news and notes from jess and dan

gone but not forgotten

Every now and then, I'm going to try to dig up old Facebook status posts about things that were going on in our lives, so that I have them in one place, easy to search and find again. A few recent(ish) ones:


Dec 4, 2012:
I was hankering for Ethiopian food and feeling brave, so on the spur of the moment, we introduced all 3 kids to Nile Richmond. While 2 kids refused to try anything and the third only ate a little before declaring it to be too spicy for him, the silver lining is this: G said it was good and that he would probably be ready for that level of spiciness in about 2 years (?), X at least tried the injera, and both X and R have been exposed, at the very least. One day all of us will sit down and enjoy an Ethiopian feast, I'm sure.

November 28, 2012:
On the way home from preschool today, Xander said that he hoped he would see the "army guy" (homeless Vet who begs at the top of the ramp from Chesterfield Pkwy to Huguenot) today. As we pulled up to the stop light:

X: There he is! The army guy is there!
J: Yup, I see him.
X: I bet he's getting lots of money.
J: Do you think he gets enough money to buy some food?
X: and to buy a house!
J: I don't think people give him enough money to buy a house.
X: If people have extra money, they could give it all to him. "I'm rich! Here's my extra money, Army Guy!"
J: Wouldn't it be nice if lots of people did that? 
X: Yeah, because then they wouldn't have to buy lots of toys for their kids. 

(This may be the first time he has ever indicated that there is any such thing as *too many* toys. I love that he thinks rich people with extra money will really pull up and hand it all to the "Army Guy". And it's a good reminder that we need to see what "extra" we have in our lives, that we could share, so we don't have to buy lots of toys.)

November 21, 2012:
I went to bookmark something for Griffin, and discovered that the "kid stuff" favorites folder I had set up now has many folders inside of it, created, I presume, by Griff. He even made a folder for Reese's favorites. ♥ It blows my mind that something that was so foreign to me until early adulthood - I seriously feared Windows Explorer for years, couldn't get this whole "file" and "folder" thing - is his first language.




November 19, 2012:
(when linking an article about body position when talking to children)
Me: Reese, do you like it better when I stand up and talk to you and I'm looking down and you're looking up, or when I sit down and our faces are next to each other?
Reese: when you're sitting next to me
Me: Why?
Reese: 'cause then I can control you, because you're looking into my eyes.
Me: Yes, Master.

November 18, 2012: 
A word problem for you: Dan baked 48 mini banana muffins for me to bring to book group. Four of us each had two mini muffins. One of us reports eating one mini muffin. How many are left? 

Correct answer: 25. Hmmm. 

(One child ate 15 muffins. It wasn't hard to figure out which one.)

November 13, 2012: 
(Gratitude Day 13) Tuesdays are piano lesson days for Griff and I'm going to pick up the next level of books for him today. I'm grateful that he wanted to take lessons and that so far it's fun and easy for him. I'm so grateful to see the enjoyment with which he learns and practices this new skill. I'm also very grateful for his fantastic teacher, Laura Floyd, who has such a great rapport with him *and* is making sure that he learns theory and technique from the beginning (things I wish my first teacher had focused on more!).

November 12, 2012: 
(Gratitude Day 13): Tuesdays are piano lesson days for Griff and I'm going to pick up the next level of books for him today. I'm grateful that he wanted to take lessons and that so far it's fun and easy for him. I'm so grateful to see the enjoyment with which he learns and practices this new skill. I'm also very grateful for his fantastic teacher, Laura Floyd, who has such a great rapport with him *and* is making sure that he learns theory and technique from the beginning (things I wish my first teacher had focused on more!).

November 10, 2012:
3 7-year-olds in back seat

One kid: "Raise your hand if you've seen your diarrhea. Now what did it look like?"

Dan: "It's about to get REAL in here."

November 4, 2012: 
Gratefulness day 4: today I'm grateful for a pajama day and for the reading explosion that is happening inside my 7-year-old's mind. I'm also grateful for keeping the faith that like everything else for this kid, one day literacy would just spring out when he was good and ready. Loved hearing him read signs in DC yesterday and just cried over him reading a candy package to me.

warbler

I love that when I hear whistling in the house, I know it's Reese. He has such a great ear for music, has worked hard to develop his whistling talent, and clearly takes great joy in it. Someday he'll probably be one of those old men who can produce amazing, warbly tunes.

(It has been 2 years since I posted anything to this blog, and I miss having it as a record of the things the kids say and do. Having lost many things to the endless, unsearchable Facebook feed, I'm going to try to remember to add things here instead, for my own reference.)

delurking is delightful

It's National De-lurking Week. Or at least I think it is. We'll just declare it to be so, ok? So, here's how it works: once a year it's lovely for the people who read but don't comment to leave me a little note. Even lovelier if you continue to comment when you visit! It's nice to know there's somebody out there. :o)

all about the au-to-no-my

Two little boys feeling terribly proud.

"Look, I drew inside my mouth."

Two big kids asked to pick some beans,

Then made a salad (sans the greens).

welcome to the rva

Big-kid Reesie helping move boxes out of our basement and into Grammy and Grandfather's car now that they have moved into their new Richmond digs.  Woohoo!  

Reese loves this picture and is very proud of how strong he is. ♥

the road trip of insanity

It started as a daydream.  The third-best shelling beaches in the world, within our country's borders.  

