mathmom's blog

Turning 5

2012-02-19T20:13:00.002-05:00

Luke just turned 5. This has some implications around our house.

Luke collects many many stuffed animals and other things: Lemma, Mr. Gotche, a pillow named Eyeball and another named Pillowy... you get the idea. Tonight he was missing his blanket. We couldn't immediately find it, so I used the excuse I had been using for years: "Blankie just went on a little vacation. He'll come back in the morning."

Luke looked at me like I was a crazy woman. "But they can't MOVE!" I tried again. "Don't worry, Luke, Blankie will come back in the morning." He just repeated again, "THEY can't MOVE!"

After a few more tries I did get through to him the real explanation, that he had moved Blankie somewhere, but that we didn't know where and would have to look for it in the morning. In the end Luke saw Blankie's corner sticking out somewhere, so it didn't matter anyway. But I'm left wondering how many more convenient explanations will bite the dust before too long.

Prayer

2012-02-16T20:26:00.001-05:00

Luke was praying tonight. He said, "Jesus can do anything! If you're blond, or sick, or can't walk, Jesus can help you!" Is that a childlike faith?

Amanda's tripwire

2012-02-14T19:29:00.001-05:00

Amanda wanted to make sure no one could steal her valentines, so she rigged a tripwire from a length of elastic...

Cooking

2012-02-08T16:50:00.001-05:00

Carrots, mashed pear, vinegar, sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, margarine: $2-3. Afternoon of Luke baking (and then cleaning up): priceless.

Like mother...

2012-01-29T22:27:00.003-05:00

Like daughter. Actually, I can't even imagine reading while swinging now, although I remember doing it when I was young.

At the park

2012-01-29T22:27:00.001-05:00

Reuse

2012-01-26T09:47:00.001-05:00

Sunday, we made napkins from the backs of Michael's old shirts. I think they're pretty.

Preschool field trip

2012-01-26T09:44:00.001-05:00

At the science museum. We got to hear hissing cockroaches!

Luke informed the teachers that dragons have special scales that are fireproof.

Foggy

2012-01-23T18:23:00.001-05:00

The kids voted for a picture of the fog as the picture of the day.

Snowman

2012-01-22T18:43:00.001-05:00

This is as close to a snowman as we got in NC this weekend. It also happens to be Sunday dinner.

Reading material

2012-01-21T14:09:00.001-05:00

Here is the stack of books I'm in the middle of right now. I seem to have lost the Organized Simplicity book, though.

I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor

2012-01-21T14:04:00.001-05:00

...and I don't like it one bit. (actually, it's a lot of fun =)

Busy day

2012-01-18T16:24:00.003-05:00

Ella is trying to stay on skates all day. Amanda made a ship...or an airplane...or a boat... Mama and Luke made a marble run using almost all the pieces from the set.

Spare grass

2012-01-17T18:30:00.001-05:00

II still need to get my brother-in-law's recipe, but these turned out pretty good.

The kids ate one stalk between them. It seemed a shame to waste good asparagus.

I'm not quite sure what the paintbrush is doing there...

Sunday dinner

2012-01-16T20:06:00.001-05:00

New style... =)

MLK day trash pick up

2012-01-16T14:09:00.001-05:00

I had been thinking about going to our local park to pick up trash today, so it was a nice surprise that our town had scheduled an official event. I'm not sure the kids were on board entirely, until they brought out the picker upper tools. Then suddenly the whole event became much cooler.

Helping at church

2012-01-14T13:28:00.001-05:00

Behind the mask you can't see Michael sticking out his tongue.

Magna tiles

2012-01-13T20:35:00.001-05:00

One of the best presents we got this year for Christmas. (Actually, Amanda got it, but we all like it... =)

Dried vampire blood

2012-01-12T17:09:00.001-05:00

It's a beautiful day here, so I sent the kids outside to play. A while later I saw luke and Amanda working diligently on something on the play structure... They found some wood, made an "oven" and started cooking. As Luke said, "We worked together and figured out what to do."

Does anyone need some dried vampire blood?

Luke's first taekwondo class

2012-01-11T22:04:00.001-05:00

After watching his sisters for a year or so, Luke finally got to put on a uniform and do a few kicks. He was so proud he could hardly talk, which is saying something.

Luke's savings

2012-01-10T17:33:00.001-05:00

Today Luke asked if I could "please give me ten common cents."

I told him he was really in need of some common sense, and if I found any, I'd give him some!

Decoupage

2012-01-09T18:00:00.002-05:00

We made these with a kit we bought for Ella's school. Everyone (including Luke) had a good time =)
Mod podge is fun!

Happy day after Epiphany!

2012-01-07T10:48:00.001-05:00

Tree, lights, wreaths, it all comes down today.

Dah dum...dah dum.....

2012-01-05T20:17:00.001-05:00

The shark's name is David, according to Luke.

Happy new year!

2012-01-04T19:30:00.001-05:00

Please imagine with me: 16 four or five year olds, jumping as hard as they can on bubble wrap, yelling Happy new year. It's not fireworks (the teacher explained that we don't have fireworks in the classroom) but it is surprisingly loud!

Blinded by the light

2012-01-03T16:47:00.001-05:00

Amanda's new shoes are a little, um, bright. Maybe she'll be less likely to lose track of them this way.

Maybe I need some really bright shoes too...

Back to school

2012-01-02T13:17:00.001-05:00

Ella's school stuff for the next week. Someone once asked how I can homeschool while being so disorganized. This is it! Not pretty, but it works (mostly) =)

The other kids go back tomorrow and Wednesday.

Picture number one

2012-01-01T15:40:00.001-05:00

A beautiful day in NC.

I'm trying to post a picture a day for a month... We'll see how it goes. =)

Halloween Decorations

2011-09-07T17:14:00.002-04:00

Luke is helping me to decorate for Halloween. He painted some old plastic bottles and tupperware black (with ink from the dot-a-dot marker) and buried them partway in the garden. I think I appreciate it, but I'm not sure yet...

Ella's story

2011-09-07T17:13:00.001-04:00

Ella's latest story:

"We split it 50-0"

It was a hot July morning and my brother was trying to get me to eat an egg he had fried on the sidewalk....

Wish I knew what happened next... =)

Whining while biking

2011-08-10T21:32:00.004-04:00

If all our biking trips go as well as they did today, we may never get up on wheels again.

It started with me actually getting on my bike to ride with Ella, Amanda and Luke just in our neighborhood. I planned a 1 mile ride around the block---no problem, right? Amanda was high on riding her 2 wheeler, Luke had said at Grandma's that he loved going for bike rides. Ella was on her scooter, ready to have fun and encourage.

Well, it turns out that the smallest, least steep hills in our neighborhood are larger than the ones on the trail in WI. Amanda would stop her bike when it got hard, and having stopped, couldn't get going again. Luke wouldn't actually push down on the pedals, it seemed, or at least he would push down on both pedals at the same time... I got off the bike and coached him up the hill: "Stand on this foot. No, THIS foot. Now the other. Keep looking ahead. Don't stop! Switch feet!" I had to physically lift up his other foot, or he'd keep pushing down on it when he wasn't supposed to. It was very weird---he does know how to ride a tricycle.

Amanda eventually got that she could go up hills on her bike, without stopping. She definitely enjoys going down them (although we didn't go down the steep hills in the neighborhood). Ella gave her lots and lots of tips. I think I'll train her on the 2 small hills near our house.

Luke, however, was a different story. I'm not sure if he's getting sick or going through a stage, but he was convinced he was dying most of the way home. "I can't do it!" and "Mommmmyyyyy, help me!" have become frequent refrains in our house, and were constant all the way home. One of the nice things about Amanda (although something to watch out for) is that she doesn't necessarily tell you if she doesn't like something. Luke lets you know constantly and in a very annoying tone of voice.

I suppose that the lesson of bike riding is that you need to get back on the bike after falling. Thinking about it, it seems a good lesson after this morning. Look for me in the neighborhood tomorrow morning, yelling at my kids to keep riding and not look back (and maybe going home for a mimosa and an advil)!

Glasses

2011-08-07T11:45:00.003-04:00

Ella now has glasses. She sees fine out of one eye, but the other eye needs correction. What that means is that often she'll take off her glasses---when she's sweaty, when they're uncomfortable, when they are inconvenient.

Yesterday, as we were packing, I noticed that she didn't have her glasses on. "Could you find them please?" I asked, thinking that this was a reasonable request.

What followed was actually a pretty thorough (and needed) cleaning up of all the toys all through the house. We put away the books, picked up all the craft sticks and tinker toys, cleared all the plastic animals off the window sill, put back most of the National Geographics...

All we got was a cleaner house. Ella cleaned out her suitcase, which she said was not useful because she won't put her glasses just anywhere---she only puts her glasses "on tables, or bookshelves, or desks or windowsills or things like that." We did eventually find the glasses in the crack between two photo albums in the play room.

Dare I say that I'll be happier when she actually needs the glasses? It's pretty sure that she'll get to that point sooner or later... In the meanwhile, I am going to try to get the kids 14 hours of outdoors time per week---that prevents nearsightedness, according to studies.

Plan B

2011-08-07T11:33:00.003-04:00

For the kids' cousin's birthday, we planned an outing to the local swimming pool. When we got there, however, it was closed due to contamination, so we needed a plan b.

We were already in swimming suits and it was hot (well, hot for WI), so we decided to put the sprinkler on. My sister-in-law had the great idea of water balloons. We found them at the 2nd store we tried ($1 for 250). Grandma had laid in a supply of squirt guns (Grandma is always prepared). It was a great plan!

There was running through the sprinkler. There was putting water down the slide for a "water slide". The water from the hose was very very cold, but that seemed to make it more fun. After filling what seemed like hundreds (actually a few dozen) water balloons, there was a water balloon fight where no one got very wet: I recommended filling the balloons less full, and they didn't break on the people, only when they hit the ground. There were squirt gun wars.

