually said “Oh” and moved on.

Claire's own project for Kit
"Mothers Day is a day to hug your mom. I am going to hug her right now."

Claire presented Kit with both a project she did at school for Mother’s day
and another drawing she did at home.  She got to stay up a bit late a couple of nights earlier to complete this drawing.  Claire’s home project was a drawing of the whole family with a cake and hearts and a caption that said, in kindergarten-style phonetic writing, “Mothers Day is a day to hug your mom.  I am going to hug her right now.”  Claire’s school project invalid filling in the blanks for a few questions about her mom, and among other things, it said that Kit is “as pretty as a rose” and 50 lbs. and 10 feet tall (that part last was a good guess, sort of in the ballpark, you could say).

Claire's Mothers Day assignment
Claire's Mothers Day assignment

Molly had also completed  a school project, a framed picture, which sadly, I cannot find now to scan.  I think Kit put it somewhere “special”, and I cannot find it right now.

After breakfast, we all iced cookies for Kit.  Claire wanted to use green icing since green is Kit’s favorite color.  Molly helped with the icing and did a surprisingly good job, given her young age and her predilection to cover herself in goop whenever she gets the chance.

 

Easter 2012

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A few pictures from Easter.  Easter itself involved a familyEaster egg hunt in our backyard, and me driving to Dallas for work.  The two days before, my parents were in town, and we enjoyed some Easter-ish celebrations and dinner with them, as well as a trip to Pease Park.

    

 


   

 

 

A Better Valentine’s Day

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While we were all enjoying our family Valentine’s dinner tonight, we were trying to remember last years’ Valentines. After a minute, I remembered that it was such as disaster that I had blogged it as an example of how ridiculous things can sometimes be. We were dealing mostly with Molly’s screaming last year, and hoping that she would “pull it together” for next year’s Valentines dinner. Well, our little Molly has really stepped up. Thanks to a maturing Molly, things were much more peaceful and enjoyable for all…

Thanks to my working from home while everyone else is off, I was able to (hurriedly) deck out the dining room in Valentines decorations. And thanks to a new semi-regular babysitter, Nesi, I was able to prepare a proper dinner of linguini, green beans, sale, and rolls (mostly pre-made from Whole Foods) for everyone in relative peace. Claire was very impressed and excited with all the Valentines decorations. We even put on some special harp, flute, and cello music to make things seem extra fancy. Claire’s only complaint was that the food itself wasn’t very “Valentinesy”. I assured her that dessert would be fully Valentines-compliant, and sure enough, everyone enjoyed the tiny Valentines cupcakes.

There was no screaming this year. The only time things got loud at all was when Claire and Molly got silly with each other, which can be bit much at tomes. Still, I like the direction this is going.

Claire Has a Dream

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For Martin Luther King Day, Claire’s class had an assignment write their own dream.  They had to fill complete the sentence, “I have a dream to…” with their own writing.  Claire’s used her hard-earned writing and phonics skills to come up with this:

“I have a dream to help others when they are hurt.”

Nice touch, Claire.

Ah, Winter Break

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This being Claire’s first Christmas in elementary school,  she is enjoying her first extended break in a long time.  Molly’s pre-school is only closed for a couple of days for the holidays, but Claire has about two weeks off.  Here are some of the ways that Claire has kept herself busy while off of school…

She spent the first couple of days in Corpus Christi with he Grammy and Grandaddy.  Claire was very excited to take the trip down there without the me and Kit (Grammy and Grandaddy picked her up in Austin and drove her down there).  Not having been there for the visit, I can’t say much about it, but Claire appears to have had a very good time baking, playing, reading, and entertaining guests.  I think Claire did not want to come back home, and when Grammy returned home after Christmas, she said she really felt like something was missing (Claire).  It was odd having Molly to ourselves without Claire at home.  It was quiet around the house, and it reminded us of the old days when Claire was a toddler before we had Molly.

Heading out to Corpus

Claire spent the next week here at home with a sitter.  Claire and Cassie got along well, although Cassie seemed quiet and only spoke about three words the whole week (yes, I am exaggerating, but not by much).  Claire and Cassie spent the mornings working on art projects, including making necklaces and bracelets from some bead sets she had received for her birthday back in November.  The two were as quiet as a mouse downstairs while I worked in my office upstairs.  They never so much as turned on the TV.

