Releasing Her Inner Artist

I have been putting off writing about our summer. I have a post in me somewhere, but I think I had to let school start for a week or so before I could rehash the summer. Or perhaps it is taking me that long to restart my brain after it was left unplugged (intentionally, as a form of self protection) all summer. So in order to ease into my summer post (and this is NOT my summer post), I'll tell you a little about Natalie's artistic phases over the summer. The pictures don't capture the entire essence, because I only grabbed handfuls of the art produced.

There was the rock painting phase. Piles of brightly painted, markered, and crayoned rocks, mostly pilfered from neighbor's landscaping.

The bookmark phase. She found a bag of tongue depressor sticks in our craft bag. And proceeded to paint, marker and draw on pretty close to the entire bag. She began giving them out as bookmarks, but we still have a stack of them.

The paper plate phase. She found a stack of paper plates in the pantry. The ones that I bought to use for lunches on days when the dishes are stacking up....and proceeded to paint, draw, color and cut pretty close to all of them.

The Post-It Note phase. An entire stack of Post-It Notes now have cryptic notes on every page. I particularly like the one that is taped at eye level on the door to my toilet (eye level while sitting on the commode, that is) that says "I♥ my kids."

The Label Maker phase. She is into trying to spell things, with or without my help, and used pretty much a whole tape in my Label Maker...for Owen "I like Power Rangers" and "underwear." There was the "I love" series - "I love Liam" and "I love Owen" and on and on. And my personal favorite, "OK sooooooo" and "OK so haw are you."

I could have chosen to be upset about the use of so many sticks, plates, paper, labels. But really, considering how things deteriorate around here when children aren't kept busy, I didn't mind at all. My little artist brightens our world with color. And she keeps herself busy with very little supervision required. Excellent.

The harder part will be the ultimate disposal of said art...some things (rocks) are not as easy to slip into the recycle basket as others...

Mr Cool

After using the 10-second timer function on the camera to take a family photo for Owen's preschool Open House, Liam took a whole series of pics of himself using the timer. This is one of the few that actually had a hint of a smile. In most of them it appears as though he is practicing his cool, serious look. My big 3rd grader. I see the long, lanky legs and the not-quite-a-boy face. This could not be the same boy I used to wrap up so tightly in a blanket like a burrito at night.

He is quite the proud big brother imparting all of his 3rd grade wisdom to his Kindergartner sister. Each morning on the way to school he can be heard explaining all kinds of things about school to Natalie. Most of his advice ends with, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a few days." Ahh, I love hearing the advice doled out by someone other than myself. The other day he told her very seriously, "Natalie, if you want to be good at something you have to practice A LOT. Do you think I always played baseball this good? No! I've been practicing for, like, 8 years!"

Back To School

The big day has arrived. School time!

Everyone survived. In fact, it went very well. Natalie had quite a bit of anxiety about the logistics of getting from here to there and knowing what to do. But we had Meet The Teacher Night on Friday, and I think it helped her to see everything. She probably also realized that she knows the school already from visiting Liam over the years. Her teacher is very young, but seems very sweet. When I picked them up this afternoon, both of them were bouncy and cheerful and smiley. Natalie even declared, "Kindergarten is fun!!" I'd call that a success.

Heard From the Herd

Owen usually relies on others to man the remote control for the tv. It can be rather complicated, with all the myriad of options...Direct TV, Netflix, etc. The other day he was excused from the dinner table before the other two, and walked out to the family room and started a movie on his own. Natalie said, "What?! How did he?!" and then turned to Liam with big eyes and said in horror (mock horror?..not sure), "Now he's even MORE powerful!"

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Finally breaking our 40-day long streak of over-100 temperatures, it was somewhere between 90 and 95, with an overcast sky, and Natalie turned to me and said in all seriousness, "Mommy, why is it so COLD??" (I'm not sure why it was so cold, but rest assured it went away as quickly as it came, and now it's just as hot but more humid than before).

The Rear End of Summer

The school countdown has begun, so we are officially in the rear end of summer. A big, hot sweaty rear end.

I don't want to sound overly dramatic about the summer being bad. It was not. It had many good points. The heat was not one of them. But as I look back, we did accomplish many things. In fact, almost all of my Summer To Do List was completed (yes, I made a To Do List for summer, a fact which horrifies most of my family).

Owen was potty trained. 95% at least. The McDonald's play area does not appreciate the other 5%.

Natalie learned to tie her shoes. Probably better than Liam ties his. He has worn "Why Ties" for a year and a half now, which are springy little strings that flex enough that you can put on your shoes, then they just spring back in place. No need to tie. Why did I ever think that was a good idea? Well, I suppose it had something to do with the pace of getting ready for school in the morning. But we're done with that fad now. And Natalie is super at shoe tying.

Owen and Natalie learned to swim. Natalie made huge strides as compared to last summer, and hasn't used a floatie all summer. She is happy to jump from the top of the fountain at the pool and swim back to the side on her own. Not bad considering she only started putting her face gingerly into the water at the end of last summer.

Owen would also not use a floatie if it were up to him, but his bounding confidence in the water might not entirely match his ability. Though...when I do let him out of the floaties he always does something to amaze me. Once it was doing underwater backward rolls (his alternative to the underwater handstand that Liam was doing). Several times it has been some form of synchronized swimming move where he rolls from his front to his back over and over again, with arms kind of above his head. I was slightly alarmed until he stopped to say, "Watch this, Mom! Watch this!" And of course, I'm amazed how well he is using his "big arms" as they say in swim class along with his powerful kicking to get wherever he wants to go. Fast.

Liam made great strides at bike riding. Sadly, we just don't have good space for bike riding around here, and so he hardly ever gets practice. Going into 3rd grade now, we just didn't want him to get to the point of being embarrassed about not being able to ride well. So we forced him to ride. And yes, it was was a matter of force. But he did fine. Then we moved him to a new bike that was more in line with his lanky 3rd grade frame and he had to re-learn all over again. Now he loves the in between part, just dislikes the starting and stopping. For some reason he doesn't believe me that it doesn't count as riding if you can't start and stop on your own. I was happy to hear his excitement about the "in between" part though. We had a ride together in which he was almost jubilant. To the point of making fun of me for getting way over next to the curb when I saw a car. "Mom! What are you - afraid of a car?!" And I was all, "Um, YES, and you should be too or you will end up a hood ornament!!" Silly boy.

We had some lessons in Stranger Danger (I think it's now called Stranger Safety). I bought a cute little video that they all LOVED. Seriously. I thought they would hate it, but they asked to watch it again and again. The downside to this being that now periodically one of them (Owen) will shout out while I'm driving "Help, this is not my mother! Help, this is not my father!" and giggle hysterically. So if you ever read about me having to go to the police station to retrieve my children because they tell strangers in a store that they have no idea who I am, you'll know why.

Natalie is reading, and has been writing (without prompting) in a journal that she started in preschool. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE phonetic spelling? At this age, I do. At 16, not so much. But right now it is adorable. She wrote a note to Liam: "i m sory Leim, heart Natalie" after she left him to do all the dusting that they were both supposed to be doing. Apparently her hands were "too tired" to dust, but worked just fine for writing an apology. Liam is doing multiplication ("Mom, REALLY, on Summer break?!") Owen is writing his name...well, no he's not. He can still do that "O"! But handwriting...is not something he enjoys. We're working on it though. May have to legally change his name to "O".

I think I'm rambling, so I'll wrap it up there. Some good things have happened in this long, brutal summer.

More Heat

Can we come out yet? No...113 is not cooler.