Larkin and Finn have been having an at-least-once-a-week playdate with their young friend Hunter (Born on Larkin's birthday, 6 days before Finn). Today, I was listening in while they constructed lego merchandise in their small-town store.
A local giant was rebuffing all their attempts to make friends and offer gifts. After an imaginary internet search, it was determined that the giant was grumpy because its family had died long ago and it was very lonely. When they explained that it wouldn't be lonely any more if it became their friend, they all exchanged cell phone numbers and lived happily ever after.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Context Is Everything
My favorite out-of-context quote of the day:
"I'm going to entertain myself by being naked and looking at this magazine."
Context:
Finn was fresh out of the bath, waiting rather impatiently for his bedtime snack to be served. His favorite science tools catalog was near his place at the table.
"I'm going to entertain myself by being naked and looking at this magazine."
Context:
Finn was fresh out of the bath, waiting rather impatiently for his bedtime snack to be served. His favorite science tools catalog was near his place at the table.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Wagglers
Did you know eyebrow waggling is a learned skill? I highly recommend you grab the nearest small child and demand they waggle their eyebrows. You may get results like this:
Speaking of waggling, Larkin recently waggled her front tooth right out!
All she wanted from the tooth fairy was an electric toothbrush. When the tooth finally came out, she was very concerned that perhaps the tooth fairy hadn't planned ahead and she reassured us that we could leave her and Finn home alone while they slept to go buy one. Clearly, she doesn't credit the tooth fairy with enough foresight.
Speaking of waggling, Larkin recently waggled her front tooth right out!
All she wanted from the tooth fairy was an electric toothbrush. When the tooth finally came out, she was very concerned that perhaps the tooth fairy hadn't planned ahead and she reassured us that we could leave her and Finn home alone while they slept to go buy one. Clearly, she doesn't credit the tooth fairy with enough foresight.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Child-Sized Marathon
Yesterday, we sent Emile off on an evening bike ride and picked him up around nightfall so he wouldn't have to brave the long uphill ride to our house in the dark.
These days, Larkin and Finn are usually pretty sleepy and ready for bed around 9pm, so we did bedtime snacks and got into sleepwear before the scheduled pick up. We met Emile at the Talent entrance to the bike path around 9:30, Finn talking the whole way about how he was very tired and about to fall asleep.
Josh H. had ridden Emile back to Talent, so the kids were excited to see him and chat him up. When Josh took off, Emile was busy putting the bike rack and his bike on our car. Larkin and Finn started running large circles around Emile and the car (Larkin in her night shirt and sandals, Finn barefoot in his pink horse PJs). After they had gone around 10-15 times, I remarked that I should have been counting to keep track of their progress. They liked that idea.
I sat in the driver's seat with my arm out the window so they could high five me on their way by... I was thinking they might circle another 15-20 times, tops. Meanwhile, Emile finished mounting his bike and got in the passenger's seat. I started throwing out random factoids with each number (well, for each number I could think of one)-- ages of people they know, significant dates, the meaning of life, the universe and everything, etc.
They got all the way up to 100 before they stopped! They were running the whole time, although they had slowed slightly by the end. I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation:
Figure our car is about 15 feet long, 4 feet wide. Add some leeway since they were actually looping quite a ways away from the car and figure they were running about 50 feet with each lap. Add in the 10-15 times they had already circled before I started counting, and they ran a total of about 112x50=5600 feet, or just over 1 mile. Not an insignificant piece of exercise at a time they'd normally be sleeping.
I nursed a bruised and tingling high-five hand all the way home, and Larkin and Finn slept very soundly last night.
These days, Larkin and Finn are usually pretty sleepy and ready for bed around 9pm, so we did bedtime snacks and got into sleepwear before the scheduled pick up. We met Emile at the Talent entrance to the bike path around 9:30, Finn talking the whole way about how he was very tired and about to fall asleep.
