Francesca had her 4th birthday on Thursday. It was a total blast. I can't believe she's already four years old! Where does the time go. My friend Heather (who obviously hasn't taken any breaks from polishing her soul, because hers is a shining example of perfection) has a three month old baby who is always in the sling. Nothing makes me want another baby more than seeing one in a sling . . . all snuggly and cozy and sleeping. My friend Olivia reminded me of the day Francesca was born. She said that I was glowing and that I said, "I don't know what the big deal is!" I was so high on endorphins. I never really came down, with Francesca's birth. Her birth was golden. One of those you read about in the Ina May Gaskin book, "Spiritual Midwifery." I'm not sure if my "puss was psychedelic" or anything, like the Spiritual Midwifery book says at one point, but it was definitely a fun, exciting, relaxing, non-stop action, kind of time. And when Francesca was born, she was so calm and cool. She gazed up into my eyes, not all googley eyed like some babies (like Cecilia) and sneezed a couple of times then looked around the room like, "Oh, this is the room, huh? Blue curtains. Oh, the sun is coming up. How neat." She didn't cry. She never really did cry a lot. I don't think the wailing really started until Cecilia was born and that girl cries like a screeching eagle. Then the crying was contagious.
Anyway, we had Francesca's birthday party up at Granny Yaya's house. I was going to have the party on Saturday so that Andrew, Granny and Grandpa could be there, but then I could tell that Granny was starting to get nervous - "Who is coming? How many people? How many kids?" So I decided to just have it ON Francesca's birthday, at Granny's house, while Granny was at work! Then Granny wouldn't stress! But really, we did miss her and it was a bummer than Granny, Grandpa and Andrew missed it, but then it was less confusing for Francesca - birthday party ON birthday, etc. And having it on a Thursday made it so it didn't take up people's weekend and gave me less stress because I just treated it like an ordinary play date.
After making three batches of pizza dough (one with garbanzo bean flour for the gluten-free crowd) we headed to Granny's and prepped for the party. When friends arrived, I had parchment paper taped to the kitchen table and balls of dough on each piece. After the kids played a bit, they headed for the kitchen to make their pizzas. It was pretty cute. They did a great job and the pizza was delicious. They didn't even really need much instruction. They just went for it. The dough recipe was online as "Best Pizza Dough Ever." I've made it before and I made it the same both times. The recipe has about two computer pages of instructions before listing the ingredients. I skipped reading the instructions except for the oven temperature and cook time, threw all the ingredients into the mixer and voila! Instructions . . . we don't need no stinking instructions!
After pizza we had Granny's horsie head cake. I'll post some videos on here when I have time and hopefully Francesca's buns won't be showing in the video tape. I guess that while they were eating cake, she spilled Reya's juice all over the place. I was distracted with whatever and Amy took care of the clean-up and that's all I saw. Then, Francesca said, "I dropped my cake on the floor. Can I have another piece?" I went over to her side of the table and she was in her birthday suit, from the waist down, just chowing down on her cake, in nothing but a pink turtleneck! I guess that when the juice spilled, it spilled on her pants and everyone said she just stood up, stripped down and sat down and kept right on eating. I asked her today if her undies got wet too and she told me, "I forgot to put on undies on my birthday." Oops. Good thing Granny has a steady back-up of clothing downstairs, so we could keep on partying. Not that Francesca wouldn't have just kept on partying pants free. Sweet.
After the kiddies played inside some more and explored everything, Francesca said, "I'm ready to go outside," and she was out the door. I scrambled to get on Cecilia and my coat and we chased her out the door. Soon, everyone else trickled out while my friend Theresa did some dishes (rock!) and the children made their way to the trampoline. My first reaction was to say, "ONE AT A TIME, ONLY." But pretty soon, the other 'rents were like, "One at a time? Why?" So if it didn't bother them to see the smash and bash, then I had to let it ride. They were pretty good, actually. After hours of jumping I think they got a little more delirious and wild, but all in all no one was permanently or seriously injured. The four-year olds even took turns with the smaller, two-year olds, saying, "Cecilia's turn!" and sitting down, watching her jump for 15 seconds, then "Our turn!" And Cecilia would sit down and let the bigger kids jump. They jumped on the trampoline, six kids at a time for at least two hours. Finally, I was tired and hungry (so imagine how hungry and tired the kids were) so we decided to give the trampoline a break and go back in for snacks. Some friends left and some stayed (Jackie, Hudson, Quinnlan, Amy and Reya) so we had a mellow girly afternoon drinking tea, visiting, and eating leftover cake and pizza while Cecilia napped, and Francesca and her friends made pop bead jewelry.
