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Star Light, Star Bright 11.17.2009  The Leonid Meteor Shower was last night. We saw 35 shooting stars all, cuddled up in sleeping bags on reclining chairs at the edge of a soybean field out in the country. Meridian thought it was magical, and marveled not only at the sight, but at the sheer delight of being woken up at 3:30am. We drove out to Pungo to get away from the lights, and I had a spot picked out in advance based on how rural the area was. It was surprising to arrive and learn that it was on a road that had its share of street lights. Even so, it was amazing how many more stars we could see than where we live. We layed there for an hour in the middle of the night, eyes upward taking in the beauty and talking about the phenomenon we were seeing, and about space in general. Homeschooling at 4am - see that's my kinda schedule! Poetry 11.16.2009 First a note of housekeeping, and that is that I found the SOL references at the bottom of each entry were not only boring me (and I'm sure you) to tears, but they were making me feel like each entry had to be a report card of how well we're doing and how much we're covering. I miss the anecdotal feel of the blog before I started with that, so I've decided to put an end to it. So then, poetry. I recently listened to this fantastic lecture from the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. The summarized version is that kids are not growing up in an adequately rich linguistic environment - that the main sources of children's receptive language pattern acquisition (the media, peers, adults, and independent reading) each fail to provide such an environment. The conclusion was that reading aloud to your children, long after they have begun to read themselves, is the best way to allow them to procure reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns. Further, that reading novels and poetry is superior in many way to picture books because they rely on sophisticated patterns of speech and vocabulary not often present in every day life. The speaker talks, too, about the benefit of memorization and recitation in helping to lay the neural pathways for more mature language and speech organization. To that end, we've decided to introduce poetry memorization and recitation using the Suzuki method described in the lecture. Each week, Meridian will learn and memorize one new poem. As she does so, we will continue to recite all of the previous poems that have been memorized. So that week one, she'd recite one poem. Week two, two poems. Week 21, 21 poems. We started today. She wanted to choose the poem, and chose one she'd already committed to memory. So, I'm counting us at week two, and I added another poem to her repretoire tonight, which we'll continue to practice this week. Our poems so far:
traditional One, two, Buckle my shoe; Three, four, Shut the door; Five, six, Pick up sticks; Seven, eight, Lay them straight; Nine, ten, A big fat hen. Happy Halloween! 11.01.2009 We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween yesterday, and that the day was as exciting for all of you as it was for us! Marisa and Ryan invited us over to trick or treat, and Meridian had a great time TOTing with Landon, Cai, and Matt. After about an hour, we came home with the loot, ate some, and then headed over to the "Not So Haunted Maze" a neighbor had set up. All of the kids were too scared at first to enter, but by and by decided to give it a go, first with parents' hands tightly clenched, later with parents in tow but not holding on, and then finally without supervision. They were so proud of themselves when they mustered the courage to go it alone, and came out pronouncing it "easy-peasy", and then proceeded to go through together about 100 times. While the kids ran through the maze over and over, armed with flashlight and glow sticks, the parents got a bon fire going in the culdesac, where we sat with the remainder of our wine and grown-up cider. The kids played happily into the night, and Meridian still wasn't ready to go when we packed her into the car at 10:30! She didn't go to bed until 11pm, but that didn't stop her waking up at 6:45 this morning. Daylight savings days meant something in the days before kids. :P  My pretty little pixie.  A fairy romp through the garden.  All it takes it faith and trust, and just a little pinch of pixie dust!  And a delicate landing.  Posing with friends before setting off for the evening's fun! Journaling 10.30.2009 Meridian keeps a morning journal that she writes in several times a week. It's aimed at promoting fluency in creative thought and confidence in writing. I don't correct it. I just help her with ideas when she's stuck for what to write. At the end, she reads it to me, and I transcribe what she's written at the bottom. Her most recent entry is a fitting entry to get us in the spirit for tomorrow's festivities:  Click to enlarge. I am being for Halloween Tinkerbell. And her dress, my oh my, that is ripped. I am, though, happy. But I am glad, so glad. Glad, Glad that I love her. On Saturday, it's Halloween. I am going to Cai's house for candy. I love candy so much. Landon is gonna be Flash. Cai is going to be Superman.  Comfy while she journals. October's Bounty 10.29.2009 October's been a fun month full of activity and enrichment. Meridian has made lots of new homeschooling friends through weekly play groups, book club, and field trips. We've gone to the Air and Space Museum where Meridian got to freeze a penny in liquid nitrogen and then smash it into pieces with a hammer. We went to Brookdale farm for a tour of their fields, where she learned about multiple uses for corn and soybeans: from foods to plastics to fuels! We've taken a pottery class, where she got to let her creativity go wild while learning a whole new skill set, (and creating Christmas presents galore!) We've been rollerskating twice, and WOW what progress. The first time she didn't enjoy herself much at all, and I pushed her to stay and to continue trying, praising her effort. The second time, she didn't even want to hold my hand, just skating around hugging the wall on her own, and even playing limbo on the skate floor at the end of it! At home, we continue to read The Little House on the Prairie series. We've finished the first two books, and are now reading Farmer Boy. There are loads of enrichment opportunities in these books, and we are grabbing on with two hands and letting it pull us into the pioneer world. Meridian has taken up needlepoint, like Eliza Jane. She's currently embroidering a butterfly onto a handkerchief for her cousin. We've also continued our studies into Black History with the Addy, An American Girl collection. Meridian has listened to these on tape as we've done our household chores, and just loves the story. I think we're strengthening her knowledge of the history of the time by giving her characters to empathize with and to experience the period with. She and David continue to read in German every night before bed. David reads to her, that is. We've decided to work on decoding and phonics in English and get a firm foundation before we try to introduce the German rules. Pronunciation and spelling in German is especially easy because the language is not riddled with the "exceptions to the rule" that English is, so we feel confident that once she has a firm footing in English, we'll be able to get her on track with written German. David just finished reading her The Chronicles of Prydain series, which they both thoroughly enjoyed. It's a series that neither of us read as children, and David has been pleased again and again by the good moral character of the stories and the characters. They moved from those directly into The Chronicles of Narnia, and are currently on book two of that series. At the rate they read together, and considering that we have to actually buy every book they read since the library doesn't carry many German translations, we're going to have quite a hefty library of young adult material for her to read in German when she's ready! And speaking of reading, she's really beginning to take off. We've been playing bananagrams at dinner every evening in October, and it's been such a great tool for helping her WANT to decode and sound out. She races us to use up all her letters making words. David and I help her when she needs it by looking over at her letters and listing possible words she could spell with what she has and then letting her put them together, correcting her and guiding her as necessary. She started the month making about two or three words per evening, and just the other night had 21 words, so phonics is starting to click. Interestingly, she's just on the verge of mastering skipping, which I've read is a reading readiness sign. She reads to me from the Bob Books, from Cricket Magazine, and from the Magic Castle Reader books, and gets more and more excited the more she finds herself capable of. We've spent a bit of time each day working on basic arithmatic, and she does quite well there. She's still counting to add and not yet considered committing certain facts to memory, but that will come in time. We need to spend some time correcting penmanship, and working on the correct orientation for numbers, as most are still written backwards. I'm torn over whether or not to insist these be written correctly, or just give more time for her to figure it out and sythesize it, so I haven't taken a hard line yet. We haven't done much in the way of science this month, beyond the life cycle of plants which comes naturally of gardening together and visiting the farm. We've talked a bit about the types of clouds, and the water cycle, and we try to identify clouds by type as we drive. And we've talked a bit more about the planets and the solar system, but only in very rudimentary terms. I think the main portion of our studies at the moment are history and language arts, and we'll likely move more into science and math as we finish those up in the Spring. The Case Mate Museum 10.09.2009 We had the opportunity recently to take a cruise tour to Fort Wool, but one of the things you cope with in this area is closed tunnels, and so we sat in traffic watching 25 minutes tick by, less than a mile from our destination. We made it to the cruiseline exactly as the ship was departing. Luckily for us, the staff of Miss Cruises was able to provide us with another itenerary that would suit our curriculum needs. We were interested particularly in the part of their tour that would have spoken about how Fort Wool was used during the Civil War. We've touched only briefly on the Civil War as is necessary when discussing slavery, and this opportunity presented itself, so I thought "Why not?" The staff at Miss Cruise pointed us to the Casemate Museum on Fort Monroe, and so we spent several hours there instead.  A window overlooking the moat.  A gun display.  A display of the union forces who would have lived and worked within the fort.  A model of the railroad coming to to the area. Meridian's key takeaway points were these:
 Jefferson Davis' cell.  Jefferson Davis' cell.  The Union flag in Jefferson Davis' cell. Beyond that, Meridian has been curious as to exactly how a cannon works, having seen several in Charleston. The Casemate Museum has a terrific display of cannon and mannequins (not the one shown below), which explains exactly how the team worked to fire the cannon.  Another cannon display. (VA SOL, History USI.9b/c/d) Under the Sea 10.06.2009 I'm just now getting around to processing all the photos from our long roadtrip this summer. Be sure to check the 5 year gallery for loads of new pics. One of our adventures down in Florida was to go to the Weeki Wachee Springs underwater mermaid show, a famous roadside attraction, and one perfectly suited for my little audience of one. Grandmommy came with us, and we had a really great day. For starters, it was the first week of school, so we had the whole place nearly to ourselves! We went on an eco tour of the Weeki Wachee River with a boat guide, learning about Spanish moss, the Florida oaks, the golden orb spider, the snowy egret, turtles, wild turkeys, river otters, and panthers. We walked through the nature trail, which highlighted natural Florida vegetation (and more spiders!). We went to their wildlife show and got to pet a toad, an alligator, a tortoise, and a snake. But most impressively, we got to see two underwater mermaid shows!  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge.  Click to enlarge. I wondered whether Meridian would believe the magic, but she promptly announced at the beginning of the show that they were not real. Not that mermaids aren't real, mind you, but that THESE mermaids were just wearing costumes. She pointed out the shape of their heels, outlined in the costume, as all the proof she needed. Nevertheless, she really enjoyed the show. When I mentioned later how hard some of those underwater moves are to do, she brushed me off with the sophomoric attitiude of a five year old who knows everything, telling me that she could certainly do that. Basket Weaving 10.04.2009 Our first bastket weaving adventure, a story in pictures:  Gathering the materials.  Laying out the spokes.  Laying out the spokes.  Beginning to weave the reeds around the spokes.  Weaving the bottom of the basket.  Turning the corner.  Weaving up the sides.  Weaving up the sides.  Sides complete.  Check out the inside!  Mommy folded the spokes over and tucked them in.  Lacing the top rim in place.  Pulling the lace through.  Pulling it tiiiiight!  And now it's complete!! History 10.03.2009 I've put off blogging out our study into slavery and black history since it is the most comprehensive unit we've done to date. We've learned so much and experienced so much that it seems hard to encapsulate here. We've done an amazingly thorough (considering her age) investigation of slavery, beginning with antebellum slavery, and including discussion of the emancipation proclamation, the civil war, sharecropping, the civil rights movement, and even current day existence of racism. We've toured a few plantations, gotten to see actual slave quarters first-hand, talked with ancestors of slaves who still work for the slave-owners descendants, watched artisans make handicrafts of the time (and in one case be taught by an artisan to duplicate that handicraft), role-played the underground railroad, picked and ginned cotton to understand what a slave's work would have been like, listened to negro spirituals from the period, visited the Civil Rights Museum in Savannah to learn more about what "freedom" was like during the civil rights movement, visited a marketplace in Savannah where slaves were sold and cotton was brought to sell after being harvested by slaves, eaten regional foods, etc. I never would have dreamed of designing a curriculum for a kindergartner that would include this stuff and certainly not to the extent that we've studied it! But this was a natural outgrowth of concepts and ideas she's been exposed to (slavery in the Prince of Egypt movie and our family's continued boycott because of slavery in the manufacture of chocolate). And really, that's the beauty of homeschooling: follow the interest, and get as in depth as suits that particular child. It's been great, and I want to share as much of it here as I'm able to - both to share our experiences with you, and to save the memories for ourselves! PLANTATIONS On our roadtrip from Virginia to Florida, we stopped in cities that were along the way and key to our theme: Charleston, Savannah, and Jacksonville. Outside of Charleston, we spent a day touring Magnolia Plantation. There was such a wealth of learning opportunities there that we spent the whole day. This was the beginning of our study into the topic. Before arriving at the plantation, we read a number of chilren's books about slavery; from this, Meridian knew what it meant to be a slave in terms of lack of freedom, lack of control over one's own life choices, separation from family, and being forced to work to provide someone else's fortune. We came to the plantation hoping to ground those concepts in a real world environment, to separate them from picture-book fiction to tangible reality. Magnolia Plantation has restored a row of slave houses dating back to the antebellum period for their Slavery to Freedom Tour. Rather than keeping all four in the same condition, they have worked hard to have each one showcase a different period in black history. To that end, the first one is a two room house, divided down the center, and inhabited by two slave families. We were able to walk into the house and observe how small a space it is, how hard it would have been for a family of 4-6 people to share that space for everything from cooking to sleeping to spending time together. We were able to see the spaces between the wooden boards that made the home, able to imagine how wind would have blown through in winter and mosquitos come through all summer. We opened the wooden shutters to look through the glassless windows, and talked about what it would have been like to live there on a rainy day.  Row of slave houses. Click to enlarge.  House A in background. Click to enlarge.  Inside house A. Click to enlarge.  Furnishings of house A. Click to enlarge.  