The First Week of Preschool
Yesterday was Miss’s first day of preschool. She was excited, though a bit apprehensive.
When she got to school she did a great job of getting into playing with other kids at first. Her teacher told me she had a bit of a hard time a few times during the day, and Miss told me herself again, “I cwied because my want you.” Overall it was a pretty good first day though, I think.
Lass and I spent some fun time together. Rather than drive the almost 30 minutes back home, we went to a local cafe where there are lots of toys and kids to play with.
They also had a little free music class that we got into a bit. She seemed to enjoy her one on one time with Mom.
We were both happy to go get big sis though. Miss was pretty quiet about her day at school, but I tried to make a big deal out of what a big girl she was and how special her first day was. Here she’s holding up her back pack before we got in the car. She’s also holding a Wish Bear Care Bear that my Auntie got her. She takes that thing everywhere with her. Fortunately I convinced her to leave it in her back pack during her school time.
We went back to the cafe where Lass and I had spent the morning for a special “First Day of School Lunch,” complete with a special “First Day of School Chocolate Chip Cookie Treat.”
After lunch I watched Miss interact with some older kids in a new way. She walked up to them and said, “Hi. What are you doing?” Then she proceeded to play with them, and even asked them to play catch with her. Her teacher had mentioned when I picked her up that day that one of the things Miss had a little bit of trouble with at school was initiating play with the other kids, so I wondered if this new behavior was a result of something her teacher had taught her just that day (her teacher confirmed this when I took her to school this morning, and I was really excited to be seeing new skills already).
Today was the second day of school, and the last of her school “week.” It was both better and worse. It started out worse. When Miss woke up and I told her we had to get going to get ready for school, she said, “I don’t wike it Mommy. Can you come to school with me?”
We managed to get ready and head out to school, only for her to tell me again and again (in the parking lot as soon as she realized where she was, right inside to door, at her designated coat area, etc.) that she didn’t like it. She grabbed on to my legs and buried her face in my knees. It was not fun. Then she said, “I don’t want that girl to grab me,” in response to which her teacher explained that another one of the really young students had been trying to hug Miss and play with her the day before and Miss had gotten upset. So her teacher and I talked to her about this and how to handle it, and then her teacher mentioned that they were going to play with a water table that day. She perked up at that. My girl loves to play with water. However, she was still super clingy and wouldn’t let go of my legs, so I asked the teacher what I should do. She suggested I take Miss over to choose her “job” for that day. They have a job board with lots of different classroom chores on it, and each child gets to choose their job for the day and clip a clothespin with their name on it to the job of their choice. Keeping with the water theme and something I know she loves to do at home, I asked Miss if she’d like to help water the plants that day as her job. She smiled and agreed and clipped her clothespin on the board. She loves water. She loves plants. Bingo.
Photos from today after school. She’s wearing the new tutu I made for her last night.
As we were putting her clothespin on the board, she saw the other kids playing and got excited to go play with them. She barely remembered to give me a kiss goodbye. But I did tell her I was leaving and gave her a kiss and off she went to play. So far, so good.
Then I kind of screwed it up. I saw another mom I know as I was walking out the door and stopped to chat with her for a minute, in view of the door. Miss saw me and I heard her start crying. It was all I could do to not run back into the classroom. I got a panicky feeling and felt my body lean towards the door, as if, independently from my mind, it almost had to go to her. But I didn’t. I knew it would be better if I just left. I trust her teachers. And it all turned out okay.
When I went to pick her up today, she was smiling and telling me about the fun things she had done that day. She loved the water table and her snack and doing their daily yoga pose. And the best thing? Several times since leaving school today she has said, “I wike it Mommy.” Next week will be easier.
Animal Farm
Fall will be here soon. It’s my favorite season. In the fall I get all excited about going to new outdoor places and soaking up every possible moment of the beautiful weather, before Winter hits us like a slap in the face…
Yesterday we checked out a local animal farm, where they have all sorts of cool animals to look at and feed. When I paid our admission, we were given three bags of bread and told we could feed any of the animals we wanted, but just to “watch our fingers.” Miss got right to feeding some goats.
We had seen two beautiful peacocks walking around free right after we drove onto the property. As we went further, we saw there were lots of animals roaming around out in the open. I noticed one of the peacocks near where we were standing and tried to get a great photo of it. I was not successful. See that goat behind the peacock?
