30 Nov 2011

On Monday, Mr. Brown and the kids wandered up the street on their bikes and found someone at work renovating an old house.  He was taking down the chimney.  So Mr. Brown and the little people volunteered to assist and spent all afternoon pulling down bricks and trundling them off for disposal.  They found a desiccated squirrel carcass, and came home covered in soot.  Rose Pink said that she got a warm feeling from assisting our neighbor, and they all enjoyed it very much.

signs of the season

 

Nut Brown drew up a letter as well- he asked for a tomato.

27 November 2011

Busy month this month.  We bought a house and moved in and unpacked and tried to figure out how to live in this new space that's going to be home for years to come.  Mr. Brown has been busy with home improvement projects and has been so far successful and has learned a lot.  He loves our new house.



Also we're expecting a baby next May so there have been the beginning of doctor's visits and hormonal mood swings.  Everyone but me thinks it's a girl.  I think it's probably a girl too, but I was hoping for a boy.  We're taking suggestions for names because so far nothing has sounded right to me.  Today I suggested 'Zephyr' to Mr. Brown.  He said, is that a boy or a girl name? and I said, it could be either! 



For Thanksgiving my brother came up from Chicago and we had a good time with him: riding bikes, going to parks, raking the lawn at 'the cabin' (what Nut Brown calls the rental we just moved out of), and of course cooking (although my brother mostly contributed by washing dishes, which was greatly appreciated).  A few other notes:



I say to Nut Brown today, You're getting so big!  When did you get so big? and he says, I'm almost an adult!



Tonight at our first Advent celebration for this year, Rose Pink sang her version of 'The Friendly Beasts' to our guests.  It's to the tune of 'The Streets of Laredo'.  She's a superstar.



Nut Brown, at Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago, struggled to bear his testimony as Mr. Brown was talking about the plan of salvation and the role of our Savior.  We waited as he stumbled with his words and finally just said, 'I know... I know... I know that God is TRUE.'  It was beautifully sincere statement from our dear little boy who was obviously feeling the Spirit and trying to verbalize.



Our kids both did an excellent job in the Primary Program at church this month.  Rose Pink was asked to 'share her testimony of the prophet', and she and I came up with, "I know who President Monson is.  He speaks at General Conference.  I recognize him by his hair."  She was dismayed when people laughed during rehearsals, but when we discussed some other things she could say, and the importance of sharing honest feelings, she went ahead with the original line.



Nut Brown was asked to 'share a time when your prayers were answered'.  That's a bit much for a four-year-old, so instead he got to tell a story that had just happened on our trip to the beach, about how he had gotten lost and his mom had said a prayer asking for help to find him, and was given that help.  It was a long story with six or seven sentences (I made up a little card for him with picture cues) but he did the whole thing perfectly.



We're going to see my brother in Chicago graduate in two weeks and looking forward to that.  I really appreciate at my new job that my supervisors are more flexible with time off. :) 

7 November 2011

Image: Rose Pink's rendering of one of the houses they visited while trick-or-treating.  She's the pink person on the left of the door and Nut Brown to the right.  This was drawn for Gia (and posted to her) and she drew some for her other grandparents but I was unable to mail them because we have packed the envelopes already in preparation for moving this Saturday!

 

Last night Rose Pink was deconstructing a dresser on the back porch while Mr. Brown and I raked the back lawn.  Mr. Brown noticed that the thin wood of the defunct dresser drawers was perfect for karate chops, and he taught Nut Brown how to break a board, which he did successfully (!).  He demonstrated board breaking with his fist, on his head, knee and belly (!).  Totally amazing.  And I broke one too. Mr. Brown said, "You didn't think it would actually break, did you?" and I admitted that I didn't.  But it did!  Nut Brown was especially pleased with himself: he's been in a 'little ninjas' karate class through the rec center for the past couple of weeks, and was very happy to discover that he has ninja skills.

6 November 2011

Nut Brown has been throwing up all day.  He hasn't been able to keep anything down, except maybe occasional sips of water.  Mr. Brown went to the store to get Powerade for him, and also came home with a two liter of orange soda that he told Nut Brown was his entirely.  Nut Brown immediately had two glasses (which he threw up fifteen minutes later) and turned to me and said, This is the best day of my life.

His grandma sent him a letter recently in which she referenced the incident recorded on this blog with the friendly construction equipment operator who let him drive the steam shovel briefly.  After having the letter read to him, Nut Brown turned to me with round eyes and said, 'Did that really happen?'  I assured him that it was an actual occurrence, and he said, 'Wow!'

