What would you do?

Pippi arrived home with her jeans ripped wide at the knees, no hope of repair.

I know my reaction was off. How does one handle this situation without a lecture, with a positive attitude, and with empathy?

Her explanation: I'm part indian, and indians are wild, so sometimes I play wild and I have to tear things.

My "obedience-promoting" response: We're ALL wild, but mostly you're a child of God. God sent us here to see if we could discipline ourselves and choose not to act like wild animals. (Lame, I know, but dang it, I meant it.)

A brief contemplative look followed by problem solving: But look I can make them into shorts. Or maybe I should sew these into a bag?

This kid has enough optimism for 20 children.

Did you have this much fun carving your pumpkins?

I didn't think so.

Stay tuned for the finished products.

Noel at Ten Months

We've hit major personality milestones this month. Oh how I love this kid!

Likes-dog water
-slimy pumpkin
-tasting, everything
-sprint crawling
-big kid toys, especially Bardo's toys
-testing her leg strength
-Hunter
-her reflection
-the sound of her own voice

Dislikes-Going to bed
-church
-people eating in front of her
-pig tails, pony tails, and other hair bows

Oh Pippi...

Pippi rolled out of bed clutching a brown package on the day of her birthday. "I can open this package today right Mom?"

"Sure, but don't you want to wait for the rest of the family to wake up? Hey--Wait for me!" I chase Pippi down the stairs. She hands me a knife so I can cut the tape off. She then proceeds to tear open the package containing four wrapped gifts. She quickly slips the Halloween socks on her feet, begs to play Dominos, asks if she can bring her new Encyclopedia of Horses to school, and hides the UNO cards where Bardo cannot reach them. She runs upstairs and takes a very very long time to get dressed; I suspect she was sidetracked by her encyclopedia. Bardo and Pippi play at the table while they are supposed to be eating. I gently inform Pippi that I'm worried because her clothes don't match. "I don't care. Nobody's going to make fun of me on my birthday!" She runs upstairs, brushes her teeth, comes back down and slips on her pink cowboy boots, dons her heavy backpack and races the Dutch boys (they are our neighbors and they really are from the Netherlands) to school on her new black butterfly mountain bike (an early present from us).

* * *

Bardo, Noel, and I arrive at the school a few minutes before Pippi's lunch time. We are quite the spectacle. I push a full double stroller, but oddly the stroller is full of lunch items, cupcakes for Pippi's class, and my diaper bag. The baby is in my arms, and Bardo is patiently hanging on to the side of the stroller anticipating Pippi's arrival. Pippi turns the corner, her eyes light up, she keeps walking in line until she sees "the nod" from her teacher. And then she runs to me wrapping her arms around me, so happy I'm there. Then she panics. "Mom, you told me you would bring sushi." "Did I?" She starts to panic some more. Her eyes widen and survey the stroller, she says that some of her classmates have never seen sushi before and she wanted to show them... She's almost to the point of tears. I squeeze her shoulders saying, "I promised I would bring sushi, right?" She looks and me and nods. "Then don't worry about it." I give her my most encouraging smile, and we head to the lunch room.

Here is a picture of Pippi with her cheeks full of her most favorite food in the world.


Pippi and her buddy Blake, seated next to her in the above picture, pass out the cupcakes together. Blake is much faster at passing out cupcakes. Pippi gives each cupcake carefully, conversing with each classmate, making sure they get just the one they want. She watches with a cute smile as Blake passes out some of her cupcakes to beggars from another class. I was perturbed, but she seemed to enjoy watching all the kids have such a good time in the name of her birthday.

***

Every day Pippi rides home with the Dutch boys. The moment she walks in the door she calls, "I'm ho-o-ome." Bardo and I respond, "Yay!" Every day. For some reason, on her birthday, I was outside. Whoops.

She panicked a little, but found us quickly. She snacked, played a game of Dominoes with me, "checked out" her birthday cake, and finished up her piano assignments. After a few free minutes I drove her to her piano teacher's house.

Her piano teacher was delighted with her. "She was so prepared today. No theory homework today because it's her birthday and she's all caught up. Did you know she had all of her pieces memorized?" She allowed Pippi to pick 2 stickers and told her she would remember this special lesson forever. Pippi glowed.

We rushed home to a small party with our Texas family. When you don't have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins around, you adopt. The party went well. Luckily Jan caught the dog licking the cake before too much damage was done.

And then Pippi ran off to Primary activity days. I picked her up at 8 pm on the nose and rushed her home to bed.

I think eight is going to be the best age ever, and I think Pippi thinks so too.

Pippi in the rainbow dress on a bridge near our house. Taken August 2009.

Water Fun

The first time Bardo splashed water in Noel's face, she laughed as soon as she could catch her breath.

I think these two are on their way to becoming great playmates as soon as Bardo can learn that he need not tackle her to keep her from choking.

The Texas Clubhouse

These kids spent the morning pretending that they were camping with Grandma and Grandpa. Bardo even came in at one point to get bananas for his grandparents. I am grateful for children who love to play together.

From the Gourmand Files

[Message begins]

Agent: [redacted]

Date: October 10, 2009

Subject [redacted}, a/k/a "The Warlock", is exploring finely crafted chili for upcoming church competition with client [redacted], a/k/a "The Silly Witch". Managed to get a description and lo-res digitals. Report follows.

Subject purchased [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted] peppers at a local grocer. Peppers were split into hot and mild groups and dried in an oven at 175 for [redacted] hours, resulting in dry and earthy pods.

Subject attempted to grind both sets of peppers with old-fashioned mortar and pestle, eschewing modern blender. Particulate matter made manual grinding due to irritated nasal cavities, so subject tried a number of methods to facilitate proper breathing. Initial use of motorcycle helmet provided only limited protection.

Secondary use of commercially available snorkel was the preferable choice.

Grinding produced a coarse powder.

Subject also toasted approximately [redacted] of [redacted] seeds and ground them as well:

Subject finally smoked [redacted] and [redacted] peppers using [redacted] wood until smokey and pulpy. Smoked peppers were pureed using traditional blender:

Upon completion, subject browned two pounds of [redacted] beef with bacon, red onion and garlic. To this he added 2T of mild pepper powder, 1T of hot pepper powder, 2T of ground [redacted] seeds, 1T kosher salt, 2T smoked pepper mixture, two cans tomato paste and six cups water. Subject then let this stew while he ran for 8 miles, or approximately 1 hour.

Upon return, subject added unknown thickening agent for the following results:

Just prior to consumption, subject added secret unexpected ingredient [redacted] based on flavors experienced at local favorite restaurant [redacted].

Subject remarked that resulting product was "hotter than the fires of hell and damnation itself" and "perfect". Secret ingredient resulted in proper undertones. Plans to add more meat and tone down heat for public consumption, but otherwise plans to leave unchanged for competition. Expect this formulation to be especially potent and formidable.

Recommendation: inform client that chances of her victory at competition are not good and suggest withdrawal as face-saving measure.

[Message ends]

"I picked these flowers for you so you can make flower soup."--Bardo

Bumper to Bumper Traffic on the Edge of a Cliff