Harry Potter Blah Blah Blah

About a year ago, I cleared all of the jeans out of Julia's overfilled dresser drawers, seeing as she steadfastly insists on leggings - or OCCASIONALLY sweatpants - as the only kinds of pants she'll wear.

And all it took was a viewing of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" to convince her that jeans are ALL THAT.  Because Hermione wears them.

So this morning I had to dig around down in the basement to find a pair of jeans so Julia could go to school looking like Hermione in her hoodie and blue jeans:

Wait a minute.  Is that Julia in the school yard, or Hermione Granger?!?

Of course, when she's not actively BEING Hermione, Julia is busy drawing pictures of Hermione and her friends.  Between last night and the time we left for school this morning, Julia managed to churn out the following drawings:

 Best buddies: Hermione, Harry and Ron holding hands in friendship

Hermione and Harry take on a couple of Dementors by casting a Patronus.
"EXKSPECKTO PUCHRONUM!"

Sirius Black, Hermione, Harry and Ron holding hands in the sunshine

MADELEINE: Julia, why are you making the ceiling BLUE?
JULIA: (shrilly) It's NOT THE CEILING, Madeleine!!


Of course, creepy drawings with spooky Dementors are right up Madeleine's artistic alley, so she sat down to color too, making this picture of herself standing next to some sort of shadowy, headless death-demon:

Speaking of Harry Potter (because do we speak of anything else around here lately?), Julia had a pressing question about the naming of one of the landmarks within the series:

JULIA: Mom?  How come in "Harry Potter" they call it the "Forbidden Forest?"
ME: Well, I guess because it's forbidden to go into the forest.
JULIA: But why?
ME: Well, because there are dangerous things in there.  Do you know what "forbidden" means?
JULIA: No.
ME: So, if something is "forbidden," it means it's against the rules or the laws of a certain place.  So, what would be something that's forbidden in our country where we live?
JULIA: Umm...being mean to other people?
ME: Well, it's definitely not nice to be mean to other people, but that's not forbidden.  You wouldn't go to jail for being mean to someone else.
JULIA: Umm...stealing?
ME: Yes.  Stealing is forbidden in our society.  What's something that's forbidden in our household?
JULIA: Mmm...potty talk?
ME: Uh, well I don't LOVE the potty talk, but it's not really FORBIDDEN.  So, hitting or hurting each other is forbidden in our house.

I can tell the point was really getting through to the kids.  I mean, Julia seems to really get it, what with her examples of highly forbidden things like being mean and talking potty talk.  Vocab lesson = SUCCESS!

I tried later on to see how much Madeleine had absorbed from the discussion.

ME: Madeleine, what's something that's forbidden?
MADELEINE: Um...the inside of our forest that has POISON IVY in it.
ME: And what else is forbidden?
MADELEINE: Um...wearing white to preschool and then doing the EASEL PAINT?

Madeleine then rattled off several other forbidden actions: "going to the Y with no socks on," "giving children coffee," and "going close to a bee."

Apparently both kids define the word "forbidden" as "things I'd rather they not do."

Either that, or I have instilled the FEAR OF GOD in them should they mess with Mommy: don't you DARE even get paint on your white shirt or it's OFF TO PRISON WITH YOU!

Yeah.  Judging by their somewhat sub-par listening skills as of late, I'd definitely not bet the farm on them trembling in their boots over failing to please me.

I better start cracking down: "EXKSPECKTO PUCHRONUM!!!"

Household Activities

Madeleine was hard at work yesterday afternoon on a piece of artwork, and after she was finished, she proudly presented it to me.

MADELEINE: Look, Mama!  I made a BABY!  Do you like my baby?  So Mama.  What LETTERS do you spell for BABY?

I spelled the word out for her, but apparently she decided that since she had one "b" already, another one was simply superfluous.  Hence the headline of "bay" multiple times:

Now, aside from the fact that the figure above looks WAY more like a 30-year-old woman than a baby, I have to say I'm really pretty impressed with Madeleine's artistic skills.  She continues to display her freakishly good fine motor abilities in this drawing, with the little upwards curl on the side of the baby's skirt, the proportions of the body parts, and the stylin' hairdo.  I mean, I'm pretty sure that if I drew a person, it wouldn't look any different from the above.  (And it might even look worse.)  Madeleine may look an awful lot like me, but she most definitely did not inherit my (lack of) fine motor/visual arts skills.