My favorite was the bucket. The kids would fill it up and then try to throw it at each other. One problem was that the more water, the heavier it was and the harder it was to throw. Also, when you tried to throw water on someone else, when you brought the bucket back it splashed water all over you (probably more than got on the other person). I stood still to be splashed just to watch the show.

Afterward, Ella said that she had had just as much fun as at the swimming pool---I agree.

Presentation, part XXIII

2011-08-07T11:25:00.001-04:00

It is all in the presentation. Luke is perfectly capable of getting dressed by himself. He is perfectly capable of finding clothes to wear in his dresser---not always appropriate clothes, but that's ok with me. Unfortunately, lately he's been complaining that he needs help and could I come help him? Pleeeeeaasseeeeee mommy?

The other day I was doing too many things getting ready to go, and this was one thing too many. In exasperation, I said, "Luke, your clothes are playing hide and seek in your dresser drawer. Can you go find them? First, close your eyes and count to 10." I really didn't expect much, but he stopped right where he was, put his head down and counted to 10. "Now say, 'Ready or not, here I come!'" He yelled, "Ready or not here I come!" and raced up the stairs.

A few minutes later he came running down the stairs. "Mommy, mommy, I found my clothes! I found where they were hiding!"

I wonder how long I'll be able to use this to help him get dressed---I plan to take advantage of it as long as possible.

Training wheels

2011-08-07T11:09:00.003-04:00

This summer I had 2 goals for my children (I know, making goals for your children is incredibly arrogant, but I made them anyway). I wanted Luke to learn to swim and Amanda to learn to ride her bike without training wheels.

Well, Luke is not doing so well in the swimming department, but Amanda has ditched the training wheels. I actually removed the training wheels from her bike a few months ago, but she has responded by not riding her bike.

For the past few weeks we've been visiting Grandma and Grandpa, where everyone rides bikes. I asked Michael to test Amanda and help her learn to ride without training wheels. He came back and said that Amanda was capable of riding without them, but she wanted them on. Apparently she was afraid of falling.

The problem is that training wheels really interfere with riding fast and without falling. We would ride down the long sidewalk near GM and GP's house, and she'd be stuck with Luke, while the big kids were riding fast and furious at the end of the trail. She was unsteady when the pavement was uneven. It wasn't really fun.

Finally I got her to try riding on the grass. It worked well for a while, but she soon discovered that it is easier on the pavement. We had many lessons on how to start off (she kept wanting to push down on the back pedal...), and she got it! She came in triumphantly to announce to Daddy (and anyone else who would listen) that she could ride without training wheels!

The next step was to ride down the new sidewalk without training wheels. I walked and she rode. At first, she got off the bike to go around every single bump or patch of sand---these were big problems with training wheels. When she started up again, the bike would zigzag across almost the whole sidewalk before she got steady. We had many philosophical discussions about how I couldn't promise her that she wouldn't fall off anymore, but that it was worth it to ride. She kept asking, "But what if I run into the bricks? Or the retaining wall?" My answer, "You dust yourself off and get back on the bike," was not immediately satisfying.

But by the time she reached the end of the sidewalk, she was getting more proficient. And when we got about a third of the way back, she started riding and didn't stop or fall down until she got to the busy street we had to cross. As she rode off and started getting smaller and smaller down the path, I reflected that this is what my life will look like from now on as the kids grow up and do things on their own---it's not a bad view.

Ella's Limerick

2011-07-08T20:22:00.003-04:00

Ella feels that there aren't enough limericks yet in the world, and wants to contribute.

A sensitive young man from Crete
Was rather disturbed by the heat;
He stood on his hands
Upon the hot sands
To keep from burning his feet.

Strep (part 2)

2011-06-12T08:56:00.003-04:00

Luke woke up this morning very unhappy. First he was sad because Alex (?) had given him his dinosaur jammies and he didn't like them. Then he was sad because people kept telling him that he was going to be a daddy when he was grown up, but you change into a daddy as you are growing up. Then he was upset because the melty-bead circle he had made and left on the floor had lost a bead. Then he wanted to wear "firework pants" that don't actually exist.

I looked at Michael. "I think he's sick." So I asked him if his throat hurt. He thought it did. Michael felt his lymph nodes. They were swollen.

I gave him a motrin, and he's now playing happily and not complaining so much. I think there is another prescription for antibiotics in our future...

Unfriendliness

2011-06-11T16:22:00.004-04:00

Luke is in general a very friendly boy. He'll tell anyone who will listen about the time he and Anakin killed Darth Vader (he doesn't have a full grip on the Star Wars story) or about the house he is building in New York City. He loves kids his own age, older kids, adults, grandparents, dogs, cats, fish... you name it.

There is only one group right now that he is not friendly to, and that is babies. Perhaps we warned him to be careful of babies too often (don't let the baby grab your fork!) or perhaps he doesn't like how they get all the attention. I think he has also been the victim of some aggressive babies in the child care center at the gym who were trying to take his toys, or who hit him, or who the adults favored over him. Regardless, if you've got someone from newborn to about 3 years (pretty much anyone visibly younger than him is a baby) he's a bit wary.

This comes up in strange ways as we look forward to the visit of his 18 month old cousin, A. Earlier this year he decided to put outlet covers in all the outlets to keep her safe. But the latest incarnation is that he has started putting the chair that usually goes in front of his sink into his closet. He continues to do this even though we have threatened him with no bedtime stories, or time outs, or other dire warnings. This is apparently very important to him.

It's not that he wants to keep A safe from falling off the chair, though. According to him, last time she was here she climbed up onto his sink and used up all the water from his sink. We had to go out to the hose to fill it up again. Just terrible.

As with most of Luke's theories, this one speaks for himself. Do you think that someday he'll become a great scientist who comes up with oddball theories and then proves them? That, or a digger driver, I suppose...

Strep

2011-06-10T21:59:00.002-04:00

Our entire family has been feeling off and on sick over the past few weeks. Ella was laid out for 1-2 days, but then seemed to get over it. Unfortunately, after she got over it, Michael was hit over the head for a few days---flat on his back. He finally got over it enough to go get a strep test, it came back positive and we got him some antibiotics.

The Monday after Michael started taking antibiotics, Ella was sick again---a stomach bug, it seemed, but she only seemed to be sick about 1/4 of the time. The rest of the time she was wrestling with her siblings and running through the sprinkler, and so on. Finally at the end of the day, Ella felt sick again and Michael made me promise to take her for a strep test, even though I was sure there was a more benign explanation.

I called and made the appointment, thinking all the time that this was a waste of time and I had other things to do. Ella really seemed to be fine. I had some other questions for the doctor, so I made an appointment for Amanda too for something else. Ella got her throat swabbed---it was positive. Then the Dr. looked in Amanda's ears. "Her ears look fine," she said, "but could we do a culture on her too?" It turns out that in looking at Amanda's ears she had felt her swollen lymph nodes. Another positive.

So should we get Luke swabbed as well? Well, his throat felt fine, so probably not. Then I thought back over the past few days and how tired I had been, how my throat occasionally hurt and the nagging headache I had. I had put it down to taking care of the family for days and days with no backup but maybe... "Should I get tested?" The Dr. allowed as that would be a good idea.

So, after getting out of the pediatrician's office, we headed to the urgent care place down the street. The doc there listened to the story, looked at me, and said, "Well, I could give you a strep test. But it might not come back positive since it looks like it's still early, and I would probably still prescribe antibiotics, given the amount of exposure you've had." So I skipped the swabbing and got the prescription. He also asked when I first started feeling the symptoms. I looked at him blankly--I couldn't remember! I'd been not allowing myself to be sick for so long that one day was the same as the next.

Waiting at Target for your prescription to be filled with 2 sick kids and one not-sick-at-all 4 year old is not very much fun. We made it home with 4 new movies (I couldn't imagine at that point that we'd ever feel better) and chilled out. We're starting to recover, and we all take our antibiotics at the same time. But really, I can't wait for everything to get back to normal.

Not needed (Self service boy IV)

2011-06-08T15:12:00.003-04:00

Last night I heard Luke crying, and I went in to see him. I was a bit slower than usual, having been pretty deeply asleep, and I got into his room just as he was stopping crying and getting back into bed. He looked up and told me, "It's alright. I don't need you anymore."

I was a bit taken aback, but I tucked him in and he started whimpering again. I asked if he had had a bad dream and he told me it was a "SO bad dream. Actually it was a good dream. I dreamed I lost all my friends. But then I found Ribbity and Froggie on the floor," (and here he pointed to the floor) "and I found Hopper over here, so it was a good dream."

I think that what happened was that he lost his friends, woke up when he couldn't find them in his sleep, and started crying. But being the problem solving boy that he is, he got up, found his friends, and got back into bed just as I arrived.

Luke then complained that he was cold. I got his quilt and snuggled a little to warm him up. On the one hand, it's nice to know that he's starting to be able to get along by himself when necessary. On the other hand, it's nice to know that a little snuggling is still appreciated.

phone games

2011-06-08T15:06:00.004-04:00

Amanda and Luke have taken ancient cell phones (about 10 years old, I think) and are "playing" video games on them. Luke is playing "Star Wars," where he plays Luke Skywalker and fights hundreds of bad guys and kills them. Amanda is playing "Dragon World," where some mean dragons have stolen Toothless, and you play Hiccup trying to rescue them. Whenever you make progress, there is a short video you get to watch with Toothless doing funny things to the dragons who captured him.

Can you please tell me where they get these ideas? As far as I know, Amanda's only contact with video games is 1) playing with the screen savers on my phone, 2) playing PBS kids games, and 3) watching one of her friends play for about 15 minutes every week while she's being carpooled. I'm not sure Luke has ever held a hand held video game aside from the screen savers we play on my phone.

