Thirteen Ways of Looking at October.

Yes.  This is what it's come to.  I will summarize over a month of my children's personalities and milestones with thirteen pictures and their brief captions, although my allusion to Wallace Steven's blackbird poem makes me feel better about it.

Field hockey season is officially over, although my varsity dinner will be tonight (squeezed in after Rudy's birthday party at a bouncy house wonderland), and the All-Star game will be Wednesday.  My last game was on October 24th, when we tied at 0-0 the team that had humiliated us with a 6-0 loss only two weeks before.  My girls celebrated as though we had actually won, and for a team that lost the majority of its games 1-0 because of a crippling inability to put the ball in the net, it felt like a victory, a victory in which we, as usual, didn't score.

Since then, I've had more after-school hours to catch my breath, and I can actually pick up Marley and Rudy from child care spots and still be home in time to start something resembling a healthy dinner.  But first term grades were due last week, and that was a frantic project I completed as Rudy celebrated her fifth birthday.  Mostly, I'm still reeling from the two months of my first year back in the classroom.

I.  Todd took this picture when he and the girls went on a hike on some trails the next town over.  They discovered a small clearing in the woods and argued over whether it should be called Natureton or Kinkleton.  Because it's way more fun to say, Kinkleton obviously won.

II.  I was able to go to the Open House at Marley's elementary school one night after field hockey practice, and I was proud of and amused by the poster she drew to teach her classmates about her family, likes, and dreams.  Of course Marley drew the mall right next to the library in her "favorite places" section.  I'd say that just about sums it up.  Although the gymnasts' proud salutes and eyes closed in satisfaction in the "When I grow up..." cloud are just as apt.

III.  And here we have Marley posing in three different birthday gifts she was thrilled to receive: a fancy winter coat, a beret-ish hat that barely stays put because of its heavy floral embellishment, and a book about Paris, France.  I'm thrilled that I'm starting to have an actual sense of what she'll wear, so that when I'm at a kids' clothing store without her, I can make decisions on her behalf.  Basically, if it will make her feel Parisian, she'll love it.

IV.  We finally made it to Water Fire in Providence.  I think we first planned to go in August, but every Saturday that it was on our calendar, we were either too caught up in home or school projects or too exhausted from those projects to make the trip.  Eventually, we made it a priority and even booked a canal trip on one of the authorized pontoons, drifting past dozens of crackling campfires and feeling so happy that we had finally made time for a family activity in the middle of so much over-scheduling and change.

V.  We traded in our car, the maroon Santa Fe, which had been without air conditioning for two years, which had speakers that would work or not depending on whether the road was bumpy, and which had a door that wouldn't open unless the door in front of it was.  Good riddance!  And Todd researched far less that his usual to get us a shiny silver Toyota Highlander, with a third row so that cousins and friends can hop on in. And we still marvel at the consistent sound from the radio and the fact that the doors open without any tricks or rituals beforehand.

(Also, Rudy got a spare pair of red and pink glasses that she now prefers to her purple pair.)

VI.  I went on a hike to Kinkleton with Todd and the girls.  Rudy, as the Mayor of Kinkleton, who happened to be dressed as a butterfly, made officious pronouncements (that sounded suspiciously like routines from a preschool circle time) from atop a mayoral boulder.  Todd later played XTC's "Mayor of Simpleton" for the girls so they could sing a parody about the Mayor of Kinkleton, continuing one of my favorite familial traditions: song parodies.  This tradition includes such highlights as "Hat Lamb" sung to the theme for the Adam West Batman series, and of course, "Twist Hounce" sung to the Commodores' "Brick House."

VII.  I spent a lot of time in Kinkleton taking pictures of myself with the girls and Todd, amassing proof that even when I went back to work, I spent happy afternoons with my family.  I think I was also pleased that I was getting shots with no obvious adult acne.

VIII.  Marley and Todd constructed the framework for a Kinkleton shelter.  This sort of thing used to make me think of Bear Grylls, and now my immediate reference is Lord of the Flies.  

IX.  Speaking of literature, here is the classroom where I now spend my weekdays.  It's worth noting that the Play Like a Champion poster has moved from the stairs in my home to the doorway of my classroom.  Not one student has smacked it on the way out yet, which is disappointing.  I think I'll make it part of a personal daily routine.

X.  Because I have fond memories of strolling the widened trail around a town water supply only a couple of miles from our house, I took the girls for a Sunday walk that, predictably, started out as a cheerful and idyllic jaunt and crashed about two-thirds of the way through into a weary, resentful march featuring whining, screaming, and repeated threats through clenched teeth.

XI.  And the bearded Red Sox won the World Series!  Preschool teachers throughout the Commonwealth seized the opportunity for yet another paper-plate-worthy project. 

XII.  One afternoon when field hockey was over, I brought Emma and Marley to the high school to play Animal Jam and dance around my classroom while I tried to organize leftover handouts and enter grades.  It wasn't productive, but I did get a picture of the two of them handling the high school's halls with casual confidence.  I'd like them to hang copies in their lockers in about eight years.

XIII.  And then, there was Halloween.  Because Danielle and her family have their own home and neighborhood for trick or treating now, we were on our own for the first time in a long time.  And then Rudy's friend Carson and his sister, Marley's friend Ruby, as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, came to escort a butterfly with wings that were beautiful but burdensome and a pop star mostly thrilled about the high heels on her plastic white go-go boots.  The best part of the night was the organizing and trading that followed.