Summer retrospective - #2: bugs (and other small creatures) (2007-09-17)

(Originally posted on 17 September 2007.)

This summer Laolao made a major investment in grandchild entertainment. She bought a butterfly net for $1.00. (Then, since it wouldn’t fit in any of our suitcases, she bought another one here in Ottawa!)

The butterfly net has produced endless hours of fun. And, frankly, not just fun, but learning about the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it. The monarch butterfly was a major target, with many trips to the woods to chase them, not all successful. For lack of monarchs, other butterflies that were in netting range have all fallen prey (temporarily) to the net.

One interesting thing about taking up this type of activity is that one starts to notice things one never noticed before. For example, different types of butterflies have different flight patterns. The monarch tends to fly high and swooping, making it quite challenging to catch. The small white cabbage butterfly flits here and there, low to the bushes but in what one thinks of as typical butterfly behaviour, changing direction repeatedly and quickly. Other butterflies are slower and not as prone to being startled, making them very easy to catch, even with one’s hands.

Another thing one begins to notice is the variety of butterflies that inhabit a given area. In one afternoon in the mountains, Giggles caught four different kinds of butterflies. I’ve lerned to identify the Clouded Sulphur, the White Admiral, the Cabbage White, and a couple of others.

Giggles is not content, however, catching just butterflies. Almost anything that moves is subject to catching, examination, and retention (until Mommy convinces her that the creature would really like to go free). So far this past summer, the following creatures have briefly taken up residence in an empty pickle jar or cookie jar:

• a large frog
• a Forest Tent caterpillar that turned into a brown moth
• a praying mantis (Discovery: of the 2000 or so varieties of praying mantises, only four are native to North America.)
• several Monarch butterflies
• a fuzzy green caterpillar that is currently in chrysalis form, found on a rhubarb leaf
• a Twelve-Spotted Skimmer dragonfly

Now, if she would only get over her aversion to spiders…

Summer retrospective - #1: animals, backyard naturalists (2007-09-17)

(Originally posted on 17 September 2007.)

Giggles loves animals. Stuffed animals, plastic animals, pictures of animals, and even real animals. So when we arrived back home from Alberta at the end of July, it was lovely to see our wonderful backyard garden had started to attract more and more animals, expecially birds. The sunflowers, that were about 1.5 metres (5’) tall when I left in mid-July, had blossomed upwards and reached over 2.5 metres (8’)! The potted hibiscus were flowering, the fuchsia was in full bloom, the dogwood had spread upwards, the morning glory were covering the trellis, the anise hyssop and dill and other herbs were gorgeously profuse. And the tomatoes and cucumbers were starting to produce in abundance.

At the bird feeder we regularly see chickadees, house sparrows, and gold finches. A few weeks ago Giggles saw a hummingbird at the fuchsia; since then we’ve all seen it (or them) at the fuchsia, the morning glory, and a hummingbird feeder that Laoye hung up. This past weekend Giggles and I spotted a bluejay. She and Laolao spotted a cowbird on the neighbour’s roof. And of course, there are the ubiquitous crows. (They tend to visit the garbage cans more than the bird feeder!) Although the red-winged blackbirds don’t visit the bird feeder, we see and hear them down by the pond.

We hope to keep the birds coming to the feeder all fall and winter. It’s out at the edge of our deck and we have a good view of it from our dining room table where we take all our meals. With her sharp eyes, Giggles can easily identify the birds from the table, but my fuzzy vision means I can only tell that they’re birds! But now I’ve put a pair of binoculars close by so I can see them in detail and help to identify birds we’re not yet familiar with. Giggles isn’t satisfied knowing that they’re birds; she wants to know what kind of bird! So I’m learning more myself…

Hello Calico! (2007-08-30)

(Originally posted on 30 August 2007.)

Every day this summer, Giggles has been doing some reading to keep up and develop her skills so she's ready for Grade 2. At the beginning of summer I drew up a chart indicating periodic rewards - stickers every 9th line, and larger rewards after every 50 lines.

