Boxcar Children

A New York Times article today about books to make sure you read your kids. Boxcar Children (Gertrude Warner) is at the top of her list. I LOVE this series, written in the forties and fifties. The first volume is the best, of course. A suddenly orphaned foursome, living on their own to avoid a tyrannical grandfather they never knew. Living well on a rural railroad siding. A little suspense, with happy endings. Now that's a good life.

Makes me want to build a fort in the woods behind our house and move in.

Matteo watched the Tigger movie (Disney) last night, and the drama and suspense almost did him in. He's super-sensitized to loss and threat. He couldn't look when Pooh Piglet Rabbit faced the end-game avalanche. Tigger lost an important letter when saving his friends. Matteo couldn't let go of that, even though the Disney plot resolved it: Tigger wanted to find his family of origin, and the Disney plot carefully inserted Pooh Piglet Eeyore to satisfy that longing, but Matteo didn't buy it. He cried himself to sleep over Tigger's existential loneliness. He didn't buy Disney. He wept for Tigger, and I held him, tear welling up for his weeping. We were a sweet mess.



This is Teo's last week before Montessori begins, he's having a great time "directing" his starlet Annika in the movie of their lives. She doesn't mind doing whatever he wants. But he can't take things she has. And when she grabs something of his, it's over. The producer, Papa, gets involved: "Cut!"

Annika is loving swinging on swings, and Matteo is enjoying hitting (t-ball) and fielding balls that I throw to him on the deck. From there he can launch some pretty long throws from deep right to make the tag.