Halloween Report

It's been a busy weekend. On Saturday, Dutch and I went with friends to The Pumpkin Patch again (we try to go every year) on Sauvie Island.* Dutch rode the Cow Train again. I asked her if she wanted to go alone or have me come with, and she told me she'd probably enjoy it less if I came along.

And this is a random tickle session from yesterday...

Today Cook and Dutch carved the pumpkins and she wore her costume all day. She went through many costume ideas in the last few weeks, but finally settled securely on Laura Ingalls. She was thrilled with it, and even more thrilled that many people actually correctly guessed her identity. (Several people guessed that she was Little Bo Peep. One guy said "You must be an Old-Fashioned Girl From the Old Days!" and she just nodded. There's no point in setting people right when there's more candy to be hunted down.)

Dutch is a cautious trick-or-treater, not surprisingly, tiptoeing anxiously up to the doors while other kids sprint confidently past her and bang on the door for the loot they feel they deserve. She also had the bejeezus scared out of her by some spooky decorations and costumed adults - once she jumped about a foot in the air, making me laugh so hard I could barely hang onto my candy-laden bag. (The bag started the evening carrying just my keys and a warm hat, but it quickly became clear that it was going to have to be candy-toting backup for Dutch's small, costume-appropriate basket - I felt like some sort of terrible Halloween pimp, standing on the sidewalk like Fagin while Dutch poured candy into my bulging bag and then trotted off to add to my haul).

I love Halloween. I love that everybody's out on the street, and you can go up to people's houses and knock on their doors, and then they OPEN the door and you get to see a little glimpse of their lives, and they give you things. That's just awesome. Happy Halloween!

*Why, yes, we got our pumpkins the day before Halloween. So?

linky

A friend sent me a link to an old (but still relevant ) article that I liked. Here it is, for you. Warning: it'll probably annoy you, if you don't have kids. Sorry.

I am still here.

I seem to be running out of bloggy steam. Are you all still there?

Things are okay. My job situation is making me very tired, and the rainy season has begun. We refuse to turn the heat on until November, so we're using lots of blankets and sweaters (and slippers, thanks to Skipper's reminders). Dutch is blazing through her not-exactly-challenging academic benchmarks* and is getting much better at reading. She brings home very strange things from school - yesterday it was a photocopied picture of a crab, with a speech balloon in which Dutch had written "I am very popular!" - she explained that it had been the suggestion of the kid sitting next to her, and she had written that down instead of her own idea, which was "I am going to pinch you!"

Skipper is a HUGE pain in the ass right now, and incredibly cute, too. She and Dutch are thick as thieves about 30% of the time, and at loggerheads the rest of the time.** Cook is settling comfortably into his incredibly tedious job, and we have made all sorts of medical appointments so as to maximize his terrific benefits.

Skipper had a vaccine reaction Friday night, and was up all night with a fever, and cranky the next day. (Cook and I were cranky zombies, too.) Stupid public health.

Dutch is about to turn six. SIX. Can you believe it? I can't. I can't believe she's going to be sixteen, and twenty-six, and so on. We also just got her school photo, which is awesomely smirky...

That's all I've got for you today. I'll try to muster up some energy to write something more interesting!

*Last week she brought home the single most depressing piece of paper I had seen in her short academic career. It had a dotted outline of a rectangle for tracing, and, underneath that, the dotted outline of the word "rectangle" for tracing. That made me feel kind of broken-hearted, somehow. I know it's not a big deal, but REALLY? No child left behind in the great rectangle-tracing race with China? Couldn't they at least have asked her to try to spell the word by herself? Or even just copied the word freehand? Who learns this way? Does ANYBODY learn things by tracing them?

** They really like similes and metaphors.

Also, books.

Several books I had read about recently came to me through our library's hold system. (I love our library so much. I bought a library t-shirt.) I liked them. I recommend them: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and Black Swan Green. Also, I recently enjoyed a memoir I sort of stumbled across: Half-Baked.

God, I love the library.

Things I like

It's been a stressful month (3 years) for me, but as I am trying to model positive thinking and optimism for one pessimistic-tending almost-six-year-old, I am trying to concentrate on the things in my life that feel happy.

1) The Baby Bee Bird. Everybody loves it. (You should hear Cook do the animal noises.) When Skipper sees it, she cries "Babby Beebee!" and flings any other books on the floor. And look! It's been popular in our household for years!

