John is Writing

John is still a fairly reluctant reader, but he shows a lot of interest in books. Jeremy has read through the first 3 Harry Potter books to him at bedtime, and he will lay still for an hour or more to listen. (Yes, really, this is John I am talking about.) I have seen great progress in his reading and decoding skills, as well as his reading confidence, which is fun. Also fun to see is how his writing ideas are developing. He brought this planning paper home a few weeks ago.

I will translate, since the scan doesn't pick up the pencil completely, and his spelling is still a bit creative.

1. The blocks remind me of: The epir stst bilding (The Empire State Building) 

Feeling Word: Tul (Tall)

2. This bear reminds me of: My babey sistr becuse she is kyout lik a tete bear (My baby sister because she is cute like a teddy bear)

Feeling Word: keyout (cute)

3. This playground reminds me of: a time I went to grat wulf loj a jiint whatr prk (a time I went to Great Wolf Lodge, a giant water park)

Feeling Word: wet

4. These fireworks remind me of: The foth of Juliy (The Fourth of July)

Feeling Words: LOWD (loud)

"Mommy, I had to change."

Not surprisingly, I find much of my life is occupied by laundry these days. There are 6 of us wearing clothes and using sheets and towels, after all. One of us is potty training and one of us is a bedwetter, which leads to substantial additional spikes in the throughput. But now, I have really met my match. Helen has discovered fashion.

She has very definite opinions about what she needs to wear. I know all of the kids went through this at some point, but by my (admittedly failing) memory, she has it the worst. First, she chooses her own clothes in the morning. There is no telling what she will fancy, day-to-day.  This is only annoying in that it means I can't save time for the morning by laying out her clothes the night before - it would be pointless. So, inconvenience aside, I really try to let her wear anything, within reason for the weather. (No, you DO have to wear long pants to school when it is below freezing outside.) But what really gets the laundry going is that she feels the need to change. Frequently.

When she arrives home from school, she disappears immediately after her snack. It gets really quiet for about 10 minutes, and then she emerges, wearing today's "Big Reveal." The details belong to Helen, though I can give you some likely hints. It will involve tights or shorts on the bottom, and a tank top or leotard on top. Not necessarily in the combination you might expect. Dresses or skirts are always a hit. Or, just a swimsuit. Swimsuits are very popular.

"Mommy, I had to change!
Today's selection - white tights and a white tank top.

The runway hit of the day usually lasts about 1-2 hours, after which she will cycle through as many additional items of clothing as she can get her hands on. Of course, I try to snag the cast-offs and return them to the drawers, but ... well, she is two. It doesn't take her long to spill food, or smear snot, or roll in dust bunnies. So, not too many cast-offs are really fit to go back in the drawer. And, she is working quickly against me. She loves to hide the removed clothing in the dirty clothes hampers.

So, what can I do for now except grin and enjoy it? This, too, shall pass.

We are also very excited to be wearing Curious George underwear. Who wouldn't be?

Grandpa Tom's visit, Part 2 (Senior citizen?)

Boy, Dad is suddenly a confirmed senior citizen. First, he took the senior fare on the train without protest. Then today, he told me what he most wanted to do was drive around the countryside in search of crumbling grave markers in search of obscure genealogy. Does that sound like an old retired guy, or what?

Actually, even I was surprised when all the kids said they would like to do that, too. (Based on their behavior on the trip, they liked the idea of it better than the actual trip, but a stop at Dunkin Donuts improved their attitudes a bit.)

So, we got the kids after school let out at 12:35 (early release day) and drove an hour up to Rowley, MA, where our good ancestors, brothers Joseph and Maximilian Jewett, set up home in 1639 (after a trip from Bradford, England to Salem, MA the year before). Dad found a town clerk in Rowley (population of about 6,000) who was both knowledgeable and talkative. We saw the grave marker in the town burial ground, although it was a memorial erected in 1912. The clerk explained that the first markers were wooden and are now long gone, so the earliest marker remaining is from the 1690s, once the colonists started using stone.

The clerk also provided a copy of the original town map, showing the plots for each settler. We drove to the two Jewett homesteads, side-by-side and a short distance off the Town Green. The plots are looking a bit decrepit, now. I wondered if one of the houses was the original building, 400 years old. Perhaps just in need of a bit more maintenance.

