Harry, Revisited

So followers of my old blog (before its untimely death from file corruption last year) may remember that when Owen was a kindergartener he and I spent several long months reading through all the Harry Potter novels. He has since become an avid reader with a vivid imagination, a fact that pleases me no end.

Well, now that Edie is in kindergarten, I decided to do the same thing with her— so most every evening we plop down on my king-sized bed, the three of us — Owen, Edie and I — to read a chapter and discuss what has been happening so far. You'd think Owen wouldn't want to sit through them again, but he's having as good a time listening to them again as I am having reading them, and it's interesting to see him listening and absorbing the information in a new way — being two whole years older than his first go-round.

And miss Edie, well... she seems to be enjoying them quite as much as Owen did, though I am very careful to review the previous night's chapter before beginning the next, asking her questions to make sure she's been paying attention.

The best part about it, though, is that Edie — who has always been fantastic at "imaginative play" when playing on her own — has begun to introduce new characters in her play. The other day I heard her speaking with quite a good version of a British accent (since, when I read the books, I try to read all the dialogue in character, accents, voices and all), saying things like, "Oh, hello, Neville. We were just talking about Transfiguration." I'm supremely happy that she's quite enjoying the books, too.

And, like before, the deal I made with her was that she could watch the movies after having read the books. She's seen bits and pieces of most of the movies before, on DVD, when Owen has been watching them, but has never had such a keen interest in the as she does now. We plan to watch the second movie this weekend. And the best part is that Terry — who has never read the books (blasphemy!) and only seen the first movie (heresy!) — has agreed to watch the movies with us as we go along, so that by the time the final installment is released in theaters this summer, he can be caught up and actually see it with us.

I know that I am blessed to have such smart kids — and when I get excellent feedback from both their teachers about how well-spoken and well-read they both are for their ages, I can't help but feel a huge burst of pride that I have had something to do with that.

Welcome to Casa 158

(Click the picture above to watch the slideshow. You can even hit the little corner button with the four arrows to make it fit your computer screen.)

So I decided back in November that I wanted to make a playhouse out of felt with a pvc pipe frame for the kids for Christmas. I started with a mountain of felt, worked diligently on it any chance I had when the kids weren't around (namely when they were at school or in the evenings after they were in bed), and voila! The result is Casa 158. (the numbers are the ages of my three kids.)

I'll be honest and admit that a lot of the adorable ideas here were culled from other places on the internet. The idea for the corn and the tree with the apples and the entire garden on the back wall came from here. (In fact, this was where my initial inspiration came from.) But I decided to make mine to fit a PVC pipe frame (instead of a kitchen table, as hers was), so mine has a pitched roof. Also, I decided to finish off the interior of mine as well, like the one here, so we have a fireplace with vases where a little homemaker can put some flowers culled from the front window box. Also. the frame above the fireplace is open on one side, so the photo can be replaced with another or kids' artwork or whatever floats their boat.

I made each piece separate (sides and roof) and they tie onto the PVC Pipe — however, after seeing the kids play in it for a while, I MAY go ahead and stitch the roof to the sides. I had thought it would be easier to assemble/disassemble this way, but now I'm not totally convinced, since it comes untied and skews off slightly. So I may be doing some modifications to it in the near future, but overall I am very pleased with the result. And I even had enough time to decorate the house for Christmas, with little felt Christmas light bulbs in a strand around the eaves, and a wreath for the front door.

This was definitely a labor of love, but the kids loved it so much when they woke up Christmas morning and discovered this delightful playhouse in the living room. In fact, Edie spent the entire day inside it, pulling in her blankie and a pillow and relaxing in there with her Nintendo DS and some snacks. She even watched a movie on TV from inside its walls, watching through the window!

Letter to Santa

Letter to Santa, originally uploaded by JenSig.

Dear Santa

I have been a good girl this year. I would like Zhu Zhu Pets Wild Bunch DS 2, Squinkies, Dippin Dots Maker, and Littlest Pet Shop. Please travel safely.

