On the Bookshelf

 The Bookshelf:

Chloe is reading:

  
*Stellaluna
*Chicky Chicky Chook Chook -- sort a baby-ish book but she loves memorizing the rhymes and "reading" it
*Miss Rumphius -- she and Evan constantly pretend they are planting lupines everywhere... in their imagination my yard is a field of flowers!
*Barbaro -- this is our second round with this race-horse chapter book
*Roxaboxen
*Kermit the Hermit and lots of other Bill Peet books

Topics she is interested in:

*still the Life-Size Zoo books
*birds and feathers
*cheetahs, rhinos, elephants... the usual animal obsession
*bats

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 Evan is reading:

*How Much is a Million 
*Grandaddy's Place
*a variety of Superman and Star Wars books
*Classic Fairy Tales -- this carries over from last month
*Tangled Storybook
*I tried to get him interested in reading Peter Pan but he wants nothing to do with Captain Hook just yet.  So instead he asked me to get Farmer Boy again.  That's a bit more his style.

Topics he is interested in:

*counting everything
*BMX riding and racing
*robots and how things work
*the movie Tangled which has inspired all kinds of new vocabulary interests:  smolder, catapult, dimented
*I Spy and other search-type books

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I am reading:

 

*Big-Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell -- Todd has actually been reading this so when he's done I plan on getting into it.  It's about how big chain stores destroy local economies.

*Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver -- This is a really well-written book about a family's goal to eat local and in-season and grow a lot of their own food.  It's my second time checking this one out and I love it.

*This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman -- A fly-on-the-wall read about homesteaders in the 70's. 

*Tasha Tudor's Garden by Tovah Martin -- acres and acres of flowers... fascinating and beautiful

*Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn -- Maybe the best book I've ever read.  It was like coming home.

*Roots, Shoots, Buckets, Boots by Sharon Lovejoy -- This is about gardening with children, but it is practical and beautiful too.  We are so building the sunflower house when we have land to do it.

*The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto -- hundreds of pages to go, but I am locked in.  His writings are a lot of why we will never have our kids in public schools.... *shudder*

*What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated by Alfie Kohn -- I love Alfie Kohn books.  This one is a bunch of short essays about public education and our thoughts about learning in general.

*The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton -- This book is about a man who spent his young adult life traveling the world and exploring every fascinating thing he could.  He climbed mountains and swam the Panama Canal.  He sat on the Golden Gate Bridge as it was in construction and slept in the Taj Mahal.  Incredible.  The is one of my favorite books at the library.  I just wish the pictures could be in color.

The Park

 A beautiful outing on a beautiful afternoon to our favorite park in town. 

 A little hiking

 A lot of biking

Some new trail discovering

And a bit of treasure hunting

(we found more beads :-)

Oh, and Evan climbing straight up this little sapling tree

We went home briefly to eat dinner, then came back to watch the BMX practice and races.

Evan has wanted to be a BMX rider since he and Todd first came year three years ago.  Watching the boys (and girls) on bikes stirred many emotions in him.

He was thrilled at their speed and jumps.
He was devastated because he couldn't just grab his bike and join in.
He was awed at the dozens of dirt hills they ramped and flew over.
He was in tears over the thought of having to wait for us to be able to afford this sort of club for him.

He summarized his heart in one perfect sentence (with teary eyes):

 "Mom...... this.... is my dream."

We always knew Evan was born to be on wheels, but in the meantime, we may just be spending our Wednesday evenings here at the park.  Dreaming.


And while Evan dreams, Chloe watches quietly and plays with her hair.
And of course her horses too.

All Tied Up

Off to the library with some favorite toys in tow.

(enlarge this picture to see Chloe's squished up face ;-)

Together

As different as these two can be sometimes, they still find ways to play together.  They get on each other's nerves so much some days, but the suggestion of separating them just makes both of them sad.  I guess being together with your family, even if you don't particularly like them at the moment, is so much better than just sitting somewhere alone with no one to share life with. 

Heat Wave

 It has been unbearably hot and humid for about a week, so hot in fact that we haven't even wanted to go outside.  ugh.  So when it cooled off even a bit (you know, like below 87) we tried to get out and play. In the shade, of course.

We did some coloring together for hours. 
Well, not Todd.  He slept next to the coloring area.

Once he woke up, he and Evan did some hunting in the I Spy book.

Chloe did my nails and hers with colored pencils.  This experiment (her idea) was interesting in that none of the cheapy brands worked -- only Prismacolors which are the best. Pretty!

And although Todd, Chloe and I preferred just sitting still (or sleeping), our boy cannot do that.  He simply must move around and conquer things.

Hey look!  A low tree branch! 

Must. Climb. It.    NOW.

Look at those arm muscles!

There he is at the top!

Ready to drop....

 but hanging in there.

Just like all of us in this heat....

Breakfast Buddy

Chloe held Grrrrrrr all through breakfast.  He's her snake.  Although he sat with his mouth wide open, obviously ready for some sharing, Chloe ate the o's herself and didn't offer.  Amazingly no one tripped over Grrrrrr's five foot long body draped on the floor.  It was a lovely meal.

Unusual Day

Today weird things are happening...

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It is currently 91 outside with a heat index of 100 degrees.

um... weird. 

and horrible! 

