big talker

Casper's language explosion has been so much fun to experience lately. His little mind is working overtime; he talks about everything. Here are some of the complicated sentences that he's impressed us with lately:

"Mama come back from meeting and nurse me, Daddy?"

"You have a shower yet, Mama?"

"What that doing down there, Mama?"

As the waffle iron beeps: "I heard that noise, too, Mama. Is it microwave or wafflewave?"

polish puppets

We've been amassing a little collection of hand puppets which we use with the puppet theater hanging in Gwendolyn's room. I found this theater, and a few of the most charming puppets, in a wonderful store in Krakow. This toy store is also the source of our wooden rattle suitcase and many of our walking toys. (We'll include these in some future post.) Gwennie and Linus had been wanting to present puppet shows to the family for the past several days, and it took us until tonight to bring the puppet box out, as our fhe activity.


Gwennie's puppet show was long and episodic, and Linus's was dramatic, in the sense that mashing a succession of puppets together along with sound effects is dramatic.


And Casper, as usual, couldn't wait to join in with his siblings. Of course, he's pretty literal about everything he does --

Todd: "And the lamb heard a noise coming from the forest, a terrible sound -- 'ayoooh!' The beast watching the lamb came out of the woods, and it was --"
Casper: [bringing it from behind the theater]: "A puppet!"

grateful sunday

This week, I am grateful for:

• The few days of Fall weather we've enjoyed. Last week was hot and humid, and this week promises to be the same, but what a gloriously wet and cold weekend we had! My favorite kind of weather.
• The success and finality of Todd's most recent exhibition. He put in a lot of hours at the sacrifice of family time, but they had a huge turn out, Todd was pleased with the outcome and now he gets to come home in the evenings!
• Our local library. It's old and a bit musty with a great children's section and very friendly librarians. Weekly story time is so well done and all three kids love participating. I don't know how I could manage homeschooling without this great resource.
• My imaginative and hilarious kids. They are constantly cracking me up with their outfits, games and songs. As I was typing this entry, Linus came in to inform me that his outfit (a pair of Gwendolyn's pale orange pants and a black t-shirt) makes him, "half-pumpkin and half-bat").

game food and food games

The children and I were given tickets to the university's football game today. Since I had spent the majority of my evenings this week working until nine or ten to prepare for the exhibition opening yesterday, I thought that this would be an ideal opportunity to spend some time with the kids -- or the two older kids, at least. When we got out of the car to hike to the stadium, Casper (who constantly hears from his brother and sister that he's too young to play their games) yelled out, "You babies too!" He wasn't pleased to be left out.

But we had a fine time, watching a good game (at least, when we left, our team was ahead) and eating kettle corn and hot dogs. Linus preferred the halftime show put on by the band, but Gwennie was actually getting interested in the mechanics and strategy of the game -- she says that she thinks it's like quiddich, after all.

And Casper was involved in the next entertainment of the day, when we had another collaborative dinner with our good (and talented) friends -- this time, the theme was "foods inside foods!" Jamie and Nicole made several variations on crepes -- savory, sweet, and a magnificent quiche lorraine nestled in crisped crepes. The kids supplied pigs in blankets, and we attempted potato and cauliflower samosas (though we had trouble with the deep frying) with Indian catsup (an incredible discovery), and profiteroles with chocolate mousse and fudge sauce. Gwennie and Linus couldn't stop showing off for our guests, but it may have been Casper who made the biggest impression, with his new levels of articulation and friendliness. (He started showing library books to the adults: "look, astronaut book! Inside library bag. Dinosaur book!")

palling around

Linus, seeing firemen in the street collecting money for something: “I think they should work for [their] money.”

Gwennie: “Spats, get down from that counter. You caught a fly, I know, but that’s not going to get you whatever you want.”

Linus, creating robots with his duplo blocks: Look, this is a little good suck-up robot. (It sucks asteroids up.)”

