Adventure day two and Engineering day

Adventure log drawings

 2014-10-9

8am - Greater / Less than worksheet
    - Bike parts worksheet
    - Starfall
    - Break

9am - Tongue Twisters
    - word search
    - PE (weights! 30x 5lb lift, 30x 5lb squats, .25mi run (quarter mile), 10 situp)

10am - Outside adventure nature observation walk
     - Writing report of observations

11am - recess

4pm  - Web searches with Rhe
     - Designing monkey bars

5pm  - Engineering: pipes, T and elbow joints.engineering vocabulary
5.30pm - Done
extracredit:      Spider egg case drawing for science , discussion

 journal page for engineering with vocabulary and counting up parts needed

Spider egg case drawing



eating watermelon from a coworker's garden with her egg and cheese sandwich for dinner


the light was almost completely gone and the camera had a hard time getting much quickly... got quiet contemplation and 'super excited'... She had her knee-high socks on and rollerskates on and had been skating for about an hour today on the concrete floor just before I got home...

List of things she wants to do 'soon':
Potato stamps art project
ink blots with paint

Engineering school:
Project requests:
Build a cottage out of wood - bit too much for us at the moment...but possible
Buld a set of monkey bars out of pipe and a ladder.. very possible, need used ladder

We discussed both options, looked it up some for material cost and discussed measuring and how to decide how big a project should be when it's done.  Went to a store site, looked up materials, talked about price sorting and how to check if an item is what you want.  Talked about counting pieces in a design so you don't have to go to the store more than once for materials, and why it would be hard to go back once you were building/working.   Then we practiced using our PVC bag of parts and pipes (from the flea market tent) to build a structure, make it stable, balance and mirror (opposite but the same - she said) parts so it comes together.. how to compare lengths of pieces and find four/eight etc. the same, how to substitute a part if you don't have what you need right at hand... She was very good at keeping-trying and then also about making her drawing, counting, and cleaning up.

//transition //
She asked if she had to go to school tomorrow (Friday) and I said not go 'to' school, she would have school here at home, like the past days since Monday. She said she didn't want to do school at home either (she wanted to skate and play and I had told her it was really time for bed).. but then I said she didn't want to trade her Saturday, did she? Oh no, don't want to do that... She still gets the weekend off like she would at 'regular' school and we had fun things planned for the weekend.. and she gets to plan some of the things she wants to do, unlike at the public school.  So, she planned some things and is ready for classwork tomorrow then a fun weekend with no 'required' stuff.  She then said 'I am kind of tired.'  I said I saw it in her eyes.  She said she saw I was tired in my eyes, too.. Yes, and I have work tomorrow.  She flip-flopped for a few minutes while taking forever brushing her teeth.. by the time I had her in bed and reading a few poems to her she was in a sweet mood.

bits as we go

School starts in less than a week.  as Mark said - it is the day after the day after tomorrow.. three days.. eep!

I haven't gotten that last dress done... hope sometime soon the time will reveal itself to me.
Esme and I have been talking about more 'advanced' topics, as she is interested - like taxes, and who pays for the library, and other current events things.  She surprised Grandma last night by talking about - in her own way - the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in her own terms... confusing Grandma, until I explained.  She keeps telling everyone who asks that she is not excited that school is going to start soon - because to her, next week is not soon - it is next week.  It's in the details - she is excited, but not about 'soon'.. because it isn't 'soon' to her.

She told me a few weeks ago her Aunt Dot was sending her a doll.. at the time I thought she was imagining it.. but the doll did arrive today.  She told me to open it because she had been 'waiting all of her life' for it.  *ha*.. well, maybe that was true.

So much going on for her... so many things just bursting at the seams.  We watched the Lego Movie today, too - and she was enthralled... really... she sat right by my side the entire movie almost and when the reality parts started leaking in towards the end, she was even more excited - sat right on the end of the bed staring up at the screen.  When it was all over - she wanted to go build with Legos, right there, right then.

Other bits:  We put a little basket on her bike when we repaired the pedals.  It was a big thing for her - we couldn't find one at the store and then happened upon something the right size at the dollar store.  She is doing so much better with her bike - gaining dexterity with it.  And she can microwave snacks for herself once in a while now, popcorn chicken or a corndog etc that is already in the fridge.  I will hear her saying 3 - 0 is thirty and START... have to remind myself I'm pretty sure of what she is heating up when I hear that!

