Shoes

Kalani has been working on putting on his own shoes this week. He's been obsessed with the project. All he wanted to talk about was shoes. He carried them around the house, always trying to put them on with varying degrees of success-- and screams of anguish. At some point he figured out it was easier to put on big brother's shoes and then Keona started to find it difficult to find his shoes. Kalani even took a shoe to bed at night. Finally, on Saturday morning he came in our bedroom with HIS shoes on. SUCCESS!!! He was grinning from ear to ear. So Proud. Now he gets them on right -- sometimes -- and is quite happy with himself. And we are happy for him. It's really these moments that really make it worth it to be a parent.

Art...

It starts one place...but you never know where it will end up!!!!

The Final Frontier.....

In our continuing studies of the planets, we decided to make a model of the Solar System. So we got out our paints and balls and went to work. It really was an other worldly experience. We've also been reading lots of books and watching lots of videos.... so now we can throw around words like asteroids, planet, meteor, astronaut, gravity, and satellite. Keona's favorite video was one about Space Camp, so now he's all jazzed up about going to that one day.

Ugh! There he goes....

DESTROYING
MY
UNIVERSE
AGAIN!!!! K1 hopes his solar system will survive so that he can hang it over his bed and add the glow- in- the- dark stars that he got as a gift. However, K2 has other ideas....

K2

Me do it!


Me do it! I do it!
I wanna do it too!
How do I get my foot in this shoe?

Me do it! I do it!
I wanna do it too!
Which hole does my head go through?

Me do it! I do it!
I wanna do it too!
Will I be able to do it all…when I’m two?

Written by Lelani, November 07

Rocket ship to the stars...

Today we went and got a big box and began creating our own rocket ship. The boys had fun for hours. Sometimes I'd see but an eye or a finger and sometimes nothing at all. then I would hear..."Don't push that! No I want it closed! Stop! There are aliens out there!"...And then they would appear briefly in the window, pointing at some passing planet. Eventually, the screaming would reach a high pitch and the whole ship would come crashing down and Keona would storm out exclaiming he would never play with his brother again. LOL And somehow a day in space seemed to justify getting out the Toobers and Zots, which gave rise to dangerous space worms. All in all, it was a good day!

It's about full regalia for one; candy for the other...

Keona was excited about the chance to dress up in full HP regalia and go to school and walk the streets. Kalani wanted only the bare minimum, but he sure was into getting the candy. He even outpaced Keona.....

Halloween Festivities....

My Jack-o-Lantern (to tune of "Did You Ever See a Lassie?")

Oh, once I had a pumpkin,a pumpkin,a pumpkin,

Oh, once I had a pumpkin with no face at all.

With no eyes,and no nose, and no mouth, and no teeth,

Oh, once I had a pumpkin with no face at all.

So I made a jack-o-lantern,jack-o-lantern,jack-o-lantern,

So I made a jack-o-lantern with a big funny face.

With big eyes,and big nose, and big mouth, and big teeth,

So I made a jack-o-lantern with a big funny face.

*Author Unknown

Keona's Blue and Gold Masterpiece

I just love this!

A New Shock in the Kiddie Lit World

We took our weekly trip to the library the other day. I'm encouraging Keona to pick out his own books and in he was trolling down the isles throwing books in the basket in his own discriminating method at a pretty good clip. I noticed one go in about a fire truck which is the topic of the week at school, so that's can only be a good thing, right? Well, hold on to your fire pole because this book isn't just about fire trucks. "Fire! Fire!" Said Mrs. McGuire by Bill Martin , Jr. (Apparently this is a re-do of one written by his father in the 60s) First, it was your typical women can do anything book; the message was loud and clear which is fine. Anyone doing anything important in this book was a woman. A good lesson for my budding young stallions. They will respect the women of the early 21st century. However, I was taken aback by the appearance of Mrs. Votter, who needed water. She appears in a very short, red tank-top dress and stiletto heels while all the male fire fighters are completely useless as they leer at her like a bunch of addlepated teenagers. I mean really, is this the kind of thing you want to read to your 4 year old? I guess they are trying to entertain the reading fathers in kiddie lit because apparently these days they can't put aside their own entertainment needs long enough to read to their children!? Give me a break! This one is going back, unread.

The Grammar Patrol has Arrived in My Life...

Since my brother has all but stopped reading and pointing out all the grammatical deficiencies in my late night postings, I've been resting on laurels and thinking myself rather fine....until yesterday when Big K piped up from the back seat....to make a correction. We were talking about a fire truck making its way home. I said something like "he's" on the way home (referring to the truck, I think) and K says, "No, mom. You have to say "they" because there is more than one person on the truck. " I hung my head in shame all the rest of the way home. I could hardly face my grammar class that night.

Rain, rain....

Come and play...Kalani and I enjoyed a romp in the rain today. It was great fun, but Keona did not come and join us. He no longer likes to play in the rain, so he sat in the door and chided us. Neither boy made use of their brand new umbrellas purchased only minutes before. Kelani's plans were obvious. His umbrella stayed in the car. Keona spent his time on the way home trying to figure out how he'd get his umbrella in the house WITHOUT GETTING IT WET. I couldn't help but laugh, which of course made Keona ask why. I told him we bought the umbrella to keep HIM dry. He said he didn't want to get it wet because he wanted to take it inside to play with. I gave up and told him to put it under his raincoat.

Look who's cooking now...

Move over Keona! There's another chef at the counter.

Watch Out Harry Potter....

You may not be top dog for long!!!!!!