Today after lunch C&D listened to the second half of Winnie-the-Pooh while I got ready for the day’s round of lessons.  At the end of the story, Christopher Robin and all of the animals hold a party for Pooh.  To help C&D transition to the work they would be doing after the story, I encouraged them to draw a picture of Pooh’s party while they listened.  I wrote down a list of the story’s characters so they could label their drawings.  This is what I got from Carmen:

Last week C&D were gifted with a 96-count tower of Crayola crayons.  Carmen and David found colors they didn’t even know existed, like purples and pinks with glitter shimmer melted in.  I like how Carmen used a fair number of them in this picture.  I also like how she used all caps and drew arrows linking the names to her figures.  When she handed me her picture she realized she forgot about Rabbit, so she ran back to the table and drew him in real quick on top of Eeyore.  The little figure up top is supposed to be Owl.  In this picture he looks a bit like a butterfly. 

After I stamped Carmen’s picture with the date, she posted it on one of our magnet boards.  The boards are where all the good stuff goes.

And this is what I got from David:

He took a little longer because he drew two pictures and went into some detail (my mother would say that would remind her of a little someone named Joyce).  He labeled the sun, then remembered he was supposed to label the figures, too.  He took Carmen’s cue and drew arrows from the text to his figures.  The red lines around Roo in the top picture are supposed to indicate that he is jumping very high.  The Pooh at bottom, eating honey next to the table, has little claws on his feet. Kanga and Roo are watching.  David worked for a little longer, and then brought me his page with a smile.  “It was hard,” he said, “to write all those letters, and think about what I could spell!”  In addition to the names, on the second page he had written “Pooh (loves) hunnee.”  “And,” he added, “you know what?  I made all the branches!  Carmen said, ‘Did Mommy draw those?’ and I said, ‘No, it was ME!’”

Then he took the picture back.  He had just realized he could maybe make a kite out of the thing, and got to business taping on a paper tail (you see part of it on the second picture at the left) and punching holes that he thought could be used for string (you see the holes at the top of the second picture).

Pooh on the walls and a Pooh kite.  I think Christopher Robin would have liked those ideas very much.

Today, Carmen and David turned six years old.  When they woke up (too early, as usual, despite their colds), they found a few small presents at the top of the stairs.

David woke up first.  After going upstairs he ran back down and into the bedroom, where I stayed snuggled under the covers.

“There is something on the top of the stairs,” David reported as he climbed onto my bed.

“Shh.  Whisper.  They’re for you,” I responded shortly as I tried to focus on thinking sleepy thoughts.  I had stayed up late, late, late the night before sewing, felting, and arranging.  I needed at least another hour of sleep.

Carmen sat up.  I heard David run back up the stairs, and then run back down.  Carmen climbed down the ladder of her bunked bed.

David climbed back onto the bed, his face inches from mine.  ”Which one is mine?”

It was a safe bet that the pink crown was Carmen’s, since pink was her favorite color, and the purple crown was David’s, since that’s the color he prefers.  And Carmen’s sewing basket (underneath the pink crown) bore a tag with Carmen’s name, while David’s sewing basket was similarly labeled.

But it was nice that he checked, I guess.

Trying hard not to open my eyes, I mumbled that David’s crown was purple, and he should check the tags sewn on the baskets.  Then I rolled over.

Four little feet danced back up the stairs, and I pulled back the covers.  That extra hour of sleep was lost.  I decided to get up and watch the fun.

The crowns are each made from a sheet of gloriously soft wool felt folded, cut, and needle-felted to itself, then adorned with two needle-felted star appliqués.  A piece of 1/4″ elastic goes around the back.

While looking through their new books, C&D realized one of them said on the cover “Now We Are Six.”  Yes, we are!

Each sewing basket held crochet thread, fabric scissors, needles, a pincushion, and two threaders.  We put the supplies to use right after breakfast, and after a while were able to admire two new creations (a horse and a chicken).

Later in the day C&D took a long, warm bath, where Carmen lost another tooth

and thought about the probability chart she built with Matt.

Then, in the evening, we shared candles and cake:

Happy Birthday, little people.

Tree planting yesterday of 1670 longleaf pine trees with the Sierra Club and Big Thicket Association. The Longleaf has much of the same characteristics as we do; the very young are small amidst a big world, more a grass than a tree. Teenagers are a bit unwieldy, tall and spindly with a big mass of hairlike needles on top, trying (and failing) to look like they belong. Adults are tall and majestic, responsible for caretaking a whole family of critters growing beneath them.

After the hard work, Maxine Johnston (above) invited the group for dinner (and, in our case, cartwheels, chalk drawings, and fun with lightsticks)

A few pictures from watching the birds and boats from the end of the Texas City Dike

Building a see-saw out of some rocks

Point Bolivar Lighthouse in the distance, survivor of the great hurricane of 1900 along with at least 125 people who packed inside.

MSC Jordan cargo ship, currently in New Orleans (per the internet)

BP Texas City refinery on the other side of the dike

Friends and fresh air today. The new swing at the Sharecropper’s Cabin made the morning perfect.

Matt took these photos.

I celebrated four years of AVM-ness by driving home.  I didn’t like it, and was beyond grateful and relieved to finally pull into the driveway, but . . . I did it.  I’ll try again soon.

Dear Mom,

Since you are still out of town, Joyce came at noon today to take me for a walk. I walked with Carmen and David, as usual, and their friends Ashley and Reese.

While you have been gone Joyce has been trying to help me learn how to heel during our walks so I don’t pull on my harness and hurt my broken ribs. She thought I had been learning quite a bit, but today I kept forgetting what I was supposed to do. It was just so distracting to have company!

