I have now written this post three times. If you sneeze when posting, it goes away. Anyway, it should be good by now.
After the weekend, which was Camp everyone and truly spendid, I have lost track of the days. But Monday was truly Camp Gramp. We went to Big Creek in the afternoon. It is a beautiful camp ground, uncrowded and on a lovely creek. The kids played there for 90 minutes or so, even though it was a bit cold. Thane made an effort to return all the rocks on the shore to the river. His aim is not perfect and poor Sebastian got clunked on the head — no blood. Grey built a fabulous dam system with canals, etc. Sebastian made it all the way across the creek. Then the boys built a fire (Ok, all the boys except Thane) and we roasted hot dogs. Good thing they are pre-cooked.
We took the Osborn Mountain trail until the grass got taller than Thane. Carolyn found a tree that had fallen explosing the roots. She declared that she was a dinosaur and those were her eggs.
Finally, Jiffy pop, which was spectacular, and s’mores. Take Thane, add marshmellow, then dirt — my oh my.
The only problem with the day was that I forgot the camera. The kids posed for me on an old tree stump — can you imagine the picture.
A good time was had by all. Today is farm day. Pioneer Farms – then Sheila’s house to visit our 1/4 cow and fish in her pond. I am excited!
-GMM
Editor’s note: I got some good pictures of the kids mid-creek, but you’ll have to wait until I get them off my camera!
Day 3 has a multi-update. Day 4 will not have an update since we’re all here together today, so mom is cooking for us instead of writing. -ED
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Camp Gramp Day 3 — I would like some produce for the weekend. Who would like to do a purchasing run?
2 large red tomatoes — for slicing on sandwiches
2 lbs of peaches (or 4 lbs if you think we need two pies)
It is Unca Matt day. He says tonight might be the star gazing night — tell Adam — he wanted to be sure Grey got star gazing. It doesn’t start until 9:30 or so, but I think it would be OK. (Ed. – We didn’t make it home until 11, as apparently going to Crater Lake does NOT add simply a paltry hour to the drive between Ashland and Mineral.)
Love, -gmm
Camp Gramp 3A — Today is going to be amusing! I just heard my son, you remember him, Mr. Candy, say to the children as they walked up the street from getting the mail. “Let me reiterate, candy does not equate to food!”
Camp Gramp 3B — 76.8 F does not seem like swimming weather to be, but it is Crazy Unca Matt day and they did have a good time. Thane should have been named Poseidon or something — that boy does love the water.
Day 3 – finals
Really nice day. Weather the likes of which we treasure and fun with the kids. Unca Matt has them ready to do a play about Jonah on Sunday. Carolyn is the champion of prop creation. She made very creative water from the blow hole of Jonah’s whale.
The older three are still up. We are going to do star gazing tonight. We decided that Thane should go to bed, but he must sense that something is up. He is still awake.
Now for 3 or 4 thousand words — in pictures!
Going for the mailIt was cold!World conquestCalvin and Hobbes
Today was a stay at home and settle in day. We were supposed to make shirts, but there was the case of the disappearing transfers, so shirts tomorrow. We made visors, which were a hit — see the picture. Very interesting project. The walls are beginning to have pictures on them.
There was much playing of the DSs today. Grey and Baz were playing a game together. Thanksfully, they provide their own tech support, I certainly can’t. Thane put together 4 puzzles. He is amazing! He just picks up the pieces and puts them in. He has a little puzzle putting together song he likes to sing — in fact he likes to sing a lot.
Long time readers will squeal with delight to see that yes! It is Camp Gramp time! (OK, maybe just T, but she totally counts!) For newer readers, Camp Gramp is an annual tradition where my parents take all of their grandchildren for a week and they all have a fantastic time. Camp Gramp is noted for its tents (for sleeping), theme song (new), official breakfast cereal (Lucky Charms) and various and sundry delights. My mother usually sends updates to we parents – scattered as we are – sometimes to the ends of the globe during the festivities – so we see that our kids are having a great time, while we are too. I usually cheat and share my mom’s updates while I’m off gallavanting. Thane, Kay, Grey & Baz
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Baz (8) and Kay (6) joined us today at noon at Bradley Lake Park for the official start of Camp Gramp 2011. They are a great age. Baz and Grey chased and played hide and seek. Kay assumed guardianship of Thane and explored all of the play equipment. After lunch we walked around the lake.
