Happy Sleap Day!

That doesn't seem right somehow...

Oh yes, Happy Leap Day!

Choclo's Special Baby

We have a custom dating back to my pregnancy with Klenda, that the new baby is the Special Baby of the former youngest child. So, Klenda was Mxyl's special baby and I have a picture (which I should scan and post) of Mxyl at 16 months kissing my very large belly button. He's not actually kissing me, of course, he's kissing his Special Baby. He was 18 months when she was born and the first thing he did when he saw her was to kiss her.

Oob is Choclo's Special Baby. That's usually what he calls Oob, "Special Baby." But he says it with a smile and the heart-melting tenderness that two year olds sometimes have. When I nurse Oob, Choclo often wanders over and gently strokes that soft baby hair and smiles. "Special Baby gots hair. Special Baby soffft."

I love to watch this. I know that eventually they will fight and we may get some sibling, er, revelry going on. But for now, nothing beats the sound of the two of them making each other laugh. They just look at each other and Choclo breaks out giggling which makes Oob chuckle and then all bets are off and we have gales of laughter. There's something that is honey for a parent's heart in seeing our children love each other.

Is it love? Let's try the ultimate test: will Choclo let Oob touch his trucks? NO ONE can touch Choclo's trucks without facing his fiercest wrath...except for Oob. Oob can play with trucks, Oob can pull hair, everything Ooby is OK. Because Oob is his Special Baby.

Days of Knights

The suits of armor came out very well indeed!

The one with the plumed helmet is Sir Zorg.

The frightening one is Lady Klenda.

The gold and silver armor is Sir Mxyl.

Our Home IS Our Castle!

When we hit the Middle Ages in Child's History of the World, I asked the kids how much they remembered from the unit study we had done 2 years ago. They actually remembered quite a bit, but they wanted to do it again. Sure, why not!

I made a KWL chart listing what we Know, what we Want to know and a space for what we Learned. I've since seen fancier charts that include a column for How we can find out what we are interested in. KWHL! I'll try that next time.

So far we've made a castle from our Big Roll of Paper. We learned how to rag, that is, paint with rags (paper towels!) and very dilute liquid watercolor. I knew this would give a mottled stone effect, but I was delighted to find that the water in the paint also puckered the paper into a great stone texture. We made the portcullis out of several thicknesses of foil. We discussed building techniques from then and now, especially the importance of staggering the courses of stone.

We talked about heraldry and designed coats of arms. We made windows. My personal favorite is Zorg's window. It's the black and white one which shows a hail of arrows storming the castle and several small snails on the window sill. The snails make it so that it's not too scary.

We did some weaving on a tapestry and we will do some embroidery on it later.

I almost forgot! The thing in the middle is the head of some hideous beast (slain by the noble knights, no doubt!) You may have to click on the picture to see it (if you have strong nerves).

We did some castle websites like Ghosts in the Castle and Kids Castle.

Today I traced the kids and they designed their own armor. We talked some about the parts of armor and what they are for, but not as much as I wanted to. I had wanted to go through it all before they started, but I didn't have my act together.

Mxyl and Klenda picked out topics for research reports on the Middle Ages and started reading and taking notes. Klenda wants to know about food and Mxyl is thinking about knights, particularly the relationship of the knight to the king. They will write their reports, create a visual aid and present them for us and some guests at a Medieval Feast in a week, or two, or three! Depends how into it they are.

I am hoping to do paper making and calligraphy later this week, and maybe experiment with some of the medieval technology: sundials, catapults, maybe dying cloth. I don't have it all figured out, but a lot will depend on the length and depth of interest. I found a free printable 3 D castle here.

I'd kind of like to do something with stained glass, but I'm not sure what the patience level will be for cutting and gluing tissue paper and construction paper. I may "cheese" and do crayon shavings! Or worse, oiled paper!

This whole project touches on my core educational philosophy about doing things that are interesting and/or useful. I want the kids to be able to find information on the things they want to know about. They need to be able to explain what they know. I want them to experience history and science as vividly as possible. I want them to understand that the people who were then and the people who are now are equally real. I want them to be able to see from other perspectives.

Best of all, I love to hear, "Daddy's home! Raise the portcullis!!!"

More Lenten Gospel Desserts

So far we have had the Desert Dessert (Sunday I: The Temptation in the Desert), The Mountain Dessert (Sunday II: the Transfiguration), and now we bring you the Well Dessert (Sunday III: the Woman at the Well).

The water is blue jello and the stones are rice crispy treats.

