Day #19: Brian gets sentimental

I sent Brian in to wake Cate and then I got in the shower. When I got out of the shower, this is what I found:

He said, "I just want to hold my baby while she's still a baby."

 

Day #15: Cate and the Goblet of Fire

Perhaps some of you have been following our Harry Potter adventures this summer.  Cate, who declared at the beginning of the summer that she was done with the children's section of the library and ready for young adult books, started reading the Harry Potter series.  The books are much beloved at our house. Brian and I read the first three aloud when were were pregnant with Frances. I stood in line for Goblet of Fire, willing Frances not to be born before I got my copy. I was reading Goblet of Fire when I went into labor.  I eventually read them all aloud to her and we celebrated her 11th birthday by going to see the midnight showing of the last film (her reward for finishing all the books her own--you have to read the book before you see the movie at our house).  We love these books and are happy to welcome Cate into the club.

Cate loves these books. She's reading them obsessively. I'll read a chapter to her and then she'll stay awake FOR HOURS and read 8 or 10 or 12 chapters to herself. Which brings us to last night when I found her curled up beneath her covers at 12:30am near the end of Goblet of Fire. "Cate, what are you doing?" I asked. She turned slowly to me, with the most wide-eyed expression, and said, "It's too much. It's just too much, Mommy." Cedric had been killed; Voldermort had returned; and Cate was overwhelmed.

We went to the kitchen for warm milk, she asked if anything important happened in the last chapters, I told her she didn't have to finish it if she didn't want to, and then I put her back to bed. When I went to wake her up this morning, she was curled around the book. She woke up long enough to tell me she finished it and that she was exhausted.

She may not survive Order of the Phoenix. I'm torn about whether or not I should let her read it.

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.