20 Questions with Kate, Age 6

1. What is your favorite color? purple
2. What is your favorite toy? kinetic sand
3. What is your favorite fruit? bananas
4. What is your favorite TV show? Hard choice! I like all of them.
5. What is your favorite outfit? Hard choice again. I really like all of my outfits, actually.
6. What is your favorite game? snowball fights
7. What is your favorite snack? pretzels
8. What is your favorite animal? cat
9. What is your favorite song? I would say...hmm...What Does the Fox Say?
10. What is your favorite book? I love all books.
11. Who is your best friend? I have a lot, so I choose all my friends.
12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? build a snowman
13. What is your favorite meal? sushi
14. What is your favorite drink? that fancy drink on New Year's Eve (Nana made the girls sparkling grape juice with orange slices and maraschino cherries in fancy cut glass tumblers!)
15. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
16. What do you want to be when you grow up? a vet
17. Where is your favorite place to go? I like traveling a lot, so I like every place I go.
18. What is the best thing about school? when you do birthday books (her teacher's fun class project on the kids' birthdays since the school has a no parties policy)
19. If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do? I would basically do anything.
20. If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? a kitten

[Note: Decisiveness may not be Kate's strong suit! Maggie said, "I don't think Kate understands how you play this game." I think she just likes to keep her options open.]

More 20 Questions from the past few years HERE!

Katie Sez...

... Folks, we haven't seen anything like this in a very, VERY long time - since the '90s!
(while doing a fake news broadcast with Maggie)

... I do not like that dad buzzard! He's mean to those coyotes, and he won't let his son play the banjo! Everyone likes the banjo! I wish I had a banjo!
(said extremely indignantly, while reading Hank the Cow Dog: It's a Dog's Life at bedtime the other night)

... Great joke! Nailed it! Psyche!
(after telling me I had something in my hair when I didn't, making me get up to go look in the mirror; then she made me give her a high five)

20 Questions with Kate, age 5

1. What is your favorite color? red
2. What is your favorite toy? Marie-Grace American Girl doll
3. What is your favorite fruit? apples
4. What is your favorite TV show? My Little Pony
5. What is your favorite outfit? pink and purple striped dress with boots
6. What is your favorite game? Minecraft
7. What is your favorite snack? apples
8. What is your favorite animal? Bearby
9. What is your favorite song? the ABC's
10. What is your favorite book? Fairy books (Rainbow Magic Fairies series)
11. Who is your best friend? Viola
12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play in the snow
13. What is your favorite meal? spaghetti and meatballs
14. What is your favorite drink? milk
15. What is your favorite holiday? every day
16. What do you want to be when you grow up? a vet
17. Where is your favorite place to go? the zoo
18. What is the best thing about school? because my friends are there
19. If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do? eat cupcakes
20. If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? Minecraft Legos 

Sisters

Maggie: Mom, do I have gym today?

Kate: I have gym today!

Maggie: (skeptical) You do? You have gym at preschool?

Kate: Yes! And computers! I have gym and computers today, just like you!

[Maggie looks at me questioningly. We've talked about this several times already. She knows Kate just wants to seem grown up like her big sister, and it really hurts her feelings to have it pointed out that she doesn't have gym or music or computers or library at her "school." I do a little silent head shake behind Kate's back.]

Maggie: OK. Computers and gym. I only have gym today.

Kate: And spy class! I also have spy class on Fridays!

Maggie: MOM. Make it stop!

Katie Sez...

... Is it alright to be six years old and still have a Bearby?

Kate at 16 months - pjs, shoes, paci, Bearby on her head, watching TV. Classic.

Mike: Of course. You can keep your Bearby as long as you want.

Kate: It's just that I'm kind of afraid of the dark sometimes a little bit.

Mike: Even some grown ups are afraid of the dark sometimes.

Kate: I'm also afraid of canyons, earthquakes, ghosteses [rhymes with hostesses], avalanches, spiders, and old mines.

Around Long Island

Here are some photos of the island itself, just because I hate to leave some of these out even though they don't specifically feature my lovely daughters!