Next week's Gospel is tricky. It's the one where Jesus cures a blind man with mud. I am thinking of a mud pie. Or we could do tapioca in reference to the eyeballs.

Age Before Beauty

I don't know if you heard about this fashion search for models over 40. The lovely 25 year old at left was the winner. She's actually 43.

I have issues with this. To be fair, I have issues with the whole beauty industry, in part because it presents only one vision of beauty: a 25 year old, heavily made up woman, provocatively dressed, who has nothing to do with kids.

Ok, here we have a 43 year old, heavily made up woman, provocatively dressed, who actually has 3 kids, but looks like she doesn't. And she looks 25. So she's "beautiful."

I don't know anything about this woman, she may well be a beautiful person. I hope so.

I am irritated by the view of womanhood which equates beauty with sexual attractiveness and translates that to the worth of the person. It's a lie, an ingenious lie intended to turn you into a fountain of money in the pursuit of the fountain of youth. If you can't be worth anything unless you look 25, well, you can't look 25 for very long without help... Ka-ching!

I have often thought that the TV is the most expensive appliance you could ever own because, if you watch it, it will tell you over and over that you are unhappy with your life and unhappy with yourself. That's what it's designed to do. And, of course, it offers you salvation in the form of the stuff that will make you happy if only you buy the right: food, clothing, age defying wrinkle cream, or whatever. What, you thought it was for entertainment?

This model thing is the TV problem without even pretending to be entertainment!

The Truth requires a shift in perspective. Happiness comes from who and what you are in God's eyes. An extension of this, if you are married, is how you look in the eyes of your spouse (this is about more than externals, obviously). If we are being honest, how does it help a married woman to be sexually attractive to random men?

The big lie here is that if you only stay looking 25 (and how many women look like that at 25?), you will be happy. Really? Aside from the time and money, would you be happy? If you fit a particular standard of beauty, does it follow that you will be happy? How happy were you at 25?

25. That was before I had kids. I was happy then, but I am far happier now. I've grown in so many ways since I was 25. I've lived another 12 years and it shows. Late nights show. Six pregnancies show! Hours and hours of laughter show. I'm 37 and I probably look a little older.

The real irony for the beauty industry is this: I look into my husband's eyes and I see myself reflected and there I am very, very beautiful.

Jabberwocky

No, not the poem, alas, I mean the time in toddlerhood where they jabber. I love to hear Choclo talk, really I do! When he speaks in small words, I even understand him. But now he has hit the stage where he speaks in paragraphs. Large, mostly incomprehensible paragraphs.

This morning, over breakfast, we took turns attempting to translate. My favorite was Zorg's translation: "He said, 'I killed Darth Vader!'" I had thought it was something about an excavator, but it could have been the Sith lord.

It's so cute! The only problem is... it just doesn't stop. This morning at Mass (a practically silent daily Mass) he prattled away merrily. Not at the top of his voice, mind you, but not trying to whisper either. Eventually I took him to the back and tried to impress upon him the need for silence. And it worked, kind of. All the way up the long, silent center aisle as I went up for Communion he announced over and over,"I am be QUIET!"

The Queen of the Squirrels Proclaims

that when it is snowing, she stops being Queen of the Squirrels and is instead Queen of the Snow. When the snow melts,she is Queen of the Squirrels again.

Zorg, Klenda, and Mxyl immediately began to speculate on when and how exactly this transformation took place (notice that no one doubted the Queen's proclamation!).

I asked her what if it were snowing on a squirrel.

She looked at me as if she couldn't believe she had to explain this: "Then the squirrel is cold."

What about Klenda?

Klenda, the Yahtzee Queen, has been cleaning my clock. She beats me. Every. Time. She is gracious in victory, of course, but still...

What has Leena Been Up To?

Leena desperately wanted to do the volcano experiment. It's easy to forget, when you've made so many exploding vinegar, soap, and baking soda volcanoes, how special and fun they are to the kids that haven't done them 50 times.

When we started mixing up the clay, however, it soon became clear that everyone wanted to make a volcano. Given the chilly weather, we set them off in the bathtub. Her delight was contagious!

About the bathroom... Yes, the bathtub is yellow, the tile is turquoise and the trim is black. The house was built like that. The only real improvement ever made was when the Emperor was a teenager and his mom let him choose the color to paint the walls of this bathroom. In a fit of irony, he chose neon magenta. And she let him do it because she had said he could. I love this woman! It is, incidentally, the "public" bathroom.

It was that color when I met him. Woah. It was the most ironic bathroom I've ever seen. It is currently painted white. Thank you LT! One can only live with so much irony. Did I mention it is now decorated with frogs?