More Tidbits

Savi, at breakfast, chanting: "Who are the greatest of all?  Mommy and Daddy!"
Elijah responds, also chanting: "Who are the greatest of all?  Jesus and God!"
Savi: "Who are the poopiest of all?"

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Gabe's versions of people's names:

Kyrie:  "Tyrwee"
Elijah:  "Yaya"
Savi: "Ahvee"
Gabe: "Deeb"
Julie: "Dulee"
Mom: "MOOMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"  (He never just says Mommy; it's always a loud call for attention.)
Dad: "DAADDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
Brittany: "Bitnee"
Shane: "zschane" [where 'zsch' is some sort of wet sound that doesn't quite sound like any one letter.]

Oh, and he totally asked for a pen yesterday.  It came out like "Ban? Ban?" And when I showed him I didn't have any (it was quiet time, and we were in his bedroom), he said "Gone?" again.  In the last week or two, his speaking skills have really shot up.

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Gabe, running up to me in the bedroom: "Lee!?"
Me: "Lee?"
Gabe: "Nope."

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It's hard to look at this and not think it means something: Google Maps: Mass Animal Deaths.  They all seem to be around the beginning of the new year.  So... think God is trying to tell us to repent and change our evil ways, or worse will come, sort of like with Jonah?

Tidbits

Gabe came and insistently handed me the iPad box (which has a picture of the iPad on the front of the box).  "Da da da ah-pad", he says.  "There's no ipad in there; Savi has the ipad", I say.  But he doesn't relent; he keeps handing me the box.  So finally I open it up for him and show him that it's empty.

He looks at it searchingly, and then says, "Gone?".  You go, Gabe!  His speaking skills are really blossoming all of a sudden.  And yes, the ipad is gone.  Savi has it, just like I said.

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At Kyrie's First Communion class last night, the issue of a "covenant" got brought up, and the teacher asked the kids if they knew what a covenant was.  I was highly amused when two of the boys said that they knew the word from Halo.

Misconceptions

Today's XKCD article has me skimming through the surprisingly-addictive Wikipedia List of common misconceptions.

There you can learn that Napoleon did not have a Napoleon complex, that searing meat does not seal in moisture, that sugar does not cause hyperactivity in kids, that bats are not blind, that people don't only use 10% of their brains, that you don't lose most of your body heat through your head, and so on.

• In the great wood vs. plastic cutting-board debate, I read something which linked to this article.  The whole bit got removed, though, by the time I looked back (apparently for not being a common enough misconception).  I was very glad to see it before it got removed, though, because I have been wondering about that for awhile.  (It may be back again when you look.  It appears to be in a constant state of revision.)
• "There is also abundant empirical evidence to support bumblebee flight." This sentence made me laugh. Apparently in the time that it took me to look back at it again, it had been removed, too.

If you read it, tell me what your favorite one was.

The Miracle of Pooh

In case you didn't catch this, we went to Minneapolis for Christmas.  In order to avoid checked-luggage fees and long-term-parking-at-the-airport fees, all seven of us packed our clothes in backpacks/carry-on-bags and took the MAX light rail train to and from the airport.  This worked out very well... until Elijah left his backpack on the MAX on the way home.  

He freaked out bad when he realized the backpack was gone.  I don't think I've ever seen him so upset.

Most of the contents of the backpack were just clothes.  Sad to lose, but definitely replaceable.  A hat and scarf knitted by Brittany, but those were of more use in Minneapolis; we hardly ever use them in Oregon.  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Losing that meant that the nice boxed set of Narnia books that my Dad gave us would be incomplete, but again, we can replace the book if we need to, even if it doesn't perfectly match the boxed set.  As a friend of mine said when her house burned down this last year - "It's just stuff."  

