that come home from the library. Like the one with the story (of course, it’s a silly story which is evident from the tone and the pictures, but still!) about an octopus coming up the drain of a bathtub.
Naomi: If an octopus came up our drain, we would get out of the bath and run away.
Me: I think you’re right.
The first part of this post is going to sound bizarre, but it’s pertinent, so stick with me!
Hannah and Naomi take vitamins every day: two multivitamins and two calciums. Naomi generally doles them out. This morning, we were at the last 2 calcium vitamins, so each girl only got one. Naomi asked that hers be broken in half, though, so that she could have the feeling of having two. No problem.
Hannah took the bottle and perused the outside of it for a while, before suddenly announcing, while I was thinking of something else entirely, “Well, that just shows that you can’t count by fours to 90.”
Me: You’re right. You can’t. Did you try? [Counting by various numbers to 100 or another number is a regular feature of her math lessons, so I thought she might have taken up a new challenge: to 90 by fours!]
Hannah: No, Mama, there are 90 vitamins in this bottle, but we’re left with only two at the end, not four. So you can’t count to 90 by fours.
Me: That’s very true.
I have a feeling that word problems are not going to pose too many problems for this one. She makes up her own at breakfast. Maybe one day she’ll be the one writing them: “If you have a bottle of 90 vitamins, and two children eat two a day,…”
with commentary. (Of course!)
I know, it’s nearly a month after Christmas. But I haven’t posted these, and some are very cute. So I’m going to.
Stockings.
Let the record show that, when I got up at 6:30, Hannah’s stocking was already opened and all laid out on the couch.
Let the record also reflect that matching penguin pjs as Christmas Eve gifts were a lot of fun.
Sisterly love on Christmas morning – what could be sweeter?
Sisterly dress-ups on Christmas morning, too. And sisterly books.
This next one was taken when Sim had only had about half a cup of coffee.
Haha! Just kidding! I can barely keep up with him without giving him coffee – how would I survive a caffeinated baby? But doesn’t he give the impression of someone who hasn’t had his morning coffee?
Naomi liked to play with each toy as she got it. Some were trying to convince her to speed her present opening. She was not remotely swayed.
Yep, there’s me. Still in pajamas under the sweater.
Sim was in baby boy heaven: lots of fun things to play with that his sisters had left around. Of course, this picture was quickly followed by screams and bustling away of all attractive toys, much to Sim’s chagrin.
Sometimes dress-ups can give you some trouble.
Mom: picking up trash. Sim: trying to get into stuff. Hannah: no idea, but probably bustling things away before Sim gets to her couch. Naomi: either taking off or putting on dress-ups.
Sim’s new hammer toy was a hit!
Haha! Get it? A HIT! Hahaha…
Yeah, okay, not that funny.
Naomi thought it was great, too. She forcibly took it from him so she could play with it.
But she let him play with her tea set. He likes the teapots. He likes to take the lid off and put it back on. Over and over.
Naomi likes her new pink parasol with her name on it.
But WAIT! Who’s in this next picture?!?
Michael! I got up with the kids that morning and let Michael sleep until almost 8 a.m. It was probably his favorite Christmas gift, since he’d sung at Midnight Mass.
This one was taken after 9 a.m. Mass, the one the whole family went to.
…a whole stack of books that Mom found in a random box in the basement and brought upstairs for children to discover after breakfast.
I took the kids to the nursery today to check out some plants and get some seeds and supplies. Hannah has been helping me read the seed catalogs, and both girls are beside themselves waiting until it’s time to plant. Every day: “Is it time to plant yet, Mama? Can we plant our seeds today?” They’re almost as bad as me. :)
We found some seeds and checked out the koi pond and were looking at plants when I suddenly saw the unmistakable zipping flight of a hummingbird. I pointed it out and we all stopped to admire it. A passing nursery worker, hearing our exclamations, said, “Oh, yeah, that’s Chico. He lives here.”
We watched as Chico zoomed about, then landed on a tree near us so that we could admire him. Then he zoomed about some more. Even Sim was watching him, pointing and saying, “See! See! Bird! Tweet!”
We noticed that Chico seemed to like the witch hazel plants, which are blooming and quite sweet-smelling. Hannah and Naomi conceived a plan: get in among the witch hazel plants, hold very still, be very quiet, and wait for Chico to land nearby so they could see him up close.
