The Stretchy Mrs. H

Aunt D wanted to see some pictures of Mrs. H doing her yoga poses.  Well, here you are.  She's getting pretty good!  She's working on getting ready for her teacher training coming up later this month.

Fall means soccer!

This fall, we have Baby H signed up for youth league soccer.  She's almost a full year below the cutoff age, but when I went to register her earlier, they looked at her and asked if she could kick a ball and run.  She does both pretty often, so we signed her up.  Last Wednesday there was a U6 soccer clinic at U Mass, but the weather was horrible, so we didn't take her.  I played plenty of games in sloppy weather, but we didn't think that should be her first experience with the sport.  Besides, we didn't have any gear, and I wasn't very excited to send her into the fray without shinguards at least.

Today over lunch, we made a run to the store and got her kitted out.  She knew exactly what was going on and carried the bag out of the store and into our apartment.  As soon as we got home, she wanted to try everything on, and left it on the rest of the day.  Even now, while I'm lying on the floor writing, she's walking around me with her cleats and shinguards on.  So far, I haven't gotten stepped on . . .

Eating Your Vegetables

Baby H isn't a big veggie-eater, which is too bad.  Both Mrs. H and I eat plenty.  However, she's a fruit eating machine.  So, how do we get the green stuff into her?  We cheat.

Surprisingly, she downs Odwalla Superfood like it's ice cream, so whenever Baby H and I make a grocery run, sometime between picking out the milk, and checking out the lobsters, we pick up a Superfood and let her drain it once we get home.

If you've never seen one, they look pretty disgusting - like the color of something you'd find on the beach at low tide - and have the consistency of a thin slurry.  However, they taste pretty good and Baby H always looks into the bottle once she's done to make sure there's nothing left.  If anyone else reading this has trouble getting veggies into their kids, maybe this is worth trying.

Baby H approves.

The Wheels on the Bus

Did you know there are some new verses to "The Wheels on the Bus?"  Apparently, the daddies on the bus go, "Sshh, sshh, sshh," but the mommies on the bus go, "I love you."

Quotes

Today we went to the science museum with one of Mrs. H's old co-workers.  Yes, we found someone who would go with us, and Baby H did her gopher trick just like in the picture a few posts back.  While walking around the museum, we asked Baby H what she wanted to be when she grew up.  Since we were standing right outside the "spacerocketship", we assumed the answer would be and astronaut.  Instead it was a farmer.  That was odd.

"Sophie, what do you want to farm?"

"Robots!"

"Oh, I get it.  She's going to program nanobots and work on autonomous swarm applications.  That's cool!"

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A little while later, we went to watch "The Alps" at the science museum's Omni Theater.  I've been wanting to see this since it came out, and wasn't disappointed.  As you can imagine, it's mostly about the mountains, mainly the Eiger and the Matterhorn.  The plot revolves around a climber, John Harlin, who is climbing a route on which his father died in 1966.  As part of one of the opening scenes, the camera swoops in on a climber climbing ice.  When Baby H saw this, she said loudly, "Mommy, what IS that?"

"That's ice climbing.  Your uncle has done that."  Then she gave a quick explanation of what the crampons and ice axes were for.

"Mommy, I HAVE to do that!" she responded, loudly enough for people several seats away to hear her clearly.

To anyone that says that raising girls is different than raising boys, I would have to ask whether their idea of what girls do includes robot-farming and ice climbing.  Probably not.

The Cousins

Off and on throughout this summer, we've had the chance to hang our with our nieces on the weekends.  I keep meaning to take some pictures of our adventures with them, but we end up spending most of our time out having fun, so I wind up with good memories, but not too much proof.

So far, we've visited the science museum, made homemade pizzas, watched Chicken Run (twice, back-to-back), gone to the beach, and visited a friend's farm in Rhode Island.  They get along great with Baby H, and she looks forward to their coming.  Usually around Thursday, we start hearing questions about when they will arrive and what we'll be doing that weekend.  When they get here, she goes bonkers until they leave, and it takes her most of Monday to recover.

The trip to the farm is probably one of our favorite activities - there are wonderful wagon rides put on by an old family friend and delicious fresh produce to take home and enjoy for the rest of the week.  The horses are named Bob and Bill and are big Percherons.  This last time, we were regaled by stories of what happens when one of them steps on your head.  Apparently, it results in a concussion, a bloody eye, but no lasting damage, in case you were wondering.

It's only a few more weekends until they head back home for the fall.  We're going to miss you guys!