Jumpin' Jive

We have bounce-ability!! The trampoline arrived today and I managed to get it set up with the girls' help. Not the safety enclosure, but we will get that set up tomorrow afternoon after C gets home from work. We could not resist trying it out, being extra careful without the net:

I love how much exercise you get without even feeling like you are working. Five minutes of jumping and my heart is beating hard! With this all winter and the pool all summer, I have no excuse not to get in shape. A and E were not ready to stop jumping tonight, even though it was dark and cold. They were quite grumpy when I insisted I needed to go inside and call it a night! Gotta get that net up, and then they can jump all day if they want to.

One more thing to mention. A was watching Reading Rainbow today and they had a Tromp l'oeil (sp?) artist and a book about optical illusions on there. She got quite agitated when she could not figure out how it worked. I tried to show her some rules of perspective and how optical illusions twist those rules to fool the eye. I got out my art books to show her perspective rules, drew a picture on the chalkboard, showed her some sketches in my old highschool sketchbooks. She got more frustrated, saying "I don't know how to do it". But she refused to even try. I told her to be patient with herself and that now that the idea was in her head she could take her time and figure it out. She said she wanted it out of her head! Too late. I have a feeling that art and all of this she was introduced to today will be a big part of her near future. E and I played with the camera, doing trick pictures. I could not get it focused the way I wanted, but here is one of the pictures we took. "I'm squishing your head!" That was fun and E took it all in stride. She does not have the drive to KNOW things RIGHT NOW like A does and can enjoy something at face value. A enjoyed doing the pictures, but I think she sets a very high standard for herself when it comes to understanding something. Such a perfectionist! Now, I wonder...where did she get that from?

Family Visits and other Mayhem

We have had a bit of a rollercoaster of a life lately. Ups and downs all crammed into a short period of time, it has been quite a ride! When I last posted we were thick in the prep for a visit from family. But before that could happen, we had to take time to say a special good bye to our good friends who were moving to Kansas. We had the family over for dinner last Saturday night. This picture is of the girls, A, E and M, all together for the last time, for a while anyway. These friends are keepers, so we will not say goodbye forever! We plan to catch up in September at the Live and Learn Conference in Albuquerque, NM. And I feel a road trip east is in our future, even if the girls and I have to go it alone. The girls handled the goodbye with great maturity, even better than I predicted. I think I was the one to shed more tears!

A lost her tooth late that night, after the tooth fairy could get her on her schedule. AND she lost another tooth at church on Sunday. One of the kids accidentally bumped her mouth with his elbow and her tooth fell out! She said it did not even hurt. She shared her excitement with everyone during the kid's time, a first for her. The kids share what they are grateful for, or something that is troubling them, and she has passed on sharing until now. She was very proud of speaking up! Later that night when her cousins got here, we found out one of them had lost his first tooth that day. The tooth fairy had two jobs at our house that night!

Our whirlwind of a visit began in earnest Monday morning. After a nice breakfast, we headed out to the Shark Reef to check out the sharks and fish and other animals there. This is a picture of the kids at the touchpool part of the tour, where they could touch baby sharks, horseshoe crabs, and stingrays. Afterward we rode the tram to the Excaliber to eat lunch, stopping to get a picture with the Dragon, of course. Then we walked to M&M world, that three storied palace of consumption and consumerism! A spent 18 bucks of her own money on a huge bag of M&Ms, all in pretty pastels. After that we headed back to home and everyone rested. Well, not me, since I had a nice dinner to make.

Tuesday, I needed a rest, what with everyone getting me up way early, so all but me and the little girls, A, E and their cousin, went to wander around the Bass Pro Shop. It is quite an experience, with all the stuffed animals, tanks of indigenous fish, rock climbing wall, and cool boats and other stuff to look at. But I had been before and the girls did not want to go, so we stayed home and played. Later in the afternoon I took those interested to the strip to check out the Venetian Canal shops. I had not been before and it was cool, but not too much different than the other casino malls.

Wednesday we went to Red Rock for a hike and a picnic. We stopped at the visitor center, since we had visitors with us. A got up close and personal with one of the wild Burros that comes to steal the desert tortoise's food and drink his water. He was hibernating so I guess he did not mind this time. A wanted to touch the burro, but I did not think that was a good idea. She relented. We left the visitors center and drove on to our picnic spot. It was near a spring which flows out of a crack in a rock. Here are the kids looking for tiny snails on the rocks in the water. They found some. After the picnic, we went for the hike. For some reason, A wanted to stay with her grandparents who were not up for hiking. E wanted to do whatever A did, so she stayed as well. We took the rest of the gang on the hike to the waterfall. There was snow in patches once we got into the shade of the mountain. My nephew hit me in the nose with a snowball, ambushing me from the top of a huge rock. I returned the blow later, hitting my BIL since he was the main accomplice in the crime. I think they really enjoyed the hike and snow and water flowing in the desert. When we got back to the picnic spot to pick up the others, A was very distraught to hear that we had seen snow, and she had missed it. She was not happy with her choice to stay with her grandparents. I did the best I could to console her, but she remained upset for the whole ride home. When you give them the power to make their own choices, you can't save them from their mistakes. All I could do was soften the blow. Here is a picture of the kids and their Papaw.

They all got up very early to fly home on Thursday. We slept in and went out to a park day with the Life Learners. It was good to have that to distract the girls from missing their cousins. A was gloomy on Friday, missing them. I told her she could choose to be grateful for the sadness since it meant she had had three fun days with her cousins. She considered that idea but stayed sad for a while longer. It had been a good visit and she needed to mourn the end of it. We had a quiet weekend recovering.

One more bit of news is that we bought the trampoline, finally. It is not here yet, but we are eagerly awaiting it's arrival! We will probably have it up for April and May and then set up the pool for the summer. I can't wait!

