Another haircut picture

Ethan got his hair cut this last week, too. And in the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that he actually got it cut three times. He was very patient and understanding, even when the second haircut resulted in far too much face sticking out. (His term, not mine!)

Here's the story. He was getting pretty shaggy, and Luke suggested that I try my hand at cutting his hair with an old pair of clippers we have. I was hesitant - after all, we were going to Mom and Dad's on Saturday, and Mom could do it then. (She's our regular barber.) Luke encouraged me to try - if it needed fixing, then Mom could do it Saturday.

He had too much faith in my ability.

So Tuesday night, before bathtime, I started clipping. Initially, I was pretty pleased. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I thought the result was pretty good. Ethan showered and went to bed.

In the morning - after being washed, I'm assuming - it looked horrible. Actually, it looked like he got his hair cut with a weed whacker. I could not send him to church that way; I was going to have to buzz it all.

With great longsuffering, Ethan got his second haircut in as many days. He was pretty bummed by how short the top was, but cheered up marginally when I told him I'd have Grandma actually teach me how to do it before I tried again.

It looked much better, but it was still kind of patchy around the edges, so Grandma fixed that on Saturday after she did Alex's.

On the positive side, Ethan has decided that he kind of likes it being short all over. I think he looks cute - his eyes look so big!

Haircut

Alex got his first "boy" hair cut Saturday. (He'd had it trimmed before, but I just used scissors in an attempt to keep him from looking completely like a girl.) He's loosing that baby look - especially from the back. See?


Now, since Alex is finally feeling better, and has actually gone since Saturday afternoon without his fever returning, I was going to take a picture of his smiling face for you all. It's been so good to see him scooting around again, laughing, talking, and eating! My goodness, has his appetite returned! But before I could take a picture of his sweet little face, I needed to wipe his nose. That, my friends, was an offense that required much crying. So no face pictures. He's actually screaming in this one - you just can't see it.

I guess I can see that ....

Yesterday between Sunday school and church, Luke was talking to Ethan. Their conversation went something like this:

Luke: What was your Sunday school lesson about?

Ethan: Ummmm, I think it was ... heaven.

Luke, scanning through the take-home paper and seeing they talked about all the wonders in heaven: So, do you think you'd like to see Heaven sometime?

Ethan: Mmmm, right now I think I'd rather visit New York City.

Luke, laughing, not really seeing the connection between Heaven and NYC:
What? Why?

Ethan: Well, you have to die to go to Heaven, and then you can't come back. If I visited New York, I could still come home.

That makes sense. Especially from the perspective of a six-year-old.

The new way to break out of prison ...

... just gnaw through the bars!

Random Updates

I don't think we've had anything exciting enough happen to warrant an entire post, so here are all the little things that have been happening the last couple of days.

Ethan is riding his "big" bike - it's big enough that he can't touch the ground with both feet at the same time. But he's figured out how to get going on his own, even with that handicap.

Alex is sick. Poor little guy is congested, feverish, coughing, and not sleeping. Since Luke wasn't home to be displaced, he spent most of the night in our bed with me, snuggled between a couple of pillows to keep him from rolling off the bed, or me from rolling over onto him.

It's warm enough to have the windows open today! Hurray! It's beginning to appear that spring may actually be here - most of the snow is gone, little green shoots are poking out of our flower beds, and Ethan's asking if he really has to wear a coat outside.

Ethan finished all of his schoolwork except for science yesterday! He was disappointed that he didn't have any more math to do, but thrilled that he's done with handwriting. (For the last month or so, I've been letting him do as much of a couple of subjects as he wanted; that's why we've finished early.)

We went to the Central Wisconsin Children's Museum in Steven's Point Saturday - it's a neat place, and well worth the $3 a person to get in if you have little people in your life who'd like to go.

In which Yellow saves us from a Truly Dreadful Intruder

Alas, dear reader, in my eager anticipation to receive our new school supplies, I overlooked a critical danger inherent in accepting deliveries. Thankfully, our Brave Dog was here to protect us and defend us.

Picture, if you will, a menacing metal beast having the audacity to drive into our driveway! Now, some would call this a "car" as though it were a benign force. Our Daring Rescuer knew better, though, and immediately alerted us with loud and ferocious barking.

