The Rowdy Pea

our little winter party

Friday night we had a little family party to welcome the official start of the winter season. We have a family tradition of eating a winter-y dinner and a dessert of lemon poppyseed "sun cake"  on the winter solstice, which is also our wedding anniversery. So this tradition really started when we became parents and realized that it can be very tricky to get a babysitter this close to Christmas, especially in a college town.  But our family party is lots of fun, and sometimes followed by a long drive through different neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. I know, we are wild :P

Ivo's favorite part of our celebration, besides making and eating the cake, is getting his little present.  This year I was a little (okay a lot) more extravagant than usual when I ordered him this very lovely and unusual set of blocks from The Wooden Wagon.  He loves them, woohoo. Maybe even more than I do. Josh got a set of tangrams and a book about them for our "wood" anniversery--just a funny coincidence but it made me look very on the ball. Here they are playing with their new toys:

Ivo loves to set up villages and drive his cars or walk his little fingers through them. It's so funny to see which details capture his attention from our local haunts. A group of blocks representing the university campus had to be positioned just so, with a certain very large building tucked back behind the others. Then, a tiny voice for the walking fingers, "I am papa and I go to school in the big building way far the way down this way, here it is, I ride up the elevator and walk round by the pop machine and walk over past that room with the funny pillows and I go to school."  I am so glad I decided to give these blocks to him on Friday instead of waiting until Christmas. I really think they might have been lost in the shuffle for all their simplicity.  And the tangrams have kept my nerdy husband occupied now that school is over.

I hope you are all enjoying the last bits of hustle and bustle--may you all have a very peaceful holiday with many happy moments!!

out for an adventure

"Christmas is a time for snow-prizes."  --Ivo

some christmas reading

Last weekend I posted about some of our favorite winter books, but I didn't include Christmas books in that post because I just had so darn many winter books to yap about.  However now that it's so close to Christmas, this post is a little too late to be of any real help this year I suppose. But I do love my Christmas book collection, so I'll share a little of it with you anyway.  And since the game recommendations have been very helpful (thank you very much!) I would love to hear about any of your favorite Christmas books if anyone is inclined to share.

We are suffering from a few sniffles over here, so I'll just do this as a quick little list. I really mustn't be up past my bedtime in my current condition! This isn't a top ten list or anything, just a few favorites that I look forward to every year . . .

Richard Scarry's The Animals Merry Christmas  This is back in print in a very sweet new edition (here), but a couple of the stories have been cut so I linked to this one just for the sake of authenticity.  My very favorite Christmas book.

The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I think this book is just about perfect.

You Are My Miracle by Maryann K. Cusimano Love.  Ivo adores this book, and I am such a sap, I can hardly get through the end without tearing up. 

Take Joy! The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book. It's everything you would hope a Tasha Tudor Christmas book would be, but even bigger and more chock-full of goodness than I expected.  I just discovered this book and have it checked out from the library. Let me just say this book has no business being out of print--gah! We need a book like this now more than ever. 

The Christmas Dolls by Carol Beach York, The Doll's Christmas by Tasha Tudor and especially The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden . . . You know I love those doll stories! These books are treasures in my life.

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. I am very fond of this one. Although some do find it scandalous.

The First Christmas Stocking by Elizabeth Winthrop. I have that knitting envy you know. Never more so than when I read about that hard-working and kindhearted Claire, a real champion of the people. And as an added bonus, it's another tearjerker. every time!

And finally . . . Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book. If I had to pick only one Christmas book it would be this one.  It's a perfect collection of songs, stories, poems, and art.  Christmas wouldn't be the same without it at our house!

Just a few favorites off ye olde Christmas bookshelf. No doubt I've forgotton something close to my heart . . . but it's a start.  One thing I would love to find is a book for Ivo about the Nativity. I would love to hear any suggestions about this. We have two beat up old Golden Books that tell the story of the birth of Jesus, and Ivo is very interested in both of them.  I would love for him to have a beautiful, new book to encourage his interest.  Heaven knows it would get the annual mileage at our house for years to come! 

And I am going to take this week to read blogs instead of write one, so I will probably post a little here or there, but mostly I'll be out a-visiting.  Have a wonderful week everyone! 

the three bears and us

A milestone: We played our first board game yesterday! I changed the rules a little bit to make it easier, but it was still a turn-taking, spinner-spinning, path-hopping board game.  Ivo loves the Three Bears story so it really was an enticing offer to play the game, even if it meant a) sitting down, and b) listening to directions. 

Yes, we read The Three Bears multiple times every day at our house. At this point it's more than a story to Ivo. It's a lifestyle choice. We have several versions and each offers it's own nuanced interpretation of events. The good thing to come from this is that Ivo has started eating oatmeal porridge every day, which is not only cheap but also very yummy and healthy.  Also, the phrase "juuuust riiiight" is the new superlative of choice and brings many opportunities to be fully mindful of life's small blessings. Such as the fit of new boots, the temperature of bathwater, the feel of a cozy blanket . . .it can all be "juuust riiight."