Glassless window of house A. Click to enlarge. House D was restored to the 1870's period and would have been a freedman’s home following the Civil War during the period of reconstruction. During this time, most African-Americans worked as share-croppers or tenant farmers. Walking through this house left us reflecting on what little impact "being free" had on the daily lives of former slaves, who still lived in virtually the same quarters and worked virtually the same jobs. The next house (chronologically) is House B, restored to the period just after the turn of the century. The original two-family, two-room home from the antebellum period is now converted into a two-room, single family home. Walking through it, Meridian and I were able to compare and contrast. This home had newspaper glued to the inside walls as a means of insulation. It had a separate room for sleeping than for cooking and eating. It had glass windows. And we reflected on the ways in which African-Americans at the time were able to reclaim sone dignity in their own homes. This would have been the home of the plantation's gardener during the 1930's. We compared the two homes, inhabited nearly a hundred years apart from each other, and lamented that so few changes happened in that long period of time, but we both agreed we'd rather live in the second home.  Inside house B. Click to enlarge.  Newspapered walls of house B. Click to enlarge. House B was was the Leech family home, and is restored to the 1969 timeframe. In 1969, Johnny Leech was living in this cabin with his wife and three children. The cabin still had no running water and cooking as well as heating was done over wood burning stoves. In 1969 Charleston also experienced racial strife with the hospital workers strike, giving this location the opportunity to discuss the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and compare it to the Civil Rights movement of the 1860s. Members of the Leech family still work to this day for Magnolia Plantation, and were able to contribute from memory what the house would have been like at that time in order to assist in the reconstruction efforts.  House C exterior. Click to enlarge.  House C kitchen and dining. Click to enlarge.  House C kitchen and dining. Click to enlarge.  House C bedroom. Click to enlarge. After touring the slave quarters, we toured the plantation house, or "the big house" as it would have been called in the day. So far removed in mood and atmosphere, I actually had to rack my brain while writing this up to determine if the beautiful grounds and home that are Magnolia Plantation were in fact the same place we saw those slave houses. Though you could go through this plantation home with any number od specific emphases, Meridian and I were especially looking to contrast the standard of living with that of the slaves. Obviously, we didn't need to look far - the sweeping home with its expected wraparound porch was indicator enough before we ever set foot in the house. The tour showed family treasures from the period: collectible porcelain, paintings by Audubon, museum-quality quilts, fine furniture and china, etc. Everything you'd expect for a well-to-do family of the time, and night and day from what we'd seen in the slave quarters, where 100 years after slavery was made illegal the signs of "moving forward" was visible in the mere presence of a bed and dining room table. Meridian and I took the tour, and then sat for a while in the gardens talking about what we'd seen. Discussing fairness. Discussing iniquity. Trying to fathom why anyone ever found a way to justify the establishment of slavery.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge. We then took a boat tour through a marsh that was once a rice paddy. The plantation grew "Carolina Gold," a yellow rice which required an enormous amount of man-power. During the boat tour, we learned that slaveships were specific in the areas of Africa they targeted: they were looking for areas of similar climate. The plantation owners not only needed man-power to work the farm, but they needed people from a specific climate so that they would bring with them the know-how needed to harvest rice, which had not to date ever been a crop in America. Meridian and I spent some time discussing how slaves were viewed at the time as stupid, ignorant, and incapable of learning. We talked about how little sense that made when the people who enslaved them particularly sought them out for their expertise. We talked some more about fairness. We talked about greed.  Magnolia Plantation Boat Tour. Click to enlarge.  Carolina Gold crop. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge.  Magnolia Plantation. Click to enlarge. In Florida, we stopped in Jacksonville to visit Kingsley Plantation. Kingsley Plantation was primarily a cotton plantation, and while there we were able to view their remaining slave quarters in varying degrees of preservation and restoration. Most notable to us immediately was the different building materials used to make these structures. They were not made of wood as the slave cabins had been in South Carolina, but rather from tabby - a kind of concrete made from oyster shells. Oyster shells were plentiful and could be burned to release their lime and produce a hard surface construction material. The slave quarters were made completely from this material, right down to the floor. Meridian and I layed down on the floor to judge how comfortable that would have been to sleep on, considering that beds were not often owned by slaves. We compared and contrasted to what we'd seen on the SC plantation. We noted that these houses also were two room houses, only one of which contained a fireplace. So, we concluded that one family must have lived in each home. Though we first thought this was an improvement, upon further observation, we estimated that the rough size of the two rooms in these tabby houses was about the equivalent of the one room slaves had at Magnolia Plantation. We noted that there were also glassless windows here, but that they lacked shutters as well. We concluded that between the two plantations, the slaves at Kingsley Plantation had a rougher go of things.  Kingsley Plantation. Click to enlarge. Like Magnolia Plantation, we learned that Kingsley Plantation utilized the Task System, whereby each slave was given a daily task and had to work from sunrise until that task was completed. At first that sounds like an improvement upon the gang system, wherein slaves had to work from sun-up to sun-down. But we learned from the staff there that the tasks were such that it most often took that much time anyway. The staff was very attentive and worked with Meridian to help her understand what all that meant. They told her that the job of a child her age would probably have been ginning cotton (removing the seeds from the cotton). They gave her some fresh cotton bolls to pick and gin. Meridian spent five minutes trying to get the seeds out of her first boll of cotton, freeing three seeds before deciding that "this is too hard". We talked about how slave children would not have been permitted to give up, and would likely have been whipped if they didn't work hard enough. Meridian asked how many seeds she'd have to collect before her "task" would be done, and learned that children were expected to gin their weight in cotton each day. That was unfathomable to Meridian (and to me too, in fact)! After we'd ginned some cotton, we went outside to the fields. The plantation staff have marked off 1/4 acre, the average plot size that each slave was expected to clear in a day. We walked up one row and down the next until we had walked the entire crop. It took us 22 minutes, just walking (and we were hurrying). We discussed how long it would take to stop every few inches and remove all the cotton from all the plants as we went, how tired we would be carrying all that cotton on our backs throughout those long hours. When we finished at Kingsley Plantation, the staff awarded Meridian with a badge of completion, which she was completely taken with. They also gave us instructions for making our own corn husk doll, which would have been the kind of doll owned by a slave child. We bought a hand-held cotton spindle, and took our Sea Island Cotton with us to practice spinning into thread as slaves would have to create their own clothes. We haven't done either of those activities yet, but we have them handy for the next rainy day. Homeschooling families who are reading this can find some really good activities and curriculum materials here.  Kingsley Plantation. Click to enlarge. ARTISANS At Magnolia Plantation, we watched for a long time as a woman made sweetgrass baskets. She was such a nice lady. We just sat there for probably forty minutes watching her, and asking questions, and making conversation. Meridian was taken withthe whole basket-weaving idea. She paid close attention, knowing already that she wanted to try it herself. There was a sweet old man who came and sat for a while talking to the basket-maker. He tried real hard to make conversation with Meridian, but his accent was so thick, I had to work hard to understand him; Meridian actually thought he was speaking a foreign language. He'd lived there since he was born and talked to us about his own boys and his life tending ground on the plantation. It was really fantastic to listen to a first person account of how life had changed for him over the decades. I didn't ask how old he was, but he looked about 200 years old, and he had lots of stories. Meridian was more interested in watching the basket weaver. We considered buying one of her baskets, but they were very expensive, and we had to pass. Later, we saw other basketmakers at the public market in Charleston (including the woman pictured below), and decided to buy a basket as a souvenir after all.  Making a sweetgrass basket. Walking through the market, we also saw roses made of palm fronds, which we learned are called Confederate Love Roses. As the tale goes, women would make them for confederate soldiers, and they were supposed to give them back to the woman when they returned from the war. I'm not sure how true that legend is, given that our roses had already begun to unwind a few days after we bought them, but its a romantic notion, and neat to see a local artisan making something right in front of us. We didn't buy any roses while we were in Charleston, thinking we'd get palm fronds down in Florida and figure out how to make them ourselves as an enrichment activity. Well, we did try that, and we did fail. So, on our trip back north, we made a point to buy some while we were in Savannah.  Making a Confederate Love Rose.  Making a Confederate Love Rose.  A bunch of Confederate Love Roses. Meridian paid close attention, and as with all handicrafts was taken with the idea of doing it herself. She noticed as we walked down by the river in Savannah, that there was a certain stringy part of the palm (a different kind of palm altogether than what I'd tried using) that the rose-makers threw away. So, she began to collect those parts as we walked and unable to reproduce their rose, she fashioned them into her own flower which she decided was a tulip. Late in the evening as we were headed home, we stopped for some post cards and I noticed a basket of the palm fronds in the corner and asked if they were for sale. The clerk pointed us to a rosemaker to whom they belonged, and we asked him. When he learned we wanted to try to make them as an enrichment activity for our studies, he insisted on giving us a bunch of fronds and sitting down outside to teach us how to do them. We watched and made mental notes, and then after listening for a time, Meridian decided to show him "how to make tulips". What a sweet ol' grampa he was, giving her his undivided attention and allowing her to teach him.  Making a Confederate Love Rose.  Making a Confederate Love Rose. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT While in Savannah, we took the opportunity to visit the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. What a fantastic place! Visiting Magnolia Plantation and seeing slave quarters restored to the civil rights period began our discussion into that timeframe, into how freedom didn't come overnight to African Americans, but rather has slowly happened over the last 150 years. That left the door open for more thorough investigation, and the museum was perfect. It's set up according to a timeline, taking you from slavery through current day. It was chock full of photographs and interactive displays. We learned about the separations of the races, the limitations placed on African Americans in terms of education, occupation, and interaction in the community. I offered Meridian a jellybean for each fact she learned that she could still tell me after we left the museum. She earned 11 jellybeans, which she then traded for marshmallows on a stick from a Savannah candy shop.  Civil Rights Timeline  Lunch counter demonstration (VA SOL, History, K.1-2; 1.1/10; 2.11; 3.11; VS.7-9; USI.9-10; USII.3) Obviously a study into these matters in kindergarten is not comprehensive, nor have we exhaustively met any of the curriculum objectives noted, but we have touched on each of them in this unit study and laid the groundwork for further investigation and analysis as it becomes developmentally appropriate. In this way, we will continue a spiral curriculum, revisiting the history over time and building on Meridian's growing bank of knowledge. In the process, we have the opportunity to impart our values and cultivate Meridian's moral character. Literature 09.30.2009 We're reading the Little House on the Prairie series, and learning a good bit about pioneer life, and enjoying so many enrichment activities that would have been par for the course in Laura's every day life. Lately, David has been seeking a kind of back-to-basics lifestyle - a life full of activities that revolve around the home, the garden, and the kitchen. And in that way, as a matter of coincidence, David had begun to explore a number of experiences that overlap certain areas of pioneer life. So, it was neat for Meridian when we came to the cheese-making chapter in The Little House in the Big Woods because she was completely familiar with the process. She could connect with the characters in a concrete way because she'd had the same experience. In the same way, when she came to the chapter on gardening, it was a reinforcement of what she's already learned in our own garden with David.(VA SOL, Kindergarten, Science K.6/8/9, Health K.1a) Many of the activities that Laura and Mary experience, we're able to pull out as enrichment activities that we can perform at home - like freezing maple syrup in snow to create maple candy (during our one you-could-almost-call-it-snow last winter :P). David had been talking about exploring an interest in beekeeping in our yard, and by coincidence there was a chapter in the first book where Pa encounters bees and harvests honey from their hive. He and Meridian are looking forward to putting their own hive together in the backyard, and hopefully soon harvesting their own honey, which will create wonderful opportunities for lessons on life-cycle and the interdependencies between the plant and animal kingdoms. Well, not to mention just being yummy! (VA SOL, Kindergarten, Science K.1a-c/2/4/6/8/9/10) Reading this series has been a great experience so far, and will continue to be. It is like skipping a rock across the curriculum as we can use this one source to draw on opportunities to explore history (pioneer experience), health (nutrition and original sources of food ), folk music (with emphasis on fiddle), social studies (community planning and inter-dependencies), art (folk-crafting) and more. Currently, we're able to tie together two of our "unit studies" (both our study into slavery and our continued study of pioneer life) with two craft projects:
Computation 09.27.2009 Over the last several months, we've been doing simple addition and subtraction as it crops up in daily life here and there. For instance, while putting away a marble game, "There are ten marbles, but we only found eight of them; how many are still missing?" And then when she figures out the answer, I switch it up some, "How many would be missing if I hid three more?" And in this way, over the course of the last few months, Meridian has become comfortable with simple addition and subtraction with sums up to fifteen or so. We still work them into daily activities as a means of commiting the sums to memory. (VA SOL, Kindergarten, Math K.2a, K.6) More recently, I've started to introduce vertical math notation so that she is familiar and comfortable with that notation. When vertical math notation takes root, we will move on to horizontal math sentences. As we work through the worksheets, we identify patterns (such as the reciprocity of addition) and shortcuts (like starting with the larger number when adding). (VA SOL, Grade 1, Math 1.18) Literacy 09.23.2009 Meridian continues to show an interest in learning to read, and has begun to show the basic skills for decoding words. She is practicing reading with the Bob Books, as well as Dr. Suess. She also enjoys writing and gets plenty of practice decoding words in her own efforts to write letters, lists, signs, etc. I'm always finding letters she writes to her friends around the house. Earlier today, I found this cute little note to David on our fridge:  Click to enlarge. Translation: "If you would hear our knock would you let my little pet know that you're here so that he can unlock the door. <3 Meridian" Her memory for phonics rules is becoming stronger, as is her personal dictionary of sight words. We're also keeping a journal together, based on the Flat Stanley book. Meridian made a Flat Ruby, and journals about Ruby's many adventures (really Meridian's own personal adventures) using a form I made where she completes sentences about what Ruby did, how it made her feel, and what she learned.