I retrieved our order from the porch where the mailman had left it, and unwittingly brought into our humble abode an object so wicked that our Valiant Friend was hardly able to bear it. It was ... The Box. He set up a ruckus the likes of which would terrify a lesser foe ... but The Box was not even fazed.

We quickly realized the danger, having been alerted by our Vigilant Protector, and attacked The Box with scissors. Quickly extracting its contents, we banished The Box to a lonely existence in the basement.

But ah, if we had not had our Brave Friend to warn us! If he had not persisted even in the face of imminent danger!

The outcome could have been far worse, indeed. In fact, the possibilities are so chilling, I didn't even mind cleaning up the piddle that he left in his terror ... er, I mean the excitement of fighting the Enemy.

Yellow. We are so blessed to have him.

A morning well-spent

Ethan had friends coming over today, so he (in his excited anticipation) did this morning's schoolwork after supper last night. That meant he had two hours or so after breakfast to kill before his company got here.

So what did he do? He picked up a book, kicked back on the couch, and lost himself in the story.



He didn't even look up when the camera flashed. Anyone who's read our blog for any length of time knows what a camera ham he is, so if you think about it ... that's really saying something for his interest in the book!

Alex, meanwhile, found a worthy way to occupy his time as well:



See the little fluff of hair at the bottom of the picture? He was sitting among the socks until he saw the camera, and then he scooted as fast as he could over to me. Unfortunately for the picture, he's faster than my camera.

Good Times!

I got to order next year's school curriculum today! I was very excited. If you're not interested in homeschool curriculum, though, you may want to skip this post. :) Ok, so I realize that will probably be most of you, but I want this all in one place for my own record, anyway. I'll be linking to the publishers' websites, but you can buy most of this at a discount through Rainbow Resources.

So here's what we got.

For science, I found a first grade Sonlight set for less than a third of what it costs new. I've had that for a while, and it's just waiting in the closet for this fall.

Because of his enjoyment of and (seeming) aptitude for math, we're doing two math curricula next year - unless it seems like too much, then I'll drop one of them. For lots of practice and review, we're doing Rod and Staff grade 2. (They don't do K, so he's knows everything in their grade 1 book. I know this because I bought it, and now I can't use it.) For their emphasis on thinking mathematically and creative problem-solving, Miquon math is my choice for his second curriculum.

History will be Biblioplan for Families, lots of library books, and lapbooking on our own.

Phonics is a little unorthodox. I'm only continuing a formal phonics program for spelling purposes. I have this book from McRuffy Press, and we'll be going through 1st and 2nd grade both. I know that sounds really fast, but he can read nearly all of the vocabulary words through the whole book. We have lots of readers, and the library has even more, so we'll just be using those for practice. If it seems like he's not "getting" something, we'll just slow down until he does. The McRuffy book includes spelling practice, so to round out the Language Arts, we'll do Language Smarts.

We also got Mindbenders, and these two computer games from The Critical Thinking Company. Those are technically critical thinking, but they're really just for fun.

For Bible/character, we're doing Plants Grown Up from Doorposts. We won't go very deep into it, I don't think - it will actually last us a number of years. There will also be a lot of Bible in his history this year, because it's Ancient History.

Art and Music are kind of informal. This and Sculpey clay will be art, plus whatever crafts we feel like doing. Stories of Great Composers will be music - I'm looking forward to doing that. I'll probably learn more than Ethan does!

That's it for actual classes. Other than that, I got some things for summer math and handwriting practice, a book of father-son activity ideas, a book on manners, maps, and a sign language board book to try with Alex. Oh, and some geography things as well. If there is actually anyone reading at this point, and you want links for these things, just email me. :)

Now we get to start getting boxes! And that will be REALLY exciting!

Well, for me, anyway.

Just kidding. Ethan is looking forward to getting new books, too.

The Tooth is Gone!

Ethan lost his loose tooth today - I've been telling him that it's loose enough to pull out, but he's been enjoying just wiggling it. Today he went to wiggle it, and it had fallen out on its own. (Shades of his father, there.) It didn't even bleed. So now he's got to figure out how to spend the money the "tooth fairy" will bring him.


