he’s a certified car vacuuming technician from way back. (apart from normal you’re-part-of-the-household chores that are not money-earners, there are above-and-beyond chores that do provide that opportunity. running the shop-vac around the car is one of them, and motivated by a new deck of pokemon cards, the lad did a fabulously thorough job on my car, which was long overdue for a cleaning.
this is the mandala he copied from his original drawing onto his green prayer flag for our wedding! the “seed” in the middle is a letter q.
we are attending a weapons class at our dojo on wednesday nights for a few months, and one night a special guest showed us some bo staff moves. they are similar to what we have been learning with eskrima sticks, and just as fun.
making the most of summer low tides! it was a crabby sort of day.
we pondered these bones for a while, so quinn could decide what animal he thought they came from, and give evidence to support his conclusion. i love his gestures here as he works through his reasoning.
this hearkens back to the days of toddler eating, with many items each in separate receptacles, except that one bowl is all mixed up salad! i’m noticing a definite increase in quinn’s openness and initiative on trying new foods, such as a doubling of his approved vegetable list (carrots- both orange and purple, and broccoli, are still favorites. a rekindled love for cauliflower and romanesco (another brassica cousin) and a brand new love for green beans, all of the above eaten raw, dipped in ranch, has developed this summer. he has also asked me for tastes of whatever i’m eating from time to time, even things like biscuits and gravy (he likes biscuits with jam but has never been into the gravy) and huevos rancheros, two of my standard breakfasts for the adults in the household.
post-haircut trim photos with a particularly photogenic boy beside one of our redwoods.
quinn’s fourth of july camping was abbreviated to just one overnight this year, but we made the most of our short time.
i like watching quinn’s way with the younger kids. he has a gentleness and patience for helping koala, and is quite obviously enjoying himself and laughing throughout such play times, not seeming to be in any hurry to go off and play with anyone closer to his age. i enjoy seeing him stay in the present moment with a toddler.
he does spend plenty of time playing with his cohort, especially his buddy panda. he got his yearly immersion in the creek, splashing up to the “rapids” with the big kids and walter, the dog.
a lot of time was spent with all of the kids playing games together, including quite a few rounds of what time is it mr. fox and mother may i. we also had a good time setting off fireworks, and there was a fair amount of play in the play kitchen, including a restaurant that featured punch cards (leaves) which, when punched 3 times, got the card holder their next meal free.
then quinn was at his dad’s for two weeks, and when he returned, it was almost time for the wedding, and all of our family to start arriving! quinn also began his two-week theatre camp session during this time period, though none of that is pictured in this post. i think theatre camp provided the lad a bit of “normal” and routine in the midst of quite a bit of departure-from-routine at home. it was wonderful departure, and he was happy to be a part of it, but he also seemed pleased to be doing his second year of theatre camp, feeling like more of a veteran camper. i was impressed that he had specific counselors he requested when he was given the option, and loved who he picked. he ended up in a great group, and in next month’s post, there will be photo documentation of the performance!
during his two weeks away, a friend had helped me get our new trampoline put together, so before i even got the car turned around in the driveway, he had jumped out and run down to try it out. he also seemed approving of the play kitchen i had brought about with paint and an old computer desk. the “rainbow restaurant” made use of quinn’s old play kitchen utensils and pans.
first, the pancakes arrived! i admire how little time it takes for them to run off and play, picking up where they left off many months ago. i would put a caption on this photo of their picnic on the trampoline reading, “why eat real dinner when you can eat pretend dinner on the trampoline?” because it truly was hard to captivate their interest in visiting the parental area for feedings or other items on the personal care agenda.
next, we added mario and luigi into the mix! the pancakes had never met quinn’s cousins, but they still wasted no time getting down to the business of playing. it was a wonderfully compatible group, with great imaginations and creativity in abundance. as the oldest, and the mutual acquaintance of all children present, quinn naturally fell into somewhat of a leadership role. i know there was a ton of minecraft-centered pretend play, quite a bit of lego pirate ship activity and whenever a kid needed a bit of down time, piles of rainbow artwork were generated, or a small person could be found curled up with a book. after all the festivities were over, quinn told me how they had divided up the four lego pirate ships so that everyone had a ship to use (quinn and mario shared one) and gave me a little tour. they each provisioned their ships in their own way. b pancake’s had lots of supplies (food, hats, books, spare beards) and was decorated with flowers. some of the ships had more crew, while others were focused more on weapons and gear. it was fun to watch them get lost in their imaginations!
they never seemed to mind the lack of space in quinn’s room, they just made it work. and played and played and played! it helped that there was plenty of space outside for running around. bubbles were also a popular activity throughout the week.
five children i love very much!
the child clan adopted 6 more children when wedding boss hosted our whole family for a get together picnic two days before the wedding. it was a lovely summer evening for our east coast and west coast and oklahoma families to meet!
this is what rehearsal dinner looked like at the kid’s table.
and this is what my son looked like while i was having my hair crown-braided and putting on my wedding dress! when i finally remembered i should see to his hygiene and clothing situation, rich’s son had already prompted quinn and taken care of everything, right down to the ponytail and glasses. it was not the first, nor the last time that day that i got a little choked up.
trying to show the wedding from the perspective of quinn is made possible only because of my wonderful photographer friend, because i was quite focused on marrying the guy up front, and could not have even told you where quinn (or anyone) was sitting, or with whom. the beauty of getting married in our own backyard, was that he felt comfortable. he sat with his cousins and aunt and followed along with the ceremony. the only feedback i got from him was that he never imagined it would be our yoga teacher “telling the story!” and that was much to his delight. he likes her a lot, and i like it a lot that he thought of it all as a story, something i know he loves!
and then, because of the getting married at home factor again, he could disappear to his room for some quiet time as needed. once again, i only knew this because of the photos!
this will be one of my favorite photos of all time, forever.
these are among my favorites as well. quinn had to be patient and smile for a bunch of photos, but then it was back to play time.
my boy has become very self-sufficient, and got all of his needs met, almost entirely without me that day. he was sailing in a sea of interchangeable parental units and grandparents and could raft up to any one of them at any moment. he also had a great group of kids to absorb himself into.
the next morning, we all ate pancakes under the big reception tent. i can’t remember who told me that there was a lego wedding reenactment at one point, and the kids seemed to gravitate towards special wedding areas like the loveseat rich and i sat on for the reception, and the “wedding trees” and ceremony area.
the kids played all day… straw bales were now fair game for climbing and walking on, and the “wedding trees” became known as “the portal to the overworld” in the ongoing minecraft game.
