The Tempest

Yesterday afternoon we were playing out in the back yard when a storm blew in. We were speculating as to why the cicadas crescendo in unison--are they excited? angry? reading the same sheet music? Then I had this weird sense of foreboding, which isn't like me really, (unlike the Husband, who is Mister Worst Case Scenario)and as I pushed Helena in the swing, watched Harper frolic in the sprinkler, and cautioned Hudson that it might not be entirely wise to leap from the top of the slide whilst holding his wooden knife AND his Nerf gun, I found myself wondering what would happen if I got struck by lightning. I suppose we need to have a little 911 tutorial. I'll try to do it without terrifying them. "If Mommy should be struck dead by lightning, DO NOT TOUCH ME! and instead find the phone and dial this number and then a bunch of strangers will come help you. Probably firemen, Hudson! So that part will be fun for you!!" Too much? Probably. Anyway, we came in when the rain began in torrents.

What else? Harper has had a big week. She finished up her summer ballet class and I got to watch the last class. She performed admirably, I thought. That's her new friend Isabella, who is from Australia and likes to giggle. Harper came home from class a few weeks ago and had this little exchange with Hudson:

Harper: thump, thump!
Harper: Hudson, say "What was that?"
Hudson: What was DAT?
Harper: MY WIND!!

Apparently, Isabella had let loose a little wind in class and Harper had inquired as to its source. You can imagine how many times "My WIND!"has been gleefully proclaimed in our house since I told Harper what it meant, and since, instead of saying "thump, thump!" they've actually been able to recreate the authentic Wind. It's so much funnier than a knock-knock joke.

Harper and I also finally finished Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It took us about a year because we were pretty leisurely about it. She has really enjoyed it and is reading pretty well. The next goal is to wean her off Reading Lessons with black underlines and familiar words. I was pleased to hear her sounding out almost all of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish all by herself yesterday. However annoying one might find Dr. Seuss, (and I confess that I do find him rather annoying) they are good for phonics practice because there's no sight word memory that's going to help with "Gox" or "Zans" or "Zeep".

I am officially losing my hearing. I know this because when I am watching a movie and there is no closed captioning, I start lip reading, and still I miss things. Another close family member, who is not my father, and who, if we lived in ancient Rome I would refer to as "Mater", has some Issues With Hearing, so it's not surprising that I would too. It's a world encased in cotton fluff. It could be worse. Maybe I'll get one of those little megaphone things to hold up to my ear. I've been watching and enjoying the Masterpiece Theatre production of Dickens' "Little Dorrit". I wait until everyone's in bed, put on my headphones, and turn the volume up to max. Little (Amy) Dorrit, in case you aren't familiar with the story (I wasn't) is a young girl who, after spending her entire life poor but hardworking, has a reversal of fortune and has to learn to be a proper lady of leisure. It's entertaining AND it's given me lots to think about. As much as I love the idea of taking Grand Tours of Europe and sitting around doing needlework and playing the pianoforte while wearing a lovely gown, I think, as my friend Melissa used to say to her kids when they grumbled about chores, "Our bodies were made for work!" What is that supposed to look like for us? We consider (or at least I do) loading and unloading the dishwasher to be work. Or loading and unloading the washer and dryer. Or loading our cart at the grocery store. Ma Ingalls would be amazed. So even though our "work" isn't really much work, we in the comfortable middle class still hire a housekeeper so we can do...what, exactly? Blog? Cart our kids around to activities? Volunteer? Go to Bible studies? I actually do not have anyone to clean my house. And my house is not clean most days. My body might have been made for work, but my heart leans toward leisure. I would like that to be different.

Five elements of a story

CHARACTER:


Harper really likes the Olivia books by Ian Falconer. For the uninitiated, Olivia is a pig who acts and dresses very much like a precocious 6 year old girl. There is also a television show based on the books, but we watch it rarely. Mostly I don't mind Olivia (the books are clever, even if Olivia can be a touch impertinent), but when Harper started referring to Hudson as "her little bother, and when I noticed that she was spending a fair amount of time teetering and sashaying around rather imperiously on her toes/cloven hooves, and to rather porcine effect, I decided that perhaps it was time to scale back a bit.

PLOT:

That's Hudson doing some karate on the deck. His other favorite thing to do these days is drum. A couple of days ago while I was brushing my teeth, he sat down at the drums (which are in our bedroom because I can close the door and go to the opposite side of the house and it helps my nerves) and began to do a little something that sounded kind of like a Beat poetry reading. It went like this:

Hudson: (in a hushed,rhythmic voice) Once upon a time dere was an ARMY MAN!
cymbal: tsh, tsh, tsh
bass drum: BOOM.
Hudson: And a HUNTER!
bass drum: BOOM. Boom.
snare: tatta, tatta, tatta.
Hudson: And they had their GUNS! (which is pronounced "DUNS")
(BOOM, BOOM, tatta TATTA, TATTA, tsh tsh tsh, TSH!)
Hudson: And the army man said, "I will put my PISTOL (BOOM, BOOM). In my POTTET! betuz I will SNEAT UP on a MONSTER! (BOOM!)
And then the HUNTER (tsh, tsh, tsh) said, "Yet's RUN to the ROTTET SHIP!"
bass drum: BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
cymbal: CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!


