The cat is realllllly long today

The cat is extra long today, as is the day extra hot.

Today was one of closing chapters and opening doors. This morning we made a final trip to my grandparents' house thirty minutes from here, a day before the house sale is closed. My grandparents passed away some time ago and the house is not an old one, but looking at it brings to mind many years of love and joy, and for me any permanent good bye is bound to be a somewhat difficult one. I'm sentimental like that.

The afternoon was a mess of responsibilities. We cleaned a lot of the house, I signed Calvin up for swimming, we went to two stores (and were only successful at one), we visited the dentist (Calvin's first time), and we got haircuts (mine is a train wreck). The "opened doors" then must be my learning to live with an embarrassing hair cut, and Calvin learning about the dentist. He did a great job and seems to hold none of my reservations about people messing around inside my mouth.

Tomorrow is the day when I get to admit that I've been doing this for five years and still have no idea what I'm doing or what the plan is. This is, however, the first year that I've come to believe that these are good things. I shouldn't know what I'm doing and there is no plan. Five years, though. That's kind of fun. This is the year that we've decided Calvin will be allowed to get a library card, will start receiving an allowance, and will now have to walk instead of riding in the cart at the store (actually, I realized only a few weeks ago that he's pretty well over the weight limit on those seats, so I guess it's about time).

It started with a childhood collection

I don't have a lot to say today. In part that's because we didn't do much today and generally my blog fodder comes from our daily activities. Today we got up and headed straight to the library to shelve books in the sale room before story time. Last weekend Jon introduced Calvin to his childhood collection of Nate the Great books and yesterday Calvin fell in love with them. We'd read a couple of books from the series with him before but the difference now is that he can read them to himself. That's empowering. So at the library this morning, regardless of the stack of them at home, Calvin asked to check out more of the series. We checked out five, and he read those, and some of his dad's copies, from 10am, while I shelved books, until 4pm, when I requested his help with dinner, laundry, and piano practice (with breaks only for story time and, of course, the bathroom). He's like a man with a mission—an obsession.

So we read books all day, not even together, and that doesn't make for a lot of blog fodder. A couple of times I asked Calvin to play a game with me but he politely declined, without even looking up from his book. I had lots of ideas for us today—ideas that included crayons, markers, Legos, you name it—but I'm learning to go with the flow. There will be other days for crayons, for games, for outdoor fun (and today, at fifty and rainy, definitely didn't qualify for that anyhow), and today there isn't much to talk about because we spent it inside, immersed in books and in our own thoughts. Still, that's a good day.

Reminders

We began a new adventure today. We put the middle ages to bed over a week ago (although I only just posted the finishing touch today), and we've been exploring Spain a little, but other than the connection we have to people who are there right now, and Calvin's near obsession with Don Quixote (which really had more to do with knights than with the country), Spain as a subject just isn't imagination grabbing. Then Calvin talked me into a new book yesterday, Dinosaurs Before Dark, and I figured we'd be going further back time. As it turns out, dinosaurs are interesting, and the volcanoes are even more so. We made a special library trip today to pick up armloads of books and a couple of videos on both subjects and he spent most of the afternoon immersed in volcano studies. One of the books he picked out is an earth science experiments book. I can't wait. I've had my vinegar and baking soda stocked up and ready for a while now. Maybe even years.

And today was the first day in well over a week that made me want to get outside. It was even warm enough to sit on the garden swing and read. We discovered that flowers are coming up, the trees are budding, and the deer have been visiting. I'd guess this means they're hard up for food, since we are not right next to the woods and they only rarely come out this far. Thankfully everything we have looks un-nibbled. Don't look too closely at all the weeds and whatnot. They are just those yearly reminders, one of those nagging reminders of work that must, absolutely must get done. At least it is enjoyable work, but unfortunately it requires two hands.

Checking the rain gauge—we got upwards of an inch of rain over the past few days.

And we ventured back out on our neighborhood path today.

And Cookie is thankful that the front door is open once again, but don't try to look through the glass. That's just another of those nagging reminders that surfaces in the spring.

That cat is on my map

Norman Mailer's apartment is for sale. It looks like a neat place to play, but maybe only if they sell it with the books, and I'd definitely want them to reinstall the rope swing and hammock that once hung from the ceiling. Then again, at 2.5 million dollars? I never really was a fan of his.

The snow was gone this morning, but in its place was a thin layer of ice. Thin, mind you, but as I type this it is hailing, and I'm really starting to wonder about spring.

Calvin's last class in the late-winter swim session was this morning. You hear that, spring? That was the last of the late winter classes.

He did really well, improved a lot, and had a great time. We'll repeat the preschool class at least once more, though, and I'm hoping to get him signed up for the spring session (hear that spring?).

And we spent some time in Spain today (we've done that for the past week, actually, but today I'm taking the time to two finger type about it). Mostly explored the map, and we also spent some time at the Prado. Books are wonderful, aren't they? They can take you just about anywhere.

Cookie really wanted to go with us, or else she has a thing about paper on the floor. I'll leave you to decide which of those is more likely, but we've all seen her getting friendly with paper before.

Clear as glass

I have a terrible confession: it is a hard thing for me to follow a thread of interest through a day.

We started today in the middle ages, with the clear intent of reading through all the middle ages books we'd gotten from the library. All of them because Calvin is a determined child and that's what he wanted to do. It wasn't far from there to the illustrated book on the authentic building processes in late medieval castles and cathedrals, and it wasn't the stories themselves, or their heavy stones, or the references to kings or religion, that caught Calvin's fancy, but the simple question: how do they make the glass?

Yes, sometimes it's following the thread of interest that's the hardest thing to do. I know, I absolutely know, that the kind of education I want Calvin to have is one of empowerment, one that teaches him to trust his dreams and make them happen and that kind of education begins with honoring his interests and teaching him to take the step past the "I wonder" or "I will", straight into the doing. I know this, and still I am driven to respond to questions like "I wonder how they make glass" with "we can find out later but first let's finish this book," and how often do we remember to go back? The moment is gone. I don't know why it's so hard for me to follow his threads when in actuality it is the easiest and most rewarding thing in the world to do. But I did it today; We marked our place in the book and looked up glass blowing right away, and it was fun, and fulfilling, and rewarding. And easy. He asked, we looked it up. We watched almost thirty minutes of video on making antique glass and then he wanted to watch it again, and wanted to be sure that I saved it so that he could return to the topic at some other time.

And then there was more reading, and more reading, and piano, and more reading, and book cataloging, and laundry, and more reading and piano with dad (and pets galore because they all come out at feeding time), and, lastly, a return to the glass making discovery. YouTube is my friend, and I already had field trips to Greenfield Village on the brain, but now I'm moving them up in my mental calendar. And through it all I am gaining a new skill, one that is sure to be my best friend through of all of our days together: I am learning to follow his threads.