Oh My, How Time Flies

For anyone reading this who does not already know, we finally have a house! It's a townhouse, which wasn't really what we were looking for, and it's a rental (also not exactly what we had planned), but it is ours and it has all our stuff in it. After the almost-three-months of being what is classified as "warm" homeless, it is wonderful to come home to the same place every day and not feel like we're living out of suitcases.

The reality took a while to settle in: four or five days after we'd taken delivery of way too many moving boxes, I noticed my phone charger plugged into a not-very-obvious outlet and thought, "Oh! I'd better move that now so we don't forget and leave it here." And then I realized that we're not leaving! Whew!

I have a blog post planned about my recent reading. Between the book collections at the two vacation rentals we dallied in and my Christmas Kindle, I've made some progress on the infamous list of 100 books. It's all very exciting, but I'll wait to tell you about that sometime in the next few days. Tonight, I'll just present some pictures of Darcy and how she has entertained herself and us over the past few months:

During one of our stays at a comfy Staybridge Suites (we stayed at this particular hotel three different times, once for about a week and a half), we got some real snow. Darcy and I made a snowman. Really, I made it, because Darcy wouldn't wear gloves or mittens and so her hands were too cold to handle the snow. It was, according to Darcy, just about "Theo sized". It hung around for several days, even after the snow around it had mostly melted away. This photo was taken almost a week after we made it, when it had devolved into a snow cat. The next day, Darcy declared it was a snow turtle.

Sticking with our theme of winter fun, we had overnight park service friends as guests while at our first vacation rental. There was a large puddle/small pond that we had to drive through to get to the pedestrian bridge that led to the house. For several of the days we were there, it froze over with about 3/4 inch thick ice every night. Four adults and a six year old spent about 20-25 minutes breaking and playing with the ice. Because we really know how to show our guests a good time. Here are J, S, and Darcy with ice balanced on their heads, walking back to the bridge and house.

This has nothing to do with winter fun. We made a day trip to an aquarium to give our ocean-addicted child a fix in mid-November. Here, Darcy and Michael are in a bubble in a reef tank. The ocean addiction, by the way, having lasted longer than her usual obsessions, is waning. It's replacement: the Beatles!

There were weird trees in the community that held our second vacation rental. This one is growing over and around this leaning rock. Others grew straight out of seemingly solid rock. And at the entrance, two trees were hugging each other. One had grown completely twisted around the other over the years -- and they were not small trees!

That vacation rental happened to supply Darcy-sized snow shoes and we had PLENTY of snow, so she took a couple tries at that. 

And then last weekend, Michael and Darcy went to see the New York Philharmonic for one of their Young People's Concerts. It was my brilliant mother's idea for Michael's Christmas present. I walked up Broadway from Lincoln Center almost back up to Columbia, window shopping, and actually shopping at Zabar's and a couple other foodie destinations while they were concerting. Darcy got to compose a short melody during the pre-concert Kids Zone time, and a violinist came by and played it for her when it was finished! We ate bagels and rode the subway (a lot). Other than the joy of being with family and friends for the holidays, this was the first weekend that reminded me why we wanted to live on the east coast for a while. After the concert, the music-lovers detoured over to Central Park to indulge Darcy's newest obsession:

Things I've Learned From Darcy's Obsessions

Most people probably don't know that Wilbur Wright didn't go to college because of a hockey accident that knocked out his front teeth. Or that Orville Wright almost died from typhoid after drinking contaminated water at his printing business. Or maybe you didn't even know that Orv and Wil even HAD a printing business. Or that Orv built his first printing press from parts that included a piece of their younger sister's baby buggy.


I know all these things because of Darcy's very first obsession, her eight-month love affair with the Wright Brothers.


Now, Darcy is obsessed with all things ocean, but most particularly with sharks:

So, just like with the Wright Brothers, I've been learning a lot about sharks. I thought I'd share some of the highlights. The largest shark is, of course, the beautiful whale shark, one of a few filter-feeding sharks. The smallest is the dwarf shark. 


One of my favorite (?) new-to-me sharks is the cookie cutter shark. We kept seeing it listed when authors were talking about sharks named after special features. What kind of feature could lead to the cookie cutter moniker? It required some Google research. It turns out that the cookie cutter shark eats "cookies" of flesh that it cuts out of sea mammals and large fish. Here's its jaw, with many rows of bottom teeth just waiting their turn:

The cookie cutter is small -- only a couple feet long -- but it has suction-y lips that hold onto the victim while the shark twists itself around like a drill, neatly cutting out a perfect circle of said victim for its dining pleasure:

It's unclear to me if these are generally fatal. I've seen some pictures of large (seal, dolphin) critters with healed-over cookie cutter bites. It's a bit gruesome, but also extremely fascinating that such a creature exists. Those teeth are just crazy.