It sure makes me more resolved not to buy a DS or other game for them, though. I'll just hand them a battery-less phone and tell them to play "Treasure Quest." That's sure to keep them occupied.

Self-service boy, part III

2011-05-26T19:38:00.003-04:00

Today, Luke decided that the lettuce was ready to be harvested. He found a bowl, let himself through the fence into the garden, removed every single leaf from one lettuce plant, and proudly brought the lettuce back to the house for lunch.

Self-service boy, part II

2011-05-24T20:57:00.003-04:00

Today, Luke decided that the trash can in his room was too full. Entirely on his own initiative, he tied a double knot in the bag, removed it from the trash can, carried it outside, climbed on the pile of boxes in the recycling bin next to the (tall) wheelie trash bin, disposed of the full trash bag, found a new trash bag in the closet, and re-lined his trash can. (Wait until we tell his girlfriends about this!)

Also on his own initiative, he decided to make crinkle cookies. He found a bowl, "remembered" that a cup of water was required (all of Luke's recipes start with a cup of water), measured it and added it to the bowl, remembered (correctly, this time) that 4 half-cups of sugar were required, got the sugar out of the cupboard above the counter, and added the 4 half-cups of sugar (all we had left!) to the water. So close! And yet, not quite close enough.

Off to the store to buy more sugar...

Self-service boy

2011-05-15T21:57:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, Luke got hungry. So without any help from anyone else, he got out Michael's birthday pie (strawberry, of course). He then got out the pie server from the drawer, got out Amanda's can of soy whipped cream, added "just a little bit" as he says, and ate the last piece of pie.

It's hard to know what to do with this type of initiative. On the one hand, he was hungry and he solved the problem, quite elegantly and completely, with no help from anyone. He paid careful attention to the correct way to eat pie, down to the server and the whipped soy stuff, which he put back in the fridge when he was done. He cleared his dish when he was done.

On the other hand, I do kind of wish he would ask before doing things of this sort... I guess you can't win.

Strawberry Glace pie, from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook

Baked pie shell
8 cups berries
2/3 c water
2/3 c sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch

Wash and hull strawberries. Take out 1 cup berries, set the rest aside. Blend 1 cup berries with 2/3 cup water. Add enough water to make 1 1/2 cup liquid.

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Add berry liquid, stir and cook on medium heat until thick and bubbly. Then cook for 2 minutes more. Let cool without stirring for 10 minutes.

Put 1/3 cup glaze on bottom of pie shell. Add 1/2 berries, pour 1/2 remaining glaze over the top. Then add the rest of the berries and pour the remaining glaze over the top, trying to cover all of the berries. Let set in the refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.

Late

2011-04-09T21:41:00.003-04:00

Whenever I try to make dinner for some particular time, it ends up being served half an hour later. This is very frustrating.

It is the more frustrating because as a mathematician, you would think I could figure this out. If f(t) is the time dinner is actually served at when the input is the time I am aiming for, then f(t)=t+30 minutes. So if I want the time I serve dinner at to be a particular time, I should just aim 30 minutes earlier: f(t-30)=t. But there is some subtle paradox I am having trouble with: the input has to be the time I'm trying to serve dinner at, so I can't plan for the output to be the time I'd like to have dinner. This analysis doesn't even include helpful children, making the calculation even trickier.

Ah, the paradoxes of everyday life. It's a good thing I have my degree in math, or I'd never be able to analyze this... =)

Musical Math

2011-04-04T16:35:00.002-04:00

Amanda has taken to doing math before bed instead of reading stories. I'm not sure I understand, but I do enjoy---we've looked at addition, subtraction, multiplication, roman numerals, symmetry, and so on. If you have any ideas for what to cover next, I'd love to hear them!

One night I decided to look at math in music---specifically, some patterns in the violin piece she's been practicing. I told her that we would be doing music math that night, and she said skeptically, "Ooookaaaay..."

She seemed to enjoy the subject. But afterward, she said that she was a bit surprised. "I thought that by math music, you meant something like 'One violin plus one violin equals one banjo, and one banjo plus one banjo equals one guitar!" I guess I know what she thinks of banjos... =)

Froggie

2011-04-04T16:19:00.003-04:00

Froggie went missing for a few days last week---actually only 3 days. We cleaned up the house completely, looked in all the unlikely places we'd found Froggie before (in the tablecloth/napkin basket in the dining room, in the sleeping bag stored in our closet, underneath all the sinks, behind and under the couches...) We finally found him in Luke's room, under the pillow of the seat of his rocking chair. Fortunately, I hadn't yet purchased the one I found on ebay for a ridiculous price.

The most difficult thing about the whole episode (aside from cleaning the house, including the drawers in the bathrooms, the closets, etc.) was how much Luke missed and needed Froggie. He spent much more time sitting on my lap. He refused to say that Froggie was lost, but just"on vacation." At the beach. He told me every day that we needed to go to the beach. One day, as he was sitting on my lap, he told me "Froggie is on vacation. He's trying and trying and trying to get home, but he can't. He's trying as hard as he can. I hear him calling me..." And then, in his "baby voice," he called, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" (Luke is Froggie's daddy, which makes me Grandma to a stuffed frog...) One night he woke up screaming that he heard Froggie downstairs calling for him, and would not be comforted. Michael finally had to leave him alone.

Suffice it to say that I am glad Froggie is found. I know that Luke will eventually leave this stage of life behind (although he may never leave Froggie), but he's not ready yet. With Froggie, he can play pretend in his room for 30 or more minutes. Without Froggie, he needs to sit on my lap a lot, be played with a lot, and he is more fragile.

We now have a policy that Froggie stays in Luke's room all the time. It's not a perfect rule---much of the pretend play with Froggie is curtailed. But right now, I just can't handle that big a loss in Luke's life.

Loveland

2011-04-03T09:30:00.002-04:00

The other day, Amanda made a beautiful collage of Loveland with hearts, rainbows, foam glitter stars, and a happy picture of Amanda. Apparently, it was a picture of "putting joy back together."

At the bottom of the page, Amanda had glued a plain strip of black paper, on which she had written "unloved land." At dinner that night, when I was admiring the picture, Ella complained that Amanda put her into unloved land. "That's not very nice, Amanda," I said. Amanda explained that Loveland was for people who were calm and peaceful (and smug, apparently). "I'm calm and peaceful," said Amanda, "and you're not."

I was about to try to rescue the situation somehow, when Ella stood up, banged the table, and said loudly, "I am too calm and peaceful!" Amanda smiled.

Fortunately for our family, there is room for calm and excitable people in the world. Fortunately for me, Michael came home that minute, so I was spared any more explanations.

Clerical costumes

2011-03-04T19:57:00.004-05:00

One of the hazards of going to a liturgical church where the pastors wear long white robes (are they albs?) is that my kids seem to get the pastors confused with Jesus. I can see what the problem is---the pictures of the kids have seen of Jesus show him wearing quite similar garments. I think I've already explained about Amanda's confusion, but she seems to have gotten over it. Now it's Luke's turn.

I spent some time explaining to Luke how the outfits show the pastor's job in the church, but that the pastors aren't Jesus, and the rest of the time they wear other outfits. Luke responded, "They have other outfits to wear on other days at church!" "Really? What are they like?" I asked. "Like a unicorn outfit! Or maybe a shark outfit!"

What do you think? It would certainly make Monday morning more exciting at the church =) It makes me smile every time I think of it.

Shuttle

2011-02-24T22:37:00.004-05:00

Today we watched the space shuttle Discovery take off---live, but via computer. I still remember sitting in class watching the first one take off (or maybe not the first one---the teachers might have worried that something would go wrong). The whole school stopped, there were cheers, and everyone wanted to be an astronaut. I'm still not sure where I watched it---there almost certainly weren't enough TVs to go around, but the gym doesn't sound feasible. Probably we went down the hall to watch with another class.

I remember when Challenger was destroyed: launches were routine enough that school didn't stop for them, but exciting enough that they still put TVs in the hall for us all to see. I was near the home ec classroom, and I remember talking to my sewing teacher, although I'm not sure I understood what was going on.

Today as we were watching, I wondered what kind of space flight my kids would live to see. Luke watched with glowing eyes: "It's taking off!" The girls were scared and excited and bored, all three at the same time. They liked the pictures taken from the shuttle: "What's that?" Ella asked, pointing at the Earth. I did want to see it from Florida, but I had several friends who went down to watch and were disappointed, so I gave up the idea as too logistically difficult. One of the science sites I've visited pointed out that there are actually commercial rockets going up much more frequently---maybe we'll see one of those.

And maybe Luke will get to be in a space ship some time. We can always dream. =)

making snow

2011-02-22T19:03:00.001-05:00

I found Luke grinding salt into a bowl. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Making winter," was the answer.

He brought the bowl of salt into the kitchen. "Now we have to microwave it. The salt will puff up and turn into snow!" Now he's asking to add sugar, and that is how you make winter. Or maybe you put the salt outside and freeze it...

Hmmm.

Bad Guys

2011-02-22T08:45:00.002-05:00

Typically my girls don't play pretend with bad guys, but for a long time Amanda was a superhero who fought them every day, and Luke is "Luke Skywalker," whose claim to fame is killing bad guys. I am decidedly ambivalent, but I do admit that when I try to intervene, the games get less exciting. The bad guys usually apologize and are forgiven, a common scenario for the pint size badness in our house (tearing someone's paper, playing with someone's toys, hitting someone). It is not as satisfactory for the big size crimes of the pretend bad guys.

They've watched and read plenty of stories with bad guys who die horrible deaths---think of Hansel and Gretel. So is it OK to push someone into an oven? Is it OK to pretend to push someone into an oven? What if you are acting out Hansel and Gretel? It makes me cringe to see my kids pretending to kill anyone, even a bad guy. But I haven't found a good solution.

