Sleeping baby

 

Just to clarify...

We just realized that to date, due to an oversight in our advanced blogging technology, all the posts to the blogger blog have shown up as written by "David Saff". In reality, the beautiful and talented Rebecca Saff has been doing the overwhelming majority of posts. In general, this hasn't led to many outright falsehoods, but it's worth noting that:

1. It was her, not David, that carried Isaac through the floodwaters.
2. If it were just up to David's industriousness, this blog would probably have a fifth of the pictures and information (and might try to make up for it with random Lolcats).

We will try to avoid such confusions in the future. Thank you for your patience,

The Management

Try outs

Mr. 7 is singing in the cantata and is thoroughly enjoying himself. We've listened to the CD many, many times and all of us hum the tunes in our sleep. Last week he decided he wanted to try out for a solo and practiced his rap daily with great applause from the rest of the family. Today was the big day. Typically such parts go to the older kids, a fact which I warned him of, but I was so proud that he decided he wanted to do it, worked hard at it, and then did his best. We'll be in the audience cheering him on - no matter what part he has!

Last Thursday he played piano in the school talent show. He decided he wanted to try out for the talent show and just did it. He practiced his song until he could play it from memory and when it was his turn, went right up on stage and played. Actually the 6th graders who announced it had the name wrong. From the back you hear "No, not The Secret Mouse - The Haunted Mouse" in an exasperated voice and then Mr. 7 marched up on stage and played. We hadn't practiced bowing so when he was done he just left without a backward glance. To much applause I might add!

Sunshine

 

Running off some energy before lunch.

Swimming lessons

 
 

These days you'll find us at the pool on Sunday afternoons. Mr. 5 and Mr 7 are hopefully learning to swim but at the very least having a good time. Having the brothers in the same class is a bit dangerous. They tend to have trouble focusing on anything outside of their world - a fact their parents know all too well. So far they've done well with minimal reminders from the bleachers. Mr. 7 even went all the way under the water today without any discussion (Mr. 7 loves discussion about any topic he is not 100% committed to). I've promised free swim time before their next swim lesson in two weeks - always a challenge in our hectic schedule but a promise is a promise!

Movie time

Family movie time is harder without a TV but still possible with a laptop and folding table - not necessarily a viewing experience but it works. Recently we acquired "What's in the Bible" which is Phil Vischer's newest project. Phil Vischer is, of course, famous for Veggie Tales, which we haven't been able to watch since Mr. 7 was 3 and decided it was too scary when the big squash sat on Larry the Cucumber's hat. That was enough for him to decide he could never watch it again. Even now, though we listened to A Very Veggie Christmas hundreds of times, he is not interested in watching any of the movies. These are the kind of things that you can never predict.

"What's in the Bible" is fantastic - smart, funny, and theologically sound. How could you not love a show where a Sunday School Lady is teaching about what canon is, when a pirate interrupts to sing:
"I've got a cannon and I like to shoot - it's big and it's black and I think it's rather cute. It makes a big noise in the middle of the night and it's really very handy in a pirate fight."
"No Captain Pete, that's a cannon with 2 Ns - I'm talking about a canon with one N."
And the Bentley Brothers are wonderful - just search You Tube and you'll be introduced to two brothers in powder blue tuxedos and wigs singing about books from the old testament.

I think the best part is that it goes ahead and tells you how Athanasius sent out the canon for books of the Bible and that sin separates us from God, and then has one of the puppets scat about substitutiary atonement. The songs are catchy and everyone is enthralled - from Master 0 to the parents.

 
 

Palm Sunday

 
 

Master 0 and Mr. 5 were very enthusiastic with their palms which may explain why there were so many palm leaves scattered around us by the end of the service.

Flooding

We have had lots of rain. On the way to work early last week I realized I couldn't take the path through the park as it under water so I went around on the street. That evening I was walking home in the rain with Mr. 5 and realized that the street was actually under a good foot of water as well. I carried him through it with him holding tightly to our recently acquired umbrella the size of a small county and the water sloshed over the tops of my boots. The park we play in was completely under water and there were actually kids canoeing in our soccer field. The water was over the seat of a picnic table we often sit at for an afternoon snack. Two days later the water had receded but the houses around the park are still pumping water out of their basements.