Then we headed home, spent some time in the bouncy house and back yard, ate dinner of meatballs (beloved) and potato salad (a failure) and corn (disappeared). We put up the tents and the first tragedy happened. The new tent we bought from Baz needs to be anchored — as in tent pegs. This does not work on the living room floor. I don’t know whose tent it is, but there was one in the garage. It is too large, but we will have to make do. They all loved their new PJs. Thane’s are too small. Kay’s are a triple win. Pink, gauzy, and unicorn. Can it be any better? Getting to sleep wasn’t easy tonight. Thane wanted loud music and to sing, others objected to this. There was much wiggling. But I think they are all down now.
Thane’s mom said she expected the scratch and dent report, so here it is. Thane has been particularly blessed — in the French sense. Yesterday he bumped into the desk in the bedroom — fortunately the expected black eye did not appear. Today there was a little adventure at the lake and it involved blackberries. His arms are scratched. But he didn’t complain.
I remember this time last year, when Grey’s then-relatively-new preschool was holding its preschool graduation. I saw the note and thought. Ppfft. Preschool graduation. Call me when we get to a real milestone.
Ah, hubris.
The young graduate, a member of the class of 2011
I was, shall we say, rather less sanguine when the note arrived in my son’s papers this spring. He was graduating, a proud member of the (I kid you not) Class of 2011. For weeks heading into the event, we began hearing about the big surprise waiting for us. Grey starting singing a new song I hadn’t heard before with a chorus guaranteed to make moms cry. “Seasons come and seasons go. To you it’s fast but to me it’s slow. You’ve helped me learn and you’ve helped me to grow, but now I’m moving on.”
Keynote speech
Apparently, they practiced their graduation ceremony rigorously, several times over several days leading up to the parental version. Finally, the big day came. The weather was iffy, so we were inside. The room was packed with proud parents – familiar after a year of shared pickups and dropoffs. After a wait, Music Jill began playing ‘Tis a Gift to Be Simple (I was personally extremely grateful it wasn’t Pomp and Circumstance, which I personally loathe after, uh, 7 years in the band that had to play it). The four and five year olds began filing in. The graduating class making their parents sniffly
It was a quick ceremony. The center director said a few words. Grey was nominated to read a selection from “Oh the Places You’ll Go” which he did very well if you could actually hear what he said. They presented flowers to their teachers. Their names were called, and their diplomas presented. Then, they sang their two musical numbers. And with that, it was over. My son was a preschool graduate. He was headed to the grown-up world of summer camp, where there is no nap time, leaving behind the ladies who had taught him for over a year.
Congrats, kiddo.
We're proud of you.
See all the pictures, plus three videos: one of Grey reading the poem and two of the kids singing, here:
Fierce weather has cut a swath across this continent. Tonight it is touching down in my small Commonwealth – but so far distantly. Tonight, after the children were tucked in, I snuck up to our high attic to watch the lightening. It was truly a remarkable night for lightening. The sky flickered as though some distant celestial campfire threw shadows upon our darkened world – illuminating the spring-heavy trees and church steeples. The thunder was a constant rumble. The lightening I saw never touched down – it threaded across the sky like revealed veins in the encircling arms of the sky. But here, north and east of Boston, it seems not much more than a summer storm, ushering fast, cool winds.
The fifteen minutes I spent there, in a dark room watching lightening flicker ceaselessly, seems like the first quiet fifteen minutes I’ve had in about two weeks. It has been a busy stretch! When I think of all the things I’ve saved up to tell you – important things! – I feel nearly overwhelmed. And tonight I feel too poetic for bullet points. Last night I stayed up until 1:15 in the morning transcribing 18 pages of notes on the risks and mitigations of an ERP transition for a 9 hour meeting I attended. If I never see another brutally factual bullet point, it may be too soon. Two boys and two puppies
So instead we will wander on together, long form.
First: my knee. When last we left our favorite joint, it was in dire discomfort. I checked that wall I so blithely jumped off again yesterday, and I must confess that it might be closer to five feet than the four I defended myself with. A week after the initial injury I met with an orthopedic surgeon, who got me to PT not 5 minutes later. Really. Remarkable. I did a few PT sessions, and now I’m quite certain that it was a bad sprain. Today, I managed to do several flights of stairs leading with BOTH legs. I even ran for a bit before I realized that was probably a bad idea. (But it was pouring!) I kneeled to pick up toys. I am pretty sure in two weeks there will be barely a twinge left. I’m going to try to actually get ahead of my pre-injured state with the PT sessions I have remaining though. This knee has never been quite as strong and capable as we might desire. But at this point, it is only hampering the most enthusiastic of my activities. (No 5K for me this weekend, not that I was planning on one!)
