Jul 24

The Beach

by Stacey

Jammies at the Beach

Jammies at the beach… Life is good.

Note: I seem to be having issues getting my pictures big enough… working on it. The gorgeous scene that Katherine and I are enjoying this week will surely be motivation for me to fix this problem!

Jul 21

Camp

by Stacey

Today we dropped off Caroline at sleep away camp for ten days.

I spent many, many wonderful summers at this very same camp.

We have spent many, many long months trying to decide if Caroline was ready for this adventure.

Unfortunately, we forgot to think about whether or not I was ready for this adventure.

Leading up to camp, I watched Caroline carefully for signs of anxiety, ready to change our plans at a moments notice. For all of time, Caroline’s anxiety has played out in her sleep (or lack thereof). She has continued to sleep beautifully. If Caroline expressed any concern, she did so as the super grown up girl she has become. A few times over the past few weeks, she’s said in a calm voice, “Mommy, I’m worried about sleep away camp.” We would then have a conversation about how normal it was to feel worried and all the things she could do at camp if she was sad and I wasn’t there to help. Then her worry would seem to disappear until our next conversation.

Somehow in the midst of all this, I forgot to ask myself how I was feeling. Maybe that’s why I was so surprised by today.

We kissed Caroline goodbye poolside. The goodbye was quick as I knew lingering would only make things worse, for her.

I guess lingering would have made it worse for me although I’m not sure how. I still find myself teary. I can’t stop texting my friend whose daughter is with Caroline, she and I comparing notes on how we’re coping. Tomorrow I’ll be able to see pictures on the camp website from today. My fingers and toes are crossed that there will be a picture of Caroline with a gigantic smile. Maybe then, I’ll be able to grin just a little bit…

Jul 19

Joy

by Stacey

I’m quite sure there is nothing better in this world than a big sister reading to a little sister during a visit to the library…

Jul 18

The Power of Books

by Stacey

Caroline is going to sleep away camp this Thursday. I am torn between sheer excitement and utter terror. She will be attending the same camp that I went to and loved which was the same camp that my mom went to and loved. Many of the current directors were there when I was. Each time I call, I hear a familiar voice on the other end of the line. Apparently, these people were either way younger than I thought they were at the time or the place has some strange fountain of youth. Either way, I know Caroline will be in good hands which is helping to ease the worries on my part.

While Caroline knows all of this, will be attending with the daughter of a dear camp friend of mine and has looked at oodles of pictures of all the fun being had, she is still understandably nervous. We began to pack yesterday which I think really brought the fears front and center. Yesterday was full of questions, concerns and a few tears.

Last night, these worries were expressed beautifully in Caroline’s choice of bedtime reading. We always choose a few picture books to read as a preview to our chapter book reading. Last night, Caroline chose Kevin Henke’s genius work, Wemberly Worried.

At least the child is transparent.

And through literature, as we’ve done so many times in the past, we were able to talk about being worried and then about feeling better.

Thank you Wemberly. Give Petal a hug for me…

Jul 17

Innocence

by Stacey

Today Caroline was examining her DJ 3K bracelet (Derek Jeter 3000 Hits for those of you don’t follow the Yankees quite as closely as we do in this house), when she read about Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation.

To quote the foundation’s website:

The name “Turn 2” is symbolic of the dramatic double-play made by infielders during a game. It also represents Derek’s wish to promote healthy lifestyles among young people and enable them to “Turn 2” his Foundation for guidance and the much needed help to avoid drugs and alcohol.

Rob must have explained this well in his own words based on the conversation that followed…

Rob (after a lengthy discussion about why drugs and alcohol are bad and why even grown ups must be careful when they drink): Because you know sometimes even though grown ups are allowed to drink alcohol, they make bad choices and drink too much. But I know you girls will make good choices because you show us every day what good choices you make.

Katherine: Right, like how I only drink two yogurt drinks a day because three would be too many.

Apparently all my cries about the huge amount of sugar in the yogurt drinks has been heard.

So yes, just like that. And let your innocent yogurt drinking days continue for a long, long time…

Jul 14

Summer Book Gift

by Stacey

I am that Mom who gives books as gifts. Caroline is starting to complain that each of her friend’s birthday presents must include a book but I am persevering through all the “Mom, no one else does this!!” complaints. I just feel too importantly about it.

When the girls were younger, we would give their friends only books but as time has gone by, even I see the point of including a toy or game with the book. I don’t want to end up being the Mom who only gives books after all. I can still remember the day that I found MotherReader’s fantastic list of book/toy pairings. The list brought me way more joy than it should have. Since then, I have been busy adding my own treasures to her wonderful listing.

As I was browsing at the library last week (and yes, this is often how I choose to spend my spare time!), I found two perfect titles to include with a shovel and pail for an instant and super fun birthday gift.

