Sweet Boy

Finn has always been a kind kid--until recently. The past 5 months or so have been filled with over-reactions to minor personal fouls from siblings, me, Dad, whoever. I've been explaining to him that if he smacks Madie after she wronged him, he's the one who gets in trouble, regardless of what she did, because he decided to punish her instead of leaving it to me or working it out with her. So, she got hers from him, and now he gets his from me. Lucky kid.

My Christmas wish is that this will sink in before February.

But every once in a while a little piece of Old Finn bobs up to the surface and you get moments like yesterday. 

On Friday our neighbors (a couple) put down their 12-year-old dog. It was very difficult for them. I mentioned this at breakfast on Saturday morning and suggested that we make some "Sorry" cards for them. 

It was snowing in the morning, but was turning to rain some time during the day, so the kids went out with Mike to work on the snow fort in the morning to get some play time in before it got too slushy. I had been lying down with Petya and had fallen asleep. I woke to Finn yelling for Dad to come help him write something out. I got up and found him in the house with a piece of paper shouting out the door. 

"Finn, what do you need help with?"

"Oh, good! Come here." He took me into his bedroom. "How do you spell sorry?" 

I sound the word out slowly while he spells it on a piece of paper. He signed his name and drew a black stick-figure dog. "Is this for Mike and Amy?" 

"Yeah, it's a sorry card. I'm gonna make another one." After two or three cards, he ran into the living room and we began redressing him for outside. I saw one of our neighbors was out in the yard with Mike already. They were chatting while Madie went down the snow fort on a little blue sled. I found out our neighbor had been feeling down (of course) and had come over when she'd seen the kids in the yard. She had given them a couple of sleds. She spent a good while out there before her husband also came over to chat. They appreciated the cards very much. 

That evening Finn came out of bed with two more cards. "Can you two write 'Thank you for the sleds' on these? Here Mum, but Dad can write on one, too."

The sleds are the flexible kind with the handle in the front you pull up between your legs. Though I'm sure, with the accurate depictions, you did not need an explanation.

Gingerbread Houses

This past week has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work. Monday brought a snowstorm that kept Madie home from school, but before the kids could get out to play, it started raining. Our driveway has been a lethal threat since.

We made gingerbread houses for family night on Monday. The kids always love it, and always pile the decorations on so thick that when you stand up the pieces to put them together, half the candy falls off.

"You guys, if it's not touching the icing, it's not going to stay put."

Whatever. They just eat them anyway.

This is Madie's I-AM-smiling face.

I don't know what face this is. I guess it's an effort to look nonchalant? Like, "Oh, I just made this house. By myself. Well, my mum helped a little."

Madie has memorized the chorus to Jingle Bells on the piano. She says she now wants to learn a "fancy" version. I told her we could do that, but we might not get to it until after Christmas. She's cool with that. She just likes to play songs she knows well. 

But hear this: she's also been after me to teach her more (major) scales on the piano. I told her we would, once she had C, F, and G mastered. (I was planning on it after New Years.) She took it upon herself to just learn all the other major scales (starting on white keys only--she hasn't realized you can play it starting on any key). She can now play A, B, C, D, E, F, and G major scales. THEN--and here the bragging is really ridiculous--she taught herself to transpose the chorus of Jingle Bells into all those keys. Good grief. What next. She basically teaches herself.

This is not the version she has learned, but it is an aspiration. Perhaps next year.

Tuesday was gorgeous. I was downtown alone, for some reason, and saw this great sign. It's not until Friday, but it's never too early to break out the Festivus pole.

Madie was sick on Friday, so she stayed home from school. Some sort of stomach bug. Petya had it a little, too, on Wednesday. Today (or I guess, yesterday. Saturday is what I mean.) she still wasn't 100%, but hopefully tomorrow will be a marked improvement.

All this time home and inside has meant breaking out the marble run. The kids love it, even though it leads to some stress-induced arguments. It's always good for at least a few minutes.

He gets it from Dad.

Conversation of 12/7/2016

Dad: One of you please get the forks and one of you get the napkins.

Me: Oh, there aren't any napkins. There are a bunch in the dryer, but I haven't brought them up yet.

Finn: Thanks, Mum.

Dad and I look at each other.

Me in my sweetest Mumma voice: Thanks for what, dearest?

Finn: For washing the napkins and leaving them downstairs.

Dad and I look at each other again. I roll my eyes.

Mike in a whisper: I don't think we taught him sarcasm, I think he just has it innately.

