Ben loves to bike hard down the driveway, get some good speed, then practice braking on a dime. He loves to make long skid marks then have me measure them. So he's learning that 6 is bigger than five, and even remembered learning about parallel lines (something I randomly pointed out weeks ago at a doctor's office where the railing on the staircase provided a good example). Can you see all the skid marks in this picture? At one point he asked me "Mom, are these two parallel?" and I was floored! What a good boy. Sometimes he shows remarkable recall. Other times he shows no good sense whatsoever...

Today is one of those days I am thankful the boys are safely tucked in bed. My job is done. Do you ever have days where it seems like random injury is around the corner at every turn? And the kids happen to be fragile, too, so every random injury is a big deal? Today was one of those days. Sam complained of a splinter, then pulled it out. Next he complained of a sore foot, but it was totally fine to walk on minutes before. Then his ear hurt (which does bear some merit – I think he has a mild case of swimmer’s ear which has been off and on for a few days and we’ll have to remedy this week). Then at my dear friend’s house checking on her new chicken hatchlings (more of Merlin’s progeny!) Ben took a slipper to the cornea in a freak accident. Then we’re out mountain biking (you’re thinking – huh? on a freak accident day?) – because we all really wanted to go (Dave was at work so couldn’t call us off the trail). We went to a trail we knew, but forgot how many hills there were. Things look different when you’re rolling. So at one point when I was coaching Sam on the finer points of shifting just in time to keep momentum up a hill, then standing up to keep going, Ben decided he was going to check out what we were doing. I’d told him to stay put in no uncertain terms, but he went rogue. Next thing I knew I looked up and there he was merrily rolling off-trail down a 20% grade right toward a tree, with no real look of concern. Probably thinking he can brake any time. I threw myself before the runaway train and caught him. I might possibly have had some expletives of disbelief, too. I was more growling than talking because I didn’t want the nice homeowners to hear me, so thankfully probably the kids had no real idea what I was saying. Everyone is fine, but this just goes to show my daredevil is capable of just about anything, even blinded in one eye. (His eye is fine – the cornea abrasion is either gone or fine – he recovered in minutes. He’s dramatic, though, so sometimes it’s very hard to distinguish fact from near-fact.)

Anyway…I just dearly love those boys but sometimes I feel like I hardly know them! My tough guy Sam who never complains about a thing – ever – truly never complains – actually complained about three things today. So I said, hey, you know what, maybe just do a bathtime FYI for me…which he remembered and did tonight. He goes “Hey, mom, I’m not complaining, but just so you know, my ear is bothering me a bit.” Perfect! Well done my friend. I asked where it was on a scale of 1-10 (which the boys can reliably do and have been doing so for years) and he said a 2 or 3. I gave him some Advil and a promise to follow it up on Monday with the doc. He is fine. Good boy. Say a few prayers for my friends – ask their guardian angels to keep just a tad bit closer watch on them perhaps?

Tonight as they were putting jammies on they asked me to “make me talk, Mom!” Which means – move their chins and talk in a funny voice as if I’m them, talking. Weird stories come to mind and it’s very cathartic for all of us for me to make them say horrendous things about their ogre of a mom and end up laughing…somehow in Sam’s story (as I was moving his chin and he was smiling) he became a jelly donut. “Why am I biking up this crazy hill, mom, when all I really want is to be a donut, yeah, a donut, filled with jelly and smiling up at people from my white box!”  You get the idea…

It all started here - boys in their first parade on a float representing the Aquatic Center where they take swimming lessons. They loved relaxing, eating candy, and watching all the sights!

Then we had a casual fire and pizza time with dear friends and patriots, Matt and Melodie (although I am not sure why they were in black and white!). We had a great time kicking off the festivities with Matt showing us how to properly form up and salute the flag while Sam played the national anthem. Once we were officially "at ease" we fell out to pizza and catching up.

Reading some famous quotes about the Fourth of July - and guessing to whom they should be attributed. As you might imagine, Dave and Matt did very well at this! We burned the quotes upon reading. Seemed fitting somehow. Sam read one, too.

Some monster s'more eating!!!! I love this shot 🙂

Buffy came out back to celebrate with us. Here the boys are giving her select blades of grass to nibble on. Their little heads formed a heart shape over her. Seeing the setting sun dance on the grass in front of them while they tenderly cared for their young hen was just about as moving as hearing the Star Spangled Banner dance off my son's fingers on his loud guitar, or the stirring of bagpipes within the soul. (Dave says he's not moved to tears by bagpipes - clearly he is not Scottish!).

The pictures above give you a sense of the day. Please click for Sam playing his guitar to open festivities this afternoon. He started out with a warm-up (Gramma will love this – Amazing Grace) and at precisely 4:04 he hit the national anthem for us. We love that his amp is battery-powered. 6 AAs, baby, and we can fire it up anywhere! Anyone need a little Star Spangle in their Banner? In the T&C parking lot? First day of school? The opportunities are endless! But do enjoy this front-porch stage  performance: http://www.kampkrug.com/video/2012_July_4_Star_Spangled_Banner.wmv 

Week of 7-2

This week I built alpharex! Evin my cimputer wasn’t strong inof! Evin for an 85 pg instruchin book! The peeps have moved into the run! I was in the 4^th of July parade in the aquatic center float! And Ben was too! And I’m in Manta Ray. My rooster, Merlin, is obsessed when he is (in) a nesting box. He’s chucling right now!

Dear Sam,

I really enjoyed sitting by the coop in our little tent and watching all the hens to be sure the little ones (Gordon, Alex, and  Jersey peep) were ok! Butterflies danced in the garden while we chatted and laughed at Merlin!

I love you forever!

Mom

7-6-12, 3:07pm

Little trolls found the cache at Hidden Cove! We had the trails to ourselves today - completely and utterly alone out there. No dogs charging us, no chatting moms, no running of the bulls (ooops, I mean boys)...Ben said on our way back to the truck as we talked about hearing only the pitter patter of rain "It's peaceful in here."

I don’t want to forget something Sam said last week on a hike with a friend of ours. She was talking about her son leading a bike trip for teens down the state of VT. We guessed it was 300 miles long top to bottom, and he had 15 days to make the trip. How many miles would they do a day?, she asked. Sam was quiet for quite some time. She started with 15 times 2 is 30…Sam was still quiet. Finally he came up with an answer (I don’t remember what it was, but it was a bit off, so we started working through  how he got it – the process was so interesting). I think he started with figuring out how many 15s there are in 90 (6); then how many 90s in 300 (trying to get close to 300) – 3 and a third he said. So he’s at 270 with 3 90s; and 6 15s in each 90. That leaves 30 miles to spread across 15 days – 2 each day. So if there are 6 15s in each 90, and three sets of 90, then 6×3=18 plus those extra 2 miles each day is 20 miles a day. I was sick that week, so it literally took me the entire drive home to figure out what he had done. Last night I remembered it, and wanted to write it down, so this morning I tried to recreate it using the pieces I remembered (6, 90 and 3 1/3) but couldn’t. So I just woke Sam up and had him help me. My goodness his head works in interesting ways. He juggles a lot of pieces when he problem solves. He really pictures the parts moving around in a way I don’t naturally do.

2012

Weeks of 6-18 and 6-25

You know summer is when scool is out. Most of the time good things are hapining. Not onle around me but to me. One of my favrits was Mindstorms! Kitsap reginel Librare (KRL) sometimes has speishle events. Sometimes it’s spechis like Orion the owl. And some times Enginnering. Like Legos at the Lirare, and a Cardbord Marble runs. I also ingoed, swimming Lessins, Lorning about Lewis & Clark, And I loved programing my Mindstorm! W also got Brikes from the old Wilkes skool!

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR NEW JUNE PHOTOS | Ben said something hilarious about his first experience at a gym class yesterday. The only thing he did well (and better than the sweet, cuddly girls) was "stiff-as-a-board" where you lie down stiff and the instructor lifts you up by the shoulders to a standing position. He did that great. He's been stiff as a board since birth - you try to hug him and he kicks and stiffens. So I told Dave that story about gym class last night at dinner and Ben goes "Yeah, just like HollyRamona" - the hen who expired a week ago. When I carried her to the maple tree to bury her with Ben, the morning of the water gun war, she was stiff. We talked briefly about why, so maybe that's why he remembers. He is TOO much!

