Phoebe bouncing at the pool

I took the kids to the pool this afternoon and in a weird turn of events, the little kids were begging to get out and go home while Rachel, Miriam, and I (along with Phoebe) were like, "But...why though?"

Honestly, I think it's because they knew schools were letting out (first of all because there's a big clock at the pool, but also because we can hear and see the busses going by) and they knew it was a Friday, which meant that their friends would be more likely to be allowed outside to play. 

The school year really puts a damper on our social life—haha! 

Anyway, Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander pulled us out of the pool around 3:15, but not before we had a whole lot of fun! 

Alexander, who almost drowned at the beginning of pool season, wants to spend most his pool time in the deep end now. He dives off the wall, he jumps off the diving board, he swims across the pool...

But he has to have a big person with him, which can be a real drag sometimes. Benjamin and Zoë are allowed in the deep end together, but Alexander has to have me or Rachel (or Miriam, in a pinch) with him in the deep end. This would be easy if Phoebe weren't so vocal and particular about where she wants to be (which is often "STAIRS!" or "WALL!" or "LADDER!" because she likes to be independent). But she's also warming up the deep end and today when Alexander asked her if she'd please come to the 4 feet with Mom so that he could go in the deep end, she said, "Yeth!" jumped into my arms, and started kicking and paddling in the direction of the deep end. So she knows what's up. 

(The diving tank, for the record, is 10 feet deep, but I will stand in the "deep" end (4–5 feet) to watch Alexander while I hold Phoebe, ready to rescue, if need be. Usually I just bark commands like, "Slow down, mister!" and "STOP! You need to let Zoë move out of the way before you jump!")

Anyway, Phoebe has discovered that she can hop around in the shallow end (it's only 2.5 feet) if she stands on her tippy toes. She loves hopping around the pool like this. I borderline hate it because one misplaced step or one little wave can tip her right over...but she has so much fun doing it that it's awfully cute. Still, I'll be glad for next swim season when she'll be a little bit taller!

Storms of the Past (a guest post by Alexander)

We tried to go to the pool today. According to the forecast we had a good hour before the impending storm hit us, and from looking at the sky that seemed to be the case! It had rained a little earlier in the day, but then cleared up a bit. So, we headed over to the pool, stopping on the way to pick up a couple of items from the Buy Nothing Group.

 

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good deal!

We picked up a dart board—because I thought Benjamin would love it. Andrew thought I'd lost my mind when I first told him that I had scored a dart board. But I assured him the darts were plastic...so not in any way lethal...and he felt much better.

Still, we put it up with the cement wall of our foundation behind it (rather than hanging it on any sort of drywalled area). I don't know how much we needed to worry about our walls, however, because Benjamin threw a bullseye!

What a good shot!

Who hit the 20 at the top of the board? Well...me. 

But I also threw the one that's really close to the bullseye (in the triangle part of the 12).

I'm nothing if not unpredictable. 

Phoebe at 21 months

Somehow Phoebe is already 21 months old. She's been busy doing a lot of growing up the past few months. From potty training (which is going pretty well, though I'd like to speak to the person in charge who decided this was a good idea the month before international travel) to giving up her high chair (a more recent development; she's now on the kid stool at the dinner table), she just keeps growing up and up and up!

This evening during our Family Night lesson, she found a pair of pants in the diaper bag and managed to put them on by herself. She was quite proud—got one leg in each pant leg and everything!

Heiss History Tour (June 11)

It was lovely to be able to walk to church on Sunday morning. Phoebe thought this was a particularly lovely treat, though we typically walk at least a few laps around the church building anyway (since Andrew and Miriam like to arrive early to get the organ all set up, and I don't like lingering inside with the kids that long). Anyway, Miriam played a lovely piece as a "special musical number"; it was fun for her to play for the congregation that heard her first fledgling pieces on the organ. 

Marshmallow the narrow-mouthed toad

To celebrate my successful thesis defense, I took the kids to the pool. We stopped by at a neighbour's house to pick up some science-y stuff she was giving away...and ended up walking away with a million old copies of National Geographic magazines and a bucket of figs. 

