Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

This past weekend we made one more short family trip, this time to Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, just south of Louisville.  It gave us a chance to connect just before Sydney headed out to Cornell (he’s now there and settling in), to celebrate our ninth anniversary, and to learn more about the kinds of plants we might be able to plant at our house.  Sydney was quite taken with their tree collection and took a lot of photos and notes, and we were all amazed by how large and well-thought-out the arboretum was.  There was an edible garden, a children’s garden, and picnic tables and eco-friendly design everywhere.  With two (cranky) kids in tow, we only saw a small fraction of the grounds, and we’ll definitely be making plans to go back again when we can.

Katherine charges ahead, and Nathaniel is our collector.  He doesn’t really enjoy a hike unless he’s weighed down.

Erin

This morning, after a few days of practice, the kids and I got up early and were standing on our front step by 7:05am, waiting for Katherine’s bus.  Neither kid got the sleep he or she needed, but with a bit of reminding they tumbled out of bed happily enough and were helping when putting on their clothes and shoes.  For Katherine, The First Day of Kindergarten had come, and for Nathaniel . . . he just wanted to see the bus arrive.  Everything went very smoothly, and after we waved Katherine off, Nathaniel and I scootered (he scootered, I walked) down the hill to school.  I was giving a talk today and leading a class of freshmen, so I was pretty busy for much of the day, but it was great to slip out of the office in the evening and walk home with the kids while Katherine gave me the full report.  She already knows her kindergarten teacher (my colleague’s wife) and was brimming over with new rhymes and instructions.  I’m just thrilled that she’s excited to go back! 

Erin

We just closed on our first house today.  It’s 2/3 of a mile from my school, is just around the corner from David and Lisa, and has a sizable fenced-in backyard and deck.  We’ll see whether Sydney (the gardener) or the kids (it’s all about play!) win control over that yard.  Erin will be inside, enjoying the baby-grand piano that we’ll be inheriting with the house.

Erin

David and Lisa allowed Sydney to monopolize their backyard this spring with a garden–the first he’s had since we left Ithaca.  He’s been making use of it.  The kids and I have picked and shelled peas, eaten a ton of lettuce, dill, swiss chard, and radishes, and now we’re enjoying a bumper crop of cucumbers.  The tomatoes aren’t far behind . . .

Erin

We took a nice ferry on the way to and from Nova Scotia, and we all enjoyed the chance to sleep, explore, and play with Legos, rather than spend more time in our car.  As we approached Maine on our return trip, we had beautiful weather–and beautiful views.

Erin

The kids discovered several new activities while we were in Nova Scotia:

1) Follow anyone and everyone around the farm.  Nathaniel took off after one person gathering vegetables for the market and proudly reappeared telling me he’d picked radishes, tomatoes, and carrots.

2) Play in the dirt.  Nathaniel begged to be allowed to play in the dirt with a toy truck, so Sydney cleared a patch of sandy garden soil and Nathaniel spent countless hours digging holes with his truck and buckets. Needless to say, there were baths when he was all done.

3) Jump on the trampoline that Uncle Nelson brought over.  The kids loved it most when it was raining, but even dry they spent most of each afternoon jumping around on it.

Erin

On our way up to Nova Scotia, we stopped in Ithaca for a few days.  Katherine is quite proud of the fact that she was born there, and both kids know it was our first home as a couple.  After so much talking it up before we left home, it’s no surprise that the kids loved the area.  Thanks to Christi, we got to sleep in our old apartment, which is now home to two cats.  We took the kids to meet lots of friends who all knew Katherine as a baby and were keen to meet Nathaniel, we walked across the suspension bridge over the northern gorge on Cornell’s campus, and, after much deliberation, we took them on a hike at Taughannock Falls.  There are several other hikes that are near and dear to our hearts, but those are all more than the two or three miles that our kids can do on a normal day, and they would have protested all of the elevation changes!

Erin

We left on Saturday from Kentucky and we arrived in Nova Scotia this morning.  In-between, we had some epic car rides, in which the kids were actually pretty good, two days in Ithaca, and an overnight ferry with a cute cabin and pull-down bunk beds.  The kids loved the ferry, and they’re glad they get to ride on it on the way back home.  The two days in Ithaca also convinced them that it’s now “home” for them, too.  We took them to Taughannock Falls, and they kept saying, “Ooh,there’s a big waterfall!” but we said, “Just a bit more.  We’re not there yet,” and they were very impressed by the tall cascade at the trail’s end.  We, of course, were glad to share our former home with the kids (especially now that they can hike for a reasonable distance!), and for the chance to catch up with several groups of friends.  I email regularly with most of them, but it’s nice to see them in-person, and they were eager to see the kids all grown up.  Now we’re with family, and Katherine is wearing herself out on the trampoline that Nelson and Sydney put up, and Nathaniel is finding various heavy objects (wheelbarrow, lawnmower, Tonka truck) to push around the farm.  We’re expecting some good sleep from both kids tonight.

Erin

Tomorrow we head out for a big trip.  We’ll be visiting Sydney’s family in Nova Scotia–and we’ll be driving.  So we’ll do a long day of driving tomorrow, stop in Ithaca for a few days to see friends and show the kids our old home, and then drive over to Portland, ME, where we’ll pick up a ferry to Nova Scotia.  Yes, we’re catching a few breaks on this trip when we can, given that Google has the Kentucky-Nova Scotia drive at 26 hours and we will have a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old in the back seat of a Prius.  So, today will be a flurry of packing, but I promise not to forget the camera.  Sydney already had to remind me not to forget the passports, so we hope we don’t forget anything else that’s important.  We’re excited to see friends and family, if a bit sad to leave behind the “stay home and enjoy routine family time” part of our summer.  We have a few activities up our sleeves for when we get back, which should usher the start of school very quickly to our door.

Erin

The daytime highs this week have been flirting with 90, and it’s only going down to about 70 at night, so we’re shifting to new routines.  This morning, since the kids were up early, I took them to the park and playground by 8am and did my best to wear them out by 9.  It was already pretty warm and humid at that hour (Katherine informed me of this about every five feet of our scooter ride), but I tried to help her understand just how much warmer it was going to get, and we got in a mile-and-a-half of scootering and some playground time before heading home.  So, our strategies for conducting life in this weather:

Strategy #1: Heat out early for physical exercise.

Strategy #2: Motivate your family to get out by instilling in them fear of the heat that is yet to come.

Strategy #3: Hand them water bottles when they wake up, just before they step out of the car, and when they return from their play.

Strategy #4: Fail to fill the gas tank on the car when it gets a bit low, and convince the kids that we just “have” to walk to school after we finish lunch.  Follow walk with more water.

Strategy #5: Later in the day, when they’re tired and hot and short-tempered, have homemade popsicles at the ready, for both kids and adults.  One of Sydney’s best ideas was to get a sturdy blender when we arrived in Kentucky, and we’ve kept it busy making smoothies and blended fruit that I freeze in popsicle molds.

Strategy #6: Remove all heavy blankets from the kids’ room.  Otherwise they will insist on sleeping under them, despite the warm weather.  The kids don’t know where the blankets go when Mommy does spring cleaning, but I did promise that the blankets will return when the weather cools in the fall.

Strategy #6: After the kids are in bed, make both Sydney and Erin a quart-sized canning jar full of iced tea.  Since even he likes some sugar in the tea, the tight lid comes in handy.  You’ll find us shaking tea in one hand while we hold a book with the other on a lot of evenings in June and July.

Erin