Naomi is 12!

I didn't think it had actually been that long since I'd posted here, but it has! 

In the meantime, Naomi has turned both 11 and 12. So it's time for a little highlight.

Last year, Naomi held a tropical-themed smoothie party with a bunch of friends. We unwrapped prizes from a ball of Saran wrap, played "kick the flip-flop" and combined all kinds of frozen fruit for the smoothies of our dreams. It was amazing.

This year, with our crazy-busy summer, we kind of opted for slightly more minimal birthday celebrations. Naomi prefers birthday playdates anyway, and she got to enjoy several on her birthday!

In the morning, as per tradition, all three girls assembled in the decorated dining room, and chowed down on Lucky Charms for breakfast. Kalina downed some "real" cereal first, which made sense since she had several classes to attend later and wanted her brain to actually function.

Naomi opened a few presents, including a cat shirt, an elaborate tiny house craft kit, a slime-making kit from Elise, and a book from Kalina. Naomi, as expected, changed into the cat shirt immediately after breakfast and then set right to making slime. Elise helped, looking for any excuse to delay the inevitable Geometry.

The slime turned out to be a bit... slimier... than we'd thought it would, but the girls got it sorted out before we had to go pick up Naomi's friend Ellie for the first birthday playdate. As always happens, the moms started chatting, but Naomi pulled birthday rank and got us out the door and home so that she could enjoy as much playdate as possible.

The girls visited the guinea pig, and then walked to the park. When they came back, they started making a stop-motion Lego video, and only stopped for lunch. The video was fairly elaborate, with a fancy choreographed ball going on in the background and various animals running across the table and causing other trouble in the foreground.

For lunch, we had a puffy oven pancake--one of Naomi's favorites, and also one of Ellie's (and Elise's, and Kalina's). Then it was back to Lego stop-motion, until our next playdate showed up and joined them--Eva, Grant, and Katya, the kids of a college friend who just moved to town.

When the playdates were over, Naomi unwrapped a couple more packages, and pretty soon it was time to head to Jason's Deli with Grandpa and Marianne. I'm not sure Naomi will ever get tired of macaroni and cheese with softserve ice cream for dessert. At least, we hope she doesn't!

Naomi chose a Dairy Queen cake, which we enjoyed with more gifts and conversation back at home. It was a simple birthday, but lots of fun! 

***************************************

At 12, Naomi is a fun, smart, quirky girl who's gaining confidence in all kinds of things. She's invoked her courage throughout the past year to do such things as ride a gondola across the Royal Gorge (not super voluntarily... at all... but she did eventually enjoy the ride!), perform in a trio in her homeschool orchestra, and try cucumber more than once. 

When Naomi has free time, you'll most often find her reading a book. She usually has half a dozen going at once, plus she's happy to pick up an old favorite and flip to the best parts to reread. Fantasy, historical fiction, realistic, and adventure are her favorite genres--plus anything that's a little silly. Which means that her book stack might contain pretty much anything. 

When Naomi's not reading, she prefers to be playing with friends. We now have a couple neighborhood 8-year-old girls that she spends time with (they recently tried to dig a swimming pool along the trail, and will also set up obstacle courses, crochet, climb trees, and play in the stream). She also loves spending time with girls her age, creating stop motion Lego movies, building houses and worlds with Legos, crafting, and playing games. She most easily bonds with quirky, creative, interesting types (like the rest of her family). And while she still plays regularly with a girl she bonded with at the neighborhood park over princesses when they were both about 4, she has made a few new friends at church lately. She's truly a "make new friends but keep the old" girl.

And when Naomi isn't reading or playing with friends, she'll probably be crafting. Over the past year or two she's become very adept with a glue gun, and she's perfected her strategies for making anything and everything cute. She's also been drawing with Matt, and they've both improved their skills. Her animals are still always adorable, whether cartoony or realistic. The cartoony animals always include extra flair, such as a coyly raised paw/hoof, or a bow around their ear. Captions with witty sayings are optional (but often included).

Naomi has gotten
increasingly tech-savvy
and loves to entertain
us all with my iPhone's
capabilities.

I'd never thought of Naomi as particularly sporty, but this year we discovered that she really enjoys running (and is quite swift) and is quite decent at swimming. After years of saying "no" to swimming lessons due to multiple mediocre/expensive experiences in the past, and after years of anxious hesitation toward the finer points of swimming from Naomi herself, I finally signed the girl up for some private lessons this past summer. As it turned out, simply by going to the pool regularly in the summer over the years and being coerced into working on some skills, whether with me or with a sister, Naomi had acquired almost everything she needed to achieve multiple strokes, and her teacher was very pleasantly surprised at how well she could already swim. Even after the first lesson, she had figured out several strokes, and improved from there. Her teacher was impressed!

Other new challenges have included math. Once she heard last spring that she might be able to test into 8th-grade pre-algebra math for this year, skipping the 7th-grade review year, she was on a mission. She squeaked by the placement test, but insisted on 8th-grade math (probably for unhealthy reasons, to be honest), and has insisted on doing every problem herself with as little help as possible. She's nearly 1/4 of the way through and so far, so good! Mostly.

Naomi still adores animals and takes care of her one remaining guinea pig, and helps out with the cats. Around the house, she's become slightly more interested in food/cooking/baking, likes to help plant seeds, and will accomplish chores as long as they're on a checklist of sorts. 

Naomi enjoyed her art camp
again this summer!

Naomi has been really enjoying music, and still takes piano lessons and plays viola in her homeschool orchestra (and, recently, piano as well!). She's still interested in theater and is taking a class at our co-op. 

She has a quirky and silly sense of humor and a somewhat unstoppable giggle once she gets started. But she also can totally get serious when necessary. Naomi is interested in psychology and how the brain works, nature, younger kids, great books, missions, and cute art. She's not sure what she wants to be when she grows up, but clearly has a lot of excellent options.

But more importantly, Naomi is growing into a confident, sweet, smart, conscientious, helpful, independent, responsible, super-fun, and super-creative girl who is delighting our whole household.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!!

December's perspective on a September vacation

New River Gorge!

Words probably can't describe how excited I was to get out of town on vacation after a somewhat crummy first half of the year. Plus, we'd be heading to  place I was excited to explore with all my newfound history-knowledge perspective--the colonial area of Virginia. There was some doubt about whether we'd be able to take the vacation as planned, as I finished radiation on Tuesday and we were set to disembark on Friday... but, thank goodness, I was feeling totally up for it.

Packing was a tiny bit different, as I required extra sun care (thank you, to those who gifted and loaned!), wig supplies, various hats, and all my vitamins, plus a plan to eat healthfully. But this was totally doable. I loaded up the cooler with healthful choices, made a pasta-veggie salad for dinner, and off we went, Friday after work.

When we'd found out I'd need radiation, we changed plans--we'd been intending to camp a couple nights to save money, but decided a hotel might be better as I was recovering. So our first night was spent in a random, okay-ish, hotel in Illinois. It was cleaner than camping, right? Maybe? I did appreciate a bed, a roof, and a convenient bathroom.

The next day was more exciting, as we made it to New River Gorge National Park exactly in time for the restrooms to have just closed. But the view was spectacular, and I felt plenty well for a short hike (lots of stairs, even!), and then a longer one. There's nothing that takes you farther away from cancer treatment than mountains. 

Plus, we had none of the predicted rain on our hike--but we did drive through it on our way. Remember how we had been planning to camp? The deluge of rain we drove through would've made camping just miserable. It did, however, make the drive pretty cool: the misty clouds drifting across the windy road through the mountains made for an exciting drive ("Look, Mom, I'm licking a cloud!").

As many of the area hotels were booked/super expensive by the time I got around to making our reservations (remember, we had to change plans last-minute--I normally plan way ahead), we got creative with our accommodations. On Airbnb I found a camper available, right on the bank of New River Gorge. It was the very, very coolest--the next best thing to camping! (Or, if you're past 40, possibly the best thing.)

Unfortunately, the posting said it only accommodated 4 people. So back when making resevervations, I played the cancer card and asked: can we pitch a tent, or squeeze one more person in on the floor, since we had to change plans due to my recent radiation treatment for cancer? The host had agreed, and revealed that the camper actually did have another sleeping space that he wasn't sure he wanted to advertise, but he was happy to let us try it out. 

The tour of the camper, once we arrived, took 30 minutes or so, as we learned all the ins and outs of the camper lifestyle. It sounded complicated. I was kind of glad we were just renting. We then roasted hot dogs, cooked up some beans, and had ourselves a cozy dinner as the sun finished setting. So perfect.

Although our host offered to blow up some innertubes and let us swim the next morning (and stay longer if we wanted to at no cost!), it was too cold for tubing and we were hoping to fit in another hike before moving on. We reluctantly packed up and headed out. But more wonders awaited us!

Check out what Matt found on the trail, under the very first log he overturned! It's a salamander. He was really hoping to find one! It turns out that Elise, also, had not lived before she saw this salamander. 

Guess how many more salamanders he found under alllll the other logs Elise convinced him to overturn! Zero. He definitely tried. 

We hiked along an offshoot of the New River before hopping in the car, making a quick stop at a visitor center for passport stamps and souvenirs, and continuing on our way to Shenandoah National Park.

