Celebrating Frances

Mark and I took Frances to the New England Aquarium here in Boston to celebrate her second birthday!  We had a great time, but the pictures from the trip are not so good.  They keep it very dark in there - better for the wildlife? Frances spent quite a lot of time watching the penguins.  Lots of talk about getting wet in the bath.  Notice the cute little dress she's wearing.  Mom picked it out special for the day.

The fish would not cooperate with the picture-taking, but the giant tank was as awe-inspiring as ever.

Glow-in-the-dark-Frances taking in the whale skeleton, also a good shot of the cute little dress.

Then we got to the aquarium's new Shark & Ray Touch Tank.  The idea is that visitors gently rest their hands on the surface of the water and allow the sharks and rays to swim against their hands.  Frances was a little over-enthusiastic.  She splashed around in the water...

...and then she fell in a little.  She was soaked from the crown of her head to the middle of her chest.  Good-bye, cute little dress.  Yep, my kid went swimming in the Shark & Ray Swim Tank on her second birthday.  Great parenting.

"But, guys, why are we leaving?  I haven't touched a shark yet," said the consternated Frances.

Time for some cake.  Frances is currently obsessed with trains, Thomas the Tank Engine in particular.  My husband, the genius, whipped up this little ditty free-hand:

Not too shabby, right?  Yes, we used a train-shaped cake pan, but he didn't follow the pan's outline at all.  Just looked at a picture of Thomas and got to work.  We now have a back up plan if this architecting doesn't work out. 

Frances wasn't at all sure what to do with the candles.

We thought the 13 flames on the cake were a little intimidating, so we tried again with just one flame.  Frances wasn't any more interested in it.  I'm choosing to interpret this as a sign of wisdom.

Mark took literally 400 pictures of Frances opening her lovely gifts.  I'm going to summarize the experience with this one:

We'd originally planned to return to the aquarium post-nap because it was just that cool, but the place was overrun with teenagers, so we decided to indulge Frances's train fetish instead with a trip across the Charles.  It was a wise choice.  The river was thick with sailboats, many with their spinnakers flying.

Frances took this picture.  It says so much about her interests right now: bikes, bridges and trains (there's a train going across the bridge that's very hard to see).

And the two-year old herself!

Congratulations, kiddo, on a great two years.  We love you to bits.

The Big 2!

The Kiddo has made it to two!  Unfortunately, the Kiddo's dad thought he was going to have to work the weekend of her birthday, so we postponed any celebrations.  Those photos will have to come later.  On the day itself, Frances and I went about our normal routine, with some pumpkin ice cream thrown in.

I'm debating whether or not to keep up these monthly updates, so, for what may be the last time, here we go:

• Language: More and more, Frances immediately repeats what we say to her and then claims those words as her own, so it's getting harder to keep a list of her new words.  She has added -ing verbs to her repertoire, "running" and "raining" being her favorites.  We've also got "puppy," "Thomas" (as in, Thomas the Tank Engine), "flower," "pictures," and "Frances," finally.  Everything is "cute" but it usually comes out "tute."  She's working on some opposites, namely up/down, black/white, on/off, hot/cold, and bright/dark, but she often seems confused as to which word goes with which concept.  For example, she'll ask me to turn a light on by saying "off."  She's trying so, so hard to count, but it has been slow going.  She's convinced the order is 3, 2, 5, 2, but she's very clear on 7, 8, 9.  Five is her favorite number.  She's using more three word phrases, and even used a four word phrase today, but for the most part she's very economical with words and tends to use one at a time.  Frances does very much enjoy reading to me while we lie together on my bed.  I don't mind this at all, though I can't explain why she's latched on to reading Toilet Training, by Dr. Brazelton.
• Locomotion: Frances is working on galloping like a horse, but running is still her favorite.  My favorite thing in the world right now is the look on her face when we're running together.  Pure joy.
• Favorite song: Still Old MacDonald.  I let Frances pick what gets added to MacDonald Farm.  It is not boring.  According to Frances, MacDonald Farm raises owls, dolphins, whales, horses named Max, apples, trains, snakes, goats, sheep, milk, and nurse (the verb, not the noun).
• Favorite book: The Little Engine That Could, and she's very concerned about the eyes of each locomotive - how big they are, or sad, or blue, etc.
• Social Skills: Not so different than last month, but she did sucker a fourth grader and a first grader into playing with her at the playground the other day.  The girls dragged her around the playground for at least an hour.  Frances could not have been happier.
• Frequent conversations:  The comment I get from strangers, a lot lately, sounds something like "Is she with you?"  This, as Frances takes off running around the mall or the block or the field.  I get the feeling I'm supposed to be more worried about her. Oh, well.  We're still talking a lot about getting wet in the bath, though sometimes now we talk about getting wet in the shower.  And dad's daily choo-choo ride is still fascinating.  Our friends Sophia and Michele, or "Fia" and "Chele," (sorry, Dave!) are frequent visitors to our conversations.  Frances is pretty sure she needs to visit Fia's house, at any given time. 

