Feeling More Human

Finally we've had three good nights of sleep in a row. Well, actually two were a little short but it was entirely our own fault. We stayed up late, which we rarely do; Sunday until 11:30 to watch the Oscar telecast (which wasn't very good) and last night until 11:30 to watch a movie (that wasn't very good either). Now why do we do that to ourselves?

BUT, there was not a peep out of either girl all night long, and Clara has slept until 6 am each morning. So we are on the way to feeling more human!

Clara is obviously feeling much better. She is so happy, and is starting to communicate a lot more, which is fun. I loved observing the language acquisition with Lee. Clara has a few words she will reliably say ("uh oh", "thank you", "down") as well as others that she perfected and now feels she no longer needs to say ("hi", "bye-bye", "please", "ma ma", "da da"). But she's very expressive with gestures and other means and manages to get her point across.

The Things They Say...

Lee is interested in death. This seemed to start when our cat died last spring. And it is interesting how often death is mentioned in children's books, movies, and even adult conversation. Someone mentioned to me the other day that it is normal for 3-year-olds to be interested in death.

So Lee mentions death and dying both in her make-believe play and her conversations with others, and what she comes up with is often quite shocking for adults to hear.

The other day while I was cleaning food off the floor for at least the third time that day, I remarked that it would be nice to have a dog who would just eat everything off the floor.

"Let's get a dog, mommy," Lee said. Uh, oh....

So I explained to her that dogs are alot of work, and that getting a dog is almost like having another brother or sister. And that sometimes I wanted a dog but sometimes I didn't, but since Daddy really did not want a dog, we just weren't going to get one.

Lee thought about this for a minute or so, and then she said:

"I know, Mommy, let's get a dog after Daddy dies."

Mad New Skills

So now I'm going to get fancy and post some video of the girls' latest new tricks that they polished in Florida.

Lee spent every afternoon in the pool and made huge progress. She's pretty much swimming on her own now and can cover the width of the pool, although you have to stay near her because she doesn't have lots of stamina yet. She is able to take a breath and then continue swimming. She is completely comfortable going under the water, which is great. She can float on her back or front, do a somersault, jump off the edge and come up on her own, and sit on the edge and dive in. All those trips to the Y are really paying off! Here are some quick videos:




The beach proved to be a bit tricky for Clara, who's only been walking a month or so. But she son got comfortable with the shells and the waves. Here's one video by the beach and one by the pool for good measure because it's pretty cute.

Sand to Snow

We are back from our week at Sanibel, and we're supposed to get a doozy of a snowstorm today. I appreciate that contrast. Winter has seemed, well, so insignificant this year after our week in Cancun followed shortly by a week in Florida. Of course, we'll have to see how I feel towards the end of March. That's often the worst month for snow here in Boston.

Here are some sand pictures from Florida:

Gratitude at 3 A.M.

I've been trying to feel more grateful for what I have. Not that I'm ungrateful. I am so thankful for everything I have - a wonderful husband, two healthy children who have two sets of still-married grandparents with associated aunts and uncles and cousins who generally all get along. And of course more material things than I need, but the family is the important stuff.

But still, when you're in the thick of being a parent to little kids (or in the thick of anything for that matter) it's hard to remember all of that.

And so this past week, when Clara was up at 3 am or 4 am or 5 am, (or sometimes all three) night after night, and she would only go back to sleep if she had her head on one of our shoulders, I just tried to remember: There will come a day when I would give an awful lot to have her right here where she is now.

And you know what, it worked.

The Monkey Hat

I've been feeling a wee bit bad because I have yet to post a good picture of Clara. She will, however, have her day in the sun, since at this age she is much more natural in front of the camera than Lee (think "cheese!!!!"), and so the good pictures of her are piling up. This makes me feel better, since we have many more pictures of Lee than of Clara during their first year.


So here's a good one of her in the monkey hat. A friend passed this hat down to us and Clara has really taken to it, putting it on herself, wearing it around the house, and even sleeping in it if it happens to be on her head when she goes to bed. Sometimes she wears it backwards, which is cute too. This is all a bit funny, since she's taken her hat off outdoors ever since she was able to. So who knows, the monkey hat may be the trick.

It did occur to me the other day that my friend, who has a new baby. may want the monkey hat back for him when he's older. I better make sure it's not too well-loved.

Bulldozers, Bobcats, and Rollers Oh My!

There is lots of big equipment here. We're having our driveway (formerly known as the mud pit) redone, and while we were at it we thought we'd throw in a patio in the back, and use the fill from the driveway to create a nice flat backyard.