Josh H. had ridden Emile back to Talent, so the kids were excited to see him and chat him up. When Josh took off, Emile was busy putting the bike rack and his bike on our car. Larkin and Finn started running large circles around Emile and the car (Larkin in her night shirt and sandals, Finn barefoot in his pink horse PJs). After they had gone around 10-15 times, I remarked that I should have been counting to keep track of their progress. They liked that idea.
I sat in the driver's seat with my arm out the window so they could high five me on their way by... I was thinking they might circle another 15-20 times, tops. Meanwhile, Emile finished mounting his bike and got in the passenger's seat. I started throwing out random factoids with each number (well, for each number I could think of one)-- ages of people they know, significant dates, the meaning of life, the universe and everything, etc.
They got all the way up to 100 before they stopped! They were running the whole time, although they had slowed slightly by the end. I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation:
Figure our car is about 15 feet long, 4 feet wide. Add some leeway since they were actually looping quite a ways away from the car and figure they were running about 50 feet with each lap. Add in the 10-15 times they had already circled before I started counting, and they ran a total of about 112x50=5600 feet, or just over 1 mile. Not an insignificant piece of exercise at a time they'd normally be sleeping.
I nursed a bruised and tingling high-five hand all the way home, and Larkin and Finn slept very soundly last night.
Friday, July 29, 2011
You Say You Want An Evolution...
Recently, Larkin has been regularly transposing "evolution" and "revolution" in sentences. It works for many parts of speech!
While sword fighting with Finn and Hunter: "We're staging an evolutionary war!"
Random car question: "So, humans are revolved from chimpanzees, right?" Finn sounded downright astonished at this turn (heh) of events: "You mean, if chimpanzees spin around enough they'll turn into humans!?" He was ready for an experimental trip to the zoo.
Science Works has regular science talks, and after taking them to last month's talk on the volcanoes of Hawaii, Larkin is ready for more. They gave the subject for the next one and Larkin regularly asks when they'll be having the "Revolution Science Talk." Granted, that might be interesting... but not what they have planned.
While sword fighting with Finn and Hunter: "We're staging an evolutionary war!"
Random car question: "So, humans are revolved from chimpanzees, right?" Finn sounded downright astonished at this turn (heh) of events: "You mean, if chimpanzees spin around enough they'll turn into humans!?" He was ready for an experimental trip to the zoo.
Science Works has regular science talks, and after taking them to last month's talk on the volcanoes of Hawaii, Larkin is ready for more. They gave the subject for the next one and Larkin regularly asks when they'll be having the "Revolution Science Talk." Granted, that might be interesting... but not what they have planned.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Spelunking
Okay, so this is a bit slow reporting-wise, but last month I went on a trek to the Oregon Caves with Larkin, Finn and Eli. Having three kids on car trips is still novel enough that it's a big part of the fun. Here they are lunching before the cave tour:
The tours are all guided, 90 minutes and 500 stairs. It is notoriously difficult to take good pictures underground. There are more on the Picasaweb site if you want to see my lame attempts.
There were a few iffy moments. Eli was very reticent to travel down a narrow, very steep, spiral staircase, but was willing to make the trek with me close behind him holding his non-railing hand. Unfortunately, Finn had a panicked moment just after that at the top of a very steep, narrow straight staircase. I was still behind Eli and there is no passing room on these stairs, but he made it through with some verbal encouragement. On the next set of steep straight stairs, I went right in front of Finn and Eli and that seemed to alleviate their discomfort. I hardly saw Larkin on the traveling bits of the tour because she stayed right on the park ranger's heels and he walked quickly and then waited for the rest of the group.
At each stop the tour guide would give part of his spiel and then ask if anyone had questions. I think the kids would have been a bit happier with shorter stops, but since there were 8 adults with us in our group we had to be flexible. At the final stop when he asked if there were any last questions, Finn spoke up: "Um... when I grow up can I be a park ranger like you?" You could tell our ranger was just a little bit choked up as he spoke a bit about the park rangering business.