Of course, there is the logical solution of the 3 year old. You are not allowed to hurt people. You are allowed (as seen on TV or in books) to hurt bad guys. Therefore, bad guys are not people. If only it were that simple.

4!

2011-02-18T22:40:00.003-05:00

Luke just turned 4, and we had a family birthday party for him. There were presents and a cake with candles. He has apparently gotten over the worst of his fear of fire, since his eyes were glowing happily when we lit the candles, and he didn't protest when we moved the cake closer to him so that he could actually blow out the candles instead of blowing across the table. I think he doesn't remember previous birthdays, since he keeps saying "This is my first birthday party!" We do correct him, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

He does love to help me bake, and he was very clear about what kind of cake he wanted. "Blueberry chocolate chip," he told me on the playground earlier today. I'm not surprised, since he's fascinated by blueberries, although his sisters both don't like them. So this afternoon I went to my favorite search engine and looked for vegan blueberry cake. (I realize I should have planned ahead. In my defense, I did have a plan B: make my favorite chocolate cake and frost with blue frosting.)

Not surprisingly, there weren't any blueberry chocolate chip cakes, and most of the blueberry cakes weren't meant for icing (mostly coffee cakes), which Luke insisted was essential. I found one or two, and then I ran into this. I'm usually against fat free vegan cooking (the fat is the best part!) but when Luke saw it, he was convinced that this was the cake for him---one of the hazards of having your sous-chef watch over your shoulder while you're planning the meal. We had the ingredients, so I made it.

It was, well, OK. I used honey, so it's not truly vegan (imagine the cruelty of making those poor little bees work for me!) but it was medium tasty and faintly blueberry-y. I topped it off with white frosting from a can mixed with blueberries, which made the cake much sweeter and more fruity, plus giving it a great purple topping.

The rest of the party was a success, from Amanda's card ("I hope we got you a nice present") to the copy of "Percy and the Dragon", the library book that Luke had everyone read to him over and over and over and over (hmmm, perhaps I shouldn't have gotten that one for him...). I am already missing my 3 year old, but I look forward to getting to know the 4 year old. I know he's excited to be on his way to being all grown up.

Where baby talk comes from

2011-02-17T07:34:00.001-05:00

Luke, bringing a box of kleenex: "Could you please wipe the tears out of my eyes so that I can talk not baby talk? ... Thank you, now I can talk not baby talk!"

My hovercraft is full of ... children

2011-02-12T11:08:00.003-05:00

Ella and I (Michael) built an air film bearing hovercraft, at her specific request and sole instigation. This is surprisingly easy. The hard part is to get the right tension on the skirt. It can hold an adult. The whole family tried it (serially, not simultaneously). It's hard to really get the idea from a still image, though; it really takes a movie.

Luke skis

2011-01-19T22:46:00.002-05:00

Today at ski school, when asked his name, Luke responded "Luke Skywalker!" He often gives alternate names when asked---once one of his Sunday School teachers approached me and said, "His name is Luke, right? Because he keeps saying his name is Colin, but his sister insists he's Luke."

I knew that Luke and ski school would get along when they wrote "Luke Skywalker" on his nametag and offered him a light saber. "I already have one," he responded.

He did in fact have fun skiing, riding the magic carpet, turning (in one direction, not the other) and charming the counselors. Amanda moved from the magic carpet in the morning to the blues in the afternoon. And Ella might or might not have gone down a black slope ("It says 'experts only', so I must be an expert!") but it's hard to tell whether it was today or last year. Tomorrow ski school again, so that I can work on writing a syllabus!

3rd child

2011-01-16T06:56:00.003-05:00

The other day I had to give Luke a bath by himself---Amanda was still eating, I think. He got in the bath, looked around and sighed. "I need some friends," he said. We call toys our friends sometimes, so I got him a few toys. He appreciated the toys, but repeated his request for friends. I was getting a little exasperated, so I asked him, "What kind of friends do you want?"

"Sister friends! I need some sisters in the bath with me!"

It is funny that he doesn't want to take a bath alone, which I think stems from the fact that since he was 9 months old I figured it was more efficient to wash two kids at a time than one. But also it is very sweet that he calls his sisters his friends. Hopefully that will remain for a long, long time.

Bye bye Christmas

2011-01-15T20:24:00.003-05:00

We're finally taking down the Christmas decorations. There are a few other die hards in our neighborhood with their lights still up, but we're one of the last.

This year I didn't have to decorate the tree at all---thanks to having a shorter tree, the kids took care of it after Michael put the lights up. Each child put their favorite ornaments in their designated area---the glass ones were all up high, the preschool made ornaments with pictures were all down low.

When I took the ornaments down today, I found a number of interesting decorations:

spun fiberfill
a toy car
a necklace
rocks
scraps of paper
shoelaces
branches from outdoor pine trees

I'm glad we have an eclectic tree---I never noticed.

Gingerbread houses

2010-12-23T16:21:00.003-05:00

When we were younger, our family would get together with another family and make gingerbread houses. I had a lot of fun, especially exploring the house of the other family, and playing with her Fisher Price record player.

My father, being an engineer, took the entire enterprise very seriously. We didn't have "royal icing", we had "mortar". We didn't merely make gingerbread houses, we constructed them. Dad had all sorts of techniques to bring his houses to a higher standard:

Instead of cutting out pieces on the counter and moving them to the cookie sheet (which can warp the pieces) or even cutting out the pieces on the cookie sheet, we would bake a big sheet of dough and then cut out the pieces when the dough was still soft and warm. Of course the pieces had been arranged so as to waste the smallest possible amount of dough.
We always used a pizza cutter to cut out the pieces and make nice straight cuts.
When assembling the house, use paper "hinges" in the joints. Gluing the hinges to the house, instead of loading up tons of frosting to hold them together, makes the structure very strong.
The thicker the mortar, the longer it takes to dry. Since egg whites make such good glue, a surprisingly small amount of mortar is sufficient, and then it dries much faster.

Ella, Amanda and Luke, and friends, recently made a gingerbread house. Since Amanda has allergies, we made vegan gingerbread, which turned out very well. The only problem was that I used this pattern for the house, and it made enough for at least two more houses than I was willing to make. The kids made cookies, and lots of "schniblets" were eaten, but there is still a log of gingerbread in my fridge somewhere. One nice thing about cooking vegan style is that there is no danger of salmonella from the raw dough. I personally don't like gingerbread cookies to eat, but Luke and Ella ate a few.

There is no satisfying vegan substitute for royal icing made with egg white. We just used icing from a can, which creates problems during construction. I used my dad's paper hinges (although I forgot exactly where they were supposed to be attached) but the icing didn't dry fast enough, and when it dried, it wasn't very strong. Poor Luke wailed every time the house fell down!

We then tried duct tape (it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together) but it didn't stick, making gingerbread one of the few things I know of that duct tape doesn't stick to. We ended up using carpenter's glue, along with lots of temporary support structure, and it set up nicely overnight. The gingerbread is not the part of the house that gets eaten, anyway.

We also had to use Amanda safe candies, which included gummy lifesavers, starburst, Christmas dots (they were lime/vanilla, or cherry/vanilla, and were my favorite), honey wheat pretzels twists, and candy canes. I believe that the kids were going for the "most candy used on a single gingerbread house" award, and made a garden of smarties, a river with smartie fish, and many "peep snowmen". One other innovation that I feel my father would approve of is the spray frosting: just put a nozzle on the can, aim and apply the precise amount of frosting needed in the correct spot.

As kids, we didn't get to eat any of the candy until Epiphany, January 6. Even then we only got one piece per day (although more must have been eaten, or the houses would have lasted until Easter). This year, our kids have helped themselves freely (with permission) and the house is pretty well demolished already. Maybe we can have more restraint next year.

Luke's Urgent Care Adventure

2010-12-14T21:59:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, as I rushed down the stairs from the office on my way home from work, my phone rang. It was from home. I answered, ready to say, "Yes, I'm on my way home now" but I heard a muffled voice, barely rising above screaming in the background, say, "Luke cut his head badly and he's bleeding a lot. mmrmph ummmph rrr ..."

Ella doesn't do so well with telephones; she sometimes forgets to hold the microphone near her mouth. Apparently Kim had asked her to call me while she took care of Luke. Probably the incomprehensible bit at the end was something like "We are getting into the car to go to the hospital" but I had to ask for her to repeat herself a few times.

It was half a minute before I realized that I was talking to Kim, not Ella. I never knew before that Ella's voice is like Kim's! She was telling me that she couldn't tell whether he cut himself badly enough that we should take him in to let a professional take a look. Meanwhile, Luke calmed down, in less than a minute, the bleeding stopped, and Kim said that the cut looked like it was about an eighth of an inch wide. In any case, she didn't want to shave off any hair to bandage it.

When I arrived at home, Luke was happily and ravenously eating supper. After I looked at his head with a flashlight, I decided to take him to a nearby urgent care facility. He was not bleeding and not acting concussed, so the ER was not necessary, but I wanted someone else to look at the cut. I let him take a few minutes to finish dinner and wolfed down some dinner myself.

Luke was very brave; very little fussing though it hurt when they cleaned the wound. It wasn't until they cleaned it that it became clear that he had a deep cut over 1cm long. They put an anesthetic gel on his head for 20 minutes, then used three staples to close the wound. Even with the anesthetic, the staples clearly hurt, but Luke was still brave, and seconds after the last staple was inserted, he was his usual cheerful self, though rather tired since it was now well past his normal bedtime.

He was quite pleased when I told him that when he grows up, he'll be able to tell people that he had three staples when he was three years old.

