I know everything, too
Hello there. December is here, and as I’ve come to expect, there is no snow or any chance of it. The crickets and cicadas are singing though! Sometimes you’ll drive through certain parts of the forest and the noise level skyrockets. It’s the cicadas. They leave their shells on trees, evoking great interest from Jacinta and a hungry Genevieve. This hungry baby is still roaming around on the floor while I write this evening, sucking on scraps of paper, rolling balls around, opening cupboard doors, and trying out new sounds. She likes the night life, we’re finding. I tried to tire her out in the carrier as the sun was going down. We went down to check up on the garden and eat a few strawberries. She came back bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Matt then took her out to get the newspaper and some chocolate. Back by eight o’clock, she seemed tired out. I nursed her to sleep, but that turned out to be a nap. She’s back up now, ready to party.
Genevieve had a fever last week, now she has a cold. It makes sense, her immune system was weakened by the fever so she was the easiest target. So far, none of us has caught it, but she is faring pretty well besides her wet sounding cough. She is smiling, curious, adventurous, and energetic. She is just entering that phase when babies learn to pull everything off a shelf or out of a basket or cupboard. The look of sheer accomplishment after she has finished her work of “emptying” is priceless. She especially loves taking the knob puzzle pieces out of their proper places and will not rest until every last one is out. I have a bit of fun with her, racing to put them back in before she can take them out again. She always wins. Babies are very good at getting what they want, perhaps due both to their persistence, helplessness and cuteness. When Evie is tired and hungry, boy do I run to keep her quiet. This week her favourites were big messy mango seeds and frozen corn and blueberries.
I didn’t cook much this week because we were out so much, although I did buy enough blueberries to feed us for a week. Blueberries are in season right now. One of our friends had a connection with a blueberry farm up the road, lucky. I froze them all for baking, smoothies and oatmeal. Jacinta woke up this morning worried that we had finished them, “Where did they all go mommy?” Perhaps she has gotten used to things disappearing while she’s sleeping, like chickens. Luckily we didn’t lose any more this week. In fact, Mrs. Red even started laying eggs for us again!
We didn’t get out in the garden as much this week, but in our few days of play down there we had a lovely time. We made flower crowns, weeded, played with the chicks, harvested garlic and picked flowers. The corn is high enough to make a good game of hide and seek so we all enjoy that. Genevieve likes to pull up on the stalks so she doesn’t get to do any hiding on her own. Hiding beneath the corn stalks are kidney bean plants, which I have discovered do not climb. They look like normal green beans, but once fully grown they can be peeled and are fat little kidney beans! Jacinta was thrilled by their colour and ate them just because they were pink beans. I am thrilled purely because I’ve been eating them all my life and have just found out how they grow. Jacinta actually wanted to stay down in the garden longer than I one day because she so enjoys selling me “baked goods” (mud cakes) from her “shop” (clay fort). For the time being Evie can’t handle being awake in the garden for very long so we either have to come back to the house or stop for morning tea and stories every fifteen minutes. Jacinta wouldn’t mind the latter option. We do often sit down on the dirt floor of the garden shed, hiding from the hot sun or sometimes the rain and play or tell stories. I have started making up stories about my parents’ childhoods, picturing them in their old playgrounds and piecing together little bits of things they have shared with me. This is a new challenge, now I’ll just need to gather some more stories from mom and dad.
Children love to hear stories. I first learned this being a child, then teaching in a classroom, and now with my children. Moving from picture books to purely oral stories has been a gradual process as Jacinta’s imagination has blossomed. She’ll happily take a made up story over a picture book anytime now. Sometimes she’ll request the same story the moment I finish telling it, “again, again!” she’ll ask excitedly. No doubt children like repetition. Storytelling language must be universal because in French class I can tell a story and have complete attention. Although the words sound different, I show them the story line in gestures and they take in what they want. This week we had a lovely class singing, counting, running, jumping, hiding, playing games and telling stories. Later on I overheard Jacinta excitedly telling Matt about a “game” we had played with birds, when I had thought handing out toy birds was merely a method of getting across the meaning of a song without translation. Everything can turn into a story or a game for little people.
If only I could use story telling or a game to make it easier for Jacinta to learn to say “sorry.” I have tried, but she is as hard headed as her mother. She has learned to whisper “sorry,” but only when she truly feels it necessary. On Thursday when she whacked Genevieve in the face with a cloth, she didn’t deem it necessary. Unfortunately I did. So, a long while later after spending time in her room while her friend Nickolas and I had lunch, she came out to play dolls. She then asked me to remove Evie from their play area and I told her that Evie had come for her “sorry.” Jacinta then, for the first time, asked me to leave the room so she could do it. I hesitated because I had been strict on her all day long and thought I should give a little. I appointed Nickolas to listen for the apology, since he’s so good at saying sorry. He had actually tried to teach Jess how to say “sorry” just a few minutes prior. He’s an honest child. “NO!” he informed me, “Cinta did NOT say sorry.” “Louder Cinta! I can’t hear you.” She actually said it then. Nickolas, Genevieve and I heard it.
