Palo Alto Tender Tracks Day 59 May 17, 2012

Waning Crescent Moon
Rancho San Antonio

Gracey was sick today.
The children were alive and well and circle time was sweet.  We are all catching on to our new Hawaiian greeting song. Even me who has to remember how to do the hand movements right when I am teaching it to them.   I told them a story that it turns out I had told them on Tuesday.  Lucy said “Tell it again. I like it!”  So, I did and I am glad I did because they spontaneously later on in the day, acted out part of the story.  An aspect of the story had an Old Woman floating in the sea in a “stewpot.”  They found a stump at the creek we were at and turned it into the stew pot.  The story is about how come we have tides in the sea.

When we got to Rancho San Antonio the intention was to make it all the way to the farm to see the baby goats.  I told a story recently about goats because of the baby goats that I had just seen on our vacation.   Lucy REALLY wanted to see them. She said she had just been there and they were “SOOO cute!”  Unfortunately we never made it because….When we all got out of the bus Bodie, Laurie and I needed to go to the bathroom. The rest of the group went with Audrey and they were going to wait for us across the street.  When we went to find them, where were they ?  “Oh dear!!! But listen, what was that?”  There was a rustling in the big Bay grove right near us. It got louder, and Louder and LOUDER and…..AGGGHHHHH there they were!!! We rushed in and surprised them!!!! with a great big laugh.  They were in the grove where I don’t think I have taken the children since they were three.  And there were four Wood rat’s nests.  We checked them out and found doors in each one that looked like they were used yet we found  no scat in the door ways, something typically seen.   And, on the floor of the grove were lot’s of white paint spots, MORE SCAT from a bird.  We looked up and saw a great big nest.  Audrey saw something fly away and ran to see what it was but just couldn’t.  She explored it more yet never was able to figure it out.  We found more nests in the trees and all of this was very very exciting!   And then, off we went.  We found more Eldeberry flowers to gather and lot’s of ground squirrels to enjoy and observe.
I had fun watching Giulio figure out if we were on the right trail as he was figuring out our landmarks and looking all around to see which direction we really should go.  They found the Gnome house, they passed the Woodpecker hotels, they crossed over the Concrete rivers and they made it to the creek where they were SOOOO hungry that they wanted to stop here and eat.  I knew, due to the time, that if we stopped here we would never make it any where else and, that is what happened.

When they saw the water there was instant love and exploration.  Walking over the log is what Bodie and Giulio first did only Giulio had not a care if he got completely wet.  Audrey, Alexi, Anjalie and Lucy went exploring for lizards and one ran over Audrey and Anjalies feet with Screams of surprise, excitation, and a pinch of fear.  Alexi really wanted to catch it.  I snuck up to them on my belly like a snake. The rest of the children, accept Paul who stayed with Laurie, came over to where the others were.  Giulio saw me and made no comment and Bodie saw me and just started talking to me like everything was normal.  Either they are so used to this or????????  I am really laughing right now about it.  Bodie was telling me about his upset with Jasper and how he was not letting him into the “stewpot” and really wanted something to happen about that.  I listened and then just hissed like a snake.  He then laughed and laughed. Giulio chimmed in and then Audrey said “Look, there’s  a snake.”  They just had a woman come by who said she saw two snakes.   I slitthered down and Anjalie joined in with slithering with me.  The struggle below kept happening so, quick transition to aid that and then, a story about How Snake Came to be.

Sharing the Stew Pot came about and there was great ease and more play.   Earlier Jasper and Giulio were not being so friendly with Kashi.  There was some conflict resolution around that and then later Jasper and Kashi were seen hugging each other with such love.   Kashi also kept putting himself in the midst of the trouble and not leaving when he could.  It appears so much to me that we all are wanting to work out certain conflictual scenarios in our lives.  It seems that this is why we go back often times to the unpleasantries in order to figure it all out. And, on this day, it seems there was some resolutions and answers obtained.

Yeah!!!