But when I went back to work a few weeks ago, I stepped up once again to take my place in our shared division of labor in the daycare drop-off and pick-up scheme for our girls.  (Now plural).

The first day that I was there, again, with Emma (who switched to a new ‘room’ for older kids while I was home on leave) I noticed that there were two brown rocks in her new ‘cubby.’  The next day, there was another rock, and I surmised that this might be an active collection.

“Did you bring in those rocks from the playground?”, I asked? 

“Yes, and they’re mine,” was the response.

 The next day, another rock appeared, and the next day another, and so on.  And a few days later, I saw that a flower bud had been added to the collection.

Just a few days after I first noticed this rock collecting activity, I received the usual monthly Parentcenter.com e-mail, which provides little articles on typical child (and parent) development stages for each of our girls. 

Wouldn’t you know.  This was the featured update:

Older preschoolers are as passionate about collecting things as adults. They may be trading in rocks instead of oil paintings, but the idea is the same. Developmentally, your preschooler is working hard to classify the world around him into groups and subgroups (mammals, cats, pet cats, white and yellow cats). Collecting suits this kind of mental function perfectly (big rocks, little rocks, white rocks, shiny rocks). Toy collections are fun, but a grown-up has to purchase them — your child can’t do it himself. That’s why so many starter collections tend to involve natural items (sticks, shells, feathers), because the child can be in control.

Give your child a special place to store her collection, such as a box or shelf. Encourage her to talk with you about it, which helps her articulate what she’s thinking. Ask, “Why did you pick that one?” and “Which are your favorites?”

 

So what do you know.  Our girl’s right on schedule on starting her first collection.

(And she’s a WHIZ - the proud mama in me, plus some comments from the preschool teacher make me sure that she’s AHEAD of schedule on this - with puzzles.  In fact, she has told me several times that she is the “Boss of Puzzles.”)

 I expected to find a “fortune” in there, but instead, I found more of a suggestion…

So far so good - they are very well behaved about coming back into the house without too much calling.  Heck, they even usually beg to be let in before we even think about calling them.

And unfortuneately, Jim has taken to, um, well, relieving himself in the neighbor’s yard.  And not discretely, up under the bushes, all delicate like.  Nope, as the neighbor told me, he just goes in the lawn.  Leaves cat nuggets right in the middle of the lawn.  

So that’s bad for the neighbor, and causes me some embarrassment (and I’ll admit it, I’m also a tiny bit amused in a guilty way), but mostly, everything’s OK.

Except for that black cat.  There’s another (I am presuming male) cat that roams these here parts, and the neighborhood’s not big enough for the two of them.   Black Kitty and Jim have had some noisy standoffs, and even some nasty rumbles - with definite physical contact.

I have always been anxious when cats fight because there’s no good way to break them up without getting all scratched up, yourself….  that is until Paul threw a penny at them one night.

Whew knew.  A penny.  So small.  So practically valueless, in currency terms.  And so potent as a non-violent tool for dispersing angry cats.

So for a while there, Paul was throwing pennies at the Jimmy and Black Kitty  whenever they got into a standoff or a fight.  Black Kitty would instantly run away, and Jim would usually come inside.

But we haven’t been doing that for awhile.

And now, Jim has developed some kind of strange problem on his back.  It’s a clump of fur that feels sticky.  I thought maybe the other Kitty bit him a little, and that it was saliva in the fur.  But now the sticky spot is getty bigger, and I’m afraid there might be a wound hiding under there and draining. 

He won’t really let us look at it, and I suspect there may be a vet visit in his future.

Poor Jim is a REALLY bad vet patient - so bad that they have to gas him to knock him out in order to examine him.  And that will probably be the only way to get to the root of whatever this is. 

I’ll keep you posted.

That’s where we watched a parade on the 4th of July, and also where Paul’s great-grandparents settled in the mid-30s and where his great-uncle used to be the Village Manager for 20 years.  The street around the Village Hall here is named after him.  And Paul’s relatives run a 50s-style Malt Shop on the street pictured here. 

Recently, some officials visited Greendale as part of a competition to select the best communities for some contest or another.  One official asked his Greendale tour guide if things there were ’staged.’  It just seemed too cute.   

I love Wisconsin.   

Oh yeah.  And never EVER try to quickly whittle down the diameter of closet rod wood with a box cutter.  (Dang).  I’m just lucky that the blade went in at the angle it did, and no tendons were hurt. 

I got six sticthes during the wee early hours of the Fourth of July.  And I get them out tomorrow. 

Maybe.

The evidence in support of this postulate comes in the form of a Netflix viewing.

“Little Miss Sunshine,” specifically.

We watched it last night.  But Netflix delivered it to our (old) house on January 15, 2008.  Only seven months ago.

We’ve been doing all of those other, above-listed things in the past seven months - the first few months of that being in a record-breaking cold and snowy Wisconsin winter. 

But I think we’re finally starting to get back to normal now.

An American Flag.  Not just ANY American Flag, but one to be flown over the US Capitol Building and dedicated according to the winning bidder’s instruction.

So not long ago, the flag arrived in the mail.  Along with a handy dandy book on the official flag rules, and a certificate attesting that the flag had been flown over the U.S. Capital, and dedicated to:

“The ever-expanding K. Family”

OK, maybe our family is not EVER-expanding, but it’s still kind of neat…

But at our house, it’s how old our little Sarah was when (1) she started drooling, and (2) rolled from her side to her tummy.

Yay, baby!