popcorn and quesadillas with mario. i noticed that quinn spent special one-on-one time with each of the kids.
he also spent time with my best woman, and noted he does not have far to go before he will exceed her height!
quinn set up his own tent beside mario and luigi’s on the last night of their stay with us so he could join in the camp out. since rich and i were driving my best woman to the airport that evening, quinn got to spend quality time with just their family, and ended up having a great time going bowling!
i felt theatre camp was again a welcome distraction and anchor to routine for quinn, so that the many goodbyes after such a lovely week of visitors weighed less heavily on him.
this was not an average month of lifelong learning, but a month of lifelong learning it certainly was! it was a month in which many lessons were undoubtedly learned in the department of relationships with family and friends, and some that mama may not have had any way of documenting or even knowing about. summer learning provides a great opportunity to step away from the academics and focus on the things that matter most in our lives; loving our people and savoring our time together with them.
rainbow veggies again! i never get tired of lining up beautiful produce in rainbow order.
red: chioggia beets just before i juiced them yesterday.
orange: dragon from a poke-walk with quinn. he traded me the phone for my camera so he could take some photos of it, too!
orange: i took a few hours off last wednesday morning so quinn and i could take advantage of $5 wednesdays at the aquarium. we actually did look at the animals, not only the abundant pokemon available for capture.
yellow: pikachu lives in a yellow submarine!
yellow: what to do with an organic yellow watermelon that was dropped on the ground: put the pieces in the blender and freeze them, then put the ice cubes back in the blender with liquid of your choice to make a fun blended drink. we liked it with ginger vodka, and i plan to try some with juice when i get a chance to make one for quinn.
yellow: tattered traveler
green: at the otter feeding.
green: made some more fun summer memories with friends having a random thursday evening backyard campout.
blue: beautiful objects hanging around at the clay studio where i have now thrown and trimmed my first bowl… it should be fired by now, i’m very excited to glaze it!
blue: i think i like this glaze!
blue: sometimes i go for walks to incubate quinn’s poke eggs while i’m at work. it makes me feel like i walk on water as a mama (actually i was only walking in the mud flats on a very low tide, but thought the image was kind of funny.)
blue: between karate camp and karate classes last week, we had some fun poke bonding moments. squirtle being held by a cute ninja here.
blue: seal window!
purple: lots of dollars, we are so wealthy to live where we do!
i’m going to report on a 6 week time period of learning because my regular month ended right in between the first and second week of theatre camp, and it seemed more reasonable to report on the whole camp situation in one post. who knows when i will get around to posting about the next month, anyway! it’s a busy summer of learning….
quinn’s belt test! i was watching ben harper that night (doh! when new year’s resolutions get in the way of being there for your kiddo… alas, we had bought the tickets before the belt test was even on our scheduling radar…) it was a dad week, so thankfully he took a video of the test for me. and you!
congratulations to our blue belt!
this season of learning has been dominated by various camping experiences. quinn spent a week with his dad at crane prairie reservoir, their summer fishing spot. quinn showed off his boat, frog, to me, as i was dropping him off with his dad to head out camping. quinn got to help a lot with the fixing up of his boat, including climbing under the bow to connect the wiring for the running lights (which he is hugging here), as well as wiring up the turn signals on the trailer.
as soon as he was back from camping with dad, we headed off on another camping trip…. our annual family fourth of july tradition.
quinn and the big kids… pokemon, capture the flag, phase 10, and creek hikes!
guarding his team’s flag
quinn and the little kids… helping with balancing on the tight rope, holding hands for creek crossings, cuddling babies, organizing “what time is it mr. fox” games, pushing youngers on the swing, and blowing bubbles for little girls to chase.
also catching the raft full of littles before it floated downstream, and hauling back up again to let it go floating gently down the stream once more.
writing on pavement with sparklers!
reading comics, building kabobs, eating crab legs, touching steelhead eyeballs!
thinking deep thoughts…
taking time for himself…
summer has been so refreshing after a full year of public school. i have been stewing on a post for a while (since before the camping trip) concerning schooling and research i have been doing about kids like quinn and how to make their learning experience as positive as possible. when i do get it written, it will explain why summer unstructured learning time is so important to a kid like this one. hurray for camping fun and learning!
back at home, we resumed karate and quinn and i practiced side by side during one open mat class. as we were stretching, he went into a perfect pigeon pose, my very favorite yoga pose, one that happens to be a rather extreme hip stretch. i asked him how he learned it, and he told me it was something he came up with on his own in order to stretch “right here” (pointing to his outer hip – loving his awareness!).
i also witnessed a recent instance of quinn getting into crow pose (a yoga arm balance) in his room… in an august post from 3 years ago i referred to quinn doing spontaneous yoga poses, in this seasonally appropriate quote about unstructured summer learning: “…repressing my urge to plan and schedule quinn’s long list of unfinished projects into completion in the next 2 weeks, and instead letting him spend entire half hours in plow position on the bed, humming star wars theme music and being elsewhere in his mind, no doubt coming up with a dozen more projects to begin.”
albeit much too brief, we got to enjoy some ruby time!
i managed to complete one home improvement project in our family bathroom, which i’ve decided is going to have a star wars theme… project number 1 in the star wars bathroom was to make quinn a mason jar droid organizer to help him remember his three jobs upon entering the bathroom: brush teeth, wash face, wash hands. bb8 is now waiting to hand him his toothbrush and toothpaste, a washcloth is peeking out of r2d2 to remind him to wash his face, and r3d5 dispenses soap for hand washing. so far it has been helping this absent-minded professor get his “bathroom chores” done with marginally fewer reminders from mama in between each and every step. droids are designed to make life easier for humans, right?
pokemon go
i’m sure it comes as no surprise that quinn is interested in the game pokemon go. observing the incredibly opinionated masses on the subject of this game has been amusing, and we feel like we’re approaching it in a balanced way, letting it be a game, using it as a way to connect not disconnect from each other, making sure our priorities are straight, and keeping our awareness. quinn is of course excited about it and had already heard about it when he came back from his dad’s. i looked into the pros and cons, discussed them with quinn, and then we spent several days trying to get it to work on my phone (his screen name is quulltrex.)
while waiting for the game to start working, quinn spent his afternoons mapping out our entire backyard on graph paper because, as an “ace gamer,” as he called himself, he came up with a plan for us to be able to play the game here in our yard together while the technical difficulties were getting sorted out. i’m sure you’ve heard how the game is getting people outside and walking; it got us doing that without even being able to play the game. (while we were sitting in the grass mapping things out, we found 3 grapevines trying to grow in the lawn!)