Just for the record, he doesn't really believe in the tooth fairy, but he's playing along to humor his parents.

Life Lessons from Ethan

1. You can't juggle hop balls. At least not when you're six and it's almost as big as you are.

2. A baby can't be in the playpen all day, just so you can play with toys with little pieces on the living room floor.

3. Your mom won't hold the baby all day, just so you can play with toys with little pieces on the living room floor.

4. Handwriting goes better when you have a good attitude.

5. April Fool's Day is a great holiday.

Playing Peekaboo

Locomotion

....,balloons, and a flashlight!

Ten Minutes of My Life

Ok. This has not been the greatest week, but I have high hopes for next week. So in an attempt to see the humor in some of the chaos, I give you the true story of ten minutes of my life last night. Or less, I'm not sure - I wasn't checking the clock. :)

It all started with Mama needing a bathroom break. Because even mothers have to go sometimes. I typically take Alex with me - between the dog and the older brother, it's just safest that way. So just before I got my pants fastened, Alex lost his balance. He managed to fall directly on his face - no hands - from a sitting position. I'm not sure how he did this, but apparently he's inherited my innate grace. When he landed on his face, he cried. Of course. I would, too. He also bled from the inside of his top lip. (Ok, there really isn't any humor at all in that. It was rather upsetting to both of us.)

So he's crying, I'm trying to calm him and simultaneously see where the blood is coming from and fasten my pants. Because it would seriously offend Ethan's sense of propriety if my jeans would end up around my ankles. So I get everything properly fastened, and Alex is nearly hysterical.

By now, Ethan is standing next to me asking what's wrong, why is he crying, is he hurt, etc. I manage to very calmly tell him to go get his pj's on, get Alex to stop crying long enough to wipe the blood out of his mouth, and start to nurse him.

About that time, Yellow starts dancing around and whining. Obviously he has to go outside. Normally, I would just ask Luke to take him out, but he was already in bed because of a blinding headache and ringing in his ears. (His not-feeling-well on Monday ended up being a sinus infection.) So I hope that Yellow will make it until I'm done feeding Alex - he doesn't take long to eat, at least.

Meanwhile Ethan has his jammies on and has gotten himself some juice out of the fridge. Almost immediately, I hear, "Ooooh, nooooo!" I ask what's wrong.

"I've spilled my juice. And it's on my pajamas. AND IT'S GOING TO STAAAIIIN!"

Because staining his clothes is the haunting specter of his six-year-old life. Like most six-year-olds, of course.

I tell him to take a napkin and dry it off the best he can, and I'll deal with it when I'm done feeding Alex. And taking Yellow outside.

I get Alex tucked snugly into bed and told Ethan to go change his pajamas while I take Yellow out. I come back in and look at his pajama top. His red pajama top, that you cannot even see the grape juice on. I try to find a wet spot, and I'm not finding anything.

About then Ethan comes out in his clean pj's, so I asked him where the wet spot was.

"On the back."

"On the back? How did you get juice on the back of your shirt?"

"Well, I was wearing it backwards."

Oh. Obviously.

Thankfully, things calmed down pretty quickly after that. So here's hoping next week is much better than this week!

Peace in the midst of a not-so-peaceful week ...

Passing on Family Traditions

I still occasionally eat oranges like this (Luke thinks I'm so weird). So of course, it was only a matter of time before Ethan discovered the joys of having all orange "teeth".

One of those days

I know you've all had them; those days when you wonder if you're doing anything right. I don't want to post details because I'm trying really hard not to put up anything that would embarrass Ethan when he is, oh, about thirteen. Although, as I type that, I realize it's quite likely that EVERYTHING will embarrass him when he's thirteen ...

Anyway, here's what today was like:

I wonder if I'm completely screwing up my son.

Alex has officially spent an entire day being crabby.

Luke is sick and spent the day in bed (this was supposed to be his Good Friday day off from work).

I've discovered I apparently have no willpower when it comes to banana cake with caramel frosting.

Ethan is completely out of clean underwear.