We walked to Jenny’s Noodles and Joyce placed an order to-go. We all stood outside and watched the humans walk in and out. I tried hard not to jump all over all those friendly-looking people! Right before the food came, a lady walked up to me and cooed, “What a beautiful dog!” I was so happy to hear such praise that I stood right up on my hind legs! She gave me a nice scratch and then I popped up and gave her a little kiss. She tasted a little like vanilla. “Oh!” she laughed as she stroked my ears. “I love those doggie kisses!”

“She EATS HER POOP!” Carmen blurted. Oh, what a tattle tale! Just because she caught me trying to eat my poop Tuesday doesn’t mean I do it all the time! And anyway, I’m trying to kick that habit–I didn’t eat ANY poo today!

Fortunately the nice lady just laughed and went inside to eat her lunch. And maybe brush her teeth.

After she left I found an old piece of gum on the ground. I started to chew it but that made the kids scream; I guess they didn’t figure dogs like me know how to chew gum. I spit it out, but now I have minty fresh breath. I am kiss-ready.

Authenticity
In the car today Carmen announced that tomorrow night she would like to dress up in her Mary costume, have David in his Joseph costume, and play Las Posadas with donkey. In December we attended a Posada at the University of St. Thomas, and Carmen was a little envious of the young girl who got to be Mary and ride around campus on a donkey.

“Where would we get a donkey?” I asked her. Did she mean a real donkey, or . . .

“I don’t know,” she replied, “We’ll just call someone. A horse would work, too.”

A real donkey. Of course. No prob. I’ll get right on that.

Carmen added that she wanted “a big baby belly.” David offered to take a pillow and Scotch-tape it to her abdomen. She was okay with that.

A Mary sighting
The Monday after Christmas I had to run some errands, including mailing a letter at the post office after I picked up a package at the counter. But I plum forgot about mailing the letter. I was too distracted by the fact that I was in line at the post office trying to look normal while my little girl stood solemnly wearing a Christmas pageant outfit. She had been walking all around Houston, all day long, wearing that Mary costume. “Are you a shepherd?” someone asked at the grocery earlier that day.

“Mary,” she simply answered, and blinked.

Well, duh. Of course.

Anybody who knows Carmen also knows she’d want a leading role.

One thump, or two
David wants to know if The Drummer Boy used one drumstick, or two. He didn’t believe me when I said the Bible doesn’t mention The Drummer Boy.

Well, yeah
David told Carmen he still thinks to the song says “Nowhere, Nowhere,” not “Noel, Noel.” He figures Mary and Joseph had *nowhere* to stay. That makes some sense, I guess.

There it is!
We celebrated Epiphany yesterday, and bought a Three Kings cake (rosca de Reyes) from a bakery in our old neighborhood. The very large cake–like a sweet egg bread–had two plastic baby Jesuses hidden and baked inside. C&D ate and/or dug through about half the cake over twenty-four hours to make sure they could both find the baby Jesuses. Next time I’ll skip the cake and go straight to the good stuff.

Not ready for fatherhood
After playing that role for a month, David is kind of tired of being Joseph. He wants to be The Drummer Boy, marching in circles playing rhythms and singing. When Carmen begins to pester, he’ll act as Joseph for a little while, accompanying his sister around the living room while she bounces along on her donkey (her red Rody). She tries to bounce forward sitting on the Rody sidesaddle, since that’s how Mary is shown in the pictures. Once Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem, Carmen makes David stand around, watching over her as she gets the baby Jesus situated (sometimes lying on the seat of a chair and surrounded by straw made of old papers colored yellow and cut into strips). Sometimes David-Joseph carries as a staff. The staff is a long, sharp piece of bamboo that staked the river birch trees we planted out front last year. I keep trying to lose it, but David keeps finding it.

The real Santa
Over a lunch in mid-December I asked C&D what they wanted to do for their friends for Christmas. In the past we have made gifts of spiced dough ornaments, and I expected to hear something similar. David perked up with a ready answer. “Let’s get some rocks and paint them black like coal, and then go outside and get some sticks, and then we can give the naughty children coal and sticks in their stockings, and I can wear a Santa costume with red, and white down the middle, and gloves, and a black belt that you can make from fabric! And Carmen can pretend to be a reindeer and I can ride on her back!”

Breathe. “Um, you know, maybe if the children are naughty, maybe their parents can decide what to put in their stockings. How about we just give them something friendly?”

David looked a little disappointed. I wasn’t going to make him a Santa costume, either, but I did promise him a great set of reindeer antlers.

Messy
Sometimes Carmen says she wants a dog. I don’t. One reason I don’t want a dog is that I don’t want to have to grab a plastic bag and take the dog outside every time its bowels or bladder called. When my neighbor went out of town, I welcomed the opportunity to teach C&D that caring for a dog could be messy work.

When yesterday David told Carmen that since she was the one who wanted the dog, she could be the one to carry the bag with the dog’s poo in it, Carmen replied: “I don’t really want a dog. I want a HORSE.”

That’s really not the reaction I was going for, you know?

But then today, after someone mentioned the neighbors’ dog, Carmen answered: “I don’t want a dog, I want a KID.”

So, Carmen, what color horse?

Ask Harbor Freight
David, yesterday, after working in the patio and further reducing it to a mud pit: “I want a sledgehammer to break rocks and bricks. Do they
make those for little-hand people?” (Children are little-hand people.).

We suggested that as sledgehammers need to be quite heavy, there probably aren’t child-sized sledgehammers to buy.

But no worries; today I watched David break up our patio’s pavestones with a garden shovel.

Overheard
David, last week, asking advice from Carmen: “So, when my tooth is loose, how do I make it come out?”
Carmen, the expert: “You just eat an apple, and it will come right out.”
David, unsure: “So, I just bite into it?”
Carmen: “And it comes right out.”
For her sake, I hope she’s right.