Sundry Vignettes

On our trip down to Tahoe, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. It was one of those restaurants where they bring you a small loaf of bread on a board with a knife. Our waitress made what I thought was an oddly exaggerated statement of how sharp the knife was. She also made a point of mentioning that the knives included in the napkin-wrapped utensil sets were sharp steak knives. Finn has been fascinated with knives and cutting lately, so of course he ended up with the bread board in front of him and spent a great deal of the dinner slashing the loaf into ribbons. He uses sharp knives quite often at home... we watch him closely and move his hands into a safer position when necessary. We got odd looks from a couple of the other diners and I was sure our waitress was going to say something several times on her way by, but she never actually did. I had no idea why everyone was behaving so bizarrely and chocked it up to being back in California. I didn't realize until we were getting back into the car that Finn had decorated every one of his fingertips with a bandaid before we left home.

It continues to be very amusing to see how Eli and Larkin play when they are together. And people say young kids don't fully understand the fine art of compromise. The big, all-consuming game they played last time they were together was the Care and Feeding of Zombie Babies. Think about it. It's a dilemma.

A couple Eli and Larkin exchanges:

L: Oh no! A dinosaur is coming! Let's defeat it.
E: There are no dinosaurs. They were all destroyed millions of years ago when a giant meteor hit the earth.
L (exasperated): I KNOW about the meteor! I'm *pretending*.

L: Let's play wedding!
E: Uh... are we allowed to do that?

I have often been annoyed by the lack of an equivalent to "starving" for being very very thirsty (parched just doesn't cut it somehow). Larkin recently noticed this lack and (after a pause in the middle of the sentence in which it was required) inserted "droughted." I like it.

We have never tried to convince the kids that Santa Claus is real. We have also never told them that he is not (although last year I did ask Larkin if she wanted a gift we were wrapping for Emile to be labeled from us or from Santa). A few days ago, totally out of the blue, Larkin told me that she wanted us to pretend that Santa Claus was real this year. I asked her what that would mean and she said they should have stockings and presents "from Santa." (If she knew about air quotes she would have used them, I swear.) I asked if there was something she wanted us to do differently than last year in that regard (since we did stockings and presents, although we never specified who they were from). She said that she just thought it would be fun to pretend that Santa actually brought the presents that we bought, and we should talk about him more. Yeesh, Finn is going to end up confused.

And finally, it has been very cold lately. Larkin still likes to wear summer dresses, but will wear pants under them and a coat on top when we go outside. On this particular day, she was wearing a sleeveless summer dress. We were leaving the Book Exchange (which contained a large number of other people happily browsing for books), when she stopped very dramatically and announced loudly: "I shall need a coat, for I am dis-armed."

Payback

Larkin has declared that the only m&ms she likes are the dark brown ones. The other ones taste funny. Those of you who know my personal history with m&ms are presumably already amused. For the rest of you, here is the stuff of Hamilton Lore:

When I was a wee bairn (5? Help me out here, parents) I claimed I could taste the difference between different colored m&ms. Jim, as the supportive parent he has always been, demanded a scientific trial so he could prove me wrong. Out came the blindfold and what he figured was a statistical sample of m&ms. The results? I got every single one right. Okay, actually I think I couldn't tell the difference between light brown and dark brown (I'm aging myself by remembering the light brown ones), but it sounds better to claim a perfect record. After simmering down from the heights of disbelief, Jim and Mary figured I could probably actually taste the different dyes used in the candy coating.

Granted, the m&ms we have now are the hippie version and it's not so hard for me to believe that whatever vegetable/fruit extracts they use in the dye are slightly more flavorific than red #357 and blue #123 or whatever it is in name brand candy these days. So far, no one has been blindfolded in the name of science (well, not recently anyway), but I think I might see if Larkin will agree to the experiment.

In the meantime, I guess Emile will have a lot of yellow, orange and red m&ms as work snacks in the trailer.

Tahoe!

We spent a week by Lake Tahoe with the San Jose Cousins to study the lives of off-season yuppies. The trip was a 6.5 hour drive (as in time actually spent on the road) and we were quite pleased to find out how easy car trips are these days. We read books, played pretend games, sang songs, ate weird food, peed by the side of the road, drew pictures and generally made very good time. Sleep cycles were thrown a bit out of whack, but that is an easy, no-questions trade for babies who don't want to be in a car seat and want to nurse all the time.

The kids were Super Excited to spend more time with baby Kiyo (and, um, her minders, of course).
They danced for her, sang for her, cuddled her, provided tummy time surfaces for her to lay on and were generally thrilled by her existence even during her rare fussy moments. Finn even doled out some pithy parenting advice while covering his ears with his hands to block out the sounds of crying baby: "Hurry up with that boob! That baby's hungry!" and a slightly panicked "Bounce her! Bounce her! She's not happy!"