// garden news: The Banana Legs tomatoes are starting to ripen.  The Ireland Creek Annie dry beans are starting to come in -and they look really good!  

My inventor makes her own fun

 Esme gets super bored on the weekends... but she does make her own fun.  Today it was a 'cake' out of blocks, lego parts and pom pom balls that was to be served up to a dragon after I got home from work - and lots of K'nex inventions.  She was also putting pricetags on her coloring book pages she brought home from Grandma's house.

I'm still working on several blankets, a rug, and small stuffed dogs for her and a birthday party gift for April.  So, she gets the creative energy from somewhere ;)

Other:  She asked me why earth was a small word, but it had five letters which was almost as much as dragon which was a big word - 'earth' vs' dr-aaag-on'.. she meant the syllables...  Right after that she was dipping water into a container, throwing it up in the air, dropping the container and trying to catch the water with both hands.  She said she wished she had three hands.  I was flabbergasted for a moment.. but responded with: 'Yes, many people have wished they had three hands, before.' She said: 'Yea, three would be good, for this.'  She said the birthday party girl would not like a stuffed dog because she only likes princess stuff..I said 'so ... doesn't matter.  she's getting a stuffed dog, because we don't have money to go buy a toy - and you like it, right?'  She agreed... and thinks it is perfect as it is although I said I would change a few things on the next one.  As I finished sewing it she said 'there, right there, perfect, it doesn't need anything else, stop there.'  Ha.

Two days off starting Monday.  Yay!

Esme bits

Yesterday she had this idea she was going to glue her plastic farm animals into a box and take it to school.  I vetoed the plastic animals, and told her she could draw animals and I would help her cut them out and glue them onto the box.  She refused, at first, to draw anything - saying it was too hard.  Finally, after much sulking and staring at the tv, she tried several times to draw a cow.  She was messing up almost on purpose it seemed - frustrated about this head being too big, or that neck being too long, or that smudge between those legs meaning it was all ruined etc...  She fussed and fraggled about it for a while.. and then we had dinner and I insisted she come back to it and try again.  She did, and completed with a nice job.  We glued it on to the box and put it in her bag for the morning.

At the beginning of this week she had told me the dentist at school said to brush morning and night, so you do not stink in the morning and the 'sugar bugs' don't eat your teeth at night.  So, Monday and Tuesday were not trouble - she brushed her teeth, and was fairly happy about doing so... but she didn't get to make the farm drawing before school because of all the time she took brushing her teeth... so the glamour wore off.  Today it was a sulky fight to get her to hold to her word she would brush all week.  But, she did it.  We'll see how this goes.  It would be great if she could get in the habit of doing both - it was so hard to get her into the habit of brushing at night but that finally sunk in.

She has been taking on a lot more responsibility these past few months -- bringing her lunchbox home and putting it where it goes, homework then play, taking her bath and washing her hair almost every single night (which it is down to her waist so it is a task), packing her own lunch with minimal help, brushing her teeth night (and morning, now, we hope), putting her lunch in her backpack in the morning when it is time to go... it is a lot for her, but it is good to see her capabilities develop.  She even has been trying, without success, to tie her own shoes.

Last night we introduced her to Algodoo, a physics/mechanics free program.  She picked up on things right away - here and there, drawing circles and gears and bars and chains, liquifying to play with water, adding motors to make things turn, cutting items with the knife and making lasers that cut things in motion.  She made a 'stomach' with a chain and water and used a laser to make it 'throw everything up'.  Ha.  She said cutting the piece of ice that floated in the water was just like ice cubes in the lemonade.  The really cool thing is once we showed her something she remembered how to do it almost perfectly, would restart the scene from scratch and do it herself to have it all done her way, and was having such a good time she didn't want to stop.

bits

Christmas is approaching, and we are getting a few things in order for that.  Esme's list to Santa Claus included a 'jackhammer' to do road construction with (pretend, of course), a trapeze/ring bar to strengthen her arms, a My Little Pony (which keeps changing so we just picked what was available today) and a teaset.. which has already been delivered by the tooth fairy but she argues it had to have been Santa because it was on the list.  I saw the note from the tooth fairy ;)  I've got a few surprises and some necessities saved out, too. 

