Pool Shark

We recently attended a bar mitzvah reception at a pool hall. Juniper the extrovert would have been delighted even if the party didn't come with pool. The fact that she got to play a new game with sticks, lots of hard colorful balls, fuzzy green tables with secret tunnels, and cool triangle ball holders made it even better.


 
Several young children were on a mission to throw chaos onto every table where there was a serious grownup game (or pseudo-serious adolescent game) in process. A couple of moms finally had the good sense to declare one table the kids' table. We defended our table when it looked empty, promising would-be players that everyone's game benefited from giving up this one table.



 The only rule at the kids' table: no throwing the balls. Everything else was allowed.

 Really, everything. Shuffleboard, anyone?

Juniper was also pretty excited about the ice cream sundae dessert bar! We're pretty excited that she is now old enough to stay up well past her bedtime for the occasional fun event, with no tears or tantrums. She fell asleep moments after we got in the car, but didn't cry when it was time to leave.

Aminals and ossicones

Hazel recently had her first trip to the zoo, and she loved it! She was observant (Ephant eating. More eating. Ephant eating food.), enthusiastic (More aminals! More aminals!), and covetous (Want giaffe. Want zeba.).

The gorillas at the Atlanta zoo are visible from multiple spots, including one where the people are inside a building with a glass wall that lets you get a pretty close-up look at the gorillas outside. From inside the building, you can also see one of the observation platforms where people can watch the gorillas from outside. When we were inside the building, Hazel was convinced that the people on the platform were with the gorillas, and she emphatically wanted to join them. While pointing at the gorillas and the observation platform, she demanded, "In! In! People in. Hazel in!"

Meanwhile, Juniper smarty pants informed a giraffe caretaker, "I'm very smart," and was treated to a lesson about ossicones (the horn-like protuberances on the top of a giraffe's head). Our little scientist was delighted. Part of me wants to teach my daughter some modesty and help her learn that it isn't really polite respond to a simple question about what giraffes eat by telling everyone how smart you are. But I suspect that modest four year olds are far less likely to have in-depth conversations about giraffe biology, and I'd rather cut off my toes than squash Juniper's curiosity and love of learning. As someone who supports activities to encourage girls' involvement with science, technology, engineering, and math, I feel especially protective of Juniper's love of science--but I confess that I do still cringe a little when she proclaims how smart she is or how much she knows about topic X. I mostly ignore the pride issue, hope that will sort itself out as she gets older, and try to shift the conversation from smarts to learning (how fun it is to learn new things, the fact that she knows about topic X because she reads and asks questions, and how cool it is that there is so much MORE she doesn't yet know about X).

Chaos!

We typically use our blog to share our children's adorable moments and proud accomplishments, but lest we be accused of painting a too-rosy picture of family life, here's a story of the madness we sometimes have in our house.

One day each week, I watch all of the kids in our childcare swap (Juniper, Hazel, Luke, Violet, and Henry). On this particular day, Violet was not yet home from school, so I had Juniper and the three toddlers. In the brief moment it took me to go to the bathroom, Hazel managed to bite both Luke and Henry--hard. Both boys had nasty bites and were understandably very upset. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I suspect that Hazel didn't want to share her crayons. While I was comforting the boys and giving Hazel the standard lecture about not biting, I heard Juniper call out from the bathroom: "Maaaahhhm, I had an accident. I got a little poop on my underwear." (For the record, Juniper has been fully potty trained for almost two years. I can't remember the last time she had a poop accident.) I scooped up Hazel, unwilling to leave her alone with the boys, and went back to the bathroom. Juniper was sitting on the toilet, and there was in fact a little poop on her underwear, and also a little poop on the floor where her underwear had fallen. I was scurrying about, cleaning the floor, starting a load of hot wash laundry, stalling Juniper's requests for help wiping, when I heard Hazel vehemently yelling, "NO COLOR! NO COLOR! NO COLOR!" I dropped whatever I was doing and hurried back to the dining room, afraid she might be about to bite one of the boys again. Hazel, passionate lover of order and propriety, was aghast at the sight of Luke coloring a large blue scribble all over the dining room wall. "No more crayons," I announced. "We do not use crayons for biting. We do not use crayons for coloring on the wall. We use crayons for coloring on paper. No biting! No walls! All done crayons!" I left the three toddlers whimpering by the now crayonless table and finished my laundry, my cleaning, my wiping. Start to finish, all of this took less than five minutes. And five minutes later, we had all moved on to some other activity, the crayons and poop and biting forgotten in the wonderful amnesia of the very young. The nice thing for me about having a day's worth of chaos all packed into a few moments was that I didn't even have time to be frazzled or upset. I was basically working on reflex, and by the time I had a moment to think about what was happening, it was already done and fodder for a laugh and a good story.

Joys of Summer

Luke Skytalker

Luke: Horse.
Sally: No, Luke, it's not a horse. It's a... I'm not sure what it is. It's like a horse, but it's not a horse.
Luke: Donkey!


This is one of Luke's favorite toys at our house. Anyone reading this a big enough Star Wars geek to give Luke the correct vocabulary for his "donkey"?


Update: It seems fitting that Luke's dad identified this mount as a ronto. Thanks, Mark!

Underwater

Aaron recently got a new toy. No, it isn't an expensive underwater camera. It's a waterproof bag that holds one of the cameras he already had. We've really enjoyed the nearby community pool that opened earlier this summer, and it's fun to get some pictures of the girls in the water.

Juniper is well on her way to being a swimmer. She's confident in the water and comfortable putting her face under the water. With a push or a jump start, she can swim a few feet.  



Hazel the water child is in her element at the pool. On our most recent trip, she invented a new and delightful game. She pointed at the ladder and demanded, "Up with stairs! Up with stairs!"



After climbing up the ladder, she toddled over to the edge of the pool and happily jumped in...

...over and over and over again. After several rounds of this, she was saying "Ready. Set. Go!" and jumping on go.