Life Is But a Dream, Puddle Remix

Laura’s directions for how to get from this place to that.  It might be difficult, but Laura knows how to do it.

The Adventure of the Cherry Blossoms

The Secret Agent had a new mission, but first he had to find his contact. The meeting location details were vague. His briefing stated to look for white horses on a pink ground, whatever that meant.

He searched along the picket fence, and found neither horses nor pink ground.

He investigated two pine cones on the sidewalk. No hidden messages were inside or beneath the pine cones.

As the Secret Agent explored the mulch, a girl approached. She was dressed in a pink rain jacket decorated with white, prancing horses. She was his contact.

“This is a difficult mission, Secret Agent,” she began. “You must follow me closely. I will take you to the cherry blossoms. Your mission is to retrieve the data hidden in the blossoms. We must leave now before it is too late!”

Without waiting for his response, the girl ran away. Should the Secret Agent trust her?

The Secret Agent followed his instincts, and sprinted to catch up with the girl in pink. “Wait!” he called after her. She slowed her pace, not stopping. The urgency of the mission did not allow for delays and long planning sessions.

They reached the cherry trees. The trees were in full bloom, covered with pom-pom sized clusters of pink flowers. The Secret Agent surveyed the petals, using his keen observation powers to locate the data hidden among the blossoms. But he had a problem. The data was out of reach.

The girl in pink stepped behind the Secret Agent. Using all her strength, she boosted him high into the air. He reached his arm, his hand, his fingers, and grabbed the data. Mission accomplished!

The girl in pink lowered the Secret Agent to the ground. She released him and walked away before the Secret Agent could even say, “Thank you.”

The Secret Agent secured the data in his jacket. When he looked up, the girl in pink was gone. The Secret Agent was alone in the springtime rain. His only companions were the cherry and crab apple trees.

For more Secret Agent adventures, check out:

• The Adventure of the Autumn Fairy
• The Adventure of the Red Race Car
• The Adventure of the Golden Bubble Bottle
• Undercover Investigation

Straw Berry

How did strawberries get their name? The origin dates back to a toddler who enjoyed skewering and eating the red berries with the aid of a drinking straw.

Diffrent thing about Me!

Diffrent thing about Me!
all By Laura

This is me in My new Dress.

I am six yois oLd

I Losd My tooth

all fo Of Me is Diffrent!

Laura

The author and illustrator displaying the big gap in her smile. The tooth scores: 3 baby teeth lost, 5 coins collected, 17 baby teeth left.

Laura’s world is full of rainbows, butterflies, and dresses. As she is learning to read and write, I am learning more about her. She made this book during free time at her after school program. Sometimes, like tonight when a long day has dissolved six year old composure into whining, I hold onto her self expression as a reminder that the tantrums are passing. She moves farther away from her baby self every day.

Snow Daze

In weather time, 24 hours can be the difference between no snow and more than 30 inches of snow.

The sliding glass door showcased the drifts from the warm comfort of the living room.

The snow drifts on the other side of the garage door were not as fun. They were a barricade that had to be shoveled away.

So we shoveled…

…and shoveled.

Laura proposed and demonstrated an alternate travel mode – snow swimming! Unfortunately, cars can’t swim, so we went back to shoveling.

After much more shoveling, we tunneled a path from the garage door to the front door. Time for a hot cocoa break.

And then back to work clearing the snow, this time aided by the snow blower. We hope to reach the street by tomorrow.

Laura – next year, please don’t wish for snow on your 7th birthday. The person in charge of the weather overdid your request this year. Happy Birthday to my #1 daughter!

Second Tooth

Laura had a secret when I picked her up at school. She showed me a small, orange chest and asked me to guess what was inside. I guessed a ring. No, not a ring. She opened the chest and showed me the contents. In the dim light of the car, I guessed a super miniature cat. No, not a cat.

It was a baby tooth, and she had lost it during class. She wiggled it out during afternoon language arts, earning a visit to the nurse’s office and a Tooth Saver to store her treasure. Losing a tooth at school increases street cred with Kindergartners and Graders. It is the stuff that causes Fancy Nancy fans to swoon (a fancy word for faint). This makes up for her first baby tooth that Jung pulled out in November when we lost patience with the princess tooth that hung by a thread and would not fall.

Today is bittersweet. Jung attended the wake for one of the children who was gunned down in Newtown. His co-worker, the child’s mother, received a call at work from her husband that he had their daughter but couldn’t find their son. They waited at the firehouse until midnight when positive identification was made and their permanent loss confirmed. They will not be able to share any more silly, satisfying milestones with their child like lost tooth pride. A Friday that started as ordinary brought a Monday with a casket instead of a living boy, leaving a gap that cannot be filled.

Scary Pumpkin Patch

A story from Laura in celebration of Halloween.  Due to Sandy, she and Jason got two days off school.  The wind howled through the night.  Fortunately, our power has remained on and we didn’t sustain any damage to the house.  

One blustery night in October, Farmer Brown checked his crop of pumpkins to make sure they were nice and comfy.

The next morning, all his pumpkins from his crop were gone!

He walked quietly back to his house and told his wife how horrible it was to lose his entire crop without even a single clue or a pumpkin.

The next morning, he saw that all his pumpkins were back in place. Another farmer with a golden hat had brought them back. He carved them into jack o’lanterns.

The next morning, Farmer Brown knew just where the jack o’lanterns were…

… at people’s homes. Farmer Brown was happy that he sold pumpkins and they turned into jack o’lanterns.

Happy Halloween.