Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

October Schoolwork

Here’s another update from the schoolwork files of Alpha:

Columbus

a child's drawing of Columbus' voyage

I guess that Columbus Day holiday is good for something. Alpha seems to have learned the major points about Columbus’ voyage – asking the queen for two ships, that he had crosses on the sails, etc.

Raccoons

a child's drawing of troublesome raccoons

He knows the truth about raccoons. They are not cute and fun. They are pests. And what do they do? They eat garbage. Or “garbeg” if you’re still learning how to spell, which Alpha is.

All who handle the oar, The sailors and all the pilots of the sea Will come down from their ships; They will stand on the land,

Ezekiel 27:29

A Near Infection

After several years of parenting, we finally have our first ear infection.

Gamma had what we thought was just a cold, or maybe some more teething. One morning, he touched his ear and said what my wife thought was “Ow“. She called me and we debated whether to take him to the doctor. We decided to wait a bit and see what happened, and he was fine the rest of the day so she didn’t take him in.

The next day, after no problems during the night, and no more complaints from Gamma, my wife happened to look at his ear.

It looked like this:

picture of a bloody ear

And here’s another view:

picture of an ear bleeding due to an infection

She called me at work to tell me she was on her way to the doctor.

“It’s an ear infection,” they said at the office, “It popped, but it sealed itself so it should be okay. Here is a prescription for some antibiotics and some ear drops.”

The ear drops say to put the drops in the ear with the ear facing up so the liquid can go into the ear.
No problem.

But then we need to keep the ear facing up for 5-10 minutes. What?! Keep a toddler down for that long? Twice a day?

We settled on the twice a day being during naptime and during the night. Of course he doesn’t cooperate, preferring to sleep on the bad ear so that we have to move his head, and therefore awaken him, to put in the drops. And then once he’s awake, he keeps his head up. I have to hold him down, but we’re getting through it.

At least he likes the taste of Amoxicillin.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

Jeremiah 7:24

All Saints’ Day

Today we are celebrating Saints’ Day.

That’s right, today is the 44th anniversary of the New Orleans Saints. And that was quite a game they had yesterday, beating the Steelers, so they really can celebrate.

Oh, and we went trick-or-treating yesterday. Although we shouldn’t really call it that because I think our kids never said that phrase once. I don’t care if they don’t say that, but I did make them say “thank you” at least.

Anyway, here are our boys’ costumes:

Alpha:

picture of a stormtrooper costume for Halloween

A Stormtrooper, of course.

Beta:

picture of a Luke Skywalker costume for Halloween

Luke Skywalker, which is hard to tell and people guessed everything from Darth Maul to the Emperor. Beta was getting annoyed that no one could tell he was Luke. It’s a BLUE lightsaber, people! That means he’s a good guy! I’m not sure either, but I think it’s the Luke from Jabba’s palace.

Gamma:

picture of a Yoda costume for Halloween

Everybody loved Yoda. Next time, though, I need to carry him on my back while I wear a sleeveless tunic thing.

And here are some nieces and nephews:

Ugly Doll:

picture of an Ugly Doll costume for Halloween

Bowser:

picture of a Bowser costume for Halloween

Captain Rex:

picture of a Captain Rex costume for Halloween

Sleeping Beauty:

picture of a Sleeping Beauty costume for Halloween

The Stormtrooper, Yoda, and Captain Rex were store-bought. Everything else was hand-made.

As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

Psalm 16:3

First Sentences

Gamma said his first sentence yesterday: “Throw hat”

My wife called me from the store. She said when she went to get him out of his car seat, he threw his hat and then said “throw hat”. He wasn’t mad – he just wanted to throw his hat.

Contrast that with Beta’s first sentence multi-word phrase: “Momma’s spoon“.

He might not have had the apostrophe and ‘s’ in there, but he meant it. We were at the dinner table. He picked up my wife’s silverware, held up the spoon, and said “Momma spoon”.

There was no throwing involved.

And Alpha? No one can remember his first sentence. He was very good with his speech from the beginning. And maybe we, as new parents, didn’t know to remember the transition from single words to multiple words.

In case you’re wondering, the first words for each were:

  • Alpha: “Uh-oh” (said whenever anybody dropped anything)
  • Beta: “Ba” (it meant ‘ball’ and ‘bottle’ and maybe some other things too. I think ‘ball’ came first)
  • Gamma: “Momma” (said just about all the time, for just about anything)

Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

Exodus 4:3

Schoolwork – Sep 2010

I’m a little late with this, but that shouldn’t matter.