Gwennie, complaining about having to unload the silverware from the dishwasher, says to Mama, “Well, I do more work than you.”

h i p

There are two things that Casper does constantly:
1. He tests boundaries. If I ask him to do something, he almost always refuses and they waits, with a coy little look on his face, to see if I'm going to make him do what I ask. (And I do.) On occasion he'll get really sassy and tell me, "No. You do it, Mama."
2. He vocalizes his desire to do everything that his older siblings are doing. A hundred times a day I hear him chirp, "Me too, Mama!" And when brother and sister are pretending to be animals or characters in a story, his refrain is, "I'm Hedwig, Mama!" He understands that they're pretending, and has been told often enough that he's going to be Hedwig for Halloween, but he doesn't quite understand how to join in the action.

blue eyes and freckles

Doesn't Linus look old here? The baby is leaving him and I'm sad about it.

grateful sunday

This week, I am grateful for:

• General Conference. I think I can safely say that conference weekends are my favorite of the year. I so enjoy listening to the words of prophets, apostles and leaders. I always come away so enriched and full of joy and determination to improve myself. I'm also thankful for the technology that allows me to download all the talks just four hours after they have been given. As I cleaned the kitchen and folded some laundry tonight, I was able to re-listen to favorite talks. Awesome.
• The lovely and relaxed weekend we had as a family.
• My sweet, sweet husband. I love hanging out with Todd and the conversations we have. He makes me a better person and loves me for the person I'm continually struggling to become. I think we've grown by leaps and bounds over the 8+ years of marriage and I love this ever-evolving relationship that I'm in.
  

Down-Home Days

We only just discovered that our community celebrates its heritage every year with a festival named for the earliest town established in the area. The first county seat of this part of Texas -- as much a gathering of homesteads as a real community -- was founded in the early 1840s, but diminished due to a rail line which was built through our town twenty-five years later. This event, held at the county museum of natural science, is full of olde-timey goodness, with various organizations and hobbyists manning booths and generously sharing their interests with local families.

We got to ride on a stagecoach, play along with a string band, test our knowledge of bird and tree identification, and talk about eighteenth-century flintlock muskets with a Civil War reenactor. (Before I started working on my current exhibit, which is based on 1830s Texas history, I wouldn't have been able to have this conversation, either.)

One of the cutest exchanges came when Gwennie, who had noticed a very bright planet in the semi-cloudly skies last night, asked one of the Astronomy League volunteers if he knew what it had been. She was thrilled to find out that it was Jupiter, and that this man had been looking at it last night as well, and that through his telescope he was able to see all four of its moons.

The pendants the children made in the leatherworking tent were another lasting hit. Linus stamped a stagecoach on his; Gwennie, a star on a scrap (for Casper) and a Slytherin snake for herself.

Michaelmas Festival

Tonight we got together with our good friends and celebrated the feast of St. Michael (though a few days late -- Michaelmas is actually September 29th). This festival actually celebrates Good conquering Evil, as the Archangel Michael is honored for defeating Lucifer during the war in Heaven. Many stories of St George are also told at this time as they relate (the good and honorable knight defeating the evil dragon).

We had a wonderful time with our friends -- a delicious dinner and dessert, coming together for a community circle of singing and the retelling of a beautiful Michaelmas story (in which star children are sent from heaven to protect growing things and are given golden, protective cloaks -- pictured above -- by St. Michael), the forming of bread dough into a dragon shape (or kitty cat and icicles in the case of my children), and the introduction of charades to Gwendolyn.

Thank you Torres family for the wonderful evening. See you at Martinmas!

zip

flower portraits

Gwendolyn loves flowers of all sorts and doesn't discriminate against weeds. Pictured are the kids collecting "wildflowers" for my birthday bouquet. Certainly sweeter than any store-bought bouquet.

the meadow

autumn strut

Casper loves to walk around with his hands in his pockets. With these pants, he could only find his back pockets for some reason. Cute.

grateful sunday

This week, I am grateful for:

• The sweet birthday that I had. Todd and the kids made a perfect day for me with sweet, thoughtful presents and cards, a wonderful dinner, fun time spent together playing games and reading books and a nice long nap. All the phone calls, well wishes, emails and facebook notes made me feel so loved. I'm thrilled to be starting this 35th year surrounded by so many amazing friends and family members.
  