New River Gorge was free to visit, but Shenandoah would've cost us $30. Except for the fact that we were traveling with a 4th (kinda 5th, but for the purposes of this trip, 4th) grader! It was Naomi's turn to get us into all kinds of things for free or reduced admission. In fact, during the course of the trip, since it was Homeschool Week at the Virginia attractions, we only paid full price at two places: Monticello and the beach ($7 parking), saving us $250 or so.

Driving into Shenandoah, we were on a major lookout for bears. Because... bears!! The park was apparently crawling with them. We'd arrived in the late afternoon/early evening again, but were able to squeeze in a lovely hike with excellent views, and boulders to climb. We were delighted to see that our path was formed in part by the Appalachian Trail! How cool!

We managed to drive all the way to a gift shop, and get our passports stamped. Shenandoah is a very long park, so this was an accomplishment--and one we were hoping not to have to repeat the next day.

On our way out of the park and to our comfy hotel room (with a roof!) for the night, we again drove through torrential rain. I experienced it firsthand dashing out of the car and into a Little Caesar's (our first non-cooler/hotel-breakfast food of the trip!). Again, so glad we'd canceled the camping reservations for that evening. Wow, was that a fantastic decision. Lukewarm, rather bad (yet strangely delicious!) pizza eaten on a hotel bed watching animal shows on cable, and not trekking down a rain-soaked path to the bathroom, was quite a good way to spend the evening. 

The next morning we took another hike, again along the AT. On this one, we spotted more salamanders, in the "eft" stage, or something like that. They were adorable. We had to pull Elise away. We also kept noticing large millipedes, which were not Naomi's favorite. But we managed. 

And then we continued on our path east, to Monticello. We lamented that, despite lots of trying, we had not seen a single bear. 

Monticello was a great stop. The girls and I had all read books related to Thomas Jefferson over the summer, and we enjoyed spouting knowledge and seeing the places we'd read about. After a super dull, obvious, desperate-to-be-redone-and-greatly-improved overview movie at the video, plus a hunt for a horse stuffed animal (for Naomi, who had pre-chosen this as her souvenir), we boarded the bus to the house itself.

The inside looked nothing like I remembered it, but was gorgeous and full of character. The girls and I could've holed up in the library for a while, if we'd been allowed. After the official tour, we explored the grounds, which included the kitchens underneath the house and the slave outbuildings. The girls, although pining for their national parks, seemed ready and willing to enjoy history. And Matt's always inquisitive with this kind of thing. So it promised to be a good week at Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown!

That evening, we finally arrived at the resort (yes, resort!) we'd be staying at for the rest of the week--5 nights. The deal had seemed to good to be true: a kitchen, living space, a separate bedroom. But it wasn't! In fact, we received more than we bargained for: a whole second bathroom, and a loft family room/bedroom that the girls were able to make their own bedroom! And a window seat, which turned into Naomi's favorite spot. It was roomy, comfortable, and probably very cheaply built. We were delighted.

The next day, Tuesday, was earmarked for our beach day, as the weather looked the sunniest and warmest in a week of potential rain. 

Normally on our beach trips, we stay in oceanside accommodations. This sounds snooty, I know. It's a splurge we've decided is well worth it. This time, however, we were an hour away, so we needed to pack everything we'd need, and commit to staying on the beach alllll day.

This feels like a big deal when you're under strict orders to avoid sun. Keeping my (borrowed) hat and sun shirt on whenever I wasn't under an umbrella put a damper on things, but I'm not really one for a lot of sun anyway. 

The beach didn't disappoint, but it did wear us out, especially near the end of the day when the waves were really big. Elise collected her plankton samples, and with the promise of ice cream to celebrate her beach birthday (with a birthday coming up, we had to use the opportunity, right?), we managed to herd everyone to the car without much trouble. They were tired. We were all tired, just standing there and staring at the waves but without the energy to do anything about them. And that says a lot for us.

We ended up with grocery-store ice cream and cones, which meant that for less than a beach ice-cream-cone apiece, we could have ice cream every day of our vacation. For the win!

The next day was our first at Colonial Williamsburg. Many things looked different from what I remembered, but the bathroom, somehow, smelled exactly the same!!! Not a bad smell, probably just one of old tile. Also like the post office where I grew up. Oh, the memories! 

We'd purchased our homeschool-discount passes online, so all we needed to do was board the bus, and we were on our way. We couldn't resist stopping at the Governor's Palace first. Somehow, it's all more interesting when you're an adult, but the girls thought many of the furnishing were beautiful. I could tell Kalina was itching to play the harpsichord.

We beat the maze!

And when our tour finished, there was the Marquis de Lafayette just beginning his speech! We stayed for the whole thing, and then tackled the hedge maze. The kids beat the parents to the center, but Matt and I got there eventually. So fun!

We packed in as much as we could that day and the next, only stopping for the quickest cooler lunches we could manage. Some highlights were Kalina and Naomi playing the harpsichord at the cabinet maker's shop and Elise challenging Thomas Jefferson on some of his somewhat hypocritical ideas (the actor did a spectacular job helping her see multiple angles). We heard from George Washington and Martha Washington (one of Naomi's favorites), saw a street play, heard about the mystery of George Wyth's death, visited the bakery both days (you get to do that when you eat lunch out of the cooler), and watched the militia march and play down the street. 

The trade shops also couldn't be beat. The wigmaker was a favorite of mine (for obvious reasons), and we also loved the shoemaker, milliner, apothecary, and others. So fascinating, we could've passed a whole morning at any of them. 

Needless to say, we were exhausted each evening. Our respite, after dinner, was to watch America's Got Talent. It was... less high quality than Colonial Williamsburg. But also educational. 

I got a role in the courtroom
drama activity! I'm standing
on the far right, trying to
convince the judge that a
guy who stayed at my inn
needs to pay for his stay. (I won)

We were also grateful, at Williamsbug, to satisfy Naomi's shopping itch. Having reread the Felicity books before our trip, and also survived horseback riding, she was hoping to find a sweet brown stuffed horse that she could name Penny. She found a real-life sweet brown foal, but wasn't able to take that home. She also just loved looking through the shops in general (like her mom!!). Eventually, we found a close-enough little horse, and I convinced her that Jamestown and Yorktown weren't likely to provide anything better (they didn't). Kalina and Elise satisfied themselves with the occasional t-shirt and keychain throughout the trip.

The next day, already a bit exhausted by history, we visited the new Jamestown Settlement museum. I was fascinated, Matt was interested, and the girls were... tired, but good sports. It was about twice as long as I expected it to be, but I found some interesting parts for the girls. We then explored the recreated settlement, which included the Jamestown fort and ships, as well as a Wampanoag settlement where they were making a dugout canoe. Since Elise kinda sorta wants to make one herself, this was a great stop. 

After returning to our hotel for a late lunch, we drove to Yorktown for as quick of a visit as possible that would still allow us to have a meaningful visit. We loved seeing George Washington's tent, and then we drove around the battlefield sites. The girls were about as interested as I was as a kid.  

We all agreed that history is best absorbed when spread out a bit--but also that we had to take advantage of opportunities.

Finally, we spent a chilly evening at Yorktown beach. This was in no way the same as Virginia Beach but the girls found some little crabs they could build an island for, so it worked out. 

Our final stop before turning our car homeward was the actual Jamestown historic site. I'd been wanting to see this for a good 16 years, but we were in a bit of a rush since we also wanted to get on the road. And also because we'd seen a lot of history already. But there were a few highlights! In the church, we learned from a super informative docent that Shakespeare's The Tempest had been based on the supply ship that shipwrecked, and didn't arrive at Jamestown as expected, causing the Starving Time. This was exciting to us as we'd seen the play over the summer, but didn't know that connection. We also loved the glasshouse, where we got to watch a few pieces being made. I also loved other parts, and would've liked more time... I might have to go back.

The glass blower. Again,
could've watched all day!

On the way home, we nearly finished the license plate game, and also managed to check one other thing off our list: bears!! Driving through the Appalachian Mountains, we spotted (and nearly hit), a momma bear crossing the road with her two cubs. Even more miraculous, everyone in our car managed to see them. Yay!

I'm not sure I've ever been so grateful for a vacation--but even if I hadn't just spent most of my year treating cancer, it would've been a fantastic trip. I'm not sure I convinced any of my girls to like history more than the beach, but they all loved Williamsburg and would totally go back. With me. Soon.*

*Except we'll probably go somewhere else instead. For variety. But it's nice to know that they would. :)

This is the Thomas
Jefferson who had
to face Elise's intense
questioning.

Williamsburg!

Elise opens her b-day gift:
another beach aquarium! :)
These are so necessary at the
beach.

Naomi tries the
harpsichord!

Kalina tries the
harpsichord!

Elise, a teenager

 Sometimes Elise gets really cool birthdays. For instance, this year we were traveling in Virginia and arrived home the day before her 13th. Not one to waste an opportunity, she decided that our beach day in Virginia would be an ideal time to pre-celebrate her birthday. And why not? I wrapped up a new beach aquarium to bring along as a gift, and off we went. (Note: this is her second time receiving a new beach aquarium on a beach vacation as an early birthday gift. It just works.)

The beach aquarium, on
vacation.

Amazing trip aside, a birthday at the beach is pretty ideal. She filled her aquarium with critters and then shells, swam until she was too battered to stay out anymore, and enjoyed a Twinkie which, apparently, at least one of my children never remembered having, ever (bad mom? Or good mom? You decide...). Back at the condo/timeshare, we celebrated with ice-cream. 

But her real birthday, over a month ago now, was also a lovely day. Coinciding with the first full day back from our trip meant that it was an easy decision to cancel school for Elise, Naomi (except math), and, well, not really for Kalina--sorry, Hon. 

Making chocolate raspberry
cheesecake in her new
shirt from Kalina!

Elise further made things easy by making her own birthday cheesecakes while I worked on unpacking and laundry. Bless you, Elise! What a great way to spend your 13th! Naomi helped wherever she could, making sure Elise was happy, doing her own laundry, and self-entertaining. Kalina did school, poor girl.

And of course there were presents! The day before, Elise had voiced sweet, mild, considerate, polite, carefully worded Elise-like concern that before we left on our trip, the present table had looked a little scarce (but it did have a few gifts ready to go!!! In my defense!). Would she have a big birthday just like her sisters?

Even if it killed us.

Naomi likes to do elaborate
bows. Using cat figurines, for
instance. 

A quick trip to the grocery store after arriving home Sunday evening, a decorating session later that evening, efficient present-wrapping techniques, a little scooting of still-unpacked bags around corners and out of sight, and by bedtime it totally looked like a birthday. A 13th one, in fact.

And fortunately, Elise seems to bring her own party wherever she goes at times. So never mind that the rest of us were all running a little lower than usual on party spirit, Elise had  delightful day.

Her first gift was a shirt from Kalina (see photo), that ironically we'd purchased even before Elise started her crayfish census of the stream. For a win!

Naomi gave her a cat treat cookbook that she's already dug into, producing lovely little muffins that the cats, of course, ignored. But we'll try again!

She also unwrapped a game or two, and a couple books throughout the day (a textbook dedicated to plankton! She might finally get her questions answered--or, more likely, come up with new ones), in addition to a digital microscope and an actually warm, nice sleeping bag. See, Child? We didn't forget you! Later Elise declared she got good presents--maybe one of her best birthdays ever. 

That evening, Grandpa and Marianne helped us celebrate with a trip to IHOP. The girls and I split a few things, and it turns out that with all those fancy pancakes, we totally didn't need the cheesecake.

But we tried it anyway, and each ate our requisite two bites. An even bigger challenge was lighting all the candles--which spelled Happy Birthday (see how there are exactly 13? Perfect!), but were so tiny that by the time the last one was lit, the first one had burned all the way through. To make it even more fun, they scattered wax when blown. Lots of laughs!

And so Elise celebrated turning 13. Yay!

But wait... we weren't going to let her 13th go by without a big bash with her friends! Before the trip she'd spelled out a few things she wanted to do at her party (namely campfire, treats, and friends), and she was content to wait until an undisclosed date to celebrate since we had not only our big trip, but also our AHG camping trip and an AHG sleep-under-the-stars astronomy night to keep us busy and replete with campfires/treats.

And then the best thing happened--Elise, so busy planning the AHG campout as part of her leadership position--seemed to have forgotten that we hadn't planned her party yet! 

A new planktology
textbook, tor the girl who
thought she knew
everything.

Which meant we were in the ideal situation to surprise her. And so we did. ALL of her friends planned to come, including a few sisters of friends that she enjoys too. Kalina had the brilliant idea of planning minute-to-win-it games, which Elise loves, and she prepared the materials. I planned the food (pizza + s'mores) and made sure the house was ready for guests, and Naomi helped me shop for decorations and prizes for the games. Matt chopped wood and ferried Elise away an hour before her guests were to arrive. 

Which was a good thing, because I was about ready to burst with the secret, having had to constantly remind myself, "Nope, can't say that," over and over again. Elise, for her part, seemed antsy all day, asking to make brownies and for a trip to a not-so-local state park on Saturday.

Despite my slicing myself with a letter opener looking through a drawer for batteries, Naomi, Kalina, and I were just putting on the finishing touches when the guests started arriving. Eventually, we shoed everyone outside and into hiding places almost in time for Elise to arrive home. 

As it was, even though our "surprise!" was a bit less coordinated than it could've been, she was super surprised and super overjoyed to see all her friends in her yard, ready for an evening of fun. We did it!

Matt rushed off to get pizza (which was delayed 15 minutes) while everyone chatted and caught up--a few of her friends hadn't seen each other in a while. We ate, started a fire, and then tried to keep everyone out of the fire while we played games.

As it turns out, the games were crazy, but I suppose I should've expected nothing less from a group of 13-ish-year-olds. They moved Oreos from their foreheads to their mouths, using nothing but facial movements, they moved cotton balls using only the Vaseline we put on their noses, they ate graham crackers hanging from strings, they guessed the number of items in boxes without looking, and they threw cheese puffs at teammates wearing shaving-creamed garbage bags to see who could get the most to stick. It was epic. It was a bit terrifying. It was just perfect.

The prizes were spot-on (yay, I picked prizes for teens!), the s'mores were delicious, if rushed, and no one got hurt, just a bit scared once. Elise opened her gifts, most of which showed lots of personality, and the parents arrived. And our girl glowed.

To be clear, Naomi and Kalina both commented that they would not like a surprise party, but they both really enjoyed helping with Elise's. We should do this every year, right?

Maybe not. But we're all glad that Elise was completely celebrated at 13!

___________________________________________________________

Elise at 13 is growing into a lovely, discerning, tuned-in, and conscientious girl. In fact, she's about as discerning and conscientious as you can be while continuing to be and have a lot of fun.  There might be times when she leans more toward one side than the other, but overall she makes it work.

She's learned the value of asking the words, "How can I help?" during stressful times, and has proven herself very helpful indeed (see cheesecake statement above). She enjoys the challenge of relieving burdens, and aims to be trusted and relied upon.

Continuing in her love of the outdoors, Elise planned our AHG campout, and still tries to sneak outside between school subjects so she can check for baby snapping turtles in the stream. Sometimes you just can't turn that off. She caught quite a few turtles last spring, and released them, only to find some of them again later. One hung around for quite a while, and she found him almost daily for a week or two. Later, she found a small population of crayfish in the stream and spent time recording their measurements and taking a census. She will make a very smooth transition to adult life as long as she becomes a marine-animal biologist in the field, and part-time pastry chef.

As such, Elise also loves baking and, to a lesser extent, cooking. She's becoming a more adventurous eater as well (broccoli, occasionally!), and willingly tries to find healthy snacks if pressed (it's complicated). Her new favorite thing to make is energy balls, but she'll pretty much make anything that tastes good. 

She strives to make good decisions and it stresses her out when other people don't... however she's not so grown up that she doesn't also make decisions to cover herself with mud in the stream, with friends. But at least she knows for a fact it's a dumb thing to do and doesn't pretend it's anything else as she carefully heads upstairs to shower.

Elise is still enchanted by pretty beads, and enjoys making the occasional jewelry (but not wearing much, as her ears still aren't ready to accept lots of changes of earrings). She also likes painting, and is taking a watercolor class.

And she loves reading, specifically books about people overcoming challenges, but also silly stuff or serious stuff. She enjoys her voice lessons (especially one particular song right now), continues to inch along on guitar, and is improving her acting skills.

Now that Elise has embarked on 7th-grade pre-algebra, she no longer complains about math and sometimes I have to stop her and make her do things like use a calculator instead of pencil/paper, stop complaining about the easy problems, or move to something else. I actually did kind of think this might happen, and it's been amazing not to have that particular "disagreement" every day this year. 

She's flying through writing, learning some real French, enjoying digging in to ancient Egypt, and not fussing as much about grammar, either. Our Elise is growing up! New this year: tests and grades. After a slightly rocky start brought on in overconfidence in our general science knowledge (i.e., she declined to study much because she figured she knew everything), she's found herself more than able to achieve the A's she wants. For the sake of her own pride if nothing else.

Elise loves to volunteer, and has been helping with the younger classes at church (along with her sisters), plus she helped with a special needs VBS over the summer, being a buddy for an attendee. She looks for chances to help out other places as well. 

She strives to use good communication to solve problems--and often succeeds. And she's trying to build her courage by doing things that (reasonably) scare her. A few firsts this year included leveling up to her coveted Pioneer level of AHG (more lock-ins! Planning their own badges! More challenging badgework! Yay!), jumping off a diving board, acquiring an email address, making a day's worth of meals for the family, sewing her own water bottle carrier, getting along with the strange teenagers at theater, organizing our garage sale (okay, I helped), and babysitting for some neighbor kids.

In fact, on her first job, she even had to feed the kids all dinner and put the 3-year-old to bed! Not only do the kids (and parents) LOVE her, but she totally maintained her composure and sweet patience when the 3-year-old kept getting out of bed because life was too exciting to be sleeping. Since then, she's babysat them a few other times, usually bringing them to our deck to hold her pet critters and (very mindfully) playing with them in the (ankle-deep) stream. And she earned the money she needed to pay her half of summer camp!

But she's not 100% grown up, either. She's still vocally annoyed she can't climb the maple tree to the top (she totally could--it's just a really tall tree). She adores sweets a little too much (does anyone outgrow that, ever?), loves squishy things, is often too loud, forgets to brush her teeth, neglects to clean the occasional cage unless asked, holds a grudge against the dentist, and sometimes forgets to do what she's told.

