Daddy, I look like a queen

No, it wasn't Mary Grace saying that. It was William.

We've been encouraging the kids to get dressed by themselves and it's been working out well. Last night, William picked out his pajamas. He choose the puppy pjs that are a year old now and he's outgrown them. But that's what he wanted to wear, so that's what he got.

So when he noticed that the tops were a little too short to cover his belly button, he started pulling them down. This led to the collar getting stretched downwards.

He looked down, and observing that he could see the top of his chest, he noted "Aww, I look like a queen". It took a few seconds to sink in, but I'm pretty sure he was referring to this queen, from the Strong Museum Royal Ball this past spring. Note how her top got pulled down, likely because her belly button was showing.

What my kids are made of

Last night I was telling William the nursery tale about what little boys are girls are made of. My memory was failing me and all I could come up with was:

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.

"What is Mary Grace made of?"

Mary Grace is made of sugar and spice and everything nice!

No, Daddy. Mary Grace is made of apple juice and I'm made of salami.

Apparently, William remembered that Anne told him and Mary Grace about what she craved (and ate in excess) during pregnancy. :)

Lead-up to a dance recital

The kids have been taking dance lessons since the fall. They love their instructor "Miss Kim" and while Mary Grace has taken a big interest, William's interest has been lackluster.

About mid-winder, Mary Grace stated that she doesn't need to go to dance class anymore because she knows all the moves now. Luckily, we convinced her that there was a lot of new stuff to learn and that she should continue on.

We're now heading towards their first dance recital, and this weekend we had their pictures taken in their costumes. It was adorable to see all the kids in Mary Grace's class all made up. Here's a few photos we took ourselves when we got home. Hope you love them as much as we do!

Skinny dipping

This afternoon I set up a little pool in the yard for the kids. Upon seeing this, William instantly stripped down to his birthday suit and jumped in. He ended up putting on swimming trunks at Mom's insistence, but both Mary Grace and William stripped down immediately after swimming time.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing naked and we just finished a naked dinner. It's the first naked dinner since last summer and it was well planned since we had homemade sauce (which inevitably gets on the kids clothes).

Tomorrow will be the Memorial Day parade followed by Memorial Day celebration at Midtown (including lots of frolicking at the pool)

Loving summer with a 4 and 5 year old! (and my wonderful wife!).

Stick and Stone collectors

When the kids were really young and we used to go for walks in the neighborhood in the stroller, or even in the wagon. This inevitably led to collecting of sticks that we found laying on the ground (sadly, it was originally my idea to collect sticks).

Mary Grace took this a step further and collected leaves and nuts.

William, being a boy was more interested in collecting rocks. He would get very attached to them and cry if we didn't keep them.

Recently, Anne found Williams "buddy" (a teddy bear backpack with an optional leash) that we had put away over a year ago, and in going through it, she found a nice big baby rock in the pocket. :)

Little phrases of the moment

We've noticed that both kids have little signature phrases that they like to say. A few that come to mind right now are:

William: "What'cha say?" He says that both when he didn't hear you and when he wants to confirm that the thing he's doing is ok.

William: parent name! parent name! parent name! parent name! parent name! He'll repeatedly and continually call out either Mommy! or Daddy! until you respond. We're trying to work with him on this, encouraging to just ask the question but so far it's not taking.

Mary Grace: "I don't mind". Used for any situation she's flexible on. For example, eating frozen french fries rather than homemade.

Mary Grace: "I need to tell Mommy if I can have a treat". She confuses ask/tell. She'll tell you a question and ask you a statement.

William is making great strides

William's efforts are finally paying off as he makes great strides in everything he tries. He knows all his letters, can put together puzzles, tries almost any food offered to him, and knows right from wrong (although he seems to prefer to do wrong lol).

I'm noticing that Mary Grace seems to be becoming a little more independent. Tonight I noticed her in her playhouse in the yard working on an activity while the rest of the family was sitting on the back porch.

Both kids are looking forward to a wonderful summer full a dance recital, cousins visiting from Arizona, swimming at Midtown and going on rides at Seabreeze. I sure hope it's everything their little hearts desire!

Here's a photo of the kids at their family birthday party in March.

Naughty girls

Tonight we had Mary Grace's BFF (and her family) over for play and dinner. All seemed to go pretty well and at one point the girls locked themselves in Mary Grace's room and CLEANED UP. Weird, I know.

A little silence goes by and both girls come downstairs with a powerful coconut smell. Our guest is nearly naked and covered in a red balm of some sort. All the parents rush over and ask what happened. Mary Grace, sensing impending discipline answers "I don't remember". When pressed harder for an answer, she sticks with her first instinct and repeats "I really don't remember!"

We finally get to the truth; they were in the bathroom playing with Avon Kids Bath Body Paint and our guest thought it would be fun to apply it to herself. Liberally.

Lucky for us, she was heading home for a bath shortly anyway. :)

I love you

I noticed that when I tell Mary Grace that I love her, she doesn't respond that she loves me. Now, I know that she does love me, but all the same, it IS nice to hear! (And I have observed her telling Mommy that she loves her.)

I mentioned it to Anne one night and she queried Mary Grace about it. Mary Grace responded that she doesn't say it because she's shy. In other words, she loves me so much that she's embarrassed to say it. I'm ok with that.

Anne later suggested that rather than saying "I love you" to me, Mary Grace could say "me too" in response to me telling her that I love her. So now, every night, I tell Mary Grace I love her and she responds with "me too". I'm cool with that too.

However, yesterday, I got this card in my email, which I'll treasure for a while, I think.

Brothers and Sisters

Mary Grace:

Mommy, did I tell you that William hurt me 90 times today, and he just kicked me with his foot.

