Another chance

Today dawned a much nicer day and we were able to get in a sail on the Piscataqua. It was beautiful, and capped off a very nice visit with Bridges' parents.

Danny

We're in New Castle for the weekend, and so is Tropical Storm Danny.

So much for sailing.

What a summer! It feels like late October today.

Who Needs a Playground?

My Dad, the girls, and I went to Rocky Gorge along the Kanc. They were more intensely focused than I had seen them all summer, even at Storyland. We could have spent the entire day there. Lee was so enthralled, she said to me "Mommy, if I were a wild wild animal, I would just live here and never leave!"

Lee just loved scrambling over the rocks, and she swam in a deep pool.

Clara played in the water and moved lots of rocks.

It was one of those moments when I think we have got to get out of the suburbs.

Little Ruff-Ruff

Usually when my kids play pretend games, I just let them go. But sometimes you have to direct a bit. Lee and her friend Annie went through a phase of playing a game called Evil Stepmother, but when Clara, the stepdaughter, ended up crying in the corner after a "beating" with a wand, I put an end to that for good.

Well recently, Clara has been put in the role of a dog called Little Ruff-Ruff. She calls Lee Sister Ruff-Ruff and pretty much does what Lee requests. It reminds me a lot of my sister Deb and me (I ate grass pretending to be a horse as a child).

But when Lee started walking around with Clara on a leash, I wondered whether I should step in. Clara obviously didn't feel it was demeaning, and at least she was on two legs most of the time.

A few days later, though, I walked into the kitchen to find Clara lapping out of a bowl on the floor. Hmm....is that over the line?

Uncle Dave

Seasick?

Mt. Morgan

The girls and I climbed Mt. Morgan. I had last done this a few years ago with Dave and Mer (Lee in a backpack) and so my memory was of a pretty short hike up with some really fun ladders, rock scrambling, and beautiful views of Squam Lake at the top.

Well, let's just say that 2.1 steep miles with a 5-year-old under her own power seems a lot longer. I had pictured that Clara would walk most of the way herself, but realized about ten steps into the trail that that was complete folly. So she went up in the backpack carrier, where she stayed until she complained that her leg was hurting at which point I ended up just carrying her on my hip.

But Lee was a real trooper and went up and down the entire thing on her own, which was fortunate because there was no way I could have carried both of them.. There was lots and lots of mucky parts in the trail, so that was tricky because I'd have to help Lee across them, but my balance was not exactly great given that I was carrying Clara. One foot went in over my ankle at one point, which meant a wet dirty foot the rest of the way. Lee had on white socks which she managed, of course, to keep spotless.

When we got to the ladders, I had one of those "what am I doing?" parenting moments, and I think anyone would have wondered why I was endangering my kids, but they absolutely loved it.

And we were rewarded at the top with a spectacular view.

And, even better, on the way down we saw two snakes, as Lee later told everyone. One, just brown and yellow, that went very fast across the trail. And the second, with a frog in its mouth, but it went very very slowly across the trail in front of us. It was probably going into the woods to have a nice lunch.

No, Not the Crunchy Kind!

Clara loves peanut butter. One day several months ago I asked her if she wanted creamy or crunchy (she'd previously only had creamy). She chose crunchy, even after I showed her what it looked like. When she decided she didn't like crunchy, I obligingly scraped it off and gave her creamy instead.

Well, this must have been very traumatic for her, because to this day she insists on creamy peanut butter when I offer her peanut butter. "Mommy, I like creamy peanut butter. I don't like crunchy peanut butter" (repeat five times). As if I would attempt to give her crunchy again after she's reminded me three times a day (she eats a lot of peanut butter).

The other day I was being bombarded with whining and fighting and I was probably hungry myself, and when Clara started in on "I want CREAMY peanut butter." I just about bit her head off. "Clara, we don't even HAVE crunchy peanut butter up here. Just quit it about the crunchy peanut butter!"

Poor girl ended up in a puddle of tears on the floor and of course I felt horrible because I screamed at her over peanut butter. But some little bit of me was hoping that she would never ever pester me about it again.

So I had to smile the next day when I asked her if she wanted peanut butter on her toast and she said "Creamy peanut butter, mommy. I like CREAMY."

The memory of an elephant, that one.

Clara Lee

It's funny sometimes the things that are hard for kids to grasp. Take, for example, rhyming. Rhyming has come up off and on for, oh, the better part of two years, and Lee just doesn't get the concept. Out of the blue the other day, she said to me, "Mommy, bear, baby, and beach....they all rhyme, don't they?"

Another one that's tough seems to be multiple names. Lee confuses her Aunt Deb and Aunt Linda. She's not sure which one goes with the four boys and which one goes with Liam. When I ask her about it, she tells me that it's just sooo confusing because their names sound exactly alike. For some reason Aunt Lee doesn't fall into the same sea of confusion. My guess is that it's due to the Lee part.

So the other day, Lee was talking with Clara, and she said "Clara, do you want kids when you grow up? If you have kids, then I'm going to be Aunt Lee. And when I have kids, you're going to be Clara Lee."

Black Night Seeing Circles And Ovals

This is Lee's latest creation in Microsoft Paint. What would I have done in the days before long file names?

The Moon

I've been watching the moon over the lake for several nights in a row. It's moving toward a full moon tomorrow night. It's beautiful, and since Lee was up last night pretty late I brought her out to look at it. I promised her that tomorrow night we can all stay up late and lie on the dock to watch the moon before they go to bed.

I like knowing where the moon is in its cycle. It somehow makes me feel more connected to nature. It's a similar sort of satisfaction I get from knowing when things are in season. I'm much more aware of the timing of fruits and vegetables since going to Lindentree the last five years.

It reminds me how amazed I was last month when I was regularly going to the Y at 5:30 am and seeing so many sprinkler systems running full blast despite all the rain we were getting. I'm sure the people asleep in their beds have no idea that they're even watering their lawn. Isn't that odd? How disconnected we are from our own environment?

I guess that's why I've never liked living in air conditioning. I dislike being hot, and I really dislike humidity, but there's just something so synthetic about an air conditioned environment.

I just finished reading Rowing to Latitude (thanks, Lee!) and it has me thinking about this sort of thing.

But back to the moon. Early next week the moon won't rise until about 10:30 pm or so, which is great, because the Perseids are arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm hoping for good weather. The kids will stay up late and we'll hang out down on the dock after sunset and (hopefully) count some shooting stars.

Our Extended Stay at the Lake

We are in the middle of a month-long stay at the lake. It came about rather suddenly when we decided that we were going to do a renovation at home and I decided I didn't want to be home when that happened. So here we are for at least a month, hanging out with my mom and dad next door. My Aunt Marge was here for the first two weeks, although sadly she went back to Florida. We will miss her! As my sister Deb noted, she never complains and she's always got a smile on her face.

Our stay has been interesting so far. The weather has been less than ideal. We're having one of the coolest rainiest summers in history. So there have been lots of rainy days where we've ended up hanging out next door with my parents doing art projects or going in and out of the sauna or hot tub. But all in all it's been pretty enjoyable, and pretty relaxed.

Spending a lot of time with my parents has made me realize a few things, though. First of all, when people get older, it seems that in some ways they mellow, but in other ways their defining personality characteristics become more pronounced. My parents have, in their own unique ways, become eccentric.

Secondly, it absolutely amazes me to realize how much I have become like either my father or mother in particuar ways. It's downright scary.

Third, what they say about little kids and elderly people is true. They really are a good match for each other, because kids are never in hurry to get anything done, and older people have all the time in the world. And they are perfect hiking partners.