Cousin Playtime

Happy Birthday Bea!

Bea wanted a snake cake for her 3rd birthday... and Mimi delivered!

Soundbites

Bea: You comb the back. You make it flat. If you comb it like that, you don't look like a mom.
Mom: How?
Bea: combs mom's hair over face
Mom: What do I look like?
Bea: A monster.


Nathan: wearing the tiger ears he went to sleep with I was a tiger all night.


Nathan: perhaps contemplating war, tragedy and life choices What if a man who didn't have a son and didn't marry someone was a star war and someone tried to kill him and his leg got broken off. THen he wouldn't go back, he would just go find a house to live in and someone to marry... or just live in a house by himself.


Bea: I love roasted seeds! I love roasted goo!
Mom: You do?
Bea: Ye-ah! You put celery and pepper and all the things and its so good. You never had that?
Mom: No.
Bea: Nana had that at her house.
Mom: Roasted goo?
Bea: Yeah.


Nathan: What if this whole place stayed dark and all the gloomin' eyes were on this place?


Nathan: looking at a Christmas wreath Look a coral reef!


Bea: Do you know string cheese or pombees?
Mom: I know string cheese but not pombees.
Bea: Oh. You take celery. You put it in water, soak it, put it in the cups. There!


Nathan: while discussing gifts I know since Papa Mike loves airplanes we could give him airplanes. We could give him a whole bunch of paper to make airplanes. Its like how we made slime (jello) from our box. We could give him the ones not already made.


Nathan: while Grammie, Papa and Mom are cleaning up dinner and Nathan and dad are "working" on putting together a new toy crane Why are you all in the kitchen when dad and I are in the living room WORKING!?


Nathan: scattered throughout the day, Nathan often tells everyone what his sister loves Bea loves purple. Bea loves toys. Bea loves dolls. Bea loves cranes. Bea loves orange because I loved orange and then she loved orange. Bea loves puppies. Bea loves cake.

Rainy Days

Writing!

Nathan has seemed to know some letters before but wasn't very interested in writing. I thought he probably knew how to write an N, but not any others. Then one night, he suddenly wanted to write his name, mom, dad, mimi and Katherine. It was amazing to see him know all these letters!

Halloween Costumes... no pictures please.

Nathan and Bea both made cars out of boxes. Bea was a ballerina in a car. Nathan was going to be a person in a car but abandoned the car (next to him) and just decided to be "puppy guy." We had the pleasure of trick or treating with our neighbors Red Ridding Hood and Tinkerbell.

Biking on Ridge

Soundbites

Nathan: every night after stories and before bed "I'm flip flop tired. You have to fork lift me into bed."

Nathan: his positive response to any question such as Do you have your shoes on? "Yep-I-do!" or sometimes "Yes-aroo!"

Bea: looking at a nectarine "I want a nectar dreeeeeam"

Bea: singing while her dad plays guitar "Louder! Louder! LOUDER!"
Nils: "What should I play next?"
Bea: "I love my head"
Nils: "How does that song go?"
Bea: "I love my head, I love my head, I love my head"

Another Beatrice original... "My nose is washed. My nose is washed. My nose is washed. My dog's nose is washed (or maybe lost)"

Ponytails

Bea has been fascinated with ponytails for a long time. At last, her hair is long enough for several ponytails. Bea was not satisfied with one or two... we had three on this inaugural ponytail day!

Bullet-Proof

On my first day of my new job I had arrived early and decided to fill up my gas tank since I had some extra time. I went to get my receipt from the cashier I saw the bullet-proof plastic covering the window and the turnstile system of passing money or chips or receipts back and forth without ever exposing the cashier. "Welcome back" were the words in my head. As I waited for my receipt to circle around to me in its cubby, I remembered that this was part of my regular routine of working, living and shopping 5 years ago. Thoughts started to dart through my head: this must be a dangerous place. is he afraid of me? should I be afraid of him? this system takes longer. i shouldn't stay here too long. After being away from bullet-proof glass for a while, seeing it again brought a flood of thoughts and emotions... and I think it should. What messages have my students internalized about themselves, their community and the world if this is the only kind of cashier booths they've ever seen?

