What I did on my incredibly long summer vacation (from writing a pleasure blog)

Happy End of Summer! More or less!

Not seen any blogs recently? Yeah, I have no idea what happened to me. I can only assume I was kidnapped by aliens and placed in some kind of pod where my vital fluids were used as a crude battery to operate their kid's ant farm or something (this is a very fancy ant farm)

No no, there were some medical funs, which mostly whittles down to: hey, I'm not dead yet! And I'm mostly intact! Allan was off school,which seems to take up more and more attention than ever each subsequent year. It's been nice. I really love hanging with my SUPA AWESOME daughter. 

Also, dang I have had very few moments to breathe. I even went on leave from work, because I just can't be available the way an actual job needs somebody to be with the gremlin on tap. 

But still cool. 

Allan has figured out that her allowance (6,000 "Points" which equals out to $6) is useful for purchasing things she wants. She has also rightfully figured out that she can earn additional points in various ways that we've since negotiated. Her suggestions involved "spraying things, washing stuff, and being nice to mommy." (being nice to mommy apparently involves not yelling at her or hitting her, which I kind of think is more like basic human respect, but well... creative suggestion anyways) We created a decent list of additional ways she could "help" out around the house. And while I'll own that typically her help has been a little bit more work than jsut doing the chores myself, it's been really cool to see her involved. And learning what chores she's down with

This is how she wanted to make her bed and this then is how her bed shall be made

So far

* cleaning the counters and tables  is awesome and she'll find creative ways to involve her stuffies and whatnot, while still actually being productive. She likes being "sponge girl" and "towel girl"

* Mopping is a disaster and drying the floor afterwards apparently is torture

* If I hold up each book (or other object) she owns and asks if she wants to keep it, she'll actually be pretty reflective and we've cleared a lot of space on the mantle and her bookshelves this way. 

* Making beds usually involves an elaborate somewhat time consuming ritual of wanting ot first un-make the beds, disembowel the bedding and spend several hours playing catch-the-child-with-the-blanket, then possibly turning our pillows into rocks or mountains or ice bergs to climb on and then needing to video tape all this and then edit the video, but she will eventually make beds. 

*Laundry involves demanding that she be buried under a pile of her own clothing before anything else can happen. 

The reason she has been wanting to up her allowance is something that has taken up a fair bit of the rest of her time: Allan recently discovered Dogman. It's a series of graphic novels by Dav Pikley about a cop who has a dog head and human body, but it's so much more than that. It's sweet. It's funny. It's full of really dumb potty humor mixed in with some incredibly clever humor. Overall, silly stories with a very kind heart and the books tend to end in surprisingly poignant ways.

Allan finished buying up that series, and then moved on to the Cat Kid Comic Club, which is a spin off in which Lil Petey (a protagonist in the Dogman series) and his telekinetic tadpole friend teach a bunch of talking frog babies to make comics. It's pretty dumb and pretty brilliant and very creative. So Allan bought the rest of that series too.

Then Allan got the entire Captain Underpants (also by Dav Pilkey) book series for her birthday. So she's pretty over doing chores as much at the moment, for some reason. But we are reading a lot!

It's not all books for Miss Thing though. She did also use her earnings to buy herself a very fancy schmancy vanilla ice cream cone at Full Tilt

In non-financial dealilngs, we also occasionally do craft boxes (which is where the pixie stick glasses came from) and frequently she takes over my phone to edit photos into masterpieces like this: 

Some of them really have a ... feel?

And regular drawing. Lots of straight up drawing. We're making books and comics now thanks to the Cat Kids Comic Club (thought she was making books for a while now)

So PHEW, it's been a summer!

But that's just the begining...

Besides that, we had a visitor during a decent chunk of July! Fidel!!! Yay!!! It was nice. Really nice. He's a good guest. And we are, of course, amazing hosts!

 Allan has known Fidel since she was two, mostly via video call, but in person as well, so needless to say she was about the opposite of SHY when it came to quickly identifying him as "adult whom I can order around who is stronger and WAY more fun than mommy..."

He was amply game, because Allan is just not one of those adorable little unicorn fairy cat children one says things like "no" to (at least if one wants to keep their ear drums intact)! She liked him SO much that by the end of the visit she was calling him the Worst Person Ever! Which has always been a crown held by Daddy. And she briefly even said she hated him. Which she almost always saves for me and Andrew, but definitely not Pam who is the only person whom she loves whom she does not also hate (it's complex, she's seven, we roll)

 She had her A-Game hostessing on obviously.