• The gymnastics program Gwennie and Linus are in and Gwendolyn's piano lessons. They are having the time of their lives with these things and look forward to them every single day, even though they don't take place every single day. I love watching them bounce around with excitement, make new friends and develop these new skills.
  
• Relief Society. It takes up most of my free time these days, but I have a strong testimony of the work we are doing and I see the blessings in the lives of the sisters I'm privileged to serve. I also loved the General RS Broadcast on Saturday night. I learned so much and my testimony was strengthened.
  
• Cool weather! We had many, many days this past week that brought rain and temperatures in the 60s and 70s. We wore long sleeves and spent days with the windows open! All of this in Texas in September! It was wonderful.
  

playacting

I can’t be the only one who never watched any of the1970s science fiction television shows (either originals or the resuscitations of 1930s serials). Of them, I was never really interested in either the Mormon exodus of Battlestar Galactica or the proto-porno of Flash Gordon (sfw, btw), but I was a little intrigued by the premise of Bruce Rogers in the 25th Century, which I understand to be about a renowned twentieth-century typographer accidentally shuttled into the far future, where he becomes irresistible to women due to his utterly average looks, his correction of everyone’s English usage, and his love of 1470s Venetian typefaces.

Anyway, about nine years ago, we stumbled across some temporary tattoos from a reboot of the Flash Gordon series; I don’t remember how we got them, where they came from, or – most importantly – why we bothered keeping them. Even where our tattoos are concerned (most of which are cheesy, falling on the low end of the clip-art scale), these are notably crappy. Well, yesterday, Gwennie and Linus found the Flash Gordon tattoos, and were immediately drawn to them.

As usual, they were inspired to play a game based on what they know about Flash Gordon, which, also as usual, is centered on wardrobe. Gwendolyn is responsible for Linus’s look (including wetting down and parting his hair, getting him in a red jumpsuit, and affixing yellow “lightning bolts” to his arms) and her own. I didn't really find it funny until I compared what she'd come up with to the stupid illustrations (I mean, a futuristic hero with roller skates built into his costume?), and until I saw that she had laid out brown shorts, knee-high socks, a green shirt, gold-bead necklace, and a orange-and-blue cape for me.

nature spot, september

sibling sayings

While looking at the Halloween pictures we just posted:
Todd: Linus, you look just like Harry.
Linus: And Gwennie looks just like Ron!

Gwendolyn: Mama, Linus ruined my mind and now I can't think straight!

the story of the good samaritan

I have this cute little shopping cart cover, which I love. I bought it when Gwendolyn was a baby and have used it multiple times per week for nearly seven years. It is fabulous. It completely covers all the germy parts of the cart (even the big Costco and Sam's carts), it has a removable pillow for additional back support for smaller babies, it zips up into a neat little bundle with handles long enough for me to swing the thing over my shoulder, it's gender-neutral black and white gingham, it's comfortable for the babe in the cart, and it machine washes beautifully. I would even go so far as to say that I'm I tiny bit emotionally attached to the thing. So imagine my horror and disappointment when I recently discovered that my beloved shopping cart cover was not in the van or in the laundry. I called around to the stores that we shop at and finally located it at Kroger, thankful that some kind and honest person had found it and turned it in.

When I went into Kroger to retrieve my bag from the lost and found, I spoke with the manager and got a slightly different story than the one that had played out in my imagination. Apparently, some kind and honest and paranoid person had seen my shopping cart cover in a shopping cart in the parking lot and had thought that it looked so suspicious that they called 911. So the police came to the Kroger parking lot to make sure the suspicious bag was not a bomb. Of course, they found a cute little shopping cart cover instead. Still, I'm thrilled that I have it back and as a bonus, have this insane story to spice the blog up a bit.

happy Harry Potter birthday, Liam

Notice the magic Gwennie is producing, which can be seen speeding off toward the right of the frame.

