Category Archives: kids

Glowsmash

  First thing in the morning, Baxter walks out of his room holding the purple horse stuffie.

“Mama, dis is Glowsmash!”

“It’s name is Glowsmash? That’s quite a name.”

“Yeah.

“And her can fly. See?” (hurls stuffie across the room) “Wow, her can fly SO FAR!”

Superbaxter got out of the trap!

A story in two videos:


The words in my brain were obviously having a rough time coming out of my mouth in a sensible order yesterday evening. Luckily, Superbaxter didn’t have any such trouble breaking out of the (tenuously) taped box that had somehow lured him into its treacherous cardboard clutches.

Morning snuggle and breakfast negotiation 

Baxter, cuddling on my lap after just waking up: Is it a school day or a stay at home day?

Me: It’s a school day. And we’re having oatmeal for breakfast. 

Baxter: Do you mean, oatmeal cookies? 

Me: No, just oatmeal. 

Baxter: Just PLAIN oatmeal. 

Me: Well, we can put things in it, like blueberries or cranberries…

Baxter: …or strawberries! But of course not MILK. 

That time I sent my 6-year-old to camp

camp1-2xMy little girl is spending her second of three days (and two nights!) at Outdoor Science School today, learning about ecology and geography with her elementary class and the elementary class from another local Montessori school. She’s been super-excited for months about this, and in true Montessori style has had an active role planning the school fundraiser and in preparing herself for camp. I’ve seen a huge leap ahead in her independence and sense of responsibility. Also, she loves geography (well ok, pretty rocks), ecology (cats, slugs, worms, and flowers), and the outdoors. So I’m sure she’s having a fantastic time right now, and I’m so excited that her school offers such rich opportunities for learning.

Amelia, ready for camp
Independent but still feeling a little vulnerable. Or sick of me taking pictures; one of those.

That said, the child is SIX. And she’s my baby. And she’s the youngest kid of all the kids who are on this trip together. And the morning we dropped her off for camp, she woke up scared, and curled in my lap and cried. I’ve never been much of a “these are the wonder years” parent — I don’t prioritize my own needs well, so I’ve been enjoying the process of the kids getting older and thus needing less All-Mommy-All-The-Time — but right now, I get it.

She’s just going to get bigger and bigger, and she’s going to do amazing things in this world… farther and farther away from me. And I’m going to miss her. I miss her now (so does her little brother; ZOMG that’s a whole different blog post, let me tell you), and I can’t wait until she gets home and can tell me all her stories.

In a way, it’s kind of cool that she’s had this opportunity to range so far away from us this young, while she’s still small enough that I can mush her into a tiny little ball of love when she comes back. And so I can follow through on some of the promises I’ve made to myself in the last 24 hours to enjoy every moment I get to spend with my fantastic kids. Every moment they’re not whining, begging, complaining, or otherwise annoying me, that is. 😉

Meal Planning with Amelia

Enjoying her breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham this morning, Amelia suggested we have breakfast burritos for dinner tonight. I told her I had planned to make salmon for dinner.

Her eyes lit up (she loves salmon), and she asked, “Can we roast it?” I said, “Yes, I think we can roast it in the oven.” She replied, “Do we have soy sauce and sesame seeds?” I told her we did, and she explained, “I was looking through a book with recipes, and I saw a picture of that recipe, and I thought it looked so yummy.”

Teriyaki salmon with rice
photo credit: https://corianderandgarlic.wordpress.com/

I love this child. Sometimes it freaks me out that she is getting so big and responsible and independent, but it’s fun when we like the same things. 🙂 And tonight, we’re having teriyaki salmon.