I enjoyed the drive - it was a pretty little town just north of Ipswich (where we had come to the beach in August without every realizing how close we were to the family seat). We drove through the salt marshes of Rowley, whence cometh the "good salt hay" (according to the town clerk) once sold in Boston's Haymarket Square. We actually passed a working tractor pulling a large load of that hay even today.

The kids posed for this photo a bit grudgingly. Perhaps in 50 years they will be glad to have it.

"Near this spot, their graves unmarked, lie buried
Maximilian and Joseph Jewett
sons of
Edward and Mary (Taylow) Jewett
of Bradford England

They came over in 1638 in the company led by
Rev. Ezekiel Rogers
which settled the town of Rowley in the spring of 1639.

1607 - Maximilian Jewett - 1684
Deacon of the church forty five years
Selectman,  Moderator of Town Meetings
Representative in the General Court twenty years

1609 - Joseph Jewett - 1660-61
A distinguished merchant
served the town on important committees
Representative in the General Court five years

Erected by the Jewett Family of America A.D. 1912"

Grandpa Tom's Visit, Part 1

We have tried to keep my dad busy. He flew into Hartford last Thursday and my brother Jeff picked him up. Dad spent the weekend with Jeff, Shannon, and Socha at their place. Sunday evening, I drove over (about 2 hours west of us) to pick Dad up and bring him back here for the week.

On Monday, the kids had no school (Veteran's Day) so while Jeremy worked the rest of us took Grandpa to see some parts of the Freedom Trail that we hadn't seen before. We all rode the train in from our house. The kids have been on the subway a number of times but have been itching to ride the train all the way in. For this particular trip, it was perfect - walk over to the train station, enjoy the ride, and get dropped directly at North Station, which is about as close to our destination (the U.S.S. Constitution in Charlestown) as we could get.

Who doesn't like a train ride?

We had a gorgeous day - bright and sunny. It was a bit cold, but we kept moving. We left the house at 9:30 and returned at 8:30 that night! Can you see the 3 masts of the U.S.S. Constitution behind us?

This large anchor tells us we are getting close!

All of us aboard the ship.

The U.S.S. Constitution museum is actually a pretty nice children's museum - the kids played there for over an hour when I had to drag them away to the next place. Here, the girls help Grandpa learn to roll the sails. 

Grandpa, I am a monkey!

Next, we walked over to the Bunker Hill Memorial. It should have been about 5-10 minutes away, but our crew of 6 was not moving very quickly. Or perhaps more accurately, the our root-mean-square path was not so quick, though there were all kinds of individual, quickly moving particles in many directions.

As the Park Ranger explained, the battle of Bunker Hill is memorialized not because it was a great victory - the colonial militiamen ran out of ammunition and were routed. However, it is considered to be a significant turning point in the history of our emerging nation, because it gave the rest of the colonies the resolve to toss in their hats with the folks up here in Massachusetts.

We climbed the steps in the tower for the beautiful view over Boston as sunset (4:30 pm!) approached. There are 294 steps in all, so I brought back proof that we made it all the way. 

Actually, even Helen climbed most of the tower. I didn't have to start carrying her on the way up until step 225, and she also walked down for the first 100 steps or so. 

Look at me go!

Beautiful sunset back at the bottom as we looked at the statue.

Tuesday was slower - the kids all went to school, and I did chores at home then took Dad to see the Louisa May Alcott house in Concord. He loved it, and I enjoyed it, too. I had just taken the kids on that tour last week, with the same tour guide, but I learned lots of interesting new things this time so I was glad to go back.

Fun fall photos

I have been busy with lots of plain old life lately. Not too much time to think about writing, but I have tried to snap a few photos. The captions will have to serve as the bulk of the story this time. As always, you can click on any individual photo to see it larger.

John and Meg tried out lacrosse this fall. They had about 2 months of "skills and drills" through the local Parks and Rec department. They both loved it, and I loved that it was only a 4-minute drive from our house. 

Here, you see the reason why John's mouth looks odd in the prior photo - he wears a mouth guard. It was highly recommended by the volunteer/parent coaches. Seemed a bit overkill to me, since neither has had any orthodontics yet to mess up, but I complied. :)

Meg dribbles her ball!

Helen loved going to practices and running about with all the other siblings waiting/watching. She was always the youngest one there (excepting non-mobile infants), but she didn't seem to care.

