Golden

Our twelve foot tall sunflower, and it's slightly shorter neighbors, finally decided to open a week or so ago. The bees are happy about it, and so are we, but they took their merry time. I seriously thought we'd have a hard frost before they bloomed.

And here's my little preschooler, climbing in our lilac tree (or magic beanstalk, as Silas calls it).
So, there's a bit of sunshine for you to start your week off with :)

The big P-S

My baby started preschool this week. Here he is, above, just before we left home (I took off of work, naturally, cuz there was no way I was going to miss this moment), and here my boys are on the steps to the school. Silas loves their big flag.
We actually didn't expect him to start school this week. He was on a waiting list and I didn't think there would be an opening till about mid-year or so. But on Sunday I got the call. They had an opening for Silas in the Woodpeckers class (his age group), effective immediately (this is the first full week of school). On Monday afternoon, we filled out a bunch of forms, signed a check, and most importantly, met his teacher. I can't say enough about her. I knew right away that she would be patient and caring with Silas. Separation anxiety is a big deal for us. Silas is used to being with us ALL of the time. If not us, then with Patrick or his grandparents. We've never had him in daycare, never left him with people he didn't know well. Although his class is only two hours long, we knew he would freak out when we didn't stay with him.

On Tuesday, we dropped him off, stayed a bit, just like the other parents were, and then attempted to leave. He clung to us and cried. His teacher picked him up and held him and told him he could wave to us from the window. Seeing his sad little face through that window was so very hard for me. I went back to the car and balled. But we did it. We left him in the care of competent adults and then walked to a nearby cafe and and actully had a lovely child-free time. When we returned, we could see from the road that the class was outside on the playground and we searched for Silas. At first, we couldn't see him (we were a good 50 feet away) and I had this fear that he was inside, too traumatized to play. Finally Drew spotted him: "he's there, by the slide. He's having fun." Relief!

At the end of the day, the kids have music time and the parents gather outside in the hallway. The teacher says goodbye to each child individually and they come out one by one. When he saw us, his reaction was, well, nonchalant. Oh, you're back. Okay then.

The teacher said he did very well. He was upset for less than 10 minutes and then was fine. We'll see how he does tomorrow.

Just a few things about the preschool we chose. It's a cooperative school, meaning it's a non-profit and the parents are expected to participate periodically in the classroom as well as be on committees and attend parent classes. Drew will be doing a lot of that as he is the stay-at-home parent, but I will be involved however I can be. I was pleased to see just as many dads as moms dropping off and picking up their children. Times have changed in that regard.

This year, he'll be attending two mornings a week. If we keep him in this school, he'll attend four afternoons a week next year. For now, the two mornings a week is the perfect amount. The curriculum is play-based rather than academic, and that was perhaps one of the most important factors for us when choosing a school. They explore the senses a great deal. For instance, they used paints with various scents, like rosemary and lavender, added to them. The children could then go out and find the plants in the garden with those smells.

To give you an idea of their philosophy, I will end with an excerpt from the Coop's webpage (for security reasons, I won't be publishing the name of his preschool or linking to their webpage, I will simply call his school the Coop):

Research in the area of early childhood education indicates that young children learn best through play. In the process of exploring and manipulating materials in their environment, they gain an understanding of their world. Programs that provide a wide variety of experiences appealing to all of their senses, appropriate to their age and developmental level, are the most valuable. Young children are natural learners. Their curiosity and desire to make sense of their world lead to spontaneous, self-directed learning.

It is for these reasons that a large part of our school day is devoted to free play. We plan experiences to involve the child's senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. The more fully a child explores, senses and interacts with real objects, the more meaningful and long-lasting this learning will be. Our school is committed to developing the whole child - physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually - by allowing space in which each child can explore the environment, interact with peers and adults, and have the opportunity to experiment with materials not readily available at home.

We believe that each parent and child is unique and deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. We realize that the Coop is each one of us individually and all of us collectively. May we learn together, support each other, and may our family lives be enriched from the experience.

a few more

A few more picture's from Grandma G's visit...

At the Poulsbo waterfront.
And here's one for the blooper reel: My silly little bear.
We have something exciting happening this week. I will keep you in suspense for now and will post about it later in the week.

Grandma G's visit

Aren't they a photogenic pair?

Grandma G and Merlin came for a visit last week.
Merlin enjoyed playing with Silas:
It looks like Silas thoroughly enjoyed himself!
Two different pic, two different cafes:


Outside of the Suquamish Museum:
It was a whirlwind visit and Grandma G was gone way too fast. We hope she makes it out to the West coast again soon!

Say "Cheese!"

I have lots of pictures to post, including some from Grandma G's visit. So, stay tuned...