I'm also fond of the wobbegong shark, partly just because the name is cute. The shark is also cute and sometimes called a carpet shark. They are bottom dwellers who blend in with the sea floor due to their flatness, coloring, and fringe around the front:

Darcy is sitting next to me as I write this and I asked her what picture she would like you all to see. We've been very impressed by the "flying" great white sharks, mostly off the coast of South Africa. They breach, flip, and fly through the air when trying to catch poor, unsuspecting sea lions. Here's an example, although watching video of them is much more impressive than a still image:

And there you are: a Memorial Day Weekend lesson in the joys of shark obsessions. Hope you enjoyed this shark moment! We try very hard to continue to enjoy our shark months and months. We're running out of shark books at the library, but I don't think that gets us off the hook any time soon.

Darcy's New Loves

Darcy, as regular readers of this blog know, goes through phases. And they seem to be cyclical. She started her obsessive loves with the Wright Brothers, moved onto fish, then fairies, then back to the Wright Brothers. We went through another fairy-phase and we are now firmly in the grasp of the ocean again.


We read book after book about sharks, whales, dolphins, and the ocean. She could probably recite The Blue Planet -- a documentary series narrated by Richard Attenborough. One of her shark books rates sharks according to their dangerousness on a scale of zero to five jaws. Darcy likes this concept. Before we headed off to the Aquarium of the Pacific, Darcy made a shark chart so we could all be aware:

Although not to scale (the smallest shark, seen almost riding the great white in the top right, is actually a whale shark -- zero jaws of dangerousness and the largest shark in the world) and with perhaps slightly exaggerated lower jaws, this is a great tool if you ever encounter a tiger shark, blue shart, basking shark, whale shark, or great white.


Darcy's other great love is, apparently, sun bathing. Michael was gone for a week at Lava Beds National Monument (Darcy's principal asked her if he took his lava pillow with him). While he was gone, Darcy's after-school teachers told me that she was really tired one day when I picked her up. So tired, they said, that she had lain down on the pavement in the playground. I was surprised, because I knew she had had two great nights of sleep. When we got home, Michael called to say hi. What was your favorite part of the day, he asked. Darcy said, "Oh, Dad. I lay down on the ground in the sun!" So much for being so tired. And it's not a one-time thing. Here she is lying on our driveway in the sun:

It's a little hard to see her, but she's just across the shade/sun line to the left of the truck. It's a hobby.

The World Of Fish

Yes, I'm aware that this is a bird's egg, not a fish egg, but in Darcy's world these days, it's all about fish, so I felt I could include another picture of the murrelet egg that shows it's beautiful color better.

Darcy briefly returned to her obsession with the Wright brothers last month, but then quickly moved on to fish and all thing ocean. Finding Nemo was part of the inspiration, but I think the bigger culprit is Crescent City's aquarium, Ocean World. We've been three times now and, as an adult I can tell you that it is exciting three times only for a small child. It is a very small aquarium.

Yesterday, we drove south to hit a sporting goods store for Michael, who has joined a men's softball team for the county's organized league. He had his first practice late in the day and hasn't owned cleats for a decade. We also went to Arcata's art festival, which was a bit of a bust. Darcy insisted that we go back to the phenomenal ice cream shop as we walked past it to get to the car. I had a half-scoop of the almond rose vanilla that was outstanding. Last time, I had lemon poppyseed. Also a revelation in a bowl.

The point of this is that we were in the car heading south and Darcy asked if we were going to Fish Town. For her, the only answer is yes. After deciding that Eureka is Fish Town, she then dubbed Arcata, Octopus Town. So we asked what Crescent City is, and she informed us that it's Shark City.

There was a short pause and then she started naming other places she's lived or visited a lot. "And Las Vegas is, um, um, um, um.....Sea Urchin Town!" Even Primm -- PRIMM -- got renamed as Sea Anemone Town. What I loved best was the um-um-um in between naming the town and deciding on its new moniker.

A mere two and a half weeks ago, I was stopping tears about the thought of moving by promising airplanes on the walls of her new room. Now, we're planning an undersea fantasy.

But we're not stupid. The walls will be a nice neutral blue and we will be using wall stickers for the fantasy. I'm sure we'll be replacing them with the next obsession in a few months.