once we were able to play the actual game, his first pokemon was caught in the dining room: a bulbasaur. he was pretty stoked.
he assured me we will still do our paper version as well, which hasn’t been played yet, because we’re still measuring the yard and making the map! but when it’s done, we’ll take turns hiding pokemon on the map for the other one to find. “mama, will you please make togepi one of the pokemons that i get to find?” personally, i can’t wait to find suicune, who “embodies the compassion of a pure spring of water. it runs across the land with gracefulness. this pokémon has the power to purify dirty water.” suicune is also purple and green, perfect for me. neither of these favorites are found in the app so far, but we are not limited by such constraints, we have an ace gamer under our roof. we’ve been using graph paper, tape measures, and consulting the survey map of our property ever since this fine learning opportunity presented itself.
in the meantime, there are lots of pokemon to catch by the performing arts center, as opposed to the pokedesert surrounding our extremely rural house, so we had a great way to spend the hour between theatre camp and karate classes while we hung out in town! speaking of…
theatre camp!
this was quinn’s first year of theatre camp, and he had a blast.
when i was picking him up from his second day of camp, i was intercepted and told, “i think maybe there might have been a little bit of a meltdown.” cue that sinking feeling… i went inside the auditorium where they were finishing up their day, and the leaders were reminding them to take home their dirty socks, etc. i got to the front after they were all dismissed and quinn was still standing there (most kids had walked out the side door to go get their stuff) and he was talking the ears off two of the high school-aged counselors. he was in a great mood. one of the leaders saw me and came up to talk to me.
the three of us walked into the green room (quinn was proud of showing me he knows his way around behind the scenes) but he tried to tell me, “there isn’t anything we need to talk about, so let’s go.” the leader talked to him directly at first, which i loved, and reminded me of how i talk to kids. she asked him, “how did your day go?” and he said good. she asked, “how was it doing the machines game?” and he said it was fun. his answers were short, and it seemed unlikely that he was going to open up right then and tell me what was up. he seemed like he couldn’t relate to the “feeling frustrated” or “felt unheard” that the leader suggested maybe she wondered if he had felt. the leader turned to me saying basically she walked in on the game and did not see anything out of the ordinary going on. she gave me enough information to know something happened, it wasn’t terribly serious, and i concluded that if i wanted to know more, i would have to piece it together. someone labeled whatever happened as “meltdown” while quinn was telling me absolutely nothing, and i was hearing only a piece of a second-hand account as it was.
i appreciated the leader’s approach. it gave me a chance to mention that i was guessing that if there had been any frustration during a day at theatre camp, it could be amplified by someone not eating his lunch or having any water to drink, and quinn confirmed that he had not, he had eaten 5 blueberries all day out of his lunch and did not touch his water bottle… and i was grateful to pass this bit of “forgets to pay attention to self care” knowledge on to someone who might mention nutrition and hydration in his range of hearing over the course of the next few days.
quinn was ready to go, “ok, mama, we’re done talking,” but i requested 2 minutes to check in with the leader, and asked him to wait in the lobby for me. he said no. i offered him my phone’s timer to hold me to the 2 minutes and he wanted to negotiate to one minute. i stayed firm at 2 minutes but said that when the timer got to 30 seconds left, he could start walking back from the lobby to the green room, and he did that. in that brief check-in she asked if there was anything she should know? inside i was kind of at a loss and also kind of freaked out, but i answered that there is nothing that really qualifies as “need to know” but said that he really experiences things intensely, so if he’s frustrated, it can feel like the end of the world to him, while if he’s happy, he can be overjoyed… that most of the time he goes with the flow, but that when he feels strongly he feels s t r o n g l y. i told her that he doesn’t have any labels that fit, but that if he experiences a series of frustrations, and the first few are not resolved, that third one might lead to him having to sit it out for a period of time, because it can really push him over the edge to meltdown. i said he is brilliant, but forgets to drink water, and gets caught up in the amazing fun he’s having. i was getting lots of nods and smiles and could tell she got it. at the same time she was saying she really didn’t see anything that was a big deal, she had walked in after it had already blown over… so maybe he reacted to something, but he didn’t seem to take long to get himself back together, so that was encouraging.
that night as i was processing, i think i hit on something key to unlocking the mystery of why quinn can get stuck like that. he’s really into theatre camp and excited about it. the first night at dinner i asked if he thought he’d continue to do theatre camp next year. he said he would be doing it “all the years.” he was explaining to me how one day he will be one of the older high school kids at which point he can be a counselor, and then when he grows up he can be one of the leaders…. he only talks about his most beloved other activities that way, like karate, where it’s not just about having fun now, it’s also about one day earning a black belt and having his own dojo someday. so i know that means he is going to be intense about this activity. if he’s bummed, he’ll be super bummed. it’s not like school where most of it doesn’t matter to him, so most of it… isn’t intense.
aha.
i did not get any further information from quinn while we chatted, though he was quite willing to share about his day with me over dinner again. his favorite thing of that second day was a toss-up between machines and the small group play they put on. he decided the play was his favorite. he told me all the kids and all the counselors who were in it. he said they all came up with the play together, and this was how it went.
it took place in the temple of pans and there were two people and a talking dog. the two people were recruiting other people to join the “unit”. the unit was a group of 3 people who were already attached to one another, whose line was, “we are all one. come and join us.” in unison. quinn was the middle person in the unit, with “ginny weasley” to his right and another girl to his left (i had asked him about “ginny” on day one and he obviously thought my nickname fit, and bothered to learn her actual name the second day as well). the rest of the people would come in one or two at a time, get asked to join, and then they’d join. “joining” looked like this: the people and the unit would exit off stage, stomp their feet and make screaming noises, and then come back on stage as a whole chain with the new people added on to it, all saying the line in monotone unison. after they had recruited and attached everyone to the unit, the talking dog (quinn’s new friend cameron whose name he also established on the second day) told the two temple people that he believed, “we are all beautiful as individuals, we don’t need to all be a blob.” and then the dog broke apart the chain and turned the unit members back into individuals. then the two temple people fled and the rest of everyone celebrated their individuality. (mmm-hmmm, yup, that’s how great theatre camp is. incredibly affirming to the artsy, long-haired, blue-haired, quirky, creative individuals who attend this thing!)
