All dressed up

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Pooh

Mr. 2 told Nana that he wanted to be Pooh for Halloween and that Mr. 0 had to be Tigger. So being the wonderful Nana that she is, we received a box in the mail with costumes for both. Mr. 2 loves his and happily wore it all night Friday (including the hat which I had thought wouldn't last long). He's a bit of a toddler sumo wrestler which his plush middle. He loves to run and jump into your arms and roll along the floor. For the next few weeks I think this might become daily attire. I suppose we'll have to invest in some honey.

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Bouncy fun

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Today's chemistry lesson

Today we talked about polar and non-polar molecules and how soap works. I even tried to throw in cell membranes and the phospholipid bilayer but I think that may have been a bit too much. The experiment worked well - water and oil in a jar and then added in soap. I love kitchen chemistry.

We are going to try a nutrition unit following chemistry (Mr. 8 wants to move on to physics but agreed when he found out there was no quantum physics) - a good transition but I have no idea how to do it.

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School for Mr. 2

Mr. 2 often sits at the table with us and wants to do "Asher school" so we've been doing a letter a week but I hadn't spent much time really putting anything together. I made him a few things (a felt dinosaur map, laminated letter cards), bought a few things (white board and markers, beads to lace, little dinosaur puzzles) and printed out some alphabet coloring sheets but wanted a bit more. So last night I spent some time on the trusty internet to get a few ideas.

I got out the laminator this morning (what a useful gift this has been the last few months) and laminated and cut out buses of various sizes to sequence, small, medium, and large leaves to categorize, sheets to trace, and puzzle pieces to put in order. I also plan to have one book each day and some small activity to go with it (the internet really is a great thing). Mr. 2 (and Mr. 6 who helped laminate) had a great time.

Of course this was the happy part of the morning. I decided not to take pictures of the cranky, wailing Mr. 2. Hopefully a nap will help (assuming he actually takes one) or it will be a long afternoon.

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Grudge match

For some reason Mr. 8 has been asking me comparison questions about King Kong (likely inspired by our recent New York trip), the Yeti (from Tintin in Tibet), and Godzilla (I have no idea). Who is taller, who is stronger, etc. This turned into grudge match at lunch.

If the Yeti and King Kong fought who would win, Captain Kirk and Darth Vadar, Luke Skywalker and Kirk, Kirk and Picard, etc. The boys came up with great reasons why one would triumph over the other and everyone was laughing at the craziness.

Not something that I ever particpated in growing up (Rainbow Bright vs. My Little ponies?) but very fun!

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When you don't get what you want

Today at dinner Mr. 2 was told he had to eat his enchiladas before he could have lemonade.
"No," he told us. "That is not an option."
He then sighed in frustration and ran his hand through his hair just as his Dad does.

After watching an episode of Star Trek (the older brother choice), he told us he wanted to watch Thomas. We told him that it was time for bed.
"I want to watch Thomas. Actually I mean it."

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Four kids

I'm sure all families with 4 (or more) kids get this but just to answer the questions I was asked so many times in the past 2 days. Yes, we have four boys. No, I really wasn't trying for a girl and really was not disappointed (what would we do with a girl). No, I wasn't trying for a basketball, baseball, soccer, etc team and thanks for letting me know how close I am.

And thanks to all the people who told me what wonderful boys I have, talked to them, held doors, helped to carry a stroller up (and down) stairs, and smiled at our antics. You more than make up for the others!

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Continuing our exploring - with a bit of help

David took the day off so we had a day all together in the city. Mr. 6 was up bright and early as always so we left Mr. 0 and the sleeping Mr. 2 and Mr. 8 with Daddy and headed out in search of breakfast. We walked two blocks over into Hells Kitchen and found a great little bakery and corner grocery and brought back an assortment of fresh breads, fruit, yogurt, cheese, and juice (and a really amazinf coffee but I only shared that with David). Hells Kitchen looks surprisingly like Brooklyn and it made me nostalgic for our visits to Park Slope of long ago.

After breakfast we headed to the Met. The boys voted for Medieval Art (yeah homeschooling) and the collection the Met has is amazing. After spending some time looking at the armor and swords, Mr. 6 discovered the guns and would happily have spent much more time there if not for needing a bathroom for Mr. 2 and a spot to feed Mr. 0. We ended the visit in the 19th century European painitings. The boys really wanted to go to Central Park but humored my request and actually seemed to enjoy it. Mr. 8 especially liked Picasso and the two paintings from his "Blue" period. He spent dinner readind about Picasso on my phone (we love Wikipedia). Then it was out to Central Park where there were great adventures in many lands and times. Mr. 2 loves being a part of the brother adventures and kept running over to tell us what the brothers were doing.

