Summer loving, happens so fast

I just can't seem to get back on a good schedule for blogging. Even so. I won't let that stop me! I have been trying to do some other writing. Also lots of reading. Which I really need to document on the other blog. And I WILL. SOON. Until then, let's review a little of our summer thus far.

Hudson draws all the time. Approximately 95% of the time he draws Ninjas. The other 5% is dedicated to his beloved scarlet tanager.

Harper amazes me with her drawing and general artistry. She sat up in the fort yesterday evening and sketched this monarch. It's on watercolor paper which I suppose means she plans to paint it at some point. The artistic temperament is still in effect too, in case you wondered.

One afternoon we played in the rain. Harper dressed Sasha the stuffed puppy in his rain gear. Hudson wore his pj's and also, naturally, his socks and Keens.

We did a three day vacation Bible school (our first EVER) at our new church. Then we did a week long vacation Bible school at our old church. I dropped them off and had three hours all to myself every morning. Mrs. R and I enjoyed Costco and Ikea. I also got quite a bit of reading done. I ate breakfast at a different place each day. It is around 30 miles from our house, so I had an excuse not to drive all of the way home and clean and be otherwise productive. I was forced to go sit someplace and drink coffee and read and eat croissants. This is the best picture I got. Harper loves capturing significant events with a cheery disposition.

 

I practiced a fishbone braid on Harper's mane. I need to work on my speed if we are actually going to incorporate it into our morning routine in any useful way.

That will have to do.

Interview with Harper, age 8

1. Harper, at what age does a person become a grown-up?
"Nineteen. Because they can drink alcohol." (me: actually that's at 21) Drive a car. Have a thousand dollars sometimes."

2. If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?
"Touch all the birds I could find. Pet birds. And eat a lot of candy and stuff."

3. What is something that makes our family special?
"We all like birds."
(this juvenile yellow-crowned night heron and his sister visited our neighbors' porch yesterday! They let us get really close.)


4. Are you a good friend? Why?
"Yes. I don't know. Okay next question.(I tried very hard to get her to name some of her positive qualities. She became surly) "Because I know a lot of things!"

5. How would the world be different if animals could talk?
"You'd have to find special kinds of bird seed for sparrows if they wanted a different kind of bird seed.  Sasha could tell us when she needs to go outside! Or when she needs to throw up!"

6. What is the best thing about being a kid? The worst thing?
"You don't have to drive.Um, Grown ups telling you what to do when you don't want to do them."

7. Where is your favorite place in the world?
"DESTIN. There are a lot of animals there. Like brown pelicans and crabs and sand dollars. And the water is clear and the sand is white not like in Galveston. Also there are lots of treats there. A lot of ice cream places."

8. If you could give one gift to every child in the world, what would it be?
"A bird field guide with all of the birds that anybody has every saw. (SIC!!I bite my tongue..) that I painted. With a stuffed bird."

9. What are five words that describe you?
"Likes birds, loves stuffed animals,LOVES birds, likes dogs, hates ants and yellow jackets and wasps, and loves climbing trees. I like climbing trees."

10. If you could invent something, what would it be?
"Let me think. (very long pause) (followed by an extremely confusing and complicated description of some sort of spy glass that I can't begin to transcribe.) Where the guy has the spyglass thing that shows him where the stuff is. There is a green window and a yellow window...It would be easy to invent. Very easy. Easy."

11. If you could make a rule that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?
 "Only shoot targets and clay stuff. Don't shoot animals."

12. What is your favorite:

--Color? Green

--Smell? Candles

--Food? I like sushi and dumplings and egg rolls

--Book? Charlotte's Web and Pagoo

--Activity? Play legos and sew and draw and paint

 --Sound? Some kind of bird call. Baby birds.
--Animal? I like sparrows, stingrays, dogs, horses. egrets! HELLO!! (as one flies overhead!), roseate spoonbills, crabs

13. What does Daddy like to do?
"Shoot guns. (What does daddy do for a living?) He's a dean. And a lawyer."

14. What does Mommy like to do?
"Read and do stuff on her Ipad. (me: What does Mommy do for a living?) "Nothing really. She takes care of me and Sasha and Hudson and Helena. And buys food. (pause) Usually. (loud laughter from me.)  And goes to Target."
What does Mommy look like? "Light skin, brown hair, brown eyes."

