Phoebe did what now?: Reading in the wild and other tales

This morning Andrew texted to say that he was at the airport, beginning his journey home. He's been in Vancouver, BC, for a conference (APSA). His room at the hotel was on the 23rd floor, affording him a beautiful view of the harbour:

Birthday Balloons I (finally)

I'm so behind in so many things.

I was so proud of the fact that we managed to write birthday balloon messages for everyone in our family before Rachel went out to Utah. Last year we didn't write birthday balloons until August! But at least I posted about them immediately after. It's been weeks since we finished writing our birthday balloons for the first half of our birthdays and they've just been curling on the wall.

Phoebe asked if I wouldn't mind taking them down so we could start "fresh" on her birthday. I guess she didn't want stale birthday decorations. 

So I took them down. Finally.

We meant to take a picture of Zoë, Benjamin, me, and Rachel in front of the tree with our birthday balloons. But we forgot to, so I don't have one. 

Here's what people said though:

Zoë! I'm so excited that you are 10! You are such a charming young woman! I'm so proud of how helpful and thoughtful and funny you're becoming! Keep being awesome this year! Love, Dad

Zeal
Optimistic
Ebullient (archaic term)

Watching you grow over this past year has been [groovy?] I love you so much! —Ben

Zoë! How are you already in the double digits? you've grown so much, it's crazy. It has been a joy to watch you grow more passionate about music, especially organ. You are so good at cleaning, and are very quick-witted and funny. I love you so much!!! Love, Miriam

(It should be noted that this was written before they started sharing a room; opinions on cleanliness have changed since then)

Organ harvest

The keys on our organ are brittle. You can see from this picture—with its jaw pried wide open—that it has a few missing...teeth: 

Little and Big Kids

A picture of Miriam lives on our fridge. She's four years old, pigtails flying, bandaid on one knee, pink helmet on head, lugging her bike behind her. In this picture she is the most darling four-year-old in the whole entire world. 

*****

Today Phoebe was wearing the same helmet (which is now 12 years old...which is old for a helmet), which she calls her unicorn helmet because back in 2014 I used the helmet to create a unicorn costume for our neighbourhood 4th of July parade, which I honestly did not realize would be 100% patriotically themed. 

Busy evenings, matching dresses, and a sister visit!

I wrote a draft last week about a particularly busy Tuesday, when Andrew had to be on campus so I had to do all the driving children hither and thither by myself. And it was chaotic. Today was no better. 

It's a Thursday and Andrew had his first day of teaching today—how rich for him! I've already started working on my third week of content. 

My sister Kelline flew in for a visit as well and, as luck would have it, her flight landed at 6:50 and Andrew's class let out at 7:00! Campus is only a few minutes from the airport, so he went to pick her up after he go out of class (she offered to ride MARTA out to us, but...it was just as easy to pick her up). 

Benjamin had swim practice at 6:00, so we quickly ate dinner and then everyone hopped in the car to take Benjamin to the Y. And then we drove to the library to pick up a hold for Miriam. Then we drove to the park to drop off the glass recycling we amassed over the summer and I had promised the little kids they could play at the playground for a little while, but...the parking lot by the glass recycling was all full because of baseball practice, so we had to go park in the next lot—by the outdoor hockey arena (iceless)—and then walk to the glass recycling.

We were laughing because the baseball parking lot was completely full—people were parked on the grass and just...all over the place—yet the hockey parking lot was nearly empty and it's honestly just as close of a walk from the hockey lot to the baseball fields as it is from the baseball lot. 

Parking lot -- baseball fields -- parking lot -- hockey arena.

It was not the same distance for us to carry our glass to the recycling receptacle, however. We had to carry our glass through the parking lot, the baseball fields, and another parking lot to get there. But that's okay. 

Alexander, Zoë, and I each took a box (I took two, actually). Miriam carried a big plate of glass from our fridge (from a shelf that mysteriously broke...no one knows how) and helped steer Phoebe in the right direction. The kids had fun throwing the jars into the bin. 

And by that time, unfortunately, it was about time to turn around and pick Benjamin up. Phoebe had so been looking forward to playing at the park, however, so (after clearing it with Miriam) I gave the kids a couple of options. They could either all pile in the van and we could pick up Benjamin together, or I could go pick up Benjamin alone and leave them at the park to play (under Miriam's supervision). 

