Think First

Like everyone else with a child in elementary school (and probably at all school levels), I am getting crushed by the end of the school year. It happens every year, and I feel about it the same way my research assistant feels about a project we do together annually - if it doesn't result in at least two heart attacks and one instance of forgetting our names, we haven't really done the project.

The biggest lessons I have learned is to back the eff off in June and respond quickly. As soon as an email comes asking for money to thank some person who has no doubt, done something amazing for my child, I put cash in an envelope with the person's name on it, and deliver it ASAP. I know these (mostly moms) are hunting down a lot of people, and they don't need the trouble of having to ask multiple times for something. I also quick-scan all class or activity party invites and decide what I can realistically bring, sign up, and move on. For Connor's classes, I always volunteer to bring a treat. He's picky, his friends all tell me how much they love my baking (which endears me greatly to them), and I know whatever I bring will be appreciated (and it might be the only treat at the party Connor likes). For Helen, I let the pinterest moms do their thing (thank you - your thing is always amazing), and take something that's easy to prepare. If someone needs napkins, I volunteer those as well due to a napkin ordering mistake I made a few years ago which resulted in more napkins being delivered to my home than I have been able to use in the past several years.

I do not start new projects.

I do not ask other parents to do anything for me. We are all dying.

I organize a carpool to every bday party that isn't in the immediate neighborhood. For whatever reason, most of Connor's friends' parents tend to drive their kids both ways to everything. But the last two parties, I simply emailed one other parents and said "I can drive either way, want to carpool" and both times, I had the parent practically kiss me through email at the thought of not driving. One of the times, we were able to shove a third neighbor in the car which was awesome because his mom was - at the moment my note came - fretting about having to say no to the party because she couldn't figure out how to drive either way (which is no problem when there are three kids and two parents have already offered to drive).

Finally, I try very hard to be thoughtful about every decision that is not on the above list, because I know when I'm busy I make crappy decisions. I have already scheduled a playdate when my parents are supposed to be arriving - and it's a playdate that got rescheduled to that time because I had to first cancel it about 45 minutes after making it when I realized I was not going to be home to host the playdate. Gah! So...I'm hoping my parents don't curse me too badly for either sitting at the airport for me waiting for the playdate to end, or having to hop on the subway or a cab.

I also try not to overreact, which is why I'm posting here, instead of on Facebook. For real, I received an email today asking me to BID ON A SPOT to recreate the first grade musical with parents on the last day of school and donate the proceeds to a music department in need.

My thoughts, in this order:

1. That performance was for our children. Yes, parents. I get it. We have all memorized every line in that show after hearing it sung over, and over, and over, and over these past couple of months. But guess what? That performance is not ours. Yes, we could recreate the show. We could also talk loudly to our children about how we ride bikes up hills faster, read better, and can totally kick ass at the monkey bars (well, maybe they own that last one). But we shouldn't. It's their show.

2. Rehearsing at home would only mean Helen would likely be prompted to sing the score over, and over, and over, and over - with Connor joining in frequently. I've lived that hell (twice), I'm not encouraging it to happen again.

3. It's a children's show. It was not designed for adults to perform. There's a fine line between engaging in something with your child and mocking them.

4. If there is a music department that needs money, surely we can get it to them without going through the trouble of a performance and the two or three rehearsals that are planned. Asking me to take part in this is a demand on my time that I simply don't have in June.

I'm thinking before responding to that email, and I'm glad I had the presence of mind to do so. I'll be sitting this one out. I hope the other parents do as well. And Helen, when you read this, let it be known that you were the best damn Crabby Cabbage that How Does Your Garden Grow has ever seen. And I hope you always remember how much fun you had sharing your role with Miley and how the two of you, in your words, "could not stop laughing during part of the show because you were having so much fun." I almost missed that performance, and I almost had a heart attack when I thought I didn't get it on film. I am so proud of the work you did - even if it did make me want to put ear plugs in and run outside because the thought of hearing the musical even one more time was driving me nuts when the show got close.

But you know what my role was? Costume assistant. And I had a ball meeting other moms to take on this task. You noticed right away that I had put special golden gems on your cabbage, and you thought they were divine.

I'll update with the video - probably some time in July.


Love,
Mom

From the Backpack - How To Writing: Knitting

I keep intending to make this a series of posts, but looking back, I see the backpack posts are spurious, at best.

But how to resist these ditties that Helen brought home this week.

Her class has been working on "how to" writing.

