You Can Learn A Lot From A Seven Year Old.

On Sunday I did a brave thing. I had two girls from Harper's grade over for a playdate. I was warned not to have three girls at a time-there could be too much drama. Well guess what? No drama! There was one moment, right at the very end of their play time when Harper had a hurt feeling. It last about three minutes. Whew.

They arrived around 11:30, played in Harper's room for a bit. Then I gave them luncheon: quesadillas, apple slices, tangerines and blueberries with a choice of apple juice or water. They also got a small slice of the mistake cake I had baked. (I was baking cakes for a friend's birthday that night and my first cake came out not quite right, so I started over. Bonus for the girls and Kurt. More about cakes and baking in another post.) 

After Luncheon, Harper offered each of her guests a candy from her Halloween bag. Very generous. Then, as Harper said, they did "an activity". I pulled out paint and toilet paper rolls and they made thanksgiving turkeys. I traced feather shapes on construction paper and the cut them out. One of them wanted to freehand her feathers so I said, "Rock on" and she did. I, however, forgot to take pics of their turkeys. Here is Harpers:

That's a crown and a cape...

While they were working on their "activity" one of the girls got frustrated that it wasn't come out the way she wanted. I said that we had plenty of supplies so she could start over or get new pieces or whatever she wanted.

I said, "Practice makes perfect"

She whipped around and said, "NO!" 

I looked at her and said, "No?"

"No. Practice makes better. Because nothing is perfect." 

I told her I loved that and that I was going to write it down, which I did. 

While the paint was drying they went outside to play on the chair swing and use the sidewalk chalk. 

It got a little rowdy and I caught a couple of moments of the girls almost getting clobbered by the chair as it swung wildly. Fortunately none of them had to learn how to play safely the hard way. 

It was a good time! And I'm pleased it went so well and I learned an important lesson from a seven year old: Practice Makes Better.

 

Fall Fun in SoCal 2015

Harper and I spent the last two weekends doing some traditional Fall activities. (Poor Kurt had to work.) First it was apple picking then a Fall Festival at the U-pick farm that we frequent throughout the year.

The apple farm we chose was Riley's Farm in Oak Glen. That's about a two hour drive without traffic. We got there right when they opened and thank goodness we did. It turned out to be the last day of apples (Granny Smiths) for the season and also pumpkin patch time for them.

We went first for apples.

Then wandered around the pumpkin patch before heading back to the Hawks Head Tavern for an early lunch of Ye Olde Grilled Cheese.

The food took a while so we made ourselves busy with selfies.

Finally, lunch was eaten and then it was time to make a speech.

We then left and I was so glad we'd gotten there early as the two lane road leading the farm was JAMMED on both sides for about 1/4 mile.

The next day we made apple pie. It was delicious! Before and After:

I look forward to going back to that farm next year earlier in the season to get some red apples. 

I'm not the most crafty person in the world, don't know how to sew nor do I own a glue gun. But I actually made a Halloween Craft this year! Sewing and glue gun not required! It's small, only 10" around, but I love it. Harper helped me paint the snakes.

Today was all about the Pumpkin Situation at our regular farm Underwood Family Farm. They have a full on Fall Festival every October with rides and games and and food and music along with all their regular farm fun stuff.

The most fun for both of us was the Bean Box - an enclosed, shaded "Playpen" full of beans and various scoopers and cups. Harper could have stayed for hours. We were there for about 40 minutes. It was heaven.

 

We Also Do Things Without Harper

Because we have our own lives too. Sort of.

Eddie Izzard was in town a few weeks ago and I went with Jacquie. We had nosebleed seats at the Hollywood Bowl. But Eddie is AMAZEBALLS and did a Q&A for the cheap seats about an hour before the show started. Wonderful guy.

Then Kurt and I got tickets to see a Texas Rangers game at Dodger Stadium. They were playing the Dodgers, FYI. We haven't been to a baseball game in about 10 years. It was fun for a while then the game turned out to be a pitchers duel (but not even a very good one) and at the bottom of the ninth, the score was 0-0. UGH. (I know, I know, fair weather fan.)

We left to avoid the crowd and listened as the Dodgers won with a walk-off balk! What is that, you say? (Because I had to be educated...) Click Here.

But we got to eat Dodger Dogs and eat peanuts and I had beer. I rarely have beer but I felt beer was necessary. Okay not necessary but traditional. I was also pleased/surprised to find we got to sing Take Me Out To The Ballpark at the 7th inning stretch, not America The Beautiful (or whatever 'Murican song that has to be sung to say F You to terrorists). Happy to hear that tradition has returned. Oh and we got to do the wave. Silly good times. I'd like to go back for another game.

Before it turned into a snooze-fest - HERE WE RANGERS, HERE WE GO!

