Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real - Jan 11-17, 2015

{Pretty} More Tales of Hair

Last year, Maria's hair was long, and I loved it.   Spurred by a lice outbreak a Maria's school, I learned how to make a sock bun (keeping her hair up any out of reach of little critters).  A high sock bun became Maria's trademark hairstyle for a while. I'd do a bun and surround it with flowers and glittery bows--a folkloric look that suited my wistful, dreamy girl.

In the spring, Maria took matters into her own hands and cut her hair, ushering in the dragon hair phase followed by  a return to short hair.  We thought to grow it out, bringing a sock bun renaissance, but the winter got the better of me.  Somehow,  hair in the face makes a child seem twice as snotty and whiny as she would seem given better grooming.  So, as with the Norman haircut of yore, I picked up the scissor to appease the voices that yelled "chop it all off!"  from the backseat of my mind.  Here are the resulting two brown, bobbed heads.

Maria is already practicing for the photo on the dust jacket of her novel.

What a ham!

{Happy}

Maria and Louisa started at the Montessori school this past week.  They're excited to be going to school.  In fact, Louisa resists leaving when I arrive to pick them up.  That's not so flattering for me.

Getting back into the swing of school drop-offs and pick-ups took much of our attention the week.  There's the shuffling of winter gear, the paper work, the extra miles on the car.  But it is all still new and exciting.

With the older girls at school in the mornings, I hope to get a little time to myself (providing that Pippa naps).  Perhaps I'll be able to make headway in taming the chaotic corners (read rooms) of our house.  Perhaps we can bring a little of the order and freedom of the Montessori environment home.  That's the hope, at least.

One happy thing about our return to the Montessori School is that the girls will be able to continue their Tuesday morning Catechesis of the Good Shepard program.  I love the program and how the girls seem to be imbibing ideas in Atrium.   I love hearing Maria talking to herself off-handedly in the back of the car. "God is the sheperd and he always looks for his sheep.  I'm a sheep, baa, baa, baa!"


{Funny}

Donnie: You know why you have to stay away from sharks, right?
Loulou: Because they'll blow down your house!

So much for our girl ever being a naturalist.  One of Louisa's favorite books is The Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark.

The girls have been doing a lot a doctor play lately (probably as a result of our many doctor's visits over the past month).  Louisa uses doctor as verb.  "She's sick.  I'm gonna doctor her."  Usually, Louisa's patients have fallen victim to one of two mishaps.  Either they have choked on a battery or they were bitten by a lion.


One last entry:

My solution to the crisis of keeping baby socks on babies---just use adult socks!  Works so much better!  Really, this is the kind of brilliance that can only happen at three kids in.

Pippa's sideways smile.  It's the thing of the moment.

{Real}

Our Christmas tree is still up!   A tree is such a lovely treatment for seasonal affect disorder.   And it has to be a sort of humidifier as well, right?   I haven't been able to face taking it down.  I'm waiting for the calvary to arrive in the form of my mother.