These updates are getting long winded.  Thanks for sticking with me to the end.  Maybe I'll limit myself to monthly photo updates from here on out?  Nah, probably not.

First Haircut!

Before:

During:

After:

Mark and I finally decided, simultaneously, that it was time to bite the first-haircut-bullet.  Mark had been ready for a while, but I wanted to hang on to the curls a little longer.  A couple weekends ago I had to admit that Frances's hair looked a mess.  I didn't think Frances would enjoy having a stranger in her space wielding a pair of scissors.  I needn't have worried.  The hair stylist knew exactly what she was doing.  She placed in Frances's lap a small box of toys, including some Toy Story characters Frances is coming to love, and Frances never looked up again.  Frances hardly even blinked when the hair stylist pulled out the hair dryer.  The whole process took less than five minutes.  Mellow Yellow Frances.  Mark was so pleased with the results, he wants to get Frances's hair cut again for Christmas.  We'll see, said the mommy.

Frances in Her House

Frances's new obsession is playing in "houses."  Her favorite house is under the stairs on our way down to the laundry room (makes getting the laundry done an even slower process), but sometimes she'll make do with her own closet.

If you ever can't find the kiddo, look in the closet.  She'll be there.

Frances, the Ballerina?

Call me overly practical (or cheap and lazy), but when Halloween rolled around I decided to reuse the tutu from my friend Tara's wedding and last Halloween's flower costume and dress Frances as a ballerina.  I did get some new white ballerina slippers for Frances, but you'll just have to imagine them.  She liked trying them on before Halloween, but wanted nothing to do with them on Halloween.

After dressing up, we headed over to the Ahouses.  Sophia went as a garden gnome, and this may be the only picture of a ballerina and a garden gnome hugging in the history of humankind.

Then we all headed over to Charlestown to trick or treat around the Bunker Hill Monument with some friends.  I highly recommend it.

Here are all the girls lined up to run down a ramp that kept them entertained for about 10 minutes waiting for the trick or treating to begin.  Lots of pink, huh? 

Frances's pinkness lasted about 15 more minutes.  Then she took off her pink jacket and her pink tutu, which left us with a white onesie and white tights.  So, she was the world's skinniest marshmallow.  No one seemed to mind her lack of costume, luckily, because she was very determined to get her hands on some candy.  Even with all the big kids in the crazy costumes crowding the doorways, Frances homed in on the candy dispensers, walked herself up and held out her bag.  I was totally impressed.  Maybe Mark has been training her while I wasn't looking?  Not that she got to eat any candy, though.  God bless two-year-olds' limited memory and vocab.

A Bit More October

Frances and I tried to be festive for Halloween by carving her pumpkin.  Actually, she wasn't so sure about what we were up to.  She thought the whole experience was "sticky."

Here's Frances doing her best impression of a cormorant, rather than touch the sticky pumpkin.

She did try to help me clean out the pumpkin with a spoon, as long as she didn't have to touch the sticky pumpkin.

Spoon good; sticky pumpkin bad.

Ahh, now she gets the point.

The October Experience

Mark and I took Frances to Brooksby Farm in Peabody, MA, for an October Experience.  It's safe to say that Frances and I define a good October Experience differently.  For example, we don't even have a picture of Frances picking out a pumpkin because she couldn't be bothered - there was a tractor that needed to be inspected.  Cider doughnuts also didn't impress her much.  She held one and nibbled it for a few seconds and then she was over it.  Tragic.

Her next favorite activity was visiting the pigs.  They were so deep in mud that Mark didn't get much closer than this when taking their picture:

But Frances liked 'em.

She was very interested in the llamas, though she's pretty sure they're called "mamas," or "mmamas" I guess.

Her favorite activity?  Hanging out in this crate, her "house."  I thought it was terribly cute, once I found her.

Summary: one good crate is all you need for a happy October Experience.  So glad we have you around to show us these things, kiddo.