Week 9: Bees

This post is for the week of August 15th. I had children only Monday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday little Curt and I got a chance to be just we. But Monday through Wednesday there were a total of five children each day:
K a 6 yr old girl,
M a 2 year old girl
R a 3 yr old girl
H a 3 yr old girl
And
Curtis a 5 11/12 yr old boy.

The Summer storms continued this week. Monday morning there was a huge storm, but by the time R and M arrived the rain had subsided. K and H joined us and we went to Kitchen's Lane. Instead of going down to the water as it was cool and wet already, we hiked upwards to the place "where the couch was." If one hikes up the hill from the footbridge and then immediate,y up hill again and turns to the right, one would have found an old IKEA couch up to a year ago. This place is accessible by hikers or bikers, and seems to be a clearing where younger folk would hang out on the couch and have fires and drink, etc. Then last year, the couch disappeared. I like hiking up there...it feels like a mysterious spot, a hidden place. There is also a big quarry like pit. There are many saplings up there and mushrooms. I spread all our raincoats on a log and we had our snack. There were also many acorn cap spottings and the collection of many interesting leaves. K liked it up on that hidden hill. She started to make a clubhouse out of sticks, but the younger girls were kind of unsure what to do. Curtis had not yet joined us so he was not there to lead play.

The next day was very challenging. There was another impending storm and I believe it affected everyone's mood. Getting to Carpenter's Woods and getting rained out didn't help much either. The day before I had brought all the rain gear with us and this day I had left it all at home. Note to self: bring a folded tarp in my outing bag! Gosh, by the end of the day, even Curtis and K were at each other, and those two are usually very good playmates together. The highlight of the day, was M running all the way from the bathroom with a potty she had filled with poop. She had pooped on the potty. She has been working on her toilet-ing and was so happy to show me.

Wednesday, all the same children were together, but it was a glorious day. We went again to Carpenter's Woods which was so fresh and clean after the huge torrential rain...I think Philadelphia will set a record for most rainfall in August soon. R asked for a story, and I said I would tell Snow white while theynplayed with the mud at the stream. R, M and H all played happily with the mud. H enjoyed talking with her "friends" the small green plants on the stream bank. M needed to poop but was Leary of going in the woods. So I just stripped off her clothes and let her be. Eventually, she squatted in some bushes and di what came natural. She was very pleased with her self. All the girls were able to water the plants well. Heidi would water them, but not the ones that were her special friends on the stream bank. Meanwhile, K and Curtis were enjoying the freedom of being able to walk down the stream bed a little way and find treasures on their own.
Carpenter's Woods:
In the mornings and afternoons this week, we did lots of wet-on-wet paint. The paintings were lovely. Lots of red, dark yellow, light yellow. It really feels like the heavy end of late summer.
Painting: Summer nature corner: K and Curtis make a cafe: Let's all be bunnies: Let's make an Invention:
Thursday and Friday, Curt and I were able to explore the Wissahickon trails at our leisure. I like having the other children around for Curt to play with, but sometimes, it is nice to just be the two of us. I know his limits, and we are able to travel farther distances and mange steeper cliffs than the little ones. I actually feel like I get my exercise as well during our outings! We hiked back up to "where the couch was" and navigated down a steep slope to Forbidden Drive. We travelled on Forbidden Dive almost to Mt. Airy ave and then back up the slope and down a horse trail ending at the Walnut Lane Bridge. We made it back home in time for delicious hot crockpot bread with butter. We had worked up an appetite so we were ready to eat!
What a beautiful spider web: A snack at Lover's Leap Lover's Leap: Under Walnut Lane Bridge: Under Henry Ave Bridge: Mustachoed Mice:
The next day, after inspecting the map, I realized we could travel on the horsetrail..noted as the yellow trail on the map..to pass Walnut Lane to go to the Henry Avenue bridge. We hiked all the way there...Curtis was even barefoot the whole time! We even got to hang out at Lover's Leap! I told Curt the very abbreviated story of how that lookout point got it's name. Then we hiked all the way bsck. On our way down to the river to cool off and swim, we ran into some friends and stayed at the water for two hours. What fun! The river was so wild and full from all the rain that we couldn't even wa across to TeePee rock. Curtis was upset about that. I just didn't want to chance swimming across with him. I really need to take him for swim lessons. But he found enough to do on the shore until it was time to go. All total, we were in the woods for 5.5hours that day...what fun. I really find being in the woods energizes me. It brings me a calm center. It is almost like a coming home to me. What a wonderful end to a trying week.