Sam’s first summer journal entry (original spelling retained):

Weeks of 6-18 and 6-25

You know summer is when scool is out. Most of the time good things are hapining. Not onle around me but to me. One of my favrits was Mindstorms! Kitsap reginel Librare (KRL) sometimes has speishle events. Sometimes it’s spechis like Orion the owl. And some times Enginnering. Like Legos at the Librare, and a Cardbord Marble runs. I also ingoed, swimming Lessins, Lorning about Lewis & Clark, And I loved programing my Mindstorm! we also got Brikes from the old Wilkes skool!

I just tucked the little chicken babies in and said goodnight to them. They are so cute, and eating a LOT! Today I had to replace their feeder because, despite the inscription “Quality since 1941,” on the front, the little trapeze artists managed to unscrew a tiny nut and washer holding the whole thing together. After hunting for a tiny nut in the poopy straw once a day for two weeks, I finally gave up and went to Bay Hay to get something different. I was beginning to feel like Sisyphus. And I don’t have time for that sort of stuff. Nor the patience. I am feeling instantly better about things with an operational feeder. But, I do have a cold, and I am not a happy camper when I’m slowed down. Work doesn’t slow down for the one-woman show, either, so no sick days for me. I can’t believe, honestly, what I have worked through in my 6 years of self employment. Puking boys (2 of them), towels thrown down the hallway for a runway to the bathroom AND a computer crash in the middle of a very large report for a state health department. No way to push out that deadline. That’s among the most memorable. Oh, I had been puking the night before, too. And cleaning up after boys while Dave tried to stay isolated and uninfected in another room.

Here’s an email I just sent. Thought you’d enjoy Sam’s take on perseverance.

Hey gals –

So my cold is going from bad to worse. I am lamenting at dinner and Sam goes “Think of Lewis and Clark. You would be considered healthy compared to what they went through.”

Well said. BUT they packed 4 oz of whiskey for each man for their journey!

Thought you would laugh. It was a good reminder. I’d thought of that myself the day before. The inspiration I mean, not the whiskey. Although, now that I think of it… kidding!

Aloha 😉

Alli

As a Father’s Day present, Ben and I decided to just take his training wheels off on Thurs and GO FOR IT right on our driveway. And so we practiced a bit Thurs and Sat (Fri was the great water gun war), hoping to surprise Daddy with a stellar first ride at Battle Point Park on Father’s Day. Sun was Dave’s first day off in three weeks, so we decided not to add angst to it by doing the very FIRST ride without wheels – I would handle that in private with Mr. Ben. (We had a very interesting time of it when we perhaps too ambitiously tried to take them off before he turned 4 while down at Mom and Richard’s. So we were a tad apprehensive. Sam took his wheels off at 4 yrs and 1 month old, and literally biked away down the hill as if it were no different for him. It was not the same for Ben, who had not had the same amount of regular practice – you have to really make a project of getting to a place conducive for biking with kids.) Anyway…this weekend Ben was just shy of 4 yrs and 1 month old, and so it was time to just do it.

We went to Battle Point Park yesterday afternoon for the big event. Sam on his bike, Ben on his. I had a cold and was feeling not-so-great. Ben biked down a few hills – pretty steep ones some of them – and did great. He flopped around on his bike for a bit on the steepest one, looking for a way to stop the bike and not finding it, just kind of leaned over, belly on his seat, legs flying behind until he came to a roll. It was pretty funny. Then we biked on the bike trail – 3 ft wide and gravelly. Lots of families out for a nice Father’s Day walk, kids and dogs in little jackets. We didn’t check with Dave first – we just took off. And what ensued is exactly what Dave knew would happen – it was a high-speed chase with me in hot pursuit, barely keeping up on the flat. On a grade…well…I was hoping for the best. We saw Dave far in the distance trying to close the gap with us by running across the park – he popped up and surprised us, all smiles. We were so elated to be out on wheels, doing fine. One half-mile down, one mile to go to circumnavigate the park.

It really went well and Ben was thrilled to be biking along. Until we came to a down-grade that crossed a little culvert thing over the pond. The path is about 6 ft wide there, no railings, and a steep dip into the pond on either side unless the brush stopped you. Across the culvert I spy a 10 yr old on a wide recumbent bike taking up half the room. Now Ben is an aware guy, and he would try to miss this guy if he could. So as I’m yelling “SLOW! COOOAAST!” I race to close the gap. Just as I reach him, he veers left to the edge of the culvert. But you never know if he’s being intentional (doing an S as he proudly showed me earlier) or about to take a nose dive. Sam was worried about giving him enough room so Sam veered right. They were both INCHES of going into the drink! I was hyperventilating as we came to a screeching halt on the other side of the recumbent biker. Moms were passing by wide-eyed – I tried to explain it was his first time without training wheels.