Every afternoon at 1:00, Claire had a one-on-one swimming lesson.  Claire had just started to really swim at the very end of the summer this year, and then all the pubic pools shut down for the summer (while it was still over 100 degrees outside).  This week was a chance to keep Claire a little bit practiced on swimming without waiting until next summer.  Claire ended the week swimming way better than she ever has before, swimming 15 feet out and 15 back by herself.  Claire also practiced “falling” (jumping) into the pool and getting herself safely to shore as well as diving under water to pick up rings from the bottom of the pool.  It was amazing what five half-hour lessons with Hannah Jo did for Claire’s swimming skills (and confidence).  As a side note, once or twice, I took Claire out for lunch at Taco Cabana before swimming, and she learned to love flautas after I convinced her to just try one.

Swim lessons

After swimming, Cassie normally took Claire to Pease Park for a couple of hours.  I would drop them off, and they would walk back home.  Claire apparently made different friends with each trip to the park and invented some pretty crazy games. The weather was absolutely perfect every day this week, right around 70 degrees and sunny.  There was no sun screen, bug spray, or heart exhaustion to worry about when venturing to the park.  You could just stay out there all day and never break a sweat or get a chill.  After getting back from the park, Claire was pretty wiped out and would sit in her bedroom with Cassie and read books for an hour or so before Cassie took off.

It almost sounds like a perfect day to me… swimming, the park, Mexican food, hanging out.  I would personally trade the arts and crafts for some computer games (Battlefield 3, anyone?), but I would even make necklaces if that were a required part of the package.  We wanted to get Claire some rest for her holiday break, but we might be wearing her out with all this fun!

Christmas 2011

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This Christmas was a great dose of family, food, relaxing, and yes, presents.

This may have been the first Christmas that Molly was somewhat aware of.  She seemed to understand that the Christmas tree signified something, that the lights could be turned on and off with a little foot switch, and that the ornaments could be rearranged by her.  Molly’s style is to cluster many ornaments onto a single branch.  She understood that the presents were a surprise for different people and that they needed to stay wrapped and under the tree (after some gentle guidance from us) until some undisclosed date.  Molly also got to sign and help wrap her first present, which happened to be some wooden play food (pickle jar, salt shaker, etc.) for Claire.  Molly also received some presents, including a singing and dancing Elmo, a tiny indoor basketball hoop, a tiny tricycle, a pile of Elmo books (from Santa) and a little lamb stuffed animal (also from Santa) to match her class mascot.  Molly liked all the gifts, but mostly she loved having her grandparents around to lavish her with attention.

Molly proudly holding her gift to Claire.
Note her signature in the “from” area.

But it was not all good tidings for Molly.  She came down with an ear infection on Christmas eve.  She had been sort of grumpy and “off” for a while, and then she started to mess with her right ear and eventually said that the ear hurt.  Kit and I got her into an urgent care clinic one hour before they closed on Christmas eve.  Writing this a few days later, I can tell you that the prescribed antibiotic caused upset stomach, diarrhea, and possibly a rash.  The diarrhea continued with the next antibiotic prescribed later by her regular doctor, and the resulting diaper rash is only adding to Molly’s discomfort.  But Molly is hanging in there.

Molly took a late night (7 pm!) visit to the doctor in her pajamas.
She loved the adventure of being out in her PJs after bedtime.

Claire and Molly admiring Santa’s offerings,
with Grandpa Phil looking on.

For Claire, Santa produced a mini-trampoline and a purple monkey stuffed animal to match her own class mascot.  The trampoline seemed a little random, but Claire practiced on it for the next few days and ended up doing some super-high jumps with her dad’s help, nearly touching her head to the ceiling (really).  Leading up to Christmas, Claire had asked several times whether we thought Santa would bring her anything good, or only coal.  I think Claire was worried she had “been bad” lately, with her various mood and temper issues that have flared up since this summer.  We assured her that Santa would bring her something, and I am glad the big guy came through.  Claire also had a number of incisive questions about how Santa actually operates.  Does he ever deliver the presents to the wrong house?  Does he ever give a boy’s present (such as a “Batman toy”) to a girl?  How does he keep track of who is naughty and nice?  I suggested to Claire that it is almost like he is magical, but she said no, it’s not magic.  He is probably just really smart and well organized.  (At this stage in my life, I consider the two to be almost indistinguishable).

