In which Michael is my hero again

Yesterday evening I discovered that our washer wasn't draining properly. This is not good news, but I thought I knew what the problem was. It happened about five years ago, and the guy who came opened up the washer, unhooked the pump, and found a little bread clip that had gotten into it somehow. After removal, the washer worked perfectly. Of course, it was 5 minutes to do the work, and it cost $90. Fun. And of course, I couldn't remember -- after five years -- how he had done it.

Well, Friday night isn't the best time for appliance repair, so we waited until this morning to try to call anyone. The first company called back and said he didn't have weekend repair technicians. Now that we do cloth diapers, I wasn't looking forward to either waiting until Monday to do wash or going to the laundromat. I was about to start calling around for recommendations when...

Michael came up from the basement (where the washer is) with a rusty safety pin. HE FIXED IT!!! It's draining properly again, put back together again, and the diapers are clean.

Fires

Last evening, Michael made a fire in our fireplace. When Naomi heard what he was planning, she said, "I will look at the fire with my hands over my ears like this," and she demonstrated. Last year Naomi screamed and screamed about the fire Michael built -- "NOT THE CRACKING! NOT THE CRACKING!!" You try explaining to an overly-sensitive 3-year-old that a crackling fire is a cozy sound...For some reason, that was our one and only fire in the fireplace last year. It turned out, though, that she didn't mind the cracking this time. Thank goodness.

Simeon was fascinated by the fire. I'll have to post some photos, because he was so cute about it.

Hannah wanted to get the house as dark as possible for the fire, so went around turning off lights and closing curtains. Then Grandma (Michael's folks are here for a visit) mentioned that in Laura's time she would have been reading by the fire. Well, then Hannah had to be Laura and read by the fire. Then she wanted a candle lit. Then she and Naomi had to do their bedtime tooth brushing by candlelight -- Michael was in charge of the candle, of course. Then Hannah wanted to put on pyjamas by the fire -- because Laura and her sisters would bring their clothes to get dressed by the warm stove.

She headed up to get them from her room and I asked her to please bring Naomi's down, too. She said, "Okay."

To which Naomi responded,"Thank you, Laura."

Guessing games

"Guess what's in here!" says Naomi. She seems to have forgotten that I was the one who just put the cookie in the little bag and bought it for her.

"Um...carrots?"

"NO!! I'll give you a hint. It is flat and has chocolate chips." She is relishing the game -- she has a mischievous grin on.

"Chocolate chip pancakes?"

"NO!!"

"Chocolate chip waffles?"

"NO!! I'll give you another hint. It has eggs in it." It has never occurred to Naomi that in homes of people who aren't allergic, pancakes and waffles have eggs in them, too.

"Oh! A chocolate chip cookie."

"YES!" She smiles and flashes a glimpse of the cookie to me, looking triumphant, as if she was the one who just guessed.

A little while later, she says to Hannah: "Guess what's in here!"

Hannah saw the game happen earlier, but the full import of Naomi's younger age and different skill set hasn't set in. "A chocolate chip cookie."

Naomi, crestfallen, says, "You weren't supposed to guess it right away!"

I mildly comment, "Hannah, she's playing a game."

Hannah gathers that this is a formulaic game, rather than a competitive game.

H: Oh. Okay, I'll try again.
N: Guess what's in here!
H: Um...crackers?
N: NO!! I'll give you a hint. It has chocolate chips in it.
H: Oh. What about a chocolate chip bunny pancake?
N: NO!! I'll give you another hint. It has eggs in it.
H: Oh. A chocolate chip cookie?
N: YES!!

At this point, highly satisfied with herself and her female family members, Naomi decides to make an end to the game by eating the cookie.

Hannah’s first experience of science fiction

was not positive.  She gets Highlights magazine, and she LOVES it.  After it comes in each month, we don’t see her for a couple of days.  Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but she does love this magazine.  She saves all her issues and rereads them regularly. 

This issue, however, had a science fiction short story in it.  Hannah came to me with it and said, “Mom, this story is scary.  I don’t like it.”

I took a look, and it was about a space crash involving a human boy and his alien friend.  I gave Hannah a short explanation of science fiction literature, also telling her that some people like it and some don’t. 

“Well, I don’t.”

Then she began asking a bunch of questions. 

“Mom, it says that oxygen is as deadly to him as sulfur dioxide is to humans.  What’s sulfur dioxide?”

I explained.

“Well, is that what aliens breathe?”

Aliens don’t exist.

“Well, would they breathe it if they did exist?”

I don’t know.  

“But if aliens did exist, then we would be aliens to them!”

Good point.

“I’m not an alien!”

Another good point. 

She continued on from there, and only stopped when she’d gone through all of her beefs with the story.  I have a feeling that it’s going to be a long time before Hannah seeks out more science fiction…

Hannah’s politics

We’re approaching elections, which means that we get all kinds of fun stuff in the mail – flyers, brochures, more flyers – and Hannah loves to get the mail.  She usually brings it in and sorts it, making color commentary on some of them. 

