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March 5, 2014 ~ Lava

Billy is now very interested in blood. He doesn't really understand what it is or why it is, and having not actually cut himself in forever, he really has no concept of what it looks like either. That being said, he keeps bringing the topic up, trying to understand.

It's not just blood. He's interested in internal anatomy. Dinosaur bones at exhibits have brought up the question of bones in us. He knows they are there. When I told him that on the bottom we are made of bones he replied, "skeletons are made of bones too!" (He, of course, doesn't connect where skeletons come from.)

He wants to know about his stomach and his lungs, why they do what they do and how.

But the most confusing thing is blood. I keep telling him it's red, it's liquid, and it's all throughout him.

"It's a red liquid like lava, Mommy?" he asks.

"Kind of."

"Yay! I have lava in me! That's so coooooooool!"

Ok, maybe he doesn't quite get it yet.

Operation Dino December

Maybe you've heard about the couple and their post about Dinovember. If you haven't, the couple told their kids that toy dinosaurs come to life at night in November.

Here's a link to what they do.

Well, honestly to me it's a creative take on Elf on the Shelf. And if you haven't heard of THAT...

Here's that link too.

For those of you too lazy to click the links, the elf tells Santa what the kid has been up to and every night finds a new place to sit. Basically, it comes to life at night and moves around.

We looked into the Elf on the Shelf, but I think they are kind of creepy. And I think the Dinovember ideas are really cool, but way more effort than I want to put into a little holiday magic.But then I had this conversation with Billy:

"You know in December dinosaurs come to life at night and get into trouble."

"Mommy," [serious face] "dinosaurs aren't real. They can't come to life because they are just toys. Duh."

He's three. When did he get this jaded?

Well, that was the start of Operation Dino December. This, of course, required a background story.

December is Christmastime. And every December all of the toys come to life at night, waiting for Santa's arrival. This happens because Santa is magical, and his magic spreads out to all toys when it's close to Christmas. They wait for his return, and in the morning they turn back into just toys in the same place where you left them. (Think Toy Story or Doc McStuffins). But the dinosaurs- they are the most ill-behaved of all of the toys. And you never know what they will get into.

 "Uh, huh. Mommy."

But look what happened last night...

 The dinos got into Billy's blocks and built a tower. And by the look on his face you would have thought it was Christmas morning. Maybe they really are magical.

A Thousand Bobs

I've been trying to foster a sense of imagination in Billy, but I haven't had much success so far. He's great at remembering small details and loves learning facts, but making up stuff seems such a foreign concept to him. "You can make up your own story...really?" Yes really.

It often sounds like he's got a great imagination. "The gates are going to close and lock you in and the guard will march in front and keep you from escaping!" Sounds imaginative. He's actually regurgitating some footage of the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

And while it's great that he can recall all of these minute facts that he's picked up along the way, it's not fostering his true imagination. He's not making up stories.

So, at bedtime when it was too late to sit down to read (maybe because someone was procrastinating about putting his jammies on) I told him we would make up our own story.

"We can do that?"

Yes we can. First, we need a character. Who should our character be?

"A monster! Rawr!"

And what's the monster's name?

"Bob."

This is a Daddy thing. Daddy calls everything Bob. We'll let that one pass.

Soon I get him to describe Bob and talk about what Bob likes to do. "He's red and orange and blue. He likes to jump. He has teeny tiny eyes and a teeny tiny nose and really big feet. He has purple horns." Then he goes on to tell me that Bob eats trees and he lives in the trees where he is too afraid to climb down to the ground. He finishes up and I tell him the story is over and it's bedtime.

"But what about the other Bob?"

How many Bobs are there?

"A thousand!" He doesn't know what that means- just a big number to him.

And so it's begun. Now he wants to hear stories about the thousand Monster Bobs. Each one is named Bob. Some are girls, some boys. Some big, some small, some scary and some silly. So far I'm at 7 Bobs. I've got a long way to go...

First buttons

That's a picture of a car, not buttons.

True, true.

But I didn't think to take a picture of the buttons, so bear with me. Above you see Billy in a coat. He's actually been wearing that coat since his first birthday (can you believe it?) and it's one of his favorites. It has 3 buttons down the front.

And on Sunday, he buttoned every one of them. By himself.

First Chapter Book

Billy has decided that he would like to read a long book. It was kind of a foreign concept to him that books without pictures exist and that people would read them for fun.

The whole idea came from Harry Potter. Well, not from Harry himself or from his movies, but from the book sitting on the shelf. The cover has brightly colored pictures and embossing and it caught Billy's eye. He asked me to read it to him, but he soon learned that it was not what he expected and he asked me to stop.

A few weeks later (last week) we were at Grandma's and he saw some books on the shelf in my old room. He wanted to know what they were, so I told him. I have a collection of children's classics- Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, etc. These are not the Disney versions, but the original stories by the original authors. He looked through the collection and picked one to read.

He picked Peter Pan.

I was not surprised or shocked that he picked Peter. After all, he wanted to be Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates for Halloween and he continues to obsess over all things pirate.

So last week we began reading Peter Pan, one chapter at a time. Not every night, but more like every other night.

Here is Billy reading chapter 3 (well, looking at it for the photo op):

Home With Apple

Apple is the class mascot.

Two weeks ago I wrote about Billy being the Star Student for his class that week.

Here is that post.

Well, Star Student actually goes on for 2 weeks. Not only did we have to do everything in the above post for the start of Star Student period, but I also had to provide the Star Student Snack and we had to take Apple home for the weekend.

TANGENT~

Billy wanted jello to be his Star Student Snack. Red jello. Do you know how much red dye is in one packet of jello? Did you know you can dye your entire kitchen bright red just by spilling one already mixed but not yet congealed packet all over you kitchen. Yes, I do actually know you only need one packet to create a massacre scene in your kitchen.

END TANGENT ~

 Well, we took Apple home for the weekend and Billy had to drag this large stuff dog around with him and then keep a journal of it. The weather didn't cooperate or we would have also gone for a hike or out to a farm. And being silly, we totally forgot to drag the stuffed dog along to a birthday party on Sunday. Oh well. Here are some pictures of Billy's adventures with Apple:

gardening

bears!

learning bird calls

in a wigwam

climbing on logs

going for a Sunday drive

First Cup of Tea

This actually happened last week, but I've been so busy I haven't been able to blog.

Billy got a cold and had a sore throat. He's never had hot tea before because 1.) he doesn't like hot drinks (like hot chocolate) 2.) he doesn't like cold tea 3.) caffeine.

Well, I happened to have some caffeine free tea on hand and seeing as the only decent cure for a sore throat is a cup of hot tea with honey and lemon, that's just what he got. It was an orange spice tea. I didn't make it particularly hot, but warm enough to help his throat. He got it in an actual tea cup with the saucer (even though I usually drink my tea in a mug).

So what did he think? He liked it. Mostly because of the honey.

A few days later he asked for another cup of tea and was excited to drink it. With honey, of course.

November 6, 2013 ~ No Shoes, No Coat? You're Still Going to School

This morning Billy woke up early and decided to use his time wisely by poking me in the ear. I opted to send him off to the living room to watch cartoons and let me sleep at least until my alarm went off.

Bad idea.

He wouldn't leave the cartoons to get ready for school when it was time. I turned off the boob tube, but that only brought out the hellion, loving little demon that he is.

He threw himself on the sofa, tucked his feet under himself and simply refused to put on shoes. "I'm not wearing shoes. I'm not going to school. I'm staying home and watching cartoons. Just leave me here!"

I threatened to take him to school without shoes.

He decided to test me.

I attempted to wrap him in his coat, which he protested. Again, he was testing me.

He thought he was calling my bluff, but little did he know that I was serious. I picked him up and carried him out to the car, without shoes, without a coat. Don't worry! I put those items in his school bag. Wouldn't want him to be the ragamuffin at school.

He cried about being shoeless, but refused to let me put them on his feet. So, I buckled him in and off we went to school.

About half way there he realized he was cold. Perhaps, that would be because mornings in November are quite chilly. It was, in fact, fairly mild this morning, but chilly enough that his little t-shirt wasn't enough. I had a blanket for him but he didn't want i. He cried for me to take him home so I could put his coat on. No way, kiddo. I know that ploy and we're not going home.

By the time we got to school he acquiesced about the shoes, grumbling the whole time and insisting that I carry him. Well, at least I got him into shoes.

That's right, kiddo. You don't want to wear your shoes or coat? You're still going to school. You'll just go to school barefoot and cold.