Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Life In A Small Town
Mere hours after we dissected frogs, we went down to the library. Larkin went to greet Laurel (her favorite librarian), as usual with a hug, and the first thing Laurel said was, "Hi Larkin! I hear you dissected frogs this morning!"
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Real Boys Wear Fuschia
We went shopping for new kids' sun hats today at the closet-sized retail store attached to the manufacturing facility for SunDay Afternoons. Larkin and Finn were hoping for bright colors and fabulous patterns and were a bit disappointed by the selection when we got there. Finn fell in love with a hot pink hat in his size very quickly, and Larkin was despondent that they only had a paler pink in her size.
The sales lady seemed to be very concerned by Finn's color selection and mounted a rather impressive offensive to convince him to choose something a little more... well, masculine. She went back into the warehouse and somehow managed to find all kinds of bright colors and patterns that are no longer manufactured. Finn was very diplomatic. He agreed to try on every hat she (increasingly desperately) offered. This happened about five times:
Sales Lady: How about this one? It has fishes and lizards! Look at that beautiful blue color! Do you like it?
Finn, putting on the hat: Yes, it's very nice.
Sales Lady: Wonderful! Would you like to buy this one?
Finn: No, I want the pink one.
On the plus side, in her desperate attempt to find Finn a suitable boy's hat, the sales lady did manage to find a hot pink number in Larkin's size. Once she was convinced that I really was fine with whichever hats they chose, we parted on good terms. She even said something about how nice it is to give children choices when they have so few in their lives... and she never once introduced the concept that Pink Is For Girls.
After the sun hats were acquired, we went grocery shopping. Finn solemnly informed the Co-op cashier that "the bad guys stuck used chewing gum under your counter." Without cracking a smile, she thanked him for his intelligence and said she would have the good guys clean it up later.
Still later, we were home and the kids were playing a computer game. It was a Blues Clues educational game where Blue would give out clues and the player had to guess where she was. I couldn't see the screen, but I heard Larkin guess "Antarctica" and then the somewhat insipid, congratulatory game's voice reply, "That's right! Outside in the snow!"
The sales lady seemed to be very concerned by Finn's color selection and mounted a rather impressive offensive to convince him to choose something a little more... well, masculine. She went back into the warehouse and somehow managed to find all kinds of bright colors and patterns that are no longer manufactured. Finn was very diplomatic. He agreed to try on every hat she (increasingly desperately) offered. This happened about five times:
Sales Lady: How about this one? It has fishes and lizards! Look at that beautiful blue color! Do you like it?
Finn, putting on the hat: Yes, it's very nice.
Sales Lady: Wonderful! Would you like to buy this one?
Finn: No, I want the pink one.
On the plus side, in her desperate attempt to find Finn a suitable boy's hat, the sales lady did manage to find a hot pink number in Larkin's size. Once she was convinced that I really was fine with whichever hats they chose, we parted on good terms. She even said something about how nice it is to give children choices when they have so few in their lives... and she never once introduced the concept that Pink Is For Girls.
After the sun hats were acquired, we went grocery shopping. Finn solemnly informed the Co-op cashier that "the bad guys stuck used chewing gum under your counter." Without cracking a smile, she thanked him for his intelligence and said she would have the good guys clean it up later.
Still later, we were home and the kids were playing a computer game. It was a Blues Clues educational game where Blue would give out clues and the player had to guess where she was. I couldn't see the screen, but I heard Larkin guess "Antarctica" and then the somewhat insipid, congratulatory game's voice reply, "That's right! Outside in the snow!"
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Family Portraits and Chewing Gum
Larkin worked up these beauties for us:
Clockwise from the top left: Jenny, Finn, Emile, Larkin. Apparently, Emile's hair started out as antennae before she decided to go with a more traditional approach. Our noses sparkle.
We also made some chewing gum this week:
Made with chicle sustainably harvested from Sapodilla trees in the Guatemalan rain forest. Larkin took one look at the stupendously sticky mess that was the chicle and figured (correctly) that it must be the tree's sap. It turned out much firmer than store-bought gum and nobody seems terribly interested in chewing it, but the process was fun.
Clockwise from the top left: Jenny, Finn, Emile, Larkin. Apparently, Emile's hair started out as antennae before she decided to go with a more traditional approach. Our noses sparkle.
We also made some chewing gum this week:
Made with chicle sustainably harvested from Sapodilla trees in the Guatemalan rain forest. Larkin took one look at the stupendously sticky mess that was the chicle and figured (correctly) that it must be the tree's sap. It turned out much firmer than store-bought gum and nobody seems terribly interested in chewing it, but the process was fun.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Positive Spin
We were listening to Myshkin in the car, as requested by Larkin. "I really like the way she sings. Her voice is very musical. In fact, her voice is *so* musical I can hardly understand a word that she's saying."
It has been interesting to see how different Larkin and Finn are in social situations. Larkin is very high energy and is pretty much always ready to play, especially when we're around other kids. She never needs a break, always has to be convinced when it's time to go (no matter how long we've stayed), eats only when STARVING unless it can be incorporated into a game and generally just go-go-goes.
Finn, on the other hand, needs breaks. He'll play just as intensely and enthusiastically as Larkin for an hour or two, and then find somewhere to be by himself. Sometimes he watches part of a movie and sometimes he just finds a room or space outside where no one else is playing. It seems like he usually takes a 10-15 minute recharge period before he jumps in on the action again.
I've always been kind of impressed that he knows he needs that space and finds ways to take it, but I was downright taken aback when I overheard him telling a friend, "I need to go away for a while or someone is going to get bit." That seems like a lot of self-awareness for a three year old.
It has been interesting to see how different Larkin and Finn are in social situations. Larkin is very high energy and is pretty much always ready to play, especially when we're around other kids. She never needs a break, always has to be convinced when it's time to go (no matter how long we've stayed), eats only when STARVING unless it can be incorporated into a game and generally just go-go-goes.
Finn, on the other hand, needs breaks. He'll play just as intensely and enthusiastically as Larkin for an hour or two, and then find somewhere to be by himself. Sometimes he watches part of a movie and sometimes he just finds a room or space outside where no one else is playing. It seems like he usually takes a 10-15 minute recharge period before he jumps in on the action again.
I've always been kind of impressed that he knows he needs that space and finds ways to take it, but I was downright taken aback when I overheard him telling a friend, "I need to go away for a while or someone is going to get bit." That seems like a lot of self-awareness for a three year old.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