 Click to enlarge. "Piggy-Banking" Off the Last Post 09.21.2009 We spent the past week organizing for our garage sale, which involved lots of sorting and classifying. Meridian was remarkably level-headed considering how many of her toys were hitting the sale pile. She did raise several objections. On a few occasions, she made her case strongly enough, and had the final word. The remainder of the time, the items hit the pile, and I told her that on sale day she could have one "rescue," and that seemed to placate her. Aside from prepping our materials for the garage sale, we also spent a fair amount of time learning more about money. We read lots of picture books that teach about money, and lots of time practicing counting by coin denominations and using coins to make various sums. Meridian's favorite way to practice this is by playing petshop. She sets the animals up in her little vet center, and prices each animal. Then she plays either the customer or the shop keeper. In that way, she got lots of opportunity to practice combining coins to reach a certain value. We haven't reached concept mastery, but I see the wheels turning and the gears cranking and I know this is going to all fall into place fairly soon. She's got counting and multiplying by dimes down pat, and she's got adding and subtracting pennies down. Nickels are almost there. She can almost consistently count by 5's, but sometimes she reverses the order: 20, 25, 35, 30, 45, 40, etc. Quarters are still tough for her. But she's moving along nicely, and we continue to look for opportunities for her to practice in a real world setting. The garage sale was another such opportunity. I'd originally envisioned her helping tally actual sales (this whole sale was her idea, after all, so she wanted to be a key part of it). But in the end, it proved more practical to to have her and her friend man the lemonade stand. They did pretty well, and were super proud of themselves (and a little indignant at any yard-saler who didn't elect to buy from them). And now, deep sigh of relief with the yard sale behind us. Aaaah! A clean garage, a full piggy bank, and that fresh after-purge glow! Meridian helped tally the earnings, graph the value by denomination, and then decide upon how much should go into savings, how much to spend, and how much to donate to charity. She chose her charity after we happened upon another lemonade stand YouTube video made by a little girl who died from neuroblastoma. She thought it would be appropriate if her lemonade money went to the scientists who are trying to find a cure.  Click to enlarge. Future Business Leaders of America 09.13.2009 Meridian has something of an entrepreneurial spirit. For months and months now, she's wanted us to allow her to set up shop on the corner of our culdesac so that she could sell things. Her ideas have ranged from allowing passersby to commission drawings, to making pipe-cleaner animals, to selling her stuffed animals, to today's idea: hand-sewing socks and hats for people passing by. We love her spirit, and we want to encourage her endeavors, but we don't want to put her out on the corner of the block doomed to fail. Because, let's be real here: making a hat from fabric socks isn't likely to be extremely successful, desireable, or efficient. Today, David smoothly paved the way from hand-made clothing to a lemonade stand. And to that end, she and David spent the morning baking fresh banana bread. Then she and I made a sign (I did the words; she made the felt fruit). We all three pitched in to make the lemonade, Papi and Meridian squeezing the lemons while I made a sugary lemon flavored syrup. Before we headed out, we spent a little bit of time going over coin values, and the different possiblities for forming 25¢. We went through a few workbook pages on coins, and until she declared herself ready. We hung the sign on her puppet theater, and set up shop on the corner. She was as cute as could be in her little Lucy-syled lemonade stand. It was a good homeschooling opportunity for her to practice with money and coin values. After the sale, we did a little more work with the coins. She separated the coins into $1 incrememnts, counting the nickels by 5s, the dimes by 10s, and the quarters by 25s. We made a bar graph showing how many of each type of coin she'd gotten, and I asked her questions about the chart. In the end, she came away $6.81 richer, the majority of which came in the form of tips! She can't wait to head to the bank tomorrow to deposit her earnings. Boo-Boos 09.12.2009 As all of the vestiges of babyhood fall away, and I'm left with this grown-up five year old, there are special moments I savor and cherish more dearly than others. Every time she asks me to snuggle. Whenever she comes running toward me, holding out a bruised body part to be kissed and cured. When her whole face shows her emotion, tears brimming under her lashes, not yet needing privacy for her emotions. Such a moment came this morning. I was processing photos on the computer, and she was playing with her dolls while David built a paper model of the Empire State Building. She came running in, a beloved stuffed toy held out ahead of her. "Mommy, Gelbebär has a hole in him," she exclaimed. And all of a sudden her wall of composure crumbled to bits, tears leaped from her eyes, and she bawled. I took Gelbebär carefully, and searched for the hole (an infinitessimal parting in the seam, so small my pinky didn't fit through it, but there nonetheless). I told her she'd brought him to the right surgeon and that I'd get him fixed up in no time. She's had Gelbebär since birth; for a time he was the animal she'd slept with at night. So, I understood as she bawled while I sewed him up, remembering all too well how I'd felt when the threads that made Cabby's (my cabbage patch's) toes came apart, leaving her toeless. My mom was able to resew her toes, and give her back to me fully restored. I shared the story with Meridian, and felt connected to her - both of us having now lived through the same childhood rite of passage. As I type this now, I feel strangely connected to my own mom - connected by an act of motherhood we both lovingly bestowed on our own daughters. I guess every once in a while, she got it just right. Ecology 09.09.2009 We explored the ecology of many of the areas we've visited, particularly Florida and South Carolina: frogs, alligators, lizards, fire ants, spiders, horseflies, herons, egrets, etc. We visited the garden where John Audubon spent a good deal of time drawing birds native to the swamp there, and were able to see many of those birds in their natural landscape. We captured a squirrel frog when we found it on the porch to examine it up close, and then researched it on the internet to hear its call; later we released it and were able to identify its call on subsequent nights. We had cause to learn about fire ants when we were bitten by them in NC, SC, and FL. Florida and South Carolina were rife with spiders (which we later learned were Golden Orb Spinners) and dozens of species of lizards. And having heard much of the lore about alligators in FL, we went to seek them out as well, though this time we were happy NOT to meet with one in its natural habitat. Map Skills 09.08.2009 Each time we got in the car, I gave Meridian our road atlas with our route highlighted. She'd locate our current city (sounding out the word, and asking for help when she needed it), and then trace our route as we went. From the front seat, I'd ask questions about the direction we were traveling, which direction we'd have to turn to reach other destinations, etc. In this way she got pretty comfortable with cardinal directions (North, East, South, and West), and would tell me when our route was veering from our general north/south route. I feel this was a really solid beginning towards mastery of cardinal directions, but I know that she hasn't reached mastery yet because we began a new segment of our trip, she would often ask, "Which way is west?" or a similar question which shows she's not yet mastered this topic. As we drove, she would ask questions about the map, and I would explain what the various symbols were for, and then point them out as we came to them physically. (RR tracks, junctions, airports, exits, state borders, etc) She kept the map nearby, consulting it when it seemed interesting to her (usually for about 20 minutes at the outset of a new trip) and then setting it aside to refer back to if she developed further interest. We also played the license plate game on our trip, keeping a pad with a list of the plates we'd already found, and adding new ones as we encountered them. In this way, Meridian began to be able to remember the names of many of the states as well as to place many of them on a map. We were able to find 43 of the 50 states. By the end of our trip, Meridian could confidently identify the east coast states we'd driven through on a blank map, along with a handful of others that are interesting to her for her own reasons (interesting shapes, settings in books she's read, etc.) We used a wipe-off map to dot the states. Since I was driving and couldn't point out the state to her, I'd give her clues pertaining to the shape of the state and use cardinal directions to help her navigate to that state from one that she could already easily identify. She could also flip the map over to find the written name of the state and some identifying picture (a main crop, landmark, or industry).  Click to enlarge. Un-schooling Adventures 09.07.2009 Boy! Do we have loads to catch up on?! What a ride we've been on. So first, the big news, which most of you know by now anyway: After much back and forth and fickleness, WE ARE HOMESCHOOLING! The decision was really made for us when the school we wanted turned our application down because of over-enrollment. If I weren't so very far behind on this blog, I'd use this space to reflect on where we are and how we got here, but since I am that far behind, I'll jump right into the meat of things. Our brand of homeschooling most closely aligns with the un-schooling movement. That is, we aren't following a prescribed curriculum, we aren't enrolling in a full day of co-op classes, we aren't enrolling at an online academy, we aren't dedicating a certain amount of time per day to schooling in any formal fashion. Rather, we are grabbing the natural learning opportunities that present themselves in the normal course of life, exploring them with interest, and delving as deeply as we feel moved to. I know that to people unfamiliar with this type of education that this seems wholely radical and incomplete, but I suspect that this method will be more natural and thorough than most formal studies made through text-books and required by state curriculum. Because our studies will be a natural outgrowth of our experiences and interests, the child will naturally want to satiate her own curiosity. To that end, we began un-schooling on August 1st, and kicked off our homeschooling adventure with a tour of the East Coast. We spent a month on the road, first travelling north to New York, and then back south all the way down to Florida with stops along the way in New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The vast amount of material we covered really stunned me when I recently typed it all out to a friend. My hope is to use this site to journal our experiences and to hopefully give readers a more complete picture of how unschooling can be managed and can provide a complete education. Learning about what homeschooling and unschooling are has been something of an education for Meridian as well, and we recently had a conversation which helped support the case that learning which is a natural extention of experience and interest is embraced by the student much more than the typical classroom experience which is contrived to simulate a real experience. Mommy: We're going to have a homeschooling day today! And in that way, over the course of our month long vacation, we've investigated a great many things without Meridian even being aware that we're learning. My plan is to come back later and delve into those things in detail, and my hope is that this demonstration will answer for many of you the questions: What in the world is un-schooling? 07.21.2009 Uploaded a bunch of videos into the video gallery. Loving my Flip Camcorder. 07.19.2009 Meridian took ballet lessons through Little People Creative Workshop, which came to her preschool weekly to teach the classes. She's been asking to be in ballet since she was two, and I wasn't terribly excited ove rthe prospect. At that age, she didn't want to separate from me, and that was reason enough to postpone the classes, but when the interest didn't wane, I decided this was a nice compromise. It it a movement/pre-ballet type class. The kids mostly play with the instructor in a series of games, which cultivate proper poise and positioning and teach them some basic ballet without them knowing their being taught something. No recitals, no crazy costumes, no hair and make-up, no strict dress code. It alleviated all of my worries. While Meridian greatly enjoyed the class, and really liked Miss Elizabeth, this compromise did not satisfy the desire to learn ballet. She began asking after several weeks when they were going to start working on some hard stuff. That question was persistent throughout the year, and so, I've realized that I'm going to have to put her into a real ballet school in order to satisfy this craving. To that end, I've found one that I like for the fall. (No more commitments this summer!) But for now, here's the video of her participating in the Little People Creative Workshop's parent observation day. 07.18.2009 We've been having a full and busy summer. We're so very proud of Meridian for her participation this year on the swim team. I was a little trepidatious about signing her up - she was so newly five and I wasn't sure she was quite ready. She's gone round for round to prove me wrong. She has grown so much, not only in the strength of her swimming (although there too), but in her confidence in herself and in her interpersonal skills. My quiet little hide-behind-mommy's-leg munchkin - the same one who needed the entire year before she was willing to claim her classmates as friends - has in six short weeks blossomed. She's made ten or twelve friends on her team, and she stands on the side of the pool shouting encouraging words at them through her little megaphone while they swim their events. There are still the coy "No mommy, you come with" when I try to send her off as her own ambassador into a group of kids, ...but I am far less worried about kindergarten after this experience. The swimming itself has been great. She improved her freestyle by 49 seconds, finishing her final race at 50:83; she improved her backstroke by over a minute, finishing her final race at 55:66. The backstroke accomplishment was especially rewarding because Meridian had been disqualified in each backstroke race she swam before the final one because she found herself too tempted to see how close she was and turned around in the water for a peek (resulting in instant disqualification). So, her finish on that one was an especially happy event for her. She has set and met so many goals this summer on the team, and as a result has gotten to sample a new ice cream shop each time. The Meridian Choice Award goes to Skinny Dip Yogurt Bar, where she can sample ice cream flavors, serve herself, and choose as many toppings as she wants. Okay, video footage for posterity:
