Be free, have fun, ask why">

Hmmm, just what did we do this morning.  Oh yea.  Riesling and Cashel watched the Great Big Space Shuttle video for the umpteenth time and then watched 10 minutes of FETCH!  (the 16th century episode).  They were still hungry after their so I whipped up some blueberry pancakes.

They quickly moved on to playing with Cashel’s garbage truck and his Lightning McQueen set that he got for his birthday.

Cashel played with the Fiddlesticks (same as Tinkertoys), making guns, rockets, hitters and pokers.

Riesling made a lion mask out of a paper plate.

For together time I announced that I wanted to have a puppet show.  They appeared absolutely uninterested.  I set up a make shift stage with a ballet bar, a blanket and some clothes pins.  I found their puppets and got out the video camera.  By now both Riesling and Cashel were all excited.  They and I took turns video taping and doing simple skits with the puppets.  This got me thinking about how kids who aren’t interacted with miss out on so many interesting experiences, just because they have not seen the possibilities of the enjoyment of the activity.

After lunch I read all of the Rainbow Fish series books, The Cat In The Hat and The Gypsy Girls Best Shoes.

I attempted to have my quiet time that I felt I so desperately needed since Joe wouldn’t be home until well after bedtime.  The children had other ideas. Cashel played with his garbage truck next to my chair and Riesling just complained in my ear and rustled through my papers.  After I attempted every possible way to explain to her that I needed time to think and to rebuild my patience, I finally asked her to leave the room.  She got really upset and said that she was hungry (it was 2:50 and we eat snack at 3:00) and couldn’t wait until snack.  She began kicking and hitting Cashel.  I removed and consoled him.  As soon as the clock struck 3:00 I went out to get snack.  Riesling kicked Cashel in the gut.  I picked him up and kept him close to me.  I let Riesling know that I was sad and angry that Cashel was hurt and that brothers were not for hitting.  As soon as I got him his snack.  I went and picked Riesling up, blew her nose and sat with her on the couch.  She talked about how she was angry and very hungry, but didn’t want her snack.  I tried my darnedest to be empathetic.  After a bit I attempted to direct the conversation to her acts of violence.  I asked her what we should do since the “no hitting” rule didn’t seem to be working for her.  It appeared that she thought about this, but didn’t really comment.  I repeated that it made me feel sad to see Cashel hurt, just like it would make me sad if someone was angry and hit her to make themselves feel better.

Post snack Riesling decided to play with the puppets again.  She designed a set back ground and taped it up.  She also set up the blanket and ballet bar stage.  I video tape while they performed. (Yes I have pictures and video, but it would take more than I have to post it right now.)

I cleaned up as joyfully as I could.  Cashel and the monkey puppet helped pick up the Fiddlesticks and then dumped them out again.  Riesling picked up some papers.

After their dinner Riesling decided to finish off the ice cream that she had made.  By the time she reached the bottom of the container (which she shared with Cashel), both kids were laughing uncontrollably over Lord knows what.

It was time for bed and they just wanted to run around like lunatics.  I kept saying in a hushed voice, “Quietly and slowly, it’s time for sleep.”  I asked Riesling to pick out a great bedtime book.  She chose the Magic School Bus Hibernates.

After the book, Riesling went reluctantly to her room while I rocked Cashel for a few minutes.  I laid him in his bed and stood by the closed door.  Riesling opened it and I informed her that if the door was opened it took Cashel longer to fall asleep and I wouldn’t be able to come out until later.

Finally he drifted off and I snuck out.

Riesling picked out 7 books.  They were short and we had 25 minutes so I finished them all and turned out her light.  I laid down and she asked me to sing Redemption Song, which I attempted and she informed me that I wasn’t singing it correctly, to which I replied, “Oh…”  She let me know that it was alright because I didn’t know how it was supposed to go.

After I was done, I just lay there with her.  She chatted about wishing Joe was home and how she hated when he went to meetings and that she also hated when I went to meetings.  Then she asked if a girl could marry a girl.  I said, “Sure,” without even thinking.  She let me know that she was going to marry her friend Cara.  I said that it sounded like she really really liked Cara and wanted to be her best friend forever.  I chatted about how in most places you can’t get married until you are 16.  I also talked about my best friend and how we are still best friends and that I was glad I married Joe and that we will be together for the rest of our lives.

Riesling didn’t say much else and began to fall asleep.  I started to get up and she didn’t want me to.  On Monday night we had a family meeting about my inability to be well rested when she joins us in our bed in the middle of the night.  (We currently sleep on a full size futon.)  We brain stormed all kinds of ideas and the one she liked best was to sleep on the rocking chair in Cashel’s room.  So that’s where she headed tonight.  I tucked her in and she was good to go.

