That evening we decide to roast marshmallows as a family.
The forest guard takes an adorable family portrait for us.
And the kids complain when Hugo and I kiss, nothing new under the sun.
Around the Campfire
Day: June 16, 2018
Learning to Fish
Hugo continues the work he started a few years earlier of teaching Hannah how to catch fish.
She’s now mostly able to throw the line on her own — and she even reels one in!
Later that night, Hugo spends a full hour before sleep telling me about her fishing exploits.
I’m pretty sure that’s Hugo’s idea of a perfect day.
Wrestling the Kids
Kids will be kids, and today they are not fully willing to cooperate in our plans to get them to eat at the table.
Nounou wants nothing to do with that.
Gotta love them.
Skateboarding
Last time Hannah was here, she blasted off on a small electric bike. We’re not about to buy her a full-sized bike now that she’s older, so instead, she gets a skateboard this time.
Hugo teaches her the basics — though to me he reveals that he hasn’t done any skateboard since he was Hannah’s age — and then when Cleo asks for a turn on the board, he teaches her as well. Hannah leaves her place gracefully to go hug her curious but timid brother.
I just watch from afar.
Night Yoga (with a cat)
Nounou dislikes the downward-facing dog, but he’s all up for cat pose.
One Last Firefly
Hugo is out with the twins, and I am alone at the lodge, catching up on books I’ve wanted to read. Or trying to. I’ve been glancing at the clock every three minutes. Hannah agreed to be home by nightfall, and the sun is just about to set already.
I’m starting to get worried. Maybe Hugo was right. Maybe it was too risky to let her go alone.
Before the night gets completely dark, I jog outside to go look for my daughter.
Turns out she wasn’t far away. Just too busy catching fire ants to realize she’s breaking a promise.
Oh, kiddo, I could have told you this was a bad idea.
Yep. You got stung alright.
I’m here to make sure she doesn’t get hurt any more than that.
When she sees me walking up to her, she’s clearly expecting a scolding.
As I explain to her, I’m just relieved she’s alright. Still, she’s sheepish from disobeying my request, and still hurting from the fire ants. I feel like this is all punishment enough.
As we’re walking home under the moonlit canopy, and the Granite Falls lampposts, Hannah looks up at me. “Mom? There are fireflies right there, can I…”
So I look away and let her catch the fireflies.
And she drops into a deep slumber yet again.
Nights Fall Fast
Hannah heads out again the next day.
To be quite precise, she gulps down her breakfast as fast as possible, jumps in the same clothes as the day before because nobody has time to actually pick new clothes, and she tells me, with a bright happy grin, that she can’t wait to see what Granite Falls has in store today.
She’s been here twenty-four hours, and she’s now also in love with the place — or at the very least, with exploring a new, different place.
She does consent to actually spending some time with her dad and me before running off to do her own thing, which we’re both thrilled about.
“Hannah darling, your dad and I would prefer if you were home before nightfall today, think you can do that?”
“MMssshuuure mom!”
I challenge her to a chess game — I never let her win willingly, not anymore, but she puts on a great fight!
Then she goes cloud-gazing with daddy.
Cyril is not quite sure he likes Granite Falls yet. Cleo is more adventurous. Not quite as much as Hannah, as she only ventures in a small radius around the lodge, but I can see her following in her sister’s footsteps when she’s older.
Hannah goes back to her insect-catching pastimes after she and Hugo have agreed that all the clouds really only look like weirdly-shaped sheep.
But the night falls fast in Granite Falls — and Hannah is still outside on her own.
A Whispered Argument
The twins are in bed and once they’re fast asleep, Hugo tells me we need to talk. And we engage in the most discrete argument ever. We don’t want to wake them up, but we also don’t want to turn it into a full-blown fight by going into another room.
“How could you let her stay outside so late?”, Hugo whispers angrily. ”Don’t you care at all what could have happened to her?”
“I don’t care about what happens to Hannah? Where were you, Hugo?”
“Out with Cyril! You were supposed to look after the girls!”
“Look Hugo, she is ten, not six, and she is fine.”
“EXACTLY. She is ten, and you let her stay in the forest at night, and I had no idea!”
“…”
“Okay, darling. You’re right. She’s a big girl, but better safe than sorry.
The Budding Explorer
Hannah is not afraid of anything, and certainly not of sticking her hand in a tree stump to go look for frogs. She’s a San Myshuno gal who’s barely ever seen a frog in real life, but that’s most certainly not stopping her, quite the opposite. She catches them, and she gently studies them, and then she brings them all to me — why — and tells me all about the differences she’s noticed between them.
She’s found her summer activity, and she’s really happy about it. All thoughts of grades, and ununderstanding teachers, and Math, fade away.
She doesn’t stop at frogs either. Like a budding entomologist, she catches most bugs she lays her eyes on — at least when she’s fast enough?
Being fast enough makes her pretty proud of herself.
She spends all of her first day in Granite Falls doing this. Digging through odd rock formations, finding fossils, catching bugs…
Well until the sun has set, and into the night.
Then she returns home and tells me absolutely all about it. Everything she found, how much she enjoyed this, and all that she plans on doing the next day. Apparently that involves venturing into deeper woods. I choose not to tell her about the legend of the Hermit of Granite FAlls ebcause I have a hunch she would go on a quest to find him alone.
But now it’s time for bed. She changes into her nightgown, still blabbering about frogs and ladybugs.
But she’s exhausted, and as soon as her head hits the pillows, she falls asleep.
It’s her sister’s turn to get to bed. They are sleeping in adjacent rooms.
So that as I’m putting Cleo to sleep, I hear that Hannah woke up, and is now telling her favorite cat plushy about the wonderful day she had.
Summer Break
The end of the school year rolls in, and we head back to our favorite holiday destination. Just like with Hannah before them, we want to make sure that the twins get used early to greenery replacing cement.
Hannah is bummed. Her grades are bad, she’s going to have to repeat a year. She’s a straight-A student… in the only two subjects that she has an interest in, History and Geography. In these two, her young passion burns bright and fierce. Unfortunately, they’re not enough to bring her average up.
My little one tells me she feels too stupid to understand Math, or French, or Biology, but I’m not about to let that happen.
Hannah darling, you’re a beautiful person with an incredible brain, and an amazing drive. I’m not about to be the teeniest bit less proud of you for not following exactly in school’s grand plan for you.
Cleo is entirely done with this conversation — she’s not even a kindergartener yet, an average is very much a foreign concept for her — and she opens the way into the lodge, after Hugo and Cyril.
As an attempt to cheer Hannah up, I start reading her one of her favorite stories.
It involves Mayan mummies and hidden treasures, and though she knows every word by heart, Hannah is enthralled.
Cleo is not, though. If anything she’s captivated by her MySims game.
Hugo is outside playing with the twins, so Hannah and I eat our fruit salad together — well, with Nounou.
She’s still preoccupied, so I suggest she takes a walk to clear her head.
Reluctantly she agrees, and at first the effects are not obvious.
But slowly, the Granite Falls peacefulness and the mountain air win over her worry, and I can tell she’s merry again.
And this is when Hannah starts what would become a life-long passion for her.
She goes exploring.
The Stewarts Family (and other shenanigans) 