Into The Deep

Madeleine in her "floaty belt" before her first swimming lesson.




Emily in her "floaty belt" before her first swimming lesson. (photo disclaimer: I'm fully aware she doesn't have all of her head, but "we" were a bit squirmy and sadly, this is the best of the bunch.)

We survived our first week of swimming lessons. The lessons are M-Th from 4:30-5; our current level is for 3-5 year olds so we are definitely the novices of the group. On Monday Emily and Madeleine happily obliged their teacher, Miss Gina, and would sit on the edge of the pool, lean over and splash their hands. They also happily sat and kicked their feet in the water. Then Gina took the kids, one by one, into the pool - no dice. Emily was taken, had a nervous breakdown and Madeleine, watching from the side, decided this was perhaps not the best activity in which to participate. Gina demonstrated amazing patience and by the end of the 30 minutes our girls would let her take them in the water as long as she stayed near the wall. Monday evening and all day Tuesday we spent our time discussing the fact we won't sink as we are wearing a floaty belt, have Miss Gina and can use the ducks (more little floaty gizmos). We entered our second lesson confident in our abilities. Miss Gina wasn't there. We were not convinced of the other instructor's abilities. Madeleine sat on the edge of the pool and chewed on the extra strap length of her floaty belt (blechhh), Emily sat on the edge of the pool and looked around - the entire time... look out Olympics, here we come! Wednesday Miss Gina returned and we once again allowed her to take us in the pool and even move a bit away from the wall. On Thursday we happily threw our rubber ducks across the width of the pool so we could "swim" out to get them back (with Miss Gina of course). We also let Miss Gina bob us up and down in the water and were even caught smiling a time or two. We also managed to half-way hang on to the edge of the pool while floating on tummies and kicking our feet. At the end of the lesson Emily (who has periodic dramatic tendencies) burst into tears and treated all present to gut-wrenching sobs. I went over to the edge of the pool to get her out as she was disrupting the concluding game of playing Ring Around The Rosie on the shallowest step. Gina asked if she was okay and I said yes, but mentioned Madeleine was "in trouble". I had looked up just in time to see Madeleine step off the last step and while her floaty belt kept her from sinking, she was floundering and gasping in a rather panicked state. Gina retrieved Madeleine and I had two of them in tears, one from temper and the other from fear - fear won and was given more attention. Gina came to check on them and commented that they "have good arms" from the "throw your duck across the pool" game. I said I knew that based on the strength with which we throw things at each other on a routine basis. Anyhow, Madeleine is fine and both girls were impressed with the speed with which Miss Gina moved when retrieving her, we are looking forward to returning tomorrow for week two.

This past week was our last week at Mother's Day Out. It is with some trepidation (on the part of all three of us) that we will start official preschool ("peeschool") in the fall. Emily and Madeleine had a very nice last two weeks with the program and a lot of fun making masks as their art project (Both girls immediately go to the table to create their art when they arrive. We have the prevailing attitude, the more the better, and Emily in particular is a fan of glue...I see a career as a wallpaper hanger in her future.) Thanks to Miss Deena and Miss Emily (not Schreiber) for a wonderful summer.

In other Miss Deena news, she babysat when Till and I went to dinner for our anniversary last week. More importantly she introduced the girls to nail polish and the next morning we had two very excited little girls who proudly showed off twenty painted toes. If this isn't Fancy Nancy glamour, I don't know what is!

Speaking of Fancy Nancy, the girls have discovered a literary heroine from their mother's childhood. The little badger Frances from the Frances series by Russell and Lillian Hoban. Aunt Liz gave us several Frances books for our first birthday and they were recently spotted on a bookshelf containing books we will grow into. At this point we have tackled A Birthday for Frances, Bedtime for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, A Bargain for Frances and Bread and Jam for Frances. We own, but have not read, Best Friends for Frances....may appear on the plane. Bread and Jam for Frances is our definite favorite and Madeleine announced the other morning she was going to eat toast every morning until she gets tired of it - like Bread and Jam for Frances. The books are fairly long for the preschool crowd and I was surprised the girls did as well as they did sitting through a book of that length....however, there are periodic occasions when we start some pretty heavy paraphrasing half-way through.

