Day 13: Cate in the mountains

Cate has never been to the mountains. We decided to correct that oversight in our parenting this weekend and we drove approximately a katrillion** hours to Jones Gap State Park, near the SC/NC border.

Her initial reaction to seeing the mountain in the distance, from the car? "Wow! That's amazing! It looks almost exactly like the mountains in Minecraft!"

She squealed at the horses, goats, and wild turkey we saw on the drive up the mountain. And once out on the trail, this child, who lives in Charleston and has to cross a bridge over a major body of water to get almost anywhere in this city, had this reaction to seeing the Middle Saluda River up close. 

She was *astounded* and spent much of the hike barefoot and wet. 

Here her father rescues her after she flings herself from a rock she tried and failed to climb.

 

 

She conquered a smaller rock.

And here she is looking very much like the wood sprite we always knew she was.

And lest you think I never actually go on any of these adventures, here I am sitting happily with Cate (but also hoping desperately that she doesn't fall face first into the river).

*I do have two kids. Frances is home from camp now and will return to her rightful place on this blog soon, I'm sure.

**why does traveling with children take so long. We were probably in the car for about five hours but it felt like, to use Cate's words, "three very long days"

Day #12: Cate and Harry Potter

About a month ago, Cate announced that she was ready to move from the children's section of the library up to the young adult section, where Frances gets all her books. This presents some difficulty for us because, while she is fully capable of reading everything in the young adult section, there's a lot of it she's not allowed to read.  Luckily, she's decided to start this new stage of reading with the Harry Potter books.

She read 3/4 of the first book before it got too scary and she stopped (which means she totally missed Dumbledore awarding 5 points to Griffyndor because Neville stood up to his friends [which is much harder than standing up to your enemies, but I digress]). She just finished the second book, which she loved. She's developed the most adorable squeak in response to each appearance of Lucius Malfoy.

She got the third book down from the shelf and started to read it. I told her she needs to go to sleep and can finish reading tomorrow. And then we had this conversation:

Cate: This book is so tempting. It's so good, Mommy.

Me: What's good about it?

Cate: Everything! The words, the language. It's so juicy!

Me: I'm so glad you like it, honey, but you still need to go to sleep.

10 minutes later I go to check on her and find this. She's totally pretending to be asleep here. As I type this I can hear her giggling at the book.

Day #11--Cate puts me in my place

Cate and I are communicating lately through a whiteboard in her room. Last night I left her a note instructing her to thank her father for cleaning her room. Not long after, she and I had an argument about the fact that she refused to go sleep because she refused to stop drawing. (It was 11:00 and well past the time she should be sleeping.) She argued her case; I told her she was being a sassy pants and then took her sketch pad and pencils.  She was frustrated that I wouldn't listen to her explanation of why it is imperative that she draw Pokemon at 11:00. This is the note she left me.  Note that she replied to my previous message before she chastised me.