Drawing on Halloween

Wren is drawing at the kitchen table.  Yesterday, he discovered coloring in the lines and is now coloring everything he draws.   He loves to draw with sharpie - big bold outlines.

Coloring in at The Hardware Store

Wren:  This guy's bad.  I am making all the guys BAD. 

Granny:  Why are you making them bad?  Where are the good guys?

Wren:  There are NO good guys.  Except for Halloween.

Granny:  (who persists in a modern view of good and evil rather than the post-Cold-War, post-modern complexity) There are always good guys.  The good guys come and chase the bad guys away.

Wren:  No, this is specially for HALLOWEEN.   All the evil guys came and Feated them and chased them away.  They have SPELLS.  They have Freeze, Melt and so they did all that when they see a good guy and the chase-ed them away.

[Wren colors some more.]

Wren:  You color them in with YELLOW they are EVIL.  So this guy is yellow.]

[Silence and deep thought]

Wren:  Well, the scorpion thing is good.  I am going to be a Superhero for Halloween.  Actually, I am going to be a Good Archer. 

[Long pause of drawing]

Wren:  Actually, the scorpion guy is BAD.  He is the Boss.   I need another piece of paper. 

"This is the Bad Rock Monster
and his little Ninja Friends."

Shannon:  Who is this guy with teeth?

Wren:  He is a Rock Monster.   He is the Bad rock Monster.

[Long pause where the only sound is the pen squeaking on paper]

Wren:  I need more paper.

Granny:  One sheet or two sheets?

Wren:  Two sheets.   I am drawing a big Boss Knight with all his little knights. 

[Long pause while drawing.  I am typing.  Granny is trying to order David a sweater on Superdry.com but it keeps redirecting her to the US site.]

Wren:   Now I am ready to decorate.  I need scissors.

[Scissors materialize.  His wish is Granny's command]

I am cutting out the rock monster

Wren [cutting while singing]:  Halloween dot com.  Halloween dot com.  Halloween dot com.  Hallow BOOM.  Halloween BOOM.  Halloween wah wah wah wha!   Where is my tape?

[Tape appears]

Wren runs into his bedroom still singing.

Wren:  I get some more Halloween decorations!

"This shows about putting up my Halloween Decorations
The Boss Bruno, Scorpion H and The Boss Finest Scorpion Mage"

Vashon Vacation - The Fungi Thing Again

We are over on Vashon for a few days watching ships going by and eating chanterelles, again.  Having Mum here during fungi-season has raised my enthusiasm exponentially.  Now I have someone to go on hikes with, encourage my identification and most importantly eat the mushrooms.  Having two adults keen on fungi has convinced Wren that mushroom foraging is an important life skill and he is willing to come out into the forest and Find Mushrooms, carry a basket and Dentify them.

Wren setting off to forage on Vashon

 This morning we went hunting in Island Center Forest where we collected huckleberries and were stung by nettles (me).  It was somewhat nerve wracking because the forest was open for hunting.  We wore bright orange vests provided at the parking lot and made a lot of noise as we stomped through the forest. In the distance we heard gunshots from time to time and Joshua told us that "many people get shot by mistake each year."  Apparently, season is now open for shotguns and handguns although it will be suspended on October 15th.

Perhaps the threat of being killed had kept foragers away because there were many huckleberries and chanterelles to be had.

I gather huckleberries to the sound of gunshots

Wren was concerned about dogs but not guns. 
He carried the huckleberry basket

While crouching in the undergrowth we
made lots of noise to show we were not deer.

Huckleberries and a few blackberries for pie.

Mum and Wren show that they are Not Bears or Deer
because forest animals do not like orange

 Back at the house (and at home) we have been vigorously identifying mushrooms, possibly edible or not.  Today, we identified Boletus Flaviporous, Phlebia Tremellosa and the birch bolete (a splendid specimen).  I have a small sketch book which I do rough diagrams in and then write in identification notes.  This is mainly about remembering features and names and has helped me to learn a number of new mushrooms recently.  I still covet a microscope but I believe that the type required to see spores (for identification of many mushrooms) is pretty expensive. 

Mushroom identification after the Hood Canal trip

I do not know what this one is... perhaps a lactarius?
It has an interesting velvet furred stem.

