Another wet afternoon at the circus

Apparently, my admonitions to "keep the water in the sink" did not have the intended effect...

We recently borrowed "Mary Poppins" from the library and let the girls watch it for our weekly pizza-movie-picnic night. The girls were much impressed by the scene in which Mary Poppins doles out medicine on spoons. (They've never gotten medicine from a spoon -- only from a syringe or a tiny cup.) When I set the girls up at the sink for water play, Kathleen decided to help herself to a salad server to reenact the scene, which certainly contributed to Madeline's drenched state. Too bad they weren't as impressed by Mary Poppins saying, "Good enough is as good as a feast!"

Of course, I can hardly complain about two little girls who splash in the kitchen sink. It keeps them diverted for nearly half an hour and they're always more than happy to grab rags and do (or at least begin) the drying up of the counter and the floor. (And, as far as I'm concerned, that just means I don't have to mop as often!)

If I were truly crazy...

A few days ago, the girls and I got home from the commissary just before lunch. Since the sun was shining, I let the girls play in the yard while I unpacked the groceries and prepared some lunch. Because of the way our house is set up, I can see them playing from the kitchen (through the laundry room and out the back door), so this is a set-up that works pretty well for us.

Just before I was about to serve lunch, though, I looked out and noticed that the girls weren't actually playing. They were sort of hunched over at the fence. And then they weren't just hunched over -- in fact, it looked as though they were lying on the ground. Every now and then Madeline would jump up and chortle with glee. But then she'd get right back to the dirt by the fence...

Leaving the lunch plates on the counter, I headed out (camera in hand, of course!) to see what had so fascinated the girls. A few seconds later, the object of their fascination appeared.

Apparently, our neighbors had gotten a puppy -- and apparently that puppy wanted to play with our girls! He was digging his way under the fence, bit by bit. As he could stick his head under, the girls would pet him and let him lick their little hands and then they'd shriek with delight. He'd join the chorus, barking happily.

Eventually it became clear that the puppy really would make it all the way under the fence. Not wanting to be accused of dog-napping, I hustled the girls inside and rang the neighbor's doorbell to let them know what was going on. They stopped the puppy before he escaped and, within a few hours, had filled in the dog's excavation with some bricks.

End of story. Well, almost.

Yesterday, we again ran errands in the morning, preparing to host our community group for dinner and Bible study in the evening. The girls were running around the yard before naptime, picking up their outside toys (not to mention burning off some of the energy that had been pent up in carseats and shopping carts) while I attended to some chores in the kitchen. A little more focused on cleaning and organizing, it took me a while to realize that, between barks and laughter, the puppy and little girls must be up to their old tricks. By the time I got outside, the dog was wiggling halfway under the fence.

I herded the girls inside the house, hoping that removing them would remove most of the incentive for the puppy's digging. After the girls were inside, I moved the last of the toys into the garage. I was two steps from the back door when the puppy darted between my legs.

I quickly slid inside the house and scooted out the front door to let our neighbor know that their puppy had escaped. Our apologetic neighbor said she'd meet me at the back fence so I could hand the dog over to her.

"Sounds great," I said.

Well, it might have been great -- had the puppy been slower and had I not been 32 weeks pregnant. I raced around the backyard, trying to corner the puppy, laughing at my own ineptitude. The girls, who'd been not-so-patiently waiting in the kitchen, simply couldn't bear being left out the puppy fun. Kathleen opened the back door.

The puppy saw the opening. He took it.

And then the dog was in our house. Fortunately, we have a safety gate on the stairs, so he was confined to the downstairs. The girls chased him through the living room and dining room, laughing the whole time. After about three rounds, we herded him back out into the backyard.

At this point, the puppy and the girls were running through the backyard, laughing and barking. They were delighted with each other, and the three of them were just starting to slow down, tuckered out from all the excitement. And it was then that I thought, "Hey, maybe we should get a dog. Look at them run! This is fantastic!" And in nearly the same moment, my sanity returned. "Sure, I could get us a dog. If I were truly crazy, I'd get us a dog."

And I'm not. I'm not.

Right?

Three Favorites

Do I love these people, or what?

Rainy Day Fun

It was rainy on Tuesday. Very rainy. We didn't have any errands that had to be run on Tuesday, but well before lunchtime, it became clear that we'd need to leave the house, just for sanity's sake.

