It's Gonna Blow!

Ever wonder what to do with all of that gray or cream colored play-dough that the kids created out of happier colors on colder days?

During a brief monsoon that tore through last weekend, we brought out all of those little yellow containers of barely malleable dough and made something new. Something better.


A volcano! It was Maya's idea. She had been to summer camp earlier in the week, and was in love with the relationship between baking soda and vinegar. Almost as in love with it as with her preschool-teacher-turned-summer-camp-organizer... the famous Miss Krysta.

Maya eyed the play-dough skeptically, assuring me that Miss Krysta did NOT use play dough.

Well, guess who made the cooler volcano? Yes, mom reigned supreme with this little trick. A tiny tea cup from the play room wedged into the dough perfectly holds a teaspoon or so each of vinegar and baking soda, plus a couple of drops of red food dye.


The predictable result mesmerized both girls. They took turns exploding and re-exploding the volcano until the rain stopped. It was the perfect rainy day project.

Frogs & Polliwogs

In spite of my earnest efforts not to over schedule their childhood, I enrolled the girls in a new, bi-weekly class. It is Frogs & Polliwogs at our much loved Tamarack Nature Center.


Elliot was both delighted and puzzled by her new status as student. The thinking went something like: "Yea! I get to stay with Maya and play with all this cool stuff... WHAT!? You want me to sit on the rug and listen to The Lorax... isn't that REALLY long? I think those blocks look fun. And look, this thing makes noise! No, no I'll sit, it's okay..... I'll just steam roll the other kids on the rug, that sounds fun. What? Still? Sit STILL? What's still?"

Luckily after story time they had a scavenger hunt and a craft and free time in the new and improved Wild Place. Maya, probably the oldest and by far the most chatty kid among the other eight 2.5 to 5-year-olds, lead the others in a painfully adorable game of birds. They nested in leaf piles, flew around looking for worms, and laid eggs.

They're already looking forward to the next class, and I have forgiven myself the added item on our agenda. Elle needs a class of her own, and they both love to visit Tamarack as much as I do.

An Eye for Detail

My sister and I recently treated Maya to a big girl adventure at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

To be clear, she's trying to draw an enormous Buddha.

This wasn't her first time, of course. Last year three-year-old Maya, accompanied by Elliot and her stroller, raced through a few exhibits before retiring to the children's lounge for a snack and some personal art creation.


This year, armed with a sheaf of papers and a handful of crayons, Maya examined each room carefully and quickly. She then selected her favorite piece in the exhibit, found a quiet place to draw the piece before her.

She started with Buddha, worked her way through a few pots, the Frank Lloyd Wright chair (which, thankfully, she did NOT sit in), and finally discovered a horse in the Native American gallery. That was her eureka moment, and for the rest of the trip she simply exclaimed "Wow, that is just beautiful," before leading us into the next room. Occasionally, she took a picture of pieces she really liked. Like this one.


I think she sincerely enjoyed the trip, and of course, her Aunt's company made it much more special and grown up than our last visit.

Kinderland

Maya spent an afternoon in Wonderland last week. All of the chairs were tiny (including the special potty), the leaders walked around with brightly colored balloons, and everyone traveled via a big yellow school bus.

For her and her lucky tag-a-long little sister, the entire event was magical.

Maya enjoyed the thrill of accomplishment when she realized her lifelong goal: to ride a school bus!

Elle enjoyed her ride too.

Maya quickly found her neighborhood friends while she met her teachers.

Doesn't she look bookish in my old glasses?

For Joe and I, who visited Wonderland only to fill out the paperwork required to enroll Maya in Kindergarten, it was a shocking moment of realization: our first born will soon attend school. Real school.

Luckily this whole new phase of parenting, the main stage event, doesn't start for many months. In the meantime, we have comically lovable preschool events to remind us how little Maya still is.

Her Valentine's pageant performance started strong, but she froze after the first song and hid from her audience.

Her favorite preschool friends snacked together, then played kitties & unicorns in the gym.

Oooh... Oobleck!

Do you and your kids want to banish cabin fever and spend an amusing hour in the kitchen that won't leave you with a pan of brownies to devour at 10pm? I do. We've made too, too many sweets this winter!

Luckily, google brings up a plethora of kitchen science experiments with a mere touch of a button. Do you own baking soda? Vinegar? Corn starch? Food coloring? Then you probably have a hundred different sciencey options for entertainment.


