Somehow I Managed Not to Cry

Okay, I got a little misty-eyed, but no real tears!* And Kate and Claire did great. Monday was their first day of school; Kate started Kindergarten and Claire is back in pre-school. We dropped Kate off first, as there are actual RULES regarding tardiness and such, and then walked over to Claire's room. Kate was so excited; she has been talking about Kindergarten for the whole summer. We have tried to cultivate this interest to the right level (e.g. not overdoing it so that she wouldn't sleep the night before, but not ignoring it so that she would be taken by surprise when the first day of school came and she was no longer permitted to wear her pepto-pink princess dresses).

I took surprisingly few photos, due to the boy one's intense desire to climb out of my arms and eat glue sticks. I enthusiastically begged the children to smile, and managed to snap at least one worthy of the blog.

Claire's pose is remarkably similar to Kate's on this day last year.

She'll be 5 in a month. She is likely both the youngest and the tallest kid in her class.

Claire gave me a brief smile before going back to her toys. She didn't even say good-bye when I left. Sniff.

*Luke, however, was surprisingly vocal in his desire to stay at school. Just to be clear, I was not surprised by this, but Claire's teachers were slightly alarmed.

Casual Conversations

Claire: "I think we'll have to get a new car."

Tim: "Why's that, Claire?"

Claire: "Because this car's all dirty."

~~~

Kate: "Mom, I can't wait till we move."

Me: "Why? I like our house. Don't you like it?"

Kate: "Yeah. But I want a house with a fireplace."

~~~

Claire: "I'm playing with Tempie 'cause I love Tempie super super much."

~~~

Claire: [breakfast time, looking at me expectantly] "I wanna have chocolate cake."

~~~

On the subject of movie night...

Claire: "Kate, are you ever gonna like Chicken Run?"

Kate: "No. I don't like the mean lady who makes chicken pie."

Claire: "Tim, hear this! Chicken pie! Chicken pie! Chicken pie!"

Kate, somewhat hysterical: "No, Claire! Don't say that!"

Incidentally, they didn't watch Chicken Run for movie night.

Dilemma

What was I thinking? The girls started school last week, and life is crazier as a result. Isn't school, at this age, supposed to ease my stress levels a bit? The problem is that they each go to school on different days, at different times. And although it's been just over a week, I am going [sing-song] cuck-oooo!

There are other options, but I am unsure which will be best. All involve switching Kate out of her class, a class where she knows a bunch of kids, and I have a high level of guilt over this. But I am telling myself that it will be for the better for EVERYONE if I am less stressed out every day. [This is where Tim will nod vigorously.]

So, please help me, dear readers. Claire is currently in the Tuesday/Thursday a.m. class, and Kate is in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday p.m. class. The options:

• both girls in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday a.m. classes
• both girls in the Tuesday/Thursday a.m. classes (means not switching Claire around at all, which I am actually not that concerned about, because I'm not a huge fan of her class at present)
• both girls in the Tuesday/Thursday p.m. classes

Pros:

• Morning classes would allow me to just throw on my running gear and go for a run with Luke (note to self: must get crap stroller fixed) before getting ready for the day. Of course, I could do this for the p.m. classes, too, when the weather cools down...
• I am generally more productive in the mornings, and therefore morning classes would allow me to increase my a.m. productivity as I would only have one child with me on some days.
• Tues/Thurs classes are a better value: when there is a holiday, it is usually on a Monday or a Friday, and you get charged for the whole month, regardless of whether there is class or not. Also, family days for the Air Force are usually on Mondays and Fridays, so the girls would be less likely to miss out on them, or we wouldn't have to have them play hookie.
• Three days a week sounds really, really nice right about now.
• Afternoon classes are easier all around for scheduling.
• Morning classes allow Claire to have her nap in the afternoon.
• Tim can occasionally drop the girls off for morning classes; not so for afternoon ones.

Cons:

• Morning classes are hectic for drop-off and pick-up. School starts at 8:30, so we need to be out the door by about 8:15, and it ends at lunchtime. This means that by the time we get home, they are starving, but I usually have not yet made lunch. I could probably get into a schedule of making lunch before I pick them up and this would help on the pick-up end of things.
• Afternoon classes mean no nap for either girl, and Claire still really needs one. She will rally through the afternoon if inspired, so if I do put her in the p.m. class, she won't fall asleep while there. She might, however, be grumpy.
• Tues/Thurs mornings will cause us to miss out on the playgroup we are part of on Thursday mornings. This group is fun, with seasonal parties, and I would hate to have the girls miss out on such things.
• The Mon/Wed/Fri class adds to the already outrageously expensive bill from the pre-school.
• When Tim is on nights (granted, this doesn't happen that often), he pretty much misses out on time with the girls that day if they are in the a.m. class.

