D
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Recreation
We’re Back
We are back, we’ve been back, we had a wonderful trip. I just haven’t had time to sit quietly and write about it. However, we have been crafting!
A Full Weekend
The weekend was fast! So much happened. We went to a toy store and bought a tricycle that one of Bean’s relatives is giving for her third birthday. The funny thing about all this is that in the store, the only toys that captivated Bean were the stuffed animals. She was hugging them, playing with them, using her imagination and having them say and do things. She had zero interest in the trike at the time, and even less interest in the other stuff packed into the small store. Makes me wonder when we’ll be getting a dog, since that is her very favorite of all time beloved animal. However, she did get into the trike once we got home.
Then later in the evening, we made our first backyard campfire. We were waiting until it was dark enough early enough so we could still have a reasonable bedtime. The fire pit was a housewarming gift from a relative. (Hey EP, it might look different to you, and that’s because it is. The first one was just huge for our patio space, so we exchanged that for the one in the photo.) We roasted marshmallows, which Bean decided she didn’t like. She likes them uncooked. And she likes chocolate. And graham crackers. Just not all together in the form of a s’more. Mmmmm, I enjoyed some!
Bean was learning about heat radiation and how to figure out the safest distance.
This evening I was puttering in the garden, and I gasped when I saw the flower below. I was beginning to wonder if they’d ever bloom. Bean calls them Morning Glorias. It was the first batch of seeds we planted right after we moved in. I see a ton of buds on the vines now, so we’re in for a full bloom soon.
From Our Garden
The first week of June, Bean and I planted seeds, a heritage seed package stating it was designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. We have a lot of hummingbirds around. I haven’t seen many butterflies, but this is the first year we’ve planted. Tonight Bean and I picked some flowers, and here they are. (Oddly, our “Morning Glorias” have not bloomed. They’ve grown robust green leaves and vines, but no flower buds.)
Stained Glass Streamers
We made the simplest craft the other day, and it turned out so well. To make this, you need a roll of clear packing tape, some string or yarn, a hole punch, and a bunch of tissue paper of different colors cut up into small bits. Put a strip of tape on the table, sticky side facing up, and invite your child to put the paper pieces onto it. I had to tape the ends to the table to keep the strip stationary. When she feels it’s been decorated well enough, put another piece of tape, sticky side down, on top. Trim off any bits of paper sticking out of the edges. Punch a hole in one end, help your child get the yarn through the hole and then hang them outside in a tree, on a bush, off a pole — wherever you can tie them. Here they are hanging in the window for us to admire before going outside.
Now they are in the tree, fluttering about.
We watched them dance as we sat on our porch eating icy pops.
Paper, Paint, and Glitter Glue
I bought a package of die-cut flowers at Michaels, and we undertook to decorate some on Saturday. It took several days to work on this project, because the paint had to dry on each side before we could flip them to paint the other side, and the same for the glitter glue (which took forever to dry). It was difficult for Bean to summon patience through this process, and to understand that time had to pass. But it was worth the wait; this morning I hung them, and the grin on her face and her quiet exclamation of “Wowwww!” when she saw them was proof!
I made the ones on each end.
They rotate in the breeze, and they sparkle!
A Morning Outing
Yesterday on a neighborhood walk, Bean told me, “I want to show you the world, Mommy. The wonderful world!” She does, every day!
We live so far away from the din and havoc the comes with living in an urban area like Silicon Valley. About five miles from our home is the entrance to the Santa Teresa County Park. (There’s a trailhead about a mile from our house, but I went to the main part this time.) We see the hills from our home, so today I took Bean for a little hike. We wanted to see what nature had to offer.
Summer in California is the season of drought, dust, and death. The grasses turn “golden” (i.e., tinderbox dry and brown), and there is no rain for about five months. It is certainly not California at its prettiest. (I’m partial to the emerald green hills of the rainy season.) Here’s an example of the “hills of gold”:
And the poor parched ground:
Nevertheless, nature knowns no season. It always exists. It’s always interesting. So we headed out on a trail…
Even during summer, flowers manage to bloom.