Her reading is getting a lot better, and her guesses are getting better, too.  Her art is much more detailed, the bridge she drew today had blue waves underneath it, two cars and one of them was a 'mouse' car that was tiny with tiny headlights.  She gets in counting moods, still, and she has to count all the pieces of pizza or all the dots on a toy speaker and trying to figure out how to group the pattern etc etc.. to count faster - I wonder if I've encouraged that with her showing her math things on top of her already obsessive nature, or if she just comes by it naturally and it expresses that way.  Her attitude is great at times and awful at others... and our communication is still 'off' at times, we argue or she doesn't tell us about something until it is much too late. 

Today she reminded me at night, while in the bathtub, that she had not had her shirt she needed for her school project today.  She was sure she could bring it tomorrow - but that did not look like what the note said when I read it... so I told her we will decorate it together at home and she can wear it at the party later in the month.  Early this morning she was all up in a tizzy about some drawing of a bridge she needed to bring to school to the 'bridge hall' and lay on the table with the other bridges.  We had no note at all for this - so I think she was trying to break into another class project from 2nd or 3rd grade and add her contribution.  I made her put her name on it and she said I was ruining the plan.  *ha*... she took it in her backpack and it has not come home tonight, so....  some days we just know she's ours, other days, its radiantly obvious.  And at other even rarer times, like tonight, she crawls into bed at 7 pm while I am making up the covers and she usually fights until way after 8.. and settles down to go to bed like it is nothing... and we look at each other and say 'in bed by 7:15... how?'

Tootbrush kingdom number two, flag, words and more...

 A rabbit, a 'master' in a chair, and an (supposed to be American) flag with stripes and a blue square.  Fairly good, considering.

A skeleton who has lost his skin.

A basketball hoop and a basketball (piece of wool on the ground)

Lots of things.. the brown square with a blue octopus on top of it is a giftwrapped package with an 'itchy sweater, pants and boots' inside it.  She has written her name, the word POP (end on but it is blue), and the word PET? backwards in green that is asking what is in the other brown box, (another rabbit).  She has been making birthday cakes, presents and lots of rainbow items.  The white thing was supposed to be a sandwich but the bread wasn't finished yet.

More of Esme's toothbrush kingdom in Minecraft

  This is the 'second' toothbrush kingdom with lots of new friends and brothers and sisters

 Inside the wooden house.

The blue house below it got full of bats, so she made an 'x' on it and closed it up without doors... but it was furnished almost exactly like the house shown at the end.

 A better view of the green and blue haired people holding the tree.

 The first toothbrush kingdom with lots of improvements and changes.
The bottles with white caps on them are different flavors of toothpaste.  I was told the golden toothbrush is the statue flag for the toothbrush kingdom, and those are pies around it and a bed and a garden of watermelons. 

Inside the toothbrush house she has a huge 'tv' on one wall, a multicolored remote button 'for the tv' on the other, and lots of lights and chests.  She says this is a 'beautiful home.'

Second day of school drawing and a bit of sewing

Esme's coloring today, and a drawn in bus driver because, the children needed one.

When she colored her gingerbread man she gave him a nose and pupils in his eyes that were not in the original drawing, either.  I love seeing her extra details.

Made three pairs of blue shorts today... Esme wants me to make some matching shirts tomorrow - it's possible on the pale blue one, but maybe not quite on the purple one.  Her other requests were rainbow colors or maybe something green?

Striped Triangle shawl started

We have Esme's Kindergarten orientation tonight, in about an hour... have had a day at home as I switched with someone so we could be there.  After I finished Esme's blanket I started on this triangle shawl, which is a very simple pattern.  I cast stitches onto the circular needle as far as I thought it could go - then at every second row I would decrease one at the beginning (the secnod and third stitches) and at the end of the row (same reversed).  I started striping the shawl by changing color at the finish of that second row, carrying the white yarn over as each color goes across one row, across (decreasing) the second row, and then holds in waiting for the white to do the same.  Just pick up the other color at the end of the row and clip and change colors as needed.  It looks very pretty from the front or back (front only shown).

Esme asked if it would be her next pretty blanket for her bed... but I told her what a shawl was - a blanket for your shoulders to go outside in, and that ladies in the past used to feed their chickens or milk their cows while wearing warm shawls, or walk in the woods, or look at the sunset.  She liked that idea.