Week 8: Merfolk

This week, the week of August, 8, was the second Merfolk week, and water once again played a huge part. This week the Summer storms began, how the grass and gardens love it. M started today a 2.5 year old girl. She remembered me well from the Nursery and had had a trial visit the day before with both her parents in tow. She transitioned in quite well and asked for Momma just a few times in the morning. This day R wasn't with us, whom M knows from school, but C and Curtis were with us. M is learning to use words to get a toy she wants instead of scratching or pinching. C and Curtis were very understanding with her on Day one. The boys begged to return to Kitchen's Lane so we did. M did very well and ran to keep up with the boys even on the trails.



This IKEA swing was one of the best absolute investments I ever made. M loves to swing on it and put her head way back.

Afternoons in the courtyard, with bikes and chalk.





The second day, we had an overcast morning, the clouds were heavy with an impending rain storm and the children's moods were heavy as well. But we had a brighter lunch anyway. Ms. Claire was kind enough to give us her week's share from her CSA as she was on vacation. Wow, I haven't had a CSA share in about ten years when CSA was new to the City and let me tell you, a half share was a meager few radishes, a turnip and some green salad. Well, the CSA half share I picked up was from Lancashire Farms was huge, it fed us well into the weekend. There was yellow squash, tomatoes, jalapenos, two heads of lettuce, red beets, eggplant, carrots, small heirloom cherry tomatoes, dill, and that's all I can remember. When we came home from the woods, I sautéed lots of the veggies that I had cut up that morning with olive oil, salt and garlic. Then I made a quick pound of thin linguine. I added a salad and offered lots of fresh grated Parmesan cheese. Well, the results were fabulous. The children even dredged the yellow squash in cheese as if it were bread, and gobbled it up.







I never thought I would be able to manage quickly cooking up lunch for the children upon returning from the woods, but I was happy to see that with some minor food preparation in the morning while the children were playing( since I haven't been doing a puppet play), I was able to pull it off. So the next day I did another pasta meal and that went off without a hitch as well. I still rely on the magic orange crockpot, but adding in some fast yummy pastas in the middle of the week seems to work well. So we still have a rice dish on Mondays, Thursdays is magic crockpot bread which is a favorite, and Fridays is magic crockpot oatmeal.

That's what I like about working with young children, things need to stay the same for added comfort and security in a lot of ways, but there is always room for improvement, and you can tell right away when something needs improving and when something works.

Another things, that I am changing a little, is rest time expectations. I allowed C and Curtis to have quiet restful play...looking at books, drawings, etc in the living room, while I worked in the bedroom with the younger ones who need actual sleep. It went quite well. Curtis and C have been working a lot with a Pirate theme lately ( notice a lot of jolly Rogers, skull and crossbones, on kids clothing lately? anyone?) and they created a wonderful pirate ship right in my living room!



Though some days, even the big boys sleep. How to know when it's worth the effort to have them lie down. I really don't think you can gauge it by how much they resist...or how little...you just have to know the child and feel it intuitively.




As a matter of fact, after all the children left for the day, Curtis and I needed to make a Rite-Aid run. Now Curtis always asks to just look up the toy aisle. I almost never buy any treats for him in a store...I have been on the wrong side of setting that precedent with my older boy...but I let him look. And believe it or not, I found a foam, DIY pirate ship model that required a glue gun for assembly...for $3.25. I bought it and what fun we had assembling it after dinner. They had a few other varieties and I am sure you can find them online. It was recommended for ages 6 and up and Curt was interested and helpful enough that I knew it was a good project for him...he will be 6 in September.

On Wednesday, I decided to take the children to the "frog pond" or rather catchment basin located at the end of Mt. Airy Ave. You might be wondering why I haven't been taking the children to Carpenter's Woods everyday, as I promised in the beginning of the Summer. Well, I didn't go to Carpenter's woods, the week they sprayed herbicide. And then I just needed an adult change of pace. but also, I found the Carpenter's woods, after a long dry spell, gets kind of funky near the footbridge. There are too many mosquitoes because the water in the tiny stream gets too low and don't move enough, also the smell of dog urine, etc becomes noticeable. But after a huge rainstorm, Carpenter's Woods becomes fresh again.












