Yesterday, mom asked me what little things the boys might want for Valentine's Day. I had some trouble coming up with ideas, so decided to ask the boys. Not wanting to encourage greed machines, I decided to phrase it a little delicately and see what they said. I figured if their hearts truly desired something, it would come out.
"Boys, how are things going; is there anything in your life that is lacking?"
Liam thought about it for all of 5 seconds, and then asnwered, "Nope. Things are good."
Very reassuring.
Finn didn't answer at first, and then asked what lacking meant. Liam helped me explain, and told Finn, "If something is lacking, it means it is something that you don't have, but if you had it, it would make you happy."
Finn thought about this for a couple of minutes, and then answered, "Quinn."
Quinn is his best friend who recently moved up a class.
So, Mom, can you get the Finn's best friend back for Valentine's Day?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Lame Duck
When I arrived to pick Liam up from after school yesterday, one of his teachers came up to me very excited. She said it was so nice to finally meet me and asked after our sitter. Mind you, I have picked Liam up from after school on several occasions, although not regularly, and have said hello to her before. I'm such a good mom.
While we renewed our introductions, another teacher approached to tell me a story about Liam. I became instantly nervous, fearing the worst, but she was smiling, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.
Apparently (one of Liam's favorite words), during roll call at afterschool, the teachers sometimes ask the children to reply with something relevant to a particular topic, rather than simply saying, "present". One day, they were isntructed to say something presidential. According to this teacher, most of the children said something about Obama, or Barack, etc. (You can tell the kind of school Liam attends.) There are children from all of elementary school in afterschool, so at least it is mixed age-wise, if not politically. When the teacher got to Liam's name, he replied, "Lame Duck." She said she then asked if anyone knew what a lame duck was. The other children thought it was funny, and said it was a duck who can't walk. She then turned back to Liam and asked him to explain. Which he did.
When we asked for a replay of this explanation, he told us, "When a new president is selected (sic) and the old one is still in office, no one believes what the old one says he will do because he doesn't have time." We were all pretty impressed. Now Liam will be repeating his lame duck comment for weeks, hoping to elicit more parental praise. :-)
While we renewed our introductions, another teacher approached to tell me a story about Liam. I became instantly nervous, fearing the worst, but she was smiling, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.
Apparently (one of Liam's favorite words), during roll call at afterschool, the teachers sometimes ask the children to reply with something relevant to a particular topic, rather than simply saying, "present". One day, they were isntructed to say something presidential. According to this teacher, most of the children said something about Obama, or Barack, etc. (You can tell the kind of school Liam attends.) There are children from all of elementary school in afterschool, so at least it is mixed age-wise, if not politically. When the teacher got to Liam's name, he replied, "Lame Duck." She said she then asked if anyone knew what a lame duck was. The other children thought it was funny, and said it was a duck who can't walk. She then turned back to Liam and asked him to explain. Which he did.
When we asked for a replay of this explanation, he told us, "When a new president is selected (sic) and the old one is still in office, no one believes what the old one says he will do because he doesn't have time." We were all pretty impressed. Now Liam will be repeating his lame duck comment for weeks, hoping to elicit more parental praise. :-)
Beer and Onion Rings
We have been learning about homophones lately, thanks to the "Between the Lions" video we recently rented. Much as rhyming games were great fun at younger ages, homophones are a good game to play with words. Liam is pretty good at it, and can come up with "red" and "read" as well as a few others. Finn also tries to play, but it is a bit hard for him.
After driving home one day and playing this with great success (Liam can really come up with several, given enough time), I decided that Finn had probably overheard enough, and it was time to show off to Daddy. Finn, I said, can you tell daddy a homophone? And he replied, with great gusto, "Beer!!!". I assume he meant bear, but perhaps he is just very far advanced and knew about the word "bier". Or maybe he just wanted some beer.