Gone Fishin'

Mechanics at work

Now that Nils is happily working on his "new" truck, we have quite a few mechanics in the family.

Waterballoons!

Robot

A little robot......who needs some help getting up.

Happy Father's Day!

Hair Twirling

Bea's hair is still taking its time sprouting on top, but she it's getting quite long in the back. Her favorite habit has become hair twirling. She twirls all the time! In fact, she has twirled so vigorously that she has made several large tangles. The first few I tried to untangle and eventually cut off. Then one really large one became a dred lock. I let it evolve because I knew that if I snipped it off it would either form again or Bea would be very sad that she had nothing to twirl. Then one day, she handed me the dread lock and said, "here." It had fallen out on its own from repeated twirling. What do you do with your child's first dread lock? I decide to save it since I didn't really get a baby lock of hair from Bea yet... but it fell out of my pocket before we made it home. The first dread will have to live on in our memory...

Soundbites

after Nathan's second ever tragic balloon loss
B: Nathan, I'm sorry your bloon is lost.
N: (scowl)
B: Where is it?
N: Everywhere.
B: Everywhere that Mary went?

looking at dried cranberries
B: These are the kinds Grammie has. I want some. More Gramberries.

while riding in carseats (one of the silliest times in our day, not sure why)
B: Nathan, hear this: do da be la pu zee!
N: giggling
B: Nathan, hear this: ahhhhhh
N: giggling
(this pattern goes on for a long time)

after enjoying his press on tattoos
N: Did you know the tattoo store is 500 streets away from our house?

after loosing the stick he uses as a light saber
N: I haven't seen my lifesaver!

after having a bad 24 hr stomach bug
B: I like when I get sick and better and better and better and better.

a typical Nathan story
N: Last night I went to Colton's house for 5 days. I took Mimi with me. Someone had to drive me. It took a very long time to drive to the airport. Ah! We had to vroom there. I took Papa with me too. It was his cousin's birthday so he brought a present. Papa let me choose what present to give Papa's friend. I chose stuff to fix his car because he likes fixin'. You know what, when he was there he already had his pajamas on.

before using the potty
B: I need a grown-up here.... so I don't fall and don't flush in the pipes. I might break.

mom was informed that...
N: I like dinosaurs and pirates and everything bad.

Pirate Cupcakes

Captain Kidd's Treasure Map Found at Nathan's Birthday Party!

Treasure Hunters

Silly Pirates

Paper Flowers

Inspired by Joanie's making space ritual to help her get ready for baby #2, we had our own fun with paper art.

Volcanos

Easter Egg Hunters

Take Apart Day

Nathan and Bea have a daddy who shows them the joy of taking things apart. Today the projects were a walkman and a computer drive of some kind.

Washing Feet

After a fun morning outside in sandals, enjoying our crazy 80 degree weather, I noticed that Nathan and Bea's feet were quite dirty. We haven't had to wash feet before naps since last summer... and by the end of the summer I probably didn't bother. But the first days of sandaled dirt digging are a contrast to our socked, booted, covered up experience of winter and I felt the urge to wash feet. I was thinking about the best place to do this, when I realized that it was Maundy Thursday. Suddenly a regular kind of kid-cleaning took on a deeper meaning. I got to tell them the story of Jesus washing his friends' feet and we talked about caring for our friends and how God isn't afraid to see our stinky feet.

Dunes

The Wrapping Game

One of Nathan's new favorite games is to wrap something up and give it to Bea and squeal when she opens it. Another version is when he and Bea hide while I wrap 2 mystery items up and then they find them and open them. I am getting very skilled at re-using the same wrapping paper many many times!