2) Having Skipper's well-child checkup (this morning) behind us. Sheesh. You'd have thought the medical staff were trying to kill her, based on her response - she sobbed and writhed in terror from start to finish. As we were walking out, the nurse tried to hand her a sticker, and she shrieked and backed away, wailing. (And Skipper fell asleep on the bus home, totally exhausted from her Horrifying Ordeal.) But Skipper is healthy and hitting all her benchmarks on time (and she doesn't have a freakishly large head, after all, in spite of my secret fears), so we don't have to do THAT again for another six months.

3) The It Gets Better Project. I think that most of us, gay or straight, popular or not, would have liked to know at some point during adolescence that we were not alone, and it would get better.

4) My friend N getting her PhD after 10 years, 2 children, and one cross-country move. Congratulations!

5) Skipper's slipper obsession. She insists that all of us wear our slippers at all times while at home. (We are a no-shoes household, but it's not quite cold enough for slippers to be necessary.) Also, a cameo by Teeny Tiny Baby. (Hey, Grandma B, we didn't MEAN to kidnap TTB, but apparently he stowed away in our luggage... we'll bring him back for visits, but I think he wants to stay with us for a while.)

Morning lull

I'm sitting in my living room, in my pajamas, ALONE. Skipper and Cook got up at 5:30 (after Skipper and I discussed for about half an hour whether or not she might want to go back to sleep). I got up at 6:15. Cook left for work at 6:40* and Skipper fell asleep at 7:15. Dutch hasn't woken up at all. This is not normal (except for the Cook leaving at 6:40 part), and I feel a bit lost. We have to leave in 40 minutes, but I am reluctant to wake Dutch until I absolutely have to...

*In our new schedule, Cook works from 7-3:30 (and bikes to work in the dark). I thought it would be sucky to get all three of the rest of us ready and out the door by myself, but it's working really well. Most of the time. Dutch and I do yell at each other quite a bit, some days.

rele btufl

So...Dutch's school. It's school. It's public school. Dutch has 20 minutes for lunch (and that includes lining up, walking to the cafeteria, eating, lining up, and walking back to the classroom). She does a lot of worksheets. A LOT. Things seems to be looking up now that there are 20 kids in the classroom instead of 30 (that's a lot of kindergarteners), but they're not going to look up that much.

Dutch's complaints about her teacher so far are 1) she's the only kindergarten teacher who does not give candy to the kids as a reward for good behavior and 2) she won't assign any homework until after winter break. I told Dutch that I have no sympathy whatsoever on these complaints.

I don't know. It's not bad, and there are many, many schools that are much worse. But it's not so great, either. I'd kind of prefer that they just let the kids run around all day if they're not really going to teach them anything - currently poor Dutch isn't getting any playtime or really learning much. It's the worst of both worlds. I'd homeschool/unschool her, except that I'd go absolutely nuts, and it would probably permanently destroy our relationship. Last week I told her that she HAD to stop talking to me for a few minutes, that she wasn't doing anything wrong, but I just COULD NOT TAKE IT ANY MORE. She said cheerfully "Well, mom, I'm just a talkaroony!"

She's also a serious nerd in training.* Or maybe a popular girl in training, or a bully.** I'm not sure. She gets tapped to walk other kids to the office or the bathroom, and do other Teacher's-Pet-type jobs. She begs me to give her homework assignments. She complains about how poorly-behaved and inattentive the other kids are.

It's pretty amazing watching her learn, though, school or no school. Learning to read and write is really hard, and kind of like magic. Today I finally gave her a homework assignment to write a report on the ballet show she had attended with Cook, and this is what she wrote: "the shoe was cool I rele liket sleping beude wen she fell a slep" and "sleping beude was btufl"

*Dutch lives to be called on, by the way. When I say "How was your day?" she reports how many times she got called on that day - fewer than three means a bad day, and more than five means a good day.

**The other day she reported that she was very tired, because it's hard work making up all the games for the whole class at recess, and organizing everything.

Ego booster

I got a haircut. I like it, though I haven't yet seen how it performs in real life. (The woman who cut my hair IRONED it. I don't even own a hair dryer, and my idea of serious grooming is to brush my hair before leaving the house.) When I got home, Dutch said "Mom, I can tell you cut your hair! You look like a mop."

Thanks.

Forget the list of nouns- we're on to gerunds.

Apparently, kids develop in a non-linear way - a burst of getting taller, a period of brain growth, a period of just kind of resting up. I think that Skipper may be having some sort of crazy storm in whatever part of her brain is responsible for language - every day she's adding more words to her vocabulary, using words spontaneously that we didn't even know she knew. Today when I got home, Cook emerged from the kitchen with Skipper on his hip, and she said to me gleefully "Mama! Daddy! Cooking!" and before the evening was over, she was pointing out the window and saying "walking!" and pointing at Dutch (scuttling around on the floor) and saying "crawling!"

