They're blinding us with science!

Last night, Louise offered salon services (hair & wardrobe) to her sisters in her bedroom.  Some of the results are below:

Today, Hillsborough was hit by an ice storm, school was cancelled, and we were without power for nearly twelve hours.  This meant that we had time to hear what was on the girls' minds.  We had surreal conversations such as:

Claire: "Why did you have three kids, mommydaddy?"

Us: stunned silence

Louise: "Mommy just got pregnant two times.  That's all.  Daddy wasn't involved AT ALL."

Pause.

Claire: "But why did you have three GIRLS?"

Louise: "They just did."

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Louise also took the opportunity of car travel to teach her sisters other things.  "Ice is like poison to trees, because it makes them bend over.  See?"

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Perhaps inspired by big sister, Charlotte also announced, apropos of nothing, "They call me Science Kid."

Growing girl

Louise had her 7 year old "well child" checkup on Tuesday.  "Well child" needed parentheses, in this case, because she left the office with a diagnosis of bronchitis.  The nurse also concluded during the visit that Louise is virtually blind in her left eye (20/200 vision), so we'll have a follow-up visit to an ophthalmologist later in the year.

On the plus side, Louise continues to grow.  She is now a towering 4' 2.5" (the half inch is critical!), which puts her in the 88th percentile.  She weighs 59.75 lbs (83%).

Happy 7th Birthday, Louise!

Louise was able to spend part of her birthday weekend with her best friend of virtually seven years, Katie.  Louise particularly enjoyed the princess dress-up party.  On the birthday itself, she graciously unleashed her sisters on her many packages, allowing them to open everything (under her close supervision).  Later that day, we confirmed that Everything Is Awesome at the Lego movie, which Louise enjoyed watching with her sisters and neighbors Max and Ava.

Claire "lived out her dream" and reached a new milestone this weekend: she assembled her first Lego without Daddy's help.  All the babies are growing up!

Mummy was delighted to be able to spend the weekend with Louise.  She had originally been scheduled to be in Singapore, but Snowmageddon 2014 arrived.  As a family, though, we've probably had our fill of snow for the year now.

Warm-weather sledding

Between snow days, Louise and Charlotte visited Durham Central Park this weekend to go sledding on a sunny, 7C day.  Katie and another of Louise's friends from preschool days, Alaina, joined them for the opportunity. 

Mother Nature is promising to send us another sledding opportunity this afternoon, but this time, the girls will have to wear coats.

New skills

The training wheels came off Charlotte's bike today.  Unfortunately, Louise is ill, so we asked Charlotte to tell Louise about the new skill she'd learned today.

"Not saying 'butthead'!" Charlotte declared proudly.

Charlotte earlier in the day had said whilst we were driving to some shops that "Claire is hurting my tummy". We asked why, and she replied "because she is talking."

In other news, Louise bought a second fish today, because Goldie her first fish seemed lonely. The new fish is going under the temporary name of "torpedo" and is a grey/white tetra.

The big 4

Claire and Charlotte were VERY excited to turn 4 yesterday.  "Look how big I am now!" Charlotte exclaimed when she came downstairs.  They celebrated at daycare with cupcakes, picked big sister up from school, and opened a large pile of wonderful presents: for Claire, a tool to help her read, tons of books, some costumes, a baby elephant, and other great stuff; for Charlotte, a tool belt "like Claire's", a Hot Wheels car launcher (that serves no apparent purpose but makes her very happy), bunches of books, and a near-life-size zebra.

Today, the whole family was together for Good Friday, and the festivities continued with a trip to the Greensboro Children's Museum, where Claire enjoyed the "real, live fire truck" and Charlotte reveled in the police car and mail truck.  (We have never observed a happier postal worker).  Tomorrow we'll have another birthday party, this time with the "street people".  It was hard to get to sleep tonight...

In other news, Louise was very proud to show off the chicken dance she learned at school:

Easter musical

Charlotte did it, she did it!  Claire had been practicing her lines for the preschool musical for weeks, but when she saw the assembled crowd, she fled backstage.  Fortunately, and to our surprise, Charlotte donned the costume and stepped into the role on Saturday:  MGP Easter Musical

Afterwards, there was a rock hunt.  Louise was proud that she could read the instructions and the list of colours (one rock of each) for her sisters.  

