narrowly escaping stitches

On Wednesday of last week, my mom received a phone call from my frantic teacher saying that I needed to be picked up from school immediately because I fell and needed stitches. Her panic wasn't entirely because of the blood. She has 29 years of classroom experience and she is a mother of a leukemia survivor so she has seen more than her share of blood and gore and blood and more gore. She was hysterical because, by her own admission, she wasn't supervising us boys closely enough. And, as she explained, she knew our game was rough but the accident occurred when some of the other younger children were being dismissed and she couldn't/didn't intervene.

When we moved to the new campus, there was more flexibility for younger children to stay all day. That sounds good but it sure adds an element of chaos and sometimes my mom and I talk about how hard it must be to keep track of children scattering everywhere at noon: some go to the rainbow room, some go for a nap while others go home and then there are some of us who stay in the classroom for an afternoon of academics. How do you not lose children? even one child!

My mom prepared to get me from school . . . telling the teacher that it would take 45 minutes to get there. Just as my mom was getting to school, the teacher called back to say maybe just maybe stitches were not needed.

My chin was cleaned up nicely by the time my mom got there so we decided to spend our stitches money on Lego. Best idea ever and I will take credit for that!

At bedtime, it seemed like maybe I should have had stitches. Since my cut was under my chin, it re-opened often and kept bleeding and weeping. Now, I will probably be left with a gouge of a scar in my chin.

Halloween

I really wish I could say that it was the changing weather that helped put me in the mood for Halloween. Most days, though, have still been a bit on the way too warm side. We forged ahead anyhow with our Halloween preparations . . . mostly because it is just one more stop on the way to Christmas. (Yes, I have my calendar marked so I can tell you exactly how many more days until Christmas.) 

Since it has been so hot, I could not buy/carve my pumpkin too far in advance. This is the pumpkin that I agonized over choosing, based on the size, relative smoothness, and roundness of its face. I had the honor of scooping all of the guts out. by hand. This job, I later told my dad, was the worst part of my day - though I didn't complain at all while I was doing it. It took me two tries to draw the pumpkin face as cute as I wanted it to be. We could be brothers! 

Scooping the guts out was only made all the more challenging because my mom insisted that I remove every last seed so that we could roast them. We used a different recipe this year that happens to involve melted butter. (Note: up up up the amount of butter and salt.) These are the toastiest gems of buttery goodness that you could hope to eat.

At long last, it was Halloween night. We went trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood that has wide, safe, and brightly lit streets. I walked and walked for almost two hours.

This was my haul. I forgot to mention that I already had a mountain of candy (not shown) from the previous weekend when we went tick-or-treating at the Galleria Halloween party.

Basically, I only like Reese's. We have some baking projects planned for my excess candy of the non-Reese's variety.

To wrap up our Halloween celebrations, I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread yesterday.

fall camping trip

Dr. Maria Montessori believed nature to be a source inspiration for learning. She observed that children tend to be fascinated with the natural world, and encouraged educators to get children out into nature, rather than confining them inside the classroom walls.

And so off my dad and I went on the school's fall campout.  

The academic rigor of my third and final year in the primary program is making this school year pass so quickly. That, and I am exhausted.

I have made excellent progress in every subject area. I had already mastered reading, of course, but I am working on my spelling (obsessively, all day and all night) and I even drew a black widow spider - complete with a frowny face. The guideline for each day is that students must choose one reading work, one math work, and one science work . . . and don't forget the art!

new school year

The start of my school year was delayed by one week and, I suppose, we did need those extra days to gather everything I needed and to label it all. My supplies list isn't anything like what one needs to buy for public school. Instead of pencils, crayons, and paper, I need cloth napkins, a napkin ring, a hand towel with a loop of a certain size, boots, a plant in a 6" clay pot, and the list goes on and on and on. Having a seamstress on call for custom orders (oh hi Trinity) makes life so much easier (and I have really cute things).

We also volunteered to prepare materials for my class. We spent the last week of summer cutting up a decade+ of National Geographic and Martha Stewart Living magazines to find pictures of vertebrates and invertebrates. We thought we were going to really fall short on the mollusks until we found the December 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living. 

Since I am now a lunch child, I've had to write grocery lists, and make choices from my mom's flowcharts that were devised to ensure my lunches would be perfectly balanced while adhering to my school's restrictions. Luckily, nuts are not banned.

