Project Daddy and Cartacarizza's plight

Julia's Little People play is especially interesting today, so I thought I'd share some of what's going on with the characters we've all come to know and love:

As Cartacarizza put her daughter, Sonya Lee, to bed today, she told of the sad story of how she and Project Daddy were without a home in their early years of marriage.

"When Project Daddy and I got married, we started looking for a house to live in, but all the houses were tooken," she said plaintively. "Finally, we came upon this old farm, and no one was living in it, and the farmer who used to live here left his tractor. And we used it, so then we had to live here."

Since Cartacarizza is the mommy of ALL the Little People, it's a good thing the barn is big enough to fit so many children. Here, she and Project Daddy sit with just a couple of their kids:



Now, given the way they dress, with the tiaras and all, you would hardly expect Cartacarizza and Project Daddy to be the kind of people living in an old barn and driving an old tractor around town, but just because they dress like socialites doesn't mean they act like socialites. Here they are on a school morning, ready to fire up the tractor and haul the kids on over to school:



As the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover. Although it is interesting that their daughter Sonya Lee has her very own car in which to drive herself to school.

Madeleine also engaged in some pretend play today, taking the My Little Ponies for a romp across our piano. She has clearly done her homework and learned all of names given to the ponies by Julia (both those whose names come from the show/books, and those whose names were lovingly dreamed up by Julia herself.) Here's a video of some of the pony adventures:

Today's quote

This morning, as I lay Madeleine down on her changing pad to change her diaper, she began to fuss over the fact that there were dirty clothes from the night before underneath her head. I quickly pulled the clothes out from underneath her and tossed them into the hamper. Or at least, that's what I thought I did. Madeleine had a different impression:

"Oh, no! My HEAD fell off!"

I guess she must be a loser now.

Here are some of the week's top fashion photos of Madeleine, back when she still had a head:

Chopsticks

Julia, as you know, has been learning about China in school over the past few weeks. Today she came home with something extra exciting: chopsticks! She was so eager to use them, she decided to try them out on regular old finger food: apple slices and grilled cheese:





After starting out with limited success, she had this logical explanation for what was going wrong:

"Mama, using chopsticks is very hard if you're NOT FROM CHINA. But I still want to learn anyway, because remember on that Elmo's world there's a girl who uses chopsticks? She must be FROM CHINA. But Mama, is it only if you're FROM CHINA that you can use chopsticks?"

I explained that the two were not mutually exclusive, but she persisted in explaining their level of difficulty to me: "But Mama, don't you think it's a very hard thing to do for someone who's FOUR AND THREE QUARTERS to use chopsticks when I'm not even FROM CHINA? "

Happily, she was able to overcome her adversity, and was so pleased with herself she asked me to dial Daddy's number at work so she could tell him about successfully picking up an apple slice with her chopsticks. When I mentioned that I might blog about her chopstick experience, she was quick to dictate what she wanted me to say. So, here is the whole experience in her own words:

"Julia, after all that practicing, eating her apples with chopsticks, she finally got it so an apple didn't fall off the chopsticks."

Way to go, Jules!

Morning adventure

I had an allergist appointment bright and early this morning, so the kids and I headed out for a sixxy-nine bus adventure. Once on the bus, Julia decided to loudly air all of our family medical issues to the rest of the passengers. "Mom, uh, one time when we visited you in the hospital... not the time when you had Madeleine, the time when we went to visit you in the hospital that's near the Y? Well, when we were going there to visit you, I realized that it was on the same street as my doctor that we went to for my molluscum contagiosum. Yeah, 'cause I recognized the building! I remembered we went there when you were still allowed to drive. But Mom, have you ever had a seizure before? Well, one time, when I was riding home from camp and I was telling about your seizure, Karolina thought I said FEVER instead of SEIZURE."

Hi everybody. I'm riding the 59 bus because I had a seizure and I can't drive. But don't worry, my daughter's molliscum contagiosum has been treated.

When we got to the doctor's office, the girls sat quietly and patiently for about five seconds before showing their deep disappointment and disapproval over the fact that I had not brought toys along to entertain them. The receptionist came to my rescue with a bag of markers and two clipboards with a blank piece of paper for the girls to color. While Julia worked hard on flowers, Madeleine went for a more abstract piece of art, filling me in on what she was drawing: "There it is. I did it. That's the mountain steps. That's STEP! Yeah, that's mountain STEP!"

After the appointment was over, the receptionist offered the girls a lollipop, which, at not even 9 in the morning, was of course the most wonderful treat they could imagine. As I scheduled my next appointment, both girls felt the need to dance and leap around the waiting room proclaiming their joy over having Blow Pops. Madeleine couldn't contain her excitement and had to tell the other woman in the waiting room all about the lollipops. "It's BLUE!" she declared, holding her blue Blow Pop out dangerously close to the woman. "That's Julia's lollipop. It's RED!" she then announced, pointing over at Julia. "That's my LOLLIPOP!" again thrusting her lollipop towards the other waiting patient. Followed by some twirling during which the lollipop repeatedly got stuck in her hair.

As we rode the bus home, the girls debated what was in the middle of their lollipops.
JULIA: Mama, do you think this is a TOOTSIE POP?
ME: No, it has bubble gum in the middle.
JULIA: I don't think it's bubble gum. I think it might be a tootsie pop.
MADELEINE: It's BUBBLE GUP! Yeah, it's bubble gup. Bubble gup. No, it's not bubble gup.

