Matthew on the Wild Side

One of Matthew's recent creations, inspired by seeing pictures on a friend's blog of a teenage boy practicing with his (real) bow:

All from his own little imagination, with no input from anyone else. He never ceases to amaze me.

Aaaaaaaand... then there was the day he asked for a mohawk. That night was bath night, so afterward, I tried to oblige. His hair is super thick and coarse, so once it was wet, all it took was some finger-sculpting...

Matthew was pretty proud of himself that evening.

The next day was Sunday, and much of the fauxhawk had flattened out over night, though there was a remnant. I asked if he wanted me to redo it for church, but he said no. I guess one night as a (pretend) punk was enough for him... this time.

"Of First Importance"

Today I have a new song up on our scripture memory blog. It's the passage that the kids and I are tackling as we celebrate Holy Week, a wonderful, concise summary of the gospel. I also tried something new with the video--very simple, but maybe less distracting than some of our other attempts!

Token of Spring

It was barely in the 40's here yesterday evening, but the kids were stir-crazy and hyper, so I sent them outside. At the end of their playtime they returned to me with this:

Is this the sweetest invention ever, or is it just me? One of our first forsythia blooms, accented with some other tiny white blossoms, arranged in a walnut shell--it might be the most heart-melting gift I've ever received. One look, and whatever residual stress I felt from the past three weeks of solo parenting (while Dave was up to his ears in the youth group's spring musical at church) melted right away.

Of course, today the forsythia bushes are heaped with snow, so it was a good thing they seized those first treasures of spring while they could!

Graham Loves...

...the vacuum cleaner. I mean, seriously, LOVES it. It's an idol. He thinks riding on Mommy or Daddy's spare arm while they go over the carpet with the Kenmore is as good as it gets, baby. Crawling around the vacuum to examine it from all angles while Mom uses the hose attachment is great fun too.  But turning the vacuum off? Now, that's a lot less fun. And putting the machine away, when you've just been on a hugely entertaining vacuuming spree? That's not fun at all. That's a buzz kill. In fact, that's just plain mean! That's a recipe for hearing Graham's angry cry. So be warned, people. Be ye warned.

Other stuff Graham loves these days:

-the camera
-helping Mommy unload the silverware from the dishwasher
-pushing up to a stand without holding on to anything
-music
-"dancing" to music while standing or on all fours
-the bath tub (whether he's the one bathing or not)
-helping himself to crackers from the cracker cabinet (which I'm now in the process of moving some place higher)
-talking about Dada (whenever anyone says "Daddy," he chimes in immediately)
-nursing in the middle of the night (apparently, since he shows no signs of willingness to give up his last feeding)
-being the center of attention and playing in his crib when his siblings come to wake him up in the morning
-pears (real ones, not jarred), grapes, bits of oranges
-drinking water from a bottle
-Mommy's arms

School Day Pic

MOMath! A Museum Devoted to Math

This is SO COOL!!! We're totally taking the kids here some day!

I was one of those kids who had a love/hate relationship with math. I often enjoyed it, but I too hit the wall (hard) when I took Pre-Cal, so much so that my teacher told me I was "just not a math person." (She was a nice lady and a good teacher [my little sister says so], but all of her time and effort poured in to me during my early-morning-before-school "help" sessions did me very little good. I now understand all too well that that must have been pretty frustrating for her!) Ever since that I've pretty much believed that I stink at math.

But I want my kids to like math, to be unintimidated by math. I'd love for them to understand, as the guy in the video says, that there is more than "one road" through the "extremely varied, beautiful landscape" of mathematics!

MOMath, here we come!

Quote of the Day

"Sometimes I like to put water on my sleeves to see the color change. Like today I did it, and it made this lovely grape color. So pretty."
-Meg, wearing a violet colored shirt, just after washing her hands

J'adore this statement because it taught me something I never knew about my daughter. I hate having wet sleeves, but she doesn't mind it because it lets her marvel at God's beautiful world of color. Very cool, my Meg, very cool.