For our part, Andrew and I executed our superlative hosting duties by taking him on as many Pokemon Go themed walks as possible (three people can do a lot more damage at a raid than two!! This was a huge opportunity here) and introducing him to our increasingly textured Nintendo Switch collection. It was good times.

Andrew also took him to a tall mountain to climb up the side of it. Nobody died! So that's a big win! 

Just to up the hosting ante, we had more visitors!!

And they came bearing gifts!!! Holy schmoly, the best visitors

My sister and her family were out going up to my dad's island house but they stopped by on the way. I seem to have taken zero photos of them, but the boys are all HUGE and the adults look about the same, which is to say, lovely. And Allan got some sweet new clothes!

Around the same time, Allan conquered CAMP. Or mostly did. There were some tense moments in which we weren't sure that Miss Thing would be allowed back to the remaining weeks. And we had some very creative brainstorming sessions to figure out ways to self-regulate in a new environment with new frustrations and new teachers without all the accomodations and support that her amazing elementary school offers. In the end we came up with a backpackfull of books and a sketch journal, and that seemed to do the trick! We also practiced a variety of kitty breaths and noises that maybe would help. I suggested purring when she felt overwhelmed, which she did not care for, but I tried it later and danged if it doesn't kinda work! She did like "hissing" though, so I'm not sure how many teachers were freaked out by that... 

In all, she had five weeks of camp. The first four were back to back and might have worn her down a bit. The very first camp was "Art and Mindfulness" which seemed somewhat perfectly geared towards a sweet little artist with a short fuse. She had a few difficult moments in that camp but absolutely adored it nonetheless. 

The most successful camp from our point of view was Little Coders. She made a friend during the class. She learned a lot. There was not a single disciplinary infraction. And she was the only kid who wanted to show off her project to the entire class and their families during the end of week showcase. Which was cute. 

Then we got into robotic mechanized legos... oh Legos. Bane of  bare feet everywhere... And also, they can be more frustrating when you are assigned to make somewhat complex and time consuming mechanical structures with them with your classmates. At least when you're Allan and you have a particular way and time that absolutely everything should be done and you do not do transitions. 

She was signed up for three lego camps - amusement parks, sports stars, and jurassic brickland. Which was starting to look like terrible planning on our part by the end of the first week. Amusement Parks was by far the most challenging for whatever reason. Honestly I doubt it was the legos themselves. Probably a mix of the teacher and her moods. 

She was almost expelled after a rough day. For real. We had long talks with the camp coordinator. Allan and I turned it around with the books/journal/kitty breathing ideas we came up with. Still, felt like it could be any day that Allan was sent home and encouraged not to return. I left my number with the teacher just in case. 

Things seemed to go better the next week, over all. But - despite insisting on finishing up the first week of Amusement Parks -she  decided she was done and asked to stay home on Thursday and Friday. It was a little suprising as she had even said the camp was fun and the reason she'd been upset the day before was about the playground. But given how much she'd struggled and how close we were to expulsion,it seemed like letting things go on Allan's terms just seemed to make more sense. 

Which actually led to a really lovely couple of days in which she willingly came out on walks with me and did lots of chores and was generally more relaxed and easier going than any other days of summer. Something about that stolen time of missing classes I think. I remember skipping classes occasionally and going to Denny's with my old roomie Brooke. Those times felt sacred somehow. Freeing. A release valve that just diffused all the panic and stress. I imagine it was similar for her. 

There was a week break between that camp and the final lego camp. By all accounts she had no interest in doing it. We delayed to see if she'd change her mind and continued the conversation frequently. A few days beofre, it seemed like it was a no. So we wrote the school to disenroll her and they said that it was past the refund window so perhaps we might want to think on it a little more and get back to them. So I asked one last time before officially letting them know not to expect her and she said "I'll try it out." We agreed she'd take it a day at a time and that appeared to do the trick. 

She went. And she loved it. Victory!! They made a t-rex and she pretended it was biting her finger. They made a Pterodactyl and it reminded her of Dinosaur Train (or something like that?). They made a triceratops. And she doesn't remember what else they made but it was awesome. And she came home with a little lego person she's named Harmony. Harmony is now laying on the pepper shaker for reasons I'm actually not clear on, but it feels deliberate. 

Yay camp!!! So glad she turned it around like that.

It might not have hurt that it came after her big birthday celebration...

