Aurora Wells

Aurora’s been throwing up early in the morning for the last two days, so we’re taking it easy today. I’ve got big plans: colouring, reading stories, and watching a movie of her choice in the big bed. So far, so good.

Aurora’s imagination is on rapid fire, and I sometimes get a little dizzy, switching from princess to princess. “Who is Mommy now? Belle, Ariel or Jasmine?” “You’re Mater, Mommy!” Here at the Castle/Radiator Springs, things have been pretty busy, but I have managed to take a few pictures of our activities.

Our little buddy Barrett loves waffles, so we had a waffle brunch for his 2nd birthday. They look like little grownups, happily munching on waffles at the kids’ table – with cutlery, no less!

My little creative genius working on the visual arts side of things. Nice Volcanos, kiddo.

Who needs a pesky older brother with the Beast/Max the Dog/Aladdin/Sheriff around?

Then last week Grandma Gail (Mrs. Potts/Sebastian the Crab/Nemo/Sally) came for a visit, so we did a few more fun things out of the house. First up, a Treasure Hunt. The hunt was Daddy’s idea, and he wrote the clues and did the setup. Mommy’s job was to make the prize: a board game called Pink Milk (based on Charlie & Lola).

Daddy set up clues for Aurora to find; inside her cardboard clubhouse, under the couch cushions, on a tree outside, and down the street at the big chessboard. She got so excited about finding each numbered clue, that I think she was disappointed to find an X rather than a #5 clue next to the apple tree in our backyard. She dug with her little shovel until she got bored, and then Daddy helped her unearth the buried treasure. Rolling the dice and moving the right way around the board is going to take some practice, but the four of us had a good time.

A few days later we took Grandma to Maplewood Farm. It’s been almost a year since we last went, and a much bolder Aurora was brave enough to actually feed the bunnies:

We went early enough in the morning that they were still a bit hungry, and were willing to take the carrots and celery they were offered.

The goats were still a bit intimidating, although I didn’t have to force Aurora to pat them this time. Mostly she wanted to climb the rocky goat hills.

Grandma’s favourite part was the Wood Duck sighting. They’re nowhere near as common as Mallards, and we saw three pair that day.

Then it started raining again, so we undertook an activity that should occupy us for many rainy days to come: making a doll house. A couple of large boxes, some glue, tape and a utility knife later, and we’ve got a four-room abode for a small family of happy mice (thanks, Grandma Gail!). Just like in real life, the attic is storage space for the “lumber” and supplies for making more furniture and renos. It just looks like cardboard now, but I’ve got plans, big plans. Stay tuned.

This morning Aurora started telling us a story, and it just had to be written down. All the content is hers; I merely typed what she told me, corrected the grammar somewhat, and asked a few editorial questions, i.e. “Then what happened next?” Enjoy!

Coyote Party

One day a girl went for a walk in the desert, and she saw a volcano. And there were no trees, but there were eight coyotes there. They were good coyotes. They were brown, and there were small coyotes and mommy and daddy coyotes.

The girl wanted to have a party there. The coyotes wanted to go back in their house. The girl got ready for the party with the coyotes. The coyotes put on dance music; they wanted to have the party now!

The doorbell rang. It was just the girl and the coyotes at the party, but they thought they could answer the door. It was dark out there. They opened the door, and there were baby coyotes outside. They were just going to their grandmother’s house.

The daddies and the mommies and the girl wanted to go to grandmother’s house on a boat. They brought their musical instruments, too. The instruments made a lot of noise. It was quite a party! The little coyotes sang, too. They sang “Goodnight, Ladies”. Grandmother liked it when they all sang and played music for her.

Then the girl wanted to go back to her daddy. The coyotes noticed that it was daytime. They helped her go back; the coyotes went to her house, too. It was a house made of glass bottles. Then she and the coyotes had a party at her house with her daddy.

The End

Aurora read about coyotes as peripheral characters in the book Rhyolite: The True Story of a Ghost Town, by Diane Siebert. It’s the fascinating tale of a town in Nevada that grew to tens of thousands in a few short years, and then disappeared almost as quickly when the economy hit a bump. The book is beautifully illustrated with wood block prints by David Frampton. However, the party aspect of the story was probably inspired by Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. This early reader is so loved by Aurora that she almost has it memorized. You only have to read the first word or two on each page and she’ll tell you the rest. Oh, and yesterday she painted volcanoes at her easel. Go figure.

Yesterday morning I left the house before Aurora woke up so that I could go to the dentist and be home in time for Brian to go to work at a reasonable hour. The last thing I expected when I got home was to walk into a forest of Truffula Trees. (If you haven’t read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss yet, you really, really must.)

Almost every day with Aurora is like an amateur improvisational theatre production of whatever books or videos we’ve been exploring lately. If you use your imagination, in the above photo you can see four lovely Truffula trees (brooms & jammies), the Lorax (Monkey), and the Once-ler (Aurora) with an axe (comb). Off-camera: a Brown Bar-ba-loot (Daddy), a Humming Fish (Nemo) and a Swomee-Swan (Mommy). She and Daddy had a Truffula fruit (mango) for breakfast, but while the Bar-ba-loot liked it, the Once-ler wasn’t keen on it. Daddy told me that when he built the trees, she demanded, “I need an axe! I need an axe!” so she could chop one down to make a Thneed. It’s a bit alarming that Aurora relates to the Once-ler, the “bad guy” of the tale. I guess she’s not quite old enough to grasp the environmental message of the book, but Daddy thinks that’s a good place to start. She says that now that she’s the Once-ler, he’s not a bad guy anymore (see below, comforting the poor Lorax with a hug):

So, today we’re back to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, with a bit of Cars thrown in for good measure. I thought that Aurora was Goofy today, but I just heard her commanding in a deep(ish) voice from her crib, “Mater! Don’t mock the ghost light.”

Also, for good measure, a photo of how I spent the US/Canada Olympic gold medal hockey match:

Making a multiethnic cheering stadium, of course!