Alpha brought home some things he did in school. Because children’s drawings are so fun, I thought I’d share them with you. The first two are from his booklet titled “September Poems”.

Crocodile

drawing by an elementary school-age child of a crocodile

I like this one because the person isn’t just sitting on the crocodile – he’s sitting on a chair on the crocodile.

Jack and Jill

drawing by an elementary school-age child of Jack and Jill

My favorite part of this is the song. Alpha read into what Jack and Jill would be doing while they were on their trip. And, apparently, they like to sing.

Shamrocks

drawing by an elementary school-age child of shamrocks

My favorite part of this drawing is that he was given the picture to color, and he drew the surroundings too.

He knows enough to know that plants don’t just float in the air. You can’t just leave those shamrocks by themselves – they need earth below them. And whoever drew the original staggered them, so Alpha has the ground rise and fall so that each shamrock has what it needs.

This was a counting booklet – the first page had one shamrock, the second had two, etc. In the interest of time and non-redundancy, I omitted the other pages.

Then Israel sang this song:”Spring up, O well! Sing to it!

Numbers 21:17

Alpha the Shark

Alpha lost his first tooth on Monday.

It has been loose for a while. So long, in fact, that his adult tooth became quite impatient and decided to appear regardless of the existing baby tooth. Like a shark, he was getting two rows of teeth concurrently.

photo of adult tooth growing in before baby tooth has been lost

He was at school on Monday. It was writing time (or something like that), and he was absent-mindedly spinning his loose tooth. Of course, loose teeth can be spun only so much before they capitulate.

photo of a baby tooth that has been lost

The school was well-prepared for a situation such as this. They have little envelopes with a drawing of a tooth and printing that says “I lost a tooth today” so the teacher can send it home easily. I don’t know, but I could guess, that hockey teams are similarly prepared.

Alpha was pleased to have lost the tooth. If his mouth is closed, it looks like a normal lost tooth, with the gap. He inherited my widely-spaced teeth, so I may have to emphasize that it is the bottom center-right (his center-left) tooth that is missing.

photo of a mouth with a missing baby tooth

(having gaps between teeth is nice because 1. the dentist remarks how easy it is to floss and 2. wisdom teeth grow in with no problems)

Monday night, Alpha put his tooth (in the envelope still) under his pillow and went to sleep. I then exchanged the tooth and envelope for a dollar bill. In the morning, after my wife asked him if he checked his tooth, he pulled the dollar out and waved it around.

Look at that!” I exclaimed, “The tooth changed into a dollar!

Before Alpha could say anything, Beta piped up: “No, the Tooth Fairy did that!

I don’t recall sitting down and instructing the boys in the ways of the tooth fairy, but I know it is mentioned in a book or two that we have. But we’ll just let Beta hold onto that thought for a while.

And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

Exodus 21:27

Not Mine Monday, May 2010 Edition

In cooperation with MckMama’s Not Me Monday, I am posting a Not Mine Monday. Head on over to her blog if you want to
see what she has been doing, or not been doing, this week.

  • My child did not yell “Let’s go, slowpoke!” just after a jogger passed by us. If that had happened, it would have been because my child and I were having a race and I was letting him win, and he had no clue there was a jogger nearby.
  • My children did not yell “Fire in the court” from the back of the minivan while I was driving. And then they did not throw a sock all the way up front, hitting the dashboard and obscuring the gas gauge (it’s okay, we weren’t close to E). My children know that throwing things in the van is not proper behavior.

    Plus they also know the correct phrase is “fire in the hole” (or “order in the court”, I’m not exactly sure which one they meant). And if that had happened, I would not have had to stifle my laughter so as not to encourage such behavior.

  • We had pancakes for dinner. They were plain pancakes, not the usual chocolate-chip pancakes. My children did not make up for the lack of chocolate chips by grabbing the Hershey’s syrup and pouring it on their pancakes. And I did not let them know that chocolate sauce isn’t for pancakes. And they did not reply that it says “syrup” on the bottle and we do put syrup on pancakes and also mom said it was okay

And we’ll wrap this up with a Not Me:

  • I did not ask Alpha and Beta, who were sitting in the back row of the minivan, to check for oncoming traffic when I was backing the minivan out of a parking space and couldn’t see through the SUV parked beside us. I know better than to trust my driving to the observation skills of kids in car seats.

But Jonathan had not heard when his father put the people under oath; therefore, he put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.

1 Samuel 14:27