A Five Year Old's View

The Petite Princess is entranced with sun rays poking through the clouds. She often shouts "Mommy! Mommy! There's God's glory!!". We've had many clouds this week and she has shouted this often. Today however I got something new. "Mommy! There's God's glory again! He sure has been opening his window a lot!"

Two Hours A Day

Our goal these days is to get at least two to three hours of outside time a day. It does us all good. We have several parks we love and some trails we like to hike. There are days though where Tank and the Princess need to occupy themselves in the backyard so I can get some things done. So when they ran in one afternoon and asked if they could put on their swimsuits and play with the hose I thought "Why not?". It keeps them outside and occupied. It turned into a science experiment in light and water. Who cares that it was 65 degrees outside right? Mother of the Year award coming my way.

What Childhood Should Look Like

We recently enjoyed a beautiful autumn day with friends at one of our local botanical gardens. Twelve kids ages two to nine spent an hour rolling down this huge hill and running back up. It was pure joy for them. For me it was a moment to be thankful that they get to have a slow childhood unhindered by the time demands of the regular school system.

Magnified Life

I introduced the Tots to magnifying glasses last week. I had no idea what a huge hit these things would be with them. A whole new world opened up. We spent a good hour just running around the yard inspecting tree bark, leaves, roly polies, shriveled up peaches on our dying peach tree...It was a lot of fun. We ended up taking off for a nature walk around the block. The Tots thought the coolest thing we found was a dying June Bug being attacked by ants. They spent 10-15 minutes just observing the battle. It was actually kind of gruesome observed up close like that but the Tots really liked it.

The best discovery happened the next morning. As the Katman was driving off for work, he pointed out a smashed toad in the road and yelled to us to avoid it if we headed across the street. Silly Daddy. The first thing out of the Petite Princess's mouth was "LET'S GO GET OUR MAGNIFYING GLASSES!" So being the good mommy that I am, I obliged her. Now this was not just your regular dried up dead toad. It had just recently been sort of flattened out by a car. The Tots learned about intestines, broken legs, and what could have been a partially digested meal. The best part however was that as we were walking up to the toad to observe it an Indian family had just crossed the street and given the toad a wide berth. So today's lessons included science, social studies, and Bible(plague of the frogs thanks to a suggestion). Maybe we can work in a math lesson if we try to calculate the rate of speed the car had to be traveling in order for frog parts to be flung over a six foot span.

Hide N Seek with Four Year Olds

The following conversation took place yesterday between myself and the tots:
Tots: Mommy! Let's play hide n seek! You count first!
Me: Ok...1...2...3...
Tidalwave: Mommy!!! Is it safe to hide in the closet?
Me: Sure...but don't tell me where you're hiding.
Tidalwave: Ok! I'll hide in the pantry instead.
Me: 4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Me: Where oh where could my tots have hidden?
Petite Princess: Boo mommy!!! I'm right here!!!! (as she runs from behind the armoire doors)

Hide N Seek is so hard with four year olds.

The Whole Half

Parenting sure can bring out the creativity. With a child like the Petite Princess, you have to be quick thinking and creative. When it comes to food, the Petite Princess is really more of a grazer than a meal eater. Despite that fact, she wants to eat have the same amount of everything Tidalwave eats. I can't even keep up with everything Tidalwave eats. Tidalwave is a boy that tries to fill both legs and then some when he eats. He's especially fanatical about bananas. He'd live on them if I would let him. Our most recent bout of hunger and competitiveness with the Petite Princess involved the oh so sacred banana. Tidalwave always gets a whole banana. He'll eat it. Petite Princess in this one instance decided she wanted the whole banana too. There's no way she'll eat a whole banana. This was explained in a kind fashion and then a half banana was offered to her. Unacceptable deal in the opinion of the Petite Princess. She wasn't budging. Thankfully the parental creativity factor kicked in and I offered her a whole half of a banana. She bought it. She was happy. Content. She ate the whole half. My days are numbered with this tactic. I can see the little wheels in her mind starting to turn every time I offer her the whole half. May God bless me with more creativity!

The Muffin Man

The Muffin Man as sung by the Petite Princess:

Do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man?
Do you know the Muffin Man who lives in Journey Land?