Make Room, OED...

Those of you who know Larkin know that she can Talk. When I'm having a conversation and can't think of the right word, or just don't know what it might be, I pause. I consider. Sometimes I ask whoever I'm speaking with. Perhaps I find a different way to express what I mean. Larkin, however, has the endearing and often amusing tendency to make a plausible word up with no pause whatsoever to interrupt her flow of chatter.

Pointing excitedly at a car with its top down on our way across a parking lot: "Look! A convertebrate!" (Too many nature documentaries? Perhaps...)

Trying to puzzle out what the whole Thanksgiving thing is about: "So a dinner supposedly happened that celebrated how helpful the Native Americans had been to the Europeeners when they came to this continent?"

A bit hyper in the evening: "I'm not ready for bed yet... I'm too energastic!"

Amusing Over-Intellectual Kid Vocabulary Post #387

Yesterday, while being fitted for her latest appliance, Larkin had to repeat herself three times before her orthodontist understood what she was saying... mostly, I think, because he was not expecting her to say it: "The friction created by your grinder caused the ends of the wire to heat up."

Last week, Larkin and Finn were chatting up a woman they met down by Bear Creek. She explained that her dog had been bred as a water dog but he refused to go in past his knees (or whatever that joint is for dogs). Finn exclaimed, laughing, "Apparently that dog just doesn't know he's buoyant!"

Our world is currently post-apocalyptically filled with smoke due to uncontrolled forest fires. We were in the car, on our way to an indoor play destination. Finn, wishing we were going to play somewhere OUTdoors: "I bet if we circumnavigated the world we could find somewhere less smoky to play."

In the car again, Emile was talking about an NPR piece he had heard on a mash-up of Kafka's Metamorphosis and Dr. Seuss. Finn was having a hard time with the concept of metamorphosis for some reason and we were trying to explain its meaning. He finally had a head-slapping a-ha moment: "OH! You mean transfiguration!"

Stop Motion Debut

Welcome to the world premier of our debut stop motion film, starring Larkin as ball manipulator and Jenny as camera button pusher.

We expect award ceremony invitations are in the mail.

Fresnel Frenzy

A couple of months ago, Emile brought home a HUGE projection TV that had been abandoned by the side of the road. Consider this my public apology for wondering What The Heck he was thinking. He pulled the Fresnel lens out of it and we finally got around to testing it out.

This is an innocent pile of five pennies:

After a nervous dash out to the driveway trying not to start forest fires with the huge lens held between us, not to mention some fidgeting and momentary blindness caused by trying to get the pennies in the focal spot, this was the result:

 I think the scorched earth is a particularly nice touch. Once they cooled, we took the pennies inside and lined them up to better view the damage:

It's hard to tell from the images, but the copper jacket on the top few pennies stayed intact (in a scorched sort of usage for intact), but whatever metals they're filling pennies with these days either liquefied or sublimated. Larkin and Finn have a new respect for solar energy. I kinda want to make a Fresnel solar microwave.

That Rock N'.... Hillbilly Lifestyle

Last night, John and I were supposed to go see the Infamous Stringdusters. Admittedly, they are MUCH more like country music than anything I am likely to approach with or without a 10 foot pole (with the possible exception of folk like John Prine and Gillian Welch). Holy cow, was it ever worth getting over my prejudices for this one. Unfortunately, John got sick and couldn't make it. Fortunately, I took Larkin instead and she described it as one of the best nights of her life.

Take a few minutes to watch this video so you understand what we were in for.

The opening act was a local guy who did a lot of ballad-ish stuff about love lost. Larkin looked sleepy and played on my phone.

The Infamous String Dusters took the stage about the time Larkin is usually going to bed. About 20 seconds into their first song, she said something to me that I couldn't hear over the frenetic fiddlin' and banjo pluckin' and horizontal slide guitar noodlin'. The urgency of her tone and the way she shot out of our seats made me think she needed to use the bathroom.

In fact, she made a bee line for the mass of enthusiastic dancers around the stage and wriggled into the very front row and proceeded to cut loose. I figured people wouldn't be quite so charmed if I squeezed in front of them, so I stayed a few rows behind where I could catch occasional glimpses of her flailing arms and flying braids. Evidently, she made friends with everyone within 10 feet or so of where she was dancing. The band, apparently, did not have a slow setting.

At intermission, she returned to our seats sweaty, reportedly dying of thirst and divested of a layer of clothing. She didn't wait for the music to start to find her place by the stage for the second set. By the end of the night, she had been hoisted in the air by several fellow audience members, and the band dedicated a song to her. We spent several minutes near the stage after the show so she could say proper goodbyes to all of her dancin' buddies.

John, I'm so sorry you missed it... but, if you and I had gone, I highly doubt either one of us would have ended the evening on some strange man's shoulders.