Francesca, while opening presents first thing in the morning said, "You guys are hooking me up!" She didn't really ask for anything (Christmas was only a month ago, what could she possibly want?) When opening her presents, she and Cecilia do 'teamwork.' Its so sweet. They opened all the presents together and Cecilia even opened some herself. I think it makes for a sweet love of sister's birthday, when they're both so included in everything. When we were making invitations, Francesca made one for Cecilia and was telling Cecilia that she gets to come to her birthday party, "Isn't that great, Cecilia!" And then they both squeal. Yes, there is lots of girly squealing at our house.
Andrew and I gave Francesca (and Cecilia) some of those Calico Critters and a few furniture pieces with the carrying case. I'm a big fan of anything that has a case to store it in. (Everything in its place!) Granny gave her a beautiful winter fairy Waldorf doll. Its insanely cute. I think she is bonding with it like Cecilia bonded with her "Happy Birthday Baby." (Thanks god, now maybe we can get rid of some of these other dolls!) We gave Cecilia a Waldorf doll with sweater pants and sweater for her birthday and she carries it EVERYWHERE. Last night, she was in bed, rolling round, trying to go to sleep saying to herself, "I love you my Happy Birthday Baby. Me snuggle my Happy Birthday Baby." Then she falls asleep squeezing it tightly. Francesca's has wispy, wild, white, woolen hair, a blue sweater, blue hat, white bloomers and wings. Hers accidentally came with two hats, so Cecilia now has a hat for her Happy Birthday Baby, which is perfect, because she was just saying that her Happy Birthday Baby needs a hat! Granny and Grandpa also made this awesome fairy house that consist of a huge sanded chunk of wood, with sticks poking out in a half circle around the perimeter. They hang silks over the sticks to make it into a fairy cave and Granny fashioned two hammocks for their dolls to sleep in. Its on our coffee table. I guess we have a new centerpiece. Its pretty sweet. (Digression - one of the girls is slinging in their sleep right now.)
2 more things, since I haven't blogged in awhile.
1: STICKERBUSH
Once, when Francesca was sleeping with Granny, she talked in her sleep and said, "Stickerbush!" So we've talked about how she talks in her sleep sometimes (the other night she called me into her room to count with her, in her sleep) and we will blurt out STICKERBUSH! sometimes, just to joke around. Well, the other night, Andrew said that she went through this whole thing with 'stickerbush.' She said, "If I say 'stickerbush' then I'm really asleep . . . . pause . . . pause . . . stickerbush! If I say 'stickerbush' high and fast, then I'm not really asleep . . . stickerbush! If I say 'stickerbush' low and slow, I'm really asleep . . . . . stiiiiiickerrrrrrrrbuuuuuussssshhhh . . . . . . . . . ." This went on for awhile.
2: No Gluten or Dairy, boo hoo hoo
Cecilia began stuttering badly a few weeks ago so I freaked out and took her to both Dawn Stutz (Orthobionomy) and Dr. Lepisto (Naturopath) where he told me (what I already know, but needed gently nudged in the right direction) to give Cecilia a break from gluten and dairy for two weeks. After two days, no more stu-stu-stu-stutter and her 'allergic shiners,' those bags she's always had under her eyes, are dissipating. I decided I'm going to do it with her. Well, so far we all are. Its all or nothing with this kind of thing. I can't make two meals every meal. The meals are going along fine, but the bedtime snack took some re-working, since we used to have honey toast and kiefer. Now we're having tea and wild rice with honey. Not bad. So, I feel so bad for abusing Cecilia with all the cheese and wheat we eat! She is calmer and more focused . . . I think that dairy was like poison to her. At Granny's house on Thursday, she started eating a yogurt covered raisin and I said, "Cecilia, you can't have those, they have dairy," and she spit it out! And those things are super good! They taste like pure sugar! So I think the dairy, especially was making her feel really rotten. She's pretty much complained of stomach aches and back aches since she could talk, so hopefully we will get it sorted out. Also, when my friend Sarah (we missed you and fam at the party) told me that she figured out that she was dairy intolerant because it gives her a stomach ache, I was like, DUH! Hello, Brittany! But man - no cheese, no yogurt, no kiefer, no cheese, no cheese, no cheese! I do love the cheese! I don't know if I can do it. I will waste away with no cheese! I'll be pounding mayonnaise and olive oil to get some fat in my diet! Oh woe. Actually that's sweet . . . I love mayonnaise. No butter . . . argh. I'm doing it, too because I think I have the same bags under my eyes. I look younger already, from 24 hours without dairy! I don't know if that's true. But I'm sticking by it anyway.
Today's mind blowing revelation was this: There are only three effective educational methods - fear, ambition, and love. We do without the first two. - Rudolf Steiner
I mean duh - but now that I can organize the fear and ambition part OUT of my discipline - how beautiful! oxoxlove ya!
1 comment:
howz about substituting earth balance for butter? it's a vegan buttery spread and oh so tasty
Post a Comment