To fill in one line at the beginning of summer required her to read one simple story. As time progressed and she got better at it, the requirements have become increasingly demanding, so that for the past three weeks it's been 15 to 20 minutes of reading for every line. And whereas at the beginning of summer, one simple 16-page book with about 4-6 words per page would take her 10 minutes to work through, by now she's getting through those in two minutes and reading the longer, more challeging level 2 "Ready to Read" books in about 8-10 minutes.

Yesterday she even picked up one of her regular picture books "to see if I could read it" - and she was very excited to see that she could read a lot of the words!! She came running and demanded to read it to me right away. So we read it more or less together, with me cueing her for the harder words (and some of the easier words too, to keep her motivation up). Today she reread most of it for Laolao, as well as one of her other picture books (which are essentially graded readers, too, but a somewhat more advanced level than she's been reading up to now).

I am VERY pleased to see her gaining confidence and tackling harder books. But she had to come to it herself. If I had suggested she read Bambi there would have been major dissent, complaining and general refusal (as there is most every time I suggest she try a more challenging book). But seeing as it was her idea, she was gung-ho!

All that to say that today she came to the last line in the chart (which means she's read on average three times a day, six days a week, for the past nine weeks). The grand prize at the end of it all was - A GUINEA PIG!!!!!

She was so excited last night she had trouble going to sleep and woke repeatedly during the night. Today after I got home from work, we went to the pet store and bought a 6-week old female Abyssinean guinea pig, whom we have named Calico for her colouring. She's a pretty black, white, and brown-gold coulour. For now we have a makeshift cage made out of a large cardboard box. We'll buy or devise something more proper in the coming days.

Summer pix (2007-08-27)

(Originally posted on 27 August 2007.)

Before she left for Alberta, I gave Giggles a single-use camera. She filled that one up with rodeo pictures (to come, once I either scan or get put on cd…). Then Laolao gave her two more, which she used during the rest of her stay. Once I arrived I took a few pictures on her camera, too. (One of the nice things about these cameras is that they’re very wide angle, so good for mountain or landscape pictures when you want the whole scene. I’ve actually found, when I travel, that I like to have one along for that purpose, and use my good camera for the more focused scenes and when I want to take close-ups, since it has a bit of a zoom. It’s a decent way of managing different photo types without having to carry lots of heavy camera equipment!)

So here is a selection of shots taken by Giggles during the holiday. Actually, Laolao and I took a few of these. Let’s see if you can match the captions to the pictures!

(1) Humph, nobody will play with me.
(2) Betcha I’ll reach the moon before you do!
(3) It’s a dog’s breakfast…
(4) Marshmallows? Did somebody say marshmallows?!?
(5) Quick, catch that dragonfly!
(6) Long, long ago, and far, far away…
(7) Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together…
(8) Watch out, the fox is coming! (Now I can make my getaway…)
(9) Who are these goofs, anyhow?
(10) Yikes, it got me!
(11) Moonbeam, meet Midnight. Midnight, meet Sapphire, Sapphire, meet SaddleBlack and Blondie. SaddleBlack and Blondie, meet Kicksy. Kicksy, meet Mossy. Mossy, meet Amethyst (she’s Sapphire’s mommy). Amethyst, meet Snow Buffy. Snow Buffy, meet Sally and Sis. Sally and Sis, meet Moonbeam. Okay everybody met everybody? Let’s PLAY!

One more sleep (2007-07-11)

(Originally posted on 11 July 2007)

Tomorrow at this time I will be in the air between home and Alberta! If my flight isn't late (the way Giggles' was) I'll be half-way there.

I can hardly wait to see Giggles again, and her new stuffies, and her new pink cowboy boots! She's seen a fair bit of her Chinese cousin (well, technically my cousin, but A is a lot closer in age to Giggles than to me!). Every day we talk on the phone and we always end off with "I love you!"

Got to get through the whole day at work tomorrow, then come home, pick up my bags, grab a bite, and head to the airport.

