A Doctor in the House?

When Keona was about 2.5 I was taken aback when we were having our nightly chat before bed. He was lying next to me with his hands clasped across his chest and very purposely said, "Let's talk about the human body." Feeling a little hesitant, I said, "Okay, what do you want to talk about?" And with an impish little grin, he asked, "How does the poo poo get out the poo poo hole?" Whew, something I could handle. Anyway, since that time, he really hasn't lost his interest in the human body. He's always badgering me about finding videos about the human body on the internet-- oh and they have to be "exciting". So we've started a "human study box"; a collection of books, videos, and anything else we can find to aid our study. Bones are a special interest, so this week we built a model of a human skeleton.

We are also reading:

Inside your Outside by Tish Rabe (A Cat in the Hat book) The Dr. Suess styles introduces a lot of vocabulary in a fun way.

Pop-up Facts Human Body
This one has some wonderful illustrations and fun pop-ups.

also, the Magic School Bus Human Body DVD is popular.

I think our next project will be creating a 2D human body of our own and we're on the lookout for a good documentary type video on inside the human body. We're also looking forward to getting the Fantastic Voyage from Netflix.

Kalani just can't seem to get enough of life these days. He's bursting with enthusiasm and determined to tell us all about it. His vocabulary is growing exponentially and he is beginning to put concepts together into simple sentences. "Mommy, where ahhr you?", "Daddy, hug. Hug Daddy.", "Ma, run?" "Stop it!" He has even managed his name ...."Ka..ani" and his brother "Kona". It is a delight.

Keona Wants to be.....

A train conductor, an astronaut, and today he wants to be a storm chaser. He has been fascinated by twisters lately and is always after me to find movies of them on the internet. Tonight he spent a little time watching a documentary on storm chasers and thinks that might be a cool job. Though he is a little concerned that we live in a place that doesn't get twisters.

When it rains and rains....

and you are hoping for snow, there is nothing to do but turn to art. So we get out the glue and the shapes and the "minkles" as Kalani calls them and you get these beautiful creations! This is Keona's; Kalani's is below.

Kalani's Collage

Airplane Pajamas

The cousins in North Carolina should know that another cousin has joined the Society of Airplane Pajamas! Who will wear them next? Is cousin Tim's daughter ready?

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