This has been great amusement for Clara. Yesterday she stood at the back door and just watched and watched all the activity, much to the amusement of the men working there. It is interesting to watch them work this stuff, and amazing how they maneuver these machines in very tight spaces. There is also something surreal about their working on a patio while it's snowing outside. But hey, for a 20% price break I'm all for doing stone work in February.

So it's been great fun. Lee however seems to have passed beyond a fascination with trucks and other big machines. I think she would have been much more interested if the men had been wearing tutus.

The Elusive Good Night's Sleep

So we're going through a rough period with sleeping again. It comes and goes, but it definitely seems that a good night's sleep is twice as hard to come by with the two of them. Often one or the other (or way too often both) will be up for some reason. With Clara we don't know what's going on (she can't talk soon enough for us!) - a cold, or that last molar, or maybe on a bad night an ear infection. With Lee it's bed-wetting or a nightmare, or just waking up and being scared of the dark. Honestly, it amazes me that my sister Deb (mother of four boys within six years) ever slept at all, but then again she probably didn't.

Actually I can't complain because we were just away without the girls for a week, so we slept great! I don't know how Bridges' parents slept....they looked a bit tired when we got back. :)

And last night wasn't too bad. They just got up early, although it's my own fault because I woke them up. I was wide awake at 5:30 and thought "Great, I'll go downstairs and have some nice quiet time to myself, do some knitting, post a blog entry, etc..." I gathered my things, crept into the bathroom, and Clara started crying. Then Lee woke up a few minutes later. So here I am, posting a blog entry with two little girls asking to be fed. Gotta run!

Funny Things Lee is Saying

When she forgets something she wants to tell me, "Mommy, I lost my favorite idea" or "I lost my favorite question."

Anything to do with numbers. She will take a tape measure, measure something, and boldly announce it is "500 and 1/4 pounds!" She went to bed at "around thirty," and it's going to winter for "forty-three more weeks" (which feels pretty close to the truth).

She's very emphatic and freely throws "never" and "forever" into her sentences. "Mommy, it's NEVER going to be dinner-time." Or my favorite, upon learning her favorite dessert option wasn't available, "I'm NEVER going to eat dessert again!"


Her current obsession is with spring/summer and the appropriate clothing. She will have tears in her eyes as she tells me it is never going to be springtime. And she will recount a story about being in Florida with the important element being which shorts and t-shirt she was wearing at the time. Lee loves to put on shorts and a short-sleeved shirt (in our 64-degree home) and sit on the heating vent. If I tell her to put heavier clothing on, she says "but Mommy, I'll get SWEATY!"

Who are you and where have you been?

So I'm catching up a bit here. Right after starting this blog, we went away for nearly a week without the girls. Bridges was invited to his company's Chairman's Club, which was in Cancun this year. We ended up leaving the girls with my sister Linda Saturday night, and then Bridges' parents picked them up Sunday night and kept them at their house until Friday when we returned. So it was six nights away from them! The longest we've been away before was three nights (for our fifth anniversary back in November). I missed them terribly then, although an hour after returning, I thought to myself "I should have enjoyed that more!"

This time I was able to enjoy the time away, but we did still miss them terribly, although not enough to interfere too much. We even went diving, which seemed like such a pre-kids-lifestyle thing to do. Oh, and here is the view from our balcony at the Ritz, so you can see it really wasn't so bad.

When we returned, Lee came out to greet us with a quick "Hi. I'm watching a video! Come watch it with me!" and disappeared into the other room. So much for the dramatic reunion! Clara, who after the three days in November was thrilled to see us, instead just gave me this look....."who are you and where have you been?" She continued to stare at me (even after I picked her up) for the next ten minutes or so. I only realized she actually knew who I was when I tried to put her down and she immediately started crying. Now that's better, I thought. :)

A Story from Sunday School

Here's a little story about Sunday School, which Lee attends on a semi-regular basis during the school year. This is her first year in the pre-school class, which we know a bit about since Bridges taught it for a spell last year.

Today after we got home we asked Lee what happened in class. She told us about making bookmarks. I asked her if there were any stories, and Lee said "Yes a few" although she didn't elaborate.

Then she said, in her dramatic manner, "They turned out all the lights, and two people had flashlights, and then I shone the flashlight on Jesus!!!"
And I said "Wow that sounds neat. Was that supposed to teach you something?"
To which she replied "Yes it did!"
And I said "What did it teach you?"
"I don't know" with a shrug.

So there you go....