We decided we’d hit the playground next – finish up this last 1/2 mile tour of the park. Now it’s asphalt for this section. Ben is fast on the flat, on gravel. Put him on asphalt…I see a group of two men coming toward us and I yell “This guy needs a lot of room!” I yell this from as far away as I can with a sore throat, which is maybe 30 feet. Ben can close 20 ft in 2 seconds. They smile and say “Oh you’re doing great!” and don’t move! I blurt out “No – I mean, if he’s looking at you he’s going to HIT you!” Thankfully he passed by without clipping them and we made it to the playground. When we parked the bike, I kneeled down next to this impressive whirlwind and looked way up at his head, towering above me (I had kneeled way down) and saw his little hairs standing up in the wind, eyes bright, cheeks pink, big smile on. I rubbed his little chest and told him how great he did. He said “I want to do that again some MORE!”

We enjoyed a Father’s Day/birthday/training wheels off dinner at Doc’s and way too much dessert. A good day…I have no pictures of this event because it was such a whirlwind. But I hope this description gives you as sense of the fear and elation which accompanied the big day! Bravo, Big Ben. You are TOOOO much.

A Sam quote Dave just told me:

Dave – “Don’t lie around in an empty tub…time to get out.”

Sam – “It’s not empty. There are trillions of water atoms in here.”

HollyRamona - you dear, sweet hen. You were much loved by many. Rest in peace.

This is HollyRamona out for what turned out to be her last recess yesterday. The dear sweet hen had been in decline for months, but always managed to rebound a bit when we thought we’d said goodbye. Yesterday, though, she was falling asleep standing up. This is what she looked like, very regal. The past week or so she’d stand much like this and watch the other chickens scratching – she looked like a sweet little penguin, or maybe even an owl, standing guard. I am so thankful she passed peacefully early this morning.

Dear Factory of Sweet,

You will be much missed. Those who love animals will understand the special connection we have with some animals. Some are pets, and some become dear friends, and some even become examples of character traits we can all aspire to. You, sweet hen, were indeed a “factory of sweet” as Sam called you. Always gracious, never (ok, rarely) pecky, always regal and refined. Graceful and proud even on your last recess.

Love,
Alli, Sam and Ben, and Dave

This morning Sam said goodbye just before school. He was sad, even amidst all the excitement of bringing his guys home from school for a big water gun war. And Ben helped tuck you under a blanket of soft earth, topped by a stump. All chickens love stumps. Ben and I talked about you playing with Polly up in Heaven. Then Ben asked if your whole body was IN earth. I said yes. Then he wanted to know which part went to Heaven. I explained that the part which made you sweet, the part of you which is your character, went up into Heaven. “What is a character?” It’s a property of something, like gases on the planets have properties (Sam loves space stuff so Ben knows a little about gases, I think), water has properties (being liquid). So we all have properties. Hers was very sweet. Now we can enjoy thinking about integrating the young babies into the flock. And a water gun war which starts in about an hour!!!! I have the guns lined up, the hose ready, buckets filled, a table ready for 4 large pizzas, ice pops, goggles, snow saucers for shields (the moms are getting in on the war!) and the sun is shining for the first time in days. A beautiful morning.

On the way home from arming up for our super soaker water gun war on the last day of school (all boys in class invited), Sam said "I think this is the best day of my life. Mindstorms, Super Soaker, and water balloons. All in the same day."

Mom has been such a huge help the last couple days, diving right into the madness of two boys whatever that brings. Tonight she wrangled them in from an impromptu water gun war with the neighbor’s boy right at dinner time. The only reason she got Ben, undressed to the underwear, dried off and re-clothed is because he was shivering! His upper lip was still blue at dinner! Sam was soaked and cold, but going strong still – exhilarated with the power of the Super Soaker 🙂 Mom also did more Moss Out on the grass and tried to fend off the dreaded Archangel super-weed which grows no matter what you do to it. This invasive ground cover has one of our neighbors hyperventilating when she see it spreading, poor thing. Maybe we should load up the boys with chemicals in their water guns and have them hunt the ARCHANGEL???!!! Whooohaha haha haha….