Sunday, September 24, 2006

Art, Weddings, and Other Things

My friends Tania and Mike got married this weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony at her sister's lovely home, and although it had started out drizzily, by evening it was pleasant. The bride was beautiful (of course), and the groom looked handsome. They wrote their own vows, and it was a very lovely, emotional ceremony. They could not have asked for a more beautiful setting or a more beautiful autumn evening. We wish Aunt Tania and Uncle Mike (as we call them to the kids) the very best.

Adam got the kids some Halloween magazines to entertain them on the way to the wedding (three and a half hour drive, and we decided not to spend the night at a hotel, so it was three and a half hours back as well.) I also got the kids some Halloween activity books, but I got them too far in advance and forgot about them until I opened up the bag while I was doing some house-cleaning. Anyway, Gwen used the magazine to plan for our upcoming Halloween party, but lost interest an hour or so into the trip. Xav, on the other hand, seems to be using the magazine to plan his life ("Can we make this? And this? And this?") and not only carried the magazine around with him at the wedding, but is still carrying it around with him today, showing me -- whenever he gets me cornered -- various desserts he wants to try. Maybe he has a future in catering as well as in candy-making. He was showing some interest today in making houses and airplanes, and I commented, "Gee, Xav -- I can't tell if you are really going to be a chocolatier, or an architect, or an engineer. So many choices!"

He laughed and said, "Mommy -- of course I am going to be a chocolatier!" Probably just as well, given that his building material of choice is dominoes.

Along these lines, Tania, Xavier thought the food at your wedding was "the best." Of course, about all we could get him to eat was soda and cake, so his opinion might be a bit biased.

On planet Gwen, she has been showing us some artwork she had done at school. Evidently they had been talking about Pablo Picasso, and we went online so she could show me some of the works of art he had done that she especially liked ("Three Musicians" -- which she actually knew by name -- was a big favorite, although the piece they were simulating in class was "Hands With Flowers" -- which she also knew by name.) The funniest part, though, was when she was telling us about some of his other work: "Yeah, he painted a picture of a friend of his, and it looked like a regular guy ... but then he painted a picture of his friend later, and his eyes were in a funny place on the side of his head, and his ears weren't where they were supposed to be either ... Pablo Picasso was pretty good when he was young, but his work got uglier as he got older."

Monday, September 18, 2006

Career Planning

Our karate school did a demo at a local festival over the weekend. It went okay; nobody died, and the kids were cute (the person who showed the most interest, in fact, was another child.) I managed not to fall off the stage, Gwen did not faint from stage fright, and Xavier's only disappointment was that one of the black belts broke the stand when breaking some bricks, so Xav didn't get a chance to do some brick-breaking himself (for which I am eternally grateful.) All and all, a good time was had by all, but I have to admit that Xavier's interest in becoming a karate teacher has waned now that he has a new dream. Yes, Xavier is now looking at a career in ... chocolate.

Xavier has become obsessed with chocolate. When I was helping him use the bathroom at the neighbor's house the other day, he noticed a Hello Kitty calendar hanging by the potty, commented on how nice it was, then added, "We should get one for our bathroom -- except ours should be a chocolate calendar."

Gwen, our budding paleontologist was remarking at the dinner table tonight that when she grows up, she plans to move "far away -- all the way to the other side of Virginia!" where the dinosaur bones are more plentiful (in her dreams.) Xavier reached for my hand and said, "I don't want to move away -- I want to stay in the family!" (Yes, now we sound like the mob.) Still, you can't help but be touched when a child expresses a sentiment like this, though I don't expect it to persist. "Well, you can live with us if you want to," I said, "As long as you get a job and help provide for yourself."

"Well, of course I am going to get a job, Mommy!" he said with impatient disdain.

"And what do you want to be when you grow up?" I asked.

"I already told you -- I'm going to be a chocolate maker." He looked around at our (admittedly small) tile-top dining room table and added, "I'm going to make chocolate here, in this house, at this table!"

Hmmmm, my self-control is already weak enough without constant temptation ... plus, given Xavier's penchant (or lack thereof) for tidiness, I'm not sure there is room enough in this house for both his blossoming career and his super-tidy father.

