Adventures in Parenting

Recently Katherine took something from Elisabeth. I asked Katherine, "Is that yours?""Yes," she replied.
Knowing she had just taken it from her sister, to whom it belonged, I asked "Why do you think it is yours?"
"Because I want it."
That is two year old logic par excellence.

This morning I was reading Genesis 18 and found a grammatical structure I had never noticed before: 

"For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 

The word "THAT" leaped off the page at me. The LORD chose Abraham for the purpose of the obedience of his children. Abraham was chosen for the sake of others - and those others are his children and the member of his household. 

I needed that reminder that covenant election and calling is for the good of others - and especially of my household.

When your child makes something for you for Christmas, it is special. When they're two, it might be a few scribbles on a piece of paper. It isn't something that you're going to hang on your wall for the next ten years, but it it is special because they made it.
Over the past few years, we've been blessed by friends giving gifts that they have made. My sister-in-law Haley is a gifted seamstress and can make just about anything from fabric - and she makes things that we all love! My wife's gift is food. She makes homemade granola that is as good or better than anything I can find at Whole Foods. My father-in-law's medium was painting. Over the years, we received beautiful paintings from him that have become family treasures.

This year we received two Advent gifts that renewed my love for God, and reinspired me with the breadth of possibility in Advent gift giving. Our friend Carey Wallace gave us an Advent poem that gave us a glimpse inside the faith that says, "Be it to me as you have said." Our friend and pastor, Greg Thompson, gave us a song. He wrote and recorded an original track and shared it with us - AND our non-Christian friends and neighbors.

In reflecting on Greg's song, it struck me that this is "love as art" and "art as love." Greg is bearing the image of God, who created good things for the enjoyment of his beloved image-bearers. At the same time, and in the same action, Greg is bearing witness as well as bearing God's image - and not only to those who already embrace this story, but to those who need to hear and see its beauty.

This Advent, I bless God for our many friends, who through the work of their hands, have blessed us, reflected God, and borne witness to His 

Recently I have renewed an old tradition of saying a blessing over Elisabeth at bedtime. Following John Piper's example with his daughter Talitha, I use amodified version of Numbers 6.

The Lord God bless you and keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace . . . and someday a godly husband.

Almost every night, Elisabeth responds with a smile, "You too, except for the husband bit."

On our trip to Texas, we let the girls chew gum on the plane to help with ear pressure. Katherine didn't quite get it.
She tried the first time and swallowed the gum. We explained that it isn't for eating. ("Then why put it your mouth?!")

She also mistook the name of the stuff she swallowed. For the rest of the trip, she requested "chewing makeup." We didn't give her any more because of her propensity to swallow it, which only increased the requests for "chewing makeup."

Maybe on our next flight . . .

Today we had the joy of having lunch with our friends the Salvatierras - both the NYC Salvatierras and the C'ville Salvatierras. We picked up lunch at Bodo's and headed to Washington Park to enjoy the beautiful afternoon with bagel sandwiches where the kids could run and play.
We ate together at the picnic tables under the shelter, and when the kids had eaten sufficient (or desire to run and play overcame hunger), they ran to climb and play on the adjacent playground while the grown-ups finished eating. Rebecca said something about keeping an eye on Katherine, and we turned our gaze to the playground. 


And so we all saw Katherine, attempting to step from the platform (which is a little over six feet high) to the ladder-like climbing structure on the right. She missed or slipped and fell clear to the ground below, landing flat, face down. It was awful to watch. 

We sprinted to her. I didn't want to pick her up for fear that she could have a back or neck injury. But as I got there, she was getting herself up on hands and knees, and so I picked her up. She had a mouthful of mulch and a split lip, and wasn't yet breathing. The force of the fall had clearly, literally "knocked the wind out of her." 

Soon she recovered her breath and started crying. She was able to move both arms and both legs, and didn't have any visible cuts. (Even the split on her lip was small by comparison to some of the split lips she's had just from tripping on the sidewalk in the past.) So we held her and rocked her, and tried to get as much of the mulch out of her mouth as we could while she cried. 

We expected that she would be pretty shaken by such a fall, even if she wasn't seriously hurt. But after 20 minutes she was still crying and breathing unevenly. (We couldn't tell if it was because she had pain from something like a broken rib, or if it was just the shuddering breathing that many children have after they've been sobbing for a while.) So we hopped in the car to head for the ER.