Matt worked all five days at the school this week, so the girls and I spent most days out with friends, living it tough (hee hee). Monday we had swimming lessons and shopping, Thursday we had a birthday party at the beach and Friday pre-school orientation. We made a whole day out of our days into town for lack of a second car while Matt was at work. Keith lent us the car one day, and my friends helped us out the other days. One morning we were sitting in the car with Nickolas while Sara ran an errand. Out of the silence Nickolas stated very seriously, “I know everything.” I burst out laughing but my girls had no reply. He repeated himself, “Cinta, I know everything,” just to be sure she heard. She did not laugh or make fun of him, she merely replied with all of the confidence in the world, “I know everything too.” Oh, to be a three year old, so proud and self assured. I asked them if they thought Genevieve knew everything also and they both quickly replied, “No!” as if it was a silly question. Perhaps we’ll have to ask Genevieve when she is three years old.
Matt has been working at the school long enough now to get to know some of the students and teachers. His students KNOW they don’t know everything, they are not three, but adolescents. As with any job, once you start to form good relationships it starts to feel comfortable. Matt’s teaching a few periods of sport each day, which is nice to be either outdoors and/or physically active. It is now the end of the school year so he is also proctoring exams, much less fun.
Besides school Matt spent some time playing with his girls, reading, mowing the gardens, working on websites and paper bricks. What are paper bricks? You can use old newspapers, shred them, soak them and press them into a mold to make fuel for a fireplace. He’s been doing this for a few months now, in all of his spare time He will install a fireplace before winter comes, yippee! Today Matt worked a bit on the veranda, making handrails and cleaning up. Just as the veranda project is finishing up, we’re realizing the need for a shed, somewhere to store big things we don’t use all of the time, like winter rugs and extra chairs. It’s funny when you actually hit these points of insanity together, realizing that being crowded is about to push you over the line. So like a good accumulator, you build a shed. No calls yet for Too Many Photos, but we found a few places in town to advertise for us, a travel agent and a gift shop.
Right now Matt is pushing Evie back and forth in the pram outside the window on the new veranda. She has given up. After taking all of the magnets off the fridge, eating all the frozen blueberries off the island, pulling up on our legs over and over, Genevieve has fallen asleep, once again. We can’t ask for much more in life, we’ve got it pretty good.
Jacinta had a few hours to formally check out pre-school which she will begin in January. She had friends here almost every day and played herself ragged. I must say she is good at taking time out if she needs it. Most often it’s in the form of a long lazy sit on the toilet (she has a reputation) or just playing something that no one else wants to play. She painted and drew tens of pictures, cutting each one into pieces to give out to her friends, mostly rainbows. Out of the blue she said to Matt the other day that “I am colorey.” He had to dig a little to find out what she meant. It’s that she loves colors. My friend Trish brought her some new pink beads, which reinspired Jacinta to bead some jewellery. Her patience astounds me at times. Sometimes she’ll bring me a finished necklace and ask for the final knot. More often than not, I will spill all the beads before successfully tying the knot. Thursday Genevieve grabbed onto Jacinta newly finished bracelet and rather than tearing it out of Evie’s hand or yelling, Jacinta stayed calm and just watched the beads fall. She and I picked them up and then without any drama, she re-strung them. Her calm and patient nature helps her in the chick pen, but the normal three year old in her eventually comes tearing out. It makes her chase the poor chicks incessantly, picking them up for a cuddle or to “play upside down games” with them. Hopefully they will live long enough to join our small lucky flock of hens. We shall see.
We shall also see if we can keep total materialism out of Christmas for Jacinta. It seems to get harder every year as people stress the Santa and “what do YOU want for Christmas???” aspect of the holiday. For now, she is just excited and enamoured with Santa and the idea of some stranger bringing gifts from afar. At the playgroup family Christmas party, she and Lily sat waiting for Santa on a log at the beach a full two hours before “she” arrived. Luckily they gave up and played after a while. We all had a great time, moms and dads and kids included. Although I complain about Jacinta at times, I feel her strong heart reach out from time to time to remind me how full of love she is. After opening her gift (which Santa accidentally left in the car, she pulled out the rainbow-colored headband. She didn’t compare it to anyone else’s gift, she just vowed that she would wear it every day. She thanked Santa. Later on she asked me why big people don’t get presents from Santa. She accepted my dumb explanation that Santa knew the big people really just enjoyed watching the little people open presents. Hours later, she told me she’d share her headband with me. Just writing that brings tears to my eyes. I’ll try remembering this during the next battle of the wills.
