Season Ending Hike

As mentioned last Wednesday, a week ago Sunday, we should have been coming back from a camping trip. But by the time we settled on where we wanted to go, the campsites were full. No matter, Ed had a friend from high school in town, so he met him and another friend from back in the day out, while I caught up on some reading after putting the kids to bed.

But Sunday, we took advantage of what would turn out to be among the last really pleasant fall days. For at least a week now, it's been hovering around and below 30 when I run in the morning, and the day's aren't getting that warm either.

Old Rag, a hike that started the summer with a challenge, is getting to be old hat for the kids. I can't believe I haven't posted photos before now, but here are a few shots captured with the iPhone. Crappy photos, to be sure. But good memories all the same.

After the hike, I ran along the tow-path back to the car so I could meet the kids and Ed a little further on down the trail, letting Connor and Helen avoid the trek back to the car. No need to ruin a great hike with pushing it just a little too far.

Until Spring, Old Rag.

Elaine

We Never Eat Science

Helen received a gift subscription of Little Passports from my mom for her birthday. This month, the packet took us to South Dakota. One of the items in the packet was a science experiment to better understand erosion, which was discussed in the context of the Badlands.

The experiment called for dropping different amounts of water on Skittles to see what happens. Before we started, Helen admonished Connor and I saying "we never eat science". This, of course, is not true, since we eat science every time we bake, so I asked Helen where she got that idea from.

It is a rule in her first grade class.

And in a first grade classroom, that rule makes a lot of sense.

Several hours later, our Skittles have nearly eroded away entirely, except the purple one which was doused with the fewest drops of water. I'm wondering if it will hang on until morning. And luckily, because we never eat science, I will get to find out!

This started out as four Skittles that did not touch each other.

Elaine

The turkey family grows

Over the weekend, our turkey family grew by two. The number of needle felting injuries grew by one, as did the number of children in my home with an ear infection (Helen), and the number of children sporting a fever high enough to stay home for the day (Connor). The number of children who now have a second song memorized on her violin also grew by one. Hopefully I'll capture it on video tomorrow.

Elaine

Helenspeak

Helen, holding one of the roughly 300 American Girl catalogs that will find our mailbox over the next month: "How is it even possible that I did not see this arrive in the mail?"

Me: "Because as soon as I saw it in the mail, I buried it in the recycling bin hoping you wouldn't find it."

But, of course, Helen's radar for that thing is very strong. And now, her willingness to look through the recycling bin has been increased about a hundredfold.

Dear Grandma,

Helen would like everything in the catalog. I know, because she has been pouring over it the past two days, marking ONLY the very best items. It's hard to find something without the signaling mark on it.

Love,
Your daughter / daughter-in-law

Elaine

Piano Recital

Connor had his first piano recital today. It was absolutely wonderful to hear him play in front of a crowd, and to think back on all the recitals I played at during my childhood. I remember one particularly traumatic one where I had worked very hard on a piece, and a note that is played over and over in the piece was a sticky key on the day of the recital. It sounded awful, but I was too shy to tell my piano teacher what was going on. I was the first performer, and so proud to get to be that performer.

The next student was a much older student, and she immediately realized what was wrong, stopped playing, flagged the teacher over, and then the teacher worked to fix it along with a couple of parents (my teacher was around 80 years old at this point and about 4 feet tall - so mucking around inside a grand piano was physically almost impossible for her).

I got to play again, and was so relieved.

Nothing like that happened today. I know my sister and parents would've loved to been here, but the timing just didn't work out. Here's the recording.

View from a parent of younger aged kids - My Niece and Her Sleepless Fake Baby

My oldest niece is taking a class in high school that involved her taking a baby doll home that attempts to simulate having an actual baby. It cries in the middle of the night, can be impossible to settle, has multiple needs that can be met- which the caretaker must guess at. Importantly (and unlike any real baby I know), it gets taken back to the teacher after one night. I have no idea if the exercise is mandatory or voluntary. I do know my sister and niece were awakened multiple times in the middle of the night, everyone is exhausted the night the 'baby' was at their house, and they agreed in the morning that nobody in their house ever wanted one of those things again.

Which of course made me ponder - is this even a remotely reasonable exercise?

No, is my conclusion.

The exercise operates on the assumption that teens are choosing to have babies, or are more careless about having protected sex than they otherwise would be if they knew how disruptive a baby is. Of course, we know that most teen pregnancies are not planned, and I'm betting money few teens decide to have protected sex or abstain from having sex because of a one night stand with a doll. To me, it seems a lot like an exercise in sleep deprivation with little to no benefit.

I told my sister I hoped her teen was not so tired the next day that she ended up having unprotected sex because she couldn't think straight.

I also wrote to my sister "Mark my words - if Helen brings one of those things home in her teen years, I'm sending a note back to the teacher letting her know we've discussed birth control and the "baby' is sleeping outside. This whole thing just sounds awful to me. I might also include a note to the teacher letting her know I have PTSD from a non-sleeping baby that was in my care."