Larkin made fast friends with another 4.5 year old who was staying in the same complex as us... a short, flurried exchange of cards is presumably in the works.

Elly and Janelle, bless their fuzzy little hearts, also gave Emile and I several opportunities to flee from the condo and its inherent chaos to take hikes at normal adult speeds and/or loll about in a coffee shop. They made up several brand new pretend games and spent lots of quality time in the hot tub with the kids. No value can be set on adults ready to play (almost) all the time. At this point, it's kind of a toss up whether a "vacation" is going to be absolutely draining or actually refreshing, and this turned out to be one of the latter. Woohoo!

Many thanks to Uncle Ken and Aunt Molleen for passing on the time-share opportunity.

Pirate Booty

This month, while Felix was staying with us, the kids received the following letter from one Ezekiel Haul IV:
This was the beginning of a several hour adventure during which seven clues were found hanging in trees, under a grate, off a fencepost, inside an old wood stove, underground and in a treehouse. The walk was crazy amusing... Larkin could hardly believe this was actually happening and talked nonstop (literally... we couldn't get a word in edgewise, even when she was supposedly asking us questions) about whether there was actually *real* treasure at the end of all the clues and who the pirates were and why the letter would have been sent to her and Finn and what the treasure might be if it turned out to be real and whether the next clue would lead to another clue or to the treasure and I think you get the general idea. Meanwhile, Finn was turning over every leaf and picking up every stick and declaring them all clues ("AHA! I found a CLUE!") and generally needing to be cajoled to keep up with the leading treasure hunt party. In the end, I think Finn ended up finding two of the clues and Larkin found the others. Here are a couple of the discoveries:


Finally, they found the X that marked the spot and started to dig:
When the treasure turned out to be a whole chest of booty, Larkin was initially stunned completely speechless (and that's saying a lot). Note shocked posture here:
But, really, if you dug a hole in your backyard and discovered this:
Wouldn't you be flummoxed? Finn's response was a little more sanguine. He gave a great shout of "YAY! Treasure!" and threw a handful up in the air. Larkin's summation of the experience: "Pirates might be mean, but they sure have beautiful booty!" Many hours admiring, sorting, wearing and generally fondling the treasure have since been joyfully spent.

Full photo documentation of the hunt can be seen at our Picasaweb site.

Exquisite Motor Skills

Okay, maybe they're just fine... but whatever they are Larkin has been very busy honing them lately. Not long ago, Larkin's art was all abstract... big blobs of bright color that were sometimes identified as specific items and sometimes not. Suddenly, she is drawing specific, recognizable things and coloring them in. Like this envelope decoration:

That second item in the row is a bed post. Seems a little out of place with the other Lucky Charms, but who am I to judge? And then there's this Mermaid Monster:
I was informed that this is a picture of a monster that Larkin and the other members of the Winx Club defeated in magical battle. Writing has been a favorite pastime lately, as well. It is still more art than "writing." She asks us to write something out for her and then she copies it herself. This is how it all began:

Larkin was writing a series of symbols that were more or less letterish and periodically asking us to read them to her. At this stage, numbers were included now and then so she would write things like "PL8": plate! We would do our best to explain how we were decoding her symbols, but it seemed like she was getting tired of writing nonsense syllables. Then she asked us to write her name on another sheet of paper for her to copy. Shortly after, she wanted to write a whole letter to Uncle Felix the same way. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm not sure if it's legible or not. The letters were all pretty clear, but she didn't really see any need for traditional word spacing.

Larkin has also just had her second overnighter at a friend's house, this time with the fabulous Lowes. They have both gone off without a hitch... except for Finn's slight despondency at being without his favorite person. Oh, and Larkin's tendency to wake her hosts up at or before the crack of dawn. I mean, she's just so excited to be there!

Trouble Shooting

I'm not a big fan of guns and was kind of wondering how I would feel when the kids inevitably became fascinated with them. On the other hand (Felix, you can vouch for me here) the vast majority of games I played outside of school as a child were "war games." And look how fabulously peaceful I turned out. ;)

We recently got a couple of squirt guns after the kids found one that someone had left outside the library. I was somewhat surprised to discover that I didn't have any negative emotional reaction at all. I mean, these weren't Big Scary Guns, they were Fun Plastic Toys.

Yesterday we went to the park to meet friends and Larkin and Finn were very excited to take their new squirt guns with them. I remembered at the last minute that the family we were going to meet did not allow their children to play with guns. I told the kids what I remembered and said I thought it would probably be pretty rude to take our squirt guns to the park. Finn wanted to know why it would be rude. I asked him to imagine watching other kids play with something that looked Absolutely Fascinating only to be told that he couldn't touch it. He didn't think that sounded like fun and both kids agreed it would be friendlier to leave the squirt guns and play with them when we got home. Larkin wanted to know why some kids aren't allowed to play with guns. My best off the cuff answer went something like "Real guns are powerful and destructive things... it freaks some people out to see kids treating something as a toy that has caused so much trouble in the real world." Larkin summoned up some remarkably righteous indignation (I think this is almost verbatim): "But these aren't real guns! I don't want to play with real guns! Do people really think kids are so stupid we can't tell the difference between a weapon and a toy!?!?"

