Spring? It's all relative.

Three years ago, we were experiencing our first North Carolina spring. We got sunburned on St. Patrick's Day, picked daffodils and cherry blossom, and couldn't believe spring was really here to stay. After three years of Michigan springs, with heavy snow at Easter time and monochrome landscapes until late May, it seemed hard to believe. Three years later, here comes our first Colorado spring. Sunny days, bike riding, sunburned on St. Patrick's Day, and snow in late March.

Not only the weather has changed. Our changing back gardens signify our changing states. Michigan...woods, deer, mosquitoes. North Carolina...Crepe Myrtles, lush and green, more mosquitoes. Colorado...urban, dense, arid, no mosquitoes.

Things coming in threes. Lyla last got a new bike for her 4th birthday, over three years ago. We dug it out a couple of weeks ago and it was almost impossible for her to ride she was so tall. Bit hard to push down pedals when you're that tall. So, some online ordering and neighborhood kid positive peer pressure later...she's whizzing around the neighborhood.

I'd forgotten the freedom of bike riding. So much less effort and more speed than walking or running. We rode to lunch in under 10 minutes, comparable to driving really. And what must that feel like for a kid? She could go anywhere, just using the power of her two long, skinny legs. I'm torn between giving her the freedom and pushing down my fear. "Mama, can I ride on the road with Anya?". "OK, just watch out for cars." Watch out for cars? She's not going to watch out for cars, anymore than they will watch out for her. I've been there too, swinging into the neighborhood, thinking about what's for dinner, listening to your kid describe their day, reminding yourself to set the DVR for Game of Thrones. It's too terrifying to think about...but that wonderful, wind in your face, hair flying freedom is worth it.

Spring?



 I'm not sure what happened to winter and spring but it is full on summer around these parts. The blossom as come and gone, the daffodils are chopped back, we're looking at strawberries in a couple of weeks.  It's all very wrong and very lovely. Although the thought of August scares me slightly. We may have traded two months of not going outside because it's too cold for two months of panting in front of the AC.

St. Patricks Day was 85 (30 C) and sunny. Lyla was a passing-out-beads expert. Walking in a parade is so much more fun than watching from the sidelines!

And we're back to sundresses and smoothies at the Farmers Market on a Saturday morning. Life is good.

Yoga, Knitting, Kids

Me: (wrestling with five double pointed needles as I start the sleeve of Lyla's jumper) Arrgh
Q: Do you actually enjoy knitting, Kath? It seems to annoy you and then you never seem particularly happy with the result.
Me: (now even more irritated) That's not true, I love knitting and I think I'm getting quite a bit better and I'm usually pretty happy with what I make.
Q: Ummmm, ok.
Me: Bleurgh!! (throws knitting to one side, stomps off to get a glass of wine)

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Damn triangle pose


The next morning I grumpily drag myself to yoga, I'm stiff and out of shape, I struggle to get into the poses and I have to force myself not to just give up and walk out.

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We have decided to keep Lyla at the Schoolhouse for another year, but we are already thinking about the numerous kindergarten options (first world problems, which kindergarten should we choose!). I've been thinking a lot recently about the philosophy of the Schoolhouse, how they believe children learn best through play.  Their focus is on the process over the product.  The art projects she brings home are huge splodges of colour, scribbles, stories that are a stream of consciousness, everything is completely her.  There are no hand print turkeys, no Thanksgiving work sheets or anything that an adult would ooh and aah over.  It's all about her exploring, discovering, learning so much.  I don't think she has an end result in mind when she is doing these activities, or if she does, it is secondary to just the pure enjoyment of it.  The splashes of paint all over her, the mud squelches between her fingers, the crazy combination of sand and bubbles in the warm North Carolina November rain. 

How sad to lose that, to learn to sit in a little row of chairs, completing worksheets, listening to your teacher talk at you.  Only half an hour of music this week, budget cuts.  Alright, now we are going to paint turkeys, no not like that, use this colour instead.  We force the joy of the process out of our kids and out of ourselves. We are so focused on the end product and when we finally reach it, it is never good enough.  So here's to savouring the small, every day things, to meeting yourself exactly where you are, to enjoying the feel of soft wool in your hands, muscles stretching just a little bit farther, mud pies and little kids remaining little kids for just a bit longer.

Lyla at Four

I can't believe she is four, insert cliche about the inevitable passage of time, children getting older, I'm getting older too, I think I hear a Stevie Nicks song.  Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to write a little something about Lyla at four.  That's sort of the point of this sometimes blog, something to look back on and help us remember. 

I don't have a picture of this but Lyla at four is summed up for me by the image of her riding her bike ahead of us on the pavement around our neighbourhood.  Her helmet is on a bif skew-wiff, her leggings are covered in paint and mud, her calves are adorned with Strawberry Shortcake and Hello Kitty band-aids, and she is zooming off ahead of us, her long, skinny back wobbling from side to side like she's dancing.  We yell, "slow down, you're going to fast, BRAKE!!" and occasionally she listens and comes to a screeching halt, then she's off again, long legs all over the place.

