Party Girls

Last Saturday the Shepards attended Aunt Toots' birthday bash at a restaurant outside of Boston. Lots of friends. Lots of food. Lots of fun.

Three particularly cute things happened at the party.

First, Stella gleefully tap danced for Toots right in the middle of the festivities. A lot of guts for a shy girl. Maybe we have some progress here.

Second, Stella decided that that everyone at the party needed to Purell their hands. She took Lisa's little bottle of Purell and went around to every single person at the party (about 20) and asked if they wanted to clean their hands. And every person did! Then, before I could stop her, she went to three tables that weren't part of our party and did the same thing. Every person smiled and then complied.

Finally, at about 8:30 the kids began to get tired. Lisa created "beds" by putting two chairs together for each of them to stretch out on. By 9 pm they were sound asleep in a corner of the party room. They slept through everything except the cheers after Karen's birthday song. At which point Marni got startled and had a heart attack.

A Crummy Thing To Do

Thanks to Uncle Glenn the girls have now shown up on their fourth professional website. Check out the "Celebrations" page at crumbs.com. Celebration #546 is pretty cute.

Can you guess the other 3 websites?

Overheard #22

Stella, Marni and I upon opening a package of gummy candy:

Daddy to Stella: Make sure you share with your sister.

Stella to Daddy: Only if my brain says.

Marni to Stella: Your brain says!

Stella to Marni: You don't know what my brain says!

This is Serious

Tonight I activated Stella's account on a thing called ARIS. It's an online service provided by the NYC Department of Education that allows parents to track their child's academic progress.

Ok. She's 5!

There's not much there except for her attendance at this point. But looking at this site and working with Stella on her homework earlier this evening really had me thinking. Things are going to start getting a little more serious in the not-so-distant future.

Up until now it's been all fun and games. Coloring books and dolls. Now, the world is expecting Little Miss Stella to step up and apply herself. She doesn't realize this, but I do.

As I helped Stellie with her homework tonight I was struck by how, maybe for the first time, she really had to put her mind to work. Not that she didn't do great. She's a wiz at detecting patterns. And she completed her whole week's worth of homework in one day.

What does this all mean? I'm not sure. But I'm getting the feeling that a little bit of carefree innocence has been lost. Just a tiny bit.

Homework

Did we have homework in kindergarten when we were young? Anyone? Hello?

Well now we do.

Stella came home today with her first homework assignment. And yes, it did confuse me. But we put on our thinking caps and thought our way through two pages of exercises.

When we were through, Marni complained that it was now her turn to do homework. Soon enough Marni. Soon enough.

And Now... Tap

It's time for a new season of dance lessons at Sherri's Creative Arts Studio. This year, Stella is in "Taps & Tutus". Get it?

Marni is in a completely different class, "Creative Movement 1".

Two kids, two different classes.

Would they do it? You bet!

Marni danced up a storm (with teacher Storme Sundberg). And Stella tapped like her new favorite movie star, Jimmy Cagney.

Later in the evening, Stella gave me a recap of what she learned.

Overheard #21

Here is a wrap-up of interesting words and phrases that have come out of the mouths of our babes:

• "Humongous", both
  
• "Awesome dude", Marni
  
• "What the heck!", Stella
• "Super" (as in "super, super heavy" or "super fast"), both
• "I'm only" (which actually means "I'm lonely"), Marni
  

So You Think You Can Dance

This is what I came home to last night. Two very cute girls doing their interpretive dance to The Little Mermaid soundtrack. Nothing much more to say. Just watch the videos and enjoy.

Kindergarten

Today was Stella's first day of Kindergarten. After a rocky start, we are cautiously optimistic that Miss Stella is going to do just fine.

Lisa, Marni and I all accompanied Stellie to P.S. 39 where we met up with all of her former Pre-K buddies in the playground. A lot of clinging and shyness, but ok.

We moved into room 106 with Ms. Diaz and settled in. Actually, Marni settled in better than anyone, but that's just Marni. Pre-K friends Lucy, Adam, Sean, Zachary and Henry all joined Stella in the class.

Her favorite Pre-K teachers Ms. Cassens and Ms. Henry came by to say hello. Big smiles for that!

As it became time to leave, the waterworks began. After several minutes, Stella was pried off of Lisa and sat down with Ms. Diaz. Lisa, Marni and I went outside and a few minutes later Ms. Henry came out to tell us Stella was just fine.

