Totoro!

Look what I found on my soon-to-be-four year old son's desk this morning.  Not sure what the red figure is, probably an unfinished spiderman.  But would you just look at his Totoro?  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Hansel and Gretel

My kids are in love with the Redwall series.  How do you like my little Matthias?

Our little guy has had a tough couple of weeks.  It all started at a birthday party a few Saturdays ago when he threw up after eating a cupcake.  Then nothing for a few days, until he felt kind of icky after eating some pizza.  Then about a week and a half ago, on a Sunday morning I began to think something might be seriously wrong.  Since that Sunday morning, my little man has had severe stomach pain with just about every nibble of food.  The most troubling thing is that this has begun to be a chronic condition.  In the last year, he's had at least three periods of a few weeks to a month of similar symptoms. 

So now we're going through testing.  So far, nothing conclusive.  I took him off of gluten, dairy, eggs, high fructose corn syrup, anything with even trace amounts of trans fat, and anything with sugar as the first or second listed ingredient.  And his health improved with that first "clean" meal. 

That's what we've been up to.  Not so much fun, but there have been so many beautiful moments.  Nothing like a scare over a loved one's health to make you realize just how much you love that person.  And so many moments, I've been storing up in my heart. 

Like bed-time reading after bathtime. 

Whispered secrets.

Cowboy boots.

His favorite long sleeve green shirt.

And just yesterday, watching them fall in love with this.  Their first opera, of sorts.  Even my little rock and roll fella (who will only tolerate classical music if it sounds like something from a Star Wars movie) was humming along (wildly off tune) with the music.

So here it is.  Hansel and Gretel.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Guys, I swear that when I cranked Books back up a few months ago, I meant to be faithful.  I was ready to come back.  Ready for the commitment. 

But then I picked up a felting needle and a ball of wool and lost myself.  It started out simply enough.  I just wanted to make a few little dolls to slip into the kids stockings on Christmas Eve, but in just a few days time, I became obsessed.  By Christmas Eve, I was putting the finishing touches on what turned out to be the main event, present-wise.  I've wanted for years to shun the toy stores in favor of handicrafts, but I couldn't find a medium I felt comfortable with. 

But felting just . . . felt right. 

So, I really do have another good excuse for my absence.  I hope you won't abandon me altogether.  But even if you do, I must say it was worth it.  Watching my children playing, and loving, toys I made for them with my own two hands has been pure bliss.  And when my daughter sidles up to me and says, "Please, would you make for me a Totoro?"  And that I can actually grant her request, well that is reward enough.

Totoro

Woody On The Sailboat and Little Pip Fishing

Gnomies Roasting Marshmallows

Little Bear Crossing The Stream

Forest Mother With Baby (In The Sling) And Daisy

Not Quite Scary Troll

Little Pip Fishing In The Pond

Now that the gifts are unwrapped and I'm not in a mad rush, I will have more time for books and blogging, so I will be checking in here more often.  One book in particular I am so eager to share with you, The Brave Cowboy by Joan Walsh Anglund.  Perhaps, tomorrow. 

And do stay tuned.  We have some exciting things in store for you.  For one, a new family etsy shop featuring handmade goodies from scarves to toys.  Even the kiddies are in on it. 

Roses are Red. Are Violets Blue??

Roses are Red.  Are Violets Blue??

By Alice and Martin Provensen

Pippi first learned about color mixing by mixing up play dough, much to my consternation.  The yellow dough never stayed yellow for long.  It became green and orange in varying values before becoming a mottled purplish gray.  Actually all the colors ended up that same purplish gray, not what I would have expected from reading this book, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Although we learn primarily by doing around here - mixing paint and play dough to learn color mixing, as well as jumping down the last four steps to discover that's not so easy on the ankles - I do like a good book to reinforce what one has already learned.

And when it comes to color mixing books, you just don't get much better than this.

I was describing this book to Pippi's art teacher a few days ago, and the best word I could find was quirky.  And quirky this book is, from the rose-colored glasses,

to the purple cow,

to the green-eyed cat.

But where the book really gets good, is when it veers away from simply quirky and swerves wildly into bizarre.  This recipe for traffic jam sure tickled our funny bones.

Take a red car.

Take a blue car.

Take a yellow car.

Take a big purple car.

Take a little black car.

Add a green bug.

Mix well.

Beat the yellow light, then . . .

OOPS!

Instant BROWN GRAVY!

(Remember that purplish gray play dough?  It works for paint to.  Pippi wanted to make brown paint so she mixed all the primaries and secondaries together and what was produced definitely looked more gray than brown.  Maybe if she had just left out green.  After all, that green bug escapes the pile-up.)

Oh, and the question that is posed by the book's title?

The answer is violet.

Our Animal Friends At Maple Hill Farm

Our Animal Friends At Maple Hill Farm
by Alice and Martin Provensen

This book represents the best 40 cents I've ever spent.  I would have spent ten bucks easy on this one, though.  Pushing fifteen.  It's that good.

That this book started off with a pile of cats made Pippi's day.  That the author actually had something interesting to say about these cats made mine.  I don't know about you, but we've read our share of animal books, even farm books, around here.  And having lived on a ranch (briefly), I'd have to say I don't believe many authors of farm animal books have spent too much time around farm animals.  Just a guess.

But I'd be willing to wager that not only do Alice and Martin live on a farm.  But they live on this farm.  Maple Hill.  And that the animals they so lovingly and realistically portray are real, live, breathing, flesh-and-blood animals.

Like these cats.

And these chickens.

Each animal has a distinct personality and a name.  And the names, such as Other Hen and Big White Pill are so truthful.  Not a Fluffy or Spot in the bunch.  Often the names reflect the animals' temperaments.  Other times, the names reflect the farmers' notions regarding the animals. 

This is Muffin - also called Raga Muffin, Mafia, Beasty, Gorilla, and Fiend.  Her friend (not shown here) is Dinah.  She is thirteen years old.  "Dinah has nicknames too.  Hers are: Dine, Diner, Nosy Parker, and Little Sister."

Not only do I love the names, but the candor with which the authors portray the animals is delightful.  Anyone who has spent any time at all around sheep knows that they are not sweet, white, fluffy animals.  They are stupid, often temperamental, and always filthy.  And the Provensen's have thus portrayed them.

"Almost all sheep's wool is supposed to be white.  Most of the time their wool is gray and full of thistles and burrs and straw and mud and dirt and flowers."

Then there are the geese. 

Practically perfect in every way.  They eat weeds and grass.  They have keen ears, like horses, and make good watchdogs.  Because they are so noisy.  Not even the fox wants to tangle with these guys.  But there is one very big problem, one exception to perfection.

GEESE have bad tempers.

They are greedy.

They are grabby.

They are grouchy.

The lead henchman is named Evil Murdoch.  See what I mean about the names?

And don't even get me started on the goats, perhaps the most predictably unpredictable of all farm animals.  I had my hair nibbled down to the scalp by a frisky goat once, so I've got no love for them. 

Incidentally, I've always found it very, very funny that people children and goat children are both called kids.  I can't imagine grocery shopping with goat kids in tow being too much more difficult than shopping with people kids. 

Perhaps my favorite part of the book deals with the death of beloved farm animals.  The authors' candor extend even to this delicate subject and they handle it masterfully.  Instead of being "a book about death" Animals is simply a book about farm animals, completely honest in respect to every aspect of the animals lives.  And as anyone who has spent time on a farm well knows, death is an ever present companion. 

The best books are always truthful.  Wouldn't you agree?

I Got Distracted

Yesterday, my husband took the kids out for a few hours so I could spend some time working on my etsy store and blog.  I brewed a fresh pot of good coffee, cued up my Ray Playlist (Charles and Lamontagne), and sat down at the computer.  I pulled five or six books from the box by my desk, opened the scanner, and laid the book flat.  And while the cover scanned in, I clicked around etsy a bit.  Then I got a bit distracted by all the sweet felted critters and dolls for sale.  I decided that they didn't look too hard to make, so I pulled out my wool and needles and pricked away for the next hour and a half.  Book still waiting in the scanner, completely forgotten.

When my man returned with the kids, I still hadn't done a thing with the blog.  And by the way I had planned to scan in some sweet images from a fast favorite newbie.  I promise I'll get to that soon.  But when they returned, I had this to offer for my time.

Pippi named her Evangelina, and Tommy begged for a boy doll wearing red cowboy boots named James.  So I'm sorry, but no books today either.  I'll be busy pricking my fingers again.  Unless I get distracted by something else.  Maybe I'll pull out my mom's knitting needles and yarn and tinker around with that.

The Funny Little Woman

The Funny Little Woman
Retold by Arlene Mosel
Pictures by Blair Lent

My son and I went to a bookstore today while Pippi was at her art class.  And let me tell you, we came home with quite a haul.  Not in quantity.  We didn't find that many keepers, this being a familiar bookstore that we visit (ransack) frequently.  But the keepers we did find.  Oh my.

But you'll just have to wait for the next post or two to get a peak at our small stack (which incidentally contains a swoon worthy Garth Williams tidbit), because today The Funny Little Woman rises to the top of the stack.  If I passed over this one in favor some newbies, well that just wouldn't be doing the right thing by my little man.

This funny tale is his current favorite, so enamored is he that we laugh through the book at least four times daily.

Long ago, in Old Japan, there lived a funny little
woman who liked to laugh, "Tee-he-he-he," and who
liked to make dumplings out of rice.

I know this book so well I didn't even need to turn to the first page to know how the story begins.  And I wish that I could figure out how to put a sound recording on here, a recording of me reading the book.  Because you have to get that laugh just right.  And believe me, I've had lots of practice. 

So the story goes that the funny little woman was making a batch of rice dumplings when . . .
horror of horrors, one leetle dumpling fell from the table, rolled from her house, down through a crack, and into a subterranean shadowland.  Inhabited by stone statues of the gods

and the oni,

who take the funny little woman (who's still laughing) to their underground hideout and force her to cook rice with a magic paddle.  This is my son's favorite two page spread.  "It looks all green and slimy," he says.  "Like snot." 

Well, the lady laughs her way through a few more pages, paddling pots full of rice, until she decides she's had enough.  So she tucks the paddle into her belt, boosts an oni cruiser and rows toward daylight.

My son's other favorite page.  "They got fat!" he chuckles every time.  They got fat by sucking up all the water in the river, grounding the funny little woman.  This part reminds me a little of The Five Chinese Brothers by Clair Hutchet Bishop.  And just like the brother who can't hold the water forever, the oni "throw up" all the water (my sons words again) and the lady laughs all the way back home.

Where she gets rich making rice dumplings using her (stolen) magic paddle.  And lives happily ever after.

The end.