It took us some time to find out what had happened in the first place. Kim asked, "Luke, what did you hit?" He clearly thought this was a silly question; "My head!" ("duh, Mom!") Later, he showed me that he had fallen against a piece of wood trim while engaging in a prohibited activity: sliding on a pillow in order to slide faster. Thrill-seeking: it starts early.

Santa Who?

2010-12-09T16:07:00.002-05:00

The other day we went to Historic Oak View County park (all of my local readers should go there, by the way) for their sleigh ride and cider celebration. They had storytelling, a band, hammered dulcimer, and the house was decorated for Christmas. They also had Santa Claus, and since we got there early we were able to go see him before there was any line.

Unfortunately, it was also before I was able to prepare my kids. We really don't talk very much about Santa around here---the closest we get is watching the Phineas and Ferb Christmas special. So Amanda and Luke were left without very much context. Amanda went first, and when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said, "Nothing." He asked if she was sure, and I mentioned that she had wanted a pony and we talked about that for a while. He asked again if there was anything she wanted and she saw the big basket of mini candy canes on the floor, for giving out to kids. "I'd like a huge basket of candy canes, please."

Then it was Luke's turn. He ended up asking for a Christmas Carrot, which is about 2 feet long, blue, and glows in the dark. He thought the entire thing was extremely silly, and he enjoyed it very much. He'll tell you all about his Christmas Carrot, if you ask him.

Finally, Ella got her turn. "I'd like a Kaya American Girl doll." I think he was a bit relieved for a little bit of consumerism, or at least a recognizable gift. We'll see who gets their wish...

spelling

2010-12-04T06:39:00.002-05:00

Amanda has branched out in what she is learning to write. Unfortunately, she hasn't got spelling down, but since she spells it like it sounds, it's not too hard.

"farm Amanda, to Joolyona" (from Amanda, to Juliana)
"my marmad" (my mermaid)

It's times like these I think of Mark Twain's "Plan for the Improvement of the English Language." (This is posted at a government web site, which makes me want to see what else is posted there...)

Leaf raking as the perfect exercise

2010-11-26T08:25:00.002-05:00

Why leaf raking is the perfect exercise:

It takes place outside in beautiful fall weather.
It can be done while watching kids play outside.
It isn't too hard, but can be done vigorously.
It is something useful.
It doesn't require too much thought, so you can think of other things.
At the end, you have a great leaf pile to jump in.

We have a pile about 2.5 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter---not as big as the piles of my youth, but still substantial. I've been raking for at least 30 minutes every day since last week. I'm not sure what can replace this exercise, since we don't live in snow shoveling country. Does anyone have any ideas?

Go to Bed!

2010-11-22T22:37:00.002-05:00

I used to think poorly of parents who kept their 3 year olds in cribs. What's the point, I would think, they can climb in and out. Why not just get them a bed and be done with it! Are you afraid they'll fall out of bed or something?

I now repent. Luke, who will be 4 in February, is still sleeping in a crib. It has more to do with inertia than anything else. When his sisters were 3, there was another baby who needed the crib, so they were in beds, no problem. I'm not opposed to putting Luke in a bed, but to do that we'd need to figure out the whole bed situation which seemed extremely complicated...

We finally decided to get two low loft beds for the girls. We did not get the castle curtains that are supposed to go around them (hmmm, Christmas presents?). Then we'll give Luke the bed we got for him when he was born---a bookshelf bed with a trundle that matches the dresser in his room, which Ella has been using until we decided what kind of bed to get for her. The "day bed" with rails on 3 sides that Amanda has been using (Ella's first bed) will be sent on to the next child. And we'll be set until someone moves out and wants to take their bed with them.

Unfortunately, the beds don't arrive until just before Christmas. Luke already has Ideas about how to fix his crib: "We need to get a saw and cut the sides off my crib!" He then goes over to the crib and shows exactly where he thinks he should saw. Fortunately, the saw is kept far far away from the crib. I'm thinking we should put a lock on the toolbox until he actually gets a bed, though.

Mermaids and glitter

2010-11-20T08:56:00.003-05:00

Amanda's 6th birthday party was a week ago. She wanted a mermaid party, so we decided to invite a few girls (on the theory that the boys might not be really interested) from her class to our house for a mermaid event. There are only 10 girls in her class, so I decided to invite all of them over on the theory that most of them had soccer or other activities and wouldn't be able to come. All but 2 came, and a few brought siblings, so we were pretty full up. Fortunately it was an absolutely beautiful warm fall day, so we were able to take much of the stuff outside.

The first thing we did was the most fun birthday activity I've ever done. We got a long roll of butcher paper and I painted a few pieces of seaweed on it. Then we got out ALL our brushes and a box of Crayola poster paints. I told the girls to paint undersea things---octopi, sea horses, mermaids, fish... Some painted jellyfish, or clams, and Ella added a ship. It came out so beautiful! Everyone had fun.

Then we went to play "cross the ocean." In this game, there are two sharks and the rest of the girls are mermaids. If a shark touches you, you become seaweed and have to be still, although you can reach out and grab the other girls. If seaweed touches you, you become seaweed. Unfortunately, the game didn't work out very well since the girls didn't want to become seaweed, the boundary lines weren't well set out, and the girls really wanted to play on the play structure. I was interested to see that 12 girls really aren't too much for our play structure, although we needed a timer so everyone got a chance to swing.

Then we had the treasure hunt. We had 3 teams, and they went from clue to clue all around the house. "You can find this by yourself, look upon a library shelf!" I know, it's not Dr. Seuss, but everyone had a good time. The girls got treasure chests (.60 each at A.C.Moore's) and glitter and foam stickers and jewels and they decorated away. I used to have a "no glitter in the house" rule---I'm thinking I should have kept the rule, based on the amount of glitter still in our house.

Finally we had cake. I had wanted to make cupcakes from the "vegan cupcakes take over the world" recipe, but Amanda requested that we have cookies and decorate them. There were no mermaid cookie cutters at the store so we had fish and butterflies (must be the rare aquatic butterfly) I made some rice krispy bars too (good dairy-egg-nut-free standby) and everyone decorated away. They had a good time, but now I have a lot of frosting to use... Maybe we'll make Christmas cookies too.

The girls in Amanda's class are easygoing, friendly, not cliquish, and just fun to be around. We'll definitely follow this up with a playdate or two. Next year, though, I think we'll just have 2 girls for a movie night =)

Ella makes bread

2010-11-20T08:46:00.003-05:00

One of Ella's chores (suggested by her Aunt L.) is to put the stuff in the bread maker every night and program it so we have warm bread in the morning. This works well, and is also a great science experiment. We have discovered that:

Bread made without salt looks OK but is barely edible.
Bread made with 3 times the salt is inedible, and doesn't rise right.
Bread made with no yeast is edible, sort of like a tasty rock is edible, and
Ella really needs a system to make sure she puts the right ingredients in the right amounts in the right order.

I've encouraged her to line up the ingredients on the counter before she starts along with the correct measuring equipment. After the last failure she allowed that that might be a good idea. We'll see.

Here's our recipe for bread:

1 1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance buttery stick
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour (we get ours from Great Harvest)
1 cup white flour (bread flour makes it rise better)
1 1/2 tsp. yeast

Put the water in the bread machine, making sure that the paddle is in it. Add the "butter", salt and sugar. Sprinkle first the whole wheat flour and then the white flour on top. Make a small well for the yeast, making sure that no water touches the yeast. Bake on the whole wheat cycle with the 1.5 lb loaf and dark crust options. Schedule to get done by 6:30.

So far today...

2010-11-20T08:39:00.003-05:00

Luke has gotten out all of our train cars and made a long train and track. Then he got out the meat tenderizer hammer and crushed two graham crackers. He mixed up some "muffins" with the crumbs, spices, food coloring, cous cous, applesauce and honey. He got out the blender, plugged it in, put another graham cracker in and asked, "Now I push start?" with his finger on the button (makes me glad we don't have a blendtech). It is now 8:40.

I said, "mama needs a break!" and he allowed that we could have a break while I ate breakfast.

p.s. we just got a laminator. I warned Michael not to show Luke how to use it (having seen how he reacted to being shown how to work the 3-hole punch and the comb binder). He snuck up and watched anyway. I'll let you know what gets laminated.

Tomorrow's activities

2010-11-07T22:09:00.002-05:00

http://www.candyexperiments.com/p/experiments.html
I can't wait!

Conversation

2010-11-01T19:17:00.001-04:00

Amanda to Ella: "Could you tell me how I am annoying?" Ella looks up, speechless (for once). "By telling you things that you already know?" continues Amanda. "Yeah," answers Ella.

"But I bet you already knew that..." says Amanda.

I really could not have made that one up, folks.

Panic

2010-10-18T20:51:00.002-04:00

I was in the car today, driving Ella to pick up Amanda from school, and I realized that it was awfully quiet. Luke is almost always talking. I looked back and didn't see Luke in the car. "Luke! Luke! are you here!" I yelled. Ella looked up from her book, and said in a worried voice, "No, he's not in the car!"

As you can imagine, my thoughts immediately went back to the house where I must have left him---I had a million things to remember today (we went from string lessons to social group to dinner to Taekwondo), and I have always worried that I would end up forgetting a person. I did once forget Amanda in a waiting room for 3 minutes when I went in to Ella's gym class, although she was 3 months old at the time... "Poor Luke! He must be so worried! He was probably bawling and terrified! He'll never trust me again!" I worried silently. I needed to get off the highway right then, call Michael to pick up Amanda, call the string teacher to apologize for being late to the lesson...

And then I remembered why Luke wasn't in the car. When the girls have lessons, I need to participate so that I can help (especially Amanda) during the week. I can't also be chasing and amusing Luke in a very small room for an hour, so I drop him off at a drop-in childcare place. He had been completely happy and safe when I dropped him off.

I haven't felt anything like the combination of relief and stupidity (for imagining such a silly scenario) before. Hopefully, I won't have to feel it again any time soon.