Also recently, Matt decided to convince Liam that onions are yummy through the power of onion rings. Liam, very suspicious, asked me what onion rings are. I told him, "They are very yummy things that make you fat." He seemed to accept this, and agreed to try one. After tasting one, he declared happily, "I like onion rings!!" Then he looked down and became a bit disappointed. He thought he would get instantly fat.
Does it make me a bad parent if my kids talk about beer and onion rings? Mmmm . . . .
After driving home one day and playing this with great success (Liam can really come up with several, given enough time), I decided that Finn had probably overheard enough, and it was time to show off to Daddy. Finn, I said, can you tell daddy a homophone? And he replied, with great gusto, "Beer!!!". I assume he meant bear, but perhaps he is just very far advanced and knew about the word "bier". Or maybe he just wanted some beer.
Also recently, Matt decided to convince Liam that onions are yummy through the power of onion rings. Liam, very suspicious, asked me what onion rings are. I told him, "They are very yummy things that make you fat." He seemed to accept this, and agreed to try one. After tasting one, he declared happily, "I like onion rings!!" Then he looked down and became a bit disappointed. He thought he would get instantly fat.
Does it make me a bad parent if my kids talk about beer and onion rings? Mmmm . . . .
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Post-holiday joys
After all of the excitement of the holidays (too much to blog now, maybe when I get more energy!), who would have thought the boys could get so excited again? As it turns out, finally getting the slippers they wanted was enough to thrill them. Liam got penguin slippers and Finn got dragon slippers (see picture!). They immediately wanted to put on a play with their slippers, and Finn even wore his to bed. They are quite happy!
Then, to top things off, I was quite indulgent, and not only bought mint chip ice cream for the boys, but also bought cones to eat it in. Finn's ice cream is made with coconut milk, and it's pretty good. To entice the boys to eat dinner, Matt sat down and ate an ice cream cone of his own. Finn watched him with great awe and wonder, and finally said, "but you can't eat the cone, right?" We explained that you can eat the cone, and he wanted to know, "is it soft?" At this point I realized, with a bit of a shock, that Finn had not only never eaten an ice cream cone before, but we had sheltered him so completely that he had not actually even seen one before! Poor child.
Needless to say, he enjoyed it quite thoroughly, as you can see in his picture.
Then, to top things off, I was quite indulgent, and not only bought mint chip ice cream for the boys, but also bought cones to eat it in. Finn's ice cream is made with coconut milk, and it's pretty good. To entice the boys to eat dinner, Matt sat down and ate an ice cream cone of his own. Finn watched him with great awe and wonder, and finally said, "but you can't eat the cone, right?" We explained that you can eat the cone, and he wanted to know, "is it soft?" At this point I realized, with a bit of a shock, that Finn had not only never eaten an ice cream cone before, but we had sheltered him so completely that he had not actually even seen one before! Poor child.
Needless to say, he enjoyed it quite thoroughly, as you can see in his picture.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Happy Holidays
Liam has been learning about December holidays in class lately. They studied Kwanzaa first, and Liam made a kinara in art class. He explained the order of lighting the candles, and told me it was different from a menorah, because it had 7 candles instead of 9. He couldn't tell me anything more, but was able to tell Matt one more thing he remembered. On the third day of Kwanzaa, according to Liam, you clean. And paint the fence. Matt tried to protest that he was sure you didn't actually paint a fence, and Liam got upset, and insisted the fence needed to be painted before you went on to the fourth day. Matt argued that we didn't have a fence that needed painting, and Liam got a little ticked off. Matt was pretty excited to have the day of cleaning, and that also ticked Liam off.
Today Liam brought the menorah he had made home. He also brought a picture of a man, colored, cut out, and glued to a popsicle stick. It was labeled, "Judah the Maccabee." Liam was excited to tell me about the menorah, and when I asked him about Judah, he said happily, "he fought the Christians!". He then explained how Judah tried to protect the temple from the Christians, who wanted to tear it down, but it got torn down anyway. But then God rebuilt it, and they hid inside with only enough oil to last for one day, but a mirable happened and it lasted for 8.
Good thing we chose a secular school for him. I can't wait to hear about Christmas.