So Riesling and I were in the car and she looked up at the directional indicator and said, “Oh, we’re going West,” upon seeing the “w” showing on the LED display.  Then she asked, “Mom, what’s behind us?”

I almost answered, “The road and a field.”  But for some reason, I decided to keep my mouth shut for a moment and she said, “East is behind us.”

Trying to styfle my complete astonishment/amazement, I replied, “Yes it is, West is the opposite of East.  So what is the opposite of South?”  She sat silently for a moment and replied, “North.”

As a parent there are few joys as pleasing to experience as those of a child achieving some major milestone of development: the first smile, first words, first steps, etc.   To any self-respecting engineer, scientist or incurable child geek, all of these pale in comparison to the mother of all firsts:

THE FIRST LEGO CREATION BUILT FROM SCHEMATICS

Riesling achieved this momentous accomplishment today, using instructions from the small LEGO set  (#6801-Rocket Sled) that was one of my first as well.  She had the additional difficulty of needing to find the pieces from the thousands of mixed lots that constitute our LEGO fortune.  I did help her with locating the correct pieces because I felt this was a somewhat daunting task for the novice builder.

Both Cashel and Riesling have always enjoyed making crazy and sometimes out of this world creations, and now I am looking forward to them also learning to read and interpret the detailed schematics that typically accompany most LEGO sets.  NOTE: I tried to encourage Cashel with his project but in the end he was more interested in running around (see photo).  I’m sure he’ll acheive this milestone in due time as well

tags: Cashel, engineering, imaginary play, Riesling

We wish all our audience a Merry Christmas today, and we hope that any holiday you’re celebrating this time of year is filled with happiness and joy!  Our holidays have been very busy so far and we are looking forward to a peaceful day together.

Love,

Joe, Gleamer, Riesling & Cashel

Tonight Riesling amazed even me, by not only crafting her own magic trick completely from scratch, but also concocting an entire setup story (that even fooled the formerly great dad-dini).   During our evening ritual, Riesling announced that she was unable to find her other sock.   She dutifully played along as her unsuspecting audience attempted to help her find the “missing” sock.

As I rounded the corner towards the bathroom sockless, I overheard Riesling saying to Gleamer and Cashel, “Oh? What’s this?!”

Riesling then produced the second sock, seemingly from thin air!   Everyone was thoroughly amazed, at which time Riesling exclaimed to me, “I did it Dad!  I did a magic trick all by myself!”

In genuine disbelief, I said, “Wow! That was amazing! And you even made up a setup story and everything all by yourself.”

I wanted to push back on her a little to see how she would handle it, since at this point I suspected how the trick really worked.  I stated that since I had taught Riesling everything she knows about magic, I knew she had just placed the sock up her sleeve or was hiding it somewhere on her body.   She said no and quickly made the second sock disappear by leaving our field of view only for a moment.  (Note: This slight hiding was necessary because as she explained after to me in private, she did not have time to practice the trick since she just made it up.)

When she returned I pompously stated that I knew the trick and would be inspecting her entire person for secret hidden socks.  She graciously obliged but no sock was to be found except for the original lone sock.   Moments after my inspection, “Ta Da!”, the second sock had materialized out of thin air for a second time.   Flawless execution of the trick had again created a highly believable illusion.   I stated to her again that I thought it was a wonderful trick, especially to have been devised on the fly.

Gleamer and Cashel went off to read and bed and I began to brush Riesling’s teeth.   She was so excited to tell me about the process of devising the trick that the toothpaste was dribbling out of her mouth.   She proceeded to tell me that it was OK for her to share her trick with me because that’s what magicians do and it would be between her and me only.

If you thought I was blown away already with the trick, you were right but she was about to amaze me yet again with her sophisticated understanding of the art of illusion.   First, I will not reveal the trick but I will say that she clearly was building off the ideas of several past tricks we have developed, notably the false bottom cardboard box and the nested yogurt containers.

The most amazing thing to me was how she had planned the whole trick out to a tee, including how she would rehide the sock if necessary.   She had thought out all the details of the execution and how she would distract the audience’s attention.   This is when she described to me her lack of skill executing the reset without drawing attention to the secret, hence her decision to partially hide her actions.

I am not a magician, not even close, but I use magic to teach the kids logical reasoning, creative design and pyschology.  We routinely make “magic tricks” from any common household item you could imagine.   With both Riesling and Cashel, magic has sparked and fueled their desire to always ask why and to question their assumptions.   Magic, together with our explorations into juggling and dancing, has given the kids a chance to also appreciate and understand the skill-level and practice required to create a performance to remember.

