Speaking of...

When I got off the computer after writing my previous post I walked past the bathroom only to notice T sitting on the toilet quietly toiling over his embroidery project. It was quite a sight. A picture would have been fun but probably too embarassing for him later in life so I didn't attempt it.

C went to bible study with me on Wed night. He told me all the way there that if his friends (he named several) weren't there in the nursery then "I will be crying and crying and crying until you pick me up." He put on a very dramatic show. Thank goodness his friends were there and he had a great time. On the way home I took him with me for a late night trip to Walmart (he had taken a long nap so I knew he wasn't ready for bed yet). We had a great time together. He is so animated and excited about everything. While driving he was looking out his window (open by the way, while it was only 40 degrees out, but he loves having access to the button when he's in our truck). He kept babbling on and on about the moon then said, "Speaking of the moon, I'd like to play I SPY." Now everytime we're in the car and no matter what we're talking about he will say "Speaking of _______ I'd like to play I SPY." After which he gets to go first and whether it's night or day he always spies something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Can you guess what it is? A RAINBOW. Each time I have time like this with one of the boys I always tell myself I need to do it more often. I love spending time with them one on one so I can really focus on them and get to know their individual personalities better. I too often just clump them all with whatever trait is dominant at the moment.

R and T went to AWANA on Wed night. They do so good in there and have such a good time. I forgot that last week R got the Beary Good Cubbie Award because he listened well and answered questions (he does the same every week, but he can only get the award once). Also, R's teacher told A when he dropped him off that she and some other teachers had been discussing R earlier and they decided he's "brilliant" - we agree :) He must take after his dad though. A got a comment on one of his seminary papers that said it was "borderline brilliant."

T is just doing great in piano and he loves it. He hops on the keyboard throughout the day to play the songs he has memmorized. Hopefully we'll be able to get a real piano someday so he can practice on that. He has such a good ear for music. He had to practice the first verse to a song he was familiar with and from there he was able to figure out how to play the next two verses just by singing as he went. A talent I definitely do not have so another trait passed from his dad. I think all they got from me is my stubbornness.

Thurs night we had a family night at church. A had rehearsal for worship on Sunday and the women's ministry was putting on a stocking making get-together to make stocking for the ladies housed at the Mission downtown. The boys had fun hanging out in the nursery. I much prefer following directions to having to be crafty and creative so the stocking making required more thought than I was prepared for but mine turned out ok. Some ladies made some beautiful ones.

Today was our co-op day for St Nicholai school. I wore tights for the first time in at least 15 years. Since I have to wear a long skirt there I needed something to keep my legs warm. Ever since I first got pregnant with Tegan I made the decision to not wear nylons again (just not worth the discomfort, although I will wear knee high ones when needed) so I don't own any and knee highs wouldn't work with the slit in my skirt. I was amazed to find a pair of tights buried in a box in my closet that would work perfectly. The elastic was completely gone out of the waist but they stayed up tucked under the waist band of my skirt. Anyway, probably more info than I needed to share, but it was such a novelty to me to wear them. The boys learned how to write their names in heiroglyphics and then they got to make a game board for an old Egyptian game (cross between tic-tac-toe and checkers). Tegan has been playing all afternoon with whoever will play with him and has the strategy down. It's a pretty good game. In science I made this project to simulate radar and it was so much better than I imagined. We were studying Venus and the kids had to use this "radar" to find a place to land their spacecraft (can't see the ground on Venus because the cloud cover is so thick). It worked perfectly and they charted the "ground" just right. Then they got to play with "lava" (mixture of cornstarch and water called Oobleck from Dr Suess - it's even fun for adults to play with - very strange stuff).

It's Friday night so that means "Pig Night" at the dinner table. If the boys use good manners all week while eating then they get to eat like pigs on Friday night (unless we have guests over). It cracks me up that they think the best part of it is getting to lick their water out of a bowl rather than drink it out of a cup. Other than that R and C use their utensils and eat normal. T, on the other hand, takes full advantage of the opportunity. He was slurping his enchilada off his plate and had cheese and sauce on his nose. It was quite a sight.

While eating dinner tonight I voiced a thought that we should make ice cream. Obviously, I don't do it often. I thought we could throw the ingredients in the machine, let it spin for a while and then eat great ice cream. After going to the store for ingred, mixing everything together (at least I found a recipe where we didn't need to cook things beforehand) and letting it turn for an hour we ate some very cold, creamy but sweet soup. Thankfully there was lots left over so we put it in the freezer to continue the freezing process and we'll try it again tomorrow.