So, how did I make out with the to-do list? Let's see...

• make summer skirt for self - nope
• finish Summer 2006 Holiday scrapbook - yes!!
• start daughter’s lifebook - yes!!
• (start to) learn Amharic - nope
• work on front garden - yes!!

Hey, three out of five ain't bad.

Of course, there's still more work to do on the front garden - but my goal was to start, not finish. After all, the garden is a work in progress, right? (See post: A Gardener's Garden) Ditto with the lifebook. I've made a decent start; now that I've done so, it might be easier to keep going.

This blog will probably be quiet for the next two weeks. We'll be on the road until about the 24th, and likely not too close to a computer. So you can all take a break. Come back at the end of July and read all about our summer adventures! (well, okay, if I get to it that quickly...)

Things Moms do (2007-07-05)

(Originally posted on 5 July 2007.)

Things Moms put on their to-do list for when daughter is visiting grandparents and they have “tons of time” on their hands:

• make summer skirt for self (to replace the summer skirt my mom made when I was 15 and which is starting to look shabby, not to mention has lost all elasticity in the waist…)
• finish Summer 2006 Holiday scrapbook
• start daughter’s lifebook
• (start to) learn Amharic
• work on front garden

Things Moms actually do while daughter is away:

• go see a documentary animal movie at a real movie theatre (and think how much Giggles would enjoy seeing the animals)
• clear all the end-of-school stuff off the dining room table, recycle some and put some away for “future reference” (aka embarrass daughter with when she’s 15)
• write blog posts featuring daughter’s escapades
• wander around the house wondering what to do
• tidy up daughter's desk
• spend half an hour listening to daughter on phone tell how much fun she had at the stampede and that she bought new pink cowboy boots!
• listen to the radio
• prepare jiaozi (dumplings) and put in freezer so when daughter returns she can gobble them up in two sittings (or three if I’m lucky)
• read until 11:00 pm
• try to sleep in but get woken by the cat at 5:30
• weed the garden
• work on the Summer 2006 Holiday scrapbook I started last fall, featuring lots of photos of daughter
• go for a leisurely shopping trip at Canadian tire and spend half the time buying stuff for daughter (while happy she’s not there to say “Mom, can I have this? Mom, can I have that?”)
• listen to daughter on phone tell she has two new stuffies – two dogs named Sally and Sis (and Sis is flat like a pillow and she can sleep on her), and have a chat with Sally and Sis
• visit friends’ house while they’re on holidays, water plants, feed fish, and wish daughter were here so we could have a swim together in friends’ backyard pool
• read until midnight
• try to sleep in but get woken by the cat at 5:15
• prune the dogwood
• defrost the freezer and discover a half-dozen items prepared early in 2005, before travelling to China, for fast meal preparation in the post-adoption haze
• listen to daughter talk on the phone for 20 minutes about all the fun she had at the zoo with Laolao and Laoye
• make wontons and put in freezer so daughter can enjoy wonton soup when she’s back home
• pay bills
• eat (some of) the food from 2005
• read until 1:00 am
• try to sleep in but get woken by the cat at 4:55
• start removing the spirea from the front garden (which needed work last summer but I never got to it)
• think about making daughter a “heritage dress” to go with her new pink cowboy boots
• reconcile bank records for last three months
• forget to brush teeth after breakfast (EVERY day!)
• read until 11:00 pm
• close bedroom door when going to bed so cat won’t wake me
• keep counting down the days (“Mommy, I wish you were already here.” “Only seven more sleeps until I come, Giggles.”)

Well, two “starts” out of 5 things on the list ain’t so bad, is it? (Might make it to three “starts” before the last seven sleeps have passed… and who knows, might even finish off one of those “starts”…)

All by myself (2007-06-27)

(Originally published on Wednesday, 27 June 2007.)