The view from on high is expansive!
But we also had to keep our eyes sharp for other things.
Looking around reveals interesting shapes…
And glimpses of a bird soaring high in the sky (that teeny dot in the blue is not dust on your screen!).
Then we were treated to a surprise! A turkey vulture perched on a dead tree, I guess airing its wings. It sat still for several minutes like this!
Once it flew away, we returned our attention to the path.
We found a branch covered with lichen. Such interesting colors and textures!
And we also found some pinecones and hardened pine tree sap. We brought the rock of resin home for later exploration and research.
At the end of our walk, we ate a snack at a picnic table. On the way home, I asked Bean what her favorite part of our adventure was. She said it was “sitting and looking.” It was so quiet and breezy there. A lovely Monday morning.
Sunday Fun
Two batches of shells from the dollar store provide at least an hour of fun on a Sunday morning. Fill the sink with water…
Then sort! Later on Bean had her Little People friends play among the shells at the beach.
Then she decided that today was Space Bunny’s birthday (a little jingly rabbit toy she’s had since birth). So we got out construction paper, scissors, and glue. We made presents, cupcakes (with sprinkles!), and a cake with candles.
We also made paper flowers with marker, paper and pipe stems. Then Bean held the bunny and everyone sang happy birthday. Everyone had fun, and soon enough it was time for dinner and an evening walk, then bath and bed.
Abstraction
Here’s an easy, simple activity. I bought some colored masking tape, half-inch width, online at Discount School Supply. This stash will last a long time and be useful for many things. Then I got out some construction paper and tore off pieces of tape. (Bean chose the colors.) Then she decorated the paper with them. I noticed she mostly wanted to concentrate the color in one spot. After six were done I taped them to our dining room wall. Voila! Simple abstract art. It entertained her well for a while.
And thanks to the Frugal Family Blog for the inspiration!
No Muss, No Fuss
We do a fair amount of painting around Chez Harper, but once in awhile I want a less messy activity. So today I tried an idea I saw at Frugal Family Fun. I may have had more fun making them than Bean did playing with them, but they’ll be around awhile for those moments of boredom when a quick distraction will do.
I took file folder and cut out a 5″ by 7″ window. Then I decorated them with markers. Then I took a gallon-size heavy duty zip-top bag and put in the following:
1/3 cup of mineral oil
1/3 cup of color A
1/3 cup of color B
A dash of glitter
Gently press the bag so all the air is pressed out and seal. With packing tape, seal the zip-top. Then I taped the bags inside the file folders and taped the folders shut. If I’d had quart-size bags it might have been a bit easier — in that case I’d have used 1/4 cup of each item.
Matching Games
I have an abundance of card stock in my art supplies, and Bean has a lunchbox full of stickers. She’s getting to an age where games (taking turns, following rules) are interesting. Instead of buying a card set, I decided to be frugal and make a memory matching card games. There are small sets with large-ish pictures, and bigger sets with smaller stickers. We tried out the butterfly game after dinner and it was a hit!
The inspiration came from this post.
Mellow Friday
We’ve had a busy week, with someplace to go every day until today. I decided today would be a relax-at-home day, and this morning Bean and I did two crafts. She is still learning how to handle materials, developing fine motor skills, and beginning to grasp the steps of a project. The two crafts we did were from the All Kids Network. We made a paper plate sun and the tissue paper fish.
With the fish, I prepared the materials and gave them to Bean. She put the bits of paper on. I forgot about putting the eye and the smile on, but no biggie.
With the sun, I cut up the pieces; Bean painted the plate and the smile. After it dried, she put glue on the rays and the sunglasses and told me where to position them.
She’s not quite three, so these projects are mostly a collaborative effort. But we have fun, and she’s starting to do more on her own. Here’s a happy child:
Mail Call
I want Bean to have a mailbox for pretend play (inspiration came from No Time For Flash Cards), but we don’t need yet another plastic toy around, and I could use the money on something else. Besides, any day we use paint is considered a good day according to Bean. 🙂
So I dug out a shoebox, and Bean painted it. Blue blue blue! I painted on the word, then gave it a coat of Mod-Podge to seal it. Voila!