And so I am very happy to see the end of this day. As they say in "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse", tomorrow will be a better day.

I hope.

Slime Update

How to find slime:

1. Closely question the individual who lost the slime about where he had it last. Get only the answer, "I'm not sure. I think it was in the kitchen. Maybe on the counter."

2. Clean kitchen counters thoroughly. Find no trace of slime.

3. Check floor, refrigerator, table, chairs, and in the cabinets. Find no trace of slime.

4. Give up. Figure you'll find it eventually. Hopefully not when you have company over.

5. Start to empty the pan that the hot cereal was cooked in for breakfast that's been soaking in the sink. Spot a strange green blob in the bottom of the pan.

6. Fish out the (very slimy and slightly oatmeal-y) slime.

7. Put it in the vial it belongs in, call small boy who lost the slime, and ask if he remembers having it in the sink.

8. Think kind thoughts as he tells you, "Yes. I was trying to make it less dried out, and I ran water in the jar. It must have overflowed into the sink."

9. Resist the temptation to ask why he didn't tell you this when you asked where he'd had it last. Before you spent twenty minutes looking for it. He wouldn't understand why that was irritating, anyway.

10. Tell him, quite firmly, that slime stays in the vial from now on.

Instructions

Actual instructions that I've given this week:

Oh! Icky-icky-icky! Don't put your mouth on the toilet! (to Alex)

Be careful with your father's head! (to Ethan)

You cannot eat the couch! (to the dog)

That's my boy ...

Ethan thinks this is a funny picture because he's pretending to pick his nose. I think it's a funny picture because of the boots and the hoe. Because, you know, bright yellow boots and a beat-up old hoe are what you'll see on runways from New York to Paris this year ...

But I have to admit, he probably gets his fashion sense from me. So I'm not laughing too hard! (The thinking it's funny to pretend to pick his nose? That he gets from his father.)

(Although, just as a disclaimer, neither one of them actually picks his nose.)

Reading Together

Oh, no ...

"I've lost my slime."

These are words a mother never wants to hear.

Particularly when she realizes it doesn't mean, "I've lost my vial of slime.", but rather, "I took the slime out of the vial and now I don't know where the slime is. Here's the empty container, though."

Science Experiments

We do science experiments at least once a week. This week we took pictures. :) We really like our Sonlight Science program. (Definitely expensive, but you can buy it used for much less.) It's literature-based, uses lots of Usborne books at this level, and is very engaging.

This week's experiments were about "fizzing". To start with, we poured clear soda into a glass and dropped raisins in:


The carbonation bubbles were supposed to lift the raisins to the top. The bubbles would then pop, the raisins would sink, more bubbles would attach to the raisins, and the cycle would repeat. Our raisins are apparently too fat - they just wiggled around on the bottom. (No smart remarks from our readers, please!)

Next was the old stand-by, baking soda and vinegar.


About this time, Alex woke up from his nap and joined us. He was very cheerful and refused to sit still long enough to get his picture taken:



I poured vinegar into a glass, and Ethan stirred in the baking soda.


And of course the reaction was lots of fizzing.


The last experiment was the home-version of pop rocks. We stirred together 1 part baking soda, 2 parts citric acid, and 8 parts of powdered sugar:


After tasting the citric acid, here's Ethan's prediction of how our mixture would taste:




He was a little surprised at the fizzing:



But it was better than he thought. He even tried taking a whole spoonful, and discovered that's not such a good idea. Seems if you swallow it right down instead of dabbing it on your tongue, it fizzes in your throat. He gagged. Being a mean mother, I snickered and offered him another spoonful.

Our experiments today came from The Usborne Book of Science Activities, vol. 2.

Alex's new trick

Alex has a new trick. Anything that makes Ethan laugh is worth repeating ... and repeating, and repeating again. So this one will probably be around for a long time!

The Joys of Spitting

Alex has decided it's great fun to spit, or blow raspberries, or whatever you call it. It's especially fun when you have been chewing up graham crackers, and you can spit out the remnants. (They're all liquided! is how Ethan described it to Luke.)



Then, obviously pleased with yourself, you look over at your older brother, who's laughing hysterically.