On an entirely unrelated note, Miss Tina was demonstrating a move at one of Larkin's last ballet classes (Tina is taking the summer off). She asked if anyone knew what it was called when one leg was bent and the other was straight. Without hesitation, Larkin called out "asymmetrical!" Miss Tina's mouth hung agape for several seconds before she acknowledged that, while that was true, the term she was looking for was "lunge."
The tours are all guided, 90 minutes and 500 stairs. It is notoriously difficult to take good pictures underground. There are more on the Picasaweb site if you want to see my lame attempts.
There were a few iffy moments. Eli was very reticent to travel down a narrow, very steep, spiral staircase, but was willing to make the trek with me close behind him holding his non-railing hand. Unfortunately, Finn had a panicked moment just after that at the top of a very steep, narrow straight staircase. I was still behind Eli and there is no passing room on these stairs, but he made it through with some verbal encouragement. On the next set of steep straight stairs, I went right in front of Finn and Eli and that seemed to alleviate their discomfort. I hardly saw Larkin on the traveling bits of the tour because she stayed right on the park ranger's heels and he walked quickly and then waited for the rest of the group.
At each stop the tour guide would give part of his spiel and then ask if anyone had questions. I think the kids would have been a bit happier with shorter stops, but since there were 8 adults with us in our group we had to be flexible. At the final stop when he asked if there were any last questions, Finn spoke up: "Um... when I grow up can I be a park ranger like you?" You could tell our ranger was just a little bit choked up as he spoke a bit about the park rangering business.
On an entirely unrelated note, Miss Tina was demonstrating a move at one of Larkin's last ballet classes (Tina is taking the summer off). She asked if anyone knew what it was called when one leg was bent and the other was straight. Without hesitation, Larkin called out "asymmetrical!" Miss Tina's mouth hung agape for several seconds before she acknowledged that, while that was true, the term she was looking for was "lunge."
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sticks and Stones
On Saturday, after a long play day at the park, Larkin wanted one last slide across the zipline before heading home. She fell off at the end, landed wrong on one wrist and Wham! Pain!
This was clearly a worse injury than she has had in the past. Her arm was slightly swollen and the pain didn't disappear the way it usually does after a tumble. After a bit of talk about doctors and x-rays, Larkin really just wanted to go home and curl up on the couch to watch a movie. She kept her wrist on ice from the time of the accident (yay, coolers!) until she went to sleep and was even willing to take some of the detested "berry" flavored ibuprofen to bring the swelling down.
That night, she woke up crying in pain 5-6 times. The next morning, we were off to the doctor. Larkin, hardly slowed down by her injury, selected a fancy dress for the trip and asked me to do her hair before we left. The triage nurse was asking all the usual admitting questions and chatting with Larkin to set her at ease. She asked Larkin if she was all dressed up to go to church. Larkin, not yet quite warmed up to her usual chatty self, shook her head no. About 30 seconds later, while the nurse was entering data into her computer, Finn asked me in a stage whisper: "Jenny? What's church?"
Finn! Here we are at a doctor's office in rural Oregon where it has already been established that our kids don't go to school and get injured in fairly spectacular ways (Larkin had light abrasions on her shoulder and face from the same fall). The nurse turned to me with mouth slightly agape and waited for my answer. I kept it pretty short: "Church is a place where people with similar religious beliefs gather together."
The nurse nodded definitively, said "that's right!" and turned back to her computer. I felt like I had passed some kind of test. Later, she looked suitably chastened when she told Larkin that she was going to put "a little squeezy thing" on her arm. Larkin looked her in the eye and said plainly, "you're going to take my blood pressure."
They took 3 x-rays of Larkin's wrist. Finn and I stayed in the room with her but had to go behind the shielding wall with the tech while the actual x-rays were taken. We'd hang out with Larkin while he positioned her arm properly, dash behind the barrier for the scan, then go back out to Larkin. There was a lot of giggling all around-- even the tech got in on the high-speed action.
