Thirty dollars spent at Lowe’s + Some digging by Mommy = Priceless happiness
“If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
–Rachel Carson
We love yarn around here, and yellow is Bean’s favorite color.
Also, more egg:
So much planting, painting, fixing, creating.
It doesn’t mark the spot, but we do have xylophone and x-ray!
Lately we’ve been tending our garden, literally. A year ago we were marching through the process of house inspections and appraisals in order to get the house. When we moved in late May, the early year growing season was well under way. (We pretty much have a year-round growing season, though.) I planted wildflower seeds in the back yard, and while these were a success, when they died in the fall the garden was barren except for weeds. Speaking of which, they grow prolifically! I can’t keep up.
So I’ve been planting plants, bulbs, and seeds with Bean. We’ve planted rosemary, basil, oregano, and thyme, as well as lavender and jasmine. I’ve also planted Lily of the Valley bulbs, Asiatic Lily bulbs, and a Bleeding Heart bulb. As for seeds, Bean and I sowed plenty: pansies, poppies, zinnias, daisies, and sunflowers, as well as some wildflower mix. We’ll see how well this all grows.
The challenge comes when I surf the internet researching plants and garden planning. There are so, so many sites with lovely plants for sale. I want them all, even though I haven’t the space for them. I also want trellises, a raised bed for vegetables, and on and on.
I must remember this is all a process done in stages. We have various spots of our land than need different major bits of work. We also plan to re-do the back patio and put up a shade awning, and before I start planting around those spaces I need to leave room for the mess and see how the awning affects light near the house. The front of the house also has a couple spots needing major attention, as well as the west side of the house, which is compacted soil and rock from where it used to store the previous owner’s trailer. All in good time. We replaced the fence on the west side; it looks nice, and we had a four-foot gate installed as well, which is a boon for lugging supplies to and fro.
It was so wonderful to spend the weekend outside doing all this. Bean loves it too. My dream of giving her a place to dig in the dirt came true. She also met some snails, which she is not shy about carrying around and playing with. Unfortunately one met its demise at her hands. While she played with it (“he” was her pet), the shell cracked. So she tried to help it move into a new shell (we have a basket of small seashells outside). I explained to her this wasn’t like a hermit crab; he couldn’t just move out and in. But — while I didn’t witness this — I think she tried to help it move into a small seashell, and in the process it got squished. I heard her lament that her friend “went away.” She was sad, but not for long. Our garden does not lack for those creatures.
Since we spent most of the weekend outside, the poor house needs attention. Now I want a magic broom to sweep, and a magic vacuum, and dishwasher fairies. Or at the least a maid service! But alas, I’ll need to take up these tasks myself. I will do so, gratefully.
At W!
More art!
I met the surgeon Friday. He ran way behind schedule, but he was collaborative and kind. My surgery is scheduled for this Friday, the 11th. I was told to find a front closure support bra that I will wear home from the surgery, which is an outpatient procedure. They will use wire localization to find the titanium piece left from the last biopsy, and then will remove tissue around that the size of a large marble. It may take 90 minutes for this, because they need to x-ray the tissue to see if they’ve gotten enough margin around the chip. If not, they’ll remove more before closing me up.
The follow up visit is set for March 18, and he told me his practice is NOT to give pathology results via phone. But he assured me that there was a 90% chance no cancer would be detected. (Though there had been an 80% chance the stereotactic biopsy wasn’t going to show a problem, but I wasn’t in that group.) He said after we get results, regardless of what they are, I should consult with an oncologist to discuss how to determine my risk and options to reduce it. He also recommended that I talk to a genetic counselor, at least to find out whether it might behoove me to get tested.
I might very well do so. My mother is a breast cancer survivor. Her mother, however, died of breast cancer when she was in her early 50s. And her mother, who lived to her 80s, had breast cancer and ovarian cancer. In fact, I think it was ovarian cancer she died of. I had dismissed my great-grandmother, because one doctor told me years ago that it’s inevitable to die of something when you get old enough, and it wasn’t indicative of a heritable condition. In light of my situation though, I’m now thinking perhaps it is. Three generations of breast cancer — regardless of the age it developed — surely has some significance, at least to me personally.
