N's First Swim Lesson

Swimming lessons have been a top priority for our family. I took them every summer until I earned a Red Cross Certification, E's been in the water since 2 1/2 almost year round, and now it's time for the boy. He's reverted back to his clingy self as of recent, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I gave him the rundown, and he had loads of questions. It helped that E was already in the water doing "her lesson," and he just got right in! For the most part he listened attentively and participated in everything (at one point he even shot off the raised dock to imitate his teacher only to find himself near the bottom of the pool...coughing a sputtering he have me a soggy smile while his instructor placed him back on solid ground, undeterred in the least).

*You can see E watching from the far left lane on the other side of the pool and cheering him on!

1st Grade Art Appreciation

I have had the pleasure to teach an art class to E and Kaela this last year. We've dabbled in many areas but none so satisfying as our slow intro into the world of drawing. My guide: Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes.

This has been my teaching bible and given me the confidence to have the ability to impart these foundational skills to these two girls that love to draw. After weeks of drawing duplication and mirror imaging warm-ups, and then abstract designs we were ready to attempt our first lesson. The gals did fabulous, and I felt so inspired to have imparted some grain of knowlege to them, however small.

The girls were instructed to listen silently to each step, complete, and then wait for the next instruction; i.e. draw a dot anywhere on your paper, make a small angled line in front of the eye, etc.

Here is what we got!

by Kaela

by E

Fire Hazard

E left her lampshade askew, and this is what we found a few hours later...very good reminder.

(whew)

Thank you to all of those that have shown your support in my near catastrophic day Monday. After watching those seedlings under the cloche for the last few days I do believe everything will be fine. I lost a few, yes, but enough survived to have a really nice and plentiful garden. Jen came to help sort out the starts yesterday and to ease my mind; I will be able to eat from my garden earlier than I had feared on Monday.  You know you're kindred spirits when your friend comes to walk along side you and treat your seedlings with such loving care it makes you cry. My zucchini's did make it, and I'm now busily planting them out in my covered raised bed!

Also in other bandwidow garden news I was given another wonderful gift 2 weekends ago! My dad came over once again and skirted 2 more huge firs to give way for more sun, it's made a huge difference already. Thanks dad, you're the best!

before

after

(sigh)

At first I thought Molly or a raccoon got a little rambunctious out by the garden, then I was leaning toward maybe some stupid kids on their way to school walked through my yard with a mischievous mission...but then it struck me:

high winds + a small greenhouse (made of materials not unlike that of a winged box kite) = one heart sickening moment.

My future veggie garden cartwheeled across my yard at a surprising speed. 3 weeks of careful watering and monitoring heat levels inside were turned on their head. Delicate seedlings were littered all over my front lawn. The raccoon and hoodlums were subconscious wishful thinking...it was all my fault. I had moved my little veggie hothouse this weekend to take advantage of the gorgeous sunbeams and left it out in the open. I salvaged what I could, but I'm not holding out much hope they'll survive their trauma. It's difficult to tell the difference between brussel sprout and broccoli seedlings in the maze of soil and shoots. The sunflowers and corn fared well, but my zucchini seeds were crazy expensive I didn't see any survivors. My hardy cucumbers and pumpkins had just poked through this week so they were still relatively packed in tight, but the spinach and romaine starts were like replanting wet toilet paper in soil.

To make myself feel better I planted all my sunflower survivors in the proper garden, got all my bush beans going and redid my brussel sprouts and broccoli this afternoon. I anchored my tiny classroom-style greenhouse to the fence, and fingers crossed I'll have better luck this time.

** Thank you for the grace you gave me family, and for letting me vent, Jennifer I was in a very bad place this morning and doing better now.

N's Favorite Song/Music Video

Electric Car by They Might Be Giants, Here Comes Science

Vacuum

N has really been into using scissors lately and is making a royal confetti mess at the art table. Every few days I haul out the vacuum and have him clean up. (click on picture to watch video)

I feel like there should be an overdub of Julie Andrews as Marry Poppins saying "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP the job's a game!"