I'm not sure if I've explained that Allan is no longer a bunny but a kitty. But regardless, our little kitty just hit seven. (And became a Unicorn Kitty and/or a Catacorn depending on her mood, but that's a few more pictures down)

When we asked what she wanted for her birthday she said that she wanted to have lots of surprises - cards, candy and presents - hidden around the house for her to find. She also wanted vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles and "surprise ice cream" (vanilla). She further wanted Pam to be there. That was it. No ponies or bounce houses or hunting down all her classmates somehow (we never got contact info) to flesh out the guest list. Pam. Treats. Hidden goodies. Decorations, too. That got added later. Decorations were important. To which I say DUH! Can't have a (child's) birthday without unicorn or cat themed EVERYTHING!! 

And gifts. She got good ones. But I'm really proud of one of them. Miss Allan had recently bemoaned the fact that she had no cat toys. So... what's better than a normal cat? A unicorn cat mommy with a belly that zips open to reveal baby cats!!! It's a little macabre, but it's about the most perfect Allan thing ever and she felt the same. Unicorn kitty may have been the secret to her happy camper experience, as she and the babies came to every camp and seemed to help out immensely with the dinosaurs. 

I did also obligingly hide tons and tons of candy, cards and a few gifts around the house for her to find. The first treasure hunt took about an hour and she was just starting to get restless when I received her final gift of the day: 100 large pokemon stickers. While she went through her candy, I hid the pokemon stickers around the house and she followed me around just briefly afterwards shrieking with delight. I FOUND A EEVIE!!!! EEEEEEE IT'S A PIKACHU!!!! 

We have it on good report that this was the best day ever. It did not even come with the expected holiday crash. This is quite the surprise, because every holiday until this point has ended with a few melt downs and a definite listless period of whining "I'm booooooooooored" once the initial excitement has worn off. 

Sure she didn't sleep at all for a few days after, but... meh. She remained in surprisingly good spirits and extended her fuse several feet. 

Seven started off well...

And in honor of her new BFF Unicorn Cat and/or Unakitty... 

Allan actually found the ridiculous unicorn headband I'd gotten her and has been wearing it ever since..

.

She started her last week of camp wearing a fluffy confection of a birthday princess dress, a tye died sweater and her unicorn head-dress. How could it not have gone swimmingly? 

And it did. She finished off the week on a high note, claiming it to be the best camp ever. Score! So glad we'd missed the refund window. 

The birthday excitement wasn't limited to two days (her celebration and her actual birthday, both of which were observed with cupcakes and other treats of course). Because Mommy got older too!

Forty!!! Yes, I deserve a crown...

And another batch of cupcakes/singing/festivities... ok I'm not gonna say those weren't entirely for me as much as my festivity hungry daughter, but it definitely hit all her happy spots to participate too. 

And now in addition to being a unicorn kitty,she is a royal unicorn kitty. Trying to make the crown and the unicorn headband stay on her head takes some serious work, but she's determined. 

Sure I can't eat cupcakes, but i like the frosting and Allan loves the ... well, also the frosting. We pretty much threw away the cake part. 

And the candles were fun!

Despite having woken up with no idea that it was in fact my birthday, Allan made up for it fast by making me not one, not two, but THREE surprise birthday cards and then hiding them around the house for me to search for. 

(Pam helped. Pam was rewarded with a lot of screaming for her assistance)

She also did not sleep that night and summoned me with lots of yelling after bedtime because she needed to "shower [me] with love]". 

Not to be sated with such shenanigans, we rounded off that week with ... 

.. Another birthday party!!!

This time for some lil friends of Allans, but she pretty much took it as another party for herself, coming in screaming for cupcakes (they only had cake, but somehow she forgave them after a little protest) and toting her pokemon stickers, unikitty and tiara in stead. 

It had been scheduled as a weekend with Pam, so I had my mom meet us at the party and dutifully help keep tabs on her. You'd think at this age you could just throw her at a party and zone out, but... this is Allan. 

It was bittersweet saying goodbye there after a big cake gorge, but she left me Unikitty to look after me... 

And yeah, here we are. 

I mean actually I'm at home at the moment, not the park anymore. 

And at the tushy tail of summer. I'm afraid to jinx anything and point out that we actually never had a bad smoke event this summer, which is baffling! If we can just survive another few weeks, well... that will be impressive. 

And time for school! 

We're already getting back to school notices. Nerves! And hope! It's really cool that Allan has a good set up to support her amazing Allanness. Just hope she has cool classmates and a rad teacher. Fingers all bendy wendy crossed over here!

And perhaps this little blog will be filled with more frequent pictures and musings more often... maybe!