Driveway Moment

The kids and I were driving to the grocery store when the radio announcer said he would next play a well-known classical piece that the composer created to simulate a horrendous storm in the middle of the night followed by a clearing of the sky and a glorious sunrise. The kids' interest was piqued, especially since we had gone through a pretty ugly storm a couple nights before.

We arrived at the grocery store and the music had just barely started. The kids didn't want to get out. They wanted to hear the storm and the sunrise all the way through. They were nervous and talking about the wind and the thunder crashing, asking every few seconds when the storm would end. When the storm cleared and the music grew lighter, they visibly relaxed. We listened to every last measure.

I don't remember the exact name of the piece, but it's well known. Maybe I can find it's name somewhere on the internet...

...[45 minutes later] or not.

Summer Camp---Carnival Week

Robert came home from summer camp this afternoon with a bag full of candy and a special memento of his special week at a carnival-themed summer swim camp:

I laugh out loud every time I see it. His expression screaming, "Oh, the indignity!"

That said, both Robert and Alice have loved this camp more than any other camp experience to date (i.e. Nature Day Camp and Gymnastics Camp). They are excited to go and they love talking about it once they get home. Lots of swimming. Crafts. Stories. Silly songs.

Lap Hog

I just wanted to share a few things about James here before he outgrows it and I forget it forever.

For family prayer, he's always liked sitting on my lap. Sometimes (more frequently recently) one of the other kids wants a turn, too, so I've been splitting my lap and putting one kid on each knee. It took James some time to be okay with this development. Even now, when he comes over to sit on my lap, he'll sit on one knee and then stretch out his other leg waaaaaaaaaaaay onto my other knee as if to claim it for his own...until another kid comes to sit on it, anyway. It's like he's ever hoping that he will get my lap entirely to himself again.

Oh, James-ee, you're in for a shock.

He calls himself "Weece"
He calls Robert "Ah-boo"
He calls Alice "A-lih"
Any man is "Daddy"
Any woman is "Mommy"
I'm "Mommy" or "Ma-Ma"

He hugs and kisses and coos at any animal that stays still long enough for him to catch up with it.

He does NOT like taking orders from Alice and Robert, especially Robert. He will intentionally disobey them...with glee.

Yesterday, he randomly came up to Robert and gave him a big face hug and kiss. Once Robert realized it wasn't a threat/wrestle, he really enjoyed it. Alice burst into tears because James was not in the mood to shower her with such affection.

Delights me to no end

I look out at my garden and see one cabbage moth after another butting its head against the insect screening I've installed over my succulent collard greens. They can smell the brassicas...they just...can't...seem...to...get...there. Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa!

And I've flicked an adult squash vine borer or two off the screening, too, sitting right over my gigantic zucchini plants. Go ruin someone else's garden, guys!

Today I planted more brassicas under the screening: Red Russian Kale and more collard greens for fall harvest.

I also planted snap peas, a variety of slender European bush beans, and another round of those delectable English greenhouse cucumbers.

I'm glad something seems to be working out this year :)

Girls' Night Out...with the Mayor!

Our backyard neighbor and friend is a member of our city council. Alice was curious about what she does on that council and asked about it. Our neighbor immediately invited us to come to one of their public meetings and see for ourselves.

Well, we made a Girls' Night out of it. Alice dressed in her finest, ruffliest, sparkliest outfit and we left the boys at home to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Alice was more than a little surprised that our mayor is female. All the voting and legal proceedings were a bit dry for her. There was a lot of voting on the nitty-gritty bits of running a city. They voted on some cooperative ventures with other organizations, on whether to accept federal funds for the police force, and whether one specific homeowner could move his air conditioning unit onto a city-mandated easement in his side yard in order to build a deck on the back of his house.

One local couple raised their concerns regarding a sewer issue. Apparently the issue was resolved 2 years ago, but they have come to every meeting since to voice their objection on how it was managed.

And somewhere in the middle of the meeting there was a "closed session" to discuss ongoing litigation issues. The whole city council packed up and headed off to a private room. If our neighbor had known about that part, she would have told us to come another evening. Alice and I spent 40 minutes waiting for them to come back. Alice counted the ceiling tiles (119), the overhead lights (15), and threatened to count the windows on a picture of the city building before I bust a gut laughing. Then she showed me how to put my hair in a bun and we decided to go to Starbucks after it was all over.