We finished all of our preparations just in time to go to Verde's for 4:00 dinner. Normally, Verde's is the ideal place to celebrate birthdays, school starting or finishing, or anything really. I can run around and play football while my parents eat. On this day, it happened to be more than 100 degrees and I was a grouch. (That's an understatement.) I ordered this cake and then complained about it profusely. I was sound asleep for the night by 7:00. 

I woke up early and very happy. I got ready quickly and independently. And look how perfect my hair is! The only glitch in the morning is that we had no granola. (Who runs out of granola? geeeeesh.)

I was the first student to arrive at school. This allowed me the opportunity to look around. My campus is 12 acres of awesome.

I was even invited to try out the playground yard while I waited for my friends to arrive. This contraption is my mom's favorite feature: baking sheets/pans and utensils attached to a wall for making some noise!

Being a lunch child is the most exhausting thing ever. I turned sour (another understatement) in the evening but, again, was sound asleep around 7:00. I am going to have to adjust my afternoon/evening routine to get everything done before I turn into a monster.

for the love of LEGO

In recent months, I have become obsessed with LEGO. And by obsessed, I mean I even sleep with a constructed LEGO set at night. so cuddly. 

When it came time to prepare for our trip to the northwest, I showed great initiative and packed everything I would need. And please note that I got far more use out of what I packed than anything else that was packed on my behalf. 

When I wasn't outside enjoying the lake or the ocean or the mountains or the park or the zoo or my new soccer ball, I could be found on someone's floor playing LEGO. I even acquired a few new sets during my trip. (Thanks Mike.)

Keeping LEGO sets sorted out can make one a bit neurotic but I have (mostly) done an excellent job of keeping it all in order. When I returned from my trip, the little boy who fed my cats / checked mail / watered plants had scattered thousands of LEGO pieces throughout the house . . . in no order. I have been struggling to deal with the aftermath.

We've also been trying to get ready for school. Just as we thought we had made it through the summer, we learned that my new campus won't be ready on time so the start of school is delayed but we can talk about that later since there might be another delay coming. Before my trip, I went to the doctor for my annual check up. I am still the healthiest child in the world! The only concern was my eyes. I failed a vision screening but they couldn't be sure if I really couldn't see the chart or if I was just misidentifying the objects; I called the crescent moon a worm and the circle looked like a dot. So I was sent to a pediatric eye doctor.

And I need glasses.

After enduring an hour of tests, my eyes were dilated for even more testing. And I seemed a bit impaired for the rest of the day. (Look closely at how huge my pupils are in the photo above. I had to wear sunglasses all day. It's a good thing I had my Mariners sunglasses with me when I went to my appointment!) I was well enough to collect my free cookie from the bakery next door and then request a trip to the LEGO store.

After much indecision, I finally chose the LEGO Friends first aid jungle bike. I know that there was a lot of uproar about the Friends collection when it first came out. This is my first set from that collection. As a LEGO expert, I can tell you that the "girl" LEGO is considerably harder than the "boy" LEGO.

The most annoying thing that happened though was that a LEGO store employee (what do they call them? block experts? something like that) tried to talk me out of my purchase. I was standing in line giddily clutching my LEGO Friends set and he approached me and tried to get me to buy a Star Wars set instead and gave me a full demonstration with guns and shooting effects. I wanted my Friends set because it had a monkey and a banana. A LEGO banana! What's better than that?

swim camp

Swim camp might be the best invention ever. I spent the entire week in the pool. dream come true.

At the end of each day when my mom would pick me up, I would grumble that "I want to stay in the water" or "I want to keep having fun" even though I was exhausted beyond imagine.

We did a lot of serious work but we also had fun. I made a dinosaur in the craft room (and I don't even usually like doing art!). One of my favorite parts about the week was having credit at the concession so I could buy my own treat. The first day I had a cinnamon roll. Then ring pop, ring pop, gummy candy, and I ended the week with a ring pop. If you wonder why I ate so much candy, it's only because the cinnamon roll on Monday spoiled my appetite for lunch and I didn't want to make that mistake twice.

In my group, the goal was to perfect freestyle and backstroke. At the demonstration for parents yesterday, I was able to show off the butterfly that I have started to learn. Yes, you read that correctly: I am five and I am learning butterfly. I had the incredible fortune of being assigned to the owner/headcoach of the camp.

Sadly, the facility where I did my swim camp is about to close forever. It opened 16 years ago and they have taught countless children to love swimming and diving, and they have trained a handful of award-winning coaches. Why, then, would they close if they are so successful? The facility sits on prime real estate and Westlake clearly needs an excess of multi-million dollar mansions much more than the world needs excellent swimmers.