But we wouldn't have her any other way, would we?

Happy 13th, sweet girl!

Naomi at 10

Three kids in double digits! Seems impossible, but it's not. And Naomi makes a fantastic 10-year-old.

The day started, as most special days seem to, waaayyyyy too early. For both me and Naomi. I blame cancer for my early start, and excitement for Naomi's. 

No matter. Naomi had cleared it with me that she could wake her sisters up at 6:45 to begin the festivities. So she only had, like, an hour and a half to wait--but that's why books were invented, right?

We'd all decorated for Naomi the night before, and had her birthday cereal--magically appearing dragon Lucky Charms--ready to go on the table. Everyone dug in (except me, I dutifully ate an egg and toast), and I hustled off to 8:00 am radiation (I'll go on my birthday, too). Poor Naomi had to wait until I returned home before opening gifts, but I don't get the impression she had a hard time waiting with her sisters to entertain her. 

The only one still in her PJs, Naomi clearly hunted for a new birthday dress on the table. She'd asked for a penguin dress, penguins being her favorites right now, but those are difficult to find in August, and sometimes at all. She landed on a floppy package that did feel dress-like, if one could tightly fold a dress for a 10-year-old into a small, thin rectangle.

But it turns out she was close, because inside the gift was a yard of lovely penguin fabric from Kalina, that she promised to help Naomi turn into a dress, or a skirt, or a pillowcase, or a bag, or whatever. Super sweet!

I then handed Naomi her actual birthday dress, wrapped up in a larger box just for fun. And then she opened an adorable 3D otter puzzle, and that was plenty for the time being. 

Naomi of course got to take the day off of school, but Kalina and Elise didn't, entirely. Although with Elise about to explode because the super-cool, exciting gift she'd found for Naomi (and, admittedly, herself as well) set to arrive a day or two late, plus a birthday to celebrate, it was a bit of a struggle to get Elise to focus on anything. She did her math, her science, plus the unofficial crayfish census project she's been working on ever since she started finding these beloved critters in the stream. But I digress.

Poor Kalina did her best to work through her math, but it was hot upstairs (major heat wave) and downstairs was loud. She still got a lot done.

Then we decided that a little PE was in order, and we went to "swim laps" at the neighborhood pool. Swimming seems to almost be a birthday tradition with all our summer birthdays, and it's good exercise when it's so hot outside. That's how we justified it, anyway.

We had the place to ourselves, unless you count all the floating bugs. If you count them the pool was, in fact, quite crowded. The girls not having birthdays today took turns with the pool skimmer to clear things up a little. 

Naomi showed off her swimming skills, which finally include plenty of ducking all the way underwater (nose plugged, of course), and even swimming underwater. But not jumping in from the edge yet.

Once back at home, we enjoyed Matt's awesome pancakes, with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Plus a bowl of veggies and fruit, because we really do need those things.

The afternoon passed with more gifts, and then our typical Jason's Deli meal, followed by a Dairy Queen ice-cream cake with Grandpa and Marianne. 

The next day, though, something even more exciting happened: Elise's gift for Naomi arrived! Elise, so excited about her gift for Naomi, and that one she ordered for herself as well, nearly died waiting for it in the mail, but somehow pushed through. The entire wait became sheer agony, but the elation... let's just say I'm surprised she didn't throw up, like she would've in her 4-year-old days. 

The gift for Naomi was a tracking bracelet, to follow a real live tracked penguin. We located him in South America, presumably just arriving at his nesting spot! I think. He hasn't moved since, so I'll be making a phone call.

Elise's gift to herself was a similarly tracked sea turtle. She now has a "pet" sea turtle off the coast of Florida. And Naomi has a "pet" penguin. Joy!

Naomi also got to celebrate with a few friends at a local trampoline park that she'd been eying ever since her last birthday, apparently desperate to launch herself into the air. So a couple weeks ago, when a particularly good summer sale was still in full swing, we loaded up three friends and let everyone loose on the trampolines. We do, by the way, have a trampoline at home--but these were bouncier. They had a blast.

We followed the bouncing up with DIY ice-cream sundaes at home, grateful that we hadn't reversed the order of activities.

And our little girl is 10!

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Naomi is a delight, with a lovely mix of quiet self-sufficiency, a goofy sense of humor, and a soft spot for all things little and cute. Even her stuffies kiss each other goodnight.

Her courage is currently under development, as she rode a horse and a waterslide this summer, in addition to auditioning for a musical. Of the three, she could picture riding a horse again, but definitely not a waterslide. Maybe the audition. 