 After we survived hunting season and had hunted our mushrooms, we headed to the Vashon Rosterie coffee shop and enjoyed one of those delicious spinach and feta croissants.  I paid a visit to the bookshop on Vashon Highway and bought a copy of Chanterlle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares by Greg Marley.  He is an East Coast author so lacks a bit of the NW Fungal culture, but it captures the spirit of fall and is about mushrooms in culture rather than their identification so its a fun counterpoint to Mushrooms Demystified for which I require google on hand to define botanical terms.

Coming home tomorrow after a drive down to Burton.  Mum and I plan on having one more walk in the woods but without the intent to crawl through huckleberries.

Chanterelles with Company

On Friday, we headed over to Hood Canal to hunt mushrooms.  The expedition was in search of FUNgal Knowledge but we allowed that we would gather chanterelles if they were in evidence. 

They were!

Shannon and Tara disheveled from crawling through huckleberry undergrowth

First, we had trouble leaving the parking lot because there were so many mushrooms to observe and collect.  These were not species I was sure of although there were many russula which I have reason to believe were the edible brevipes.   Wren is obsessed with gathering mushrooms and tells me he is going to be a scientist when he grows up, "the kind of scientist who Dentifies Mushrooms not Volcanoes".

Gathering along the path

For "Dentification" by Wren

He draws wonderful pictures of mushrooms with stems and caps and sometimes gills or dots (for boletes) and as he collects mushrooms he tells us that "These are eat-poisonous not touch-poisonous" and puts them in his basket.

"Look at the BIGGIE!"

 By contrast, Alex was only concerned with edible mushrooms and kept his basket empty "for chanterelles."  When we came to chanterelle country Alexander was keen to have every chanterelle that was found put in his basket and soon had a good pile, collected one by one.  Later, we came to thickets where white chanterelles were fairly abundant, often under logs and underbrush, growing more sparsely than the yellow chanterelles we found before but much larger and in beautiful condition.

We collected many and Tara, Mum and I became very excited and crawled and thudded through the underbrush in chase.  Tara and I are both enthusiastic foragers and ignored the needs of children and family in order to clamber through the forest after our 'trail of mushrooms'.   Aware of the chance of being lost, from time to time we yelled "we're here!" but I doubt anyone lost track of us with all the callooing and hollering:

Tara:  "I have found The Mother!"
Shannon "I have found her Sister!"
Tara:  "The Mother!"
Shannon:  "Crawl, Frost, crawl!"
Frost:  "I am NOT CRAWLING.  IT IS PRICKLY.  Get me OUT OF HERE!"
Shannon:  "No Frost, you can DO IT!"
"Waa waaa waa"  <---- Wren
Tara:  "FRED, bring the basket.  HERE FRED!"
Fred:  "How did you get in there?"
Shannon:  "You crawl, its really clear about 18" from the ground."
Tara:  Oh, FRED, over here.  You must bring it closer!
Shannon:  "We should send the children in.  Alex, here is one for you."
Alex: "How do you get in there?"
Shannon:  "Creep and crawl!"

Frost:  "I am getting OUT of HERE"

Foraging for a Big One

Success!

Bremeton Ferry Yesterday

Frost recalls, "I was actually really scared of feeding the seagull because when we were trying to feed them they snatched the food very quick and I had a small piece of cracker in my hand and I was holding it up and the seagull JUST MISSED IT one time and I could actually hear his beak snapping shut!"

Close enough to hear the snapping of a seagull's beak.

Alex was also part of the seagull feeding.  Frost and he ran all over the ferry looking for bits of food to feed the seagulls.  At one point they were crawling (bare footed) under the chairs looking for crackers.  They looked like urchins. 

At one point Frost and Alex asked me for 15c.  "Someone gave me a dime," said Alex.  People are always giving Alex money!  They bought one small packet of saltines from the cafeteria and then fed them to the gulls.  When Alex had one left but Frost had none there was an 'argument' over the remaining cracker.  Frost felt that some prior sharing demanded recompense.

But that's NOT FAIR.  I gave you some of mine!

Wren wanted to be part of the adventure and rushed after the boys.  When they went too quickly he came back in tears and I escorted him to find them. 

