On the side wall where cars pass by, however, there are two small movie posters that show the current movie fare, and as our car passed by today, Kieran called from the back, “Mommy! That place must be a movie theatre! I know it from the signs!” This is a child who has been to one movie in his life, a year ago, and yet he still remembers the posters displayed all over the theatre. He saw two similar posters this morning on an otherwise bland building and managed to conclude that the place is where people go to see movies.

I really need to remember to ask Kieran the next time I’ve lost my keys or have that feeling I’m forgetting something at the grocery store.

And in other developing news, Liam was very excited to have finished two bracelets for a friend in the knitting block of his handwork class. (All children at Waldorf schools learn to knit in first grade. Not only is it fun and relaxing, but it builds fine motor skills for later work with pencils, pens, and paint brushes.) Today, though, he made the mistake of speaking about handwork class to a 2nd grade child. I’m not sure what Liam heard from his older schoolmate, but all I know is he climbed in the car at pickup time today saying, “Mom? Mommy? I am so in trouble in 2nd grade because they have to learn to purl in that class and they say it’s REALLY HARD! And I thought knitting was hard! I think I should stay in 1st grade forever….”

He was, however, a bit more relaxed when I told him that since he knows how to cast on, cast off, and knit, once he learns the purl stitch he’ll be set to tackle any knitting project he dares to pursue. Last I heard of this, he was imagining knitting a functional robot. I guess I should have put some explanation on the phrase “any project you wish to pursue.”

Happy Halloween!

(Liam and Kieran went trick-or-treating tonight with two friends.)

At Liam’s school last week, the 5th Graders came over to help the 1st Graders carve their very own jack-o-lanterns. Here is Liam with his creation. He was very proud to have carved his first pumpkin, and told me that the only help he needed from the older children was scooping the inside seeds and strands out of the pumpkin.

Have a spooky Halloween, everyone!

…petting the lion cub…

…playing with Galapagos tortoises…

…and then, the next week, he was at Work Day at his school, helping set up the classroom and picking out a desk…

…and finally came the first day of school, during which each new 1st-Grade child was introduced the the school community and welcomed into the grade school with a bouquet of wildflowers presented by our 7th Grade Lead Class. This is the Waldorf School Flower Ceremony, which is performed the first day of each school year at each Waldorf school around the world. The wildflowers were grown over the summer in our school garden by the Lead Class, and they are used for this ceremony because they symbolise the unbridled spirit of young children. It was a beautiful day, perfect for celebrating a beautiful group of children.

Welcome to Grade School, Liam. May the years ahead hold many adventures, big and small. We love you and sre so proud of you.

Love,

Mommy, Daddy, and Kieran

]]> http://menageriehouse.com/2010/09/16/the-times-they-are-a-changing/feed/ 1 liesl Liamlion Dolphin Day Week 9 035 IMG_6381 1stgrade http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/26/zoo-trip/ http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/26/zoo-trip/#comments Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:34:07 +0000 lieslf http://menageriehouse.com/?p=844 ]]> One day this week I took the boys to a local zoo. It’s not one of the big zoos in Philadelphia or New York-those are fun too, but we had quite a heat wave going on and we wanted something to do that would get us out to  enjoy the relative cool of the morning before the afternoon heat hit the upper 90′s. This zoo is a kind of strange place. On the one hand, out front it is a pet store that does sell puppies and kittens. I know pet store puppies and kittens often come from puppy mills and the cat equivalent, so I do wish that they were not selling the animals. However, when you walk through the pet store and see the zoo, what you see is a home for a lot of wild animals that were initially purchased as pets by people who ultimately learned the hard lesson that wild animals do not make good pets.

So these former pets have a good life at this zoo-it’s not fancy, but all the animals have lots of space, toys, good food and clean water, and a caring staff. They have animals you might expect in this situation-wolves, dingo-domestic dog hybrids, lemurs, baboons, spider monkeys, and many kinds of smaller, cuddly-looking animals. They also have some giraffes. Now I have no idea who on Earth would think that giraffes just might be the perfect backyard companion, yet there they are. So anyway, there is some good being done here with these animals, and the boys love to come and run around and and watch the animals play.