First Sewing Lesson

I got E a sewing machine for Christmas last year and it kinda landed on the back burner, what with starting home schooling and all. It's so cute, and very functional for a first timer. Well, we've all done a bit of growing this summer and she was definitely ready to take on this challenge. I loved teaching her all about her machine, and the important steps in running it and she is an eager leaner. She paid very close attention and really respects this machine. Her first project was a pillow for a stuffed animal and she did great! I'm looking forward to teaching her a few more things over the next year, and D and I are really excited that this could be another creative outlet for her!

The Underbelly of the Chicken World

* I try and keep this blog as PG as possible, so I will not post photo's here of events that transpired, but a word of caution...there is descriptive carnage in following post.

I awoke with a start this morning.  There was some gruesome sounding squawking going on in the coop. There I found one of our 2-month-old-babies (Daisy, the Buff Orpington) with it's head in a hole (not unlike an ostrich) breathing deeply but otherwise not moving. My heart sank, I gently lifted her to my chest and quickly saw that the feathers and skin had been pulled back from her neck. She was horrifically mauled by her own kind. The older ones have been pushing the younger ones around some, but they must have cornered her and really went for it. Things were pretty heated a few weeks ago, but I was under the impression that they had worked things out. Thankfully I have my most knowledgeable chicken friend on speed dial and frantically woke her from her sleep shortly after 7am. She confirmed that I should separate her from all others, gently clean wound, medicate with Neosporen and let her rest in the quiet garage with the heat lamp.
Daisy has been eating, drinking, pooping, and chirping so I think she'll make it, but oh, I do not want to go through that again. I will take more precautions next round of chicks, and have already altered the coop so I can manage the two flocks easier. We were all pretty shaken, but it's a bit of a reality check; they are animals, they have instinct and no amount of anthropomorphising on our part changes them.

Monroe

E has croup, again.  We took it easy for the first half of the day, but I think we were all needing to get out of the house on this very wet and dark afternoon for a little field trip. Being outside in the moist air is really beneficial for E's tight air pipe.

I have mentioned the feed store in Monroe where we got Petunia, it's a great family run place that has the largest selection of chicks I ever dreamed of (ducklings, turkeys, and guinea fowl too).  E was in heaven.  She moved slowly from bin to bin exclaiming how cute they all were and picking up the little fluff balls to get her little fuzzy fix.  We were pretty much the only visitors so we stayed for a good 1/2 hour or so.

I was in the middle of a relatively lengthy conversation about waterers and feeders with the clerk when I felt a tug at my jacket and heard an obvious concern welling up in E's raspy little voice. "Mommy!  I need to show you something!"  This wasn't giddy excitement, she was worried.  I excused myself from the conversation and she led me to the bin of chicks that she had been fawning over and pointed to a quiet little peep, "That one is pasted up!"

Alright, poultry talk:  *Pasting up : "a condition in which their droppings cake up and block their vent opening, preventing them from passing any more droppings."  It is deadly if not dealt with promptly, and E knows this.  She is visually terrified.  Alright, this is tricky.  This store obviously deals with chicks a lot, they're a probably a dime a dozen, each one isn't too valuable (some of these are being sold for the table anyhow, very few I imagine will have a long drawn out life the way our backyard flock will, our pets).  God knows I do not want to tell someone how to run their business...conflict is not a strong suit for me.  Do I take care of the sick chick myself, do I lie and tell E that someone who works there will take care of it...do I get involved?  I chose the latter; to ask for help on behalf of the sick bird and my wide-eyed girl.  My daughter needed to see action.  I walked back to the young clerk I had been talking to and quietly asked if they cared whether or not we had spotted a pasted-up chick?  She affirmed that they did and asked E to show her which one it was.  She scooped it up, cleaned it's fuzzy little bum, and was able to relieve that little body of some serious built up droppings.  I'll admit it wasn't a pretty site, but when she set that chick back down and it quickly scurried away and into the flock, I felt a huge sense of relief, we had made the right choice.  Who knows, it may die tomorrow but my daughter was able to experience a sense of justice for one of God's smallest creatures and that kind of empathy is something you cannot really know without experience.  I was so proud of her, and I told her so.  We talked about how perhaps that very chick may be a pet that will make someone happy for a long time, and how maybe someone had helped one of our girls in their first week of life.  It was a very sweet car ride home, and I was so happy we had made the trip.