So, if any of my loyal readers have an extra billion dollars or so and want to save a gem of a swimming facility, the developers haven't closed the deal just yet. You have until the end of August . . .

party of the century

I received a coveted invitation to join a small group of children to celebrate my dear friend's fifth birthday. We have been anticipating this party ever since the dad mentioned that his goal this summer is to master fusion cuisine. The party was yesterday afternoon (and it carried on well into the evening) and it was better than we could have ever imagined. There was a water slide and we all enjoyed it until a storm unexpectedly broke and we retreated indoors to play Lego and blocks and all things fun. And their house . . . it might just be our dream house . . . in our dream neighborhood.

The pinata was popular. One of the older girls broke it open after we all took many turns, spilling out balls, rubber stamps, lollipops, and helicopters.

And the cake. This beautiful cake was homemade by my friend's dad. It was constructed of three 9x13 cakes. The limbs, head, and tail were vanilla and the body was chocolate. It had the fluffiest frosting I've ever tasted. 

Although I haven't even told the story yet of my fun fifth birthday party, I am already looking ahead to next year. (All of the children are.) I want this exact party that my friend had!

let's talk about kindergarten

Since I am now five, people always ask me about kindergarten. ohhhh you must be about to start kindergarten. No, I am not. Since I attend Montessori, I have the privilege of being in a mixed-age primary classroom for three years so I have the opportunity to know my guides, my peers, and to master my work. Next school year, I will move into a leadership role and I am most excited about serving snacks to the little ones.  

Here is a photo of me bidding goodbye to my guide on the last day of school. I was so ready for a break from her - and school in general. 

This week, my school is moving from its crowded home of 23 years to a new 12-acre campus . . . with a top-notch outdoor education program. (Have I mentioned that before?) When I return to school, a mere two months from now, this is what my life will look like. And I have finally been invited to be a lunch child!

tornado weather

On Thursday when we went to bed the evening was still pleasant, if not miserably hot. And then came this to interrupt my mom's game of Words with Friends. Good thing she happened to be playing a game.

I was carted downstairs because the last place you want to be is upstairs during a tornado. I briefly woke up to ask what was going on. By then, the storm was fierce and loud and the winds were 80mph. All I knew was maybe a tornado. After an hour+ of being half awake but mostly asleep, the winds suddenly stopped but it was so eerie that it was impossible to know if the storm really had passed or if something worse was brewing. 

The next morning was beautiful and sunny. I was heartbroken to see that my grove of massive oak trees was mostly destroyed. The saddest part was seeing the tree with the crushed bird nest in it. In recent days, I have realized just how much shade those trees provided in the afternoon and they will really be missed this summer. 

We also lost part of our roof. Again. I had the honor of collecting the roof tiles that scattered across our yard. 

Our neighborhood suffered a lot of damage. A shed was blown into the middle of the road. (What?) Many yards lost fences. So many beautiful trees are torn apart.

My assessment: tornadoes are way too scary but interesting.
(And ours wasn't even a real tornado. Close enough though.)

five

On Tuesday, I celebrated my last day of being four with my first ever trip to Homeslice. (Clarification: Homeslice is closed on Tuesdays but thankfully their More Homeslice is open to peddle the best slices in the world.) I have long been addicted to Homeslice but have never had the privilege of going there. All I can say is wow. And it exceeded all expectations. 

Some fun plans were tentatively made for my birthday but everything fell by the wayside and I built Lego for 12 hours or so. (Best birthday ever.) I took a break only to go to Verdes for dinner and to play a bit of football on their back lawn which really isn't much of a lawn right now. It has become tradition to celebrate my birthday at Verdes with a nutritionally unbalanced meal of too much queso, glass after glass of lemonade, and a sundae that is bigger and more elaborate each year.

On our way out, I met a sweet older couple who immediately adored me as I began my story of how yesterday I was four but then I woke up and I was automatically five. I showed them my Lego monstertruck that I had brought along for the car ride to Verdes. I charmed them further (the woman raved about how much she loved loved loved my personality) and they regretted missing my birthday and not getting me a gift since it all just happened automatically. So my new friends gave me some money as long as I promised to go shopping for a birthday gift on behalf of them. I have no way to thank them.

birthday circle: a saga

Not only is this the last week of school but, tomorrow, it is finally my turn for a birthday circle. I am the last of the year. The birthday circles started out fairly lowkey and we would celebrate our friends with treats of fruit kebabs, juice popsicles, or popcorn but somewhere along the way, one-upmanship (amongst the children, not the parents) kicked in. I was going to bring the best treat ever: pink cakepops from Starbucks. This had been my plan for months. and months. and months. 