Today Liam brought the menorah he had made home. He also brought a picture of a man, colored, cut out, and glued to a popsicle stick. It was labeled, "Judah the Maccabee." Liam was excited to tell me about the menorah, and when I asked him about Judah, he said happily, "he fought the Christians!". He then explained how Judah tried to protect the temple from the Christians, who wanted to tear it down, but it got torn down anyway. But then God rebuilt it, and they hid inside with only enough oil to last for one day, but a mirable happened and it lasted for 8.
Good thing we chose a secular school for him. I can't wait to hear about Christmas.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Swimming like Pops
When Liam was little, he loved the pool. He would jump in anywhere and assume someone would catch him. His first swimming lesson at age three changed all of that, and he became very, very fearful of the water. Swim lessons this summer made a very little improvement.
Since starting swim classes at school, however, with what I assume to be adequate peer pressure, Liam has improved quite a bit. He wanted us to go to the pool the other weekend so he could show us how he swam underwater.
The biggest excitement of all, though, was when he managed to imitate Pops. Apparently, he had been trying unsuccessfully to sit on the bottom of the pool the way his grandfather does. When he eventually asked Matt about it, he was told he had to blow the air out of his lungs so he would sink to the bottom.
Now, not only is he really excited to go "swimming" at every opportunity, but he can sit on the bottom of the pool, just like his Pops.
Since starting swim classes at school, however, with what I assume to be adequate peer pressure, Liam has improved quite a bit. He wanted us to go to the pool the other weekend so he could show us how he swam underwater.
The biggest excitement of all, though, was when he managed to imitate Pops. Apparently, he had been trying unsuccessfully to sit on the bottom of the pool the way his grandfather does. When he eventually asked Matt about it, he was told he had to blow the air out of his lungs so he would sink to the bottom.
Now, not only is he really excited to go "swimming" at every opportunity, but he can sit on the bottom of the pool, just like his Pops.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Politico
A couple of weeks ago, we were notified by Liam's school that some of the political discussions going on at afterschool were getting a bit heated. We were asked to remind our children to use appropriate language and be respectful of other people's opinions. I figured this was just something going on in the upper grades, but it still made me laugh that instead of getting notices of vandalism or truancy, we were notified of heated polical debate.
Nonetheless, Liam did show interest in the election. He was amazed that someone voted for McCain, and very excited to cast his vote in the library on Tuesday. Now today, he informed me on the way to school that McCain chose a bad vice president (this did not come from Matt or me!).
On the way home he told me that McCain said, "I have been tested; he has not!". He also informed me that Obama said, "To those who want to destroy us, we will defeat you!" Then Liam and Finn broke out into delighted choruses of "We will defeat you! We will defeat you!" He also insisted that McCain didn't like Obama. There was really no arguing with him about their both being good men who have different opinions.
I asked him if they were talking about Obama and McCain in school and he said no. Then where did he hear them speak? He said he heard it on the radio, in the car. I guess we've been listening to NPR a lot. It must be a good way to create a 5-year-old political junkie. When I asked Liam if he wanted to be president someday, he told me it was really hard to get to be president. Too true.
Nonetheless, Liam did show interest in the election. He was amazed that someone voted for McCain, and very excited to cast his vote in the library on Tuesday. Now today, he informed me on the way to school that McCain chose a bad vice president (this did not come from Matt or me!).
On the way home he told me that McCain said, "I have been tested; he has not!". He also informed me that Obama said, "To those who want to destroy us, we will defeat you!" Then Liam and Finn broke out into delighted choruses of "We will defeat you! We will defeat you!" He also insisted that McCain didn't like Obama. There was really no arguing with him about their both being good men who have different opinions.
I asked him if they were talking about Obama and McCain in school and he said no. Then where did he hear them speak? He said he heard it on the radio, in the car. I guess we've been listening to NPR a lot. It must be a good way to create a 5-year-old political junkie. When I asked Liam if he wanted to be president someday, he told me it was really hard to get to be president. Too true.
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