Extra Deep Thoughts

It's kind of like pulling teeth to find out what goes on in the mind of FFM sometimes.  Other times it just vomits out.  Today I get this from the backseat as we were pulling into the driveway after a quick errand,

"Mom, where did the first person come from?  There wasn't anyone from them to be borned (sic) from so they had to come from somewhere.  Where did they come from?"

I'm tempted to blow him off.  It's the end of a long day at the end of a long week. I've been single-parenting it this week, it's the first whole week of school so everyone's been a bit loopy, and I'm just plain pooped from a long hot day.  But I can tell he's serious.  He's using critical thinking to try to figure out this question and he's stumped, the least I can do is give him a couple simple options to think about.

So I tell him in 5 year old terms about Creationism and Evolution and what science says and what religion says (he requested that we start going to church and is learning a few things in Sunday school).  I tell him that when he feels ready it will be his choice what to believe. I tell him what his Dad and I believe and that he'll know when he's old enough to decide for himself and that he might change his mind and that's OK too.

Then, the moment's gone.  FFM, after soaking it all in and asking a few more good questions along the way, gets supercrazymanic and we hustle off to bed.  Nothing like a kid to keep you on your toes.

The Big Day

After enough orientation that we were sick of it, the big day finally arrived.  Or day(s) depending on how you want to count it.  Yesterday was the first day of Kindergarten.  Day 1, however, was only about an hour long.  Today was the first WHOLE day of Kindergarten, where they do the whole she-bang, start to finish just like the big kids.

Circle time in Miss Harken's class, day 1

Were there tears?  Nope, none of us.  Relief?  Yes.  Frustration that the day wasn't long enough?  Oh yes.  Maybe in a few weeks he can go for full day a couple days a week.  Right now he still crashes and burns around 2pm without an afternoon nap.  Our school is very flexible and we can choose to go full day anytime we want, 2 or more days a week when we're ready.

1st year of school, 1st year for our new tree. I am amazed at the giant shoes.

Today we dropped him off at the playground before school and lingered with the other parents until the bell rang.  Kids ran to their designated lines to go into the school. FFM headed to his spot but got distracted by a new playground toy he's never been on before.  He proceeded to climb the toy and GOT STUCK.  The whole school is going inside and he's the only one left on the playground.  I'm gesturing to him to get down and get into line when I finally figure out he's stuck.  About the same time a playground monitor figured out the same thing and helped him down.  Unfazed that his whole class is waiting for him FFM sauntered over and finally got in line.  Hope it's smoother next week.

Here are FFM's early thoughts on Kindergarten:
"I want to learn everything.  All of it.  We didn't learn it all on the first day.  All we did was art and recess."

"My snack was good.  Some kids forgot their snack and they got Cheerios.  I wanted Cheerios and my snack so I asked Miss Harken and she let me have both."

"I like recess.  That's my favorite part.  It's not long enough."  Oh yes, the lessons you learn in Kindergarten stay with you the rest of your life!

Downtown Food Truck Field Trip

Continuing on with our summer of fun FFM and I met Granny Annie and one of her charges (Granny Annie's a nanny! Say that three times fast) for a fun day downtown, a.k.a IN THE CITY.  GA and her charge Rush led the charge on an adventure to find the Food Trucks that serve lunch at a park downtown every Tuesday and Thursday during the summer.  

To get downtown we drove to the home where GA works.  From there we carpooled to a nearby Park n Ride.  Then we all rode light rail to downtown.  Once downtown we weren't quite to our destination yet so we hopped a free shuttle bus. The boys were ecstatic. Carpooling, trains, buses, city life is great!  We hopped off the shuttle and met up with Rob and Mollie, parents of Rush and nifty people, and walked over to the park.  

It was almost overwhelming.  I should have gone with an emptier stomach and more cash.  Street tacos, gyros, BBQ, Cubans, kabobs, thai sandwiches, burgers, sausages, nearly two dozen choices in all.  I passed by the arepas becase the line was so long, and I'm wishing I had just waited.  My Cuban was divine, and FFM's street tacos were sublime, but I really wanted to try the arepas.  For dessert, red velvet ice cream with real red velvet cake in it.  Yum.

There were a couple non-profits hanging about at the park during the lunch hour and one was a charity for disabled athletes.  They brought along some of their gear and one of the staff kept riding a modified bike around the plaza.  FFM boldly and of his own volition started chatting with the woman who then offered him a ride (if it was OK with Mom) and after he scurried over to secure permission he was off.  

