the very day

I know I say this every birthday of every child, but I can't believe my sweet red-headed baby is SEVEN!  Look at him!  He looks so old and mature!  Where is the little boy?

My sweet Linus.  This has been quite a year for you.  You've grown so much intellectually; you're eager to learn and figure out the mysteries of the world around you.  I'm looking forward to beginning first grade with you in the Fall and watching all the pieces come together for you. 

You continue to love to build and have added model airplanes and spaceships (and Gutenburg presses) to your list of favorite toys, though I think Legos still rank #1.  You've continued to gain mastery over your body (no small feat, since you are as tall and heavy as a 9-year-old).  Watching you climb trees, master your scooter, do tricks on the trampoline, and excel in gymnastics class has been fun to watch.

Gwendolyn is your best friend, though you do share sweet moments with Casper (and I hope your relationship with him continues to bloom the older you two get). Your shy nature makes it a little hard for you to make friends (and your social hermit of a mother doesn't help tremendously), but you have a few special buddies you love to be around.  You get along with kids of different ages, especially those who are older than you (perhaps you size them up and want to play with children of your same height, not necessarily your same age). 

You have such a sweet, gentle nature.  You're always the family member who reminds us to pray and you're quick to apologize in real sorrow after getting angry.  I must say that I've always laughed when people talk about red-heads having a fiery temperament, but no more, my lad.  You have hit the 7-year-change full throttle and at least once a day, I have to talk you down from an outburst.  I know it's just this age, this time of maturation that often leaves you feeling uncertain and misunderstood, but it's going to be a rough couple of months.  Recently, in a moment of clarity, you said to me, "Am I the age now that Gwendolyn was when she had all of those bad temper tantrums?"  You mean the temper tantrums that made me question why I became a parent in the first place and want to ship her off to live with relatives hundreds of miles away?  Yes, my love, yes you are.

I love you, sweet Linee-bones.  You are my angel boy and even though you wipe away my kisses, my heart sings every time I lay eyes on you.

daughter and dad

halfcat

Gwendolyn likes to tell us that she's at least 50% cat, though she hasn't yet explained which side of the family that part represents.  In either case, her proof is that she loves climbing trees (and reading about feline warfare, of course).  She's inducted Linus into her pastime, and they spend time each day in the limbs of the Talking Tree.  (I suppose I'll need to add some photos of our cats also in the tree for comparison.)

partytime

Because we knew we wouldn't have much time during the middle of the week to celebrate Linus's birthday, we opted to have his family party yesterday.  Everyone, including and especially his siblings, were thrilled at the prospect of his present opening.  When the time came for him to open his gift from Gwendolyn (a pair of padded bike gloves to wear either when skating or when dressing up as a fighter or wizard -- a gift she thought of and purchased herself), emotions were high. 

Other gifts which he found satisfactory, you could say, were the Leatherman multi-tool with serrated knife (necessitating our ongoing Knife Safety course) and the scooter which Granny and Grandad got for him.  See that expression in his eyes in the photo above?  That is pure, distilled excitement.

lemonade day (observed)

Together with our good friends, the children have been devising their lemonade stand for weeks now, and they spent much of the week finalizing their plans and cooking.  In addition to the 95 lemons the children collectively squeezed, I spent a good amount of time making the fruit syrups which we offered as accents to the beverage (because really, what sounds better than "lemonade" than "mint lemonade" or "blueberry lemonade"?).  This morning, I rushed about actually concocting the gallons of drink while Jennifer finished baking her strawberry lemonade cookies, then we met our friends at the corner we'd staked out.

The day was balmy, if not midway to sweltering, and our position set us up with plenty of visibility.  Unfortunately, the street we were facing may have been too highly trafficked to be ideal -- by the time passers-by saw the children and their signs, many of them were well past us.  Perhaps finding a quieter street might prove more effective.

But the children had a good showing.  Several friends came by to support us, and many generous people came by to talk and for some refreshment.  The kids came out of the experience with knowledge about planning a business, as well as some pocket money, and they keep talking about what a good time they had.  Anyone up for next year?

creature battle!

In the past few months, as he's been getting closer to his seventh birthday, Linus has been struggling with the feeling that he's constantly left out.  It's true that it's difficult for the poor kid to get attention, sandwiched between his outgoing sister and performance-loving brother (oh, and his effortlessly cute baby sister).  I think that he feels especially abandoned when his sister gets to work on projects with Mama and Daddy -- even piano lessons became part of this attention imbalance.

One project we began in an effort to rectify this injustice is a card game modeled after Gwennie's Warriors cards.  Linus wanted his game to include real animals instead of fictional characters, so we chose animals from various "families" and assigned them attributes chosen by Linus.  The boy's favorite part was selecting pictures of animals from the various images we could find online.  The project had gotten a little bogged down, however, so I rushed the production and got them ready for him to open at his family birthday party tomorrow.  

This image shows the back of the cards.  We found so many great photographs of animals from the various families fighting one another that I decided to place them randomly on the back with the card "logo."  Elephant vs. hyena!  Badger vs. cougar!  Honey badger vs. black mamba!  Crocodile vs. shark!  

plein air

feet back on the ground

 

As I mentioned recently, the children have been very interested in music, both requesting favorite songs (and sneaking onto my computer to make playlists) and clamoring to get the instruments out to play along with their favorite tracks.  They decided that it would be most fitting to get dressed up as "rockers" and play along.  (They did need Margaret to fill out the four-piece.)