Whew, dodged that bullet. So to speak. I wasn't quite ready to go all gun control and break the news to them that children are killed every year because they were playing with their parents' guns. All things in time.

Gushy Mushiness

Neither Emile nor I have ever been accused of being the world's most emotionally demonstrative individuals, but we seem to have brought two of them into the world. I think I've mentioned before that Larkin tells us she loves us every time she forgets what she was going to say mid-sentence. Well, Finn has taken to yelling our names at the top of his lungs when he is across the house from us (if more than one of us is across the house, it's "Hey, Guys?") and when we respond, he says (much more quietly), "I love you." And he'll keep yelling at us until we say we love him, too.

We've been talking a lot about age, growing, relative size and babies recently. For a while, Larkin was mathematically fascinated by the fact that Finn would *always* be 2 years younger than her. "Wait, you mean when I'm 54 he'll be 52?!" This morphed into a conversation about how much bigger they will be when they reach that ripe old age, as well as how much smaller they were not so long ago. Initially, Larkin was seriously jonesin' to get older. Ten was apparently the perfect age. Finn, however, got a little freaked out by the whole aging notion and crawled up into my lap, wrapped his arms around me and said, "No me want to grow big. I want to stay little so we can snuggle." Sigh. Larkin apparently took his gentle admonition of her enthusiasm to heart and also got slightly paranoid about the possible pitfalls of growing older. A long conversation about the pros and cons of being children vs. being adults ensued. Reassurance was issued that I would be happy to snuggle them no matter how large they got. I'm not sure which parts of that conversation were most influential, but Larkin now tells me several times a week that she's glad she's still a kid and thanks me for helping her have such a fun childhood.

Score!

In other (less serious) relationship news, this morning Larkin informed me that she had "broken up with the pink xylitol candies." I believe my response was: "Huh?" She patiently explained to me, "That's what happens when you don't like something as much as you used to." Thanks, YouTube.

This exchange also happened spontaneously this morning, presumably also inspired from some nauseatingly cute cartoon from YouTube (I'm inclined to blame CareBears but have not actually seen enough myself to have convincing evidence):

Larkin: When you love somebody, they are always in your heart.
Me: Well, I guess you two are pretty well lodged in my heart.
Finn: Yeah, because we're so small.

Story Time

Lately, Finn has been telling stories. He always politely asks to make sure he has an eager audience first. My personal favorite so far:

Finn: Jenny, you want me to tell you a story?
Me: Sure!
Finn (in his very quiet storytelling voice): Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a boy who had a duck.
Me (after a long pause): Is that the end of the story?
Finn: Yup!
Me: Nice.

Today, the kids were playing a game in which Larkin was Finn's cat. This is a favorite, with the particular animal type frequently changed. It usually involves a great deal of tucking the animal in for naps and it waking up extremely suddenly and with great vigor. After the cat was snugly tucked in:

Finn: Would you like a bedtime story, Kitty?
Larkin (affirmatively): Mrow!
Finn (opening the balloon animal instruction book): Once upon a time, there was a girl named Larkin who found a sword. [aside] The story's almost over! [end aside] She lost it again. The end.
Larkin (leaping off the couch throwing cat bedding blankets everywhere): Morning time! MROW!

We recently scored some cowboy boots off freecycle for Finn. I think he liked them okay:

In other news, we've been dealing with a three day (so far) bout of a stomach bug-- no need for details on that one-- and have been talking to an architect about plans for an addition on the house.

Also, we have been reading Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles with Larkin and they are a Huge Hit. If you are familiar with the books and can think of other fantasy novels with similarly engaging themes (kick-ass princesses, dragons, etc.) we'd love to hear about them. We've only been going through these for a few weeks and we're already half way through the third book, so I'm beginning to wonder what's on deck.

Copious Spare Time

Larkin and I finally finished the dress we were making. Luckily, I got a ludicrously large size a year and a half ago when we began the project. Next time, I'm going to have a little more say in the complexity of the pattern.

One of our couches has been re-designated as horse stables. There are three sections and the kids throw pillow cases over the back as saddles and bring along shoe laces as reins as they gallop off on missions of great daring and rescue. Finn informed me that the three horses were Bronco, Robot and Bruto.
Last night, Finn was watching Larkin play computer games. There is sometimes a bit of conflict over prime real estate in front of the screen... when they get excited they lean forward and block the screen from the other's view. In this instance, Larkin hit Finn when he got in her way. Finn, rather indignantly, exclaimed "Why did you hit me?! I love you!" Larkin sounded quite chastened when she replied: "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you. I should have asked you to move." Conflict resolution in action, man.