Oobleck is our favorite so far. This mysterious goo, created by mixing one part water to one and a half or two parts corn starch for ten minutes, was featured in Dr. Seuss's book Bartholemew and the Oobleck. In the book, reportedly, the oobleck rains down messy havoc on a kingdom.

We did not have the book. So as the girls mixed the goo, I told them my own version of the tale, conjuring up our favorite stand-by characters, Cuddles the Dragon and his best friend Art.

By the time Cuddles and Art had rescued their family from the sticky oobleck, the goo was activated.


If you punch it, it's a solid. If you lay your hands on it, they sink through it as if it's a liquid. If you squeeze it, it's a solid ball. Let go, and it oozes out like a liquid.


We kept a cup of water and some extra cornstarch in bowls on the table. As the oobleck became overworked and too solid, Maya added water to continue the fun. If she added too much water, a little cornstarch firmed it up.


This was the perfect hands on, messy, hilarious project for a snowy day. That is, a snowy day when dad is not home. We got oobleck EVERYWHERE! Thank goodness Elle likes to mop!

Photo Friday: Stylin' School Girl and Sister Sidekick

So far our biggest challenge with afternoon preschool is that poor Maya has to wait and wait and wait until it is time to go to school.

Now that she knows her new teacher, Miss Krista, and several of the girls from last year's class, she is thrilled to have her own big-kid place to go.


Unfortunately, Elliot so enjoyed Wednesday's class, when parents and siblings were invited to join preschoolers on their first day, that I had to haul her kicking and screaming from the building today. Let's hope a few days of the routine will cure her of that!

In a Flash

Labor Day weekend is behind us, and preschool kicks off tomorrow. In a flash, summer is over.

We drank in the last weekend of the season as fully as possible. We took in the Renaissance Festival, delighting in the extravagant costumes, odd and extensive entertainment, and frequent animal rides. We all had a good time except for the last 20 minutes of tatrum-throwing (more on the part of mom and dad than the children... we needed a nap!) and the late night tummy upset (fair food should have a kid-friendly rating system like television!).

The Petting Zoo

Joe loved the elephant ride more than anybody, but Maya has earned a lot of street cred around the neighborhood with her elephant expertise!

Both girls got pony rides.

Only Maya got to ride the big horse.

The whole family got in on the magic wand making... Hazzah! (that was the magic word)

We had lots of lazy family time in the backyard, and then invited some friends to share in the fun.

How could parents survive without a sandbox? It has been the most consistent distraction of the summer!

Today we even ran in the sprinkler.

Elliot's sprinkler dash - she moves as quickly as possible to avoid getting wet!

And now, as Maya quietly tells me she is afraid to go to preschool tomorrow and has no interest in meeting new friends, I protectively wonder if I should be homeschooling. At least in these early years.

Of course, by Friday she'll have an entire classroom of new friends, because that's how young children are. Wish us luck! Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the new, big girl room!

It's that Time of Year...

In Minnesota, our short spring is essentially the dawn of summer. As the long lazy days yawn before us, tantalizingly unscheduled, it's easy to get swept up in the activity frenzy.

The apple trees are in full bloom!

A fellow mom sent me into a tizzy, commiserating, "Now that Maya is in preschool, she'll want to be in a lot of activities to keep her from being bored this summer, won't she?"

What? A bored almost-four-year-old? Or a bored one-year-old? How can that be possible?

Maya insisted on making scarecrows to keep the birds from eating our newly planted seeds. Never one to throw a wet blanket on an out-of-season idea, I found some instructions online.... and by the time the head was finished, her scarecrow craving was satisfied. And they are a bit scary, I must admit.

I'm gearing up for adventure days in area parks, picnics in interesting places around the cities, and bug-catching in our own backyard. Today two hours slipped by in the park while Maya and Elliot toggled between chasing robins and playing "house" under two huge pine trees, serving me pine cone tea. Another hour or so was buried in the sandbox, along with three sets of feet and, according to Maya, a freshly caught worm (yuck! but I think she was teasing :).

I have now overheard at least four conversations in which stay-at-homers compare their scheduled events. Nearly all of them have included at least one 6 week long day camp that is more involved than their current preschool, in addition to swim lessons, a summer long sporting event, and some kind of art class. That makes summer busier than the school year!

Suddenly, I started wondering if one week of swim lessons and one week of day camp was enough to keep Maya... from getting bored.