I am totally stuck. I keep thinking: "Oh! Yes, that's the one we'll sign up for!" And then I think of a reason that it won't be so great. All I know is, something has to change, or I will have completely lost my mind by the time fall comes around.

Maybe

D'ya think this is why the girls were up late tonight?

Claire's favorite part of dessert: frosting. Yeah, yeah. She's my daughter.

Nice pile o' purple icing.

Haircut

Probably not the best idea right before her 2-year-old pictures: new bangs. In her defense, this picture is post-nap, and they can look cuter than they do here. Right? Right?! Argh.

Helping wash the windows.

Also, I checked my Chinese pregnancy calendar and Kate was supposed to be a boy. The prediction tool is said to have a 93% accuracy rate, but so far we're 50/50. The current baby is also supposed to be a boy. Ninety-some days until we find out for sure!

Overheard

"Mommy, I wat hot tlocklit." (Claire requesting hot chocolate)

"Mommy, look what Claire's doing!" (Kate learns to tattle)

"Honeybee hop! Honeybee hop!" (Kate yelling as she jumps over her new game)

Kate, yelling all commands.

"Tim, are you okay?" (Kate wondering if her daddy feels ill)

"You wanna bean? No? Otay." Sets row of beans on plate, after daddy declines them. (Claire, offering food she doesn't like to others)

"Daddy, you're a meatball." (Kate's reply to her father telling her she's a goofball)

Random

Kate looked at my hair this afternoon and told me, "Mom, your hair looks like a spider web." Gee... thanks? And I seriously thought my hair looked pretty cute today.

If you have called or emailed me in the past two weeks, and I have been slow to respond, it may or may not have been due to the fact that I read 2,469 pages in the course of approximately 16 days. Not that I was obsessed or anything.

The expression that most makes me smile at Claire right now is: "I want all done, Mommy." Then she waits (somewhat) patiently for you to wash her hands so she can get down from the table. Oh, and her use of the phrase, "no, thanks". As in, "Claire, if you want Halloween candy after dinner, you have to eat your corn." Her reply? A coy, "No, tanks, Mommy. I want Haween candy."

Kate told me the other day that she wants two (2!) of those cool ride-in Jeeps for Christmas. You know, so she can trade off. But probably not share.

From today's ultrasound, which was likely the longest look I've ever had at a baby in utero (15-20 minutes). All looks 'normal'. I know they can't say 'good', but 20 minutes of 'normal' makes you start to wonder if even they get tired of that term. According to the doctor, the baby weighs about 10 ounces and is measuring slightly big for the due date. But this is also 'normal'.

Expensive, and bossy (and new house pictures!!)

It is expensive here! I had no idea living in Vegas would cost so much more than living in Tucson did. I don't know why I had no idea...guess I was just living in my own little world. Of course living in a big city like this would be more expensive! Gas is probably the biggest shock: Tucson was consistently below the national average ($3.73 today), and Las Vegas is decidedly above the that number ($4.12 today). Add to that the fact that we will be living a little further from base, and gas prices are going to be adding up to a larger expense than I anticipated. And as a result of higher gas prices, everything else costs more: milk, eggs, soda! Oh, Tucson, I miss you already.

Kate is decidedly bossy. I had seen little strands of this character trait over the past few months, but it is quite apparent now. It is pretty cute, in many ways, and will probably help her to meet people (sure, they might be meek, timid kids, but hey). The other night at the TLF park, she was chasing other, much older, children around with her spray bottle. Then she would yell at them: "C'mon, guys! Over here!" in a way that really wasn't a question, but more of a command. They obeyed, probably a little out of fear. I suppose it helps that she is the size of a 4-year-old.

Claire has mostly mastered her ABCs, although she can't say every letter clearly. The alphabet song is probably her favorite melody, and she lights up when you sing it. She also sings Twinkle, Twinkle, and Row, Row, Row Your Boat (complete with arm motions). She is determined to do all that her sister does, and can keep up in some events. She even has her ways of dealing with Kate's tyrannical attitude: she has become quite sneaky. She will walk up and steal a nearby toy away from her older sister, and when Kate gets up to retrieve her prized toy, Claire will drop it and take one of the toys Kate dropped in order to chase after her. It's fairly amusing to watch.