A few things to remember for her - she is reading more, things on TV, in the store -and she is writing more, as well.  She copied the words 'No Party' in her room to make a sign for when she is not using her boombox.  It says 'Esme's Party with the Beastie Boys' on the front side, which I wrote for her on request.  I was surprised to find her addition to the sign later, but giggled :)  She is also using the word 'future' more.. She's still confused about the word 'graduation', she thinks the American flag is graduation, and we are all living in the graduation place... close, but not quite on the mark.  She said my shawl colors were 'graduation', too.. so we talked about the flag some and what it meant, and that graduations were just a ceremony - a time for the school students - that tells us that the students are going from one class to another, and that yes - they have an American Flag shown at the graduation because we live in the United States.  She still thought I was just misunderstanding her.. and didn't want to talk more about it.  She gets so stubborn!

As the shawl decreases every other row, it shouldn't take too long to finish.  

The longer it gets, the fewer stitches in a row!

Her school supplies list was at the store tonight - and we will round up the items for it this weekend.

We got back from the school orientation a few hours ago... we feel like hipsters among a crowd of jocks.  And Esme is going to be so bored until/if they get some differentation going I think... the first week they focus on reading 'I' and the most common three letter words.  As the teacher said this to the parents she looked at me and said 'I run.. I can read that.  She said I run?'  Yes, child.. she did.. sit and don't squirm so much (play dead on table, pretend to fall asleep).  Well... well... I'm with you kid but I can't help much on that one.  The teacher did say they will find out what level they are at and push to get them higher... they tested her in June as not knowing the letter Q and Y.. which I was quite sure she did know (and can write as well as tell me words they are used in).  So, how well are they 'going to get to know her level' if she decides they have nothing to offer her and decides to play dumb until they give her something easy to finish and go play?

Tonight I decided to get her to start to go to bed earlier, since her bus times will be just after or before sunrise around here...  Even tonight (30-45 minutes earlier) was tough.  She was so mad.. I tucked her into bed with her arms crossed and a wrinkled up nose.  I set her alarm clock.  She told me I was making her madder with all the fun when I tried to cheer her up.  Tenacity.  Do they have any idea what we have on our hands here?  Do we?  Not really even now...

I wish someone had clued me into the school spirit color days during her preschool years.  Every Friday she 'should' wear the school colors.  If I had known that three months ago I would have done my school sewing a bit different maybe... probably have to add a few new things to the wardrobe to account for it, or try to convince her it isn't as important as they said it was going to be.  

Esmes gas world

 

This is supposed to be a gas station (at the WalMart, she said), with a watermelon house and chairs and couches.  The thing in the far background is supposed to be a shop with an umbrella - she showed me that structure the other day.  The orange wool structure is the 'gas station' pump with a bale of hay for the gas terminal.  The 'people' are watermelons with jack o lanterns for heads and wood for arms and legs... Lots of creativity here.. as Minecraft doesn't have placeable people and furniture (except for the bed) like Sims...

She did this today while I was down with a migraine and ear infection.  Now she is at Grandma's house and I am finally awake again enough to go explore it.

bits and house drawing at five and a half

My Kindergartener has a workbook she brought home - and it had all the pages filled in around this one but this was empty. She said she could not draw a house - and I told her to start with a big square - then she did most of the rest of this herself.  I drew the stick people for her because she 'could not draw them tiny'... and I conceded when she told me the story she wanted to portray which required the people to be in specific places.  This is such a difference from last year... it is almost indescribable how different the outer expression has become that gets all of this inner activity out into the world now... 

"The house has a five family", she said. 'And they have roses.. all here, I draw them there and there...and this the three children have a rose statue, (on the right with the circle 'pedestal' under it.' The mom and the dad family - they are the meaner, they say 'three children, do not touch the rose statue'. And the children - they did - it falled there.. (shown above the original), and is all broken. And they have sad faces, the children, all of... but the men fix it, (the men?) the building men, who build all of it, the house.. all of it. And then the mailman comes, (mailbox and cars) and he has a letter, and the happy child is here now (beside the boy without the hat her own addition after much convincing), and they will all play.'

I asked her to think about her butterfly dream, so I could get a real smile from her.

Holding a kitten and thinking about something Mark is reading in the news on the computer.

