~a month of unschool~ sewing buttons on toad’s jacket

~you turned four! and wrote about party hats on your birthday~ you draw boats that have keels, sure sign of a shipwright’s son~ you drew the most amazing cedar tree that i plan to keep forever ~ you started lots of baby seedlings ~

~your food pallette has been increasing, including some requests (and thanks) for kale, and a new appreciation for spice; you love lentil curry with yogurt mixed in! other recently acquired tastes are mama’s dill pickles, mama’s salsa, and mama’s tomato jam~ you held down the fort during the tsunami warnings, and drew pictures of a giant orca hovering above the giant waves~ you painted watercolors in the bathtub ~ you remembered your book a lot of otters, when you found a fun cardboard box boat to sail in~ you went for a swim~

~you practiced yoga poses, your current favorite being cobra~ you investigated my nana’s old cuckoo clock that i pulled out of storage, and helped me get it hung up. then you drew a picture, cut it out, and bade me hang it up with “thumb-knacks.”~ you’ve been sewing buttons “onto toad’s jacket”~

~and reading up on gardening (oh wait, that might have been me)~and gardening… and more gardening…..~

~we did some weaving with some scraps of paper left over from mama’s business cards~ we decorated our garden seed storage box with seed catalog photos~ you helped make cookie-cutter biscuits to go with turkey-creamy-hippie-glop~ you strung some beads~

~we prepped sprouting potatoes for planting, and cooked ourselves some french fries~ while we had the oven on, we made apple crisp and carrot muffins as well~

~i saw you button your own jacket for the first time~ you painted letters on your stop sign; you painted the back orange and plan to give it the words “go slow” for using it to direct traffic~ you did amazing work learning to use the potty (not pictured! ;))~ you helped me run my booth at the indoor farmer’s market, and learned a lot from our neighbor about spinning wool; you’ve decided you want a sheep of your own~ you’re getting quite good at kneading bread, and rolling out pitas!~

~you helped me rearrange the living room~ you asked me to teach you to cut out hearts~ you had an amazing visit with friends, ate s’mores, discovered bugs, and got lots of fresh air~

~you came to work with mama and listened to frog and toad~ you woke up one morning with a need to bake chocolate cupcakes! something we’ve never really done, but mama improvised and boy were they good! maybe you knew we were due to celebrate another month of your life, sweet boy.~