Happy December to you all. Enjoy the chill in the air and whatever love you find.
Peace,
Shana
Genevieve had a fever last week, now she has a cold. It makes sense, her immune system was weakened by the fever so she was the easiest target. So far, none of us has caught it, but she is faring pretty well besides her wet sounding cough. She is smiling, curious, adventurous, and energetic. She is just entering that phase when babies learn to pull everything off a shelf or out of a basket or cupboard. The look of sheer accomplishment after she has finished her work of “emptying” is priceless. She especially loves taking the knob puzzle pieces out of their proper places and will not rest until every last one is out. I have a bit of fun with her, racing to put them back in before she can take them out again. She always wins. Babies are very good at getting what they want, perhaps due both to their persistence, helplessness and cuteness. When Evie is tired and hungry, boy do I run to keep her quiet. This week her favourites were big messy mango seeds and frozen corn and blueberries.
I didn’t cook much this week because we were out so much, although I did buy enough blueberries to feed us for a week. Blueberries are in season right now. One of our friends had a connection with a blueberry farm up the road, lucky. I froze them all for baking, smoothies and oatmeal. Jacinta woke up this morning worried that we had finished them, “Where did they all go mommy?” Perhaps she has gotten used to things disappearing while she’s sleeping, like chickens. Luckily we didn’t lose any more this week. In fact, Mrs. Red even started laying eggs for us again!
We didn’t get out in the garden as much this week, but in our few days of play down there we had a lovely time. We made flower crowns, weeded, played with the chicks, harvested garlic and picked flowers. The corn is high enough to make a good game of hide and seek so we all enjoy that. Genevieve likes to pull up on the stalks so she doesn’t get to do any hiding on her own. Hiding beneath the corn stalks are kidney bean plants, which I have discovered do not climb. They look like normal green beans, but once fully grown they can be peeled and are fat little kidney beans! Jacinta was thrilled by their colour and ate them just because they were pink beans. I am thrilled purely because I’ve been eating them all my life and have just found out how they grow. Jacinta actually wanted to stay down in the garden longer than I one day because she so enjoys selling me “baked goods” (mud cakes) from her “shop” (clay fort). For the time being Evie can’t handle being awake in the garden for very long so we either have to come back to the house or stop for morning tea and stories every fifteen minutes. Jacinta wouldn’t mind the latter option. We do often sit down on the dirt floor of the garden shed, hiding from the hot sun or sometimes the rain and play or tell stories. I have started making up stories about my parents’ childhoods, picturing them in their old playgrounds and piecing together little bits of things they have shared with me. This is a new challenge, now I’ll just need to gather some more stories from mom and dad.
Children love to hear stories. I first learned this being a child, then teaching in a classroom, and now with my children. Moving from picture books to purely oral stories has been a gradual process as Jacinta’s imagination has blossomed. She’ll happily take a made up story over a picture book anytime now. Sometimes she’ll request the same story the moment I finish telling it, “again, again!” she’ll ask excitedly. No doubt children like repetition. Storytelling language must be universal because in French class I can tell a story and have complete attention. Although the words sound different, I show them the story line in gestures and they take in what they want. This week we had a lovely class singing, counting, running, jumping, hiding, playing games and telling stories. Later on I overheard Jacinta excitedly telling Matt about a “game” we had played with birds, when I had thought handing out toy birds was merely a method of getting across the meaning of a song without translation. Everything can turn into a story or a game for little people.
If only I could use story telling or a game to make it easier for Jacinta to learn to say “sorry.” I have tried, but she is as hard headed as her mother. She has learned to whisper “sorry,” but only when she truly feels it necessary. On Thursday when she whacked Genevieve in the face with a cloth, she didn’t deem it necessary. Unfortunately I did. So, a long while later after spending time in her room while her friend Nickolas and I had lunch, she came out to play dolls. She then asked me to remove Evie from their play area and I told her that Evie had come for her “sorry.” Jacinta then, for the first time, asked me to leave the room so she could do it. I hesitated because I had been strict on her all day long and thought I should give a little. I appointed Nickolas to listen for the apology, since he’s so good at saying sorry. He had actually tried to teach Jess how to say “sorry” just a few minutes prior. He’s an honest child. “NO!” he informed me, “Cinta did NOT say sorry.” “Louder Cinta! I can’t hear you.” She actually said it then. Nickolas, Genevieve and I heard it.