I've always been bummed that I didn't grow up with a home team of any kind. I love that Kurt has his love/hate relationship with the Rangers. I would love to have Harper have a team, so maybe in a few years we can start educating her and going to more Dodger games..?? We'll see if she's into it. Kurt can be play-by-play and I can do color commentary: "Now he has two balls."

PS Waaaaaay before I was born, my dad used to recreate baseball games for the radio in Hawaii. That would have been really cool to hear him do.

 

 

Throwback Thursday on Monday

Saw this on The Meta Picture and it really made me smile. I don't think I've seen a tap like this in decades. Of course I don't spend a lot of time in other people's backyards looking at their spigots these days.

 

 

 

How "Toy Story" Messes Me Up As A Parent

Way before we had Harper, Toy Story had given me pause any time I came across toys in real life. The movie is so charming and funny and brilliant that how could you not consider that your toys come to life when you are out of the room?

Now with Harper and her toys, it's double trouble there. A pile of stuffed animals, baskets of balls and toy cars, the Gabba Gang, a stable full of horses. It's a lot. Most are on the floor or on shelves. But there are a few in the crib and they tend to stay in the crib. I started feeling bad about them, that they can't just jump out and play with the others. Prison. They are in toddler prison.

I feel especially bad for one very soft, furry rabbit. (She's the grey one on the left.) Except for Harper's little bear, which goes with her everywhere, Rabbit was the only other toy in there for months. I've slowly put in a few others and now I feel that she's not so lonely in there. Is that weird??

Or how about this? Mom gave Harper this awesome "Impossibly tall" rabbit doll for Easter last year. A lovely girl rabbit with a cute dress, a flower on her ear and fancy espadrilles. Harper loves it. For Christmas, Harper got the brother doll, also cute with sweater, jeans and Chuck Taylor type sneakers. Well, Harper is in the phase where all doll clothes come off. So one day I come in and both dolls are naked, their clothes strewn around and I realize they are both the same doll model underneath. There is nothing to distinguish them from each other without their clothes.

My worry? When I put the clothes back on, how do I know that I put the clothes back on the right doll? What if brother rabbit is not happy wearing his sister's dress and fancy shoes? Or maybe he loves it and can finally be his true self? What if the other boys are laughing at him? It's a tough call, man. I hate to think of any of Harper's toys being unhappy. I like to think they live in a warm and open group but can you really trust that crazy pelican puppet?

Hopscotching Harper

Well, I'll be honest. Harper hasn't figured out jumping yet, so "hopping" is a stretch. Let's just say she was "skip-scotching". But she loves it. And man, if I played hopscotch all day, I'd be in good shape. Maybe I could be a personal trainer and do the Hopscotch/Monkey Bars/Chinese Jump Rope work outs...with jacks thrown in for good hand-eye coordination workouts.

And did you know hopscotch goes back to at least the 1600s?

Return To Wii Fit - Snowball Fight!

My dear friend Jackie in Scotland (or as I know her best @JacMac30) commented on my recent post about the 5/2 plan and getting back in shape. She said: "well done you! I've dusted off the wii fit and have been enjoying the snowball fights once more ;)"

SNOWBALL FIGHTS!!!!!!!

I thanked her profusely as I hadn't thought about that in about two and a half years and it's just what I've been needing for some additional core and leg work on top of walking.

Kurt had to find/dig out the Wii Fit Plus disk and this morning I retrieved the WF balance board, scraped out the very dead batteries and fired the whole thing up. WOW am I out of shape. (This is not a surprise, by the way.) But it felt good to do the crazy chicken flappy thing, the obstacle course (gotta to get that jump mastered again), the skateboarding (oooh my neck gets so stiff!) and the snowball fight. There was much muscle memory but muscle fitness was lacking. Can't wait to start approaching my high scores again.

Funny thing was, in the couple of days before finding the disks, I was trying to remember what the snowball fight images even looked like. I couldn't do it! Amazing how memories get buried like that.

Here's a screen image I found on the interwebs.

I had actually forgotten all about the skateboarding game until Saturday when we were watching Yo Gabba Gabba and Tony Hawk was on doing some sweet moves. I got doubly excited remembering how well I used to do with the skateboarding. So aside from the stiff neck, that was super fun to return to this morning.

Wii Fit has not been updated in years, however. I don't know if there is a plan to update any of the courses or games, but that would be great as they can get old after a few weeks/months...

But thanks for the kick in the pants, Jackie! (And you know I don't mean "plastic"!)

366/2012: Day 256 Just Playing

366/2012: Day 252 Toys

366/2012: Day 248 Juggling Triptych

Kurt sent this series to me today via text. It made my day...

Harper learning to juggle -- I got this!

I think I got it...

I don't got it.