I have thanked God for our air conditioning at least 18 times today.  Poor Todd is working on a roof.  Eek!

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Chloe came into the kitchen around noon and asked me if she could take a nap. 

um.... weird. 

and awesome! 

I set her up by pulling shades and closing the door.  She stayed in there for over an hour and came out cheerful.

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Evan asked me to buy him sardines at the co-op today. 

um.... weird. 

and delicious! 

He has requested these three or four times before and always devours them.  So, he had himself a fishy snack once we were home and enjoyed it thoroughly.

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I was busy in the kitchen after shopping and my stove began leaking gas.

um... weird.

and scary!

So I called Todd to ask how to shut off the gas. There are four trays of unbaked granola, a pot of half cooked black-eyed peas, and no way to hard-boil eggs or cook beets for dinner.  Not the best day for this sort of thing to happen.  Good thing we all like salad.

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There is a jar of homemade buttermilk sitting in my kitchen cabinet culturing into something yummy.

um... weird.

and money-saving!

I've been wanting to try this sort of thing for a while and have finally decided to just do it.  I use buttermilk in so much stuff that it is silly to keep buying grocery store yuck when this is so simple.

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The kids wanted to watch a movie this afternoon, but instead of Tangled they asked for Wall-E.

um... weird.

and refreshing!

It is too hot to do anything outside today so I knew they'd ask to watch a movie.  Our basement is much cooler than the rest of the house so we will rest and relax, and think of poor Todd on that roof.....

Tinkering

Tinker Toys are the new favorite toy here.  My sister Brook has had our childhood collection at her house for years (and I was unaware!!) and brought them to share here over the weekend. 

Evan has built dozens of things by following the instructions. 

Chloe has built six or seven things copying Evan's models. 

But today was great -- they were so engrossed in building (it is 90 and unbearably humid outside) that when I suggested today might be a good movie day, neither of them budged.  Too busy having fun :-) 

And this was what Evan was working on. 

Of course, now that they are done, we are all here in the cool basement watching Tangled.

Brave Girl

The last time we went to the Waterworks playground at the beach, Chloe was newly four and not able to play very well by herself there.  The climbers are really for bigger kids. So I followed her around and boosted her up and held her hand and stood underneath her so she wouldn't fall. She was nervous the whole time.  She really didn't like it last year.

But now...

She is all kinds of brave.  She didn't call for help even once.  And that perch they are sitting on is about seven feet up in the air.

Currently

 He ::

:: has hair just like his mama ... and it is even the same length

:: calls himself "THE EVAN" (as in "Do you want to play with... THE EVAN?")

:: asks, "May I eat?" at least once every hour

:: folds oragami airplanes every single day and is almost through his stack of 150 pieces of oragami paper

:: watches the movie Tangled almost every day (after loving the story of Rapunzel so much) and pretends it with Chloe for the rest of the day -- with their satchels and crowns and beanie baby chameleons

:: sniffs everything his hands touch

:: travels around the block on his bike by himself -- all he has to do is let me know and he is free to ride.  One day he did it five times in a row just because he could.

:: has another front tooth that just started growing in :-)

:: hasn't used his made up words "inviz" or "zaust" in so long that I thought I might forget them if I didn't write them down.  Inviz was his was of making a verb out of becoming invisible and Zaust was his shortened word for exhaust, with which he was obsessed for so long.

:: is often humming the Star Wars Darth Vader march

:: is also often humming the song Hillbilly Bone

:: on rough days when he's feeling frustrated or angry he says, "I haven't had any hugs today!"

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She ::

:: calls the bed in their room a "bonk bed"

:: has a pair of sparkly twinkle-toes shoes that are her most favorite and amazingly match everything in her wardrobe

:: requests milk to drink instead of water for the first time ever

:: reads the "Life-Size" zoo and aquarium books we get from the library more than any other book on the shelf -- the walrus is her favorite

:: has hair almost down to her waist -- about a half inch to go

:: figured out how to follow simple oragami animal directions and made about 50 cicadas

:: is always itchy... and sweaty.... just like her dad

:: helps me measure and mix and chop most everything when I'm in the kitchen.  She is going to know how to make everything as she grows up.

:: no longer likes to eat cheese (!!!!) except the cheddar curds we get from the farm

:: goes down to the basement by herself now without being scared (amazing!)

:: still says "bremember" for remember and "intrin-sted" for interested

:: loves watching Tangled as much as Evan loved watching Cars at this age

:: invented the "horsie force" as a magic power for her horses when they play with Evan

Artsy

Working on:   horse blankets.... pretty designs to hang on their walls.... tons of oragami folding....  and Evan is slowly making progress on his birthday thank you cards.

My Little Horse

She has a pasture full of horses in her imagination....

She embodies each one's personality whenever she is pretending....

Some are shy, some are wild, some will bite, some demand a bucket of oats to eat, some forage in the grass for clover, some are brown, some are white, (one is even gold).....

Some are quiet, some are fast, some are stallions, some are little foals, some will tell you their names, others neigh "yo-ooou  haaaa-aaaave to-ooo gueeeee-eeess" ....

She can tell you such details about each horse individually because she is the horse.....

{click this photo to enlarge and laugh}

This is not a game.  This is her life.