If you can't tell from the photo, the picture is currently on display on the dining room wall; it was Madeleine herself who decided to hang it up there with tape, announcing to me: "YAY!  My art project WORKED!  It made everyone HAPPY!"

How right she is.  That bay she drew TOTALLY made my day yesterday.

Madeleine has not done any coloring today, however, since Julia has the day off from school due to Rosh Hashana.  Therefore, the girls have alternated between fighting with each other and delving deep into pretend play games together.  One of their games was My Little Pony: School, during which the big ponies like Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia were the teachers, and the smaller-sized ponies were the pupils:

When Julia eventually ditched the game to go read up in her room for awhile, Madeleine carried on, thrilled at the chance to be in charge for awhile.  At one point, Madeleine decided it was time for the ponies to go up to the school media center.

MADELEINE: So, Mama!  The ponies are going to MEDIA.  And...and that means LUNCH!  So they're going to LUNCH!

Wow.  I guess you do learn new things every day.  I always thought going to media meant going to the library.  Now I know that it means LUNCH.  Duh!

Julia has since returned from her reading spree, and is back to her OTHER favorite activity: galloping.  Given the amount of time she spends galloping back and forth between two specific points in our house, it's no wonder she's such a bottomless pit of hunger all the time.

In case you readers haven't yet figured out what is so special about Gallop Time, Julia explained it to me today:

JULIA: Mom?  Want to know what I like about galloping?
ME: What?
JULIA: (dreamily) Anything can happen!
ME: You mean, like, in your imagination?
JULIA: Yes!

Gosh.  Maybe we'd all be a little happier if we incorporated Gallop Time into our days.  Ethan can perhaps ditch his routine pacing for a good gallop back and forth across the office, and that *JUST MIGHT* help him solve whatever programming problem is being worked out in his head.  Because, after all, when you're galloping, ANYTHING can happen!

Music Critiques, and A New Game

While Julia was at school, I decided to put on a CD to play in the background while Madeleine and I were hanging out at home.  Lately, Madeleine is quick to give her opinion, whether it be positive or negative, on whatever music I happen to choose.

For instance, when I put on "Symphony Hall," the instrumental classical station on Sirius radio, in the car recently, Madeleine protested.

MADELEINE: Mama!  I want music with WORDS!


Or, she may say something like this:

MADELEINE: Mama!  I don't want GROWN-UP music!
JULIA: (with authority) Maaadeleine.  This isn't GROWN-UP music.  It's called CLASSICAL music.


Or, when I recently put on a Jethro Tull album, which began with an extended instrumental prelude, Madeleine was suddenly a fan of my music without words.

MADELEINE: Hey Mama!  I really like this classical music!


It turns out that when I put on my background CD at home, however, Madeleine was REALLY not digging the grown-up music, even though it DID have words.  Apparently she was just NOT in the mood for classical choral music.

MADELEINE: Mama!  I don't WANT this music!
ME: Well, I do.  I really like it.
MADELEINE: But Mama.  I don't LIKE classful music.
ME: You don't like classful music?  Well, this is CLASSICAL music.
MADELEINE: No.  Mama.  It ISN'T.  I don't like CLASSFUL music.
ME: Well, classical music is a great thing to listen to.  Classical music is supposed to be good for childrens' brains.  It will make you smarter!
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  I don't WANT to be smarter.

Well.  She showed me.  So there.


At any rate, she wasn't into my classful music, but she sure WAS into loud and rowdy pretend-play once Julia got home from school.  In fact, Madeleine was SO excited to be with her sister that she wound up driving Julia up the wall with her insistence on initiating various made-up games.


MADELEINE: Julia!  Come on!  Let's play TWIRLING CAPES and you TWIRL it like THIS!
JULIA: I don't WANT to, Madeleine.  I'm GALLOPING.
ME: Julia, honey, Madeleine really missed you today, and she's been waiting all day to play with you, so do you think you can just play a game with her for a few minutes?
JULIA: But Mommy, all her games are just BORING BABY GAMES!
ME: Well, why don't you come up with a game you will both like?

This prompted the following domineering Big Sister/servile Little Sister conversation.

JULIA: Okay, Madeleine, I'll play a game with you, but only if I get to make up ALL THE RULES.
MADELEINE: (jubilant) Okay!  You can make up the rules!

