It's Wild Here

many things

Ryan had roseola and then caught a bad cold from Jeremiah after that. They both have a terrible cough and that frog-in-the-throat sound to their voices.  We skipped our WILC trip this week - Quanexus to see computers built.

The big boys have combined their bedrooms again. They want to have a play room with their own TV for video games and a little fridge with snacks. I found a curtain system from IKEA that will separate their room into two parts for privacy when desired.

Reading:
Jami -
Ga'hoole #6
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray (about witch hunting, I think)
various books about animation, gladiators and ancient rome
audio book of norse legends
new Hakim book - Story of Science (Aristotle leads the way?)
various books about molecules and atoms

Jeremiah -
Dr. Clocksicle (independently)
various books about molecules and atoms
Hakim science book
Redwall

Amy -
Subtle Knife, Pullman
Time Traveler's Wife (still! audio books take time)
as much of Jami's books as I can
lots of knitting pattern books

Ryan -
touch and feel books
Pat the Bunny
books with photos of babies' faces

Ryan's first birthday is coming up! He's seeming very ONE now. He reaches and grabs for everything - his curiosity is endless. He is on his feet a lot, cruising anywhere he can be. This has resulted in a few bad bonks and bruises. He looked pretty beat-up for a while. His crawling is very fast.

He says "Uh-oh!" and I think he might be trying to say banana, dada, and mama. He signs Dog, Milk and Music.  He loves to dance and wave to people. He enjoys fingering jewelry and putting his finger through my ring. He loves to look at books.

He doesn't like to be fed anymore, and isn't eating much on his own, but he has been sick. When he eats, he enjoys cheerios, blueberries, raspberries, banana, bread, crackers, chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, and Trader Joe's healthy animal cookies. He loves to drink from a straw.

His favorite toy is a little car that you push-start and it goes on its own a while. He pushes it with one little chubby finger. His fine motor skills are taking off - he seems very possibly left-handed. He likes to write on the chalk-wall with chalk although he's been eating the chalk, too. He is constantly finding ways to put things into other things, and to put lids on things. He enjoys those movements a lot. 

His favorite game is the UH-OH game. He drops something over the side of the bed or booster seat, looks at me, I say UH-OH, he says UH-UH, I pick it up, give it back, and repeat. About 843 times.

His two bottom teeth are up and out, giving him a very sweet drooly smile. The top teeth are just barely pushing through, and I think they're very tender.

science fair 2005

Jeremiah presented his science project on the subject of density. He showed a "liquid lasagne" and showed how he could make clay flot, even though its density is greater than water. He was a very clear speaker and earned many compliments on his presentation ability. He worked hard on the poster and understood his subject well. 

new year

We started back to a new routine yesterday, only disturbed by the carpet cleaners who were due at 9 but didn't make it until 2. Until then, things had to remain piled up everywhere, off the floor. After that, the carpets were wet and not available to the baby.

The boys are trying a new routine like this:

Mon/Wed/Fri

Jami: writing, math, science  Jeremiah: reading, math, science

Tues/Thurs

both boys, French and history Jeremiah: sign language, reading  Jami: writing

Yesterday went well. Jami enjoyed doing math on the big window with our new markers for mirrors and windows.

Katie and her family have all had a stomach virus this week. :-(  Kristin is in trouble. Troy had a couple of interviews.

It's raining and not too cold.

This week, for WILC, we have share fair.

craft day, standing, snow

We have snow today! First decent ground-covering snow of the year.

Ryan likes to stand. Stand and cruise, stand and balance, stand and stand and stand, is pretty much how he likes to be if at all possible. When did this child go from a contented sitting bump of cute chubbiness, to a wildly curious nearing-toddler? yikes!

Ryan loves his Pat the Bunny book.

Yesterday we did crafts at the Keys' house. Felt Christmas tree ornaments, soaps with toys in them, and print-making.

We skipped taekwondo because Ryan was feeling so sick with his cold still, and the day was overall a grumpy one. Christmas makes the kids a little wacky every year, and I always forget about that.

