Things have changed since 1986 when I went to my high school prom. Dresses are shorter, heels are higher, and apparently it is now all the rage to execute a creative way to ask your date to go.
I like using my friend's big camera!
These are some of the ways Bella’s friends have been asked to prom:
Girls plus dates - although 40 of them were on the rented "party bus" together.
Her bedroom is filled with pink balloons and five red helium balloons float above, spelling the question, PROM? (He likes her a lot.)
You can see a range of dress and shoe choices here.
He uses car wax to write PROM? on the hood of her car (He likes her less.)
Better view of Bella's Taylor Swift up-doo.
He ties a little note to the collar of a chihuahua puppy (prom?) and leaves it outside the front entrance of school and texts her to come out and meet him. She comes out and only sees the puppy. (This really happened!)
What was Christian doing? Being not-so-patient and crawling around like a monkey.
They write a song and play and sing it in front of their classmates – this culminates in the presentation of roses to their prospective dates. (This is how Bella and her friend were asked.)
More of the group.
Very sweet. These teenagers have a lot of energy – I’m glad it’s being channeled in fun and creative ways.
Don't know what Bella's so embarassed about ME for - we all look like, well, like PARENTS!
There are 150+ kids with academic distinction (3.5 GPA or higher)?! This is going to take all night.
There are 78 valedictorians (4.0 or higher)?! I am proud of Bella for being a valedictorian, but this is going to take all night.
There are 30+ organizations giving away awards and scholarships tonight? Is every speaker going to take this opportunity to describe their organization like that rotary guy??? Is there any way for me to sneak out of this? THIS IS GOING TO TAKE ALL NIGHT.
Good thing I brought my knitting. And that I’m sitting far enough away that Bella can’t tell what my hands are doing.
Whew – at least Bella isn’t the only one wearing such a short dress.
Or such high heels.
I guess skinny pants are in for the guys – back to the ska look of the 80’s.
Oh! So THAT’s the guy that’s been texting Bella.
Hey, These kids are getting a lot of money! Did Bella even apply for these??
Okay, so the “scholar of scholars,” has the highest GPA in the class. *gasp* He took 14 Advanced Placement (AP) classes?! He got a 4 or higher on all his exams?! He’s already applied for a U.S. patent and he’s published in a scientific journal? Perfect SAT scores?! He’s going to Harvard? Well, no wonder Bella didn’t think she was Ivy League material.
Looks like most of the valedictorians are going to UC’s. Reminds me of when Dawkins told Bella how many kids were going to college from her graduating class: 22. Bella couldn’t believe her ears and assumed that Dawkins meant 22 kids were going to UC’s. Not so, 22 graduating seniors are planning to attend a four-year educational institution next year from the high school Bella almost went to.
Perfect Attendance: Should we really be rewarding kids who have not missed a day of school in four years? Doesn’t that just mean they’ve been going to school sick?
I’d better find somebody to hang out with Christian for Bella’s graduation. No way he can gracefully survive hours of sitting on the bleachers in such tight quarters.
Sorry for the pain that the post on Christian’s accident may have caused you. I didn’t consider the alarm I would cause in other people’s minds in the midst of my own worry.
Thank you for all the concerned emails and phone calls!
Christian is doing great. Back to normal except that he has stitches and a bandage on his forehead. And that both Chad and I shuddered when Christian did his characteristic leap off the third concrete step on our outside staircase yesterday.
The stitches come out next Monday. While it’s not supposed to hurt, I can imagine that Christian will be very unhappy to be in a doctor’s office again so soon. It’s been suggested that I save him the trauma and just take them out myself while he’s sleeping. I’m still trying to convince Chad of the logic in that one.
To put a more light-hearted image in your mind…
Here’s an adorable youtube video that was sent to me by both my sister and brother in the same week. It’s of a little guy (I’m guessing Korean) playing the ukulele. He doesn’t know the words but he sure rocks the song anyway! There are more of him where that came from, and all are pretty entertaining.
