Mary's here!

Everyone wants a bit of Mary time

Very early on Friday morning (before the rest of us even got up), Clark quietly slipped out of the house and started off on his adventure to the beautiful island of Hawaii. This left Juniper and Linden and I almost two full days to decide what to do with ourselves before the much anticipated arrival of my mother later on Saturday. I had plans - big plans.  We were going to do a bunch of fun stuff.  But, of course, just as Clark left, I got an unexpected visitor, in the form of a pretty awful cold/flu.  Oh, and I had also just gotten a tetanus booster the day before. So I woke up on Friday, almost completely unable to function.  My whole body ached. My throat was almost too sore to talk, I couldn't use my left arm at all, and my head was in danger of completely exploding. I barely felt like I could move.  And I had two very bouncy, demanding little hooligans who had a WHOLE lot of energy to burn off.  There was no way I was getting dressed, let alone rallying to leave the house.  Friday was not a good day.

I did, however, survive, and we even made it out of the house on Saturday, and then (finally), my mom pulled into the driveway around suppertime on Saturday.  Phew!  She currently has them out for an adventure at the children's museum this morning, which is a very good thing.  Though I am nowhere nearly as badly off as I was that first day, I'm still pretty unwell. Consequently, I have a very, VERY limited reservoir of patience or ability to deal with things like appropriate clothing "discussions" or hair brushing fiascos with Juniper, or constant damage control situations with Linden.  A little space (even for a couple of hours), will likely do us all some good.

I always have a host of willing helpers in the kitchen

So, now that it is Monday, this full Clark-less week has begun, and we will see how it goes.  Hopefully it will be mostly pretty fun. Last week was also out of the ordinary, as it was school break around here, which meant that Juniper had no preschool at all.  Linden, however, still did.  This meant that for the first time in as long as I can remember, Juniper and I had a "mommy-daughter" day all to ourselves.  That was pretty darn fun, actually.  We went a nice walk, ran a bunch of errands, took some games to Starbucks and played them, Juniper got to skip her nap and do some painting instead…. what more could you ask for?  

Our walk on "girls day"

We were actually supposed to have two full days to ourselves, but Thursday got derailed - I had that doctor's appointment in the morning (complete with the evil Tetanus booster), and then we had to pick Linden up early from daycare, as he had spent the entire morning crying.  Yes, folks - I spoke too soon.  Linden's first week at daycare was (as I wrote about last week) pure bliss, and then his second week ended in full-on disaster.  Linden actually told Clark as they were driving to daycare on Thursday morning that he was going to cry, and then as they were walking up to the door, he was exclaiming, "no go to school! Let's go home - I play with toys at home, and snuggle on couch with mama"!  Ummm, talk about breaking my heart.  Who knows?  Maybe he was feeling as completely crap-tastic as me (he seems to have a version of this virus as well), and he'll be feeling much more like playing at school this week.  I sure hope so - nothing like having the emotional swing of complete success followed by complete failure. 

Fancy, fancy dancers (Juniper now enforces a "fancy dress and pantyhose" rule for all dancers in her productions. Linden is more than happy to oblige.

 Alright - I'm going to shower while I have the chance, and then prepare for a talk I'm giving at the library tonight on folklore (if I still have a voice by then, that it is).  See you next week!

Oh, February

Linden, avidly watching his dad shovel snow

February.  What a sneaky month.  So short, and yet it drags on so, doesn't it?.  Clark is about to escape this cold (and at times) dreary February as he jets off to Hawaii, attending a big annual oceanography conference, and leaving us in our little winter wonderland to fend for ourselves.  That's actually not entirely true… my mother will be arriving only a couple of days after Clark leaves, so really I have nothing to complain about, other than the fact that I am not ALSO going to Hawaii.  Another time, I suppose.

Sliding with Liz

So, the big news around here is that the past week was Linden's first two days at daycare. And how did it go, you ask? Honestly, it was as though he has been going for many months.  He LOVES it. There were a few tears shed on the first day, but they were not Linden's - they were mine (and only a few brief ones, I promise).  You have to understand that, despite the ups and downs that go along with being your kid's sole provider for most of the week, for better or for worse, you have a constant side-kick.  This makes his absence - for two FULL days - very tangible. But I am quite encouraged by his first week, and I think it will likely be very good for both of us, so I am embracing it as whole-heartedly as I can.