So there I was, standing next to Sim and the cart, watching the girls hiding out in their bird blind (and making sure they don’t do any damage to the plants). It took a while for Chico to return, but when he did, our patience was rewarded. He landed on a tree near them and hung out for a while, then flew up in the air, hovered, and flew back and landed on the same perch again.
Once he finally left again, I called the budding birders out of the witch hazel and to the checkout. Who knew that a trip to the nursery could be so awesome?
OH! AND they have big ol’ tractor-type things that drive around, dumping compost here and there for the nursery workers. We got to see some of that, too. All in all, a very rewarding trip.
We’ve had a couple of days in the 60s here in the Pacific Northwest. We don’t mind at all! Two days ago the kids and I decided to get out and do some garden preparation, so headed outside. The girls were overjoyed at not needing their heavier jackets: “It’s SPRING! It’s SPRING!” I’m anticipating some major sadness when the next cold weather comes.
Simeon has not had a lot of time on the ground since he’s become mobile. He’s on the floor a lot inside, of course, but outside it’s pretty muddy, so he’s mostly stuck in his stroller. However, it was a drier day when we went out, and I had some water resistant pants on him, so I let him down. It’s hard to say who was more excited about it – Hannah and Naomi, or Simeon himself.
Hannah spent most of her time unearthing worms and collecting them. She got a total of 18 in the hour we were out there. She would carry them, laughing about how tickly they were on her palm, and place them carefully in a container. Then she’d observe them for a while. Then she’d go find more. It was too bad she had to let them all go at the end, but worms don’t make great pets, and they do make great soil, so she’ll be doing more worm-hunting in the near future if she wants to do further observations.
Naomi divided her time between helping me with weeding and chasing a ball. She kept a running commentary going on her activities: “Oh, I’ve dug up a good weed here! I’m going to put it in the bucket. I’m a good weeder. It’s good to get the weeds out.” She’d found a little pink soccer ball and threw that around for a while. She also got her little trowel out of the garage and did some digging.
Simeon crawled around, picking up rocks and sticks, chasing the ball, and generally being pleased about being down. He also discovered (of course!) how fun it is to climb the back porch steps. Sigh. At least there are only 3 steps. Sim then found the pots that are ready for planting – dirt, but not plants. This was totally intriguing. He picked up a handful of dirt and then tried to carry it somewhere, just like he was doing with the rocks and sticks. He noticed that it was falling out of his hand, so he tried to go back and pick it up – highly amusing for those of us watching. I was watching fairly closely, but he wasn’t eating it, just trying to carry it places. Until we’d been out for about an hour, when I turned around to see Sim with a nasty look on his face and dirt in his mouth.
I would say that Sim won’t try it again, but I’ve seen his sisters at that age. It will probably take at least a few more tastes before he decides that it’s not good to eat.
Hah! I bet you’ve never read a post with that title, have you?!?
This morning, in an effort to play some fun games that encourage coordination and movement, I set up for “balloon volleyball.” The idea is to hit the balloon back and forth over a string or ribbon tied to two chairs and stretched between the players. It’s simple and fun and we had two balloons.
Hannah thought it was fabulous. Naomi sent the balloon over the string once and then announced that she was too tired and began a 20-minute whine and cry fest. (I believe that the whine and cry fest took far more energy than even an hour and a half of balloon volleyball. Strangely, nobody sought my opinion.)
Hannah and I played balloon volleyball for a while, then decided to take down the “net” and see if Naomi just wanted to bat the balloon around.
“When I was a little girl,” I said, using a tactic that usually gets both girls’ attention – stories from my past – “we used to play Balloon Don’t Touch the Floor.”
“Oh, Naomi!” said Hannah with real enthusiasm, “It’s just like Laura and Mary and the pig’s bladder!” Michael has started to read Little House in the Big Woods to Naomi, and she loves the story. Hannah is a longtime devotee of all the Little House books. The pig bladder story is the first or second chapter of the first book – after the pig is slaughtered, Pa fills its bladder with air and the girls bat it around. For some reason, the pig butchering has captured the imagination of my children for some time.
“Right,” I say, trying to think as little as possible about children actually playing with a pig bladder, “so which balloon should we use? Green or purple?” And here’s the question I wish I’d skipped: “Which one do you think a pig bladder would be?”