Story Time

I can't remember what day exactly, but after I had worked out, we decided it was too nice outside to just go straight to the car. So Finn and Petya hit the playground with me. 

Finn is a good pumper. Petya is even picking it up a little from watching him.

It was fun to just run around with them. Usually when I'm at the playground, we're with friends, so I sit and chat while they play. I love that too, but it's good to just run around with them and do what they want.

In the past Finn has felt lukewarm about story time at the library. He likes seeing his friends, but if they're not there, he's often not interested. Recently though, he has really been looking forward to it, especially the little craft. This week, after realizing it was almost time to head to the library, he exclaimed, "I wonder what they'll make this time!"

Finn shares a Calvin and Hobbes book with Logan. The two of them were giggling in this corner for about 10 minutes after story time.

With Wondering Awe

With wondering awe, the wisemen saw 

The star in heaven springing, 

And with delight in peaceful night,

They heard the angels singing: 

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna to his name!

I'm sitting here with Mike right now. He's studying for a certification. I'm writing up the program for Christmas day. I have all of the special musical numbers worked out and some of the reading parts, but none of the congregational hymns, so I ran an idea past Mike.

"I think right before we read that part, we'll have the congregation sing With Wondering Awe, because the last couple of verses say this: 

And still is found, the world around,

The old and hallowed story,

And still is sung in every tongue

The angels' song of glory...

The heav'nly star its rays afar

On ev'ry land is throwing,

And shall not cease till--"

 "I've never even heard of this song."

I gape at him. 

"What? I don't think I've ever sung this before, ever." 

"Mike, we sang this last year. Not just the congregation, but it was a song the choir performed last year. We practiced it. The whole theme of our program last year was "Wondrous Little Stranger." I point to the phrase in the second verse. 

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Sorry..."

This is one of those, "You never even notice me anymore!" moments.

Thanksgiving Break Week

We spent yesterday up to Gram's. It's always fun visiting with Grammy and Alexa. It's even more fun teasing Alexa and Sean. I was surprised Uncle Shawn didn't join us, but Gram said he did spend Thanksgiving evening with them. 

They held off on the traditional feast until we came, which wasn't my intention, but we enjoyed a second turkey dinner! 

We walked to Bob's Hardware, always a hit. Petya wanted to walk like the big kids--she walked the whole way back.

The day before we went up to Gram's was wet and gray, and we knew the next day we'd be spending 4 hours in the car, so Mike met us at the Y after work to run around a bit. Petya loves to sit on the trucks and scoot herself all over the floor. She's getting pretty big for them--not that they were ever meant for someone to sit on them. 

We took family pictures back in October, but, as is typical, Madie spent the time fooling around and pulling faces. I promised Mike I would try to get a shot of her before it snowed. With no school, this was the week to do it. I asked her to go pick something out to wear and she pouted. I told her to pick long-sleeved so she'd be warm (our other pictures were taken outside, so I was looking for continuity--in November). We couldn't agree on anything, so I finally just pulled out this short-sleeved dress and she blanched.

"Just remember, the less you fool around, the faster we'll get inside."

After 10 minutes I knew I had some good ones. She was happy to take the dress off and get back into pajamas. And I was happy to have a decent picture of her.

Mike took Finn canoeing and fishing this week. He has his license, but he's only been able to get out a few times all year, and they haven't caught anything yet. Still, Finn loves to go out on the boat. 

Madie refuses to get in "until we get a boat without duct tape."

We've spent the week teaching the kids a couple of new games. I think I mentioned in the last post chess and Chinese checkers. They kept complaining regular checkers is more fun. ?? Who likes checkers? Is there a more boring game?

I think it was good for P to join in. She didn't really play, she just moved her pieces around in her corner, but she did learn to wait her turn. Both Chinese checkers and chess have really helped Madie to think a couple of moves ahead.

Tomorrow is back to the grind.

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Thanksgiving 2016

Ahhh, the kick-off to the holiday season. And what a way to get it started! It makes you happy to be a New Worlder. (Canada gets it.)

Thanksgiving in Maine is even better, because it starts on Tuesday evening. Pie Night at the church. It's a beautiful thing. Pies pies pies. This year, I decided I would pull a MariLou and make a pie for everyone in my family. I thought I'd make some of them for Pie Night and some for Thanksgiving. So I asked Mike what he wanted and he lead with "Boston cream pie," followed by, "or that strawberry pie Grammy made a while back. That was amazing." So, a layer cake or a pie made from November (i.e. tasteless) strawberries. Thanks. The kids asked for an Oreo pie. I made the Boston cream and the Oreo pie (which my kids didn't like) and a sausage pie. Thankfully they were all eaten. Next year I think I'll just make one or two simple pies for Pie Night and the rest on Thanksgiving.