Making a snowperson

Other than that, we have been enjoying this unusually cold and snowy winter as fully as possible, with a ridiculous amount of snow play and sliding, and warming ourselves with blankets and snuggles and books (and meeting one particularly handsome brand new baby named Eli!).  This is, of course, the flip side to cold, dreary old February - it does bring some fun as well, if you go looking for it.

Winter at it's most beautiful

Juniper, hard at work at Clark's office, one morning when I had Linden in for his annual check-up

And… what else?  I realized recently that I have not been noting quotes very often, and I really should.  Here are some gems I have collected from Juniper recently:

(this one will be familiar to anyone who saw me post it to Facebook):
•"Sometimes, when I'm standing there, and people are talking, and talking and talking, I just think 'boooooorrrrring!'"

(the other day, in the car, a propos of nothing):
•Mom, you don't look like an adult - you look like a teenager."

(While working on a Valentine's Day card for me):
• "Mom, when you see what I have drawn for you, your heart won't even be able to stand it, because it is so beautiful and full of love"

(When I asked her to stop doing something that was likely particularly annoying, she stomped her foot, gave an exasperated sigh, and said):
•"Mom, why are you ALWAYS disturbing me?"

(Upon asking what is for dinner):
• "Oh my gosh, I LOVE lasagna.  I LOVE it.  I wish I could eat it every day, all day long, breakfast, lunch and supper.  And you know whose lasagna I love the most?  Yours.  I love all your cooking the best" (I swear to god, that is how it went down.  Then again, the next day, when she asked what was for supper, and I said "carrot soup", she wrinkled her nose and said "yuck.  I don't like the taste of that in my mouth." So, you know. Take it when you can get it, I suppose.)

Have a great week!

100!

This is Linden on a humid day!

Welcome to my 100th blog post!  That seems somewhat incredible! I haven't really whipped up anything crazy to celebrate… in fact, I actually don't even have much by way of stories to share. We had a really nice week, and a gloriously beautiful, sunny, snow-covered weekend.  I do, however, have a few pictures, and TWO videos!

Beautiful snow-covered trees

Tower-building is a serious activity these days.

"Look, mama!  It's a banana-phone!"

Suiting up for the Nutcracker

This is why you must always strap Linden into his seat.

Clark and the kids went sliding On Saturday AND Sunday this weekend.  On Saturday's adventure, they were joined by our friend Peter and his son Oliver.  Peter is the lucky owner of a GoPro (Clark is more than a little jealous), so he hooked it up, and then made an awesome video: 

Sledding with Clark, Linden, Juniper and Oliver from Peter Gaube on Vimeo.

And finally, I bring you an instalment I entitle "Cooking with a 2-Year-Old".  See you next week!

Growing Up...

Frozen pond explorers

I feel like perhaps I am starting to enter a new era with Linden.  We just got word that there is finally (finally) a spot open for him at one of the local daycares. He's been on multiple lists at multiple daycares for almost an entire year… it is not very easy to find care around these parts unless you are at least 2 years 9 months old. My plan had been to start him a couple of days a week in the fall so as to have some designated time in which to finish my PhD thesis, but obviously that was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be.  So, in a couple of weeks, Linden will start going for two full days a week. 

Peeling his own tangerine

I am struggling with this a bit more than I thought I would… the daycare (though I'm sure completely competent) is also very institutional, and is not somewhere I would choose to send either of my kids if given multiple options.  It is also prohibitively expensive. And then there's the fact that you're never quite ready to hand your child over to someone else during the day, even though he is well over 2 at this point.  But I have been paying tuition since the fall and not getting much done, so this will hopefully be great in that respect.  Also, I think it will be wonderful for Linden to get to play with a whole bunch of kids his own age in the course of a week.  Hopefully these goods will outweigh the bads.

Truth be told, Linden is getting older.  He peels his own fruit (see above), helps with dinner prep (see below), talks in almost full sentences (the other day, he said "ummm… yeah. I not done yet.  Need to finish my cracker first").  Maybe I'm struggling with that a bit as well :) 

Fastidiously peeling a carrot

Not much else to report over here - everyone is a little under the weather, and therefore there haven't been all that many adventures or pictures from this past week.  But every year, when I put together calendars, I find my February choices pretty dismal.  So this month I will try very hard to remedy that - I will be very conscious of taking as many great pictures as I can, despite the inevitable dismalness that is February!