Becca switches roles

Lately, Rebecca has decided she's big enough to feed herself with a spoon. A few nights ago she went even further, turning to me, poking the spoon at my mouth, and instructing, "Ah."*

(*"Ah" is universal parent language for "open wide.")

Overnight at Grand Lake (8/28)

We camped at Heart O' the Hills on Thursday, then Friday morning K & A hiked into the Olympic National Park backcountry to camp at Grand Lake, 4 miles each way with an elevation change of about 2000 ft.


View Larger Map

 
All together overlooking Grand Lake.

 
View from the Obstruction Pt. Trail.

 
Resting with my backpack.

 
Kids at Moose Lake.

 
1500 ft in 2 miles. Whew.

 
Katherine in the lead.

 
And back to the car.

Catalyst

Just finished the YA book Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson (sp?). I found I could relate too well to the teenage main character, who is too busy, too stressed, and too misunderstood. Am I still a teenager at heart? Are all of us?

More questions for the universe

--What made our DVD player and our TV computer crash at the same time? We've had to watch Angel on my computer, and even that DVD player is on the fritz.
--How can a little cold bring you so far down?
--Why don't Nerds create as big a soda eruption as Mentos, when they have more surface area?
--Why is our pumpkin vine producing so many flowers but no pumpkins?
--Why does the remote for a $45 DVD player have so many buttons? (Angle? Zoom?)


And the biggest question of all:
--Why are my kids getting sick every time Lar and I plan to see Harry Potter? (Three times in three weeks.) Plus we had to cancel the first play date I've arranged all summer!

Questions

Sure, my parents and sister were only in Iceland for 11 days, and I thought I'd get along fine without them. But when they left, I realized I had nobody to turn to for answers to these ponderous questions:

--Is Katherine exactly like me when I was her age, and if so, what on earth do I do with her?
--What do you do about shooting noises? (Alex's imagination can make guns out of sticks, pegs, socks, or cardboard--we're now living with the soundtrack to a sci-fi action flick. Piyoo! Piyoo! Piyoo!)
--Why does your nose run to fight germs, when the germs are already inside you?
--What's the point of sinuses, anyway? (I never notice mine until they're blocked.)

New Words

Rebecca can now repeat these useful words: "Bye," "Uh-oh," and "Yeah."
She will obligingly answer "yeah" to almost any question, which leads my children into conversations like these:

A: "Do you have a nose on your head?"
R: "Yeah."
A: "Do you have a plate on your head?"
R: "Yeah."

K: "Do you have hair on your head?"
R: "Yeah."
K: "Are you bald?"
R: "Yeah!"
(Riotous giggling from children.)

Tricks for brushing a four-year-old's teeth

1. Singing: "Brush, brush, brush your teeth."

2. Counting: Me: "Alex, what should I count to?" Alex: "Dinosaur!" Me (brushing): "OK. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, dinosaur!"

3. Monotone robot voice: "Open mouth. Brushing. Brushing. Brushing. Scanning. All clean."

4. Animal: "What kind of animal do you want to be tonight?" "Alligator." "OK, alligator. Let's brush those sharp alligator teeth. Oh, look at those big white alligator teeth! Let's keep them clean so they'll be nice and sharp." Brush, brush, brush.

Language Acquisition

Rebecca has started singing "Frere Jacques" and "I Won't Grow Up." If we can only teach her the lyrics, we'll have a bilingual baby!

Camping with Grandpa

K&A camping with Grandpa at Picnic Creek, then visiting the old power plant.

 

 

 

 

Dinner at Fish Creek (8/8)