This license plate says that Long Island was "Est. 1993" because that is the year it officially seceded from Portland as an incorporated town. The island was purchased from Native Americans in 1732 by Col. Ezekiel Cushing, and other settlers joined his nine children after his death to build the community there.

The girls at the ferry terminal in Portland

On the ferry

The Dock at Mariner's Wharf

Unloading Freight

Chestnut Hill Cottage

The Boat House Beverage & Variety

Ivy House Gift Shop - our salt water taffy and homemade caramels hook-up

Fern Park Lobster Co. - our claws & tails dealer

Lobster buoys hanging from a tree in the yard of the Most Eccentric House on the Island, home of the owner of the sparkly pink golf cart from my first Long Island post.

Sun, Sand, Sea, & Sky on South Beach
The weather was almost perfect the entire week we were there.

Beach Roses - Gram's Favorite

Mags on South Beach

A gorgeous house overlooking the beach

Katharine's Garden
Flowering Plants, Fresh Vegetables, Seedlings, and Herbs

That was a funny story. Jane and I went over to Katharine's Garden one afternoon in the hopes of finding some fresh local produce, maybe some fruit, maybe some green salad fixin's. We pull up in front of a house on a small cove with an enormous, gorgeous garden. The entire yard is filled with carefully laid out and tended garden beds. A woman of about 70-something, wearing a bathing suit and flip flops, comes up from the cove in a state of great excitement, telling us to come see the baby seal that had wandered into their cove! Rod, the local wildlife official, pulls up right behind us to consult on the situation and confirm whether or not the seal is injured. After the drama dies down and Rod leaves, Katharine leads us around her garden, picking whatever is ready for harvest - regardless of our interest in turnips or bok choy - and piles it all into a brown paper grocery sack, for which she charges us $10. She was a fascinating, chatty woman, who was just as lavish and flowery and unique as her garden. It was quite an experience.

So many sweet little island cottages!

Fowler Road

Fowlers on our Beach

Fowler Beach at Sunset

At the end of our week, we couldn't get our car off the island due to the lack of high enough high tides for the car ferry. After our Saturday check-out from the rental house, we had to leave the car, packed with most of our stuff, on the ferry dock overnight while we went home! Mike and I were going to spend the night in Portland and then pick up the car the next day, but it was apparently a "Camper's Weekend." That's when the all the hotels are booked up with parents coming up to visit their kids at the summer-long sleep-away camps that I thought were mythical movie settings or historic yesteryear institutions until I moved to New England (like flat, folded up TV Pizza - that's real too, y'all).

So, anyway, Dale dropped us off in Portland at the Ferry Terminal on Sunday morning to go back out to the LO (that's the island's abbreviation, if you're hip and in the know like we are now) to retrieve our car (aka Violet, according to Maggie and Kate, even though the car is black). We were surprised to find out that we were somehow stuck on a ferry that not only freights cars, but also carries the mail and does the entire circuit of all the islands in Casco Bay. A Three Hour Tour, you guys.

Chebeague Island Dock
I now have a bucket list goal of spending the night at the Chebeague Island Inn. Lovely.

The Cliff House general store and ice cream shop on Cliff Island. Their cheese crackers and cashew nuts saved us, accidental day trippers that we were.

When we finally were returned to Portland Harbor, we were starving to death, but we agreed that living in New England isn't so bad when your Sunday errands involve taking a scenic boat ride around quaint Vacationland destination spots, getting a view of Portland Head Light, and eating crab rolls in a harborside pub in one of the prettiest small cities in America. We even managed to find a Dunkin's on the way home.

As Katie sez, "No worries."

Katie Sez...

... Mom, what do lions eat?

Me: Lions eat raw meat. They're carnivores.

... Oh, yeah! I remember from that one show we watched: lions eat other animals because they're creditors.

Katie Sez...

(As we pull into a parking space outside the bank, preparing to go in, which we almost never do in these days of ATMs and online banking...)

... are we going in to rob it?

Katie Sez...

... Did you do knitting karate when you were younger?

Me: Knitting karate?! Uh, no. What is that?

Kate: It's where you knit something *mimes knitting* and then you fight someone *karate moves*.

Me: Where did you hear about that?

Kate: On the Littlest Petshop cartoon.