'making friends' out of styrofoam, pipe cleaners and a marker - she played with this friend - because she has no other friends here in this house, only Esme... and she wants to have a friend... so sad, but she will be going to school full time after another few weeks...

We are making lasagna tonight

luckily we won't be needing this pan.. it is actually not in use for food anymore.. and the kittens have taken it over for the night.  I keep telling Minion cat her kitten casserole isn't quite done yet, it's still squirming!  They are so cute - all six fit in there for now... for the blink of an eye.

This was our lasagna, all Mark's idea.  It has a pizza crust rolled out on the bottom and in the middle, without any lasagna noodles.

Esme had three days of school last week, she goes back this Wednesday for three more.  I can already see some differences in her vocabulary and pretend play, as well as her creations on Minecraft.  I told Mark - she is going to rob the imagination of every other child she meets, and we'll see it at home.  She asked me outside the other day what I would say to the children who are losers - and that she was not a loser, because (name of child) helped her open her milk with the chocolate in it, and it was good.  Today, we were discussing what the word 'orbit' means as Mark played the Kerbal spacecraft video game on his computer.  She drew orbits of a planet in her notebook and took it up to Grandma to show her.  I tried to get her to try a Kindergarten reading test on a site another mom had posted - and she was very upset at it because 1.) it was not fun and 2.) it repeated several questions she had already answered and gotten wrong.  She said it would never be fun, she wanted a game - and went back to Minecraft and began digging 'treasure x' spots to bury things in and then dig them up later.

She started at this - a pit full of chickens and glowstones that was her 'treasure pit'

And ended up here, with "worklights" that are machines, and they come on and go off with the lever - she is harvesting chocolate (Cocoa beans) and the lights keep the zombies away while she digs for treasure.  There is also (not pictured) a very tall staircase that she was using to dive down into a small pool of water - for surviving...   I love seeing 'into' her brain with things like this.

 I didn't do much else today - but we plan to make cupcakes tomorrow if all goes well.  I've been knitting a few rows on Esme's pink blanket and cleaning things here and there - took all the unused greenhouse plants outside and built a bit in Minecraft myself..   I have tomorrow off, too.

Esmes Minecraft and second day at school

 This is a 'recipe ingredient room' for her to read all the books with all of the letters and words jumping into the books telling her what the next ingredient is.  The chickens will give eggs, which are ingredients.  It is enchantment tables, surrounded by bookcases (she asked me several times why the books were not putting letters into her tables and I gave her a few directions, but she placed everything herself after hearing the reasons why it wasn't working).  with glowstone on top so that it lights up when it is dark.  It is built in 'creative mode' where she doesn't have to go find and/or make every piece herself to use it.  She just has to 'go to the inventory' and every possible item in infinite quantity is available.  That can be good AND bad :)

This is the bigger house I was building in my game yesterday and the day before.  It is 'hearts mode' as she calls it, survival mode - which she does not like because the hearts can go away and make you die *ha*, but it keeps my world free of millions of chickens, lava and unwanted water springs etc..  I think this picture gives some light on what she was doing in her world here... although she did this on her own before I got home.

'Her pink house with the roof and window so she can watch sheep.'

I have not seen her use stairs like this before...

She amazes me with the new ideas and how she 'learns over our shoulders' as Mark says.

She also had a second day of school today,less eventful, but she had fun.  I made a play dress yesterday for home use and hope to do another one today... we've been having her switch out of her school dresses to keep them from being puppy chewed the rest of the day!

bits of speech

Esme last night: 'You got the cold weather so it is cold in here, and we will not be hot like this?" Hmm... yes, we do have the air conditioning on ;)  And she had a story about how she was out in the forest (the trees by the garage) and the puppies made her a trail where she found a leaf and the puppies were sweet puppies because they made the trail that brought her to her home.  She has described a lot of things she was doing in Minecraft quite well - what is a real village, what is not, how to use the dynamite that says TNT.  etc.  She told Daddy she was playing in her world, then in 'dog' world and sure enough she had made a new world and named it dog.  Outside in the garden she was talking about what sound a bee made and it was not a truck but it sounded like a truck.  She was talking about our echoes and how many echoes and how to make echoes properly etc..  She is really improving, and trying things out...  I take this as a 'next step' type of week... seeing lots of things that are one more step above the usual chatter for her.

tonight after work Mark and I both heard her use the word 'distracted' when talking about the puppies - 'I can't be them distracted'..   I also remembered that I have heard her playing with rhymes the past week - 'The gecko with an echo', and using and understanding more synonyms.  'It can't be animals, only a little girl, a HUMAN, like that' responding to Daddy telling her she was a 'strange creature'.   The other thing that caught my ear was 'You did it on the three times'.. 'You mean the third time?'  'Yes, the third time - not the four.'  That is some progress, as well.

