No, I’m not going to start singing Broadway show tunes, I’m going to describe how my magical fairyland property has gotten even better this summer. When we moved in we didn’t find any other kids in the neighborhood. We knew the kids would meet friends at school, and they did, but I am very lazy, or more accurately, I always hope the kids can utilize their independence so I don’t have to do things for them. Like drive. Well the parenting gods have smiled upon us. A family moved in next door with a 12ish year old girl, 10 year old boy, and 3 year old girl. Their youngest is too immature to play with Lorelei in the ways she wants, but the boys formed a fast friendship. Yay! They can just go to each other’s houses without me doing anything other than send a text to their parents. But then it got even better. Our property is very rectangular with our house on ⅓ and the other ⅔ forest. If you hike through the forest and across a publicly owned plot you’ll come to the house of Moriarty’s good friend from school. And there are a few other kids on that block that are friends. Now we live in Grand Central Kid Station. Children just show up and introduce themselves and ask if Moriarty can come and play. They often include Lorelei too. Pure magic. After informing Lorelei she wasn’t allowed to marry her brother she formed a crush on the neighbor kid. He has shoulder-length blond hair. Her crush is very cute but requires open reminders about consent (for hugging others) and giving people (him) space when they ask for it.
Some parents are anti TV and while we are modest-to-moderate users, without Netflix cartoons I wouldn’t have had this incredible exchange with my daughter. At dinner recently Lorelei was telling us about her day and said “I’m learning about non-Newtonian fluids! It's called oobleck.” As most of you know I have a PhD in bioengineering which focused on diagnosing infectious diseases with microfluidics. So, I’ve studied fluid movement, a lot, for a long time. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I was bursting with pride at my precocious baby.
Lorelei has been doing hip-hop dance classes for the last 9 months and did a Frozen-themed ballet camp over the summer. She’s had a few recitals now and It’s hard for her to keep up with all the moves but when she’s in the zone she looks really focused. It’s so cute. She’s made a good friend there who is almost 9. They have so much fun together and we’ve been invited to her birthday. Another time she helped an older girl who was shy about joining in with the dancing. She took her hand and said she’d go with her and it will be fun. She’s just so sweet. She just started a weekly ballet.
Moriarty is starting to take more initiative to keep things clean (OMG OMG OMG YAY), but on his terms. This is pretty new and amazing. He’ll spontaneously clean their room and gets exasperated when Lorelei destroys it. His technical cleaning skills are great like cleaning floors and bathrooms, but the innate urge to make a space clean is new. I’m looking for ways to create his own space separate from Lorelei so he has more control over how it’s organized. As long as we have an au pair they’ll share a room, but I want to foster his interest so it doesn’t get extinguished through frustrating experiences. He’s really showing maturity but is exasperated that Lorelei doesn’t clean as much or as effectively as him…I mean, she’s 5. What does he expect? Turns out he expects her to be as effective and capable as him. shrug
To keep this from being crazy long, here’s a brief summary of spring/summer activities:
The Kramers came for a visit and we all went for sushi. M tried sashimi for the first time
We planted a garden and Lorelei often helps me water it in the morning
We got 4 new baby chicks and built the birds a new big coop. One of the babies just started laying eggs (they’re green and tiny for now)
Lorelei and Pip went to Disneyland to meet the princesses
Lorelei turned 5. There were unicorn horns, lots of cake, and dancing at the park with streamers
Moriarty did a parkour camp and practices at home
Pip keeps a slack channel of all the amazing and ridiculous things the kids say. Lorelei has had a busy few months but here are a few highlights.
Lorelei: To me beans (snap peas) are like chocolate. I love them as much as I love chocolate….But to me the skins are like blood in my mouth.
Lorelei: Come to papa, Mr. Lightening
Lorelei: I never knew my arms and legs were so yummy
Lisa: I always knew
Lorelei: No, for real. I never knew my arms and legs were so yummy to mosquitos.
I started this post in June and am finally publishing it in September. I need to lower my quality bar for blog posts and get them out faster. Thanks for being my audience in the void.