Claire and Grammy admiring
the Olivia 2-in-1 playhouse from Noni.
Claire and Noni doing a little Christmas drawing.
Claire received many fine gifts from her family as well, including a jewelry box from her mom, a foam rocket from me, a deluxe art set from Grammy, an Olivia 2-in-1 playhouse from Noni, and many others. (I like to write some of the presents down since I think it could be interesting later.)
Noni set us up with a great Christmas dinner featuring honey-baked ham and many sides, while Grammy and I pitched in some too.  It was a real team effort.  We have a pretty good system.  Grammy mostly handled Thanksgiving’s dinner and now Noni took on Christmas.  I usually pitch in a side and enjoy helping out with the unique spectacle of a real, slow, home-cooked feast.
There are many more details to include, but I don’t want this to get too long (or keep me up later), so I better wrap up.  (It is all a blur now anyways, writing this only a few days later.)  It was a fun Christmas, and as corny as it sounds, the girls really did seem to enjoy having all the grandparents around even more than their presents.  The weekend went by really quickly, and pretty soon it was Sunday night and time for another greuling work week.  Kit actually didn’t have any extra time off this Christmas, working until Friday evening, with Christmas being on Sunday, and then Kit being on call starting on Monday morning for a 7:30 am surgery (scheduled by the Grinch, I guess).

Holiday Traditions Poster

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One issue with kindergarten so far has been trying to squeeze in the time to focus on Claire’s home projects (aka homework assignments).  Usually these assignments are fun and creative, such as Disguise-a-Turkey, where Claire was given a picture of a turkey and had to turn it into something else so that it did not get eaten for Thanksgiving.  That one did not go so well, though.  We spent several days trying to get Claire focused on the assignment, but she just wasn’t “feeling” it, maybe because her time to work on these projects is also her grumpiest, most unfocused time of the day: late afternoon after school before we pick of Molly, or the 30 minutes before bed (which is otherwise “free time”).  This was tricky to complete because the instructions were very specific about the kid doing the project, with only minimal help from parents.  But without any real interest from Claire, we ended up with a somewhat random splattering of sparkle paint, which Claire declared a fairy, finally completed the night before it was due just before bedtime.

Claire McG’s Family Holiday Traditions
With that in mind, we finally had a solid success.  Kit was able to work very well with Claire on her Holiday Family Traditions Poster.  Kit and Claire got off on the right foot many days in advance, and Kit managed the slippery slope of supporting Claire without getting in her way or taking over the project.  In the end, Claire felt enthusiastic and energized about the poster.  It is nice to have a solid piece of work under our belt, and Kit and Claire made a good team while I mostly stayed out of the way (don’t mess with a good thing!).
The kids each presented their own posters to the class over the course of several days.  Claire got to learn about different family tradition besides the standard Christmas celebration, such as Hanukkah and the Muslin holiday Eid, which I had never heard of.  Sadly, I do not think anyone covered Festivus.
The Disguise-a-Turkey project,
for matter of comparison.

Halloween 2011

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This year, for the first time since Claire was a baby, we actually did trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood.  In the past, Claire has preferred to go trick-or-treating with friends in their neighborhood, but it did not work out this year on account of it being a Monday and not having time to get something like that together.  Claire handled the disappointment of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with her family pretty well. 🙂

The dynamic duo working a house

Accordingly, it was the slowest, most low-key Halloween we have had in a long time.  Instead of running and giggling wildly with her friends, Claire, dressed as a fairy-Barbie, paced slowly along with us from house to house, keeping in good spirits but not getting to crazy.  In fact, Claire was so slow that she wasn’t even keeping up with Kit and me, and I was walking slowly from an injured knee (trampoline injury).  We think Claire was tired, maybe from the recent carnival.  Molly, dressed up as a ladybug, didn’t know quite what was going on, be whatever it was was pretty fun.  She and Claire go to go to each house together a team, where Claire would ring the doorbell, and they would wait someone to come.  While waiting for the candy, Molly tended to turn around a make sure Kit and I were still there waiting behind them.  Molly didn’t necessarily know she was even candy, but she did enjoy the process of collecting nice, wrapped objects in her little bag.  She did not actually eat any of her candy.  We do actually want to fatten her up, but not on Snickers and Blow Pops (yet).

This being a late night close on the heals the carnival, Kit and Molly pealed off around 7:30 to get Molly to sleep and hour late.  Claire and I kept going for a while.  Once home, Claire got to answer the door for some trick-or-treaters and distribute some candy, a duty which she seemed to prize.  Claire strategized about the order in which to consume her candy, two pieces per day, and ten went

Molly got to wear her costume to school

Claire’s very favorite treat was some crazy vampire teeth

Claire (and Kit and I) decorated a pumpkin
as Cinderella for a school project