Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Club sign-ups

Last week, Little Clover proved yet again he is becoming his own person. Italian and I learned early on with him that he was almost a fully formed individual at an early age. We needed to make quick adjustments to our expectations and to our assumptions the second he showed athletic ability at the age of 6 months. Since then, our family life has been one of getting acquainted, with Italian and I setting the parameters and limits as best as we could and then making changes midstream to adjust for Little Clover's individualism. Mostly, though, we the parents set the schedule with some input from the little person.

Middle school doesn't really work this way. I thought we had our school year routine set, then Little Clover informed me he had been recruited to the Cross Country team, and he accepted. Practice and meets are now part of our schedule, with his first meet taking place last Thursday. To help his team keep a first place record, he needed to place somewhere between 20th and 30th place. With only having practiced once with the team, the coach cautioned him on running too fast out of the gate. He listened and kept to the back of the middle of the pack when the race began. As the coaches kept their fingers crossed for our runners to place in the top 30, Little Clover crossed the finish line in 8th place, helping his team grab first place. I wonder how he'll do with some practice.
From Irish Clover


Then I find out the next day, he's joined the ultimate frisbee club at school and needs to stay late on Friday. Who knew his school had an ultimate frisbee club?! I didn't even know he liked playing frisbee! All this growing up and making his own decisions is a bit hard for me to handle, so I'm focusing on what I can control - the sleeves to my sweater. With the weather cooling off (finally!) and fall around the corner, long sleeves would seem appropriate, but I'm going to buck the system and put short sleeves on this baby! It's my sweater and by golly, I'll decide what sleeves it should have.

Now, excuse me as I try to find out if Little Clover has made any other decisions about his life.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

What was I thinking

I am that mom, the one that doesn't realize how something may not be a good idea until she's already committed. For Little Clover's birthday, we agreed to have a birthday party with his friends. He was allowed to invite 10 friends to his party. He invited girls and boys. We agreed to let him have the part at the barn with the horses, then take the kids swimming, finally ending with a Nerf gun battle. Yep, he had a co-ed party involving wild animals, carpooling from place to place, bathing suits, and weaponry. And it never occurred to me that there would be anything wrong with it. Fortunately, all the kids had a wonderful time and we sent them home in one piece. What was super cute was how the girls and boys didn't exactly mingle but coexisted during the party, and the boys arrived with cowboy hats. It's also amusing to me how co-ed parties are completely normal when they are little, then fall out of favor sometime around the third grade, only to become a big deal in middle school. If you get invited to my kid's party, I may not be fully with it, but trust me, your kids are safe and they'll have a good time.

From Irish Clover

Some of the party guests

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The farmer's life

From Irish Clover


We attended a canoe trip outing with our fly fishing club this weekend, and Little Clover even manned the canoe giving me time between white knuckled gripped rides down riffles to fish every now and then. The weather was beautiful and the scenery breathtaking, solidifying my desire to be further away from the city and to find a retreat on a nice expanse of land near a river.

The pull towards land has been strengthened not just by my fly fishing hobby, but by my knitting hobby as well. Most knitters will toy with the idea of spinning. Once you've fallen in love with yarn and all its wonderfulness, you may find yourself touched by curiosity around the making of yarn. Some people will cross over and actually become spinners, and spinners will almost always have at least one fantasy of owning sheep. Being a spinner, I've had this fantasy. Mine includes several sheep, a few bunnies, and at least one alpaca. This week, I got a small taste of my idyllic pastoral dream.

While at the stables for Little Clover’s weekly riding lesson, I offered to help Mr. Soprano with the horses. He grabbed a halter and lead rope to bring one in from the pasture and I grabbed another. A few minutes later, as I was strolling through the wrong pasture, I heard him call my name. I ran out of the pasture towards where I was supposed to be only to find a horse running at a gallop directly towards me. I held up my hands and said "Whoa!" The horse proceeded to run right past me. I turned and proceeded to run after the horse. At this time, I thought, “Thank goodness I changed out of my heels.” This thought was followed by, “Thank goodness I was lazy and didn’t put on my Wellies,” which was then capped with, “Oh my god, I am soooo out of shape.” The much more appropriate, “How the heck are we going to wrangle up the horses?” finally found its way into my thoughts. After 15 minutes of chasing and wrestling horses (yes, I did my darnedest to wrestle a horse, albeit a juvenile one), we finally managed to enclose the horses into a barn and get them roped up.

After this little taste of farm life, I’m perfectly content getting my yarn the old fashion way, online or at a yarn store.
From WIPs

Above is the Tudor Grace scarf pattern. I’m knitting it with my own handspun, which impressed Italian. He asked how I got the yarn to stripe, and I really wished I had an intelligent answer instead of the “I have no idea” I gave him.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Week in Review

It would be nice to say we're coming in for a landing from our birthday celebrations, but we have a few more things to be done before we get a break. I got an awesome new camera for my birthday and it's taken me two weeks to figure it out how to use and transfer pictures off of it. The nice thing is, it doesn't allow you to take pictures with the lens cap on. Just don't ask me how long it took for me to figure that one out. Without further ado, here is the week through the eyes of a lens.

Little Clover wanted to take the first pictures with the new camera. When asked if he won't rather BE the first picture taken on the new camera, he responded by...
From Irish Clover

Taking a picture of himself. The child is a genius. I love his problem solving ability and his win-win drive.

I finally did get my hands on the camera and after learning about "white balance," I was able to snag a pretty decent photo of my little guy.
From Irish Clover


Besides the standard party with yummy food and cake, Little Clover got an upclose and personal animal experience.
From Irish Clover

I think this sealed it. My kid is definitely going to be a zookeeper when he grows up. While at the zoo, I made Papa Clover and Little Clover reenact a picture with the giraffes. We had a grand time and I don't think any of use will look at giraffes the same way.

Finally, I'm in a book.
From Irish Clover

Well, my picture is anyway. Enjoy you're weekend!

Friday, September 03, 2010

Happy Birthday, not so little one

On this day, at this hour, you entered into this world, bringing with you love, joy, and happiness. You brightened the lives of those around you the moment you were born and filled our hearts with a calm, a sense of purpose, and a happiness we had never known before. You have grown in these eleven years from a little babe who laughed a lot to a big kid who laughs more. Your laughter is contagious and brings laughter to others. Your happiness has grown to touch the lives of others. Your talents are a pleasure to watch, and amazingly vast. Happy Birthday, my not so Little Clover. I (tummy) love you always.

From Irish Clover