Love, Edie Siglin

Pretty on the Inside

"Mommy, look at my hair. Aren't I pretty, Mama?" She prances in front of the mirror, skipping back and forth on her tip-toes.

"Yes, love," I say sincerely, because she IS a very pretty little girl.

She continues: "And I am just SO pretty, Mama, the prettiest girl in school!"

I sit her down so I can tie her shoe. "Yes," I say again, trying to form the words I want to say to her, to convey what I mean in ways that mean something to a 5-year-old girl. "It's nice to be pretty on the outside, sweetheart... but it's better to be pretty on the inside."

She cocks her head as she looks at me, trying to understand my meaning. "What I mean is, lots of times people can be pretty on the outside, but ugly on the inside; they can be mean or just not very nice. It's much more important to be a sweet girl, a NICE girl. And a smart girl, too, one who uses her brains."

"I'm smart, Mommy," she says.

"Yes, honey. And you're nice to people, too."

She reaches out and hugs me close. "I can be pretty on the inside AND pretty on the outside."

Yes, love. Yes, you can.

On Birth Order

I made a comment the other day to someone that, as far as I can tell, my kids pretty accurately embody those traits that define so-called "birth order." It's interesting for me to watch them (trying to do so as objectively as I can, of course) and really see that their unique characteristics that make up who they are as individuals really do seem to typify what are commonly seen as birth order personality traits.

Owen, as a first-born (and a male firstborn at that) is a typical, nurturing people pleaser who craves approval from those around him. I see this really clearly in the way he is at school, which is conscientious and careful to do the right thing, always trying to please his teacher. He is also very sweet (well... MOST of the time) to his two younger sisters, which I can only imagine will make him a really great husband to some lucky girl some day.

As a middle child, Edie is the attention-getting personality in the bunch, always singing and dancing, expressing her creativity in as many outlets as she can find. She used to say she wanted to grow up and be an artist, like her Uncle Tom, but now she says she wants to be a singer... like Taylor Swift. (Hey, she could have WAY worse influences than that, right?) She is friendly and outgoing, and LOVES to strike a pose whenever the camera is pointed her way.

And Isla is my little good-time charlie. Of course, she isn't even 1 yet, so it's difficult to really know what her personality will be as she grows older, but she is quick to laugh and is remarkably laid-back and easy-going. I have long said that these third children really have to learn how to go with the flow, since we're always off on the run doing something or other with the two older kids, and the young ones get dragged along... and this one almost always does everything with a huge grin on her face. Who knows? She'll probably be class clown, cutting it up for anyone who will listen and give her a laugh.

And while I realize that the study of birth orders is by no means an exact science, I do find it interesting that my kids seem to really embody a lot of those characteristics. Things to think about...

Weekend Getaway

We spent the weekend down in Carlsbad, since Honey has her timeshare down there this week, which is my excuse for not posting yesterday... today was the Carlsbad street fair, which is always fun, and otherwise it was a whole lot of lounging around, reading, playing the stupidly addicting Angry Birds game, and not a whole lot else.

One thing that really hit me over the last two days is how grown up the kids — and most especially Owen — are becoming. This particular condo has a pool and recreation room that are pretty enclosed (needing a key to enter), and this was the first time we've let the kids go down to the rec room all by themselves. They wanted to pick out a movie to watch from the selection they keep on hand, so I agreed that they could go but that they must go together. I generally tried to impress upon Owen that, as the big brother, he really needed to take care of his little sister.

Well, they had a blast, and were delighted with themselves when they selected a movie and signed out for it at the desk all on their own. Many trips were made to the rec room for no other reason than simply that they were ALLOWED to do this by themselves, which of course made them feel very self-important and grown-up. At one point, the phone rang in our room, and it was Owen, calling to inform me that Edie was on her way up to the room and he wanted to make sure she'd made it back safely.

I'm not really sure why this in particular struck such a chord... perhaps I was remembering moments just like this from my own childhood — I can distinctly recall the feeling of freedom when our parents would let Tom and me go to a rec room or even down the hall to get ice if we were staying in a hotel, and how great that felt, as a little kid.