How To Be A Well-Loved Uncle

Well, first you have a large, unmarked package delivered to the door. Your niece and nephew will begin singing your praises before it is even opened.

Then, make sure this warning label is prominently displayed before the contents of said box have been disclosed.

At this point, both children will be convinced that this must be the Best Present Ever.

Be sure the contents of the package include a large, very sharp, dangerous blade for each young child. Behold the reverence with which the weapons are unsheathed.

And let the gleeful maniacal hacking begin!

**********************
I admit, there is some back story here. About a month ago, Larkin and Finn and I made a short trip over to the coast to get in another visit with Felix before he headed down south. While there, Larkin and Finn discovered Jim's tool shed with its machetes and various other sword-like instruments. We could hardly get through our daily hikes due to all the chopping that ensued.

Of course, there was a great deal of supervision. Proper ninja machete form was observed at all times. Jim mentioned later that this was partly pure self-interest... he did not want to be the one explaining machete injuries in the emergency room.

Larkin and Finn chopped for 5+ hours two days in a row. It was the first time either of them noticed sore muscles. Here, Larkin displays the partial results of hours of hacking.

 Naturally, Felix decided they should have sword-like implements to call their own.

Longevity

Larkin, Finn and I recently spent a few days at the coast. Jim was the very noble Adult On Call each morning. He reported this conversation, which began with some request from Finn. Jim replied that he would do it "later."

Finn: How much later?
Jim: In five years.
Finn: But I'll be... [counting] 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-- eleven years old! And you'll be dead!"

It's the End of the World As We Know It...

Last night, instead of proceeding to bed time as usual, we tried to destroy the earth:

http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth

Larkin and Finn really wanted to explode it into lots of bits which would drift off into space as you would expect from sci-fi cartoon explosions. The best we could do was cause the whole planet to melt and re-solidify as a result of a direct hit from a fast moving chunk of iron the size of Asia.

It would be nice if there were visuals to go along with the results, but we had a lot of fun reading about the theoretical destruction we were wreaking and tweaking all the variables. Also discussed metric vs. english measurements and I made a first attempt at describing the meaning behind Joules, Megatons and (the kids' favorite) Megatons of TNT.

Crime and Punishment

Last week, we were having a lunch break at a local indoor play space. Larkin was describing an interaction between "watcher" and child (she's very careful with language and wasn't sure the adult was actually a parent) that she had been disturbed by. She said the watcher kept scolding the child about trivial things like buttoning their shirt. She thought having someone treat you that way would make being at the play space less fun. The following conversation ensued:

Finn: What is "scolding?"

Me [struggling with a definition for some reason]: It's when someone tells you that they don't like something you're doing. There are usually patronizing connotations. [insert definition of patronizing]

Finn: Oh! So, like, if someone kills someone else they would be scolded.

Me [guffaw]: Well, there are usually more serious repercussions for murder than a scolding.

Finn: I think people who kill should be executed. That way other people will know it's wrong.

Larkin [without even a moment's hesitation]: Wait! It doesn't make sense to kill someone to show people that killing people is wrong!

Me: Holy shit! You guys just outlined the quintessential arguments for and against the death penalty! This is a debate that has been going on for a *long* time! [insert more definitions, a long conversation about states rights and the death penalty and some funny looks from our fellow diners.]

Belated Seasons Greetings

[email sent to friends and family... I'm not sure I have everyone's email addresses so I'm copying it here as well. If you didn't receive it, and you would like to in the future, please send me your email address.]

I have once again failed to mail seasonal cards and now The Season has officially passed, but I wanted to send a note wishing you the very best with the official Year In Review that seems to become obligatory when we achieve family status. :)

Larkin turned 8 on Dec. 24. This year she got her first pocket knife, decided to subject herself to Crazy Whole-Mouth Orthodontia, graduated from training wheels to 16 mile bike rides in the space of two weeks, started her first business and broke her second bone.

Finn turned 6 on Dec. 30. This year he got an ear pierced, wholeheartedly embraced long form books, discovered that his parents were too slow in Super Mario to be suitable playing companions, developed an interest in games requiring considerably more strategy than Candyland and explored his artistic side.

Emile and I turned 37 in 2012. Man, that looks like a big number. I gave away the book exchange to a new set of board members and attained my dream position of volunteering with no administrative responsibilities, went sea kayaking in Alaska, radically altered my diet which has effected a profound improvement in my health and discovered some deepening wrinkles.

Emile finished the beautiful floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in our living room, became a founding board member of Rogue Hack Lab (apparently we're not satisfied without a start-up non-profit in our lives), built a bamboo bike, improved on his burgeoning bald spot and continued his 9 to 5 slog that makes this all possible.