Day 1 was just a half day and Lisa and Marni headed back a few hours later to pick up our big girl. So what did Stella have to say about her first day?

Over dinner she told us she was getting used to it. She mentioned that she better get a lot of sleep tonight because the teacher said it was going to be a busy day tomorrow. She also was excited about eating in the cafeteria for the first time (where the big kids eat). She said she sat next to some new kids which was fun.

Tomorrow is another half day and I'm beginning to think that this Kindergarten thing won't be as hard on Stella (or me) as I thought it might be.

Stay tuned.

Beach Wrap-Up

When Stella gets hurt, she says "ouch". When Stella gets really hurt, she says "ouchie".

Well all I have to say is this... ouchie!

And, with that, I shall wrap up my usual end-of-summer gloom-fest. Closing up the cottage and not seeing the kids the last few days was torture as usual. But let's move on.

August 2009 was fantastic! Great weather, an extra week, and two amazing kids. Plus, I increased my OOB vacation time from one week to two.

In the past, I would always have to brace myself a bit in anticipation of day-after-day of kid time. But either they got easier or I calmed down (or both) because every minute with Stella and Marni was wonderful. They got right back into the OOB swing of things in no time.

Some of their highlights:

• Stella and Marni sleeping in a big bed together. They loved it and so did we.
• The girls bonding with cousin Janet.
• The girls bonding with cousin Rachel.
• Finding and loving the outside shower.
• Losing their fear of the water.

And this year's guest book at The Cottage B&B:

• Nana Bev and Papa Art
  
• The Rapps
• Nana Audrey
• The Hoffmans of NJ
• Lisa Stefanoff
• Laurie and Ricardo

And special thanks to Lisa, who makes it all run smoothly.

Only about 262 days left until we start it all over again.

Sheppie's Choice

I found myself in a Meryl Streep moment last week when I had to choose between saving Marni from drowning or keeping my beloved iPhone dry.

Hurricane Bill had whipped up the surf at OOB and we were keeping the girls close to shore. Stella and Marni were happily frolicking in the ankle-deep water. Lisa and Nana Audrey had things well in-hand nearby, so I decided to make a call to Nana Bev.

No sooner did I start to chat with my mother than a rogue wave knocked Marni off her feet. The surging water was tumbling Marni end-over-end up to the dry sand, but when she stopped tumbling, she was face down on her hands and knees in the water.

The moment I dreaded was upon me. Do I save my child, or do I save my iPhone? Evidently instinct overruled reason. The next thing I knew I was scooping up Marni with one arm while trying to hold the iPhone out of the water with the other. But the scooping action resulted in the iPhone taking a dip.

I brought a sputtering Marni up to safety. After making sure she was ok (not even crying), I glanced at the iPhone. Not good.

Power off. Dry as much as possible. Search the Internet for solutions.

After a day packed in a container with a commercial dampness-ridding product, the iPhone mostly came back to life. But it was mute. No sound.

I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to send the phone into the shop for repair or replacement. Even more horrible was the realization that I would be the first nincompoop in the company to ruin their iPhone.

And then... "click, click, click". A miracle! After a day of use, sound began coming out of the phone.

What a lucky guy I am. Not only did I save my Marni, but I also saved my iPhone.

Now, Marni has a great tale to tell all who will listen about the wave that knocked her over. The dad that scooped her up. And the phone that got broke during her rescue.

So the Sophie's Choice question of Marni or iPhone has been answered. Next up... Stella or the GPS, and Lisa or the DVR.

Overheard #20

The American flag is known to both girls as the "Barak Obama Flag".

Beddie Buddies

One of the social experiments we have undertaken at the cottage is the "share the bed" experiment.

Last summer, Marni was in a crib. Earlier this year she graduated to a big-girl bed. So the plan has been to have the sisters sleep together in a real big-girl bed. It's never been done before. Would it really work?

We warmed them up to the idea a few weeks prior to moving up to the cottage. Night 1 went without incident (almost). We read them some books in the bed and then turned off the lights and laid down with them. But Marni went ballistic when she realized that she wouldn't get her usual few minutes in the rocking chair. There is no rocking chair in their cottage bedroom. We faked it and rocked her in the bed.

So far so good until about 3 a.m. when Stella came into our room and climbed in bed. Just like what she did all last year. So I moved next door and slept the rest of the night with Marni. She's cute.