Simple pleasures, I suppose. In any case... the time changed, and with it, our days suddenly became shorter. Now if only the weather would begin to cooperate, it might actually begin to feel like fall.

Of Bugs and Other Icky Things

Tonight, when we were outside:

Me: "Edie, don't touch those bushes. They're full of spider webs."

Edie: "Do bugs live in there?"

Me: "Spiders live there, yes."

Edie: "Are spiders bugs?"

Me: (Choosing NOT to delve into the differences between arachnids, which have eight legs and are NOT, technically, bugs. She is just five, after all.) "Yes."

Edie: "What other kinds of bugs are there?"

Me: "Well... spiders. Ants. Bees. Wasps. Aphids. Grasshoppers..."

Edie: "Vampires?"

Me: "Well, vampires are icky, but they're not bugs."

In what shall hereafter be called The Great Hula Hooping Incident

Stitches, originally uploaded by JenSig.

So yesterday Edie became the first of my children to require a trip to after-hours urgent care and get STITCHES.

She was hula-hooping her way down a neighbor's driveway, and managed to slip and whack her chin on the driveway, resulting in my friend rushing her home to my house across the street, where I was at first unable to tell whether stitches were needed because there was so much blood it was hard to see MUCH.

She was pretty freaked out, I have to say — she is a girl who will get herself completely worked up over the idea of a shot, so of course that was her first question — well, after first asking me in a panic (when I had said we'd need to go to the doctor), "Am I going to DIE?" — and while I had a good feeling that she WOULD need a shot to numb the area, I of course didn't tell her that.

WHen we got to urgent care they were, blessedly, empty, so we were ushered right into a room and got immediate service. Edie was shivering, and when I asked her if she was cold she said no, she was just SO SCARED, Mommy! When she realized that they were, in fact, going to give her a shot — in her BOO BOO, no less! — she was pretty unconsolable, which was heartbreaking for me.

Finally, Terry said, "Edie... if you can be really brave and hold still for the doctor, then maybe we can stop at WalMart afterwards to pick out a new Zhu Zhu Pet." Her eyes lit up immediately, and I could see the wheels in her head turning.

Suddenly she turned slightly coy and said, "Could I get a SET?" Way to try and work that situation, little girl!

And I have to say, she was VERY brave, even when the nurse gripped the top of her head to keep her from turning her head and the doctor began injecting that needle full of lydocaine RIGHT INTO THE GAPING WOUND IN HER CHIN and she was crying and whimpering and screeching all at the same time — suddenly she must have numbed up, because she became very still and said quietly, "Hey! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

And that little 5-year-old girl laid as still as the grave while that very kind man put three stitches into her pretty little chin. Didn't fuss, didn't try to turn her head, didn't talk. I was SO proud of her for being so brave.

So, yes, she did get a trip to WalMart afterwards, for a new RockStar Zhu Zhu, named Roxie, a black and white little cutie with a shock of hot pink hair on the top of her head. .

But no... she did NOT get a set, as she'd hoped for. :-)

Blessings

The joys of sisterhood, originally uploaded by JenSig.

I think ever since the old incarnation of my blog died I haven't felt much like blogging, though it could just be my usual summertime laziness... seems I always write less here in the summers because we are just so darn busy most of the time.

But I knew it had been a while, and I thought I'd share this delightful picture of my two girls... I think the look on Isla's face says it all. The two girls are completely smitten with each other. Don't get me wrong — Owen is equally thrilled to have a new baby sister — but I think the bond between my girls is going to be exceptionally strong. At least I hope that it will be so.

Summer is as hectic as always, and now soccer season has begun, and the kids start school a week from tomorrow. Owen is going into second grade, and Edie into kindergarten, which is somewhat bittersweet for me. For so long, she was my baby girl, until Isla came along, but part of me still thinks of Edie in her younger incarnation. Just the other day I saw a picture of her from only a year ago, and I was amazed at the transformation I could see in her over just one year. Gone are the last vestiges of baby fat, replaced by this lanky, lean, tan, beautiful confident 5-year-old, ready to enter this brave new world that is kindergarten.

She is more than ready.

But I'm not.