One of my sisters is worried that if I get the test done and turn out to have a mutation, that this will cause me problems getting insurance coverage later on, if I should change carriers. Fortunately, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) was passed, which makes it illegal for health insurers and employers to discriminate on the basis of DNA information. You cannot be denied medical coverage based on DNA results. The insurance company may require additional intervention because of it (such as more frequent screenings), but it is not a pre-existing condition. Having a gene mutation does not guarantee an illness will result. So, no worries, sis!
It’s been a long time since I shared a video of Bean. For half a year I’d had trouble uploading them to Flickr, and just as suddenly it seems to work again. So here’s a video from the other morning (if the embedded video doesn’t work, try this link):
She played the “drums” and “cymbals,” and had an audience:
And yesterday’s craft:
Life continues as normal. We create, learn, play, grow. Things change quickly! Until a couple weeks ago, Bean just couldn’t handle scissors, although she wanted to. Her hands are very petite. Then we went to a library event that involved a craft; she picked up scissors and began snipping. She’s been at it since. It remains difficult since her hands are small; she manages small snips and can’t cut a line. She switches hands when one gets tired (she’s really a righty), but she’ll get there.
In the past few days, her approach to coloring also changed. She used to scrawl a few lines on a picture and move on. She also didn’t like to color very much. Then one day she wanted to use a new book sent by Aunt Linda, and I noticed she steadily worked to color the entire picture. Her movements were more controlled, and she colored about an hour. I sat with her and kept company. It was pouring rain, and she said, “I like this quiet activity. It makes me feel cozy.” And indeed we were.
We’re on to the letter R in our alphabet crafts. You can also see a collage Bean made from the bits of paper she snipped with her scissors. I put glue on the paper, and as she cut pieces fell onto it.
When she was sick a couple weeks back, I assembled some boxes so she could make a rocket ship. We had done this at school, and it was good for several hours of entertainment. It’s the type of thing that can be stored in the garage and pulled out periodically to work on. We’ll get it out again and play with paints soon.
Way back on her birthday, someone gave Bean a little spin art toy kit. Last week I pulled it out, and we made some neat art. I helped her (it’s a challenge to coordinate squeezing paint and pushing the spin button). Here’s the result.
Aunt Linda had sent (a loooooong time ago) some glow-in-the-dark stickers. I’d stored them for a time when she could really appreciate the phenomenon. We pulled them out on a day it poured rain and decorated a piece of black paper. After exposing them to light we hung it in our half-bath, closed the door, and looked at them. She was fascinated. She was also insistently curious about the stickers that looked like whirlpools. Out of desperation I said they were worm holes. She then wanted to know if “the astronauts go into the worm hole to watch the worms wiggle.” I told her to ask her father. 😉
Lastly, for her birthday we’d given her a rug with a town decorated on it. She had zero interest in it. She has a nook under the stairs which I’d covered with two bath mats for cushioning. It was cluttered with pillows and bins of toys. I decided to clear things out and put the rug in there, and now it’s a hit!
We also have an annual membership to the Children’s Discovery Museum, activated yesterday. Prior trips to the museum were infrequent and short. Yesterday we stayed about three hours; she loved it. She understands a lot more, and she’s bigger and less daunted by the crowd of kids. She got to sit inside an ambulance, fire truck, and old jalopy. She made a collage. She played with giant soap bubbles. She made pretend pizza and learned about “eating a rainbow every day” (fruits and veggies). She painted her face thoroughly with blue and yellow in the face paint area. She built a ball ramp with giant foam blocks. And she played at the water center, getting wet and having a blast. Hub took a few photos with his camera phone, which he’s not downloaded yet. But trust me when I say we’ll be going often now!
Bean and I made this together. I set it up, she sprinkled stuff on it (confetti, sequins, jewels, feathers), squirted glitter glue, and I finished it off. Contact paper is wonderful stuff!
