Maine: Part 2

Dan's great-grandfather built this beach house with lumber from the sawmill he owned. Dan's mom's share is one week during the summer (and a couple in the winter).

Dan, Fred and Pop in beautiful beach sunset lighting:

Nice snaggle:
Stella wanted a turn:

Warrior princess:

Great-grammy and Fred:

The porch:
These are Dan's cousins, all adopted from China:

Pepe rocking Stella to sleep:
The beach in front of the house has lots of rocks (not much sand and waves). It is good for climbing, hunting crabs and snails, collecting shells and exploring:

Maine: Part 1

I have no idea how many parts there will be to our Maine trip but I'll start with our birthdays.
We celebrated Fred's, Dan's and my birthday while at the beach house. Thanks to Kristen we had pulled pork tacos and cupcakes for Fred. Dan got homemade sushi rolls with lobster, salmon and shrimp and chocolate cake for dessert. On my night we had a lobster bake and cheesecake. I guess it is the east coast's version of dutch oven. The lobsters were trapped nearby and delivered to the beach house the same day. It doesn't get any fresher than that.

Chloe trying a steamed clam. She liked it and had more:

Side note: Chloe is such a weird eater. I asked her what food she doesn't like: strawberries, oranges, wheat bread (or crust), green beans, peas, tacos, tomatoes, pineapple, raisins, corn, watermelon, pears, onions (most fruits and veggies), chicken (except in nugget form), hotdogs, ham, tomato sauce, hamburger, meatballs.

But she loves beans, avacados, sushi rolls (except the seaweed), rice, edemame, pasta w/out sauce, french fries, gyoza, cream of wheat, fried shrimp, lobster, clams (I think she liked dipping them in butter), AllBran cereal, jerky, pistachios, steamed broccoli (again because of butter), cherries, eggs (hard-boiled only).

I really don't like the meal planning and preparation part of motherhood.

1st Will Be Even Better

Yesterday I went for a run and decided to stop and let the girls play at one of the parks we passed. When we got home I put Fred down for a nap and then noticed the clock said 12:42. Chloe's class starts at 12:50. I hurried and did her hair and gave her a yogurt to drink in the car on the way (good thing they get snacks). One of the big pro's about our new home is that it is 200 yards from a new school. I can drop her off and be back home in under 5 minutes. (So I left Fred sleeping--don't turn me in.)

Her class gets out at 3:40. Fred slept until 3:20. Stella is really good at pretending and playing by herself. I think it is a nice break for her to not have Chloe dominating and dictating. At one point I realized it had gotten really quiet...I found Stella like this:Taking a nap!

And today while Chloe was at school and Fred was taking a nap Stella asked me to open a box of toys. When I told her she had to first put the other ones away she had a melt-down. So I said, "Why don't you go lay down and take a nap like you did yesterday?" "NOOOO!!!" But then she did it! She stopped taking naps almost a year ago.

I LOVE KINDERGARTEN!!

Favorite Spot

This is Fred's favorite spot. If the door to the bathroom is open you'll find Fred in there playing in the water. You may be thinking, "aren't you afraid he'll knock his other teeth out?" No, not really. The flooring is linoleum. But I am worried he'll break his neck. We try but he is really quick.

We also need to keep the girls door shut now:

He had his eye on that sippy cup.

Finally

We were in Maine all of last week. I'll post about that after I sort through the hundreds of photos from the trip.
In other news, today was Chloe's first day of kindergarten. (Everyone else started last week but we were gone--oops.) While she was at school Stella played at Annie's and Fred took a long nap. It was nice and quiet. No my-baby-is-growing-up tears were shed.



We compromised with a blue (instead of pink) Camp Rock backpack. I guess you shouldn't take your kid to the store with you if you want them to have a character/disney-free bag.

Dumb Tooth Fairy

At Chloe's last visit to the dentist she was told that she had a loose tooth. She has been looking forward to losing a tooth for a L O N G time so this news made her very happy. Four months later her tooth finally fell out while wrestling on the trampoline with Stella.

Not long after she lost her tooth she lost her tooth.

She was heart-broken. She didn't care about the tooth but what the tooth could get her. So I told her we would leave a note for the tooth fairy explaining what happened. I started it, "Dear Tooth Fairy, My tooth fell out but I lost it." Chloe finished it, "Could you please just leave some money anyway?"

We put the note under her pillow and in her prayer she asked that what happened to Halle wouldn't happen to her. I asked what happened to Halle. "She left her tooth under her pillow but the tooth fairy never came!"

I would never be such a thought-less parent! Well, whu-do-ya-know, I went to bed without slipping the bill. Fred woke me up at 7 am and I remembered. I was heading up the stairs with the money just as Chloe was heading down with the note in her hand and a big frown on her face.

"Dumb tooth fairy."

I headed back to my room and slipped the dollar under my pillow. I thought maybe I would try to convince her that the tooth fairy got the pillows mixed up--I know, lame. But she had been looking forward to this for a year or more. I was desperate.

"Why did they even make a tooth fairy?" she asked. If she's not going to show up when needed then why even exist? (Seriously, why did they make a tooth fairy?)

Dan saved us, "Oh, I know why she didn't come--Its Sunday. The tooth fairy doesn't work on Sunday." Chloe said, "Oh." That made sense to her and she was able to get over her disappointment. And that night (after midnight, because the tooth fairy doesn't work on the sabbath) the tooth fairy redeemed herself with a little dollar bill origami.

Fred is One!

We used Fred's birthday as an opportunity to get to know people. We invited some neighbors and families from our ward over for a little party in our backyard. There were lots of kids so we had Little Ceasar's Pizza, a veggie tray, fruit, cake and ice cream sandwiches.

The party:

Dan's parents gave this ride-on toy to Stella for Christmas. She unwrapped it but we never put it together. We convinced her to give it to Fred for his birthday. (Thanks Meme & Pepe & Stella.)



Unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to talk to people. Hosting a party is not an ideal way to get to know people. One family at a time over for dinner would work better. Oh well, most of them knew eachother and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREDDERS!
WE LOVE YOU!

even more pictures on flicker

The Cake

At first he wasn't very interested.

Then he couldn't figure out how to eat it.

But after we cut it up he was able to fully enjoy it.

Chloe's First Tri

Get ready for a lot of pictures because I thought this was cute.

About a week ago I realized that the triathlon I was signed up for also had a kid's race so I asked Chloe if she wanted to do it. She was very excited. Then I realized it was $40 and tried to talk her out of it. She wasn't going for it. When we were waiting for her race to start Stella realized what was going on and really wanted to do it too. I wanted her to do it too but not for $40. She took a $10-at-the-toy-store bribe.

All marked up:

25 yard swim:

Transition 1:

.75 mile bike:

Transition 2:

.5 mile run:

The End.


Mine was the next day:

Fred refueling:

Next up: Bear Lake Brawl, September 6th. Who'll join me? Or at least come camping with us?

This-n-that

We took some Roses and Reichners down the river. Heading into some rapids:

We went out to eat at a japanese hibachi grill place last night. The cook gave Chloe a peice of shrimp and said, "Try this piece of chicken." After she said she liked it we told her what it really was . Her eyes got really wide, "I like shrimp!?" She was pretty impressed with herself and declared, "Shrimp is the bestest kind of chicken ever!"

Stella's first try without training wheels. Not too bad for barely three.