Madeleine in the mask she made at school.

Emily in her mask from school. She isn't cross-eyed, but certainly has that appearance with the mask.

Emily and Miss Deena.

Madeleine and Miss Deena.

We have our countdown to Spokane going (four "night-nights" left) and two of us are a bit more enthusiastic about the flight than the oldest member of the group. We have also started packing (as in we took turns dragging the carry-on suitcases up and down the hall.....I actually try and have us packed 24 hours ahead of time, saved me when I got food poisoning at the Econ. Dept. Christmas party in December, two days before we flew out for Christmas - I love it when my compulsive tendencies are validated). We have been discussing the virtue of using airport restrooms instead of airplane restrooms, but there isn't much we can do besides cross our fingers (and wear our "airplane underwear" the disposable training pants - just in case. I never used them when potty training, went straight from diaper to underwear, so we are firmly convinced they are something to be used only at 30,000 feet). We are hoping to be entertained by the portable DVD player, dyed pasta with which to make necklaces, story books, coloring books and of course approximately 739 stickers.....we'll just have to wait and see.

Summer Happenings

Recently, we decided to go out to dinner and the girls wanted to dress "ooo la la fancy" like Fancy Nancy. Madeleine is on the left and Emily is on the right and they each picked out their outfits (all by themselves...complete with sweaters on a day of 95 degrees)

This was a day where they woke up way too early from their naps and it was shampoo night anyway...in an effort to waste some time, and please overly-tired little ones, I suggested we put curlers in our hair like Fancy Nancy after our shampoos....so we took an afternoon bath and then groomed one of our bears. (Madeleine on the left, Emily on the right)

Emily (left) and Madeleine with their Lego house.

These "dresses" are actually very stretchy scarves Aunt Liz gave to us two years ago....however we discovered they are basically tubes and have converted them into evening wear. Emily on the left, Madeleine on the right.

I recently received an IM from my sister pointing out it had been over a month since I had updated the blog...this one is for you Aunt Liz.

Madeleine and Emily have been having a wonderful summer (aside from the random bug bites that seem to prompt all kinds of skin reactions - especially from Miss Emily).

We began the summer by discovering ice cream. In the interest of nutritional value the girls' mother had previously tried (repeatedly) to introduce ice cream and was met with total disdain. However, the stars must have aligned this time because on a trip to Baskin Robbins we were rather taken with the wide variety of options and both chose the most God-awful flavor available. A Flavor Of The Month, striving for patriotism in the form of being red, white and blue, called "America's Birthday Cake" (it was about 6 weeks before July 4th). This concoction was a combination of yellow cake, strawberry ice cream and blue frosting! The girls' mother had the sense to choose the same flavor or risk 88 questions about an opposing choice as well as rejection of the pre-schooler-selected-flavor. The ice cream was a hit (and we were even marginally polite to the two British couples who happened to sit near us) and Emily and Madeleine are now "culinarily" equipped to handle any romantic disasters that may be in their futures.

Emily

Madeleine

The local movie theater is once again running kids movies Tuesday through Thursday at 10 AM. We now make it through about 30 minutes at a time. Sadly, our TV viewing skills have improved, so I would hazard a guess we may make it through a feature-length film next summer. Currently, the main reason for attending seems to be the purchase of a kiddie popcorn (no butter please) and the joy brought about by watching other kids. Two weeks ago I made the mistake of referring to the 10-year-olds in front of us (who were jumping all over the place, being loud, etc.) who were there as part of their day camp as "awful"....I am now asked "Where are the awful kids?" when we enter the theater. I believe I was warned about little kids taking everything in and repeating who knows what.

Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right. Don't worry, it is my Diet Coke in the cupholder...the girls drink water!

In the vein of watching things on screens, the girls are once again fans of Little Einsteins on the Disney Channel (weekdays 8AM). The show is about 4 children who spend 25 minutes going on a "mission" of some sort. Each episode features a composer of classical music and a piece of art. The kids travel in their good friend "Rocket". The girls and I have decided we would like to travel by Rocket to Spokane in a couple of weeks. Emily and Madeleine want to go in Rocket because he has a closet of toys, a closet of snacks and a closet of musical instruments, plus he is piloted by children who simply push random colored buttons. I want to go in Rocket because he is used to having small children as his passengers, there are no curmudgeony airline employees and he can get from the mainland U.S.A. to the Austrian Alps in 45 seconds! I actually timed it on my watch...my life is stimulating.