Anyway, back to the frog pond. Curtis loves this place. We have taken nets here and caught and released many frogs. The frogs are huge..so big, they can jump right back out of a net. Curtis learned to tug on the net and close off the top to avoid such escapes. But those frogs are healthy, big and strong. There are also big logs floating out upon the green frog water where they like to sit and sun themselves. As the children walk around the basin, camouflaged frogs leap from the grass and make big splashes in the water much to the children's delight.

M was astounded to hear the sound frogs really make which is nothing like Ribbit. I can't even phonetically figure out how to write the sound the make...but if you have heard it you know it.

Also, there are a fair few horseback riders that go past and wave to us from atop their mounts. The children join in a chorus of "Horsey, Horsey!".

After finishing with the frogs, we walked on until we met up with Forbidden Drive. C and Curtis were collecting many worms along the way and even found a beautiful moth caterpillar who looked just like a rolled up Maple leaf. The best phrase of the day was C saying about a worm, "Sorry, Curt, I broke it by accident." Luckily nature is forgiving.

On Friday, they were all just so tired. I had a quick errand in chestnut hill, so I decided to stay down that end and just go to Jenks Playground. Curtis was thrilled to play with some older boys and the girls were content to swing on the swing set. This excursion seemed to fit well with their mood.

Week 7: Merfolk

Merfolk was a really good theme for this week as water was so very prevalent. Now it is true that water plays a part in all our outings because we are usually near a small stream or creek, but this was different. It all started for me on Sunday. My family and I joined some others to "go tubing down the Delaware River.". I hadn't been tubing in about 12 years so this was a real treat. 7 adults and 3children had their inner tubes lashed together as we lazily floated down the river on a really really hot day. I think it was close to 100F! The heat wave continued through the week. Curtis was with me through the whole week, but the regular participants were not. R and A were both on vacations to cooler climates and Curtis got to play with H again (3yr old girl), her sitter K(6 yr old girl), and C (4 yr old boy). These are all children Curtis knows and has missed a bit this Summer, so it was good to have them Monday through Wednesday.

I have to admit, having arrived home late from tubing Sunday at an unheard of 11pm Curtis and I were a bit off our game.

I took the children out to Carpenter's Woods as usual. We had a good hike in through the Greene Street Entrance all the way to the foot bridge. The big boys ran all the way up ahead and had so much fun running on the path with abandon. We had our snack on the bench as usual. I was tidying up the snack containers and the children were playing on the fallen logs across the trickle of a stream. C had a bit of a fall and his head went back and landed hard on a pointy rock. Well after getting him to the bench and putting an icepack on his head, I dared to look more closely. There was a small perfectly round hole that looked a bit deeper than a normal cut. I would actually describe it as a gouge. It was like a small pool filled with blood and the word "stitches" popped into my mind. After informing the parents and telling Mom that she really needed to assess the wound herself, we agreed that I would hike back out with the children and meet her at the entrance. I suppose I was running on adrenaline, as I was able to carry C and my back pack all the way out. Thankfully Curtis carried out the food bag and H and K followed along. Mom had to take C to get stitches, three I believe. My first major accident this Summer. I am really glad I had my first aid kit with me and the disposable ice pak. That thing was ice cold for a good twenty minutes. I ordered a bunch of replacements on line. They are pretty inexpensive. I got a bunch for $0.99 a piece.

C was able to return the next afternoon and again on Wednesday morning, brave child. Since we go to the woods in the mornings and C was back with us, I decided not to revisit the accident scene and by 9 30 am I was all packed and ready to take the children on their nature excursion to Kitchen's Lane. Once in the woods and hiking down the trail, worries were cast aside. We take the trail re-route which is a circuitous one with some switchbacks. The main trail is being fortified against erosion. I never cared much for that trail anyway as it is a wide straight line fraught with many jagged rocks. I much prefer the re-route...it is narrow and cozy..canopied with many trees and it winds it's way to just before the foot bridge. The children call it "the way through the underground cavern.". It can get pretty shady in there due to the tree cover..it is lovely to go from the darker coolness into the bright light of the foot bridge. Once across the footbridge, we, nimble as Billy goats, scramble down the mill to "the beach.". There are many dogs and dog owners having a splash. We immediately go to the right several yards, and make base camp on one of the larger rock outcroppings. That's where I set up snack and towels, and the children change into their bathing suits.