It turns out it was bubble gup, but I was able to stealthily steal Madeleine's pop away before she got to the center.

Now, it wouldn't be a sixxy-nine bus ride without Madeleine loudly pointing out the other people riding along with us. At the stop before ours, a woman who looked to be of Indian descent got on board, prompting Madeleine to announce, "Look, that's Courtney Mommy! Yeah, it's Courtney Mommy right there!"

As always, showing off her spot-on observational skills.

Potty success, and Tales from China

Madeleine has had a dry diaper all morning, going pee on the potty three times and poop once. Hooray! As I wiped her after one of her successful attempts, I congratulated her:

ME: GREAT JOB, Madeleine!! You're such a big girl, doing potty training!
MADELEINE: I want go potty train?

She must be imagining riding the potty train is as exciting as riding the sixxy-nine bus.

Julia is showing her newfound skills in different ways. Her class at school is learning about China (hence the great trophy of China in the bathtub), and she has been practicing writing her numbers in Chinese. She has even learned how to say a few things in Chinese, and had a special visitor to her classroom. She filled me in on everything yesterday:

JULIA: Mom, did you know that at school we're learning about China, and a girl's mommy came in, and we were all saying "Ni hao! Ni hao!"
ME: Was it Leah's mommy?
JULIA: Yes!
ME: Did you know that Leah's mommy grew up in China?
JULIA: She did?
ME: Yeah! And did you know that Leah's mommy and Karolina's mommy and I all went to grad school together, to study music?
JULIA: (thoughtful) And Mama? Was it in China?

Boston, honey. Close.

Madeleine Rowe, age 2

In case you're wondering if anything is different now that Madeleine is a big two-year-old, I can assure you she's still the same little girl who loves to sit herself in awkward, unusual, and sometimes downright dangerous places:





And she continues to enjoy wearing costumes of various kinds, especially when it involves being a ballerina along with Julia:



And don't worry, she still provides plenty of verbal entertainment:

MADELEINE: (throwing a ball across the examining room during her 2-year checkup) BOO!
DOCTOR: Good throw!
MADELEINE: Yeah. I scared BALL!

She is, however, showing a bit more progress with her potty training. Or, at least, she started the day off with progress. After a morning of staying dry and going pee on the potty a few times, she then decided to poop in her diaper and continue playing as if unaware of what had happened.

ME: Madeleine, did you poop in your diaper?
MADELEINE: No.
ME: Are you sure? I smell poopies.
MADELEINE: Maybe it's Anja's poop. Maybe Anja did poopies.
ME: You think it's Anja's poop, huh? Anja's not here, honey.
MADELEINE: Yeah. It's Anja. UH-OH! I did POOPIES!

On the same topic, but about the other daughter, Julia remains just as Julia-ish as ever. Here is her bath-time creation, the "Great TROPHY of CHINA!":



It was accompanied by a series of dramatic opera arias sung by Ariel, Belle, and the various other bath toys.

Madeleine's Birthday

I can't believe that Madeleine is 2!
She has had a great birthday weekend so far, starting with a trip to Belkin Lookout Farms yesterday to apple pick:



Madeleine spent most of the farm visit sitting atop Daddy's shoulders, holding two apples for dear life. At some point she must have gotten tired of the apples, though, because without any warning, she dropped both, letting them bounce along the ground, guaranteed to become bruised and rotten. The highlight of the trip for both girls was the children's play area, boasting a bouncy house, face painting, petting zoo, playground, and train rides. In her typical graceful style, Madeleine flung and flopped her body around the bouncy house, spending more of the time face-planted than up on her feet jumping, and loving every minute of it.

As we rode the train from the orchard back to the farm store, Madeleine felt the need to point out who was who on the train:

MADELEINE: Look! (pointing to an older woman in front of us) There's GRANDMA!
YIA-YIA: There's Grandma? I'm your grandma!
MADELEINE: (still pointing at the woman) Oh, yeah, that's GRANDMA!

Following our apple picking adventure, we celebrated Madeleine's birthday a day early with Yia-yia and Aunties Shannon and Caitlyn, complete with an apple cake and presents:





This morning, I made pumpkin pancakes for Madeleine's celebratory birthday breakfast, and while she seemed to like them, that didn't stop her from expressing an interest in eating something else as she listened in on a conversation Shannon and I were having:

SHANNON: I don't really like meat that much, but I occasionally eat a burger. Usually a turkey burger.
MADELEINE: (frantically) I want burkey burger??


Now that she's officially two, you may wonder what wisdom Madeleine has accumulated in her past two years of life. Here's a glimpse:

As Madeleine sat on the potty after having peed in her pull-up, Auntie Shannon tried to entertain her and teach her a life lesson at the same time...

AUNTIE SHANNON: Madeleine, where do your pee-pees go?
MADELEINE: In my DIAPER!
AUNTIE SHANNON: My pee-pees go in the POTTY. (picking up Madeleine's new doll) Sleeping Beauty, where do your pee-pees go?
AUNTIE SHANNON AS SLEEPING BEAUTY: My pee-pees go in the potty! NEVER in my diaper.
AUNTIE SHANNON AS AUNTIE SHANNON: Madeleine, where do YOUR pee-pees go?
MADELEINE: (joyfully) In my DIAPER!

Wisdom beyond her years, I tell you.