Surprise, surprise—they chose to stay at the park. Miriam took a few pictures for me while they were playing (because we unearthed the 4T panda dress that matches whatever size Zoë's in now...that Zoë and Miriam used to wear simultaneously, though I can't find a picture of that right now):

Zoë and Phoebe, August 2025

Phoebe this morning

Phoebe woke up dry. 

"Are you ready for me to unplug your chummie?" I asked.

She put her hands over her ears. "Yes!"

I unplugged the chummie (which causes a couple loud beeps, which she doesn't like). Alexander turned on the bedroom light when he walked into the bedroom at that exact moment.

"Wow!" Phoebe exclaimed. "That turned on my light!!"

"That...is incredible!" I said. 

"Yeah, it is!"

Phoebe and I giggled about how funny it was that her chummie beeping turned on the light. 

"Actually, I turned on the light," Alexander explained. 

"That makes more sense!" Phoebe giggled. Then she immediately started singing, "Baby shark! Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo! Baby shark..."

Sometimes she is the happiest, go-luckiest kid who just...wakes up in these fabulous moods. Not every day, but...just sometimes.

A potty training breakthrough?

After several good nights in a row, we have had several...not...good...nights...in a row. 

Quick tangent! 

When I was in high school I was (tangentially; I was an "extra" and didn't really have a part) in a musical production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and in that play Princess Puffer has a line where she breaks the fourth wall to interact with the audience and she picks someone to point flirtatiously at and says, "Fancy seeing you here two nights in a row!"

But the girl who was playing the part was affecting a strong kind of...cockney...accent and so to my ears it sounded something more like, "Fancy seeing you here tonight, Sinnarow!"

And it took me years to untangle that line. I was always like, "Who is Sinnarow?!"

So, anyway, we've had a few bad potty nights, Sinnarow, and I've been losing hope. 

But, I just finished my run and took a shower (yes, I ran at midnight because I forgot to do it earlier and then I had to shower and then...)

Quick tangent!

New internet!

Our internet went down last night, sometime around dinner time. 

I had seen a technician out at the box earlier, but I can't remember when. Did I see him out the window from my chair while I was reading? Did I see him outside when I called the kids in for dinner? Or when we were driving off to swim practice and church activities?

Whatever the case, the internet went down sometime while we weren't quite paying attention (because we were having dinner). 

When Andrew noticed he made an appointment for today—sometime between noon and 4:00—and we did our best to go on with our lives, a very difficult thing when so much of our lives is online—our work, our school, and our family, honestly.

I took the kids to the church this morning. Miriam practiced the organ. The kids did their science lessons (online) and their math lessons (online) and played dodge ball and practiced on the real pianos (what a treat). And then we came home and waited for the technician. 

By 2:00 I was starting to worry. I knew they said they'd come between noon and 4:00, but I had class at 4:00...online...so I needed the internet to be back on by then. So I reached out to some neighbours and found someone home and willing to let me hop on their internet. 

But then at 2:15 the technician showed up! And we were back online by 3:30. 

We have some new neighbours moving in up the street—into Miss Anne's house—and they were getting outfitted with a new internet connection and somehow whoever was doing that cut the cable to our house...which was kind of obnoxious. 

The good news was that we didn't have to pay to have them come out because clearly this wasn't our fault...and they were astounded that our equipment was so old (we had it installed in 2019) so they updated our modem and wall box and things so it would be compatible with their new system. So, I guess that was nice. 

I was mostly relieved to be up and running in time for class!

Drain Monsters

It's a little early for Halloween books, I think...although we're already thinking hard about Halloween costumes over here, so perhaps not. Either way Phoebe grabbed a Halloween book off the shelf at the library the other day so...it's in our rotation. I think there's a Christmas book in there, too. 

She has no respect for seasons. 

Every time we go to the pool she says something about how she's "so glad it's May." It's not May (it's August), but she spent about October through April begging to go to the pool and we kept telling her that we could go "in May." So now every day that we go to the pool...is May. 

Which is different from "may can," which is her super polite way of saying "can I?" because one day at dinner I was making her correct all her "tan I have..." with "can I have" and then made a joke about how we'd finally get her to say "can" and then we'd have to break it to her that she should be saying may. 

She heard that and has started saying "may can I have..."

Anyway, to sum up, Phoebe has no respect for seasons, thinks "pool season" is synonymous with "May," and...she's terrified of drains.

This might be Rachel's fault. 

