1 Mother 2 Another

Maddie had her ballet recital over the
weekend – her second one, since she did one last year with
the three-year-old class. Last year was Madeleine’s first
time on stage, as well as her first time away from Mommy while she
waited backstage, and both were big milestones for her. She was
quite nervous and didn’t think she’d make it through
the waiting (or even go on, for that matter) but afterwards she was
glowing and proud.


This year, Maddie considered herself an old pro at the recital
thing. She was quite excited all week, and checked with me
repeatedly to make sure I’d gotten everything – new
tights, hair net, and so forth. During a local consignment sale
this spring I’d stumbled across a Princess plastic storage
case, and I set it aside for Maddie’s recital. The night
before the show, Brian and I gave it to her, filled with the old
makeup I use for her, Kleenex, tic-tacs, hair nets, and everything
else a budding ballerina needs in her makeup case. Maddie fingered
through everything reverentially, and could barely sleep.

I mentioned about a month ago that I was
looking for ideas for car trip entertainment; Maddie and Cora have
birthdays close to each other and I wanted to get them some toys
and such we can use in our upcoming family vacation this summer.
Several of you responded with great ideas, and I’ve learned a
lot.

Cora’s had a rough week so far, and
my heart’s breaking for her. I’m afraid it’s one
of those bad congruences of lots of big events going on with a
significant change in routine, and I’m not sure how
we’ll we’re going to come out of this.


First and foremost, Cora’s been taking swim lessons. This may
not seem like a big life change, but it’s the first time
Cora’s taken instruction from anyone other than me.
She’s just begun tolerating babysitters (that she knows
REALLY well) for the last few months, but since she’s only
recently turned three, she’s never taken solo ballet or
gymnastics or soccer or whatever. So these sessions exhaust Cora,
mostly because she will play happily in the water until the
instructor turns to her – at which point she’ll begin
crying furiously.

The pool is officially open here in our
house, which means summer’s truly begun. And I have to
confess – the pool’s been open since early May, but
I’ve kept that fact hidden from Maddie because the
water’s too darn cold right now. But since the girls started
swim classes on Monday, I felt like the pool needed to open so we
could reinforce their lessons. So yesterday we hit the water.


Yes, the water was cold. Not too bad, but cold enough, trust me.
But what I’d forgotten was how much freakin’ gear a
trip to the pool requires in our household.

It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times.


All within the span of five minutes.


Yesterday was a packed day for Maddie and Cora: the first summer
swim lesson EARLY in the morning; several hours at several
different stores, including a mall, running errands with Mommy; a
truncated nap so we could have an afternoon play date at a
sprinkler park; and a picnic dinner in the park with friends for a
free outdoor concert.


Halfway through the day I began waffling on the evening concert;
both girls were looking tired, I was exhausted, and I feared a
colossal meltdown if we were out doing stimulating things at a
relatively late hour. But the girls perked up considerably and were
well-behaved for the afternoon play date, so I decided to push my
luck and hit the concert.

Yep, Maddie’s officially a grad now.
She’s got the whole summer to hang out with her friends, go
to the mall, and get ready for school in the fall.


Wait, didn’t I just describe my senior year summer?

Yep, I’ve apparently bought into the
entire preschool graduation, hook, line, and sinker. I’ve
spent the whole week in a funk, dreading the moment at 11 a.m.
today when she walks across the stage with her stupid fake diploma
and I try unsuccessfully not to dissolve into tears.


Honestly, who dreamt this thing up?


Check back tomorrow –I’m sure there will be some
syrupy, sappy, over-emotional, bad-Hallmark-card entry about the
beauty of the ceremony and the fleetingness of my child’s
babyhood.


Crabby Mommy on board. Stand back – she’s about to
blow.

Your third birthday is fast approaching,
and I feel like you don’t ever slow down enough for me to
tell you how much I love you. You do realize, I hope, how much I
love you.


This past year has been an incredible one with you. Maddie’s
been in school for the first time, and you and I have had some
truly wonderful one-on-one time together. I’ve never seen a
girl enjoy the outdoors and nature as much as you do, and some of
our best days have been spent at the duck pond near our house,
packing a picnic lunch and lazing around on the blanket, snuggling
or reading books together or watching the ducks.

The girls were healthy, the sun was
shining – in short, the perfect day for a birthday party.


Listen, my girl barely went to sleep that night, she was so excited
about her birthday party. For whatever reason, Cora’s been
fixating on her upcoming third birthday as a “big-girl”
birthday. Perhaps because three is the age at which Maddie began to
take swimming and ballet and gymnastics and such – I’m
not sure. But she knew she was getting a “big-girl”
party and couldn’t wait.

Yep, Cora got sick too. She’s
twenty-four hours behind Maddie, and as is Cora’s standard
operating procedure for any virus, she threw up. Many times. That
girl could have gout in her leg, and her main symptom would be
vomiting.


