I bought the kids each their own laundry basket this week. Kyla already had one she uses with some skill, but Rosie “Not Dead Yet” Whitefoot peed in it, which inspired my basket spree. The idea was to get rid of the hamper in the kids’ bathroom that was just as likely to have clothes around it than it was in it…was a preposition between family anyway?

But of course my kids were ecstatic to receive their new baskets! They didn’t see them as hampers but as an excuse to play their old game, Bucket Head.

For any of you relic readers, you may remember earlier bucket head sightings, here and here and here.

Wes and Dwayne share more facial features now that Wes has a goatee.

I haven’t had a haircut since pre-COVID, and my puff ball had crossed the frizzy line during the summer. My sister-in-law has the best natural corkscrew curls and had discovered Diva Curls last year. I do not have her awesome curls but I like my waves. So I made an appointment, and came home happier, curlier…and, with products.

And so easy to go back to sleep…

The sunset was the beginning of a long week of toxic air. The girls and I started following airnow.gov religiously, celebrating even when we got down to “red” (still toxic, but no long purple). Smoke keeps us inside more effectively than Seattle rain!

This girl delights me.

I can probably expand on that thesis only by turning on Bragging Mom mode. This is the child who really marches to her own beat and is comfortable with who she is and is fully aware she doesn’t fit any teenage stereotype. She is motivated to do interesting things. This summer, she reread Patrick “I’ll never finish this trilogy” Rothfuss’s 2nd book and wanted to inhale the prologue into her very pores. Using her caligraphy pens and school paper, she copied it in her best handwriting, starting over at any mistake. It took her a ream of paper, but she completed it, perfectly, neatly, and thoroughly. Then she decided to teach herself about poetry and found every book of poems in the house. The same calligraphy pen copied her favorites into her own collection.

Kyla also loves jigsaw puzzles. After she covered our dining room (table and floor) with all our 500 and 1000 piece puzzles and was doing encores, I bought a 2000 piece. It slowed her down.

People with dyslexia have a notoriously difficult time learning a foreign language, but Kyla wanted to take Spanish this year, so she started preparing for it last winter by downloading an app to practice.

When she had to declare two school-esque tasks she would do for her Wednesday learning one week, she 1) listened to an entire book, Melinda Gates’ Moment of Lift, 2) did several logic puzzles, and 3) made an art poster. The book about women’s plights around the world was just her extra, and she read it because I had said she would get a lot out of it. [Contrast: Piper refused to even hear any of my suggestions about books to read (although history has shown she has always liked my choices), signed up to read and do art, and then took a three hour nap after reading a few pages of a book she’s read before. Oh, sigh.]

A Stepford child, Kyla calmly said to me at a time when I wasn’t in the middle of a project, “Mom, can you help me with my geometry? I did all my work, but got one wrong, and I can’t figure it out. I’ve gone back over my work. Can you look at it when you can?” I KNOW!! Someone programmed that robot perfectly!!

She does have her quirks. I can find her by following the trail of apple cores, banana peels, and peach pits throughout the house. My favorite colander finally resurfaced after spending a few weeks outside, a receptacle for some snack Kyla had taken down to the stream. And anyone who has a passing acquaintance with her knows her complete immersion into a book, even when not actively listening or reading, that compels her to jump, run, squeal, keen, and generally run amok regardless of surroundings. We had stabilizing jacks installed on the RV mostly with her in mind.

So she’s probably not actually perfect, but I do know she witnesses some of her sibling’s behavior and says, “Oh, that what that looks like? I refuse.” Thank you, Firstborn.

For her birthday, she wanted only to celebrate at the cabin and spend the day at the lake and eat chocolate cake. That sounded like a lovely way to celebrate for all of us!

We had to leave Dwayne at home for the week, as the cabin doesn’t have a good work space for him, but the kids were pleased to start the school year off logging in from Whidbey Island and throwing in a few more summer adventures in between Zoom meetings.

We spent six hours at Goss Lake. Swimming, floating, dust baths, and sinking the raft were the preferred activities of the day. A few friends caught up with us there, and then came over for dinner and cake. Kyla had friends and neighbors come celebrate over lovely cake.

Kyla, I want to be more like you when I grow up!