A "brush" with regional variation

I've lived in the United States for several years now—nearly 20!—and my language has adapted accordingly. Now when I go back to my small town I can hear an accent that I couldn't hear before, that I didn't realize I had. So I know that I've been...gulp...Americanized. But I also know that I don't quite sound American because there are some Canadianisms that I've clung to (or that have clung to me). 

I feel comfortable, for example, calling markers 'markers' (even though I grew up calling them 'felts' or 'felt-tipped pens' or 'felt-tipped markers'), but I just can't say (or even spell) 'coloured pencils' without cringing (because I have to stick that /u/ in there, which, yes...is an active choice I made years ago). 

They are 'pencil crayons,' and always will be.

I am not even sure if that's one that I'm clinging to purposely or if it's just so ingrained in my mind that I the new word hasn't been able to unroot it. 

Another word Americans find strange, which I know I've kept, is 'housecoat.' It's not a word that's used often enough that I've replaced it in my lexicon. If I go to Amazon.com and look up 'housecoat,' I will only see American-style 'housecoats,' which...is not necessarily what I mean when I say 'housecoat.' Because what I mean, according to Americans, is 'robe.'

On the Canadian website, I immediately see what I'm thinking about when I say 'housecoat':

A cockroach story

It's getting to be summer (even though we're starting school back up tomorrow (sorry, children, but we've got to get a jump on things now so we can take some time off in, say, late November, early December)) so in addition to fireflies, we've got 95% humidity (our walk this evening was so muggy), near-daily thunder storms, and all sorts of creepy crawlies—cicadas (though we didn't get hit by Brood X), snakes, mosquitoes, cockroaches...

Cockroaches are one of my least favourite things about having to get up in the middle of the night to...use the facilities. Stepping on one in my bare feet is kind of my worst nightmare. Although...not really... I've been having such horrendous dreams lately, dreams that would make stepping on a cockroach feel rather tame. Still, I imagine stepping on a cockroach would be at least mildly unpleasant. 

Benjamin stepped on one in the music room last year. It was...mildly unpleasant. 

Anyway, I don't really want to step on a cockroach, but when you're making your way though the house, in the dark, in your bare feet...it's always a possibility. 

(Don't suggest wearing slippers because I also have this mild fear of putting on shoes and finding bugs (or whatever) inside, so I have to check before I put them on, because could you imagine putting your foot into your slipper in the middle of the night only to find that there's a cockroach inside?!)

Keep in mind that these cockroaches don't live inside. They simply...get...inside. 

Just this evening a cockroach flew into the house when Andrew opened the garage door. 

They just...find their way. Like lizards. And things.

Benjamin's Birthday Balloons

We made birthday balloons for Benjamin during FHE last week.

Alexander wrote on his balloons with his formal binomial code language and then read his balloons very seriously to everyone (while I took dictation). He made a bunch of them. The first one says, "I hope you stay well and I hope you stay happy." Another one says, "Happy birthday! I love you and we can give you some presents." The last balloon he translated for us said, "I hope you have a good day. I love you, and Ben—I love you and hope somehow this can be on the tree." He declined to give a translation of his fourth balloon.

Zoë's balloons were heavy on doodles (they were absolutely plastered with hearts) and light on text. She said, "I love you Ben, Oh, and happy birthday!" and "I love you because you play chess with me," and "Happy Birthday!"

Between Zoë and Alexander there weren't many balloons left for the rest of us.

Andrew's balloons said, "You are great at forgiving others and always being flexible and happy!
 and, "Ben! You are a super fun dude!"

Rachel said, "You are smart, funny, energetic, ambitious, brave, and curious. I love how much you love to read and ride your bike and you're so good at everything you try. I can't believe you're nine already! (Seriously, it's really weird. I remember when you were born and now you're almost a decade old? Like, what?)"

She also wrote him an acrostic poem:

Brave

Exuberant

Nice

Jubilant

Active

Minecraft-obsessed

Incredible

NINE

Miriam only managed to snag one balloon and chose to write another acrostic about Benjamin:

Bouncy

Energetic

Nice

Jovial

Awesome

Minecrafter

Ingenious

Nature-y

I also only got a single balloon, but I filled it up with things (so it's like I wrote on several balloons): "Benjamin, I admire your persistence and dedication in learning. Sometimes it takes you longer to learn things, but you keep a good attitude and keep trying until you succeed. It was fun to watch you learn how to ride a bike this year. You started out slow and now you're a pro.

"You can be a silly kid sometimes but also know how (and when) to be responsible and mature, which is pretty cool!

"It's been a privilege to watch you grow, learn, and develop your talents. You're turning into a fine young man and I look forward to watching you continue to learn and grow. 

"You're a wonderful brother, son, and friend. I love you!"

He sure is a good kid!

Fireflies!

Yesterday was a pretty great day because in addition to it being Benjamin's birthday, I also got cleared from jury duty, and we got to take our very first firefly walk of the season! I think the kids caught more than a dozen before we headed inside (they're still fairly sparse, but I'm sure there will be more soon).

Here's Benjamin showing off the firefly jar (from yesterday; they were out there again this evening):

Benjamin is 9!

Rachel spent some time cleaning up her room and "putting away her childish things," which is part of growing up, I guess, but it feels wild that Rachel's doing it. She passed almost her entire wardrobe down to Miriam...but in her defense, we haven't taken her clothes shopping in ages and she's grown a lot the last couple of years (so guess what she'll be getting for her birthday). And she gave her watch to Benjamin—the watch that she begged us for on her ninth birthday (but later discovered she's not a "watch person," which I totally get because...same).