So we decided to take a little walk to our post box. (Ostensibly, the trip was to allow Kathleen to return her "Sherluck Holmes" Veggie Tales movie to Netflix. Honestly, it was to preserve Mama's sanity.) It's only a few blocks, but everyone was happy to be out of the house.The chance to use umbrellas was the real high point, though.

Kathleen blazes a trail.

Madeline checks out some mailboxes.

Who'd have thought half an hour in the rain could make little girls so happy?!

On our walk home, we talked about the rain and about the One who sends it -- about how He provides for plants and animals and even us. And we were reminded that even on the rainiest days, we can rejoice.

For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. -- Psalm 135:5-7

This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. -- Psalm 118:24

Umbrellas are fun, but they're not the best photo props!

Monday in Monterey

On Monday we packed up the circus and headed for Monterey. We had decided to ignore the rain that simply hadn't let up all weekend and make the most of Dadddy's holiday by visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (Plus, we liked to think of it as practice for when our friends, the Starlings, move to Monterey this summer!)

First, though, we stopped for bagels to eat on the way.

Toasty bagel with cream cheese. Yum!

Monterey is about an hour and half from us, and the car ride went very smoothly. Madeline fell asleep before she'd even finished her bagel (or the cream cheese, for that matter) and Kathleen happily watched the rainy scenery and looked at books. As we neared the coast, the weather even cleared, giving us beautiful, sunny views of the ocean.

We'd been a little concerned that Monterey would be crazy-busy, given the holiday, but the crowds were very manageable. We found street parking nearby and barely waited in line to enter the aquarium.

We'd taken the girls to visit a little aquarium in Honolulu before we left the island, but this aquarium is nothing like that. It's enormous! The girls were beside themselves. Madeline couldn't stop signing fish or calling out, "FSH!"

Kathleen checked out some new creatures...

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an entire children's area called the Splash Zone. There, the girls got to watch and (under the supervision of some very sweet volunteers) even touch tidepool creatures. They both loved the starfish. And they seemed fascinated by the kelp crabs and hermit crabs -- but they were in no hurry to touch those! Kathleen went scrambling backwards, away from the water when we even suggested it.

In another area there were sea creature "costumes" to try (an octopus, a sea horse, etc.) and rocking sea horses and a slide. In yet another area, there was water play. After Friday, though, we didn't really need more waterplay, so we saved that for another day. Dadddy crawled through a fish-viewing tunnel with the girls. (Mama waited outside. We didn't need any beached whale episodes at the aquarium!)

And then Daddy snapped a photo of his girls in a giant clamshell!

We meandered some more, venturing into the "rest" of the aquarium and marveling at the beauty of the sea life. We noticed a crowd, and went to check out the commotion. A scuba diver was swimming in one of the exhibits!

The picture is dark, so it's hard to see... but that's a scuba diver in there!

Finally, we stopped by the sea otters. Those cute little critters made a big impression on our girls. Kathleen spent a good portion of that evening pretending to be a baby otter, demonstrating in the bathtub how an otter swims on its back, and referring to Mama and Daddy and Mama Otter and Daddy Otter.

After the otters, we headed out of the aquarium and walked down Cannery Row (yes, Cannery Row of John Steinbeck fame) to get some lunch. We had a tasty meal, let the girls run around a bit in the sunshine, and then headed back to (still rainy) Mountain View.

Our day was a complete success! We're already looking forward to our next visit to Monterey... we're anticipating we'll make the drive down every few months or so to make the most of our aquarium membership. (And to see the Starlings, of course. We can't wait until you get there!)

A day off for Daddy

To celebrate surviving his game theory midterm, Daddy decided to play hooky from school on Friday and took his girls to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, instead! (So this was a day off for Daddy. And Monday was, too. It was like a self-declared training holiday!)

We'd last been to the museum at the very end of December and so we were more than ready for a return trip. The girls were beyond excited to check out their favorite exhibits -- and some new ones.

The stagecoach was a big hit with Kathleen. That probably shouldn't have come as a surprise, given that she loves to have us sing "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain."

And the toddler (four and under only!) room was perfect for Madeline. Fortunately for us, Kathleen is still young enough to come play, too, and she enjoys it. But Madeline loves it.

Madeline, branching out and exploring on her own...