Today I'm interviewing two new dharma center residency applicants.

crawling

Hey, real crawling movements yesterday. Not an organized alternating type crawl, but belly up, foward motion... wow!

the boys were so thrilled. jami was hugging me. sweet children.

Evan asked me about an idea he has for a gift. He'd like to find an artist to create a sculpture or some other kind of art with an image of a sun, to hang in our living room as a reminder of the light within, during the dark wintertime days.

today is the WILC holiday party and kids' gift exchange.

ryan is still snotty, and taking very short naps, although he did sleep very well last night.

many things!

On Wednesday, Jami read his poetry in the Share Fair at WILC. He seemed very proud and did a great job.

Jami read a few of his poems for share fair.

On Friday, Heidi and her children (Peyton, Logan, Kadin and Carson) visited us for the afternoon. Jami and Peyton enjoyed playing gamecube and swinging on the tree swing in the back yard.

Saturday, the boys and Evan went to their soccer game (yay, the first!). Jami was very unhappy that I had to miss it because of the WILC planning meeting. I decided to go with them for warmups and leave at the last possible moment, and that seemed to help. Unfortunately, I missed a very big event - Jami scored the only goal for his team that day! The game was a tie, and both boys came home very happy.

After the game, they went with Evan to test drive some fancy cars. They'd been looking forward to that for a while. Then they drove down to Cincinnati to meet me at Katie's, for Clover's birthday party. It was a great party! The boys spent some time on the computer and some time playing with all their little cousins.

We're on our second week attending the UU Fellowship in Dayton. Jami doesn't really look forward to going - he finds his children's class to be boring. Fortunately, he knows several of the kids in his group, so he looks forward to seeing them. This year, his 4th-5th grade class is studying the holidays of various religions. So far I think they've done Rosh Hashana and next week is Sukkot.

After church, we went to Target to find new Gameboy games, which the boys decided to buy with their savings. Jami bought Harvest Moon, a game he enjoyed with Peyton.

We recently began having the Word of the Day on the chalk board. I choose a word and write it in Spanish, Porteugese, Latin, Japanese and Korean. We were amused to discover yesterday that the word for sun is "sol" in three of those languages!

Jami is enjoying spelling hard words. I choose them from our fat dictionary and he takes the challenge. He is a naturally good speller. He is also working through his math book, on measurement.

Last night Adrian visited us - he is Evan's first childhood friend. He's a great guy and we had a really nice visit. He also has a 9 year old son.

dragon's game

we went to the dragon's game last night. both boys had a blast - meating Heater, the big dragon mascott, eating food, watching the game. They were given a free heater doll by Eric Deutch.

benjamin has a lot of itching, like evan's itching that started in february. I am really hoping it won't get worse. We are going to see the pediatrician today.

After that, we will go to shoup park with WILC, Benjamin will go to Grammy's and Jeremiah and I will go to Taekwondo.

great bear lodge

benjamin is reading *stacks* of graphic novels - primarily japanese anime style. He reads Astro Boy, Ranma, Usagi yojimbo, and Inu-yasha. He also enjoyed the first three books in the Spiderwick series, and several of the books in the Bionicle series.

Last week we went to Sandusky, Ohio for two days to visit Great Bear Lodge (soon to be renamed Great Wolf Lodge). There was a very large indoor waterpark and an arcade. The boys both had a great time, other than the very long car ride.

We'll be fossil-hunting at Caesar Creek this week. Last week we worked together on a WILC yearbook.

Judi's in labor

benjamin's friend Emily is going to have a baby brother very soon! Her mother Judi, my friend, is in labor!

Hanging with friends

benjamin is hanging out mostly with Emily and Emma now - I'm not sure what it is that appeals to him now about them, other than their being mature and interested in talking/computer chatting, etc. I'm not sure how much pre-teen romance is involved - it could be very little or more.... nothing is unsupervised for long.

I'm curious how the socializing will change, if at all, when warm weather comes and we do outdoor play regularly.