Reading lessons and other things

Working so much on pronunciation with Phoebe has naturally led to phonics, so we've cracked open Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons again. So far we've done about 10 lessons and then started back at square one. And then we went through about 20 lessons and then started over again at lesson 10. And now we're just past lesson 20 for the second time, and it was perfect timing because the letter we added today was c and what sound does c make? 

/k/...which Phoebe just figured out how to produce! 

The poor thing was struggling so hard with the word "cat" today (she keeps saying "tac" instead). Typically she has substituted /t/ for /k/ so "cat" would be "tat." I suppose "tac" is a step in the right direction. We worked for a while on saying /k/ first and /t/ second, but it was a real challenge for her. 

At first she wasn't a huge fan of reading lessons but now she often asks me for lessons (even over the weekend when we don't "have to" do schoolwork). 

The other day she decided to pull out her reading lesson book so she could give one of her baby dolls (one of my baby dolls) a reading lesson. Here they are skipping way far ahead:

Chummie

Many of my children have been quite easy to potty train. For example, when I potty trained Alexander through the night, this is how it went:

"Buddy, we're going to put you to bed in your underwear today. No more diapers, okay?"

"Okay."

And...uhhhh...that was...that. Super easy. 

The kid never wet the bed.

Some of my kids have been a bit more of a challenge. For example, Benjamin. We eventually bought a "chummie," taking the advice of my good friend Bridget. Unfortunately for Benjamin it took ages to train him through the night (and the day), even with the chummie and every other trick in the book.

The chummie has sat in a box, waiting to see if it might be useful again, for several years now.

Because the good news is that most kids reach most milestones...eventually. And even though potty training Benjamin was a monumental task...it happened.

So, yes. Rachel and Miriam were easy. Benjamin was a challenge. Zoë and Alexander were easy. And Phoebe...has been a challenge. 

She took to daytime potty training so nicely that I thought for sure she'd be a breeze overnight. 

I was wrong. We have been working on overnight training for nearly two years. Casually—I mean, we wanted to let her be "ready" for it, but most of my kids (see list above) were potty trained over night before, by or around age 2. 

Phoebe is rapidly approaching 4. 

And I've been changing diapers for 18 years...I'm over it. So ready or not...it needs to happen at this point.

SPCH THRPY: Bat, Back, and Spot

Phoebe doesn't love "blends," so in addition to helping her figure out how to say /k/ we've also begun working on things like /sp/ and /sl/ and /st/ and things like that. I mean, there are several things she can't say properly (although properly is something she can say properly and she will tell you, "I tan't say dat properly), but those are the things we're targeting for now. 

She loves puppies, so I've been using Dick and Jane books to give us plenty of opportunity to say the word "Spot," since that is the name of their puppy. 

When we started on this particular project (just recently—we added it because she figured out /k/), she would always say, "Sot" instead of "spot." So we practiced saying "pot" and then "s" and then sssssss...pot and then put everything together. 

"Sput," Phoebe said. 

And I thought, "You know what? That's great! She's got the /sp/ and we can work on adding the vowel later."

Mattress coils

When we exchanged Phoebe and Zoë's old bunk bed for Benjamin's new loft bed, we were left with a couple of old mattresses on our hands (because Benjamin's new bed frame is a full not a twin). They were rather inexpensive mattresses in the first place, so were never very comfortable, but various children have used them for...at least 13 years...so they'd...been through some...stuff. 

I won't list all the bodily fluids they encountered. And, I mean, we used mattress covers...but they got gross anyway. 

I don't really blame anyone for not wanting them. 

But—goodness sakes!—do you know how much it costs to dispose of a mattress?

Luckily, I know a guy!

Highercase and Lowercase

The other day Phoebe wanted to ask if she could play Minecraft. 

We use acronyms for everything in our house—to talk about what shows we want to watch (for example, DW means Doctor Who), to talk about our Favourite Part of the Day (FPOD), to announce that it's leftover night (YOYO—you're on your own). If something isn't an acronym, we make it an acronym just for fun. 

So in order to ask if she could play Minecraft, Phoebe put together the letters "MC" on the fridge and pulled Andrew over to ask if she could "play MC."

Love and bebove

Poor Phoebe does not get along well with the little neighbour girl her age, and by "not get along well" I mean that [Child] has simply had a vendetta against Phoebe since they were crawling. I honestly don't know why. Sometimes they'll play quite nicely together (especially if grown ups are mediating), but often they simply don't. 

Literally the first full sentence I heard [Child] speak was to Phoebe and it was, "You're not my best friend! Haha! You're not my best friend! Haha!"