Whiskey Pickles Wrote Back!

Should a small child ever write to your pet, write back. It's totally worth it.

Mostly Language Miscellany

I've fallen into the old trap of not posting in awhile and having lots of unrelated snippets to relay. Finn's linguistic mastery is still advancing by leaps and bounds. However, he still calls me "Nenny" even though he can manage "Janey" just fine. On the other hand, I guess it's a step up from the "Ninny" I once was. Larkin has taken to calling me Jen which amuses me a great deal for some reason, especially since no one in our daily life does.

We're not sure if he picked it up from a particular book or movie, or just from imaginative play with Larkin, but Finn has started talking about things being "too dangerous." In play, it's usually used as a reason that he should face threats alone, but it has also been his reason for not wanting his teeth brushed. It's not entirely clear if he has a deep understanding of what danger really is.

This evening, Larkin was demonstrating how a princess takes a drink of water. Finn then asked her to demonstrate how a king takes a drink of water. The result was very similar, with perhaps slightly louder slurping noises. After a brief pause, Finn asked how a king saddles a horse (everything is still very quickly related to horses in Finn's world). Emile piped in with, "He says, 'Footman! Saddle my horse!'" So now that cry precedes every leap onto his multitudinous imaginary steeds.

I think I posted about Larkin's malapropism: "Whoever gets there first gets a rotten egg!" Emile and I generally said we were perfectly happy to let her win so she would get the rotten egg. So last night she called out a modified version while racing to the living room: "Whoever gets there first is an exceptionally clean egg!"

A recent impulse purchase in the craft aisle was a set of plastic "fusible" beads. They come with pegged patterns and you can put a bead on each peg, then iron them to fuse it into more permanent art. Larkin hardly waited for an explanation before she was off and beading. Two hours later, this result:

I have no idea where the pattern idea came from or why the center row is all one color when everything else is alternating, but it's a perfectly consistent pattern. I was particularly intrigued that she made such a regular pattern when her tendency with necklaces is to group all beads of one size/shape/color together. I think I will get her one of those jewelry making trays that allow you to lay out a pattern before stringing it... I have a feeling we might see a lot more transient patterns and fewer completed necklaces.

Whiskey Pickles

Two weeks (or so) ago, Emile and the kids went to a small music festival while I was at the book exchange. I've been trying to talk Emile into guest-blogging the experience, but it hasn't happened yet so I thought I'd make a small gesture towards it. It was Pipes and Barrels, a festival which drew our attention mostly because Myshkin would be playing there, and also because it was taking place at her newly-completed cob studio a mere 50 miles north of us. Myshkin's recent house concert less than a mile from our rural door was canceled due to some sort of accident involving a cat which left her unable to play her guitar... so we appreciated the second chance.

It turns out the festival crowd and atmosphere were both cool and... interesting. Emile can expand on it later (he claims the intent is still there). The most important part (from the kids' retelling of events) is that Myshkin's housemate had a 10 week old puppy and she was happy to spend a great deal of time playing with the kids. The dog's name? Whiskey Pickles! The next day, Larkin was busily creating art and I was informed that it was a card for Whiskey Pickles:

So, yes, I have now officially sent mail to a dog. Emile bought Myshkin's new album while he was there and when we played it the next day, Larkin very casually said, "Oh yeah, Myshkin... I know Myshkin." She has major name-dropping potential.

In other news, Larkin is constantly singing songs in some yet-to-be-determined language.

Finn has mastered the art of positive affirmation.
Me: I'm going to wash some dishes.
Finn: I LOVE washing dishes... do you love washing dishes?
Me: Um, yeah, it's okay.
This routine is repeated about all minutiae of daily life, although my enthusiasm generally waxes and wanes depending on the activity in question.

Emile and I went out without the kids for the first time since this whole crazy kid business started. We attended an evening concert that (gasp) overlapped the time the kids are generally winding down for bed. I'm sure Les Claypool was thrilled to have us in the audience, and Grandpa Don and Grandma Vicki declared the evening a success with (barely) a hitch.

We also remembered our anniversary this week for the first time in at least three years. We remember declaring intent to have another big wedding party after 10 years, but... um, that would be next year... and we're tired.

Hamsder Family Crest

Finally got going with the henna tattoos. Larkin wanted us all to match but was okay when Emile rebelled and got his on his hand. They're fun, but I'm realizing it is going to take a lot of practice to make a nice, even line. Next stop, park day!

Sugar and Spice

Larkin has been very excited about beading lately... well, I guess lately is about a year and a half. A sampling of her recent work:
It has been interesting to see her beading process evolve. She has always liked the smallest beads. When we go to a craft store and I ask a clerk where to find beads for my 4 year old, they invariably point me to big bins of garish plastic monstrosities. Larkin wants the itty-bitty seed beads.

