farm pix

Went to our friend Elsa's 7th birthday party on Saturday. Elsa's family lives out on a farm in Manor. The kids had a BLAST! There were (count 'em) 228 baby chicks running out and about and all the kids (even Sage!) chased them, picked them up, put them on their heads, so on and so forth, eventually leading to many of the kids crawling into the coop :) We had glorious weather that day - for a split second, Darren and I wanted to ditch our suburban digs and move out to a farm ourselves. But then we remembered that we can't even keep our lawn mowed... We stayed a long time, and left with some couldn't-be-fresher cage-free, free-range eggs - yum!

Sage's first words

Ok, now that we have pics up, let me update you a little on what's going on around here, starting with Sage (since he has changed the most since my blogging hiatus). Sage is talking! Ok, just a few unintelligible (to others) "words". He says "DaDa" and "Momma" and one time said "bye bye" while waving - but Darren questions my veracity on that one. He is a prolific pointer, by the way. Points at everything, all the time, and uses the sound "dat?" with a point to pretty much mean that he is demanding said item. He usually puts an extra little quick syllable in front of "dat" so that it sounds like "i-a dat" so we always say he's really saying, "I want that!" Oh, and I forgot - he has a sound/word for doggie and he gets SUPER excited if he gets a glimpse of any canine happenings.

But the cutest thing he does - and I just got to see this for the first time tonight but he's been doing it for Darren for 2 weeks - is that he has started saying the, well, funniest phrase for a newly-speaking 13-month-old........"Foul Ball!" In a sing-song-y Darren-as-an-umpire voice (he's mimicing Darren, as Darren would always say this during this game of toss-the-ball-to-Sage-while-he's-in-the-swing that they play out back, whenever the ball flew far off). Only, of course, it basically just sounds like "owwwww aaawwlll". Super cute.

zoo trip

I took the kids to the zoo over Spring Break. Well, it's sort of a zoo - Austin-style :) Check out the site to see what I mean.

We had a blast there. Weather was gorgeous, the big two loved feeding the animals, Sage is entranced by pretty much *any* animal, so fun was had by all. We'll definitely be going back again with Daddy.

My son is a bottle-feeder!

Just a little lactivist humor....

(The easter egg hunt also had a petting zoo).

more Easter

We also had a hunt at our house....

Easter egg hunt

After church on Easter, we went to an egg hunt at a different church down the street from our house. River and Echo went to the 4-and-up section and Sage tried to duke it out for eggs with the much bigger toddlers in the 3-and-under area. Fortunately, Sage could have cared less about collecting eggs and was happy to suck chocolate *through* the aluminum wrappers and generally make a big fat mess of himself.

update, or "How come you created this blog and then never did anything with it?"

Ok, so as everyone can see, I sort of fell off the blogging wagon. Life got really busy for a while and I just fell out of the habit. We have had requests from you, our loyal audience, to actually, y'know, add stuff to it once in a while. So I'm going to skip over the zillion things that happened since the last posts - River's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years', Sage's first birthday, Sage changing from an infant to a *toddler*..... so on and so forth. And just pick up where we are now.

Enjoy!

Sage haircut

Ok, I did a bad thing today. I cut Sage's hair. Myself. Not a good idea.

The thing was, Sage had the same exact hair thing going on as River did when he was that age. (It must be genetic, I think Echo had a variation of it, as well). This weird, twisty two-layer spiral hair pattern, with soft short wispy light hair on the bottom and a darker longer rebellious clump on top just waiting for a chance to get caught in the wind and stand up and make a fool of itself. It looks like some kind of bad baby comb-over.

Darren had been half-seriously telling me for weeks that we should just cut it off, and finally, in a moment of low impulse control, I did it. Only it didn't exactly make anything better. Now it looks like he has a bald spot underneath with this thick shelf of hacked hair just sitting on top, embarrassed and trying to cover for its naked friend.

Christmas present?

Hey, in case anyone reading this needs an idea for me for Christmas, I really really really really really really really really want a subscription to Midwifery Today. Been meaning to do it for over a year now, but money's tightish at the moment...

Echo's "progress report"

Ok, so Echo's school (a part-time, progressive, private school - with very small, mixed-age classes, and no tests, grades, or real "report cards", but lots of hands-on, child-centered, interactive learning experiences) sent out Fall narrative reports for each child. Read up!

Math: I am really enjoying Echo in our math group- she is such a ready and willing participant in all our activities. Echo has a good grasp of patterns and recognizes them both visually aurally and has no difficulty building them. She has a solid grasp of skip counting, I anticipate multiplication facts will come easily for her. She needs to keep practicing her math facts (adding) and we’ll continue to work on place value. Echo can get frustrated when her answers are incorrect. When she can work though a problem using manipulatives, she most often finds her error and can move on. We’ll be working on double checking skills soon which should really appeal to Echo’s independent nature!