Now, we're sitting on a semicircle of steps along with about 70 or so professionally dressed downtown worker bees all out for a nice summer lunch.  FFM and his pal are the ONLY kids to be seen anywhere.  My mom and I are the only ones not in professional work clothes.  FFM takes off on this bike and is a total menace, flying all over the place, and I'm terrified he's going to 1) run over someone talking on their iPhone while they are wandering through the plaza in the middle of a really important deal or 2)just generally annoy those who are in their midday kid free zone.  I am so wrong.  People just start cracking up and hooting and hollering and cheering at him - telling him when to turn and when to brake.

his feet barely reached the leg supports but boy could he crank

 But wait, there's more!  Those volunteers are gluttons for punishment.  FFM and Rush were happy taking turns on the bike, but the volunteers thought it would be fun to bring out more toys.  Bike and kayak nearly colliding all over the place suddenly became the lunchtime entertainment de jour.  As an added bonus the volunteers got a great workout chasing wheeled things all over the place.

a near miss - follow their trajectory and imagine full speed.
Note Mr. Blue shirt reaching out to grab the kayak.

After full bellies and plenty of exercise we started our adventure home.  While waiting for the shuttle we found one of a series of outdoor pianos currently strewn about the 16th Street mall, all artsy and painted and free to play.  FFM plopped down and serenaded us with a couple rounds of "Little River" while the waning lunchtime crowds milled about.  No, he's not shy.  Not one little bit.

Jitters

This time of year I always get mildly jittery. Even though it's been a long time since I've been in school, the first day of school was almost always a time of transition for me. From pre-K to post high school I spent approximately every other school year at a new school. It can be formidable walking into a new school where seemingly everyone has grown up together, clicks are long formed, friendships forged, and the hardest part - everyone already has a buddy to sit with at lunch.

Even the years I was far removed from school, no kids, year round job, all grown up with a mortgage and retirement plan, I still got a twinge toward the end of August.  It's been decades since I learned to embrace the challenge of a new situation, you have to if you want to survive lunch that first day, and yet for a few days this time of year the jitters linger on.

With this in mind I tried to tread lightly this week when FFM started getting a bit introspective.  He's been asked a lot about when school starts, is he excited about school, where he's going to school, who is teacher is, and he's answered the best he can. Granny Annie, knowing our grueling schedule of pre-first day ice-cream socials, open houses, and meet and greets, asked FFM when he would get to go to school (this is why it's been hard to explain exactly when the first day is).  After trying to answer and not knowing quite what to say poor FFM plopped down on the stairs with a befuddled look on his face.  Granny Annie had to dash so we said our goodbyes and I set out to sort out the kiddo.

Me, "F, how are you feeling about Kindergarten?  Happy or sad?  Excited or worried?  Is everything OK?

"Yes, I'm OK." Pause. Pained expression. Definitely does not look OK. "I just don't know when school starts."

"Oh, well today is Thursday and your first actual day of school will be next Thursday. That's one week from now."

F, "That's not very far away.  That's on the next chore chart, right?" He measures time by his weekly chore charts.

"Yes, next chore chart."

Giant, BEAMING smile, all tension leaving his body.

F, "Oh that's SOON!  I'm glad, it's not very many days away!  I'm ready to go now!"

We all get jitters, it's just totally opposite ends of the spectrum jitters.

Late Summer Fun

Our summer holiday started out fairly structured and is wrapping up with about a month of relatively unplanned time. No camps, no vacations, relatively few appointments, just hanging out. Being a man with much on his mind, I asked FFM what he'd like to do with his time.

"Play."

So we did. Then he gave it a little more thought and he decided he wanted to go to: the aquarium, the water park, the children's museum, the pool, the library, the museum, the botanic gardens, the zoo, the movies, another museum, and,and,and,and. Talk about a summer bucket list!  

Bucket 'o cotton candy at the baseball game with Emma

firefighting at the Children's Museum

Construction zone using recycled materials

Finished product! 

One of our favorite stops was the recycled materials construction zone at the Children's Museum.  Plans were available for several projects and we built a little truck.  The work stations were all well equipped, but when we arrived FFM wandered around passing by the first couple of empty stations.  When I quizzed him about why he told me he had to find a station with safety glasses!

After our day at the Children's Museum we went for a little walk on the nice path by the musuem.  Lo and behold Blue Bell ice cream was running a promotion that day and was giving away free ice cream.  What a deal!

One of everything please!