Me: I think that was just supposed to be a joke. It's not a real thing.

Kate: Seriously?! *disappointed face*

Me: Sorry. Did you want to us to sign you up for knitting karate classes?

Kate: (embarrassed) No.

Our Scooter Gang - The Pink Ladies

It's tough to be a kid in New England, especially one born in the winter. Maggie and Kate both got scooters for their birthdays but it's been too cold and too snowy for them to ride outside. As you know, they've been riding them around the small circular race track that is our downstairs, but that brand of fun is starting to wear thin. This past weekend Mike's parents were visiting, and they took the girls out on their first real scooter run of the season. It was COLD, but the sidewalks were clear. They were zooming around like pros in no time!

Unfortunately, we're covered in snow again and expecting a bit more today and more on Monday, so the scooters are parked in the garage for now. As Katie sez (while shouting at the sky), "Come on, Spring! You come on over here right now!"

Katie Sez...

... Dad, guess what! Guess what, Dad! I was with Mommy this morning and we went to take Maggie to school and we were walking up to the school and then we went up to Maggie's school and she went in the door to go into the cafeteria and there was a teacher there waiting for the kids to come inside and Maggie went inside and then... And then...

Mike: And then?

... and then, Mom said, "Let's go." and then we turned around and left the playground and then we went back up the stairs to the street where the traffic lady is and she said, "OK," and then we crossed the street because the cars and trucks and buses were stopped for us and then we got to the other side of the street and it was very cold and my legs were tired of walking so far and my cheeks were getting too cold and my snow boots were on my feet because of the snow even though there wasn't any snow on the sidewalk and, uh...

Mike: And then?

... and then there wasn't any ice on the sidewalk even in front of the house that has the pipe that comes out and wooshes water across the sidewalk sometimes and the water sometimes freezes there and it will be very icy and we have to hold hands and walk so carefully and not pretend to skate on the ice because Mommy says we'll all fall down and break our arms if we do that and she doesn't want to break her arm but there wasn't even any ice today by the house with the water pipe but I had my boots on and my feet were very warm but my face was getting cold and my legs were getting tired and then... Uh, and then...

Maggie: Dad! Hey, Dad!
Mike: Wait, I'm listening to Kate's story. I think we're just getting to the good part.

... and then I wanted to run down the street to our car but Mom always tells me I have to stop at the driveways and look to see if a car is coming and I try to stop but sometimes I forget and then she won't let me run down the street especially if there's ice and there wasn't any ice today and then I let go of Mom's hand and she said, "Watch out for cars in the driveways!" and then I ran down the sidewalk and I did stop at all the driveways to look for cars but there weren't any and then I would keep running...

Mike: And then?

... and then right before I got to our car I fell down on the sidewalk and I ripped my new red leggings that Gram and Grandpa gave me for Christmas and they were all dirty and my mittens were all dirty but they were not torn and Mom said it was lucky I had them on because my hands weren't scratched up...

Mike: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Were you OK?

... Yeah, I was OK.

Mike: And then?

... and then Mom hurried fastly to come pick me up and my leggings had holes in them and Mom put me in the car and then we went home in the car to our house and we listened to music in the car and my leggings were torn up and my mittens were dirty but not torn up and then Mom took me in the house when we got home and then Mom put a princess band-aid on my knee and it was a Sleeping Beauty band-aid...

Mike: Oh, that's good. And then?

... and then she threw away my leggings in the kitchen trash can because she didn't know how to knit them but then I told her that Gram can knit and Gram can knit them back together and Mom said she didn't think so and then I drank some hot chocolate.

Mike: Good story, Kate.

Dinner Conversation

At dinner tonight:

Maggie: Mazhician is hard to say.

Kate: Mazhician

Maggie: Mazhician, magician, magician... There! I said it! Mazhician. Ugh!

Kate: Mazhician

Maggie: Meow-gician! A cat magician!

Kate: *giggle* Moo-gician! A cow mazhician!

Maggie: Those are my favorite kinds of mazhicians. Mazhicians. Mazhicians! Man!

***

Also, Katie Sez...

... Dad, am I right or is Maggie wrong?


