Leafy

Yep, we are blessed with a bounty of kitties. We don't have to do all the work to spin our own spinner when it's our turn at Hi-Ho Cherrio, what with the kittens around--
--and our fat, lazy Ballantine keeps us from having to read all the bad news in the newspaper:
Unfortunately, she also likes to lay on the comics, the drive-in movie times, and the garage sale listings, but that's the price you pay, I guess.

In other news, Willow woke barfing at 3:00 this morning. She felt better, fortunately, after just three or so hours of being VERY ill, but I still kept her in bed all day (thank GAWD for Netflix's Watch Instant--Willow had her first exposures today to Meercat Manor, Blue's Clues, Kipper, AND the Wiggles), and she's been sound asleep, I'm hoping for the night, since about 5:00 pm, poor kid.

Syd, of course, absolutely basked in being the only kid on call today. The constantly-running television soon paled in comparison to a set of parents able to completely focus on her (although probably asking her if her tummy hurt or if she felt like throwing up a little too often to be quite normal). She hung out at the drop-off laundromat with Matt (this is the first time we've tried it, and I'm a little squeamish about it now after Matt described in detail the burn-out employee who will likely be the one to wash all of my panties), and helped him clean the kitchen, and there was a lot of wrestling worked in there somewhere, and this afternoon she and I went to the park all by ourselves, and I pushed her in the swing for as long as she wanted.

We brought Sydney's bucket to collect leaves, because I've been wanting to do leaf rubbings with the girls for a while now. Not necessarily to learn all the parts of the leaves or anything just yet, but mostly to admire the shape and the form and to see the detail, all that good stuff.

Unfortunately, it's been too long since I've brought out our huuuuuuge Strathmore sketch pad--it's too big for the girls to get out independently, and I guess I just don't think about it very often--and Sydney was way more interested in just drawing than in doing any particular project. Don't you find that kids have to spend a lot of time, I mean a LOT of time, exploring any specific material or medium before they're ready to manipulate it in any kind of actual "project"? My kids are that way, at least.

So Syd and I spent a lot of time drawing with crayons on our huge sketch pad, and then, just because I'd been looking forward to it for a few days, I made some leaf rubbings myself:
I forgot how freakin' fun they are, but they are FUN! And very satisfying, especially to someone who can't really draw a lick. My goal now is to offer the girls the sketch pad a LOT in the next couple of weeks so that we can try leaf rubbings again real soon. I was thinking, though--wouldn't something like this make a cool Spoonflower print?