Riesling’s performance this evening will remain in my memory for many years to come!

Another dreary day didn’t stop Riesling and Cashel. While time marched on to 7:00 AM, they played trains and made maps of their take along Thomas the Train mat.  The black crayon is Cashel’s contribution.

After smoothies, they moved on to examining the gifts under the Christmas tree that Aunt Lisa had sent, guessing and hoping about their contents.  Then Cashel looked at a book while Riesling ate a pumpkin muffin.  Afterwards, Riesling played Sesame Street Games on the computer while Cashel watched.

They did some arts and crafts which consisted of using a glue stick to affix googly eyes to Cashel’s “smoothie warmer” (a koozie) and a huge plastic mug that Riesling sometimes puts her smoothie in if her hands are cold.

Then it was back to the trains and soon after playing cat.  I noticed that Riesling was playing the role of cat as well today and that the cats were being chased by a monster…the Mommy monster!

They did some flipping which involves beginning on our bed, flipping and then landing feet first on the floor.

For together time I suggested making a crystal snow flake.  Riesling was all about it.  Cashel said the he didn’t like the snowflake and played with his trains.  Riesling twisted her pipe cleaners together and I put the string on.  She got a skinny marker for me to hang the snowflake in the mason jar with.  Then she measured out 6 tablespoons Borax and I poured in 2 cups of boiling water.  She stirred until the Borax was all dissolved.  I added more Borax until it was super saturated and she put in her snowflake.  I used my very rudimentary understanding of what was going on to try to explain the science to Riesling.  She seemed most excited to show Joe.

 

It was now that Cashel decided that he wanted to make a spider web.  So I wound lots of string around the pipe cleaners that he had cut.  He wanted nothing to do with the crystal part of the experiment.

He and Riesling played spider for a while and then Riesling dressed up as a “real” knight and Cashel began construction on a train track.  Riesling’s costume soon morphed into a firefighter complete with head gear.

After lunch we hustled to the van for a quick trip to Harrisonburg.  Cashel passed out.  I was excited to find out that I could squeeze him into the infant carrier attached to a cart and buckle him in.  We hurried through Martin’s and by the time we got to Ragtime Fabrics, Cashel was ready for some action.  I quickly got some more material for Christmas gifts and pried the kids away from the toys so that we could leave.  Riesling seemed very tired of all this hurrying.

Next stop, Marrow Family Eye Care for my new glasses.  While I got them fitted both children tried on and rearranged the children’s glasses and cases.  This stop took way too long and now we were behind schedule.  When we got outside Cashel took a right turn down the sidewalk, away from our van, with Riesling close behind.  He said that he wanted to walk the curb to the van.  It took lots of patience for me to quit worrying about how late we were becoming and to hold his little hand while he wobbled along. Riesling led the way, while I occasionally reached out to steady her too.  We got to a white line on the pavement that would lead us to the van and I suggested they take that as a direct route.  Finally we were off to our final stop to get some milk.

On the way home Riesling remarked that glasses is a funny word because it can mean the glasses that you drink out of, or the ones you wear.

When we got home Riesling read her Children’s Bible until it was time to go again.

This time we were headed to the Merck Christmas get together.  On our way in we saw one of Riesling’s classmates, Nicholas, from JMU Young Children’s Program and his family.  They pretty much ignored each other.  Once inside she did an introductory dance and Riesling did some break dancing to accompany the choristers.  Then she asked me to go sit with her to listen to them sing.  She reiterated how excited she was to be in choir again in January.

I had to take Cashel to the potty and when I returned Leyland, Satchel and their Mom were there.  He and Riesling were beyond excited to see each other.  They played and race around with Cashel, Satchel and another three year old joined in.

 

After the adults had enough and were getting hungry we went to meet Nicholas’ and Leyland’s families at Ciro’s, an Italian restaurant. Though they didn’t interact at all at the restaurant, Leyland gave Riesling a hug and a peck on the cheek good bye.

Cashel was in bread only mode.  I secretly cringed every time he downed another bite of inferior piece of white roll.  He insisted the I take all the “yucky” stuff off of his pizza.  When it was down to the cheese and sauce I thought that would be ok, but no.  He just wanted to eat the crust.  On the way home he complained that he had a stomach ache.

As we were getting out of the car, I reminded Riesling about her crystal snowflake and Cashelabout his spider web.  They raced inside to show Joe.

Riesling told him all of the steps and about how the molecules danced apart when the water was warm, but snuggled up into crystals as they cooled.