Shortly after I took this photo, that guy and one of his pals accosted us, trying to steal my bread and completely freaking Lass and Miss out. Lass was in her stroller, doing a great job, and Miss had been feeding the smaller caged goats. These two insane goats practically stood on top of the stroller, trying to get at the stack of bread I had pulled out of the bag and the pieces that had fallen on the ground. There was a cat trying to climb into Lass’s lap too. Needless to say, I forgot all about the peacock as I was frantically trying to strap on my Ergo while Miss was working on climbing up my leg saying, “Hold me Mommy! Hold me Mommy!” and Lass was screaming bloody murder. One of the women working there came over and started trying to pull the goats away just as I was getting Lass into the Ergo, her favorite spot.
I ended up pushing an empty stroller for the rest of our visit. It was a good spot to hold the bread I guess.
Fortunately, Miss quickly forgot about the goat attack and was right back into feeding them.
This guy kind of made her nervous though.
I thought he was really fun to feed. His tongue was super long and funny.
Miss kept getting freaked out though and dropping her bread each time he’d stick his tongue out to grab it. By the way, if you can’t tell from the photos, this guy is a buffalo. I think. They had Bison there too, but they were separate, and I’m pretty sure this guy was a buffalo. There were water buffalo too, which Miss thought was pretty fun, since we recently got the book, “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” in which there is a water buffalo.
This is the guy who freaked me out a little bit. Just for a second. With each of the animals we fed, I gave them a piece of bread before letting Miss do it, just to make sure it wasn’t going to take her little arm off or anything. When I held out a piece of bread to this ostrich, he stretched his neck out and grabbed at it so quickly, he startled me so much I jumped back, let out a screech, and dropped my bread.
After a second try though, he really was pretty friendly. Miss had no trouble feeding him.
She love seeing the ostrich eggs and kept asking if she could go get one and were they going to hatch. I thought it odd that they were just lying all around on the ground like that.
There were a few other odd things about the place. Like the fact that a stretch of our tour led us through this area that was full of trash,
and these. There were a bunch of them just in a pile in the trash area. Notice several of them still have fur on them? One was even a bit more fresh, but I didn’t take a photo of that one. Weird.
And many of the animals clearly needed a bit of grooming.
But, Miss didn’t even notice all that stuff. I just looked past it, after taking some photos of course, and we really did have a lot of fun.
There were so many different types of animals to see and being able to feed them was great.
Camels.
Horses. Miss loved the horses. And I loved seeing her run right up near them and then stop and stare, up, up, up at these big guys.
Lass enjoyed the horses too.
I was trying to get a photo showing how she was interested in them. What I got instead was a horse nipping my shoulder. I snapped this photo right as the big black and white one was taking a nibble. It didn’t hurt, but scared the heck out of me for a second.
I thought this pig was so funny, but was bummed that he didn’t want anything to do with us. We had to just drop our piece of bread for him, and he didn’t even sniff at it until we had walked on by.
Miss did get to feed some other pigs later though.
I loved this fawn. It ate out of our hands, and made this funny little squeaking sound asking for more.
The bison.
Eyeore.
This guy was a miniature dwarf pony. He was one of my favorites.
This guy was a miniature dwarf pony. He was one of my favorites.
Birds.
Turtles.
I think these were porcupines.
There were a lot more animals too. When I asked Miss what her favorite was though, she said, “The cats.”
She loved this little bunny too.
And so did Lass.
It was a fun day. I’m glad we have something like this place nearby. I still have to take the girls to the bigger zoo soon though. Miss keeps asking to see giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceroses. So we’ll make that trip soon.
It was a fun day. I’m glad we have something like this place nearby. I still have to take the girls to the bigger zoo soon though. Miss keeps asking to see giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceroses. So we’ll make that trip soon.343
It’s been 10 years since that Tuesday no one will ever forget.
I was thinking today about the moments from that day that hit me the hardest. I’m sure everyone has has certain memories that have stuck with them most clearly. For me, the image, and particularly the sound, that seared my soul and burned into my memory that day was the sound of the distress alarms going off on the firefighters when they began showing footage of ground zero and the rescue efforts. I will never forget hearing so many piercing reminders of all the firefighters and other rescue personnel who were running into the World Trade Center buildings when everyone else was running out. I have a huge respect for firefighters. I have two of them very dear to my heart.
My Dad and Brother (and my nephew!), both professional firefighters (Dad retired).
I think this was the day my brother was made Captain.
A more recent photo of my brother after he ran the Firefighter Combat Challenge last year. He’s on the far left.
343 firefighters and paramedics died in the attacks on 9/11/01. That is well over ten percent of the total number of people killed that day. I am remembering them today.
