The general consensus was that after two kids, 3 would be mere child's play... except for one friend- more specifically, her husband. I still remember his response word for word...
"Think about it. Two kids, two of you. After that, you're out numbered."
"Pish-posh!" I thought to myself. I'm a pretty lively gal, I'm up for the challenge. I've got enough liveliness for our whole family in my little finger. And then Rowena, sugar-coated and chocolate dipped, was born.
"Pish-posh!" I thought to myself. I'm a pretty lively gal, I'm up for the challenge. I've got enough liveliness for our whole family in my little finger. And then Rowena, sugar-coated and chocolate dipped, was born.
She is truly intoxicating, she smiles through the grayest, cloudiest thunderstorms, she loves her brothers and desires to be a part of their lives with a passion so intense it knocks over their block towers and bites the heads off of their Thor action figures and shreds their Pooh-Bear paintings. It's a whooooole lotta love that they are gradually accepting. She is undeniably the cheese to ALL of our macaroni's.
Silas is 2, which means every morning brings a different Si. "Which Si will I meet this morning?" I ask myself, tentatively turning the knob to his room. Will we meet ill-humored Si, who shrieks at my renditions of "The Good-Morning Song" (truthfully, who wouldn't?) and who has no clue what he wants for breakfast, but it definitely ISN'T what's sitting in front of him? Or will we be lucky enough to meet lighthearted Si, a giddy and pleasurable experience for all he deems worthy enough to receive such an award?
I exaggerate- while we do get a hot-tempered Si sometimes, mostly he's just a wee version of mommy- in all the best ways, of course! Case in point: I have this habit of putting many of my mundane tasks to song, and Fall Out Boy has a little number with a chorus that goes like this:
"Light em' up up up
Light em' up up up
Light em' up up up
I'm on fire"
...except fire is long and drawn out and sounds more like "FI-UUUH!"
This is one of the easiest tunes to adapt to chores of any kind, for example on laundry day:
"Wash em' up up up
Wash em' up up up
I'm on FI-UH!"
or when sweeping up crumbs
"Sweep em' up up up
sweep em' up up up
I'm on FI-UH!"
You get it. Anyhow, this particular day I was imploring my masses that if they did not finish lunch, they would NOT be receiving an elaborate dessert resembling the head of an owl (that's a homeschool story for another time), so I was chanting "Eat em' up up up, eat em' up up up, eat em' up up up..."
...and from his bench at the table, that little voice interrupts with a shout:
"I'M ON FI-UH!!!!!"
Just like Fall Out Boy. Just like Mommy.
Blurg.
(Listen here to compose your own Stay-At-Home-Mom version---> Fall Out Boy)
Last we have Mr. Eli, rocking Kindergarten homeschool-style. In 8+ weeks we've studied bees in every way a 5 year old could imagine and STILL were not satiated, did some basic leaf identification, and now we are moving into a winter-long study of Owls. His learning style really works well with a "unit-studies" method of schooling, which simply means that whatever he is currently interested in is what school revolves around. With bees we read every book our library had on them, we made snacks with honey, we did math with little card stock manipulatives of honeybees, we did mini-productions of "The Life Cycle of the HoneyBee" complete with costumes (you can see the bumblebee hat on his head in the above picture of Si), we rented PBS documentaries, and one night I got REALLY nuts and crocheted several little honeybee stuffed toys as well as eggs, larva, and pupa, hot glued a paper egg carton to some foam board (for honeycomb of course, duh!), and had a "Life Cycle of the Bee" playset which garnered much attention from my 3 biggest fans. As I mentioned, owls are the next unit study and 2 weeks ago I found myself hunched over the kitchen table on a breezy fall afternoon punching this out:
You may rightly be wondering "what the WHAT are those?" Those are lima beans, 30-to be exact, spray painted brown bearing hand-painted eyes & beaks and hot glued feathers (a.k.a. wings). Those are: Math Manipulatives.
(Below: a close up of a low point in my legendary existence)
I blame this on Pinterest, always forcing me one craft closer to insanity.
Outside of school Eli has taken on the role of Director of Playtime in this house (Thank God, b/c I am all out of Green Lantern plot twists). He is the Event Planner for the best soiree's at the Batcave (spoiler alert: they all end in someone falling off a building and going to jail), his sofa cushion forts are well crafted and comfortable, his tastes in reading material are flawless ("There's a Wocket in my Pocket" never gets old), and don't even get me started on his bicycle stunts- Evel Knievel had nothing on him.
And that's where we are right now... I'm off to get "ruffle-butt" up from her nap, a term I used ONCE to describe a certain little girl's regular attire, and adapted by #2 as a regular term of endearment (I think...)
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