In my last update I forgot to detail a significant moment at the beach, along with the fact that we were so glad to see family there and had a great time. We even managed to avoid getting sunburned! That is a minor miracle and Amy was impressed even if she disliked the many times I reapplied sunblock to her face. Anyway… the momentous event pertained to Sarah and her watch. I realized after she was knee-deep in water that she was still wearing her watch. While I knew she probably wouldn’t go farther in the water, I also knew it would be easy to get the watch wet accidentally. I suggested she take it off to preserve it. She didn’t want to, but as she turned to move out of the water entirely, as her way of protecting her watch, she fell and was immersed in water. I promptly pulled her up, mainly to save the watch. I know she could have gotten up on her own. We then had many rounds of increasingly tense arguing about her watch. I really wanted her to take it off to be able to play in the water. She really wanted to keep wearing her watch no matter what and was willing to give up playing in the water or to have the watch break. I kept telling her sternly that if she chose that and her watch broke, I wouldn’t buy her a replacement. Amy tried to convince her to take off the watch. Carl was not yet with us. Finally, changing my tone to mimic how she sometimes easily says things, I said,“You could say ‘oh! I know! I’ll take off my watch so it won’t break.’” And then she made the same switch and easily took off her watch!!
Last Sunday we actually had a second beach day when we hadn’t expected it, because the weather was not as constantly rainy as predicted. It was raining as we drove towards Philadelphia the end of the day, but that seems to be par for our course for trips to the Jersey shore. On our way to see my mom and stepdad, we stopped at a farm stand and got delicious New Jersey blueberries and corn. If we had known just how delicious they were we would have gotten much more. Sarah opted to stay in the car at the farm stand, but when Carl went to get in he discovered that she had moved to the driver’s seat. She gave him the biggest smile of a sneak being discovered mid-sneakiness.
We had a wonderful visit with my parents, traipsing around the Morris Arboretum (and slightly wilting from the heat), watching “Zootopia” and playing the new Daniel Tiger board game that my mom purchased. It is Sarah’s current favorite game. We always played until all characters had finished and my mom liked to win fourth. The girls now like to pretend to be Mom-Mom, delighting in coming in last if that is what happens. We also refer to Daniel as Carl named him: Daniel No-Pants. Pop-Pop invited Sarah to go for a walk around the neighborhood and she said yes. That is unusual for her to like to go for walks - unless it is a grandparent who suggests it. They had a nice walk and when Pop-Pop told Sarah how he liked walking with her and would miss her when she was gone, she replied that they could zoom.
Sarah continues to explore different ways of interacting with the pages of my book draft. With the oldest draft she ripped out each page so now has a giant pile of loose pages. She likes to tape them together, saying she is making a Sarah-Rise book. Or she rips up tiny pieces and glues them onto a new page making a collage. Most recently she started taping them to her window, saying she was hiding them.
Amy has been making a ton of Perler Bead art. Those are little plastic beads that you assemble on a peg board and then iron to make the beads melt together. June sparked Amy’s interest in all things Pride so she researched all of the many different Pride flags, drawing them on her calendar with a different flag for each day. She has been making Pride Flag Bingo boards and now Perler bead pride flags. I had no idea there were so many different flags and I have trouble keeping track of what colors and patterns mean what and even if I know the term I don’t always know what it means, but Amy can usually explain.
Sarah loves going through tunnels so the drive to and from Philadelphia suits her well with its four tunnels, which we drove through on Wednesday. Thursday morning I set out to do some errands while the kids stayed at home. Amy sent me a message saying that Sarah was really missing me so I came home right away. Sarah was busy drawing a picture of mountains and tunnels, saying it was a map of where the tunnels were. She was doing that so she wouldn’t miss me too much. After lunch we did grocery shopping all together - meaning that the cart was filled with extra muffins, cupcakes, brioche loaves, grapes and kiwis beyond what I might normally gather.
Yesterday Carl took Sarah out to practice on her bike. She is getting really good at coasting and balancing. He was able to push the bike forward with just one finger, so not helping with her balance, while she balanced for much of the length of the alley near us. When she switches to peddling then it is much harder for her to balance and Carl has to do a lot to keep her upright, but still, we see a future in which it will all come together for her.
Due to our travels and her BFF traveling, Amy hadn’t seen her bestie in 8 days so when she heard that her friend was back in Pittsburgh she tore down the steps and flew out the door to run to her friend’s house. She is there this morning since they had a sleepover last night. I’m so glad that Amy has a best friend as dear and constant as my best friends who lived equally close to me in my younger years.
Sarah’s favorite book to discuss is Sandra Boyton’s Blue Hat Green Hat. It’s about a turkey who just can’t dress correctly. Sarah piled our sunhats on her head and put one on her foot and pretended to be the turkey. Then Amy took a turn and added two pairs of goggles on top of four hats. Sarah also likes to refer to herself as the turkey or baby turkey and to talk about when her uncle used to read the book to her when she was little and how much she liked the way he read, “oops!”
We watched Sing and Sing 2 and enjoyed them both immensely. After Sing 2 Sarah ran to get her guitar to emulate the lion. Amy ran to her room to change her outfit. Carl and Sarah strummed her guitar together with him holding chords as she played. Then he got his guitar and they strummed next to each other. Amy came down dressed in red and sequins and with glitter on her cheeks, ready to be a star. She sang and leapt and did cartwheels while Carl and Sarah played guitar along with a song tutorial on the iPad to the best of their ability. I love how the movie inspired each kid in such different ways.
Amy and I watched some of a recording of the 1994 high school stage production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream in which I played Helena. I had forgotten that I wore my hair in braids for the role. So it was very weird to see me, just a year older than Sarah is now, with my hair in long braids just like Sarah’s and with my tall, lean, gangly self so similar to Amy. I don’t know if we will watch more anytime soon because it was hard for Amy to follow what was happening. Maybe we can try again in a few years.
Lots of love to all of you. May you have some silly turkeys to bring you unexpected joy.
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