“Green,” said Hannah without hesitation.
I do not want to know why a pig bladder would be green. Especially a nice, dark, forest green like that balloon.
I realize that things have been somewhat quiet around here lately. That’s mainly because things have been not-so-quiet (in a good way…mostly) around our house. It’s also in part because our laptop decided to stop working reliably, which means that I get a bunch less computer time. Sim is always willing to “help” me on the desktop, of course (“Button! Button! Button!”), but that doesn’t lead to intelligible blog posts, believe it or not.
We’re in the January doldrums as far as weather goes. It’s been pretty rainy here lately. I took everyone out for a nature outing (in the rain, because you have to or you’re stuck inside a lot in the winter) last Thursday. It didn’t last long. It was also windy that day. That meant that the nature outing – which was to watch birds flying – was highly successful: there were lots of seagulls riding the air currents, and it was fun to watch. From the comfort of the car. The outside time was not so successful. We were out walking around for about 10 minutes before the girls both wanted back in the car.
We have had successful nature outings on rainy days before. We went out and scouted out the new wetlands at Magnuson Park, which was pretty interesting. We’d been watching them get put in, so it was interesting to see the final product. Hannah and Naomi each had an umbrella, and I had an umbrella and Sim in the front pack. It rained off and on, but we walked all over and checked things out, threw rocks in the water, and generally enjoyed the great outdoors. So we’ll hope for better luck with nature outings this coming week.
I realized a couple of days ago that Naomi’s 4th birthday is coming up. How did that happen? And then Hannah said something about Sim being a papoose for the next Halloween. I told her he’d be 2 by then, and then had to check and be sure my math was right. 2?!? Of course, Hannah herself is turning 7 this year, but we’re about halfway through year 6, so I’m used to 6 and 7 seems far off.
And it’s very amusing to think that, this time 10 years ago, Michael and I hadn’t even met.
The local cousins are over today, playing Native Americans with our girls. The play sometimes collides with their interest in the toys available here, though, like Sim’s play camera that he got for Christmas.
Girl cousin: Let’s pretend this is my camera!
Boy cousin: No, Indians didn’t have cameras.
Girl cousin: Okay, then this is my toy camera.
Boy cousin: No, they didn’t have toy cameras, either.
Girl cousin: [definitely nonplussed] What did they have?
Boy cousin: They didn’t have cameras at all.
Girl cousin: Well, I’m going to pretend this is my toy camera anyway.
Simeon enjoyed Christmas this year. He did not understand about presents, he did not understand about unwrapping, which meant that he didn’t do much unwrapping. His sisters did not understand why he didn’t understand, but they did know that it meant that they got to unwrap most of his gifts for him.
Nevertheless, Simeon did enjoy Christmas. There’s nothing a little boy is going to like better than a holiday that brings trees into the house, puts lights on them (some of which happen to be within reach of his little hands), and then puts ornaments on, too. Then suddenly, people start handing said little boy toys that he’s never seen before. And others will sing the 12 days of Christmas book that he loves so much. They’ll be forced to sing it over and over and over. He will not ask the ones who don’t sing it to read it to him again. This book is all about the singing. It’s not worth it without it.
Sim really enjoyed the gifts he got. One in particular, from an aunt and uncle, he really enjoyed. It’s a jack-in-the-box sock monkey. Don’t ask me, I just know that if I ever have to buy a gift for a boy of 1-3 years, I’ll know what to get. I’ll show you why:
Once Sim found out that the monkey pops out, each time Michael played the song, Sim waved his arms until…
POP! Goes the monkey. Then the laughter.
Then the stuffing of the monkey back in.
Then the arm waving. The anticipation is palpable!
Then the POP!
The stuffing…
and the grin for the POP!
This went on for a long, long time. What I can’t portray for you in these pictures (and it’s really too bad) is the laughter that accompanied the pop each time. It was really, really cute. Baby laughter should be bottleable (is that a word? I don’t think so, but you know what I mean), it’s so wonderful what it can do for even the worst mood!
