Chess, the true test of brotherhood

The boys decided, of their own accord, to play chess tonight.  Matt and I were delighted (he's holding his tongue here).  They have seemed so addicted to screens lately that this seemed to be a great turn of events.  Matt had played with them the other night, but they hadn't played each other in over a year.  This picture was toward the middle of the game.  What I couldn't capture without appearing insensitive were the tears at the end of the game, and the declaration that, "I am never playing chess with you again!" from the boy who didn't win. Sigh.

The Detectives

I am not sure how this began, but the boys have formed a detective agency, called The Detectives [lastname].  Liam now has an old briefcase from Matt, which has a coded lock on it, and they have created business cards.  This evening, they hounded Matt for $1.36, claiming he owed it to them for their find of cat vomit on the floor.  Matt protested that he himself had found the vomit, when he stepped in it, but apparently the agency charges a fee for their time regardless.  At a different point this evening, Finn lost his detective wristband (so they can identify each other) and Liam offered to find it, for a fee.  He went on for quite a while about the contract, the lawsuit, etc, but Finn declined his help.  I  then asked Liam for a card for his agency, in case I needed assistance, but he couldn't find one, so he went to Matt for help.  I'm pretty sure Matt didn't charge for this service, but I bet he could have.

Making choices

Liam let us know he was disappointed in how he did on a math quiz the other day, and on further questioning it was determined that he had rushed through the work.  We discussed taking your time and being careful to check over your work, and tried to reassure him.  I did email the teacher to check in, figuring since I hadn't heard from her it couldn't be anything serious.  As it turns out, he finished a 2 hour exam in 45 minutes and then rushed to get back to reading "Mockingjay."  I can understand; it's a very compelling book.  Nonetheless, I'm glad he has finished it before his actual STAAR exam.

My, how times change!

It has been years since I updated this blog, and I'll admit I have very nearly forgotten about it.  Until today.  Today, I received an email that Liam had commented on an old post.  Oh my goodness!  Not only has he figured out how to do these things (from school!!!) but he has been reading my old blog.  Horrors!  When I first started writing this, it was mostly to update the grandparents and to try to hold onto some of the memories of when they were so small, but I never imagined them growing up and reading it themselves.  Naturally, the most recent post is about Finn being in love, but I am sure Liam would never, ever tease Finn about this (right, Liam??!).  I need to go back and re-read this all myself to see what incriminating evidence I've left behind.  While I'm at it, I may as well update with a few more recent pictures of the boys, as well as of my newest baby, Solea.  And maybe, if Liam needs incentive to behave in the future, I can remind him that I have the ability to publish recent stories about him, too. . .. 

This is Finn and Connor, meeting Solea for the first time.  Seeing this makes me realize how much she has grown in just a few weeks.  Connor isn't really as sad as he looks, he's just super tired because we are irresponsible adults who let them stay up too late.

 This is Liam on the first day we brought Solea home.  They are already best buddies.

Love

Finn is in love.

For a while we used to jokingly ask whom he planned to marry, and it was usually his friend Mazzy. This seemed to us to be a great choice, as we would really like his future in-laws. Then rather suddenly one day, Finn told us he longer wanted to marry Mazzy. He wanted to marry Violet.

Violet is in Finn's class and seems like a nice girl. She is very interested in princesses, which is most likely why Finn was so insistent on giving me a princess tiara for Christmas. With a dreamy look in his eyes, Finn announced recently, "Violet is my princess."

We also like Violet's parents a lot, and appreciate that her mother goes out of her way to make vegan muffins for class so Finn can eat them. This is fortunate, since the romance seems to be blooming. According to their teacher, they spend quite a bit of time cuddling in the corner together, and the teacher has been considering whether to break it up a bit.

Yesterday, the boys insisted on bringing their "cell phones" in the car to church. Liam kept calling Finn, and getting annoyed that he wouldn't answer. Matt and I could hear Finn talking quietly to himself on the phone, and could make out the words "Violet," "purple," and "pansies". Perhaps he was composing a sonnet.

Where do I begin?

Liam was upset with Finn this evening for several reasons. Finn had apparently told Liam that he was not in kindergarten, was allergic to soy milk, and that Eve was not a girl.

After reminding Liam that he was in kindergarten and was not allergic to soy milk, and reminding Finn not to deliberately aggravate Liam, I tackled the Eve question.

I assured them that Eve was a girl, and then began, "Do you know the story of Eve?" Liam said yes, but Finn was silent, so I began. "The story goes that a long, long time ago . . ."

Liam interrupted quickly, and told me that he was actually talking about Eve in the movie Wall-E. Oh. But he would like me to continue the story I had started anyway. So, with even greater hesitance, I did. I explained how the world had animals and plants, but no people, and so God made Adam in his image. But Adam got lonely, and so God made Eve for him.

Liam found this interesting, thought about it for a moment, and then said, "That's just like Narnia!"

Um, yes. Then he added that Adam and Eve were kind of like Mama and Daddy. Um, yes, kind of, and they even had two boys. Liam was interested in the two brothers, and I had to field questions about fraternal jealousy, when *ding* the oven time went off, the pizza was ready, and I was off the hook. Saved by the bell!

Bugs and Homophones

Finn received a "talking" microscope for Christmas, similar to the telescope that Liam received. You put slides in, press buttons, and learn about the different items represented. There is also a quiz mode. The vast majority of the slides, if not all of them, represent insects. Finn, however, will only look at the mosquito slide. When I asked him questions about it, though, he appears to have learned nothing. Liam, having overheard all of the mosquito information repetitively, is quite knowledgeable about them and would really, really, like to answer all of the questions for Finn.

As in:
Me: Finn, which mosquito bites you, the boy or the girl?
Finn: Um, the boy?
Liam: No! It's the girl!

Me: How many legs does a mosquito have, Finn?
Finn: Four?
Liam: Six! A mosquito has six legs!!

This last question led to Liam explaining how insects, like mosquitoes and ants, have six legs while spiders have eight. Finn paid absolutely no attention.

A few minutes later, however, Liam seemed to have pondered this a but more, and then excitedly told me, "I know another homophone!! 'Ant"!" I, naturally, was very impressed and asked him to tell me the two meanings. Liam replied, "An 'ant' like the bug, and 'ant', like, 'Ant I good at this?'"

Ugh. We had a little grammar lesson before discussing the different pronunciations of the word "aunt".