The Dinosaurs

Many of you may remember this picture of the Wright Family, taken last fall at the height of Darcy's Wright Brothers obsession. All animals and toys were available to play a part in Darcy's fantasy of the 21st century Cima branch of the Wright clan. The Wright Brothers have waned as play objects these days, although the blue baby and Mickey Mouse are still Orv and Wil about 50% of the time. You might be tempted to think that all the animals could now go back to being themselves, but you would be wrong.

Instead, they have been drafted into Darcy's current dinosaur enthusiasm. Almost every night after dinner, she asks if we can all go up to play with her "dinosaurs". She does own about a dozen solid plastic/rubber/whatever dinosaur figures and they occasionally get to play dinosaur with her. Tonight, they did not. They stayed put in the toy storage bin. The teddy bears (mostly giganotosaurus), dogs and cats (triceratops[ies]), octopi and monkeys (oryctodromeus), and assorted other dinosaur stand-ins do most of the heavy lifting. It's a little disconcerting, but then it's also disconcerting to watch Darcy page through a book about dinosaurs, get to a particularly fierce T. rex and hear her coo, "Oh! A T-rex! Isn't he so cute?"

Those of you who play Facebook have already heard this story, but for those of you who don't, Darcy was recently at a playground next to our community garden. I was working in the dirt while she and Michael went to play. A little boy was playing there too and he took out a dinosaur and showed it to Darcy saying, "Look -- a dinosaur!" And Darcy looked at it and said, "Oh what a cute parasaurolophus!" And she was right! When I asked her about it tonight, she told me that he had a hadrosaur. That's also correct, because parasaurolophus was a type of hadrosaur.

I figure that we have about two months left of the total fascination with dinosaurs before she moves onto something new. The Wrights stuck around for almost exactly six months and we're now on month four of dinosaur everything. It will be very interesting to see what gets her interest next.

Drinks, Fungus, And Actual News

The pictures don't have much to do with the post, but I know everyone likes pictures! So here's a series of Darcy trying to drink from an outside water fountain. She had seen some other kids playing at it earlier and I think that and the big puddle of water at its base (from the playing) made her view this differently than every other water fountain she's used in the past. Michael first had to demonstrate the technique.

Then there was a serious attempt.

And then there were just giggles.

And about twenty minutes later, there were teeny-tiny mushrooms growing in the debris on a downed redwood log. The range of fungus types up here (and mosses and lichens, too) is incredible.

In actual news, Darcy has moved on from her obsession (my mom says I should call them "enthusiasms", but I've already got an obsessions label for this blog) with the Wright Brothers! Other than a very occasional slip-up, I am no longer Will. And Michael is no longer Orv. We are infrequently mommy and daddy, much to Michael's delight. (His delight is that it happens at all, not that it happens infrequently.) More often, we are reflections of her new obsession.

After six months of living and breathing the Wright Brothers, we now live in a dinosaur nest. When we've been running errands (a lot) this week, Darcy has asked several times, "Is it time to go back to our nest?" In keeping with the new theme, Michael and I are Mr. and Mrs. Pteranodon. In case you're not up with your Cretaceous Era critters, here's a tutorial on pteranodons. Pteranodons were fish-eaters, so all treats (candy, Christmas presents, cakes) are fish now. Darcy is a T. rex. Buddy the T. rex, to be exact, the orange beastie seen in the birthday summary post.

My small T. rex is waking up now. I expect to hear, "Good morning, Mrs. Pteranodon!!!" at any moment, so I'd better wrap this up.

For those of you who haven't already heard, I got a job offer on Friday and will start working full-time in February. The hunt for day care prospects has begun in earnest and at some point when I don't have a dinosaur waking up from her nap, I'll even provide more details.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all and for those of you who sent the packages under our tree, thanks for all the fish!

The Wright Family Portrait

The Wright family (in real life) consisted of one father (Milton Wright), one mother (Susan Wright), four brothers (in descending order of age: Reuchlin, Lorin, Wilbur, and Orville Wright), and one sister (Katherine Wright). In Darcy's world, however, there are four Miltons (at left, the shaggy dog, the large blue octopus, the large white teddy bear, and the green plastic bug with pink wings), three Susans (at right, the blue elephant, the multi-colored dog, and the blue and green medium-sized octopus), no Reuchlin or Lorin, two Wilburs (Mickey Mouse and the turquoise nightshirt hanging behind the Wright Brothers -- please, just don't ask), one Orville (the blue doll with hat sitting next to Mickey/Wilbur), and an almost endless number of Miss Katherines (the rest of the dolls/animals in the picture).

These roles are pretty much fixed and unvariable, although sometimes the Miss Katherines are pulled into other story-lines. One is missing from the picture because she is busy acting the part of the dinosaur-conductor on the Dinosaur Train.