He was hitting me with his feet like this (pushes her foot into his forehead, bumping his head into the wall. No tears.)

He hurt my nose when he was climbing on me.

I don't remember what else he did.

Mary Grace explaining the toilet seat rule to William

"William - When you finish going to the bathroom, you have to put the toilet seat down because it's more comfortable that way for me and mommy. You and daddy have a different kind of coo-coo so we can't stand up."

I asked her afterwards who was responsible for changing the position of the toilet seat and got an immediate "William is". Apparently, the brainwashing has already begun :)

Mary Grace meets the queen at Strong Museum's Royal Ball

We had a fantastic time at the Royal Ball at the Strong Museum last weekend. There were so many activities that we stayed for an unprecedented 3+ hours. Here's one of my favorite moments:

There was a line of little princesses waiting to meet her royal majesty, the Queen. Of course we got in line. As we were waiting we noticed that the little girls were curtsying and I didn't know if Mary Grace knew how. Unfortunately, Daddy didn't know how either. So I explained it to her as best I could based on observation. Then came the big moment



By the way, while we were waiting in line, William asked if he could go see the Spider Man exhibit that was just down the hall. I didn't see the harm, so told him to make sure he can see me (and thus, I could see him). As I was trying to explain curtsying, I lost sight of him and he was MIA for a good 5 minutes while we waited in line.

Here are a few photos from the afternoon as well

Princess Mary Grace and Prince William on the royal (Lego) throne.



At the royal hair salon, getting a french braid



The prince enjoying a snack after making his own crown.

She wants to take the bus next year?!

We're faced with a dilemma. Mary Grace will be starting kindergarten next year, which is every day from 8-2:15. William will still be in 3-day pre-K. That means a lot of travelling back and forth to school.

So we asked Mary Grace if she wanted to take the school bus, fully expecting the answer would be No. What a surprise that she said yes! We've still got to work out the details, but that may be an answer to our problems!

Now we have to try to get the parents to be ok with putting our little girl onto a bus. Right now that's not sitting well with me. :(

Mary Grace's fashion sense

Over the last year or so, Mary Grace has become more and more restrictive with her clothing choices. At first, it was certain colors that she refused to wear. Then she refused to wear jeans. Lately it has degraded to her only wanting to wear dresses. Today she wants to wear an "Eastery" dress while decorating Easter eggs.

So when I overheard this little gem, I had to blog it.

We were all discussing William going to Joe's boy-only birthday party, and since Anne would be working, who would be taking care of Mary Grace. We discussed several options, including neighbors, friends, etc., then Anne said "Maybe Mary Grace can just come to work with me". The first words out of my girl's mouth upon hearing this were "Ohh, what would I wear?!".

Classic girly-girl.

What is Wine?

Sorry for the microblog, but better that than nothing...

William just pulled out the wine VacuVin and asked what it was. I told him and Mary Grace asked , what is wine? I told her it was grape juice that goes through a process that makes it alcohol. She then asked what alcohol was. It's like beer, and if you drink too much of it, it makes you goofy. And she said, "goofy...like silly?" and I said yeah, and she said, "oh, is that how Daddy got to be so silly?" I said, yep, that's how!

Birthday party post coming next.

There are no laser guns in fashion show!

Need I say more?

Words that Mary Grace can write.

She can write her name, she loves to write the word LOVE and she can write Mama and Didi!

William is showing interest in letters now, and has started writing letters out too.

One of MG's early performances.

Before becoming America's favorite ballerina, rock star and fashion model, Mary Grace had humble beginnings in a small city in Western New York. Shown here is a video clip taken right after her 5 year old birthday party where she demonstrates her budding skills in a spontaneous song/dance performance. Note her advanced dancing, rhythm and spontaneous song writing skills, in their earliest recorded form. Who knew that she would grow up to be America's sweetheart?

Mary Grace's birthday party

For her 5th birthday (!), Mary Grace decided on a Barbie themed party. She had all her girlfriends from school, play dates and the neighborhood over for 2 hours in the afternoon. A total of 15 under 8 for two hours means LOTS of fun!

The kids started with coloring pages and tattoos while we waited for everyone to arrive. We moved on to "pin the pony on Barbie" and "the jellybean game" (guessing how many jellybeans were under a cup using only yes/no questions). After that, we all sang Happy Birthday to Mary Grace and had cake and ice cream back in the dining room.

We did a little Barbie Saves The Nutcracker on TV while we got prepared for gifts, then opened some wonderful presents! That took us to 3:00pm, and we gave out gift bags to all the girls and said our good-byes.

I think Mary Grace didn't stop smiling the whole time, she LOVED it.

William had about 10 crying fits because he wanted it to be his birthday too. It was a good lesson for us and the other parents :) He'll get his moment in the spotlight in two months.

So, just like that, my baby girl is 5. People always tell you how quickly it goes by, but you never really get it until it happens to you. I've got to learn to live in the moment more.

So tonight, I read to Mary Grace for half an hour at bedtime and was rewarded with a nice long snuggle.

	Sharing some kettle corn before the party
	The birthday cake, made by Mommy!
	Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles
	Posing with one of her favorite presents! My daughter, the rocker!

A dead car battery and a funny answer to a question.

Anne was leaving for the gym tonight and discovered that the battery in the CR-V was dead. A little investigation revealed that a dome-light was left on... for days! Recounting the last time she drove it, she realized that it wasn't even night-time, so how did the dome-lights get turned on?

An innocent question to the kids "Were either of you playing with the lights in the car?" Both kids replied "No". Then, she asks William "Are you sure you weren't playing with the lights in the car?"

"No Mommy, I wasn't playing with them... I just turned them on!"