And then my best friend, the girl I am going to marry, ruined everything (by her mother's admission). They baked/brought giant, and I mean GIANT, cookies with chocolate chips and M&Ms. They were fantastic. We all loved them and we are still talking about it! Then the birthday circle rules were promptly and drastically rewritten. 

There went my cakepop plan. We then decided to order our cakepops from Whole Foods (made without refined sugar and, sadly, not pink) but they don't make them anymore. We visited three different Whole Foods stores and some other fancy bakeries trying to settle on a birthday treat. In the end, my mom made peanut butter cookies not rolled in sugar and with chocolate shavings instead of chips. They are precisely uniform in size with most of the chocolate intentionally hidden at the bottom of the cookie. 

And then there was the book. It is tradition to donate a book to my school in honor of your child's birthday. Combine the rigid guidelines about what reading materials are allowed in the Montessori classroom with my mom's fussiness about grammar, language, and punctuation and you will know that choosing the book was not an easy task. It took countless hours to select one about insects. It's not hardcover but I hope that will be fine. 

And then there were the photos. I have to show my friends photos from each of my years. This is what I chose.

reading dog

On Friday afternoon, I spent so many hours at the library that I was still there when Joe E the reading dog arrived. At 2:00, I asked the librarian if the dog was coming that day (and if she wanted to go on vacation with me to swim with the dolphins - which, for a boy like me, is almost as exciting as being at the library). 3:30. So we made the big commitment to wait. and wait. and wait. Then I asked my mom every single minute that passed if the dog was there yet. Luckily, he arrived at 3:28.

Meeting the dog had been on my list of things to do for months but my schedule is often so full with picnics, lunch dates, or bike riding that the timing was just never quite right.

While the reading dog program is generally for children who read below level, I read way above level (remember, I am only 4!) but I am still a beginner. Joe E listened patiently as I read a book. Maybe he was a bit sleepy. He let me cuddle with him and he was so soft and freshly bathed. Because I get tired when I read aloud and I had the dog and his owner all to myself, I picked out book after book to have read to me once I finished my story.

I even told Joe E my favorite joke:
What do dogs eat for dessert?
pupcakes

foreman

After attending a party to celebrate the conclusion of another successful eight-week session of soccer, I stopped by my new campus to see how nicely things are unfolding. The construction of my new campus is a huge undertaking and there is no one better than a Montessori student to serve as a construction foreman. I only meant to stay five minutes but I was put to work, fed some pizza, compelled to share with the school's founder/director my brilliant ideas about strategies for transporting the classroom materials, and then asked to move tons of rocks. By hand. And, seriously, I mean tons.

I cannot even begin to tell you how spectacular my new campus is going to be. It sits on 12 mostly undeveloped acres and much of the focus is on the expansive natural playscapes and the nature education program. There are walking trails, wildflower meadows, a dry creek bed, and it's almost as if they were thinking of my perfect world when every minute detail of this campus was planned (and left unplanned). Our weekly assemblies will be enjoyed outdoors under the huge canopy of a Live Oak.

See this mountain of dirt behind me? Not only did I help secure this slide using stumps but I also got to take the inaugural run. best slide ever.

I'll be going back later in the week to do some painting and to check on the progress of my workers.

my bike

In recent months, I have put countless miles on my bike, participated in a bike Roadeo, and I have grown to be almost six feet tall. (Maybe not.) But I am definitely long overdue for a new bike. After school yesterday, my mom took me to the bike shop to get fitted properly and to do some test drives. 

I tested each bike in the store, including every color of every model that was available in my size - because color and graphics matter, you know. Each test drive was an ordeal. Pull it out of the display, adjust the seat and training wheels, walk the bike outside to the dedicated test drive space, ride for an hour, discuss the merits of each bike, walk the bike back inside, return it to the display, and start the process over. Not only was it fun, but it was a great way to kill a few hours. I even got some lessons about bike maintenance.

I was devastated to leave empty handed. While this Trek bike, with its flowery pink ribbons and XOXOXOXOXO treads, was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life, I may have to opt for something a bit more suitable for trail riding; this would be a sweet bike if I lived near a pastry shop and could ride over, with a bouquet in the basket, to get some macarons and a chai. I have now decided on the exact bike I want.

Easter bunny

As soon as I woke up very early yesterday morning, I was so intent on checking my calendar to see if it really was Easter that I completely overlooked what the Easter bunny delivered. He left me a basket overflowing with peanut butter cups, a creme egg, a Hello Kitty activity book, a swim toy, and, my favorite: a large box of wildflower seeds with 100 square feet of coverage!

