Lest We Forget

I remember, today and always.

War’s not the answer most of the time; it’s often an excuse that veils another agenda. But that’s not going to stop me from honouring the men and women whose job it was/is, or who volunteer(ed), to go out and risk their lives in confrontations beyond what most of us can envision. It’s their commitment and courage I honour on Remembrance Day. I honour our peacekeepers, too, the people who go to other countries to help rebuild after times of turmoil. And support staff — doctors, drivers, cooks, all those people who are necessary and who rarely get recognition for being in danger as well. And those left at home, who carry the double burden of hope and dread for their loved ones.

There has to be a better way. But even when someone figures it out, I’ll keep on saying thank you to all those individuals who gave lives, limbs, time, and innocence to the wars. I honour and respect their personal decisions, even if I disagree with the governmental decisions that created the need for them.

Owlet: 49 and 50 Months!

I lost another month. Thanks, insane work rush. So you get the September and October posts combined into one.

We’ve reversed the order in which we pick the kids up, so I collect Owlet first, and then we go get Sparky together. Every day she races toward him, arms outstretched, and throws them around him, laughing. Sparky’s not as thrilled — he has begun to enter the ‘must not look dorky in front of my friends’ stage — but it’s sweet to watch. She blows him kisses through her window every morning when we drop him off, too.

Owlet went apple picking for the first time this year. It was terribly exciting (albeit quick; turns out it doesn’t take long to fill two 20-ish-pound bags of apples when you have four people picking). We went back again about three weeks later, because this house is pretty nuts about apples and the first round was gone.

Back with all her friends at school, everyone has leveled up after the summer. Owlet’s new interest in writing actual letters (thanks, new glasses!) means that she is the first of her age group at school to voluntarily write her name on her art. Other things we can attribute to the glasses include a dramatic improvement in the fine motor control required to colour inside lines.

I’m loving how she can draw expressive faces on things all of a sudden, too.

Her current favourite movies are Bolt and The Nightmare before Christmas. I recently surprised them with Ponyo, one of the lesser-known Miyazaki movies, and she adores it. (Big surprise, I know.)

In music, she’s very into the soundtrack to The Nightmare before Christmas, which she calls “Christmas Halloween” (and that’s as good a descriptive name as any). She can also sing the Game of Thrones theme, which is HRH’s ring tone and alert. It’s a bit disconcerting to hear her humming it while she plays with her Playmobil in her room. (Exactly what is going on in that storyline, one wonders.)

A newly acquired skill is the ability to twist open Oreos, a triumph after asking me to do it for her since she started eating them. It’s the little things. Another impressive skill she has recently demonstrated is how she has an argument. Instead of just yelling or screaming over someone else, she actually discusses how she feels and listens to the other person in order to work things out. Her friend Audrey has been raised in a very similar way, so to hear the two of them have an argument is adorable. One will say, “I feel like this when you do that,” and the other will say, “Well, I feel like this,” and they talk it out, sometimes with parental input regarding solving the problem. It’s the politest argument ever.

Her grasp of French is improving, too, thanks to a new francophone girl at school. The kids have been learning the basics to speak to her — bonjour, merci, au revoir — which are adorable to hear chirped by Owlet. The other day I taught her how to say ‘cookie’ in French, and the way she pronounces it is both hilarious and appropriate if you love cookies: “Biskwhee!”

I’ve given up on the matching and laying out of outfits. One morning a couple of weeks ago she stuffed the two choices we put out for her back into the drawers and chose her purple skirt with the multicoloured hearts on it, a black and white striped top with a flower on the shoulder, and a pair of red leggings. I’m pretty sure her educators figured out preschooler fashion sense years and years ago. (Dresses are where it’s at. There is minimal unmatchyness with a dress.)

Summer Spinning Update

After ages of waffling about whether I’d do it this year or not, I just registered for Spinzilla. It may not be in the best interests of my sanity, but I’m in, for better or for worse. Every yard counts, right?

I wasn’t going to, because Spinzilla is basically a week-long marathon of spinning as much as you can because the yardage is how you’re graded/judged/scored. It’s a fundraiser for the TNNA in the United States for raising awareness of the fibre arts, though people from all over the world participate. I have a work project due in the middle, and a trip at the end of it. But I dragged the Mazurka with me last Thanksgiving during Spinzilla and managed to spin while I was away, and this year my mother tells me she has roving waiting there to be spun into sock yarn, so that’s practically enabling me, right?

My team last year was the inaugural team for Kromski, but I was ehn about it this year because of a change in how it was handled. Also, schedule, etc. But I succumbed at the eleventh hour and joined the new team being hosted by one of my LYSes, Espace Tricot. (The Kromski team was full up by then, so I didn’t have to angst about duty and loyalty.)

No, I have no idea what I’ll be spinning for it yet. But I’ll have to get this finished and off my wheel before things kick off on Monday:

That’s some New Zealand Romney, dyed by an online friend about six years ago. I figure I’ve waited long enough to spin it, right? I spun it end to end, no stripping, and am chain-plying it to preserve the colour shifts. So far, it’s gorgeous, isn’t it? I love the subtle silvers, plums, and ashes-of-roses happening.