A couple of days ago, she brought in the mail.  “Mom, what’s a toll?” 

I explained.

“Well, Mike O’Brien wants to toll all our streets,” she said, a trifle huffily.  Something tells me he’s not getting Hannah’s vote. 

Painting

We're having some trim on our house painted. This has led to some interesting things going on at our house. For example, out of nowhere, a ladder will appear at a window and then a face will pop up. The kids love this. Simeon is really pleased to see new faces outside the window. Hannah likes to run over and knock on the window and wave. Naomi likes to stand on a stool and watch.

Hannah and Naomi also like to go out and watch in the yard. Today, as I was finishing the last couple of things inside before going on errands, I told the girls they could get their shoes and coats on and go into the back yard until I came out. This is not unusual, but having the painters back there makes it all the more exciting.

As we were driving away, Naomi said that the painters had talked to her. "They said, 'Blah, blah, blah...Are you going to help?' So I said, 'No, thank you.'"

Um..."blah, blah, blah"? I think you need to reach a certain age before you're allowed to use that phrase, and 3 1/2 isn't it. But I'm taking comfort in the fact that she politely declined to help.

New Olympic Sports Needed

I will never be the highest jumper or the fastest skier, but if they had some more pertinent sports, I'm sure that I could win without trouble. For instance, fastest dishwasher loader/unloader would definitely go to me. Sim has developed a fond love of dishwashers, and he recognizes the dishwasher sounds. They call to him, and he comes at a great rate with a big smile on his face to help unload -- even if I'm trying to load -- or to climb in, if the bottom tray is not pulled out. I offer as proof the above picture from our visit to Michael's parents' house.

I've developed strategies for getting the dishwasher loaded and unloaded as quickly and quietly as possible. It may seem ridiculous to be loading and unloading at the speed of light, but that's my dedication to the sport.

Danger!

Unfortunately, Naomi's penchant for dress-ups sometimes leads her into danger. Today, I heard her coming down the stairs. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a slip followed by a fall. I went running and found her crying on the landing. In these instances, she's often master of the obvious: "I fell down the stairs!"

I determined that although she hit her head and some other spots, she was in general okay, thank God.

The kicker, though, came later. We were in the car and this conversation happened:

H: Naomi, I did tell you earlier that it wasn't a good idea to go down the stairs like a lamb.
N: But I was being a lamb.
Me: Umm...Naomi, were you going down the stairs on all fours?
N: Yes. That's how lambs go down stairs.
Me: Naomi, that's very dangerous. Even when you're being a lamb, please go down the stairs the regular way!

She's a bride

After quiet time yesterday, Naomi came downstairs in Hannah's ghost costume from last year's Halloween. Well, not the hood part of the costume, but the part that looks like a white fleece dress. It's pretty long on her, so it reaches the floor. She couldn't be happier -- brides have to wear long, white dresses, you know!

She immediately began laying out how the wedding would go: these are her flowers, this is her veil, etc. "But who will be my groom?"

I suggested Simeon. That was rejected without further thought. He can't even WALK, you know. So it was finally decided that Michael would have to be the groom. Which meant the wedding had to wait a few hours, but that didn't faze the bride. Nor did she forget her plans. Michael was greeted with the invitation to be her groom. Well, it was phrased as an invitation, but I think it was more of an order.

Michael is new to the little girl dress-up games. He didn't really pay much attention to his sister's games, from what I gather, and he didn't have had any further experience with girls' dress-ups. What he doesn't know yet is that we're still at the very mild end of dress-up games, according to my experience. The best is yet to come...

Sim's crawling

For a long time, Simeon has eschewed learning to crawl. He's got a great "crombat" crawl, as Naomi likes to call it. He's fast and can get anywhere he wants to be. I think he didn't try to crawl because once he got his combat crawl working, regular crawling seemed so slow.

Well, now he's crawling. Not all the time, but more each day. After so long in the combat crawl world, it's somewhat funny to see him doing the regular crawl. Naomi's so used to his combat crawl that when she's pretending she's a baby, that's what she does, not regular crawling. So this is a change.

But, since he's also pulling up on things and beginning to cruise on the furniture, I imagine he'll be walking soon, too, so we'll have something even more different to entertain us.

My compliments to the chef

In one of Hannah's religion exercises, she was to imagine all the most beautiful, fun, wonderful, good-tasting things she knows, and then said that Heaven will be much better than that.

"Wow! Better than black bean chicken? Well...maybe black bean chicken will taste the same, but it will be even more special because God makes it."

Too bad we're not a restaurant. We could advertise: Michael's Black Bean Chicken -- Tastes Like Heaven.

Sudoku

I got a couple of beginner Sudoku books for Hannah, and we tried them out this afternoon. She's hooked. "I LOVE these puzzles, Mom!"

Sim loves books.