The children are now one step closer to their Halloween characters with the addition of a little snowy owl. (Hedwig -- Mr. Hedwig, that is -- was flapping his wings in the above photo.)


Linus: Talantareggla!
Gwennie: No, Linus, it's Tarantallegra.
Linus: Talantareggla!

the boy

Linus (to Granny, who has seven cats in her house): Would you like a kitten? They’re very cuddly, but sometimes they’re grouchy. If you’re mean to them or throw them in the bath, they won’t like you any more.
Mama: Who threw a kitten in the bath, Linus?
Linus: I accidentally threw a kitten in the bathtub.
Mama: Was that really an accident?
Linus: I accidentally did that. I did it on accident.

Linus: Is today fast Sunday?

Daddy: Yes it is.

Linus: OK – we gotta get there fast!

Linee is making transformers from bristleblocks.

L: Daddy, do you know if this transformer is a boy or a girl?

D: I think it’s a girl.

L: Wrong, it’s a boy. [beat] Just kidding, it’s a girl. It doesn’t show the nurses in this version, though.

grateful sunday

This week I'm grateful for:

• The time we got to spend with family in Dallas this past weekend. We love playing with Granny and Grandad and cousins and aunties and uncle BJ.
• The blessings of the temple. We spent much of Saturday in the temple as part of Granny and Grandad's anniversary celebrations. For me, this was the highlight of the trip.
• Our modest little house. It really is perfect for our family right now and we were all very happy to be home this evening (even though the house is now strewn with half-unpacked luggage and toys that have been dragged out from the playroom).

31

Today is Granny and Grandad's thirty-first wedding anniversary, and the family was able to get together to celebrate. Here's to another thirty one years!

generation

I took this nearly adult-looking picture of Gwendolyn this morning. To my mind, it is really reminiscent of a photograph of my Mother when she was young, also wearing a choker -- you can really see the resemblance in the jaw and mouth, and maybe the eyes. (Incidentally, if anyone has a copy of this photo, I'd love to post it as a comparison.)

voyages

Last night we drove to Granny and Grandad's house. Today we met up with cousins and went bonkers.

all grown up

Imagine our excitement when, after the recent rain, we discovered a small frog on our lawn. Unlike most of the frogs we see (which are very fat and live in the hideyhole under the driveway, where they lurk in wait for the bugs that come to the light), this agile little fellow was black with a stipple pattern. He was also the very image of the tree frogs we released after they matured from the tadpoles we found in the canal and raised in our tank. It was great to see an old friend (especially one who had flourished through the difficulties of the summer).

starting the season

Yesterday, as a prank, Linus ran into Mama's room and announced, "Football season starts today, Mama!" Maybe we'll get to go to another football show.

grateful sunday

This week I'm thankful for:

• My sweet little girl. We've had such a good time celebrating her this past week. I'm proud to be the mother of such a sweet 7-year-old (though I still can't believe that I'm the mother of a 7-year-old).
  
• Rain! It rained on Friday and rained all day long on Saturday and on Sunday, the entire family woke up at 6.30 in the morning because the rain and thunder were so loud. It was awesome.
• Homeschooling and the freedom it affords our family. We started school this week and already we've had some great days and some not so stellar days, but I'm so thankful that we're having those days together.

character exercise

It's not unusual around our house for the children to find stories and assign each other roles when they need new scenarios for their games. Often, they base the stories on books or shows, even when they know next to nothing about the original subject of their play. They've made games based on The Last Unicorn (a movie none of them have seen), for example.

This weekend, after Linus found a G I Joe promotion in our new Transformers dvd case, they decided to dress as the characters (Gwennie as Scarlett and Linus as Duke). Then they set up an obstacle course to exercise their legs. Their costumes were surprisingly accurate, though we're not sure that we're going to be running out to get the original episodes anytime soon.