The first one, she worked on with the Vice Principal - because "Mrs. C-M is a PROFESSIONAL knitter, Mom!" Helen was so thrilled to go down the hall and ask for help on her writing. I was thrilled that the vice principal has enough time to help a first grade student trying to work on her writing.

Step 1. You will need two needles and a ball of yarn.
 (this seems like a good enough way to start to me)

Step 2. You will need to loop the yarn 15 times.
 (this is when you ask your mom or the vice principal to cast on 15 stitches)

Step 3. Begin knitting.
 (easy, right? just start right up!)

Step 4. Repeat until long enough.
 (did I mention she was making another scarf?)

Step 5. Enjoy!
  (I love that Helen added a 5th step and that's this is what it is.)

Elaine

Play Ball! Softball, Year 2

I was excited to attend my first softball game of the season last Saturday. I missed Helen's prior two games because I was in Minnesota and then running a relay marathon with friends. Sadly, it was a little too overcast on Saturday so I didn't get many fantastic photos of Helen staring down her opponents or generally looking fierce.

Helen is definitely becoming more proficient at the game, and was able to get an unassisted out at first base, track down a few balls and launch them in the generally right direction, and run hard. She was victim to the great softball tragedy on her first at-bat. She nailed the ball (which is pretty rare in Helen's league), but someone the other team fielded the ball properly and got her out. However - because she hit the ball to the outfield, she was able to collect on the $1 reward Connor has offered her before the game - so she was still pretty please about the contact.

Elaine

Stop. Don't Touch.

There are a few lessons that mothers want to teach their children early. And one of them is to learn to tell people to leave them alone. And so I did a little fist pump in the air when I was volunteering in Helen's class and saw she had made this sign, after a few kids were messing with a craft project she had brought for "fun Friday".

She said it didn't work as well as she had hoped, but she still posts the sign on her desk each Friday as she works on her craft project. And reportedly children are getting better at following it.

Elaine

The Oh Sh*t! Road

Connor spends much of his time in his own world, observing little of the action around him. Helen spends nearly all of her time cataloging every single thing going on.

Last weekend, we went to the Kennedy Center to see a show together. On the way home, we hopped on I66 and Helen remarked "this is the oh shit road". And indeed, she reminded me that the previous time we got on this very road, a few weeks earlier when Connor, Helen, and I were at the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra, I had nearly crashed the car and exclaimed "oh shit" during the quick affair.

Not my finest parenting moment.

Elaine

Epic School Photos

School photos are always terrible. I purchase them each year out of some strange sense of obligation, and then when they arrive at my house, I hope they'll at least become points of family humor in the future.

On school picture day, Helen asked me if she could wear her wings. I was the pick-up parent that day, not the drop-off parent, so I told her she should ask Ed. I didn't want to break her heart and tell her no, because she had clearly carefully thought about her outfit, but I also wasn't sure wearing wings to school was kosher.

About five minutes after I arrived at my office, I received a phone call from home. It was Helen. She queried me once more about the wings. I asked her what Ed had said and she told me he had said to call me. Well...OK then.

In my moment of indecision, I decided to punt to the teacher. "Helen, if the wings are important to you, you can wear them - unless Mrs. H. tells you they're not allowed." And with that, she packed them in her backpack and headed off to school.

When it came time for photos, she ducked out of line, grabbed the wings from her locker, put them on, and hopped back in line.

Her teacher was surprised, but decided that it was a pretty impressive feat for Helen to remember them at the right time, so she gave them a pass. (When I told her we had punted to her, she laughed and thanked me. No way was Mrs. H. going to play the role of heartbreaker, which I guess I knew deep down.)

Helen got home that day and told me "everyone was giggling at my wings - even the older children!" She was so proud of her clothing choice.

The photos came home. And they are full of awesome. Definitely the best school photos that have ever graced our door. Even Connor's photo was good! I'm almost sad I didn't order more of them!

Elaine

How to break your mama's heart in one quick step - and then put it back together

Day 1. Announce, matter-of-factly, while getting your hair braided, that you will probably be the dumbest kid in your whole class because you don't know how to read or write. Then, come home and tell your mom that you just played by yourself at recess because everybody else has so many friends from kindergarten!

Day 2. Announce you spent your whole recess running around with your new friends on the playground.

You got this, kid. Two more days and you will have completed week one.

On a side note, Helen has an extremely loose front tooth. Her plan was to pull it out on day one, but she changed her mind - and it's still hanging on. She discussed its looseness with at least one classmate, who told her that slamming a door would be a good way to get it out. Helen replied that at her home, they are not allowed to slam doors. So the classmate offered that apples are also a good way to get a loose tooth to fall out. Helen requested apples in her lunch today.

Elaine

Violin

Helen started violin lessons a few weeks ago. As it turns out, learning the violin is a huge exercise in patience - for both the parent and the student. Helen's teacher uses a modified Suzuki approach. For practical purposes, this means Helen must have a "practice parent" and that parent must attend each lesson, take notes, and then work with Helen throughout the week. In our home, that duty falls to me. It's so outside Ed's skill set that we didn't even discuss it.

Of course, I don't actually know anything about the violin (except that I wish Helen was playing cello!), so it very much feels like a blind leading the blind sort of situation. I have been tempted to get a violin sized for me, because I figure if I'm tasked with teaching Helen, I might as well get the satisfaction of playing the instrument myself. But that's probably extremely bad form. This is Helen's instrument, not mine.

As everyone knows, the violin sounds just absolutely terrible when someone learns to play it. Well, at least that's what I am guessing. You see, four weeks in, Helen has still not been able to actually put bow to strings. It sort of feels like an endurance contest, to see how long Helen and I can last before she actually gets to play the thing. It's not clear whether this delay is actually to build all the skills needed to hold the bow and violin properly (as the teacher purports), or if the teacher is dreading those first few notes, and is delaying their playing as long as possible.

In any case, Helen has the tiniest violin ever, and it is super stinkin' cute. We were told last week, that this week, she might get to play a note.

We are both really excited for this big step!

When I took this photo at the instrument store, Helen was super embarrassed to be the kid with the mom with the camera. I think we can all be confident this will not be the last time she is embarrassed by me and my camera.

Stay tuned...I hope the violin does, too!

Elaine

Screaming in the Car

I haven't been in the car with a screaming child for a long time. Not that I'm a stranger to it - neither Helen nor Connor liked the car when they were little, and they were willing to let me know it.

But for the past several years, I don't tense up at car rides. And it's fair to say that although I remember the trauma of those rides, I don't really remember what it was like to navigate a car through the noise.

On Sunday, we made a last minute decision to head to an outdoor concert. The concert ended at 7:30. Helen had a ball, skipping back and forth through the amphitheater, smiling and high fiving me as she passed. Connor enjoyed it as well, but in more of laid-back manner, propped on my lap.

Helen wanted to walk to a nearby stream, and Ed and I decided that would be fine. It's summer, right? What does she need to get up in the morning for? Well, those things are true, but that doesn't mean she doesn't get tired at night. I don't think either of us realized how close she was to the edge.

To save time, I had brought a little treat for the kids so that we could get them to bed once we got home, rather than serving them their traditional night-time treat. Helen didn't want to eat the M&Ms I offered her at first, because she wanted to wait until she could have them from a little tube she has that came with M&Ms. And so I tucked the packet of M&Ms back in my purse and she opted for a lollipop instead. Only I thought we were delaying the M&Ms until another day. She thought she was getting them when we got home and they could be put in her little tube.

Somehow, this came up on our walk to the car.

Helen was mad. And by the time we got the car, she had started to work herself up. And after a few minutes, she got quite a scream going.

This was actually incredibly painful for me, because I knew if I could just hold her I could help her calm down. But she was in the way-back seats of the car, and I was in the front. She cried for about 30 seconds and then I turned around and told her that we would be home and I would hold her soon. She cried for another 30 seconds and I turned around again and told her it was very difficult for Ed to drive with her screaming, so while I was happy to let her have a good scream when she got home, she needed to take a deep breath and be quieter in the car.

She did. And in this process, she got a piece of hair in her mouth, which is really quite funny - and led to a conversation on hairballs and other gross things Connor, Helen, and I could think about. We got inside our house and I pulled out a child size chair, sat on it, asked Helen to sit on my lap - and calmly explained "Helen, I can see you are very angry. You are angry at me. You are angry because you thought I was going to give you the M&Ms when we got home, and I thought you were opting to have them another night. I am happy to put them in the tube, and you may have them tomorrow."

Helen was totally on board with all of this.

And then I told her, as she sat in my lap "we have time for you to either sit in my lap and have a good scream - as long as you need to in order to get all that negative energy out, or we can read more in our book "These Happy Golden Years". It's your choice, but we really don't have time for both."

Helen sat for a moment, took a breath, and said she'd like to read instead of scream. She also said "but can I have just one M&M?".