Cheech and Chong
Today, when we were getting ready for the day, I swore, for a brief moment of “where the heck did she get that?” that Miss was saying, “Cheech and Chong” over and over. I started to crack up about it, but realized all too quickly that she was actually saying, “teeth and tongue.” She was playing with a doll and I suspect she was brushing its teeth. Damn. “Cheech and Chong” would have been funny. But even without that, my kid is pretty amusing. I love those moments when she says something that cracks me up. She does it more and more often these days.
An example of this occurred in the grocery store checkout the other day. We were waiting for the bagger to get the last of our stuff in the cart. Miss said she was hungry and I told her that we were going to go home in a few minutes to have lunch. I then asked her what she might like to eat. Without skipping a beat she replied, “A lemon.” She was so serious about this I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. And she continued to ask for a lemon to eat, all the way home, during lunch, and the next day. I kept telling her that I needed to use the lemon we had purchased that day for a recipe, but she kept asking. Today when it was time for her snack I suggested apple yogurt. She said, “No, I fink my want a lemon.” I had realized, when cooking my recipe that required a lemon last night, that I actually had another, extra lemon in the fridge, so this time I said, “Sure. Hop up to the table and you can have a lemon for your snack.” I was chuckling to myself about this, but she surprised me. She took several bites and kept asking for more.
She didn’t shudder. Didn’t make a sour face. She seemed to love it.
She got to her third wedge of lemon before finally giving a little shudder.
Then a big shudder and sour face.
She then held her lemon wedge out to me and said, “Apple yogurt please!”
Today the weather was perfect. A beautiful late summer, early fall day with sun and a breeze and a temp of about 75. I decided it was a park day. Lass loves hats, and was so excited when I pulled out her bonnet for the park trip.
As we were getting loaded up to go to the park I happened to think, “It’s Thursday, I’ll bet I could find a few rummage sales on the way.” So I took a slightly circuitous route to the park to look for some sales along the way. I found two. They were crap. Seriously, the first one had deodorant for sale for 75 cents. Deodorant! 75 cents! So wrong. I didn’t look any further because I wanted the girls to have plenty of time at the park before lunch. We went to a new park today and Miss had a blast checking out all the new stuff there.
Of course there was a lot of swinging.
This park has a splash pad, which I assumed was turned off. One little boy apparently touched the magic spot to turn it on, and Miss immediately asked to go play in the water.
The little spouts of water shot up in a sporadic manner, so Miss got doused by a couple of them.
She didn’t seem to care. And Lass had fun putting her hands in the water from the Ergo.
This place is my new favorite park.
We came home to get dry clothes, eat lunch and take naps, and then went back to the beautiful day outside. We took a walk, which was very short because Miss requested to walk by herself instead of riding in the stroller. As she was walking she went onto a neighbor’s lawn and started to take her shoes off. I told her she needed to keep them on while we were walking and she informed me that she wanted to feel the grass under her feet. All right. She agreed to keep her shoes on until we were in our own yard, and then we all promptly took off our shoes to feel the tickle of the grass under our feet. Lass got a big kick out of this. Miss and I danced and shuffled our feet. This resulted in some heckling from my hubby who was inside changing clothes after work. The heckling resulted in a dazzling display of the Running Man by yours truly. The evening was topped off by grilled homemade brats, football on the telly, and very soon, ice cream. I love days like today. My spoon is calling me.
Chopped – Back in Action
I haven’t posted anything about my latest Chopped at home adventures in a while. Initially this was because it took me forever to get plantains. You might remember that my last three ingredients were plantains, tofu, and bacon bits. Well, my grocery store didn’t have plantains, so I ordered them from an online produce vendor. Then I waited. And waited. As time passed and we were coming up on our trip to Florida (yes, a month ago), I called the vendor and asked what the deal was. He said it had been too hot to ship the plantains, but they were planning to do so that weekend. I said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” since that weekend was when we would be leaving for Florida for a week. Anyway, to make a long story short, we went to Florida, came home, and I ended up finding plantains at a local grocery store where I prefer not to shop. Ingredients in hand, I proceeded to the cooking part.
And that’s where the second delay in my writing about the experience come in. It has been over a week since I created dinner from the above listed ingredients. I have just been too ashamed to tell about it. Okay, I’m not really that melodramatic, but I was bummed by how my meal turned out, especially on the heels of The Pickled Herring Disaster. Here was my plan – Slice the plantains, pan fry them in some oil with garlic and chopped bacon bits, then mash them with butter and put them back in the pan for a second fry. I still think this was an excellent idea, I just didn’t execute it well. For the tofu, I got the extra firm variety, planning to coat it with seasoned flour, dip in egg, then coat with panko bread crumbs and more chopped bacon bits and pan fry. I figured the panko would give some good texture to contrast the mushiness of tofu and the S&P and bacon bits would add flavor to the blandness of it. This was executed just fine, but the idea wasn’t so excellent.