Speaking of which, Chad and I talked about getting a ukulele for Christian for his birthday; it’s been recommended as an easy first instrument and they’re available at Guitar Center for $40. I don’t think we’d mentioned our plans to anybody, but as synchronicity so happens, we just got an email from Gampi that he’s getting a new ukulele and that he’d like to pass his old one on to Christian. Sweet!
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And here’s another of Christian (pre-head accident) jammin’ on his dad’s old guitar neck.
We made our first emergency room trip with Christian today.
Is there nothing worse than your own child being hurt? I can’t think of anything that would hurt me more.
I’ve been at the La Leche League conference in Newport this whole weekend. This afternoon, just pleasantly stuffed from a Mexican-themed buffet lunch, and heading into a seminar about the rise of allergies in today’s children, I got this alarming text from my daughter:
Just got a call from the
sheriff’s office. Nothing
serious but Christian
bumped his head. He’s at
the mission hospital
I was puzzled and worried and tried calling both our home phone and her cell phone with no response.
I tried to decipher the non-information in the text.
Did “nothing serious” mean that Chad was just being careful to check a bump? (When I’d led bike tours, every time a fall involved a child’s head, I’d been required to take that child to the hospital or clinic.)
Why did the sheriff call and not Chad? Was Chad riding with the sheriff? That meant it wasn’t serious enough for an ambulance. Perhaps there had been a tumble off the bike? I knew Chad was careful about using helmets while riding.
By the time I’d reached Bella another 15 minutes had gone by. At which time, I’d decided that whether or not it was “not serious” I needed to ditch the $100 conference and drive down to the hospital. I reasoned that Christian would be frantic and would need me for any situation.
Had I known that Chad had called 911 from the playground, and that his shirt was covered in Christian’s blood, I might have left sooner.
As it was, Christian had fallen from a playground ladder and busted open the top of his forehead in two places. Due to the amount of blood involved (I know the head bleeds a lot) and also due to the fact that Chad spied what he horribly suspected was the white of bone, he regretted having left his cell phone in the car and had a stranger call 911, while he staunched the blood flow with somebody’s t-shirt.
Is your stomach lurching yet? That’s how mine has been all day.
Christian could not be prised from his dad’s shoulder, so Chad was strapped down to a gurney in the ambulance and away they whizzed. Apparently Christian was given some mild sedatives, but still only had brief moments of calm during the ride. Poor guy, he needed his mama.
I arrived at the hospital, worried, but not frantic,
until
I heard the operator refer to Christian as “the little guy who came in with facial injuries in cat scan room 2.” That’s when I basically went to the brink of tears and my knees went wobbly.
Dear God.
In that extremely frustrating bureaucratic way of large institutions, it was time-consuming and hard to locate Christian. He was in cat scan room 2 in the end. And finally Chad walked in to get me where I’d stopped for more directions. Too scary to see the dried blood on Chad’s shoulder and all over his shirt.
I saw poor Christian. He’d been fully sedated because he was too upset to hold still for the cat scan. He’d been given shot after shot, but in the end the anesthesiologist was called in for the job. His shirt was off and he was lying on the table looking like a little little boy in front of a big machine.
You know what I really hate? I really hate seeing my son’s eyes taped shut.
We, the parents, were ushered to the waiting room. The plastic surgeon was on her way.
While we were waiting we were comforted by the chaplain, whose comfort was easier to accept once we’d heard that the cat scan of his head and spine was ALL TOTALLY FINE.
We also accepted her material comfort by way of sandwiches and juice. Thank you, Chaplain, for thinking of our bodily needs. (Chad was in sore need of caloric intake.)
Time passed. I don’t know how long.
The plastic surgeon, a bustling beaming woman of indeterminate race, came in to reassure us.
Everything was fine, fine, fine.
For a moment we thought we were going to have to stay the night. But that moment passed. Christian was carried in to us. He began to whimper.