After we'd had enough of the toddler room, we headed back downstairs to do some waterplay. We hadn't gotten around to the water exhibit last time, so it was all new and all fun! The exhibit is amazing -- gallons and gallons of water pumped through waterfalls and whirlpools that spin and spit colored balls. There were smocks to help keep children from getting too wet, but we didn't bother. We'd known we'd do waterplay, so we'd brought extra clothes for each of us. Mama and Daddy didn't wind up needing to change, but the girls certainly did!

It was a bit crowded in the exhibit; there were lots of schoolchildren on field trips, and even with Mama and Daddy there to advocate for them, Kathleen and Madeline had some challenges getting turns. Daddy's a creative thinker, though, and came up with some ideas for bypassing the other children.

Reaching....

A few moments later, we realized that, like the toddler room upstairs, there was an entire area designated for children four and younger. Once we entered that part of the exhibit, the fun really began. It was far less crowded and everything was easier to reach.

A toddler exhibit -- genius! Now even Madeline could reach the whirlpool.
(Sorry for the blurry photos. The exhibit was great for kids, but not so great for photo-taking Mamas.)

The girls were fascinated by this fountain. They splashed in it. They tossed balls at it.

And they discovered that, if you place the ball just right, it floats. Just like magic!

As you can see, the girls got quite wet. Wet, but happy.

Cheesing it up with Mama.

When the girls were thoroughly waterlogged, Daddy dashed back out to the car for the bag of dry clothes. We dried everyone off and decided that lunch was in order. Creatures of habit (and lured by the mini-cones of frozen yogurt), we headed back to Sweet Tomatoes once again.

Water play and frozen yogurt. It's not your typical Friday-in-February diversion, but it made us very happy, indeed!

Happy hearts for Valentine's Day

When you're three (or thirty-three or seventeen months), you love any excuse for celebration.  And here at the circus, we celebrated Valentine's Day all day long.

We started our morning with heart-shaped, whole-wheat pancakes.  The girls raced downstairs to the kitchen to help Mama make them.  Standing on their chairs, they measured out flour and milk and cracked the egg.  They mixed love right into the pancakes.

Topped with some real maple syrup, that made for a tasty breakfast and some very happy little girls.

 

Even though we serve pancakes with forks, fingers are the preferred method of eating!

After breakfast, Kathleen proudly delivered a Valentine to her Daddy.  (He didn't mind the distraction from studying.)  Kathleen had been saving the card for some time now, and she was very excited to finally give it to him.

We'd made the Valentine -- technically a sun-catcher -- using a tutorial we'd found here.  It combined lots of things Kathleen likes to work with: glitter, tissue paper, foam cutouts, and glue.  It worked well for Valentine's Day, and I expect we'll use the same idea again for other holidays.  (I see a shamrock shaped sun-catcher in our future!)

Later in the day, Daddy and Kathleen presented Mama with a Valentine of her own.  It had been Daddy and Kathleen's secret project, and it was beautiful!

We spent the day relaxing, reading, playing Candyland and Go Fish!, crafting, and napping (but only Madeline).  We enjoyed some special foods -- heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh strawberries, steaks for supper, and some cake that Daddy got us at a local bakery.  Yum! And Mama even got a brand new, shiny cell phone.  (Not that she can figure out how to work it!)  But best of all, we were together all day.  And that made our hearts happy.

We hope that something today made your heart happy, too.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Crazy about the Crafty Crow

Lately we here at the circus have fallen in love with the Crafty Crow.  (Okay, not so much Daddy.  And honestly, Madeline's still fairly ambivalent about crafts.  But Mama and Kathleen really do love this site.)  If you've not visited before, the Crafty Crow daily publishes crafts (complete with tutorials) for children, pulled from all over the internet.  Our friend Paula told us about the site some time ago, and since then we've used it regularly.  Since Kathleen loves -- as in, begs to do -- crafts, we've found the site to be very handy.  The projects range from the super-simple to the fairly complex and are much more inventive than the scissors, glue, glitter projects I'd come up with on my own.

The Crafty Crow is great anytime of year, but we've had even more fun than usual getting ready for Valentine's Day.  Kathleen's favorite craft -- by far -- has been sponge painting Valentine cards like these.  

Sponge-painting love for Valentine's Day.

We made a batch, and then another batch, and then another.  (Of course, we've still not mailed them, so you might be getting sponge-painted heart cards for Easter...)  Perhaps we'll get some big rolls of paper and switch up the sponges to make wrapping paper.  Otherwise, we'll have a card backlog for years to come!