We spent a happy morning running around and watching the ring-tail lemurs swing around in their trapezes. We watched the wolves running back and forth with a huge ball. Liam and Kieran occasionally were chased by some chickens of various breeds-the place has some free-range domestic chickens, and this time of year their are chicks around. The boys would get too close to the chicks either by accident or by intent when trying to pet the young birds. Then an angry mama chicken would scoot across the grass at the boy, wings flapping, cluck-cluck-clucking, and beak snapping. At one point one of the mother chickens actually managed to touch Liam’s hand. He ran to me unhurt, big blue eyes wide open, and said, “Wow, Mommy, that chicken is really scary when she is protecting her babies. I think that what sounds like ‘Cluck, cluck, cluck,’ to us, really means ‘Don’t mess with my babies, mister!’”

I had to agree with him as angry chickens do look like they mean business. Liam showed me where the chicken had nipped at his hand. “Mommy, I’m lucky she didn’t really peck at me. That would have hurt. Hey! I think I’ve just discovered what the word ‘henpecked’ means!” And off he ran, looking to tell Kieran of his new vocabulary edition. ( This is what we call “Summer Schooling”.)

It turns out that the chickens are not the only domestic birds in residence at this zoo. There are some Guinea fowl, and also about a dozen peacocks and peahens. One of the peacocks is an albino-he really is pretty. Our Indian friends invariably describe these birds as “varmits” and “pests”, and that they certainly can be as they are not shy about running up and grabbing tidbits of food from people, trash cans, or the grass. Ill behavior notwithstanding,though,  these birds certainly are beautiful. Liam found one long tail feather lying on the ground, and he picked it up, admiring the “eyespot” at the end of the feather. He got another vocabulary addition when he asked about how the feather shows all the colors of the rainbow as he waved it back and forth in the sun – I told him the word for that is “iridescent.” I love language and words, and it really is fun to share that passion with my son.

Liam ran back and forth across the grass with his brother, and after a bit he noticed tail feathers lying in various spots on the ground. Together the two boys made a game of running and picking up the feathers, and before long, they had a big bunch of beautiful feathers. Of course they both wanted to take the feathers home. I thought to myself, “What are we going to do with these feathers when we get them home?” After all, the feather are over three feet long, and the boys must have picked up about a dozen of them. But they really wanted to keep their feathers, so I promised they could keep them, and as it was turning hot, and the animals were all beginning to nap, we agreed it was time to go home.

Both boys fell asleep themselves on the drive home, so I had time to think about the issue of what to do with the feathers. Finally I thought of a spool of rainbow ribbon that I have that Liam really loves. He used the ribbon to wrap his teachers’ gifts on the last day of school, and we had some left over. I wondered if he might want to tie the feathers together into a bunch and use them to decorate his room.

When we got home I gathered up the feathers and tied them with the ribbon. When I showed them to Liam he was just so excited that he bumped his head on the stair rail jumping up and down with excitement. After we tended to the little goose egg on his head, the boys and I went upstairs and Liam found the perfect spot to display his feathers:

The picture doesn’t quite do the feathers justice because it does not pick up all the colors of the feathers and the beauty of the eyespots at the ends of the feathers, but you can get the idea. Liam tucked the feathers into the the foot of his bed, and they make a bit of a canopy overhead as he sleeps. He is quite in love with his feathers, and I have a feeling the collection will grow as we revisit the zoo. Kiri has some feathers of his own, and of course he wants his own beribboned bunch, so we have a little more crafting to do after our next trip to the little zoo.

Right now we are in the midst of a fun weekend that is giving me lots to blog about, and so that shall be the subject of my next post – thanks for checking in, everyone!

With Hugs from The Menagerie House!

]]> http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/26/zoo-trip/feed/ 3 liesl OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/18/june-is-a-busy-month/ http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/18/june-is-a-busy-month/#comments Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:24:52 +0000 lieslf http://menageriehouse.com/?p=823 ]]> At least in this family it is. There’s all the end-of-school chaos, and then we have several birthdays in the family this month so there’s something going on just about every day this month here. The boys and I have spent the week enjoying the first few days of summer vacation – they’ve done a lot of playing with their trains, and I’ve been trying to catch up on all kinds of projects around the house that have been left half-done during the school year. I’m hoping this summer I can actually do my Spring cleaning and reorganize the closets and the pantry.  That’s the plan anyway-we’ll see what actually transpires in the end.