I was very grateful at that moment that he wasn’t weaned. Nothing is better comfort than breastfeeding. He nursed and nursed. And then he nursed some more. I had an involved conversation with the nurse about the benefits of extended breastfeeding.
We came home. He perked up when his Aunt Corrina came by with an inflatable light saber and a Darth Vader balloon. We had pho for dinner. And he fell asleep early on his dad’s shoulder while listening to dad read Dr. Seuss books.
Everything is okay. Everything is okay. Everything is okay.
The hospital provided us with before and after pictures.
Chad and I watch movies. This year I’ve resolved to keep better track of my movies as I am often asked for recommendations. Or at least, I enjoy giving recommendations. Check the tab above to see lists of my previously watched movies.
This British flick is a dramatization of the moment the all the female workers at the Ford factory in Dagenham, England, decided that working at half the pay as men and being called unskilled was for the birds. Led by spunky and surprised Rita O’Grady (the young mom of two never imagined she’d be a community organizer), the women take first timid and then more determined steps to hold their ground – in fact, their unanticipated strike shuts the factory down! It’s a bit shivery to think about how recently women were treated so second class. The story begins two days after my birthday in May 1968. Sally Hawkins is perfect as O’Grady (she was the lead in another good one, Happy-Go-Lucky) and you’ll feel like you know more about history when you’re done. Got 7.1/10 at IMDb. I give it a B+.
This movie was pretty much panned by the critics (4.9/10 at IMBb), and I give it a C. But there was something interesting going on, in terms of the cinematic telling of a fairy tale. It doesn’t nail it like The Princess Bride, or even like Bella’s pre-teen obsession, The Tenth Kingdom, but it does attempt a certain stylization of fantasy – just promises more than it can deliver. The director relies too heavily on stereotypes and the relationships are never developed. The storyline is good, clever even. Watchable, but just barely. I’m waiting for another good Neil Gaiman story to be told (Neverworld, please!)
I woke up this morning to dozens of birthday wishes in my mailbox, some from folks I haven’t seen in over twenty years. That is the strangeness and hilarity this side of facebook.
My parents sang me Happy Birthday as a memo and sent the file to me. The best bit is at the end, where my mother snaps at my dad in Korean, GOOD GRIEF – you’re covering the microphone!
I used to have trouble remembering how old I was turning, which was complicated by the fact that Bella liked to tease me by adding a year or so to my age when ever it was mentioned. That trouble is gone since Christian was born two days before I turned 40. His age plus 40 = 43.
Thank you for thinking of me. I’ll continue posting my thoughts throughout the day (a questionable practice, I know).
On the other hand, we’re about to leave to for our last Earthroots class of the spring session, and then it’s off to Korean food for dinner. So, I may not be back until after dinner…
Yesterday you received what may be the best birthday card you’ll ever get. It’s a homemade Star Wars-themed card from your buddy, Aiden. It’s a keeper. (Although he also loves the Strawberry Shortcake card from Anna, which plays a rousing, “Have a berry happy birthday” every time it is opened.)
The cover of Aiden's heartfelt card. Do YOU recognize Darth Vader and Yoda? Christian sure did.
The inside of the card featured Chewbacca, a stormtrooper, R2D2, and C3PO.
Visiting the hot springs at Casper's earlier this fall.
So, after that last laundry list of chores I posted, my sister expressed sisterly exasperation about 1) my lack of posting and 2) my current limited range of topics.
Sorry, All, life’s been getting in the way. I’m still here stuffing as much silly fun into my life as I can manage, but also trying to organize my household. It’s hard to balance the two – for me.
Watching tadpoles at O'Neill Regional Park.
I’ve really been loving our Earthroots class. Seriously, if you live in south Orange County and you have kids, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you check out Earthroots. (Yes, I work for them.) (No, I’m not getting paid or any other perks to say how much I love them.)
My reasoning goes like this: According to the guy from Simplicity Parenting, our young-uns have something like four times the amount of neural activity going on than the average adult, which is why kids are such mind-boggling information sponges and can learn new languages, recite arcane details from last summer’s vacation, etc, etc.