Cherokee White Eagle flint corn - it looks more like a dent corn to me, and huge kernels.  Planted it already in between the sweet corn rows.  Quarter and also some of my last year's experiment (blue aleurone, red striped pericarp) that is planted in the back of the garden mixed with Mandan Bride.

 

This is Esme's 'dog world' she made new in Minecraft.  Mark said she made and named the world herself - and when we saw this (I took a 'peek' after work to see what Mark said she had been working on today) we both knew she was trying to recreate the iron golem farm pattern from the tutorial she watched with us the other day.  It had four 'cups' with water around a central square and required putting several villagers in each cup to have a population of 16, and she liked them because they looked like pools for the people to jump up and down in - very much her style ;).  She had been playing with the TNT in creative mode, as well - and had been blowing holes down to bedrock.  Mark said he watched her trying to place 'beds' on the 'bedrock' icon over and over again - and crying because the water and lava from deep underground would come out of the blasted holes and swallow up her bed in her 'new house'. 

Weekend

We've had a weekend 'in'... except for a trip to the grocery store.  I embellished one of Esme's stuffed friends from last year, and made another at her request.  She was elated, and gave me 'instructions' as to the details she wanted.  I mended a stack of pants, but did not get to any other clothes sewing - instead being drawn into this pink figure above.  We also played in the mud some, making sluices and a pyramid with a hole through it to a pool down below... that is about the only way Mom can get into playing in the mud.  Esme is usually content just to plop globs of mud down over and over for an hour - but I need to get constructive in order to keep occuppied.  And, after we had completed our project and study of water swirling patterns and mud, I went for a bath.  I saved the water for her and traded places with her, letting her have raspberry bubbles and barbie dolls while I read some more.

Esme has made me laugh several times today.  She has been mentioning that often to me lately - I need to laugh, to be smiling, if I want her to be smiling and not be 'drama llama' - a term she is trying to understand and does NOT like...  The other day she came up to me with a medical kit and said she was going to take my heart out and inject it with PLAY because it was not a loving heart it was a working heart - as in going to work and typing on my computer type of work, and that needed to be fixed so I could laugh and play.  As I object she leans in and whispers 'it's like pretend Mama, okay?'  Sometimes I'm sure I'm supposed to respond but I just have no idea how to... that was one of those times.  I understand how deep that is.. and the ring of truth, but wait, what?  How does she come up with these things and if this is five... what will ten be like?

Today she woke me up pretending to be an alarm clock and put a plastic cup on her head saying it was the snooze button and to hit it but gently, because it was really an Esme.  She was reading over my shoulder on my computer and pointed out a picture of her friend on Facebook.  She said the picture was like a video phone, and where was the volume and the words, since the girl had her mouth open like she was talking.  Then she got another idea - and asked me if this was how I 'called' the tooth fairy on my computer, and that I should call her now, please?  She really wants to talk about this calendar thing and maybe find out how to get her toy quicker.  Ha.  She helped me clean up a table, and fetched all her painting supplies from the bathroom downstairs.  We talked about color some.. but then I got back to reading.  I finished the Hunger Games trilogy of books through all of that... and it was a tearjerker in the end... Buttercup was genuinely convincing towards the end... and the expected happy ending that makes you wonder how 'happy' anything can be....and how different it really is from anything before?

I ordered Glass Gem corn from the Native Seed savers website, as well as one of their interesting beans.  The corn out in the garden is starting to poke tiny spikelets out of the ground... most of the transplant plants are doing okay even after all that rain.