"I must ALWAYS FOLLOW THE BOYS!" said Wren, who considers himself a diminutive 9 tween.  "I love the boys!"

"I must ALWAYS follow the boys"

The chocolate box shot of Seattle

Sounders Open Cup Win

On Tuesday, the whole family went to watch the Sounders FC vs Columbus Crew in the finals of the Open Cup.   Although Josh is a season-pass holder and a regular Fan, it was Wren's first visit to the stadium.  He was awed by the noise and crowds but wasn't overwhelmed. 

When the Sounders score a goal, small rectangles of slippery foil paper are shot out of a cannon in the stadium roof along with huge booming noises.  As the clouds of silver twinkled down over the crowds the boys reached out to collect small pieces and then throw them again.  They also liked watching the fans waving huge flags, hollering, stomping and clapping and keeping up with the SEEEAAAATTTLE, SOUNNNNNDDDDEERRSSS chant.

Not so much on the game.

The sparkly cannon fires at the end of the game
when the Sounders have won.

Frost posing in front of our seats

Both boys were more interested in making sure they got their share of the lemonade, pretzel and fries than plays but at their age is still more about atmosphere and the ultimate "WHO WON?" question. 

Wren puts it like this:  "Which is the Bad Team?   Did the Bad Team win?"

In this case, "the good team won, 2.1" and took the Open Cup for the second year in a row.

Josh is pleased because the Good Team won

We were lucky to be in a section where people sat down for most of the game
so we didn't have to hold the kids up the whole time

Wren became a bit tired by the end of the game but
enjoyed watching trains go by on his own 'break' to play

Wren has a cavity (and that's bad)

You know you're in trouble when the dentist talks about "A Treatment Plan." 

A few days ago, I noticed that Wren had a gray spot on a molar.  I suspected it was a cavity.   Joshua objected when I sat on Wren and tried to investigate the area.

"Stop doing alien experiments on him" he said.

So, I booked a visit to the dentist for Wren since we all know that most alien abductions originate in dental trauma.

Really, its too absurd.  Since Joshua wrote down the family goal of "no cavities" under Health and Fitness, we are an ongoing dental calamity.  We have probably spent a frugal holiday to Hawaai in dental bills.  Joshua, has required a root canal and re-crown.  He also needs his wisdom teeth removed.  Frost has cracked his retainer and Wren now needs one (or more) cavities filled.

The dentist wanted to get an x-ray of Wren's teeth but Wren was unable to do it.  He cried, became hysterical and gagged whenever she placed the film and bite in his mouth.  Mum, who had just arrived from Australia via Boston, was just in time for this trauma and was quite upset by it.

"Is this really necessary?" she asked.

"Yes, because its important to protect kids with heart problems from dental decay," I snapped.

Wren getting ready for the X-ray

After a while the dentist gave up and sent us home with an old film and bite to "practice".  Wren is going back for the filling on the 13th.

Rather ominously, the dentist said:

"when there is a visible filling like that one, where the tooth is a bit cracked, there are usually other invisible cavities.  We need to take a look and see what is going on.  In Heart Kids, we have to be careful.  I don't think we are in this situation now, but I want to see him soon to clean out that tooth and if the cavity is large, if it required work on the pulp, well.. the protocol with Heart Kids is to extract the tooth.  That is because if you do pulp work, which is like a root canal, some infectious material can get into the blood stream and its considered a risk.  So, we would extract the tooth and put in a spacer."

She is hoping we can practice putting the film and bite in Wren's mouth so that he can tolerate it for the 5 seconds required to get an X-ray next time.

What with the word e-x-t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n, the fear and hysteria about the x-ray and possibility of many more fillings required a Treatment Plan.

Harvest (of chanterelles)

Its mushroom season again.  For those of you not lucky enough to be stepping over mushrooms on your way to the bus-stop, the Pacific Northwest is one of the richest fungi-filled areas in the world and once the rains start, mushrooms abound. Wild mushrooms are harvested commercially and many amateur mycologists collect for personal use including prized chanterelles boletes, morels and even truffles.   Since moving here, I have been a member of the Puget Sound Mycological Society (psms.org) and have eaten various foraged mushrooms.  This week I ate shaggy lepiota (lepiota rhacodes) collected at Frost's school bus stop (I had to take the buttons because as soon as they emerged the slugs devoured them) and you may recall my bounty of morels from up the street.
Despite much fun and persistence identifying non-edibles, until this weekend I never found the kind of abundance of experienced hunters.