Now that they're older, she's constantly spewing out things like: "If you don't ______ then you're not my friend," and "I don't like you," and "You can't play with me," and "No Phoebes allowed."

And I'm honestly not sure why she's like that because...her parents aren't like that (and don't like that behaviour). And, again, Phoebe has done nothing particular to warrant this treatment because this profound dislike has been going on since they were barely toddling around. But, nonetheless, that's where we're at. (I honestly would check in at her daycare to see whether she's being bullied there and is passing it along to Phoebe, but...that's just my gut.)

Today Phoebe was playing outside with her siblings and another neighbour, but when [Child] came outside to play, Phoebe came inside to play.

"Don't you want to play outside with the other kids?" I asked her.

"No, thanks," she said. "[Child] doesn't like me. I'd rather play inside where everybody loves me."

Obviously this is a problem that will eventually need to be solved somehow, because it isn't fair for Phoebe to have to hide away inside so that [Child] won't say mean things to her. But it's nice that home is where she feels safe. 

*****

On another note, we were playing Magnatiles together ("Mom, I love spending time with you!" she told me...probably to coax me into playing with her longer...and it worked) and I was reminded of another funny thing Phoebe says consistently: bebove. 

Bebove is the opposite of below or beneath. 

So if you were to swim down to the very bobbom of the pool, you would have a lot of water bebove you.

I think it's rather cute!

Here and there

Our homeschool "not-back-to-school" party drew a pretty small crowd this year, perhaps in part because of how "chilly" it's been. The little hint of autumn didn't stop us from enjoying the pool, however! It was good to see so many of our friends—and to get to meet a few new families. 

Forced Perspective Photo Shoot

Today on Facebook a memory from five years ago popped up, a memory that I apparently didn't ever get around to blogging about. It must have been near the beginning of the school year, still at the beginning of the pandemic, and we did a little photo shoot playing with forced perspective. 

Here's Zoë holding up Benjamin and Miriam:

If you give a parent a paintbrush...

They'll* run to the store to grab just the shade of grey you wanted. To be safe—they'll grab two cans! 

Nonrefundable, of course (because once you tint it, it's yours).

Then they'll* decide they need some white paint to redo the trim. They'll* quickly grab a can and then rush home. 

When they've finished painting the room grey, they'll** realize they have 1.25 cans leftover. That will start them*** thinking about what else they could possibly paint that same colour. 

But they** still have the trim to paint, so they'll** break out the white paint and get to work. 

When they're** finished painting, the parent* (who went to the store to get the paint but didn't help do any of the painting because they had to finish grading so they could submit grades by the deadline) will ask if the painting parent** can simply repaint the banister as well...since the paint is out. 

So they'll** paint the banister. And then they'll** rinse out their paintbrush.

Room swapping

This morning Phoebe climbed into bed to snuggle. 

"Mommy, can you read me five-and-a-half stories?" she asked. 

"Five-and-a-half stories?" I repeated.

"Mommy, you're weird," she said. 

"You request five-and-a-half stories and I'm the one who's weird?"

"Yes. Every morning when I press my nose into your skin and sniff you...you smell so...weird."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

"You're welpum."

And then she squirmed out of the bed and picked five books from the shelf. We actually ended up getting through only four-and-a-half of them before she decided it was time for breakfast.

*****

Cancelled Primary Party

This morning we woke the kids up to get ready for the back-to-school primary party, but just as we'd all changed into our swimming suits...we got the message that it was cancelled—rather, postponed—due to thunder at the location.

But we hadn't heard any thunder at our location, so we decided that since we were all ready to go we'd head to the pool for a little while. We have a cold front—"False Fall," if you will—coming in and things are going to get mighty chilly, comparatively speaking. We have a high of 70°F tomorrow. Our windows are open right now. This is...weird. 

And it also means the pool will cool off significantly, so we thought we'd enjoy one last splash in the warm pool. And it was warm—it felt warmer inside the pool than it did outside this morning. 

We swam in the morning drizzle until a birthday party arrived. Technically you're not supposed to have birthday parties at the pool unless you go through the leadership and check a bunch of boxes. We'll assume this family did that. But they were also, like, eating popsicles in the pool which is technically speaking against the rules...and it got to be a little difficult for Phoebe to be there but not be part of the party (they have popsicles over there?! And music...and balloons...and...it was too much)...so we left. 

But before that we had a fun time swimming together. Zoë helped Phoebe work on her big arms: