Fundamental Differences

Some people say that there are no differences between girls and boys.... that it is just the enviroment they are in. This may be true, but I don't believe it. These are pictures my two amazing children drew yesterday.

Cyan, age 7, titled; Grandma's Flowers:

Alex, age 12. This one is simply titled 'WAR!':


And this one 'Aftermath':

My cutie... 25 mos

My darling Logan... He is SO cute right now! Like beyond cute. His language skills have burst from him like a rocket. It is amazing what he can say now. Tonight, I was washing his face, hands and feet like I do most nights before I put him to bed, and he started laughing... and then he said "Mama! 'Dat. It tickles." With a cute little giggle in his very baby voice. Usually he says tickle very fast together... so it sounds like "tickatickatica". But not tonight. Tonight he was VERY clear.

He has also taken to saying "Awe man!" When he doesn't get his way... this I WILL someday get on video... because it is the cutest thing ever to hear come out of his mouth.

He has decided that books are his favorite things. When he wants us to read one, he, very politely, throws one at us. Yes. It gets old very fast. He can take a hint though. I started putting whatever book he threw at me on the floor and never reading them to him unless he asked, with words, about a week ago. Now he has started to pound me with the book instead of throw it at me at least half the time. I just can't decide which I like better.

Logan is also becoming a lovey. Cyan and Logan really never cuddled. In fact, I knew that I had to get that cuddling in really early with Logan because it wasn't going to last. He stopped being cuddly about 6 mos old. Last year it got even more extreme. He stopped nursing right before Christmas because he didn't want to sit still for that long. But I think it is finally coming around again... he has been sitting with me like in these pictures for full minutes sometimes in the last couple weeks. He even will cuddle with me in bed in the morning... for about 10 minutes... before he jumps up, pulls the covers off one or both of us and drags our hands around the side of the bed trying to pull us up to get him breakfast. But I have been surprized at how huggy and cuddly he has been for the last couple weeks. Maybe he knows I have been sick. Maybe he knows it makes me happy... and it does. So maybe it is a win/win and I should just take it.

Finally, a NOT sick day!

I still have a sinus infection.... but I don't care. I am getting back to my life if it kills me!

Today we had a great time during school hours. Our schedule switched again this last week, which means we do school F/S/Su/M for the month of March. Lots of weekend school hours.... but fun ones. :)

In the last three days we have been studying United States holidays. The lesson in MBTP very quickly moves on to traditional holidays in other cultures, but the kids were SO interested that I decided to stick with the US for a little bit. We read the Declaration of Independence and then I read it again off this site (a bit clearer for the little ones). I printed out United States Symbols from EdHelper for Cyan and she colored the booklet while I read. We moved on to other traditional holidays and I read different stories for each one that were based in history... then she made a holiday booklet that included the ones she remembered the most and she colored little pictures and wrote sentences of what they mean to her. I loved Valentine's Day:

"On Valentine's Day we celebrate peeple we love! YUE!"

So cute!

We got in a bit of science today as well... the kids built volcano's! They did every bit by themselves, including making the shopping list so we could have enough salt and 'all purpose' flour. Just to make it that much more challenging I had Alex split the recipe in half so Cyan could make a little one... where Alex's was made with a 2 liter bottle, Cyan made hers with a little 20oz bottle. They loved it!

Cyan's dough for the outside.

Decorations with our neighborhood friends who came over for the blow up.

Ready?

Set?

GO!!!

Alex's volcano:

I loved that they had completely different ideas of what would make their bottles 'mountain like'. Alex picked twigs and branches as 'trees'. Cyan was convinced that hers needed to look like it was made of dirt because "all mountains are made of dirt".

Time to explode!

It was a great day. :)

I have decided that my house needs to be more messy. I know that sounds weird, but I have continually bordered on being 'clean', but not really, because I love my children to express themselves and be able to do art whenever they want... and I don't really have enough time left in this house to worry about finding the perfect spot for everything as I did in the last house... so it is just going to be dirty. And I have decided that I just don't care. Bring on the paint and the paper mache! I am ready!

Monday night Tabor put on his basketball shoes for the last time this season. The Raiders lost to those tall kids to the south (Lake Crystal). He had a great season and tons of fun. Tabor has about 12 days of weight training and then it is on to baseball. So we have less than 2 weeks to get rid of this snow! And the 1st baseball game is only 3 weeks away.

On the road

What a sick and crazy week it was! Yesterday was our first day out of the house in 8 days. We went to the zoo and out to lunch at the Ram down by the water. It was great! We got to watch them feed the tiger, which was really interesting, and then the otters (4 of the 7 are babies this year) were wrestling with each other and knocking each other off rocks. We were at those two cages (they are next to each other) for about an hour, just watching the otters, and then hearing the tiger growl and go running over there to see what he was doing. What a beautiful beasty he is!

Logan was especially cute at the zoo. This was the first time he has gone when he has been old enough to really run around and be out of the stroller. He would run up to everything... even the fish tanks, and peer in at the critters and say "hello?" which of course, when you are newly 2 comes out as "he-woe?" It was pretty much the cutest thing EVER!

We were all worn out by the end of the day and came home and took naps. I think even Alex slept until dinner, but we were SO excited to have gotten outside! I told the kids that we had to take it easy today, but tomorrow they are even allowed to play with friends after schoolwork.

Getting back to normal! YAY!

Yesterday we took a road trip to Marshall and Dalton got a chance to wrestle some kids from a different part of the state. He pinned a kid from Tamara's home town of Canby but then fell short to a wrestler from Minneota, MN. Tanner got to be his coach mat side as he took home a 2ND place metal. We had a great time seeing some new youth matches and plus we got to spend some time with Khloe.

We had individual sections for wrestling this weekend in Redwood. Tanner had a excellent showing! He ended up 7Th out of 11 in the 112lb class. Tanner weighed in at 100lbs and showed all heart. Every coach that had a kid who wrestled against him all told him what a great job he has done wrestling that higher weight class and how they look forward to seeing him wrestle next year. Tanner's last win of the high school season came when he stuck it to a 113lb 10Th grader who was a foot taller than he was. Tanner won 14-6 and it was fun to see the crowd cheer Tanner on. The Nicollet Raiders had 8 wrestlers that placed 8th and better and our heavy weight placed 4th. Tanner has 2 weeks to get back down to his 95 lb class for NYWA which is Saturday March 14Th in Springfield. Then it is on to baseball.