Bits

Esme: 'Not the old coat, I want the young coat - the younger coat?  Mama, which coat?' And I then explain the use of the word old/young vs. old/new.  She was also saying that on Mark's game all of the older soldiers were fathers to the younger ones... which was not true - I get her meaning, but so hard to explain.  She thinks differently - not incorrectly, just .. .differently.    She says we will be a human and a person and do things and she will be a girl human and I can be a man human and... I get lost as she is just going "60 per" with laying out the roles and then she gets mad if I interject that I am a human, and 'girl human' sounds odd she could just say 'girl' etc...  She told me she was wearing her pants seams out because then the pants were 'empty' inside, all okay...Mama, don't worry about it etc..   She has mentioned she dislikes the strings in her pants that come when they are washed often and the zigzagged seams start to unravel some.  She cried the other day when my Mom was on the phone because she wanted me to play with her - and she said that my Mama would be alright, don't worry about it, I need to play with her.  She also said it was okay - I was with my family, and we all love.  It blows me away sometimes how clear some of her ideas are, and so very unexpected at the same time.  I hear her singing along so often now to things on the TV - even when it doesn't seem like she is watching... she was sitting on Mark's lap playing a computer game and under her breath I hear her singing the Simpsons theme song that is on as background noise.

On other notes : I am starting to make more things for the shops again - I am thinking of maybe three of a toy - put them up and if they sell they do if they do not then okay, not much time wasted.  I am taking yarns to work and making scarves - a thing I planned to do last year but never did... save them for the year in containers and post them for Christmas/winter etc etc... Energy energy.  The scarves and the toys will be posted at MarieMeyer KnitOwl and all the drawings at Ink Strokes Etsy shop.

I finally finished the third winter dress and also two pairs of very long pants for Esme.  She is 44 inches tall now - and her pants legs are 25-26 inches.  I can so very barely squeak a size 5 pair of pants out of a single yard now... it is not safe to buy a yard and hope it will suffice... yard and a half at the very least.  (yard==45 by 36 inch piece of fabric.)  Her waist elastic is 20 inches now, which shortens to about 19 when sewn.

 

Peacock lady drawing 11/23 - somehow the scanner does not show the intense pink of the entire dress... *sad*  Drawn for Esme - she says it is so beautiful and she loves it.

It Can't Be Tuesday

I don't remember where Monday went... so can it be Tuesday?  I am fighting the wisdom teeth again but not as hard as in July - and it saps a lot of my energy.  That is probably why the weekend involved so much Minecraft and very little anything else.  All of the early risers in the household (Esme and the dogs and cats) don't help much in the sleep department.  Esme actually shut off her alarm this morning though and rolled back over and went to sleep.  She has a cold and is coughing some, but hopefully not as bad as a few days ago.  She told me the other day she was 'four of five' and she was trying to grow up, tall, just like me, and she would eat her food and grow up and be big, and she would have kids, and they would eat their food and grow up big and tall and... she wandered off. Those are some mighty lengthy plans kid.  She knows I am having trouble with my teeth and I have told her they are growing but my head is not - and that hurts.  She said her teeth were growing too, but her head and her hair were growing, so that was good, and she was going to have brown hair and her eyes would have green in them when they were grown up.  Her eyes are blue still, but there is a center of green peeking through... they might just change color within the next five years.  Mine were blue up until kindergarten, but I lost track of just when they turned hazel green, I think before eight? She has started looking at her teeth in the mirror often, brushing them more, and talking about how they chew food and help her grow.  I do need to find her a dentist soon - but having her learning about brushing her teeth on her own (after refusing with banshee screams for years) is encouraging.  Off to another fun day of work in an hour and a half .. all this week until Friday.

Note :  I let Esme play my Minecraft when I went to work yesterday.  I was down in the valley shearing sheep to get wool for my roof on my house.  I told her this and she kept shearing sheep.  When I came home and loaded my Minecraft she had taken the character back up in to the house (up a very long winding staircase from the valley) and had 'installed' half of my roof on the house where I had started.  That is a pretty good task for someone her size - it impressed me that she had put all that together, found her way back up there, and used dirt 'piles' to place and stand to reach the roof to put the blocks in.  She really pays attention to how we play and what we do - and she picks it up faster than I expect.  She was laying powered rail every few spaces with the regular rail for Daddy the other day without him telling her she needed to do that.  She really likes the railroad set in the game.

other note: She has been saying 'I can't' and 'I'm just a kid' a lot though, lately... about things like filling her drink cup, and blowing her nose, reading simple signs on chests in Minecraft that she knows the words for  - things she definitely CAN do.  I'm not sure who has put those words in her vocabulary. 

bits with dog skirts and smurfs

the roller coaster
at the west tennessee state fair

written this morning:
Esme is due to wake up any minute. I had to giggle again last night as she has so much faith in my construction abilities. In the past few weeks she has asked me to make a WordWorld robot for her that talks and plays and moves its eyes. She was certain we had the materials for one in the garage in my workbench. If not, she was certain I could go to the 'work store' in the big town and buy all the stuff to make the robot, just like her room. She calls where I work the 'work store'.