15. What makes you special?
"I like things a lot of other kids like. I can build really good Lego stuff? I can rock climb really well. I can paint and it looks like a grown-up usually."

16. What do you MOST want to do?
 "Have a pet bird. A pet egret. Visit Colorado."

17. What would you like to write a book about? 
"Well next year I am going to write about an egret who travels around the world with his friend the roseate spoonbill." (I think we also need to write a book about Snail World. She created it last time we were visiting the grandparents.)

18. What is your favorite thing to wear? 
"My heron shirt with that skirt."

19. Describe what you look like. "I have light brown hair with light brown eyes. My eyes aren't really hazel anymore. Light skin.(me: What do people comment about when they see you?) Curly hair and sometimes eyelashes."


20. What are you looking forward to this year?  "Going to the swimming pool. And today looking at stuffed animals on your ipad. How to cross stitch. I don't need art classes. I can do art classes at home. I have an easel, acrylics, water colors, LOTS of brushes. I don't NEED art classes."

21. What is your favorite song?
"The one I know all the words to. We hear it at church and on the radio. "Ten Thousand Reasons." Okay ask me a math question. (what's 24+6?) Thirty!"

22. What are some things you accomplished as a 7 year old?
"Painting. And if you gave me a really big book I could probably finish it in a week."

23. What do you hope this year brings?
"Snow again."

Harper at eight.

That was a hiatus, that's what that was.

It has been over a month since Harper's birthday. I think the interview was conducted about three weeks ago. Specific dates and holidays are such a chore. Has anyone ever done a study to show that people were actually happier, if not more productive, before we had clocks and calendars? Although their life expectancy was something like 19 years. But I would wager they were happy years. Just running around spearing the wooly mammoths not thinking about whether or not they had remembered to order the finger puppet bald eagle from Amazon in time for it to arrive before the actual birthday. (The bald eagle finger puppet has still not been ordered. Also no wooly mammoths were speared. And my floors are sticky with watermelon juice. What day is it again?)

This girl is now eight years (and one month old):

She was showing me an acorn sprout, uprooted because it was growing where it did not belong.

Here is what I want to remember about my oldest kid on and around her eighth birthday. She defies easy categorization. She has a strong personality. She leads because she usually knows what she wants to do, and if friends or siblings want to join her, they are welcome, as long as they follow her rules, which are incredibly arbitrary and generally made up as she goes. While she is delightfully inquisitive and loves learning about things that she is interested in, she has not been an easy student this year. She would prefer to spend all day reading and drawing and painting and crafting.  She is messy, messy (like her mother).  She loves to swim, as long as she can wear her goggles that cover her nose. She builds excellent blanket forts. She is noisy. She really wishes I would teach her to sew properly (except I don't really know how) so, in the meantime, she takes matters into her own hands. She has a collection of hand-sewn stuffed birds that she would like to sell on etsy for around $1,000 each.

She is tall (not sure how many inches) and slight (48 pounds). Her hair is long and wavy and usually tangled and in her face, though she has, halleluia, recently learned how to actually brush it. She loves to wear her charm bracelet. She rarely loses any of her things. She thinks very highly of her abilities, and occasionally manages to keep her self congratulations to herself. She adores her grandparents (and the new easel she got with their generous birthday gift)

Here is the first painting she did on her easel. She wanted to use her new acrylics, though I think her real talent is in watercolors.

She loathes Explode the Code (but we do it anyway). She has a large gap between her front two teeth (like her mother did). She loves Sasha the dog, and greets her every morning with extravant kisses and "shzuh boo shzuh boo szhuh boo." She loves all of her stuffed animals, in particular her stuffed goldfinch from Mrs. G, her frog Frog E. Dew, her handmade roseate spoonbills, and her Mr. Cardinal. For her birthday, she requested cupcakes festooned with roseate spoonbills. She decorated them herself.

In this picture she was flapping her hands to dry her nail polish (a birthday request) while wearing a pink camo t-shirt (size 4T I believe) while perusing a Star Wars Lego catalog. That sums things up pretty well.

 Let's call it a day. This post took a ridiculous amount of time because I am trying to use the program that supposedly allows me to post pictures from the ipad. Somehow it won't work. Because the internet hates me, obviously.  The goal is to transcribe and post the birthday interview sometime this week.