Reading: Well...the reading fairy visited Echo pretty early!!! She's doing great in her reading group...she's got a solid grasp of all of her 'trick words', her vocabulary is fantastic, and she's a whiz at using context to make sense of what she's reading. As the year progresses, I'll be encouraging Echo to 'read to learn', since she's already 'learned to read'. We'll be working more and more on comprehension and getting deeper into literary elements.

Writing: Echo has a great time in our Writing Workshop! She's got so many things she wants to share...sometimes she spends so much time making elaborate drawings, we've got to squeeze in some writing at the last minute to remember her thoughts! We've finished our creative writing unit, and now we are focusing on our 'naturalist journals'. Our afternoon time has a bit more direction in writing...some non-fiction elements as well as poetry and journal entries. Echo has made the transition beautifully and doesn't seem to have difficulty with either style.

Science/Soc. Studies: Echo seemed to have a lot of fun with our social studies unit. She loves working with her friends and drawing comparisons between the different cultures we learned about. She is good at inferring what kind of life someone might lead if they lived in a certain terrain. She showed a lot of concern for people who weren’t treated respectfully during the history component of our lessons. Echo has a great attention span and can absorb a lot of information at a time. She enjoys doing crafts and is helpful and takes other children under her wing who need assistance.

General: We’ve really enjoyed getting to know Echo this year. She’s a friend to one and all! She cooperates well with her friends and when conflicts arise, she can very clearly articulate her expectations! Echo enjoys group activities- especially music! She’s an eager student and throws herself into every endeavor! She is proud of her abilities and never hesitates to let us know when she thinks some work is beneath her! Being the dutiful student, she complies with our requests and is able to move on to grander tasks! She has a well developed funny bone and loves entertaining and being entertained by silly friends and teachers.

Eliza's Corner: Echo has such a curious and, at the same time, analytical mind. She is always thinking about the 'big' picture and how all of the pieces fit. She loves to be introduced to new ideas and has good critical thinking abilities. She is eager to improve her handwriting skills and works at it consistently. She is focusing on mastering the lower case letters. Echo is considerate of her classmates and will go out of her way to help them. She has a wonderful sense of humor!

(Warning: Philosophical rambling to follow).

Ok, so I know that they probably praised each child like this. But, still. C'mon! Does my child rock or what? I'm not at all the sentimental type, but this gave me the quintessential warm fuzzy :) Not just the evaluation of performance, but the comments on her character, her nature. I am pretty darn proud of what a thoughtful, kind, bright, fiesty, curious, joyful, passionate, determined, witty, and sensitive human being this first child of mine has become. It's becoming more apparent each passing day what a gentle spirit and well-developed sense of empathy she has. Along with a mind that is always searching, creating, never quenched by the status quo. I can't help but internally squeal a little in delight when I read those words, seeing just a little validation for the many years of consciously parenting her in a way that has not always been easy - and with decisions and styles which were questioned by some - but which, I knew, in my heart, was what would allow her to fearlessly unfold, before our very eyes, into a Very Amazing Person.

Not that's she's done "becoming" by any means! But her turning 6 last month has, in fact, given me pause and an opportunity for reflection, esp. on those slippery infant and toddler years. It's like we're at a checkpoint, if you will, to assess the 2000+ days of parenting her so far, and see how successful we have or have not been along the way in nurturing her toward independence.

It's really a reflection on how much one selflessly pours into one's child in those first really early years - all the sacrifices, all the lost sleep, all the times you think, "Argh! I should just wean her/leave her to cry/ignore her/spank her/ship her off to preschool - that would make my life easier! Other people do it! .... But no, that's not what I want for her. I want better. " So you keep truckin', keep meeting their needs, and choose to ignore the naysayers who think you are spoiling your child, letting them get away with too much, not "teaching" them the right "discipline", and so on.

All while hoping and praying that you are not screwing up and going to wind up with an out-of-control brat (and God lovingly re-confirms each time that He knows what He's doing when He guides you, and you won't!). All in hopes of it all paying off.

And it seems it already has.

great book

Oh, I forgot to mention this fantastic book I am reading:

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point.

Read it! It's riveting!

Halloween and a look back....

Ok, so we did the whole trick-or-treating thing last night, with the neighbor kids. Bad blogger that I am, I failed to capture this on film :( Suffice it to say that Echo was a poodle and River was a lion. The older two really wanted the baby to go as this hot dog they saw in Old Navy, but frugality won out and I decided to forego spending another $15 when the baby wouldn't actually be getting out of the sling, anyway.

On another note, I've been perusing old photos hidden away on my laptop, and ran across this - one of only 2 photos I have of Sage's birth (the camera was malfunctioning. Funny, though, that the two shots I have both randomly have me arranged so that nothing graphic is exposed, just my leg. So at least the photos I have don't have to remain filed away in a closet somewhere). I like this one because of Darren's expression, like, "Hey, what's up, we're having a baby here". So mellow. I love it. I'm tellin' ya, Darren was digging the homebirth thing. This was about an hour before he was born, I think. (Although it could easily have been later than that because this scene stayed exactly the same all the way until it was time to push, and then he was born 6 minutes later). Seems like a long time ago, before we had the Sageinator...