Bloedel Reserve

While my parents were here, we went to Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful 150 acre preserve and garden that we hadn't visited in about 5 years.

Silas enjoyed:

Walking with his grandparents.
Sitting in front of the big house, looking out over Sound, and watching the birds soar.
And exploring the forest.
We saw a big banana slug.
and many other beautiful things.

The rock garden adjacent to the Japanese garden is one of Drew's favorite areas.
and the moss garden is mine.
If you'd like to see more pictures from Bloedel, and from the rest of my parents' visit, you can see some on their blog (scroll down for the pictures).

Garden Prelude

With my slug's pace in posting, it's almost impossible to show you an up-to-the-moment view of the garden. Will you settle for some within-the-last-couple-of-weeks pics? First up, Silas peers out from behind the beans. I just made a been and tomato dish with a few pounds of them yesterday.

Below: Yes, we will have a couple of pumpkins this October!

This is Silas' magic beanstalk. He is pointing up to the clouds in anticipation of how high he expects it to grow.

Broccoli:

This is the as-of-yet unknown flower that cropped up just about everywhere. It looks pretty in this picture, but trust me: it's not that great. The flowers are only open for a few hours in the morning. The rest of the day, it just looks kind of... blah. I think it might have to find it's way out of my garden, though I expect I will never be totally rid of it.
Soon, I will post more pictures of another much different garden that we visited with my parents, who are visiting from Wisconsin. Till then...

New header

For those of you who read the blog through FaceBook and don't actually see the blog itself, this is the blog header I've used since last fall:


And here's my new one:

I love love love the old picture of my boy with his curly blond locks, but it was about time for an update.

Hike to the light house!

There we are: A happy little family enjoying the view from the top of the Dungeness Spit lighthouse. We don't look a bit frazzled, over-heated or exhausted.
Well, maybe a bit. It's actually a hike of over 5 miles to get from the mainland out to the end of the spit, where the lighthouse sits. Here's a view from the mainland:
Can you see that tiny speck way out on the horizon, just to the left of the trees? Probably not, but that little speck was our destination.
As we started out, we thought, like all the other times we'd come to the Spit, that we'd just walk a ways and then turn back. After all, it was only mid-morning and already verging on intensely hot. But as we got a mile or so away from shore, a breeze picked up and it became bearable. By the time we stopped to eat lunch, we were far enough along that there was no sense in turning back, and we decided to go the whole way.
We made a deal with Silas that if he walked all the way to the lighthouse, Drew would carry him back.
We were all very proud of ourselves when we beheld this sight:
Still a 10+ mile hike with no shade did leave it's mark, although Silas was magically spared sunburn. Poor Drew was sore for days after carrying our 35 pound son on his back for 5 miles. But it was all worth it.

The Spit is a national wildlife refuge, particularly for birds. Along with a few seals, we saw...
A Bald Eagle...
a Peregrine Falcon (much bigger than an eagle, which I wasn't expecting)...
And a lone Brant.

Silas has spent the past week talking about lighthouses, and this morning, we built one out of blocks. This hike definitely left an impression on all of us :)

The Olympic Mountains behind you, the Canadian coastal range in front and water all around...If you are ever out on the Olympic Peninsula, DO NOT miss Dungeness Spit. Even if you don't go all the way out to the lighthouse, this is still one of the most gorgeous places you could ever find yourself.

Merymere Falls

...a few pictures from last week's adventure: Marymere Falls, near Lake Crescent.
Checking out the river...
...and crossing the old, narrow log bridges.
Goofing around on the river bank...
...and hanging out on moss-covered boulders.
That was last week's adventure. This week's: the Dungeness spit, where we will hopefully catch a breeze off of the water and have break from the heat.

Until next time...

Hiatus

I'm taking a bit of a hiatus...again. No Book of the Month this month, and expect infrequent postings...We are minimizing our computer usage in favor of, well, everything else.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Edmonds / the ferry

Last Sunday was my final day of vacation and we decided to spend it out and about. Silas loves taking the ferry, so we took the Kingston/Edmonds run and spent the day walking around Edmonds.
We had some time to kill while waiting for the return boat, but quite conveniently, there is a park adjacent to the ferry terminal, complete with a large sandy beach, and a cast iron canoe.
It was warm enough to ride on deck on the way back. Silas described to us what waves are like (above) and was his usual hug-filled self.
Even though I'm back at work, we are still doing plenty of fun summer things. Today we went to the Kitsap Arts and Crafts Fair and we saw a reptile show featuring all kinds of cool critters. Silas got to touch two geckos, a 5' long snake, a baby alligator, and his favorite, a kimono dragon with two tails (the only known one of it's kind in the world).

Hope your summer has been a lot of fun too!