We went sledding this last Saturday. At least Brooke, Caroline, and I did. Rebecca and Spencer stayed at home. Caroline immediately decided that sledding was too scary. She wasn’t able to handle a 10 ft. long hill with a 5% slope on it. Brooke on the other hand loved it and was more than happy to take up the slack for Caroline just wanting to skip out and go home. Brooke started out small, but by the end was wanting to ride the long hill. You can see that in the video.
We have been reading up a storm these days. Our routine is to hit up the weekly story time at the library, check out tons of new books, and then come home and read, read, read.
The kids aren’t picky about where they read. The kitchen floor will do:
Inside the pantry is a good place too, apparently:
When I go to the library I put Spencer in a stroller so I can confine him while I choose books and checkout. Every week I hope he’ll be content in his stroller the entire time, but usually within five minutes he’s begging to get out so he can push the stroller all over, pull books off the shelf, play with the little toys and stuffed animals, and get drink after drink from the drinking fountain. This last week when I showed him that truck book, he hyperventilated from excitement for a moment then promptly crawled into the stroller and quietly looked at the pictures the rest of the time we were at the library. He did scream for a second when I had to pry the book from his clenched fingers to let the librarian check it out, but once it was restored to him he was a happy fellow again. I will never tire of his undying love for trucks. I will also never tire of hearing him echo me as I say the trucks’ names, especially when we get to the “giant excavator.”
Oma was passing through our part of town and stopped for a short visit. She was here at the perfect time to read a couple bedtime stories to the kids:
A couple of days ago I was listening to something on the computer. Mitt Romney was mentioned. Brooke walked by and said, “Hey! I’ve heard of Mitt Romney!”
Me: “Where have you heard that name?”
Brooke: “At school. We had to choose M or B. M for Mitt Romney and B for Barack Obama.”
Me: “Which did you choose?”
Brooke: “I couldn’t decide so I chose both. But I decided to do a ‘B’ for ‘Brooke’ and the ‘M’ for ‘Mom.'”
Me: “Who won?”
Brooke: “I think Mitt Romney.”
Me: “Well, Barack Obama won the real election.”
Brooke, dejected: “Oh. I wanted Mitt Romney to win. They showed us a picture. He looked nicer than Barack Obama.”
*****
Caroline has also been making me smile lately. She has taken to saying, “Play with your own species!” I’m not quite sure how this originated, but I think she heard it on a TV show.
When she says “species,” it sounds like “speezees.”
So, for example, when Brooke or Spencer are bothering her, she’ll yell, “Go away! Play with your own speezees!”
See? Impossible not to smile at that.
The other day in school, Brooke had an assembly about Van Gogh. During the assembly, the presenter talked a lot about the “Starry Night” painting.
Brooke came home that day and drew her own “Starry Night”:
I love it. I love how she caught on to the colors and the swirls that Van Gogh used.
On Sunday she showed us this picture that she drew during her Primary class:
Forgiveness has never seemed so creepy.