Her inclination has always been to sort beads according to size and/or color as she strings them. The results are interesting, but not what I think of as particularly aesthetically pleasing. Larkin asked me, at some point, what kind of necklace she could make me. I said I tend to like patterns. She asked what kind of pattern. I said something like three round beads, then one long bead, over and over again. She nodded and set to work. About two hours later the necklace on the far left was complete. Now she reminds me to put it on before I go out... and it's not even obvious that I'm wearing something my kid made.

Snips and Snails

Snails are tough, man. This is our snail terrarium:

These guys have been in there for WEEKS with semi-regular bedding changes and infusions of dandelions to nibble. The kids have been loving finding snails outside and bringing them in to captivity. I admit, the snails that (I assume) were brought in first are starting to look a little sluggish (ha!). I think we'd better start a rotating catch and release program. maybe mark successive generations with sharpies. It would be interesting to see if they were catching the same ones over and over again or if they disappeared after release in the wild.

Larkin offers to let people hold her "pets" when they come over. She has had a few takers. So far, we have not had a massive jail break.

L.I.F.E. is good

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the LIFE is good conference in Vancouver, WA. This was our second year and it was much more satisfying than last time. Last year we were very interested in some of the presentations and discussion groups and ended up frustrated to realize that attending those really didn't mix with keeping up with a 1.5 year old and a 3.5 year old while they navigate what is essentially a 4 day party with hundreds of kids and tons of fun shops. This year we were just there to party.

Within minutes of our arrival, Larkin had her face painted like a rainbow cat. The kids played with elaborate dress-up costumes, a huge game of tag, made corn husk and clothespin dolls, pipe cleaner madness, henna tattoos, two different storytelling circles, a playdough extravaganza, bottle cap art, and probably lots of other organized activities I've forgotten. Plus all the free play that inevitably happens when you have hundreds of kids gathered together in one big space.

In case anyone is planning to attend one of these with small children, I have three pieces of advice:

1. Get sticker name tags for young children with their name, room number and your cell phone number. The official conference identification was on a rather flimsy and large necklace. Both kids took advantage of this on several occasions: "Please read my back and help me find my parents!"
2. If you don't both have cell phones, invest in walkie talkies so you can find each other in the madness (we'll do this before our next conference).
3. Get a hot plate for the hotel room so you don't have to rely on microwave dining and overpriced, mediocre hotel restaurant food.

In reference to 1... no, we are not totally negligent parents. ;) But if, for instance, one of us was out with both kids and they suddenly bolted in different directions down identical hotel hallways, the contact info was good to have.

One of the biggest hits of the weekend? The elevator. Both kids learned which buttons to press and several times left the room announcing they were going to play on the elevator. Usually they found their way back. Someday we'll have to take them to a building with more than three floors.

During almost every trip out into the world, Larkin makes a special friend. Even if we're making a quick trip to the library or park, she will seek out some particular individual to play with-- usually an older girl. Okay, pretty much always an older girl. This trip's subject of much (mutual) admiration was one Owen, probably 8-10 years old (I'm terrible at guessing ages). I admit that his long hair caused some initial gender confusion on Larkin's part which may explain her willingness to accept him as playmate, but there was no turning back once the issue was cleared up. They spent a solid three hours one night imagining threats to their kingdom and creating elaborate defense plans to protect each other. Owen had a sword. Larkin had a crown. Those are the only props I remember. Their game was continued with great enthusiasm every time they re-met over the weekend.

One of the interesting things about the trip this time around was that the kids actually occasionally wanted some quiet time in our room. Even Larkin, party girl extraordinaire, was ready to lay down and watch a movie or read a book to escape from the stimulation. Last year, we'd get back to our room and as soon as they heard a kid in the hall they'd be out the door like a shot. This year, the first night there, Larkin was laying in her sleeping bag going to sleep when a couple of kids ran down the hall laughing and declared in (mock?) outrage: "I can't believe some kids are still awake!"

One of Finn's weekend favorites was "The Egg Man" (Yes, I did a lot of singing "I Am the Walrus"). This was a vendor who was there selling the Egg Game, a pretty cool game where the object is to cooperatively keep a stone egg spinning on a round, flat surface. Finn (who has recently been declaring everything even remotely egg-shaped to be a dinosaur egg) spent a great deal of time with this man, including sitting on his shoulders for part of one of the evening concerts. He has mentioned several times that he loves and misses the Egg Man. For the record, we did buy an egg game. It's actually quite fun.