A few moments later, I heard Julia setting up her game and describing it to her sister.

JULIA: Okay.  It's called "Magnolia," and what you have to do is try and jump over a bunch of different things.

Wow.  Now THAT sounds like a thrilling game.  And wouldn't you know it, they both had a ball playing it, even if Madeleine did occasionally forget what the game was called.

MADELEINE: But Julia.  What's the NAME of this game?
JULIA: (wearily) I toooold you already, Madeleine.  It's called "MAGNOLIA."

Here are some thrilling action shots of the girls playing "Magnolia":

The various obstacles, set up for jumping over.

This is HIGH STAKES, folks.

Julia made it over the first obstacle.  But will she clear the pumpkin??

Almost there!  All that's left is to get over that pink Croc.  Can she do it??

Hurrah!  Julia finishes off the "Magnolia" course and makes it to the final stop, the pillow!

Madeleine takes a turn.

This game literally lasted them until dinner was served.  I guess Magnolia was a hit.

Whatever gets them happily playing together is a winner in my book!

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First Grade!

Julia woke up full of excitement for her first day of first grade today!  While Ethan and I are not ready to say good-bye to a summer vacation that went by way too quickly, Julia has been counting down the days until she returns to school, anxious to see her friends again and navigate her way as a big first-grader.

She had her fashionista outfit all picked out and was dressed and ready for school with nary a prompt from her mother:

As soon as we got to school, Julia joined the first-graders congregating in the performance center, sitting in line as they awaited their teachers.  Happy as a clam to rejoin some of her kindergarten friends, she said good-bye to us easily and confidently, ready to start her day.

Madeleine was definitely in Julia withdrawal throughout the day, however.  We headed off to the Y so I could do a quick run, and when I picked Madeleine up from the childcare room at 10:40, she immediately asked me, "Is it time to go get Julia now?"

In the absence of her sister's company, Madeleine was forced to come up with pretend play ideas all by herself today.  And that is how she wound up in dress-up clothes, dancing around on my yoga mat, waving the play tape-measurer from her toy tool kit around in the air like a rhythmic gymnast's ribbon.

Doesn't she look like a TOTAL gymnastics star??:

She is ROCKING that outfit, don't you think?

At one point, I said, "Okay, let me see your FIERCE model pose now!"  Madeleine immediately curved her hands like claws and made animal noises at me.  I guess that's the only kind of "fierce" she knows.

Fierce Madeleine

At any rate, Madeleine had no problem letting go of her game once it was, at long last, time to pick up Julia.  She literally bolted up from the floor when I announced it was time to go, and picked up right where we left off last spring, running along ahead of me the whole way to school:

I waited eagerly for Julia to be dismissed so I could find out if she'd had a good first day, and once the first grade was released, I was greeted by this very happy camper:

The first day of first grade was a success!  Julia had a great time at school, and can't wait to go back for pizza day tomorrow.

Madeleine, too, was thrilled to be back at Julia's school playground at pickup.  When it was time for us to head home, after the girls got to play for a half hour on the playground, Madeleine burst into bitter tears of disappointment.

MADELEINE: But Mamaaaaa!  I'm not READY to go home yet, because I was just having SO, SO, SO much FUN playing at Julia's schoooooooool!

It's going to be tough waiting a whole week until her own preschool starts; I expect today's tears are not the only ones we'll be experiencing as Julia attends school and Madeleine is stuck at home for the next few days.

At least she has her yoga mat and snazzy gymnastics outfit here to keep her entertained!

Rainy Morning and Afternoon Outing

This is what certain areas of our house look like right now:

Our bathroom

Our bedroom

Does anyone want to wager a guess as to what happened?

If you so happened to guess that the gutter near our bedroom window is clogged, we had a TORRENTIAL downpour this morning, the gutter water was directed onto our bedroom window sill, seeped through the window, down the bedroom wall and into a crack between the wall and baseboard, only to collect in a big puddle inside the light fixture in our bathroom directly downstairs from our bedroom wall, then DING DING DING!  You're RIGHT!

One of our kids was completely oblivious to all that was going on.  The other of our kids had a massive melt-down panic-stricken shrieking fest because she was so terrified that we were going to get electrocuted AND the water was going to cause a flood and we were ALL GOING TO DIE.