 
 
 

Friday afternoon I met the boys at the park and Mr. 7 ran up to me with blood dripping from him knees. He was wearing shorts and had tripped running down the street to play in our barely dry park and refused to go back home to get bandaged up. Given that the water that had flooded our park was not clean, I insisted that he at least let me clean them off and bandage them up. He's been limping ever since but seems rather pleased with his injury. I responded to this by ordering 560 band-aids from Amazon - with 3 boys I need to be prepared with the change in seasons.

The sunshire last weekend felt wonderful - drying everything out and sending all the hibernating Bostonians outside. We went hiking with friends and it was so good to see the boys running without boots and hats and mittens. It's been a stressful time around here and we all need a bit of rest and relaxation.

The permanent bump

 

Master 0 is known in this family as "Danger Mouse" - he's fast and whenever there is trouble he'll be there. He's going to keep us busy. He recently insists he does not need to hold on to remain upright which is simply just not true. Thus the perpetual bruise on his right forehead. He also ended up with a rug burn on his nose by falling over when he tried to use a small pillow to stand up with. One of the best things Master 0 does is to grab his favorite book - usually "Doggies" by Sandra Boynton - and crawl into your lap with it. Another reader on the way - we have so many great books to share with him!

Mr. 7

Mr. 7 has developed a new intense love of math thanks to some algebra formula cards Grandma gave him. He's been interested in Algebra for awhile and this just added to it. We found some math textbooks (used - and incredibly cheap given not everyone shares our family's love of math) and so Mr. 7 is learning algebra and some trig. He has powers down, is fascinated by log, natural log, and pi, and generally does math problems on the back of any sheet of paper.

The boys were recently at a used bookstore (an activity loved by the Daddy but possibly dangerous given the enormous number of books we already have in the house - they don't even fit on all the shelves so there are books piled on top of the books on the shelves) and Mr. 7 found a book on prime numbers that he decided he wanted. He had enough allowance so now he's reading "Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math" by David Wells. Luckily the Daddy remember more math from college than I do so he's able to help Mr. 7 out as he's getting ahead of me unless I do some serious review. As I have to take my Medicine board exams this summer and am about to start fellowship, I fear reviewing my Trig and Calculus are not at the top of the list. I'll get to it - but I'm not sure if I'm ready to explore the most mysterious figures in math. I'll leave that to the boys.

 
 

Utensils

Master 0 is now firmly entering toddlerhood. His recent exploits have included unrolling all the toilet paper and trying to see how much he can into the toilet before he is caught, insisting he can stand by himself and then falling over the second he lets go of whatever was holding him up, pulling all the books off the shelf, and trying to have everything his brothers have. This has recently included utensils and he loves to have a fork. He's actually not too bad at it - especially when french toast was involved.

 
 
 

Hanging out with Nana and Papa

 

Uncle Alex's workship

Uncle Alex has an electronics workshop in his basement and the boys thought this was just about the best idea you could think of. They're still trying to figure out where to put their workshop in our basement. With some help from the expert, they made a cool instrument that you can adjust its sound with a small joystick. Thanks for all your help Uncle Alex!

 
 
 
 

Math love

 

Family Photo

 

Group photos

We couldn't resist a picture of generations of Saff men - and of course a picture of the great grandparents with their great grandchildren.
 
 
 
 

Well-loved

Birthday party for Mr. 7

Mr. 7 had a few school friends over last weekend to help celebrate his birthday. He requested a math cake so I though pi would be a good choice. Math is currently the topic of interest for Mr. 7 and his prized possession is his scientific calculator. He enjoys quizzing people and so the walk to school can be a bit challenging.
 

 

Jeopardy
 
 

It was lots of fun - 7 year old boys have lots of energy!

Up up and away

 
 

Master 0 had his 9 month visit today a little late - he's now well over 10 months but at least we made it there. He's almost 21 lbs which puts him at the 34th percentile for weight and 31 inches which is the 94th percentile for height. He seems to be growing well and is crawling with great speed and pulling up on things (which means we need to work on the next level of baby-proofing well before we'd actually finished the first). We've been working on baby signs but he typically would rather say the word so he says "mo" for more and "hi" quite clearly. He also says "mamamam" for mommy and "da" for daddy. Although I did not hear it, I'm told he also said "uh oh" very clearly this weekend - he certainly hears it enough! He's developed a clear idea of what he wants and is not happy to have his plans thwarted (what would we have done if Master 0 wasn't strong-willed - we wouldn't know what to do). As Mr. 7 always says, we really do have the best baby!