Frugal Toy
Yesterday Bean and I went to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. We had lots of fun with the rides. One of the featured activities was Cardboard City. Visitors are encouraged to play and create a city of cardboard based on imagination in the Meadow, using old boxes and paint. And this gave me an idea.
I’ve been wanting to give Bean a barn to play with, but many of them are outrageously expensive. So I found an old box and, with a little cutting and taping and painting, ended up with a barn. Bean helped me paint the barn red. Then I took over with the roof and trim, and collaged the inside of the box. I’ve had the paint, paper, and tape on hand for years, so for a very minimal cost we have a toy barn! It may not last as long as a wooden one, but we had fun making it (especially me). Now all we need are some farm animals!
Blazing By
The summer speeds along. It’s astonishing! Our transition into the new home continues. Bean, especially, has difficulty. Her sleeping habits are regular again. However, she has zero interest in being away from me, ever (even for me to be in another part of the house sometimes), and she is especially rejecting of others. It started right after the move, with her Grandma Kay. Whenever Kay would come near her, she told grandma to go into another room, to go away.
One of my sisters visited later in June, and Bean was pretty horrible to her too. After the first day in which Bean was shy and sweet, she would raise her voice to her aunt. “Don’t say words!” “Go away!” “Don’t look at me!” These demands were accompanied by screeching. (Bean didn’t have the same feelings toward her uncle, however; he was just nifty.) We took the opportunity to admonish her about being kind, but the bottom line is that in this new house and new life there was an unfamiliar person taking a lot of my attention and time, and this just didn’t sit well with Bean.
A couple weeks ago a friend of mine came to visit, and Bean behaved similarly. She warmed up to my friend a bit, but would bluntly state her wishes too, such as “Don’t talk to me.” Then last Friday, when her beloved babysitter came for the first time in a month, she decided the babysitter was no good either. After about 45 minutes with A__, she didn’t want the babysitter to sit in the same room, or touch any of her toys, and so on. I got a call about an hour before I was due home; A__ informing me what was happening to let me know. I decided that as long as Bean was safe (not self-injuring or something), that I would come home at my planned time. When I came home she’d been crying and wailing for me and clung to me.
She’s even been mean to her father in this way. And increasingly, Bean says, “I want to go back to the old house.” I conclude that this has been a seismic shift for her. If she can be taken away from her home, then what about Mommy? What if Mommy is taken away, or she is taken from Mommy? Many days she doesn’t want to go anywhere, sometimes not even outside. Not to the grocery store, the park, for a walk. Pushing her is a catalyst for a tantrum; then everyone is miserable, so what’s the point?
And the tantrums! Oh, they have become ever more voluble and frequent.
However, it’s not all negative stuff. Bean is as sweet, playful, and loving as ever — even more so. So much change in a little life…
We’ve done a few activities, such as:
Berry picking in June!
“Washing” windows:
Baking cakes (and licking batter off the beater):
Having backyard picnics:
Enjoying the sprinkler:
And making stuff, like sand clay and painting birdhouses! Bean made the bowl with a little shaping help from me, and I made the candle holder.
I painted the white coat and Bean added her flair:
Onward to August!
Hidden Blessings
It had been a rough winter for Bean. She got sick nearly every month since September (and coincidentally she started preschool one day a week that month), had two bouts of pneumonia, and required treatments to help her breathe. The latest illness began on Mother’s Day, and by Thursday she was in a spiral of non-stop coughing. I mean that literally. She couldn’t utter a sentence without coughing between words. She couldn’t eat; she coughed so much and so hard she vomited. She hardly slept. The doctor had me bring her in and gave her breathing treatment, then sent us home with a prescription for prednisone and albuterol treatments. We also discussed whether to forgo attending preschool in the fall.