And that was the end. Apparently, the HUNTER is not as Sure About Monsters as the ARMY MAN.

Also, Harper has been asking for a while to have her fingernails painted. So, on Saturday, I complied:


They are very pale pink, which she found slightly disappointing.

SETTING:

Well, it is Houston in August. So, a touch WARM. But dry, which means the mosquitoes are mostly too hot to come out and play, which is something to be thankful for.

CONFLICT:

We ventured out for a little bike ride this morning at 9:30, to avoid the Siren Song of the Television, and it was going fine until Harper got hot after about 6 minutes and began to have some issues with her bike. "My bike is TOO HARD!! And this helmet is VERY HOT! And something is NOT RIGHT with my PEDALS!! AND URGHARGH I CAN'T GET IT TO GO FASTER THE PEDALS ARE STICKING AND THE BRAKES AREN'T RIGHT AND DADDY NEEDS TO FIX THESE BRAKES!! THIS BIKE IS....TRASH!" It was a very impressive display. I told her to stop yelling and that we were going to have a talk about her attitude as soon as we got home. I've just started reading a book that advocates delaying formal education (it's titled Better Late Than Early) and keeping your kids home in order to spend the majority of your time with them building their character through household work, unstructured play, lots of reading aloud, and community service. It seems pretty intuitive to me, but it is the reality of the actual doing of it that is hard. I get exhausted being as counter-cultural as we are as a family (hey, everyone--here come the vegan homeschoolers whose kids don't go to Sunday school!!) that taking on one more thing, even if it seems like the best thing, is a little daunting. I've been waffling about whether or not to "start kindergarten" with Harper this fall, and have decided (I think) to do so. Mostly because it seems foolish not to take advantage of the two hours she and I get to ourselves when the other two are napping in the afternoon. I'm trying to commit to a curriculum.

THEME:
Joy, mostly. With some irritation and fatigue at intervals far more frequent than I'd like.

Eighteen months

Today is Helena's half birthday. I'm going to write down her day today because at some point, I might find it interesting.

7:30am She wakes up. Harper goes in and gives her a couple of wooden puzzles to work on while I'm drinking my coffee and getting their breakfast ready (a very labor intensive activity which, this morning, required me to pour their cereal into a bowl)

8am After having thrown all of the puzzle pieces out of her crib, she begins to chant, "Ma-MA! Ma-MA! Ma-MAA!" I change her size 4 diaper and nurse her. Then she has her breakfast: oatmeal mixed with a jar of baby food (apples and blueberries this morning) and then an entire banana which I have to cut into slices or she would shove the entire thing in her mouth at once.

8:30am Down from the high chair and she is off. I really need another baby gate that isn't being used as a doggie gate. She can run now and she darts from one room to the next, smiling and babbling and not minding at all when a certain brother or sister yells, "NO HELENA!" or, "NO UHYAYNUH!" when she gets all into their stuff. She is still very disposed to put everything in her mouth, especially very hazardous things like marbles just the exact size of her esophagus. Thankfully, she spits most things out after a brief taste.

9:30am If we're staying home, I put her down for a morning nap. Today we went to Target. It was pretty empty, so I let Harper and Hudson run races down the aisles. Helena watched from the cart and squealed her approval. Hudson performed some very impressive karate moves on aisle 9.

11:30am Lunch. Today it was yogurt and some peas and brown rice. Usually she has some grapes or cantaloupe or watermelon or blueberries too.

12-3:15pm A nice, long nap. In her sleep sack, which she calls her "sleezak" which makes her sound kind of like a little Polish baby.

3:30-5pm Play time. This afternoon we tried out the new pool we picked up at Target for $14.99 today, which seemed kind of expensive until I realized it's still five dollars cheaper than the $20 we paid to go to the new West U. pool a few weeks ago.

5:15-6pm Dinner. Tonight she ate a large bowl of black beans, some diced tomatoes, some quacamole, and then applesauce. Then the rest of Hudson's black beans because she cried a little when I mistakenly assumed that surely her stomach must be about to explode and tried to remove her bib.

6pm Bath. And teeth brushing, which she really enjoys.

6:30pm I nurse her and put her to bed. In her sleezak. I put her down, she pops in fingers index and middle on her left hand and, I assume, falls asleep. I do not hear from her for 13 hours. It's beautiful.

She is saying lots of words, sometimes on cue. I don't know how much she weighs--maybe 20 pounds? She is mostly wearing size 18 months clothes, and size 5 shoes, I think. Her hair is really curly in the back and I had the husband do a dread-lockectomy on a couple of tangled beyond repair ringlets yesterday. She is finally discovering books, but I have yet to read successfully with all three kids. Helena wants to interact with the book by grabbing it and turning 3 pages at once and maybe tasting it a little, which tries the patience of Harper and Hudson. Hudson gave her a little coloring lesson on Sunday:


In other big Hudson-related family news, there is this: I'm doing as well as can be expected. A little frayed, perhaps. But the boys in this family just love to drum. So the girls in this family just have to embrace the rhythm.