What the Fluff? A Family-Friendly Affair

First order of business is explaining fluff.  It's a marshmallow goo that was created in Somerville, the next town over from Cambridge.  Every year, Somerville has a What the fluff? Festival to celebrate their "treasure."  Best thing to do with fluff?  Make a fluffernutter sandwich, that's fluff and peanut butter between white bread, of course.

Frances took this fluffernutter stuff pretty seriously.

Well, not that seriously.

Besides eating, there were other fluff-centric activities, like fishing for fluff container lids.

Each lid had a clever saying written on it, like "To fluff or not to fluff."  The sayings were a little lost on Frances.

The day was made perfect for Frances when she ran into her friend Sophia.  They had a great time careering around the festival, creating problems for anyone trying to walk in a straight line.

Us parents don't stand a chance.

A Frances First

I had read that toddlers are more interested in eating food that they help prepare.  I decided to make some banana bread with Frances, our first co-baking experience.  Frances thought mashing up the bananas was great and she was really keen to try the batter.

Don't believe her expression here.   She was actually saying "Yum" while I took this picture.

She even enthusiastically ate about two bites of the finished product, and then lost all interest.  Back to the drawing board.

Last Summer Hurrah

Before Mark started his new job(!), we squeezed in one last trip to Maine with Mimi, Sir and Auntie Cathy.  First order of business was getting a picture of the long lost Mimi, fresh off the boat from a circumnavigation of Prince Edward Island.  Frances took this:



Phew!  What a relief to track her down.  Now we can stop having the conversation about Mimi being on a boat in Canada.

Brilliant Frances figured out immediately that eating her dinner was pointless, because with Mimi and Sir there's always hors d'oeuvres to be had.

Our last full day in Maine started out a little rough. Frances woke up at 1:41 a.m. and wouldn't settle.  Why sleep when Mom and Dad are around to play?  To give the house some peace, Mark, Frances and I headed out in the chilly dawn for an island tour.  We watched the sun rise over Bar Harbor and then treated ourselves to blueberry pancakes at a diner.  So the day was looking up. 

We got home, rested a bit and headed out for a picnic.  This is Auntie Cathy, Frances and Mimi loaded on the boat and ready to set sail.



Notice that Auntie Cathy was wearing a jacket and pants and sipping hot tea.  That's how warm it was.  Frances, for her part, was wearing her pajama top and the same pants she had on the previous day.  Not sure her teeth were brushed either.  Her mother was too tired to get Frances any more organized. 

Poor tired kiddo. 

The water in the picnic cove was about 55 degrees.  That didn't slow Frances down one bit.  She took one look at the water and started pulling off her clothes.  Partly because I'd been up since 2 a.m. and partly because I was wearing a turtle neck, it never occurred to me to bring Frances's swim suit.  Lesson learned.

"What happens if I sit down in the water?"

You get cold, kiddo, really cold.

One of Frances's favorite activities right now is being swung around by her arms - she begs for "wish, wish," her best attempt at saying "swish" which is the sound I make while swinging her.  She suckered Mark and me into "wishing" her.

And then Frances took us for a sail around Hardwood Island and then home.

It ended up being one of those heavenly Maine summer days.  And Frances was asleep in my arms by 6:40.

Twenty-Two Months of Toddler Frances

I'll try to be less wordy this month.

• Language: So many new words, but many of them sound alike and context is very important to the poor adult trying to keep up.  Juice and shoes sound very similar, as do walk/rock. and truck/stuck. Words' starting or ending sounds are often tricky, for instance, Dir is Sir, dup is cup, dop is stop, and doo-doo is choo-choo, unfortunately.  Sea gull is pronounced something like T-Gll. Likewise, boap is boat; tacky is taxi.  Some words are spot-on correct, like monkey, bubble and way, as in "This is the way I want to go, not your way."  She can now make the sign for airplane, and uses it frequently.
• Locomotion: Running is her favorite way to get around but she still trips almost daily.  Her knees have taken a toll, but she's discovered the joy of picking scabs, so there's an up side.
• Song repertoire:  I believe when she says "D" at song time, she's asking for the alphabet song.  I'm positive she loves the "Five Little Monkeys" rhyme; we use it to get through long car trips.
• Favorites: She loves books about dogs and trains.  She loves to eat red onions.  (She has loved them for months, but I'm not sure I've mentioned it before and I want to remember it in my doddering old age.)
• Greatest aspiration: Still questing for World Domination, our Frances.  The latest iteration: Mark gets disciplined for touching me.  Jeepers.
• Frequent conversation goes like this:

          Frances (pointing at my head): Wet?

          Me: My hair is wet because I took a bath.

          Frances: Bath (pronounced bas)

 

         This is mostly all well and good, but it gets a little awkward when she goes to the grocery and points at one man with dreadlocks and another with a slicked back do (seemed to be a Dapper Dan Man) and exclaims "Wet!?"  Both men just smiled, thankfully.

I must say, I'm in awe of her progress.  Less than two years ago, she was absolutely defenseless.  Soon, she'll be hailing taxis.  On to next month!

Happiest Toddler on the Block

Who said money can't buy happiness? I'm here to tell you a consignment shop and a little dough can bring a lot of happiness, especailly when Frances and a tricycle are involved. Mark and I have been contemplating a bike for Frances for a while, but we finally found one for a good price. We brought the bike home and hit the streets.


We took it down to the hardware store to replace a single screw, and then...

...headed down to Memorial, which is closed to traffic on Sundays.

We think Frances was pleased. Now, before she goes to bed at night, she waves at her bike and says, "Bye, bock."

Newport, revisited, again

Our friends, the Ahouses, had us back down to Newport, RI, for a visit. The kiddos made the most of it. Frances and Sophia dug up the beach.



Frances made a break for it. I think she liked the beach.

"Hey, guys, anybody watching me?"

Michele, Sophia, Frances and me.

There was a carousel right at the beach. We mounted them up, belted them on and stepped back. Neither of the girls blinked an eye when her mount started moving. Natural born equestrians!

Her first time on a carousel!

The girls' favorite activity? Running away. Really. All four parents were occupied with doing his or her own thing, each assuming that one of the others was watching the girls. Mark could hear them talking to each other and eventually realized that their voices were getting really distant. When he finally caught up with them, they'd made it out the front door, down the steep brick rail-less steps and half way down the block, happily chatting away to each other. Mark said Frances was not at all pleased at being reined back in. Parenting Points were lost. Not sure we're going to let these two hang out as teenagers. Too dangerous.

Frances being Frances

Sooo pleased with herself!