Watching the videos again, I have to comment on her swim cap. When we went to pick one out, there were all manner of cute girl-centric caps in the shape of fish with fins on top, with flowers all over them, with any number of cute animals on the sides. She bypassed them all in favor of this basic black one with a skull and crossbones on each side, grinning to reveal missing teeth and even a golden one. It's a touch intimidating. As the weeks progressed, the other swim team moms (and kids alike) really got a kick out of her cap, on the one hand such a funny juxtaposition on this tiny little golden-haired curly girl, but strangely on the other hand well-suited to her serious all-business approach to practice and meets. She's there to get it done! Or as one mom noted, "She's fierce!" We've had lots of opportunity this summer to visit with Ryan and her family, and Meridian is so glad to have her cousins back in the states. They picked up right where they left off: the rivalries, the competitions, the great games, the good times. Aren't cousins great?! Together we've gotten to visit the waterpark, Busch Gardens, the Virginia Living museum, the beach, and so much more. Now with our commitment to swim team fulfilled, we are looking forward to a trip up to New York to visit Aunt Jeanie and Aunt Deana, a trip to North Carolina to finally see Aunt Ryan and Uncle Danny's new house, and a trip to Florida to visit Grandmommy and Großvati and finally meet Meridian's cousin Ashton! August promises to be a whirlwind, but full of fun. Too bad Papi won't be joining us on our adventures. 06.15.2009 Meridian is swimming for swim team this year. It's amazing to me how much she's grown! She has to be able to swim 25 meters to swim for the team. Last Thursday was the end of the try-out period, and they kept her on the team! I'm so excited because I know she's going to become a much stronger swimmer as a result of the daily practices. Today were time trials, and the first time they were asked to swim the 25m without a coach in the pool with them. I was so surprised to see what she could do! She swam 25 meters freestyle in 1:39:05, and 25 meters back stroke in 1:59:11. We're so proud of her! I'm surprised that her freesyle time was slower than her backstroke too - she's generally much more comfortable with backstroke. Then again, they did do the swims back to back, so exhaustion might play a role. I'm curious to see at a meet if she'll swim faster freestyle or backstroke. First meet: this weekend! 06.01.2009 We went to Busch Gardens yesterday for the first time this season. As we pulled in, Meridian spotted Apollo's Chariot and said "Am I big enough to go on a roller coaster?" I said I wasn't sure but that we could measure her to find out when we got inside. We learned that she was big enough to go on The Big Bad Wolf. She was ALL about it. She wanted to head dtraight there. Since it's clear across the park from the entrance, I thought she'd want to stop as we passed rides along the way, but she was fixed on her goal, and determined not to be distracted. As we neared the front of the line, we asked which row she wanted to be in: front, middle, or back. Her answer: "absolute front". We told her the line was a little longer for that seat because lots of people want to sit in the front. Undeterred, she led us over to wait in that row. The whole time I was surprised by her continued determination and apparent lack of fear. Even sitting in the seat, she was smiling and full of anticipation. She loved the first leg of the coaster, intense though it was. As we geared up for the second leg, she was chipper and ready for action. That second leg! Boy! The video shows her moving from excitement to terror to tolerance to uncertainty, and then as the side comes to an end, she sort of whines out a groans and I think she's about to say "NOT GOOD!" but instead, she says "I wanna do that again!" You can see that she even surprises herself as she discovers that that's what she's feeling. Here's the video, sure to become a family classic! 05.31.2009 It's been nine months since we first visited the Cape Henry Lighthouse and tried to climb, only to learn Meridian was a fraction of an inch too short. After many tears, and with the help of the lighhouse keeper, we came up with a plan for growth: eat our proteins and our veggies, and grow, grow, grow! She's been tall enough for a little while now, but we haven't taken an afternoon to head out that way yet. So, what better way to celebrate her actual birthday, celebrating growth in years and growth in inches. We picked up Meridian's friend, Cai, and headed to Fort Story. The adventure began immediately, as we underwent the standard vehicle search after entering the military base. The kids remained in their carseats while I stood with the officer. The kids were curious and alert as the military police searched the vehicle using long-handled mirrors to check for weapons and drugs. After the inspection, one of the policemen tried to get the kids to speak into his walkie-talkie, which Cai did after much resistance. Meridian was having no part of that. With the inspection behind us, we set off toward the lighhouse, stopping for a picnic lunch on the boardwalk before we were ready to climb. It was a lunch full of discovery, as the kids experimented with combining bites: carrots with strawberries, turkey-wrapped carrots, strawberries and kiwi, and the one we all voted best combo, brownie with strawberry! Fueled and ready for action, we headed over. The kids were instantly delighted upon entering the lighthouse. The age and cave-like atmosphere really tickled them. Meridian said, "This is like the West Wing in an enchanted castle." (Can anyone tell what movie we watched recently?) Both held on carefully to one railing, and took very slow steps up (which proved interesting when a bus of retired tourists arrived right behind us.) They gained confidence as we went. After a fairly lengthy climb (which we later counted as 85 steps), we came to a small landing where we learned that we'd need to climb a steep ten step steel ladder to get to the next set of steps. Once we gather our nerves, we headed up that ladder. Meridian felt like Jack and Annie climbing into the magic treehouse. A short flight of 18 steps waited. The kids were pros by now, and flew up those steps, excited to see what would greet them at the top. They were rewarded with the 360º panoramic view of the ocean, the bay, and Virginia Beach. Cai said, "I can see the whole world from here!" We spent about 30 minutes up there identifying local landmarks (while we waited for the other tourists to get a good distance back down the staircase ahead of us - we were avoiding a domino effect at all costs.) I was surprised by just how interested the two of them were in everything we talked about. Going down was a little scarier for me with the two of them in tow than going up had been. Once they fell into a comfortable rythym and had their balance about them, I loosened up, and relaxed. After the climb down, we admired the grounds and read a bit of the history of the lighthouse. We learned that the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse is actually the first federal building every built in the United States, approved by Washington in 1789. In 1881, it was taken out of commission, too damaged by civil war fighting to be used. For a period of a few months, a lighthouse ship trolled the shored from Cape Henry to Cape Charles, while the new one was built. After we'd explored the surrounding scenery and learned about the history of the lighthouse, the kids asked to climb back to the top again. We did, to their delight, stopping along the way to tuck ourselves into the lighthouse's deep window nooks. Meridian and Cai couldn't have had a better time. The New Cape Henry Lighthouse opens only once or twice a year to the public, so we're excited to try that one when the opportunity presents itself. 05.30.2009 Party pictures are up in the new 5 year gallery. Enjoy the photos. 05.24.2009 Meridian's 5th birthday party was a success, despite the last minute rain and the scrambling that ensued as a result. We'd planned a repeat of the outdoor arts and crafts party that we'd had for her 3rd birthday, complete with painting the inside of the playhouse. But when the blue skies gave way to rain 90 minutes before party time, we were thrown into improv mode. We set up various stations around the house and the kids rotated from station to station. It wasn't exactly orderly, but then I think kids have an extra chromosome for chaos that deteriorates with age, so they didn't note anything amiss. We had a spin art station (so popular, in fact, that I think spinart will be my new default gift for the 5yo set), and easel painting station with two easels, decorate a knight or princess stations, a twister station, and balloon relay races. I'd planned two hours before the pizza would arrive, when I was thinking the kids would be running wild outdoors. I realized how long two hours was while watching 14 little smocked people with paint brushes and paper plates full of glue bounce around my house haphazardly. But a truly great time was had by all, and the sun came out in time to dry off our outdoor tables and have pizza and cake outside. Meridian chose this castle cake from Family Fun magazine, and this was my first year making a "complicated cake". The men pointed out that there was some shoddy foundation work, but the kids were duly impressed, so I guess I hit the target audience. :P After the cake was scarfed and the kids were high on sugar, we gave them a bat and encouraged them to beat a poor helpless cardboard tiara, which utterly refused to break open and reward them with candies and toys. In the end, David and I each took a side and tore it open, littering the ground with many coveted goodies. We really enjoyed ourselves, and were thankful to have so many friends and family come out to join in Meridian's celebration. 05.06.2009 We went strawberry picking for the first time today. Meridian's been sensitive to strawberries since she was an infant, and we've just lately tried them again with no problem. We were delighted to celebrate the milestone by picking our own fresh local strawberries. The worker at the farm, when teaching us what to look for, told us the rule was "Pick one. Put it in your basket. Pick one. Eat it." This gave Meridian a conspiratorial smile, and she was thrilled to comply with these instructions. With loads of strawberries, we headed home. Over the next few days, we had strawberry shortcake, fresh strawberries to eat, a strawberry cake Meridian invented, and strawberry soda she and David managed to make. She's never had soda before (minus a stray taste of David's Mountain Dew once or twice in her life), so her reaction was very interesting: Meridian: Ooh, wow! This is GOOD! [pause] I can feel it on my tongue. It's cold, but it feels like it's hot. I can feel the bubbles boiling on my tongue. It feels like a sun burn on my tongue. MMmmmm, it's goooood! 04.12.2009 Happy Easter to all! We had a wonderful day on this end. Ryan and Danny got to come back for the weekend to enjoy the holiday with the family. The girls came to wake David and me, telling us that Ryan and Danny had given the go ahead to do baskets without them, preferring instead to sleep. (We later learned that this was a misunderstanding.) So, we headed downstairs, and started searching for the baskets. Meridian found hers quickly. Then found Shelby's (which she knew she had to keep mum); meanwhile Kaitlynn found hers, and then found Shelby's. The two older girls started issuing clues, and Shelby had hers in no time too. Much delight filled the room as the girls discovered their treats, and were equally tickled that the Easter Bunny put carrot seeds into each of their baskets - apparently dropping hints about a treat of his own he hoped to find growing in the garden soon. We spent a lazy morning egg hunting and egg eating, playing with our new toys, gorging ourselves on candy, etc. Adults took various and sundry naps at will throughout the day. And then we went to Marisa and Ryan's for a delicious Easter dinner which was so good that I felt guilty for not having a tab at the end of the evening. The kids had a fantastic time with Cai and Landon and their neighborhood friends, and we went home content with having spent a wonderful day. After putting the kids to bed (unwisely, all in the same room), and hearing them chatter for longer than an hour - no doubt hyped up on sugar still from the steady intake all day - I decided to creep up and check on them. I tiptoed up since I knew there would be three versions of the truth if I just asked what they were up to. I snuck quietly up to the door, and found all three of them with there noses pressed against the window glass. Meridian was doing the talking, and I thought she was talking to the girls until my brain caught up with what was being said: "We just pray that you will come back again tomorrow and leave us more eggs, and we just pray that you'll again hide our baskets with new goodies in it. And Easter Bunny, we just pray this in your name. Amen." After her earlier prayer sessions, I was happy to hear her praying to the mythical bunny, and I tiptoed back downstairs without interrupting them. The sugar would wear off in its own time. 04.10.2009 Ryan and her family have just returned from 18 months in Japan. The girls are spending two weeks with us while Ryan and Danny go house-hunting. It's been really fun so far (we're five days in) with a special activity planned each day. So far we've been to the beach, to several parks, to the pet store, to a horse farm for a riding lesson, etc. Meridian and the girls are getting on famously. Except when they're not. This morning when the girls all joined me for a jumping on the bed party, Meridian entered the room hot-to-trot with something "important" to report. I knew by the tone of voice in the very first word ("Shelby...") that a petulant tattle was coming. And out it came. I calmly said, "Meridian, please don't tattle," to which she responded dejectedly, "But tattling is my favorite thing in the world." How is it possible that I love that statement, but deplore its truth? Anyway, it sure did give me a giggle! 