Claire is still taking a morning nap, and I can't figure out if this is normal for a 17-month-old. I don't remember when Kate dropped down to one nap a day. I would let her keep taking one as long as she wants, except that it really infringes on our activities. And being that we are stuck in the TLF for another couple of weeks, outings are essential to everyone's happiness. I think I'm just going to have to start dragging Claire out in the mornings to do things, and hope for a longer afternoon nap as a result. This would probably work better if they were not in the same room - one or the other of them is constantly bothering the other one, and it seems like it takes at least an hour for them to get to sleep.

Tim is at the (greenbelt) house with the inspector right now, and we will join him shortly. Here's to hoping that nothing major is wrong with it!

***

The inspection went well! I have no idea what they told Tim was wrong with the house (haven't had a chance to talk about it yet), but he was happy with what the inspector said, so I think we are good! In light of that, here are some more pictures. This is the greenbelt house (the last house we saw on the Very First Day we started looking back in MARCH). Ummm, I'm going to do a new post. Formatting mess if I don't.

This week's cuteness

• Claire says she wants 'mas' of something. She does the sign, even, in ASL. I have no idea where she learned it.

"Mas. Pees. Mas!"

• Kate helped me make pizza last night. She would intermittently sprinkle cheese on the sauce, and then grab some back off to eat. Claire stomped her feet joyfully in time to the beat of the USAF song on the radio.

• Kate likes "smashmallows". So much so that she stole some from the top of my sweet potatoes the other night. I was getting Claire some milk and I heard Kate say, "I'll eat this one," which piqued my curiosity since I knew she had already eaten all the smashmallows from her plate. Sure enough, she was leaning over my plate, and stuffing one in her mouth. I said, "Hey! You can't steal food from my plate!" So she took it out of her mouth and, with an innocent expression, offered it to me.

• Claire's favorite expression is, "I got it!" She gleefully yells this as she chases balls down the hall after you throw them. It's a fun, new game of 'fetch'.

• Claire yells, "MommMEEE!" at various times throughout the day. It makes my heart melt.

• Kate likes her Daddy's flight green suit.

• She also likes Yucky Charms. Loves them, actually, but only the 'colorful ones'.

• Claire uses everything as a phone. This week it was my HP calculator. She called her Daddy on it:
  

"Hi, Daddy!"

The crazies go swimming

We had the pool up to about 82* earlier in the week, but then took the cover off for house-showing purposes. It's now down to the mid- to low-70s, which is freeeeezing. This did not phase Tim or Kate, who gleefully (and with purple lips) swam and splashed, respectively.

Earlier in the afternoon:

Warm

It finally got warm today (about 97*), which can mean only one thing. No, not swimming, much to Kate's dismay. Not running through the sprinklers. Not turning on the A/C for the first time! Not icy margaritas by the pool, either, although that sounds lovely, doesn't it? Not a trip to Mt Lemmon to cool off - it isn't THAT hot yet. Sigh. I guess 90*+ weather means a lot of things.

But what I was talking about was popsicles! Ooey, gooey, drippy, messy popsicles. You should have seen Kate's eyes light up at the mere mention of them. She snapped right out of a meltdown. It was really quite amazing. Claire had never had a popsicle before. She rather enjoyed it.

Hmm. I think my popsicle will fit nicely in here.

Hey! What happened to my popsicle?

Moment of weakness

Super sick Spice fell asleep watching DORA. Must be ill.

Messy Spice: blame my sister for the chalk all over my pants?

Just photos

Playing at the park, fascinated by the bolt.

Sisters.

With Daddy at Heritage.

Busy bees

Painting the bathroom (today: cream; last week: bright blue). Going to the zoo. Visiting the Desert Museum. Going to Jessica's and Dana's houses for lunch. Doctor appointments. A jewelry-making squadron coffee where I made Sheila's necklace and a few other pieces. Cleaning, endless cleaning. It's been sort of busy around here lately.

This is not going well.

We made it around the block like this. It's a single stroller. It was a tight squeeze.

Claire likes the anteater puppies. ALL animals are puppies.

Our train trip around the lake at the zoo.

Reagan and Kate feed the ducks.

Sitting on the peacock.

Sisters.

Daddy took a day off on Saturday and we went to the Desert Museum.

Claire plays in her favorite room. I'm ready for my bath, mom!

A day in the life of Kate and Claire

Nutella toast.

