Harrison Farm

Another tooth is gone.  We can’t find it.  This time Doodle doesn’t even know when it came out!  Sudoku noticed that it wasn’t in his mouth.  When she asked, “Doodle, where’s your tooth?”, he just gave her a puzzled look.

Does this happen to anyone else?

My eldest (with the smug grin below) is a magnet for 4-leaf clovers.  He claims that last spring he found 8 in one day.  He has no proof of that claim.  But he did find 5 yesterday (we have proof and witnesses) without even trying to find them!  Somehow, he just seems to spot them from afar — or something?  For instance, he was climbing our rope swing, looked down and spotted a 4-leafer.  He jumped down and picked it.  I don’t know how he does it.  And neither does he.

He’s found a couple of 5-leaf clovers too.

Maybe we have some lucky clover patches in the yard?  Sudoku has found a couple of four-leaf clovers this season too.  Is this normal?

Doodle has lost his tooth.  I mean, it came out of his mouth, and it is lost.  Gone.  Poof.

I think we may be jinxed in the lost tooth department.

My first tooth was washed down my grandparents’ sink when I tried to clean the bloody thing.  Carman’s first loose tooth was pulled out with a piece of string, shot across the floor and was never found.  Sudoku swallowed hers when she was eating lunch.  (Marathon has never mentioned losing a lost tooth, but for whatever reason, our kids are following in my steps.  Hopefully Rosebud will buck the trend some day.)

A couple of nights ago, while Marathon was playing with Doodle and Rosebud, Rosebud bumped Doodle’s mouth and out came the tooth.  Doodle feels certain he didn’t swallow it, but we’ve looked and looked and can’t find that tiny baby tooth.

Marathon sent the Tooth Fairy an email, explaining the situation.  Doodle was delighted when he found some dinero under his pillow this morning.

Later he got a twinkle in his eye as he speculated about finding his tooth, then putting it under his pillow, as if he had lost a 2nd tooth.  With eyebrows rising and falling he said, “Maybe the Tooth Fairy will give me more money!”

But no.  We’re not going to trick the Tooth Fairy.  Anyway, I’m pretty sure she has x-ray vision, you know.

After gleefully spinning in circles with his little sister to the pre-programmed music on the keyboard, Doodle said, “Mama, do you think Rosebud and I will always be best friends forever?”

These photos are a couple of weeks old.  But better late than never, right? We’ve had more snow this winter than we’ve had in the last 7 years combined.

Rosebud is potty-trained! She’s been somewhat potty-trained for a while, but accidents are quite rare these days. She often naps dry too. A few weeks ago she decided that she preferred the big toilet to her little potty. So, I’ve put the training potty in the van. It has been a life-saver on more than one occasion. Great work, Rosebud!

Doodle completed the Teach Your Child to Read book a couple of days ago. So today he read Go Away, Dog by Joan L. Nodset, a “Shared My First Reading” book from the My First I Can Read Book series. I’ll have him read simple books we have around the house and ones I get from the library. Hopefully, before too long, he’ll be reading for pleasure in bed before the light goes out.

Carman is 12 today. In our house, that means he receives the journal Marathon and I have been keeping on his behalf. Tonight it becomes his private, personal property. I wrote my last entry today. It’s wild to think that we’ll likely only have him for half the amount of time that he’s been with us so far. Oh my! Time flies.

Sudoku’s 10th birthday was approaching, and I was struggling with what to do for her and how to celebrate. Planning a party was really more than I had time or energy to do, but I wanted number 10 to be special and memorable. I thought about having one or 2 friends over for dinner and cake — something low-key, but it didn’t seem quite right.

Then I hit on an idea. An afternoon away. Just the two of us.

Her birthday came and I told to dress up a bit, that she and I were going to meet her cousin and aunt for tea. She lit up.

We left the other kids behind with Marathon, and spent 2 slow, lazy, spoiled hours at The English Rose, an English Tea House downtown. The restaurant is owned by a British woman, and most of her servers are also from the UK with accents to suit. I had to lean in and concentrate when our server was speaking. With real linens, real china, real tea…it felt so…real! We had the Victorian Tea, and while it was pricey…for a small, intimate, girly birthday celebration, it was just perfect.

Sudoku and her cousin were so lady-like, visiting and chatting. My sis-in-law and I were able to catch up and visit too. It was so very refreshing; just what the doctor ordered.

After lunch tea, Sudoku and I headed to the river to do a little window shopping. Then we changed clothes and played in the fountain before heading back to the real world.  She claims it was her best birthday yet.  It was a day I won’t soon forget.

Would you believe, I forgot to take a picture? Maybe that’s a good sign — that I was living in the moment. Still, I wish I had I captured our outing in digital format…

Update: Chattanooga photographer Cameron Adams graciously granted permission for me to use his lovely photo taken in the English Rose tea room.  Pictured is the restaurant’s tiered presentation of the “Victorian tea.”  This photo, in my opinion, captures the essence of the venue.  Thank you, Cameron.

We’re hosting the first public speaking club of the new school year here next week. Doodle thinks he’s ready to get in on the fun, so here’s what the kids have prepared –

Carman - the Beatitudes to the Golden Rule from the Gospel of Luke
Sudoku - Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
Doodle - “Jump or Jiggle” by Evelyn Beyer

Do you have a favorite poem or passage that you’ve memorized?

Did you watch the garbage truck when you were a kid? I did. My brothers too. We’d run to the picture window and watch the men hanging on the back of the truck. They looked so nimble hopping off and on; it seemed like a daring and dangerous job. Riding on the back of the trash truck was the dream job of one of my brothers.

Of course, the new-fangled trucks require only one operator, and if you don’t have a new-fangled trash can, they’ll skip over your house. But even with losing the back-riding dare-devils, the trash-gathering machinery has maintained its appeal.

My kids like to watch the trash truck. And so do the neighbor kids. I caught these pictures of them late last week.

The weather here in southeast Tennessee has been very hot and dry. We’ve had temperatures in the mid to upper 90s for a few weeks now with little to no rain. The grass is dying, and though the garden has a thick mulch layer, we’ve had to start watering it regularly.

In past years we’ve been able to cool off in our next door neighbor’s pool. But since it is out of commission this season (which is probably a mercy for Carman with his broken arm), the kids are finding other ways to cool off this season - primarily dousing themselves in the water hose.

This morning, Doodle and Rosebud played intently in the shade with some cups and a big pot of water. Pouring water and floating cups never looked so fun!