The not-as-good part of this new obsession interest is that at the end of the day I really am not sure if I care that Ivo's bed feels "to high at the foot" for him, or "too low at the foot".  And there have been times when he is determined to find fault, I suppose we all have moods like this, but the story has given him an ample selection of new things to complain about, things that are "too soft, too hot, too cold" and on and on.  He sternly warns me not to break his chair, and did you know that Goldilocks is one of literature's most heinous villains, capable of keeping children up all night for fear of her B&E, porridge-pilfering ways? I did not know this, but I do now. 

And just to end on a positive note, I'm encouraged to call Ivo "Baby Bear" now, which I will do gladly, taking this kind of warm-and-fuzzy little boy stuff while I can.  It's not meant to last forever.

I would love to hear about your children's favorite board games (or table games). It would be nice to buy one or two for under our tree, or have a list of games to look for when we're out thriftin it up at the resale shop.

why i make things for ivo, finally articulated (but not by me)

One of the best parts about having a blog is the way it has connected me to other people who I might not have met otherwise. I feel like I have pen pals all over the world now, and some, like Libby Jane from The Full Cup, who are actually close enough to know in real life if we had the chance.  We both have an interest in making toys and recently she introduced me (not literally of course) to Sophia Cavaletti, saying she was a student of Maria Montessori and leader of a branch of montessori education (more on this here), who urges teachers and parents to make the materials themselves, maintaining that the care adults put into the materials we give our children is vitally important to the children. Here are some snippets of an email she sent me a few weeks ago, and I thought it was so interesting I asked her if I could share parts of it here (she said yes).

Sophia Cavaletti and many others put out a call to the community of catechists saying that it is the very poverty of the materials that calls to the children.  In poverty she was speaking not of poor and ugly things. Rather, the simplicity of the materials, along with the care put into them by the parent or teacher who makes them, speaks to the children.  She said that when we make too fancy materials they speak of the skill and imagination of the artist, but not so much to the soul of the child. 

The point of the materials is not to teach a lesson, but to engage the child in the work or play that he or she needs to do. "The materials... are not meant to lead to the formulation of concepts, but to a vital encounter with a real Person," says Gobbi in Listenting to God with Children.  I think this concept is so present in Waldorf too; the toys themselves don't actually matter.  It is the childrens' play (or their work!)  that takes them where they need to go.

I just love this, and isn't it interesting that these sentiments seem to cross over so many differing philosophies, almost like a higher conciousness.  I've been doing more toy shopping than usual because of the Christmas season, and even though I try to stay very positive-minded, I'm disheartened by what I see for children in the stores.  This email really lifted my spirits and I am so happy Libby Jane said I could post it here.  Here's a few sentences more . . .

She also said that each teacher must make her own materials for her children because making the materials is part of the spiritual formation of the teacher!  I have experienced that so much myself, and see it quite clearly in the work on your blog.
In writing this just now, I have a much needed reminder for myself.  As an artist, I am often so ambitious!  It is within my grasp to make such wondrous treasures, but actually it often prevents me from making anything at all.  I have a vision of the nativity set, the advent calendar, I want to make for our family, and I never make it, because I don't have the time!  But I remember the creche we had when I was little, my mom made it out of salt dough, and it was so simple.  Really just colored balls stuck together; we were always gluing the heads back on, but how I loved it!

Isn't that so encouraging and just . . . freeing?  Thanks Libby Jane :)

winter reading

Here's a look at some winter books we've been reading this month*.  With about a foot of snow suddenly on the ground this is the wintery-est December I've had in the past several years, and what nicer thing than to have a three-year-old to enjoy it with me.  Especially a three-year-old with a finely honed sense of cozy appreciation.  After playing in the snow he likes to take everything off and start over, with fresh pajamas (which he always wears unless we're going out because they are so cozy of course) a "little warm snack", and cuddles with a blanket and a story. ahhhhh  . . . I try to let it be sweet, and not bittersweet, but I know my winters of this are numbered. Do twelve year olds do this? Eight year olds? someone tell me yes!!

I don't usually do book posts, but I love reading them when you do. There have been a few other bloggers who've done winter book posts recently that were very helpful to me (here , here and here for starters), so I thought I'd share ours. We also have a growing collection of Christmas books that I think I'll post about later. I love my Christmas book collection!  Living in the upper midwest this is the best season for reading, and there's never any shortage of good books on the topic of winter cheer.  so, cheers to that.

Just for a laugh, this is Ivo doing his matrioshka impression.

*And here are the books in the photo above:

top row: The Hat (Jan Brett), When It Starts to Snow (Phyllis Gershator), In the Snow: who's been here? (Lindsay Barrett George), When Winter Comes (Nancy Van Laan), The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats), Tasha Tudor's Bedtime Book (Shingebiss is the favorite winter story here)

middle row: The Mitten (Jan Brett), A Book for Bramble (Lynne Garner), Stranger in the Woods (Carl R. sams II & Jean Stoick), Bear Snores On (Karma Wilson), The Big Snow (Berta and Elmer Hader)

bottom row: The Tomten (Astrid Lindgren), Tracks in the Snow (Wong Herbert Yee), The Mitten (Alvin Tresselt), Snow Music (Lynne Rae Perkins), Gingerbread Baby (Jan Brett), Snow (Uri Shulevitz)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, warmest wishes to all  :)

smocks, bib, felt, snow . . .

Just a little show-and-tell to get me started here.  This matching smock and bib set were made for one of Ivo's friends and her brand new little sister. We spent yesterday morning with them, and I got lots of snuggle time with the newborn baby, which set my heart all a-flutter. I've made this smock pattern dozens of times in the past few years, but this one is my first in linen, and my first with a little patch of a cutie-wootie Japanese print, a style I've copycatted from other blogs. Meow, meow!  No shame in borrowing a little style inspiration--or in this case, hopping on a bandwagon. Heh, last one on, last one off, that's me.  Here's a closer look at the print:

Such sweet fabric, isn't it? It was hard to cut into. I'm just getting used to the finer things over here.

And since we're on the topic of show and tell, I ordered some gorgeous thick plant-dyed wool felt from Weir Dolls and Crafts last week, and it arrived in only two days' time. They were so nice to do business with, and have the best felt I've used. I'm going to stick with them from now on. Here's a picture of that yummy, yummy plant-dyed felt:

hubba, hubba . . . talk about hard to cut into. I just went for it . . . snip, snip, snip. There isn't much you can do to detract from the natural beauty here. This morning I listed a few dolls in my etsy shop that are dressed in this wool felt.  There will be more to come, and a few other designs I'm working on when I can grab a moment.

In non-crafting news, it snowed all day today, and Ivo and I made a nest next to the sliding door and read wintery stories together.  Then Josh and Ivo spent the afternoon and into the evening playing in the snow, and Ivo had fun re-enacting all the things Peter does in The Snowy Day. He made tracks, played with a stick, and made angels, calling out, "I'm just like Peter!"  Afterward, he gobbled down two bowls of oatmeal porridge, a slice of nutty cinnamon toast, and a mug of hot cocoa, then a warm bath, fresh jammies, stories, and bed. Sometimes I wish it were me who was three years old! And here's my little snow bunny now:

Now I'm going to have my own mug of cocoa and watch out the window for a little while before bed. It's one of the most peaceful scenes in the world, a fresh snowfall. I hope it sticks *fingers crossed*.

 

oh christmas tree, oh clearance tree, how lovely are your branches

Ivo and his cousin Alex took charge of  an improptu tree trimming party last week, and what fun it was! I hauled the thing in, put it together and strung the lights while the boys napped, so they wouldn't have to hear me use swear words. and when they woke up they were so surprised and excited. It's just a cheapie artificial tree bought on clearance a few years back. I think it cost four dollars. But do you know what . . . It does not matter.  Those boys were just beside themselves over our tree, and spent the next two hours unwrapping and hanging ornaments.  We listened to Christmas music on the radio and stopped for a nice long cookie and cocoa break.  Every ornament was unwrapped with the excitement of Christmas morning's first present. "I got a bird!" one would chirp, then "Wooooah, I got a gingerbread man, yummmmy!!" from the other. "Hey, it's a . . . what it is . . . it's like . . . um,  it's a beautiful thing!" That was my favorite.  Of course 85% of the ornaments are hanging in clusters around the bottom branches, and there they will stay, I can't bear to re-arrange the boys' hard work. Even some non-ornaments made it on to the tree this year, can you spot them?

It was quite an accomplishment! I love that Ivo is old enough now to really participate in our family traditions and add his own unique flair to our celebrations.  The last thing I want is to "do" Christmas for my kid, or my family for that matter.  I want us to share this very special time of year together and experience things that are meaningful to all of us. And there is no room in that for my perfectionism.  And what's left is this: the two brothers returning from afternoon errands to find their sons dancing merrily around a carefully decorated yet decidedly haphazard Christmas tree, having carried out with glee what would have (I'm sure of it!) felt like a "chore" to the dads.  Everyone is happy, all is well. 

And yes, we have some seriously goofy, beat-down ornaments. I love them so, and this is one time of year when the gaudy, the cringe-inducingly homespun, and the tragically gilded all suddenly become acceptible items for display. And I am so there.