Flat Stanley Heads to London

The other day, Syd recited to me the entire plot of a Flat Stanley book that she'd just read. When she finished, I said, "You know, some kids like to make Flat Stanley dolls and send them to people who live in exciting places. Those people take Flat Stanley around and show him the sights, then send you pictures of his adventures. Should WE do that?"

"We should!", said she.

You can draw your own Flat Stanley, or choose one of several free templates available online--Syd liked this particular Flat Stanley best. I printed him out onto cardstock for her, then she colored him masterfully, using a combination of crayons, colored pencils, and our people-color crayons.

Although we've got loads of friends who live in super cool places, for this inaugural Flat Stanley, who I really want to be a smash hit for Syd's sake, I chose my friend, Trey, and his husband, Philip, who live in London. Philip is the UK Parliament guy that Will's going to Skype interview this summer [hopefully--must get butt in gear on that project], so I thought it would be nice for Syd to do something fun with them, too, so she wouldn't feel left out.

Also, they're amiable fellows who won't be too fussed about holding up a child's drawing next to Big Ben and snapping a photo.

Syd dictated a letter to our friends while I typed it into our Startwrite program, then I printed it out for her in cursive, to her horror. However, she surprised herself at how able she now is to write in cursive!

It took her a long time, with a couple of breaks for playdates and tennis lessons, but her handwriting is excellent.

Mind you, she put a period everywhere there should have been a comma, but her handwriting really is excellent. She colored her Flat Stanley really cute, too.

Flat Stanley is now off and away, and hopefully he'll soon be having adventures that he'll want to show off to Syd. And hopefully that will inspire Syd to want to make and send out some more Flat Stanley guys--maybe to you?

In other news, trying to buy a house sucks. How does anyone ever actually manage to do this? Since I've previously had a newborn in the NICU for three weeks, this is only the second most stressful experience of my life, but it's still really, really, REALLY darn stressful! The thing that I hate most is anticipating decisions that are totally out of our hands and not on our own timetable. Matt has found a bank that says that they'll absolutely offer us a mortgage, but first they have to check with the bank that declined our mortgage to see if that bank will let them use the appraisal that they had done. If so, yay! If not, this new bank will have to schedule its own appraisal, which means that we will not be able to close before the extension that the seller agreed to give us runs out, which means that our realtor will have to ask the seller for a second extension. Will the seller agree to this, especially since they probably don't really know what kinds of hell we've already had to go through to find a bank willing to provide a mortgage for this specific property, or will they tell us to shove off because we're taking too damn long? And if they tell us to shove off because we're taking too damn long, what on earth am I going to do with all of these books that I've organized and packed?!?

Because yeah, the possibility of losing out on our dream house, our future fruit trees and chicken flock and big dog and king-sized bed and woods and creek and spacious family room, and still all I can think about are my books.