No rocking chair meltdown on night 2. But instead of one visitor in the middle of the night, both girls came into our room and climbed into bed. No room for daddy, so I went next door again and had the whole pretty pink room all to myself.

Night 3 went smoothly also. But I had a little chat with Stella before lights-out and asked her if she thought she could sleep all night in her bed. She said ok. I didn't really expect my request to work, but we haven't had any midnight visitors since then!

We're up to about night 21 now and, without exception, the girls have slept very well together. They sleep soundly all night and come out of the bedroom together usually between 7 or 8 a.m.

I would have to rate Operation Beddie Buddies a rousing success.

We're 2!

Happy birthday to The Daddy Diary (if I do say so myself).

159 posts and still going strong. Now if Mr. Spielberg would please contact me for movie rights then maybe I can make some money off this thing.

Stella's First Installation

We finally got to see the installation of some of Stella's best finger-painting work, tastefully displayed in the bathroom of a Salem, Massachusetts law office.

If you ever have to do a real estate closing (and poop), this is the place to be.

Splish Splash

I haven't gone into the water past my knees at OOB since I was in my twenties. It's cold! And I don't swim all that well.

Last weekend I broke that 30-year streak.

We were a couple days into a 90 degree heatwave. And the water temperature actually warmed up so much that hypothermia was no longer an issue.

At one point I actually stripped off my shirt (down girls!), grabbed a boogie board and went in. Alert the media! But I wasn't the only one enjoying the tropical weather. Stella and Marni went koo-koo and embraced their inner mermaids.

Marni romped and splashed and "high-fived" in the surf wearing nothing but her Dora underwear. Stella went waaaaay out into the water with new BFF, cousin Janet.

Overheard #19

As I slurped a soda while eating at a restaurant with the family, Stella asked "Daddy, do you love me more than Pepsi?".

I paused...

4-3=0

Maybe when you're counting jellybeans then 4 minus 3 would equal 1. But when my girls are in Maine and I'm in Brooklyn then 4 minus 3 feels like zero.

I used to count down the months, weeks, days, and hours until my "summer freedom".

"Summer freedom" being defined as the month in the summer when my wife and kids stay in Maine and I have many days all to myself back in Brooklyn. I would get giddy with the possibilities. Watch t.v. Turn it up loud. Stay up late. Go to movies. Leave kitchen cabinet doors open.

Over the years though, the joy has leached out of the freedom. I began to miss those kids (and my wife) more than I valued my bachelorlyness.

I stopped going into the girls' room because it was depressing not to see them there. Eventually I started to shut the door to their room for the entire month. I didn't even want to see their room if they weren't playing in it. Now I've stopped sleeping in my bed. Instead, I sleep downstairs on the couch. I don't like sleeping in an empty bed (except, of course, if it's in a luxury hotel room).

Yesterday I walked past Marni's school on my way to work. The owners were out front as I approached. We chatted about Marni and how she was missed at school during August. I teared up and ended the conversation.

As I walked down the street I passed many, many Park Slope parents with their kids. I smiled at them. But I was missing my essential Park Slope accessories... Stella and Marni. I felt the need to wear a bumper sticker saying "Hey! I've got kids too!".

Tomorrow I fly back to Maine to rejoin the family for the weekend. Then, zero plus 3 will equal 4.

The Girls Do Cohan

As I mentioned previously, the girls have become big George M. Cohan fans ever since watching Jimmy Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Tonight the stars aligned and Stella and Marni performed a couple of tunes on camera. We're still working on the lyrics.

Old Orchard Beach: Take 52

Old Orchard Beach (OOB) is the most constant place in my life.

I was born in Hartford but moved away by the time I was in first grade. I grew up in Natick, but haven't lived there in at least 29 years. And those past 29 years have been split between New York and New Jersey. But nothing compares to the 52 years that I've spent "summering" at Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

My father spent every summer there as a kid. I spent every summer there as a kid. Now my kids are spending their summers at OOB.

So begins summer 52 for me. Summer 6 for Stella. And summer 4 for Marni.

Even though the cottage remains the same, there are some slight changes this year...

This year there are no diapers. There are no cribs. And the girls now sleep together in the same bed.

Stella and Marni have picked up exactly where they left off last year. They have their beach routine down. They know their way around the cottage as if it was their year-round home. They know their cousins from across the street and down the road. And they know that less than a mile away is their favorite amusement park (sorry Coney Island).

Now begins their new summer adventure. Take 6 and take 4.