I wasn't quite brave enough to let Madeline in on the painting, so she amused herself with some crayons while Kathleen painted.  And actually, Daddy studied at home that afternoon, so our kitchen table was full of activity.

Madeline contemplates her art.

Daddy contemplates some political science.  

You can tell it's tricky because he's chewing on his finger while he reads.

We had hoped to make these to give to our friends for Valentine's Day, but the commissary didn't cooperate -- no pretzel rings.  (I've contemplated looking elsewhere for them, but figure I shouldn't be running around town to find ingredients for treats I really shouldn't be eating.  Still, though -- and perhaps it's the pregnancy -- but I've thought about it more than once.  Salty and chocolate-y and practically no effort?  Yum.)  Kathleen has been intrigued by these (she saw the sparkly sugar on the laptop from across the room) and I've been tempted by these...  We picked up some fresh strawberries for Valentine's Day dessert, but I find my mind wandering back to sugary, buttery treats.  We'll have to see whether good sense or sugar cravings win out.  (For the record, my money's on the three-minute cakes!)

The circus wishes you the sweetest of Valentine's Days!

Rainy, but not gloomy

It's been rainy today, but certainly not gloomy.

Who could be gloomy with a companion as cute as this?!

A bit of an update

It's been an entire week since the great dinner-stomach virus-laundry debacle, and I think we can say with certainty that the cell phone is dead. We'd held out hope, despite the pieces that fell off as we fished it out of the washing machine. We gave it our best effort, but no matter what we've done to try to dry it out, the water has remained. You can see it in the lovely little screen on the front of the phone. Looks like Mama will be getting a new cell phone for Valentine's Day!

Daddy's been swamped with school work lately -- papers, problem sets, and a midterm. As you can imagine, the circus isn't always the best place for studying. Even when everyone tries to be good and leave Daddy alone, the chaos somehow spills over into quiet we meant to leave for him. So on Friday the girls packed up and headed for Nan and Grandpa's house. Instant peace and quiet for Daddy!

We felt optimistic, though not fully confident, that we'd licked the stomach virus. Thursday had been a pretty good day for Madeline, and no one else was showing signs of sickness. But even though the girls weren't technically sick, they weren't quite themselves yet, either. They were both tired and clingy and grumpy. Madeline was particularly difficult -- it seemed for a time that she'd given up sleep altogether, waking and staying awake from two to five each morning. Consequently, we spent rather a lot of time like this:

A little post-nap snuggling.

We'd thought -- and Nan and Grandpa had thought --that the visit would be a bit of break for Mama, but because the girls were still "off" that just wasn't the case. When you're little and you're not feeling yourself, only your Mama will do, whether it's morning, noon, or night. And even in her sleep-deprived state, Mama knows that, really, being that person -- the one person who can stop the fussing, who can soothe little spirits by her presence and in her embrace -- is a privilege. And that privilege lasts such a short while. The nights might have been long, but they were sweet, too.

Grumpy or no, the girls were still delighted to be with their grandparents and all the spoiling that comes along with such a visit. Nan and Grandpa's house is a fun place, filled with toys and treats. But it's not the things that make a visit great -- it's the people! Kathleen loved having more people to read with and talk to and direct in her imaginary games. Madeline especially loved being with her grandpa. She'd yell, "Bampa!" and race toward him whenever he entered a room, holding up her arms to be held. When he'd leave, she'd cry, truly heartbroken that he'd go somewhere without her. On Tuesday morning some workmen were trimming trees in front of the building, and Madeline and Grandpa stood at the big window, transfixed.

A sweet sight in the morning.

We finally headed home on Tuesday afternoon, and since we've been here, the girls have been getting back to their regular sleep schedules. (Thank goodness!) They missed their own things, we think, and we know they missed their Daddy. Daddy certainly missed them. But the quiet helped Daddy get lots done, and he feels pretty confident about Thursday's exam. (Good luck, Daddy!)

And, not to be left out of any family update, Indiana seems to be growing right on schedule. His little heart was beating well at Mama's appointment last week. When the doctor's office called a few days later, we were nervous that perhaps Mama had failed the dreaded glucose test. But, as it turns out, the sugar levels were fine, but Mama was a bit anemic. (Nice to have an excuse for being tired!) Indiana does not seem to have suffered any from the low iron levels -- he keeps moving all the time. We can hardly believe that we'll be meeting that busy little boy in two and a half months!

