Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and hit all the important summer markers: a cookout, a parade, a swim in our neighbor's pool, bikerides, playgrounds, watermelon and slush.

Kids in their Looooooooovely Hats

I don't know where Chava picks up all the idioms she does. I think she is stealthfully listening to the grownups all the time and trying to work the lingo she hears into her everyday conversations as much as possible. In any case, she is constantly cracking me up.

Last night she decided that she needed a Lovely Hat for her bath, so she created one and got Maddox to participate as well. They wore them for a good twenty minutes.

She told me yesterday that "My outfit is not complete until I have my jewelry on." This would actually be more funny if I didn't constantly find her rifling through the jewelry I have on my dresser and wearing it around the house. When I hid it up higher, I found her stacking stools (by the time I had arrived, she had three piled up on top of each other) to access the forbidden. When she is denied, she is quick to show her displeasure.

Okay, Mom, I've gotten my payback. Now remove the evil curse you put on my daughter.

Chava is three. Well, three and a half, if you want to put a fine point on it. So please explain to me just exactly how it is that she is a clothes horse. A clothes fiend. A prima donna when it comes to her clothes. Or, as Al puts it, "Man, she is just totally bonkers around her clothes."

Getting dressed in the morning often evolves over the course of an hour. First she has to pick things out (and if we veto something [like a tanktop on a 40 degree day], woe is us). Then she has to try it on. Then she has to improve upon it by changing some of the elements. Then she has to pick out accessories. And, of course, shoes (shut up, Mom, I can hear you laughing from here).

Last night both kids slept all night without a peep and stayed in their room until their alarm clock started playing music at 6:30. This was four nights of sleep, so Maddox earned a new Star Wars lego set and Chava earned some stick on earrings that had been torturing her on top of my dresser for weeks. She built her whole outfit around those earrings - a pink cotton dress with ruffles and a bow, off white tights, flip flops (yes, her favorite shoes are flip flops right now and she just pulls down the tights in between her toes to get the flip flops on) and a very pretty Irish knit cardigan. Then she spent what was left of the morning twirling around the house sing-songing "I'm so BEAUUUUUUUUU---tiful."

What a long, hard day it's been

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Al picks Maddox and his friend Sam up early from school so they can go to tennis lessons, offered through the Rec. Department. They have special racquets and balls that I guess are geared to teach young kids to play - the balls are kind of sponge-like. Maddox likes it, but he is pretty uncoordinated. Luckily, he does not seem to notice that Sam is kicking his ass most of the time. On Tuesdays, after a short break, we go to soccer practice. So, by the time we finished eating our pizza last night, he was pooped... and so was everyone else (me included).

Al fresco dining

Woo hoo! Spring at last!

Party Girl all Pooped Out

Chava was in fine form this weekend. She woke up in a snit on Saturday morning and had multiple tantrums throughout the day and then refused to nap, guaranteeing that the night would be a disaster. It was. Maddox was in bed, washed and brushed, while Chava was still having a tantrum about getting out of the car. Sunday wasn't much different, except we drove out to Framingham in the late afternoon. Chava fell asleep .2 seconds after we pulled out of the driveway.

Can you call it a hiatus if you didn't really plan to come back?

My mom guilted me in to posting again. Otherwise I have to provide lengthy updates on the phone about Maddox's pooping (it's fine, and actually he's absolutely the MOST chatty while he sits on the toilet) or Chava's desire to be Boozchi Baby all the time (I don't know how to spell Boozchi, but I like this spelling I just came up with, and want to emphasize that SHE picked that name) by putting on her footy p.j.s and making us hold her and carry her and feed her, or the fact that I am having difficulty coaching soccer because my damn 5 year olds spend the entire practice whining about being "STAAAAARVing" and then running around with pretzel sticks in their hands/mouths. No shit. At Saturday's game I had to clean popcorn off the shirts of all the kids before they started to play.

Aren't you glad I'm back?