For Andy

Don't you wish that you knew about this while the kids were tiny?

Making Good Use of Our Extra Hour

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was Tim's first experience helping to make chocolate chip cookies. Accustomed to studying Megan, he pushed a chair over to the counter with confidence. He had a limited role. His job was to hold on to the bag of chips and then add them to the batter. He watched me open the bag with some concern. After all, I might steal his job. I so wish that I had the video camera rolling for the next part. I helped him pour the bag so that the contents landed in the bowl. While I spent the next .03 seconds reaching for the wooden spoon, he stretched to his tip toes and snatched a chip from the bowl with his little fingers in one swift motion.

He was a bit disappointed that he had to wait for the cookies to cool.

But finally, the moment he had been waiting for.
The cookies seem to make up for the horrendous haircut that I gave him this morning. And incidentally, doesn't he look like Andy with his shorter hair? I think it's the ears.

Word Study

ludicrous

Pronunciation: 'lü-d&-kr&s
Function: adjective
1 : amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity
2 : meriting derisive laughter or scorn as absurdly inept, false, or foolish
synonym see laughable

From the Latin ludus meaning school or game.

Interesting and accurate.

Finally Reimbursed

I know that you've all been losing sleep and dying to know what happened with the Home Depot theft. I guess that the only motivation that they needed was some communication from the Attorney General. After only 150 days, they happily processed my refund and credited my VISA. No, that is not a made up estimate. They actually had the product and my money for 150 days. I'm happy to have my refund but I'll still never shop at homedepot.com again.

Hannibal

Elephants. Lechter. Mark Twain. Smith. Those were the family associations, in that order. They should have been thinking Samuel Clemens because we went to Missouri today. It's one of the places on the day trip list and they were having their fall street festival this weekend.

Unless you are a huge fan of Mark Twain or have never seen a house from the mid 19th century, you could probably skip this trip. The boyhood house and museum turned out to be about 8 buildings. We skipped Huck's house since we assumed it looked just like the houses of Tom and Becky. The kids have never read Twain and were unimpressed.

The street fair had lots of pork. And we encountered more food on a stick.

Where did this phenomenon come from? What ever happened to finger food?

So, it's nice to know that we've been there, but it's sort of like visiting Springfield and wanting to find something besides Lincoln.

Morning Glories

We planted one package of morning glory seeds in the spring. That one package took over two fences in our yard. We got a good frost this week and it was time to part ways.














Help is good, right?
















All worn out.






And, this doesn't have anything to do with the plants but it is sort of related. While riding in the car this week, Megan was chattering away and used the phrase "glorious view." Glorious isn't a word that I use, although I have no aversion to it. Perhaps I'll share my list of words to be avoided soon. Anyway, I asked her where she heard that word. Latin. Gloria, gloriea, glory, glory. I still don't know how she arrived at glorious and used it correctly. Three cheers for Latin by osmosis!

Jack O'Lantern Spectacular

Last night we viewed the Jack O'Lantern Spectacular. 2000 carved pumpkins all in one location. We didn't actually count. Eerie Baroque music tolling from the carillon. Trick-or-treating through the botanical gardens. Bonfire. Great family event!

Pumpkin Picking

Tim's first trip to the pumpkin patch.









Megan mirrors Ellen's shirt.








Drew and Danny hauling the load.

Sliding

100,000

There you have it. A big day for my car. Given the number of hours that we spend in the vehicle, my kids seem surprisingly unmoved. One of them did suggest that we have cake to celebrate, but I attribute that to quick and opportune thinking. They really don't care. They just want dessert.

The van has served us well. We bought it before the arrival of child #3. 3 kids in car seats were not going to fit easily into the back of my Civic. Even with captains chairs, there is still a lot of bickering, mostly as it relates to the proximity of one child to another. Maybe I should take them for a ride in a Civic so they know how good they have it. Of course, we'd have to strap someone to the roof since there are now 4 children.

It gets around. It has visited NY, VT, NH, ME, MA, NJ, PA, MI, OH, IN, IL, MO and Canada in our 5 years together.

We could actually live out of the van. You may recall this entry. Unbeknownst to me, one child once climbed aboard with bare feet. When we reached our destination, she actually found a pair of shoes to wear. They weren't hers but they worked for the 15 minutes that we needed them. Another child in need of socks found 3 to choose from. This particular kid doesn't like matching socks anyway. And I'm confident that there are enough water bottles and stray goldfish to sustain all 6 of us for about a week.

We don't travel with any video equipment. Oh, we've tried but the fighting is much more intense. It's challenging to find something to please everyone and I don't feel the need to get them all their own hand held players. This is forced family bonding at its best.