"I thought you'd be out celebrating," she said. 

And...I mean...we were headed to the pool, were we not?

We're not huge on big celebrations over here. An afternoon at the pool—not worrying about anything at all (except potential drownings...because y'all know I can't help but worry about something, right)—sounded lovely to me. 

First we ate the figs because we didn't want to attract wasps. 

Funny thing—and this is all anecdotal evidence, so keep in mind that I have no idea what I'm talking about—but my kids who spent time in the Middle East (Rachel and Miriam) gobbled up the figs, even though we only had one good fig year in North Carolina, and they haven't really had figs since then. 

Homeschool wins

Not every homeschooling day feels particularly successful, few homeschooling days are glamorous. However, every day includes learning and growing (even if it also includes a little hair pulling (of my own hair, of course, not the children's (why would you think that?!))). I probably have more experience teaching kids how to swim than teaching anything else—in the public sphere—but I believe there is power in just showing up and jumping in the pool. 

At least you're getting wet! At least you're splashing around! At least you're trying! Usually when kids show up and get in the pool, they walk away having improved on some skill (or having conquered some fear), even if it felt (or looked) like all they did was mess around. 

That was one complaint I'd get from parents sometimes as a swim instructor—"When are you going to teach them how to swim? They're just playing around and singing songs!"

And I'd be like, "And three days ago they wouldn't even get in the pool! We're getting to the swimming part!"

And now I'm the parent (and the instructor) and I have to remind myself that progress (1) often looks like playing when children are involved and (2) can be messy. 

Today, for example, Zoë (who is already a quarter of the way through her math curriculum for the year), was finishing up her unit on area and perimeter. She was working on rectilinear shapes, that is a 2D shapes where all the angles are right angles, but which are more complicated than a simple rectangle is, being multiple rectangles mashed together. She was having a hard time envisioning how to break the shapes apart, in order to solve for unknown side lengths or calculate the area of the entire shape or what have you. 

I happened to be in the kitchen cutting up some cheese for Phoebe and had a nice rectangle of cheese on the cutting board, which I was busy cutting into cubes. Zoë came in moaning about her math and then said, "Hey! That's a rectangle!" And then she rearranged the cubes of cheese into an L-shape form, similar to what she had been working on and said, "And this is not a rectangle, but it still has the same area! And if I just split it into two rectangles—like this!—then I can add the area of this rectangle and that rectangle together and I'll have my answer! I get it!"

She popped a cube of cheese in her mouth, I put the rest in a bowl for Phoebe (who immediately set about building a tower out of cheese blocks), and that was that. Zoë didn't ever quite get around to asking a proper question or wait around for a proper answer. She just was thinking about stuff, encountered cheese, and worked out the answer (while simultaneously stealing her baby sister's snack). 

So that was one beautiful moment from this week. 

Nauvoo (June 24)

I roped the kids into helping me write about our summer road trip because (1) it's good to hear their perspective about these things as well—they depend on me to record memories far too much and as much as I've tried to cultivate a passion for journal keeping within their little hearts...somehow I have, so far, failed (but Zoë has started watching the Victoria series and was very impressed by Queen Victoria's record keeping skills, so I have hope that the journal writing fire will kindle within her yet).

I've rambled so much that I'm afraid my list is completely lost, but my second reason (2) is because we did so many amazing things that truly did need to be documented, and I was so swamped with getting my thesis finished that I knew I couldn't manage to write about everything in a timely manner all on my own. I mean, here we are, having been home for 46 days already and we're still not quite done (though we are so very close). 