I spent most of the day cleaning, making more messes, cleaning, eating nothing but too many carbs and sweets, and being overexcited about my friend Lisa coming for dinner. I did settle in for a while in the afternoon just long enough to sow my wildflower seeds. Next spring, my yard will be spectacular.

I am told that dinner was delicious, though I didn't eat anything except one bite of sweet potatoes. I have recently decided that I don't even like quiche anymore. What?

We finished the evening by playing Canadian version of Trivial Pursuit. Suddenly, I know everything about Saskatchewan and VIA Rail and the Trans-Canada Highway (aka Route Transcanadienne) and that Vancouver used to be called Granville and that there is a Harrods in the Toronto airport. Who knew Canada was so exciting? As a youngster, I thought it was nothing more that just a "different store with boats in it."

But, sadly, this morning I had my Trivial Pursuit privileges revoked for an entire week because I intentionally broke the lid and I threw the cards all over the living room. I was just mad that we had to pause to eat breakfast.

still spring

While we've seen some hot days already, the miserable temperatures seem to be arriving a bit later than usual. I haven't been keeping careful track but I do believe our hottest day this year has been 88. not bad. I am never bothered by the weather, no matter how blazing hot or freezing cold. The afternoons have been perfect for playing in the yard and making horses out of logs. My sport of the week is badminton.

I have a new favorite park that has an expansive playground and a one-mile paved loop around it. My mom has been keeping my bike in her trunk and we often stop there on the way home from school. I ride while she walks/runs. We go at least once around the loop. sometimes twice. or more.

One day last week, I met my friend at the park after he finished school. We climbed trees, rode his scooters, and played. Atop the tree, we had a conversation about how high we will climb once we are 10. Yesterday my mom surprised me with my very own scooter and I rode it at the park for two, maybe three, hours.

The wildflowers are in full bloom right now. That has made my long commute to school more interesting, maybe even exciting. A million thanks are owed to Lady Bird. 

Sitting in a patch of bluebonnets in my favorite park wasn't a bad way to end the week. 

spring break

Today is the last day of spring break. Maybe it went better than I or anyone had expected. Sometimes a boy like me needs school or other highly structured activities to keep content.

On the very first day of spring break, my mom and I visited a friend's ranch to survey the environmental destruction of a nearby development. As sad as that is, I do love to see heavy equipment working. There, I met someone who used to operate gantry cranes in Saudi Arabia; unprompted, he confirmed what my mom tells me frequently: I need to have top-notch math and physics skills. We've been working on that whenever I need breaks from reading and spelling lessons. 

On prior visits to the ranch, there was nothing but thousands upon thousands of acres of trees to look at from the hilltop. Now we see nothing but rooftops and roads. It used to be so quiet that you could hear all of the cows and bulls and goats - most of which seem to have been moved on. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a nice stroll through the ranch and found some fossils and a deer skull. In this photo, I am standing in what should be a flowing river but the drought is still suffocating Texas.  

I took my first canoe trip. As you can see, I did all of the difficult work of paddling while my dad enjoyed a leisurely ride and took some photos of how great I am.

No school break would be complete without a trip to the Blanton. My dad has been taking me there since I was a newborn baby. It's a good place to practice being quiet and following rules. I only got lectured once by the security guard for sitting on something in the gallery that looked like a bench. If it looks like a bench . . .

We had the excitement of my mom's birthday waiting for us at the end of the week. She is often shocked, maybe even horrified, that black forest cakes simply cannot be found in bakeries here. (Those Americans don't know what they are missing!) My dad took the initiative to hunt down a black forest cake recipe and he and I baked the best cake in the world. (I didn't even realize that he knew you could get recipes from the internet nevermind that he could bake a cake from scratch. I will definitely put him to work as my helper again.) You probably cannot tell how massive this is but the serving platter is 16x16 and the cake is four layers. And it may be the richest cake ever with all of that whipped cream. oh my.

And then there is the sheer joy of having so much time around home without worrying about the hours-long commute to/from school or having to do anything or go anywhere really. I found a worm that kept me occupied for hours. I looked at some bugs and leaves in my creature peeper. I fixed up my yard and my columbine is healthy and only days away from blooming. The best part of this spring break is that the obnoxiously hot weather hasn't set in quite yet. Some days were even cool enough for me to wear pants.

The alarm clock is set for 5:00am tomorrow.