A few days later I made a quick collage in a few spare moments in my art journal. I call it “Store Up Treasures in Your Heart”; it’s on 7 x 9 inch sketch paper. I’m attempting to make a little time more frequently for my own creating.
We continue to create our way through the alphabet!
Piano and pennies…
Feeling quiet on the blog these days. Did a painting on a 24×36″ canvas — my first one. All that blank white canvas felt a bit daunting, but I did enjoy mooshing paint around. I also used oil pastel on details.
Bean and I are getting into the spirit of the next holiday:
And we are continuing to create our way through the alphabet!
We’ve had an abundant crop of Meyer lemons (as well as other lemons and oranges). I usually juice them and freeze them in cubes. But this time I wanted to preserve some and use them for later cooking. I made four jars. It was simple, and making them was such pleasure. They are gorgeous!
One day, about a week ago, Bean desperately wanted to celebrate a birthday. She wanted it to be hers, and she cried a bit over the fact that it wasn’t. But she wanted cake and to sing the song. So I did a little research for a literary figure born on that day. I found the poet, Helen Hoyt, was born on the day in question. We explored the poetry a little at the Poetry Foundation, and I baked each of us a little cake. We sang happy birthday to her. We’ll be doing that again, I’m sure!
Lastly, I bought fresh gnocchi on a whim. I didn’t have a tomato sauce to use, and I wanted to do something different with it. So I sauteed zucchini in olive oil with basil and a few sliced preserved Meyer lemons. I really enjoyed it, but two-thirds of the household diners did not like it as much. One said the lemon made it bitter. I’ll need to find other uses for the lemon.
So, if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been quiet here since January 19th, this post is your answer!
I forgot to post last week’s alphabet craft. So here are the letters M and N.
M is for mountains and marshmallows
N is for numbers and noodles
I think we have a budding insomniac. Lately, Bean has taken to climbing out of bed after being tucked in and rocking in her chair for hours (if we allow it). Then it started in the middle of the night. She’d wake up, get out of bed and rock, several times a night. When asked why, she replied that she has “thoughts to think” and if she sleeps she can’t do it. She would smirk a little when we came in; it became a game, and a budding power struggle. She also expresses fear of bad dreams, although she doesn’t have nightmares, and only once in a while does she cry out in her sleep.
We discussed whether to just let her do this. It’s her room, after all. However, she has a will that is formidable. She managed to stay up and rock until after midnight one night. Another night she got up at 1 a.m. and rocked until 3 a.m. when we finally went into her room and coerced her back in bed. She rarely sleeps past 7:00 a.m., so she became sleep-deprived, manifesting all the behavior that arises in children when that happens.
So we employed a drastic measure. We removed her chair and ottoman one night and put it in the hallway (she is still unable to open doors by herself). It resulted in a ruckus of protest, but she went to bed and slept. The next night I wrote up and printed The Sleep Rules from Mark Weissbluth, adding a cute graphic of a girl asleep in her bed to make it friendly. I taped them to her wall, and we reviewed them. We told her if she got out of bed we’d come and remove the chair.
The Sleep Rules
- Stay in bed.
- Close your eyes.
- Stay very quiet.
- Go to sleep.
As soon as she was put in bed, not five minutes later she was out. So we fulfilled our promise. She protested briefly, accepted this, and went to sleep. The next morning we put the chair back. That night, she stayed in bed and went to sleep. However, at 2 a.m. she woke up and started rocking. We went in and removed the temptation. She went right back to sleep. We told her the next morning that if she keeps getting out of bed when she should be sleeping, we were going to move the rocker and ottoman out of her room permanently, into the guest room. She said she didn’t want that! We replied that we didn’t want to do it either, and if she could stay in bed the rocker would remain. She promised she would.
We reviewed the sleep rules last night, and we reminded her about the arrangement. She woke twice in the night. At midnight (I was still up) she only woke slightly and I heard her. I went in and reassured her, reminded her to go back to sleep, and tucked her in. At 3 a.m. she woke crying for me saying, “I’m afraid of the dark!” (She has a bright night light.) I went in and she’d gotten out of bed but not made it to the chair. I returned her to bed, soothed and tucked her in, and sang a short lullaby. She remained there until 7 a.m.