However, I think the kids are running out of steam. Zoë said she'd write about Nauvoo and this is what I managed to extract from her:

Nauvoo was our last stop on the way back to Georgia. Nauvoo was very pretty! Even Phoebe thinks so! We slept in a brick hotel, and on the outside, it looked very old. On the inside, not so much. We saw Sunset on the Mississippi, and got to dance on a stage. At first, I didn't want to dance on the stage, but then Mom said that it was my chance to be on the stage! We went to the temple at Nauvoo, and saw the real Sunset on the Mississippi. After that, we went to Carthage Jail. At Carthage Jail, I wanted to stay as close to the sister missionaries as possible. I don’t know why I did that, or I just don’t remember why, maybe it was because I thought they were pretty, I don’t know! But I do know that I was right behind them pretty much the whole time.

She didn't mention that I went up on stage with her because she was too afraid to go up on her own! Here are a few more pictures of the 'Sunset on the Mississippi' from Andrew's phone:

Winter Quarters and Sunset on the Mississippi (June 23, with thoughts by Alexander)

Winter Quarters was a slight deviation from our route to Nauvoo from...one of the Sioux places (I can't really remember whether we stopped in Sioux City or Sioux Falls, though I do remember that it was dark and storming and the roads were slick and completely dark because they'd recently been repaved but hadn't yet been repainted and we were just so glad to reach the hotel alive), but we though it was worth the extra half hour of driving to make the stop at the visitor's center. 

As one of Andrew's friends commented on Twitter—they have better bathrooms than any gas station around! They're clean, they're fully functional, and you'll be greeted by no fewer than six smiling faces on your way in!

We didn't stay long, in part because we still had five hours left to drive to Nauvoo (and we wanted to be sure to get there for the 'Sunset on the Mississippi' show), but also because Alexander had just thrown up in the car the day before, if you recall, and we were nervous about whether any other kids were going to...also be sick. 

Fortunately, it just seemed to be a him-thing. Everyone else was just fine!

Here are the kids exploring some pioneer things:

Thesis Report! Thesis Report!

Today was the big day: I defended my thesis. 

It ended up being such a weird day (in part because of the timing of the thesis defense) that Phoebe completely skipped having a nap (she really did great all day but was quite ready for bed at bedtime). 

My defense went well. First my committee and I chatted about a few things—a terrible flight from Europe back to the States, having to pay $20,000 to have a number of trees removed from a backyard after this last series of storms that came through, things like that. None of that had anything to do with my thesis at all, but it's good to shoot the breeze for a bit. 

Then I was sent to a private room to twiddle my thumbs while they discussed whether I should pass the written portion, which I did. 

Then I had to give a presentation about my thesis and expand on other areas that I would have liked to write about (but didn't) and things like that. Then we discussed various parts of my thesis, my committee members asked questions, I tried to answer those questions, and then...I was sent away again while they deliberated about whether or not I passed the oral portion of my thesis...which I did.

Then we got back together to talk about future plans (which might just involve a little more school, but which for now just involve taking a deep breath). They also gave me advice about how to turn my thesis into either a series of articles or a book—ideas that could use further development, claims that could use more bravery behind them.

That was the biggest piece of advice: "If you’re going to publish, you’re going to need to make bolder claims. Make bold claims."

Climbing trees

My children would love to have a good climbing tree in our yard, but we don't have one. The trees that would otherwise be good to climb have such a high canopy that their branches are truly unreachable. Loblolly pines, for example, easily surpass 100 feet in height and their branches usually crowd up near the top of the tree, leaving most of the trunk bare.

Trees grow upwards from their top, which means that their branches should stay wherever they first sprouted (and in fact they do), but they're often dropped as the tree gets taller. And in the case of the loblolly pines I've seen this is definitely true. All the branches are way up there. So you really can't climb them very easily. 

Tulip poplars are another tree that—at least around these parts—grow impressively tall and seem to shed their lower branches. 

Honestly, all the trees—maple, oak, whatever. They are all tall, tall tall. 

Finding good climbing trees can be hard around here! When I was young, I don't remember it being so difficult. Perhaps trees just grow...shorter...where it's cold and snowy a good portion of the year.

Nancy (center) with Kelline (right) and...either David or Abra (left (there's an ongoing family disagreement about whom))