Slow Mo

We decided to visit the nonfiction children’s section of the West Tisbury library today just to mix things up. Henry wanted a book on Superman, and it occurs to me that we weren’t able to find it because any books on the caped crusader would have been in fiction, but in any case, we filled our book bags with as many books as we could carry. I love introducing the kids to Picasso and Georgia O’Keefe and Jazz musicians, so when we got home for our cozy read-a-thon ( a read-a-thon is when you pull out blankets and pillows on a covered porch in the rain or in front of the fire and load up on snacks with a stack of books and READ!!! They were my favorite days in Elementary School).
I pulled out a book with an amazing cover called “I Am Marc Chagall.” We opened it up and were captivated by the illustrations. The story itself? Let me tell you how interested a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old are by the Russian revolution.
After our read-a-thon, we decided to have a dance party. We watched some professional ballroom dancers for inspiration, and one of the ladies had a costume that started out as a shirt but unrolled into a skirt. Annabelle said “It’s a cape!” and Henry said, “It’s a butt cape!” And it really was a butt cape.
Henry then taught me a dance he invented he calls “I-shock.” It’s kind of a slow motion martial arts style dance with the occasional sharp quick karate leap. He’s very particular about the movements and I often do it wrong. But he corrects me, in slow motion, and we keep going. And the rain started to fall and the air turned cold so we brought in all our flowers from the porch and put them on a towel and now our kitchen is more beautiful than ever, covered in lush flowers. And I wish I could slow these days down to slow motion, they’re so perfect…