First, I want to let everyone know that Nancy (aka Nona) is doing well after having surgery on Thursday. On Tuesday she fractured both ankles and broke her right tibia when she stumbled off the back porch steps at Pat's house (fondly referred to as "The Wallow," since it's located on Buffalo Street). Pat, Vic, and Uncle Mike were all there to help her, and the eventual surgery was successful. She's being released from the hospital today, though she'll have a recovery period of about 6-8 weeks.
Our second trauma this week was the "stuck duck". It was a lovely afternoon yesterday, and the kids and I spent several hours in the yard with Dixie, Joey, and Pippin. At the end of the afternoon, I began herding the birds back into the coop. Dixie and Pippin went right in, but Joe spooked and proceeded to run around the back of the coop and into the small space between the coop and the neighbor's fence, trying to get to Pippin. In a panic, she tried to back out and flipped herself upside down, wedging herself beak down, feet up, and wings splayed into a four inch wide space where I couldn't reach her. It sounds almost comical now, but poor Joe was stuck like that for about an hour until Thomas got home from work and we could move the (very heavy) coop and pull her out. Amazingly, Joey is just fine, and hopefully wiser from the experience (no one ever said domestic fowl were a bright lot).
Also yesterday, I got to do a very cool thing. My friend James invited me to be a guest poet for his class at LEP High School, a charter school here in town. His class spent the month of April learning about poetry and song writing (James is a wonderful musician), and James asked if I would share some of my poetry with the class and talk about poetry writing. Imogen came with and was mostly cooperative (she finally stopped fussing when I let her crumple up and chew on one of my poems on the floor at my feet - I'm not sure what that says about her future as a writer...). I have several friends (and of course my parents) who are teachers, and I really can't imagine getting up in front of those somewhat intimidating and apparently disinterested teenagers every day. But I was pleasantly surprised.
At the end of the class, I had the students do a 10-minute writing prompt. I picked 10 words at random from 2 books volunteered by the students (a couple of sci-fi fans, it turns out). The students then wrote for 10 minutes, trying to incorporate those words into a poem or some other form. I was surprised and thrilled to watch most of their hands shoot up at the end of the writing period to share what they had written (and it was pretty darn good, too!). A few students also came up to me after the class to thank me for coming and tell me how much they had enjoyed the presentation. My favorite moment was when a student from the back of the class who I had thought wasn't really listening or interested read his piece, which successfully used all 10 words in a poem about how much he had liked having a poet visit his class (who'd have thunk?). It was really nice for me to do something with my creative side (not that being a full-time mother isn't creative) and interact with kids who are more than 3 feet tall!
I have more stories to tell you, but first I'll refresh your eyes from this long post with some cute pictures of the kids. Elliot is modeling our friend Darius's super cool Foucault cap.
This morning we headed off to a tumbling class through Portland Parks and Recreation. Elliot and I have been going to the class as "special Mama and Elliot time"- that is to say, sans Imogen, who gets to have quality father and daughter time. I was hoping the class would have some structure so Elliot could practice turn taking and social skills, but it's pretty much a free-for-all, with 2 to 4-year old kids running around and jumping on mats for half an hour. It's still a blast (especially the parachute, which the parents all float up and down over happily screeching children).
Last week in class, Elliot latched on to a little girl (in typical Elliot fashion) about a year younger than himself. He was following her around, being perhaps a little too enthusiastic with her, but they were having fun nonetheless. Another little boy then took it upon himself to try to "defend" the little girl by pushing Elliot away, over and over again. Elliot was actually oblivious to both the girl's reactions and the boy's aggression, but I left feeling like my son had been bullied and being discouraged about his ability to read social cues, once again. I was worried about what would happen in class today.
Sure enough, as soon as class started, the boy made a beeline for Elliot (the little girl wasn't there today). However, what the boy did was to walk up to Elliot, take his hand, and say, "Hi, I'm Jonas, what's your name? Do you want to play?" He spent several minutes trying to engage Elliot in a game, to no avail, and then moved on to a new playmate (Elliot quickly found another little girl to follow around). Everyone was happy, and I was a little ashamed of myself. Yet another reminder, as with the students in the poetry class, that one shouldn't be too quick to judge.
Whew! If you've made it this far, here's your reward: a couple of cute videos of the kiddos. First up is Imogen eating pears, the first food she's really liked. Second is Elliot making Imogen laugh hysterically by opening and closing the cover on an exterior power outlet over and over again. The footage is somewhat lacking, since I was shooting it over my shoulder and couldn't see what the camera could see, but it's the soundtrack that really counts.
And finally, a little moment that has stuck with me this week. I was driving to our new Ikea store, which is near the airport and was built in the middle of what was once wide open space. It's still mostly surrounded by open fields which make their way to the Columbia River. As I headed down a side road, the huge Ikea building looming in front of me, a coyote loped across the road in front of my car. I pulled over to watch him head into the field, and he rounded to stare at me for a few minutes before heading on his way. If I didn't have an ancient cell phone, I'd have taken a picture for all of you to see. It would have made a great statement about our encroachment into wild habitat - the coyote with a huge consumer monolith behind him.
Now back to my own little wild ones. Happy May!
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