And said older brother poses for his picture by pretending to be Alex.

What school was like at our house today ...

We started out with Phonics - Ethan was very excited because on Monday he gets a new reader. Today he read Jane's Jet. You'll be happy to know that Jake the Rat saves the jet from crashing.

Next was Handwriting, his least favorite subject. He wrote, "Jack had jam on a bun." We also discussed why he can't take Yellow to the dentist, not even to just go down the slide in the waiting room. That in turn led to a discussion about seeing eye dogs (the only dogs usually allowed in businesses) and why dogs don't like slides. And why we couldn't put Yellow in a box or otherwise force him up a slide, even if we were sure he'd like it once he went down. All of which was more educational than the numerous versions of "I see London, I see France, I see (insert name here)'s underpants!" that he sang. Repeatedly. I would include some of his versions, but really, Luke doesn't have purple and pink flowered underpants, and I don't think he'd want me blogging about it if he did.

Anyway, you can see that any excuse is a good excuse to delay actually DOING any handwriting.

After a break, we moved on to Math. Math took place in a space ship:





Now, to the layman, that may look like a bench backed up to a couch and a chair with a lid and a baby's toy phone on it. I have it on good authority that it's a space ship, though - complete with a talking control panel.

Then we curled up on the couch with Science (how airplanes fly), History (more about Paul Revere - Ethan was very taken with his story when we studied the Revolutionary War), and Bible.

And that was the end of school, unless you count the hours he spent playing outside in our beautiful weather today!

Bed Check

I check on both the boys each night after they go to sleep - after all, they're so angelic-looking when they're sleeping! Tonight I found Alex in an interesting position. This is not how I put him to bed:


That's right - he's not only turned sideways in the crib, his feet are through the bars.



But look how sweet he looks! Check out those cheeks!



And yes, there are four blankets in his bed. It gets cold in our house at night (mostly because we have the thermostat set to 62 at night in an attempt to not have a giant heating bill) and he seems to get cold without all his blankies.

Pictures

I started this week with good intentions of blogging every day. Obviously, that hasn't happened. Part of the reason why is that this week has been rather uneventful for us. And that, my friends, is a good thing! So here are some pictures from today, just so that I have something to post about today.

Ethan, working on his handwriting:




Actually working in this one:




Alex playing with his mobile when he woke up from his nap:



Ethan being a ham:

Busy Boy

Alex's favorite cabinet to explore when he's busy in the kitchen with me is the tupperware cabinet. So many plastic dishes to pull out ... so little time!

If you're naughty ...

... at our house, this is where we put you. Either that, or my son loves playing with the laundry basket and deliberately gets himself stuck.

Time Flies

Does getting weepy while sorting laundry mean I'm hormonal? Or just too emotional?

I was sorting laundry, and realized that Alex's socks aren't tiny bitty baby socks any more. Oh, they're still quite small (obviously) but not in a newborn if-you-drop-them-they're-really-hard-to-find way. And Ethan's socks - well, they are getting hard to tell apart from mine.

It seems like such a short time ago that Ethan was wearing little socks, and the sweet red overalls, and the adorable shirts that snapped at the bottom ... well, you get the picture. I look at him now - reading, writing (however reluctantly!), pretty much self-sufficient, and I wonder ... where did the time go?

And already, Alex is moving past the helpless baby stage. He's scooting around, getting into everything. He's laughing at the noise it makes when you spit toothpaste. (He's such a BOY!) He's babbling and talking so much.

I love each new stage, but it also makes me nostalgic for the previous stages. (And Luke didn't think that my idea of always having a baby in every stage was a good one. Go figure.) I wish I could hold on to a little piece of who they are right now - because they change so quickly.

So I'm trying to savor each day, along with the challenges it brings.

When I have numerous things I'm trying to get done and Ethan wants me to come down to the basement (for the forty-second time) to look at what he's building, I'm trying to bite back the impatience and summon up genuine enthusiasm. He won't always want to share each triumph with me.

When he wants help with something I know he could do on his own, I'm trying to be patient and walk him through the steps he needs to take. Someday soon he won't want any help.

