A Girls' Weekend

Friday Bob left right after work to drive down to Long Island to visit his brother so all day Friday and Saturday were just Mommy-MiniM.E.-LittleL.G. time.

MiniM.E. wanted to go out on a puddle-hunting walk. It was mostly hunting because even though it rained in the morning, it wasn't a whole lot of rain... 

We played at a friend from school's house in the afternoon.  They have a fantastic outdoor playhouse complete with hair dressing station:

Saturday morning we had some inside time and MiniM.E. read to LittleL.G. in a tent (so cute)

The highlight of our day was going downtown to see the ducks and ride the carousel.  The park was crowded today so we couldn't even get close to the baby ducks.  Instead of picking up baby ducks MiniM.E. decided to climb a tree.  I took some cute "I'm in a tree" photos.

I tried to take some mom-selfies... but the girls didn't cooperate very well...

We took a few carousel rides.  MiniM.E. tested it out first to see how fast it was going today.

Then she wanted to help LittleL.G. ride.  I am so lucky I have such a responsible, caring, three and a half year old and I can trust her to help LittleL.G.   They were so cute!  LittleL.G. wasn't too sure while she was riding, but reached for the horses when we were leaving.

We had a great Mommy-Daughter Saturday! 

Welcome June!

Monday, the first day of "summer vacation" the weather really wasn't that nice at all. Certainly didn't feel like summer- cold and rainy.  We took a trip down to Colonie to go to Trader Joe's. 

Yesterday we went downtown with friends to see the baby ducks.  Since it wasn't nice in the morning, Congress Park was almost empty.  It was a fantastic day for seeing the ducks because we were the only ones there to feed them.

lots of babies

MiniM.E. was so excited for me to pick up a baby duck for her.  To both of our surprise, the babies weren't scared of us at all and MiniM.E. just reached down to pick one up.

so excited

"It's ok, A.- they aren't scary!"

LittleL.G. was VERY interested.

Yesterday we brought out some shaving cream for some messy play time.  MiniM.E. thought it was a good time.  LittleL.G. wasn't too sure and kept trying to eat it...

Today we went for a bike ride, went to the playground and had a bathtub washcloth tug of war.

Great start to our summer.  Looking forward to lots more summer fun!

Sprayground!

To celebrate the end of MiniM.E.'s year at preschool and kick off our "summer vacation" we went to the sprayground.  The girls had a great time!

Congratulations! You Made It Through The Whole Year!

Since the beginning of the month MiniM.E. has been looking forward to preschool graduation.  Possibly because she likes events and really enjoys the anticipation of something fun, but more likely because she made it through the whole year and after graduation there's just a playground party day.  No more school for the whole summer.  

I am so proud of her for making it through the whole year of school. Compared to the first couple weeks full of crying and tears, she has really come a long way.  She looks forward to school and loves her teacher, talks about her friends and always has a good time... even though she was still crying at drop off on Monday.  She is really proud of herself too.  In our anticipation of graduation where I pretend to be her teacher and she is graduating, I always have to say, "Congratulations! You made it through the whole year!"  It was so important to her that I said it that way every time I had to let Mrs. O'Shea know that's what she had to say too.  She knows MiniM.E. and was on board.

The kids had a regular day for the first half of preschool yesterday and then walked over to the room that graduation would be held in.  Most of the parents and some grandparents (like Gram) met the kids over there.

It started with a slideshow of photos from the whole year (bring on the tears moms!)

And then each student was called up to receive their graduation award and get a hug from Mrs. O'Shea:

As usual, MiniM.E. was contemplative and less than smiley for the whole event, but I know she'll be talking about it for days and how much fun it was.

Gram brought flowers

A congratulations hug

Miss you over the summer!

After a year together MiniM.E. loves Mrs. O'Shea.  We are fortunate that MiniM.E. will have Mrs. O'Shea as a teacher next year too.  Already she says she will miss school over the summer, though I know a big part of her is relieved that she has a few months free from school.

Congratulations MiniM.E.!!

Our NH Long Weekend

We had a great weekend in NH.  Bob and I went out on a date night, we took walks, played on the swingset, went in the hot tub and the kiddie pool on the deck and MiniM.E. even braved the pool.  

Cutest conversation:
MiniM.E.: "I'm going to brave the pool!"
Gram: "I'm going to brave the hot tub."
MiniM.E.: "Gram, the hot tub isn't braveable, it's already hot!"

A Long Drive to NH

We drove to NH Friday after MiniM.E. was done with school.  LittleL.G. is doing really well with sleep training, so against my better-mommy-judgement, I took the advice to let her sleep at home for her major naps and we left after she woke up from her second nap assuming she would be well rested and happy for a couple hours and then take a catnap for the last leg of the trip.

Well, mommy-judgement should always be trusted because the trip was the worst trip to NH we have made yet.  There was a really bad trip when I was driving solo with MiniM.E. when she was just older than LittleL.G. and it was hot and she was sweaty and she cried for 45 minutes and I finally stopped to take a break and she ended up being fine the rest of the way.  There was the time we left home and LittleL.G. screamed for almost an hour before we stopped at McDonald's to get dinner and she ate and slept the rest of the way.  There was the time that LittleL.G. cried a lot for half an hour and that made MiniM.E. cry too so we had two crying kids.  But Friday's trip: takes the cake.

LittleL.G. was happy in the car on the way to pick up MiniM.E. from school: so far, so good.  LittleL.G. was happy to see MiniM.E. and happily played with her toys while we were stuck in traffic for half an hour waiting to get on the highway: so far, so good.  We finally started driving more than 10mph and LittleL.G. started getting a little fussy, but no screaming: so far, so good.  Before we even left Saratoga LittleL.G. started throwing her toys and wasn't happy playing with anything: not as good.  And when we were only half an hour from home (even though we'd been in the car for almost an hour and a half) she started crying inconsolably: not good.  Crying continued for the next hour and a half: want to pull hair out.  We stopped for dinner and LittleL.G. was fine as soon as I picked her up.  I was sure a break and some food would put her to sleep for the rest of the trip... but no.  More crying and more crying.  She finally slept for about 20 minutes after another half hour bout of crying but it didn't last long and there was another half hour of crying before we arrived at Gram and Grumpy's.  Note: leaving AFTER a nap. DOES. NOT. WORK.

Plan for the drive home: leave FOR her afternoon nap.  Fingers crossed!

no permanent damaged caused... still a happy baby!

Almost Crawling

LittleL.G. is mobile and can pretty much get wherever she wants to go.  She started spinning on her stomach, and then moved on to army crawling.  Now she can scoot on her bum, drag herself pretty speedily around and gets into the crawling and sitting position from her belly.

MiniM.E. is really excited for her to start crawling... So she's helping with the training: