By far, the coolest plant he's come home with is something called a pinus strobus 'nana.' What I thought he was going to get was maybe a globe blue spruce, which looks great, but is a supremely prickly beast. This plant though--or the two of them that he brought home--these pinus strobus 'nanas' are the chinchilla of the pine world. Lovely. Anyone who reads this is hereby invited over for a feel.
Neither of these photos are mine, but...see the similarities?
These nights in the yard have been great for me. Not only is there a welcome bite to the air, but progress is made toward completion of the yard, and when Brian gets home from work, Lucy attaches herself to his hip--leaving me some free time. She's always so happy to see her daddy when he gets home. Not that I have been keeping her at home veiled and sequestered, but Lucy has been craving the company of others more than ever lately. It's getting rare that Lucy is content to be at home alone with me.
One way Lucy gets in time with other kids is her twice-weekly preschool (which she loves). This involves four hours of the week. The rest of the time, Lucy asks to see if her friend DJ can play, or Natalie, or one of her cousins, or one of a dozen other kids she routinely asks about. Because I'm relatively tired a lot of the time, I mostly go for easy solutions. Therefore, the kids that live closest are the kids she sees most. Fortunately, we seem to be surrounded by good kids.
We have a little game: Lucy asks what a certain person is doing and I, instead of answering, "I don't know" every time, say what I think they might be doing. For example. If Lucy asks what Ben is doing, I might suggest that Ben may be playing with cousins, or helping his mom, or brushing his teeth. My dirty little secret: I am guilty of playing this game with an agenda: none of Lucy's friends or family ever watches TV or eats candy or does anything extra exciting (when it's not in the cards for us). In this game, everyone loves broccoli, goes to sleep early, and is very helpful.
So last night, after playing with friends, as Brian planted some shrubs along the footings of our house, Lucy discovered that our neighbor's retaining wall is very climbable. It didn't take long before she was sessioning the three-tiered stacked boulder wall. The crux of the route she had going up the wall was up at the top, and not too difficult. It was enough to get me up to spot her the first 5 or 6 times, and mild enough that I felt okay just watching her the rest of the times she wanted to climb it. I was happy because, once at the top, she didn't have to downclimb at all.
Each and every time she reached the top of her route, Lucy did a little celebration dance on our neighbor's driveway. She was having so much fun. Watching Lucy climb is fun for me too-- makes me happy. At least if I can't really do it right now, she can.
When I told Lucy that it was time to go inside to change into her pyjamas, she wasn't thrilled. However, when she learned that she could come back outside, she went without a fight. While we were inside, because the sun was setting fast, I pointed out one of her flashlights. I thought maybe she'd like to play with it outside. She thought that was a good idea, apparently, because she grabbed it on the way out (after she dressed in her purple footed sleeper and some comfy slip-on shoes). Once outside, Lucy wasted no time: She gave the flashlight to Brian for safekeeping while she again climbed the wall over and over.
Of course, the light gradually faded as the sun set and eventually was noticeably lacking. I figured that it would be an easy and natural end to the Climbing of the Wall, but I was surprised. Lucy asked Brian for her flashlight, turned it on and handed it to me. She explained how I was to hold the light so she could keep climbing. "See?" she told me, beaming, "Now it's not dark!" I'm pretty sure that at that point, I had a big grin on my face, too.
As Lucy climbed over the top of the wall again, I turned to Brian and said, "She may look like you, but she loves climbing like me!"
A reminder for grandparents--if you see a picture that youwant to see bigger, just click on the picture!
xoxo