04.01.2009 Meridian attends preschool in an episcopal church. Being non-religious, and being especially opposed to the idea of teaching children that there is a universal truth as far as God goes, this was a decision we deliberated over. Ultimately, we loved the program, and we felt that the school answered our questions in a way that was comfortable for us - that they would have chapel, but that it would be Bible stories that focus more on morals than on accepting Jesus and knowing God. This has proved over time to be a patently false characterization of what takes place in chapel, and Meridian has in fact been subject to the typical indoctrination that takes place in Sunday School type classes. This is infuriating to me because I feel it's blemished her outlook on life. Meridian is the kind of kid who has only to be told something is true by an authority figure, and it becomes the absolute truth. So, having learned this at school, no amount of "Well, no one really knows" or "Well, some people believe this, and some people believe this" was going to sway her. God created the world and everything in it, and he's in charge, the end. Can you just envision the steam coming out of my ears? So, I had many inner arguments while I sorted this out in my head, and ultimately, I arrived at: She's four. She believes in Santa Claus too. She's eating this up because she's being exposed to it, but that exposure is temporary, and if I don't make a big deal out of it now, then when the exposure ends, the fascination will fade. I came to peace with this. As best I could. And I bite my tongue, or even chuckle to myself (in particularly grounded moments), when she says something that makes her school's agenda clear to me. I resisted the urge to be obtuse when she asked what "the risen lord" means - a lyric from one of their songs - and instead told her honestly that the song is referring to Jesus, and that the song calls him the risen lord because some people think that after he died he rose up into heaven. I'm trying the "this is a non-issue" approach, and hoping like hell that it doesn't backfire. It's an odd mixture of bemusement and frustration, and so I partially giggle, and partially cringe when I overhear things like this: Meridian: I just pray that my Papi will do what I want. I just pray that he will know that my mommy is wrong. I just pray he'll say I can do it. My mom is so du-- well, actually, I love my mommy. But I just pray my Papi lets me do it my way. And of course, completely apart from the religious element, I think it's really adorable that she is mad at me and wants to call me a name in her own private rantings, but thinks better of it, and realizes she loves me anyway. 03.24.2009 Meridian's piggy bank has been filled and emptied three times, all her coins collected in a large ziploc bag. So, when we emptied it this third time, we decided it was time to get her her very own bank account. She was thrilled with the prospect. So we counted up her money, using her abacus, did a little lesson on coins and comparisons, did some charting, and then after reasearching the banking options, set off to open her bank account. We've been working on being brave enough to talk to people, especially people in public that are working: the cashier, the bank teller, the receptionist, etc. So, on the way there, I explained that since she would be the customer and it would be her account, that she would be the one who needed to talk to the teller to explain why she was there and to answer any questions the teller may have. She was okay with this, and a little excited even. We roleplayed a bit, and even packed a small stepping stool for her to bring in so she'd see over the counter. While I was calling around to determine which bank would be best, an agent asked me how old my child was, and I rounded up to five years old. Meridian, overhearing this, called me out on lying, and asked me to call them back and explain that she is really four. I told her that I'd said five because most of their programs were advertised for five year olds or older, but that I know that she is smart enough to do this now even though she's only four. She reiterated that I should call them back and come clean. I told her that if it was very important to her that she could tell the teller when she got to the bank how old she is. This satisfied her and we set off. She was the picture of cuteness arriving at the bank, waiting her turn in line, then carrying her little step up to the counter, climbing onto it and saying that she wanted to open a bank account. She called me over, and I joined her - not wanting to be close enough that she'd want me to do it for her, but close enough to make her feel safe and comfortable. So, the teller is tickled by this transaction, and treats her very well, asking her questions, and complimenting her on saving so much of her money. I can tell Meridian wants to say something, and finally she comes over and tells me to tell them she's really four. I whisper to her that she can tell them if it's important to her, so she takes a deep breath, and says, "I'm really only four but I'm very smart!" I felt the slightest twinge of mortification that she was self-praising and repeating something she'd obviously heard said about her, but it was almost entirely eaten up by "OMG that's so cute/hilarious/endearing." The rest of the bank clearly agreed, laughing with her and agreeing that she was indeed very smart. She left with 4 lollipops and felt that was a terrific trade off for her $83! 03.02.2009 Our playhouse project is moving right along! I've updated the 4.5 year gallery with newer pics, so you can see the outside painted and shutters being installed. We had a playdate with friends, Millie and Blaise, and the kids went to town painting the inside of the house in bright tempera paints, drawing pictures, or just brushing on pleasing color combinations. It's really coming together. When the playdate was over, Meridian and I got a start on shingling the roof, which is still a work in progress. Now we're stuck inside with 25 degree temps out. But it promises to be in the 60s by the weekend, so hopefully we can put our finishing touches in place, and upload the pictures of the completed house. :) Stay tuned! 02.27.2009 Today was parent observation day in Meridian's ballet class. We weren't really sure what to expect, whether it would be a performance, or just a regular class or what. It turned out to be a regular class that we got to sit through and watch. It was really fun to see what she does in a normal class, and to watch her enjoy the art of it. I put some pics up in the 4.5 year gallery, and apologize in advance for the yellow cast. I forgot my white balance card. 02.20.2009 Millie and Blaise got Meridian a face-painting palette and book for Christmas. It's been one of her favorite gifts ever. Earlier today she asked if she could do her own face paint without my help and without me watching. (Independent much?) So, I set her up with the palette and the book, a little cup of rinse water, and a paper towel. Then I went about getting some chores done while she entertained herself. Bonus! A full hour later, she scared the heck out of me when I came down the stairs and she was there to greet me:  Actually, I have to confess that my first mortified thought was:  She told me she was a clown. And then she showed me her inspiration. And, after the initial shock wore off, I think: OK, pretty good for a four year old applying her own make-up, but still scary enough that we will not be wearing this face paint out on the town like we usually do. She was quite proud of herself, and said "I think I did a good job," which made me happy, and I told her she sure did. When I told her I wanted to take a picture to show Papi, she was very particular that she should have lowered eyes, and a sad face, and black headband, just like the picture.  Click to enlarge. 02.18.2009 Meridian and I have been diligently working on her playhouse in the backyard. The previous owners left a HUGE old dog house. HUGE. They had four dogs, one of which was a St. Bernard. The house has been sitting in the back corner of the yard since we bought the house because I've always thought with a little hard work, it would make a great playhouse. So, finally, we rolled it out into the middle of the yard, replaced the tarp roof with plyboard, replaced one side where the wood had rotted, and were off to a good start. We broke out the power washer, and cleaned off the green algae coating that all houses in the south love to accrue. And then we went to town with Kilz, covering inside and out thoroughly with primer. Meridian picked her colors from sample swatches, and we took our third trip to the hardware store to pick up the paint. We made shutters from a piece of decorative trim. And that's where we've left off so far. Our weather has been insane, giving us 60-70 degree temps one day, and 30 degrees for the next several, so we're acious to get out there again when the next sunny day presents itself. We bought roof shingles on our last trip to Home Depot, and can't wait to give the house its finished look. Then we're going to host a paint party, and let Meridian's friends go to town with tempera paint on the inside walls and floor. I think she's going to really LOVE this little house of her own. While we've been working, I've enjoyed listening to all her brainstorming of what she can pretend in it. Everything from being a grown-up lady with her own house, to being a drive through restuarant where her friends can drive their bikes by to be served at the window, to being a schoolhouse, a jail, and a store. Let the good times begin! You'll find a handful of pics in the 4.5 year gallery. I still have to take some more recent ones now that we've got the exterior color on. :) 02.16.2009 So, Meridian has always been allowed a substantial amount of personal space. She's allowed to play pretty much anywhere in the house without supervision, and this has never been a problem (other than maybe raiding the chocolate chips). In that vein, Meridian was playing in her room, listening to the Magic Treehouse Musical soundtrack, and looking out the window hoping to spot the ice cream man (despite the morning's snow flurries). I was in the office working on some photos. So, ...my neighbor came over about an hour ago to tell me Meridian was climbing out of her window onto the roof. I race upstairs and find her closing her window. I ask her if she was climbing out, and with pride she says "Yes!" Man! My heart was in my mouth; it's astounding that I was able to formulate thoughts at all. Thank goodness I didn't actually SEE her on the roof or I might not have had any composure. So, I explain to her that that is absolutely not okay, and in fact very dangerous. I can tell by her reaction that she thinks I'm over-reacting. I am overwhelmed by the need to relay to her how important it is that she never try this again, so her nonchalant reaction is not soothing me at all. I ask her what will happen if she were to fall. She says she wouldn't fall, but when I press her she says it would hurt. Some synapse in my brain fires appropriately, and I have a memory about an article I read in Brain, Child magazine years ago. I rush downstairs and grab a big pumpkin leftover from Thanksgiving (yes, we still have pumpkins from Thanksgiving lying around here), and carry it upstairs. I call her over to the window and we name the pumpkin Meridian and pretend that Meridian Pumpkin wants to try walking on the roof again. We let the pumpkin fall, and then go downstairs to see how hurt it is, and I try to explain (with just the right balance of scaring her without traumatizing her) that her head could crack open just like the pumpkin and her brains could spill out. She is sufficiently impressed by this, and actually, embarrased that she didn't realize this before. She wants to stop talking about it. And I want to comply because I so know that I'm being that parent that is completely belaboring the point. But I can't. I tell her that I just have to keep talking about it until I'm certain (*CERTAIN*) that she is not ever going to try this again. She takes a deep breath, sighs it out, and says "I won't, Mommy. I just won't." And with that, I suppress every desire to keep beating a dead pumpkin. I think she's going to honor her word. But it's just too big a risk to gamble on, and so I've ordered these. When we install them, we'll explain what they are and why they're there, and hopefully they'll serve as a reminder and we won't have to hear their alarm. 01.30.2009 While I was shopping recently for furniture, Meridian was with me. In an attempt to curb her case of "how 'bout this one," I tried explaining a little about the style I was looking for: plain, straight lines, darkish wood, no ornate embellishments. Meridian was a little befuddled by this, and would look at a piece quizzically, then turn to me and say, "So you don't like this one, right?" and she'd be right. And in that fashion, she managed to hone in on the differences in our tastes, until finally she was able to bring clarity to the whole situation saying, "Mommy, we don't have the same style. My style is fancy and your style is boring." Once she realized this, she was a keen helper, steering me to pieces that matched my requirements (while still pointing out longingly the fancy ones that would be so much better if only I'd see the light). Likewise, ...reflecting on her comment put me in mind of her style and made me realize that I'm not doing enough to honor her own preferences. I think about her recent preference for straight hair, and about how strightening it did nothing to impress her. The day after I straightened it, it was curly again. She took a floral belt (made of little leather flowers sewn together), fastened it, and put it around her head as a headband, then pronounced herself fancy. I volunteered to straighten it again, and she flippantly replied that it looked great like it was. And I realized I need to be doing more to help her embrace her own inner style. So, we headed out to the shops and picked up a slew of over-sized fancy ribbons and hair accessories. We bought buttons and jewels to sew onto some of her plainer clothes, and we're going to make her outwardly into the fancy child she is inside. A few days later, I jokingly asked her "How'd you get so fancy?" She answered without thinking, "Well, I was just born with it. It's just in me and you can't learn it, you just have to be it." How's that for the wisdom of babes? 