Hiking in the Woods
J: This is bamboo. Did you know that a panda needs to eat 500 shoots of bamboo a day?
James: I did not know that.
J: That's a lot. Can you imagine having to eat 500 of anything?
Me: What about 500 pieces of candy?
Owen: MEEeee!!!!!!!!!!!
Things Currently on the Kitchen Table
Monopoly, Jr.
J's cell phone
My note book.
Two empty coffee cups
Three empty water glasses
Flowers
J's sunglasses
Four bobby pins
Pepper mill
Napkin holder
Dentist
As much as James as been struggling recently with getting into the rhythm of school, gymnastics, and piano lessons, he apparently has no fears about visiting the dentist. He could not have been more nonchalant yesterday about opening up his mouth for the hygienist and letting her poke around with the pick and mirrors. He requested a green toothpaste instead of a blue one with aristocratic manners at the end of the cleaning, and when the doctor expressed some concern about how his tongue was attached to the base of his mouth he repeated "Mississippi" back to her with an air of "of course I can say 'Mississippi,' do you think I'm Owen or something?" The hygienist said he was her best patient of the day, including the adults.
Cooking Success and Failure
We definitely like making bacon and leek pizza, which was invented a few weeks ago to use up some ingredients from a date night in. Olive oil crust, an acerbic sauce lots of front-stoop basil mixed with homemade ricotta, cheese, and then a big mess of bacon and carmelized leeks on top. That was a success. Not so much a success was the potato and celeriac cake which I tried to make yesterday. I think that if I tried again it would go better--knowing now how you assemble the whole thing I'd cut the vegetables into even squares from the top and then mandoline them even thinner than I did, and I think that would make for better layering. My cake ended up being a loose mess of buttery potatoes that weren't quite done baking. But I think I know the theory of it now.
Abraham Lincoln State Park
We took the boys exploring in Abraham Lincoln Park yesterday after a visit to the local apple orchard and explored the "other" side of Irondequoit Bay. Hiking with them is a trip. Owen doesn't walk the trails--he either runs them (or, for a few hilarious seconds before he wiped out and rolled down a descent, hops them like a kangaroo) or rides on a parent sucking his fingers and looking exhausted. James is in charge of navigation, of course, especially now that he has a rough understanding of trail markers. No scenic view of the bay is worth turning away from the red mark on the tree--no, Daddy, the red mark is THAT way. We have to follow the red mark.
Stories with Owen
Owen is getting old enough to sit through stories. Not just storybooks, but stories that we tell him. I loved it when James got to this size. Yesterday when James was at gymnastics I took him out to the backyard and we sat in the grass together. "Once upon a time there were two little boys. They decided they were going to go camp outside instead of sleeping in their beds, so they gathered up their sleeping bags--do you know what a sleeping bag is?--and they went out to the big back yard. Their Mommy asked them if they wanted to bring a tent, because they might get wet, but they boys said they didn't need one. Their Mommy asked them if they wanted to bring a tarp, because they might get wet, but the two little boys said they didn't need one. And so they boys brought their sleeping bags out, and they didn't even bring pillows, and they laid them out in the grass and looked up at the big sky. What do you think they saw in the big sky? They saw the stars twinkling, and the moon up in the sky? And yes, they saw airplanes. Probably some bats flying, too. And what do you think they heard? And owl, perhaps? Maybe, and certainly they heard frogs croaking in the pond? And so the boys fell asleep under the big sky in their sleeping bags laying out in the grass just like this. And what do you think happened? Well, it rained of course, and they got all wet and had to run back inside with damp sleeping bags. And do you know who the two little boys were? Why, it was Daddy and Uncle Oliver, and their Mommy was Nama!"
Owen likes stories about little boys who used to live at County House Road.
Fredonia
Today is the first real test of whether or not I'm going to go crazy trying to teach at Fredonia. I have BPO this morning until 12:30, then start Fredonia lessons at 1:30. I'll go straight until 7:30 there, and then have to get home before turning around for another morning of BPO on Thursday. We'll see. I have lots of podcasts loaded on my phone.
James Gymnastics Update
I've been touched by how many of you have asked about James and gymnastics and homeschooling. He continues to have ups and downs with all of it, but gymnastics have definitely turned into a high point in his week. He still does some goofy things there, like wandering off into the wrong class because he isn't paying attention, or just dancing on the mat instead of trying to turn a cartwheel, but that's much more in line with what the rest of the four year olds in his little class are doing, and he's DEFINITELY having a good time. Yesterday he got to swing from a trapeze into a pit full of foam pieces. He also apparently broke away from the class at one point and discovered a hole between two mats which he was in the middle of exploring when the coach grabbed him by one of his quickly disappearing legs and returned him to light of day. So, yes, he's having a good time recently.
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