Robots vs. Allies

Larkin and her friend Eli have very different world views and this comes through loud and clear in their imaginary play. Larkin likes to overcome obstacles. Eli likes to *create* obstacles. Really, it's a match made in heaven. I clearly remember one of their exchanges several months ago after a good couple of hours of battling robots and monsters that just wouldn't succumb no matter what potential solutions Larkin came up with:

L: I'm getting in my spaceship and going to a planet where everyone is my friend. Do you want to come and be King?
E: No! I'm getting in my own spaceship and going to a planet where Giant Robots will try to kill me!
L: Okay. Good luck.

Eli and his brother Micah are staying with us this week. Overheard today (after more prolonged battling of robots and monsters):

E: Look! That robot has a button on its foot!
L: Oh good! I'll push that button and it will become our friend!
E: Nonono! That button will make it DIE!
L: Oh no! I didn't push it! I didn't push it!
E: But don't you want it to die?
L: No, I want to make friends with it so it will go back to the other robots and convince them we're nice. Then we'll have a potluck all together.
E: I'm going to play computer games.

I'm not usually one for exclamation points, but sometimes there's no other punctuation to do the trick.

100 leaves

Just in case any of you were wondering, this is what a pile of 100 leaves looks like:

Larkin asked Janey (our favorite local 12 year old who comes over three hours every Wednesday morning to play with the kids and give me a break) to pick 100 leaves for her yesterday. This is the latest in a whole string of interesting numbers/math questions that make it clear she's trying to conceptualize bigger numbers. In the car she will often put a finger up every time she sees a particular item (horses are a favorite) between our house and town. Then when we reach our destination she asks the total. In the beginning, she would hold up her hands and ask. Soon, she started describing her hands to us: "How many is it if I have all the fingers on one hand and two on the other?" Then she started counting them herself. Today I heard her skip the counting step: "I have all the fingers on one hand and three on the other... eight!" Sometimes she has to recruit someone else's hands before it's time to total them up. All this to say, I guess she has progressed beyond base 5. ;)

On a related note, she wanted to know how many people there are "on our planet" (I love that the question left the possibility for life on *other* planets... or, perhaps, that other people own the other planets). I told her I thought there were about 6 billion (subsequent googling revealed that we're actually closer to 7 billion these days). "Does everyone have the same number of fingers and toes?" Well, a few people have a couple extra, some people have lost a few... but on average, yeah, most people have 20. "So how many finger and toes are there in the whole wide world?" Well, I guess that would make it about 120 billion. "Wow, that's a lot." Yup.

Apparently, soon after this conversation, Larkin made Emile attempt to describe for her exactly how many cupcakes 100 billion would be. Logical next step? "How about 100 billion and 30?"

A couple weeks ago we went through a period of intensively reading the "How much is a million" book illustrated by Stephen Kellogg. It has been a while since we have read the book, but the interest in numbers is still going strong.

Okay, if you made it this far, you deserve gratuitous cuteness:
Contemporaneous naps are almost unheard of, but quite the photo-op when they happen.

Bubbles!

Finn has only recently decided that cow's milk is an interesting thing to drink. This decision is, naturally, concurrent with the discovery that milk bubbles are a lot of fun. I'm not a big fan of dried, sour milk all over the tablecloth, floor, etc., so hooray for Spring! With the weather warming up they are much more likely to take me up on the offer to take their milk outside. The winter option (the bathtub) seems to be much less attractive for some reason that I don't entirely understand. Maybe they don't want milk all over themselves, either.



But wait, there's more bubble news! I felt particularly self-congratulatory when I figured out this amazing, spill-free easy-access bubble blowing solution:


These pictures, by the way, were taken on the same day, mere minutes apart. Finn likes to wear nothing but pajamas, and he likes to change them frequently.

Dear Birth Parents...

While playing with friends this weekend, Larkin asked Taylor (her "big girl friend") to take down a letter for her:

"Dear Birth Parents,

I live in an orphanage and I hope I find you. It was Baltor, the monster, that took my birth parents. I hope you meet all my big girl friends some day. Watch out for the spit weed! It spits spit balls at you! Watch out for the screaming monkeys! If you go too close they will throw coconuts at you!

Love,

Larkin"

Park Sand

One of the parks we frequent has a rarely-used volleyball court. Translation: HUGE sandbox! One of today's favorite games was "Bedtime":

And then there was this one:

I admit that I had to ask what, exactly, this game was. "Beached Dolphin!" Well, duh.

There was also some elaborate pizza cooking game where (I'm pretty sure) their feet were buried in the oven and they took turns naming an ingredient and flinging handfuls of it over their feet.

Carnival!

One of those rinky-dink-held-together-with-chewing-gum-and-duct-tape-type carnivals set up camp at the local mall this month. I noticed it on my way to the book exchange one day and realized it would be criminal not to take the kids. Larkin has been excited about the idea of County Fairs and carnivals for some time... thanks in part, I think, to Charlotte's Web.