Add to that a fresh batch of mommy guilt: I enrolled Maya in afternoon preschool next year so I could write during Elle's nap time. This means Elle won't get ECFE classes (offered only in the morning) unless I take them both... Meaning either Maya would have 3 afternoons and 1 morning totally booked OR Elliot may not be properly educated because she will miss out on critical pre-K curriculum.....

Can you tell I started to spiral, a bit? My love of unscheduled time warring with the pressure to give the girls every opportunity. Luckily I didn't spiral anywhere near the edge. Elle herself stopped me.

While pushing her and Maya in the park swings, Maya started counting each push: 1, 2, 3.... Elliot chimed right in... 4, 5, (six vanished), 7, 8.... all the way up to 14 give or take a number (like six).

At 19 months, she's counting. She's counting pretty well. To my knowledge, no one has actively taught her to count. I don't show her flash cards or sing counting songs. We do count chedder bunnies at snack time or geese in the sky, because Maya thinks that is fun. And Elliot has picked it up.

Forget ECFE. Forget the overscheduled summer. Random bits of exploration and free play will be more than enough to keep them from getting bored and falling behind.

The rides at Como Zoo have opened, and Maya will see to it that we revisit as often as possible.

Me too for that matter!

Attached, but Separating!

Delores has faded... enough at least to let us all attended class yesterday without feeling like bad people for exposing the rest of the kids.

Ha! As it turns out, everyone has been battling this little epidemic.

Elliot's Early Childhood & Family Education class is fantastic. Now in week 4, she still cries angrily when I leave her for the separation time, but according to the teacher she calms down quickly and really enjoys the other kids.

Her teacher attributed some of her comfort to the "transition item" that she's now attached to... I guess when I'm not there her lamby is the next best thing! Thanks Mimi!

Enough rambling. Here's a little anecdote about the sisters, and how grown up they are getting:

For five months, Elliot has waited with me outside Maya's classroom, quietly fascinated by the other little ones waiting to pick up their big brothers or sisters. For five months she has silently, somberly watched Miss Stephanie and Miss Leesa guide 20 exhausted preschoolers back from recess to their classroom for the end-of-day song.

Yesterday, after two hours of rowdy play in her own class, Elliot sat in my lap, munching on cheerios and waiting for Maya's class to finish their play time.

But yesterday, when she spotted Maya's pink snowsuit, Elliot leaped to her feet with the enthusiasm of Nancy Pelosi during President Obama's address last night. Performing her signature tap dance (Elliot's not Nancy's), she screamed "Maya, Maya, Maya" at the top of her tiny voice. Her hands waved, her little bum wiggled, and her new shoes stomped their excitement.

Maya turned, grinned, and reached across the heard of cats that were her fellow students to grasp Elliot's outstretched hand for a second. Then she looked over at her best friend (for the last two weeks) and said with pride, "That's my little sister."

"She's cute!" her three-year-old friend said. "Can she walk?" (She asked this while Elliot was still doing her Ginger Rogers imitation!)

"Oh yes," Maya said importantly, "She's a Toddler."

So there they were, my two little girls, with relationships all their own: Elliot and Maya, Maya and her friend. It was a fleeting glimpse of the independent people they'll become. Too sweet!

Quiet Days

Four bad colds have descended on the inhabitants of our house. Four hacking coughs, four sore throats, four sets of achey muscles.... Blah.



This has made for some quiet days. Rambunctious, stir crazy play lasts for all of ten minutes. It might be a ten minute dance party or ten minutes hiding from the Daddy Tickle Monster.

Last night it was ten minutes of an original one girl Broadway show featuring the never ending, made-up song, "I love," in which each line began with "I love" and ended with a long string of disconnected and exceedingly cute observations. Too bad her parents were too tired to write any of them down!

After 10 minutes of fun, though, everyone crashes. One minute Elliot is dressing her dolls and putting them in their doll bed, and the next, Maya has taken over the doll bed, insisting that she needs to take a pretend nap.

Countless movies, jars of Vics Vapor Rub, and teaspoons of honey have me wondering....

Why hasn't someone invented some sort of preschool body spray. As the kids enter their classroom, they're all doused in some sort of kid-friendly, carcinogen free, cold-killing goo (not purel, new research suggests that actually helps spread the common cold), and then again as they leave.

That way, maybe the families of preschoolers would be spared the 3,000 colds each season.

Ready, Set... Battle!

Marathon battles with a preschooler almost kept us from making it to class.