And

Mike: Guess what! There are only two more football games this season, one more tonight and then the Super Bowl!

Kate: *Throws both fists in the air* YES!


And

Kate: There's Tom Brady!

Mike: No, that's number 32 not number 12.

Me: And, that guy is black.

Kate: Arrrggh! *smacks her forehead with her hand*

Katie Sez...

...i'm playing a new game i made up called cat box i'm playing with turtle and earl and we're cats UH HUH and i'm a cat named snickers and i renamed earl yodeyo and turtle i named her naughty COOL and i'm a cat and yodeyo and naughty are the brother and sister and we're living in this box and this box is our house GREAT and its a cat house a cat box and i'm going to decorate this box with stickers and we're going to have a garden where we can jump and twirl and smell the flowers MM HMM and when it's raining we can go in our cat box and when it's snowing we can play in the snow in the garden but also go inside our cat box if it's too cold if we wanna and we can drink hot cocoa THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT cuz pretend cats like me and yodeyo and naughty love hot cocoa and we can color on the house cuz its just a box ya know NO PROBLEM and we can color with crayons cuz you won't let me take the markers in the living room and thats just mean! you're just being mean mom! WHATEVS can i have some hot cocoa with marshmallows? in the living room? NO i don't want it if I can't have it in the living room you're so mean YUP me and yodeyo and naughty are having a birthday party for our baby cat baby socks and it's her birthday NEAT-O and she's one year old today RAD and we're going to have cake and balloons and a tea party in the garden cuz its not raining today in our cat town and you're not invited because you are mean TOTALLY and there's no hot cocoa and do you want a cup of tea mom? SURE THING do you want to come sit in the garden and have some tea for baby socks' birthday party because i sent you an invitation here it is SUPER i colored it with crayons because all the markers are in the kitchen and here it is WOW and you can come to our garden party in the cat box garden and there's gonna be snacks YOU DON'T SAY can you bring some snacks in here in the living room cat box garden for our birthday party MM HMM and you can come and sit and have a cat birthday party and we need snacks like pretzels RIGHT get the pretzels mom cuz cats love snacks RIGHT ON and i wanna watch a show i wanna watch jake and the neverland pirates UH HUH and pirates are crazy because they always have to mess around with captain hook and they have a hideout and pixie dust and i wish i had pixie dust RIGHTY RIGHT-O and we should go to the beach is it summer yet mom? WHAT? is it summer now? can we go to the beach and dig for pirate treasure cuz you know they always bury it and that's why it's so tricky and we have to go to the beach and dig for it SURE and i'll need my beach shovel so I can find that pirate treasure and then we'll have a box of gold monies and we can get a hideout I BET and my cat box is a hideout for pirate treasure and i can hide out in there and hunt for gold doubloons UH HUH and when it's raining and storming and the cats are scared and we can hide out in the cat box hideout and be warm and cozy and safe HMMM and the cats were scared mom scared of the thunder and the lightening and the hurricanes and the volcanoes SURE and so I put them in the cat box hideout where they can be safe and warm and cozy and i got some gorilla glue out of your drawer in the kitchen and i glued the box up so they can't get out and get all scared of the hurricane...

WAIT, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!

20 Questions with Kate, age 4

1. What is your favorite color? red
2. What is your favorite toy? my earth ball (a beach ball that looks like a globe)
3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries
4. What is your favorite TV show? Octonauts
5. What is your favorite outfit? my summer pink and white dress
6. What is your favorite game? Pet Pals
7. What is your favorite snack? pretzel goldfish
8. What is your favorite animal? a cat
9. What is your favorite song? the ABC's
10. What is your favorite book? um.... I fink... Tangled
11. Who is your best friend? Viola
12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play in  my pool
13. What is your favorite meal? pepperoni and cheese
14. What is your favorite drink? hot chocolate
15. What is your favorite holiday? every day!
16. What do you want to be when you grow up? a person that grows babies - which is YOU! - I want to be like you when I grow up! (Awww, that is terribly sweet.)
17. Where is your favorite place to go? the mall
18. What is the best thing about school? sliding on the slide
19. If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do? eat breakfast (she already had breakfast... ??)
20. If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? hugs and kisses from my mommy

For comparison's sake, here's her list from last year. And here's Maggie's list.

