Entrepreneurial Drive

One day last year, I innocently brought home a book from the Book Exchange on how to make tiny animals out of very fine gauge wire and seed beads. Larkin was all over it. She has also been very interested in the idea of making her own money (it's clearly a hardship to be dependent on such unreliable adults).

Talent has an outdoor market every Friday over the summer at which kids are allowed to peddle their goods without paying the usual vendor fee. We didn't have it together until the last market of the summer, but she set out that evening with these beauties and some serious determination to make sales.

In a few short hours she returned home a very satisfying $54 richer after having sold most of them. Here she is chatting with one of her first potential customers:

Apparently, sales picked up considerably once she abandoned her stationary location and instead prowled the crowd on foot, trolling for hapless jewelry-less marks.

While we are not yet planning Emile's retirement, we are setting up an Etsy storefront for Larkin which she is very excited about. Should her enthusiasm wane, it will be easy to take down listings, but I think as long as the money rolls in there will be quite a few bead creatures in our future.

After her initial success, Larkin took her wares to one other local crafty event and once again depleted her stores. On the agenda for this week is a trip to the bank to open a bank account... this is necessary for opening an Etsy account, but Larkin also now has more cash than she is comfortable carrying around in her money purse.

More photos of Larkin's creations are on her Picasa Web site.

Grammar Police

Emile just got me in trouble for correcting Finn's grammar. Finn and I were playing Uno and he said, "I ain't have anything." I explained that the proper construction was, "I ain't got nothin'."

Defending The Perimeter

Larkin and Finn recently watched some math lessons, cleverly disguised as the PBS cartoon CyberChase. They were *really* fascinated by the distinction between perimeter and area and were immediately inspired to break out the ol' blocks.

They counted out 9 square blocks to play with and it didn't take long for them to figure out that the optimum configuration for minimum perimeter with their fixed number of blocks was a square:

They quickly made the leap to maximum perimeter being a straight line:

I then totally blew their math-addled minds by claiming that the perimeter of a stair-case was the same as the line:

They both predicted, quite definitively, that the staircase would have a perimeter somewhere between the minimum and maximum and were shocked (shocked, I tell you!) when they counted the edges to reveal that my claim was true. I was declared a Math Fiend when I convinced them that perimeter was determined solely by the number of shared sides so they could make any crazy pattern as long as they kept that constant. This was proven, rather exhaustively, by construction.

Finn's Renaissance

In the last three months, Finn has developed an intense interest in all things artistic. This is a marked change since previously he never picked up a pen or pencil unless it was to write his name on a card or do a dot-to-dot... he has never been interested in drawing, writing, coloring, etc. He would occasionally paint, but always abstract designs and he would lose interest after a few minutes.

It all started when, totally out of the blue, he brought me this:

Yes, that's me. He was pleased as punch with his creation and we stood admiring it for several minutes before he looked suddenly alarmed, grabbed it, and ran off with a cry of "You need an Emile!"

Phew. much better. Note we're holding hands. Cuz we like each other. Once again, panic soon ensued with this result:

Yep, Finn added himself to the line-up. It wasn't long before his first family portrait was complete:

I like Larkin's long hair. Okay, hairs. There are two.

Finn started writing the same day. Mainly, he writes love notes. Larkin had a note reading, "I [heart] U Larkin" taped to the wall over her bed for a very long time. Before my kayaking trip in Alaska, he hung this up so he wouldn't forget me:

He was particularly proud of my fuzzy red tummy. I have found love notes taped all over the house and tripped over them written on empty toilet paper tubes.

All of a sudden, this kid who loved video games and picture books and never put pen to paper had to have drawing instruments nearby At All Times. His first response when checking out the 1,000-year-old petroglyphs in Wyoming? "I need pen and paper!" (More on Wyoming later, I hope.)

Larkin and I used to bribe and beg Finn to read long form books with us. His new favorite way to spend his time? Working on craft projects while listening to Harry Potter as long as my voice lasts. We're nearing the end of book 6... phew. He colors, cuts, draws, writes, beads, paints, sculpts for hours on end. This has been one wild ride of a developmental leap.

Larkin, meanwhile, is super pleased to have a crafty partner. News on the grand opening of her etsy shop soon!