Backyard Campfire

Reflections on a Christmas Manger

We made a collage out of some Christmas cards and a paper-doll-style barn. After getting started, I realized there was some depth to this art project. I like this piece of art because it reminds me of some important things about the Christmas story.

-The divine comes to our familiar little neighborhoods. This barn and farm animal scene is a pretty common image for children's toys and books. Just as this barn feels familiar and ordinary to N and B, when God came to earth he came to real people's ordinary and familar lives. Kind of feels odd and great at the same time. Kind of like the feeling I get seeing the barn pictures next to the Christmas card pieces.
-Each piece of the picture is open for some interpretation in what it actually is... but the material it is made of is clearly full of meaning. While its a little hard to tell from our collage if there is sky or ground or trees next to the barn, all of the pieces are made out of cards sending love, peace and hope.

Daily Reminders

"I want it like it was!"

There have been a lot of changes in our family recently: sorting out health issues, Nils resigning from his job as pastor, and saying goodbye to our church family to name a few. Amidst this tumultuous time many people have asked me how our kids are doing. I think they are doing remarkably well; but, as some of these changes start to affect our day to day life more obviously, they are not going unnoticed by our children.

We had a wonderful and emotional goodbye to our church family last Sunday. I cried most of the time, overwhelmed by feelings of tenderness for the dear friends and special moments that our family has known in that community, sadness for the change, and gratefulness for God's work in all experiences of life. If it hasn't already been clear to our children that there are some significant changes happening and that mom and dad are a bit emotional these days, it was definitely clear on Sunday. We've been pretty open and have told our kids about the changes as they came up in conversation, but seeing their church community all say goodbye gave them an experiential understanding of what is happening. Bea noticed I was crying on Sunday and periodically patted my back and gave me hugs. We named the changes and then she was off and running. Nathan was a little clingy on Sunday and was clearly understanding the significance of the goodbye, but he waited until the next day to show his deep emotion about it.

Monday morning Nathan decided to deconstruct a pad of paper (taking things apart is a common activity for him). Then, in growing levels of frustration, he tried to put the pad of paper back together... exactly as it had been. We used hole punchers, bent paper clips, tape, scissors, everything we could think of and the panic only seemed to get worse. Finally, Nathan melted down into shrill screams of "I want it like it was!" that lasted one hour. After an hour, he suddenly stopped yelling and was asleep. I have only seen this behavior one other time in his life (which unfortunately was on an airplane, but that's another story).

I don't think it's a coincidence that the day before was our goodbye party at the church. While his 3 year old self may not have known why he felt so devastated about the change in his pad of paper, it is clear to me that leaving our church home is a big change for Nathan. Nathan was born at this church, in fact he was in church community before he was even born. Nathan, Shu-Mei, Nicole and Esther were all in utero at the same time and inspired a baby shower for the church nursery. He was in the back of the sanctuary when he was 3 days old, grew up at the parsonage next door, was baptized at 3 months, was a founding baby of the neighborhood playgroup at the church, came to Grow and Go meetings weekly with other moms and tots. He was an expert at the banister slide, felt very comfortable on the front platform (as we occasionally saw with his stage runs during the singing time or his daddy leg hug during the prayer time). He also went on pastoral visits. He accompanied Margaret to almost all of her chemo appointments and doctor visits during the last 2 years of her life and enjoyed our "lunches out" at the hospital cafeteria (which is so much better than you'd think). He went to funerals, talent shows, football games and new member visits. He spent a whole summer playing with the church rocks along the sidewalk and not going anywhere without one in each hand. He knew how to turn all the church lights on and off. He knew where the stock of coffee stirrers was kept. This community of people and this physical space has been a big part of Nathan's world.