This is an enormous responsibility for parents; we need to surround our kids with plenty of healthy stimulation, but where to find that?
OUTDOORS.
And not just outdoors, but as wild as outdoors as possible. That way kids get maximum stimulation on every sensory front, but without all the assault (and battery) of toxic plastics, harsh colors, and canned sounds. Let’s face it, no indoors room, no matter how well-decorated or well-stocked, can ever match the infinite variety and beauty of a simple wooded hill or pond.
So, I believe that you raise smarter, healthier kids when you have them spend time outdoors as much as possible. Every day if possible. But hey, even I don’t always manage that. Today, I’ve only gone down to the garage once. Yep, that’s been our only trip outdoors today. But tomorrow is Earthroots and I know I’ll get a good five solid hours in the Cleveland National Forest and that we’ll be outdoors all day.
Building a fire in the cob oven, in which we roasted veggies and baked a vegan, gluten-free pizza!
I also find that the homeschool field school program, which meets at a new location every week, really stretches me to explore new adventures. Last week our class spent the day bicycling around the Newport Back Bay. Despite my outdoors inclination, I’d never even visited the Back Bay until Earthroots, much less biked around it. It was really uphill for me to get there too, because normally Chad deals with all the bike stuff, the car stuff, the direction stuff, and the toting the baby around stuff.
In a nutshell, I got lost, I couldn’t get the baby bike seat on, and then I was completely freaked about biking on Chad’s bike for the first time… and riding with Christian on the bike for the first time. And this is coming from somebody who has been on 700+ mile bike rides and has even lead bike rides through France and New England. What I’m saying is that, if somebody like me is stumped by getting outdoors, I can sure appreciate that it would be hard for other moms who aren’t even that comfortable camping, hiking, or peeing in the woods.
But! I made it there, I met the group (late), and I had one of the my best days of 2011 so far. There was one other mom, three instructors, and only two other kids. Those two kids were energetic boys on dirt bikes and so we were not limited by speed or even our group size. We had plenty of time to cycle leisurely, watch people track the endangered clapper rail (a bird), climb trees, and search for good lunch spots.
In fact, we past what I though was our day’s destination, in the first hour of class, and we just kept on going.
At one point we paused along the shore and took a short explore walk. I was looking down into the reeds and I saw the cutest wild animal I have ever seen: a wild weasel.
It was a gorgeous rust red, about the length of my forearm, with a jet black tail tip, and so graceful and ethereal that I hardly believed I was seeing a real animal. That was awesome, not to mention that I now have a great touchstone image for lucid dreaming (more on that later).
I don’t know if it’s because we are just out early (we start at 9 am) or it’s just that we are out so regularly, but I’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife in class, including whales (!!!) sea lions, eels (!!), and many birds of prey, like the osprey.
P.S. The video below is of Anna and Christian working on their fire-making skills.
My siblings arrive for a visit in approximately seven weeks.
I’ve decided to try and complete one large onerous organizational household task each week until then.
It’s not so much that I care what they think about my house (they know me too well), so much as I am trying to quell a rising sense of panic when I think of how UNfunctional my already too cluttered home will become with an additional five people here. It’s a desperate attempt at some much needed de-cluttering.
Here’s the list. I am planning to spend one week on each project. I am determined to de-clutter, organize, and clean each of the following areas:
1. Files (top of cabinet, which currently is a slippery slope of papers and envelopes needing filing)
2. Files (inside – whew, get worried just thinking about this one)
3. Dresser Top (accomplished this one already – woo hoo!)
4. Linen Closet (almost finished here – wow.)
5. Clothes in closet (got a good start here, but may have to include the craft projects which also live in the closet)
6. Under Bed (I think I will actually have to lift the cal king mattress and put it aside to tackle this job properly. So, perhaps husband should be around.)