01.22.2009 Genetics is a funny thing. As a parent, you discover things you would never think would be passed through genes. David has an aversion to construction paper. Fold a piece and and run your finger along the crease, and shiver literally runs up David's spine. Weird random fact. So, Meridian and I were making valentines, and I handed her a piece of paper she'd painted to cut a heart out of. As she took it from me, she shuddered and then asked, "Do you shiver when you touch that? Look my hairs are standing up on my arms." 01.20.2009 This gave me a chuckle. Mommy: Can you put your shoes on? We've got to go. 01.16.2009 The day arrived a few weeks ago, as was often foretold. I don't think for a moment that the day was always imminent. No, it was always foretold by the kind of person who is so unhappy with their own life experiences that they like to pay that forward each time the opportunity presents itself. You know who I mean: the miserable people who begrudge others any happy experience that they didn't get to personally experience. The kind of person who when seeing a happy-go-lucky pregnant person feels obliged to tell them how awful childbirth will be. The kind of person who upon observing your well-behaved child feels inclined to warn you about the terrible two's, the bad influences school will bring, or teen-aged angst. The kind of person who after admiring your daughter's beautiful curly hair, feels compelled to inform you that she'll hate it one day. Meridian misses NOTHING. Her ears are ever on alert status. I wouldn't be surprised if the child can hear dog whistles. In fact, one time she questioned me on something that I thought I'd relayed to David privately. When I asked her how she knew that, she said "Mommy, didn't you know I could hear you with my very sharp ears?" So, there's no doubt in mind mind that she's well aware of the steady chorus of "Oh, she'll hate her hair eventually" sentiments. One morning, I fix her hair, and tell her she looks beautiful. This upsets her. She says "No, I'm not beautiful!" This has been a pattern now for a period of a few weeks, and I've tried various responses: "Of course you are!", "Well, I think you are even if you disagree", "Really? You don't think so?", "What makes you say that?", etc. So, on this morning, I say "That really bothers me when you say that. Why do you think you're not beautiful?" to which she replies, "I don't like curly hair. Curly hair is not beautiful." Naysayers, lap it up. Your day has come. My daughter doubts her beauty. Thanks for your contribution. I tell her that different people have different preferences, and that I think her curly hair is beautiful. I tell her that if she wants to experiment with making it straight that we can try it with mommy's blow dryer or straigtening iron. I try to respond in a matter of fact way, and not betray how sad I am to hear this. I respray her hair, and brush it straight. This is a futile exercise since in five minutes or so ringlets will form again, but it gives her what she's looking for from the mirror; in turn I get what I'm looking for when she says, "There, now I look cute." The plan: give in. Let her have stright hair if she wants it. Demystify the straight hair experience. But in doing so, make it a real pain in the ass, not worth the trouble. So, I plan to strighten her hair for her, v.e.r.y. slowly, in a way that requires lots of sitting still, for a long period of time. My hope is that the outcome, while totally impressive, won't merit the long period of boredom required to achieve it, and that she'll reverse her decision, announcing instead that curly hair is more beautiful. Yes, this is complete manipulation, I'm aware. But my heart is in the right place. 01.01.2009 Happy New Year! Meridian surprised us last night. We decided to let her try to stay up to count in the new year. We suspected she'd last until about 10pm, and then crash hard. Shocker! She made it all the way until midnight! Not only can I not believe it, but I think if I'd known, I might not have put the offer out there. LOL. She did really well right up until 11:40, and then she just deteriorated instantly. It was so sweet and cute though. No big temper tantrum, just a puddle of Meridian. She was suddenly just uncomfortable in her own skin, beyond tired. This was her stream of consciousness: I'm too hot. I don't want to wear my PJs. I'm hungry, but I want to eat nothing. I'm cold and shivering, make me warm, but I don't want PJs. I don't like watching movies and I don't want to watch any more movies. I'm hungry. I don't like food. Put my PJs back on me please, but they don't FEEL good. I want you to hold me. Hold me. Stop making me too cozy. I'm not any bit tired. yawn. She was too excited about counting in the new year and seeing the ball drop for us to let her miss out when she was so close to her goal, so we scooped her up, and changed settings, put on the Time Square celebration, gathered the pots and pans, got our coats and scarves and hats ready, and that passed the last 20 minutes until we counted in the new year. She was re-energized by this, and we all ran outside shouting and banging pots and pans and blowing out horns. We ran up and down the street, the cold air burning our lungs in a way that feels so good once in a very blue moon. And then ran back to the house, red-cheeked, and happy. As I carried Meridian, running back towards the house, I was struck by the sheer joy of the moment for all of us, and thought there could be no better way to ring in the new year. We went in, de-coated, and all fell asleep in our king-sized bed, one happy family. Resolutions: 12.21.2008 The voo-doo doll. An outgrowth of unrequited love? This anecdote makes the case. Meet the players: Ferris: the overly rambunctious boy who, lacking a tad in sensitivity, thinks calling a girl "poopyface" on the playground is an acceptible way of showing his affection. It all began with reports of Ferris. Ferris stepped on her shoe in the hallway. Ferris knocked her dress-up hat off. Ferris took the toy she was playing with, and then instead of playing with it, kept showing her he had it over and over. Ferris sat next to her even though she wanted Kaitlynn to sit next to her. Ferris could apparently do no right. And at first, I was the confused parent who chalked Ferris up to the class' "problem child". Every class has one, after all. Yes, and so deep was my head buried in the sand, that I had the cherub's role all figured out too: she was just aghast that another child would intentionally be so disobedient. [ahem]. Until the cards. Yes, the cards woke me up. Each day her cubby was full of cards, each day I asked who they were for, and each day she made a very peculiar face before saying "They're for you, Mommy. Yes, they're for you." And then on about day ten of the cards, she said, "They're for you, Mommy. Weeeeeeeelll, actually, they're for Ferris. But I'm NOT giving them to him." And there the truth jumped up and slapped me. My daughter has a crush on Ferris. And when a truth reveals itself like that, it often has a domino effect; and so I was able to look at the previous weeks' activities with clarity and see that it was very likely that this crush was not one-sided. However, that clarity has not yet struck my little Angel. She has no schema for braid-pulling, and so doesn't begin to understand that Ferris' antics are likely not the mean instigation she interprets them to be. Enter Lucas onto the scene. Lucas is a sweet-tempered boy, more comfortable with the gentle play of the girls than the rowdy play of the boys, so it's no surprise that he is the one boy in the class whom Meridian has befriended. She was excited when she pulled his name from the hat for the class' secret santa gift exchange. She shopped with care for his present, making sure to get something she knows he likes. And as we prepared the gift, I suggested we make him a card. Mommy: What should we write in Lucas' card? "I'm glad you're my friend because ..." What do the two of you like to do together? Alright, ...so Meridian takes out her agression in play dough and art. Fair enough. But why Lucas' complicity? That became clear at the class Christmas party, when Lucas' dad said, "So, this is Meridian. Lucas can't stop talking about Meridian." To which, a flush-faced Lucas responded, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddd!" The voo-doo doll, constructed of play dough. Accolades must be paid to Will Shakespeare for his insight. "Hell hath no fury..." And though not as shrewd an insight, "Poopyface" as a term of endearment must prove that, in fact, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. 12.20.2008 Meridian rediscovered the Strega Nona books at the library recently, and is all besotted with magic now. This morning I had a cold sore on my tongue and kept complaining that my tongue hurt. Meridian said she would make me a potion, and wandered downstairs to do just that. When I joined her downstairs half an hour later I discovered she had a different idea of "potion" than I did. My idea: empty cup with imaginary magical things (eye of newt, wing of bat) sprinkled into it, which I then pretend to drink. Her idea: get out the biggest bowl we own, fill it with 2 pounds of flour and various herbs and spices, then fill with water. Mommy must really drink this to be cured. When I only pretended to drink it, she protested, saying that "Book" said it won't work if I don't really drink it. All of it. After inquiring I learned that "Book" told her the recipe. And when I said that I wasn't going to drink it ALL, she proceeded to have a conversation with Book arguing over whether I did in fact have to drink it all to feel the effects of the magic. Book was firm. All of it. I sent her on an errand and dumped it down the sink while she was gone. Luckily, Book's magic doesn't extend to xray vision. Since then Book has become something of an imaginary friend. I'll overhear one-sided conversations that are pretty darned cute in their accurate one-sidedness: Meridian: Oh, nonono, Book. 12.09.2008 Several months ago, Meridian ate her first tootsie pop. I think she may well be the only person in the history of the world to lick her way to the center. When she got there, she asked "What's this pit in my lolli?" And off the cuff I told her it was the "lolli seed" and that it's made of chocolate. Then I said she could either eat it or we could plant it and grow a new lolli. She decided we should plant it, and so we did just that. A little blue pot with some soil, and the tootsie roll buried in the dirt. She dutifully watered it for weeks, and David and I sucked down more lollipops than I ever care to eat again, careful to leave them just one size bigger than the last. Each time, she'd notice her lolli had grown, and indeed changed colors! We told her that she could choose to eat it anywhere along the line, or that she could continue to let it grow. Well, her patience paid off when she discovered the 5 inch swirly lolli in her plant cup one morning. She jumped around the house, overjoyed, running upstairs to tell David, dragging him down to show him. Not surprisingly, she decided it was time to harvest the lolli.   11.30.2008 We hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed ours. It was just the three of us, and we ran into a hiccup early Thursday morning when I found that the turkey, which had been defrosting in our refrigerator for a full week was defiantly still partly frozen. After a few moments of panic and crestfallenness, I thought on my toes, and told Meridian that Thanksgiving is a two day holiday - the first day for baking and decorating the house (which I had in fact intended to do the day before Tday, but didn't actually accomplish), and the second day for cooking and eating the feast. There were a few minutes of resistance before she capitulated, and from there we had a blast. We baked cookies and breads, and made place cards and napkin holders. We constructed a Thankfulness Tree from a paper bag, and cut leaves from old wallpaper samples. The tree was taped to the wall, and the leaves went on a platter with a marker and tape. The idea was that throughout the day when we felt grateful for something, we'd write it onto the back of one of the leaves, and then hang it on the tree (note concealed). On Friday, we cooked the Thanksgiving feast and played board games. THen we ate an early dinner, and followed it with dessert and more board games. At the end of the day, we took down all the leaves and read them aloud, taking time to reflect on all the things our family is thankful for. I think we'll make this a yearly tradition. I'm going to save a few of the less traditional ones to add to the tree in coming years. I figure people will always write family, food, and home, so those will be added fresh each year, but it will be fun to be reminded of the momentary gratefulness from years past, from David's silly entries like "bacon" to Meridian's questionable ones like "soap". Before too many years, we'll have quite the leavy tree.  11.21.2008 Meridian has been enjoying The Cobble Street Cousins series. It's a series of early chapter books about three cousins who spend the summer living with their aunt while their parents tour with the ballet. They enjoy each other very much and spend the summer doing all sorts of pleasant things like hosting parties and setting up lemonade stands, etc. Meridian pretty much wants to BE a Cobble Street Cousin. Each thing they do, she wants to do. And that is how Meridian came to host her first party. A Cobble Street Thanksgiving Party. She set up little tables with doll blankets doubling as table cloths, place cards for each person, butter pats shaped like flowers, etc. She planned the menu: gingersnaps, turkey-shaped cupcakes, chocolate and peanut butter leaf treats, peach tarts, and cider. She helped with all the baking. She set the guest list. She planned the entertainment: singing Thanksgiving songs, and acting out shows for the grown ups. She planned the dresscode: party dresses, and even provided some from my closet for grown-ups who didn't come attired as planned. It was all her. I was nervous about how well her four year old guests would adhere to her plan. It was a little formal for them, and that showed itself. Although in the end, I think Meridian and her guests had a good time, the party bordered on unenjoyable for me since each time something didn't go according to Meridian's plan, she would loudly reprimand the offending party-guest. And I spent the party mostly asking her to stop harassing her guests. The party is best summed up in this exchange we had: Meridian: Mommy, what's that word again? I didn't get the chance to take any photos during the party, but these two cupcakes were left over so I snapped a pic of them. Meridian and I molded the heads out of caramel, the eyes are candy, and the gobbler is licorice. Only the feathers were inedible.  