Anyway, this is the post from last week with Liam’s last day of school and my birthday, along with a few snapshots of things that have been going on this week here at the Menagerie House. Last week on Liam’s last day of school, we had a sweet little festival to mark the end of kindergarten. We arrived at school and went out into the play yard. As the children romped and played, the parents worked on a craft project-a little butterfly puppet-that was meant to be a toy for younger siblings to take home at the end of the day. After the puppets had been finished, we formed a big ring together and had circle time for everyone. We then went inside to share a snack together. At the end of snack, the older kindergarteners-the ones who will be going on to 1st Grade in the fall-presented a puppet show as a gift to their parents and siblings.

The children had been working on this for several weeks. They made the puppets and the set. It was a story of a little boy and girl and the various adventures they had as they played through the year. There were a number of animal characters, including a little bird who always chirped exciting suggestions to the children when they needed a new idea for a game to play. Of course they had a loving mother and father who supported them in their adventures, and they always returned home a bit wiser and more worldly at the end of each day. The children worked so well together handling the puppets that I found myself getting lost in the story instead of just focusing on Liam – it is really amazing what children can do when they have the right support around them. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience by the time the show ended.

At the end of the show it was time to leave, but Liam took a moment to give his teacher a gift he had made for her. Kevin cut a squirrel figure out of some poplar wood, and then Liam spent quite a bit of time sanding the little fellow down to silky smoothness. He then decorated him with Stockmar beeswax crayons all over the surface of the wood. The little creature is an “oven squirrel” – holding him by the tail, one can use the groove behind his neck to pull out hot oven racks, while groove over the paws can be used to push them back in. Liam made a squirrel for his teacher and one for each of the two assistants, so he really did a lot of work putting these gifts together, and I think the teachers thought the squirrels were very sweet.

A freshly sanded squirrel…

…and here is the very colorful finished product. The beeswax crayons make the squirrel smell like honey!

After Liam handed out his gifts, it was time to leave. I will miss this kindergarten scene in the morning next year, and I’m looking forward to doing all over again with Kieran in two years’ time.

After going out to lunch with friends, we went home and had a birthday party. The boys treated me very well with strawberry shortcake, ice cream, and homemade birthday cards. I really couldn’t ask for anything sweeter or more fun. Here are a few shots:

My boys!

(Aren’t all three of them adorable?)

Cutting the cake…

Mooching for crumbs…

And here’s Kieran mugging for the camera. I love his curls. I told him the other day he is so not allowed to get a hair cut!

So it was a fun day – the last day of school and my birthday all at once. Since then we’ve been trying to get into some sort of a routine for the summer. We haven’t quite figured out our schedule yet, but we’ll get there. We’ve been to the park several times, watched a couple of movies, played in the sprinkler, played hopscotch in the driveway, and gone for bike rides around the block. Typical summer stuff!

Kevin and I planted some snapdragons and marigolds in a small bed under our dogwood out in front of the house….

I think this bed will be really nice once the plants mature and fill things in a bit more.

The butterfly garden Kevin put in last summer is doing very well, particularly the echinaceas.

Back inside the house, my orchids are blooming really well this summer. The flowers are beautiful, and they stay around for weeks.

I love the deep purple of this bloom…

I just love these plants!

Moving right along to other lovely things, I present…

…Liam and Casey. Every boy needs a dog, and these two are best of friends.

Then, finally, to finish out the week, this afternoon was Liam’s first piano recital. He started taking lessons after Christmas, and today the teacher had her students present a little recital for parents. The children write their own songs and learn to play piano by playing their songs, so we were treated to a number of wonderfully named pieces. There was “The Little Frog”, “Princess and The Pea”, “Flying to the Moon”, and Liam’s final piece was entitled “The Cat Knocked A Marker Into The Piano.” The children played really well, and they seemed to really love sharing the pieces they had written with us.

Liam’s turn to perform.

Listening to his classmate play.

After all the children had performed their pieces, they finished with a parade of puppets.

Marching with their puppets…

Taking a bow at the end of the show.

After the performance was over, we went outside for refreshments. The children ran and played under the trees while the parents talked. It was a good show, and a good day.