Last night she decided to ask Mom to build a rollercoaster like the one she rode at the fair. She said we could use our yellow wagon and I could build tracks and lift her up on to it. The one thing I COULD make for her was a poodle skirt like the one she wanted there - made one last night for her. As I entered her room after she went to sleep - to put it in the dresser drawer - I found an entire smurf village built out on the bedroom floor. As I had been stitching earlier she had told me she had been playing with pretend smurfs in her room and built a village where each one could be safe in their houses. Sure enough, little block houses all over the floor, fifteen to twenty of them.

this afternoon:
The smurf village is still intact on the floor. Esme is passed out in her beanbag chair in front of a Land before Time episode. Mark said she came in during the rain and was very upset about not being able to play outside. She is wearing the skirt I made her last night over her pants. Mark said she came to him wearing her smock top dress and pants and asking him to help her find the sleeves on the skirt because she thought it was a new dress. He showed her how it was used and she was happy. It is a six gore red trumpet skirt with an elastic waist and a brown dog applique poorly stitched by me last night. For a first attempt at a 'poodle' type skirt for her, not bad - useful, she likes it.


8943 simplicity pattern size 5
had the skirt in it


hand drawn by me from looking at some vintage clothing and putting my own spin on it


passed out in the beanbag chair
with a bag of chips wearing the skirt


Esme's 'smurf village'

When your Puppy Eats your Swing, you Improvise

Loula the puppy ate the seat off of our tree swing. Actually, she just chewed it from the super-strong woven straps it was on and carried it away. But, Esme has not let that stop her from making use of the leftover straps. She was proud to show me what she has been doing with those arm muscles...







I think she might have a career in gymnastics ;) just kidding. I was in it as a kid and was quite impressive at the uneven bars.



What actually impressed me the most was not her setting this all up herself in front of me to show me her trick - but the way she grasped both straps in her hands and 'walked' her fingers up until she had a good foot of each strap below her hands - she took a long and deliberate time doing this and looking at the ground before she actually made her jump. She was calculating her distance and arc by experience - if I grab this much strap I won't hit the ground when I swing. Now that's some thought process kid!



note: also, I find balloon strings wrapped around everything lately. I blow them up for her (helium tank left over from a birthday two years ago!) and give her one every once in a while. While she has not learned to tie knots she has figured out that if you wrap the string around something about fifteen times it tends to stay put - and our porch, the swing straps, even the refrigerator door have been 'hit' by balloon wrappings lately. I found one balloon with the string stuck in the kitchen cupboard door the other day - because she didn't want it getting away from her while she played with something else for a while.


purple silks on the field corn


the west field

The drought has taken a big bite out of both of my experimental corn fields this year. This field has only gotten about three feet tall but there are some very small ears still happening in there. I guess it would be important to keep seed from this just for drought tolerance. The purple silks on a few of them interest me - is it the genetics, or the 'hot' acidity of the soil? I planted mostly black and blue kernel corn here to see what would happen. Now that I'm on vacation I am making sure it is getting some extra water to do what it can. Read up on it - purple silks means a phosphate deficiency. I can solve that with a little epsom salts - already have some from the cucumbers last year.


sad little main garden

This is the 'main garden' after the drought and all of the clearing out of things that had died. I have replanted some things but it will be hard going with the hot dry weather we are still having (although there were rains a week or so ago). Still, there are bees and butterflies and hummingbirds and goldfinches enjoying the sunflowers, zinnias and bean flowers. And at that, it is still worthwhile even if the new plantings do not do much. Planted experimental field corn plot #2 yesterday in front of the sunflowers. Beans coming up everywhere from last week - corn coming up.... pulling in sunflower heads to dry every few days and getting nearly an entire quart jar of dried black seed already. The lemon sunflowers have a strange blue-gray tinge to them which keeps them separate from the other - there is maybe a small relish jar half full of those seeds.


lemon sunflower head