"No, Helen, the M&Ms are for tomorrow." Because I happen to know a little bit about Helen, and that is that she thinks if it's OK to have one M&M, it's OK to have the whole tube.

Ed smiled. He would've caved and given her the M&M. Helen laughed. She knew the answer was no before she verbalized the question.

I am, of course, grateful she made the choice to read. We ended up having a lovely bedtime that is worth remembering.

But wow...I can't believe how bad screaming in the car can be. Not remembering it in all its gory detail was a gift my mind had given me. Now, I only hope I can wipe the memory out quickly!

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while, Helen. You are the master of disguise these days.

Love,
Mommy

Grandma's Kind of Camping

Helen must sense that Spring is in the air, and she's ready to go camping. In preparation, she built a fire out of silks in the sitting room, and gathered around a few of the camping chairs. She even went so far as to get our her guitar, which has turned into a violin, and play us a few tunes. 

She starts violin lessons this summer. Hopefully she'll be entertaining us on a violin that can be tuned at some point!

Elaine

April Fool's Day

I think Helen was the April Fool's victor yesterday. She started on March 31 by taping the light in the refrigerator so it stayed turned off. I casually mentioned to Ed that the light was broken and it was making Helen nuts. By the time Helen and I got home from Connor's soccer practice, Ed and both bulbs out of the refrigerator and was preparing to replace them.

The next morning, on April Fool's Day, Helen told the parent who was taking her to school that they were going to the park (which they do on Wednesday), not school - hadn't he gotten the message? She's reliable enough that he probably did believe her, though maybe he was just playing along.

Then, according to Helen, she told her classmates at school "your shoe is untied" followed by "April Fool's".

Not bad for a 6 year old.

Connor got a couple of jokes in, Ed got one in on Connor, and our au pair had paper fish hidden in all sorts of crazy places, which made for a lot of laughs as Connor and Helen discovered them. I have a feeling we'll be finding them for a few days!

I sent Ed into a panic at work, which I thought was pretty good since I had told him earlier in the day I had a trick planned.

All in all, a good start to SPRING! May it officially be here. (It snowed on Sunday. A part of me started sobbing when I saw it. But since Monday it has been SUNNY!)

Elaine

Hoarding

Helen rarely throws anything away. In fact, quite the opposite. Whenever she notices me throwing something away, she takes a look just to make sure there's nothing she couldn't use. She then squirrels away the item (expired coupon book, paper clip, string, scraps of felt...) letting me know that she plans to use the item in "an invention".

I like the idea that she's trying to invent things. I'm not so thrilled about the piles of junk that accumulate.

Last night, I decided to start cleaning one of the three storage rooms in our basement. I wanted to vacuum and organize the area that surrounds my treadmill, because the untidiness of the area seems to add to the misery of running on a treadmill.

I came upon a metal box that looked like part of something mechanical, but I couldn't determine its provenance. I brought it to Ed and asked "trash or not trash", so I could determine if it could safely be thrown away. Ed decided that it was part of a heating system we replaced a few years ago, and deemed it trash.

At this point, my little hoarder piped up "It doesn't surprise me that you still have that useless piece of junk. You people never throw anything away."

Is she trying to say she comes by her hoarding habit naturally?

Elaine

Entering Narnia

We stayed at the Inn at Pocono Manor on Friday night and were greatly pleased to find a giant wardrobe in one of the rooms of the suite.

We thought we might lose Helen, as she tried to enter the wardrobe.

She never did tell us what she saw - but I do believe her acting classes are starting to pay off
.

 

Elaine

Helen Takes the Mic

A few weeks ago, Connor was at a birthday party and Ed was tackling yard work. Helen decided to turn our backyard into an amphitheater.

First, she gathered the place cards she made for our dinner table. I adore her E with as many parallel lines as she can fit. I couldn't believe it when Ed told her that traditional E's are made with just 3 lines. Sheesh. Who knew he was such a conformist?

As anyone knows, a proper theater has drinks! We had water and lemonade.

And then Helen took to her makeshift stage. I've been thinking about getting rid of that toddler play set for a while. Glad I haven't been motivated enough to drag it to the curb!

She crooned songs for several minutes before inviting audience members to perform.

I was the only who took her up on her offer.

It served as a great warm-up to the karaoke-ing I would be doing with my friend a few weeks later.

Elaine

First (and maybe last) Swim Meet

Tonight, Helen swam in her first swim meet. At her practice this morning, Helen was told she could either swim one length of the pool doing freestyle, or she could do one length of the pool using a kickboard. She knew she was "in" when she proudly swam a length of the pool at practice. She gave me the thumbs up sign and shouted "the meet is at Donaldson Run tonight - and I'm going!"