It’s been a week of milestones here-the end of kindergarten, and a first piano recital. No wonder everyone looked a bit tired tonight. Now we are looking forward to a summer of swimming lessons, playing outside, catching fireflies, and listening to the crickets at night.

Life is good!

]]> http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/18/june-is-a-busy-month/feed/ 3 liesl OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA http://menageriehouse.com/2010/05/16/tooth-fairy-pillow/ http://menageriehouse.com/2010/05/16/tooth-fairy-pillow/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 02:34:34 +0000 lieslf http://menageriehouse.com/?p=795 ]]> A few posts back I promised to show you all some pictures of Liam’s Tooth Fairy pillow when I finished it and actually found the cable to the camera. Well, I found the cable so here we go. These aren’t the best pictures – I just got some quick shots of the pillow and didn’t really try to make the pictures look pretty, but you’ll get the idea of how I made it.

If you remember, Liam wants to be a “motorcycle policeman” when he grows up, so I wanted to make a police-themed pillow. I found some flannel with police cars and fire engines on it at the fabric store. It also had some some words like ” police” and “heroes”. I cut some of the pictures and words out. I then made the pillow from part of the leg of Kevin’s old jeans – basically a tube that I sewed closed on each end and then stuffed with wool roving.  Finally, I used dyed strands of wool roving needle-felted around the pictures and words to “applique” the flannel to the denim.

Here is a close-up view of  the “applique” work with the felted roving.

Here is the pocket for the tooth. I used the watch pocket from Kevin’s jeans and needle-felt-appliqued it to the denim.

So all-in-all, I’m pleased with the pillow. I wanted Liam’s pillow to be something from both Kevin and me, so I have that with Kevin’s jeans and my needlework. It’s definitely not the usual Tooth Fairy pillow you see for sale, but so many of those are obviously intended for little girls, and not for boys who have recently begun to shun anything too frilly or cutesy. When I gave it to Liam he recognized immediately that it was made from Daddy’s jeans, and he loved all the police stuff on it. Every morning when I go to wake him up for school, he picks up the pillow, kisses it, and says, “Thank you for my pillow, Mommy!”

That just makes me smile all over – such little things give children so much happiness. And now we are fully prepared for the first loose tooth!!

I tried to end the conversation, but Liam got it back to the wind, and kept asking for “just a gentle breeze!” Finally, after much whining and complaining and “Pleeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzz”-ing, he exploded in anger.

Liam: “If you don’t let me fly it I’m going to make a big volcano erupt toys all over the living room floor! And you don’t like messes!”

With a resounding “Hmph!!” he crossed his arms and stood up straight. His eyes dared me to deny him his desires.

He was so cute, and I’m still patting myself on the back for not grinning and running for the camera.

Finally, I reached out and hugged him, and he whispered, “When do I get to be an adult and make all the decisions about how the world should work according to Liam’s Rules?”

I haven’t had the heart to tell him that this is not the way the world works, either.

Growing up is not for the faint of heart.

Last year, Liam made a purple gnome and a tee-pee for him to live in. One of his older classmates knitted a rug for Liam’s gnome house. Then this year in the Parent-Child class that Kiri and I have been going to on Fridays, I made a bigger gnome. When I brought my gnome home last week, Liam took quite a shine to him and ran upstairs to introduce him to “Purple Guy.” As it turns out, Purple Guy and “Red Guy” have become best friends, despite the fact that “Red Guy” has to bend a bit to get into the gnome house.

Here you can see Red Guy and Purple Guy standing in their teepee alongside their dear pet, Mousie.

Here’s Liam, making sure I get a good picture. He was quite worried that I wouldn’t!

Here’s a shot to show the general size of the gnomes – Red Guy is about 9 inches tall, while Purple Guy is between and inch or two in size. The little Purple Guy that Liam made is amazing in that he sewed his purple robe and hat by himself, and then wet felted his body out of cream roving. Liam is getting quite good at sewing and is also beginning to do some knitting in school.

I have always loved crafts and sewing, both for recreation and to make actual useful items for me, my house, or my friends, and I’m so happy that my children will be learning these important skills early on in school.

Me: “Kiri, how old are you now?”

Kiri: “I is two but after my birthday party I will be 6!”

