Bits & Pieces

 A random list of happenings.....


*It's mid February and we still don't have any snow.  It's a balmy 45 outside this week and even the wildlife is confused.  There must have been 75 robins in my backyard tree last week.  Poor things.

*The trampoline has taken up residence in the living room and shows up in so many of my pictures I forget what day it is.  Even with the limited floor space the kids manage to squeeze in a set-up or two.  Horses and Transformers here.

*The kids' daily outfit choices are so refreshing.  Especially Chloe's socks and her explanations as to why she put the outfit together: "because orange is Dad's favorite color and I love rainbows!" or "because blue and red look good together"  All her own rules.  All her own ideas.  She still hates jeans and white shirts.


*I've been reading fairy tales to Evan including Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Jack and the Beanstalk, but his favorite is Beauty and the Beast, which we've read dozens of times.  We've also finished Paddle to the Sea and Pagoo and are reading Tree in the Trail -- all are by the same author.  They are fantastic books with so much information hidden away in them.


*Todd and Evan are working through his Star Wars books for the third time.  He is going to have such fond memories of these times together.

*When people ask us how Evan learns anything if we don't teach him stuff, I always wish they could observe things like this:  While looking at the drawings in our current book, Evan pointed to a tepee and said, "I want to know what it looks like in there."  This leads to us getting a handful of books from the library for him to study as he wants.  That usually leads to him incorporating what he learns into his playtime (suddenly the Transformers live in tepees or he is building his own model of one) and talking to me for weeks about what he now knows.  Then from there another question always arises and we keep following wherever he leads.  Multiply this times 100 and you have his schooling for a year. It's amazing, but no amount of words does it justice.



*My kids are growing. I love the little realizations that suddenly they are bigger than they were yesterday.  Chloe is tall enough to climb up on to the counter to get her own trail mix. 

*Evan is tall enough to reach that same shelf just standing on the floor!  He also now washes his hands without getting a chair (at the kitchen sink) and can set the timer on the stove on his own.  I swear it happens overnight.



*We've been doing puzzles downstairs together instead of playing games 24/7.  Evan loves helping me do my 1000 piece crazies and Chloe sits alongside plugging away at her 100 piece horse puzzle (from Christmas that she LOVES).



*The kids have taken to being barefoot more often.  Maybe they think it's spring too.  Also they like the shorts and no shirt option for especially sweaty horse races.

*Evan  makes me laugh every morning when he's changing into his clothes. He has this new sense of modesty and tries to be private, but he is he's usually dropping his pants in the hallway and shouting, "Nobody look till I get my cork back in!"  I laugh every time.  It's just a silly line from Toy Story 2 and I love how he uses it :-)

*This was one of his greatest creations, a dragster, and even more than a month later it is still on display in his room.  He was so proud of it!

*Chloe has a growing collection of treasures that she carts from room to room to play with including a silver sparkly box, a glass sugar packet dish, a very small clock in the shape of a gold flower vase, a decorative 6 inch long brass key and a jar of glass gems from the craft store.  She recently added her sparkly butterfly collage from Granny -- I often find her rearranging the stickers all over it to make it even more beautiful.  Whatever she  is playing, the pile of treasures is right beside her.  They are "trophies for whoever wins."  Apparently there is always a race or contest no matter what she is playing with and she is in charge of who wins and what they get.

*She is so good at reading people's emotions and thoughts, even at the age of 5 (and a half).  Her favorite phrase when she hears me say I'm never going to be done with something is, "I can help you with that Mom.... and then... you can play horses with me!"  She folds laundry, measures and mixes food, wipes the table, sweeps the floor and picks things up when I need to vacuum.  So we can play together, of course.

*Every night before bed, Evan asks me for a back rub.  Just a minute or two he says.  "I can't sleep without it."  So I do it and then lay down beside him to snuggle.  He talks in his loud whisper about whatever is on his mind -- sometimes something really deep, sometimes about the giant fart he made earlier and is still giggling about... But as soon as I touch his forehead lightly to push back the hair and kiss him good night, he always, always yawns.  And I love that.  Then I climb down from his bunk and blow him a kiss -- he likes to sit up and let the kiss blow him down -- and we say I love you.  Good night.



*Roy laid on Evan's pillow for his sleeping spot, much to Evan's enjoyment.  It was only for a week or so before he moved on to a new lair, but Evan soaked up the kitty cuddles.

*Monster trucks were the only toys out for at least a week not so long ago.  It started with a trip to Walmart to replace one of Evan's that was broken beyond repair.  Chloe brought some spending money and bought herself (another) one too.  With new trucks to be the leaders, they got the rest going.  Chloe promised Evan one night before bed that she would play monster trucks ALL DAY the next day.  Promised.  And she did.  And for days after that too.  I love the stories they make up as the play.

*Sometimes I think my heart could burst when I watch these two play together and love and be silly and make memories that no one else knows but them.  And sometimes I want to rip my hair out when they are mean and hateful and punch and kick each other the very next minute.  Siblings.

*Evan was brushing his hair the other day and after about three strokes through he sighed and announced, "Short hair is soooo much better than long hair. I didn't know what I was missing out on!!" And put the brush away.



*He recently lost another tooth on top (on January 30).  It was only loose for about a week before falling out.  Now he has three more loose ones!  The other top tooth by his front teeth and the two incisors on the bottom.  A new smile emerges!

*When kids have no experience with something they have to make up a way to communicate it, for example:  Evan was running wildly around after dinner one night, long enough to get sweaty.  He came into the kitchen to tell me he had just had a "surge of legos" -- huh?  He said he had just stopped spinning in circles and thought about legos and it felt like they were in his stomach :-)  Oh, right.  A surge.... um, you're dizzy and nauseous.  So I had him sit down and breathe deeply while explaining what nausea was.  Neither of my kids has any experience with that sort of feeling so it never occurred to me to tell them before, so now Evan knows at least.



*Chloe still has no interest in letters or learning to read. She does love us to read to her though (right now it's Spirit, based on the movie, and Katy and the Big Snow). She is also thinking numbers and adding in her mind a lot.  She'll say things like, "This side needs one more because five and one is more than four and one" (referring to our snowflake wall).  Or she'll play with a pile of almonds making the number eight in many different ways.  All her ideas as she explores the world and in her own way tries to make sense of it.