I Want Help Cooking!

Mather, in general, takes great interest in the domestic chores around the house. After all, it's what she sees us doing all the time. Diapering, laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, watering the plants, and so on. She always wants to help. Of all of these, cooking is the thing she's most excited about. She'll "play" cook at any toy stove (or, as is the case at home, a stool improvised into being a stove).

But she also likes to help for real. She gets really excited and puts on her apron (thanks Heather!) and makes sure you put on your apron, too. She helps me make our weekly pancakes -- scooping flour, turning the sifter, stirring the wet and dry ingredients together. On a lark this morning I looked up a recipe for blueberry muffins and made a batch (note: I have never made muffins before). Turns out they're easy! And Mather liked watching them rise in the oven.

Ready to enjoy!

Changing of the Guard

We've moved Mather from her old daycare to a preschool close to our house. We have not, however, given up on our co-op preschool search.

Mather started attending daycare when she was about 4 months old. We took a little break after Papasan decided to start his Master's program. Since then she's been going on a mostly two-day per week schedule for the past year-and-a-half.

With our move in late October to the Outer Sunset, the commute back to our old neighborhood for daycare was starting to get a bit burdensome. We did recently add bicycle commuting to the repertoire, which did make it a little easier, but that's only weather-permitting.

We also recognized that Mather didn't seem to be bringing home new skills anymore. In the past, we'd often felt like she was learning from the behavior and abilities of the older kids at daycare. Once the official school year began in the fall, Mather had actually become one of the older kids.

We did have some reservations about changing her routine. She was really building friendships and talking about her playmates. She would certainly have a learning curve at preschool and would once again be the youngest kid on the block. Also, this is only a temporary move because we still hope to switch to a co-op preschool this fall.

Part of the decision was lead by Mather's immediate comfort at the preschool, as evidenced by her playing, just a few minutes after we arrived for our tour:


There are two playrooms (plus a castle cubby) and an outdoor play space:


The programs offered by the preschool are also impressive - dance and movement instruction, a weekly bookmobile visit, puppet shows, lots of arts and crafts, visits from student teachers in child development studies - so much more than daycare can offer. And, at a better price. We are only paying $4 more per week to have her at preschool for three days per week, instead of two days at daycare. This is especially important because I am now back to work full-time (I was only working 4 days per week from May-December) and Papasan is underway on his thesis.

Mather started at her new school on January 2nd. She seems to be adjusting well - eating, playing, napping, all the important toddler stuff.

On her first day, she came home with a beautiful finger paint drawing of a snowman. Every day she comes home with some cute art project. Our fridge is going to get full fast!

Happy Birthday, Momily!

On Sunday morning, I heard the following conversation on the baby monitor, as Em had gone to get Mather out of her crib:

Magoo: "I want get up!"
Momily: "Okay, good morning!"
rustling sounds
Momily: "Did you know it's my birthday today, Mather?"
Magoo: "No. It's MY birthday!"
Momily: "Your birthday was last month. Today is my birthday..."
Magoo: "It's MY birthday TOO!"
Momily: "Alright, then, how old are you today?"
Magoo: "Three!"

It was in fact, Emily's birthday. And Mather will have to wait until November to be three. On Sunday, we gathered at the Ransom House on Downey and my mom put together a thanksgiving-esque feast of turkey, cranberries and stuffing. Elsa, Uncle Freedom and Cora were still in town so Em got to hold an armload of babies!

After dinner, we sang the customary song (which Mather was mildly surprised was not intended for her) and Emily opened some gifts. But the birthday celebration has not yet ended -- today friends Anastasia and Adina are taking Emily out for a morning at the spa!

Cora's already convinced only-childdom is the way to go.

Mather helped whip the cream for the pecan pie.