3 guesses

"mommy. I need you to come here"

"what's up, honey?"

"um. I sneezed a big sneeze and now there is something on my shirt and I don't know what it is but I need you to get it off. Because it's gross. Yeah, mommy, really gross. Please come get it. Yechhh."

Something new

It is seven am on a Saturday. Khubz has woken up y I heard her in her room convincing thumper to wake up. "it's morning! It's wake up time!! Come on!"

I readied myself for the migration to the mommies bed. But they are still in their room. They are playing together. It sounds like they're playing with cars.

They haven't sought us out at all. They woke up y wanted each other.

Yesterday was all time-outs all the time. This is a nice start to a new day.

impromptu sensory tables

I have a memory of being three and finding a bowl with a small amount of popcorn left in it. My family had an air popper and to make up for the healthfulness of the snack, we would melt butter (probably margarine, before we knew the menace of trans fats) and pour it over the fat-free, air popped goodness. I may have eaten what was left in the bowl, I don't remember.

I emptied the bowl of leftover husks (probably poured it on the ground.)

It was a big metal mixing bowl, light but sturdy.
I put my bare feet in the bowl and squished and squashed and "skated" in a circle. The bowl was greasy from the leftover butter and streaky from the leftover salt. I spun around and around, climbed in and out again until my salty, buttery footprints were discovered. I'm sure (after they vomited) they put me in time out.

Khubz was getting over a slight fever today. Thumper was hyper because we'd been in the house all day. Somewhere between the bonkers atmosphere and constantly running noses I got irritated with them. Calm down! And go wipe your nose!!

Then I got out a large pan, poured some uncooked white rice, got some scoops and measures and stepped back. They poured and "splashed" and drew and stood in the pan, sprinkled it into each others' hair. . . All the stuff the parenting books talk about. And it calmed them. They focused, they engaged, they settled.

And I got to remember being in my popcorn bowl.

Mix

When we cook up a fresh batch of playdoh or, gasp, open a newly purchased canister I take 3/4 out and hand it to the kids. They each get their own color. At some point I encourage them to switch. I hover, collecting stray scraps y return them to their proper segregated container.

One day khubz y thumper swapped half for half. The next question still makes me grimace.

"Can we mix them?" khubz inquires.

1. You are a kid playing with playdoh. ••your•• playdoh. You can do anything you want y it shames me that you felt the need to ask.

2. Oh my GOD. The kids are going to mix the playdoh. I can't watch!! (deep breath)

My new years resolution is to mix more. It is just playdoh, for goddess sake. Or glitter. Or paint. Or gravy.

We have a lot of fun here at the fruit basket, especially when I can relax my shoulders. The table must get wiped down anyway. The floor will need to be mopped anyway. There is a shitton of work to keep things moving around here. I should make the mess worth it.

Ps. Additional resolution? Get a freakin tattoo already. I think on my wrist. I think it should say "inshallah" but maybe "mashallah" wd be better? Votes are welcome--as are donations! :)

Thumper 2.0

In twenty four hours our beloved Thumper will be two years old.

Have I told you what he's up to?

He is a total dancing queen. We listened to "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee" about 149 times between TX and iowa. Other favorites are ABCD (sung on his OWN, no thank you, mommy), Jungle Book music, Dan Zanes, Eidelwies (sung as sweet lalo) and Elmo's song. He taps his toes but really loves to swing his hips and dash his arms about.

"abyater?" is "maybe later?" he can take a "no" to almost anything as long as he also gets a "maybe later." Of course, then he follows up. "aternap?" Yes, baby. After nap.

He loves a mess. Art is a fine byproduct. Or bread. Or nothing. But the mess. The mess, itself, is the thing. (btw, check this out for some Thumper in action pics.)

He loves bath time and naked time and cuddle time and dinner time. He is possessive about everything (as he frequently has to scrap to keep what is his.) He is unendingly sweet and frequently bonkers.

We are doing a train theme for his birthday party next week.

He has got blue, yellow and red. Other colors are still confusing.

There's lots of stuff that I did, unthinkingly, with Khubz that I need to remember to do with him. Like finger plays, "where is thumbkin?" all that stuff.

He seeks Khubz out for guidance. "how can I get to the cookies on the counter?" and they collaborate. He doesn't want to go to bed without her. I remember seeing the kinship between Noise and Funk, how they looked to eachother as a reference point for home. Thumper and Khubz have that now. It fills me with warmth.

When we were packing up the van in texas Scully and I were dragging suitcases through the living room and out the front door. Thumper grabs Scully's laptop and drags it along (sized like a suitcase to him) saying "I gotit! I got it!" waving away anyone in his path and then hollering, "I'm coming!!"

He pet the horse in Texas and it shook its head at him, razzing its lips and delighting him to no end. When we came upon the grasshopper carcass I offered it to each of the children. Tito (6 yo cousin) declined. Khubz held it and pet it and asked if it was "real" and had been alive. She speculated as to its death. Thumper took it in his palm and closed his hand around it, smiling broadly with the satisfying crunch! He was thrilled.

He is so big and still he fell asleep in grandma's arms today for nap. In the midst of chaos. Children running around, presents on the ground kind of chaos. He cuddled up, nestled in and fell asleep. He is my grand, two year old boy.

I love him. Fiercely.

this, though,

makes me think twice about the homeschooling utopia in my head. It is a pic of Khubz on her first day back at preschool. She was thrilled. To pick out and put on a special "school" outfit, to pack her backpack, to "show me the way" from the car to the door. She loved every piece of the ritual of school. That's something to think about too.

craft/learn/go/do

I love having Khubz go to preschool. It is three days a week, two and a half hours in the morning. Perfect. An hour of free time where she directs her own play, explores, cavorts with friends, runs around in a space other than our house, half an hour of snack time, twenty minutes outside on the playground. . . It seems the perfect fit for us.

Scully and I have been talking homeschooling all the way back from texas (the most fabulous trip we have ever had, btw.) She's ready to switch our room with the study so there's more space for craft/learn/do. I am surprised (and thrilled) with how excited she is about the idea of homeschooling. We both feel like we need to do some more research into options, resources etc. We aren't at the point of deciding anything. But it feels like we are approaching this question together. Nice.

In the mean time, all I want to do is make some lovely sandpaper letters, play some number games, and organize a journal to track the things the kids are learning.

Everyday Khubz asks me a million "why"s. "Why when you scoop up some snow in your hand does it melt and disappear?" There are lots of simple answers about heat and physical changes. I was much more excited by her question. "Does it disappear? What do you see in your hand?" "Water!" So we talked about water and snow and ice and steam being cousins. I am not pretending that I can prepare her for an organic chemistry class. I do think I can take in wonders, with Khubz and Thumper, and articulate our senses, notice how cornmeal feels, mix colors, make a salt map, craft/learn/go/do

I am excited about that.