for the machine game, his group was a blender, and i only learned after he told me all about it that choosing a blender as their machine had been quinn’s idea. i’m now wondering if it wasn’t that he felt unheard about that idea, but maybe he then had ideas within the blender idea that weren’t followed and he might have felt like they should have let him be in charge of it… anyway, he didn’t indicate any frustration or anything in the telling. he told me all the people in that group and explained the blender. cameron was the button, and another kid was the person to push the button, and then william was the blade and he spun around like this, and three big kids (the counselors) were joined in a circle to be the container, and then there were kids to be the fruit in the blender. i asked, “and were you fruit?” he smiled, “yeah, how did you know?” hehe because i’m mama. i asked if they had to be on top of william the blade, and he said no, they crawled on the floor in a circle around william and he spun his arms around above them. i told him i could picture it because he described it so well, and i thought that it sounded cool, and by the way, whose idea was it? which is when he told me it had all been his idea.
the bus stop is another classic game they played that day, where two people sit on a bench chatting and being in character, waiting for whatever bus to wherever they’re going, and then one gets up and leaves (gets on the bus) then another person comes and sits down in their empty spot, and it can go on indefinitely with lots of improvisation… i asked quinn how that went for him and he said he was just checking out how that game worked. he did not jump in but just watched, and seemed like he loved just doing that.
i was able to continue chatting with all of the leaders and the counselor who actually witnessed the “moment” the next morning. i love the theatre peeps. i just went into the green room, and the counselors and leaders were all in there so i sat down with them and i just let them know that i had gotten zero info from quinn, so i knew the truth could be found somewhere between the words “meltdown” and “everything seemed fine” but that i still really didn’t know what had happened. the counselor who was in quinn’s blender group happened to be sitting there too, and so i asked if he wanted to tell me what happened. he had been giving quinn some feedback on something, and he could see quinn kind of shut down, and tense up, ball up his fists at his sides, as though fuming but not speaking. the counselor asked him if he was okay and finally quinn responded, “i’m just trying to figure out if i should punch you….” or muttering something along those lines. i thanked him for sharing what had happened, and reiterated that i think quinn is super intense and explained to them all (which was awesome to get to do) that this is up there with karate for him, his intense LOVE for it and how he wants to do it forever and grow up to be a leader, and how i think because of that, and because he is a perfectionist, he might take it hard when he gets feedback. i followed that up with that i WANT him to learn how to handle feedback, i’m glad he is getting to practice having that. one leader commented that it’s great that he processed with words, instead of doing any hitting, and leader number three was saying how intense theatre camp is for everyone, and they all nodded like yup, definitely some tears will be shed, he’s definitely not the only one whose emotions will run high. they were happy to hear that quinn was all about it, and that he felt yesterday went “great!” that he didn’t want to share details wasn’t a big concern for them, they want him to have positive associations with the whole experience and i confirmed that he definitely does.
best of all, the people in the room this morning all know my face now, they know whose mama i am, and they know a little slice of his story and quirks, which is all for the better for his experience. they all expressed that “he’s such a great kid” and shared that he seems thoroughly engaged and having lots of fun. they all know what strategies i talked to him about, mainly that we talked about specific go-to people he could count on to help, and i got to share that he really looks up to them all.
i handed quinn off to his dad for week two of theatre camp, and saw him and heard from him very little all week (except for a text on thursday morning asking what pokemon i had hatched!) but then thursday evening, rich and i got to attend the theatre camp performance, both the 2 and 6 o’clock showings, and got to see what an amazing time he had been having. each group (quinn was in group 5, he told me, though their skit went first in the line-up of the 6 groups), performed skits aligned with the theme of “local legends.” quinn’s group performed “the phantom of the p.a.c.” complete with ghost busters theme music and whole-group running up and down the aisles of the theatre, chasing the ghost.
quinn’s role in the skit went by the name ace, and he informed me “i’m acting the role of an actor who is acting the role of a knight!” he was quite excited about the nested layers of richness in his theatre experience, and sharing with me the play-within-a-play effect they got to perform. i can’t help thinking of one of the great examples of this type of effect in film, a wonderful film whose story-within-a-story is supposedly based on a work of fiction by a non-existent author named s. morgenstern.
it was a thoroughly entertaining skit entitled, “the phantom of the performing arts center” in which the actors are all being bullied by their mean director, who accuses them of causing lots of problems (which are actually being caused by the ghost). quinn’s character, ace, was a “secretive guy” as quinn put it, and had a bodyguard, bobby gar, into whose ear he would whisper whatever he wanted to say to the group. bobby gar would repeat his statements out loud. this happened several times as the group tried to problem solve the haunted p.a.c. situation, including hiring some ghost catching specialists (cue the ghostbusters theme music) and running up and down the aisles of the p.a.c. as a group, until at one point bobby gar says, “hold on! ace has something to say!”
everyone freezes, and ace whispers into bobby’s ear.
bobby announces, “ace says, ‘ahhhhhhh!'” and the running and screaming recommence. (quinn told me about this scene before the play, and was thoroughly tickled to be included in what he considered the funniest part of the skit.)
later on, the director of the play ace is supposed to be rehearsing for is off stage, and the group is considering what to do about the play now that they’ve befriended the ghost, and ace whispers in bobby’s ear. “ace has an idea!”
ace steps forward, and says his line out loud for all to hear: “oh, buttercup cumbersnitch!”
the director storms in, fuming, “what have i told you about using my full name?!” and then promptly sees the ghost and faints. the actors, ghost, and ghost-catchers all celebrate. the end.
beaver bones “discovery”
quinn walked down to the bayou with rich and i one night, and “discovered” for himself (though we had pointed it out to almost no reaction on earlier walks) the beaver skeleton lying on the ground. he decided right then and there that he needed to collect the bones, research how to articulate the skeleton, and start practicing how to do that on this perfectly wonderful specimen. he and i walked up to get a cardboard box and he gathered the bones into it. more to come on this wonderful self-imposed biology lesson in coming months, i’m sure. i have replaced the faulty keyboard on my old laptop, and it is now quinn’s laptop from which he can google all the ways to articulate a beaver skeleton.
kid’s camp
we had a wonderful kid’s camp weekend at camp boss’s house. kickball, duck duck goose, zoom boom bocce
red rover
put a baby on this boy if you want to distract him from a bad mood.
pokemon go was played both in app format, and in the “redneck” format, as camp boss calls it, of walking around a field catching pretend pokemons by throwing apple pokeballs at them.
we got to spend a few wonderful moments reconnecting with friends passing through town. quinn and his pisces brother were fun to watch, as they simply picked up where they left off. they clearly maintain their mutual affection over time and distance.
quinn has been using air quotes quite a bit lately. it is really amusing me, his little sarcastic side. there is a tracking device in pokemon go, which doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the actual pokemon in the vicinity. quinn refers to it with large air quotes as the “so-called tracking device.”