YUM!

But wait, there's more!  Emma's Mom volunteered to take the kiddos to the zoo for the day.  

Planning their route at the zoo

Riding the carousel.
Emma's very favorite animal is a tiger.

 We've also made it to the library, Museum of Nature and Science, and the aquarium so the bucket list is coming along nicely.  FFM and Travis have a date to go to the waterpark this weekend and as far as F's concerned he'll be done after that.  Phew!

So Many Peaches

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood chock full of fruit trees.  We don't have any in our own yard, but our next door neighbors have cherry, apple, and peach that all share a fence with us.  They've kindly asserted that EVERYTHING we can reach on our side of the fence is ours, and we should eat and pick away.  We just picked the last peach of the season.  I had grand plans of jams, pies, all kinds of yummy sauces.  These are the only peaches I managed to get my hands on.

Early this spring I thinned the peaches on our side of the fence, leaving us with a few nice fat ones.  Some of the branches got so heavy that FFM could easily reach up to pick a peach as he passed by.  Travis, of course, did the same.  F's pal Emma helped out, she bounced over one evening and told me proudly she'd managed to eat FIVE peaches!

Borrowed QOTD

We are spending the weekend with friends who have three kids, the oldest is the same age as FFM. After a nice morning outdoors we're having some down time this afternoon watching the movie ”Pocahontas”. Julia commented,

” Pocahontas isn't nearly as pokey as I thought it would be.”

Tiny DIY

Just in case you think we've been slacking off in the DIY department, have no fear, we are still motoring on.  Our projects have just been itty bitty tiny ones.

Travis, with some help, built a box to insulate our whole house fan so heat from our attic doesn't leak into the upstairs of the house (we think our roof might be under ventilated).  It'll be a really great thing in the winter when we'll stop losing so much heat out of the hole in the ceiling.  It's got nifty hinges on the lid so it opens up when we turn the fan on so we can still benefit from running the fan in the summer.

Sharpie for Daddy, Crayola for F

Meanwhile I've been slowly painting all the new trim around our windows.  There were also various wall patches and touch up that need to be done in almost every room of the house, leftovers from past projects, so I've been dabbing on every color of paint we own and washing lots of brushes.  

Drywall repair

After texture and paint touchup

 In a couple places I decided to change our brown stained trim to white.  Our house is a mish mash of stained trim and painted trim.  I'm working on making it a bit more cohesive.  Most of the main floor is white, the few remaining holdouts are destined to become white in the upcoming weeks.  Upstairs most of it is still stained so for now that will all stay brown.

Painting trim.  My least favorite painting.  

Outside Travis requested a better border to make mowing around the flower beds with our push mower easier.  He's been working on some lovely brick edging on the weekends we are home and the weather is cooler.

Father's Day dumping wagon getting some good use

"No really, you go inside and blog.  I'm fine out here in the sweltering heat!"

Craftiness

I'm still working on my rusty sewing skills.  This week seemed like a good time to start, and hopefully finish, a wee project.  Enter, the doorway puppet theater.

FFM and pal Emma are fond of THE BIG PRODUCTION and whenever they get together I am entertained by endless puppet shows, pretend plays using bits and bobs from the dress up bin, and singing and dancing.  When they aren't paying attention, or demanding mine, I listen in to their imaginations run wild during play time - today, bubble party pirate escape while hunting for hidden treasure with a dash of pet thunderbolt tiger.

Currently they hide behind various pieces of medium to large sized furniture while staging their shows.  Like all kids they are growing and growing and growing and are quickly getting bigger than a lot of the furniture I'll let them crawl on.  I have some fabric stashed in the basement, remnants from another project long ago, and decided that while the kids were becoming world class contortionists as well as accomplished puppeteers that perhaps a legitimate theater was something I could pull off.

 It fits right inside the doorway with a tension rod and is totally kiddo friendly.  The curtains raise up and down and have tiny little velcro tie backs.  My favorite part?  The whole thing rolls up into a nifty little easily stored package.

my favorite part, the fringe that makes me think of decor in a real theater

I finished it up one night while FFM was in bed and left it in the doorway so he'd see it in the morning.  Of course I was immediately entertained with a show.
Here's Act III, Kangaroo of the Zoo.

It gets even better...I cut carefully and ended up with enough fabric that I could make an almost matching theater for Emma (curtains and bottom drape are reverse colors from FFM's).  Now there can be shows on BOTH sides of the greenbelt.  Let the drama begin!