H was content to play at the water's edge and splash, pick up rocks and collect the little fresh water clam shells that are strangely everywhere.


But K and Curtis had adventure on their minds. They fashioned walking sticks and made their way across the shallow part of the river to the other side. There they climbed the large boulders until they came to a flatter outcropping. There they found some old cloth and fashioned a teepee. The weather was so very hot, and the water so cool, they were quite comfortable and said they wanted to live there on that rock in that teepee all summer!





Now C, who was supposed to keep his head dry because of his stitches, started across the river in the shallow spot like K and Curtis. He got about halfway when he yelled out that he was stuck. He wasn't moving back and he wasn't moving forward.




When children get stuck in a physical predicament, I usually try to verbally coach them through it or even help them physically but in a way that they can coax themselves out of their position. This allows them the opportunity to gain confidence in their physical movements and become accustomed to the feeling of extending a little beyond their reach. This is the method used at most Steiner schools, I believe. It is definitely the method employed by Helle Heckmann in her Danish preschool, Nokken. Google Heckmann Nokken and you will find a plethora of references describing her program and philosophy. If you want more directly from Helle, check out her video, Das Smal...the Young Ones..Children Ages 1 to 2. I personally find her work fascinating. Here is a link to one of her many papers: http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW3706.pdf


I thought it best to help him back to the shore. When I reached him, he insisted that he could go farther, but that he was just stuck. Then he said something that really touched me, "Ms. Rocksand, I am brave, really!". This really struck a chord with me. Little C really does just get stuck sometimes...he has had some stiffness issues from an infant..so why not help him across. So I said that I would help him if he indeed was feeling brave. He did protest a bit when we got into slightly stronger current, but I felt we really should both be committed at that point. I got him to the other side and he was sooooooooo happy and pleased with himself. K met him at the base of the rock and with such sweetness, consoled him and welcomed him to the rock. He then was able to join in the play in making a teepee with Curtis and K. Then after a while I ferried all three of them, one at a time, back across the river as they were getting tired.




I felt C and I really bonded that morning.

Week 6: Rainbows

I am still catching up on posts.  This post is for week  of July 25th.  In my earlier post I went into detail about Udo  de Haes work.  I had read the section on families and storytelling after this week had passed, but I started to tell less stories to the children while we are in the woods.  They seem to have become addicted to them.  Ironic, isn't it?  The Waldorf School children who are exposed to little if any media, becoming addicted to storytelling.  The actually were physically playing less in the woods while I told stories.  At first, the stories could be background to their play there, but somehow that changed.   Honestly, I love to tell stories, but never realized how much they take out of me.   When telling a tale with a plot I have to start seeing the pictures in my mind as if I were reading a story to myself, then the words just flow.  But until I reach that point, I am almost forcing the story from my lips by actively remembering what comes next.   When the pictures come and I get lost in it, the story flows effortlessly...but I am still a bit depleted nonetheless.   SO after the 5th story of the day...and telling Mulan counts for 3 stories...I was burnt out.    So I whittled it down to one story in the morning...a story book before rest and one story in the afternoon.   This seems to be a nice balance for me as a storyteller and for the children's play.   I am curious for other readers to chime in with their experiences of telling faery tale stories and whether they feel somewhat spent after a good long telling.  Please comment!

Anyway, I found when I denied their requests for stories in the woods, the play took on a new dimension.   I encourage Curt to have R help him more in his work.  we found a plastic bottle and all the children loved using this simple implement.  They dug out "catchment"  basins and filled them from the little stream.  Curtis taught R how to do this and she loved filling them up.   Everyone had to take extra care not to step on them.  H (3 year old girl) joined us on Wednesday.  It was great for R to not have to "play up" to keep up with the older children.  She and H fell right back into their school play.  H is a bot more dreamy than R (3 years)  and still relishes the physicality of the existing space:  the splash of the water, the squish of the mud, the frogs.   R did try to draw her into more story play, but then fell in with H, into the nature of the place.    It is nice to see R's versatility.  