It was Elliot's first day of ECFE, a simple learn-how-to-be-away-from-mama sort of class, so all three of us needed to be dressed for public interaction (instead of jammies under our coats.... I confess, Elliot and I don't always get put together before dropping Maya off).

I started early... an hour early! Elliot and I were dressed and ready.

Unfortunately, Maya fell apart over nearly every decision.

Which princess unders to wear? She wanted the pair still in the laundry....

Which ponytail holder to wear? It took me 20 minutes to figure out that she wanted me to braid it.... after first trying everything right down to putting Christmas ribbons in there....

Which pair of mittens to put on? Of course she found one with no mate....

It was exhausting! I almost called the whole thing off..... I almost threw my own tantrum....

Thankfully, I didn't. Elliot loved her class, keeping up with a room full of two year olds without any trouble. Maya learned the letter "O", and I got to spend an hour with other adults, drinking coffee, and talking about how hopeful we all are about the new administration.

And the girls were so worn out that they practically put themselves down for a nap. Contrary to my instincts, a rough start doesn't always mean we should crawl back into bed.

The Newest Writer

Thanks to Lynda, child-caretaker extraordinaire, Maya has been writing "M"s since she was about 20 months old. Now, just a few weeks into preschool, she can write M-A-Y-A with ease, not to mention that she can identify all of the letters on her Obama/Biden stickers (hee hee).

Amid my pride is a little guilt. Clearly I should have been working with her on her letters. If I had been diligent since she first scrawled that M on her coloring book almost two years ago, she could probably be reading at a seventh grade level or something, right?

No, no, I did work with her, on her name and on letter recognition. When I tried to make time for that here at home, she wasn't all that interested. She much prefers to play with her Little People stuff or tear around in the backyard running from "not-so-nice monsters."

The key, I think, was other kids. At Lynda's, her older friend was working on writing his name, and now at school, she's got 20 little friends practicing the same skill.

Clearly, preschool was a good choice.

Updates & a Recipe

It's been a while since I've offered up a general update... I'll conclude with an awesome apple pancake recipe, so stick with me.

1. Sleep Training: Elliot is doing pretty well, falling asleep on her own after many visits and pats on the back from Joe and I. She's only nursing right away in the morning and right before bed, with a snack in the middle of the night more often than not. Progress... We want to get her over that nightly wake up.... but progress all the same.

2. Orchard: We had a fantastic weekend adventure at a local apple orchard. We went with friends, who took the best pictures! Check it out at Adventures of Erik, Shana, & Anya. It was a fabulous place for adventure, with hay rides, apple picking, really aggressive goats at the petting zoo, hiking trails, and a stack of hay bales to climb.... The girls loved it!

3. Chickens: We're still getting 4 or 5 eggs a day, but we're also researching whether to put a light in the coop to keep them laying through the winter. Joe has added insulation to the coop, and has rigged a system to heat them on the coldest of days. More on that later.

4. Preschool: Maya is still loving it, bringing home loads of art projects that I don't know quite what to do with it. We may start sending them to family in the mail... remember snail mail etiquette. If you get a letter from Maya, please, PLEASE send her one back. She checks the mail every day!

5. And, as promised, the recipe. The apple orchard has inspired an apple pie, apple cake, apple sauce, and our favorite so far, German Apple Pancake. It's easy to make and sooo tasty. Let me know if you try it!

First Friends

We joined some friends for coffee today, and capped it off with a walk to the local duck pond. This is truly the perfect outing, satisfying all of our various mid-morning cravings:

*Maya got to hang with her friend Sam, show off her protective big sister skills, drink a frothy steamer, and run around the park feeding hungry ducks.
*Poor, sniffling Elliot got to stare wonderingly at her little friend Molly and watch the world pass by from the comfort of her stroller.
*I was pampered with coffee and conversation with my own friend, plus I got rid of a bunch of stale bread!





Maya is all about her friends lately. The newness of her preschool class has worn off, so all of the kids are enthusiastic each morning. They greet each other with gusto and barely wave as their parents rush off to work or errands or a coffee shop.

Her new favorite game before bedtime is to pretend she is the teacher, Miss Stephanie. She sits in a chair, holds a book for Joe, Elliot, and I to see, and says loudly, "This is our new friend Grant, Hi Grant!." She turns the page, saying, "This is our new friend Stella, Hi Stella."

When she runs out of names, she makes me rack my brain to remember the other kids' names from her class. I can only guess that Miss Stephanie has taken pictures of the kids and assembled a book to help them learn everyone's name.