And I see that I never posted the last bit of my Tour de Fleece spinning in July, so here:

The finished Pink Rainbow singles yarn (538 yards, singles, 4 oz; I have no idea what I’m going to do with this, it’s so bright):

The Heavy Traffic superwash BFL from SweetGeorgia 4 oz, 3-ply, can’t remember yardage, isn’t that awful — 390-something, I think? 375?):

And the 2 oz of Sunset Stormclouds merino (409 yards, 3-ply, 2 oz, that yardage is nuts):

And I tried spinning cotton again, something I haven’t done since I tried and failed spectacularly with my Louet S15 six years ago. There’s still a learning curve, but I did much better with it this time than I did back then. Overall, I was very happy with my TDF performance this year. I haven’t added up yardage, so I have no idea how much I ended up with; I was just enjoying myself.

In mid-September, before the Romney that’s currently on the bobbins, I spun some plain old BFL into a three-ply sock yarn, to be dyed some interesting colour at some point in the future when I decide I need more handknit socks. (No picture, because it’s boring, undyed sock yarn.) But that will have to happen after I knit socks from this fun yarn, spun in early September from unidentified wool (maybe a coarse-ish BFL? maybe Falkland? maybe a soft Corriedale?)

This summer I also spun 400ish yards of some lovely Polwarth/Tencel sock yarn for Ceri, which she calls her Ravenclaw yarn (because the House colours are bronze and blue, right, Ravenclaws? RIGHT??):

I spun that yarn as a fractal three-ply after I spun a first braid of the same colourway (it’s actually called ‘Dalek,’ from Southern Cross Fibre, and I am in love with it) and plied it with a ply of plum merino, which matched the colours but turned the whole thing plummier than I really wanted it to. I also did it to stretch the fibre further, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to get 400 yards from 100 g, but this summer has really confirmed that I can spin that no problem now, so I don’t need to try to stretch it with a bonus ply of something else. Now I have 744 yards of this purply Polwarth/Tencel, which may become a light shawl at some point.

So yes, lots of spinning has been happening. And it looks like more will happen this coming week! Last year I broke a mile; I’m aiming to do at least that this year as well.

Fall Extracurricular Classes

Yes, it’s that time once again!

I had to switch my time slot for cello, as we were looking at registering Owlet in an intro to music class at Preville, the arts centre with which Sparky does his summer camp and art lessons. With two kids doing extracurricular activities on Saturday, I either needed a second car or to switch my lesson time. And since a second car isn’t in the budget, I worked out a new slot on Friday at midday with my cello teacher. (This means working on the weekend if necessary, but ehn. If I have to, I will.)

I had my first lesson yesterday, and the work I did on the Vivaldi sonata over the summer wasn’t a complete waste of time (go me!). I didn’t get a debrief of the concert and assignment of summer homework in a final lesson back in June, as schedules didn’t align, so I just guessed and went with it. My teacher congratulated me again on a terrific recital performance, and asked if I’d seen HRH’s recording of my solo Bach yet; I had to admit that no, I hadn’t, because as happy as I was with my performance, I haven’t had the courage to sit down and watch it. I got two stickers in my book for it, though! (I am in my forties and still like getting reward stickers in my music book, thank you very much. It’s the little things.)

Orchestra also began this past week, although I had to miss the very first rehearsal because of work (hey, there, busy season and rush jobs and everyone needing everything tomorrow morning). The upcoming programme looks terrific: some Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky miniatures, a Mozart overture… stuff I’ve enjoyed playing before, a couple of new things. Our annual membership fee has increased by 40%, which is ouch even though the reason is valid (our conductor, who is excellent, has until now been accepting payment way lower than other orchestras of this level are paying). My individual lesson fee has also increased; I suspect I’m going to have to make a compromise somewhere, maybe by dropping one lesson a month.

Sparky is now in Cycle 3, and that means band at school! It’s wind and brass instruments, so right now he has been trying to get sound out of the headjoint of my flute to see if that would be interesting for him. If not, he thinks either trumpet or trombone would be fun. We shall see what happens there.

I went to the Preville open house this morning (with Megan! and I ran into my friend Adelina, whom I haven’t seen since we did our workshop on alternative-spirituality parenting discussion at the Yule Fair a few years ago!) to see what was on offer. We got to see and say hi to some of the teachers we’d become familiar with over the summer at day camp, which pleased Owlet. In the end, she will be doing her intro to music next semester; this session, it’s all about art, thank you very much. (That’s what I get for suggesting she move on to explore other tables rather than just standing at the intro to music table, banging the little cymbals. We then had to pry her away from the glue, feathers, and Plasticine.)