also worth recording, he said something funny when he was talking about a poke-stop. the one he was referring to was a church, so he was searching his memory for its name, “when we go past the… christian… the episcopal… the church of christ, that’s it.” but it was the way that he said eppi-SCOPE-al that was awesome. i smiled and he asked, “what?” and i said, “episcopal.” and he laughed, “well i read it!” there is a meme about that… something to the effect of not making fun of me for mispronouncing words, because it means i learned them from a book i read! yeah. that would be my kiddo.
and already another six week cycle of karate has passed. i haven’t been taking as many pictures, but i noticed in looking at these few, that quinn has made great strides in some of the body mechanics that he practices at every karate class, such as keeping his elbows tucked in when he does a side kick. (you know, not flailing both arms in random directions when you do your kick.) just the other day, quinn earned his first black tip on his blue belt! it was an interesting day to watch him testing, because i could tell he was really sweating whether he would earn his tip or not, by the expressions on his face. in the rather more difficult blue belt curriculum, there were a few moves he was still a bit unsure about. for one of his techniques (clutching feathers, a self defense move for when someone grabs your long hair) he immediately knew what to do when his teacher actually fake attacked him, though he was drawing a blank when it came to doing it solo. he also needed a reminder on another move, and i could see his concern written all over his face, but then he pulled it together. at the beginning of the class for warm-ups, one of the junior instructors had them do leg lifts, holding their legs off the ground 6 inches (which the instructor did alongside them), and another of the students kept dropping or lifting his legs, resulting in added time for the whole group. quinn was clearly in agony, and at one point a sob actually escaped him, and yet, he persevered and did not quit doing the exercise, in spite of the hardship. (also of note was that he did not lash out at the student who was causing the added seconds.) i think between the grit he showed during his warm up, and his teacher’s acknowledgement of his steady effort and progress (not perfection!), quinn is absorbing wonderful take-home messages from all of his favorite activities these days. it’s wonderful to behold.
it’s a camping rainbow! and it’s coming to you on tuesday! i’ve been a little… distracted! more on that soon! probably with continued excessive use of exclamation points!!! but first, camping quilts, glow sticks, and spring rolls to launch us into an inner tube to float down the river of memories from our fourth of july family camping weekend.
red: ready, set, float!
orange: crab over the coals from our family fisher cousin/friend. so much good feasting is done around the campfire.
yellow: birds, trucks, and baby blankets accentuating exceedingly cute toes.
(photo credit: rich!)
green: lots and lots of green whenever we are camping. hard to choose just a few! another dino boy in the family, the light through the vine maples, the ample baby borrowing opportunities, the mini-boo trying out how to snuggle a baby in a sweatshirt like he saw his mama do, alternating his play time roles between playing capture the flag, football and card games with even bigger kids, and playing what time is it mr. fox, play kitchen, and shepherding littler kids across the river or pulling them upriver on the raft, equally at home with all the age groups. also taking time for himself as needed, to binge-read greek mythology texts and dinosaur science comic books. he also spent a small sliver of his time snuggled up one on one, conquering logic puzzles with mama.
blue: this sums up the river for me: sun on little kid bare arms, cold clean water splashing the dust and mud off of little kid bare legs. it’s always such a fun weekend.
purple: shared love of comics by all, especially our insatiable reader kiddos, endlessly taking turns on the tire swing, which barely ever sits motionless the entire weekend, and laughing with cousin/sister/friend/family people we hold near and dear to our hearts. hope your holiday weekend was as colorful and joyful as ours!
quinn got to wield the allen wrench and build his bed once again… this time at dragon house 2.0, age 9. flashback to dragon house 1.0, age 5!
some fun foods of the month; bird face pizzas and rainbow fruit!
returning salmon fry to the stream with quinn’s third grade class.
quinn got to attend his second karate seminar with mr. sepulveda, and go to dinner at the laughing planet cafe afterwards. it seems to be becoming tradition. he had a girl a head shorter than him enthusiastically choose him for a sparring partner, and they took turns flipping each other over for the whole hour. i think he had fun and learned a lot, and once again absorbed awesomeness from an esteemed kenpo teacher who actually studied directly under ed parker, the founder of this form of martial arts.
in between karate and dinner, we got to go on a brief farm tour #2 for the month (this was more of a sister friend visit, but… baby goats!)
climbing up ladders into haylofts, swinging on rope swings, meeting a sheep named artemis, having a baby goat suck on his fingers, and generally farming around. mama even got in on the baby goat holding and one took a nap in my arms.
come home on a friday after a week of school and work on division worksheets, why don’t you? sometimes an activity, like treasure map division problem puzzles, sits on a shelf for 6 months and then all of a sudden must urgently be completed in one sitting.
karate – second black tip earned on his purple belt!
spring concert fun, with the interjections song from schoolhouse rocks. i think he was pretty pumped to be one of the sign holder uppers. they also sang a ladybug song, and the 5th grade sang this land is your land with all of the best verses included – love that music teacher. then the whole school joined in on i’ve gotta be me. so much gratitude for teachers who plant the right subliminal messages…
Whether I’m right or whether I’m wrong
Whether I find a place in this world or never belong
I gotta be me, I’ve gotta be me
What else can I be but what I am
I want to live, not merely survive
And I won’t give up this dream
Of life that keeps me alive
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
The dream that I see makes me what I am
That far away prize, a world of success
Is waiting for me if I heed the call
I won’t settle down, won’t settle for less
As long as there’s a chance that I can have it all
I’ll go it alone, that’s how it must be
I can’t be right for somebody else
If I’m not right for me
I gotta be free, I’ve gotta be free
Daring to try, to do it or die
I’ve gotta be me
we geeked out about the number 9 this month; i still sing “that crazy number nine” from the 80s show square one when i show a kid the nine trick. so i showed him the real song on you tube (some things are better left to the mama’s remembered rendition?), which launched a session of schoolhouse rocks math videos. i just recently bought the book go figure for him, because i think he really digs knowing all the fancy math secrets.
his room is getting set up piece by piece at the new house, slowly coming together. he said he likes that the changes are gradual so he can get used to them.
we managed to get to the pool for one open swim this month, and quinn spent the entire hour and a half doing laps back and forth with two noodles tucked under his arms, practicing his swimming and even getting his face wet and working on blowing out bubbles. major progress. he was wearing his new goggles and squishy ear plugs to keep water out of his ears. if only i had thought of getting some of those years ago! it made such a visible difference for him.
coming back from an evening walk, mamarazzi caught red-handed.
bunny watching out the vacation house kitchen window.