Acorn project

2010-10-16T21:30:00.004-04:00

It is very interesting to see what the kids get up to when weare not around. Gramma and Grampa came to visit, and supervised what ended up being the Acorn Project. Grampa blogged about it, fortunately, or I would never have known even half of what happened.

Amanda, a plan, a canal, paadnama

2010-10-14T19:54:00.003-04:00

Amanda brought a bag full of small pieces of paper which she had colored on. "Could you laminate these, please?" It turned out they are invitations for mermaids. She wants to laminate them and then drop them in the ocean. One side has a picture of a mermaid on it, complete with a tail instead of legs and surrounded by blue water. The other side has a few symbols: A, ♥, M.

It turns out that she wanted to write on the back, "Dear mermaids, could you please come to the state pond of North Carolina? Love, Amanda." As she said, "If you can't write that whole sentence, you just have to write A heart M."

It seems like a good plan, although she did ask me tonight if the place where mermaids live is connected to the pond of North Carolina. I first asked if she thought mermaids were real. "No, mermaids are pretend," she said. "Well, in that case," I said, "the mermaids can certainly come to North Carolina." She seemed relieved.

Taekwondo

2010-10-12T07:18:00.004-04:00

I took the girls to their first martial arts lesson yesterday. I'd been looking around for some sort of physical activity for them---they both are taking string lessons, but I think there needs to be something more active. A friend of ours mentioned that the local studio is run and taught by women, and Ella thought that was pretty neat and wanted to try it.

They got there and tried on their uniforms: both ended up being a little big, although Amanda's (the smallest size) really needs some taking up =) They got to sit on a spot on the floor, learn a few rules (don't be a bully was the most important one---don't abuse your Taekwondo). They learned a few rituals: bow to the flags (Ella correctly identified the Korean flag), tell the teacher "Thank you ma'am," jump up in the air and shout "Taekwondo!" Then they got to do a few punches and kicks into a small round foam circle. I think the main purpose of the exercises was to learn how to move in a line, as well as to get excited about lessons.

Unfortunately for Luke, lessons start at age 4.5, so he had to watch. He was fascinated and payed close attention. When the girls were being taught how to make a fist, I caught him making his own fist... correctly, according to the directions, of course. Michael said that sometimes he seems to learn better when you are not actually trying to teach him something.

We get two weeks of beginner lessons, and then we can move to the bigger group lessons. The great thing about this studio is that you can pay month to month, so if we don't like it or get too busy (they like you to come twice a week) we can quit. Who knows, if this goes well, maybe I'll join, too.

Ropes Course, the sequel: Starring Amanda

2010-10-06T19:48:00.006-04:00

As Kim just blogged, we went to the mountains for Apple Festival -- for the fourth year running.

Amanda was disappointed last year that she couldn't do the ropes course, and this year, as a great big five-year-old, nothing was going to keep her away.

This involved a lot of waiting. First, waiting for over an hour and a half before starting climbing. Then she climbed a free rope ladder with rungs about half as far apart as she is tall, to a platform about dozen feet off the ground. Once she got there, we discovered that the "lobster claws" she was wearing were not long enough to read the safety wire, so she had to wait while they changed her over to a different set. Walking a pair of beams never seemed hard to Ella or to me, so it didn't surprise me that Amanda did fine. The bigger surprise was that she never fell off the high wire, and in fact didn't seem to have to use her hands very much -- good balance. She wanted a helping hand before she jumped across a two-foot gap. She then had to wait patiently again during the transfer to the zipline while they removed her lobster claws in order to hook her up to the zipline, but once she was hooked in she was ready to jump, and went flying down the zipline joyfully laughing. The only disappointment was that there wasn't time to do it again.

Ella was quite independent. For example, she says that while I was on the rope course following Amanda, she asked if she could go back to camp on her own. She decided, it seems, that a lack of response indicated approval, and so she nipped off through the woods alone for a half-mile or so hike back to the main lodge. (She made it fine, but neglected to bring her Crocs and her climbing harness bag with her, and once she got to the lodge, dumped her climbing harness on the ground near the fire. There are limits to her independence still. :)

Since Ella and Amanda both listed the ropes course as their favorite part of the trip, Kim might not get her wish that they'll go hiking instead next year. Ella did the night hike Saturday night, though.

Hiking

2010-10-06T15:39:00.002-04:00

Last weekend we went up to a camp in the mountains for a family "retreat". My good friend Julie had been a counselor up there in the (now distant =) past, so she knew the trails. While Ella and Amanda and Michael went on the intermediate ropes course (Ella's favorite part of the trip), I wanted to go on a hike.

There were two options: a short (15 minute for a grownup) hike over mostly flat ground, or a longer (1 mile) hike up to the top of the mountain. I had gotten enough sleep that night, or was feeling ambitious, and Julie told me that it would be alright, so we opted for the latter.

As with so many things in life (getting married, having children, getting your PhD, etc.) if I had known before I started what was entailed, I wouldn't have done it. Having done it, I'm glad we went. The first part of the hike was over a leaf covered trail, through the forest. As we got higher up, there were more and more rocks to climb over. I pulled Luke up the first part over his protestations. He talked almost the whole time! Julie pulled for much of the rest of the hike: the rocks got bigger, she had better shoes and more experience, and Luke tended not to sit down for her like he did for me. We told Luke he was a mountain man, and he responded, "No, I'm a hay riding man!" (he had just gotten off a hay ride with 5 college age counselors). Towards the end, he complained that, "We are running out of time!" He also mentioned numerous times that he wanted to go home. When we told him that we would see a big rock, every big rock became the top of the mountain, so that we could go home now.

Getting to the top was magical. There is nothing like coming out of the forest (dim, leafy, can only see a little ahead) onto the top of the mountain where you can see forever in the clear air. I suppose that's why they call it a mountain-top experience =). Lisa brought some chocolate called "bliss", which seems like a great name for chocolate at the top of the mountain. Luke did not go over the edge (mostly because we held tightly onto him while we were up there). My favorite part was going under an overhanging rock---this rock went about 2 stories in the air above us. I felt like I could see the permanence of the mountain, and seeing the rock peeking out from under the trees made me think of the mountain under my feet as well.

One of the best parts was that Luke got to go up before his sisters. Hopefully next year we'll drag them up, too (although, I hope not literally...).

Learn from my mistake!

2010-09-29T10:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Amanda got home from school and wanted to go play on the play structure. Fine, I thought, and I put her school bag and lunch box on the porch. We played and went in, and I forgot about the bags until this morning.

This morning, when I went to make Amanda's lunch, I remembered that the bags were on the porch. They hadn't gotten wet, so I brought them in and got out the lunch bag. It didn't take me long to realize that the lunch bag was full of ants. I chased them down, killed most of them, and washed out the bag. YUCK!

Then I got to the school bag. The inside was coated with ants too. I emptied them into the sink, and washed them all down. If giant ants emerge from the sewers in a few months, you can blame me! In all, making lunch took about 10 more minutes than I expected, which was OK because today, I was running about 10 minutes early.

Now we just have to get rid of the stragglers. Hopefully we are not in for a long process. In the mean time, I keep feeling invisible ants crawling all over me...

Do It Yourself

2010-09-27T21:14:00.002-04:00

Last week, Ella found the bag of fiberfill and started rolling it on the carpet to make something somewhat yarn-like. She wanted to knit with it, but since she was rolling it back and forth instead of twisting it, it wasn't really strong enough.

Daddy remembered that when he was a boy, he made a drop spindle and learned to spin with it. He offered to make a drop spindle for Ella, and tonight after dinner, we went down to the shop.

We put together some found objects: a scrap of wood, a long thin bolt, a scrap piece of copper wire, some electrical tape, the only two nuts we could find that fit the bolt, and a very small nail. It's not perfect but it works.

We grabbed a handful of fiberfill, and twisted some thread by hand -- enough to tie to the spindle, wrap around the shaft, and slip through the hook. Then we started spinning. Ella did some of the spinning, but fiberfill was really not intended for this, so it's hard to use and makes very unforgiving thread. Ella decided that a "drop spindle" is so named because the thread breaks and the spindle drops, probably on your foot.

Then we trebled the spun thread, let it wind itself into a cord, and tied off the ends. We now had almost 12 feet of twine.

Now Ella was ready to knit.

She suggested finger knitting, but couldn't find the book. She told Mom that we could probably find instructions on the internet, and she was right, a minute later Mom and Ella were watching video instructions for finger knitting. Five minutes later, Ella had knit a bracelet from twine that was loose fiberfill about an hour earlier.

The long view

2010-09-25T07:19:00.002-04:00

I am in a Bible study with some older women who have teenagers (and beyond!). We share prayer requests and just socialize, and they often share about life with their teenagers, various troubles they have and the new worries they have.

It is interesting, but I have to say that I am grateful for the perspective. My kids aren't learning how to drive, they aren't trying to get independence, they aren't blowing up at me or keeping secrets... Right now their fondest desire is that I play with them. Taking the long view makes it a bit easier to spend time with them instead of wishing they would grow up. I'll be off the floor and away from the trains soon enough.

Sophistication

2010-09-24T23:04:00.001-04:00

Amanda looked over my shoulder as I checked something on my phone, saw my current "wallpaper" background choice, and said dismissively, "That's la-a-a-ame!"

Kindergarten. It's where the cool kids are.

Like father, like son

2010-09-22T21:41:00.002-04:00

We have been taking Luke to speech therapy, where he gets to play all sorts of fun games while learning to speak more clearly---he doesn't even seem to notice that he is learning something. The therapist has a small plastic tote filled to the brim with wind-up toys: airplanes, cars, flipping ladybugs... The other day Luke was playing with the toys and he started winding one up and watching the wheels on the bottom turn. The toy (a submarine driven by a fox) would go forward and then turn suddenly. Luke explained to me how it changed direction and then he asked the therapist, "Open it, please!" She was confused (part of the reason Luke is hard to understand sometimes is that he says such unexpected things) but he finally made her understand that what he really wanted was to look inside and see how the whole thing was put together. He actually tried to get it apart, before she distracted him with something else.