Perhaps we should start pushing him back toward a career as a karate instructor.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Name Game

Yesterday I was driving the kids home from the playground (where we coincidentally ran into their friends Shaun and Dawn from daycare), when Miranda asked me, "Are there other Smith families?" (Remember, for the sake of protecting the innocent, we do not use real last names on this site. So suspend some disbelief and pretend that our last name is Smith.)

"Of course," I said. "Uncle Matt's last name is Smith, so he and Aunt Ann and Cousins Riley and Piper are Smiths. And Nana and Papoo are Smiths. And, really, there are even Smiths that are not related to you -- sometimes when people first immigrated to America, they changed their last names so they could fit in better. In fact, Papoo's ancestors fall into that category -- they changed their names to Smith when they came over from Poland."

"Oh," Miranda said thoughtfully. "So people change their names sometimes?"

"Oh, sure," I replied.

She thought about this for a moment, then said, "Well, if that's the case, I want to change my name to Gwen." This is kind of funny, because that had been our intent when we named her before she was born -- we gave her the name Miranda because it sounded better with Smith (being polysyllabic), but we figured we would call her Gwen (or, more specifically Guin) after her middle name. Somehow, however, the name Miranda stuck.

"And I want to be called Shaun!" Xavier chorused.

"No," I said with a smile. "You can't name yourself after someone from school. It would be too confusing, for one thing."

Undaunted, Xavier replied, "Well, then, I want to be called Apple."

My husband and I didn't really expect these names to persist (and they still may not), but Adam was a little surprised when the kids got up this morning and still insisted upon being called Guin and Apple. "Guin" had even decided how she wanted to spell it (although I noticed on her papers from school that her teacher had her spelling it "Gwen", so we'll see if that ends up being the persistent spelling).

Adam is okay with Miranda going by Guin (or Gwen), but he is less enamored with calling Xav "Apple," so he had a chat with our son this morning about names: "You see, Xavier, an apple is really a fruit -- not really a person's name."

"That's okay, Daddy," Xavier replied. "I'm fruity!"


In other news, Xavier has come up with a new safety rule: "Don't play with matches in a car that is on fire."


Thank you to everyone who has given me clues on where I might take Guin/Gwen/Miranda fossil-hunting, as well as those who have given her gifts and encouragement to pursue her love of science.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Labor(ing) Day

My husband's parents came up this weekend after a short daliance with Ernesto. Miranda has been obsessed with going fossil-hunting, and I'd managed to push her off until this visit (mostly because I have no idea where -- in this area -- is a good place to find fossils), so it was time to pay the piper.

As it turns out, despite hours of research, I still have no idea where one might go in this area to look for fossils, but I don't want to do anything to discourage her love of science. Out of desperation, I suggested hiking to a local waterfall to look for fossils (there are PLENTY of rocks there, although I have to admit I have never actually seen a fossil there.) I had not been to this waterfall since before Miranda was born, but I remembered that there was an easy and a hard way to the falls, either way about two miles hike.

Miranda was completely psyched about this trip. When she got up in the morning, she decided to forgo on her usual stylish fare and put on her "scientist clothes": a long-sleeved pink and black striped shirt with a pair of bright red sweatpants; evidently she feels that "scientist" is synonymous with "no fashion sense." I would have found this outfit acceptable except that it was well over 80 degrees and I did not want her to die. So I tried to steer her toward a short-sleeved shirt at least, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "How about this shirt?" (Referring to a striped t-shirt that looks lovely on her.)

Miranda: "But it isn't a science shirt!"

Me: "Of course, it is -- it can easily be clean, and it's comfortable."

Miranda: "Well ... well ... what about this shirt?" (referring to a nice green shirt.)

Me: "Yes, that one is fine, too."

Miranda: "And these shorts look so nice with it ..."

Now that everything was back in alignment in the universe, we set off. We immediately got sidetracked by the directional signs onto the hard trail (not what we'd intended), and Xavier immediately decided that he was not up to making the trip, so he ended up riding on either my shoulders (most of the time) or Adam's. But Miranda immediately took the role of trail blazer and kept us on a pretty fast pace (we had to keep reminding her that we needed to slow down for Nana and Papoo.) She let nothing daunt her or slow her down, not even the occasional stumble and fall. All in all, we were totally impressed by her. We didn't find any fossils, but she took that in stride as well.

And Xavier? He did a great job playing the role of shoulder-candy.