Now look at this.

See the glint in my eye

This is only one quarter of the amount I gathered with Wren and Tara in the forest near Deception Pass (while on a preschool camping trip).  It was very exciting.

Finding them was very much like a trail of breadcrumbs.  First I found one, then another and finally I was scrambling, creeping and crawling through the underbrush of salal, huckleberry and moss to find the next glowing patch.  We took them home and cooked some at Tara's for Phoebe's 18th birthday party and I cleaned mine and stored them in the fridge.  I have eaten a pile for breakfast and am thinking of drying some and keeping some for Mum, who arrives on Tuesday night.

It was actually morning but gloomy in
the forest.  See the chanterelles glow!

A particularly perfect chanterelle.  Picture taken by Wren.

Wren rolling out pasta for fettuccine

The mushrooms before cleaning.  See the family goals whiteboard
in the background and our wall of drawings.

We have also been harvesting rhubarb from the garden
because it had covered the path.  Mostly, I grow vegetables to
make a point not to eat ;)

Last weekend we looked for mushrooms at North Bend.   Here, Wren
'smooshes' an old pear shaped puffball to make it puff.

Wren cuts up an inedible mushroom to "DENTIFY IT"

Speaking of things dental.... I think Wren has a cavity.  There is a dull, dark spot between two molars which will not go away with brushing or flossing.  I must call the dentist on Monday.  To make matters worse, Frost's retainer 'broke' mysteriously this week.   Josh has just had a root canal.  Its all because we put down "no cavities" under our Health and Fitness Family goal.

Language is hard work

Driving Frost to Eve's for a playdate, we noticed a cement mixer down the street from us offloading.  One of our neighbors was at it landscaping, again.

"What is they doing with it?"  Wren asked.
"Remodeling the garden, no doubt." I opined.
"What is no doubt?" wondered Wren. "Is no doubt in the garden?"
"No, I meant... I am sure they are remodeling the garden."
"Oh.  Its remodeling." he nodded.
"No.. I meant, I-AM-SURE that they are remodeling.  No doubt is how I feel."
"Whaatt?   So, they have a feeling in the garden?"
"Um.  No doubt means that you are sure about something.  Like, I am sure they are remodeling the garden."
"Ooooh.  You are sure."

Yesterday, Wren hit a new stage.  He is suddenly happy (even though he had a fever).  He is bristling with ideas.  He wants to do things and write letters all the time.  He wants to WRITE MY NAME [although it looks like hieroglyphics except for the W which looks like M.

Wren is obsessed with mazes and drawing.  He traces paths through mazes with intense concentration.  He draws the same motif (a monster in flight with big wings) again and again calling it different names and making up different scenarios.  Sometimes it is a zombie, sometimes a dragon, sometimes A Bad Guy.

Right now I ask him what he is doing.

"I am having a battle with guys."
"What kind of guys?"
"Wild cats and creatures and stuff" he answers then falls back into quiet concentration in his room.

Breaking the rules

Last night, as I came out of my pilates class with over-extended achilles tendons, I noticed a silver Volvo waiting at the traffic light.  A dad was driving.  He had two kids in the back seats and a tiny child in the front seat. I couldn't even see its face, just the tuft of its hair as it wriggled around.  I found this oddly comforting.  Okay, sure, it was a heinous breach of US notions of safety but it was also a rare glimpse into the reality of family life.  We all fuck up.  We all break the rules.

We recently had a family meeting.  Now, in case this makes you feel defensive and compelled to sit your kids down to meet to keep up with us (hah!), relax.  This is our first Family Meeting in about 7 years.  Frost, Wren and I sat at the table in the kitchen and Joshua stood by a large whiteboard he had propped up across two chairs.

"What are our family values?"  asked Joshua who, I suspect, was recently subject to strategic planning at work.
"What makes you happy and is important to our family?" I paraphrased.
At this point, Frost mysteriously fell off his chair.  This happens to him from time to time, we are not sure how or why.  I blame it on inattention and goofing but it is alternatively tragic and funny.  This time it was just weird.   After he picked himself up and sat down again Frost said "I don't want Mum to yell at me and nag me and shout at me."