When we got there, it was *totally* dead. We were almost always the only people on the rides and there was no waiting in lines. With one big exception, it was a blast.

Bad news first: Larkin and I went on the "Spider" and it was deemed Totally Not Fun. It's one of those big whirly fast moving contraptions that I really didn't think she would like. We watched it go a few times, talked about how fast it was going, how sometimes spinning that way made people sick to their stomach (okay, I said "oogy"), that it was like a merry-go-round only much much more so, etc. I mean, I used every experience she had under her belt that I could think of to describe it to her. Driving fast on windy roads almost convinced her, but she hasn't really been car sick since she was 18 months old so it just wasn't enough to dissuade her. In the end, either we were getting on it or I was going to pull a power play and Larkin would forever feel like I was making her miss out on something fabulous. Luckily, we were the only ones on the ride and the kind operator stopped as soon as he saw Larkin screaming bloody murder and me waving at him rather expressively. I actually like that kind of ride, but I think the whole experience was worse for me than for Larkin... she was fine after a few minutes of cuddling on a stationary bench, but I still feel some pretty heart-wrenching guilt. I asked her the next day if she thought I shouldn't have taken her on the ride and she said she was glad I let her decide. She also said that the next time I told her she might not enjoy something, she'd try really hard to remember the Spider. Hallelujah.

They had a carousel, so Finn was happy. I think he rode every horse there by the end of our trip. They both loved the little airplanes, too. That was another one that I had to ride with them because they were under the height limit for independent riding.

There was also a mini dragon swing, bumper cars (Finn was Enraged when he discovered that he couldn't reach the pedal and would have to ride with an adult), the obligatory ferris wheel, and a climbing structure with rope ladders and plank bridges that led up to a 3 story slide onto an inflated landing. They did that last one about 5 times in a row.

Larkin was ready to play *a lot* of those skill games that cost five dollars and get you a stuffed duck... if you're lucky. After trying one for the experience (darts and balloons) she was open to the idea that a trip to a thrift store and five dollars to spend on stuffed animals would be a lot more fun. We definitely have a home-made darts and balloons set-up in our near future. We just might need to have a carnival game party. I mean, small children and darts sounds like fun, yes?

Easter

Yeah, so about those regular postings...

Easter was fun. Jim and Mary came for a spur of the moment visit and this was the first time we really "did" Easter with the kids. Jim and I had a great deal of fun hiding the eggs, and it was kind of amusing how long it took the kids to realize there were eggs all over the house the next morning.

When Finn woke up, he immediately saw an egg suspended from a rope right at eye level. (This may sound odd, but I'm not sure that including the information that usually a tire swing hangs there is going to make us look any less weird...) "Me need that egg!" Emile got it down for him and helped him (upon request) open it. He found an earth ball-- one of those grain-sweetened organic hippie chocolates that we tend to favor. He immediately brought it to me (I was still laze-a-bed) and told me the story. Finn speak is hard to transcribe after the fact, but it went something like: "Me find egg on rope with earth ball inside." I don't think he got the Easter Concept... he just thought his world had suddenly and disconcertingly become one in which plastic eggs with candy randomly sprout up.



After our morning egg hunt, during which I think Finn realized there was actually a special occasion involved with this latest miracle, it was off for a fabulous easter brunch at the Hannas. Larkin got to "paint" eggs which is one of her favorite things ever-- and the reason we had an easter party last October. And, really, why should such fun things only happen once a year?

My favorite thing about the party? The sacrificial rice crispy treat lamb!



Why didn't I think of rice crispy treat sculpture? There is definitely going to be some of this in my future. Tearing off its ears was awfully satisfying.

Marianna and the Bear

Larkin wanted to write a book. She dictated while Emile wrote the words and sketched some pictures for her to color. It's not finished yet, but it wasn't done on the best paper so I thought I should record it for posterity before the coloring bled through all the pages and made them illegible. I've posted the first couple of pages here, but the rest are available at our picasaweb photo site.

Marianna and the Bear
Story by Larkin Marie Snyder Hamilton
Words and Outlines by Emile

One day Marianna was hiking in the woods. She was a goblin, so she felt safe walking anywhere... after all, who would mess with a goblin?

Suddenly, as she was walking by a cave, she heard a loud BUMP! "Holy smokes!" said Marianna. "What was that?" She was so curious that she had to investigate.

It was very dark inside the cave. Marianna carefully felt her way forward, until she came to a warm, fuzzy wall. "What in the world could this be?" she wondered.

"Grrrrowph?" said the wall.

"Oh no! It's not a wall, it's a bear!" Marianna ran from the cave. The bear ran after her. Quick as a wink, Marianna hid behind a bristly bush. But the bear followed her footprints and found her crouched beneath the leaves. Marianna took off running again. This time she was careful not to leave any tracks for the bear to follow.