We have also discovered The Muppet Show. I was a fan of the show when I was the girls' age and was happy to see it is out on DVD. However, one is never sure what will be a hit and what will be a miss and I didn't want to buy a miss... so I used Netflix to get disc one of season three. We are fans! Madeleine always chooses the episode with Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge as the guest stars (it is a hoot to hear her say "Kris Kristofferson") and Emily is the only three-year-old I know who is a devout fan of Gilda Radner, the guest star for Emily's favorite episode. The girls do not know there are three other discs in the season and will not discover this until we are airborne on the way to Spokane (alas aboard Southwest and not Rocket)....watch, it will be the idea of other episodes that will be the miss! I finally broke down and bought a portable DVD player for this trip...I hope it is worth it.

Speaking of traveling with kids I saw the following on a website and loved it "I'd like to say a few words to every crabby traveler who responds with disgust whenever a baby cries on an airplane. Perhaps you don't know how babies work, but there's been a study, and it turns out that giving a 4-month-old the stink eye doesn't actually accomplish anything. Either have a little compassion or a little Ambien." I'm seriously thinking of printing this on cards and handing it to the people who glare at the girls because they have the unmitigated gall to board an airplane and walk past people in their seats during the boarding process!! I hand out small packs of M&Ms to people around us once we find our seats (not kidding) as a peace offering - sad thing is you can actually buy people off for the 21 M&Ms in a minpack....may start handing candy to nice people and cards with this quote to mean people...my life as Santa's apprentice!

Upcoming trips aside, we recently attended the James City County Fair. For those readers who live in the vicinity of the Puyallup Fair, or even those who attend the Spokane County Fair...this would have fit in the parking lot! However, it was the right speed for our group. The girls went on their first pony rides (their shirts have stickers stating it is their first pony ride) and loved it. They sat there and held on as if they had been doing this equestrian stuff for quite some time. They also met some officers from the local police department who gave us classic texts such as "Police Officers Are Your Friends" and "Making Good Choices: Say No To Gangs", we each also got an ID card which made Mom happy and plastic police officer hats. Continuing our intro to emergency personnel...we got to see inside an ambulance and talk to an EMT who let us play with the doo-hicky they put on your finger to check your oxygen level. I learned that there are carseats built into the seats in an ambulance; there is a toddler seat that folds down from a seat and an inflatable infant seat that pops up from another. I hate to admit it, but this is reassuring as I have literally wondered what would happen if I was alone with them and one was seriously injured, what do you do with the other? You don't want to take the time to transfer carseats but you want her safe in transport, you can't leave her alone, we have no family here to call ...turns out ambulances are equipped to transport the whole family. We also learned that there are teddy bears on board who often need the pediatric patient to "take care of them" in transit by applying rolls of gauze and band-aids. Finally, we got to sit in a fire truck....all and all a big day!

Madeleine on Rosebud.

Emily on Ike.

Officer Emily on the left and Officer Madeleine on the right.

Emily

Madeleine

The girls have very much enjoyed being in separate Mother's Day Out classes. Madeleine goes to "school" on Thursdays and Emily goes on Fridays. On the day your sister is at school you get "alone time" with Mommy. One day I do the grocery shopping and the other day I do the everything-else-shopping at Target...the biggest challenge is to keep track of who went to which store last week so they can go to the other store this week. If there is a repeat and one girl goes on the same errands two weeks in a row; there is a serious scolding. When in the house we do exciting things like empty wastebaskets and fold laundry (shockingly these are the activities that are listed as the favorites....must encourage this love of chores).

Next Monday Madeleine and Emily start their first session of swimming lessons at the Y. It seems so much of parenting is having reasonable expectations. My expectation is that our two will be the two who sit on the side of the pool and howl while refusing to put any part of themselves, whatsoever, into the water....we'll see, I may be pleasantly surprised.


Happy (upcoming) Birthday to Aunt Liz and Uncle Kyle (the girls are glad to know there are other "tins" in the family!).