Last week, I took Helen to her day care center on her non-day-care day and stayed with her for an hour during their "special activities" time. The kids had "Movement with Tom" and Helen's teachers thought she would enjoy doing it. They were right. She also enjoyed directing Mommy to put in pigtails, "just like this and here!"

Paying close attention to instructions, the kids scoot!

And they clap in rhythm - serious work!

The scarf dancing was clearly the biggest hit, though.

I am running for all I am worth.

And finally, our ode to Halloween. See the blue plastic bucket on the shelf? Not for long, you won't.

Helen's Parent/Teacher Conferences

I met with one of Helen's daycare teachers today for a "parent/teacher conference." It seemed a bit extreme to me for daycare, but I went with it. And, it was kind of nice to hear someone else tell me how wonderful my child is. Of course I already know it, but an outside opinion, with fresh eyes, is good for building up my prideful heart.

Anyone who knows Helen will not be much surprised by the feedback: independent, quietly assertive, very athletic (and strong), agreeable and friendly with every one, imaginative, self-confident. Unlike the elementary school teachers, her daycare teacher sent me with written documentation so I have posted it here to brag a bit. Since mostly only Helen's relatives read this blog, that seems within the bounds of acceptable.

Also, this seems like the right place to showcase some recent photos of Helen, aged 2 years and 9 months. (I have been taking an online photography class so I got lots of fun photos of the kids last weekend while doing my homework!)

You see her independent streak here? She chose her own outfit to play outside and would NOT be swayed. (Yes, that is a pull-up and mittens.)

Staying on my toes today

Remember back in elementary school when we had to write those "Fortunately, Unfortunately" books? They are a useful device for helping kids learn to sort out sequencing and development of a story line. But I have found that the idea sticks with me as an adult because, well, life really does go that way sometimes. Here is my latest adventure in the genre.

Fortunately, I had a chance to volunteer with M's 4th grade class for a Halloween craft.

Unfortunately, I had to miss my Thursday morning exercise class to do it.

Fortunately, I could make it up Friday morning. (What's a few more hours of missed work for the sake of the 9-year-old daughter who adores singled-out parent attention?)

Unfortunately, that left a 20-minute gap between dropping H off at daycare and exercising, which felt wasteful when I was already missing an extra morning of work time.

Fortunately, I had just found one of the things I need to read for work available for Kindle and downloaded that to take with me to read while I waited for class (which is right next to the daycare).

Unfortunately, I didn't think about carrying the Kindle home on my bike after taking it out of H's backpack and leaving the bag with her at daycare.

Fortunately, I found I could ride well enough one-handed to make it one mile home while holding the Kindle in my left hand.

Unfortunately, I ran into a blocked road (downed power line) which forced me to retrace my (steps? wheels?) path and take a detour to home. I wasn't sure how far out of the way that would be or if I wanted to do it all one-handed.

Fortunately, the detour took me right past daycare again, so I darted back in for the backpack.

Unfortunately, the road had just been blocked off and no detour signs were up yet. And I don't know any alternate routes through town and the GPS was of course in my car.

Fortunately, a nice town crew worker gave me understandable directions to wind my way back towards home.

Unfortunately, when I got home, the power was out. (Our house, and everything on that side of the downed line, were out of business.

Fortunately, I found that we still had water! Now quite thirsty from the hour of aerobics and longer bike ride, I got a nice long drink.

Unfortunately, I couldn't warm up my hot tea from breakfast in the microwave.

Fortunately, I could make a nice, hot, fresh pot of tea using the propane-powered stove top.

Unfortunately, I was dripping with sweat and recalled that the hot water heater was electric.

Fortunately, as I gritted my teeth for the fastest, coldest shower ever, I discovered that I was wrong and the delightful hot water was propane-heated.

Unfortunately, I realized that with well water, I shouldn't have any water, and thus might have just used up all the reserves in the pressure tank with my shower.

Fortunately, I could walk across the street to the grocery store and buy bottled water if needed.

Unfortunately, the store was out of power, too.

Fortunately, I was the only one at home for 5 more hours, so I could survive if the water ran out.

Unfortunately, I couldn't work in my home office because the internet was out and the laptop battery died within 45 minutes.

Fortunately, the town library is on the other side of the downed power line, and has outlets and internet.

So, back to work!