The results of the x-rays came back: Larkin has a Type 2 Salter-Harris Fracture. The only real low point of the doctor experience came when the doctor was showing us the x-rays (Finn had been *very* excited to see the pictures and I think the doctor was somewhat charmed by the kids who had been interested in learning more about every step of the process-- she took a lot of time talking to them about everything that was going on). Finn was somewhat awed by the x-rays and I think he had a hard time believing that those things in the image were inside Larkin's arm. Too quickly for me to realize what he was about to do and stop him, he picked up her hurt arm to examine it in wonder. He realized almost immediately what he had done, but it really hurt Larkin... those were the only tears through the whole doctor's office ordeal and some were shed by both Larkin and Finn.
I felt a little less guilty about not taking Larkin to the ER right away when the doctor told us that they would have waited to put a cast on it anyway due to the swelling the night before. We left with a hot pink cast, 2 new pairs of sandals and a bag of toys from the dollar store (there was a long wait at the doctor's office and the kids wanted to explore the shopping center until our turn).
After a couple of slow days, Larkin is now mostly back to her usual energetic self. She has decided she's going to learn to use her left hand to write her name and do mazes during the three weeks before the cast comes off.
This was clearly a worse injury than she has had in the past. Her arm was slightly swollen and the pain didn't disappear the way it usually does after a tumble. After a bit of talk about doctors and x-rays, Larkin really just wanted to go home and curl up on the couch to watch a movie. She kept her wrist on ice from the time of the accident (yay, coolers!) until she went to sleep and was even willing to take some of the detested "berry" flavored ibuprofen to bring the swelling down.
That night, she woke up crying in pain 5-6 times. The next morning, we were off to the doctor. Larkin, hardly slowed down by her injury, selected a fancy dress for the trip and asked me to do her hair before we left. The triage nurse was asking all the usual admitting questions and chatting with Larkin to set her at ease. She asked Larkin if she was all dressed up to go to church. Larkin, not yet quite warmed up to her usual chatty self, shook her head no. About 30 seconds later, while the nurse was entering data into her computer, Finn asked me in a stage whisper: "Jenny? What's church?"
Finn! Here we are at a doctor's office in rural Oregon where it has already been established that our kids don't go to school and get injured in fairly spectacular ways (Larkin had light abrasions on her shoulder and face from the same fall). The nurse turned to me with mouth slightly agape and waited for my answer. I kept it pretty short: "Church is a place where people with similar religious beliefs gather together."
The nurse nodded definitively, said "that's right!" and turned back to her computer. I felt like I had passed some kind of test. Later, she looked suitably chastened when she told Larkin that she was going to put "a little squeezy thing" on her arm. Larkin looked her in the eye and said plainly, "you're going to take my blood pressure."
They took 3 x-rays of Larkin's wrist. Finn and I stayed in the room with her but had to go behind the shielding wall with the tech while the actual x-rays were taken. We'd hang out with Larkin while he positioned her arm properly, dash behind the barrier for the scan, then go back out to Larkin. There was a lot of giggling all around-- even the tech got in on the high-speed action.
The results of the x-rays came back: Larkin has a Type 2 Salter-Harris Fracture. The only real low point of the doctor experience came when the doctor was showing us the x-rays (Finn had been *very* excited to see the pictures and I think the doctor was somewhat charmed by the kids who had been interested in learning more about every step of the process-- she took a lot of time talking to them about everything that was going on). Finn was somewhat awed by the x-rays and I think he had a hard time believing that those things in the image were inside Larkin's arm. Too quickly for me to realize what he was about to do and stop him, he picked up her hurt arm to examine it in wonder. He realized almost immediately what he had done, but it really hurt Larkin... those were the only tears through the whole doctor's office ordeal and some were shed by both Larkin and Finn.
I felt a little less guilty about not taking Larkin to the ER right away when the doctor told us that they would have waited to put a cast on it anyway due to the swelling the night before. We left with a hot pink cast, 2 new pairs of sandals and a bag of toys from the dollar store (there was a long wait at the doctor's office and the kids wanted to explore the shopping center until our turn).
After a couple of slow days, Larkin is now mostly back to her usual energetic self. She has decided she's going to learn to use her left hand to write her name and do mazes during the three weeks before the cast comes off.
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