“Oh, good! We’re finally to the park!”
Once, Larry came walking to the van with his hands full of bottles of juice. Hannah slid the window open to take some; Lydia, on her lap, whirled around to see what kinds there were, and bumped her head on the door.
“Oh, bonko!” Hannah exclaimed sympathetically.
Lydia was so excited over the juice (it was 100° that day, and she was thirsty), she mustn’t have even noticed she’d bumped her head.
“I want some Bonko!” she cried gleefully.
We got Dorcas and Teddy new Schwinn mountain bikes--15-speed and 10-speed, respectively. These are early birthday presents; by the time their birthdays arrive, they will have ridden their legs off, I think. Teddy’s is red, and Dorcas’ is fuschia.
I’ve been sewing up a storm--our little five-pound baby is now five years old and preparing for kindergarten, and, as she said, “I haven’t a thing to wear!” And it’s the truth--all our size sixes were burned up in the fire six years ago; and, since Dorcas was just growing into a seven, we didn’t replace any of the sixes. So--no hand-me-downs.
Hester knows her alphabet and numbers, can write quite a few words, and count as long as you care to listen.
Last year one day she announced, “I’m almost big enough for school, so it’s high time I learned to write!” She nodded her head briskly, and scurried off for pencil and paper. “I sure don’t want anyone to think I’m a dumb bunny!” she called back over her shoulder.
And learn to write she did, by the end of the day. She could write and recognize the entire alphabet and the whole family’s names.
Lydia was commiserating with Caleb: “We’re gonna miss Hester when she goes to kitty garden, aren’t we?” She smiled at him sweetly. “But it’ll be okay, ’cuz then, I’ll be your big sister!”
Caleb chose that moment to flash her a big smile.
Lydia beamed at me. “See? He’s really gonna like that, isn’t he?”
I managed to get Hester’s birthday dress done just in time for church last night. It was tan with little orange and yellow sunflowers all over it, a big white ruffled yoke around the shoulders and down the front, and a wide orange sash. Then I rushed off to Wal-Mart for neon orange lace anklets for her to wear with her white leather three-buckle sandals; a little resin sunflower on which I glued a pin back and pinned to the collar; and a giant silk sunflower, which I glued onto the turned-up brim of a little straw boater with orange knit band all around the crown. I took the curlers out of her hair, brushed it, and tied the hat’s ribbons under her chin, and she headed for my big cheval mirror.
“Well!” she exclaimed, turning this way and that, “if I don’t look utterly too-too!”
One day several of the kids were having end-of-the-year picnics. That morning, rush hour at our house only took half an hour. I packed lunch boxes for Dorcas and Teddy with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, small bowls of fruit, little containers of juice, and cookies. I started my bread machine. No, I don’t use pre-packaged mix. Combed the boys’ hair.
As Joseph attempted to slick his own wig down, Hester informed him, “Joseph! You have a chicken on the back of your head!” Changed Caleb and fed him. Reminded Joseph to take his homemade hamburger buns. Sent Joseph’s buns with Keith, since Joseph went off without them. Did I mention breakfast? Whew!
Caleb weighs 25 pounds now, and he’s 7 ½ months old. Whew again. Just last night he sprouted his third tooth.
On the last day of school, we were taking the annual picture of all the school kids out in front of the school when the UPS man drove by on the street adjacent.
“SMILE!” he bellowed through his open door, and the entire group of 82 kids broke out laughing.
The UPS man drove on, much pleased with himself.
We have wild canaries and purple finches eating from our feeder today. I’ve taken their picture with my new 200mm lens mounted on my new tripod, but my flash refuses to flash because of the bright sky. So, I probably have several lovely pictures of silhouettes against the blue sky. It’s rather frustrating to have a camera that’s smarter than the operator. I’ve read my instruction book twice to no avail. You see, it was written by someone whose major language was not English.
It begins: “As you became familiarized yourself with this camera,...” and it gets worse from there.
As the Readers Digest once reported, “So, while some 63 million of the earth’s inhabitants speak English, the rest, it seems, try to.”
Anyway, I finally figured out how to set it on manual focus; how to change aperture, how to change shutter speed; any two of those combinations; or all three. I do not know how to make it flash when it doesn’t want to, however. This is a Minolta MAXXUM SPxi, the newest generation. I think it’s my favorite possession. Well, almost. I’ve just learned where I can get a 600mm lens for it, with all the automated compatibility. I have not, unfortunately, learned where I can get the $9000 it takes to purchase this intelligent little gizmo. Wish-box filler; that’s all it is, and all it ever will be. Unless I win the lottery. But since I don't play...
Caleb finally said Lydia’s name Tuesday! (Well, sort of.) He’s said words for all the other kids, but Lydia’s must’ve sounded a little too hard. But Lydia came trotting into his room, and he said, “Hi, Duh-duh!”
Lydia was thrilled. “Now he knows who I am!”
The other day Caleb was sitting on my lap barefoot, when he spotted his toes. He stared. Then he leaned over, grabbed them, said, “Piddies!” and grinned up at me.
Larry just got done painting and re-siding a pop-up pickup camper he got to go into the crewcab box. We will put a rubber ‘boot’ between the back cab window and front pop-up window to make it a crawl-through. Our camper trailer is newly painted, and has new tires and wheels. The crewcab is newly painted, too; boy, oh boy! you should’ve heard the discussions we had over what shade of blue to paint it. Larry won that round. But! -- I won the round over what kind of striping to put on the van...because!--I threatened to sideswipe his pickup with the van if I didn’t get my way. (Really, he knows I wouldn’t; but these interesting discussions do keep the children well entertained.)
Keith spends his days working at Larry’s shop. His first big paycheck made him feel like a millionaire.
There’s a funny baby bird out on our fence: it’s kind of large; black back and top half of head; white breast and bottom half of head. What is it, I wonder?
Hannah helpfully suggested it was a penguin, perhaps. Silly goose. Now there’s a dumb ol’ cowbird out on the lawn, strutting along with a flock of starlings. A pair of orioles and a pair of purple martins are nesting in our back yard, and they give us a grand serenade every morning.
There are six baby squirrels playing on the church porch across the street. One scrambled right up the wrought-iron scrolls that hold up the porch awning and sat up at the top chattering away.
Well, Caleb is waking up, and he’ll soon notice his tummy is rubbing his backbone. I’ll feed him, then check Joseph’s room to make sure he didn’t clean it by cramming all the mess under his headboard or something--in which case I’ll cram him under there, too.
P.S.: Never mind; no I won’t; he won’t fit.
P.S.S.: I just discovered Caleb has three more teeth on top--making six altogether!
Further addendums:
We got a twin stroller for Lydia and Caleb, and then we got Hester and Lydia each a twin doll stroller. You should’ve seen their eyes when they unwrapped those boxes!
Well, Larry got our new van done in time for Memorial Day! And what fun we had. It drives and rides like a dream (at least, in comparison to the crewcab) (although probably not in comparison to my brother’s Lincoln) (but we can’t fit in that, anyway); and--imagine this--I can scoot the seat up far enough and tilt the wheel down low enough that I can actually reach the foot pedals! And see over the steering wheel! (Being an almost-midget has its drawbacks.)
We went down southeast to Indian Cave State Park; crossing the Missouri River into Iowa a ways; back over it again into Nebraska, and once more over a different bridge to Rockport, Missouri; then south to a little park in Kansas. The scenery was beautiful, watching the Missouri rippling along beneath the high cliffs, with raptors soaring overhead, entertaining us with their antics and haunting cries.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.