She's greatly developing her music skills, covering lots of piano music with virtually no help at home and a good practice ethic. She has also made great strides with violin, and has stopped complaining quite so much when I ask her to practice, having enjoyed the fruit of her labor. Remember the super-long fingers of her itty-bitty baby days? She still has those and yes, as I suspected, they are piano-playing fingers! If only she'd trim her fingernails a bit more often--she certainly doesn't need the extra length.

Arts and crafts continue to be one of Naomi's favorite hobbies, and she's applying her practicing skills to pencil drawing and working methodically towards drawing really realistic animals. She continues to delight us with super-creative 3D crafts (as she calls them), combining materials to make adorable little animals. She certainly has an eye for cuteness. She can also crochet little 3D items.

Reading is another favorite, and Naomi continues to enjoy the historical fiction genre, among others. She can somehow be in the middle of four books at once. And her reading skills are carrying over to her writing, as she actually completed her first chapter book this year. About penguins. It contains many of the elements of great literature, including differing points of view and a tear-jerker backstory that explains some of the complex emotions of one character.

She made her own
travel pillow!

Practically speaking, Naomi can clean a whole bathroom, make more things in the kitchen (although cooking is, understandably, not her favorite unless she's flipping pancakes or grilled cheese), organize messy areas, check her way through a to-do list like nobody's business and sweep well. Now that she's 10, she's received a colorful laundry basket and the task of doing her own laundry, which she used to be excited about but now isn't so much. 

In school, she needs my help like once a week. Naturally, I work with her on several subjects anyway but sometimes only out of principle. 

He giggle continues uncontrollably at times, as she cracks up at anything the least bit silly. And in the other direction, she's gaining good composure and communication skills to use when things aren't quite perfect thanks, in large part, to Elise, with whom she practices a lot. Their relationship continues to grow into more friendship, much less frustration. They make a great team most days. 

Kalina, for her part, sweetly and carefully takes Naomi under her wing to help her with new skills, like running a sewing machine and solving a Rubik's cube. They can get pretty goofy together as well.

Naomi can occasionally now eat a food she doesn't like, as long as it's not, like, twice in two days or anything, and not anything she has a specific aversion to (beans, potatoes, meat--things like that). She's definitely a vegetarian (not wanting to disrupt any cuteness), and has started to accept the fact that maybe, someday, just maybe she might need to branch out so she gets enough nutrition. The seed is planted, but it's going to take a lot of watering.

She runs faster than most of her counterparts, paddles a canoe, jumps rope a gazillion times, hikes long distances without complaining, swims fully underwater (holding her nose, of course), and does her own hair. She can Google a photo of a cute sea otter with its mom (just type in "cute sea otter with mom"), select one safely, print it, and decorate her wall with it, with no help from me. Her new thing is fake sneezing, and she's surprisingly convincing.

The girl impresses with her theater skills, and can go from silent and still to slapstick comedy acting in a matter of seconds. One of her favorite things to do with her friends is to put on shows, and they've gotten fairly elaborate, with multiple acts and lots and lots of costume changes. 

Fortunately, she still has a little neighbor girl who's happy to play Playmobil and Calico Critters with her, and all her friends seem happy to do shows, craft, make things for her mice, and play outside as well. 

Speaking of mice, she lost two this year (not lost like they're missing--the other kind of lost). She grieved a long time, and worries about the remaining one. But she and her friends had lots of fun before that building interesting structures for the mice to explore, including a little restaurant, a store, a theater, and more. Two of her sweet friends even helped her build coffins when the time was right, and bury the mice, with Matt, in the backyard in probably the most adorable funeral I've ever heard of. Even the girls, though their respectful sadness, couldn't quite keep from cracking up at the cuteness of it all. [Update: in the writing of this blog post, she lost the third. We hope to host more at some point, as they've been a lovely pet. Or maybe a hamster.]

Sisters are just the best.

Naomi continue to adore younger kids, and her cousins top the list, of course. She's happy to do their bidding on the several days a year we see them, and enjoyed a cousin sleepover in Minnesota when we visited. She also plays with the neighbors' granddaughters who are all at least two years younger than she is. The neighbors just love her. And she helps with younger kids at church, endlessly sweet and patient.

And she's about to get her braces off!! She has virtually never complained about them (the dentist comments every time on how different my children are from each other), and says she'll miss them a little. 

What she really doesn't like is bugs. And being upstairs alone, still.

And she still wears pretty much only dresses, but did go through a skirt phase and was okay in jeans for riding the horse that one time.

Naomi thinks a lot, and processes many things internally. But she asks great questions and increasingly makes really good points. I'm guessing we'll all be paying more and more attention to what goes on inside her head in the coming years.

Isn't she a delight? We are excited about our decade with sweet Naomi!