backpack archaeological dig finds
quinn got to go on a weekend camping trip with his dad out to eastern oregon desert country. when he told me about it, he told me he found a really cool piece of fire obsidian that he described in great detail; that he got to buy a barn owl stuffie at the high desert museum; and that he got to smash a penny. i found out later he also saw a porcupine up close, and got to see a great horned owl even closer; saw a baby owl in the wild and then found one of its feathers after it left; saw another owl flying; and spent his free time reading tom brown books.
reading and listening our way through percy jackson and the olympians, i found quinn another book written by rick riordan, percy jackson’s greek gods, which gives more background on the mythology behind the books. he is fully engrossed in that book, as well as calvin and hobbes, and the spirit animals series.
all of which leads me to ask… what if the hokey pokey really is what it’s all about?
two months fly by quickly when they are august and september… one minute you’re camping on the river, playing baseball and pokemon and dungeons and dragons, and the next minute you’re in new york visiting family, then whammo! school starts. whew! time for a lifelong learning check-in at last!
one minute you’re a yellow belt, the next minute the belt is orange.
thank goodness for relaxing days, playing with friends.
thank goodness for flexible jobs where kids are not shunned. here is quinn dissecting a salmon; something he refused to even watch during our living school… however, he has now removed his very first pair of otoliths, so i think he’s got it in him after all. oh, and that thing in the jar is its stomach.
in vocabulary, i have heard quinn use words such as loopholes, shall and perish. we also had a great discussion of when to use less vs. fewer in describing quantities (of continuous amounts vs. discrete, countable units).
“when you yawn, it puts electric needles in your balloon and pops it.” (quinn, on the subject of popping your ears while driving up and down hills 8-17-15)
also while he hangs out at work with me, quinn gets some reading done and listens to a lot of sparkle stories. a few recent favorite chapter books checked out of the library:
winter turning by tui sutherland, book 6 in the wings of fire series
spirit animals, a series written by multiple authors; first book is wild born, by brandon mull (he made up his own activity of listing the various possible spirit animals mentioned in the book, and picked up the skill of skimming back through passages he had already read for key words, and also worked on creating a game based on the book.) speaking of vocabulary, we just had another great conversation about “redoubled” and “abated.”
when it was time to head off to new york for his uncle’s (my brother’s) wedding, our first stop was to see rich’s daughter and her boyfriend before we hit the airport. a quick game of pokemon and a lesson in paintball later…
my good little traveler, rolling his r2-d2 suitcase through the airport, flashlight the bear tucked under his arm.
i got him a few fun distractions for the plane, including some pokemon cards and a set of ionix, a brand of lego-compatible bricks that have how to train your dragon themed sets…
and we made it to grammy and grampy’s house at last. legos galore, room to run around, and garfield books aplenty to read.
any time we helped with wedding set up, quinn and cousins took a dip in my brother’s pool afterwards.
then climbed out and turned into penguin eggs.
q got to learn some new video game systems, and played mario on the wii for the first time. then he proceeded to draw new mario, the game, levels for mario, the boy.
the cousins were very helpful in wedding preparations. quinn sorted out all the pieces and fasteners for a bench swing that needed to be assembled, and read the instructions. the boys all carried coolers and chairs, wielding wheelbarrows and wagons to transport them across the backyard.
with plenty of time left for running around and eating pizza.
the day of the wedding, my dad decided he had better disc his field, and the boys each got to ride with him a few times around the field.
then the farmers all jumped in the shower and got all spruced up for a wedding.
i think quinn’s experience of the wedding would probably center around all the food, including corn on the cob, yummy chicken and potatoes, and pasta salad, as well as amazing cookies and an ice cream sundae made with a scoop each of strawberry and black raspberry ice cream. there was also a ton of great music, a handful of kids to run around with, and lots of space for a guy who likes to go off on his own and sort through his pokemon cards.
the crew was hired back for wedding take-down the next day.
then they switched gears to helping harvest the apple crop!
peach pie was consumed. the sandbox was frequented.
grampy and quinn took the whole family up in the field for a bonfire.
quinn spent some special quality time with each uncle. uncle t offered to actually play a round of pokemon with quinn so he (the uncle) could learn the rules, and uncle b showed q his game cube and the game animal crossing. quinn thoroughly enjoyed both of these bonding experiences.
another day, another apple gathering wagon ride. this was more of a research expedition for grammy to discover what later-season apple varieties would be ripening in the next month. she has identified some really obscure and rare old varieties!
we met norman, an inchworm, who hitched a ride on quinn. (and it was norman’s name, more than anyone else’s, that quinn mentioned missing on the last night before we left new york, and he was sad about it. i think that was one lucky worm, to find such a good friend.)
several nights found quinn spending time watching the mets play baseball alongside grammy and grampy, and i noticed that on the nights we popped popcorn for a light dinner, quinn opted to take his bowl out to the porch “to watch some baseball with grampy,” rather than sit at the table.
although i waited all week, camera poised, for “the” annual picture of the boys walking together to happen organically, it did not, and so we went outside in the dark on the last night and contrived the shot as best we could.
jump! then we took some other crazy photos, while we were awake past bedtime and playing in the dark.
…and this is what quinn looked like when we pulled into the driveway of the vacation house the next day, crashed out on his pokemon binder in the back seat of the truck.
… and whoooosh! this is what he looked like on his first day of third grade.
i believe i may have more words and fewer pictures this year, when it comes to the learning that happens to take place at school.
we went to “back to school night” the week before school started, the day after we got home from new york, which is when we found out who his teacher would be and he could bring in school supplies, see his classroom, and so on. his teacher taught at the same school where my after school program was, and he was one of the only teachers who spoke with me, and was supportive of what i was doing. i had a couple of his 4th graders. then he transferred to the school q is going to now, to teach 3rd grade last year. he used to bring his dog to class, his wife is a retired teacher and she would teach right alongside him, so two teachers for one class. he has a guitar in his room. i can’t see him tolerating bullying or teasing. all the kids love him and respect him and want to hug him. i think there is definitely potential for a positive teacher-student relationship.
he was at his dad’s on the first day of school, and dad wanted him to ride the bus that morning, but also thought it was a good idea for me to meet him to walk him in to his classroom, as a lot of parents walk kids in on the first day (they make a point to tell you it’s the only day it’s allowed.)
he got off smiling and saw me and we walked into the school and the whole world was in the cafeteria with their parents, so it was standing room only. so we stood there, and he kept spotting kids he knew from ols, and everyone he saw smiled and waved or said hi if they were close enough. he saw his teacher and said hello, held my hand but didn’t seem clingy. and then the bell rang, and he seemed like he knew what to do and we walked to his class, and sitting at the desk across from his was a girl from karate who he gets along with, and so that was a nice surprise, and they said hi to each other. he put his stuff on his hook, and in his desk, and i said okay have fun and he said okay bye, and i snapped that picture and left.
