Wednesday
We had our first bonafide nature walk today. Charlotte Mason would have been proud. I was even able to squeeze in a short story about spiders before we set out. We started with a “walking adventure” for Mommy and Sugar, and then we dragged the wagon up to the “Hundred Acre Wood” where we found moss, golf balls, a barbed wire fence, lots of spiders, more moss, plenty of sticks, and a hole. Well, Sugar found the hole. Isaac decided that Christopher Robin put up the barbed wire fence to keep the Heffalumps and Woozles from stealing our popsicles.
We returned for Spiderman popsicles and then had a bath for all. After lunch and naps, we finally made our tie-bleached spider shirts. Twice today Isaac initiated a chore on his own with no prompting. I couldn’t believe it! So we’re learning.
Habits, Progress, Science, Reading | Comment (0)Last Week and Today (Monday)
Last week was a blur. We read, we played, we found bugs. But Mommy was all in a daze of lack of sleep. I credit either teeth, a soy allergy, or just bad karma. :p But we’re finally caught up, and I feel much more coherent too. It’s lovely.
Gavin is starting to put more and more sentences together. “No, tankoo.” No thank you? What near-18mo says NO THANK YOU!!
Isaac has gotten quite good at collecting bugs for his bug house. Unfortunately, they are all dead. I try to explain, but then he responds, “That’s okay, Mommy. Jesus likes bugs. And God lives in Trucky’s tummy. I’ll put some leaves in here, and he’ll feel better.” “No, honey. God doesn’t live in the bug’s tummy. That’s something special He does with people.” “Oh no, Mommy. Jesus likes bugs.” Uh . . . okay. Whatever.
Finding the Morning Glories has become a morning ritual, so much so that I swiped some cuttings to try to grow our own in pots. Surely as stubborn a plant as a morning glory can be — surely they’ll root in water, right? Anybody know?
We played Jonah today. Thomas the Train was the fish, and Gavin was Jonah. Isaac insisted that he was “Larry Boy.” Uh . . . Whatever.
In other words, imagination is running high at the Lewis house. Facts, not so much.
Science, Reading | Comment (1)Tuesday (and Last Friday, Saturday, and Monday, too)
Holiday weekend. Mommy’s birthday. Busy, busy. But I observed several things about my boys this weekend. Interesting little tikes they are.
Gavin:
- is already bossing everyone around. Standing up in the highchair is the latest thrill in the Lewis household, and it meets with a firm “DOWN” from Mom, Dad, and brother. And now Gavin has joined in. When he sees another person — ANY person — stand up from a chair, Gavin runs toward them, hand out, and says loudly, “DOW! DOW!” One little boy actually complied.
- loves to dance. Put on ANY music and he starts to groove.
- has made his own sign for Spiderman. Go figure.
- can say:
- Mama
- Dada
- Brother
- “Bye-bye!”
- “Hello!”
- “Down!”
- “I did it!”
- “All done!”
- Please
- “Tankoo!”
- Drink
- Cracker
- [Ba]nana
- Papoo
- Nite-nite
- “Rockie, rockie, rockie”
- Yes
- Grrrrr
- Meow
- Book
- “No thank you!”
Isaac:
- “Read” me a story at the bookstore on Monday. Completely new story from a completely new book.
- Loves to name anyone and anything with what ever characteristic shouts out at him. The lizard this morning was “Sidewalky.” The boy at B&N — who I’m sure has a name — was “Booky.”
- Is figuring out how to dial the phone to call Daddy and G-ma & G-pa.
- Loves to perform for me. He sang me a completely new and different song that I didn’t know this evening.
- Loves to play store. I’m always the one buying and he’s always the one selling though. Hmmmm. . . .
- Drew in rain clouds and rain on a coloring page from church. About Noah’s ark. Shows he was paying attention and that he can figure out how to do that.
- Understands what tattling is. Sigh. . . .
- Explained to Daddy this evening how bees make honey. He was actually paying attention when I told him?
Wednesday
I know I need to have more routine in our day. I’m pretty lousy about that. I tried to institute “circle time” for reading, but my darling Mr. Preschooler redefined that for us as lying down to make circles. I think I’ll call it “Sassafrass Time” or something.
We played outside in the hot-hot and found THREE Orb spiders! THREE! And I overheard Isaac saying to a Fisher-Price Little People Baby, “I’m going to help you feel better. Let’s go out and play in the pool. And then we’ll go on a nature walk. After that, we’ll read a book. And then we’ll have lunch.” Huh. Maybe he DOES see some sort of routine.