The busy day continued with a daycare friend's birthday party at the Museum of Life & Science, for Charlotte and Claire, and a ballet class for Louise.  (Louise loves ballet).

Blast from the past - videos taken in August 2010

Goldie

Louise had her 6 year old well child visit yesterday and is now 3' 11.5" (87% percentile) and 53 lb 12.8 oz (87% percentile).

Below is a photo of the pet fish Louise received for her birthday last weekend. She had wanted a pet and we agreed on a fish. He is named "Goldie". He seems to be doing well, having survived 5 days so far!

Happy Birthday part 1

Louise's sixth birthday began with snow.  She opened some wonderful presents - books, craft projects, Littlest Pet Shop figures, and the world's largest stuffed giraffe - and helped Mommy decorate her dolphin cake and cupcakes.  Louise & her friends (and their drivers) traveled through the snow to her party at the Scrap Exchange, where they created undersea creatures out of discarded household and industrial waste (as well as goggles, cameras, windchimes, and whatever else took their fancy).

NC Weather, part II

Less than a week after playing kickball in t-shirt and shorts, we had a snow day.  Charlotte was worried about "frostbites," so she wore lots of layers of clothing.  Not surprisingly, she enjoyed the cold weather the most, but all three girls loved sledding (and an extra day with Daddy).  They also helped the neighbours build a snowman, and Louise made a snow angel.  After fun in the snow, all the neighbourhood kids piled into the Howard house for hot chocolate.

Happy 2013

Happy 2013 to everyone. We had a good Christmas break - we took trips to IKEA, the NC Natural Sciences museum and playing with friends.  Louise's favourite parts of the museum trip: the dinosaurs and the opportunity to use a micropipette.  Charlotte & Claire loved the escalator.

We enjoyed having time together.  There were moments of sibling togetherness - Charlotte & Claire (at their request) shared a bedroom for 4 days (until Claire's mess started bugging Charlotte).  There were also other moments - "I don't want three year-olds at my five year-old meeting!"  But it was hard to go back to work and school after the family time together.

Merry Christmas

Santa and all his helpers were extraordinarily generous to all of us this year.  Claire and Louise opened a few presents and started playing.  It took several sessions for them to open all their gifts.  (Charlotte didn't have that problem, and happily opened the gifts to the whole family).  Louise loved her jump rope, craft projects, and books.  Claire put on her tool belt and superhero costume, picked up a drill, and reconstructed our house.  Charlotte looked beautiful in her feather boa and cool shades.  Mommy and Daddy got exactly what they wanted, and they enjoyed chatting with neighbors over brunch whilst the children cooked in the play kitchen, drove the train, and generally displayed a remarkable amount of Christmas spirit.

Santa Train

Baby Jesus!!!  Santa!!!  PRESENTS!!!  The girls are just a wee bit excited about Christmas.  Today was a big day.  C&C had "polar express day" at daycare (they watched the film and wore pjs all day).  Next, we went to the Museum of Life & Science, where we made "reindeer food," received fake snow, had faces painted, and boarded the Santa train.  Finally, we had a birthday party next door at the Gentry home.

The mystery of the "journey to the north pole" is becoming hard for Louise to take seriously.  "Look!  People dressed up as elves!  And there's a cardboard polar bear and someone dressed up as Santa!  And someone from my school is pretending to be Mrs. Claus!  Now someone's got a red light on a string and they're pretending that Rudolph is flying!"  Eventually, with a few gentle hints, she was also able to understand that younger kids might  not appreciate her precocious objectivity and rationalism.

Nevertheless, all three girls still believe in Santa.  Louise even wrote a letter to him: "Dear Santa, Charlotte & I have been bad, but Claire has been good, and she'd like a drill set."

Disguises

The kids' personalities shone through their disguises on Halloween.  At one door, the kids all gave the customary greeting.  "Are you going to give me a treat?" asked the woman at the door.  Louise reached into her bucket and offered the woman some of her candy; C&C backed away nervously.  The music factory was all about the CANDY.

Charlotte and Claire have some interesting conversations.  Last week, in the back of the car, Charlotte asked Claire, "Can you hear me?"
      "No."
      Charlotte: "Why?"
      Claire: " 'Cuz I got my eyes covered."


Charlotte had a rough day yesterday.  "You're being rather contrary today," Daddy said to her.  "No I'm not!" she defiantly replied