As Marianna raced through the woods she noticed a hole in the ground. "Ah, ha! Another hiding place!" she thought, and leapt into the hole. Luckily for Marianna, the bear didn't see her jump into the hole. Unluckily, it decided to take a break from chasing her and sat down right on top of the opening of the hole.

Marianna, thinking the coast was clear, ran right into the bear's bottom when she tried to come out of the hole. "Grrrrowl!" said the bear as it caught her up in its huge paws. "Oh no, I'm caught!" thought Marianna.

But she had forgotten her magic crown. She made a wish and the crown caught the bear in a cage of seaweed.

The end? Perhaps...

A Note About the Name

A few people have asked me what this whole "Hamsder" nonsense is about.

When Emile and I got married, we couldn't figure out what to do about our last names... neither of us was very happy with the traditional approach. We seriously considered both changing our name to Mary's maiden name which has disappeared due to modern naming traditions, but somehow that felt a little odd and forced. Our next brilliant idea was to combine our names into some uber-cool new name that we could both adopt. After coming up with many combinations, the highlights of which were "Snydilton" and "Hamsder," we gave up on that approach and kept our own damn names.

We thought we would figure out something brilliant by the time the kids came along.

Not so much.

When I was pregnant with Larkin (we didn't find out sex before the kids were born) we decided we would dole out last names according to the baby's sex. Again, there were decisions to be made. Do we do the obvious thing and name girls Hamilton and boys Snyder, or the opposite since that would really just be delaying the problems inherent in patriarchal naming lineages? We decided on the former because the whole thing was already plenty confused.

Think that was the end of it? Oh, no...

So what about baby #2? Does the last name of the first baby dictate the last name of all subsequent babies? Should the second baby get the unused last name in the interest of fairness? Would it be weird to have two kids with different last names and the same parents? Well, yes, but that was what ended up happening. We decided to stick with the sex-based last names and toss the other last name in as a middle name (just to keep it exciting).

We ended up with Larkin Marie Snyder Hamilton and Finn Victor Hamilton Snyder. I expect we will be hearing some complaints in the future when they realize the enormity of what we've laid on them. Obviously, there will be no protests from us if they choose their own name modifications in the future.

Hamsder remains our favorite name that isn't. We use it as a convenient way to refer to all four of us, but we were not so unkind as to make it official for the kids.

The end of email updates

For some reason, I have long been loathe to jump on the blog bandwagon. Apparently, I have finally gotten over my initial reticence and am ready to go. I tried to keep up regular email updates, but would end up putting them off until I was overwhelmed by the prospect of actually getting far-flung friends and family up to date on daily happenings. This way, hopefully, I can do shorter, more frequent posts whenever the mood strikes. I predict this will be quite frequent in the first month and then taper off considerably. :)

This will also serve as a record-keeper of sorts as the kids continue to get older and we continue not to enroll them in school.

I just noticed that this forum apparently feels official enough to make me capitalize.

So, here's the interesting stuff-- the collection of anecdotes I've been saving for my next update:

• Larkin tells us (and most people) that she loves us. A lot. Finn does everything Larkin does. One day in the car, after everyone had repeatedly expressed their undying affection for Emile, I made some comment about how he must be one of the best loved people around. Larkin: "Yeah! Emile's the best lover in all the nine states!"
• More on free love. This morning Emile mentioned the possibility of seeing a local friend, Josh, and Larkin exclaimed, "I LOVE Josh... [long pause] who is Josh?"
  
• Many many months ago, when Finn was still pretty new at putting multiple words together, he came out with this after I zerberted his belly while helping him dress: "you cheeky Jenny!"
  
• Larkin enjoys telling stories, jokes, etc. There was a brief period of time when she particularly liked telling Scary Stories. "Listen to this one... this one will make you shake with fear!"
• Some idiomatic faux pas are too amusing to correct. Larkin likes to race to a goal shrieking, "Whoever gets there first gets a rotten egg!!" Quite the motivator.
• Me: "I was thinking about making some popcorn." Larkin: "Me too! My brain was just winding up to think about that!"
• We have been dealing with our annual ant infestation and the kids have been very vigilant about checking the perimeters of the house for ants. They've learned they should distinguish between live ants and dead ants, the former getting more immediate and direct attention than the latter. I was summoned from across the house by Larkin's excited shriek of: "Half a live ant!!" Huh?
• Our kids rarely say "yes." Finn's standard is "Yeah, sure!" and Larkin says "ya-yuh" (imagine a drunken redneck affirmative).
• And, one of our recent favorite parental amusements: Finn constantly asks Larkin "why?" To her credit, she usually tries to come up with an answer, and I've even heard her say "I don't know, let's ask Jenny to look it up online." Sigh. I think I've already noted the passing of the simple "I don't know" as an acceptable answer.

So that catches us up to date. I'll try to post relatively frequently.