Madeline's first make-over

Look who's big enough for pigtails!

Our hairstyling adventures were inspired by our friend's little boy who, when being helped to remember who exactly was coming to a playdate, asked, "Oh, you mean the baby with the hair growing out of her ears?"

Um, yeah. That'd be Madeline. We still haven't stopped laughing about it, because it's a startlingly accurate description of her -- or at least of her hair. (And because it was said with love.) Madeline doesn't have a lot of hair on the top of her head, but the hair in the back is getting some length. (It's a toddler mullet, I know. I should probably cut it, but it's all the hair she has!) Okay, her hair isn't growing out of her ears, but her tufty little locks have a habit of sticking out from her head, just behind her ears. And now we know we can corral those strands into pigtails!

Of course, I'll also have to share that it'll probably be several more months before you see any consistent hairstyling on Miss Madeline, because she's just not that into it. These pigtails? They were gone before I finished taking photos...

And That's Why We Call It The Circus

Madeline was a little cranky Monday, which we attributed to the normal challenges of Sunday (no morning nap when you're at service!) and to the extra excitement of hosting a gathering for the Super Bowl. (It's really a pity I don't have photos of that, because it was pretty hysterical to watch our girls offering pretend pie and cake from their kitchen to a bunch of PhD students who were trying to watch football.) The real cause of the crankiness became clear, though, in the middle of Monday night, when Madeline woke up, sick. Poor Daddy had just gotten into bed after finishing a paper when he was summoned to help with the aftermath...

We muddled through the night and awoke Tuesday morning to find that our middle of the night laundry -- including Madeline's lovey, Yaya -- hadn't finished. The washer had given up. (Fortunately, the washer is under warranty. But no one from Sears can come out to repair it for more than a week.)

We muddled through the day much the way we'd muddled through the night. Daddy stayed home to help mitigate the chaos. Friends loaned us their washer so we could at least finish those sheets. (In case you were wondering, we couldn't hold out that long on the lovey, so Mama had washed it in the sink with boiling water.) And everyone survived.

But today, things were undeniably looking up.

Although Madeline woke early and slightly cranky, she and Mama spent an extra hour snuggling and sleeping in the guest room bed. And by the time they made their way downstairs, they were both in reasonably good spirits. Madeline snuggled in on the sofa for a round of "Signing Time" while Mama set about baking some chocolate chip muffins with the leftover steel cut oats from the weekend. The muffins had come out of the oven, tasty and chocolate-y when Daddy and Kathleen came downstairs, and we ate a family breakfast. Daddy headed off to school, and the girls and Mama played some Candy Land and some Go Fish and a number of imagination games (everyone took turns at being the doctor and Angelina Ballerina and various Disney princesses).

Madeline, all snuggled up and watching "Signing Time."
You can tell she's sick because she's actually still.

Kathleen enjoys a chocolate chip muffin and the Sunday comics.
Why she was so interested in the Sunday comics on Wednesday morning, we'll never know.

Madeline begged for a bottle at naptime, and Mama reluctantly gave her a bit of milk, which she seemed to stomach just fine. By some miracle, the washer decided to work and was immediately pressed into service. Kathleen and Mama worked on more crafts. Nan and Grandpa called to say that they'd found bunkbeds on Craigslist, and that, if we liked them, Nan and Grandpa wanted to give them to the girls. Wow! We did! We do! (Big girl beds arrive tomorrow!) Kathleen and Madeline even rested at the same time in the afternoon, allowing Mama to fold that beautiful, clean laundry while watching some DVR'ed shows. Perfect!

By the time dinner arrived, even Nan had noted that we ought to buy a lottery ticket, things were going so well. Everyone was looking forward to supper since it was a circus favorite: breakfast for supper. The girls stood on the chairs in the kitchen and helped as Mama made fruit salad. Kathleen cracked the eggs without getting any shell in the bowl, and before we knew it, we were done. Daddy arrived home just in time for us all to sit down together. Beautiful!

And then Madeline threw up on the dinner table.

And in the chaos of clean-up, Mama put all her clothes into the laundry. With the cell phone in her pocket.

And that, friends, is why we call this the circus.