I suppose, if you look around our house, that isn't too surprising -- books are everywhere. And Sim sees all of us, all day long, looking at books. So he's got some good role models. It is amusing, though, to see him spend 10 minutes or more looking through books. Hannah, at his age, wasn't too keen on books -- except to eat. Michael, in fact, worried that she wouldn't like to read. Hah! Now we have a hard time prying them out of her hands.

I suppose that means that we're in trouble, since Sim loves them so much already. Once he can read, we'll never see him again.

Naomi's new ambition

is not to be Hello Dolly any more. She wants to be a scientist.

Me: Oh, what will you study?
N: Bugs.
Me: What kind of bugs?
N: The kind that Dada has at work.
Michael: [looks puzzled]
Me: Oh, like computer bugs?
N: Yes! I want to fix bugs all day long.

Michael wishes that more of his coworkers felt the same way...

Huh.

Hannah: Let's be leaves! We can dance around like leaves that have fallen!

Boy Cousin: And I'll be something that eats the leaves!

Errands are slower

these days. It's not because of the number of kids I bring, it's because of the number of potty breaks Sim likes to take when we're out. He loves checking out the potty at the stores we go to. Yesterday we went to the grocery store. Two potty breaks. Today we went to Costco. Two potty breaks. And he actually went each time, so I can't really say that it was a waste of time. I may have to do errands by myself for a while, though, because I don't really like checking out all the potties at all the stores and it's a lot faster.

Poetry

I bought a children's book of poetry recently, the kind with lots of poems and lots of illustrations. Naomi loves it. She loves looking at the pictures, she loves having the poems read to her, she loves asking things like, "Why is the elephant crying?" Hannah is fine with poetry occasionally, but for a couple of days now, this book has been Naomi's top choice for reading. That isn't Hannah's idea of a good time. "I want a real story, not a rhyming one!"

Naomi, however, happily asks for "pottery" (or any other "p" word she can think of) many times a day. I admit that, before I figured out the new " any word starting with p = poetry" formula, I was in the dark about what she was talking about. "Which book, Naomi?" But now that I've figured it out, we're reading a lot of poetry.

Naomi's current favorite: The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat.

Signing

Simeon has a bunch of signs now, and I've found that, in addition to being incredibly useful for communication, it's also a life saver for moments when I need him to hold still, preferably without screaming -- like when I'm trying to put his diaper on him. When I put him on the changing table, he almost always has the reaction of screaming, arching his back, and trying with all his might to get away. But the other day, I started asking, "Can you sign..." questions, and this distracted him enough that I was able to get his diaper on without any more acrobatics -- a very helpful thing, indeed.

He's also discovered that if he puts his hands over his eyes, he can play peek-a-boo. Since peek-a-boo ranks among his absolute favorite pastimes at the moment, this also helps with the changing table blues. It's also one of the cutest things you'll ever see: Sim puts his hands up over his face (most of the time over his eyes, but sometimes just over his forehead), pulls them down, and says, "Boo!" Then he laughs and starts over.

Should it concern me

that if I relate anything in Hannah's math lesson to money, she's a lot more eager to do it?...

Snippets

It turns out that having 6, 3, and 1 and getting back from a trip and homeschooling makes things pretty busy. Hence the lack of content here lately! Sorry about that. Here are some highlights of late:

Hannah: I finished Chippewa Trail [a book I'd given her to read], Mama! Now I'm going to start it again.

[The next day...] Hannah: I finished Chippewa Trail again Mama! You should read it... I know! You can read it twice and then I'll read it twice again. And then you can read it twice again!

****

Sim: Dada? [Signs "Dada"]
Me: Dada's at work, sorry Sim.
Sim: [looks at me significantly, tries the "Dada" sign again] Dada?
Me: Sorry, Sim, but Dada's at work today.
Sim: [obviously believing that I don't understand him, signs "Dada" again -- more slowly and deliberately -- and says, slightly louder] DADA?

...I had no idea that the "just say it slower and louder" reaction started so young!

****

Naomi: I want to wear a dress today.
Me: How about this one?
Naomi: [scornfully] Not a jumper, a dress!

****

Naomi, at Mass, began to fidget and pick at others around the time for the Gospel. Our friend Fr. Jerome was in town and saying the Mass, so I said, "Naomi, look, Fr. Jerome is going to read the Gospel! Ask Dada to pick you up so you can see!"

And it worked! She watched him through the Gospel and through most of the rest of Mass...how shall I convince him to return this week?

****

Hannah: Why do they call all this stuff with shapes and parallel lines MATH? Math is about NUMBERS!

****

Me: Sim, what do you have?
Sim: [Tries to flee as fast as possible, which is difficult, since he's indoors and can only combat crawl. Plus, he seems to have a hard time deciding which direction to pursue flight, but he is fast once he gets going. Of course, this tips me off that he has something he probably shouldn't, so I continue the chase. If I ask him what he has -- or what he's doing -- and he smiles and doesn't move, he's probably fine.]