When Alex is up for the third time during the night, I'm trying to treasure those quiet moments when it's just the two of us. Someday he'll sleep through the night. Someday he won't let me rock him, with his soft head tucked under my chin and his sleepy weight so warm in my arms.

When he wants to be right next to me all the time, I try to remember that he won't always prefer my company to all others (or most others, if Ethan or Papa is around!).

I've heard that good parenting is working yourself out of a job. So why doesn't anyone tell you how bittersweet that is?

Loose Tooth

Ethan is so not a baby anymore. He has a loose tooth today. How did he grow up so fast?

Marble Jam

Ethan had his marble run out today, and Alex finds the rolling marbles fascinating (from a safe distance, of course):


Ethan was so tickled to see the marbles get jammed up in the vortex (he suggested the title of the post). Notice he's pointing to the jam, and the cheesy grin.



And a closeup of the marble jam:



Alex was pretty excited to see the camera come out, too. Apparently he's gotten over his tendency to frown whenever he gets his picture taken.



And yes, I know my house is a mess. But we're off school today, and we've been playing all morning. Because of course, in our house, suitcases are toys. The blanket and pillow are usually used to put behind Alex because he occasionally still flops backwards.

Toy Storage Solutions

I'm always interested in new ideas for toy storage, in an effort to keep our ever-growing accumulation of toys from taking over the house. One issue I've never seen addressed is how to store toy guns, swords, and other weapons.

Probably because normal people don't have enough guns, swords, and weapons for this to be a problem.

But here, where the motto is, "A man can never have too many guns", it's been a bit of a challenge.

Well, Ethan has found his own solution. We have a closet opposite the front door that was probably a coat closet at one time. The previous owners had outfitted it with shelves, and since we rarely use the front door, I've left it that way. The shelves work well for puzzles, games, art supplies, and so on. The floor of the closet is (I thought) kind of useless because it's actually behind the staircase going to the basement, so it slants upward sharply.

But it's not useless - it makes a perfect gun cabinet! That's actually what we've started calling it.


Pistols and small knives fit in other toy bins, but the rifles and swords work well here.

I can never look at the closet without shaking my head a little, though. Several thoughts typically run through my mind when I see it.

Why does a six-year-old need a gun cabinet?
I wonder what people we have over for the first time think when they see this?
And he thinks he needs more guns?
And Luke thinks he needs more guns?

But, like I said, around here a man - or a boy - can never have too many guns.

Patty Cake

I finally got a picture of Alex playing patty cake! He's also started raising his arms up to show us how big he is ... but I couldn't get a picture of that. So just ignore the drool soaking his shirt and the crinkled up sales flyer that he loves to wrinkle, and notice how happy he looks!

Flashback Friday

When Ethan was about four, he had spent the night one weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house. When Luke went to pick him up, Ethan was not particularly happy about leaving one of his favorite places. As he was in the car crying, Luke pointed out they were going home ... were Ethan lived. He had just been visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

Ethan managed to sob out, "I don't want to live at 410 Virginia Street. I want to live at four-seven-six-zero Grandma's house!"

If you've ever wondered ...

... what imagination looks like, I happy to announce we have a picture of Ethan's. Now, this is not necessarily what everyone's would look like, but Ethan assured me that this is, in fact, his imagination. The more skeptical among you may be of the opinion that it looks like a nasal aspirator. (Or booger bulb, or snot sucker, depending on your level of sophistication.) However, if you think that, you need to use your ... er, imagination.

More Things I Never Thought I'd Say

"Don't sit in the sink."

"Well, I don't like dog pee on my hands either."

"Don't step on people on purpose."

"Yes, you can name your imaginary brother Simon if you want to."

"You cannot tattle on your imaginary brother. He's imaginary, remember?"

"Calling your mother a blah-blah brain is rude."

Wanna laugh?

This is the funniest blog post I've read in a long time. Quite possibly the funniest I've ever read. And I had to share it with you because I laughed so hard I almost cried.

**Edited to add, Luke didn't see the humor in the post. So you may not, either. I still think it's extremely funny. This could come from spending the vast majority of my time with small children, and not having as much adult conversation as one would like. Or it could just be that I have a childish sense of humor. I'll let you make your own judgement call on that one.**

Ethan's Favorite Poem

From Insectlopedia, by Douglas Florian

The Monarch Butterfly

He is a monarch.