As we left the goodbye party Nathan asked again why we had to say goodbye to our church and said he still wanted to play with Esther and he still wanted to go to the singing time. We explained again that we could still see all his friends and even visit on a Sunday once in a while. Even though there are plenty of things that will stay the same, I know it won't be "like it was." This is the sadness of change. As hard as we try, we can never make the pad of paper look exactly like it used to. Let's hope that after a time of grieving, we can all take a breath (or a nap) and then be able to wake up and move forward into the good things that are growing in the next season of our life together.

Soundbites

N: I'm going to kill you!
B: (crying)
K: What happened?
B: (still crying) NayNay killed me!

after an argument about sharing a box...
N: Do you want to keep that box forever-and-ever-amen?
B: Yah.
N: Nooooo, Bea. You can't keep it forever-and-ever-amen because you have to share.

N: (scream)
K: What's the problem?
N: Bea pushed my head and she said I couldn't feed her baby Jesus! (Bea had been calling her dolly baby Jesus for the day)

B: My nose is slippery.

N: Bea, would you like soy milk or cow milk or duck milk?

after looking closely at a batman action figure:
B: Batman wears diapers?

a conversation with a 4 year old at the park
N: Hi bouncy boy!
Br: Hi.
K: Aren't you the kid nicknamed Taco?
Br: I'm not taco!
N: Taco! Taco!
K: Yeah, I thought I talked to your mom about how when you were a baby she wrapped you up like a taco and the name stuck.
Br: No! I'm not Taco ...but you can call me peanutbutter.

Stopping to Stare

Winter has been a hard season for the 2 days a week that I care for 3 little ones. It's just so much easier to let them run around in a sunny park than to deal with cabin fever or all that is involved in venturing outside. Here's a typical internal dialogue for me on these days:

Snow suits on. Nathan's pants are on backwards, oh well, don't disrupt the flow. Snow boots. Stay calm. Shove the foot in. Ignore the child running the other direction, you can herd him when you're done with this set of boots. Hats on. Okay, I can velcro your hat. Will you stop crying after that? Mittens on. Where is Zen's thumb? Was that mittens flying across the room? I thought I just helped everyone put them on? You want me to snap your jacket all they way to the top? I hope you're not so hot in your jacket that you fall asleep in the car. Oh, yeah... my gear. Okay, out the door. Down the slippery steps. Hold on. There's the icy patch. In the carseats. Ugh, these straps are too tight with all the layers. Push. Shove. Snap, snap, snap. You're hand's squished? Where is it? Okay. We're in. Now... do I have my keys? I hope so, the front door's already shut.

Amidst this high intensity season we had a special moment today. We did eventually make it to the Nature Preserve and saw a deer in the distance. We stayed very quiet and watched her walk closer and closer. Finally she stopped in front of us and looked straight at us. We shared quite a long a moment of eye contact- enough for me to stare, take a picture and stare some more before she ran off. In a busy day where eye contact is at an all-time minimum... this deer reminded me to stop and stare.

Sledding and Sliding

Holiday Dress Up

Cute. I'm glad I got these photos, but it wasn't easy.

First, there is getting them into "fancy" clothes. Usually dressy clothes don't feel quite as comfy, I don't usually suggest these clothes to them so they are "different," and kids can always sense when you really want them to do something like wear nice clothes so I can take a holiday photo. Then, there is the arranging... getting them to stop playing momentarily to take some pictures but not run to see the picture on the camera screen before the shutter flashes, getting them to smile but not smile too much, stand next to each other but not on each other, etc, etc.

The stars were aligned today and somehow I was calm about it and they were easy-going and we stopped and looked at photos on the camera screen and we stopped and played puppies and we stopped a lot in general. But in the end, we had a few nice photos and we weren't all frustrated with each other. This is quite a contrast to my first attempt.

The First Attempt (at a Holiday Photo)

"Yes, but hold her nicely."

"Bea, are you picking your nose?"

"Okay, sit still."

"I know, Bea, you can nap right after I get this photo."

"Bea, take your finger out of your nose."

"Okay, I think we're done."