(Post) Christmas (Pre)view

I wrote this post about two weeks ago, the day before we flew to Oklahoma for ten days for Christmas. After reading it through a couple of times, trying to rewrite it, and then forcing Mike to read it, we both decided that I couldn't post it since I necessarily had to tell the Internet that we were going out of town in order to explain why the girls were already opening presents. Now that we're home again and the laundry pile is massive and the house is filthy and I'm in my post-vacation exhaustion mode, I just can't be bothered to rewrite it again, so here it is...

I know many of you will think this is just blasphemous, but I grew up believing that Christmas is a destination where all your loved ones are waiting for you to celebrate and be merry instead of just a single day, so I have no qualms about letting my children open their Christmas presents before December 25th. Here's my confession: we let the kids open their big presents (and a few smaller ones) from us last night so they would have an evening or two to play with them before we fly away to where Christmas awaits us.

[Note: Our neighbors, who are going to be home the whole holiday, are feeding our cats and bringing in the mail and watching our house. So don't get any nasty ideas, Grinches.]

And here comes blasphemous statement Number Two... we didn't even get them toys. Oh, there are a few small toys for later that are travelling with us (shh... don't tell!), but their primary gifts this year weren't even toys at all. What cruel parents! What a way to ruin Christmas! Those poor girls must be devastated by the worst holiday on record!

Nope. I think we absolutely hit the nail on the head present-wise this year as both girls were thrilled with their gifts. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Smile!

No, Smile! A real smile this time! Stand still!

No, stand together and smile!

Never mind.

Maggie asked for pastels for Christmas. Really. Our 5-year-old asked for pastels for Christmas. They had used them in her art class at school, and that's what she wanted. OK. So we found this case of semi-professional art supplies designed for children with a serious artistic bent. She opened it as though it were a treasure chest and absolutely beamed at all that colorful loveliness. We also got her a magnetic wipe-off board and a cork board for her art projects, and she cheerfully got right down to business this morning before school and drew a portrait of our Christmas tree.

Kate asked for a ukulele. A specific red electric Epiphone ukulele that she saw online at Guitar Center while window shopping with Mike one evening. She also wanted a banjo, a flute, and a harmonica. (Maggie also wants a flute and a harmonica.) She even told Santa at her school Christmas party on Wednesday that she wants a ukulele, a banjo, a flute, and a harmonica. OK. So she was very excited to unwrap her strangely shaped box and get her hands on the uke of her dreams! Chew on that, Santa - you'll have to get up earlier in the morning if you want to beat Mom and Dad to the best gifts! We don't mess around. You can get her some socks, Mr. Kringle.

After Mike tuned it for her, she asked him to plug it in to his amp so she could, and I quote, "Blast it!" Rock out on that ukulele, little missy!

Blastin'!

She and Mike have been happily playing it together all morning and listening to Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs for inspiration.



So there you go, it's a lawless, toyless, punk Christmas up in here. We're flouting all the rules and thumbing our noses at conformity and tradition. My girls are weirdos who asked for crazy stuff for Christmas (I love those girls! This whole post is my humble brag about them because they truly are the bomb. I hope they never grow up and become normal people), and I think we made a couple of their loony little dreams come true. In that sense, we already had the best Christmas any parent could hope to achieve.

...Now on to the next Yuletide adventure! See y'all in the New Year!

Santa Claus did bring the ladies their harmonicas and recorders/flutaphones, among other things of course. Kate (who spent most of the holiday asking everyone if they had more presents for her - greedy!) said, "Mom, let's hurry back to Nana's house so we can see if Santa left my banjo there!! Poor girl, Santa is so disappointing. Maybe Daddy will buy you a banjo for Christmas next year if you practice your ukulele diligently.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Katie Sez...

... This pizza is mouth-watering!

... Our car is magic! (after I pulled a cup holder we rarely use out of the armrest)

... (while galloping around the house) My horse and my legs are both named Trusty!

Maggie sez... Her tricycle is named Trusty, too! She needs to get more creative.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us!

