Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Preschool, etc.
Well, the search is on for a preschool for Molly next fall. It seems so far away -- the baby will be 6 months old by then -- but the schools are holding open houses now and applications are due in Jan/Feb. So here we go!
We've been doing a "Mommy and Me" class at a Waldorf preschool with our neighbor Rhys and his mom this fall. It's fun, but aside from all the toys being made of natural materials and the snacks being all natural (buckwheat muffins and herbal tea), we're not really clear on what makes this different from other schools. It's the same routine: free play, snack, circle time, playground. There just aren't any plastic toys. They do puppet-style story telling, though, and that's really cool. The kids are captivated!
We went to a pumpkin decorating party at another preschool, one the kids across the street go to and love. It was more traditional, with way more stuff in the classroom and a much better equipped playground. Molly says she likes that one better because the playground's better. Noted.
I went to a Montessori school open house this weekend and loved it, but it was during Molly's nap time so she hasn't given an opinion yet. There are no toys in the classroom, only a bazillion "works" (like bean pouring, sandpaper letters, etc.) that the kids select on their own and practice. The playground looked fine, but what do I know?
Meanwhile, Molly has just gone through some burst in development that's hard to pin down, but includes her using funny adult phrases and longer sentences and concentrating intensely while making a new style of drawing on the white board. That's the only place she wants to be photographed lately.
This is a funny video that finally captures something she's been doing for a while -- composing imaginary thank you notes to people. The text is usually something like, "Dear Grandma, Thank you for the present. I love you. Love, Molly."
In this one, I just put a bag of rags within reach for her so she doesn't have to ask me every time she wants to wash off her chalk board. Apparently she was pretending that they were washcloths and that Lex and Eve gave them to her. So she painstakingly made this drawing and then told me what it was. Through some miracle, she actually repeated the whole thing on camera.
We've been doing a "Mommy and Me" class at a Waldorf preschool with our neighbor Rhys and his mom this fall. It's fun, but aside from all the toys being made of natural materials and the snacks being all natural (buckwheat muffins and herbal tea), we're not really clear on what makes this different from other schools. It's the same routine: free play, snack, circle time, playground. There just aren't any plastic toys. They do puppet-style story telling, though, and that's really cool. The kids are captivated!
We went to a pumpkin decorating party at another preschool, one the kids across the street go to and love. It was more traditional, with way more stuff in the classroom and a much better equipped playground. Molly says she likes that one better because the playground's better. Noted.
I went to a Montessori school open house this weekend and loved it, but it was during Molly's nap time so she hasn't given an opinion yet. There are no toys in the classroom, only a bazillion "works" (like bean pouring, sandpaper letters, etc.) that the kids select on their own and practice. The playground looked fine, but what do I know?
Meanwhile, Molly has just gone through some burst in development that's hard to pin down, but includes her using funny adult phrases and longer sentences and concentrating intensely while making a new style of drawing on the white board. That's the only place she wants to be photographed lately.
This is a funny video that finally captures something she's been doing for a while -- composing imaginary thank you notes to people. The text is usually something like, "Dear Grandma, Thank you for the present. I love you. Love, Molly."
In this one, I just put a bag of rags within reach for her so she doesn't have to ask me every time she wants to wash off her chalk board. Apparently she was pretending that they were washcloths and that Lex and Eve gave them to her. So she painstakingly made this drawing and then told me what it was. Through some miracle, she actually repeated the whole thing on camera.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Pumpkins
Scenes from the weekend ...
Molly making some phone calls with Grandpa.
Carving pumpkins
Molly and Oma do dishes afterward.
Molly's own photo of her buddy.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Back on the trail
We were almost afraid to bring up the subject with Molly, but Jim's dojo does an annual climb up Mt. Watatic in the fall and this year's trip was Saturday. We were sure the last thing she would want to do was get back into the hiking backpack, after the chilly climb the weekend before. However, all I had to do was play up the fact that there would be kids there and she didn't seem to mind. So ...
Jim and I tried to stay back and look the other direction so she could follow the girls and pretend we weren't there. At one point he was hovering (trying to keep her from walking off a sheer rock face, mind you), and she looked at him and pointed as if to say, "go away."
But lest you think our baby is all grown up ...
At the top of Mt. Watatic
Molly hanging with the gang of older girls.
Jim and I tried to stay back and look the other direction so she could follow the girls and pretend we weren't there. At one point he was hovering (trying to keep her from walking off a sheer rock face, mind you), and she looked at him and pointed as if to say, "go away."But lest you think our baby is all grown up ...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Feeling better
Hooray for second trimester!!! I feel SO much better. The cloud of nausea and nasty smells has lifted. I'm (mostly) keeping up with housework again. I'm interested in my hobbies again and much less cranky. Though I am horrified to realize how much weight I'm gaining this time, I can't seem to stop eating everything in sight, so I'm really trying hard to exercise again. I've got a DVD with yoga and belly dance on it, and Molly has been watching it with me. This has introduced a whole collection of new moves into her repertoire, for better or worse.
This was taken the other night before bed (that's why it's so dark -- I hope you can see it). She's wearing a costume -- ballet slippers, ballet skirt, a shirt with a ballet dancer on it and a hat she told me is her special belly dancing hat (she doesn't distinguish between belly dance and ballet dance). She dragged her rug to the living room and told me it was her yoga mat.
Molly is convinced the baby's a girl. I've tried to tell her that it could be a boy, too, but she still always refers to the baby as "she."
For a while, Molly was asking me over and over how the baby eats when it's in my belly. She simply does not believe this crazy story about a tube from my body into the baby's tummy that becomes a belly button, and that everyone she can name started out in somebody else's belly with one of these tubes. So she keeps asking.