According to Helen, her arms get very tired when she swims freestyle, so she opted for the kickboard race. She was very excited, and a little bit nervous as well.

We arrived at the meet and the mini-tigers (Helen's group of swimmers) were told they could do a warm-up lap. This is when I discovered that it's very difficult to tell which kid is yours when they're swimming. In diving, your child's name is announced and they are the only doing anything in the pool. In swimming, there's a whole pile of kids swimming, and their faces are in the water. Gah!

I filmed another child's warm-up lap, only to discover that she wasn't my child when she got out of the pool, so I quickly scanned the pool and found Helen. Phew.

The mini-tigers were in a huddle, getting ready to do their signature "roar" when I overheard someone say there would be no kickboard race - only a freestyle race. My heart sunk. I wasn't sure how Helen would react. She was so pumped for the kickboard race, but also so pumped to be participating in her first meet.

Lucky for me, Helen rocks transitions, and she took the news in stride. She followed her group of swimmers to the designated area, got her swim card filled out, and prepared to swim her 25 meters of freestyle.

She was in the second heat. Predictably, she was last. I wasn't sure if she would notice, but afterwards, I'm pretty sure she did notice because she wasn't too accepting of the cheers and high fives she got. I think she just figured she would win, and everyone would know she was a star swimmer.

I told her to call my parents, because earlier in the day my mom had said she would've jumped in the car to come see this if she could. I knew my mom would be able to relay the importance of just finishing. That's a big deal - especially for someone who really couldn't swim very much at all prior to the start of the season.

She really has worked hard. And I'm extremely proud of her for this. I also thought her coaches handled everything very well, clearly noting that it was a huge accomplishment to finish - with no help at all!

Unless you are a parent or grandparent of Helen cheering her on - welcome to the longest 2:40 of your life.

Helen - you will spend your whole life knocking down mountains. And I do believe the first one of these fell tonight. Also, it should be noted that Connor was totally nice about the whole event, noting that she did pretty good and really cheering her throughout the whole race. Sometimes, that little dude can be pretty nice.

After the meet, Helen told me that next year she was going to dive and NOT swim, because swimming to just so hard. Guess we'll see what happens next summer!

Elaine

You Can't Fire Me, I Quit!

Helen joined the mini-tigers swim team this year. It entails practice four mornings a week for 45 minutes, but it's very low-key. They often will swim one length of the pool at the end, but spend most of their time in the shallow well of the pool (2.5 - 3.5 feet deep). They work on their stroke and play games.

I was dearly hoping Helen would opt for the dive team instead of the swim team. It's just easier for me if both Connor and Helen are participating in the same activity. But Helen is her own person who wants to make her own way, and she'd prefer to swim. I can appreciate that sentiment.

The regular swim team is divided into "A" swimmers and "B" swimmers. The A meets are on Saturday mornings and B meets are held on Monday evenings. At some B meets, the host will add special events for children ages 6 and under, and that's when the mini-tigers spring into action.

The first week of mini-tigers, Helen wasn't interested in participating in any supplemental events. The second week, she announced at dinner that she had a meet that night. By this time, it was way too late to take her to the meet. Her babysitter had missed this announcement at practice.

The third week, the special event being added was a 6 and under freestyle swim and backstroke. In order to participate, the mini-tigers had to show they could swim the length of the pool without stopping.

Helen can actually do this. I've seen her do it many times. But I don't think the coaches explained to her she was being watched, so on the morning of the test, she stopped about 5 feet short of the wall and walked the rest of the way in. This disqualified her from the meet. (And yes, I think this is stupid.)

Prior to her swim test, Helen told me she didn't want to swim in the meet. Instead, she had her eyes set on what will be the last meet of the season for her - next week's meet. But after the swim test, when she heard the other children's names being announced as participants - and heard them cheer, I could see how hurt she was. I think at that moment she decided she did want to participate - or at least she wanted to be the one to say she wasn't participating! She also instantly started worrying that she wouldn't be able to swim in next week's meet, and that would mean she'd never get to swim in a meet.

It's just human nature. Nobody likes to be excluded. If she had her heart set on the meet, I might have intervened on her behalf and tried to get an exception for her. But I decided it might be best for her to just sit with this feeling a little, so that next week - when I'm confident she will get to swim, she'll be that much more proud of herself. It's important in life to know setbacks and overcoming those setbacks on your own.

