Outer space

Owen continues to really love drawing and creating. He recently drew this really cool picture of outer space which we are using for the invitations to his birthday party. He fills his drawings with so much great detail. I recently listened to an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio with Lynda Barry who is a cartoonist and author. She was talking about creativity and drawing and why we start drawing as kids and why we stop. She said that when we are young, a piece of paper is a place and a pen or pencil is how we move through this place. When young kids draw something, it is the feeling of that thing. A kid goes to a piece of paper to find something. At some point, we start to go to the piece of paper to put something in it that we already have in our mind. And we start to realize that the chair we drew doesn't look like that chair over there. And that other people realize it too. Watching Owen draw has helped me to have fun drawing again to. I love that he loves to draw. I hope it is something he holds on to.

Kindergarten

It's been almost 2 weeks since Owen's first day of school at Emerson. He was so excited to be starting school that he woke up at 5 am! We waited outside with him and walked him up to his classroom - he was so ready. I thought I might get teary but I really wanted this be nothing but happy for him so I gave him a big hug and told him how excited I was for him. He said goodbye and dove right in. And he hasn't looked back yet. He seems to be really enjoying things so far. We got to spend the day in his classroom on the 2nd day of school and his teacher seems really fantastic. After being there the whole day I have a whole new level of resepect for kindergarten teachers.

Zora has been adjusting to not having her big brother around as much. When Owen got a new backpack, she took over his old one and now she rarely goes anywhere without. She wants to do everything her brother does. And I know that all too soon we will be sending her off to kindergarten too.

UP part 2

On the Big Lake

A little late posting about our trip to the UP back in August. I'll late the pictures speak for themselves. (And I just noticed that a couple of posts I wrote back in July and August were still saved as drafts so those are up now as well.)

Blooming Butterflies

We went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens for the Blooming Butterfly Exhibit. The butterflies were great but we especially had fun exploring the outdoor gardens on our quest to collect stamps in our butterfly passports and earn a free ice cream cone at Michael's Frozen Custard.


The butterfly explorer. Not sure how he can see any butterflies.

Taking notes.

The fruits of our labors.

Letting Go Is Not That Easy

Owen recently took over the care of our neighbors tadpole while they were away on vacation. I came home from work several days ago and Owen was so excited to tell me all about the tadpole that had come into our possession that day and how only a couple of hours after we took it in, Owen and Ken thought it might be dead (apparently while Ken was upstairs with Zora, Owen had taken the tadpole out of the house to show the mailman and in the process had spilled all of the water out of the little tank). But while Owen assured me they had managed to save it, Ken shook his head and mouthed silently that it was, in fact, dead. I was a little concerned that within hours of our neighbors entrusting us with their tadpole, we had managed to kill it. Later, I asked Ken when he was going to tell Owen. He wasn't sure. And then I went over and shook the tank and lo and behold, it moved. Barely, but it moved. I guess it was just traumatized but not, in fact, dead. Over the next couple of days it continued to not alone be alive, but actually grow legs and turn in to a frog, much to Owen's delight. After a few more days it was out of the water full time and we decided it was time to let it go. So yesterday Owen, Zora and I went down near Lake Mendota and found a nice spot to let the frog go. Owen was a little melancholy about the whole thing and said that now it would be lonely without his pet frog and he was worried if it would survive out in the wild. I assured him that the frog was where it was supposed to be and would be fine. As we walked back, he looked at me and said "It is just so hard to let it go into the big, wild world after taking care of it for so long." And I looked back at him and said, "I feel the same way."


The tadpole survived the trauma to become a frog.


The frog in it's new home.

Bathtime for Zora

Like most toddlers, Zora gets a big thrill out of making people laugh. She has a silly streak a mile wide and all it takes is one little laugh from someone and she goes into performing mode. That's what happened the other night when I was giving her a bath and she dumped a bucket of water over her head. For the next 5 - 10 minutes she dumped one bucket after another over her head as everyone in the house came in to see. She couldn't have been more pleased. And thanks to Mike and Ginney, who loaned us a camera, I was able to catch some of it on video.