11.06.2008 My little girl is just so brave. She had her four year old wellness visit with the pediatrician today. When we got there, they told us she was due for six vaccinations! Yih! Six? So, I went through and quickly culled it down to three, eliminating the Hep A shot, the flu shot, and the chicken pox vaccine. That left the final boosters for DTAP, MMR, and Polio. Three needles. So, I didn't mention this to Meridian, vaguely answering her questions about what I was reading with, "Oh, just about the medicine the doctor's going to give you." That worked for some time. It got me through the time in the waiting room, through the weight and height, blood pressure, and eye and ear exams. But then you have that period after the doctor's left when you're waiting for the nurse to come in, and you've used up all your diversionary tactics, and the questions grow more probing. Meridian: When will the doctor give me my medicine. And she did! My brave kid sat there calmly, holding my hand, commenting on the color of the medicine in the syringes, and then watched as the nurse poked her. With her sharp intake of breath at the first poke, I'd forgotten our strategy, but she started quietly counting one-two-three, and watched as the needle came out. She politely turned down the offer of a band-aid, and watched as the second needle went in. Her voice wavered this time as she one-two-three'd. The lost heart a bit before the third needle and I held her hand and told her this would be the last one. She one-two-three'd as a silent tear brimmed on her eyelashes. The nurse was suitable impressed and went on and on about how brave she was, and offered her three stickers - one for each needle, and the pain was forgotten. I wondered whether the vaccines would make her tired as they always did when she was a baby. Sure enough, half way home she nodded off, face peaceful in sleep. And I sat at the red lights looking at her in the rearview mirror, watching my baby, my girl. So stoic, so curious, so brave. 11.05.2008 Oh Happy Day! I write this entry today not for you the readers but for Meridian, who will one day want to read this journal, want to know how I felt and what I thought on this historic day. Yesterday, America elected her first black President, Barack Obama. I'm proud to tell you, my little one, that we participated - you and me. Yes, we went to the polling place together, despite the warnings of long lines, and we waited our turn to cast our ballot. We brought a book (Peter and the Shadow Thieves), and we read several chapters until nearing the voting room, you became too curious for the book to maintain your attention. And so, I answered your questions: what are those machines, why do we have to wait in this long line (last names R-Z) instead of that short one (last names F-Q), what is a senator, etc. We stepped up to the voting machine on our turn, and you helped me cast the ballot, sticking the little electronic card that would record our vote into the machine, and then helping me press the screen to activate our choices. I whispered to answer your questions, careful not to disturb the other voters, careful not to be accused of electioneering. And then, after reviewing the ballot, I clicked the final Cast Ballot button, and our choice was recorded. You cheerfully marched over to the poll worker and turned in our card and were rewarded with an 'I voted' sticker. But as I explained to you in our long wait in line, voting is the easy part, ...the hard work in an election comes well before the vote. The hard work: to listen to the ideas of all the candidates, to learn what they stand for and to judge how capable you think they will be to carry out their ideas, and then to decide which candidate you think will do the best job for America. It was very rewarding this year to have a candidate I actually believed in, one who inspired me to believe in a greater America, one who maintained his integrity in the face of a sometimes nasty campaign, and most importantly perhaps, one who seemed to really understand the problems facing America and who had ideas on how to bring order to an unruly Washington. I was happy in my support for Barack Obama, so much so that for the first time ever, I donated to a political campaign. So much so, that for the first time ever I gave my time to volunteer for that campaign. You came with me, sweet girl. We canvassed in our own neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking people to support Obama, answering questions where we could. It was a small role in an enormous campaign, but we played our part. In the days before the election, you heard me excitedly talking about going to see Barack Obama speak, and asked if you could come too. And so you accompanied me to the Obama rally at the Virginia Beach ampitheater on the day before Halloween. You were excited, as was everyone there, as our line moved along at a snail's pace. You sat patiently through the introductions and speeches by Governor Tim Kaine, and the candidates for congress, and then as Obama took the stage you pronounced the event boring and said you were ready to go home. Yes, a rally was an ambitious attempt for a four-year-old attention span, so while you were no longer interested you were still there, playing with a doll house doll on your seat while Mommy jumped up and down with the crowd.  It was a delicate line to walk this year in terms of how to include you in the process without indoctrinating you. With all your curiosity and with your eager attention, it was hard sometimes to answer the probing questions you asked and to answer them in a way I felt was honest without being partisan. You see, I want for you to grow into a person who makes your own choices. I don't want you to vote Democrat or Republican because you grew up in a family that did. I want for you to be a careful study and a fair judge. To that end, this year I think there were times I succeeded and times I failed. If you're reading this as a mom, you'll understand just how hard it is to explain political ideas to a four year old. I saw the failure of my efforts one day during the campaign when after answering a question you'd asked about what Obama's ideas were, you then summarized McCain's ideas as "And McCain only wants to fight" - no, that wasn't the message I'd wanted to give, though I can see that you took that as the take-home message from my explanation about Obama being willing to sit down with foreign leaders to try to talk about things instead of deciding the only solution was to fight, without even trying to talk first. Yes, that was a failure. But to counter the failures, I hope there were equal numbers of successes. The fact that neither Democrat or Republican has become a part of your vocabulary I count as a success. In this bitterly partisan time where people often don't stop to analyze and evaluate a situation, but stop at the easier step of speaking their party's line, what I feel certain that our country doesn't need is more partisans, and so I eradicated party in my explanations to you. The fact that I gave real names and faces of people you love to represent McCain supporters I count as a success. For it's important that you understand that this is not a simple good versus evil proposition. We are not the good guys up against the evil darkness. America is and always has been a conversation between patriots, we are people arguing for the ideas that we think are best, but there are not clear cut right and wrong answers. The people who support our opponent care as much as we do, and though we think their ideas are flawed, we are so glad to live in a country where we get to voice our own ideas and where we continue to have the conversation over these ideas, always working for a better future for our children, for you. So, I count that as a success. And the fact that the country has elected her first black president, well I count that as a success for our country. To be sure, I didn't vote for Obama because he is black. I voted for him because his ideas were superior, because his temperment lends itself to leadership, and because the alternative (McCain/Palin) was unpalatable. But that in a country where only 45 years ago poll taxes were widely used to prevent black people from even voicing an opinion in the form of a vote, we have now elected our first black leader, well that's progress. That's a reason to hope. You see, we are becoming a better America, and you and me, we were a part of it. 11.01.2008 Meridian has celebrated 4 halloweens so far, and always been something completely harmless. She let me know early on that this year, this fearless year of four, she planned to be something scary. I checked back with her often to see if she'd changed her mind. Long time readers will recall her third halloween when at two years old some teenagers saw fit to scare the hell out of her for grins. I wasn't anxious for her to dress in a way that might invite such fright. Without betraying my hand, I tempted her with other costumes: mermaids, butterflies, a bat, a skunk. She was consistent. A monster. And so I searched for a furry, friendly monster costume a la Sesame Street. There were none to be found. When we made the trip to Party City to look for something suitable, I realized for the first time that she was "all in". I asked David to wait with her near the party supplies at the front (knowing I didn't need to add "so that she wouldn't have to see all the scary stuff in the back" - parents can talk in this way without words). But Meridian wasn't having it. She said, "But I want to go see that sppoky skeleton back there with all the blood on its head," and then I knew. Four was a whole new year. And so, we found her a fuzzy toddleresque Frankenstein costume, and bought some face paint. We commited to dress up as scary monsters with her: me as a witch and David as a skeleton. And Meridian was thrilled to see her spooky self in the mirror, thrilled to be painting us, and content in the fact that between the three of us, we could run off anyone who was too frightening. This was called for only once, when a scary skeleton (not nearly as scary as David) wandered to close. So, I put up my witch fingers and laughed my witch laugh (neee-heee-heee-hee), and then whispered to the teenager that I was pretending to scare her off because Meridian was afraid of her. She complied with my deceit, the homeowner thanked Meridian for scaring off that scary monster, and Meridian marveled through the next three houses that that skeleton had been afraid of us! "Why was she scared of me?!" Thanks to one teenager who was emptying early and filled Meridian's bucket nearly half-full (she'd clearly been told by her mom that she had to stay home to hand out candy, and wanted to finish the chore quickly to get out herself), Meridian's bucket was full after two culdesacs, and we walked home passing untold number of houses without stopping. Meridian was content that her bucket was full. We then sat on our porch handing out candy as trick-or-treaters arrived, and eating our way through Meridian's bucket. Each time Dave or I opened a candy, we'd let Meridian taste it and she'd pass judgement. She ruled as follows: good candy - lollipops, M&M's, sweeties, hershey kisses, twix, starbursts; We let her eat an enormous share of candy, much more than she's EVER been allowed to eat before, and then she had a bath and was off to bed, the best day ever now over. Pics in the 4yr Gallery 10.22.2008 Lately Meridian wants to be included in our work. When David's latest book arrived from the publisher, she announced that she too was going to write a book about Flash, and sat down in our office at her own little table and proceeded to do just that. Interestingly, for no reason than its randomness, she dedicated it to Cai's daddy, Ryan.  Likewise, she's interested in exploring what I do too. Her interpretation: I color on photos on the computer. And so, she selected from the outtakes from a recent session, and chose to color "gray" elements of these two. Here's her handiwork:   After that I showed her which tool in Photoshop to use to give people extra eyes and to erase their noses and make funny frightening faces. She loved that, but I doubt the bride we practiced on would much enjoy having the results shared here, so you'll have to use your imaginations. She's having fun exploring careers and skill sets, and in the last several weeks has announced her future as: a dancer, a painter, an astronaut, a jewelry-maker, a tailor, an author, a pastry chef, President, a roofer, a teacher, a photographer, and a salesperson. She is quite the entreprenuer, announcing several times a week some new endeavor that she wants to undertake, which always involved making signs and setting up a table outside to sell things (cookies, homemade jewelry, made-to-order clothes, etc.) David has been suckered into these outtings (for which there are pitifully and sadly never any customers), while I've so far been able to distract my way out of them. 10.15.2008 Sometimes Meridian demonstrates with no effort and perfect clarity that she is my child. Meridian: Don't you just love making lists? One day this week, I want to just spend all day making lists: grocery lists; a list of things we can do; a list of stuff I wanna buy; a list of my toys... Making lists is so much fun. 10.06.2008 Meridian: Do we have any fruit leather? Aha! Check! I'm so glad I asked for clarification before launching into the "we don't use that word" speech. 10.01.2008 I got this notice this morning from a home-schooling group I belong to, and I thought it sounds like a great activity for kids - both educational and environmentally conscious. I'll post the details from the email below. In the meantime, I threw up a quick identification chart with images that you can print to take with you when you're scouting. Happy acorn hunting!
