Category: Children

Now THAT’s more like it!

Published on by NouveauSoileau2 Comments

We had snow last Friday, as I detailed at the time. What did I know then? Today, now — today was a different story. Today we had SNOW.

Now that’s what I’m talkin bout. This is serious snow.

As soon as the city’s slumbering school kids awoke and realized snow was a-fallin,’ the wireless networks were instantly clogged with text messages buzzing with the news. Christopher was immediately invited over to a classmate’s house for sledding, and before long, he was bundled in 27 layers of clothing and equipped with a bright-red plastic sled, acquired a couple years ago when we also had sleddable snowfall.

Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of snowman Christopher. Instead, I present “Jeff.”

Jeff here is the creation of Claire and Trassie, who ventured forth into the approximately 4-inch, extremely wet snowfall that was so perfect for making snowmen that, why, they practically make themselves!

They also have to endure a few indignities, like having rabbit-ears thrust behind their snowy heads. But hey, Jeff’s a stylin’ snowguy, equipped with a baby carrot nose, genuine gravel eyes and mouth — and a vintage scarf from Mother’s Extensive Scarf and Wrap Collection. This one, c. 1984, is festooned with metallic thread and saw service as a waist-wrapped sash in a Flashdance-influenced period of my wardrobe history.

I hope you realize how much courage it took for me to admit that. But on Jeff, now, the scarf looked great, the kids had  a great time making him … and about six hours into his lifespan he was kicked flat and pressed into service as a fort.

The poor guy!

Now as evening approaches and I’ve got a chicken roasting in the oven and cranberry sauce cooling on the stove, my house is filled with good cooking smells and damp outerwear, drying here and there in various bathrooms and over heating vents. Who knows what tomorrow will bring; possibly frozen streets and perilous conditions for morning Mass-driving.

But now I’m snug and warm with Tras and my darling children Claire, Christopher, Trassie … and Jeff. God rest his snowy soul.

White Friday

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Last night, while we were dreaming about spectacular sales, door-busting deals, and awesome online purchases, Nature had a more nuanced plan for the day after Thanksgiving.

White Friday.

I don’t claim to have any supernatural powers of observation, but the predawn light this morning seemed to have a lighter quality than usual. Things seemed a bit more illuminated as I pulled myself from the warm covers at the urging of Mr. Snugglepants J. Getupearly. Like every parent of a  school-age child, we spend weekday mornings dragging him from the bed from where he lies comatose in a dead sleep — but if it’s a day off and Mom and Daddums can actually sleep for an additional 23 minutes? He is UP BABY!!

So, although my as-yet caffeine-deprived brain was firing on just a half a cylinder or so, I was moved to peek out the window to see if anything in particular was up. As I was drawing the shade I realized the angry chirping of a seriously annoyed robin was alerting me to investigate.

“What in the holy hell is this??” he was saying. (I speak fluent robin.)

“I left the Upper Peninsula for THIS??”

Trassie was also amazed, but, not being a robin; rather, as a 6-year-old boy, he was speechless in presence of snow in November.

“November? I can’t believe it!” he breathed, happily dancing around the front hall in his Agent P jammies in a subdued fashion, so as not to awaken the still-slumbering daddy unit.

I was frankly sort of stunned that at this age, he realized that snow in November is indeed rare in Kentucky. (OK I know it’s not particularly Official Snow, right? But it’s actual white stuff on the ground and It Counts.)

Then, over warmed-up pancakes with 60% Real Maple Syrup (30% Cane Sugar) and turkey bacon, he told me what he had surmised regarding Life in the New Millennium thus far: Commercials advertise the month. See, October commercials feature Halloween. November? How else would we know it’s Thanksgiving? Way, way back in the summer? TV’s all over the Fourth of July. And December? Easy — Christmas, which includes plenty of the white stuff.

“It’s November, Mom! How can there be snow in November?” Don’t tell me television isn’t educational.

Behold, the vast reaches of whiteness behind my house. The green space, as we call it, is now the White Space …. and like the pleasure of finding a great deal online or in the store on the day after Thanksgiving, it has brought to this household a rare treat. I’ve never liked the term ‘black Friday’ … too dark and evil for the start of the Christmas season.

White Friday suits me much better.

I have a theme

Published on by NouveauSoileau2 Comments

When you have a blog, there are lots of important things to take into consideration. Whether or not you can write should be high on the priority list, and since I’m somewhat able to string sentences together coherently, I suppose I qualify.

Then there’s this thing called appearance. What image do I want to project to the world? Blogging software allows you to pick many different themes, and none of them inspires me to write War and Peace, particularly. Since it’s already been done, I guess I don’t have anything to worry about. Mostly I’d like the thing to look pleasant, and sunflowers make me happy, so I usually art up whatever I’m doing with plenty of ’em.

So today I changed my theme, and things look different. I can always go back … or choose something else. I mainly would like the photos I take to look gorgeous, though I suppose that’s more up to me than it is to WordPress.

Anyway, this morning I traveled 67.8 miles on foot from the elementary school to the fire station with a teeming horde of kindergarteners.

You have never been anywhere until you’ve walked down a busy thoroughfare, through a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood, down a parking lot, and across three lanes of traffic with 47,837 6-year-olds.

They squirm and they wiggle. They tug and they pull. They skip, scatter, and flee and pick up pieces of gunk from the sidewalk. They are utterly charming.

So maybe we only walked six blocks. And maybe there were just 40 of them: two classes’ worth, including the one to which my own little urchin — front row right, in the jean jacket — belongs.

They met the nice fireman. They poked and they prodded him, and asked him penetrating questions like, “why do you have those Christmas decorations over there?” They were in the spirit of Fire Prevention Week, you see.

The walk back to the school was as eventful as the 4,000-mile trek getting there. A highlight: a funnel web, one of the three types of web we’d learned about in our recent spider studies and one as yet unobserved by us.

So if this week I have a theme, it’s that everywhere I go I’m surrounded by spiders — and the sticky hands of kindergarteners.

Say hello to my little friend

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Deep in the mysterious depths of the fathomless jungle, there lies a fearsome creature. He goes by the name Argiope aurantia. He is yellow and black.

OK, maybe not so deep, maybe not so mysterious. This is our New Best Friend, the Black and Yellow Garden Spider (bet you didn’t see that one coming) and he lives off our back deck.

Spiders, not unlike insects such as bees, are a popular topic among the 5-year-old set at my house. For the last week, our nightly reading has consisted of I Can Read About Spiders, a book I picked up for my son Christopher at a yard sale years ago.

I brought it out a few months ago when spiders seem to strike terror in Trassie’s young heart. Education, I believed, was the best way to combat his fear of creepy-crawlies.

I am pleased to say this mission has been a success. We inspect all corners of the garage for other new friends. We discuss spiders’ two body parts: the cephalothorax and the abdomen (just ask him: he’ll tell you) as well as the animal family to which the spider belongs — arachnids. Tarantulas fascinate him. He has a great curiosity, mixed with fear and respect, of the brown recluse. We captured, for a day, a little Daring Jumping Spider I found on the wooden blinds a few months ago, and kept him prisoner for a day as we learned all we could about him — including all about his iridescent green jaws.

I don’t have any plans to bring in Argiope aurantia for similar close inspection; field observation, in this case, is close enough.