This is our life.

I Can't Resist

Darcy's in the process of not really going to sleep right now, but I had to post the exchange she had with herself before I left the room. We're going to a party tomorrow at Ryan and Carly's new apartment and she was asking me about it and if there would be music for dancing. We also agreed that we would watch for airplanes after the party when it will be dark outside, so that she doesn't have to look out her window for them now. I continued singing her bedtime song, and she talked to herself:

"Maybe the airplanes will come down to say hi. Maybe they will come inside the house. I wouldn't like their loud noise inside the house. Maybe they will want to dance with me."

There might be a little confusion about the size and role of airplanes in the world.

The Continuing Saga Of The Wright Brothers

And a cute picture from the very start of our vacation, too. The night before we left for North Carolina, we stayed in Vegas as part of a park-and-stay deal at a suites hotel near the airport. It let us avoid paying airport parking fees and worked out almost perfectly. The return end wasn't so great, but everything else went smoothly. In the morning, after breakfast, Darcy played her first round (??) of golf on the hotels little practice green. This picture is really for PopPop (Dan).

It's now been a month since we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. We have fed the obsession a little by getting books from the library, but in our defense, that's because we didn't want to have to read the same board book seventeen times a day. Even with the other books, I read it five times yesterday. But really, I don't think Darcy needs our help on this one.

Michael and I are still Orv and Wilbur, respectively. Random children encountered at parks and libraries (and stores and parking lots and anywhere else) are generally greeted with a very enthusiastic, "Hi Orville! Hi Wilbur!" Much of her play is about the Wright Brothers, with her tent standing in for Dayton, OH. The doll that has been Christened Orv goes everywhere with her these days. He is needed on every car trip, comes into every store, has gone to story hour twice now. At her story hour, which is for the under-three set, they sing a bunch of songs where the parents are supposed to help out a bit with getting the right gestures and moves. For the good morning song, there's a lot of waving, and Darcy usually does it half-heartedly. But this week, she sat Orv on her lap and helped him wave his hand to the music.

The kicker for me, though, was Tuesday's addition to the phenomenon: When we were in town and she pointed people out to me (which is normal, for her), instead of saying, "There's someone else from story hour," she said, "There's someOrville else from story hour."

Uh-huh. SomeOrville else.

In Which Girls Avoid A Crab

Before I get to the title story and pictures, let me update the Wright Brothers saga. Yesterday, Michael was reviewing bids for the new Mojave film, to be shown at the Visitors Center. One of the companies putting in a bid sent two of the films they've made for other parks, including -- is it karma? fate? what? -- the film shown at the Wright Brothers Memorial in Dayton, OH. Darcy has sat through it twice now. If I let her, I suspect she'd sit and watch a continuous loop for hours while making her various dolls and animals be Wilbur and Orville and everyone else mentioned in the film.

On top of that, I got her some books about the Wright Brothers at the library today because I'm tired of reading the board book six times a day. One of them is from the perspective of their sister, Katherine, who was a big part of their lives. She called them Will and Orv. Before Darcy fell asleep tonight, we heard through the monitor, "Orv, open the door! Come into my room!" Michael responded as required.

And now, back to the vacation pictures. Before painting horses, we walked out on a pier that took us through thick greenery (and bugs!) out into the Sound. We saw Canada geese with their goslings once we got to the end. It was a nice nature break from the tourist-y surroundings.

When we got out to the end, Liana very rapidly climbed up Michael's leg -- you can see her croc disappearing at the top of the photo. Video was really needed, but it happened too quickly. The cause was the small blue crab holding onto the orange pole in the bottom right corner. Liana is not fond of crabs.

Darcy doesn't really mind crabs -- they are, after all, much like bugs, which she loves. Nevertheless, she joined Liana in Michael's arms while the crab-wrangling was happening.

The crab really, really didn't want to let go of the pole, even when shaken inches from the water. Eventually, it did let go and returned to its watery home. And Michael got to put the girls down. It was good entertainment all around. Except for the crab, probably.

Ah, Those Crazy Wright Broth...Parents!

The obsession has moved to a new level.

Yesterday, Darcy started calling me Wilbur and Michael, Orville. That continues today. She woke up from her nap while I was hanging laundry on the line. I heard something from the direction of her room and looked over. Darcy had -- as is her way -- lifted up the blinds and was watching me through the window.

She didn't look distressed, but I went in to check on her anyway. "Wilbur!" she exclaimed, "I saw you outside, Wilbur!"

So our daughter is now being raised by the spirits of two long-dead bachelors.