Milestone Weekend

This weekend was one of milestones big and small. Saturday we went to the park after lunch as the weather was simply glorious. We walk all the way to the park and one of Catherine's favorite activities is staring at the letters on two signs near the playground. She was kind enough to teach Mary to be enthralled as well (sorry, Mary learning to read is not one of the milestones in this post).


Isn't she sweet?


One of Catherine's favorite things to do in the actual playground is climb a little fake-rock-tower up to the top of the slide, something I'm just now starting to let her do mostly by herself (this I do consider a milestone).



When we got home from the park Michael started to get the grill ready for dinner, and then we realized we didn't have any hamburger buns. You know you are married to a good dad when you send him to the store to get hamburger buns and he comes back with the fixings for s'mores (and the hamburger buns). So Catherine got a taste of her first s'more with a perfectly toasted gooey marshmallow and melty chocolate.



I assume you can imagine only some sort of s'mores catastrophe would be documented in a toddler + s'mores video:



The marshmallow was surprisingly easy to wash out of her hair.

Mary didn't get any s'mores, but we let her have a graham cracker. She is really into chewing on crackery things, and in doing so has successfully helped teeth numbers six and seven burrow up through the lower gums this week. Honestly, it does not look fun.

After dinner we did some "tricking Mary into walking by herself" drills. As long as there was something in her hand she would walk about four or five steps between Michael and me, and even seemed to enjoy it (she did it about 48 times). Since Michael and I were both occupied with Mary-catching (she likes to dive the last step), we had Catherine run the video camera.



After just two such practicing sessions, Mary has progressed to this today:



She can turn on her own and sometimes even stops without her dive at the end. We still have to kind of remind her that she can do it, or she just wants to hold onto your hand, but she is very close to taking off on her own! Those of you serving as our St. Louis hotels: babyproof!

Today churches were fun as usual. The girls got red balloons at first church and I'm sorry I don't have a video because Mary thought that balloon was the coolest thing she has ever seen. Maybe it is the coolest thing she has ever seen, I don't know.

After churches and lunch Catherine and I went on a walk with Mary in the stroller so she could take a nap, then played outside while Mary slept. Catherine might be the hippest toddler on the block



but she still wanted to take a picture with her mama. So kind.

Daddy's Umbrella

I took these pictures while Catherine was playing outside with Michael's umbrella last week (I don't know why I forgot to post them - I apologize for having deprived you in this way). She guilted me into letting her play with Michael's umbrella by reminding me that her umbrella was still broken because I had not fixed it yet. That was the first Saturday project on our list today.

Blokus and Basket Hats

Catherine was really amped up today. I suppose there is a very slim chance that you might not believe me about that, but I can prove it with several examples.

1. Blokus. Catherine recently took an interest in the board game Blokus (Michael says she is at just the right level of intelligence to enjoy this game). Sometimes she likes to build trains and shapes, but today I looked over and she was just picking out matching pieces and lining them up, all by herself, no hints. Of course, she had to sing a song as she was doing it because she can never be doing only one thing at a time.



2. A new phone nearly sent her over the edge. Michael had to replace his cell phone so he gave Catherine the old one. She ran around for at least an hour pretending it was ringing and talking very loudly to someone we think is named "English". Several times she interjected things like "my phone is really great" and "I just love my phone".



3. The Singing Basket Hat. It was imperative today that we all take turns wearing the basket hat and singing songs. We were not allowed to sing a known song, but had to only sing impromptu syllables and phrases. When asked why we had to do this, Catherine's reasoning was, "Because it's 6:30." It was not, and I do not know how that would have made a difference even if it was.



If you happen to be feeling a little blue or stressed, I suggest you try wearing a basket as a hat and making up a song. It works in our house.

Musicians in the Making

Barbecue Sauce Party

I know it rained where a lot of you are this weekend - I hope you had a chance to grill something delectable in spite of the weather. We had a little barbecue on Saturday and Catherine spent the whole morning reminding me we were going to have "a barbecue sauce party" so we had to get ready. She really likes when people come over. Often I will catch her picking up her toys in the living room, and she always tells me she is cleaning up because our friends are coming over. On days when that isn't true (pretty much every day except Monday) and I have to tell her no one is coming over today, she immediately drops whatever toy is in her hand to the floor and continues about her usual activities, which are largely the opposite of cleaning.