Better hide our screwdrivers, I think. =)

The Power of Boredom

2010-09-21T21:39:00.004-04:00

Daddy drives the "school bus" every morning, and especially on Tuesday and Thursday when Luke doesn't go to school, it is a long ride for Amanda. About 30 minutes with the cro-magnon chauffeur who isn't a particularly good conversationalist, don't you know?

At the start of the school year, Amanda amused herself with picture-heavy books like Olivia in which the picture really tells the story, and laughed delightedly at the funniest pictures; especially Olivia's reproduction of Jackson Pollock's painting on the wall of her room.

A couple weeks ago, though, she started picking up a joke book and reading the jokes, telling her favorites aloud. In the past week, she has been reading longer story books with fewer pictures, such as Amelia Bedelia and Morris Goes to School.

Just like Ella three years ago, there's nothing like regular stretches of intense boredom to drive a child to learn to read fluently!

That's a phone!

2010-09-18T19:09:00.001-04:00

I (Michael) was choosing a ring tone for my cell phone. Among the many choices was a classical old-style telephone bell that anyone who grew up in the AT&T monopoly would recognize as the sound every telephone used to make. As soon as Luke heard it, he called out, "That's a phone!"

It's not entirely clear to us how he knows that is a phone more than any of the other ring tones he heard, many of which are used more often as ring tones than the classical bell (pun intended) sound.

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Hint for flies...

2010-09-18T13:28:00.002-04:00

...don't hide behind the business end of a flyswatter.

Time bombs

2010-09-16T07:51:00.003-04:00

We are part of a CSA association (community supported agriculture) and we really love almost all of it. There are a few things we don't like to eat: NC grapes and eggplant are two of the biggies. Fortunately we get to choose which box of food we get delivered, provided that we request early enough.

Unfortunately, for the past 2 weeks I have forgotten to request the correct box. Most of the default box is just fine (apples, peaches, loads and loads of cucumbers), but we've gotten peanuts in the boxes. First we got raw, then salted and roasted. I really feel anxious having them around the house with Amanda, like any minute she'll break out in an allergic reaction... We'll probably give away the raw ones and Michael will take the roasted ones into work, and I'll be glad to get them out of the house.

Except that Ella and I tried the roasted peanuts this afternoon (Luke refused and had almonds instead). Peanuts are so good! There is nothing like them. We eat sunbutter, and it's pretty good (soy nut butter is inedible in my opinion, although the kids like the chocolate kind) but there is something special about peanuts. Everyone who can eat peanuts or has a kid who only wants peanut butter for lunch should give thanks that they don't have an allergy. I wish I knew that Amanda would grow out of it.

Fall

2010-09-16T06:58:00.004-04:00

We went biking yesterday on the greenway. It was a bit silly---we had to drive 15 minutes to get there, and then spend time wrestling our bikes out of the car and putting them back together, then we rode down to the other end of the greenway and back in about 40 minutes.

But it was exercise, and it was beautiful: clear dark blue skies, warm sun but cool dry air, leaves beginning to show tinges of color. We rode through woods and a field of black-eyed susans, as well as over the highway on a pedestrian bridge---something about being above cars moving at 60 mph is really fun. Can't wait until Amanda is a good enough biker to join us, although we'll have to find something else to do with the bikes other than bringing them in the trunk of the van.

I'm grateful to be in NC in the fall.

moods

2010-08-27T09:04:00.001-04:00

Ella is definitely a glass almost empty/glass almost full kind of person.

exciting!

2010-08-27T09:02:00.002-04:00

Luke found some thumbtacks and was about to poke them into inappropriate places around the house (furniture, etc.) I went to the garage and got him a cardboard box. "ohh ooohh oooh!" he said as he carried the box back to the thumbtacks. I wish I could please everyone that easily.

Attack of the Pantry Moths II

2010-08-13T23:09:00.004-04:00

While we were on vacation several weeks ago, it seems that pantry moths were undisturbed in our pantry, and busily did what they seem to do best.

Last night, we were suddenly beset. Like Birds, except very small. Each moth is easy to kill; collectively, they are very disturbing. This morning, deep-cleaning the pantry was a three-hour task. Three bags of trash, and the not-obviously-touched food (and bags, boxes, and other containers) into the freezer for three days just in case, since that is supposed to kill the eggs. We'll see. There are suggestions in some articles to put all dry goods in the freezer for a month or two, since the moths' life cycle is about a month long.

Previously, we kept a pheromone trap in the pantry, but perhaps that attracted them. We are now trying a trap next to but not in the pantry, as well as using an insecticide spray sparingly, and a lemongrass spray more widely (don't know how well it will work, but at least it smells nice).

Unwritten posts

2010-05-31T12:13:00.002-04:00

Here is a list of the posts which I have meant to write but haven't written:

Luke getting out of bed by himself. A good thing, until he runs around at 6AM shouting, "Maaammaaa! Where Aaarree you!"
Amanda and Luke's last day of preschool. The difference between 3 year olds and 5 year olds.
Mother's day presents, and my favorite things to do according to Ella and Amanda.
Building a playset, and the big black long visitor.
Garden success: weeds, peas, beans. Maybe: radishes, lettuce, raspberries. No: carrots. My favorite: Pumpkins taking over the whole garden!
Roses and irises.
Amanda and violin, Eleanor and viola
Eleanor and her 10 inch long hair. Changing her name to Ella.

Maybe I'll write some of these sometime soon....

Grandma

2010-04-25T20:57:00.002-04:00

Amanda has 4 sleeping toys, which she calls her "kids." Sometime this spring she figured out that my mom is her grandmother, and my grandmother is her great grandmother. Working this all out, this implies that I am now grandmother to a spotted eagle ray, a blanket, and two sheep. This is not precisely what I had imagined grandparenthood would be like.

(Don't laugh too hard, mom, because you're their great-grandmother!)

For a while she had another "kid," and so she had 5 children. She told me that she had won the war with her grandma in Florida. "You mean the card game?" I asked (she had done quite well playing various members of the family). "No, the kid war!" I had to figure out what she was talking about, but it turns out that the Florida grandma has 4 kids, and she had 5, so she won. Perhaps she is a little competitive...

Talent

2010-04-25T20:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Eleanor's school's carnival, complete with gem mining, a bull ride, ponies, and a talent show. The whole thing was lots of fun, but one of the most fun parts had to do with Eleanor.

She decided quite early on that she would like to do an act in the talent show. After convincing her not to do hula hoop or jump rope (which are not things she's especially interested in, normally) she settled on telling jokes. She loves jokes, tells them all the time, and makes them up. We found some of her favorites from the everything joke book, and typed them up. She got one of her friends to help with the duck joke, my favorite joke of all time.

Her friend played the duck, and they hadn't really had time to practice, but that was the roughest patch. The MC helped out by laughing uproariously, and shouting out responses. (for example: "How do you spell mousetrap with only 3 letters?" "HOW?" "C-A-T.")

I'm proud of her for getting up there and giving it a try. One of her classmates and a stranger both said they enjoyed the jokes. It goes to show that children are not copies of a single parent---I would never have done anything like this. I think that she had a good time, and so did the people listening to her. We'll see what comes next... =0

Logo knowledge

2010-04-21T20:16:00.002-04:00

We went to the library today, and I wanted to walk through the science fiction section on the way out, just to see what was there. As I was looking at the shelves, I heard Luke say, "That's my book!" He sounded happy, but I was distracted, so I didn't look to see what he had until we were almost to the door. He was happily hugging a 600 page book to his chest, one which we hadn't checked out.

"Luke, you have to leave that at the library." "No! It's my book." "Luke, please put that down so we can leave." "But it's my Star Wars book! It's my book!" (You will not be surprised to hear that he dissolved into tears at this point. I took the book from him, and looked at it. Sure enough, it was a Star Wars novel...

We really don't watch Star Wars. However, Luke has seen a Star Wars movie exactly once, and we talk about Luke Skywalker, and he also has friends at school who like star wars. One characteristic of a good logo is whether or not a pre-reader can recognize it. I guess Star Wars passes.

(The Gap also passes---Eleanor recognized it as soon as she could talk...)

Oh no! A stick!

2010-04-20T08:31:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was able to see Luke's preschool class walk across to a small playground. Luke had his jacket partway in his bag (it was a beautiful day) and was trying to stuff it even more into the bag. It fell out as soon as he stopped stuffing.

Then one of the children who was following Luke called out, "Hey, Luke! Your jacket is on the ground!" The teacher who was leading them (the other teacher was back in the room) called out to Luke to leave it on the ground, but none of the kids following Luke was able to pass it. The kids in front of Luke walked to the playground like nothing happened, the kids behind him watched anxiously as Luke went back to his jacket, managed to stuff it all the way in, and then continued on the way to the playground. Catastrophe adverted!

It reminded me of the scene from the beginning of "A Bug's Life" where a stick (or was it a leaf?) falls in the middle of the train of ants bringing food to the offering. The ant just behind the stick doesn't know what to do---he's so used to just following the ant trail that anything new is stressful. An older, wiser ant leads the confused ant around the stick, and the others follow, finally able to move.

OK, so Luke and the other kids in his class aren't ants. But toddlers/preschoolers are definitely some of the most conservative around when it comes to routines and rituals---you'd better make sure the new routine is for a good reason before you change it!