We've no intention to replace the van anytime soon. The best car is a paid for car. In a few years, I hope to share our 150,000 mile celebration with you.

The Big Yellow School Bus

My youngest child is fascinated with school buses. When he spots one, he is sure to tell you that he saw one no fewer that 3 times. Dropping the older kids off at school brings him to a frantic state. Always finding a teachable moment, I've taken to counting the buses that are lined up in front of the elementary school as we drive past. 17 in total, in case you are interested. Pretty soon he'll learn that there are other numbers besides 2. This morning was no exception. While I was counting, some child in the back was reading off the numbers that are painted onto the front and back of each bus. When she got to "19" it sent me into a tailspin. I was suddenly back in NJ.

Though my memory is very foggy on events from... shudder... 25 years ago, I feel certain that I rode bus number 19 at some point. After much pondering, I think that it was Mrs. Gertsen's bus. All I really remember is that her toddlers rode in the front seat and the last day of school she played a vacation song over and over and over. It could have been the Go-gos, but I'm leaning toward a different song. I've no idea who sang it but it spelled out the word vacation and went something like this. (Bear with me. I'm masterful at mixing lyrics.)

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, that's the song I sing.

I don't remember any other words. I feel that there weren't any other words. How Mrs. Gertsen must have rejoiced at the advent of the CD player with a repeat button!

All the school bus nostalgia brought me back to the bus driver before Mrs. Gertsen. I think her name was Christine and she was called Chris. If that's not correct, I feel certain that it was some androgynous name. That was a brand new bus. The kind with the very high seats. You couldn't see over them and had to stick your head out in the aisle to see around them. The seat backs were covered in glamorous vinyl, which I so preferred to the metal ones with "Thomas" printed on them. I guess I used to read like my 5 year old - making the quickest possible association that contained at least some if the actual letters from the word. It is truly embarrassing how long I thought that they said thermos.

I used to sit with a girl whose name escapes me. Again, I'm leaning toward Christine. (Yes, there is a very strong possibility that someone was named Christine and it was neither the driver nor the seatmate.) I remember her as very skinny, curly hair a la Richard Simmons, and an avid reader. I think that she loaned me Call of the Wild, or some Jack London book, that I never read. I used to hate reading and never read a book for pleasure until at least college. (In case you didn't get that from the bus bench reference.) I wonder if I ever returned the book?

All these memories for me and my kids and I both prefer that I drive them to and from school. We use our time wisely: counting, spelling, and learning Latin vocabulary. I'm hopeful that down the road they will remember more about our time together than I do about the numerous hours I logged on the bus.

I Love My Babysitter

The calendar says that summer is over. The pool was closed today. Immediately after the pool guys left, I went to pick up the kids from school. 93* at the bank, accompanied by a blistering wind. And more of the same for tomorrow.

I have a great Monday morning babysitter. She is 12 or 13 and the oldest of 5 kids. Her siblings are all the same age as mine. They are so close that I feel the urge to make you a chart but for security purposes, you'll be spared. Really, we have 2 each who were born within a week of their counterpart. Anyway, they homeschool and allow her to do things like this provided they can plan around them. Today they played with the giant ball outside, used the swings, played hide and seek, read books, played Twister and dominoes and made lemonade from scratch. The TV was never on. And, she cleans up as they go! I so hope that at least one of mine turns out like this!

If you don't have children or can't tolerate bodily functions, move on now. While Tim hasn't used the potty, he puts up a big fuss before he poops. So, I started sitting him on his "pobby" when he behaves this way. I'm hopeful that he'll be the earliest yet! However, I got strong indications of readiness from one at an early age and it seemed to take MONTHS. I told him that when he's ready we'll go buy Thomas underwear. I sure hope that stuff exists!

Megan is forever asserting her independence. She now has a new dinner seat right next to dad. We know that she has a memory like an elephant so we don't buy that she "forgot" what we told her seconds earlier. She will learn that we do not give in to terrorists. She's still sweet much of the time but we don't jump through the hoops of a 5 year old. Today she told me the following that didn't go over so well:
1. I'll only read that if we play the game first.
2. I'll only do reading if we do math first.
3. I'll never go to bed until I watch the Latin.
4. I'll never go to bed until I have dessert.
FYI...I was helping her read 15 short sentences and I have no Latin expectations of her. Boy was she mad when she nicely and politely finished cleaning up the kitchen then I sent her to bed.

The big two are home this Thursday through Monday. Conferences and Columbus Day. We initially thought that we would go to Chicago but we're still up in the air. We want to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, tour the city from the lake and "do" Navy Pier. Both traveling exhibits run through the end of the year, but a boat ride in December doesn't sound too feasible or enjoyable. I'll keep you posted.