Infant Piety, A Cheetah-Colored Bird, and the Pirate Wench

1.

Raider ViaDude and I took five kids to a Renaissance Festival today: our three, and two brothers who are friends of the Lego Savant and Word Boy. When we arrived in Marshall, where the festival was being held, the weather was cold and rainy. Needing lunch in any case, we decided to forego fast food in favor of a leisurely meal at what was called Win Schuler's back in the day, a nice steak place in a historic hotel.

The five kids were very well-behaved in the restaurant, placing their orders clearly and politely, thanking the server, getting loud only at infrequent intervals. They discussed books (the older four, anyway) and drew pictures while we waited for our food. Our 9-year-old friend, who I'll call The Explainer, was so pleased with his meal that he left his own tip, out of his spending money, in addition to mine.

At the end of the meal, the kids were getting restless, so Raider took them outside while I waited for our check. When the server brought it, she said to me, "Wow, five boys! And all so well-behaved."

I was tempted, for just a moment, to bask in her praise, but I fessed up to some of the kids just being with us for the day.

When I caught up with the rest of the group, I told them what the server had said. Our 12-year-old friend, who I'll call The Armorer because he makes the most wonderfully accurate shields, helmets, breastplates, and so on out of cardboard and whatever bits and pieces are lying around, said, "When we get comments like that, our mom rewards us."

The Lego Savant said, "You know what my reward is when I hear about a comment like that? Just getting the comment. Just knowing someone said it."

Which was very sweet, but brought instantly to mind this favorite passage from Jane Eyre:

“Do you say your prayers night and morning?” continued my interrogator.

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you read your Bible?”

“Sometimes.”

“With pleasure? Are you fond of it?”

“I like Revelations, and the book of Daniel, and Genesis, and Samuel, and a little bit of Exodus, and some parts of Kings, and Chronicles, and Job and Jonah.”

“And the Psalms? I hope you like them?”

“No, sir.”

“No? oh, shocking! I have a little boy, younger than you, who knows six Psalms by heart: and when you ask him which he would rather have, a gingerbread-nut to eat, or a verse of a Psalm to learn, he says: ‘Oh! the verse of a Psalm! angels sing Psalms,’ says he; ‘I wish to be a little angel here below;’ he then gets two nuts in recompense for his infant piety.”

“Psalms are not interesting,” I remarked.

The Lego Savant earned his second gingerbread-nut today. And I'm just glad he was with homeschoolers and not on a public school playground, or he'd surely have been walloped.

(Our long lunch served us well, by the way. We came out to a pleasantly cool overcast, and the sun didn't come out and start baking things until we were just about ready to leave the festival anyway.)

2.

I have heard of musical prodigies, and math prodigies, and chess prodigies. But it had never occurred to me there could be bird-watching prodigies until one showed up in my own family. The Tiny Tornado keeps a close eye on the birds at our birdfeeders, and is often the first one to spot a new bird. When she does, she loves to tell us about it, and she is very good at describing them. Often we can then find them in our bird book.

The other night, Raider was out doing errands, and the Tiny Tornado told me excitedly, "I saw a new bird! It had a reddish head and (patting her belly) was colored like a cheetah."

I had no idea what she was talking about, and although we checked our book and both the Sibley and Peterson iPad apps, she and I couldn't find her bird.

Raider got home and saw the bird book sitting on the table. "Did somebody look up a bird?" he asked.

"We tried to," I said. "The Tornado saw a new bird but we couldn't find it. She said it had a reddish head and was colored like a cheetah."

Raider said excitedly, "A Northern Flicker! What a wonderful description!"

I give you The Red-Headed Cheetah-Colored Bird:

3.

This year, I promised myself, I would get "garb" for the Ren Fests. There is a seamstress on etsy who I was going to have make me a beautiful medieval surcoat. But today I impulsively bought a red leather tricorn hat, which will not go with the surcoat at all no matter how much I pretend not to care about historical authenticity. In fact, it pretty much locks me into Pirate/Wench looks. Not that I'm opposed to that. It just means I'm back to square one in my shopping.

I told Raider, "We did great today. Except for our extravagant lunch and my $50 hat, we stuck right to our budget for the day!"

Word Boy bought a skunk skull from the guy at the fur booth. I knew as soon as I saw the skulls that he would want one, and be transported with joy from it. And so it was.

The Lego Savant wants garb, too. Mostly he wants a cloak, though if he could have a whole shirts/pants/bow with quiver/cloak thing he'd have the whole Ranger's Apprentice look going, which is what he wants:

This month, as I've been posting almost daily, my pageviews have more than doubled--easy to do when the numbers start out so small. Several people have let me know how much they like my blog, or a particular post.

I love getting these comments. But I also like having readers, so next time you like something, tell me if you must, but I'd be grateful if you'd also tell a friend.