My poor, anxiety-riddled Julia.  So much like her anxiety-riddled mommy.

I did manage to calm Julia down after some time, and once she was secure in the idea that we weren't all going to die, she was even willing to see the contraption that Ethan had set up in the bathroom to collect the dripping water.  Auntie Caitlyn even tried to make it fun by telling Julia that the trash bag looks like a Dementor, since adding "Harry Potter" to ANY situation makes it more fun for Julia.  In this case, Julia gleefully proclaimed that we had a Dementor in our bathroom all morning, telling us each repeatedly about it.

It turns out that Julia did NOT get the same idea of what a Dementor looks like from J.K. Rowling's description than I did.  We discovered before bedtime that it was not actually the trash bag that Julia thought was the Dementor.

Here is what Julia thought was the Dementor:

(The clamp lamp that Ethan attached to a kitchen stool, in order to light up the bathroom in place of the sopping wet overhead light bulb.)

I can totally see why she thinks this is a Dementor, with...uh...its...BULBOUS SILVERY HEAD, and...its...BRIGHT SHINING LIGHT, and...hmmm....yeah, I'm really not sure why she thinks this was the Dementor.

At any rate, once Julia had calmed down, she and Madeleine got busy with a perfect rainy day activity: coloring.

Here is Julia's finished masterpiece:

Are you TOTALLY shocked that she drew Hogwarts and a bunch of "Harry Potter" characters??

Here is Madeleine's finished picture:

She doesn't want to be just like Julia AT ALL.


At any rate, the weather cleared after noon, and we Rowes spent an extremely pleasant afternoon out and about in Brookline, starting with a puppet show at the Puppet Showplace Theater, followed by a trip to one of Brookline's public playgrounds, which was a little wet, but not too wet to bother the girls.  Afterwards, we headed off to look for nearby restaurants to have some dinner, peering at the various signs on shops around us.

Julia thoroughly enjoyed trying to read the signs aloud as we went past:

JULIA: Otto's?  Or Oh-tos?
ME: Otto's.
JULIA: Magic Be...Magic Bears?  Beads?  I can't see the last letters.
ME: Magic Beans.  It's a toystore.
JULIA: Well, I know that THAT says Verizon store!
ME: Yup.  You're right.

Then we drove past a pizza place called "Virginia's".

JULIA: Mom?  Does that say "VAGINAS," or "VER-GYNAS?"

Mmm.  How appetizing.  Who *wouldn't* want to walk right into a restaurant named "Vaginas?"

We settled on a Mexican restaurant that apparently only recently opened, and it was absolutely delicious!  Julia not only gobbled down her entire quesadilla, but also shared food from all of our plates as well.  Then she had to poop, of course, so I got to spend yet ANOTHER outing at a restaurant sitting inside a one-seater bathroom with Julia as she pooped.  Fun times!

After dinner, we headed over to a party thrown by some old college friends of ours; they happen to live about a half mile from the puppet theater, and recently had a baby.  There were lots of other kids at the party, so our girls had a BLAST, not wanting to leave when bedtime drew near.

And now we are back home in our garbage-bag covered house, hoping for a completely dry, rain-free rest of the long weekend!

Birthday!

So it's the big old 35 for me today!  Time simply moves too quickly these days.

This is the generous, loving birthday greeting I received from Madeleine upon coming downstairs this morning.

ME: Hi girls!
JULIA: Hi Mommy.  Happy birthday!
MADELEINE: (silence)
AUNTIE CAITLYN: Madeleine, can you give Mommy a "happy birthday" hug?
MADELEINE: Uh, no.  Because...birthday hugs are BORING.

Despite her disinterest in the hug, Madeleine was definitely invested in my birthday presents.  Both girls were eager to shower me with gifts this morning, though I suggested we wait until Ethan was out of the shower so he could be part of the celebration.

MADELEINE: But Mama.  Why do we need DADDY for you to open your presents?
ME: Well, because I think he'd like to be here when I open them.
MADELEINE: Here Mama.  I'll be Daddy.  I'm sitting here in Daddy's chair, so let's just pretend that I'm Daddy so you can open your presents.

Even though Madeleine pulled off her role as Ethan like a pro, I still opted to wait until the REAL Ethan could join us.

In the meantime, Madeleine was busy thinking about whether or not my having a birthday would be of any benefit to her at all.