Simeon refused to have anything to do with anything that interfered with the sock monkey jack-in-the-box. One of his sisters opened for him the t-shirt Michael is posing with in the photo below. The t-shirt was fine, but Michael wanted to hold it up next to Simeon for me to take a picture! The nerve! Can’t you see how that would hamper his jack-in-the-boxing? One cannot multitask with something so important going on.
The sock monkey jack-in-the-box still gets a lot of play. Hannah is annoyed, though, because Sim has figured out how to pop the monkey out without going through the whole song. This bothers her. It does not bother Sim. He’s in it for the pop, he doesn’t care about listening to the whole song.
when you’re a serious book addict and your mom has said she won’t read to you right now (having read to you for the last 20 minutes):
Ask your sisters to fill in.
Simeon will demonstrate. He’s asked Naomi to read him Goodnight, Gorilla, a favorite of all the babies in our family so far. It’s only got a few words, and you fill in the story according to the pictures. A long time ago, Mama developed a storyline that covers the salient points and is pretty straightforward, which meant that she didn’t have to make up new words every time. Now everyone in the house – and I do mean everyone in the house – could recite this story in his sleep. We don’t, usually, but we could.
Hmm…that gives me an interesting idea for a good practical joke.
Okay, back to the reading. First, you sit in a basket and look as cute as possible. Wearing a truck onesie that says “Helper” on it is optional, but may increase the chances of this working.
Then you look pathetic and hold the book out to any passing person, signing “please” and saying, “Busy, busy, busy!!” which is, of course, your way of saying “please.” Your mother notices this and, having read the book to you over and over for a good long time before you got in the basket, asks your sister to read it to you.
Your sister, Naomi, can’t read yet. With this book, though, that’s not a problem! There aren’t many words and, besides, the whole family has the storyline memorized!
Then your mother takes pictures, because a 3-year-old reading to a 1-year-old in a basket is really, really photogenic. You’ll see:
(It doesn’t hurt to include some signs of the things happening in the book, either.) 
(Your kind sister even lets you point along as she says the seven “Good nights” on this page. What a kind sister!) 
Kind sister, however, knows her limit. She’s not going to read it to you over and over and over and over and over. Mom is still hiding behind the camera. So serious book addict must read the book for himself.
The utter absorption in the material is just amazing to see, isn’t it? And all while sitting in a cozy basket. 
Simeon has learned to tickle. He will open and close his hand next to someone and go, “Guckle, guckle, guckle!” He meanwhile looks expectantly at his victim, who is expected to laugh heartily at the tickling. This amuses him no end. Which means that he’s guckling a lot these days. For some reason it’s not as amusing for the gucklee as it is for the guckler.
Sometimes, too, it takes me a while to realize what he’s doing. Guckle, after all, isn’t always a clear word to understand, especially when I’m doing a bunch of other things at the same time.
But it is darn cute, and his unaffected delight and laughter about it is enough to keep me laughing about the guckles for a good, long time.
We’ve been hosting a Christmas Party on New Year’s Day for – I think this is our 7th year. We picked some of our favorite things and packed them into the party: Christmas carols, appetizers, desserts (including the chocolate fountain), and friends. It’s a lot of fun, if we do say so ourselves.
The kids are always enthralled with the chocolate fountain. “You mean we can coat anything with chocolate?!?” It seems too good to be true. And it is, since we wouldn’t let them coat their sandwiches, their drinks, or themselves in chocolate.
Simeon felt the pull of the chocolate fountain this year – how does it work? How does that stuff come pouring forth from it? What will happen if I put my hand into it? How do I convince Mom and Dad to leave the room for just five minutes so I can find out the answers to all of my questions?
Hannah and Naomi spent most of their time upstairs, playing with the other kids in attendance. A couple or three years ago we discovered the wisdom of hiring sitters for the party. The kids play all kinds of very fun and exciting games and end up completely exhausted by the time the party’s over, and our carols are punctuated by the pitter patter (or loud thudding, let’s be honest) of little feet as well as the screams of laughter of the owners of said feet. Everyone is happy with this arrangement, since in years before the sitters, the children would usually decide that 3 carols are enough and now’s the time for coating ourselves in chocolate and then wiping it off on the nearest piece of cloth, whatever that cloth might be.
So now we’ve made it through the party and the party cleanup. The kids are asleep and we’re about to head for bed. We’ve seen lots of good friends and celebrated Christmas. It’s a good way to begin the new year.