So, I am hoping we continue to have success in this. We really love rocking her and holding her, and she uses it to relax herself. Someday she will outgrow it, but I think it’s still an essential piece of our lives.
Some unknown guy created a rap tribute to NPR and other public radio stations. Genuine pleasure. Reminds me to renew my membership!! If embed doesn’t work, here’s a link: NPR Rap.
Today Bean asked, “What is a symbol?”
I tried to answer. A symbol is a small picture that represents a thing that has a certain meaning. The letter T for the “t” sound, for example. Words are symbols. A red light is a symbol, telling people to make their car stop at it, while a yellow light means to slow down and a green one to go. A logo — like the eagle on the side of the mail truck — is a symbol for the company that is called the U.S. Postal Service. A picture of a heart means love. Candy canes are symbols for Christmas.
Then she asked, “What is the symbol for the universe?”
Wow! I told her there are many symbols — religious ones, scientific ones, artistic ones — but that the universe was sooooooo big that no one symbol can completely show what the universe is or means.
That seemed to satisfy her for that moment. More stuff for that growing brain to think about!
What a busy day we’ve had. First we began with an alphabet craft project, the letter L, for leaves and ladder.
Then we went and got haircuts. After that, we went to the grocery store with $5 of Bean’s money (from her aunt) to purchase food for the food bank. First Bean chose three bags of rice:
She tried to move the basket down the aisle, but it’s big and she had to choo-choo it:
Next she chose two bags of beans:
After the grocery store, we went to the mall to buy gifts for the Family Giving Tree. Bean wanted to choose two little girls her age. One wanted “anything princess” and the other wanted a child’s DVD.
We went to Target, where Bean demonstrated her penguin walk:
Then her eye was caught by a big pink box of temptation. I reminded her of our purpose for being in the store and said that pretty soon Santa would come, and other gifts would come from family members, and so to be patient. She selected Finding Nemo and a Beauty and the Beast Deluxe Bag (small dolls and dresses with a horse and carriage).
We purchased the items and brought them back to the tree, where they will be picked up tomorrow. All that shopping made us hungry, so Bean asked to go to Popeye’s for rice and beans and french fries. We used to eat there a lot when we lived close by; since we were near, we went. We had a leisurely lunch.
Then we went home, where I raked the leaves in the front yard. It was Bean’s first encounter with a pile of leaves, and she loved it! See the sheer joy:
And leaves in her pigtails:
This is all I had hoped for Bean’s childhood — the same joys I was privileged to encounter in my own:
She has now crashed for a late afternoon nap, and I’m savoring a quiet moment myself.
Husband and I are best described as agnostic. I grew up Catholic but am no longer practicing, and I do not agree with/believe/follow the creed. However, we are trying to ensure Bean grows up with an awareness of what this season is about beyond Santa (though Santa is special too, and about love). We read her books, such as Room for a Little One and This is the Stable. They are sweet books conveying the story of a special baby’s birth in humble circumstances. We also listen to a lot of carols, traditional and modern.
So we were listening to a song by Sean Colvin about Mary’s journey to Bethlehem. These days, Bean wants to know what every song is about. She asked about the song. I said it’s about a girl named Mary who journeyed a long way and had a baby in a Bethlehem stable and named him Jesus. Then she asked, “Who’s Jesus?”
Ummm… I said, “Jesus was a person who grew up to teach people to love each other, to be kind and compassionate and to forgive each other.”
That’s sufficient for a three-year-old, right? Then she asked, “What is Jesus’ Daddy’s name?”
Gulp! “Many people think a being named God is Jesus’ Daddy. But Joseph the carpenter was Mary’s husband and raised Jesus as his own son.” I’m the embodiment of finesse, I tell you!
Curiosity sufficiently sated for the moment, she moved on to another topic. She keeps me on my toes!