He is a king.

He flies great migrations.

Past nations he wings.

He is a monarch.

He is a prince.

When blackbirds attack him,

From poison they wince.

He is a monarch.

He is a duke.

Swallows that swallow him

Frequently puke.

Breaking News

Alex can clap his hands now! Ok, that's maybe not really worthy of a news bulletin, but we think it's adorable! I tried to get a picture of him doing it, but he just kept grabbing for the camera instead. I literally took eleven shots, and this is the best one I could get. I'd have kept trying, but the batteries on my camera died.

In other news, Ethan visited the doctor yesterday for his six-year-old well child checkup. We tried a new doctor, and we really liked her. (This is good news for me, because we've been having trouble finding a doctor who works for us. You know, one who actually answers our questions and so on. And don't even get me started on the dentist who fabricated cavities!) Anyway, she asked Ethan if he was a good eater. He answered very seriously, "Well, when it comes to cinnamon toast and yogurt I am!" Can you guess what his favorite breakfast is?

He weighs 45 pounds and he's 46 inches tall. (I wish I only weighed a pound for every inch tall that I was. Ok, maybe two pounds per inch. ) He's completely healthy, and he doesn't have to go back for two years now!

Look Ma! No spoon!

Alex has decided he likes grabbing handfuls of food and feeding himself. He makes quite a mess, but he also eats quite a bit this way.



See, I'm saving this on my face for later, Mama!

Skewed Perception

The male mind is a mystery to me.

I've been informed that being kissed by your mother is unacceptable, because girls are uckapooey.

Yup. Uck-a-pooey.

What is not uckapooey?

Singing this song over and over again, with much gusto:

Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat,
Little birdies' bloody feet,
French-fried eyeballs rolling down the avenue,
And I forgot my spoon!

It is, apparently, the coolest song ever written. At least I'm assuming that, based on how frequently he sings it.

The greatest irony here? I, the uckapooey girl, taught him the song.

(And yes, I realize that's ironic on a number of levels. Or maybe insane, I'm not sure. But for those of you who know Leah Stevens Thompson, you'll be interested in learning that she taught me the song.)

Edited to add: You can listen to the song here. It's slightly different from how we sing it, and apparently we only know the chorus. But if you would like to learn it yourself, or teach your children :) this will help.

My son, the musician

This is the song Ethan made up yesterday:

The bottom of my brain is crud,
The side of my brain is crud,
The top of my brain is crud,
Becauuuuuse, I'm a crud brain!

Lest you think he suffers from low self-esteem, let me assure you that he thinks being a crud brain is a very good thing.

(Can't you just hear Martha Stewart saying that? "And being a crud brain is a very good thing.")

This is Ethan's idea of fun ...

So we were in the basement today; I was sewing and Ethan was playing. Somehow we got talking about subtracting larger numbers, and I started demonstrating on the whiteboard we have downstairs. Ethan knows and understands about the tens place and the ones place, so I was showing him how to subtract each column to get the total.

He was enthralled with the concept. He promptly asked me to give him some practice problems. When he finished them, I showed him how to check the answers by adding the answer with the smaller number; if they were the same as the larger number his answer was correct. So then he wanted addition problems as well. Next he wanted some of each.





About that time Alex woke up from his nap. As soon as I said I was going to go up and get him, Ethan ran to pull the baby swing over so that Alex could "watch his big brother." Because, you know, most seven-month-old babies are fascinated with mathematical computations. Well, in this case, Alex is at least fascinated with Ethan.



And they happily entertained each other for quite some time.





Of course eventually it turned into an elaborate game that involved us being secret agents, getting messages from bad secret agents, something about the number of boxes of dynamite needed to blow up specific buildings, and Ethan proclaiming things like, "Haha! We'll foil their plans!" I didn't quite understand the whole thing. I'll leave you to form your own opinion about whether that was because he wasn't making a whole lot of sense, or because he's brilliant and my poor frail mind can't keep up with his.