5 November 2011

We've been listening to a Halloween soundtrack and the kids love 'Monster Mash', 'The Flying Purple People Eater', and the Ghostbusters theme, as well as the other songs.  I found out that Nut Brown thought that when they shout 'Ghostbusters!' in the song that they're actually saying 'Ghost Butlers!' which is cool in a different kind of way.  When Rose Pink and I were trying to decipher what Nut Brown was saying, she came up with 'Ghost Butt Nerds!', which is also very funny.  She's very anxious to watch the movie.  We told her she has to wait til she's at least eight.

4 November 2011

Nut Brown has been really interested in letters lately.  We've been slowly practicing their names and the sounds they make and lately he's been sounding out words all by himself without prompting.  He also thinks that a 'homework' assignment to copy letters is the best thing ever- he's much more interested in coloring, drawing, and fine motor control than his sister, and loves to sit down with a pen and Dr. Seuss's ABC to write the alphabet. 

 

Here is a drawing he produced recently of a pickle on which he has written 'PICKLE', although it is backwards and the letters are also backwards. 

 

Nut Brown keeps referring to the letter 'S' as 'see', because it makes the sound 'sssss', which 'see' starts with.  He also calls 'C'... 'see'.  I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually: more importantly, he knows what sound they make when you're reading.

La Plage 22-29 Oct

We spent last week in Clearwater Beach, FL, doing nothing much.  We sat on the beach and built sandcastles, we walked along the beach and picked up shells, we laid around the vacation cottage and watched tv, and we swam in the pool.  Pretty much that sums it up.  It was wonderfully luxuriously lazy, and we had time to spend with each other for seven whole days.

 

My sister and her husband and most of their kids drove down from Tallahassee and spent the first part of the week with us.  It was so lovely to see them and hold her new baby and stay up late talking and watch our kids play together.

 

Some of the most amazing and special things that happened:

*we saw a dead baby octopus wash up on the beach, a whole specimen

 

*we built drip castles that spelled out our initials

 

*we found live conchs and hermit crabs in quasi-tide pools

 

*we watched the sun come up in the morning, cuddled up on a bench under a blanket on the bay side of the Clearwater island/sandbar

 

*we put the sun to bed every night on the beach

 

*Rose Pink actually caught a gecko, which bit her so that she screamed and dropped it.

 

*Nut Brown showed us how to play 'duck', which involved throwing a ball, running after it, and then diving on to it in the sand

 

*we hung out with a fisherman on the pier who let the kids handle and throw back the fish he caught

 

*we saw dolphins porpoising

 

*we went to a Halloween party at the library.  We actually got temporary library cards and checked out some books and movies.

 

*we (Rose Pink & Nut Brown) threw large quantities of clear blobs of jelly back into the ocean

 

*we saw jellyfish swimming

 

*we lost Nut Brown and then we found him again

 

We came home asking ourselves how soon we could do this again.  Our family is closer and happier for the time spent away together.

 

PS. We wore our Charlie Brown shirts when we were traveling and to the Halloween party.  We got lots of comments on how cute we were.  Thank you, Joellen!!

20 Oct 2011

Nut Brown has turned into a super coloring drawing machine lately! His small motor control is very, very good for a four-year-old, and he's extremely interested in putting color on paper. The other night we were talking about rings, and he danced off to draw several pictures with crayons of rings with different arrangements of gems. Here are some done in his best style.

Lion by an orange tree

Whales above the sea

Rocket man (or alien)

Turtle

 

 

Batman with embellishments

biking

Finally, photos of us on our bikes!

Here we are on our way to Rose Pink's Saturday morning musical theater class!  Rose Pink looks nervous because she hasn't really been enjoying the class as much as she thought she might, but we have a nice 10 minute ride up to the community center by our house every Saturday morning, and Nut Brown and I play games during her 45 minute class.

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On another day I made everyone stop as we were going out for a family ride.

Nut Brown on his bike (Rose Pink's old one)

Rose Pink riding Skull - she has developed really good bike manners: she watches for cars at intersections, rides by the side of the road, and so on.  I'm so proud of her.

The boys going tandem.  This is called the 'hitchhiker biker' by the kids, and we use when we're going longer distances to help Nut Brown keep up with the rest of us.  He will ride it with 'no feet!' and occasionally with no hands, which gave me a heart attack the first time I saw him do it.

All ready!  Come on, Mom!

Where were we going?

Jim's, for ice cream cones.  Yum.

Something tells me...

Nut Brown uses the phrase Something tells me... in places where others might use 'I think...'

Something tells me I need a chair (to reach the jam in the freezer)

Something tells me I need to wash my hands.

Something tells me you forgot to give me a treat.

But he has a little lisp so when he says 'something' it sounds like, 'some-sing'.

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Another favorite phrase lately is 'Move your feet, lose your seat!' which he uses every time I make him get off my lap so I can get up for something.

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We dug out a CD player independent of the computer, and here he is listening to his favorite album: Dinosaur Rock.