Of course, Cora came down with her croup the day I was supposed to
take Maddie out for a special day to make up for missing her school
outdoor carnival, so I left a wan and puking Cora with my mom as I
took a mostly-recovered Maddie out for ice cream and a wander
around the mall.


Things looked good until after naptime, when Maddie again spiked a
fever. Wednesday night was not pretty, with both girls up
complaining many times. Cora stopped vomiting relatively early on
Wednesday, so at least that wasn’t part of the picture. But I
was nervous about how they’d be when they woke up on
Thursday.


Cora was up singing at her usual early hour, much to my
sleep-deprived chagrin. Maddie slept until after 9 a.m., but both
girls were fever-free all day. Some crabbiness, and easy tears, but
they seem (knock on wood) to be pretty mended. We’ve got
Cora’s birthday party coming up on Saturday and I’m
praying hard that the girls are completely mended today so I
don’t have to make any hard calls.


Wish us luck.

Maddie’s preschool is winding down
with a variety of fun activities, including a carnival-like field
day today. The entire morning Maddie’s class gets to spend
the time outside, with bounce houses and face painters and splash
parks and more. Then they head inside for lunch and a movie to
finish off the day.


Unfortunately, Maddie is not a part of it.

Both of my girls have this tendency to
gather things – anything, really, but preferably small and/or
sparkly – into bags, and then leave them all over the house.
Heaven help us if we try to unpack them and put the items away, and
heaven help us even more if we actually need one of the items in
one of the ten bags currently in use.

Is this a childhood thing? Or is it just
my kids? Their play kitchen has a cloth lunch sack, packed to the
gills on a daily basis with what are mostly – but not
exclusively – food items. Then you open their play fridge and
find another small grocery sack, also dearly packed, whose contents
are memorized and which must stay JUST LIKE THAT in case some
long-forgotten game needs to be resumed with the bag.

First, a little background:


You probably know that Maddie loves all things Ariel. She knows
more about that little mermaid than Hans Christian Anderson ever
did, and has three or four of the Ariel Barbie-type dolls that she
loves to dress up. They’ve got a variety of different
clothing – fins, wedding gowns, pink dress – but they
all have the standard purple-shell-bra-and-green-fin/skirt
ensemble.


Ok, so now to the story.

Yep, it’s that time of year again!
Flowers are blooming, and everything’s coming ripe. What
better way to spend an afternoon than picking strawberries?


This year I had to take Maddie out of school to go: the
farm’s only open Wednesdays and Saturdays, and since I teach
most Saturdays we sacrificed some school. Which, if you know
Maddie, actually was a sacrifice on her part. But at lunch time
yesterday we picked Maddie up and headed off on our adventure.

Both girls have birthdays coming up in the
next month or so, and as I work on their birthday wish lists I've
got one eye on our summer family vacation - we'll be driving
cross-country for the first time as a family, and I'm, um, a bit
nervous. So I'm looking at toys and games that will be good for
the car.


I'm thinking about the Leapster 2, but it seems to have pros and
cons: Cora's about to be 3, and will have some years with it, but
I worry that with Maddie about to be 5 she'll soon outgrow it.
Anyone have any strong opinions on it?


I've also been looking at trays that fit onto car seats and think
I've found a decent one, but since it's catalog there's no way
to know until we put it into practice. Does anyone have one they
just love?


Finally, I'm really open to books on CD, puzzles, that sort of
thing which are car-appropriate. I've got a Seuss collection on CD
done by Hollywood actors like Robin Williams, a few Little Mermaid
stories, and the entire Beauty and the Beast story on CD. I also
have an interesting collection of Bible radio plays on CD, but am
always looking for more of that sort of thing.


Oh road-seasoned parents, please spill your secrets!

I feel like I have no time to even blog
about this!


I know I’m somewhat obsessive compulsive and a bit of a
perfectionist (I see all my friends laughing out there) but I do
try to set boundaries and keep my priorities straight. Sometimes,
though, everything seems to come together at one time and I’m
left scrambling to get it all done with no casualties.

Bad news, all you mommies who depend on
Motrin and Tylenol to get your teething toddler through the night -


Big, big recall.


McNeil Products announced a recall of all Infant and Children's
liquid Motrin, Tylenol, Zyrtec, and Benedryl. Yep, it's true.
I've got seven bottles of liquid I've got to dispose of and the
recycler in me is freaking out.


To find out if your medicine cabinet is affected, check out their
press release target="_blank">here with a list of lot numbers. Note that
this doesn't include chewable Tylenol, just liquid, and it's only
name-brand. I had to search the website, but I finally found that
if you contact them with all the lot numbers on your bottles
they'll either send you a refund check for the average price of a
bottle, or a coupon for a free one in the future. Take the coupon,
I say.