We had a lovely barbecue sauce party with lots of friends, although it was a bit cool so there were only a few games of croquet early on and then we mostly took refuge indoors.


Mary enjoyed it because there were lots of people around who are not completely over her need to hold hands and walk around the house for hours on end. I wouldn't mind doing it, except I'm pretty sure she is completely capable of walking on her own at this point. She just doesn't feel like it. During the party at one point Mary was so excited about the mop she was carrying around in her free hand that I managed to slide my finger out of her other hand unnoticed and she walked at least ten steps on her own.

Then she figured it out.

She immediately sat down and started crying, and refused to let go of me for several hours.

So here is a video of her walking, not by herself, but holding onto Michael's hand. Her free hand must, at all times, be carrying a toy, preferably one much too large to walk with easily.



Morgan brought her tricycle with her to the BBQ sauce party so she and Catherine got to ride together for a bit. Of course I don't have any adorable pictures of the two of them riding off into the sunset, streamers flying, so here is a completely different video of Catherine's progress on her tricycle - she can get going pretty fast at this point, although she still tires quickly (luckily).



Sunday and Monday were both nice so we did some general yard work and house maintenance - the bushes and early blooming plants are trimmed, the grass is fed, the holly leaves are raked (again), beds are mulched, the gutters are clean, and a soft layer of yellow pollen is coating everything outside and in.



Catherine likes sandwiches.


And headbands.

She also has no idea what the word "yesterday" means. Here are some things she told me she did "yesterday" this week:
1. Saw the cranberries with Grandma (October 2008)
2. Went to the park with Grandpa (April 2009)
3. Slept in a car bed in the store (sometime before Mary was born)
4. Flew on an airplane (last Christmas?)
Oh well, at least they were all in the past.

Mary has suddenly turned very vocal the last few days. Her favorite thing is to yell "Da-Da!", a lot. A lot, a lot. He usually answers, and she enjoys that.



On Monday Michael and I also left the girls with our childcare savior Arline and snuck off for an early dinner at the Roadhouse Cafe, one of our favorite Hyannis restaurants. Other than the realization that Memorial Day marks the arrival of Cape summer traffic, the outing was rather a delight. Since the arrival of Cape summer traffic is almost entirely irrelevant to me, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And the tiramisu.

Ode to a Runner

We've had temperatures consistently above 45 in the mornings for the past few weeks now, so the girls and I have been getting out on our morning stroller jogs quite regularly. A few days ago as we passed a very nice old woman in the next neighborhood, she asked if I was training for a marathon. I would have doubled over from laughter, were I not already in that basic position due to a significantly raised heartbeat and a severe lack of oxygen (a result of attempting to jog up a small hill).

Last week one morning we were out for about 30 minutes, and there is no way I went even three miles, and I think I almost died.

These two events got me a little curious about just how fast (slow) I am really jogging, so I timed myself from my driveway to the stop sign at Setucket, the point at which I usually have to take my first break from jogging to catch my breath. It took 11 minutes, 50 seconds. A quick drive in the car revealed this to be a distance of 1.2 miles. Don't bother doing the math - I'll just tell you: it's a blazing 10-minute mile. Maybe the air in the BOB tires is running a little low - that's supposed to decrease your fuel efficiency, isn't it?

No wonder Catherine is always asking, "Mama, can you run faster?"

Even if you accept my excuses that I'm pushing about 80 pounds of stroller and kid and I've been pregnant for 18 of the last 40 months, you still have to admit there are people all around who routinely run more than twice that speed. Seriously? I don't think I will ever be one of those people. In fact I'm pretty convinced that I possess neither the mental fortitude nor even the potential for the level of physical fitness required to run a marathon. So to you I tip my hat, Marathoner.

It is highly unlikely my feet will ever trod the course of a road race, and breaking a 9-minute mile with BOB and the girls is probably ambitious, but I very much enjoy our morning stroller jogs. I like that after only a few weeks I already feel a little stronger when I go out, and I recover just a little quicker when I inevitably have to slow down, and this morning on the sizable hill near the end of our route I made it all the way up to the third crack in the road (about halfway) before admitting defeat and slowing to a walk.

