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.]
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
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
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
Saturday, January 5, 2013
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.
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:
I also feel a need to share this drawing of a birthday party.
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. :)
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.
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.
It was a nicely action-packed trip considering there was less than 4 hours total drive time. :)
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