Brains. They're CAH-RAZY!

Skipper also says:

coffee
cereal
cracker
cheese
soup
sweep
shower
wash
bath
other
sticker
home
out
bicycle
bucket
stepstool
bed
crib
book
no
NO

where was I?

Quitting My Job: I may prolong my job a little - there's been a bunch of sudden upheaval at work and they're more or less bribing me to stay by offering me a big raise. I haven't agreed to anything yet, though.

Bike Commuting: Eh. I've only commuted (one-way) five times - it's a looooong way.* I did sell my old bike and get a new one, which is great. I think I'll end up biking for errands, mostly, until I get an awesome new job that's less than 5 miles from home. Today I rode over to the grocery store (less than a mile) with one of Cook's panniers, and it was lovely. It's 70 degrees today, and sunny, and just a perfect fall day to be riding down a bike boulevard with a load of groceries, the yellow leaves spinning down all along the street ahead of me.

*And I'm lazy.

Skipper says:

mat

hot

cook

ouch

drop

fall

sleep

blanket

mat

baby

cat

dog

crow

truck

airplane

shirt

pants

socks

shoes

stuck

top

bottle

cup

spoon

milk

water

puddle

beach

step

stick

draw

pen

open

help

up

kiss

hug

...

Oh, right.

Yes. Those drawers are 2"x 2" x 3". Inches, feet - whatever.

Heeeeeelium!

I'm pretty sure that it was one of my awesome cousins who introduced me to Strindberg and Helium. Here is Skipper last night, in our spectacularly messy apartment, finishing up her dinner (squash/tofu/spinach/coconut milk soup) and enjoying a showing.

Shameless Begging

We're not going anywhere this Christmas. Cook has no vacation for the first six months of his job, and we're ready to have a leisurely holiday at home.

Since we're not coming to your house, you're probably thinking "Oh, no! How will I celebrate the holiday with those adorable children if I can't be with them!"

Don't worry! I have your answer. I just bought two reusable advent calendars for The Adorable Children.* While I am more than happy to locate and create very small things to put into the little drawers (I love very small things), I'm angling for something that'll be more fun and, you know, meaningful. I would love for the girls to get messages from friends and family as part of their holiday season, rather than spend a month just anticipating a giant heap of LOOT.

So I am inviting you, over the next two months, to consider sending us a very small thing that will fit into one of these drawers (2x2x3' maximum size). I'm thinking a note (Dutch can READ, after all, and loves loves loves to be written to) or a drawing of a robot, or a coin from the country you just visited (you're so cool!) or the koala stickers some wildlife nonprofit sent you, or whatever.** If you want to send me a special note for Dutch*** by email, I'll even print it out and put it in a drawer for you. In exchange, I promise you a handwritten thank-you note. It may take until March (or next October) to get it sent, but it'll happen.

Happy intro to the very long holiday season!

*I've been coveting wooden advent calendars for the girls since we visited one of my most distant but beloved friends two years ago and saw hers. The ones I got for Dutch and Skipper are nowhere near as awesome, but they'll do.

**Or nothing - I'll be making this ask every fall for years, after all, so you have time.

***This year it's mostly just for Dutch. Skipper really only likes funny hats and permanent markers right now, and they don't fit in tiny drawers, so she'll probably get sticks and gum wrappers and bits of toast in her calendar, and be delighted.

Video catchup

It's been a while. Watching some of these older videos, Dutch and I realized that we can tell what Skipper was trying to say, even when we weren't able to figure it out at the time, because we have another month of Skipper-experience under our belts. Poor kid. We're always trying to catch up with her.

End of August:

First Day of School:

Some time in September:

Dutch has launched a cafe in her room. The prices of the menu items are a little erratic.

A houseguest, an electronic hamster, and the way Dutch feels about her sister about 25% of the time.

Earlier this evening:

Two vacation photos, courtesy of Uncle Kayak

Note all the relaxed feet in the second picture.

no more traveling for a little while

We're home! We went on a beach vacation (for two days) and it was lovely. I have no photos or movies, so you'll have to take my word for it that both girls had a wonderful time. Skipper learned how to take all her clothes off and ran around the beach mostly naked, screaming "Wadder! Wadder! More! Wadder! Beach! Beach! Wadder! Beach!" and attempting to sprint straight into the ocean. Once I foolishly let go of her hand so I could help Dutch with something, realized .45 seconds later that I'd made a big mistake, and had to plunge into the water to retrieve her. It was a good weekend, and nobody drowned.