Once the council came back, the rest of the meeting took only 20 minutes. Our neighbor introduced Alice to the mayor, a few other ward representatives, and the city clerk. They were gracious, genial, and generally pleasant normal people...just like our neighbor :) We all headed to Starbucks for a treat and stayed out too late.

Time for bed.

24 Weeks and general update

I had another routine prenatal checkup with the midwives this week. I met with Kristi Higgs this time, and I really like her. Everything is progressing within normal limits. I have a great pregnancy history, so concerns are minimal, even though I'm soon to be of "advanced maternal age" (AMA). Kristi did mention that AMA mothers often undergo a second ultrasound at 32 weeks to check for moderate and minor heart defects in the baby. The early ultrasound catches the big defects, but older mothers are at higher risk for having babies with moderate and minor heart defects. I have some time to think about it, but I'm sorely tempted to do it just to get another peek at the baby before our big day.

While at this visit, the nurse cheerfully informed me that the baby is now viable, should he be born this week. I asked her if that was possible at this specific hospital (national averages do not always reflect an individual facility's policy) and she assured me that this hospital's Level 4 NICU was well-equipped to handle an infant born 3.5 months early, if necessary..."not like that's something you would hope for..." (awkward silence). Seconds after the nurse left, I saw a poster on the wall admonishing future parents to strive for at least 39 weeks gestation to maximize the infant's brain development (sponsored by the March of Dimes)...as if they knew I was toying with the idea of asking to be induced early :)

I feel Peek-A-Boo move vigorously every day. He writhes and spins and stretches. No one else has felt him move yet. I don't wonder and worry about this baby as much as I have the others. It's because I know everything's going to work out. He'll have good and bad days as a baby, as a sibling, as the youngest in a busy house, but we'll work it out. There's room here for him and we'll grow around him just like we've grown around each of his siblings before him.

Our family keeps changing in little ways here and there. It's hard to know what we'll be like when Peek-A-Boo arrives. Alice and Robert have become much better friends since they started sharing a room. James becomes a much better playmate as he expands his vocabulary and learns how social play works. He is keenly aware of the older kids' privileges. He counts himself as one of them and resents it when they order him around or tell him "no." I wonder a little who James will side with most as Peek-A-Boo gets older...will he continue to chase after Alice and Robert, or will he find a tighter bond with the brother just younger than him?

Speaking of James, he wakes up every morning about 5:45, comes right up to my side of the bed, and smooshes his face against mine. I pull him up into the bed and he just lays and snuggles and plays next to me. He pretends to eat parts of me. He sits on me like a horse. He wraps my arm around him and huuuuuuuugs it tight. He plays noisily with a couple toys and tries to make conversation. Eventually, one of the adults finally gets up to arrange breakfast or change a stinky diaper (usually Bobby, that sweet man). It's a routine that I enjoy, but I would prefer to have it happen an hour or two later :) Changing the length and timing of James' naps doesn't have any lasting effects. We may be stuck with this for a while.

Alice is refining her gymnastics tricks (cartwheels, handstands, leaping somersaults) and making/writing her own baby books (ABCs, 123s, colors) for James. She and Robert draw and play together swimmingly. I never would have predicted that from how they played BEFORE sharing a room. Yikes. She's losing teeth and reading for fun and stepping in a lot more to help with James. She can smooth over small kerfuffles between the boys and sometimes she jumps up to take care of a need as soon as she sees it. A lot of her development is so much more quiet and subtle now that she's older. I catch snippets of it and think, "Oh! I should record that on the blog!" and then it's gone. She's adventurous and creative when she wants to be. She's also easily hurt and offended. She can talk circles around Robert and convince him of anything...most of the time.

Robert's passion for arts and crafts has EXPLODED recently. He's often working on some sort of creature or castle or random house object to give to someone. His favorite medium is pen and paper, but scissors, tape, and staples play a large role as well. I have a whole stack of creations to photograph...I'll post a few of my favorites at some point :) He's a fellow who can't stand to be interrupted. He'll work on one thing for 30 minutes and then explain every detail to you. I'm not worried about him having ADD in school anymore. I'm now worried that he won't be willing to stop one thing to move on to the next.