She gave it to him on Tuesday and I pointed out that she should have reserved it to give to him on his birthday because that boy was over the moon about getting her old watch. But he was happy to count it as an early gift. "Besides," he pointed out, "You're really giving me two gifts: a watch and a cake!"

And that's true because she did make his cake. 

But back to the watch. Man, alive! This kid!

He spent the entire day Tuesday giving us updates on the time. I was working with him in the kitchen one morning and he was telling me the time every minute! I finally had to ask him to not tell me the time anymore. Like, I was going to try to just be patient through this stage of fascination but soon it became clear that I would either have to say something to try to get him to change his behaviour or I would absolutely snap at him. Better to speak up early, right? 

So he did his best to not tell us the time every single minute but he continued to tell us the time frequently (and often in atypical ways, like: "It's 21 minutes to 6."

At the dinner table he noted the time anyone did anything remotely noteworthy. 

"That prayer was 34 seconds long."

"Alexander tooted at 5:47."

"I just knew Miriam was going to choke on her water at 5:52."

Eventually he finished his dinner and Andrew sent him upstairs to do something and we all breathed a sigh of relief because that meant he wasn't telling us the time anymore. And then he made a whole-house announcement (thanks, Alexa) telling us the time and we all burst out laughing.

Freeman's Mill Park

We all got out of the house for a little adventure this afternoon. It was like pulling teeth, but we did it! I wanted to do it yesterday but Andrew had put off a project with a deadline of May 31 (which he didn't realize was Memorial Day), and then Rachel had to work this morning and when she came home she immediately started baking Benjamin's birthday cake (which I appreciate) so we had to let her finish that (even though it put us a couple of hours "behind schedule," so to speak (we keep a rather flimsy schedule around here)).

Andrew suggested we could go another day, but I knew Wednesday wouldn't work since that's our busiest weekday, and I honestly don't know whether or not I'll have free time any given day this week (because I'm on call all week). But I did know that I didn't have jury duty today, and that's something, so we headed out. 

I had seen a few friends post about Freeman's Mill Park and wanted to check it out for ourselves as a little local adventure (we honestly haven't gone on an adventure in ages). The park is about a half hour away from our house (longer with traffic, of course), and was surprisingly empty (given how crowded the parks closer to our house typically are). 

We had fun mis-reading signs along the way. Rachel saw this sign that said, "Well water is used for irrigation" but she read it as, "Well, water is used for irrigation," and it was hilarious (because we find things like that hilarious).

On Call

Sometimes I wonder if we accidentally moved to a place where things are simply bureaucratically more...difficult.

For example, I've been summoned for jury duty before, when we lived in Durham, but I was given a specific date and that one single date was my only potential day for jury duty (unless the trial went longer than expected). From Durham county's website we learn:

"Jury service in Durham County operates on the one-day / one-trial system. A new group of jurors are summoned each day of the week and, if selected to serve on a jury, a juror will serve for that day or for the length of a trial. However, if a person is not selected for a trial, their jury service will be complete after that one day. If selected to serve on a trial that is completed before the end of the day, those jurors will return to the jury assembly area and may then be selected for service on another case. If not selected again, those jurors will be allowed to go home at the end of the day, having completed their jury service. Jurors selected for a trial that takes several days will need to be present each day during the trial.

The average length of service on a trial is two days."

When I called to see if I needed to check in, I was told my services weren't needed. So then I was finished.

Want to know how it works in Gwinnett county?

For starters, their website is...a mess...so you won't necessarily find this information on it. But basically, I'm on call for jury duty for the entire week. I have to check in every evening after 7:00 PM to see if I'll be needed the next day. For an entire week. 

Now, I understand that jury duty is important and good. But an entire week!?

Name Generator

My favourite baby naming website (nymbler) is now defunct. You used to be able to insert your inspiration names and check off al sorts of parameters and it would generate ideas for you that you could like to save in a list and then generate more...and...I wouldn't say that we necessarily found every name that way but it's definitely something I played around with when we were in the process of naming our other kids. It's a terrible platform now. 

I've seen a few places recommending Name Berry's Name Generator, so I'll have to check that out (but I doubt it will be the same as nymbler was). 

The good news is we have plenty of helpers to come up with good names. 

Zoë recently handed me this list of suggestions:

In which Alexander speaks

Alexander has had a major breakthrough in his speech! 

He started using /s/ spontaneously and organically on Sunday, which was a rather amazing thing! We've been practicing saying /s/ for quite some time now but he's never used it, on his own, in context before. And then on Sunday he was just...throwing /s/ in all over the place. And not just /s/, either. He was also using /ch/ and /j/ and all sorts of sounds that he's simply elided before (or substituted with another sound (usually /b/ or /v/).

I woke up from my nap (*yawn*) and Andrew said, "Watch this! Alexander—tell Mom what you were playing downstairs!"

Alexander mumbled something. 

"Say it again," I urged him. "What were you playing downstairs?"

"Dollhouse," he said...with the /s/ (though apparently he wasn't feeling like giving me a full-sentence answer, which is odd because he's a talkative kid).

"You were playing with the dollhouse?"

Later in the afternoon I was playing LEGO with him and he was talking up a storm, throwing in his /s/ sounds all over. 

"Don't do it like that. Do it like this!" he'd tell me. 

And I'd swoon a little because...this!

"I'm going to build the tower. You build a fence!" he'd say.

And I'd feel all giddy because...fence!

A walk in the park

I took all the kids (save Rachel) to the park today and the kids noticed that the bramble berries are starting to ripen. I...don't know what sort of berries they are...precisely...though I think they're more like blackberries than raspberries (because they don't leave behind the inside part when we pick them). In fact, I think they're probably dewberries (which are just...wild blackberries).