The moment Cashel saw how interesting and sparkly the crystal snowflake looked, he said that he wanted to make his that way too.  I quickly boiled some water and Joe mixed it into the mason jar that Riesling had used, putting the Borax back into solution.  Cashel got his scissors and clipped the ends off the web so that it would fit into the jar.  I tied it to a pencil and then Joe held the mason jar while Cashel carefully lowed his spider web in.

After a quick change, brush and wash it was time for stories.  Cashel chose to have the electronic Story Reader tell Cinderella and Riesling asked me to read What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Zoehfeld.  Then Riesling straightened out Cashel’s pillow for him and went off to bed.  I couldn’t believe Cashel hadn’t fallen asleep during the stories.  He asked me to rock a little bit with him.  I figured that it would take less than a minute for him to drift off.  The last thing I remember as I drifted off and became still was his little voice urging me to “Rock Mommy, rock.”

When Cashel woke me up this morning I thought, there is no way it’s even close to 7, it’s too dark.  But sure enough, I looked at the clock and it was 7:13.  What a drippy day.

We left Riesling all snuggled up in bed and went to the kitchen.  Cashel also went to his little kitchen and dumped all visible items onto the floor. I was glad that he didn’t open all the doors and just empty everything.

As I began smoothies, Cashel decided that he wanted a frozen banana.  I confirmed that he really wanted to spend his dollar on a frozen banana and not something else later in the day.

(You might be wondering why bananas are on the list of things that must be purchased since they aren’t candy or cake or something. My reasoning is that things like bananas and orange juice do have great nutritional benefits, but they also have lots of sugar (53 grams for the banana).  So one serving a day is all they get for free.  I implemented this rule after realizing that Cashel would eat bananas all day and nothing else and that they would both drink OJ all day and no milk.  I have repeatedly let both kids know that if they don’t like this rule they can propose to change or eliminate it and we will all come to a different agreed upon decision.)

So anyway–Cashel tried to explain to me that he wanted to buy two things and that he had $2.  He quickly found a fake gold coin and a red poker chip and brought them to me as payment.  I told him I would give him a pretend banana for his pretend money.

He played with the cars and trains while he ate his frozen banana, arranging them into neat little rows and lines.

Then he undressed Barbie and left her laying naked next to her clothes.  Riesling did the same thing for a long time.  It’s so easy to get those tiny dolly clothes off, but to get them back on….oh the frustration of it all.

Riesling appeared at about 9.  She drank her smoothie and she and Cashel were soon down to just pajama bottoms in our freezing 65 degree house.  I’m not quite sure why because they were playing sleep over.  Apparently to properly simulate the sleep over, everything had to be removed from Cashel’s room, including the rocking chair and large foot stool.  My only request was that they please leave a clear path down the hall.

The next time I peeked in on them, they were played with magnetic dress up dolls and a felt zoo.

I try really hard to have “together time” every day at 10:30 to give the kids my undivided attention.  I usually have something that I will have planned that they can do, but many times they have their own ideas of how they would like to spend the time.  Today Riesling was insistent on making a countdown chain for Christmas.  (I’m sure her Aunt Pasha would appreciate this!)  I asked Cashel if he wanted to make one and he said, “No.”  So I got down the calendar and helped Riesling count out the days until Christmas.  She concluded that there were nine and selected 9 strips of paper from the bunch that she had just cut.  She got the stapler and asked for help after she had much difficulty holding it and the paper at the same time.  I suggested that she put the stapler down and slide the ends of the strip of paper  underneath.  This worked out better.  After about 4 loops she forgot what the total number she needed was.  I got the calendar back down.  She recounted and subtracted by herself.  As soon as she was finished, she hung it on the Christmas tree.

Both of them played with airplanes, flying them around and around.  Then they decided on the Mommy, Baby cat game.  I have only ever seen Cashel be the cat.  She tied the bathrobe belt around his neck yesterday so we had a whole strangulation discussion.  We also identified the difference between choking and strangling and that you get an adult’s help as quick as lightening in both cases.  So today the rope was around his wrists as he crawled behind Riesling.

I read them More Snacks! A Thanksgiving Play by Joan Holub twice.

Then they took all the winter clothes out of the drawer and put them on and played monster.  They ended up parked on our bed amidst a sea of books, looking for “instructions on how to stop the monster”.

I was attempting to sew some gifts for Christmas and both kids were beyond excited about my sewing machine.  I let Riesling work the foot lever for me when ever I needed to put something under.  Then she took a piece of scrap fabric and asked to sew it into this complicated design.  I sat behind her on the chair and let her push the pedal while I helped her guide the fabric.  (I was amazed by how delayed her reaction was when I would tell her to stop pushing on the pedal with her foot.)  She really like the experience.  I got a small piece and let Cashel have a turn too.

After lunch Riesling decided that she wanted to spend her dollar on ice cream.  I asked her what we should do because if she ate ice cream in front of Cashel he would be very upset.  She offered to give him half and he was a happy boy.

Riesling had noticed the pumpkin that I had cooked and pureed last night, sitting in the fridge.  She asked if we could make pumpkin muffins.  I conjured up a recipe and they helped measure, pour and mix.

After snack they watched Riesling in last year’s Nutcracker.  Then dinner and bath time.

And finally reading time.  Cashel chose the I Spy Schooldays with the Rube Goldberg machine in it first.  Riesling chose Hispanic Holidays by Faith Winchester because she thought it might have Flamenco dancers in it.  We read about the Day of the Dead and Las Posadas, which coincidentally began today!  Cashel insisted on one more book, Trick-or-Treat Faces by Judith Moffatt.

After reading Cashel asked if we could rock.  He fell asleep in seconds.  Riesling was waiting in her room with yet another book.  She had a couple minutes left before her bedtime of 8:30 so I read her Animal Numbers by Bert Kitchen while she counted and identified digits.  Then I sang her a couple songs.  I laid with her while she chattered and asked about random stuff like “What’s an allergy?”  She yawned a couple times and I gave her a final squeeze and wished her happy dreams.

Riesling and Cashel are finally getting back into their regular sleep routine.  That means they were up right at 7 this morning and so was I.  I put my robe on, which Cashel immediately removed the pink belt from and began dragging it around the house.  They played with their trains while they sucked down their breakfasts and I fed the cats.

Riesling and Cashel have been talking about and doing gymnastics for a couple of months now.  Riesling has taught herself how to do a half-way decent cartwheel and Cashel loves to do “super flips” (basically a forward roll with so much momentum that it’s almost a handspring).  Yesterday Riesling directly asked me if she could take classes.  I headed to the computer to compile a spread sheet of the area’s gymnastics offerings.  After quite a few Google searches I found 2 places in Harrisonburg and one in Elkton.  I called them up and compared schedules and prices and decided on the Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation’s club.  Riesling and Cashel are both VERY excited to begin classes in January.

I also contacted Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir to see if they had any openings for the Winter/Spring program.  They did, so I signed Riesling up.  She really misses choir at church and has asked me many times about it so I figured that while I was scheduling ways to spend our money, I might as well add that to the agenda.

While I was doing all this Riesling and Cashel were cutting, taping, wrapping and writing.  Riesling came and asked me how to write “I am going to invite you to a Pump It Up party.”  I got a blank piece of paper and went word by word, writing as she sounded the sentence out.  I gave her the paper and off she went with Cashel following close behind.

A bit later she came back with a sealed envelope that said, “To Mommy, From Riesling.”  I opened the envelope and this is what I saw:

Cashel also had an envelope that he had taped shut, which he gave me.  Upon further investigation I found a “flag” that Riesling had made as well.

Their next project was to wrap “gifts”.

 

 

The kids wanted no part of lunch.  Instead Riesling sat and examined all 400 plus pages of The Complete Adventures of Curious George by H.A. Rey, while Cashel looked on.

Later Cashel lined up his trains and gave them a good smashing with one of his large remote control cars.  That boy is always, always singing to himself.  I wonder if he will want to join a choir too.

The day was a beautiful 60 degrees, so we ventured out into the sun.  The kids rode their bikes and swang on the swings while I cleaned up some of the items that have been laying around on our porches and in our yard, just getting on my nerves.

At one point Riesling and Cashel both went inside and Cashel hollered out that he wanted his milk.  I told him to ask Riesling to get it for him.  The next thing he yelled was a “pill”, a “pill”.  I stopped my fantastic progress on the yard and ran in.  His milk container was laying on its side in front of the fridge and milk had poured out under the fridge.  Ok, so here’s where all my working together, honoring the child, respect for everyone comes dangerously close to being thrown out the window.  After I quickly picked up the nearly empty container, I instructed him briskly to pick up something that is spilling immediately so that it doesn’t spill anymore.  Cashel replied with an, “Otay…”  His sister appeared on the scene and informed me that she had to go get another sock because one of hers got wet when the milk spilled on it.  I almost did a Linda Blair as I also informed her that her priority needed to be to first pick up something that is spilling immediately so that it doesn’t spill anymore and then to go get a new sock…grrrrrrr.  She replied with an, “Oh, I didn’t know because I forgot” which is her defense rebuttal to insensitive remarks made by her mother.  I practiced some deep breathing and counted wayyyyyy past 10 as I forced myself not to sound like the parents that make me cringe when they speak to and berate their kids.  HINDSIGHT–I think I should have quietly, calmly and most important, kindly, suggested that maybe they could pick up the milk as soon as they see that it is spilling.  Explaining gently that this would be helpful to me so that I didn’t have to struggle to get the milk out from under the refrigerator and that it might be meaningful to them, because if I’m not cleaning milk up from under the fridge, we can all do something that they like sooner, such as go to the park.

If you can give suggestions for me to improve on my plans for respectful communication with my children, comment away.

I calmed myself down, cleaned up the mess and asked the kids if they wanted a snack.  I made Riesling a peanut butter and jam cone (an ice cream cone with pb&j in it) and Cashel edible play dough.  I reserve this for times when he really hasn’t been eating much to boost his caloric intake.  My version consists of sunbutter, molasses and dry milk.  He eats it like a candy bar!

They stayed in the general area of the front porch while they ate their snacks.  At one point, Riesling said, “We’ve got a spill out here, Mom.”  When I came on to scene, she complied with a “I picked it right up.”   Crap!  How many steps backward did I take with my little outburst.  Yes, yes, I do want her to pick up the milk, but not because of the external motivation that Mom’s going to be pissed if she doesn’t, but because she is intrinsically motivated to for whatever reason she finds important.

Soon enough the yard and porches were looking great and we were off to do the recycling and to the park.

Riesling and Cashel love to go the the Recycling Center and sort out all of our containers into the various dumpsters.  Cashel is getting really good at flinging the plastic jugs up into the designated open door.  Riesling went and put the papers and cardboard into the trailers, while the woman who watches over the place helped her figure out which was which.

At the park the children tried out the modes of transportation on a spring, then hand held diggers and scoopers.  They went over to the huge structure that has at least 5 slides coming off of it and decided that I was a monster who was trying to get them.  I reached and jumped up to try to grab at them while they laughed and squealed.

It got dark and we went home.  They watched Boz: Thank God for Colors and Shapes and then an instructional video on how to properly shoot a basketball that came with an early birthday gift for Cashel.

After dinner, the children got readied for bed.  Cashel and I did The Three Billy Goats Gruff play using small hand puppets and looked at the Rube Goldberg machine in his I Spy Book.  He snuggled up with his airplane and passed out.

I came out of Cashel’s room and Riesling and Joe played String Games.  While I went to finish up the dishes, he read her The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body and when I came back Riesling was looking very sleepy in her bed and Joe was in dream land.

As with most mornings I woke up sandwiched between Cashel and Riesling.  I drifted back to sleep and vaguely heard them wake and begin to play doctor.  Very soon I was their patient.  The diagnoses was an injured foot.  Treatment: apply a wrist splint onto the ball of my foot.

Today was to be our cleaning day and we were going to attend The Nutcracker performed this time by Shenandoah Civic Dance Company.  We are constantly on the look out for a more organized and communicative place for Riesling to take dance.

The kids played and danced (I saw and heard quite a few scenes from the Nutcracker), using the blankets in Cashel’s room for costumes.

I dove head first into Riesling’s room, the worst room in this disaster area house of ours.  I made great headway while Joe made smoothies and eggs and they sat down to eat.  Then Cashel threw up.  I don’t think he’s sick or anything.  He was a puker as a baby and has gradually decreased the frequency of his upheavals.  But if anything even makes him gag that’s the end of him keeping it down.  So I had to switch gears to scrub down his booster seat in the tub.  Oh well, it’s shiny clean now.

Around 11 or so we both decided to scrap The Nutcracker (we hadn’t told Riesling yet or there would have been no option to bail) and instead try to get a great Christmassy picture of the kids after lunch.

We headed down to the Grand Caverns park where Joe found a little niche in between a bush and a tree that looked lovely.  We shot about 50 pictures before Riesling got too cold in her short sleeve dress to take it any more.  So we went inside the little gift shop to warm up and scope out the fireplace for a possible photo or two.  The kids explored every rock, piece of candy and some helmets.  While Cashel was trying to put a giant lollipop back into a huge Styrofoam ball, the ball tipped over and knocked a framed picture off the shelf, cracking the glass.  The clerk came over and Joe insisted we pay for the damage while I helped Cashel find a place for the lollipop.  We tried to get a photo of the kids in front of the fireplace, but they would have NONE of it.

So we went back outside.

There were some little Charlie Brown looking trees on one side of the parking lot.  We went over and the kids hung the ornaments that they brought along with them on the tree as we snapped a couple of pictures.

Back home we had sninner (snack/dinner).  Cashel was carb loading today.  For lunch he would only eat his pita bread and for sninner only the homemade tortilla chips.  If it wasn’t for the smoothies, I’m convinced that kid would be having some serious constipation and growth issues.

I got them both into the tub, closed the curtain and let them splash and play until they were good and wrinkled.  They got out and wrapped up in their towels.  I had to go out of the bathroom to get something.  When I returned all I saw were their towels on the floor;)

A couple of items I really need to mention:  Cashel has been consistently calling Riesling, Ree-ling, instead of DD.  We have never told him not to call her DD, but we have also never referred to her as DD either.  Cashel also has taken to saying, “I love you Mom.”  Too sweet!

I offered them a snack of the leftover Gingerbread from the Farmer’s Market yesterday, before we brushed their teeth and read to them.

Joe looked at Scholastic’s Ultimate Interactive Atlas of the World with Riesling.  She wanted to find something, so he directed her to the Index.  After she tired of the limited Index offered there, they went to Archer Allaby’s earth, A Visual Guide, where they looked up volcano and a few other words.  She suggested that they check out The Star Wars, The Ultimate Visual Guide; Special 30th Anniversary Edition book, because that had an Index in it too.  She seemed very excited about indexes!

Cashel and I went through The Amazing I Spy ABC book by Ken Laidlaw and then I read Dump Trucks and Diggers by Robert Crowther while he lifted the flaps and pulled the tabs.  He was exhausted and fell asleep around 7:45.  His sister was still up at 8:30, but finally gave it up a few minutes later.

Riesling had ballet (which is half an hour away) this morning at 9:15.  After waking up at 8:15, Joe and I raced through our morning routine, but Riesling and I were still 10 minutes late.

I stripped off her street clothes and yanked on her ballet slippers.  I held her hand as we hurried to the room where her stern teacher, Miss Susan, was leading the class in their warm up routine.  Riesling very quickly found her spot in the circle and immediately apologized to Miss Susan for being late.  All on her own.  I try very very hard not to prompt her or Cashel to say insincere formalities to people.  I try very hard to let my “good” example be their guide.  If we are in a situation that I feel warrants greetings or expressions of regret, I will step forward and say hello or apologize to both the adult and to the child.  Possibly Riesling has seen and heard me do this enough and sees how much people appreciate it, she finds it worth doing too.

So I went out and waited with a couple of other Moms, one of whom homeschools their youngest child.  We got into discussion about why teens make choices and the different ways that we as parents (me as a foster parent to my sisters) have dealt with their choices.  There was much talk of obedience and intolerance to backtalk as well as conservative views of expressions of sexuality.  The teen who was the subject of heartache and hardship was dealt with in this manner.  He is in mid-revolt.  I want nothing more than to avoid the backlash and anger that I felt from my sisters and that this Mom is feeling from her adopted son.  I am so glad that I try (this means that I don’t always succeed) to work with my kids and try not to dish out consequences for noncompliant behaviors or actions that only I think are important anyway.  Please read from There to Here for elaboration on this topic.

Riesling was done with her class soon enough.  We investigated a frozen puddle in the parking lot and then went to the post office to mail some letters.  I’m working on being more patient with Riesling’s slow as molasses approach to getting into her carseat and buckling up.  I think I took one step backward as I tried to convince her that she should just wait in her seat instead of unbuckling and coming with me (because it would just take too long) while I ran to the mail slot and threw my letters in.  In hindsite, I think that I should have worked with and not tried to convince.

We drove down the road and she asked if she could get some ice cream.  She had a dollar, so I said sure, even though it was 28 degrees outside.  I realized that it was $2 plus tax after I told her we would be stopping to get some and didn’t think the angst over my forgetfulness would be worth the extra $1. We had the same car seat discussion with the same outcome and the same hindsite revelation.  I walked 20 feet from the car to the window and got her a single scoop of Kline’s Peppermint Ice Cream in a cup with a spoon.

I drove to the Downtown Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market.  I had packed Riesling’s snow pants and boots since last week she froze as I made my purchases.  She decided that she wanted to stay in the van with her ice cream.  I turned it off, locked it and made sure that I kept my eye on it while I shopped.  I made a trip back to the van as I purchased something from each vendor to drop off my goods and to check on Riesling.  On the second to last trip, she said that she was done and wanted to get out of her car seat and come with me.  I wiped her off and we went to see what gifts we could find for Christmas.  We found some fantastic local goods and Riesling helped me count out 30 of them while she held the bag.

We stayed downtown and went to Ragtime Fabrics to get some material.  Riesling enjoyed feeling the different textures of the fabric and playing with a few toys they had set aside.  On our way out, there was a bin that had yard sticks in it with a sign that offered one for free.  I picked one out and Riesling carried it to the van.

Next stop, Kate’s Natural Products.  I selected a black bean and avocado wrap from the deli case and gave us each half after we sat down at a table.  Riesling went to use the single restroom, which was in my line of site.  She was taking quite a while, so I went to check on her.  I knocked and asked if she needed any help.  She asked me to come in, but I couldn’t because the door was locked.  I asked her if I should go get the key and she said, “No.”  After a few minutes I saw the door open and she came and sat down.  The next thing I knew there was talk between a customer and an employee regarding the bathroom needing attention.  I asked Riesling gently if she had trouble with the toilet and it flushing.  She said that she did.  I let her know that it was ok.  The employee came rushing up to another employee dramatically saying something about a wad of toilet paper stopping up the toilet.  They were quite close to us and the other employee looked around.  She stopped her gaze on me and asked if there was something wrong.  I wear my thoughts on my face.  I stood up and went over and said that I thought I knew what might have happened with the bathroom and apologized for any mess ahead of time.  We walked in and the toilet was unflushed, but hadn’t overflowed or anything really gross.  I gave it a few quick plunges and it was taken care of.  I washed my hands and went and sat back down.  I asked Riesling to please let me know if she has trouble with the potty flushing so that I can go and fix it.  After we finished our lunches, I gathered a few bulk items while Riesling sat or laid on the floor.  She appeared very tired.

I got her back in the car and we went to Walmart.  I pushed her around in the cart.  We ran into some folks whom we had gone to church with.  Riesling immediately began to play with the two little girls, hiding in and under the clothes racks, laughing all the while.  After she was back in the cart, we checked out and drove to our next stop.  On the way there she suddenly told me that 12 plus 12 was 100.  I started with 12 and then counted up 12 more using my fingers to keep track until I got to 24.  I said 12 plus 12 is 24, 50 plus 50 is 100.  She then said 5 plus 5 is 10.  Then she counted out 11 plus 11 to get to 22.  I had started to count with her using my fingers and she said, “Stop, Mom.  I want to do it myself!”  I stopped.

At Martin’s, tired Riesling rode in the cart while I got a few items.

On the way home she asked me for the yard stick.  She counted out the inches and I told her that was a yard stick and that Cashel was almost exactly as tall as the stick was long.  She asked me how tall she was and I told her that she was 43 inches tall.  At first she thought that was 34 inches.  I asked her who was taller, her or Cashel and she said that she was.  I asked how she could be 34 inches and Cashel could be 36 inches.  She figured out that wasn’t correct and I reminded her that she was 43 inches tall.  She wondered why her height wasn’t on the stick.  Then she measured her leg and her arm and informed me of all the things that she could reach in the van with the yard stick.

Finally we were home.

I gathered up our stuff and Riesling and I opened the door and went inside.  Joe said we’d better shut the door so that the house didn’t get cold.  It was a booby trap!  They had stacked yogurt containers and there was a weight and string involved.  When Riesling shut the door, the yogurt containers came tumbling down on her.  Cashel and Riesling thought that was just so funny!  Cashel showed me the weight and that it was heavy.  He also showed me how he had lined up all of the cat food cans in a boomarang kind of pattern.  Joe said that they had wrestled and sword fought then entire time we were gone.  He said that he had pulled down an electronics kit and Cashel was most certainly not interested so it was back to more physical activities.

After I put the groceries away, I thought a “treat” snack might be fun.  I had purchased some gluten free Gingerbread and some Chocolate Chip cookies from our fellow Funschooler, Clint, at the Market, as well as some Popped Amaranth Balls from Marlin (our CSA supplier).  We laid down our plaid blanket that we use for indoor picnics and put on A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Then we watched The Year Without Santa Claus.  The kids seemed to enjoy both shows.

Riesling put on a dancing outfit and prepared for a performance while Joe conjured up a magic trick and Cashel played.  Riesling then did a little show that incorporated her best attempts at imitating the dancers who were on pointe in the Nutcracker.

At dinner, Joe showed how he could make a paper towel turn into a sock with yogurt containers.  Riesling tried to create the illusion as well.  We also talked about the rules that we had all agreed upon.  Joe wrote them down and we specifically addressed a new clean up rule.  Riesling said that everyone should clean up right after they are done playing with something.  We tabled the proposal until tomorrow since it was really late.

Riesling decided to wear Cashel’s pajamas under her nightgown.  When they were changed, brushed and washed, I read Silly Sally Went to Town by Audrey Wood.  Joe sang to Riesling and I reassured Cashel when he called for me that I was “right here” and it was time for sleep as I stood by his bedroom door.

Minutes later they were resting their brains and bodies in preparation for tomorrow’s adventures.