Maeve and Lilly

On two occasions recently, Lilly displayed her budding eye for art. I was drinking coffee one morning and she waltzed into the kitchen and immediately noticed my mug. “That’s Starry Night by… um… Vincent Van Gogh!” The next day, Nanny gave her an art history book and while she and Momma were flipping through it, they came upon a two-page spread showing a detail of a painting — a bed and a chair. Without the full context of the painting, she immediately recognized it as Van Gogh’s Bedroom.

New photos are up now and include an exciting trip to the Ontario County Fair with Grampy on our trip out east.

Lilly has been expressing growing interest in track and field lately so when she discovered the high school track two blocks from Nanny and Grampy’s house, she was determined to use it. We all went up after dinner and Lilly and her new friend Kate took a lap. I was impressed with her form — she actually looked like a runner. No evidence of (ahem) running like a girl. She stopped a couple of times on her first circuit, but later did two more without any stops, in fact she wasn’t even breathing hard.

Maeve did a lap by herself and only slowed to a walk at the very end. She and I did one together too. She took off fast and I was pacing myself. Whenever she slowed and I threatened to overtake her, she glanced over her shoulder and went faster. At the very end of the quarter mile, she grabbed my hand, slowed, and we crossed the finish line together. She explained, “I wanted us to win together.”

We got on the road around 11:30 a.m. and checked into our hotel in Toledo at 8 p.m. Maeve did not stop her running commentary for the entire time. We got going Friday morning around 8 a.m. and made it to the ‘Gua by 3 p.m. The girls were overjoyed to see Nanny and Grampy and the whole gang immediately headed down to the lake for some time on the boat. Thus begins our week of eating and shopping.

Both girls are going to an activity-packed camp on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays this summer. They’re excited because there are field trips almost every day and a lot of their friends are there as well. Lisa is having a hard time because, now that now that she’s no longer in daycare, it means Maeve is growing up. After the first two days though, the girls had been to the DeForest bowling alley and the Milwaukee Zoo. Lilly proclaimed that this will be the “best summer ever.”

A Feis is an Irish Dance competition. Saturday was Maeve’s first and Lilly’s second. Because she is so young, Maeve competed alone (is it really competing then?) and, against all odds, grabbed first place. She had a deer-in-the-headlights look and kept starting early. The judge actually got out from behind her table and coached her about when to start and then gave her the signal. I think Maeve charmed her. No, scratch that, I KNOW she did.

Lilly, on the other hand, was competing against 20 girls for each of her dances and failed to place (below 8th). She was quite disappointed, but I thought she did great, especially the jig. I’d never seen her dance so well. As Lisa pointed out most of the other girls at her school practice twice a week instead of once.

We were talking about the importance of hearing the beat while the girls were practicing for their Irish Dance competition (Feis) and Lisa said something about how most music is in 4/4. I piped up: “mine isn’t.” Lilly immediately pointed out: “that’s because it’s Math Rock“. heh.

I flipped on the History Channel the other day and Maeve sort of off-handedly said “is this about caves and guns?” When asked what that meant, she just said, “that’s what’s always on this channel.”

Earlier, Maeve was laying on my lap looking up at me and observed, “you have hair in your nose holes.” (This made me realize that everything is funny when you add the word “hole” to it.)

Maeve just informed Lisa that raising your second finger with the others down is “squaring to God.” Sissy told her.

The girls decided that if our family were characters on Sponge Bob, the character mapping would be as follows:

• Maeve = Sponge Bob (because she’s annoying)
• Lilly = Squidward (because she likes peace and quiet)
• Momma = Plankton (because she steals food off our plates)
• Poppa = Patrick (because I’m silly and funny)