On Wednesday evening, Giggles flew off on her own out west to visit her Laolao and Laoye for two whole weeks, at which point I’ll fly out to join them. She was “happy and ‘cited and a bit scared” as we drove into the airport parking lot and I unloaded her bags from the car. She had a backpack and a small roller suitcase, so as not to have any checked luggage since the flight would be late arriving and I didn’t want them to have to stand around waiting for luggage. Plus her stuffed horse, Moonbeam (the latest addition to the herd), for snuggling on the flight. (Saddle Black and Chocolate Socks were napping in the suitcase. They'll come out once she gets there.)






Giggles with her luggage and Moombeam, standing behind the car in the airport parkade.









We waited for a good 45 minutes in the “self-service assistance” line while one of the agents spent a copious amount of time chatting (it seemed) with a customer who didn’t seem to recognize that her loquaciousness was causing delays for everyone else in line. Thankfully, the people ahead of us were travelling with a small dog, which was in a soft-sided case where we could watch it. At one point the girl of the family opened the case and we even got to pet Bubbles. That provided some distraction.

Once we reached the check-in counter, I was given a yellow “escort card” to enable me to go through security and wait at the gate with Giggles. As soon as we got there, I knew we were in for delays, as it was but half an hour before the scheduled departure and the gate info said “Toronto.” The plane to Alberta was coming in from the east, and we were told it was still on its way. Finally the Toronto flight left, Giggles’ plane arrived and the gate info was updated. But the agent said he thought it would be late leaving, which became abundantly clear once the posted departure time came and went and they still hadn’t started boarding. It seems the delays were owing to the need to assist two people in wheelchairs (one of whom had a dog) to deplane.




Mama holding Moonbeam and waiting with Giggles at the boarding gate.
(Picture taken by Giggles.)




Finally they were ready for pre-boarding. It turns out four unaccompanied minors were on the flight. We all gathered at the gate; the agent took the information sheets (with names of the people authorized to pick the kids up), Giggles slung her backpack on her back, clutched Moonbeam to her, took the roller suitcase in the other hand, and headed down the ramp.

Yikes!!!!! There’s my big little girl, heading out on her own. I’m not ready for this!!!! (What’ll it be like in ten or twelve years, when she heads off on her own for real?!?)

I watched the plane take off, then headed back to the car – fully an hour and a quarter later than it should have been – and drove home. Once home, I called Laolao and Laoye to let them know that she was off and they should check the arrival time with the airline, as it would be late. Close to 11:00 pm their time, or 1:00 a.m. for Giggles and me. We agreed that they would call me only if there were any mishaps, but otherwise I’d check in with them the next morning.
I read for a while, then fell asleep all by myself…

Thursday morning (28 June)

I called, my mom answered. I could hear Giggles’ voice in the background. Everything went well, she was a bit grumpy on arrival but they spent a few minutes at home colouring and then brushed teeth and went to bed. Now they were enjoying breakfast before heading out for the day’s activities. That afternoon they were heading out to a small town in the camper bus to go to the rodeo. Friday is kids’ day at the rodeo, with special activities and cheaper tickets for the kids. They’ll stay Friday night, too, and come back to the city on Saturday morning.

Thursday evening

I stayed late at work to get a bit more work done before one of my colleague’s goes on holidays. Then I went to a movie: The White Planet, about the arctic world. Saw baby polar bears and caribou and musk oxen, wolves and foxes, murres, seals and walruses, bowhead and humpback whales, beluga whales, narwhals, jellyfish, geese, hares, owls, and lots of other creatures. Even some glaciers calving off Greenland. The whole time I was thinking how Giggles would really enjoy this.

Once home, cleaned up a bit by the dining room table and wandered around at loose ends. The house is far too quiet. What’ll I do for the next two weeks? Not that that’s really an issue, I’ve got a list of projects that would take two months of full-time attention, let alone fourteen evenings – well, with five weekend days thrown in. But still… it’s too quiet…

Finally I headed up to bed. Read for a while, then turned off the light. No point calling Alberta as they’ll be on the road. I’ll check back in on Saturday evening. See how many rodeo stories Giggles has for me. Whether she did indeed find cowboy boots and a cowboy hat to buy…