Pizza wins

2010-04-14T21:10:00.003-04:00

We don't really have pizza in the house. For a long time, Amanda was allergic to wheat, and is still allergic to dairy, and so if we get regular pizza we have to figure out what Amanda is going to eat. Add this to the fact that Eleanor really despises tomato sauce in all forms, especially on pizza (why would you let tomato sauce get in the way of lovely bread and cheese?), and we really haven't had pizza for a long time. Thus, when Luke is faced with a piece of pizza, he reacts the same way he usually does to an unfamiliar food: Why are you trying to poison me? Why are you giving me this burning hot piece of so-called food?

But last weekend when I asked Michael to come up with an idea for dinner this week and Eleanor had already suggested bratwurst, he suggested individual pizzas. He has become enamored with roasted garlic (a result of Easter dinner, lamb shanks with rosemary and 3 heads of garlic in the slow cooker), and so he wanted to try it out on a white pizza. Since the rest of us did not want to try roasted garlic out on pizza, and because Amanda doesn't get regular cheese, we made individual white pizzas. These consisted of pizza dough, olive oil, cheese, bacon, garlic for Michael and tomatoes and peppers for me.

They were a hit! Eleanor ate hers all up. Amanda loved the vegan cheese we found for her, although she didn't eat the crust. Luke started eating just the crust, but I think the way Eleanor was enjoying hers convinced him to eat the rest, and he liked it. Tomatoes on a white pizza are just perfect: not as aggressive as tomato past, but still zingy and moist. And Michael ate two heads of roasted garlic on his.

It wasn't so hard, and Michael has said he'll help prep the ingredients the night before so I can make it while supervising kids. Eleanor asked if we could have it every Wednesday. I'm not entirely convinced it belongs with pancakes as a weekly meal, but I'm up for considering it.

Making new friends

2010-04-12T20:47:00.002-04:00

Amanda and I have been playing "make new friends at the playground" with her dolls for a long time. The script goes something like this: One doll meets another, introduces herself, asks the others' name, then they find something to do like going to the beach, going to Mars, and so on. I've noticed Amanda trying the script out on new friends at the playground.

Luke has been paying careful attention, apparently. The other day at the park he walked up to the mom of one of the 18-month-olds at the park and announced, "Hi! I'm Luke!" They got into a nice exchange of names. I went over to make sure he was being polite, and he announced, "I'm just making friends!" (he's pretty loud with these announcements).

Then he was sliding down the double slide right next to another boy about his age. They got off the slide at the same time and Luke got right next to him and said loudly, "Hi! I'm Luke!" I was right there, so I suggested that he ask for the other boy's name. "Hi, I'm Luke! What's your name?" The other boy looked a bit stunned, and seemed quite a bit shyer than Luke, but as he walked away he said quietly, "My name is Tristan." "Hi Tristan! Good to meet you!" The two played next to each other for the next few minutes. The other boy's mom seemed a bit surprised and pleased that her son had responded, and they did seem to have a good time together. It's not very complicated, as social interactions go, but it's pretty good for a 3 year old, not to mention a child of mine...

Luke's other trick lately (and one reason I'm glad he's announcing that he's Luke) is that he pretends to be other people. For a while it was our babysitter: "Hi I'm Alex!" Then it became a friend of ours: "Hi! I'm actual actual actual Colin!" It's not a problem, until he goes up to strangers and introduces himself that way. Then it becomes confusing.

Duet

2010-04-07T21:01:00.002-04:00

This evening Eleanor went down to practice viola. As soon as she started playing, (the Tallis Cannon, if you're interested) another vibration started up. At first, I thought it might be the speakers for the TV or something. However, it hadn't been going on before I went downstairs so that didn't make sense. I made Eleanor stop playing so I could hear the noise better, and the noise went away. She started again, and the noise came back.

Hmmm. Maybe a bug? The noise was coming from behind the couch, so Eleanor and I looked but didn't see anything. We figured it was probably under the couch and couldn't be easily found. Eleanor tried to keep playing, but the noise was pretty distracting. I went up to find Michael to see if he would kindly remove the bug from our rec room so Eleanor could practice.

When Michael came down again, the bug (almost certainly a cicada) was quiet again, but started right up again when Eleanor started playing. Michael said the bug was outside. I didn't believe him until he opened the window---wow, that is one loud bug. The bug stopped when it didn't hear Eleanor's viola playing anymore.

The bug kept it up all through practice. Michael thought that it was reacting to a particular pitch, but when he whistled there was no response. Eleanor's theory is that it is a male bug, and when it hears Eleanor's viola it thinks there is a female cicada somewhere around and is trying to get her attention. She claims it shows how badly she plays, that a cicada thinks she's another cicada. She also claims that the cicada started in on the cannon in exactly the right spot.

The duet was definitely fun. However, I'd be glad if that particular bug moved away from viola practice tomorrow, as it was a bit distracting...

Circumlocution

2010-04-06T08:30:00.002-04:00

Amanda, holding two similar-sized balls: "This one is gravity-darker!"

"You mean heavier?"

"Yes!"

Candy...

2010-04-04T15:59:00.002-04:00

The easter bunny did manage to make it to our house last night, thanks to a late night trip to the grocery store. This brought up reason #4291 to hate food allergies: it's hard to find a chocolate bunny. Fortunately, they had purple straw, candy corn, jelly beans (I love the starburst ones) and my favorite, robin's eggs. They are malt inside chocolate inside a candy shell, and are soooo good.

Well, Luke found his basket this morning (after some broad hints) and he ate all the candy corn. Then he wanted a "marble", so I gave him a robins egg after telling him what they were. He bit into one and started crying. He then started rubbing them in the floor, trying to get the candy coating off. "I don't like the ones with poop in them!" he cried.

Which left me dumbfounded. But I guess I'll have to eat his robin's eggs for him. Too bad...

Williamsburg and Busch Gardens

2010-04-03T19:59:00.002-04:00

Over spring break we drove up to Williamsburg VA, and went to two places, one educational and one less so. they were both fun. We went with some of Eleanor's friends from school.

Luke vastly preferred Busch Gardens. Although there were many rides we had to sit out from, one of the first ones we went up on was an "airplane" ride, where you control your height by pulling back on a stick. Luke got the idea right away. Later on, we spent a lot of time going from the gliders to the balloons to the gliders to the balloons---there were no lines, so we just got on. I think that was the most fun Luke had all day, no waiting.

Eleanor started out the day at the Loch Ness Monster, a roller coaster which has loop de loops. She claims to have had a good time, but after that she forswore any further roller coasters, to her father's disappointment. Eleanor especially enjoyed anything that got her wet: Le Scoot, Roman Rapids and Escape from Pompeii. Pompeii had real fire, which made it even more exciting.

Amanda had a hard time. She really wanted to go on all the roller coasters, but she is 41.5 inches tall, and most of them you had to be 42 inches tall. Some people would check rigorously, some not so much. Basically she could go on the flat rides (Scrambler, Monster, Teacups) but not the rollercoasters. She got all the way up to sitting in the car for Pompeii before they told her she was too short. Fortunately, she is not one to throw a temper tantrum and had a good attitude. She managed to enjoy the kids rides as well, like "King Elmo's Spire" and Oscar's whirly worms.

My favorite part of the trip was the train that went all around. The SkyRide was not open, which is my favorite ride back from when we went on the one at the MN state fair. I managed not to ride a single roller coaster, which astonished Eleanor.

Daddy got his wish to ride the big roller coasters at the end of the day. He claims he had fun.

Williamsburg with a 3 year old (an active, impatient 3 year old) can be challenging. To start with, Luke is terribly afraid of fire, even the thought of fire. So when we went to the Governor's palace (both British governors and Americans lived there) and heard that the place had been destroyed by fire, he got steadily more worked up. Then when we actually went into the palace and there were FIREPLACES everywhere, he didn't want to stay. We went out to the gardens instead. But his fear meant going inside any building was challenging.

On the other hand, he made quite the exploration of rocks all throughout the city. I think I will write a small monograph on the subject, "Rocks of Williamsburg." We had to tell him that they needed the rocks for the street, otherwise I think we would have brought many home with us.

Hope Plantation was interesting, and I'd like to see more of it. We need to go back for more than one day, I think.

One of the best programs that was going on while we were there was the "Revolutionary City". It was a series of short plays which told about the progression from Virginia as a productive British colony to a leader in the fight for independence. We came in on the scene where some patriots confront several officials in front of the coffee house, and then we went down to the capital where the British governor addressed the crowd about the "day of prayer and fasting" the house of Burgess had declared. It was very easy to follow the crowd from one place to another---Eleanor just got up and went, without consulting her parents! There were several recreators in the audience, including the wife of the only Virginian knighted before the Revolution (a loyalist, naturally). It was fun to hear her responses going against the crowd, who were almost all patriots. I felt a shiver go up my spine when I heard that the king had forbidden any "Days of Prayer and Fasting" except ones that he scheduled: "He can't do that! That's not right!" I'm certainly a "patriot" now.

Eleanor wanted a cotton cap (like the one Felicity wears) very much. She kept it on the whole day, wore it all the way home, and wore it much of the next day. Amanda wanted a tricorner hat, which would have put her in the artillery. She didn't keep it on. Luke also got an artillery hat, although he mostly wanted to use his for collecting rocks... It would have been fun to rent costumes, but they looked hot and I kept thinking, "I could make these..." Well, maybe I couldn't, but I didn't want to spend money renting one, since the hats were good enough.

Of course, my favorite part of the whole city was sitting outside Raleigh's Tavern, drinking root beer and eating ginger cakes in the sun. We need to go back to see inside more places, but I'm happy we went.

2010-03-16T07:38:00.003-04:00

Luke, climbing under the sink (it is empty): "Hi, I'm going to New York City. Bye! I push the button."
He closes the doors. I hear a "hmmmmmm..." noise.

I didn't know you could get to new york city on the elevator... on the other hand, maybe it was a transporter.