But the Pooh Bear was not replaceable.  I've made a big deal out of all of the kids' "first toys", the first toy that anyone ever gave specifically to them, usually while they were still in utero.  Kyrie has her Ducky Bear; Elijah has his Pooh; Savi has her pink bunny; Gabe has a little blue duck; and Julie's Corduroy Bear is sitting up high waiting for her to be big enough to play with it.  These are the toys that are allowed to stay on their bed instead of being put away; these are the toys they often choose to sleep with and keep with them during Quiet Time.  And these are the toys that came with us to Minneapolis.  (Well, sort of. Savi is mildly obsessed with her Lilo doll, so she brought that instead.  And Gabe's ducky is buried somewhere, so I grabbed a stuffed giraffe for him instead.  And Julie's toy didn't come with us, since she's not old enough to even grab it yet.  So two out of the five toys came with us... that's less than half, but we'll just pretend it happened that way, eh?  Because it makes a better story?  What, you say you're not buying this?  Tough.) This particular Winnie-the-Pooh is wearing a blue nightshirt and nightcap; even if we could find some sort of replacement that would look like that toy, it wouldn't be the actual first toy ever given to Elijah.  

We called Trimet Lost and Found right away to let them know.  They called back the following morning to say that no one had turned the backpack in.  Things looked pretty bleak.

Ken contacted a local news station, hoping they would put out a call for Pooh to be returned.  They sent an email back saying they might, but if they did, they never told us.  

Elijah cried when he had to go to bed without Pooh.  Kyrie tearfully told him that she had prayed that he would get it back; he tearfully said that he had, too.  My heart was breaking.  I asked God frequently that Pooh would somehow make it back to Elijah.  

I couldn't see any way that Pooh would come back.  But I forced myself to remember that God was in charge; he could literally make Pooh appear at our home if that was what it would take.  It wasn't easy to believe, but it's true, so I kept reminding myself, and it helped bring a little peace.  

This morning I called Trimet Lost and Found again.  The guy said that no blue backpacks had been reported turned in. Then, helpfully, he did a search of his database for all backpacks.  He described a couple backpacks for me, none of them ringing any bells.  (I'm still a little surprised that Trimet would have so many lost backpacks around, since the ones he described sounded like adult backpacks, not kiddie ones.  Do people really leave their backpacks on buses that often?)  And then it came... "Oh, this might be it.  I see a black and blue Batman backpack.  Let me go check."  I could hear him zip it open over the phone, and he said there was a stuffed toy inside.  It was Pooh Bear.  After I got off the phone, I was so happy I wanted to cry.  (I didn't cry, though.  Not over a silly stuffed animal.  I'm waaaay too mature for that, aren't I?  I confess.  I totally cried. So much for maturity.) Once again, God came through for us.  We drove over to the bus garage this afternoon and picked the backpack up.  Tonight, Elijah gets to sleep with Pooh Bear again.  This may not be the kind of miracle that breaks the laws of physics, but it sure is the kind that touches the heart.

Homeschooling Oddity

So Savi is doing her math on the iPad today.  (The MathBoard app is awesome.  It's the perfect substitute for the printed sheets of math problems that I was having them do before.  It gives a set of problems, a bit of chalkboard space to work it out if they need to, and after doing a set of problems, you can generate a new set based just on the ones you got wrong, to correct them.  You can set how many problems to do, and the range of numbers you want involved.)  Anyhow, she starts off with the problem 7 + 10. So she counts it up, and then I hear her ask, "Mom, how do you spell seventeen?"  And I think... doh.

She can figure out that 7 + 10 = seventeen, but she doesn't know that seventeen is written with a one and a seven.


Clearly her learning is not in the usual order.  Note to self:  Teach Savi how numbers are written.

Gabe Speaks

Me, asking Gabe, not expecting a comprehensible answer: "What do you want for breakfast?"
Gabe: "Da da da da budder."
Me:  "What else?"
Gabe: "Da da da toe."  In context (Savi had asked for toast with just butter on it), it was clear that he was also asking for toast with butter.  That may have been the first time he verbally answered a non-yes-or-no question in an understandable and sensible way.

What says Happy New Year like PicVids?

 That's Gabe playing the Leapster.  In the dark.  Long after he's supposed to be asleep; after all the other kids are asleep.  I only noticed because the Leapster screen lit up his face in the pitch-dark room. :)  (The flash here doesn't quite do the scene justice, but the alternative is a black picture with a little glowing bit, which isn't that interesting to look at.)

