Big Cities Don't Have All the Perks

Our annual summer reading program concert was yesterday. This year, our amazing librarian found a harpist willing to drive long hours with his harp to entertain and teach a small group of children and townsfolk. After the concert, he invited all the children to take a turn playing his harp.

I think I was more impressed than the children, but they just don't know how extraordinary the morning was.

I said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, I'd stake our summer reading program against any big city one.

Special thanks to our teacher, who took this great picture of First Son.

Summer Reading Program

This morning, I took the kids to our local library (which we call "the little library") for the Summer Reading Program. They had some free drawing time (which we missed because we were late), then "experimented" in teams (not with siblings!) by shaping clay boats that could float on water. When they had boats that could float, they were given coins as a payload which required some modifications. They were provided with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich snack followed by free time running around the gym like the little crazy people they are. Finish with story time and the opportunity to check out an armful of books (I even made First Daughter put some back) and our day was just about complete.

Thinking, creating, experimenting, running, socializing. Free snacks. (There are prizes for reading, but in the end anyone who says they read gets to pick a prize before anyone who doesn't say they read. We might miss the end anyway, depending on when baby decides to be born.)

I find it hard to believe that anyone out there has a summer reading program that can compete with the one at our little library. Not bad for a town of about 200 and a library only open two days a week. It's such a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the community.

It's not that I want you all to be jealous; I'm just so pleased I can't help writing about it. Plus, I wanted you all to know I was actively compensating for my pregnancy-induced laziness sluggishness.

Looking Forward

Kansas Dad adjusted Second Daughter's car seat today, and changed it to forward-facing. I've heard it's a good idea to keep babies rear-facing as long as possible, but she'd outgrown the limits of the seat. She took her first ride to get an H1N1 shot and didn't seem to enjoy it very much.

On the bright side, we waited about one minute after I finished filling out the forms. I took them to a mobile clinic in a near-by small town and it was wonderful compared to the huge waits I heard about at clinics in the big city near-by.

Our Graduate

Last night the local library held a little graduation ceremony for the story hour class. It's really a fantastic preschool program with lots of moving, drawing, and creating. First Son was one of the four adorable graduates. He was a bit shy of all the attention, but was thrilled with his gifts, with the cupcake and with all the running around on the lawn until all hours of the night. (We provided most of the treats, including the cupcakes, and I want you to know I picked out all the eggshells for this special event.)

Hopefully we'll be able to participate a bit in the summer reading program, which is much more than a reading list and prizes for churning out pages. And we'll be back for the story hour again with First Daughter in the fall. First Son will be welcome back, too, since we're planning to homeschool.

Good News

First Daughter had a return visit to the dentist this morning to check up on that tooth she knocked loose. She was not too keen on participating, but opened up without too much hassle and without any crying or gnashing of teeth. She was particularly thrilled with her Tigger toothbrush.

We finally stopped by the library in town. It's distinctly possible we own more books than they do (certainly so in children's books), but there's a story hour on Thursday mornings that has me excited for the kids. The librarian and the other ladies I met there were very welcoming.

Our water softener has been chugging away for a week now, without incident. I had planned a funny post about how our water is half rock (coming in at a staggering 28.6 GPG) and with a reference to a certain scene in A Christmas Story, but I'm too tired. Suffice it to say, the dishwasher works and I thanked God for it on Sunday morning.

Dreading the Morrow

It's horrible of me to even think it, but I'm dreading mass tomorrow. Last week, we visited a church near our new home. There were maybe a hundred people at mass, all of whom had to know we were new simply because they didn't know us. I really wanted to make a good impression...

First Daughter chattered incessantly during almost the entire mass.

"Mama hair wet." (repeat five to ten times)

"Mama earring, Mama earring, Mama necklace." (repeat five to ten times)

"I want to be all done." (repeat five to ten times)

"I want my Grammy." (repeat five to ten times)

"Where Dada and baby [sister]? I want my dada!" (repeat five to ten times) (Kansas Dad was walking the baby, of course.)

It went on and on. I'm trying to shush her and pay at least some minimum of attention to the mass without drawing more attention to our pew. I think I failed, on both counts.

At one point, she kicked her shoe off and it rolled under the pew in front of us to land right between the feet of the people kneeling there. I had to wait for a pause in the mass to ask them to hand it back to us while she wailed (really wailed), "Where is my shoe? I need my shoe! I need my shoe!" (I don't know if they couldn't understand her or if she really wasn't as loud as she seemed. I expected them to turn around on their own, but they didn't.)

She was quiet for the last five minutes or so. I thought she was just sitting quietly on the kneeler, but I should have known better; she had taken off her shoes and socks and then proceeded to dance barefoot (thankfully not on the pew). Lovely, just lovely.

So I think I am justified at least a little bit in my lack of exuberance for mass tomorrow. We've decided to attend our parish church, which is even smaller. (We didn't go there last week because they just lost their parish priest and, since we're likely to be the only newcomers there, thought we'd give them another week to grieve without onlookers.) Tomorrow, though, we go, and this will be our one and only first impression.

Mary, pray for us.

Feats of Climbing

Today we visited the park in the nearest town. (I tried to mail some packages, but the post office -- we do have one! -- is only open from 8 to 9:30 am. Needless to say, we didn't make it in time.) The kids enjoyed the park, though. We've been before, but today was the first time any other kids showed up.

First Daughter climbed up the tires a number of times. I read through the blog from when First Son was two to see if this sort of feat is normal (you know, normal for our family at least), but I couldn't find any references to climbing. Perhaps it's only because he turned two in December so there weren't any trips to the park to show off his climbing skills, but it might also be because First Daughter is watching him and learning at a much younger age to push her limits.


I'm a little nervous...not so much that she'll fall. I think I'm nervous she'll start climbing everything at home and find all the chocolate cleaning products I've put out of reach.

Small Town Service

Today I had to call the phone company for our new house because the phone had stopped working.

A person answered.

A person.

She promised to send someone to take a look. She did send someone. He crawled under our house and replaced some wires for us. Good as new.

I could hardly believe it. A person.