This gives an idea, although it was taken after the cool weather hit, so the bruised legs aren't in view!

She can't get out of the car fast enough at school in the morning, "Morning Miss Tara, today is Annyuee's birthday and I'm going to make decorations for it at school, is Quinn here yet, I have my wellies on coz it's raining..." I don't know if there is ever a point at school when she stops talking.  She is so confident and easy-going. I'm having a hard time deciding if she actually still need a bit of babying sometimes or if I need to be able to still baby her sometimes.  She wolfs down lunch with glassy eyes then says, I think I'm ready for lie down with a podcast and I pick her up and get her warm milk and just hold her for a while. She can be such a little tomboy, racing around with the boys, getting covered in mud and sand, but then still wants to be a sparkly princess for Halloween.

As she gets older, home stops being her only influence, she has school teachers and other kids and yoga teachers and whole host of other people. I have a strong desire to be a "curling" parent, racing out in front of her, clearing away all the bumps.  Letting her navigate those bumps on her own, and giving her the right advice when she asks for it is the hardest thing I've ever done.

Summer Fun

Here's a bit of a photo dump of stuff we've been up to recently.  The end is approaching (drama queen!) much too fast so I'm trying to make every week full of fun stuff.

We went for a walk on our favourite trail.  It's amazing to remember that the first time we went there she was a tiny baby in a Baby Bjorn, she walked the whole thing without a single piggy-back ride for the first time.  We collected pocketfuls of flowers and got a bit rained on but it was a gorgeous day.  Damp and humid and the air smelled green and earthy.  We found wild strawberries too although they didn't taste that great.

We took a last trip to the Meijer Gardens and packed in playdates galore.

She did Bug Camp at the Nature Centre and seemed to really enjoy it.  It was maybe a little bit young for her although she fit the age range.  That year of school has been kind of amazing.  That and the extra year of life maybe! She seems so confident and curious, hope it lasts!

And we added two more fruits to our upick stash, blueberries and raspberries.  Blueberries are such a treat.  They are the only fruit or veg that I won't buy at the supermarket so we really only have them once a year.  Picking that first fat juicy one off the bush is one of my favourite things in life!  The little sour jobs in Meijer bear no resemblance at all.

List o' Summer I

So, how's that summer bucket list going? We've done our first fruit picking, strawberries.  They are lovely this year, a bit late it seems but sweet and juicy and gorgeous.

Isn't that colour just amazing?

We attempted strawberry jam for the third year in a row and still don't have it right, it's lovely but much more like strawberry syrup than jam, not enough pectin?

We made pretty lovely vanilla ice cream, although I don't know how anything with that much cream, eggs and sugar and an entire vanilla bean could be bad.  The custard looked weird and, of course, there were about a thousand steps but it is pretty fantastic.

We made dancing hoops and ankle bells

My video skills are truly excellent

We also went to Bookbug and bought a couple of chapter books.  I wasn't at all sure that she would be into them but she so is! We started off with this

I don't remember it being quite so grim, or maybe I'm just ultra sensitive in trying to shield her from anything vaguely violent or troubling.  I'm not even sure she knows what a gun IS. Anyway, she really loved it.  Real page turning stuff.  Maybe she's just so sick of Brown Bear Brown Bear and the Hungry Caterpillar! So now we are onto Winnie the Pooh which she seems very into as well, despite the archaic language "Pooh strolled a small spinney of larch trees".

Limbo

This winter seemed to go on forever, we were aching for some colour, the first tiny green leaves, blossom even?  Instead the pond remained stubbornly frozen.

There was sickness too, hi preschool!, colds that seemed to run into each other, noses that never stopped dripping, coughs that hacked, and the first tummy bug. Totally unprepared for that one. It turned her into a sleepy, floppy mess, she fell asleep on the couch in the middle of drawing a picture.

We ate pancakes on Pancake Day, although not the sort of pancakes she'd ever had before, thin, with lemon and sugar, what's not to like...

We went to the Meijer Gardens to try to convince ourselves it was spring...

And eventually the first dabs of colour appeared...first in a pair of sparkly shoes

And now summer is really here, the wonderful Michigan summer and our last one.  We don't know how much of it we'll see before we are off to the seasonless land of perpetual sunshine. So we will make the most of every day we have here, whether it's three more weeks or three more months.  So, here's the plan, the list o' summer, I'll take pic and write about every one...maybe.

• Go to the beach
• Pick strawberries
• Build a magnificent sandcastle
• Walk on the trail
• Make perfect, homemade, vanilla ice cream
• Pick blueberries
• Go to Chicago
• Make a summer dress or two
• Make a peach cake
• Make a strawberry pie
• Have a picnic in the back garden
• Paint
• Get ice cream from the ice cream truck
• Have a goodbye party
• Zoo camp
• Nature Center camp
• Eat local fruit and veg from the farmers market
• Eat dinner on the deck
• Make a hat
• Read a chapter book
• Er, that's it...