Growing Up

I've been thinking about this for the last week or so, but I haven't had time to post it before now. It's really not just to make up for posting that embarrassing story about Ethan! :)

I don't know if all children are this way, but it seems like things will just kind of click with Ethan all of a sudden. Within the last couple of weeks, it seems like he's just all of a sudden becoming so considerate. For example, the other day he knew we were getting ready to go shopping. He asked if he could go play outside while I got Alex ready, and I told him yes. When we were ready, I called for Yellow to come in. By the time I got out to the porch, Ethan had come in from the back yard, opened the garage door for me, opened the door that I put Alex in, and climbed into his seat - all without being told. He seems to be looking for ways to be helpful without being asked. It makes me feel like he's turning into a young man rather than a little boy.

I know that's a good thing, and I'm happy to see it. It's another reminder, though, of how fast time goes; how fast my boys will be grown up and men instead of boys. So part of me is glad that he's still little boy enough that he needs a stuffed animal to go to sleep.

A mama needs to adjust to these things slowly. At least this mama does!

Bath Time Fun

***Note: I try to be careful not to blog about things that would seriously embarrass my boys. This is why you don't usually read about discipline issues, etc - certainly not because we don't have them! - but because Ethan reads this, and I don't want him to think I'm telling everyone about his struggles. This would usually fall into the "seriously embarrassing" category, but it's just too good to pass up. I'll just have to try to keep him from seeing it. And if you would not mention it to him, that would be great. But you can laugh in the privacy of your own home! :) ***

Last night, Ethan was showering and I was busy on the computer. Suddenly I heard a thump, like he'd fallen down. Of course, I jumped up and ran to the bathroom. I wasn't quite there when I heard Ethan frantically crying and calling for me. He was standing in the shower, holding the soap dish/washcloth holder that had been tiled onto the wall, crying. I still thought he'd fallen. The following conversation ensued.

Me: Are you okay, honey?
Ethan, crying: Yes, but, but LOOK!
Me: That's all right - the important thing is that you're not hurt.
Ethan, very upset: But - but -I feel really bad that I did this!
Me: Well, it was an accident, right? What happened, did you fall and try to catch yourself on it?
Ethan: NO! I WAS JUST YANKING ON IT! (He's almost hysterical at this point)
Me, stifling laughter: You were YANKING on it? Well, finish your shower and we'll take care of it.

Turns out he was worried about telling his Papa. Of course, Papa was very understanding and also had to stifle his laughter. He was also able to get the whole story out of Ethan. Apparently, he'd been playing a game that he was fighting some robbers over a washcloth. The washcloth happened to be wrapped around the washcloth holder part of the soap dish. Here's what the wall looked like:


Today they dried it out and glued the holder back in place. We'll have to take baths for a couple days, but no real harm was done.

And it's good to know that no robbers are going to steal our washcloths - at least not without a fight from Ethan!

He's really too young for this ...

Alex is a very different child from Ethan. Not that they don't have their similarities, but they are definitely different personalities. One of the ways this manifests itself is their willingness to do what you ask them to. As a one-year-old, Ethan was happy to give hugs and kisses, to point out his nose, ears, tummy, or any other body part you'd ask him to, wave bye-bye ... that sort of thing.

Alex? Not so much. He knows all those things, but if he's not in the mood, you can just forget about it. He's always looked at us like we were crazy when we'd ask him, "Where's your nose?" So we were very excited last night when I asked him that and he actually pointed to his nose! He cooperated! But then, with an impish grin, he stuck his finger UP his nose. And laughed. And of course, Ethan also laughed with great glee.

Now, because it made Ethan laugh and Mama say, "Oh, no! Don't do that!" any time we ask him where his nose is, Alex briefly points to his nose and then sticks his finger up it. Laughing the whole time, of course. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he thinks it's funny.

I'm fairly sure I could get a picture of it, but I refuse to reinforce that behavior. So I won't be doing that. Instead, here are a couple pictures of him this morning, wearing his cowboy hat and swinging his sword. (The second one is pretty blurry, but he wouldn't stand still. He was trying to chop things with his sword. And he has such a funny expression on his face, I thought I'd post it anyway.)

Oh, my ...