 

Here are some comments which we've heard recently:

Linus: Daddy, can we listen to "Hey Dude"?

D: I don't think I have that one on my computer.

L: No, we do!  It's by the Beatles!

Mama: Linus, did you know that Grandpa Sam wanted to be an architect and design buildings when he was young?

Linus: Maybe I want to be an architect.

M: Casper, what do you want to be when you grow up?

C: A Beatle!

Linus, after "Norwegian Wood" comes on: Is this "In the Leafy Treetops"?

Casper, singing along to another one while the kids are juicing lemons for lemonade: "I've got a ticket to juice. . . ."

 

leftovers

I should probably have added these shots to yesterday's post, but the links between the images need a little glossing.  Short version: while we were exclaiming over Greta in her stroller, the children were promenading along this little wall.  When Casper fell and skinned his knee (sadly, inevitably -- not that he isn't coordinated, because he's probably in better control of his little body than was Linus at his age, but only due to his compulsion to keep up with the bigger kids), Gwennie offered to pick him up and carry him.  It feels notable because there are so many occasions when this doesn't happen. 

two suites

If you look at the two sequences of photographs in this post and consider them together -- something like a children's picture book without words, or maybe a time-lapse movie -- they may come across as a statement about the interactions between the children these days.  The photos all come from a recent trip to feed the ducks (and turtles, minnows, and sometimes herons) at Research Park, one of our favorite destinations.

 

lift my lamp beside the golden door

It may seem implausible that the coloration of a room can dramatically alter the quality of your life, but I'm here to testify that it's possible.  I'm sorry that I don't have "before" images to display, but our hallway -- which is covered in the same paneling as the rest of the house -- has always been a grotto from which no light or hope can escape.  (If this sounds melodramatic, you should hear Jen talk about it.) 

Some weeks ago, we bought primer and paint to use on the hallway while the children were away visiting Grannie and Grandad, but we got caught up with other projects and didn't get anywhere with it.  While the rest of the family was away this weekend, I decided to do as much as I could.  It took about 25 hours -- one third for prep, another to primer, and the last to paint, painstakingly following the fake joints in the paneling.  But now the room is now a literal beacon of light. 
 

Incidentally, I'm including the hyperbole so that once Jen and I are jaded and beaten down and no longer wandering into the hallway to stand in awe, contemplating how much brighter our house and lives are, I can recapture some of the joy.

Because we were concerned about Granny and Grandad after their car accident, and because we all wanted to do something to help -- especially while they were sore and recovering -- Jen and the kids drove up to Dallas for the weekend.  This trip itself was not without incident, as the van started overheating two thirds of the way up, and Jen had to stop at a dealership to get the radiator looked at.  After a quick fix (replacing a hose), they were back on the road.  It was a good weekend -- the kids were thrilled to see cousins and I hope the family was a little help.  At the very least, the smile of that cute babe had to lift their spirits. 

li'l musicians

The children have been extremely interested in music lately, taking out my bass and guitar (with close supervision) and playing at being rockers.  We're not entirely sure where the enthusiasm has come from, although they're also very interested in choosing playlists and requesting favorite songs.  Linus, in particular, tends to fixate on songs and ask for them repeatedly.  Fortunately, his favorite is one the rest of the family also enjoys (Help!).  I'm sure we'll have more on this topic soon.

lemonade? you're my best friend

Lemonade day is approaching, and we've been doing our best to get ready.  To those who may not know (or have it in their community), lemonade day is a program in which children are encouraged to learn about entrepreneurial matters by planning lemonade stands and dealing with the purchase of supplies, planning and promotion, sharing profits, and suchlike.  (Even though the official lemonade day is on a Sunday, we've gotten permission from the city to hold ours the day earlier.)  We'll be serving fresh-squeezed lemonade with an assortment of fruit syrups and some baked goods -- and dancing around at the corner of a busy street with signs.  Come by!

 

too tough

Gwennie: Can we pretend this is a walk-in restaurant?

Daddy: What's that, Gwennie?

G: It's when you go into a restaurant and the food's ready, and it's filled with a lot of tough guys that are foreigners.  Like you see sometimes in movies.  It's filled with a bunch of guys that you don't want to mess with.

Gwennie: I'm just kind of over-exasperating about that.

We visited our nature spot from 2009, and enjoyed exploring our old haunt.  Many of the paths we used to walk were totally overgrown, so we stayed in the sun.  Might as well enjoy the warmth before it gets unbearable, I suppose.

engineering

and more

Margaret is growing, and not only in cuteness. We've already waxed rhapsodic about her chunky thighs and wrists, but she's also becoming aware of the world around her in new ways. This means that if you're holding her, she's ever more likely to grab for the plate you're eating from, or do her best to snatch your glasses.


















She may not be sold on that whole solid food concept, but one thing she loves is to help me eat fruit by gumming my apple cores. She was getting impatient this afternoon as I got the apple ready for her to lick and slobber over. It's a great party trick.