Tidbits

Holiday Burn

The first morning of school last week, the official end of the holidays, Sis looked up from her breakfast and declared, "I want another holiday."

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Homework

We were talking about our babysitter the other day, and what she was probably doing while we were eating dinner. They both, probably rightly, guessed homework. "It should be do-at-your-favorite-person's-house work," Sis said, so that our babysitter could come over all the time.

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The 'L' Word

And they just keep coming. The kids had us in fits of suppressed giggles the other night at bedtime as we tried to read "Steya-yuna" (Stellaluna) to them! And there have been several, more than I can think to write here. The letter "l" starts a whole bunch of words. Mama says she can't listen to the news with a straight face these days because of all the references to Yemen, which, considering the news, you just shouldn't laugh at, but in our house that's a yellow fruit that is used for making "yemonade."

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Igloos

After being down for the holidays, with a promise of a January return, the igloo tents are back. With a caveat: the kids must clear the floors (on all three floors, including the basement) of toys and put everything back (nothing can stay in the tents) every night or else the igloos go away (special permission can be begged for projects like a big train track layout). In fact, they had to prove they understood the clean-up policy by doing it all week before we put the igloos, which were magnets for mess, back in the playroom on the main floor. But the kids have done beautifully, no, more than beautifully, almost perfectly. The house is cleaner every night, I get upset less, and they have their own spaces to play in. Clean-up is on its way to being an actual habit! I couldn't be happier. Them, too, I think.

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Piano Serenades

Bud has taken to playing the piano, fast or slow, loud or soft, high notes or low, and then asking me what it makes me think of. And then he plays another one, usually different in tone and tempo. Sometimes, he'll just tell me right off, "I played that like a rainbow." I've asked Mama to find us some Chopin or Liszt or some other piano concertos. (I just read up on Liszt--did you know he was Richard Wagner's father-in-law? And that he took Holy Orders in the Catholic Church and made abbot?)

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Light Brites

The kids got a cubical Light Brite for Christmas from Babysitter--not one but FOUR sides! They have had a great time creating pictures by punching holes through patterned black paper, though it took awhile to remember that v=violent and p=pink. Because, otherwise, p=purple, right? Of course, they are also highly tempted to use the little pegs for everything else, from food to money to treasure in all their games. Anyway, it hasn't changed much since I was a kid, making me wax nostalgic for my own Light Brite. I specifically remember making a clown face one dark evening on the floor in the living room. Aunt Banana was quite an aficionado, if I remember correctly. Every adult who has walked in the house this last week has gotten excited, "I had one of those!" being the first response.

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Emberly Inspirations

The kids, specifically Bud, have gone crazy about drawing. Bud and I (but even more so Mama) have spent lots of time and dozens of sheets of paper making "worlds." We made a forest world, a buildings world, a Native American world, a space world, an ocean world, all complete with appropriate animals, buildings, landscapes. He loves following the directions in the Ed Emberly book, Make a World, which we checked out from the library. Best of all, perhaps, is how its spurred on Mama's creativity as well, for not only does she draw worlds with Bud but has been drawing her own works, too.

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Castles

We are living and breathing castles right now. And not just medieval or typical European castles, but fortresses from all over the world, including various palatial Chinese buildings and temples (the line gets blurry for them; the building need only be impressive). Bud first designed his own from the aforementioned Emberly world book and then started pulling books off our shelves--the Magic School Bus/Miss Frizzle book on castles, my world architecture book, the Magic Tree House books on knights and on China. We've filled the backs and fronts of even more paper with castle after castle. But it doesn't stop there. Now he's building castles out of wooden blocks, first a medieval castle with drawbridge and now a Chinese tower/temple complex with simulated curved roof and front gate, all peopled with his toy knights (3 Europeans, 1 Samurai. He doesn't care) and their armored horses. Lo to Sis if any of her toys cross the blue border of his box (okay, as proud as I am of the igloo success, I am more proud of the genius of the "box": each child has his/her own space in the basement--Sis's is a big carpet and Bud's is a similarly-sized space demarcated by blue tape, hence his blue box--in which they can pile up all the toys they want without having to put them away at night. They know where their spaces are; they don't fight or get in each other's way; and they fill the whole space with their own creativity.) for then Bud's knights attack, which is, of course, exactly what Sis intended in the first place. She has built her own towers now, but prefers to "people" them with panda bears. Which in turn encouraged Bud to pull out the Happy Meal Kung Fu Panda figures (all four of them, embarrassingly) and choreograph a panda dance on the front stage of his block temple complex! He would move them in lines and then in rows, dancing the knights around them. And, Mama, you were going to throw those out! Not anymore.

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Mega Memory

Did I mention that I pulled out the MegaBlocks for the kids again? They basically ran out of wooden blocks in building so many towers and temples and castles and the like and so I found their old plastic blocks. Bud jumped up and down, hugging me and declaring, "thank you so much, Mommy! I love you!" He didn't remember ever seeing them before. But Sis, who has a memory like a steel trap, Mama says, commented, "I used to play ice cream with these." And she did. Two years ago. And I'd totally forgotten.

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Chinese Dragons

When we were at Ma and Gong's this weekend, the kids watched the Chinese New Year's Gala video, specifically focusing on a dance where 9 sword-wielding warriors attack a mean dragon and kill it. Bud has really latched onto this story, first because we had been telling him that Chinese dragons are usually good and this one wasn't. But also because of the dramatic nature of the sword dance (the actual killing was not too gruesome but still highly . . . affecting/effecting??), the artistry of the dragon puppet, the vivid narrative. He drew swordsmen killing the dragon at school, prompting the teacher to check with me about it (like, um, what is your son watching that they are killing dragons with big swords? Really, it was very artsy, I promise). And then, without actually any interference from me, he just decided to draw happy, friendly dragons. Everywhere. On banners, near the castles and temples in his drawings, etc etc etc.

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Valentines

While Bud is obsessed with dragons and castles, Sis has been making Valentines. She woke up one day last week and announced it was time to make cards (no doubt she'd seen displays in the store, which were out even before Christmas!). So she has been decorating cut-out hearts with stickers, foamies, and crayon drawings. She's made a few dozen, mostly for her bunny Amy, but some for Bud's penguin Tango, and even a few for real people! Bud copied her, almost immediately . . . . drawing happy dragons on his!

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Magic Again

We're back to reading the magic again, both Magic Tree House (we've read the Chinese one, Revolutionary War one, and re-read the Sabertooth Tiger one in the last three days) and Magic School Bus (mainly space and castles). They just can't get enough. And, because of the diversity of topics in each series, I haven't either. (Which reminds me to mention an article on the new ambassador for children's literacy, Katherine Paterson, of Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved. Great write-up on her memories and passion for reading here. Also, there was a great article in Mothering this month about a father's techniques for reading to his children, including guest readers like critters, books on tape once in awhile, special lighting, etc.)

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Medicine Troubles

Sis is having trouble taking her antibiotics this go-round. She's scared they're going to make her throw up, though no medicine ever has. I think the first dose with the syringe surprised her, though she's done it enough times, that she spit it out, hence the growing fear. She was downright terrified last night and got all worked up. The most amazing part, though, was how she talked herself down, "I just have to breathe. Breathe. I'm going to calm down. Oh, Mommy, I think I need to cry again." Just about broke my heart. And it took forever. But she got the medicine down and has been doing better each time.