The eagle had landed

We saw a pair of bald eagles on our way home from school. I spied the male sitting atop a power line pole, couldn't be sure I wasn't hallucinating, took the next exit, and looped back around at possibly unsafe speeds. We took the minivan off-road to get closer, and confirmed that this was, indeed, the symbol of our great nation taking a little rest in Sugar Land, Texas. Then we scrambled out as traffic whizzed by at 70 mph. I got out my awesome telephoto lens and got this National Geographic-worthy photo:

 We got pretty close before Mr. Bald Eagle decided we were taking liberties with his personal space. Just as he flew off, Harper-the-keen-eyed spotted his mate fishing in a pond about 50 yards away. Squint carefully at the far edge of the pond at the white and brown blob. Again with the stellar nature photography (how do other people manage actual good pictures with an iPhone?? Also while terrified that their kids might get flattened by a passing 18-wheeler??) Know that in real life, she was majestic and in-focus:

It was all very thrilling and fun and slightly dangerous, especially getting the minivan from the hilly grasslands and back onto the racetrack/tollway after the eagles had taken flight. The kids were cheering and encouraging me to "peel out NOW Mommy!" Ornithology: better than a theme park.

The finer things.

Yesterday Hudson got in the car after school and said, "Tate and I were making food into insults today! For example, I would say STRAWBERRY! At him in a rude voice, and he would say, "CHEESE!" Back at me in a rude voice. It was AWESOME and hilarious." Then he started naming some of the other "food insults" and there was HOT DOG and SALAD and MEAT LOAF and SANDWICH and ORANGE and then, BUTTER BOURBON.

Me: Wait, what?
Hudson: "Or maybe it's butterSCOTCH?" He is unsure.

 Clearly we need more exposure to candy and less exposure to spirits at our house.

Mind the gap.

Helena lost both top front teeth within 48 hours two weeks ago. The first one came out with Daddy's help, and the second one came out with help of a conversation heart from her Valentine's candy. She was pretty distraught, but then the Daddy told her that the Tooth Fairy gives FIVE dollars when you pull a tooth yourself a mere day after losing another tooth. After the kids were in bed, the Tooth Fairy let the Daddy know that she did not actually have FIVE dollars, and neither did the Daddy, so he spent some time digging through an old stash of loose change and Helena was the proud recipient of twenty quarters. I should also point out that when the first tooth had fallen out, the Tooth Fairy wrote a note and put a dollar in it, but then forgot to take it upstairs and switch it out for the tooth. Which meant an elaborate explanation (via another letter) that involved The Hobbit. So, three letters later, Helena was having such a delightful time with Tooth Fairy (or "Toofe Fairy" in Helenese) that she began leaving little trinkets and pictures in the Tooth Fairy pillow (they all use the one I made for Harper because I have a crafting to-do list that is buried somewhere under the pile of felt I bought in 2012 to make a Christmas tree skirt) and expecting elaborate responses every single night. I finally had to tell her that Tooth Fairy loved her very much but had been called away for Tooth Duty somewhere in Southeast Asia and would return next time Helena actually lost a tooth.

The little space left behind by the two teeth looked exactly like the top of a heart, but then I forgot to take a picture until one of the grown-up teeth started peeking out. It is still very cute.

 

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I want to put it here in the written record that all 3 kids had separate parties at 3 different homes in various and fairly far-flung regions of the greater Houston metroplex on the same day. They all had a terrific time, but getting them to and fro was MADNESS. I did not have any love left in my heart at the end of that day. My conversation heart would have had a little black cloud on it and maybe even a bad word.

Helena is SIX!

Join me in disbelief that the tiny baby is six, won't you? I still haven't even written "Helena is FIVE!" and here we are an entire year later.

She wanted a real motorcycle for her birthday. Instead she got to choose an American Girl doll. I was surprised, actually, that she chose Caroline, because it is the doll that most closely resembles her. It took about an hour of playing for Caroline's smooth curls to tangle and go a little wild, which means she fits right in to our family hair scheme.

She is recovering from crying in that last picture because some silliness had ensued and Caroline's fancy gown had gotten frosting on it. (I overreacted a touch. But have you SEEN how much those ridiculous clothes COST? That deserves a post. I am not exactly the Target Audience for American Girl merchandizing.) She wanted the same cake Hudson had, though I did use baking soda instead of powder this time. She kept changing her mind about what she wanted on her cake (at some point she wanted Galadriel the Elf Queen in frosting.) so we finally just did sprinkles and she was pleased.