Our Life in Pictures (and a few words, too)

I have been seriously distracted this past week with preparations for an upcoming visit from C's family, so I apologize for the lack of posts. To make it up to you, I will now give you a quick synopsis of our activities accompanied by lots of pictures! You probably won't hear from me until after the visit, but I'll fill you in next week when they have gone.


My sweet girls really do love each other! Not that you'd know it as often as they bicker and annoy each other... But here is proof; I found them sitting in my office watching the pictures on the screensaver, all snuggled up:

Last Tuesday, we had our Lifelearner event. It was a pool party to celebrate the birthday of one of the little boys in the group. The weather was just barely suitable for swimming, but with the pool warmed up and the hot tub really warmed, the kids had no problem getting wet! I can't say as much for us moms! We sat this one out. They have a trampoline and that was fun between dips in the pool. Here is E, bouncing away, and A soaking in the hot tub. I even joined E for a bounce. The search for a trampoline is on! I would love any and all recommendations for a good one. As soon as the tax return is on it's way to us, I'm buying!

We've been using the chalkboard a lot lately. I wrote out the alphabet, both upper and lowercase, print and cursive, across the top of the board, for reference. E has been writing a lot and asks what a letter looks like often as I spell out words for her, so I figured having them all out there would help. E drew a picture of a little penguin and wanted me to never erase it, so I took this picture so we would always have that penguin, even when we cleaned off the board. Behind her is a picture she drew of her and her friend M in a haunted house. The white blobs are ghosts.

A is about to lose her first top front tooth. She refuses to try to pull it out, saying "I want to let nature take it's course". She looks like a real hillbilly, with that tooth hanging by a thread ( the tooth on the right, in the picture)! We made a little loop of dental floss for her to put around the tooth and wiggle it, but she won't do the tie-the-other-end-to-a-doorknob-and-slam-the-door-shut trick. She is having trouble eating. Once I bumped her arm as she was touching the tooth, causing her to bleed. The blood scared her and I assured her it was normal. That tooth will come out when it is ready and not a moment sooner!

Yesterday, at a Life Learners park day, we went to a park that has a duck pond. Some of the moms brought bread to feed the birds. One Canada Goose jumped up on the side of the pond to get a better chance at getting the bread. E was wary of him, but A got right in there and held out the bread for him to nibble on. He was quite tame, letting some of the kids touch his back gently for a moment. A even spoke to him in Goose. She is a little Dr Doolittle!

While I was typing that last paragraph, A came in to my office and started reading over my shoulder, "Yesterday, at a Life Learners park day". I stopped typing and ogled at her, "How did you read 'yesterday'?" "I'm good." Yes, she is! The other day, she was playing Zoo Tycoon, actually Zoo Tycoon 2 Endangered Species Pack Trial Version (she is dying to buy to full version!), and I was watching her. The game gives you a running account of what each animal is doing, if you select it. She had the Bengal Tiger selected and was watching him do his thing. She read 'going to rest in the rock cave'. I hesitate to declare it outright, but I think I have a reader! Just to remind all you faithful readers, I did not teach her to read. She learned it all on her own. All I have done is answer her questions, read to her, spell out words for her when she wants to write them, and assure her that when her brain was ready, she would read. And she has! And more importantly, she has faith in herself and her ability to accomplish that which she sets out to do. By standing back and letting her own the process of learning to read, I have given her the gift of herself. What greater gift could I have given her?

The Good Times Rolled

A snapshot of the Life Learner kids chasing pigeons at the park last week:










The big event of this past week was the Mardi Gras party we hosted for the Life Learners on Tuesday. We made a King Cake, Seafood Gumbo, and Jambalaya. Others brought beads and coins, masks, costumes, and the proper party attitude. We played cajun and zydeco music and had us a good old time. It was a bit overwhelming because we had 35 people, moms and kids combined, here in our house and it was not very nice weather so inside they stayed. Actually, I was surprised at how calm it really was, considering the volume of noise we usually get when we host even just a few families. A had a hard time with the little kids getting into some of her toys that are special, and all the toys being pulled out and played with everywhere as well. She is not up for hosting a Life Learner event any time soon, so we will lay low with that for a while. Summer is coming and the pool will be the draw for future events anyway, so I am sure the party will be here before long!

Monday, a friend needed me to watch her two girls for the day, so we had playmates that day. I got to bake and cook for the party and the girls got to play with someone. It was good all around.

E has been dealing with a cold this week. She is too funny with the runny nose. She tends to wipe it all upwards onto the top of her nose, not to mention the palm of her hand! I practically followed her around with a box of tissues reminding her to blow her nose. Glad to report that she is finally getting the hang of that!

A is reading so many things now. When she reads something, we tease her and tell her to stop that reading! She thinks it is too funny. Her pride in herself is palpable.

We have spent a good bit of time outside, riding bikes and scooters and simply enjoying the return of spring around here. On Monday, when the girl's friends were over, we went outside and they made a train out of a bike and the wagon and a scooter. When I was taking the pictures I was made to promise I would put one on my blog. So here it is! A had to work very hard to get it moving, but she did it and they chugged up and down in front of the house for a while, stopping to "gas up", i.e. drink water, every so often.

I just found out that a childhood friend of mine is going to unschool her kids (Hi, F, M, C & J!). That is just too cool! C commented on how it was interesting that we ended up on the same path and I said, "No, it isn't. It's my mother's fault." What do you think, F? Can we blame my mother? Someday I will write about my mother and the influence she had on me and my life, especially as it relates to unschooling and respectful parenting. Not today though. Gotta go to a neighbor kid's birthday party. We hear there will be a bounce house!