Of cabbages and kings!

This week was the Medieval fair, and indeed,:

"The time has come...

[the family said],

to talk of many things. 

Of shoes--and ships--

and sealing wax--

of cabbages and kings."

[And while the sea is boiling hot,

Oh! -Hear the mermaids sing!]

-Lewis Carroll The Walrus and the Carpenter

Slice a cabbage the most thinly or
"plummet" (a.k.a. pummel) the opponent to win.

After chasing knights down, sometimes one is just speechless,

OR must undertake a quest of their own.

Presenting: Sirs Cristopher and Connor.

Baby "dragons" require great gentleness

That mermaid gave her a shell!

["O Children," said the Parents,]
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
[They're snoring, every one.]

Happy birthday to my maniac man on the move!

Dear Cris,

What an important year it has been! You my dear are learning so many things like how to unlock the secrets of letters and to have big aspirations, such as being a practicing ninja when you are 100. On your first day of kindergarten your biggest aspiration was to learn to be a spy. I have no doubt that you could have physically done it, you would have already engineered a pathway to the moon.

You have left the shadow of babyhood behind and now stand straight like a knocked bow string. You can still curl yourself into my lap, barely, but mostly I spend time looking at the back of your head as you dash to complete your next brilliant idea. You push ahead past naysayers, dream droppers, and road blockers, and sometimes even advice givers. Sometimes, sadly, even when that well wisher is me.

You take the world at full throttle and are utterly captivated by it. And you create curious and marvelous things- a periscope out of a rain gutter that stretches in a tree over our back fence (and thankfully wasn't quite long enough to reach the power lines above), custom holsters, trap doors, booby traps, propellers, catapults, bridges.

You have spunk, in abundance, and frequently lead the dance raves or the party, test your boundaries, and, completely shocking to me, even occasionally moon me. Your favorite things are bold and brassy, so it was completely fitting when you begged to join band this year to play trumpet. You were completely undaunted at being the youngest student that has ever been in the program. Yet you had to learn some valuable lessons about the power of persistence, team work, and humility. Keep coming back to those.

I hope you will continue to be undaunted by learning or paradigms of knowledge and know that it is awesome to keep learning about cosmology, and meteorology, and Gaelic, and knighthood- right now- because they are interesting to you and because only through our questions can we unlock the world.

I hope that you will let this world keep spinning you around and never ask to get off until the ride has come to a complete stop.

I hope that you will remember just how much love you have to give out from that very big, all be it, very crazy, heart of yours.

We love you so much.
X-O-X-O

Mom

Happy birthday Connor!

I know I say it every time, but so hard to believe that this week Connor turned four. Here is a photo book I made for him that showcases some of our silliness!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Yes Mother and the Milk Mischief

"Yes, Mother!" It is a lament, dripping with sarcasm, that is usually uttered by Connor whenever he is annoyed at what I have asked him to do. But I have decided I am also trying to make this my new parenting mantra. I want to be a "yes" mother. Not because I think that my kids should be able to have a carte blanche to do anything they want, but because I feel as parents, and as a society, we spend a heck of a lot of time and energy stiffeling kids' beautiful enthusiasm by attempting to force them to behave "properly"; to not embarass us. Don't make a mess. Don't go too fast. Don't take that chance. Don't eat that. How many times have I told you...

In the photography class I have been taking one of the prompts was to photograph a mess. One day sitting next to the boys, while my out of town relatives were visiting, they started to blow bubbles in their milk. I caught myself about to say "Don't..."this is embarassing" and then I stopped. I looked at those sparkles and shimmers. How beautifully they stuck and stacked together. I thought about how enticing and fun that was to do as a child- even when we got caught.

I didn't really care what the others thought. In fact, perhaps I changed my mind, just because of what they might have thought. Because of the many things I never got to do. Because of the many things kids never get to do, mostly for inane reasons having merely to do with inconveniencing grown-ups. As so wisely stated in The Little Prince by Antoine Saint Exupery, Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des explications. (Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.) So tiresome.

But this was a mess. A mess in the making. A beautiful mess. A silly-fun-giggle-till you fall over-kind of mess. A memory making kind of mess. So instead I grabbed my camera and I said, "Do it again". They delightfully obliged. These are now two of my favorite photographs of all time.

 

One of my favorite graduate education professors, Dr. Kathryn Castle, once said, "you know a child is most able to learn and having fun when they are so intent on doing something that doing that thing becomes more important then the risk of getting caught". Indeed. 

So here are some things I'm trying to more consciously say yes to:
-To slowing down
-To going fast
-To doing it again and again and again
-To experiments
-To inventions
-To recipes
-To messes
-To mistakes
-To being loud
-To acting our age
-To making a scene
-To being seen
-To seeing
-To being heard
-To hearing

So this is what happens when you have brothers...

You get to be a Zombie. You have to eat brains. You are given the opportunity of being re-homed. You also live on a racetrack. You have tire marks on your head. Frequently you have to duck to avoid flying arrows and other projectiles of war. The world is loud. The world is fast.

On the other hand, you have ninja powers. You will enjoy mud pies. Our home now revolves around you. You live in a castle and wear many crowns. You will have knights who will fiercely protect you. Already you are rolling over to keep up with the action. This world is boisterous. It has momentum.

You might get to be the elf princess, but you will also be a dragon slayer.

You are adored. Every toot is esteemed. We compose anthems in your name- like Joshua you fight battles (of Calico). You know the songs. You know the music. You're a rock star.

You will NEVER be bored.

Your world will be boundless. We will teach you to be strong. To fly.

And when things get too big you can always crawl back in our cave and be our little mouse. We will have tea together. Oh and by the way, we'll bring the meat.