Also:

• Kate can now say 'ketchup'. She used to say 'teputs'. I have no idea, y'all.
• Kate helped me put away the 'green mangos' today. Also known as 'avocados'.
• Claire's version of 'milk' sounds more like 'Mao'.
• Her 'thank you' is super cute: 'tee tuuu', which for her also means 'please'.
• Claire is saying 'UH! UH!' for everything she must desperately have Right Now.
• She is also a pain in the arse to put into her car seat (arched back, 'uh! uh!', wriggling like crazy, etc.).
• We had our first walk-through for the house this morning, and the house looked pretty good. (Of course, I say this knowing what a mess it looked like last week. I hope the people here today thought it looked good.)

"I have beaters on my face"

Tim, cleaning Kate's face after she licked the cookie dough off the beaters: "Kate, you have cookie dough on your face."

Kate: "Daddy, I have beaters on my face!"

***

Claire's favorite new words are "uh-oh" and "aaaah duh" (all done). She picks something up and then purposefully drops it so she can say, "uh-ohhhhhh" and look forlornly down at the object. Then she bats her eyelashes at you and implores you to pick it back up again so she may drop it once more. She also likes to greet us with a big "hiiiiii" and a smile.

She is now standing up on her own for seconds at a time (20 seconds is probably the record so far), and sometimes boogies while she does so. She doesn't seem to have much desire to walk yet, perhaps because she knows her sister will mercilessly push her down when she starts with those first tentative steps.

Kate is starting to enjoy sleeping in. It is soooo wonderful, except that Claire still wakes up around 7am everyday. Kate, if left on her own, will usually sleep until 8 or 8:30am now. I've got to find a way to get Claire to sleep longer.

A few of her favorite things

Claire

• finding lint/Christmas tree needles/cat hair/food crumbs on the floor and eating them
• playing with the glue bug traps scattered around the house
• playing with the garbage bins
• wiggling away from me during diaper changes (I totally did not remember this starting so early with Kate)
• signing to tell me she is all done, and often sign-yelling for milk
• boogy-ing to all music
• pulling all the toys out of the toybox and throwing them behind her
• dropping/throwing food off her highchair tray
• pulling needles off the Christmas tree
• eating shoes (she prefers flip-flops, but doesn't discriminate against tennis shoes or loafers)
• playing in Starbuck's water dish
• playing peek-a-boo, as the 'peeker'

Kate

• singing the Backyardigans theme song
• looking at Christmas lights
• going to the big red ball store (Target)
• exclaiming 'Holly Jolly, Mommy!'
• petting Starbuck gently (I thought this would never happen)
• trying to pick up Starbuck or Claire
• removing the bookmarks from my books
• having tea parties with her Little People
• being chased
• going down slides
• begging for sweets
• drinking V8 out of a big girl cup
• picking out her own clothes
• going to 'Old Mc'Donald's' for a Happy Meal and 'fetch fies!'

Taunting

"Go Beavers!"

"Go Ducks!"

"No, go Beavers!"

(*gleefully*) "Go Ducks!"

Today is Civil War, the game between the Oregon State Beavers (Tim's alma mater) and the Oregon Ducks (the evil green and yellow team of the Pac-10; also, Tim's father's alma mater). Currently the score is tied, although the refs made a terrible call last quarter that denied the Beavers a touchdown.

Kate usually gets to watch Dora after her nap, but on Saturdays during football season, we start the day with them so that we get the TV in the afternoon. College football: it takes precedence over most things in this house. Anyway, Kate is sitting in the living room with her sister and her father, eating graham crackers and cheering on the...Ducks. Tim at one point explained that the Beavers were playing the Ducks today, and Kate thought it would be nice to root on the losing team. It's very endearing.

Also, Claire has a horrible cold, and has lost most of her voice like I have. It is the most pathetic thing I think I have ever heard: a hoarse baby crying. So, so sad.

How cute. Also: for the love of God!

Last night Tim called at dinner time to help ease Kate into her nighttime routine. She talked to him for probably 2-3 minutes. She didn't hang up! She didn't press any buttons! She listened, and had a conversation about the stars and the moon. This video caught the tail end of the conversation when he apparently had hung up, thinking she had put the phone down.

"No screaming, Claire! No!"

Then:

Oh dear. It's 3pm. The girls are still talking. It's a night week, so Tim won't be home to field crabby babies. Crap.

On a positive note: 3 Musketeers Mint Minis with Dark Chocolate. I think I accidentally ate the whole bag.

The weekend in pictures

Claire loves her airplane.
Kate's new favorite.