 

I really plan to do a birthday interview with her because I find her a bit of a mystery, honestly. She seems to like school just fine. She doesn't talk about it much unless I ask specific questions. She sits with her friend Jack at lunch every day. She got her stick moved (the discipline system our school uses) a couple of times early in the year, but seems to have figured out how to keep that from happening this semester.

She went to school with a very snaggly front tooth today. I hope she does not swallow it. She still says a few things not quite right. Liberry for library, firsty for thirsty, birfday for birthday..she can say them correctly, (usually when the other two correct her, and not very kindly) but it takes a little effort.

She is beginning to read, but only the simple readers assigned for school. She wants me to read everything else aloud. She is really good at listening. The husband listens to audio books with the kids on the long commute to school, and so far this year they've finished The Hobbit, the first two books of The Wingfeather Saga, My Side of the Mountain, and are now on Book 1 of The Once and Future King. At night before bed we are reading The Sign of the Beaver. She also still really loves picture books. A recent favorite is Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary (by Beverly Donofrio and Barbara McClintock).

She still likes me to hold her, and I can because she is bird-light (around 37 pounds, I think). She plays really well with Hudson, and rarely, but increasingly companionably, with Harper. She SMOTHERS Sasha with affection, and Sasha minds less that she used to.

 Notice the purplish hue around her eyes in these last two pictures? She and Harper found some old eyeshadow in my bathroom cabinet and asked if they could try it. I didn't manage to get a picture of their finished effort, but they had basically covered their entire faces with it. These purple remnants still remained after a thorough scrubbing.

I am thankful for you, little heart.

Hudson is eight!

A few months ago, Helena started calling Hudson "Buddy Bear." He claims to dislike it, but I think it secretly pleases him. It describes him well: friendly, cuddly, and occasionally growly.

He chose to go camping with Daddy to celebrate. The husband decided not to be deterred by the late January cold, rainy weather, and the two of them spent last weekend at Inks Lake near Austin. They hiked, explored some caves, climbed all over Enchanted Rock, and managed to sleep in a tent even though the temperature dipped below 30 degrees.

He got a new mountain bike, a tennis racquet, some Hobbit Legos, and a boxed set of Tolkien. Also, I accidentally put baking powder instead of baking soda into his chocolate cake. His request was "cupcakes that look like there are worms coming out of them!" Appropriately, the texture of the cupcakes was rather mud-like. The kids all said it was delicious anyway.

On the actual birthday, we had schoolwork to do, then we rode bikes to the park and had lunch. We are 90% certain (Harper is 100% certain) that we saw a bald eagle soaring high above. It was a gift. Just like my little eaglet, growing up and soaring.

Beauty in the mundane

I think that future me might be interested in the details of a Tuesday. Have you heard of Kara Tippetts? She is a mom of four who is dying of cancer with such dignity and grace. Reading her blog of her last days has been a needed reminder to appreciate the small things. How do we distill our days?

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the kids had a school holiday. To celebrate MLK, the husband took the kids to REI and Hudson got a new bike for his birthday, which is a week away. I am certain Dr. King would be honored.

So, our Tuesday. The husband left around 6:30, and the rest of us slept until 7:30. We had leftover Shipley's doughnuts for breakfast (not nearly as good as fresh Shipley's doughnuts, which the husband got yesterday morning, again to celebrate MLK) then the kids played with Hudson's matchbox cars on a racetrack (which I had not seen in months--where did they find it??) that involved duct tape and also lots of accusations that Harper was making up arbitrary rules that favored her cars. I had our "Story of the World" history cd playing in the background. It was about the Constitutional Convention, and also how George Washington just really wanted to go home to Virginia and tend his farm, but instead became our first president. (Getting all those states to ratify the Constitution was not unlike using duct tape to jimmy the racetrack. Hey! Virginia is making up arbitrary rules! Oh yeah, well maybe our rules are just better than yours, South Carolina!) It was a regular home day, assignment-wise, so at 9 a.m. I pried them away from the cars and we worked on math, Latin, Bible, poetry, composition, and reading. There was lots of wandering out into the backyard by Helena and Hudson to swing and play in the sandbox/whack the Christmas tree with a sword while I worked with Harper on her math. There has finally been lots of playing outside because the weather is glorious. After I undecorated our Christmas tree two weeks ago, we dragged it out to the backyard and the kids have been chopping it and using it as a fort wall. At around 12:45, everyone began to get hungry and I realized we had no bread. I told them if we could finish our schoolwork, we could go eat and maybe go to the library. So things got peppier and we finished up.

