September

School’s been in session for a month. I think we’ve all adjusted to the more hectic schedule. For me, it’s nice not to have as many (or really any) meetings to go to. And Fi likes having me at home before and after nap and picking her up at school a lot.

The garden is still producing more tomatoes than we can eat, eggplants, cucumbers, and butternut squashes. The new beans we planted produced a whole bunch of beans all at once and we ate them. The zucchinis produced some squashes that did not exactly look like zucchini but was tasty non-the-less and Fi actually ate it. Some of the zucchini plants are not doing as well. The melons are growing very slowly and don’t look that great. I think everything is winding down. It makes me a little sad because I love not having to buy a lot of veggies in the supermarket, or more precisely, I don’t like having to pay for stuff I can get from the garden because it never tastes as good or lasts as long. At the same time, I’m excited to grow things like beets, lettuce, and other winter veggies that I wouldn’t necessarily buy in the supermarket or is expensive at the farmer’s markets.

Fi LOVES her class and going to school in general, although she is having more issues listening and following directions than she did last year. She has come way out of her shell and is being more social, so she is having to learn how to navigate interactions with other children as opposed to always playing by herself.

The ants are going to carry me away.

School and work have consumed all of us, so not much has happened. We went to the Central Coast Comic Con and that was a fun experience. Fi sat in the actual car that was used in the movie KnightRider:

Fi wanted to go for a hike in the forest. We went to an area that used to be foresty, but unfortunately, due to a fire, no longer has lots of nig trees or shade. We still enjoyed ourselves. It was a very hot day, especially with the lack of shade, so after the hike, we went out for ice cream.

Fi had a “homework” assignment, to decorate an outline of herself. A parent in her class traced her outline on a large piece of paper and we used some leftover fabric to make shorts and a shirt and shoes. Fi used rose petals from the garden for her face:

 

At the Comic Con, we purchased two books for Fiona, one about a hamster that is different from all the other hamsters in his world, but learns to develop his strengths and appreciate them, and other about a bear who goes to outer space and is filled with interesting science facts about the solar system and the universe, both written and illustrated by people who also draw comic books and graphic novels. Both authors signed their names in the books. When we got home, Fi decided to sign her name in some of her books. She got as far as F I O because she still struggles with N and A:

 

Interestingly, she has a friend names Lily and she does not have any problems writing Lily’s name, or at least the L I L part. Still working on the Y’s. But, she wrote Lily’s name before she ever wrote her own, because in her world, sometimes she is the teacher and needs to write students’ names on things. I want to note that we are not pushing her to write at all, all of her writing is self motivated.

She is starting to draw things too, like this self portrait, her first ever:

The caption says “I’ sleeping in my picture”. She also wrote her name above it.

She’s drawn a family portrait but I do not have a photo, and yesterday, she drew this:

She’s getting better at building things with her Lincoln Logs (she did it all by herself) and some of the funny-angled photos were taken by Fi using my camera:

Fi continues to love helping me when I bake or make pancakes for breakfast. She can do so much by herself, including taking off her shirts (until recently she needed help), getting her juice and milk out of the fridge and pouring them by herself, putting away all her own laundry, replacing the garbage bags in the kitchen, setting the table, and lots of other things. She is becoming very independent, although I think it is leading to some separation anxiety issues again.

One thing I LOVE about having the garden is that Fi can go outside and pick food for herself and eat it. It is not uncommon for her to snack on tomatoes or beans or whatever else she can reach. Today, she decided she wanted grapes, so she took the step stool outside, set it up, climbed it, and picked and ate grapes, all by herself:

 

We did another organization of Fi’s things in the living room, and for now her area doesn’t look like a disaster. I’m sure we will have to go through it again soon, but at least it’s not a source of stress and she can find things again.

This weekend we were supposed to go to a beach clean-up with my students, but alas, the beach we normally go to was closed for some reason (lots of signs, earth moving equipment, and large pipes lying around, plus the parking lot had a big fence around it). We decided to reschedule, but both Fi and I were disappointed. She was really looking forward to picking up garbage and seeing my students.

Here are few photos of my love from the last month:

Happy Fall Everyone!