I should know to check on Alex as soon as it gets too quiet in his room. Today I didn't check soon enough. He brought me a handful of thermometer sheaths (the red things) and just about then I heard Ethan exclaim, "What!?!" Here's what we found in the nursery:




And the culprit - does he look remorseful? I don't think so!

Pearls of Wisdom

Ethan, to Alex, in consolation as Alex cried about not being told "no":

Let me tell you something, Alex. It's a sad fact of life that you don't always get what you want.

Earthworms

Ethan's been studying "what's under the ground" in science, and we wound up that topic with a lapbook on earthworms. Here's a nice nasty picture of the cover, complete with a slimy-looking worm:


Once again, the inside pictures weren't that good, so this is the only one that wasn't blurry; there are more mini-books that aren't pictured:



And this one is blurry, but you can see how long the one book is - that one was one of his favorites, and he wanted to be sure to include a picture of it.


We learned some neat things - did you know worms have five hearts? Or that they breathe through their skin? Aren't you glad I shared that with you, since your life would have been incomplete without that knowledge? :) The lapbook instructions and printables can be found here, if anyone is interested.

Ancient Egypt

We recently finished a study on Ancient Egypt. We mummified an apple and made an Ancient Egypt lapbook. (I took pictures, but they were pretty bad. And I don't feel like trying to take more. Because I'm lazy, tired, or sick of Ancient Egypt - take your pick. Or maybe it's all three! Ha!) We read a lot of books, we played this computer game (thanks for the link, Ginnie!), and we made an Ancient Egyptian costume.

Not a kilt, like men would have worn.

Oh, no. That, my friends, is an awful lot like a skirt. And it's boring. And they didn't wear shirts with their kilts.

And so Ethan opted for a mummy costume.



He wore it around until it started falling apart, and then ran around the house yelling, "Ahhh! I'm faaaallliiinngg apart!"

I don't know how much of Ancient Egypt he'll remember, but I think the mummies will stick in his mind.

Funny Boots

Our new schoolroom

Luke has been hard at work finishing the basement. We have a schoolroom, a sewing area, play area, and family room now! Here are the pictures of the schoolroom.

The front of the room - it's great having the whiteboard hung up instead of propped against a chair!


Ethan's desk and a second desk. Sometimes Alex sits and scribbles in a coloring book, or has a snack, or Ethan might use it for one of his stuffed animals to sit near him. Today it was a penguin sitting with him. You'll notice Ethan is rolling around on the floor on the left side of the picture.


Part of our "library" system:


Game and toy storage, as well as activities for Alex during school to help keep him occupied.


More books (some of my craft stuff is on the right; you can ignore that!):


It's so nice having a separate area for all our school stuff! We still do some of our work on the couch or in a recliner snuggled up together reading, but this is a great area! Oh, and the lighting is better than it looks - I'm not sure if it's me or the camera, but this is the best I could do.

Ethan's opinion on the schoolroom

Some Technical Changes

Did you notice you didn't have to sign in to see our blog?

You probably remember that we made our blog private because we are a little paranoid about some of the whacko perverts out in cyberspace seeing pictures of our babies. That hasn't changed - we still are. :) But I found out recently that I could remove our URL from blogger's listings and disallow search engines from finding it. This enables anyone (technically) to read the blog, but in reality - if you don't have our web address, you'll never find it.

So what does this mean to you? Well, probably not a whole lot, if I'm honest. But, if you use a reader of any sort, you should now be able to subscribe, since we'll have a feed! If you don't use a reader, you probably won't understand that. If you read a lot of blogs and are interested in streamlining how you do it, there's a great tutorial here. If you just get on here once in a while to see pictures of some of the most adorable children in the world, you can just carry on the way you have been. Except now, of course, you won't have the extra step of signing in!

Back to your regularly scheduled life.

Brothers, in the Morning

Treasure Trove

There was an ad in the local paper yesterday, advertising a garage sale where a retired school teacher was selling hundreds of children's books. We got there first thing this morning and picked up a whole bunch. Then I went back by myself this afternoon and got a bunch more. This is pretty much how Ethan spent the day:


You would not believe how disappointed he was to have to put his book down and do school.


And of course, Alex wanted in on the action, too.