I got my pan way too hot while struggling with getting the peels off the plantains. I thought they would peel off easily like a regular banana. Not so much. It took me forever to peel the darn things. Especially with two screaming children getting into all sorts of mischief under my feet. So, as I mentioned, my pan got way too hot. My garlic got burned. I was distracted and did not tend to my plantains as I should have. The plantains got burned. They were then hard and dry and would not mash. And they tasted burned. The tofu on the other hand was nicely coated, had a nice crunchy exterior, and absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Grade? D- I’d say.
What would I do differently if I had even the slightest desire to ever cook plantains or tofu again (I’m only sort of joking here)? I’d not get my pan so hot and would cook the plantains more slowly. Then I would follow my original plan and I think it would turn out well. I would probably do something entirely different with the tofu, like buy the soft version (what I used in the delicious Tofu Chocolate Pudding I made) and make a sauce or something with it and just pick a different protein entirely on which to put it. Or, I would marinate it. I learned this past weekend from my husband’s cousin that this is crucial when preparing tofu. Like, marinate the heck out of it. Who knew?
I drew my next ingredients the other night and was relieved to get some more normal foods. Spaghetti squash, spinach, and merguez sausage. The only ingredient here that might give me a little bit of trouble is the sausage, because I’ve never had it before. It is a North African sausage made with lamb, which I think will have a bit of a smoky, spicy, slightly sweet flavor. My husband is making it as I type this. I am excited for this round, and am looking forward to hopefully cooking up another home run. I’m due, I think.
A Week to Remember
We got back late last night from a long, tiring, yet fun-filled ten days at the Farm. The girls grew so much during the week it seems, with so much to do and so many loving people around to do it with. Both sets of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, a gazillion cousins. They saw cool and interesting things and had new experiences. This bird’s nest is just one example of the treasure trove of nature that is the Farm.
The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s made mostly of pieces of baling twine, twisted intricately around the branches and woven with grass, and probably other stuff. The general consensus was that it was probably an oriole’s nest. We didn’t bring it back with us, though that would have been a hell of a find for Miss to take to preschool. Miss’s Baba also gave her a robin’s egg, but we forgot that too. Miss saw deer, a coyote, a huge praying mantis, the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a glass case, a stick bug, and on and on. She really loved checking out the milkweed pods and walnuts that she found on the ground.
A different kind of new experience came for her in the form of corn. She has had sweet corn many times that I cut off the cob for her, but this week she had her first try at eating it right off the cob. She thought that was pretty cool.
But much more thrilling was her first ride on the “Great Big Mable” float pulled behind my in-law’s boat.
She didn’t seem scared in the slightest.
Just waving and smiling. My little daredevil.
Right after coming in from the boat and Mable ride, she went fishing with her Daddy. They caught several fish, and she had lots of fun with the worms.
One fish broke off their hook, so Miss sat and watched for fish with my mom while her Daddy went to get a new hook.
Then they were back in business.
Poor Lass is too little to get in on lots of the action her sister is getting into now, but she had great fun playing with her cousins. She really started moving with her walking this week too. Though she took her first steps shortly after turning 11 months, she never really got going with walking, and in fact until a few days ago, had almost stopped trying entirely. Now she’s really getting into it, choosing to walk instead of crawling more and more often, and stringing together more and more steps.
After her fishing time with her Dad, Miss got ready to go for a treasure hunt. She got all ready in her boots and headed out to the Ranger. The treasure hunt is one of my favorite things about the farm.
Tons of kids and adults pile on the Rangers and go off to explore and look for treasures of all kinds. I used to love going on treasure hunts when I first started coming to the Farm almost a decade ago. I was always the “City Mouse” to my husband’s “Country Mouse” family, and thoroughly enjoyed going out and being awed by all the finds. It’s a hundred times more fun to do it now with my kids.
We stopped to pick lots of wild flowers, which Lass loved.
Then we got down to the beach, where the kids splashed around and looked for shells and critters.
There were tons of tiny frogs hopping all around and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. Miss got to hold one that her older cousin caught for her. She also found a snake that her uncle grabbed up for her. That girl and her snakes…
Lass enjoyed the beach too.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it. Today we savored the trip and each other, happy to be home and back in our routine. Summer is winding down quickly here in the North Country. Today was crisp and felt very much like fall already. Football has started (Go Blue!). And preschool starts this week! Loving every minute.