09.29.2008 I was responding to a message board post about real and make believe, and thought this was the kind of thing worth saving here. I quiz Meridian on this from time to time just to satiate my own curiosity. She's 4 by a few months now, and her current positions are: mermaids - real Could a mommy want any better description? 09.28.2008 Meridian and David had most of the weekend to themselves as I worked most of it. They came up with a creative way to spend their time: they decided to make cheese and yogurt. My initial reaction was "Ick! None for me, thanks." I hid that from Meridian, of course, and encouraged her enthusiasm for the project. Meanwhile, I pictured milk curds discovered in one of Meridian's old sippy cups found under a sofa after a week or so, and dry heaved privately. David did his research though, and learned quite a bit about the process. Upon learning that a block of cheese would take several days, he decided to expand the project to include yogurt and cream cheese. Yogurt could be grown in as little as three hours, and cream cheese would be ready after 24 hours. And sure enough(!) a gallon of milk added to a cup of yogurt, (heated and cooled in various intervals), yielded a gallon of yogurt. Now, I'm never a fan of yogurt. I have too active an imagination, and convince myself that I can feel active cultures moving in my mouth. So, there was no way that I was going to be tasting this yogurt. BUT, I had to admit - it totally and completely looked and smelled exactly like store-bought yogurt. So, while not excited enough to taste-test, I was plenty excited enough to think aboue gifting it to friends, and making it on a regular basis to provide healthier yogurt choices for Meridian. Upon first taste, Meridian pronounced the yogurt "not good", calling upstairs to me to make sure I knew that "Our homemade yogurt tastes not good." But of course, that was because it was plain yogurt, and she generally gets Stonyfield's Banilla, which has vanilla, banana, and sugar added. She changed her mind as soon as similar modifications were made to their yogurt, and in the end she was quite impressed with their accomplishment, saying "Taste it, Mommy. Taste it. It tastes really quite good." The next morning, David woke up early to bake fresh bread for their cream cheese which would have been ready. This, a bit more complicated than the yogurt: you use a quart of the yogurt, add some salt, pour it into a white handkerchief and tie it closed, hang the handkerchief ball onto something so that it's suspended in the air and can drip into a bowl below, allow it to drip for 24 hours. When you unwrap it the next day, viola! It's cream cheese. Well technically, it's called labneh, and is a traditional food in the Middle East and South Asia. But it is so close to our cream cheese that Meridian couldn't distinguish it from regular cream cheese when she tasted it this morning on David's homemade bread. Even I tasted it, and had to admit it was totally great, despite being initially very apprehensive about eating "yogurt left out over night".  The hard cheese was the only one of the three projects that they've not yet mastered. They tried two batches so far, and haven't quite gotten it. So, they plan to tweak the recipe a bit in line with one they found elsewhere and give it another go. The teacher in me LOVES this project, and I'm thrilled with all the teaching points in it. Food and nutrition has very much been a topic on which we've used a spiral education approach - starting young with "make good choices", revisiting when she was old enough to understand by introducing the food groups and integrating that into making good choices, revisiting it later by planting a garden and discussing where food comes from and how it gets its nutrients, expanding on that by going fishing and seeing another source for where food comes from, and now expanding on that again by learning how one food source (milk) can be used to make a variety of foods and how the process affects which nutrients are in the food. If anyone is interested in trying any of these food experiments at home, you will find most of the information we used on this website. 08.23.2008 David was out of town this week, and while he was gone, Meridian and I decided to go to our favorite pizza restaurant, just the two of us. Over dinner, we were playing various little games back and forth and thinking of fun mind stretchers. So, I got it in my head to have her close her eyes and describe her mommy, as if she were describing me to someone who doesn't know me. Her description was heart-meltingly beautiful! I actually grabbed a crayon and wrote it down on the spot, so that I could preserve it perfectly. Meridian: She looks like she has brown hair. She smiles a lot. She loves her kid, and she likes to play with her. Could a mommy want any better description? 08.22.2008 Jokes with preschoolers are so funny because they mostly don't get it. Case in point: Mommy: Why is six afraid of seven? And some fun for your little ones. Here are some jokes that she really does get and loves: What did one octopus say to the other octopus? 08.02.2008
A friday a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take Meridian to Cape Henry to see the lighthouses. She was excited and asked all manner of questions before we arrived. She hoped to meet the lighhouse keeper, was excited to climb to the top, and wondered whether the light would be on. Sadly, she met the lighthouse keeper in a manner complete unbefitting to her vision: he was the one to measure her and tell her that she was too short to climb to the top. By a measley quarter inch too. She burst into tears, poor kid. I scooped her up and whispered reassurances and told her it was okay to feel sad about it. Everyone looked on in a mixture of empathy for the poor girl with the dashed hopes and anticipation for me to tell her to bring her temper tantrum to a close. I could tell people (there were maybe six others in the little shop with us) were a bit surprised to hear me tell her that it was okay for her to cry about it, that it was okay to be sad. People are so uncomfortable hearing children cry that we tend to want to silence it as soon as possible, forgetting that crying is a healthy and good release of emotion. Just as she has no notion of privacy while going to the bathroom with her friends in tow, she has no need of privacy for her emotions. They are raw and real, and overwhelming in the moment, and they are okay to feel. We had a similar experience recently at the post office. Meridian was beside herself because I'd declined to buy her a snack at the pharmacy, telling her she could eat any number of the snacks we had in the car. Beside herself. The whole way from the pharmacy to the post office. Arriving at the post office, I told her that I needed her to pull herself together. And she did, four about three minutes. And there we were in line, when she remembered the perceived injustice and melted all over again. I got down on her level and asked her to settle down. "I just can't," she said. And it was true. She was past the point of being able to collect herself. She was sunk into the abyss of self-pity and feeding on the perpetual negativity it provides. I told her that she needed to let it go. That the snack back at the store didn't happen, but that that was only 5 minutes of her day. That she could carry that all day and let it ruin the rest of her day, or she could let that go and get onto looking for other possibilities for joy. Like going ot the beach, etc. Then I told her to catch her breath, think about her feelings, wait until three minutes had passed on the clock and then tell me how she was feeling. She thought about that, but decided sobbing felt better. Just in front of us was a little girl (maybe 12 year old). She seemed amused with the situation, in a "I know just how you feel kind of way." We had this conversion while Meridian cried. Girl: We have two four year olds and a three year old at home. It strikes me as sad, but also kind of interesting, that we don't want our kids to emote in public. I must admit that when the girl told me about her brothers' punishment for expressing their feelings, I thought sarcastically to myself "I'm sure their future wives will thank you for that." As adults we all wish we were better in touch with our feelings, better able to express ourselves. But it seems logical that we have such difficulty if as children we're taught not to express our feelings, not to even explore them, but just to put them away because they are inconvenient for the other people at the post office or lighthouse. Meridian cried for several minutes at the lighthouse, and then succumbed to the lighhouse keeper's attempts to cheer her up. He offered her one of those smashed pennies that now has the lighhouses etched on the front and his signature on the back. She calls it her badge. So, she took her badge and we went to the Cape Henry beach and had a great rest of the afternoon swimming in the bay water. We even had some dolphins come to visit. They swam about 50 feet from where we were, right outside the roped off swim area. Some older kids were right there within stroking distance. Later I realized that the water there was not deep and we could have gone over. Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned for next time. 07.09.2008 Last night, Meridian selected Tikki Tikki Tembo as one of her bedtime books. This is one of my own childhood favorites, and one I hadn't read to her in months. So, as I'm about to read it I'm telling her how it was a favorite of mine when I was a little girl because I loved trying to remember his whole great long name. I asked her if she knew it, and was shocked to hear her rattle off, "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari puchi-pip"! She left off the last part "peri pembo" and altered one syllable (ruchi became puchi), but MAN! She hasn't heard this story in at least a month, and even then it's not one that we read over and over, and she knew the whole name! I was impressed. Of course, I'd intended to share the accomplishment with David, but it slipped my mind. It came back to me for some reason over dinner tonight, and surreptitiously I tried to set it up for David to witness the feat. Mommy: Which books are you going to read with Papi for bedtime tonight? Irony while bragging. I love it. 06.30.2008 Meridian: Mommy, will you tell me a story? 06.18.2008 We're down to two baby robins. Boy have they developed though. They're eleven days old in these shots from yesterday:      Today they flew from the nest! We watched Mama Bird and Papi Bird coaching them, encouraging them, watching out for them as they took in the world from their new vantage points. We didn't get to actually see them in flight. Boy did we try. We watched them from the upstairs windows for about two hours this afternoon, but they just stayed perched on their respective spots while Mama and Papi flew around getting worms for them and keeping an eye out. Here was the best shot I could get of one of the babies today on our neighbor's porch. I had to take it from the upstairs window of our house so as not to spook the bird family.  06.17.2008 We had a great Father's Day. We let David sleep in, and then had a pancake breakfast with chocolate chips mixed in, per Meridian's request. Then we gave David his present and headed out to put it to good use:  The two of them had fun on what we hope will be the first of many father daughter fishing adventures. Meridian wanted to assist in each part, from baiting the hookright down to cleaning the fish. We went pier fishing down at the beach because Meridian had watched the fishermen there before, so it matched her schema for fishing. When we arrived, no one had had much luck all day. After snapping some pics, I left the two of them alone to fish while I got to enjoy some beach time. After about an hour, the two of them came running up. Meridian was filled to brimming with excitement over the "slobbery fish" she'd caught on her own pole! So I ran back up with them to check it out. It was a 10" flounder, but sadly you have to thrown flounder back if it's less than 26". Since they didn't have a pail of water ready in advance to throw caught fish into, the flounder had died in the time it take to come and share the joy with me, so rather than throwing a dead fish back, they cut it up to use for more bait. Later in the adventure, Meridian's pole went over into the water, when it caught yet another fish. Luckily, some more seasoned fishermen were able to fish it out of the water, and there were not tears to contend with. We ended up staying until well after bedtime, and decided to grab a pizza at a local place before heading home, sandy and satisfied. 06.12.2008 Oh the brutal honesty! Our dressing room conversation when I took Meridian swimsuit shopping with me: Meridian: I like that one, Mommy. You look pretty. Yeah, we better quit this game before I suffer an injury to my pride. 06.11.2008 Our robins are six days old now, and it seems like they've grown quite a bit. Their wings have developed and begun feathering. Their little fuzz is dwindling away. Their eyes are open. They have considerably more strength to lift their heads for worms. Even so, it's hard to imagine that they will be leaving the nest in roughly eight more days!     We're enjoying watching them, and we feel a bit as though we're members of the extended family. Mama and Papi bird are always around somewhere, hunting for worms or bathing in our vegetable garden. We watch them feed the babies, and we use the side entrance to give them their privacy. Observations:
06.10.2008 Meridian has been hankering for a pet for a while. We've talked about it on and off, and tossed around whether or not we really want the responsibility of a dog or cat. That coupled with my relatively new allergy to them led us to "no" each time. After a trip to the petshop though, I started to come around on the idea that a rat might be a good first pet for her (an idea David had long been championing). And so, as a fourth birthday gift to Meridian, we invited Ratsy into our family.  We'd hoped to get a tiny baby, but after calling every pet shop in our area, Ratsy was the youngest to be found. In preparation for owning a pet, we told Meridian that she would be the rat's mommy, and that she would have to care for her, name her, talk to her, sing to her, read to her, etc. We discussed how mommies and daddies have to pick the very best name in the world for their kids, so that she should make a list and then look it over each day until she settled on the perfect name for her rat. She asked David and I to contribute to the list as well, and alternately approved entries or eliminated them. The potential name list included: Ratty, Ratsy, Mousie, Cleo, Linda, Lisbet, Meh-Meh, Ug, and Ethel. Ratsy was both the early front-runner and the winner. In a stroke of genius at the pet store, I told Meridian that Ratsy was a German rat and only understands German. This was brilliant because: 1) it gives her someone else to speak German to, and 2) since most of the animal care will be overseen by David, it makes sense for her German to be the rat's primary language, and 3) I get to speak to Ratsy in German too, and this is one of the only times Meridian will "allow" me to speak German. So far, she's enjoying her pet. She's not terribly fond of the way it feels when Ratsy crawls on her bare skin, and she was very unhappy when Ratsy chewed a few holes in my bedsheet while Meridian played with her on the bed. But by and large, she's a girl in love, plastering the poor rat with endless, noisy kisses, trying to feed her little bits of everything, packing her into a travel cage to carry along on play dates. Ratsy is a smash hit birthday gift! 06.06.2008 Last year, we were so pleased to find a pair of nesting robins in the hanging plant on our porch. Sadly, we lost the two baby robins to a mean ol' neighborhood cat. Luckily, Mama and Papi bird are back this year. After an unsucessful clutch of four eggs, all but one of which were tossed from the nest, another robin pair laid four additional eggs in the nest. Today they hatched! (The old egg is still in there under them, but all four of the new eggs hatched.) To use Meridian's words, "They're just so sweeeeet!"      We plan to follow their progress over the next two weeks until they fly off. :) Check back for pics as they grow! 06.01.2008 Meridian's last day of school was this week, and now it's summer break. Long days at the water park and the pool and the bay and the beach. This summer will mark her first ever ice cream from the ice cream truck (much anticipated), her first time going down the BIG slide at the water park by herself (not at all aware of this pending accomplishment), her first away-from-home sleepover (she was ready way before mommy was), and many other fun things that neither of us knows to look forward to. Until then, we have some housekeeping to do here. Busy days of late have kept me from diligently updating here, but to reward you for checking back often, I've updated loads of picture fluff with more on the way (keep your eye out for a 4 Year Gallery soon.) At school, the movement education teacher hosted a field day, and it was a blast! Lots of pics in the 3.5 year gallery, but here's one of the teachers having a grand ol' time!  The class also took their first (and only) field trip of the year, to the library and the fire station. At the library, the kids got to go back into the faculty offices, and even into the room behind the book drop to see how the books come into the library and get sorted. Then the librarian read the kids a book, and gave them fire hats to prepare for the next stop. Meridian wore her fire hat backwards like a baseball cap. I told her it was backwards and she said she liked it better that way, so it could keep the sun out of her eyes. She's a practical kid, I'll tell ya that! We walked next door to the fire station, where we watched a fire safety video and saw a fireman get dressed in his suit. After that they let the kids climb into the fire truck and squirt the fire extinguisher. Meridian enjoyed really herself. And we had a picnic at the park with her class when it was over. Lastly, Meridian's made a few career choices. Most recently, she says it like this: When I grow up I will be a president of the United States and also a teacher, and on the weekends I will be a photographer who takes vacations. A bit ambitious, but all achievable. Anyway, she's honing the skills for the last job first. She snapped this pic of me after school on her last day.  05.31.2008 We celebrated Meridian's 4th birthday with a party today at Red Wing Park. We were joined by her friends: Cai, Millie, Landon, Blaise, Nicholas, Anna, Grace, Skyler, Gauge, and James, and her cousins Michael, Andrew, and Lauren. The party was very low-key and perfect. I had to laugh because David said early on (but after invitations were sent) something about whether I'd checked to see that the park wasn't hosting a big event that day. They usually host enormous events like the Pow-Wow, etc, so it wasn't an implausible problem. I promptly put on horse-blinders and insisted that the chances of that were so slim that there was no point in checking. So, I had to eat a large dose of crow when we arrived thirty minutes before the party to find several huge tents erected with large inflatables and a PA system going at full tilt. After a quick re-evaluation, we found a quiet corner of the park and managed to get in touch with all the attendees to ensure they all knew where to find us. A good time was had by all as we wore homemade balloon hats through the customary birthday rituals. Noteworthy:
After the party, we took our dirty selves to our favorite local restaurant (Neighbors) and ordered pizzas and salad. 05.26.2008
Her birthday party will be next weekend, so we don't lose all our invitees to out of town Memorial Day weekend plans. Today was a great day for just the three of us alone to celebrate. We did Meridian's favorite thing in all the world: went to the waterpark. Despite the icy cold water, we had a great time. It was a blast to be back in a familiar place and to know the lay of the land, and also to be surprised with some new additions, like the see-saw that sprays you when you ride it. We came home for a quiet dinner and some cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Meridian asked for a huge piece and then licked the icing off without taking so much as a bite of cake.  |
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