Catch Up

Poor Clara says "LEE!!!! WAIT FOR ME!!!!" so often, as Lee disappears into the distance.   I don't know how many years it will be until Clara will be able to catch up to her.     

Making Noodles

Socks

My mom, at 78, has had one hip replaced and is scheduled to have the other one done next month (she's also replaced one knee).   We were visiting her yesterday, and we all went swimming.   Afterward when we were getting dressed, I bent down and put her socks on for her because she was having quite a time bending her legs enough so that she could reach her feet.  

I thought about how many times I've put socks on Clara the past two years, how I rarely put socks on Lee anymore, and how 40 years ago my mom was most likely putting socks on me every day.

I know it's just the way things go as you age, but it was still sad for me.  

The Right Side of Bed

Sometimes Clara gets up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning.  You'll just have to believe me, because I'm not going to subject you to a video of one of those mornings.  

But sometimes she gets up on the right side, and then it's all fun and games.   This video was shot the other day, just minutes after she woke up.  

You Don't Say

In the heat of a very frustrating moment yesterday, I actually said to my 4-year-old, "Lee, you're acting like a child!"  

Airplane Ride

I like how the wolf and polar bear are holding smaller stuffed animals on their laps, and bunny is wrapped up in a blanket.

Our Mazda5

Our new mini-mini, a Mazda 5.  

I love it.  The rear doors slide like a minivan, and it seats six with a third row that you can actually access, but it's not much bigger than our Forester and gets almost the same gas mileage (which wasn't great but was much better than a full-sized minivan).  

The Haircut

I gave Clara a haircut the other day.  Her hair is still thin and short on the top and sides, but the back has grown in very nicely, and she ended up with a beautiful (if a bit short) bob.  

The next day I kept looking at her and wondering why her hair looked so funny in the back.  It was as if she had slept on it or something, because it just wasn't lying very smoothly (her hair is so straight and fine it pretty much falls straight down).  It also looked very short in the front, and I kept thinking "But I didn't touch the front!"  

With things being busy I didn't think much of it, until I was cleaning up last night and saw a four-inch chunk of hair lying on the windowsill.  

So I looked more closely at what I realized must be Lee's handiwork:

This kind of hurts.  My kids have both been pretty challenged in the hair deparment, and it will be months to grow this out.  

But, Lee has promised not to cut her sister's hair again.  And Clara has promised to stop Lee next time.  Oh well, at least, Clara doesn't seem to mind.   

Tunnel!

When Lee had just turned two (I was pregnant with Clara at the time), Bridges had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands for five weeks on a Rotary cultural exchange trip.  

At that time, we often drove Bridges to and from the airport, so it wasn't that unusual for us to drive him there.  Lee, though, must have understood that he was leaving for quite a while, because as soon as we drove away, she cried as if her little heart was breaking.  "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy...."  I thought "oh, no, this is going to be a long drive home."  

But just after leaving the airport, we entered the Sumner Tunnel, Lee looked up, and gleefully said "Tunnel!"   And that was that.  Ah, the power of distraction.  

Yay, Pancakes!

There is a lot of effort that goes into parenting that is entirely unappreciated by your children.  It's just the nature of the beast. They don't appreciate the loads of laundry, the endless tidying, the cooking, or giving up of sleep, because they've never had to do it themselves. Sometimes you work hard to do something special for them, and they don't like it, or they are indifferent. Sometimes what they like or remember about something is not what you think is important (Lee's favorite part of the Cirque du Soleil show last year was the man in the dog costume pretending to pee on the audience). 

But, then there are those times when it is so incredibly easy to make them happy, and you feel appreciated beyond words.   I felt that this morning when both girls clapped wildly, giggling and screaming "Yay, pancakes!" when I brought out the pancake batter. 

Welcome Back, Daddy

Bridges was gone for ten days backcountry skiing in British Columbia.  He had a fantastic trip and is encouraging me to go on it next year.  I don't know about leaving two little kids alone so both of us can travel to avalanche country.  I know we are in more danger each time we get in our car, but it's different somehow.  You have to get in your car.  You don't have to go someplace extremely remote and ski down the face of a mountain.   I can imagine the article in the paper. 

But all in all we had a great week while he was gone.  I try to take these opportunities to do lots of fun stuff for the kids and break up some of the normal routine.  We started by driving Bridges to the airport really early on a Sunday (in our pj's of course) and then stopping for breakfast afterward.  During the week we were very active socially, attending a fundraiser for our nursery school at a local restaurant, a pizza playdate at a friend's house, and dinner at Aunt Linda's house, where both girls had a fantastic time playing with Liam and Mali.   Aunt Deb came down with Jack and Alex the second weekend and stayed overnight.  The girls got to watch their cousins play video games, and Jack babysat them while Deb and I ran to Trader Joe's.  Lee was thrilled about that!  We also attended Dave and Mer's Superbowl Party.  The other nights we watched Planet Earth and ate dinner in front of the TV.   

The evenings were a bit long for me, especially the ones when Clara stayed up past 9, and the nights she was up a lot were tough.  But all in all, the girls were really good, and since I didn't cook all week it was a bit of a break for me as well.  There were also no big crying fits of "I WANT DADDY!" which was unusual, especially for Lee.  The last time he went away just overnight she had a real meltdown before going to sleep.  

But, oh, the reception at the airport.  I wish I'd had my camera there.  We waited at the bottom of the escalator, and when they saw Bridges coming down, they started jumping up and down, yelling "Daddy, Daddy!"  It was, to use a word I don't use very often, precious.  

Those Maternal Instincts Run Strong

While Clara naps Lee usually plays quietly by herself.  Today she took some colorful balls from the game of Caribou, made a nest in a bean bag chair, and is now sitting on the eggs.  The first one has hatched (surprise, a stuffed flamingo), and the second one is about to hatch.  

Somehow I can't see a boy doing this...