19 Oct 2011

Two days after Rose Pink lost her first tooth, she lost her second, right next to it.  So now she has a double-wide gap in the bottom that she likes to stick things in, like straws and licorice and cheese sticks.  She pulled this one out herself.  Unfortunately, she swallowed the first one, and then this one got misplaced somehow (so sad!).  We have no tooth fairy at our house so the disappointment has been purely scientific - nothing to study and analyze.

16 October: dry run Halloween

We had a dry run for Halloween on Saturday night.  The zoo had a Halloween fest called the 'Zoo Boo' and we bought tickets and went.  I finished up the kids' costumes that afternoon.  Rose Pink had planned to be Catwoman but I couldn't figure out a good way to make her a Catwoman that everyone wouldn't automatically think was just a cat, so I talked her into being a 'pink Batwoman' instead.  Nut Brown is Green Lantern: felt hot-glued on black clothes, and a mask and ring Mr. Brown bought them months ago to play with.  Rose Pink had a pink Batman shirt (which is where the idea came from) and I made her cape, fuzzy fur belt, and glued more fur on her black boots.  She loved it, and I was very pleased with how well it worked out.  I'm making a matching Green Lantern costume for Mr. Brown to trick or treat in with the kids.  Jessica- I owe you big for showing me that Halloween costumes don't have to be super complicated to be fun.

The Zoo Boo was totally fun.  They had it set up very well, where the walk outside looking at jack o'lanterns and animal sculptures made out of painted pumpkins and rebar (awesome!) and collecting candy at treat stations (sponsored by a local grocery chain, oh yes) was punctuated with periodic inside activities (the haunted reptile house! temporary outside shelter for crafts!)  We all had a really great time and we may go back next year.

the paper

Rose Pink loves to read the Sunday comics, which arrive on Friday in our paper.  (? yes, really)  She takes 'her section' of the paper off and reads it thoroughly and then will ask us for help with the Mini Page on the back.  I remember my grandmother saving the Mini Page for us when we would visit.  Funny that it's still around and that kids still like it.

20 June 2011

Our fascination with 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' continues. Rose Pink produced these drawings of Appa and Toph. I put in images from the animated series for comparison.

Appa:

Toph:

Also lately the kids and Mr. Brown have been watching "Batman: The Brave & The Bold", which is a really interesting series of adventures starring the Dark Knight. Lots of superheroness happening at our house lately.

after dinner

Tonight we had pork and potatoes and roasted green beans for dinner.  After dinner, Nut Brown and Rose Pink and I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood.  They took turns deciding which way to turn at each corner.  Nut Brown is allowed to ride his bike (Rose Pink's old bike) in the street if he 'follows the rules', which means, rides by the curb and watches for cars.  He was so pleased to be out and about on his bike that he sang and talked the whole time.  He coasts by sticking his legs straight out to the side, which is really cute.  At one point he'd fallen really far behind, and when I turned back to see what was holding him up, he had stopped to get off his bike and retrieve a catalog in the street and was riding very slowly one-handed while clutching the catalog to his chest.  'Can I carry that for you, little guy?' I asked him.  'Yes,' he said.  'It's for Rose Pink.'  Rose Pink rode circles around Nut Brown and I and paused to gather a handful of leaves to throw at me.  She is so good with her bike, good at starting and stopping and watching for cars.  It was such a nice evening, it was a real pleasure to be out together.

1 October 2011

Tonight we had frozen pizza for dinner. I had told Rose Pink at the store that we'd put olives on her cheese pizza but I forgot to buy some. She was disappointed but recovered by slicing some pickles and adding them post-baking.

A yellow ribbon

So tonight Rose Pink picked out of the songbook, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", which is an old song about a girl who wears a yellow ribbon 'for her lover who was far, far away'.  I think this is where the tradition of yellow ribbons for soldiers came from back in the nineties.  Anyway, Rose Pink is listening and first asks me why she's wearing a yellow ribbon, and then as we get further on in the song she exclaims, "Oh!  She's wearing it for her boyfriend?  She must think she's a tree!"

28 September 2011

I started wearing my glow-in-the-dark vest when I ride in this week, because it's dark in the mornings now. Nut Brown got out of bed the other morning when I was just getting out of the shower. He was all bleary-eyed coming into the bathroom so I turned the lights off for him, thinking if I kept it dark he'd go back to bed (it was 6:30 am). He used the toilet and then said to me, You shouldn't be up in the middle of the night, Mom. And then went back to bed!

missing

From Mr. Brown: How on earth can my little girl be old enough to lose baby teeth. I can still clearly remember losing my own teeth and so this connects us in a way her earlier milestones do not. My mind boggles at the idea that it has been nearly seven years since she was born and changed my life so completely.