New Hampshire!

The girls have been counting down the days until our New Hampshire vacation, and yesterday the wait was finally over!  Julia had begged and begged to buy a pile of vacation books to read during the course of our trip, and when it was time to leave, she wasted no time cracking open "Who Were the Beatles."

JULIA: Mom?  I'm not even gonna wait until we're on the highway.  As soon as we even start going out of the driveway I'm gonna start reading one of my NEW BOOKS!

And she held fast to that resolution.  In fact, she has already finished three books.  We have been in New Hampshire for less than 24 hours.

The books were a great way to keep Julia entertained during the car ride; there was a lot less of this: "UGHHH.  How much LONGER?" on our drive.  In fact, Julia announced at one point, "Mom, I haven't even been bored at ALL because I'm so interested in my books!  See, Daddy, I TOLD you I wasn't gonna get bored on the car ride!"

Of course, she said this when we were still in Massachusetts.  By the time we were about 20 minutes from our destination, and stuck in traffic, Julia was much less optimistic about sitting in the car.  But at least we had a good 3 hours of NO complaining on our way up!

Once we had checked into our hotel, the girls were eager to hit the swimming pool, and they had an absolute blast.  I had bought some shark-shaped diving sticks, so that Julia could practice her surface dives in the deep end, and they were such a hit that we wound up sharing them with another kid who was in the pool.  Julia, therefore, got to swim in the deep end with a new friend!

For dinner, we headed over the hotel pub, where the girls got to order some of their favorite meals: chicken fingers and fries for Julia, and pasta with butter for Madeleine.  The only problem with Madeleine's dinner was that the pasta was linguine, which was hard for Madeleine to get on her fork and get into her mouth.  At one point, the waitress stopped by to see how we were doing.

WAITRESS: How's everything here?
ETHAN AND I : Delicious, thank you.
MADELEINE: (staring up balefully at the watiress) Uh, I wish you didn't give me pasta that's this LONG.

Luckily, the waitress had already started heading to another table when Madeleine voiced her complaint, so only Ethan and I heard what she had to say.  A moment later, realizing her pasta situation was no better, Madeleine began twirling her linguine around her fork, and with a long-suffering sigh, brought it towards her mouth.

Ethan saved the day by cutting the pasta into small pieces, and all was once again right with the world.

As we settled into bed last night, the girls excitedly snuggled together on the sofa bed while Ethan and I went to watch tv in the separate bedroom.  Now, the girls NEVER sleep well when we're not in our usual beds, and they have an especially hard time the first night in a new place.  However, I had not expected things to be QUITE as difficult as they were last night. 

A synopsis of the evening.

ETHAN AND I: (watching tv)
JULIA: (bursting into the bedroom) Mommy, I can't SLEEP because Madeleine keeps, like, GRABBING my pajamas and wiggling around and stuff.
ME: Okay.  Tell her to give you some space.  Go to bed now.

Ten minutes later:

JULIA: (bursting into the bedroom) Mommy?  I just can't fall asleep with Madeleine wiggling all around.
ME: Well, I'm sure she'll fall asleep soon and then she'll be still. Just lay there and try to get to sleep.

Ten minutes later:

MADELEINE: (bursting into the bedroom)
ETHAN: What is it?
MADELEINE: (staring at us with a forlorn expression)
ME: What's the matter Madeleine?
MADELEINE: I...I...I saw...a DRAGON.
ME: There's no such thing as dragons.  Go back to sleep.

At this point, I walked Madeleine back to the bed, to discover, to my relief, that Julia was finally asleep.

But not for long!

Ten minutes later:

JULIA: (bursting into the bedroom) Mommy?  Madeleine woke me up and now I can't fall back asleep.
ME: Honey, you were just sleeping, so I know you'll fall back asleep.  Just lay there for a few minutes and I'm sure you'll get tired.

Ten minutes later:

JULIA: (bursting into the bedroom) Mommy?  I just can't fall asleep with Madeleine WIGGLING all around!

I then walked Julia back to the sofa bed, to discover that Madeleine was sound asleep.  Apparently the girls were only capable of sleeping one at a time.  I assured Julia that she would fall asleep soon, and left her once again.

I think they were finally both out by around 10pm.  Let's hope tonight goes more smoothly!

And now we are off to enjoy a rainy day at the Children's Museum in town, and perhaps a historic train ride later in the afternoon!