MADELEINE: But Mama?  When it's YOUR birthday, does EVERYONE get a piece of cake?

I assured her that yes, indeed, she would get to partake in my birthday cake consumption.

As Ethan finished up his shower and the present-opening time grew imminent, Madeleine decided she simply couldn't hold out any longer and announced to me what my gift from her was.

MADELEINE: Well Mama.  When you open this, you're gonna see your DINOSAUR DOLL.  Because...that's what is IN here.  It's a DINOSAUR DOLL on your picture.

She wasn't kidding:

That's a pretty awesome dinosaur doll.  According to Madeleine, the non-dinosaurs in this picture are me (smiling) and herself (zombie-like creature with bared teeth looking like she's about to hunt down her unsuspecting, smiling mother.)

This one's a keeper, all right.


Julia, as usual, had made me multiple cards, pictures, and books, including this lovely card:

And a newly written book:

ME: Ohhh!  Eva Momolin and her baby sister!
JULIA: Moooom!  It's Eva MCMULLIN!
ME: Oh. Oops.


I also became the honored recipient of "Harry Potter and the Frist Year Wich," despite its having been an established part of our household home-made book collection for some time now.  On top of that, Julia drew me two pictures: one of a blue rose (my favorite flower), and one of a rainbow colored heart.  Was I spoiled, or was I spoiled??

Julia even had to give herself a congratulatory pat on the back.  Sitting down on the couch, she let out a great sigh and remarked, "Whew.  I really OUTDID myself this time!"

Ethan and I took the kids to the Museum of Science for a fun family afternoon, and the girls enjoyed themselves so greatly that Madeleine couldn't handle about leaving.  There were intermittent tears during our entire walk through the museum exit and parking garage, because: "But I don't waaaaaaant to go hooooooome!"  I thought about chiming in with, "But I don't waaaaaaaant to be 35!  I waaaaaaaant to be 29!", but figured that would just add to the chaos.

Now my wonderful husband is setting out to cook me a birthday dinner, and the girls are happily watching "My Little Pony" as I drink a glass of California Cabernet, so life is good.  All and all it was a wonderful day spent with my favorite guy and my favorite kids in the world, so I guess turning 35 isn't all THAT bad...

Thanks to all you readers who have sent along birthday cards, emails, and greetings.  Love to you all!

The Prinscesce of Fall

I'm pleased to announce a brand new Julia Rowe original book, folks!

Take a look at her recently completed work:

"The Prinscesce of Fall"
by Julia Rowe

Pgs 1-2:

"Thare is a prinsese for evry seisin but the Prinsese of Fall was the best of them all.  Fall was named Hermione.  Winter was named Ivy.  Spring was named Emily and sumer was named Ginny."

Wait.  A.  Minute.  Is anybody else as stunned as I am that one of the characters is named Hermione??

Pgs 3-4:

"The Prinscese of Fall sade 'Fall has beigone and I need to get ready.'  Hermione saide 'I have pupkins to macke and ather things,' she said."

First of all, can we start keeping track of how many different spellings of the word "princess" seem to exist in this book?  Secondly, I like the discrepancy between the spelling of "said" between pages 3 and 4.  And finally, I wish the Prinscese of Fall lived in MY house so she could macke ME some pupkins!


Pgs 5-6:

"It was Halloween and thar wear kids dres't like a wich and a gost.  It was winter and Ivy was on ice."

That was a really fast fall/Halloween.  I am really digging that hollow-eyed gost though.  He kind of looks like some sort of amorphous sea creature.


Pgs 7-8:

"And evry one was bundeld in winter clothes.  It was spring.  Emily was vaery buisy."

I can tell Emily is vaery buisy.  I mean, she even looks vaery buisy, standing there in the middle of nowhere with her arms out to the sides, doing nothing.  Unless she is telepathically causing the leaves on that tree to grow.



Pgs 9-10:

"The grass was grein and the sky was blue.  And then came cummer and Ginny was geting reity."

Ohhhh, okay.  The grass is grein and the sky is blue.  Great job, Emily!  You must have been vaery buisy making that sky blue and that grass grein!


Pgs 11-12:

"The pool was open'd and evryone live'd happely ever after."

Well, no WONDER they live'd happely ever after.  If the pool was open'd, that's pretty much a dream-come-true scenario, right??

GREAT WORK, SEISIN PRINSCESCESS!