Around 1:15 we got in the car and drove to ChickFil-A. The kids have only been there maybe 5 times? since we started a gradual loosening of the general Rigid Healthy Eating Plan a year or so ago. We listened to Hudson's "Story of the World" on the way (Sparta, Athens, Alexander the Great). We each had a kids' meal and it cost $15. The kids always get fruit instead of waffle fries, entirely on their own. I had waffle fries. (Last time we had lunch at Whole Foods it was $32, mostly because Harper and I both got sushi.) We traded our Franklin books in for ice cream cones, then we decide to walk to the library, which is maybe four blocks away, where we planned to check out non-Franklin books (we don't mind Franklin. He is, after all a turtle, but we already have several in our home library.) We spent 45? minutes at the duck pond before we went in. Helena made a duck friend,

Hudson jumped on rocks and talked to some turtles and climbed a tree, Harper dissected an egg she found floating in the water (just a boiled one someone lost from their lunch and not, as I feared, a duckling) and I just generally basked in the sun because it has been absent for almost a month now.

We stayed in the library for a bit and checked out a stack of books, including a wonderful new release entitled The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet. Peter Mark Roget was, among many other accomplishments, a medical doctor and a member of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Isn't that a delightful name?

We left the library and stopped at HEB on the way home to buy bread. When the kids were getting back into the car, Helena somehow managed to whack Hudson in the head with a plastic pack of scented markers (why are these in the car?) and he responded HIGHLY inappropriately. I tried to negotiate a peace treaty, but he was determined not to forgive her. Someone was waiting for our parking space, so I had to forge a rapid treaty that I am certain will hold zero weight with Jesus.

We came home and Hudson drummed on a makeshift drum set he made of cardboard boxes (loud, also why not drum on the very expensive and neglected drum kit upstairs??) while Helena set up a pretend campfire in the backyard which she surrounded with dolls and stuffed animals. Harper disappeared upstairs to make a yarn pom pom duckling using a craft kit she got for Christmas. I made burritos for their dinner, and the husband got home. The kids got baths, the husband read a chapter from book 3 in the Wingfeather Saga (wonderful) and, after several complaints that Helena was shining a flashlight into OUR EYES MOMMY AND ALSO SHE WON'T STOP TALKING! things got quiet around 8 p.m.

Distilled. Wonderful.

The happy new

It has been a little rough here. Every single day for two and a half weeks now, at least one person in the family has had a fever and other symptoms of viral nuisance. I started it, then a few days later Harper was stricken, then Helena, then Hudson, and now the husband is down for the count. I think he slept 22 hours on Tuesday. Also the weather has been gray and cold and damp. We have watched many movies. ("Bambi" was my favorite. The kids had never seen it. We watched it on video using my parents' VCR! I was wistful at how sweet Bambi is compared to modern animation. No irony, no potty humor, no disrespect...)  We attempted a 1000 piece puzzle that was too hard and kept getting jostled on the coffee table (I hate puzzles. Always have. I can't help but think I would rather be reading.) We have played many, many rounds of UNO (which Helena calls UnA and the other two go nuts correcting her) and also Jenga and Mancala, which Harper got for Christmas. We still have two days left in our Advent book. We will get to you yet, Joseph and Bethlehem. We finally finished our Jesse Tree ornaments. That deserves an entire post.

On New Year's Eve, the poor sick husband was in bed around 5:15, and the kids looked at the calendar and realized it was December 31. Harper asked which night it was that we were supposed to stay up until midnight. I confessed it was this night. We ate a very subpar leftovery sort of dinner, then it was dark and the fireworks started booming, because the people in our neighborhood LOVE the fireworks more than any people group I have ever encountered. The kids and I decided to go take a walk and watch them. Helena and I were still wearing our pajamas from the previous night. She was also wearing a pair of pink sandals from 2 summers ago, and I was wearing my house slippers. I nestled the dog into my coat where she shivered miserably the entire time with the cold and also the apparent shelling we were receiving from the enemy. We ended up at our neighborhood park, and Harper declared we would stay until midnight so she could shout HAPPY NEW YEAR.  It was around 6:45 at this point, and 45 degrees, so I told her probably not.

I did not send out Christmas cards this year for the first time in five, maybe six? years. I really hope no one decides to stop sending me their cards because of this because I would be DEEPLY GRIEVED. It all started when we didn't take a family picture over Thanksgiving, which was generally my launch point. I also didn't make photo calendars this year for the grandparents. Being sick for most of December really cut into my general merriment and productivity.

Here they are before our Christmas Eve service. Both Helena and Hudson had fevers, which I did not realize until hours later.