On Friday, Katherine and I had gone to Mainly Music, a toddlers' music time at our church. There we had seen our friend Chris Stokes, an ER resident, with his daughter Nora. Chris told me that he was working this weekend, so I knew he would be in the ER. As we walked into the hospital, I decided not to try to call him since he would probably be busy with other patients. However, Chris saw Katherine's name appear on the board and came to do the physical exam. To our great relief, Katherine didn't show any signs of any serious injury, and Chris and the ER attending agreed that she didn't even need to have an x-ray. From when we walked in the door to when we were discharged was probably only about 30 minutes.

Just a few days before Thanksgiving, we have MANY things to be thankful for:

1. A flat landing that distributed the force of the fall.
2. Soft, loose mulch.
3. Seeing her fall so that we knew what had happened, and could respond immediately.
4. A pediatrician (Rebecca) and nurse (Laura) as first responders, who were there in seconds.
5. Chris seeing Katherine's name AND not being tied up with other patients so he could see her.
6. No serious injuries! (Nor even need for an x-ray!)
7. A speedy, easy experience in the ER. 

In Laura's words, "Thank you Jesus!"

Recently Katherine has been waking up too early. Then we set our clocks back for daylight savings time. Now she wakes up WAY too early.
So we purchased a Good Nite Lite, thinking that this might help her know when it is time to sleep and when it is time to wake. 




The concept is pretty simple. The nightlight is a moon when it is time to sleep. 




And it changes to a sun when it is time to wake.




For kids who can't yet tell time or read numbers, the visual changes in the clock tell the child when he or she ought to be sleeping, and when it is time to wake up.

We tried it last night for the first time. We coached Katherine through how the clock changes color and which color means time to wake up, and what to do if she wakes up and the clock is still a moon (Go back to sleep!).

Around 5:30 this morning, we heard Katherine starting to make noise, but didn't go to her, hoping that she would see that the clock was blue, and that it should go back to sleep. (We had set the clock to change at 6am, hoping that she would make it close enough to that hour to see the change, and then we could gradually move the wake time toward 7.) She made enough noise that she woke Elisabeth, who came into our room to tell us that Katherine was pounding on the wall. 

So I went into Katherine's room at about 5:45 with my pillow to lie on the floor. Katherine kept asking to get out of bed, to have breakfast, and to go downstairs. I told her that we couldn't get up until the sun got up, and that we had to be quiet for Mommy and Elisabeth, who were still sleeping. She continued to fidget and ask to go downstairs until 6:00, when the light changed from a moon to a sun. Katherine exclaimed, "Daddy it turned yellow!" Now she knows what it looks like when she is supposed to get up.

At bedtime tonight, Rebecca rehearsed with Katherine what the colors mean, and when she is allowed to get up. Rebecca explained, "When the clock turns yellow, then it is time to get up."

Katherine retorted, "Daddy and I get up when it is blue!" Sadly, that's true so far. And now, I need to go to bed. The moon is blue.

Yesterday, Elisabeth asked us, "You know the home school family song? Is there a song like that about the Addam's family?"
She knows the parody rather than the original! For those who don't know the parody, here is a great Tim Hawkins clip!

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When we arrived in C'ville, we asked folks for recommendations of things to do with kids. Again, and again, people recommended Sugar Hollow and Blue Hole (a swimming hole at Sugar Hollow). So I looked it up on the web. I didn't find any sort of landing page, and the clarity of directions on sites like Every Trail was this complete: "Drive to sugar hollow then hike to swimming hole."

I figured, "It must be obvious." I was wrong. On our first trip there we found the parking area without difficulty. The parking area wasn't marked at all, but there were about a dozen cars parked there. That was the end of our success.

There weren't any signposts or markings that I could see for where the various trails began. So we took what looked like the largest and most traveled route. When we passed some hikers a mile or so in, I asked how much farther it was to Blue Hole. They laughed and said that we were on the wrong trail. So, the purpose of this post is to help those who aren't "in the know" find Sugar Hollow, and specifically Blue Hole swimming hole.

First, here are the driving directions. 

