Month: July 2007

Every year as part of the Independence Day celebrations, the city of Provo hosts a hot air balloon launch. 25 balloons and crews gather in a field to soar into the sky. Spectators can wander through the balloons and watch with amazement as they take to the sky. I’ve always meant to attend this event, but never managed to get there until this year. At 5:45 this morning I began hauling kids out of bed. We all loaded into the car and went down to the field to have a McDonald’s breakfast and to watch the balloons take to the sky.

The air had a pleasant chill to it compared to the roasting oven of yesterday afternoon. But once we reached the damp field, it was a little too cold for the kids. They huddled together, not certain that this balloon thing was such a good idea after all. Then the crews turned on the fans and the previously flat masses of fabric became behemoths of air. That was impressive enough to make the kids forget the cold. They began to exclaim over the colors and patterns that began to emerge. Stars, stripes, rainbows, swirls, smokey the bear, and a strawberry were all exclaimed over. Then the burners turned on and the beached behemoths surged upright, ready to soar.

We’d been standing at the edge of the field watching, but as more and more balloons stood upright I could see a pathway under and around them. I wanted to be closer. I wanted to stand and look upward at a sky framed by the curves of 10 story tall balloons. So we walked out into the field. This was allowed. Spectators are encouraged to get right up close to the balloons and baskets.

Standing there in the middle you could feel washes of warmth from the burners as the crews prepared to ascend. These burners caused some anxiety for Link. The sudden whooshes of flame startled him and he wanted to retreat back to the edge of the field. Instead I stood him close to me and helped him talk through the things that made him anxious. I tried to get him to relax physically so that his mind could be more at ease. He stayed pretty tense until most of the balloons had taken flight. Patches also hung very close to me. This left my Mom and Dad one girl each to keep track of, which worked out just perfect. The girls had no anxieties at all. Instead they were filled with wonder and delight.

The planners of this event obviously know what they are doing. The first of the balloons soared into the sky just as the morning sun peeked over the mountains. The bright sunlight sent rays of warmth over us all and illuminated the brilliant colors of the balloons. Twenty-five Balloons in a multitude of hues against a bright blue sky and a rising sun. My heart flew with them. It is wondrous indeed that fabric and hot air can bestow the gift of flight.

When the last balloon lifted from the field, we began our trek back to the car. The kids were all glad that we went, even Link. They continued to chatter about the launch as we walked. The balloons hovered above us, shifting with the winds, creating an ever-changing pattern in the sky. This was worth getting up early to see.

As usual when I have guests in my house, my blogging gets neglected. This is a major disadvantage of the guest room being in my office. It isn’t that anyone tries to prevent me from blogging or that I don’t want to blog, but the mental spaces that I need for blogging have changed shape and that interferes.

My parents are in town for the 4th of July. This thrills my children. It also makes me happy. I like my parents. I like to watch my kids and my parents interact. I like to quietly sneak off while they are interacting and go do something else. Fortunately Neither the kids nor my parents miss me very much when I do this. It makes us all happy.

Tomorrow morning we’re all headed to watch a hot air balloon launch. Then in the evening I’ll be running off to play with Howard down at Dragon’s Keep. Yay for parents in town and free babysitting.

Are my boys like me? It is so easy for me to see how my daughters are similar. Why is it so much harder to tell with the boys?

I know they both share my ability to focus so hard that we tune out everything else. I often have to work hard to get their attention. They often have to work hard to get mine. We love puzzles. I used to spend hours putting together jigsaw puzzles, my boys love this as well. There are certain kinds of logic puzzles that also intrigue me.

My boys have an innate affinity for math, which I do not share. I’ve learned to live with and even enjoy math, but it is not instinctual for me. My boys love stories. Link likes to be told stories, but does not tend to tell them. Patches is a storyteller in the making. He loves stories and words and sounds. He has just discovered rhymes and is starting to make them spontaneously. Right now of all my kids I think he is the most likely to become a writer/storyteller.

Link may choose to be an artist. He already has the capability to draw what he sees. He did a free-hand drawing of bugs bunny that was amazing for a child his age with no formal training.

Both of my boys have the same restless, creative spirit that I have. They must always be doing something. Usually the “something” takes the form of video games.

My two daughters are very different individuals and yet they are both like me. For a long time it puzzled me how this could be true. I finally figured it out. Kiki is more like me as I am now. Gleek is more like me as I was in my childhood.

Kiki and I are both very organizational. We love to dive in and create order out of chaos. Neither of us is particularly good at maintaining the order we’ve created. However I was not organized as a child and Kiki has always been organized. This probably means that as an adult she will figure out how to stay organized. This makes me glad because once she has figured it out, perhaps she can teach me. Kiki and I are very empathetic. We can both see how the other person feels and we can generalize from a small experience to a large one. We are both creative and artistic. Neither of us is particularly interested in wearing make up except for special occasions.

Kiki is much more dramatic than I am. She is much more of a perfectionist. I usually say “good enough” and she gets upset because it isn’t right. The perfectionism probably comes from Howard. I think the drama is all her own.

Gleek always has calluses, blisters, and healing blisters on the palms of her hands. They come from climbing swingsets and crossing money bars. I spent most of my childhood with similar badges of activity. I always had bruises and scrapes and half-healed scabs, as does Gleek. My hair was always a tangly mess, ditto Gleek. Gleek shares my childhood fascination with horses. I was puzzled when Kiki was not enthralled by my huge stacks of horse books remaining from my childhood reading days. But I’ll bet that Gleek will read them all and love them as I did. Kiki has shown very little interest in braiding, but Gleek braids all the time. I still love to braid, particularly my own long hair. Gleek is fascinated by make up and fashion, as was I at her age. She is eagerly looking forward to getting her ears pierced and wearing eye shadow. I remember being the same way.

Gleek is more headstrong and stubborn than I was as a child. If I ever got into trouble at school it was emotionally crushing for me, but Gleek seems to be able to brush it off.

So I see these things in my girls now and it is like echoes across time. They are similar to me, but they are not me. They will make different choices than I have made and will end up in places that I can not predict. As a mother I hope that those places are ones that make them happy and fulfilled. Their choices may make them more like me or less like me. Both could be good, both could be bad. Mostly I need to see these similarities because they help me to understand the wonderful individuals who are my daughters.