And immediately, I recognized that statement as exactly what it was. A mom with a younger child who can't actually know what it's like to have a teen, saying something that would be forgotten as soon as the fake baby lands in her own home.

So I'm writing it down, just so my sister can make fun of me when I'm up all night with a fake baby!

Elaine

Number NINE!

I can't believe I failed to post on Connor's  birthday. But then, things were busy, and I guess I just never got around to it. In any case, Connor turned nine and is now on the brink of double digits. It's almost more than I can bear to think about. He's still perfectly snugly, but he's also developing a bit of an edge - often deployed on Ed.

Last year, Connor had a sleepover birthday party. We started with a Nerf gun fight, followed by a pinata and a treasure hunt, and then the boys proceeded to nearly drive Ed completely nuts by barely being willing to contemplate sleep.

Connor had a ball.

He wanted to do it all over again.

Ed and I decided we'd buy him out of that dream. The price? An evening rental of the Game Truck. When the website says "mom's love Game Truck because it's easy", they are not lying. It was super easy. I met the boys after school, paraded them down the street to our home, offered them a snack which they ignored, and then shut them in the dark playing video games for the next two hours. Ed and I remarked that there's a pretty good chance we actually made the world a worse place.

But...the boys had a ton of fun, and we tried to ease our conscience by having them eat pizza on our deck and then they ran around the backyard, playing a round of Nerf guns. By the time the parents arrived to retrieve their children, all of them had acclimated to natural light again, and were at least reasonably tired out from running around the backyard.

We have a huge array of Nerf guns at this point - but the Vortex Revonix always gets chosen as the house favorite. Because the guns have different ranges, the boys come up with various house rules and a few kids always run around trying to be the referee. They are ignored, of course. I always like to see which boys dig their heels in and insist on getting to use a particular gun, which ones run around like crazy people, whether they are armed or not, which ones try and develop teams, and which ones get tired and start swinging on the tree swing (which, after about 6 years, is finally reaching the point it might need to be replaced).

At the end of the party, Connor's closest friend asked if Connor was going to have another sleepover. Um...no...but come back and run around our backyard anytime you want!

Elaine

Happy Belated Birthday, Ed

On Sunday, Ed advanced a year in age. We spent the day hiking Old Rag, which has become a favorite outdoor activity of both Connor and Helen. For some reason, their normal instinct of needing to fight about who leads gives way to just enjoying being on the trail and scrambling over rocks without worrying about much else. This is good, not just because I tire of the pointless bickering, but also because some parts of the climb are quite difficult, and they need to focus on not becoming injured.

After our hike, the kids and I went to a dinner with my mom's group, and then we came home and munched on brownies Connor had made before Ed work up that morning. Ed found a bottle of whipped cream in the refrigerator, which made the brownie consumption all the more exciting.

Happy birthday, Ed.

Elaine

Fall Needlefelting

Last night, I stayed up late making my first needle felted turkey. It sits beside a pumpkin Connor needle felted when my parents were in town.

Maybe that turkey and pumpkin will acquire a few friends before Thanksgiving passes.

Elaine

Glasses

A few weeks ago, I noticed Connor turning his head when he was trying to read new piano music. Prior to that, he'd been complaining of a few headaches, which always worries me. Poor eyesight seemed like the easiest explanation for the two situations, particularly given that fact that Ed's and my eyes are crap, and have been since early elementary school.



I took Connor to the eye doctor on Thursday, along with Helen and her vomit catching towel*. We were an awesome crew, I assure you. I was completely fleeced because our Fancy Dan insurance might rock when it comes to ER visits and surgery - is nonexistent when it comes to eye care. First, the eye doctor charged me more money for an appointment than I have ever paid for myself. Next, the person selling glasses got me. (She gave me a 10 percent discount, which I appreciate, but it didn't really reduce the pain much.)



I have a vague recollection of my parents allowing me to pick any frame I wanted, and that seemed the right thing to do with Connor - not knowing whether the first pair of glasses was good or bad in his mind. After the appointment, I did let him know what a fortune he was wearing on his face and told him the next pair would be the cheapest ones I could find if he lost the current pair.



I have to admit though, I didn't really flinch much at the price because he is just so stinkin' cute in those glasses!

Elaine



*Helen, like me, is prone to getting sick to her stomach. The good news is that, also like me, she is a champion when it comes to knowing she needs to vomit. If she's at home, she will almost always make it to the bathroom in time (except for one exceptional puking incident last year where Helen projectile vomited on her way to the bathroom, and then slid in it - that was truly gross, and messy, and sad). On Thursday, Helen vomited basically right after Ed left for work, sticking me with home duty for the day. Helen dutifully carried a towel with her everywhere she went, just in case she needed to puke. Thankfully, she did not, but we were prepared!