that night the bus took so long getting him back to his dad’s that i got a text as i pulled up to karate with only 5 minutes until class saying “still waiting for the bus.” i ended up driving to the school to make sure he didn’t get taken back there, and i knew his dad couldn’t call because the bus stop is out of cell range. i was just one of several parents there just before 5:00 pm asking where their kids were. they explained the buses were way behind schedule with all the changes to the school system this year (there was much reconfiguring).
on wednesday, the second day of school, all was going well until 12:17 (after i got finished dissecting 104 fish in one morning) when his dad texted me that it was not early release after all (every wednesday the schools all dismiss students an hour early because they literally can’t afford to keep the lights on) and asked if i would pick quinn up. i emailed the school because that is a “change of plans” and they have to hear from a parent by 1:00. so i emailed and asked to verify if i needed to pick up at 3 (i tell them he can’t bus at 3 or he will miss karate, and that i will pick him up as a “escorted walker” based on info i received third-hand that “parent pick up” is at one door and “walker” is where you can park and that is easier, not driving through the hamster wheel. so i specify “escorted walker” and they get back to me right away saying actually it’s only the busers who go at 3:05, everyone else is still early release, so i need to come at 2:05. so once that was all sorted out, i let them know quinn would have no idea of this change, and that he would need to be guided through it. (in all the reconfiguring, the playing field was leveled in some ways, in that new kids don’t stand out, but then, when someone is new, they can also fall through the cracks…)
so i went at 2:05 and all the walkers came out, and quinn didn’t come out. so i went up to the walker door, and talked to the teacher there, and another teacher went to try to locate quinn. it took them 40 minutes to determine that q had been taken instead to the parent pick up door. (they sent him a note to his class, and he heard “line up for parent pick up” and NO ONE EXPLAINED it to him so he was in the wrong line. so, they got him back to me finally and then i walked him out the walker door so he knew where to go in the future if his dad or i is picking him up, and explained about saying he is a walker, instead of a parent pick up, and it was all fine. i handed in my volunteer parent paperwork too, and i think the staff like me in spite of seeing way more of me than they probably wanted to on days one and two.
so far, the biggest challenge is all the coded language. when the bus brought him back to his dad late that first day, the bus driver demanded of quinn, “who’s your ride?” while his dad stood at the door of the bus saying “he’s with me,” trying to help but not realizing they can’t accept the answer from the adult, and q didn’t even understand the question. i don’t blame him, as the question was not even being asked in english. “who is picking you up” might have worked, but “who’s your ride” is a question q has never been asked, and wouldn’t know why he was being asked. i guess learning the local vernacular and institutional code is part of joining the so-called “real world.” like knowing how to tell people, “my mom doesn’t want to drive through the hamster wheel, so i am a walker, not a parent pick up.” anyway, we’re getting the hang of it. i’m laughing and keeping a sense of humor about it, slightly snarkily.
after the first day of school, his dad said he seemed upbeat and happy about the day and not phased at all about the extra long bus ride. it’s not as if he has a reference to compare to. when asked if it felt like it was long, quinn said, “i watched generations of kids get off this bus before me!” that kid and his poetry. quinn also reported to his dad about sitting across from his karate friend, saying, “i look at her face all day, and she looks at my face all day.”
overall, quinn in general answers “good” about his days, but if pressed on the matter, will not agree that his day was awesome or wonderful, “just good.” but also not terrible. he comments that he doesn’t like being taught things he already knows. helping with that, he is now doing “walk to read” and “walk to math” each day, in which he commingles with 4th and 5th graders to get a little more challenged at his level. he is taking so much in stride that would have been so much bigger a deal two years ago… things like heading to a new classroom twice a day. i asked if anyone from his homeroom goes to math or reading with him, and he said, “no, but i am glad about that, because it means i get to have whole new groups of friends.”
the weekend after his first week of school, quinn and i spent a lot of time together, baking two pies. i made the pie dough, but he did every other step of the process, from picking and peeling, to rolling and filling, to folding and forking.
i miss looking at his face all day.
karate remains quite a passion for him. he has started wearing a stretchy headband to keep his hair out of his eyes, which he intends to grow long like my hair.
back in the classroom of life, quinn spent a good ten minutes studying the filling of the brita filter pitcher. he added a little, poured a little, until he found the exact maximum amount of water that could be filtered through without leaving any water in the top chamber. i think some top notch science experimenting was done that day, and one satisfied young mind answered a question for himself. it is my hope that nothing that happens in the institution will dampen that curiosity and enthusiastic drive to learn all he can.
we had an auspicious start to the month of learning with a wonderful family camping trip.
quinn was keen on (read: fixated on) pokemon monopoly over the weekend, so he rallied the kids and taught a bunch of them how to play.
~dog therapy with walter~
~reading harry potter to himself by headlamp~
~owls, ravens, ducks, field guides and dip nets~
~ninja throwing stars~
~possum diets, ranging widely from fresh raspberries to the compost bin~
~a big theme this month has been defining and carrying out responsibilities. many of these things have already been defined, but the pattern of mama repeating herself each time a responsibility came along (brush your teeth, put your dishes in the sink, fold your karate uniform for tomorrow…) had gotten a little… loud, shall we say? so, in an effort to save my voice and quinn’s ears, i decided to revamp the system.~
~now, quinn refers to “the instructions” which are all laid out on fridge magnets that i stole from google images and photoshopped words onto, then printed, laminated, and backed with magnetic sheets.~
~i tried to keep them interesting to him, so i used lego minifigures who looked like they were doing the actions called for. harry potter with quidditch uniform and broom accompanies the words “sweep your area,” while ninja turtle rafael instructs quinn to “take care of your karate equipment.” ~
~quinn requested a few that i had missed, including “help feed the cats” and “read.” it was validating that he made those requests, since the whole idea, at least later in life, is for him to be able to identify his own responsibilities, not necessarily to have me identify them for him…~
~so far, the results are decent. there is less screaming on my part, and although he can get distracted now looking at the magnets, he is showing more willingness to check in with his instructions and not just blow off whatever i happen to be asking him to do at the moment. ~
~chewbacca is having his hair combed by han solo to encourage quinn to brush his hair (it’s getting long, and that is what he wants – the tradeoff being he is then responsible for it!) ~ harry potter sweeping, emmett brushing his teeth ~ the dwarves stacking their dishes in bilbo’s house ~
~baseball had been big this summer. he has been attending what we are affectionately calling “camp boss summer program” which just means his best friend’s mom (who happens to also be my sister) is taking care of him for me while i’m at work. together they have done some baseball math, have been playing a weeks-long game of major league baseball monopoly, and of course, have been playing baseball in the back yard. quinn’s skills are improving, i mean, look at this windup:~
~still, i think he may have more of a future in baseball commentating, moreso than playing the game. he has a real knack for understanding the rules and giving the play-by-play. “the bases are loaded, they have two outs and he has two strikes. he swings and bam, he hits it out of the park! the pirates win the series!” (or the cubs, or whatever team they happen to be impersonating that day.)~
speaking of hitting one out of the park, james taylor just did with his new album before the world. fair warning, the song about baseball, angels of fenway made me weep, and i am decidedly not a red sox fan. “doesn’t seem like a long time ago…”
while i’m misty-eyed from just typing that, i also wanted to record quinn’s recent interest in his family tree, thanks in part to his grammy making him an awesome book about family members, through a lens of a famous arctic explorer, roald amundson, with whom one of our relatives was acquainted, according to legend; and thanks also in part to the new martin and sylvia audio series from sparkle stories entitled “family tree of stories.” it came with a link to a printable family tree template with cut-out leaves to glue on your very own family tree, which quinn has begun doing. he is more excited, however, about the handheld tape recorder i dug out for him to use to collect family stories when we go to new york at the end of august! (you can’t buy blank cassette tapes at fred meyer, in case you were wondering. thank goodness for the internet.)