PS - And if you know who this child actually belongs to, please let me know so that I can return her. Dresses?!? She's obviously not related to me. Maybe she gets this girly thing from Mike.

PSS - This morning while I was making the mac & cheese to take to Thanksgiving, she begged me for some cheese... "I'm thirsty for cheese, Mom." She carried her cheese away to go eat it while watching cartoons in the living room. A little later she came back "thirsty" for more cheese, but she did not get another piece because MIKE FOUND THE ORIGINAL PIECE IN THE RADIATOR. No cheese for you!

Katie Sez...

... Am I going to school or is it Katie-stay-home-day? (Getting back into the car after dropping Mags at school.)

Me: It's Katie-stay-home-with-Mom-day.

Kate: O! K! (in a cheerleader voice, clapping her hands) Where do we need to go today?

Me: Nowhere. We're just going back home today.

Kate: O! K! Let's go home and eat candy!

***

 

... Let me show you my new game that Dad bought for me. (She punches in the password to the iPad which she figured out on her own even though she can barely spell.) OK, Mom, watch and learn!

***

... Look, Mom! I just invented this. I call it "coxiebomb!"

(She holds up what is basically the heavy metal devil horn handsign.)

Sorry, Dude. Ronnie James Dio beat you to it.

 
Rock 'n Roll, Kate!

Tu(n)esday

Baldischwilers (my mom's family) love Christmas music. Year-round. If you have Baldischwiler genes, you will at some point in your life get a small, secret thrill from listening to some Christmas music alone in your car in July. Or perhaps once in a while after a stressful day in the office, you'll come home and put on a little Vince Guaraldi Trio while you zone out to a couple hundred games of Spider Solitaire on the computer. Even I, the family Grinch, am guilty of doing this once or twice in my life. There's something therapeutic about it. I guess all that Christmas falderal just speaks to us Germans on a molecular level. We invented most of it, after all.

So it was not shocking when Maggie asked if we could listen to some Christmas music in the car on the way to school last week. She's the one in our immediate family of four most likely to ask for holiday tunes, no matter what the season. I always put on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" when she asks because it's the Christmas album that I tolerate best, especially when it's still October. It is, in my opinion, the best Christmas album ever made. A classic.

When Kate and I got back in the car after dropping Maggie off, she asked me to turn "that Snoopy music" back on. I smiled as I watched her in the rear view mirror doing her air drumming thing that she does, head hanging down, eyes closed, totally in the music. (She often falls asleep in the car doing this, no matter how raucous the music.)

I asked her, "Do you like this jazz music, Kate?" She asked me what jazz was, and I did my best to explain it to her without interrupting her drumming too much. We don't usually listen to a lot of jazz (Mike and I prefer blues), so we didn't really have any more examples on our iPod except for some old ragtimey stuff. She didn't want me to turn it off the Vince Guaraldi Trio anyway. She said, "This is good drumming music, Mom. I love this jazz music." When I asked her what she liked about it, she told me, "it beeps and it bops." Bee Bop!

We talked about how Boston has one of the best music schools for jazz musicians in the country (Berklee College), and I told her that she could go there when she grows up. "Are you going to play jazz piano?" I asked. "Or jazz trumpet? Or jazz bass?"

"Jazz drums, Mom! I'll play jazz drums 'cause I'm a drummer!" she says. Well, we shall see. But I guess she's got that in her genes as well.

Katie Sez...

... look at this sailboat I made with my imaginary Daddy.

Me: Oh, I'm SO glad someone finally has an imaginary Daddy so it's not just imaginary Mommies (who are always so much better than me) around here all the time.

Kate: Well, my imaginary mom died.

***

Also, yesterday afternoon, Kate was struggling to draw a ghost and getting frustrated when Maggie zipped into the kitchen excitedly trying to show her how she had roped Earl into a harness and was pretending he was a dog.

Kate stomped her feet and shouted, "Maggie! I do not want to look at your re-dick-ree-us dog! I just need some pwivacy! Maggie! Can you please give me a pwivacy! Gah!"

The fact that she pronounces it re-dick-ree-us just makes it so much more... re-dick-ree-us. I was crying I was laughing so hard.