Anecdote!

This post is a bit silly, but here it goes.  Frances's cousins Nora and Clare love hearing anecdotes about themselves.  Any little tidbit seems to please them, but when they asked for anecdotes about Frances I found myself floundering.  Her birth story, for example, is still a little gruesome for tender ears.  Luckily, Clare and Frances supplied an anecdote on this trip, and it goes like this:

Frances was a terrific napper in Maine, something to do with running around with big cousins all day long.  No matter when or where I put her down, she'd be out like a light for three hours.  But one day she just wouldn't settle.  I also realized I hadn't seen Clare for quite a bit.  I decided to investigate.  I found Clare standing outside Frances's window and discovered Frances was standing on her bed, and the two were chatting.

This is Clare being useful:

This is Frances (you can just make out her face in the window's left hand corner) not sleeping:

I eventually gave up on Frances's nap and we all relocated to the tennis court for some running around.  This is the goofy behavior of a two year old with no nap:

And then the week was over and it was time for Frances and me to head south.  Now I'm anxiously awaiting September when Mark, Frances and I will all get some time together in Maine.

Cardboard Box!

This post is really self-explanatory, but allow me to explain anyway.  As part of the sprucing up initiative mentioned in the previous post, new chairs were ordered for the porch after the old porch chairs mysteriously disappeared.  New chairs mean new cardboard boxes that the kids immediately took over for themselves.  With minimal bickering, they decorated the outside with crayons and the inside with Mimi's couch cushions.  Mimi wasn't thrilled, but the kids were.

It seemed like the perfect summer activity.  I think Frances enjoyed herself.

Watering Plants with Mimi!

Mimi and Sir seem to be in a constant battle to spruce the house up, usually while the rest of us are checking our watches and wondering when cocktail hour will arrive.  Perhaps that's just me.  The latest sprucing up initiative included a row of rose bushes that need watering.  To that end, Frances and Zoe happily toted buckets of water for Mimi, never once falling over the cliff.  A big success.

Yay for the watering and the not falling off the cliff!

Mimi Dresses!

At Christmas time, Mimi made skirts for all of the girl cousins.  Sorry, James and Grant!  We finally got all the girls in the skirts at the same time long enough to take their picture.  I believe there was a promise of a video when we were done.

The wee one alone.

Her shirt says "Fun to be me" and she's very fond of pointing to the F and saying "F is for Frances!"

After the other girls had made a mad dash for the TV, my sister Lindsay got a few more pictures of Frances and me.  I love them, I must admit.

And then Frances made a mad dash for the TV.

This outfit is now her favorite.  She's worn it and I've washed it so many times that it is beginning to come apart at the seams.  Maybe she'll get a new Mimi outfit this Christmas?!

Sailing! (o.k., Motoring!)

Luckily for us, Sir's boat was available for the obligatory picnic in Dogfish Cove. Good ol' boat carried all twelve of us.  I'd love to know how many people we've squeezed on the boat for these picnics, but I'm sure it's more than twelve.  Here's Zoe, Frances and James, the three 2009 babies, heading to the cove.

These three were all naked within about ten minutes of hitting the beach.  Something about large bodies of water just tells them to start stripping.

Jordan Pond!

Not being idiots, we stopped in at the Jordan Pond House for tea.  I don't think a one of us had hot tea, but hot tea isn't really the point.  Popovers are the point.  Alas, Frances's love of popovers seems to have waned, but she consoled herself with ice cream.

After noshing, we corralled the kids just long enough to get a picture of the whole Upton-Cowen-Weneck clan.

From left to right, we've got James Malcolm Cowen (#3 in the line-up), Nora Ellen Cowen (the big #1), Grant Joseph Weneck (the newest at #6), Clare Frances Cowen (#2), Frances Elliott Upton (#5, no we couldn't come up with a more original name) and Zoe Ann Weneck (#4).  They look good for a bunch of kids who'd rather be running around enhancing other diners' tea, don't they?

Ship Harbor!

Not a baby anymore, is she?  Frances, the Wenecks and I hiked the Ship Harbor trail, a really lovely path that starts in the woods and ends next to the ocean with lots of pink boulders.  This picture was from the beginning of the walk, when Frances was doing great.  When we'd made it to the pink boulders, Frances's Aunt Lindsay and I decided it was a perfect time to pick at a puss-filled blister on the bottom of her foot.  The walk home was a little less fun, surprisingly enough, but we made it.

Maine!

While poor Mark stayed home and worked, Frances and I joined most of the rest of my family for a little fun in Maine.  I was nervous about doing the five hour drive alone - who would entertain Frances? - but she did great.  She slept for an hour and a half, and spent the rest of the time playing with some new sunglasses.  No videos, no books, no stickers, no crayons, no markers - it was almost eerie, but I'll take it.  I'll also be investing in some novelty sunglasses for every trip from now on.

Frances was very pleased to be in Maine with five of her cousins.  When Cousin Zoe headed to the "beach" to throw rocks, Frances enthusiastically clambered along.  This is what passes for a "beach" in our "neighborhood."  Not so good for swimming, but better for rocks and excellent for seaweed.

Thirty-One Months of Toddler Frances

Actually, describing Frances as a "toddler" doesn't feel right anymore. "Preschooler" Frances?  Maybe.

Here she is, in all her glory:

Frances has had a lot of baths this past week and a half.  She had a diaper rash that refused to heal.  Her doctor recommended four baths a day for twenty minutes each in baking soda.  That means I spent 80 minutes a day sitting on the bathroom floor, reading Curious George to Frances.  I don't mind Curious George generally, but it does not hold up to 80 minutes a day on the bathroom floor, let me tell you.  I did think it appropriate that her 31 month picture be taken in the bath.

Thirty-One Month Fun Facts

• Favorite reads: Not Dora!  One of her favorites this month has been Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't), by Barbara Bottner.  It's about a first-grade malcontent who comes to love reading and libraries through the persistence of her librarian.  And it takes about seven minutes to read.  I love it.  And Curious George, of course.  I feel I should be more loyal to George, since the Reys had something to do with Boston, but, oh, my! don't those stories go on.
• Firsts: Frances has learned to put on her own pants and she's very pleased with her new skill.  This means she wears the soft, easy-to-don pants that happen to be stripey almost every day of the week. It's hard to match stripey pants, so she looks a tad discombobulated most of the time, but that's alright.  She's also managed to get her t-shirt on once, but she's much more focused on the pants.
• Favorite joke: Point to a pig in a book.  Say "moo." Laugh uproariously. Point to a sheep in a book.  Say "moo."  Laugh uproariously.  And so on.
• Frequent phrase: "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?"  It seems to be her way of keeping the conversation going.  Sometimes if I fail to answer her quickly enough, she'll simply repeat "why?" over and over.  She's also started throwing "actually" into her sentences.  Makes me realize how much I say it, which is humbling.
• Singing: Thanks to The Lion King and Pandora's Family Folk Radio, Frances now loves The Lion Sleeps Tonight, sung by lots of people, including The Tokens.  She's also working on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, or as it's known around here, Twinkle Star.

She's getting big!  Time to start thinking about third birthday parties.