Matt worked all five days at the school this week, so the girls and I spent most days out with friends, living it tough (hee hee). Monday we had swimming lessons and shopping, Thursday we had a birthday party at the beach and Friday pre-school orientation. We made a whole day out of our days into town for lack of a second car while Matt was at work. Keith lent us the car one day, and my friends helped us out the other days. One morning we were sitting in the car with Nickolas while Sara ran an errand. Out of the silence Nickolas stated very seriously, “I know everything.” I burst out laughing but my girls had no reply. He repeated himself, “Cinta, I know everything,” just to be sure she heard. She did not laugh or make fun of him, she merely replied with all of the confidence in the world, “I know everything too.” Oh, to be a three year old, so proud and self assured. I asked them if they thought Genevieve knew everything also and they both quickly replied, “No!” as if it was a silly question. Perhaps we’ll have to ask Genevieve when she is three years old.
Matt has been working at the school long enough now to get to know some of the students and teachers. His students KNOW they don’t know everything, they are not three, but adolescents. As with any job, once you start to form good relationships it starts to feel comfortable. Matt’s teaching a few periods of sport each day, which is nice to be either outdoors and/or physically active. It is now the end of the school year so he is also proctoring exams, much less fun.
Besides school Matt spent some time playing with his girls, reading, mowing the gardens, working on websites and paper bricks. What are paper bricks? You can use old newspapers, shred them, soak them and press them into a mold to make fuel for a fireplace. He’s been doing this for a few months now, in all of his spare time He will install a fireplace before winter comes, yippee! Today Matt worked a bit on the veranda, making handrails and cleaning up. Just as the veranda project is finishing up, we’re realizing the need for a shed, somewhere to store big things we don’t use all of the time, like winter rugs and extra chairs. It’s funny when you actually hit these points of insanity together, realizing that being crowded is about to push you over the line. So like a good accumulator, you build a shed. No calls yet for Too Many Photos, but we found a few places in town to advertise for us, a travel agent and a gift shop.
Right now Matt is pushing Evie back and forth in the pram outside the window on the new veranda. She has given up. After taking all of the magnets off the fridge, eating all the frozen blueberries off the island, pulling up on our legs over and over, Genevieve has fallen asleep, once again. We can’t ask for much more in life, we’ve got it pretty good.
Jacinta had a few hours to formally check out pre-school which she will begin in January. She had friends here almost every day and played herself ragged. I must say she is good at taking time out if she needs it. Most often it’s in the form of a long lazy sit on the toilet (she has a reputation) or just playing something that no one else wants to play. She painted and drew tens of pictures, cutting each one into pieces to give out to her friends, mostly rainbows. Out of the blue she said to Matt the other day that “I am colorey.” He had to dig a little to find out what she meant. It’s that she loves colors. My friend Trish brought her some new pink beads, which reinspired Jacinta to bead some jewellery. Her patience astounds me at times. Sometimes she’ll bring me a finished necklace and ask for the final knot. More often than not, I will spill all the beads before successfully tying the knot. Thursday Genevieve grabbed onto Jacinta newly finished bracelet and rather than tearing it out of Evie’s hand or yelling, Jacinta stayed calm and just watched the beads fall. She and I picked them up and then without any drama, she re-strung them. Her calm and patient nature helps her in the chick pen, but the normal three year old in her eventually comes tearing out. It makes her chase the poor chicks incessantly, picking them up for a cuddle or to “play upside down games” with them. Hopefully they will live long enough to join our small lucky flock of hens. We shall see.
We shall also see if we can keep total materialism out of Christmas for Jacinta. It seems to get harder every year as people stress the Santa and “what do YOU want for Christmas???” aspect of the holiday. For now, she is just excited and enamoured with Santa and the idea of some stranger bringing gifts from afar. At the playgroup family Christmas party, she and Lily sat waiting for Santa on a log at the beach a full two hours before “she” arrived. Luckily they gave up and played after a while. We all had a great time, moms and dads and kids included. Although I complain about Jacinta at times, I feel her strong heart reach out from time to time to remind me how full of love she is. After opening her gift (which Santa accidentally left in the car, she pulled out the rainbow-colored headband. She didn’t compare it to anyone else’s gift, she just vowed that she would wear it every day. She thanked Santa. Later on she asked me why big people don’t get presents from Santa. She accepted my dumb explanation that Santa knew the big people really just enjoyed watching the little people open presents. Hours later, she told me she’d share her headband with me. Just writing that brings tears to my eyes. I’ll try remembering this during the next battle of the wills.
Happy December to you all. Enjoy the chill in the air and whatever love you find.
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
9:54 PM
1 Comments:
i love you guys! *hugs and kisses*
~rebecca
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