At our follow-up appointment on Tuesday, we discussed the situation. It turns out that Bean has asthma. This may be something she outgrows, as her respiratory system gets bigger and her immunity builds. She’s very petite. We have an asthma plan. When she’s healthy, it’s the green zone, and we need not do anything. At the sign of any sickness (fever, runny nose, sneezing, congestion, coughing — any one of these) we enter the yellow zone. We are to give her albuterol every four hours round the clock and prednisone twice a day until the cold goes away.
However, if she’s in the yellow zone more than a week, or she falls into a coughing spiral as she has, we enter the red zone and need to seek emergency attention — Urgent Care if they’re open, the ER if not.
At first I felt a little sad about pulling her out of preschool. I really want her to have the social outlet, and I want it too. The doctor pointed out, though, that if she’s sick all the time, she can’t get the social contact anyway. And preschool is a lot more exposure to illness than small play-dates with friends. So, I set about creating an at-home curriculum for us next year: reading/phonics, science, art & craft, music, games, adventure days. I’ll invite a couple friends over to join us now and then. And after more pondering, I realize that I have a gift. Soon enough, Bean will go to school five days a week and enter into her own life away from me. I have the privilege of her company for another year, at least, and maybe two.
I just returned from a day-long retreat with my friend Karen, where I realized something else. We’ve resorted to doing “puffs” — breathing ten times from a little chamber where the medicine is squirted into — because she fought the breathing treatments that took ten minutes every time. And I realized, today, that by sitting with her and helping her count breaths to ten, I am setting the foundation for her to learn how to settle herself and become aware of breath. It also helps me to stop and breathe, and be quiet. Breathing is the foundation of meditation, which leads to attention, which leads to love, which leads to patience, which leads to forgiveness, which leads to peace.
So what first seems like a hindrance has turned out to have aspects to appreciate. I’m grateful for that.
——-
I have written this post quickly, because my life is in flux and I have to give my attention to other things: dinner, and packing. I feel eloquence is lacking in the above reflection, but it will have to do. We move on Tuesday! So much to do before that!
The Beginning
Lookee what I made! I finally took a lesson on how to use the sewing machine I was given for my birthday 11 months ago. Now that I know my way around the machine (the basics, at least) there will be no stopping me. This one is for Bean. (Pillowcases, anyone? When I learned to knit, all I made for the longest time were scarves. You can happily knit just scarves for a long time. I can see the same thing with pillowcases.)
Radio Silence
Throughout my life, writing has been a cherished expression for me. At one point I even felt that writing was as important as breathing. I so urgently wanted to tell my story about where I came from, what was done to me, what had happened in my life. I wanted to share tidbits, information, inspiration, resources. It was a form of therapy, a creative outlet, and a way to connect intimately with others (even when those others were anonymous).
I’ve noticed since becoming a mother I have written less. No, I take that back. For the first two years of Bean’s life, I wrote about her. Then I decided to reign that in, since she is developing greater agency over her life. Lately, blogging about my life strikes me as an incredibly narcissistic activity; it always has been, but at one point I actually thought it had value. Increasingly, though, I see that my vignettes, reflections, and insights are not original, and I’m not certain that writing them (here or in a paper journal) effects anything beneficial. I don’t seem to need to do it anymore. So this blog has become a place to link to resources related to my current activity (parenting) and the occasional photo or movie of Bean. This morning I realized there are usually three factors that cause my writing silence; any one of these can be cause for me to abandon writing for while:
- I am very busy with daily activities (such as when I worked and went to school, both full-time).
- I am content with my life.
- I feel that to write is to express nothing unique or new, and to blog is just adding another voice to the cacophony of Twitterers, bloggers, Facebookers (of which I’m an avid user) and other sundry voices.
As it happens, all of these factors are true at the moment. Hence, my sporadic posts.
I’ve been reading voraciously this year. Some years I barely touch fiction, other years I devour it. This is a fiction year. Yet I’ve also been immersed in a number of existential books by Eckhart Tolle, and most recently I’ve been soaking in Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life.
At this point, I’ll keep living as usual. There’s a season for all things, and the writing season will probably come ’round again.
What Did You Do Today?
We had fun with shaving cream and food coloring!
If You Give A Kid A Camera
