Marin Tender Tracks Wed. Feb. 3, 2016 Day 18

Waning Moon
Lake Laguintas

All the children were here and we had a potential new student visit with his mom and four month old baby sister.  They were very, very sweet.  The children welcomed them in with some quizical looks as well as kindness and curiosity.
When we got to Lake Lagunitas it was colder then we were expecting. We had our circle which was very fine yet wanted to find a warmer place for the rest of the day.  The story was more adventures with Little Tommy Tittle Mouse and how he discovered that it is now Midwinter and Spring really is going to be coming. A birdy came to show him the new green shoots out of the ground and the just beginning buds on trees. Today we too went to go look for those things but, interestingly enough, we did not find that. We did however, find the Kingfisher, the Woodpeckers, Comorants yet the turtles seemed to still be sleeping deep inside the lake.  The waterfall was flowing but less then when we were last here. Kuba, Isabella and Eli all went down with me UNDER the water fall and discovered not only was it fun but they got a teeny bit wet too!
Kai and Ruby did not want to go under it and stayed up above watching us. Our new friend Henry was doing a great job of mingling then going into his own explorations. He is about the age your children were 4 to 7 months ago and it shows. It was fun to remember what they were like not so long ago.  He is quite verbal though and very friendly.
Kai was in great spirits today and laughing a lot. He, Isabella and Eli are quite the buddies. Ruby is beginning to join in and leaving a bit, though we hope not forever, her dreamy, dreamy and lovely place that she lives in and Kuba still loves his adult company. The children bring him in as much as they can yet he still prefers grown ups.  However, he led us up the hill that we began our journey on and Eli said “Follow Kuba!”  Kai said he didn’t want to go on an adventure so I said we weren’t but we were just going to go find the Sun ( actuallly true) he laughed, said ok and then it seemed later on that he knew, somewhere in him, that it was all about semantics.  Kuba, Kai and Eli wanted to throw things into the rushing waterfall again like we have done in the past so, we did.   Then Isabella, Ruby, Kuba and  I went down the trail.  There we found some very yummy chickweed to  eat.   They loved it. After awhile the rest of them all came over and we gave them some of our treats from the Earth.  They got to see how hair only grows on one side of the stem too!   Then, down the trail we went to find a sunny place to settle down in for the rest of the day. But, oh dear, that just did not happen. We did however find our old spot that we loved and they remembered many things about it.   There was encouragement to stay out of the water and that was tough for Kai and Ruby.  But for today we did the horrrible deed of keeping them out of the water.   It seems like a sin but Ruby had been sick and it was getting very cold outside.
Their tummies were asking for lunch so two wanted to sit near the water and the rest up the hill where a little sun was.  We always sit together and , in the end, that is exactly what happened.  It was so very, very sweet as we, before we ate, drank in the colors of our food and smelled our food.  Henry’s bagel smelled so good and everyone wanted to smell it so he walked around to everyone so they could.  I brought out a new story to read and the book Nimby that they LOVE!!!!  I read both and all the while the cloud world was getting darker and darker and darker.  It was great because that went right along with the Nimby story and looking up.  We heard the wood peckers and saw the ducks swimming on the waters.  We got silent on and off to hear the beautiful sounds around us.
This day was sweet and gentle, energetic and fun.
I forgot to say that after snack and before our walk about, we played hide and go seek, and ran into the grand Redwood little house. Eli in particular loved this!!!
Isabella was just plain fun, happy, and in delight all day playing with her friends as well as Kai. Ruby was her warm self and when we got near the lake however, it did take a little plain removel of her from the water as she was about to, several times, just walk right in it. I think maybe she is really a Selkie!
The four month old was crying when it got it’s diaper changed and they all were very, very curious about that.  We waited to hear if she would really stop crying when getting her diaper changed stopped. Sure enough it did. Their listening and observing skills were peaked so often throughout the day.  And when we got back in the bus it was fun to draw the story of the day from all the things that they and/or we remembered.