Second: it’s a darn good thing I was 90% mobile, as we went camping this weekend. At the time, I would’ve told you it was buggy, stressful and I was unsure of whether this was all worth it. It has only taken a few days to fade into lovely memories. How wonderful and odd our minds are to make it possible for us to enjoy things in retrospect that we did not enjoy at the time, or to forget pain and remember pleasure. One of those remembered pleasures was swimming. Our preferred campground, White Lake State Park boasts a lovely sandy beach offering access to a lovely mountain lake which is surprisingly warm, even in May. We went swimming three times, which is a pretty good ratio for so early in the season. Grey displayed significantly more water skill. Thane showed significantly more water-wariness (after recreationally attempting to drown himself constantly last year). I got to take some lovely swims out towards the middle of the lake, past the sight of inflatable alligators where all I could see were mountains, trees and water. Grey made a friend in the little boy at the next campsite. Thane did 1000 puzzles, just like he would’ve done at home. We also had a lovely “car walk” across the Kankamangus, down to Lake Winnepesaukee and back. I have concluded that the thing that would make camping super fun was if some of my friends came too, so we could tell tall tales around campfire. Unfortunately, my friends all seem to have either a) lake houses or access thereto or b) sense. My boys
Third. It has come to my attention that my children are growing up too fast. I’d like to complain to the management, please! This morning was, truth be told, Kindergarten orientation. We went up to Grey’s to-be classroom and met his to-be classmates and to-be teacher. It is a lovely classroom, with books and colors and name tags. It is a place where I think he will be happy. The school is super duper. I mean, I went to FOUR elementary schools, and you could combine the enrichment features of all four of them and still end up short of this one. There’s a music room, and art room, a gym, a stage, a science room (seriously?!!?). They have onsite physical and occupational therapists. There is a school nurse and school psychologist. The library was large and friendly. There was a well equipped computer classroom. The children we saw all seemed to be engaged, having fun, learning, doing cool things. They were very friendly, welcoming the little kids to the school. It felt like a very healthy, happy place where the kids learned good things – and where there was room for them to be themselves. I am super-pleased, since this is just our local public school!
Then, when I picked Thane up, I got the word that he will be going to preschool next month. Indeed, he had apparently gone for a visit today, and his teachers had a hard time convincing him to come back to the Toddler 2 classroom. “He’s so ready” they told me. I know he is. I can’t argue. But sometimes I look at him and wonder where my little baby went. I can hardly see any traces of the infant in his determined features and flamboyant curls.
So while the accountant in me looks at these big changes and says “KACHING!” (because lo! Preschool + public Kindergarten < toddler care + preschool!), the woman in me, growing a little older, looks a little wistfully at how quickly her sons are wantonly abandoning their baby-hoods in preference for boyhood. I like babies. I was rather fond of my babies. I'm proud and pleased by the young men my sons are becoming, but I hope they don't feel the need to be too grown, too soon.
There you go – the momentous events of the last week and a half. Perhaps sometime I'll have the leisure and opportunity to post things that are NOT bare-bones updates… but we will all have to wait together for that moment.
I suppose Friday afternoon is a bit latish for a “What I did this weekend” update, but hey. I know these are fascinating – transfixing! – and I cannot deny you your pleasures.
A while back (aka the middle of February), I talked about how desperately I needed a break, a Sabbath, a weekend off. I promptly didn’t do it for 3 months. But finally the stars aligned and I put it on the calendar, and this past weekend we did none of our accustomed things. Not even the laundry. Instead, we took our boys on adventures.
Saturday we went to Old Sturbridge Village. The forecast was for rain – thunderstorms – so I was afraid our trip might be abbreviated. We went anyway. The weather during the morning and early afternoon was superb, although it did start pouring just as we drove out of the parking lot. But because of the dire predictions, on this beautiful spring morning the historical village was nearly deserted by tourists (like us), but all the period actors were there! Best of all worlds. Thane’s favorite part of the adventure was, hands down, the water pump: Seriously, a spring Saturday at like noon.
I think my husband and I found the Blacksmith most fascinating:I love how he keeps his coffee warm
The potter was really neat:It was hypnotic to watch
Grey’s favorite part might have been throwing rocks into the pond. He spent half his time there looking for a perfect skipping rock.Daddy needed a Thane blanket...
And there was more – the carding mill, the hydo power, the sheep, the cows, the stilts, the schoolhouse (Grey found a feather and spent 5 minutes doing his “homework” with his “quill pen”.), the hoops game, the carriage ride. And we didn’t see nearly all there was to see. It was really neat.
Sunday was more great adventures! First there was sleeping in. (My favorite part of Mother’s Day!) Then we went to the Arnold Arboretum for the Lilac Festival. Lilacs + Morris Dancers = totally made for me. The boys spent a lot of time wandering around an ancient and spreading beech tree. I sniffed many lilacs. There was fried dough. There were two (2) rubber chicken Morris dancing catapults. The weather was only so-so and the children were frankly recalcitrant but it was still awesome.Handsome man, framed by flowers, watching his son roll down the hill.