We walked all the way back to our hotel, stopping to watch the remote control sailboats (Mr. 6 wants one for Christmas), fill our pockets witn rocks (Mr. 2 must have gained 10 lbs), pretend we were in our own adventure game (Mr. 8 wrote rules on the notepad from the hotel), and slowly meander through a gorgeous fall day.

We're headed home, likely to arrive after midnight with no place we have to go tomorrow. We have questions to answer (how exactly was Central Park made) and school to do but it was great to have a break. Poor Mr. 0 - he's joined quite a crazy clan. Luckily (for all of us) he seems to take it all in stride.

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Exploring

We spent the day exploring New York City today. And by we I mean one mom and four boys out on the town. David had to come for work so we tagged along. I was worried about being out all day with one so small but it turned out to be a great day.

We left Daddy at the hotel and walked in the rain to the Empire State Building (2 avenues and a few streets - how far is that?). We were told repeatedly that the visibility was zero and Mr. 8 started getting a bit annoyed. There was no line - it was completely deserted - so we went right to the top. The guys up at the top were super nice to us and for about five minutes the fog cleared and we could see the cars and people below as we stood out in the swirling rain and wind on the 86th floor but the boys LOVED it. Mr. 8 told me he would never forget it and took great joyin telling all those nay-sayers what he saw with "zero" visibility.

Then we hopped the train and went to the Museum of Natural History. Getting to the train was a bit of an adventure as our little stroller does not fit through the turnstile and no one was around to let me through the gate. A little creativity though and we made it.

The Natural History Museum has an amazing collection of dinosaurs which Mr. 2 was super excited about seeing. He ran from one to the next but was particularly excited to see his favorite, the pterodactyl. Soon after that he fell apart, his midnight bedtime catching up with him. Mr. 8 took charge of the stroller carrying Mr. 0 and I picked up our screaming toddler and dragged him off to the bathroom to calm down. While we were inside Mr. 6 and Mr. 8 watched a movie about how the dinosaurs and other prehistoric fossils were arranged by evolutionary development and explained the cladogram with branch points. The boys thought this was great and were excited to follow the path through the rest of the exhibit with Mr. 2 strapped into the stoller and Mr. 0 strapped into the carrier.

By the end of the museum Mr. 6 was ready to collapse and kept asking if he could take a nap. I had to tell Mr. 8 that we were leaving and there were no more last things. We made it back to the hotel in the rain and somehow Mr. 6 made in on his own power. After collapsing on the couch for some well-deserved TV time (quite a novelty for us - Mr. 2 didn't understand why we couldn't pause it so he could go potty) I convinced the boys that we had to eat dinner and dragged them out with the promise of pizza. Our hotel was in the heart of Times Square and mesmerizing for the boys but a litle too exciting for me with tired, easily distracted kids and screens in every direction. We found pizza and chocolate for dessert and headed back to watch Times Square from our 35th floor room.

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Hanging out

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School at Walden Pond

Actually more swimming, digging, and exploring than real school but we did go to a presentation about pencil making (did you know Thoreau's family made pencils as their livelihood) and saw the replica of his house from Walden. And we'll get to the other school stuff later. At least we did our math before we left and practiced our verses in the car.

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micah's first concert

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Smiling

Smiles make even the most sleepless night okay.

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Two chins

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Mr. 0

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Molecules move

Subtitled How I Got a Green Toddler

We typically do our chemistry experiments on Thursday afternoons. Mr. 2 has so far been napping so it's worked well. Today he wasn't interested in napping so he joined us. And Mr. 0 was rather fussy so I was relegated to a more advisory role. First we looked at how molecules move with food coloring in water resulting in green water which everyone wanted to taste. Harmless so everyone tasted and Mr. 2 was excited to discover it just tasted like water. We then moved on to pH and I left the food coloring on the counter. Mr. 2's experiment for the day - no matter how much food coloring it still tastes like water.

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Wassup

I came across the old video on a blog never guessing it would be such a hit with Mr. 2 who happened to overhear it. Note to self - he hears everything.

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