bathroom spruce-up

Last week, Michael was away at Dartmouth doing work with the Maxfield Parrish archive in their library. He was actually gone for 9 full days, people! I decided to spend that week giving our tired old yellow bathroom a facelift, since we'd be out of our normal routine anyway, and I'd have to work around one fewer person. I did most of the work while the kids were at preschool in the mornings, and my mom helped out tremendously, picking them up most days and loaning me her car to go out and buy supplies. I know it doesn't look much improved in the pictures below, but you have to imagine that the walls and ceiling were peeling from old water damage, so even though it's still just white, it's much cleaner, brighter, and nicer. And above: Agatha and Henry in their double-wide "house" on the front porch. Notice the shrewd use of a structural beam above! Everyone was into home improvements last week, I guess.

BEFORE:
AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Big girl

Agatha has been sleeping in a big girl bed-- or as she likes to call it, a bed shaped like a rectangle-- for two weeks now. The transition was seamless! She slept well in it the first day, and never looked back, unlike Henry who shuttled back and forth between the crib and the bed for a month or so. She is getting more imaginative all the time, singing little made up songs and telling fantastic tall tales, many of them about how she can fly like a bird. She still loves birds of all sorts and talks about woodpeckers, crows, and cardinals frequently. We got her sheets with a birdhouse motif for her new bed. She is very attached to Mama right now, and while this is sometimes tiresome it is usually quite magical to have this small, perfect, beautiful person gazing adoringly at me and talking seriously and at great length to me about all sorts of fantastical topics.

Train trip, and the slow beginning of summer

We've had a lot of fun stuff lately-- Mother's Day, my mom's birthday, and last Wednesday we took advantage of a day off from the kids' school to take a day trip into Philadelphia on the train. We not only took Amtrak there and back, we also rode in a taxi, two city buses, and a trolley. A thrilling day of transit for the preschoolers! We went to the wonderful "Please Touch" museum (for kids), and then the Philadelphia Art Museum. I had to carry Agatha a lot, and we were all pooped by the end of the day, but it was a lot of fun. Henry was alternately stubborn and wonderful: he refused to wear the little belt on the carousel, and therefore was not able to ride it (had to sit on a bench while Agatha and Daddy rode); on the other hand, he loved the audio guide at the museum and calmly went around, locating all the codes, typing them in, and listening carefully to the information. If this keeps up, we have an excellent museum companion in our future!

Now that Commencement is over, the whole family seems to be sinking in to a torpor of rest and rebuilding. Both children had fevers and were home from school a day this week-- Agatha with an ear infection, and Henry-- who knows? He refused to take any medicine and slept off his fever overnight. I'm letting him stay home this morning mainly as a reward for his courage and fortitude, and because I understand his desire to burrow in with Mommy at home and work on his paper houses in peace and quiet. (We have a book of E-O scale historic houses that Henry loves; he cuts out the dozens of tiny pieces, folds them carefully, and then we glue them together. We are amassing quite the 19th-century village!) The rain just keeps falling, which gives us an excuse to avoid gardening and house chores (except for Michael's labors at keeping the basement dry) for another couple of days. Legos, sewing, and baking are the order of the afternoons. Soon enough it will be hot and sunny and we'll be busy fixing stuff, writing essays, taking research trips and family vacations, and bustling the children around for summer camps and various activities. For now, though, things are slow, slow, slow. Which feels good, good, good.

Just cute pictures

Agatha's spring wardrobe

Some runway shots from my petite fashionista. Here she is with her maraca and her bubble skirt...

Feeding her baby. (This outfit she picked out and put on all by herself, including the tights. I'd left her playing in her room in her diaper and found her in the living room looking like a tiny teenager.)

These pants have an equally awesome matching top, but she likes to wear them with other tops, too.

Daffodil yellow.

Thank you, Maria, for the beautiful clothes!

Children in blue

Henry reads, Agatha sings