We did pretty well with play-acting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That was fun for everybody.
Science, Reading | Comment (0)Monday
Wow. What a day! We went outside to play, and Daddy inadvertently locked us out! And the whole neighborhood is at work. I tied up the dog, told the preschooler that he was in charge, and ran to the nearest retiree. She was kind enough to let me use her phone to call my very kind parents.
The kids never missed me, and I decided to use the abandoned wagon we adopted for our first “nature walk.” We had already found a zebra spider whom Isaac named “Possipicky.” We ventured over to a grey lizard that became “Dirty.” Around to the front where we found Buddy’s brother on another jasmine vine. Hmmmm . . . . we didn’t warn him about the bug next door.
Off we went down the road. We found a yellow butterfly and a lady cardinal. I took a new route where there were morning glories and dandelions. And fire ants. . . . Sigh! Thankfully, I was the one who got bit, and I said, “Isaac, God made dog’s spit to soothe things like this.” And I stuck my fingers in Sugar’s mouth and rubbed the bite with the puppy salve. And it worked pretty well. We traveled a little farther until we found the lily pond after which our street is named.
By this time, I heard a gentle grandmotherly voice up the road, and our knights-in-shining-armor rescued us. Not too bad.
We colored pictures of butterflies and morning glories later, and I’m surprised that Isaac is starting to stay in the lines. I also overheard Isaac explain the whole adventure to Grandma over dinner:
Zebra spiders don’t build webs. They just jump on their bugs. And we saw purple morning glories. And lilies. And Mommy got bit by a red ant.
Overall, a success in spite of the obstacles.
Progress, Science | Comment (1)Thursday
It didn’t seem as hot today, so we had our outside time. I started by picking up dog poo while Isaac the Fire-Fighter put out our burning house. We discovered a very green spider on our very sorry sunflower house. I thought that was going to be so cool, and it just looks so sad. The ants love it. The bees. And we had a gold finch, so that’s cool!
We ate possipickles and found a new bug which Isaac named, “Grassy.” We got out the bug house and put in a sunflower, leaves, and grass (of course). Isaac tried to drown Grassy in the pool twice, and I saved him.
Mommy discovered something new about bugs. You need to check what they are before bringing them into the house! Thankfully, Insectclopedia is a pretty cool resource for identifying bugs. And uh . . . I think Grassy is either a wasp or a hornet. So we opened the bug house and let her fly home!
Science | Comment (0)Monday
Hey! We did pretty well today. We listened to “the Man music” (Beethoven again) while we picked up after b-fast. Isaac didn’t feel like “raging” over it this time, but he wanted me to. We decided to play hide-n-seek which was honestly really fun! What amazed me about that was that Gavin actually started to count with me. I think he got up to “2.” 
Not bad. . . .
After waving good-bye to Daddy, we discovered a new friend on our storm door whom Isaac promptly named “Buddy.” We watched him for awhile and decided we needed to color him. I found a perfect pic, and Gavin and I colored our own while Isaac turned the page over and drew one (along with a spider, a sunshine, Beethoven, Beethoven’s hair — several inches away from his head — and dots). We read that mantises are proof of a healthy garden and the big ones will even eat birds! And some people will keep them as pets. Buddy left the door eventually, and Isaac said, “Yes, he went home to his family, Mommy. He’s not a Daddy. He’s a son.” And sure enough, we saw him on the Jasmine there with a larger female mantis.
We then built a train track out of dominoes and played a quick game of Boggle, Jr. We also raced around on brooms while listening to “new cowboy music” (aka, Billy the Kid by Copeland) and a little Mozart. Gavin got the groove on no matter what we played. That boy’s got rhythm!
Edited to add: We were so eager to show Daddy our new friend, Buddy, and we learned another part of praying mantis life. There was Mrs. Buddy munching on Buddy’s head. And before the hour was up, Buddy was completely gone. So our little pictures we colored of him are his eulogy. Alas, poor Buddy. We hardly knew ye.
Isaac related the event to me over dinner, “Mommy. Praying mantiseseseseseses eat the boys. Buddy is in the girl praying mantiseseses’s tummy. They made babies. Then the girl praying mantiseseses ate Buddy. EW!”
Science, 'Rithmetic, Reading | Comments (4)