She has become very sisterly, too. She's been digging through boxes in the basement and finding her old toys, and saying "maybe the baby would like this." She found an old bathing suit of hers and when I told her it doesn't fit anymore, she said maybe the baby could wear it.
She's also interested in babysitting, apparently. The other day I had to go out to the garden to pick veggies for dinner and I asked Molly if she wanted to stay inside or come with me. She told me that when the baby's here, I can go to the garden by myself and she can stay inside and "keep" the baby. Hmmm. And the other day she asked if, when she's seven, she can stay with the baby and while I leave the house. I told her seven is a bit young but I appreciate the offer.
Molly also likes checking out my belly and saying, "oh, your belly is getting so big." She insists she can feel the baby moving (highly unlikely) and she likes whispering to the baby and listening to the baby with her stethoscope.
I'm glad she's so excited about the baby. It makes everything so much fun!
This was taken the other night before bed (that's why it's so dark -- I hope you can see it). She's wearing a costume -- ballet slippers, ballet skirt, a shirt with a ballet dancer on it and a hat she told me is her special belly dancing hat (she doesn't distinguish between belly dance and ballet dance). She dragged her rug to the living room and told me it was her yoga mat.
Molly is convinced the baby's a girl. I've tried to tell her that it could be a boy, too, but she still always refers to the baby as "she."
For a while, Molly was asking me over and over how the baby eats when it's in my belly. She simply does not believe this crazy story about a tube from my body into the baby's tummy that becomes a belly button, and that everyone she can name started out in somebody else's belly with one of these tubes. So she keeps asking.
She has become very sisterly, too. She's been digging through boxes in the basement and finding her old toys, and saying "maybe the baby would like this." She found an old bathing suit of hers and when I told her it doesn't fit anymore, she said maybe the baby could wear it.
She's also interested in babysitting, apparently. The other day I had to go out to the garden to pick veggies for dinner and I asked Molly if she wanted to stay inside or come with me. She told me that when the baby's here, I can go to the garden by myself and she can stay inside and "keep" the baby. Hmmm. And the other day she asked if, when she's seven, she can stay with the baby and while I leave the house. I told her seven is a bit young but I appreciate the offer.
Molly also likes checking out my belly and saying, "oh, your belly is getting so big." She insists she can feel the baby moving (highly unlikely) and she likes whispering to the baby and listening to the baby with her stethoscope.
I'm glad she's so excited about the baby. It makes everything so much fun!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Mini vacation
We just got back from a weekend get-away to New Hampshire, which we booked just for fun and also to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, which is Thursday.
I made a Shutterfly album with a bunch of photos, but here are the highlights.
We found a perfect little cottage on Newfound Lake at off-season rates. It was tiny, but had two bedrooms (meaning the grown-ups could stay up watching TV long after the kid goes to bed -- HOORAY) and gigantic windows looking out on the water.
It was pouring rain Friday the whole drive up, but by Saturday morning the clouds were gone. Here's the view from the cottage.
We got out the door early Saturday and met Alan, Tessa, Lex and Eve for a hike up Mt. Cardigan. The kids were fantastic!!! I can't believe those little legs made it all the way up the mountain!
Molly rode most of the way in the backpack and grew increasingly unhappy as we got close to the top. It was really cold and windy. Toward the end the bare rock got pretty steep and slick with water, and I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares about watching Jim try to keep his balance while Molly looked as if she was going to fly over his head. We were almost to the peak -- Alan was shouting back that he could see the fire tower -- when we decided to turn back. We did stay long enough to snap a few pictures, though.
Later in the afternoon we went for a drive around the lake and found this really cool old-style playground in the middle of nowhere. It had one of those spinning merry-go-round things, a climbing dome and even real teeter totters. You don't see those death traps around much anymore. ;)
We finished the day by letting Molly eat a gigantic ice cream sandwich and watch television. They had a Sesame Street DVD in the cottage and it seemed like something she'd like. It wasn't until we were sitting down with it on that we realized this is probably her first television show. I mean, she's seen her fair share of YouTube videos of kittens and the television is often on at the neighbor's house, but this is the first time that I know of that we actually put something on the television for her to watch. So I took a picture of the historic moment.
Snuggling in the cottage with milk.
This morning the lake was all misty and pretty. Jim got a good shot.
So that was our trip. We were gone less than 48 hours but it felt like an entire week. Woo hoo!!!
I made a Shutterfly album with a bunch of photos, but here are the highlights.
We found a perfect little cottage on Newfound Lake at off-season rates. It was tiny, but had two bedrooms (meaning the grown-ups could stay up watching TV long after the kid goes to bed -- HOORAY) and gigantic windows looking out on the water.
It was pouring rain Friday the whole drive up, but by Saturday morning the clouds were gone. Here's the view from the cottage.
Molly rode most of the way in the backpack and grew increasingly unhappy as we got close to the top. It was really cold and windy. Toward the end the bare rock got pretty steep and slick with water, and I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares about watching Jim try to keep his balance while Molly looked as if she was going to fly over his head. We were almost to the peak -- Alan was shouting back that he could see the fire tower -- when we decided to turn back. We did stay long enough to snap a few pictures, though.
We finished the day by letting Molly eat a gigantic ice cream sandwich and watch television. They had a Sesame Street DVD in the cottage and it seemed like something she'd like. It wasn't until we were sitting down with it on that we realized this is probably her first television show. I mean, she's seen her fair share of YouTube videos of kittens and the television is often on at the neighbor's house, but this is the first time that I know of that we actually put something on the television for her to watch. So I took a picture of the historic moment.
Snuggling in the cottage with milk.
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