Potty Time

Babies driving the potty car.

She is actually IN the potty.

Enjoying a cup of hummus while sitting on the potty.

Violet is showing no signs of interest in the potty. She will be 16 months tomorrow, and that is when Penelope became fascinated with the potty, so she may soon be interested, but my girls are as different as can be, and it  wouldn't surprise me a bit if the whole potty experience is entirely different this time around. But in any case, yesterday Violet was enjoying some diaper free time because she had a bit of a rash on her little bum (from eating tomatoes, which she loves, but too many give her a rash) and it occurred to me that it might be wise to keep the potty close by. Violet was thrilled to have it... to play in, to drive her babies around in, and to sit  upon as she enjoyed a snack. But there was no actual awareness of what one actually uses a potty for. Which is just fine with me, that stage of toddlerhood will come in it's own good time. But some awfully cute pictures were taken and I had to post them.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Pen's hand on the left, Vi's hand on the right.

Making leaves for the thankful tree.

Hanging leaves in the thankful tree.

Girls in their thanksgiving dresses.

Cutest little one year olds.

Charles showing Noah Michael Jackson videos on the left, Tom beneath a pile of girls in back, and Vi on the right.

Tom and the girls.

 We had a very nice Thanksgiving at Tom's house this year. I was glad to not have to cook a bunch, but I did make a few things, including two pies from my new Vegan Pie in the Sky book sent to me from Maisie and Gailsie.  We walked over to Tom's house bringing two strollers, one for the kids and one for the food. Tom's roommates Ashley, Nathan, and their children were there and also Tom's girlfriend, Gabe. Penelope and Violet had a house full of kids to play with, Charles had a buddy in Noah, who watched endless videos on youtube with him, and everyone was so sweet for making tons of vegan food for us. Everything was delicious.

Penelope wanted to make a thankful tree, but we had to figure out a way to make it transportable this year. We ended up taking a branch from Tom's apple tree that fell down in the hurricaine a few months ago, we put it in a glass jar and secured it with glass marbles we already had. Then we used a rubber leaf stamp on fall colored paper and cut the leaves out, punched holes in them and threaded red yarn through them. People then wrote what they were thankful for and hung their leaves on the tree. We just brought it along to Tom's house like a bouquet of flowers. Penelope's first leaf said she was thankful for books, the next said Vi, Charles wrote coffee on his. I tend to agree with them both, good coffee and good books are essential. Lots of leaves said friends, family, Noah wrote all the good food that people made, someone wrote socks.

I was thankful for the wonderful dinner at Tom's house, a day spent with the people I love, but most of all I am thankful that herbal medicine works and that when Violet developed an ear infection, complete with a fever the afternoon before Thanksgiving just after the pediatrician had left for the day, I began dosing her up with herbs and by the next day she was fine and we had avoided a trip to the emergency room. That is truly a thing to be grateful for.

A Week of Playgrounds

The weather has changed again, and with all of this cold and rain I am so very glad that I took Penelope's idea (I wish we could go to the playground every day!) and declared last week to be playground week. We went to a different playground every day and it felt so good to soak up the sun while my girls played and played. Penelope has become a pretty good climber, giving me mild heart attacks with her daring tricks. I smile through the heart attacks, telling her what a great job she is doing, how I can't believe what great a climber she is. After she is safely back on the ground and beaming with pride I begin to breathe again, and she runs off to the next terrifying feat.

Violet is no better, she is an even more amazing climber than Pen was at her age and she firmly believes I am ruining all her fun every time I remove her from somewhere too high or dangerous. I very much enjoyed it when at one playground Penelope played Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel for about an hour in the sandbox. Violet sat close to her and filled her bucket over and over again and I had the rare experience of nearly an hour of complete peace sitting in the sun on a beautiful day.

We spent a couple hours at a playground every morning, and brought our lunch with us most days. It's such a simple, easy way to make a day, or a week special. I think we will do another playground week when the weather is fine again, but I'm pretty sure we won't see that for a long, long time.

Pictures From August That I Never Put Up

The Girls at the Herbal Conference.

Our tent.

Violet taking notes.

Pen on the steps of Kid's Camp with a magic stick she made there.

Pen with Pig in her sling.

Happy Campers

On Cape Cod with the Aunts and Tom.

Looking

Gail in a beautiful spot.

Penelope touching a whale bone.

Penelope as a mermaid.

The girls watching the hurricane. 

At our little beach right after the hurricane.

Look what washed up on the dock.

Nearly a week without electricity meant candlelight every night.

The girls got good use out of the glow stick wands Maisie and Gailsie brought them.

One last trip to Horseneck Beach.

Happiest girl ever!

I decided to put our end of the summer pictures up. The first few are from when the girls and I went to The Woman's Herbal Conference in New Hampshire. We slept in our tent, Penelope went to kid's camp, we swam in the lake, listened to amazing teachers talk, drummed, danced, sang and had a great time.

The next pictures are from our camping at the beach in Cape Cod with Maisie and Gailsie who drove all the way from New Mexico. The weather was fine and the beach was beautiful beyond belief. We saw seals right on the beach, cooked our food on a camp stove, slept in tents, went for wonderful walks and had such nice time, all with the threat of a hurricane coming soon.

The next pictures are of the hurricane. We were safe at home for it, and Maisie and Gailsie were safely far away by the time it got here. The storm caused a bit of damage on our street, but none to our home. We lived with no electricity for days and days and it was kind of nice. We loved the candle light every night, and the quiet in our neighborhood. And how bright the stars are when there are no street lights.

And the last pictures are from our last trip to Horseneck Beach, our favorite beach. It was the most perfect beach day to end our summer, and was where Violet's first steps were taken - right for the ocean. She is now a real walker, no more crawling for her! And looking back at these pictures I am amazed at how much both girls have grown in such a short period of time.