~we took an intentional detour to the beach on a friday before i dove into packing all weekend, and quinn and i went on a big dinosaur pokemon fossil hunting expedition.~
~tracking something~
~making a point to carve out some fun and keep him feeling cared for while i was wrapped up in the move, i got quinn a new suitcase (it rolls, and it’s r2d2. how perfect is that? he took him up and down the “escalator” practicing for our upcoming trip, and r2 is also handy since we are living out of suitcases for a time at the vacation house.) rich got quinn a dragon tapestry of his very own, when he went to oregon country fair. he said he thought the blue and green would go well with quinn’s room colors and, well, we are bringing the dragon house with us, after all. quinn was ecstatic about his dragon and immediately noticed the dragon is holding a blue crystal ball. ~
~then i realized it’s the same dragon as the one at the karate studio! quinn has been continuing to work hard on his yellow belt curriculum.~
~universal set one work during “street clothes” week at karate~
this past month was very full! as all summer months seem to be.
~games~ quinn has been pretty fired up lately about angry birds games, and though we do limit his screen time to 30 minutes per day, he seems very focused on games in general. he is exploring how to make his own games (with paper and for example, using the paint program on my laptop to play dots-and-boxes) as well as playing games with us. he also seems to be in full-time project mode, always making something involving paper, markers, scissors and tape. often the paper games are angry birds oriented, but other times they are based on other themes. he also has invented quite a few angry birds games that he plans to develop, (you know, once his computer science training is wrapped up) including angry birds “ice” (which is about penguins) and angry birds “hedwig” which is, of course, about owls.
~quinn is interested in map-making, and we have done some maps of our garden (i had drawn one to help myself plan my planting, and made him a copy of it to color in and utilize however he wanted.) this was his drawing of foxglove from the garden.~
~we’ve been attending one day per week of the our living school summer program. quinn has become fully steeped in the culture surrounding the ols show-and-tell morning ritual, which involves tea and closing chant and various rules of decorum such as saying “does anyone have any questions or comments?” and then saying the name of a person who is raising their hand (rather than just saying, “what?”) quinn has showed his photo of the bird who visited our house, his map of the zoo from goodnight gorilla, his star wars sticker book, and a small notebook he made by cutting out small pieces of graph paper, stapling them together, and enlisting me to write out his agenda for the next time he visits the aquarium, as a checklist.~
~one of the lessons we got to be a part of at ols was for the 4th of july. we got to look at a replica of the declaration of independence, and watch re-enactments of the ride of paul revere and the battle of lexington. the best part of quinn’s day was watching the battle of lexington reenactment. for me, it might have leaned towards listening to the kids animatedly discussing how slowly word traveled from the colonies to england in the late 1700s, when there were (gasp) “no cell phones?!? how did they even text?!!!!!!?”
“they must have had to go home and send it from there!”
“or maybe even… write it down on paper!”
~
we also took home a fourth of july crossword and did it together, from which discussions of george washington and the first 13 colonies were started.
quinn expressed to me that he wanted his own hook and cubby at school. it makes me happy to see him feel a sense of ownership for this school. since we were going just one day a week, we arranged for the time being to have a hook (with his name above it) and will see about a cubby this fall. this fall’s outlook for school is still a bit up in the air, but i will talk more about that soon.
~camping~ so much learning going on at the campsite. quinn learned about the inside of a firework from a word scramble worksheet, and then got to set off some of his own at the campsite. there was also lots of river fun, bucket helmet pretend play with all the kids, and all manner of outdoor fun. ~
~we spent about a week hanging out with my mama friend vanessa whom i’ve known for 6 years (practically ancient times in internet years) but only just got to meet in person! we had a lot of fun, and quinn and noble seemed to sense they had been pisces brothers since before this meeting. in fact, they took right off, discussing how “we are almost exactly the same!” listing their age, the fact that they’ve both lost teeth, that they both almost skipped the same number when they were counting landmarks on the map of the trail we hiked, and that they both like to collect sticks. there is a whole world of background to the story of my friendship with vanessa and the dozens of other women i met through her online, and it ranges from mind blowingly beautiful love and support i have received throughout my journey as a mama, to other times that were incredibly ugly and painful and heartbreaking. but i really feel like the boys summed so much of it up for me in a nutshell how i feel about all these women, my online tribe, which has fragmented over time. i think if we could ever get past the surface of things, the outer bits where we see how we differ as parents, women, citizens of the world, and focus on what’s inside, we really are almost exactly the same.~
and of course, more of the usual:
~kitchen elfing~ also not pictured, car washing and vacuuming.~
~beach romping. quinn has been having fun picking out his own clothes to wear, and this general theme revolving around his red/orange shorts has been popular. he wears it with either a red or an orange shirt, often with red socks if they are clean, and sometimes even a red hat and his boots or sneakers with red on them. he usually has a theme he is going with, though i am not sure how this red/orange look relates to being an ewok. (it just does.)~
~oh, and you know, the inescapable learning that goes on due to living, as we do, on the discovery channel.~
