Category: Uncategorized

A special time and place.

Last year I spent the better part of a day capturing video at Art’s preschool, Willow. Recently I finally had time to edit the thing. Art and his friends are in kindergarten now, but in this video they’ll forever be building with blocks and dancing across the room hugging. Baby Nora, Ms. Jen’s daughter, makes an appearance in this video (she’s now a toddler…), as does her older son Will. Now Lewis goes to Willow, playing and learning and growing.

“how did the butterflies go?”

Ben is out of town for a couple nighst shooting the Vikings in San Diego.  While he is enjoying the hotel and the expenses-paid dining I am holding down the fort solo.  I’m actually not complaining here.  I’m boasting.  I have lost my cool a couple times, both times were around 5pm, but mostly we have had a lovely go at it putzing around the house and yard, visiting the Farmer’s Market for apples and mini donuts, meeting up with friends for a neighborhood butterfly festival and enjoying tea and scones each afternoon.  Basically, both Ben and I are having a love affair with our children and I feel especially fortunate to be able to spend so much time watching them live their lives.  Here is an email from Ben last night that sweetly sums up why I’m not complaining:

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Subject: How did the butterflies go?

 you know, I was thinking about it on the airplane, I love each one of our kids so much. They’re all so wonderful. Each one. 1-4. I love art, his thoughtfulness.  Lewis, his ever present full throated expression and living in the moment. Netta for her total grabbiness and groans, Bailey for her deliberate way of doing things. I don’t know, I just love them. This time in our lives is so temporary. Art’s already a school kid, lewis in preschool, getting older and taller, and soon netta and bailey will be toddlers, not babies. It’s a gift to spend time with these kids, to be near them and watch them grow and interact and learn. I feel bad that you are home alone and always dealing with the children, but, when I step back, far back, and see this moment in our lives as a fleeting one, I really envy your time with our kids. You’re there, with them as they experience the world everyday. I love that you’re the person who has the greatest effect on our kids. You’re so good, so honest and loving. and you have lots of your awesome still left. love you alot and good luck this weekend,
 ben

Super Lewis wants a pulley.

Just had to jot this down –

Lewis has been playing with the string from his crane for the past
thirty minutes.  It broke off the truck and so he is enjoying tying
the string to many things and using the hook at the other end.  He
walked up to me while I was rocking a baby and whispered, eyes bulging
and wide,"I want to make a pulley with you!" and then left the room.
Later he found a place to loop his string over and made the superman
sound, "Dun da da duuuunnn!  This is a job for ME!"

Moments like these make me just want to eat him up!!

Some photos from our trip to the state fair.

The state fair is way to expensive and entirely overwhelming. That said, we did have fun today. here are some photos:

tilt-a-whirl. They have that stick-to-the-wall look, don’t they?
Aloft in the Ferris wheel. Art clung to me glue but Lewis was entirely fearless.

Sometimes Jessica and I turn around and Arthur and Lewis are hugging and dancing and enjoying a love fest of sorts. It’s a wonderful thing to witness. Here’s one:

And another:

Last of the State Fair.

Here’s all 12 galleries from the state fair (including the two showing below, crop art and advertising). Woo hoo. We all went today as a family (minus the girls who stayed with my mother) and had a fun time. We’ll post some photos later.

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Kindergarten, mother guilt and growing up too much.

Oh, Kindergarten. You are such a shock to the system. I don’t know what I was expecting. More Waldorf inspired casual play and wholesome snacks of walnuts and currants? I just wasn’t ready for Art to be in an institutional, brick and mortar school no matter how “good” it is. Clearly I wasn’t ready. I brought him to Meet the Teacher day yesterday and it was actually the FIRST day of school! And so the boy thought he would be there for an hour with me and agreed to stay for two hours with his class of 27 kids. And he did it like a champ. Even said he had fun and seemed to wear a springier step with his new found independence. Then today he went all day, starting the day with the public school daycare program before his three hour kindergarten class. Here he is getting off the bus, his first school bus ride. He was sure to mention that he was the only “little kid” on the bus. No other kids from his kindergarten rode with him.

I have a tremendous amount of guilt about sending Art to the daycare program, which I imagine is just a holding tank, to the rushed madness that is modern half-day kindergarten and about letting him grow. I said to Ben tonight “I don’t want him to grow up so much. He can stop now.” Our boys are so beautiful and filled with wonder. I don’t want school and tests and curriculum standards to squash even a bit of it!

I thought I wouldn’t mind half day kindergarten because I didn’t think a five year old needed or even would benefit from being in school for seven hours. That is a long time! But what I have learned is that it is a frenetic three hours of squeezing in a quick morning meeting before going to the Specialist Class (Art, Gym, etc) and returning for the “main lesson”. They will also spend time with a literacy tutor and eat a snack, but we were asked not to send them with a large snack since there isn’t time for them to finish it. She says they will be read to through their calendar board, colors chart and other activities but may not have time for stories each day. Though there is a treasure trove of middle school kids upstairs that used to come down to read to them there’s no time for that with the half-day program. It’s everything I can do not to rip him out of there and homeschool. I’m trying to keep a level head. As Ben posted yesterday, emotions are running high. But one person whose emotions seem quite even is Arthur. He seems to be relishing this new experience. He said he was really tired today because he had such a long day and got up so early, but he didn’t whine about it. Just stated it. He said he made a friend but he hasn’t learned his name yet. Tonight we went to Parent Night and saw a pricture he had drawn to illustrate his “hopes and dreams” for the year. He said he wanted to learn about “flight”. Art asked me tonight if we saw his picture. I told him yes and he said that “the dark thing, with all those scribbles and a squiggle on the bottom? That was a feather”. And the brown thing on the side? “That was a balloon.” I think I should relax now. My mom would be saying, “Well, there you go, Jessie! I think he is telling you that he is fine. Don’t go crazy!” And she might also add that guilt is a wasted emotion.