A Snake and a Cake
We had Lass’s birthday party on Saturday. We are at the Farm, and are so lucky to have such a wonderful place to have a party. A perfect example of how things often happen here is that one of the girls’ cousins found a snake shortly before the party started and brought it up to the house. Everyone was shying away from it, except Miss of course.
She thought it was pretty cool.
It was a dead snake,
It was a dead snake,
but she didn’t care. I love, love, love that my girls can have experiences like this. Miss was not squeamish in the least about holding that snake, and that makes me smile.
Something else that makes me smile is a first birthday party. I like birthdays. I like celebrating my girls’ birthdays, but there is something just a little extra special about a first birthday.
Something else that makes me smile is a first birthday party. I like birthdays. I like celebrating my girls’ birthdays, but there is something just a little extra special about a first birthday.
It’s seeing the look on the face of my littler girl, who has never really had cake before, when she sees it for the first time. A special little cake just for her.
It’s feeling her excitement when everyone sings a song all together, just for her.
It’s this look of “Can I really? Really?”
And then the laughter and joy in watching her gradually try it out
and finally dig in.
She spent a few minutes just squishing her hands in the cake, loving the feel of it.
And then she remembered, “Oh yeah, this stuff tastes good too!”
I love this!
Getting ready to dive in…
Yum!!!
Washing it all down.
How many shots does it take to get our little family photo with everyone looking at the camera and smiling? Not so easy with a 2.5 year old, a 1 year old, and a cake sitting in front of both of them. In the first attempt, we did pretty well. Lass had already had her fill of cake. Unfortunately, Miss hadn’t gotten her piece yet, and she couldn’t take her eyes off Lass’s totally destroyed cake.
Second try? Miss stole a pinch of cake, and Lass didn’t like it too much.
Third try? Lass decided she’s better eat more before her sister got it all.
Oh well. They’re great photos anyway. Thanks to my Auntie for taking them (and for coming to the party from 3 hours away… and picking up the cakes…)
Big sister finally got her cake and ice cream.
She even shared with Grandpa.
And the clean up effort.
It was a wonderful day and a perfect party. So many family members came to celebrate with us, and that always means so much to us. Huge props to my in laws for letting us have this special event at their Farm. I know Lass won’t remember this day, but I’m thrilled to have these great photos to show her when she gets older. And the day is indelibly imprinted in my memory, just as Miss’s first birthday party a year and a half ago is. I love a first birthday party.
It was a wonderful day and a perfect party. So many family members came to celebrate with us, and that always means so much to us. Huge props to my in laws for letting us have this special event at their Farm. I know Lass won’t remember this day, but I’m thrilled to have these great photos to show her when she gets older. And the day is indelibly imprinted in my memory, just as Miss’s first birthday party a year and a half ago is. I love a first birthday party. Happy Birthday Lass!
My baby turned one today. She has been such a beautiful addition to our family.
She is the perfect sister for Miss. She laughs at her at all the right times, gives lots of love and hugs, and tolerates Miss’s ever increasing “muggings,” I mean hugs, fairly well.
She is such a happy girl and brings so much fun and laughter to our family.
She’s my little snuggle bear and I love how much she likes to cuddle.
The past year has just flown by. Today was for celebrating our beautiful Lass.
So, we went to the small local zoo for a play date. It was kind of dingy and pitiful, but the girls didn’t know that.
Goats and cows? Right on!
We also saw llamas, a wolf, elk, a lynx, and some monkeys. Lass is not a huge fan of her stroller, so I was really happy that she was riding in it at the start of the outing. Then we got to the monkey cage, where those noisy things scared the crap out of her, and I had to wear her the rest of the day.
I just had to share the photos of Miss climbing on this turtle. The park I went to when I was little had a turtle just like this, which I had completely forgotten about! Ah, the silly things that will make me nostalgic…
After dinner we had ice cream for a birthday treat, and then Lass opened a few of her presents. We are going to the Farm on Friday and having her party there on Saturday, so we’ll take some of her presents there with us, but today she opened the bigger ones that we don’t want to take.
She really didn’t even seem to care that we didn’t get this put together yet.
I got this Dora dollhouse from Ebay for a steal! The girls played with one of these a few months ago and loved it, and I loved that they could both easily play with it together and that it folds up pretty compactly. Score.
Naturally Lass tried to climb it.
Happy Birthday Lass.