The remains of a million blueberries.

Last night I made our pies, a lime cheese pie and pumpkin. I also prepped the fruit for the fruit bowl. I was prepared for doing Thanksgiving like I remember my mum doing Thanksgiving: getting up at 5:30 or 6, setting up the table with the fruit bowl, drinks, and even deviled eggs until I realized we had no mayonnaise. Then setting to work, Mike peeling, me cooking, non-stop until 2 pm when we would sit to a feast and subsequently crawl to the couch/bed/dog bed where we could sleep off the tryptophan.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions in my parents' home was breakfast/brunch. It was a large fruit basket filled with pears, oranges, bananas, grapes, nuts, apples, and a big bowl of sherbet punch and a platter of deviled eggs. This being our first Thanksgiving at home, I was excited to do the same for my kids--it was a bigger hit than I thought. Even Madie (my picky eater) enjoyed it!

As it turned out, I had large stretches of nothing. I did get up early, and I'm glad because I had left the kitchen a wreck from the night before, so I cleaned up and set up the table. But when I turned to decide what to do next, I realized, I couldn't do much for a few hours. I didn't really start doing anything until 11. We did end up eating a little later than I anticipated--3:40 or so--but it wasn't bad.

When they weren't busy cracking nuts, the kids spent the majority of their time in the basement learning chess. They've been asking to learn, and Mike finally gave in. He taught them checkers and then Chinese checkers a couple weeks ago and they have loved it. Checkers is especially nice since they can play it themselves with no "advisors." Every day this week they have gone down to play checkers--Finn and Madie will keep busy at it for an hour or more! 

At the beginning of the chess lesson today, I overheard Mike trying to get them calm enough to explain the rules. They were both very excited he had agreed to teach them. Finn asked, "Do you get to jump people and take their pieces?" Mike responded with a yes, to which Finn exclaimed, "Yes! I love this game!"

Not everyone was playing chess. Obviously, these two were at a rave and just about passed out from the excitement.

While the turkey was roasting, I took the kids out to gather clippings and trimmings for some wreaths. We were out for maybe 15 minutes, but they loved it. They kept saying, "This is so much fun! I love this! This is a great Thanksgiving activity!" I'm glad, because Madie especially was not very happy to learn we had decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and go up to my grandmother's on Saturday instead. She was set for a dull day, indeed.

After we had plated the turkey and used what we needed of the drippings for gravy, I prepped Elvis' Thanksgiving dinner.

He is always extra good when he gets a special treat. He knows we'll make him start over if he jumps before he's told.

Haha!

Madie always groans when we light candles to eat. I'm not exactly sure why, but it makes her the only child I know who doesn't like eating by candlelight. Maybe it started after I told her the story of Kaitlyn melting her ear almost off when her hair caught fire at Christmas Eve when she was a kid. I don't know.

Finn told me, not for the first time this week, he was thankful for "friends and lots of toys to give to them, because we have too many toys." Amen, Son. 

I thought for a while of dressing up--I like to dress up for occasions like this, but often I don't just out of convenience. Obviously, convenience won out again this year.

After dinner we went for a flashlit stroll through the woods. Finn was interested in going at first, but as soon as we started he asked how long we would be. I said not long, and he suggested that we walk until we come to the "rocky path, then turn back." That "rocky path" is a gravel road, big enough for two cars to carefully pass, and meticulously maintained by the club groundskeeper. We walked all the way down that road to the club house that overlooks the ocean. There we turned off our lights and let our eyes adjust. Madie was particularly enthralled with this. She was amazed that our eyes could actually work fairly well in the dark. She kept telling me about all the colors in the sky. "I see green and purple and gold." Mike and I  agreed on the description "overcast," but to each her own. 

When we spotted our house lights from the woods, Finn--who, at 5 minutes in, told us (not whining, just informing) he was tired and hungry and thirsty--added to his gratitude. "You know what I'm thankful for? Our house. I'm really glad we don't have to live outside in a cave." Again, man, I'm with you.

When we returned it was pie time, then Harry Potter and baths and a final game of chess. Finn and Mike played downstairs and I asked Madie if she wanted to play against me on the tablet. "Oh! Sure! That'll be fun! You know how to play?" 

"Yes, I know how to play." After the game, the 7-year-old novice told me, "Oh, man! You know,  you were good. You were better than I thought you'd be." Thanks, Madie. You're a great coach.

Look at this face?