Swim team has been hard for Helen. Like Connor, things tend to come easy to Helen, so she tends to excel at whatever she chooses to participate in. Unlike Connor, she's more willing to stick with something that's difficult - so even though swimming has really been taxing her, she's pretty determined to figure it out.

She requests to swim a lap when we go to the pool.

She tries hard to get those little arms out of the water for her freestyle, rather than her typical breast-stroke like meandering.

She really tries to get a good breath so she can just keep moving.

Good luck, Helen! I just know you'll make the meet on Monday. Now, let's hope it doesn't rain!

Elaine

Helen Rides!

I've thought for a while that Helen could probably ride her bike without training wheels - but she had no interest in performing such a feat. But a couple of weeks ago - BAM! off went the training wheels and though she certainly doesn't have the necessary confidence yet, she's getting pretty good at riding in a straight line. Although I claim credit for Connor learning to ride a bike, Ed did most of the running alongside Helen. She still prefers the trail-a-bike for long trips, but hopefully by the end of summer she'll be able to power herself to the ice cream store!

Connor would like everyone to know that he can still ride his bike as well.

Elaine

Mother's Day Tea

The neighborhood branch of the library hosted a Mother's Day tea last Saturday. The first day it was announced, Helen signed up. Connor thought about joining, but ditched us at the last moment when a playdate opportunity arose.

Helen insisted that we wear our fanciest, long dresses. She topped off her outfit with her very fancy homemade hat, impressing many. I wore my sparkly gold sandals, which seemed to go unnoticed by all except Helen. We were, by far, the most dressed up of the attendees.

During one of the stories, the daughter is helping the mom out with various tasks, including putting make-up on. During this part of the story, Helen told the entire audience of attendees incredulously - my mom doesn't even wear make-up! But she assured me, should I start, she's ready to help.

Elaine

Rocks

Helen collects rocks. Not rocks that might have value to anyone else, just rocks she finds while she's walking around. Connor did it too, but not quite as much as Helen does it.

It started out as pebbles. As soon as she could walk, whenever we were outside and she was near some pebbles, she would pick them up. Most of her clothing, particularly back then, didn't have pockets, so most of the rocks would end up lost before we got home.

Occasionally, she has pockets. So occasionally she is able to gather a fair amount of rocks. At Christmas this past year, Ed picked up her coat and realized it weighed about 5 pounds. Seriously. She's doing weight training with all the rocks in her pockets.

So Ed freed the rocks from her pockets, and she started collecting anew.

Often, these rocks come inside. I put the tiny ones on a little shelf, she has a few medium sized ones on a puppet show stand, and the large ones get taken outside. When I clean, I often grab a handful of the small rocks and toss them out to where our trash cans sit, which is on top of a bed of rocks.

Last Friday, Helen showed me a very special rock. This rock would be classified as "large" in our home. It's a triangular slab with sides of about 5 and 4 inches. I found the rock in Helen's bag after school and she assured me that it was OK for her to keep it. She had found it in the bamboo forest at the park at school.

I argued it was much too big for inside, what could she do with it?

Helen replied:

It could be a boat for Pico.
A picnic table for the wooden gnomes.
A place to sit under for a bit of shade.
A raft.
A place for small animals to climb.
A bed.
A pillow.
A plate.

And at about this point, though Helen was continuing on, I said "Point taken. That is a very valuable rock you have found." It's now part of the inside collection of rocks.

Elaine

A Tale of Christmas Money

Helen and Connor's great grandpa sent them money for Christmas. This prompted a trip to the toy store, which was extremely exciting for Connor and Helen.

Helen is a rather deliberate shopper. She gets few chances to go into the giant toy store, so when she's there, she makes the most of it.

This year, her eyes fell on an electric guitar. My heart sunk as I thought about the cacophony of noise that was about to invade my existence. But then Ed noticed a Dora ukelele nearby. Normally, I'm not a fan of branded merchandise, but when choosing between electronic and branded, branded seemed the least offensive.

Helen is now the proud owner of her Dora "guitar". She loves it.

The first thing she needed to do was make a proper case. We cut the top of the box the guitar came in, sealed the sides of the box, added a strap that Helen fingerknitted, and then put a button and ribbon on to lock the case. She added padding inside the case to protect her instrument.

Next, she needed a strap for the guitar, which we added last Friday.

Helen decided that guitar players need to wear earrings, so she sat down and made herself some long, dangly, pink earrings, that she figure out how to attach to her unpierced ears.

Finally, Helen is ready to rock!

Elaine