She also totally schooled the violin teacher as only a four-year-old can. He showed her how to rest the instrument on her shoulder, and she sighed and said, “That’s not right.” Then she lowered it and held it vertically in front of her. “No… that’s how you hold a cello,” he said, a bit puzzled. “Well, yes,” she said, giving him a flat stare, and you could tell she was thinking, ‘Seriously, dude? You teach this stuff? Everyone knows you hold these things like this.’ One small victory in a world where most kids call violas and cellos ‘big violins.’

So both kids are now registered in their respective art classes. Sparky is delighted (I am not entirely sure why, but he thinks both he and his sister taking art with the same teacher, albeit at different times, is terrific) and Owlet is looking forward to it as well, because (quite apart from the exciting making art thing) her friend Audrey is in the class with her. And I’m looking forward to not having to drive 45-60 minutes first thing on Saturday morning and then be focused enough to play cello and process musical instruction for an hour on Saturday mornings, then drive another 60 minutes home. Everyone wins!

First Day of School

First day of grade 5!

Sparky’s gang of friends has been split pretty evenly down the middle, half in one class, half in the other. His English/homeroom teacher is lovely, and his teacher for the French half is the same teacher he had in grade 3. Looks like it’s already shaping up to be a great year.

Sparky was so laid back. Or rather, he was laid back on the surface, but he mentioned last night he was excited and a bit nervous. And I know he was, but he handled it all very well. It’s because he knows the place and the people, and he said that he was really looking forward to being back at school again when we were walking to the schoolyard. (This from the kid who had previously said he didn’t feel like he’d had enough of a summer and why did he have to go back, and who has been moping around bored the past two weeks.)

One more year of this laid-back return, and then we get to handle being nervous about going to his first day of high school! Ugh.

Owlet: Four Years Old!

Owlet is FOUR!

Okay, the biggest thing this past month was the glasses, coming in right under the wire three days before her birthday.

She got her first bike for her birthday! It’s a stride/balance bike. We probably could have gotten her one with pedals, but the weight of those plus learning how to pedal, plus the not-such-a-success of that with Sparky… well, when I found this balance bike at a super awesome price, we chose this route.

This past month she also decided to start using my fountain pens! Proud mum, right here.

We’ve been dropping Sparky off at camp every day, and Owlet is very taken with one of the teachers who staffs the sign in/out desk. This woman happens to be Sparky’s piano teacher, so we are very interested in piano all of a sudden. She’s taken to asking to watch videos on YouTube of little kids doing their Suzuki book 1 recitals, mostly piano and violin, but she sometimes asks to watch cellists, too. I inquired (iron, hot, etc) and the teacher said they like to start them around age 5, around the time they’re learning to read, although it depends on the child; she had a 4 1/2-year-old who had just started, for example. But she told me about an intro to music course the arts centre runs for three- to six-year-olds, which covers rhythm and movement, and every week they learn about a different symphonic instrument. (This is convenient for them to do because the arts centre teaches all kind of music lessons with various instrumentalists.) So we’ll hit the open house the weekend after Labour Day and check it out. They start violinists as early as three years old, though, so if Owlet is utterly taken with that at the open house… well, we’ll have to see. I think the intro course is the best bet for now.

Owlet is super into crafts these days. Her drawing has improved and focused, and her scribbles are resolving into recognizable things. She drew me next to a present for my birthday, and there’s even a multi-layered cake up top:

(What is everything else? Who knows. Fireworks?)

She also uses her art to charmingly inflict guilt for no apparent reason. “See? This is me. I’m crying. I’m crying because you made me so, so sad. Those are tears on my face. In the rain.”

She had the last two weeks of July off daycare, and there were many trips to Michael’s for craft kits and art supplies. I still find it mildly amazing that I can set her up at the table on her own, and she can glue things to other things and cut stuff up with her plastic scissors. Like this dragon. It may look like a warped Tonka truck to you, and indeed that’s what it was intended to be. Part of her ‘happy vacation’ goodie bag from school, it started out as a huge sheet of card stock with punchout pieces that you fold and slot together to make a 3D truck. She sat down with her little plastic pinking shears at the kitchen table and cut it all up, then used a glue stick to put pieces together to make a dragon.

As of her annual checkup, she is 17.1 kg (that’s 37.7 pounds) and exactly 100 cm tall (one meter, yay!). She’s wearing between size 8 and 9 shoes, depending on the style, and size 4 or 5 clothes. (Except the 18-24 month leggings she wears under her dresses; they’re like knee-length playground shorts, and I never thought she’d fit into them again, but she has stretched out and slimmed down so much that they have a second life.)

She’s in a weird limbo between needing a nap (or else she’s whiny at 5 pm) and needing to not take a nap so she’ll actually fall asleep before 9 pm. Bedtime has become a challenge, with several calls for water, a trip to the bathroom, someone to rub her back, and general whining. She doesn’t nap at all at home; we’re looking forward to the preschool nap being phased out and evolved into quiet time instead. Then she’ll go to sleep on time at home on school days.

Four years of laughing, loving, and being our Owlet. We think she’s turning out just fine.