And that, my friends, was my Mother’s Day Weekend off. I couldn’t have asked for better!
For months now I’ve been completely convinced that I’m fine, FINE with Grey going to Kindergarten. In fact, I believe he probably should’ve gone LAST fall! He’s academically fine! He’s socially developmentally appropriate! He’s tall! He’s maturing fast! He covered all over his body with markers yesterday and declared he was Battle Boy while jumping on his brother’s bed! I imagined myself trundling him down to South School, instead of the YMCA, cursing the parking situation there and going on about my day. Nooooo problem.
But then I got engaged in all the work of actually moving your child from one stage to another. I wrote a signed and dated letter to his preschool, telling them that his final day as a preschooler would be June 20th. Then he becomes a Summer Camper. I’ve gotten two letters from the school – official logo emblazoned on the top of a cheap photocopy – telling me when and where I need to report myself for training. Friday morning, I need to be at South School where they will tell me what’s what. A few weeks later, it’s Grey’s turn. (Note to school district: one week is very scant notice for telling me I need to be somewhere at 9 am. Also, the duration of the orientation would have been useful information. I get the feeling I had better get used to jumping when I’m told to jump.)
I’m glad, though, because I do wonder. Although Grey’s been going to “school” for two years now, of the “pre” variety, it’s a very forgiving environment. There’s no starting bell — you show up when you show up. You can take your kid out for a day or a week because Grandma’s in town, or you’re going on vacation, or you feel like it. How will our lives react to a whole additional set of immobile, nonnegotiable timelines? Will I still have to not pack peanuts in the lunches? (There was a like a blessed two weeks when no one in his class had a peanut allergy. Sigh.) Will he want to get the school lunches? How will he react to being the littlest kid in the school? Will he hate having to sit politely all day? Will his teacher see his reading as a problem or an opportunity? What if he hates it?
One of the hardest parts of being a parent is giving up on being everything to your child. I can’t, won’t know everything about what it is like for my son to go to Kindergarten. That will only become more true in second grade, fourth grade, seventh grade, eleventh grade. When he’s a man grown, I’ll be lucky if I read about his life in his blog posts. (Hi mom!) That is the right and good way for children to grow. But it’s hard to give up, to relinquish.
At nearly every stage of my sons’ lives (note the nearly, there. Exceptions exist), I have wished I could hold them as right where they are – perfect. I remember wishing that when Grey was 3 months old. But now, I would not have him be a 3 month old again for the world. I like him quite well as a five year old, thankyouverymuch. I can only guess, predict, that this will continue to be true as they grow up. Then again, he was an awfully cute 3 month old
I’m pretty sure I have several posts lined up in my mental list. Sadly, now (45 minutes before bedtime) on Sunday night when I finally have time, I’ll be darned if I can remember any of them. Isn’t that always the way? Ah well.
Easter was lovely. The weather was superb. The kids were incredibly cute and well behaved. I was in some of my finest trumpet form in years, and played some of the hardest repertoire I’ve attempted in quite some time. We went out to dinner tonight at a local restaurant, and then wandered around our local town square in the warm twilight. There was tag, the scent of magnolias, holding sticky sweet little hands, and an evening ending in ice cream. It was a delight.
I’m figuring this is the last time Grey will believe in the bringers of gifts: Santa, Easter Bunny. He wrote the Easter Bunny a note, “How do bunnies go across water?” he asked in it. He asked me if the Easter Bunny was real. I asked him what he thought. He pondered, and said that maybe it wasn’t a bunny, but a person who sneaks into our house to leave the gifts. I don’t invest a tremendous amount of my personal credibility in these myths, nor do I have them well constructed. I’m pretty sure Grey is at the “trying hard not to notice” stage.
Grey has been really awesome lately. I’ve had a lot of fun with him. The other night he decided to make a chocolate cake. He got out a recipe and all the ingredients. He needed some help with some techniques (greasing the pan, measuring fractions), but he did a remarkable amount of it himself. I was really proud of him. So I decided any kid working with flour regularly needs their own apron.
It’s surprisingly hard to find an apron for boys, but I managed: Awesome apron
Don’t boys play chef anymore? Sheesh.