To the Beach by Thomas Docherty

is an amazingly imaginative tale of a boy’s voyage to the beach and beyond and

an oldy but goodie by Leo Lionni, On my beach there are many pebbles

will make your shell and rock hunting all the more fun this summer.

I don’t know about you but I plan to enjoy a good book on my next trip to the beach… maybe the girls will too!

Jul 13

Easy Readers

by Stacey

I am on a mission. A mission to find engaging easy readers. A mission to find easy readers that are actually easy to read. A mission to find easy readers that will actually be read by the children who need them.

Many books marketed as easy readers are not only deathly dull but hard to read as well. This is not a good combination for a child just beginning to read. It seems that many publishers think that a large font makes a book easy to read.Never mind that the story is full of multi-syllabic words or stories that are hard to follow.

I love it when I stumble upon books that truly are easy to read. And I say stumble because more often than not, these books are simply well written and illustrated picture books. They are located among the stacks and stacks of picture books not separated into the easy reader section. The text will be simple and the illustrations will greatly aid in the comprehension of the action.

I’ve always found it important to find such books but I’m extra motivated now as Katherine is reading with more and more enthusiasm and skill. Our new favorite easy reader is Mama by Jeantte Winter, the true story of Owen, a baby hippo separated from his Mama by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Even though the only words uttered in the story are ‘mama’ , ‘mmm’ and ‘baby’ (think Jez Albourgh’s Hug), the reader understands both the emotions and facts of the tale that find Owen under the loving care of thegiant tortoise Mzee when he is rescued and taken to a nearby zoo.

Katherine was so thrilled to have read this story all on her own- a story that begged for discussion, just like a ‘big girl book.’ In fact, she talked so much about it that I went back to the library to find other stories about the same animals. I found some wonderful non-fiction titles along with an easy reader. Unfortunately, the easy reader proved my point. The illustrations were lack luster and the text was far more advanced than an early reader could tackle.

I guess for now, my boycott of the early reader section will continue…

Jul 12

To Run or Not to Run

by Stacey

Every so often, I think I have this parenting thing figured out (ha, ha!) and then I have a day like today.

Caroline started Track Camp yesterday and seemed to really love it. The girl could run all day long and has done really well in the two 5k races she’s run so track camp seemed like a pretty natural thing to do. I was incredibly proud of her as I dropped her off yesterday morning. She didn’t know a soul who would be there but as we drove, all she said was, “I’m a little worried.” There were no tears, no wails, no complaints. And at the end of the three hours of running, jumping and throwing in blistering heat, she was happy.

Then she woke up this morning in tears. She absolutely did not want to go. Through my confusion, I tried to sort out what had changed. She was sore and tired and the forecast called for another incredibly hot day. All that being said, though, Caroline is a complainer. There are very few days that she doesn’t complain about what’s to come and then ends up enjoying her day. I have rarely let her ‘quit’ an activity as I feel I have a pretty good sense of what she truly likes and what really is not her thing.

The real tears that accompanied today’s complaints though threw me for a loop. I felt a bit tortuous forcing my sobbing eight year old to go to track camp so I let her stay home terrified the whole time of the precedent I was setting.

Not five minutes after I made my decision, Caroline told me about two girls at camp who were whispering about her and giving her dirty looks. The truth came out. Her fear had nothing to do with running and throwing and jumping.

I still don’t know if I made the right decision. After all, life if full of peoplewho can make activities we love slighly less fun. The mystery of it all is deciding when your love for something out weighs your dislike of the people doing it with you.

Maybe running is that thing for Caroline. Maybe not.

For today, I decided we could combine the thing and the people we love. As Caroline avoided track camp, she and I went for a run…

Jul 11

Finish What You Start

by Stacey

I’ve been loving my summer reading list. So far I have read The Year We Left Home, The Weird Sisters and Life of Pi. All good and worth reading in different ways…

Just the other day, my friend who I am reading with asked me why I wanted to create a list. We both read a ton on our own and she was curious why I needed the motivation of a list, when frankly, I would read with or without it. I talked about loving my memories of summer reading lists along with reading books I might otherwise not read.

What I didn’t anticipate though was the beauty of a list to make me finish a book I might have abandoned. It has only been within the past few years that I would even consider abandoning a book. For a long, long time I would read anything I started but not anymore. Time is precious and if a book is truly not holding my attention, I will stop reading.

The Paris Wife is such a book. Without my summer reading list, I would have stopped reading. While I found the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife interesting from the start, I quickly became irritated by the all the facts the author stuck into the tale. It reminded me of a child completing the homework assignment where she has to include all her spelling words in a paragraph. The author clearly had done oodles of research and there were times when I felt her writing was stilted by all the facts she included.

Now that I am done reading, however, I am hooked. I want to learn more about Hadley and Ernest and I truly do want to go back and read some of the Hemingway books I struggled through in my youth. I feel like I know the characters now and would appreciate the writing in a whole new way.

I will hopefully take the lesson of finishing the book I started over with me to my Hemingway pile…

Jul 08