*Definition provided by the good people at My Pet Chicken.

Here Comes Trouble

Now that he's on the move we're back into keep-everything-off-the-floor-phase. I walked out of the living room for a minute, only to come back and find him in the dinning room with his mouth pressed up against the laminated map we use to keep track of where D is daily. We use an overhead pen to trace his route, and then wipe it off when he returns...N's just few steps ahead of us!

Didn't fully come off either...

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On another note, he has started entertaining us to no end with little games. Like this one; He'll put something on his head, let it fall, then go after it. It's cute until he tries it with his lunch and ends up with tofu cubes in his shirt pocket, green beans all over the floor, and banana slime in his hair...

*I love how he pulls down his shirt at the end, so funny!

*Also please excuse my stuffy-nosed-half-naked-one-sock-little -rugrat.

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Finally cut his first tooth this morning...hopefully that explains his completely terrible sleep patterns lately...maybe I'll try a preemptive strike of Motrin tonight just to be on the safe side.

Spring Break - Day 2

We spent the morning in; we made french toast (check out the funky egg that came in our carton) & played on the floor. The cold and rainy afternoon was mostly spent trying to stay optimistic while circling a particular neighborhood of an unfamiliar city in the car for the better part of an hour and fighting off images of my lovely sister-in-law and her husband sprawled out on a Hawaiian beach somewhere sipping Mai Tai's. I can be a bit stubborn and extremely determined when it comes to tasks that could be considered a bit gender bending, like today with driving & directions. I had the frick-frackin' address, I was going to find the flip-flappin' place, D would do it, I will do it! Only after I stopped in the exact spot where our building should have been (an empty parking lot) did I succumb to calling and verifying the address; what had been given to me was wrong, like across-town-completely-different-address-wrong! Our plans today had included E participating in a kid's gardening class that afternoon at 2:30, but had missed that by a long shot. We tried to make ourselves feel better with a leisurely salmon meal at my sister's house, playing outside and then a nice warm bath with cousins. All was not lost, quite.

Lunch Date

E's had a full year. Welcoming her brother into our family, starting school, her dad's been traveling more than ever, and now we've received news this week that her Great Grandpa's health is failing. That's a lot of really big stuff to deal with. She's great, don't get me wrong. I'm not overly worried, but a few recent behaviors have led me to keep an extra close eye on her; to search out opportunities to make meaningful contact & to validate those strong feelings and guide her in appropriate expression. I dropped the ball. She's so verbal and I forget she hasn't mastered (and who of us has) pairing emotions and appropriate communication of those feelings.


A few weeks ago she mentioned that one of her classmates had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, and before she came back to class her mom and her went out for lunch and she was able to skip (the dreaded) rest time. "I wanna do that sometime," she sighed. Well, today was the day. I got a sitter for Nils, picked her up and let her choose the destination. We were both beaming, it's been a long time. We ordered our food, chatted about her day, an then got down to it. I told her that it was OK to have these really strong feelings about her life, it was OK to be really mad, and OK to be really sad. I want her to tell me what she's feeling, but we needed to figure out a better way of expressing them. We came up with our plan, and I think we both feel relieved.



She drew this picture before I picked her up, and we took the photo after we were seated in the restaurant.

Hat

I have to go through N's clothes every few weeks or so. If I fall behind he will have inevitably grown out of something he hasn't even worn yet. The kid is huge. He rival's at least 2 different 2-year-old's I know...he's in some 24-month old stuff, but pretty squarely in 12/18-month set. Yes, he's still just 7 wonderful months old. It's kinda thrown a monkey wrench into my neurotic 'buy seasonal clothes ahead of time plan.' E was always right where she should have been; if the label read 6-12 she could wear it until she turned a year, sometimes even after. But not this guy, somethings only cycle through the wash a few times before they're thrown in the too-small-pile and handed over to my sister and her immanent little guy. The scale read 23 pounds when I took him to the doctor's this week ...he's a little lug.