A joined us again on Thursday and Friday.  (A is a four year old girl).  It was interesting to see the different dynamic with A and R than with H and R.    A and R spent almost the entire woods time running back and forth on the little foot bridge, role playing Sleeping Beauty.  "Ok, now you be the price, I'll be sweet Faery Nutmeg."  "Ok, now I'm the Princess."    A didn't climb so much with Curtis this time, much to his dismay.  I think the small thron she got in her toe last week put her off.  But I was able to climb with him while watching the girls on the bridge.  That seemed to satisfy him a little.  But I have to say after watching play so intently this Summer especially, it is so poignant to me that adult/ child play just pales in comparison to child/child play.

As an adult parent, I am not a good playmate anyway.  Some parents just are better at playing with their children than others.  I won't win a prize for that.  But I remember how I was with my Gregory, now 15 years.  I really played with him.  Matter of fact, I played with him mostly.  The children and families on our block were not great families...they didn't share my values with their language, media use, corporeal punishment, etc, so since I had Gregory every weekend, I would set up wonderful adventure weekends for us.   It would all be magical and wonderful.  And as Gregory was into sport from a young age...full of soccer, baseball and lacrosse play at the local playground.  Gosh I was fit then.   In the New York Times on Father's Day this year, 2011, there was an article on the need for play with adults and children, such as horseplay and/or rough housing. This is a fun activity for boys and girls to get physical in a safe way with adults. The book is called In Praise of Rough Housing. Check out the article http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/in-praise-of-roughhousing/
One of my neighbors purchased it on Amazon and she praised it..actually gifted it to her husband for Father 's Day.

Things changed during my 2nd trimester with Curtis.  Since then, I have not been "that" Mom.  not the playing type.  I am more the observer type.   I miss the play a bit it's true, but I am able to see such depth and layering of play that Curtis engages in.  Wow, that child can really play.   Now, I just try to stay out of the way, facilitate, and provide damage control when necessary.   Oh and I'm the art director.  

Anyway, back to camp.   This was the second block of Rainbow. I continued with the painting of rainbows in the morning. An actual story did not come to me, but I think the subtle influence was there. When the children would draw with crayons later in the afternoon, I was shown many rainbows that they created. All in all it was a good week.

Week 5: Rainbows

I am a little out of synch with updating. The two week hiatus which was supposed to be when I went up to Sophia's Hearth in Keene, NH to complete my training, turned out to be six days spent in the hospital and one week convalescing. Seems I conveniently contracted viral meningitis two days before I was set to travel. Well the mail was already being held, Curtis was set to be with his Daddy full time and the gardens were set to be watered by volunteers. A very convenient time to get sick like that..so that was the up side. Thankfully after 8 hours in the ER and three days in the I.C.U. And three days in a step down unit, I was sent home. I have been back to work with the children for two weeks now and am able to complete training next summer.

So let me catch up then on last week, week five. Since this was my first week back after said incident, I tried to take it a little easy. The theme was Rainbows, but I just didn't have the extra oomph for researching and creating a rainbow story. Every morning, however, I placed watercolor paints out on the large table, and I would paint rainbows...R and Curtis followed suit. I placed many of the rainbow results in the nature hearth. yes, lame-o but the children didn't seem to mind.

Instead I used the plain old vanilla verbal stories I have been telling. Curt seems to have graduated from Robin Hood and has been asking about Mulan. We have a book with many of the Disney stories that believe it or not Dad found in the trash of a local gift shop. I was trying to hide it for years...he found it a little too soon. But then he has transitioned to the world of good versus evil, princes, princesses, evil sorcerers, and Jedi knights a lot earlier. He will be six years old in late September so this is his final upcoming Kindergarten year....the Grimms tales are not set to be introduced in the Steiner curriculum until grade one. But as I mentioned in previous posts, it seems the children are coming to the good vs evil tales younger and younger.

I am currently reading a great book by Daniel Udo de Haes called The Young Child: creative Living with Two to Four year olds. This gem of a book is currently out of print..it was first published in 1979.. but at Sophia's Hearth they sell photocopies of it. I highly recommend it. Udo de Haes was born in Bali and studied in Holland. He was a student of anthroposophy and a teacher. He talks of the child coming to us from the spiritual world and that in certain objects in our mundane physical world, the young child/toddler recognizes archetypes from the spirit lands. Some archetypes that are recognized: the perfect roundness of a ball, the toy cupboard with it's quietly guarded secrets, the forming of bread dough into form and then sustenance. The toddler immerses themselves in for example the experience of the ball, they are not by nature compelled to do something with it...like kick it toward a goal..unless they are prematurely taught to do so.