Liam: “No, silly, today is your birthday and you are 3!”

Kiri: “But I want to be 6 and go to kindergarten like Liam!”

Liam: “Kiri, 3 is way fun and you don’t want to miss it. You’ll get to go to nursery school – that’s like Kindergarten but only three days a week and without all the work. Trust me on this!”

Kiri: “Why?”

Liam: “Because I taught you how to write a letter to Santa that got you everything on your list. I know stuff!”

**********

As promised, 3 is treating Kieran quite well, although his party is not until Saturday, and I’m clinging to the notion that he’s still 2 until his party….I’m such a doting Mommy!

I read somewhere that children start to identify as a particular sex sometime between two and three years of age. That sounds about right to me because during the last couple of weeks I have overheard conversations or been directly quizzed about the differences between boys and girls. To wit:

I was in the bathroom enjoying a rare moment of daytime solitude when suddenly my daydreaming was interrupted by the invasion of a small indignant boy…

Kieran: “Why, Mommy? Why you lock me out of da bathwoom? You my best fwiend in da whole wide world!”

Me: “I didn’t lock you out, kiddo. You opened the door and ran in.”

Kieran: “Oh.”

He stared at me for a moment with a concerned look on his face.

Kiri: “Mommy!”

Me: “Yes?”

Kiri: “You poop?”

I shook my head.

Kiri: “You pee?”

I nodded my head.

Kieran: “Mommy, stand up! People stand up when dey pee!”

I laughed.

Me: “Only boys stand up to pee, Kiri. Girls have to sit down.”

Kiri: “Oh, no, Mommy, this is easy-peasy. You jus’ stand up and point your P@^#% into the potty!”

Me: “Girls don’t have p@^#%es, kiddo. We can’t stand up to pee.”

Kieran’s eyes got big.

Kieran: “Weally, Mommy?”

Me: “Yes, really. It’s true.”

Kieran: “But Casey has a p@^#%. And he be a dog! So you have one, too, Mommy?”

Me: “Well, yes, he does. He’s a boy dog. I’m a girl.”

Kieran (with big eyes, whispering): “Girl dogs no p@^#%es, either?”

Me: “That’s right. Only boy dogs have them.”

Kieran looked quite shocked for a moment, and then turned to leave.

Kieran: “No time to talk now, Mommy. Me got to go. Bye!”

Me: “Where are you going in such a hurry!”

Kieran: “Me have to tell Liam about boys and girls and p@^#%es. He’s in Kindergarten and he NEEDS to know this!”

And as quickly as he arrived, he was gone.

********

We were putting shoes on to go out on a playdate at my friend L’s house. L has three children-E, a 3.5 year old girl, A, a two old boy, and S, a 14 year old ninth-grader..

Kieran: “Tell me, Mommy, what was da baby’s name?”

Me: “His name is A.”

Kieran (smiling): ” Oh, yes! And da other one?”

Me: “Her name is E!”

Kieran: “Right! She be just like me!….But….no…she be girl…so she no p@^#%, right, Mommy?”

Me: “Right. She has no p@^#%, and she’s two years older than you.”

Kieran: “Oh, no, Mommy, me baby! So me like A?”

Me: “Well, yes, A is a boy and he’s a bit younger than you.”

Kieran: “And da other mommy? Her name?”

Me: “Her name is S, but she’s not a mommy. She’s a really big kid.”

Kieran stared at the wall for a minute, trying to reconcile everything he’d just heard,

Kieran: “No way! She too big for kid. She be another mommy! Where be her baby?”

Me: “Well, sweetie, she has no baby. She’s a big kid, too young to have a baby.”

Kieran: “You joke me? You not funny!”

He resumed staring at the wall, blinking in concentration.

Liam: “Mommy, I think Kieran is just confused.”

Kieran whipped around to yell at his big brother, who had unwittingly just taken him over the edge of sanity…

Kieran (crying): “No, Mommy! Me not confused! Me Kieran! Not confused! Me baby, me boy, me Kieran! ME!”

Liam: “It’s hard to be two, isn’t it, Kieran?

I remember this stage from when Liam went through it. It’s better this time because not only do I have have living proof that Kiri will eventually figure these big questions out for himself, but Kiri has an amazing big brother right there beside him to help.