I have to do something, or Catherine is going to outpace me by the time she's 5.


Now I have all summer to figure out how to keep up some level of activity through the winter, because I'm starting to remember writing an eerily similar post a couple springs ago.

Have you exercised today?

Somersaults & Polka Dots

Catherine is really into polka dots right now. She has two dresses with polka dots, and she has worn one of them every day for the past four or five days. She even started singing about her polka dot dress the other morning when she put it on. The song was about 15 minutes long. Lucky for you I only recorded about a minute of it.



Here's another video of her in her polka dot dress, although in this one she is more concerned about her sunglasses.



And here's her other polka dot dress:



"She did it..."

"But I love her anyway."


Catherine had a big accomplishment yesterday: her first unassisted somersault! Or at least the first one she did on purpose, and not as a result of running too fast...



Mary hit a milestone of her own - another tooth! Number five poked through a few days ago, and 6, 7, and maybe 8 are right under the gums - I can see them but they don't quite feel sharp yet. In spite of this, she is smiley as ever.

Eating In The Round

Michael claims that Catherine and I are the only two people in the world who eat a circle around things made with bread (eating the crust first, then the middle):

Hooray for the Outdoors

It was a lovely Saturday here today so amidst the laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping we did spend quite a bit of time outside. While Michael battled the bittersweet and the holly leaves, Mary did some swinging in the rocket swing and Catherine hopped in and out of her car about a hundred times, yelling "Oh, Hello!" or "See you later!" to "Cinderella Daddy" - we really have no idea what that means. Mary also got in a lot of practice walking and Catherine logged a few more miles (ok, meters) on her tricycle. She has no problem with the pedaling now, except on the slight uphill, and likes to show us how she can turn around, which means making circles. For the most part she does well, but she is very easily distracted and this results in many close calls with the curb, grass and bushes.

Mary is down to walking with one hand now, even in the grass:



Some pictures for you:

Hmm, I'm standing...now what?


It seems like her hair is getting longer every day...


Another cutie friend: Robert loves trying to climb up and down our stairs, and his dad is always quick enough to catch him!


Look at that - one hand, two toys.


The mail! The mail! The mail! (Catherine is always that excited about it, so I think I should be too, although I don't really see what's so great about it...)



Mary is also experimenting with some new dance moves. I still prefer the booty dance over all, but she usually goes for bouncing up and down and stamping her foot now.

A Night Out

Yikes - sorry I haven't had time to post all week. The house is a disaster, so I know I didn't spend time there; I'm behind on work, so no extra time expended there; there's no clean laundry, so that wasn't it; I'm rather tired, so I couldn't have gone to bed early. Nope, I literally have no idea where the time goes. Usually when this happens I consult my camera to help me recollect the goings on of the past few days, but tonight there was only one picture:


Apparently a tutu also makes a good hat.

One thing I do remember from this week is Tuesday night. I put Mary to bed a little early and our childcare savior Arline came over to do bed time with Catherine and stay with the girls while Michael and I and our friend Jen zipped down the street to the Cape Cinema to see a Bon Iver show. I have to say it was rather kind of them to come out to the Cape to play a show, because if it had been in Boston as most nearby shows are we definitely would not have made it (or at least I would not have made it). So this time all the Bostonians had to drive down to us and while I think I heard a lot of them whining about it, I very much appreciated it. The show was amazing. Cape Cinema is a 300-seat theater just a few miles from us and they usually get a few good indie musicians to play each summer, but this is the first time we have made it to one. Here is a video from the show we were at - clearly it doesn't do justice to the sound in the little theatre, but it's something:



Although Catherine threw a brief "but I want to come with you!" fit just before we left, reports are that she was very good and went to sleep with no problem. Considering how she behaved for the first 18 months of her life, I believe this to be a rather significant miracle.