This seems to be Julie's favorite way to fall asleep.  She does this ALL the TIME.  It's crazy.  Two fingers of one hand in the mouth, being sucked on, and the other hand kinda sprawled over her nose or eyes.  No idea why she does that.

Julie meets her Aunt Cathy!  (This starts the trip-to-Minneapolis-for-Christmas segment of the pics.) I apologize for the camera, which has been giving me a lot of glare off of lights lately.

Christmas Eve; after dinner, we got into a fun debate.  It started off with me (in the purple shirt) and my brother Ben (not shown here) discussing economics; I'm more moderate and he's pretty Austrian-style conservative.  Then my brother Greg (on the left, with the funky beard) joined in; he's got all these anarchist/extreme-left positions, and the debate moved into the field of politics and religion and whatnot in general.  Ben's wife Monika (the other female in the photo) and Luka (the boyfriend of my sister Cathy, the other guy in the photo) and my husband Ken and also Cathy all got involved in the conversation at one point or another.  At one point, I believe I found myself admitting to Ben that I did not really believe the Declaration of Independence's claim that authority derives its justness from the consent of the governed (or something like that).  Because, you know, it was that kind of conversation.  Man, is it fun to hang out with my family.

Present-opening Christmas morning.  I think the whole gang was there, except my (anti-social) brother Luke. This photo captures half of them...

... and this photo captures the rest.  Except you can't really see Ken's head behind Daniel's, and of course I'm not in there because I was taking the pictures.

Ben helps his daughter Irena hold little Julie.

Clockwise around the table, starting with the smallest:  Gabe, Evelyn, Kyrie, Savi, and Elijah.  The day before we left, we were over at Kyrie's godparents' house; they decorated tote bags while I had a blast talking with my friend/sister Kathryn.

So apparently there's this app called Angry Birds that is extremely popular - i.e. addictive - lately.  My kids certainly thought so.  They played it on Caleb's iPad until the batteries would run out.  They played other games on his two phones, and on the phones of Uncle Daniel and Grandpa too.  If I hadn't had to clean up a big mess of Legos in the attic, I might have thought my kids did nothing but play games.... :)  This particular shot is of Gabe trying to play Angry Birds.  Except he kept shooting the birds backwards instead of forwards.  Piling on Caleb was a popular activity, I gotta say.

Home again.  The kids now have an iPad of their very own.  I'm not letting them download the Angry Birds app, though.  Or any other game apps.  Ken put Solitaire on it, and I put Neflix on it.  Right now I have those two apps in a folder called "Must Ask", meaning they have to ask permission before playing those apps.  They were watching Scooby Doo on Netflix, though, when I took this shot.  It was so cute with them huddled around and Gabe fallen asleep, and there was just enough room to stick Julie on the end, so I did.  Hoping for a new banner pic.  But I have to pick between Julie smiling (above) and the other girls smiling (below).  Which do you like better?

All in all, the trip to Minneapolis went great.  It was wonderful seeing my family and getting to have long conversations with them.  Especially with Monika (who I chat with online, but have only met in person a couple times, and briefly at that) and Ben and Greg, both of whom I would like to spend more time discussing things with.  And now for the videos.

Ah, cuteness.  We all know hairdryers were invented as a weapon, right? 

This is Elijah playing the math "Planet Buster" game, which I had them doing for homeschooling.

Now here is Savi playing it.  The mouse icon and the spaceship are playing hide-and-seek.  Naturally.

Uncle Caleb is reading Gabe a pamphlet about the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.  Gabe is... well, I suppose it makes as much sense to him as The Night Before Christmas would, at this point.

Kids decorating.

Oh, yeah.  The day after Christmas we went to the Science Museum.  Gotta love places where kids are encouraged to touch things. (Although I did tell them to stop climbing on it after I stopped videoing it.)  This was the tornado-demonstrating device. Pretty cool!  We also got to see a video about the Hubble telescope at the Omnitheater; all of this was courtesy of Grandpa Colin and Grandma Tina.  I especially loved the part of the movie where they did a sort of 3D zoom around inside a nebula.

This is the Angry Birds thing again.  So cute.