Anyhow, I do believe he looks fabulous in this hat, and I can't imagine his head getting too big for it before summer comes and goes. So hopefully, we'll get a few more pic's in this one, but who knows. I don't hold too tightly onto anything these days.

Sweater Drive

Going on now through February 7th, in the Seattle Area.

"The sweater drive was created by Neighborhood host Fred Rogers in 1998 to commemorate the show’s 30th anniversary on PBS. Since then, PBS stations across the country have partnered yearly with community groups to collect over two million items of clothing.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It is easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
- Fred Rogers

There is a large need this year for children’s coats and sweaters. Clothing donations will be distributed by Wellspring Family Services via their Baby Boutique store on 1900 Rainier Ave. South. Collection bins are located in all nine PCC locations and at the KCTS 9 station lobby at 401 Mercer Street. KCTS 9 is open weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m."

* From here

Happy Happy...

No, we don't have a dog that jumped up on the counter to ruin this birthday cake I made this afternoon for my hubby and mom. The bunt pan just decided it didn't want to share.

Harrumph.

Di-Di-Di-Dive!

E learned how to dive in her lessons today!

(get into position)

(lean)

(push off)

(splash!)

("Did you see that Mama?")

Cotton Candy

Every time we visit the fair E asks for cotton candy. She's lured in by it's airy poofyness, it's serene colors, and it's hot sweet scent. She'd give sidelong glances toward little girls, their fingers dyed blue or pink and sigh. We've always told her no (who knows how clean they keep those machines, and I'm not forking over $6 for some spun sugar!).

But, while perusing through our local candy shop for Easter Morning treats I came across a small bucket of the stuff, and was excited at the thought of watching her hold it in her hot little hand; finally, the forbidden treat! The owner of the shop confirmed that the manufacturer really did a great job, and we wouldn't be disappointed...

She was very excited to find it on her scavenger hunt, and here's what transpired afterward:

Poor thing, not what she'd been hoping for I fear. She's trying so hard to like it and then just can't; calling for a napkin to spit it out. Who likes the feeling of shoving insulation in your mouth anyhow?

p.s. the blue flavor didn't fare any better.

Girl Talk

So, this morning I got my 30 week update from babycenter.com, they send a weekly e-mail with information on how the baby is developing, and other pregnancy related issues. I read bits of it to E occasionally, and she really enjoys seeing the sketch of the developing baby. This morning I enlarged the sketch and was pointing out a few points of interest: "Here's my uterus, it keeps our 'Buddy' safe (still haven't come up with a name), here's the placenta it helps make 'food' for him, here's the umbilical cord and that's how he gets his food," etc. Then I quickly summarized how he'll travel when he's ready to come out. The end. I really want to be careful about how much information she really needs, and don't want to make anything scary for her.


Well, nearly 12 hours later as she's sitting on the potty for the last time before going to bed she yells to me in the other room; "Mom?! Do I have a uterus?"

Deep breath.

"Yes," I answered as she rounded the corner. "But it's not ready to be a house for a baby yet." "Yeah," she replied, "Mines just medium sized." She then proceeded to think of many of the girls she knows and confidently listed them off as owners of a uterus; "Mabel has one, Hazel has one, even Inger (her 5-week-old cousin) has one." Then I patted my big belly and reminded her that when we visit our midwife the part she get's to help with is measuring my uterus.

These types of conversations come up without warning sometimes, and I didn't think we were ready to delve into them so soon, but I guess with a baby brother coming it makes sense and I'm happy to provide her with the appropriate words.

Tried & True Tulip Trick - A Penny For Your Thoughts

With the emerging blooms we are entering into that hopeful time; Spring! Blossoms begin to don my tabletops on a regular basis and earlier this morning I was reminded of a tried and true tulip trick as E and I perused the bouquets while at the market. We'll call it : Give a Penny (stealing from the title of the blog that exposed this fabulous trick to me 2 years back). Add a penny to the bottom of your vase and your flowers won't wilt over.