A different kind of #WIP Wednesday

Back to school for the Baker spawn!

I usually share snippets of manuscripts I'm working on for #WIPWednesday, but today was the first day of school for my kiddos and I'm feeling a little nostalgic and a lot proud of these two WIPs that I've been working on since 2006. So instead, here's what I'm working on when I'm not writing.

Hilton Head Island!

It's hard to believe how big these kiddos are getting. Or how fast the summer flew by, though at times it felt like it would never end. (Usually when I was paying summer day camp bills. *g*) We squeezed out every bit of fun we could with baseball games, surprise picnics, playdates at the park and two weeks in Hilton Head where we didn't do anything other than relax on the beach, swim every day, and continue our longstanding family tradition of competitive trash talking during mini golf.

Thing 1 before he was promoted to goalie
(with the monster pads and stick that entails)

The Boy (aka the Bub or Thing 1) is eight and starting third grade this year. He's a voracious reader whose favorite book is War of the Worlds, followed closely by the Harry Potter series. Bub is in the gifted and talented program where he has already surpassed me in math, and he plans to be an astrophysicist when he grows up. He announced his intentions when he was four and very nicely explained the difference when I asked him if he meant astronomer. He loves reading, cooking, anything to do with military history (especially the Civil War) and any and all things LEGO. His favorite subject at school (aside from recess) is Japanese, and he's also teaching himself Portuguese and Spanish. He starts soccer in two weeks, though that's really just a way to bide his time til ice hockey season starts back up in October. He loves watching the Chicago Blackhawks, going to minor league soccer (Go Indy Eleven!) and baseball (Go Indianapolis Indians!) games, and he can recite sports trivia and scores almost as well as his father. He has won the last five family sports bracket contests in a row, predicting tournament winners (in World Cup soccer, the NHL, and college basketball) with almost as much accuracy as that famous octopus. We have eaten an inordinate amount of crappy Hungry Howie's pizza as a result, since we always play for no-veto restaurant selection rights.

Grr Zelda. Animal lover. Fashion maven.
Future roller girl.

The Girl (aka the Barnacle or Thing 2) is starting first grade. She's only five, but even though she's a year younger than her classmates she can hold her own. She's pretty fierce. She plans to be a veterinarian when she grows up, and she loves animals of all sorts. She spent her summer reading nonfiction books about reptiles, though she doesn't particularly like them because they're not fuzzy. She said it was research. Her favorite band is Fall Out Boy, and I have been informed numerous times that she's sure her favorite television show would be Monster High, if only I would stop ruining her social life and let her watch it. Alas, she's going to have to get by on her looks, because I'm not budging on that crap. As it stands, she can usually be found watching My Little Pony instead. She'll start learning Japanese this school year, but she's been teaching herself Spanish, mostly so she can sass her father (who also taught himself Spanish, so the polyglot gene is well-embedded). She is excited to be moving up to U-8 soccer a year early, mostly thanks to the fact that she spends a gratuitous amount of time either outside practicing or begging to go outside and practice. She can also cut a mean backstroke and butterfly, and she'll probably join a swim team next season. She loves the Blackhawks as much as her brother and father do, but instead of playing hockey she's waiting to be old enough to join the Naptown Roller Girls junior roller derby team. (Only two more years!) She even has a shirt with her derby name on it--Grrr Zelda, in honor of her family nickname, Griselda. Or Zellie, affectionately.

Next week we'll get back to manuscript snippets, I promise! Thanks for indulging my proud mama moment.