1. If you start in Charlottesville, go to the Barracks Road Shopping Center, and go west on Barracks Road from its intersection with Emmett Street / 29 North.
2. Barracks Road becomes Garth Road and intersects with Sugar Hollow Road. The intersection of Garth and Sugar Hollow is a little tricky if you don't have a GPS.  You "turn" onto Sugar Hollow Road (which really means take the left option at the fork in the road). So watch carefully for this intersection, or use a GPS!
3. Continue on Sugar Hollow Road. You'll cross over two bridges, and the road will change from paved to gravel. You will see the dam that retains the Sugar Hollow reservoir. Continue beyond the dam to the parking area. (As I said, there aren't any signs, but there have been cars there every time we've gone.)

Now the hiking directions! There are three hiking/walking options. 

1. The first, and most obvious, continues in the direction that you had been driving when you entered. This is a nice, well-maintained trail, and takes you (among other places) to Snake Hole, not Blue Hole. 
2. The second, and second most obvious, goes in the opposite direction, back toward the reservoir. It is also broad, roughly a car's width. I haven't hiked this one, but assume that it does indeed lead back to, and around the reservoir.
3. The third option is perpendicular to these two. If you face the direction you drove in, it is directly to your left. In roughly the middle of the parking area, there is a small path that goes through the trees and down to a rocky stream bed. Cross the stream. (Most of the time the water is low enough that you can hop from rock to rock without getting wet.) Climb up the bank on the far side of the stream and look for a broad path. This is the trail to Blue Hole! Once you've found it, you shouldn't have any trouble staying on it. It is wide enough for a car, level, and easy to follow. For the most part, it is a steady uphill hike. You will cross a stream and continue the ascent with the stream meandering on your right. When you see a waterfall/rapids on your right, you have reached Blue Hole. The swimming hole at the bottom of the rapids/falls has a rope suspended from a tree for those who want to swing out for a swim. For the more timid, there is a path that leads down to the swimming hole where you can walk in more gently!

We didn't go beyond Blue Hole, so I can't tell you what lies beyond. But the hike in took about 1.5 hours with a seven-year-old and a two-year-old. And here are some pictures of the adventure!

Blue Hole

Homemade pizza has become something of a family tradition in our home. On numerous occasions, I've had people ask me for the recipe (and again this weekend). So here it is!
Pizza Dough for 2 14-ish inch pies
3 tbsp. olive oil
scant 1.5 C warm water
4.25 C flour (I usually do 1 C whole wheat, 3.25 C unbleached flour)
2 tsp.salt 
3 tsp.sugar
2 tsp. dry yeast



Put all the ingredients in a bread maker on the dough setting. When it is ready, pull it out and separate into two pieces. Form each one into a crust. Depending on the consistency, you can toss, stretch, or roll it to the size of your pan.


It is a fantastic recipe that we got from Aunt Dot (who still makes far better pizza than we can!). The only warning is that the amount of water you use REALLY matters. If I do a full 1.5 cup, the dough is very sticky and fragile. (It still makes a great crust; it is just hard to spread without tearing.) If you don't get quite enough water, it will be stretchy and take a lot of rolling to get two good crusts.

For the past several years, we have been going to the Met once a week for their Start with Art program. (It has never had a landing page, but it looks like MetMuseum.org is getting a facelift that includes a new Met Kids landing page - and hopefully one for Start with Art as well!) When a friend asked me what would be hard to duplicate in leaving NYC, Start with Art was at the top of the list. Where else in the world can a kid enjoy such an amazing museum with a class designed fro 3-7 year-olds almost every day of the week?!

More than that, Lena Sawyer and Maria Yoon, two of the museum educators had become beloved friends of our children. So it was hard to say goodbye.

We were delighted, however, to find that UVA has its own Art Museum that boasts free admission and a monthly Family JAMS program (among other educational offerings). So we signed up for the first session for which we were in town - and were not disappointed!

The theme of the October program was Dance, which was a great fit for our girls. The class began in the galleries by looking at and discussing paintings, photographs, prints, sketches, and sculptures of dancers. Then we moved to the nearby art studio for the kids to make art. Two dancers from the University took turns holding different poses for 10-30 seconds while the kids learned to speed sketch. It was remarkable how quickly they learned to recognize the significant lines and shapes that the dancers were making when they only had 30 seconds to sketch! After the sketching, the class moved yet again to a dance studio where the two dancers helped the kids to do dance.

The class was a great mixture of observing, discussing and doing. If they had the class weekly, we'd be back every week, as we did at the Met.

Family JAMS