Joshua and I parsed this into the value of "Family Harmony."

"We must also do the LOVE thing," said Wren.  "Like, I LOVE to play D&D and I LOVE YOU."

Joshua added "and Love" to the first value.

"And I don't want you to pick me up on your shoulders," said Wren.

We defined that as to value of "Safety".  Discussion continued for a while until we had the following values:

Harmony and Love
Fun
Order (clean and tidy)
Safety
Health and Fitness
Friendliness (with others)
Financial Security (This is important to me because with global warming and the ensuing climate driven chaos our children will need cash to buy GOLD and GUNS to survive in the wilderness.)
Home Improvement (Josh added this... perhaps it should be Secure Home or something like that since improvement in itself is not a goal).

At this point Frost stood up and absently wandered from the room.

"Where are you going, Frost?"
"Oh, I don't know..." he said.
"Well, come back and participate!" I ordered [perhaps this was yelling].
He sighed and slouched down but did not actually fall over.

As a result of lots more implementation of our goals I have somehow agreed to have 24 family movie nights in a  year, read 6 chapters of a Pema Chodron book on "Working with Anger", Have FUN games, paint a dwarf Warhammer battalion and lose 15 lbs.

Isn't family goal setting great!

Anyway, however lofty our aspirations we probably all yell at times and sometimes sneak children places without proper restraint (but don't put them in the back of trucks like they do in South Africa) and try and eat Vegan at MacDonalds (oh, my, I actually felt guilty throwing away the MacDonalds cup while shopping at Whole Foods, I tried to crush it to obscure the logo).

Now, I have to run or I shall feel guilty about being late for Wren at preschool.

Quickly though:
Yesterday I was about to sneeze from the sun.  I get Sun Sneezes.  I said "I am going to sneeze!" and Wren immediately grimaced, turned away and covered his face.

"What are you doing?" I asked when the sneeze subsided.

"I don't want to hear and smell your sneeze" he explained.

Another funny Wrenism yesterday was with the large jawbreaker Wren has been sucking since a movie on Sunday night.  It is actually ALEX's jawbreaker, but he left it at our house and Wren took it, thinking it was Frosts.  Now we have harmony because Wren has been sucking Alex's for a day and Frost has his own.

However, Wren does not call these jawbreakers.  He calls them FACEbreakers.

"Where is my facebreaker?" he asks, hunting for the goopy remains of this size of a golf ball.

Wren in the car

I drove Frost to school on Friday.  On the drive in the car Wren and I had a 'conversation.'  Remember, I am driving and for the most part this requires that one is facing forward.  Wren does not appreciate this point but I hope you can. 

Wren:  Can I rip this?
Me:  I am driving.  I can't see what it is.  What do you want to rip?
Wren:  THIS
Me:  Tell me what it is so I can ... Frost, what does Wren want to rip.
[silence.  Frost is reading Signspotting and cannot hear me.]
Me:  FROST!!!
Frost:  WHAT!???
Me:  What does Wren want to rip?
Frost: The coupon book.
Me:  No, you can't rip the Chinook Book or it will be ruined.
Wren:  But I REALLY want to rip it.  This picture is a man jumping OUT.
Me:  I can't see the picture [I glance around] .. oh... the cover.  No, please don't rip that off.  Its the new Chinook book.
Wren:  I WANT TO RIP IT.
Me:   Why don't you rip something else?
Wren:  What can I rip?
Me:  [making one of those dangerous swoops to retrieve something from the floor while driving]  Here, rip this.  [I give Wren Frost's homework information which shows Six Strategies of Skilled Writers.]
Wren:  NO!  [crying] That is not good.  I want to RIP THIS!
[I am now about a second away from promising cookies if he stops wailing]

Me:  Why do you want to rip?
Wren:  I want to get it out.
Me:  What do you need to do ripping?
Wren:  Scissors!
Me:  Well, when we get home I will give you scissors.
Wren:  SCISSORS!

And this was only 5 minutes.  Seriously, Wren is very opinionated at the moment.