Wisdom and Warrior

Many collective hours where logged in determining the kids' names. Names to represent personalities that had yet to develop. Sophia was from Wisdom and Merrick from Warrior at time the names are so appropriate in how they behave that I have to question the existence of predetermination at other times not so much. We gutted pumpkins this weekend in the annual pagan ritual of Halloween, and by we I really mean Sophia and I. Merrick, aka Warrior, it seems did not have the stomach for pumpkin innerds. He told me that the pumpkin stank and then proceeded to evacuate his own stomach not once but twice before just standing up and handing me his gutting spoon. If it wasn't for his excessive abuse of every other inanimate object that his Y chromosome can rail against I would have to question my own wisdom in a name such as warrior. That being said we had a great, read busy, weekend. Surrounded by bright sunshine, multiple friends and even a surprise visit from the grandparents. Friday night was laid back and we were able to hang out on the living room floor munching popcorn and reading a short story called the Panther about a shape shifting old women. The kids really had a great discussion about the book and we ended up doing it again on Sunday night with a Bradbury story called "All summer in a Day." I was really very pleased at the questions both kids asked and the level of empathy they showed for the characters. Saturday morning was mostly filled with general domestic duties before we headed south for a brew session and the kids set up a Mario cart marathon on Wii and then returned home in time for a visit from Bob and Nancy. We were able to head over and watch the deer at the compost heap in town and nobody was disappointed in the massive head dresses of the 15-20 bucks that showed up to munch on piles of garden refuse. The hours between were easily filled with the kids' new tricks since seeing the grandparents last. There was Sophia's kitchen gymnastics of handstands directly into the splits and Merrick's pill swallowing ability, and with my ears still ringing there was apparently an ample amount of harmonica playing. Sophia also spent a great deal of time lobbying grandpa with her well worn copy of an American Girls catalog. Sunday we needed to make another run to the apple orchard although we found that most of the eating apples were long gone from the trees. We did pick up some red delicious for baking and were able to get those peeled/sliced and frozen for later in the winter. Sophia also learned the word ironic as she quickly determined that as far as eating Red Delicious is a misnomer. A short visit from some more friends in the afternoon was then followed by an all out baking spree that found Sophia in charge of making bread sticks from scratch and me cranking out some fresh pasta for solidly filling meal. Tonight is a faced paced evening as Monday's tend to be as we push through homework and run off to the Y for Sophia's gymnastics. This Monday should have a few more smiles as Sophia's new leotard showed up in the mail for her today.