Mary meanwhile is still focused on her walking and will force anyone with a finger to help her practice. All throughout the day she will crawl over to Michael or me, pull herself up to standing, grab a hand and just take off. You know if you don't go with her she's going to fall over and hit her head on something, so she wins every time. Once she has you here, you're stuck. If you let go, she falls over and refuses to stop screaming whether she hit something or not. If you make her sit back down, she screams. If you put her next to something stationary she can hold on to, she screams. After she's done screaming, she crawls over to you and does it again, or worse, she grabs Catherine's hand, a situation spelled D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. And really by this point her yearning and persistence are so endearing you just ignore the sharp pain in your lower back and shuffle endlessly from one end of the house to the other with her gripping the lone finger she needs to sustain her balance. It won't be long...

Since the walking thing is taking a little longer than she expected, Mary has briefly tried crawling like a real baby on her hands and knees, but this is actually quite slower than her army crawl so she usually flops back down on her stomach after a few seconds.



The other thing I accomplished this week are plans for a visit to St. Louis in June - what fun to see you all in less than a month!

Springtime = Gardens + Dancing Skirts

It really truly is springtime here finally. Our tulips are big and bright, lilacs and trees are blooming, tricycle and wagon rides are a daily occurrence, and I think Michael has mowed the grass twice in as many days. Unfortunately for Catherine, who is desperate to wear her two new swimsuits, it still isn't swimsuit-warm, but it's definitely better than nothing!

I promised a Mother's Day report. While we were getting ready for church Michael reminded Catherine it was Mother's Day and so she turned to me and said "Happy Brother's Day!" We could have stopped there and I would have been happy! The whole day was bright and sunny and warm, so after churches we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican place where you can sit outside. Catherine really liked it because it is right next to the bike path and there were a lot of bikers out. Mary really liked it because she could sit on the ground and try to eat wood chips for lunch. After lunch we stopped by the garden center to pick up plants for the veggie garden. Catherine helped me plant the green beans, peppers, tomatoes, squash and zucchini while Mary ate several handfuls of dirt (I guess she couldn't wait for the veggies to be ready). We also planted a few herbs and spent a lot of time playing in the grass (after raking up some holly leaves - ouch).

Then Morgan and Tristan and Robert came over to play (with parents in tow). Catherine and Morgan broke out the helmet AND the knee pads AND the elbow pads to take turns riding Catherine's tricycle, and Mary and Tristan and Robert ran along or rode in the wagon. Somewhere between all this and the guitar playing, singing and dancing that always occurs when Catherine and Morgan get together we had dinner as well. We had lots of fun and late bed times all around.

I think by this time Catherine had forgotten about the whole "Mother's Day" idea, but after we read her bed time story she gave me a hug and told me "Everything is so so great." which is really about as good a thing as you can hear from your daughter on Mother's Day, whether she meant to do it or not!

I did completely fail to even get my camera out, so no cute pictures of videos from Mother's Day. But never fear, here are some leftover videos from over the weekend that I haven't put up yet.

Saturday was another rainy morning, so we went to the fabric store and got supplies to make a "dancing skirt" for Catherine. Before we went to the store I asked Catherine what colors she would like and she insisted on yellow. When we actually got to the store I pulled out the yellow tulle and she demanded I put it back. She then pulled the bright pink and dark purple tulle. Here are some pictures of fun with tulle as we were going along, and the finished product:






It was super easy to make - the most time consuming part was cutting the tulle - and requires no sewing. If you know a little girl who needs one you can check out the blog where I found the instructions: Make It and Love It

And a video of Mary plying horsey with Daddy - she loves loves loves playing with Daddy (and Catherine loves taking pictures).

We Love Our Moms!

I had a beautiful and fun Mother's Day with the girls today, the details of which I will be sure to relay tomorrow, but for now they are both sleeping soundly and I therefor am headed to bed!! However the day would not be complete without tipping our hats to our moms. Parenting is clearly a "learn as you go" endeavor, but I believe much of our parenting instincts are instilled in us by our own childhoods and in this case we are very grateful and glad to be blessed with the moms we have! May the love you tirelessly poured out to us be returned to you tenfold.

Sand Pizza

After nearly five straight days of rain (typical Spring on the Cape) Friday broke clear and bright and, a miracle worth mentioning, with only a slight breeze. We actually got out on our morning jog, and Catherine and Mary got to spend quite a bit of time outside. They played one of Catherine's favorite games in the morning: Pull Weeds! This year Catherine can actually be a bit helpful in the weed-pulling area, so everyone in the house likes this game. After lunch Nick and Athena came over with a second lunch in hand. I believe when it was all said and done Catherine managed to eat 8 silver-dollar blueberry pancakes. Yikes. Luckily they all went for a walk after second lunch.