I just have to include this quote because I love it. "Thus the toddler observes with an utterly open soul not only the ball but all other objects and also all that happens and is done around him; and when we see how completely he is absorbed in this, we are bound to feel how important these early sense -impressions - and his deep inner experiences- must be for him. This quiet activity, which takes place behind his dreaming, wondering or delighted eyes, remains hidden to us. Our adult consciousness has lost the connection with what goes on in the dreamy depths of the child's soul. But we may be able to sense how the little child, who is still so close to the spirit-land from whence he came, can still see something of the cosmic, and sometimes also the moral, source of the things in his surroundings;and that he can still experience something of that region which we can only grope towards with our thoughts."(Udo de Haes 12)

Udo de Heas goes on to explain the gap between the toddler's rebelling in the beingness of things and of sounds and of sensations as opposed to the kindergarten age child or first grade child who has already developed the ability to separate themselves and form concepts. Ironic isn't it that as we grow up..we learn more in this life, but it requires our separation from the spiritual.

"Then we realize that the toddler cannot be receptive to fairy-tales, for instance, and that this is not only because certain capacities, such as vocabulary and ability to follow the thread of the story, are insufficiently developed, but because he has a faculty which is still very much alive: he can listen to those even deeper messages, to the language of the things and actions themselves and also to the sound of human words, an ability which we have already lost. It is these archetypal revelations from his surroundings which the toddler still understands and from which he will not allow himself to be distracted by the even more complex language of fairy tales, or even our normal conceptual language."(Udo de Haes 14)

But what does one do when they are taking care of children of mixed ages? I have Curtis who is almost 6 and drinking up the fairy tale realm..and R who is 3 but already quite aware of princes and princesses, evil sorceresses, etc...and then some in between.

Well, as I asked this question, I was flipping through the book and there in chapter eight was the answer. The chapter, entitled, "the toddler in a large family" explained it all. The trick is to not tell the fairy-tale directly to the toddler, expecting them to follow the story line or comprehend the imagery. The idea is to tell the story to the 5 or6 year old and let the toddler live on the fringes of the circle and maintain their dreamy state. the kindergarten age child will be deeply moved by the imagery of a dark forest and an escape to the light. He will recognize this imagery on a soul level. The light is a return to what Udo de Haes calls the Father-Land or spiritual home of the soul. The dark, earthy forest is the Mother -land. The toddler has newly arrived here in the Mother-land and will be intrigued enough by that..they have little care for the imagery of an escape from it...and we as adults can let them just be. If left to their own devices, the toddler will naturally develop toward the kindergarten phAse..he will slowly begin to follow the story characters and the story line. The toddler needs to become so comfortable with the sense world...has to let it lose it's novelty, then he will be less focused on the dark forest and will be interested in finding or rather rediscovering the light.

I was so glad to have found this chapter. It really made a lot of concepts a lot clearer for me and also allows me to focus my storytelling without feeling a need to shield the younger children so much.

Anyway, I took this digression because I want to describe a moment of storytelling of the fairy tale Mulan. O.K. As far as I know, this was a pure Disney creation..but it is a fairy tale nonetheless. Soon after R arrived, I was sitting on the living room floor with she and Curtis, and I started telling the story. Curtis began using the toys around us to build"sets" for the tale. He built a lotus flower tree which Mulan and her father sat under to talk. He used a piece of drift wood and wrapped it in red yarn. He then used some silks and Tinkertoy to build a house. R found the people to fill these sets...little acorn people in the dollhouse, Felted folk, barn animals. It was really something to sit in the middle of the living room while the two of them surrounded me with creations depicting the story as I was telling it. When I realized what was happening, I truly felt I would make it through the week even with my lower than usual energy.

On Thursday, A finally joined us. A is a four year old girl. A and Curtis attend Kindergarten together. Curtis as mentioned in previous posts, has modified his play for R using the Princess Kitty character, but he has been longing for more rambunctious play/playmates. A fit the bill. She climbed with him alot and he was very happy. A was able to go between rambunctious play with Curtis and the slower play with R.

From downllded 08.01.2011

A found a tree branch across the stream that sticks up a bit and is a little bouncy. She turned this into a horse and all three children enjoyed riding upon it.