Percentages

**Have you ever had a child say something that you wanted to be sure to remember, because you knew it would make a great story when they were older? That's the reason I'm posting this. I tend to think I'll always remember funny things they say, but the reality is ... I forget a lot.**

The first week or so of school was kind of difficult for Ethan. I think, in retrospect, that much of it was the transition from the carefree days of summer to having to sit! and hold a pencil! and write with the pencil! Not that he has to do a whole lot of any of those things - one of the benefits of homeschooling is we can be flexible in how we complete assignments - but still, it's more than he had to do over the summer.

There was also another factor at work, it seems, to account for some of his bad attitude. On Thursday of the first week, as I was making dinner, he came out of his bedroom and we had this conversation.

Ethan: I've been thinking about attention, Mama.
Me: Oh? What about attention?
Ethan: Well. It seems to me that Alex gets 98% of your attention, and I get 2%.
Me, with my mouth agape as I considered the several hours a day of one-on-one time as we completed school: Really?
Ethan: Yes, and I think it would be much more fair if Alex got 50% and I got 50%.

We continued talking a bit, because I wanted to let him know I take his concerns seriously. And I wanted to know where he came up with this idea, too, because it seemed to me to be a little ... ah, shall we say ... inaccurate. (That's much nicer than preposterous, which would be my first choice of words!)

So here's what I found out:

Changing Alex's diaper = attention
Cutting up Alex's food so he can eat = attention
Getting Alex dressed = attention
Soothing Alex when he's hurt = attention
Encouraging Alex to pick up toys with us = attention
In fact, anything that involved any type of interaction with Alex = attention

Doing school with Ethan - doesn't count as attention
Working with Ethan in any way, including having him cook/bake with me, cleaning his room together, etc - doesn't count
Reading to Ethan - doesn't count
Listening to Ethan ramble about Legos - doesn't count

There were only two things that counted as attention: making up stories together, and actually sitting down and playing together.

So yeah, if you evaluate our days that way, he's probably right.

Tired Out

Ethan says he's too big for taking naps ... and he's probably right. Usually if he naps during the day, he has a very difficult time going to sleep that night. But every once in a while, he'll just zonk out wherever he's happened to flop down. He came in from playing outside today and laid down on the couch. One minute he was making strange boy-noises, and the next he was out like a light.



Oh, and I guess Yellow was tired out, too.

Object Transference

Alex is walking all over the place now, and he loves to carry things with him. Of course, when he finds something else interesting, he puts down what he had and carries off his new treasure. This means we frequently find baby bath soap in the living room, pizza pans in the hallway, toys in the mudroom, buckets in the kitchen, and so on. I've even found sippy cups and assorted parts in our bedroom.

He's also decided it fun to drop things into anything with an empty spot. While doing laundry this week, I found tweezers and a massager in the laundry basket from the bathroom. I lost my hairbrush for a whole day (a day that I had to go get my drivers' license renewed, including a new picture taken) because he put it down the turret of a toy castle.

But he's moving, and loving it! And he's getting to where he understands to help pick up and put away, too, so maybe someday soon I won't be spending quite so much time picking things up off the floor. ;)

First Week of School

We started school this last Monday; it's a little early, but we want to take a month off when the baby is born and still get done before the summer is half-over. Here he is, making a goofy face and holding his sign that will help me remember what year this picture belongs to:



And here with a not-so-goofy smile:


(He pointed out that his shirt and shorts matched that day. This makes me wonder - on the days he wears his favorite yellow-striped shirt with his red plaid shorts, does that mean he knows they don't match and he just doesn't care?)

And here's Alex on the first day of school, looking like he's a little buzzed on something:


You can see, if you look closely, that he's holding a lid behind his back. That's because his lesson consisted of trying empty to cabinets.


And climbing into them, then, on some days:


Boy do I need to put some shelf paper in my cabinets! :)

Cousins!

In the car seat:


Not in his car seat:


Riding with cousin Joel on a ride at the little country fair we went to:


Wiped out, sleeping at the hotel:

Vacation at the lake

Almost there!





The beautiful little lake we were at:


An early morning fire:


Stalking squirrels (that's a rifle in Luke's other hand):

Yellow got to come with us, too!


Alex loves to carry Gator around in his mouth.


Tapping the firescreen makes such lovely music!


Watching Mama and Ethan have a splash fight. (There will be no pictures posted of that. Seriously, pictures of me in a swimming suit are bad enough. Pictures of me in a swimming suit five months pregnant? Not gonna happen, folks.)


Ethan and Papa kayaking and canoeing.