We also have had our last swimming lesson of the winter. Grey started them in fall, and ever single Saturday morning has been spent with swimming lessons, followed by lunch, followed by aikido. However, Grey is staring down his first ever graduation: preschool. In July he will go to summer camp instead of preschool. And part of the YMCA summer camp is swimming lessons! So although Grey is not yet 100% independent in water, I figure we might just be able to get our Saturday mornings back. That would rock. I think Thane may be sad, though. He really liked their babysitting. And he has to be potty trained in order to do swimming lessons which… well, we’re nowhere close to that.
This summer camp sounds awesome. They have weekly field trips, go to swimming lessons, go to the town pool on another day, and play play play. I’m totally jealous. I’m also totally ready for him to be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I think we’re all ready and excited.
Thane has a little less going on, being two and all. He’ll move to transitional preschool this summer (yes, the sound you’re hearing is the “kaching!” going off in my head as the boys move to less expensive forms of child care….) His language is totally exploding. He’s putting together complicated sentences with unusual verb forms and complex structures. “You would have done it, mommy.” He likes to mimic his brother, who is remarkably tolerant about it. He has a 24 piece dinosaur puzzle he puts together over and over again, with remarkable dexterity.
My sweet Thane is a natural singer. He sings ALL THE TIME. He sings nursery rhymes. He sings folk songs. He sings while he puts the puzzles together. He sings at night. He sings in the morning. He sings the doxology before dinner (which he will refuse to eat). He sings Ring Around the Rosy. He sings “Star of the County Down” and “These are My Mountains”. I love his singing.
Grey and Thane are the best brothers you could possibly expect them to be … which is to say, not perfect, but they have a lot of fun together. Fort Fun!
So that’s what’s going on over here. Hopefully this week I’ll find some time to remember what I was going to write about and write about it… but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
PS – I do remember one bit. I was actually in California for two days this week. That’s really surprisingly disruptive.
I was by myself this weekend. My husband was off not-sleeping, playing round-the-clock games with 20 other like-minded RPGers on Cape Cod. Cape Cod in April totally works if you have no intention of setting foot outside for several days! However, without backup, this weekend seemed like an excellent one to devote to labors. And so I did.
I did the taxes Friday night. Saturday, I did two dishwasher loads, hand-washed the leftovers, five loads of laundry (including hauling downstairs, sorting and folding), culled all the toys upstairs and downstairs, took Grey and Thane to swimming lessons, prepared two meals (in full disclosure, Grey made breakfast for himself and his brother. I only cleaned up the inevitable crumbs.), bathed both boys and cleaned the house.
Sunday, I went to church, made two meals (Grey made breakfast again!), did three more loads of laundry, bought 3/4 of our summer plane tickets (the logistics of the journey are boggling), planned out our vacation requests in detail, and reserved our camp sites for Memorial Day, cleaned the house (AGAIN!) and took the boys bike-riding. Funland required all the blankets in the house to construct
This fascinating account of my weekend was livened up by a few unexpected occurances. If you look back at that Saturday report, you might note that I used quite a bit of water. Significant amounts even. First world extravagant amounts of laundry. A friend had recently asked for a recommendation for a home inspector, and I forwarded the one we used, saying they’d be right on about the problems we had and hadn’t experienced. Well, that home inspector had indicated that we shouldn’t get too emotionally attached to our hot water heater, ifyouknowhatImeanVerne. And lo. Sunday morning, the water, though it ran and ran, stayed tepid. Yup.
So included in my fun and fantastic Sunday were online investigations of hot water heater options. (For reference, I opted for this one, which is pretty much the only Energy Star model I can get installed this week. Home Depot seriously had NO Energy Star hot water heaters — except the tankless ones, which I lack the time to get installed.) We still don’t have hot water, and I’m not entirely sure when we’ll get it.
I really hate it when I have a weekend like this, that is completely consumed by the labors of life. I get very little time to decompress, and do what I feel like doing. I keep making this choice, to do lots of work. It’s as though I haven’t learned that no matter how much work I do, I’ll never be done. I’ll never be caught up and on top of things. If I don’t make room for myself in my life, it makes me extremely cranky, and it makes it hard to come back to work on Monday and really engage in my labors. I desperately need a day off. (Next scheduled day: May 20th for my brother’s graduation…)
Still, there are always moments of grace. It was really fun hanging out with some of my neighbors and watching our kids ride bikes together. On Sunday after church, Grey began constructing a huge fort he named “Funland”, and telling me over and over again that it was “A dream come true.” (This is why I had to clean the house again. I regret nothing. It was worth it.) My eldest made breakfast two mornings in a row, without complaint. My youngest came up to me several times, twined his sticky arms around my neck and told me, “Mommy, I love you so much.”
So today I will choose to let the rain wash away my memories of work, and leave behind glittering clean memories of the moments that make life worthwhile.
My Truant Pen 