I, personally, am doing alright. I've managed to stay on top of sleep and work. The garden has had a few awesome advances (e.g. actual, physical, visual proof that my insect screen is keeping out cabbage moths AND squash vine borers...MWAH ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa!). I'm inching closer to fleshing out the life of my great-great-great-great grandfather James Walker and his wife (second wife?) and children. It's hard, but I no longer feel it's impossible. I may figure them all out after all. So, I feel good about things and where they're going. I wish I had more energy at the end of the day to ponder and blog on the trickier bits of my life, but my mom assures me that will come later as the kids get older :) I sure love my mom.

Chicken Change

My chickens have magically transformed! All of a sudden, instead of being a pack of sassy, aggressive, escape artists, they're docile, meek, and following directions. They're also all laying eggs now, which may have caused the behavior change...that last step from teenager to full-grown adult can be a rough one.

Robert's still a bit timid around flapping wings, but Alice is a professional-grade chicken catcher. Even James can grab one and put it back in the pen:

Mostly, though, James just follows them around the yard yelling "Caw, caw!" (his word for bird/chicken) and giving them hugs. I wish I got a photo of him hugging one...it's a lot like how he hugged the dog: around the back end, laying his head on their backs, his cheek squished against the animal, and a little squeeze sound from him, "Nnnnnngh!"

Whoops...two weeks later

So, it's been two weeks since the last post. The dog-sitting adventure has come and gone...much learned on both sides. I don't think the dog ever came to accept us as family, but we eventually found a better groove. She calmed down a lot after the first week. And it was sweet to watch her with James. She treated him like a puppy...so gently, so patiently, so playfully.

My parents have been visiting, too, and we've been doing all sorts of things to make it a summer "staycation" for the kids. Check out my mom's blog for a quick travel summary and pictures. It's been awesome having them here. I'm glad we have this time to play with them, and I'm glad my kids will have positive memories of quality time with their grandparents. We're pretty far away from most of our family most of the time.

The garden/farm is actually producing edible food!

• We've harvested a few of those lovely, long, thin-skinned and seedless English cucumbers (despite the cucumber beetle infestation earlier and a brutal pruning that came way too late). 
• The kids have been picking the artisan tomatoes (orange and yellow striped baby sized tomatoes, very sweet) and miniature sweet corn the last couple of days, most often eating the whole harvest before it comes indoors. 
• James eats green tomatoes like candy. He gnaws on corn cobs.
• We've picked more zucchini than we can eat...that's not hard to do. 
• And we now have THREE hens laying eggs daily. 

Scroll through the first three pictures below for today's harvest and a photo shoot of the harvesters:

My goal to make this year's garden a child's snacking paradise has been met! I wish I had planted green beans...it still might not be too late. The beans above are from Robert's "bean-a-pillar" plants. Some of them dried on the plant and it looks like they're some form of cranberry bean.

It's been unseasonably cool and wet so far for July.

The blueberry soil pH is still too high (grrrrr) but I amended it with elemental sulfur and will check again in 60 days. It's a slow process, but I'll get the hang of it yet.

I've been reading a little more while my parents have been visiting. I really enjoyed Michelle's recommendation, The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way  for a big picture look at education systems around the world. There is a newish standardized test that measures a child's ability to think critically in real-life situations. No multiple choice questions. They tested children all over the world and found that some school systems produce critical thinkers and some do not. The results surprised many researchers and school administrators. The rest of the book examines three of the top-performing school systems (Finland, South Korea, and Poland) through the experiences of three American exchange students and the author's research. It is a neat little read, bringing up all kinds of thought-worthy issues like education equality, parental involvement, curriculum rigor, and cultural expectations of the school experience. It made me feel better about Alice's school experience altogether: moving her up a grade or enrolling her in private school won't guarantee her a better chance at succeeding in life. Her success depends on her education AND her attitude/expectations of that education.

I've also been reading a few books in anticipation of a Mother-Daughter Book Club idea that's been swimming around in my brain. I don't know exactly how or when to bring it to life...yet. Do I wait for the dust to settle after the baby is born...which...may...be...never? Or do I jump into it right now in my last 4 months...and possibly lose it for a season? I'm thinking "now", but maybe after the summer. We'll see.