I had a very busy day at work and didn't partake in any of this fun (even one lunch) but after work Catherine helped me plant our herb garden while Mary sat in the grass and squished leaves. I think it's staying warm enough to get some plants in the ground, so hopefully the rest of the veggies will go in this week, or maybe even tomorrow. While Catherine and I were planting herbs Michael pulled more weeds and trimmed some bushes and turned the compost and some more manly landscaping things I'm sure.

Since we were all outside and a bit dirty already, we decided on dinner at the beach. This is a wonderful summertime activity. We pack some dinner or pick up a pizza on the way and head to the beach for an hour or so. By dinnertime the crowds have thinned out, the sun has cooled off, and we have a good reason to not feel obligated to stay for hours upon hours - bedtime can only be pushed off so long. I guess if there is a down side it is that the kids eat and drink as much sand as food, but whatever.

Friday night we picked up a pizza and packed some drinks and although it was a bit windier by the water than at the house, it was still very nice. Mary loved the sand, although she was none too pleased that we didn't offer her any pizza. She kept climbing onto the pizza box, and at one point resorted to licking pizza grease off a paper plate. Yum.

Catherine monopolizing the drinks:


Mary eyeing her pizza...


What happens when you try to make Catherine sit down for a second for a picture:


Typical Mary Face:



Videos! Catherine enjoying her pizza (and Mary trying her best):



Playing with the sand:

Yogurt Beard

Catherine has been focusing a lot lately on fine-tuning her toddler logic. Yesterday she was throwing a hard plastic ball in the house while I was doing dishes, and I said, "Catherine, if you want to throw something in the house go find your soft frisbee." So she spent about five minutes looking for her soft frisbee, then trotted back into the kitchen, soft frisbee in one hand and hard plastic ball in the other hand, and said triumphantly, "Look! I got it!" and immediately threw the hard plastic ball. How did I not see that coming? I told her if she wanted to throw "something" she needed her frisbee. Genius.

Catherine watched Mary's booty dancing video a bunch of times and decided she needed a dancing video of her own. Of course, a 2-year-old should perform something a little more sophisticated - this is her ballerina dancing:



Catherine is also plenty grown up enough to take care of Mary. She loves feeding Mary, although I'm never sure exactly how much food Mary is getting in her mouth when Catherine is in control of the spoon. And of course, a good "yogurt beard" is a natural side-effect of this activity.

First Steps?

For some reason I only have pictures and videos of Mary again. Pretty much every morning when we get dressed Catherine looks at Mary's outfit and says "I wore that when I was a little Catherine." She is usually correct.



Mary is getting pretty good at "cruising" around on all the furniture:



And she may or may not have taken her official "first steps" the other day. I'm going with "not" because it was really just a rash "launch toward Mama and hope for the best" rather than actual steps, but she is definitely making the effort.



This is one of my favorite things Mary does right now. Every time music comes on or Michael starts playing the piano, Mary immediately starts in with her booty dance and it usually doesn't stop until she falls down or the music stops.



You can see we've been inside a lot - it's been intermittent but persistent rain for the last several days. Plus Mary just does not enjoy sleeping at night and Catherine has been waking up super early because she "wants to see the birds" that are waking her up by squawking in the bush right outside her window, so I'm not sure I would have the energy for playing outside even if it was nice. I did get a couple lovely breaks this weekend though. Friday night Catherine stayed with friends for a few hours while Michael and I and Mary and some friends went and bowled a few games for charity. Michael won all three games, candle pin and regular bowling (Hi Erinn). Oh well - it was still fun, and Mary thought it was amazing. Michael also took on bedtime with both girls last night so I could go see our friends in Tripping Lily play a show. Although I don't think it would be Mary's top choice for possible bedtime situations, it sounds like everyone survived. It's impossible to say for sure if today's heightened level of clinginess and whininess is directly related to last night's bedtime, but even if it was it's a decent trade-off.