It continued as an obsession.  Time to myself.  Beautiful pieces of nature to photograph.

It was put on the back burner, something I would do someday when a trip by myself or with girlfriends was a luxury but not a foolish extravagance.

It flashed across my mind in alarm as oil was spreading across the gulf.  Would we run out of somedays?

 

Then I had an idea: why wait for someday? Why wait until I could go alone?  I could go now, with the kids.  

I had the idea on Thursday.  I booked rooms (with some flexibility built in) on Sunday.  On Monday, the kids and I set out on a grand adventure, not knowing how many days it would take us to get there, or whether we would all be screaming one or two or sixteen hours down the road, or how much fun or stress we would have, or when we would return.

All told, we took two days to get there, spent four nights on the island, and two days (ish) coming back.  There were lots of expected and unexpected joys and relatively few lows.  This starts a whole new chapter in family adventures, I suspect.

Some of this stuff is blogged under the "adventure" category on Spark (June 21-27 plus a "Surviving Spontaneity" series that followed it and is still waiting for completion).  There's also a photo set on Flickr.  Mostly it was the kind of amazing adventure that can't be described in words, and we all want to go back (with Dan this time) soon.  

a day for dan

 

june nineteenthy stuff

How to explain the behavior of oil in the ocean, brought to you by Target.

I think decorations like this in a fast food restaurant are supposed to fill patrons with assurance that they have made a wise nutritional decision, thereby assuring return visits.  Instead, it fills me with skepticism, wondering why they have to surround me with "good for you" messages, suspicious that it's yet another deployment of psychological trickery in order to build business. 

It was cute, though.

And these are getting ready for a big kindness adventure.  

 

lego mania

(Why VCU? I have no idea.  Maybe he has had a premonition or something.)

his favorite color is DIRT

farewell to first grade

texas beach

stars and stripes and school assemblies forever

It's time for that great American tradition, the patriotic class performance!  I wonder at what age we all learned these tunes?  Here at Mary Munford, first grade is the time and the back porch is the place. Many American standards were featured, and a couple of newer tunes, too.

Griff is behind the pianist in the photo above.  Look below.  See, there he is, between Mia and Savannah! 

The teachers sat right in front of their classes to cheer them on and remind them of lyrics.  (You can see that there's a beach towel over the piano here, on the left: it has the names of all the states and I could see kids reading it during "50 Nifty United States".)  Ms. Mallory is so sunshiny. 

My friend Sophia (Savannah's mom) looking on.

The school calendar sets June 22 as the official last day of school, but teachers are clearly wrapping things up and this was the last real function of the year.  Ms. Mallory was encouraging families to let her know when their child's last day would be - apparently some families were opting to make the 18th their last day, and she seemed to think this was a good idea, as all class parties and lessons and everything would be wrapped up by Friday.  Griff and I conferred with her and agreed that his last day would also be Friday.  So this is pretty much it for first grade.  It has been a great year for Griff! 

first grade trip to maymont

My one and only chaperoning gig this year...acting as one of the adults on the first grade trip to Maymont.  I wasn't sure what to expect - would we be inspecting the animals, visiting the nature center? Picnicking on the hillside?  The experience was most like a hike, keeping 25 kids (in Ms. Mallory's class...there were at least two other classes in the park, too) moving from Italian garden to Japanese garden, past the bears, through the wild birds, up the hill to the petting zoo, and right through to the trees on the other side, where we lunched and then hopped back on the buses.  

Griff and Mia, his girlfriend since kindergarten.  

Measuring wingspan:

Allie and Savannah, two of Griff's best buds:

reese is five!

Red Baby Dragon and Gold Baby Dragon supervised the making of breakfast.

Reese had requested pancakes, and pancakes he received.

He also chose morning present-opening instead of receiving gifts after dinner. Truly a kid after my own heart, who can postpone presents?

Anticipation...and it's a hit! This squeezy cow is the only item he requested for his birthday.  I found one as similar as possible to the beloved book character. Reese was elated to receive it.  

There were an assortment of other Reese-pleaser gifts.  He's a big fan of small items that pack a big tactile punch - stretchy, wiggly, bendy, textured little toys.  

The night before his birthday, he informed us that he knew what we should have for dinner and whom we should invite: the Bunnells and the Allen-Shorts. Reese, a homebody since birth, has never (in my memory) invited anybody over.  He has never wanted a party until this year.  Even thought it was only the day before and we knew people might not be able to come, we called right away.  All the adults involved understood what a huge honor this was and everybody came over for dinner on the 14th.  Reese had requested that we have NO cake, NO candles, and NO singing.  So we had ice cream sundaes instead, made to order (how very Reese).  It was, I have to say, one of the nicest birthday celebrations we've ever had.

Reese and I had started planning a party for his classmates, but hit some delays in actually picking a date and sending out invitations.  After today, he and I agreed that really, this was enough party.  It was the perfect way for him to celebrate, it felt very authentic to who he is.  He and I decided to put away the pinata and favors in the attic for a future party.

Growing up is hard, hard work for Reese, and the last three years have been a steep climb for him, so it's amazing and wonderful to see him blooming into a social, confident, sunny five-year-old.  He is such a zen master for our family, teaching us that all things happen in their own time, that seemingly insignificant things matter, and that excellence might look nothing like we had originally expected.

Thank you, Reese! We love you! Happy birthday. ♥