As a family, we went on our first group plane trip to Wyoming, where we went to an awesome dinosaur museum and even visited an active dig. We hatched chicks in an incubator in our utility room and now have a flock of 11 laying hens and one blind rooster. Needless to say, the prospect of scrambled eggs is not greeted with quite as much enthusiasm as it once was. We joined the local rock climbing gym and Emile and I took a class in belaying so we're now certified to dangle real live humans from the ceiling. We read the Harry Potter series and The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (the latter being pivotal in both my and Emile's childhoods and particularly gratifying). Spell casting in pretend play started out sounding like fake Latin a la Rowling and ended up with a decidedly Tolkien elvish flair.

As always there are more tales and pictures of our exploits and adventures available here: http://hamsderhijinks.blogspot.com
and here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenny.hamilton

Thinking of you all and wishing you the best,

jenny

Addendum to Finn's Rennaisance

I'm afraid I may have colored the world slightly unfairly in shades of sweetness and light in my previous post regarding Finn's recent artistic explosion.

In the interest of fairness in reporting, in addition to the copious love notes that Finn leaves around the house, we also found this gem:

For the record, this note was left as part of a game and does not in any way reflect Finn's true feelings for Larkin.

I also feel a need to share this drawing of a birthday party.

Note the streamers along the top and the stacks of birthday presents to the right. The large item on the left turns out to be a cake atop a three legged table. I had to ask Finn about this one as I was fairly convinced it was a drawing of a raven-haired beauty leaning over from behind.

Crater Lake

This is yet another overdue travel post... I figure if I get to things chronologically eventually I'll catch up, right?

In October, Larkin and Finn and I made a quick mid-week trip to Crater Lake. I had only been there in passing (long ago, on the back of Emile's motorcycle) and they had never been.

On the way, we stopped at the headwaters of the Rogue River where the whole river squeezes itself through a 20 foot wide gap in the rock.

That is the closest, by far, that Finn ever got to the railing-- he was suitably impressed by the awesome force of nature. And that was before we saw the notice that someone fell in last summer and their body had never been found.

Emile wowed us when we got back with a memory from his childhood of a local kayaking celebrity making quite a splash (ha! I kill me...) when he shot the headwaters. Hard to believe.

Our next stop was at the ranger station just inside the Crater Lake monument-- although still about 9 miles from the lake itself. They had a small theater set up where they were playing an 18 minute (rather dry) film on the history and geology of the lake that the kids were very excited to watch.

We were there well after the big summer rush, and met up with a park ranger who clearly had more time on his hands than he knew what to do with. During the course of our half hour conversation, it was revealed that there was a junior ranger program which, if the kids jumped through certain worksheet hoops, could result in a junior ranger badge. This became the obsession of the trip.

From there, we went to check into our swanky room at the Crater Lake Lodge:

I mean, really, check out these views!

Before dinner, we did a short hike to several viewpoints on the rim from the lodge. At one stop I discovered just how much Larkin and Finn had actually learned from that film when they had a long conversation with a grandparents-age couple and answered many of their questions about the lake... including several things that I didn't remember from the video. This Grandpa Jim (no relation) also shared his binoculars which I had been kicking myself for not remembering.

Back to the lodge for our fancy schmancy dinner reservations, at which I was clearly (by far) the third youngest person in the room after Larkin and Finn. Our behavior was terribly proper, regarding which several grandmother-types were kind enough to complement us as we left.

After another short hike around the rim of the lake in the opposite direction, we retired to our room for Larkin and Finn's first ever experience of homework, although they didn't realize it. The park ranger had given them each a packet of 12 worksheets, and they had to complete at least 8 to receive a coveted junior ranger badge. We ended up having a lot of fun and learning more about the park, but it was the first time this unschooling adventure has included staying up until 10:30 studiously completing worksheets.

Those dang ranger packets were nearly our undoing the next day. The ranger station at the rim was closed for the season, and Finn could barely tolerate staying long enough to do my coveted longer rim hike before heading back down the mountain to the entry station and the promised badges. As it turned out, we *did* need those steenking badges.

We ended up doing a slightly shorter hike to "Discovery Point" where we were suitably affronted at the eurocentricity of the name. The volcano cone, Wizard Island, could not have been more aptly named at that point in our Harry Potter obsession.

After consulting my maps, I found another hike through a section of old growth forest further down the mountain that we could hit *after* a stop at the ranger station and were on our merry way.

It's hard to see, but here is Finn, wearing his badge and lagging behind on the hike while he discovered he could use its reflection to cast spots of sunlight all around him. This paired well with the spells he was periodically casting from his walking stick.

At the end of the day, we had gotten our badges, many fabulous views of the lake as well as a nice visit with some grand old trees.

We just barely made it to the fish hatchery during daylight hours on our way home where Larkin and Finn were suitably impressed by the writhing mass that was the fishy feeding frenzy caused by the pellets they tossed into the tanks.

The four foot long sturgeon were pretty darn impressive, too.

It was a nicely action-packed trip considering there was less than 4 hours total drive time. :)