7. Bookshelves (There are just two – but both need weeding and serious dusting.)
8. Photos (I’m alright if I don’t get to this one.)
Okay, who needs three brown bags of assorted hangers then? Selling an Elna sewing machine for $25. Giving away an espresso machine/coffee maker. Let me know – otherwise going to hit freecycle and craigslist.
So far, I’m ahead of schedule. If I can clear my desk some, I’ll post pictures too.
P.S.
This is a pic of my desk earlier this year - it can get pretty bad...
We’re squeezing in one more late spring/early summer playgroup cycle before we break until autumn. That completes our third year!
As per usual, most of the handplays and poems come from Betty Jones’ A Child’s Seasonal Treasury plus a song from Elisabeth Lebret’s Pentatonic Songs. The story will be a continuation of The Root Children. The craft will be birthday crowns (with lovely 100% wool felt from purl soho – yes, it costs $56/yard.) Our opening songs and closing songs remain the same and can be found in earlier posts.
The book discussion will be The Happiness Project. I wanted a shorter, lighter book, since in September we are going to tackle Jon Young’s Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature. On our pending bookshelf:Â soule mama’s Handmade Home, Boys Alive!, and another parenting book that-I-will-post-the-name-of-when-I-remember.
Seashell Song by Betty Jones
Can you hear the sea’s song in this little shell? (Cup hands and place in lap.)
Hold it up to your ear and listen, listen well. (Put cupped hands to ear; listen.)
Shish-shoo-ooh.
The seashell’s song is from the silvery sea, (Lower cupped hands, sway them side to side.)
Where the waves roll in, wild and free. (Make rolling wave motion with hands, moving in, then out.)
Shish-shoo-ooh!
There upon the sand, the lovely seashell lies, (Cup hands and place in lap.)
Until a little child finds this seaside prize. (Cup hands to heart.)
Shish-shoo-ooh!
So guard this shell, its life-long song, (Cross hands at heart.)
And remember the home where it belongs
Shish-shoo-ooh! (Cup hands around mouth and voice loudly.)
Fairy Ring
Round about, round about in a fairy ring, (sashaying around circle)
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing! (go to center)
Trip and go, to and fro, over the grass we go (sashaying around circle)
All about in and out, for our Flower Queen/King. (go to center)
Numbers
In my head count windows seven,
1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
Point each way, that makes six,
1,2,3,4,5,6.
See my fingers five
1,2,3,4,5.
Limbs I have four,
1,2,3,4.
Head, heart, hands, they are three,
1,2,3.
I, you, are two,
1,2.
One,
Done.
My Horses
My white horses like to step
Peaceful and slow,
Over mountains, through valleys,
So upright they go.
My brown horses merrily
Trot in the sun,
With their silver hoofs beating
The ground as they run.
My black horses gallop
With courage around,
And they throw up their heads
As they hammer the ground.
(Children enact horse movements described, moving in one directon around circle. Repeat in opposite direction.)
At the Beach by Betty Jones
Build a sand castle to the sky, Pat air; move hands upward.
Make a moat so when the waves roll by Make a big circle with arms in front of body.
The castle will stand with its sandy wall Hold arms upright with fingertips touching.
‘Til high tide comes and then it will fall. Fingers flutter at rooftop, and slowly flutter downward to lap.
Children’s Prayer Music by Elisabeth Lebret
The golden sun, so great and bright
Warms the world with all its might.
It makes the dark earth green and fair
And tends each thing with ceaseless care.
It shines on blossom, stone, and tree
On bird and beast, on you and me!
Oh, may each deed throughout the day,
May ev’rything we do and say
Be bright and strong and true,
Oh! Golden sun! Like you!
Sunshine Fairies
We are the sunshine fairies
And with our sparks of light
We shimmer and glimmer in the air
Hugging flowers with colors bright!
Begin standing in a circle; children hold out their arms at their sides and turn in place clockwise as fairies. Stop, and flick fingers as sparks. Hold out arms at sides, flutter fingers, then turn in place counterclockwise; hug self and rub hands up and down over folded arms.
