The Dragon Tale

Around here Wednesdays are our down days.  I take Colton to swim lessons and then we come home and do stuff around the house until we pick up Hannah from school.
This past Wednesday we were hanging out eating popcorn and watching Curious George.  I decided to get a quick look at FaceBook when Colton spotted this in my news feed.

http://andreasnotebook.com/2011/09/handmade-dress-up-diy-dino-tail-tutorial.html

Momma!  Can you make me one of those!?

Yes, we could probably do that.

Right now!?

No, we need to make the pizza dough for dinner (I figured this would be a fun activity for us), finish cleaning up and its almost time to get Hannah.

Oh...then can we?

We will see.

Is that a yes, or is that a no?  What does that mean?

It means we will see if we have time.

We finish George, make pizza dough and cookies (Colton's idea), finish cleaning up and go pick up Hannah.  As soon as we walk in the door.

Momma, will you make my tail yet?

Not yet, we have to start dinner.  Off he goes to play with his sister.  

... Ten minutes later ...

Have you started my tail yet?

Umm..No.

When can we?

The same conversation happened every ten minutes for the next three hours.

This is how Colton managed to get a dinosaur tail in less than 24 hours of seeing it on FaceBook.

After dinner and bath I lugged out the material scrap box and we dug through it to see if we had enough of anything that would work.  We cut the material  and  everything was ready to sew but it was time for bed.  I put him to bed asking about his tail and when it would be finished.  I assured him we would get it done the next day.

Hannah has to be to school an hour before Colton.  Usually Colton and I run errands or go look at cows to kill the time before his school.  However, on this morning he informed me that after dropping of Hannah he wanted to come home and for me to get out my sewer (sewing machine to some) and work on his tail.  

As soon as we walked in the door he brought me the material pieces and asked me to sew them while he watched his show.  

I got to work.

I was able to get about half way finished before he had to go to school.

As I gave him a kiss before he walked into his class he asked, "will you bring me my tail when you pick me up?"

So home I went to finish a tail for my tenacious little dinosaur.

He quickly acclimated to having a tail.

Colton Lucas Dinosaur Matthew, complete with tail.

He even let Sissy try it on.

A little background:  When Colton was about 4 months old, Hannah announced that she thought we should change her brothers name to Colton Lucas Dinosaur Matthew Kester.  It sort of stuck and even now if you ask him to tell you his whole name he'll tell you that's what it is.  Oh, the power that big sisters have!

 

What does a Cow sound like?

The other day we were driving by a pasture full of cows and Colton asked, "What does a cow sound like?"
Hannah and I both replied with, "MOOOO!"
We soon learned that he knew what they said but he had never heard a cow say it!
So, of course, that became our mission!
On our way home from our errands we drove past several fields and couldn't find one cow that was close enough to hear.
Just before we made it to our neighborhood we found these guys.

I turned on the hazard lights and pulled off the road, next to the fence.  We rolled down the windows in anticipation of hearing the cow Moo!
Not a sound was uttered by any of these guys.  Simply the swishing of tails and flapping of years.  The kids tried to coax the cows into conversation by Mooing at them and later demanding, "MOOO you COW!!"  Still nothing...
After a good 20 minutes of this and one offer to help this Mom stranded on the side of the road (No, I didn't explain what we were doing just simply assured the man we were fine and sent him on his way)
I decided it was time to leave.  Much to the chagrin of my children.
Over the next few days we drove by the fields in hopes of a Mooing opportunity and none came.   However, the other day after dropping Sissy off at school, Colton and I decided to go check the fields.
There was a lady entering one of the pastures as we drove by so I pulled in behind her and explained our dilemma.  She invited us to drive into the pasture and visit with the cows.

So we did!

Mission Accomplished!!

Colton said, "When cows say, MOOO, it sounds like MOVE.  Are they telling each other to move?"

Good question kid...good question.

Ninja in the B-I-B-L-E

A few days ago we attended a Fall Festival at the Marine Corps Air Station Chapel.  As part of the festivities they were giving out foam craft packets for children to do at home.  Somehow we ended up with two. 

Colton was napping and Hannah asked if we could do the craft she had received.  I agreed and we sat down at her table and opened the package.  We found a foam baby Moses, basket, water and reeds that need to be assembled.  As we worked on it we talked about the story of baby Moses.  How there was a King that ordered all the boy babies be destroyed and how Moses’ mother didn’t want that to happen so she put him in the basket and sent him down the river where a princess found him. 

Once we completed the craft I told her that I needed to work on some homework so I moved to the couch with my laptop and began working.  Pretty soon she comes in with another Moses project and asks if she can do it. I agree and she gets to work.  She then tells me that she is going to make this one be baby Jesus instead of baby Moses.  “Great”, I say, and then tell her maybe she could make the basket look like a manger.

We both go back to work on our separate projects and pretty soon I hear her singing.

“There is a ninja in the B-I-B-L-E,”

“There is a ninja in the B-I-B-L-E.”

It took a few times around before I clued in to what she was saying.  I then asked, “What are you singing?”

She replies, “There is a ninja in the B-I-B-L-E. That’s the bible you know.”

“Yes, I know that the B-I-B-L-E is the bible.  But there is a ninja in the bible?”

“Yes” she says so mater of factly.

I rack my brain for a bible story that could possibly involve a ninja.

I then hear her say, “That’s what you just told me.”

Puzzled, I ask her to clarify.

“Well, you told me to make this one look like a ninja.”

Stifling my laughter I say, “No, I said maybe you could make the basket look like a manger.  Since you wanted it to be baby Jesus.”

“Oh! Well, I made this one look like a Ninja anyway.”

So I guess as Hannah said, there is a ninja in the B-I-B-L-E.

Dear New Mom,

Congratulations on your bundle of joy. Your life as you’ve known it has just changed. What ever you are feeling it’s normal. If you fell in love with your baby the second you laid eyes on it…that’s normal. If you questioned how this little person that has lived inside of you could seem like such a stranger…it’s normal. None of it is normal by the grand scheme of the word but trust me it’s all normal in motherhood. For the next few months your body will be a stranger. If you are breastfeeding your body won’t even belong to you for the next year or so but it’s worth it. You won’t get much sleep but you will amaze people with how much you accomplish on no sleep. One day you will actually get 6 hours of consecutive sleep and feel like a million bucks. Then you will blink and your little precious is a year old and mobile. That is a whole new kind of fun. Enjoy this moment and the next one and when you are so tired you feel like you can’t function remember that this is only a moment in time and in the next moment it will all be different.

Opposing Forces Collide

I watched her come undone

I couldn’t stop it

I listened carefully as it all became jumbled

I couldn’t understand it

I was angry

She was missing

I fought for her

We screamed

We hurled secrets at each other in front of the family

It was ugly

I threw her keys in the pitch-black back yard so she couldn’t leave

She was mad

It wasn’t the first time and it wasn’t the last

My heart ached for her when she was not well

I needed her then

She is bipolar

Just like the Earth…One up one down

Some ups

Some downs

She has gained control of it

Through a lot of work

Occasionally she tilts on her own axis but only to rebalance again

She is not broken

We have survived many things

This is no different

I have her now

She is not perfect but she is beautiful

She is mine

God gave her to me 

Bitey, The Elephant

When our sweet little boy started getting teeth he, like many children, also began figuring out how to use those teeth.  He would test them on everything, toys, books, furniture, dog tail and occasionally, us, his loving family.  In and effort to not raise a cannibal I assigned a corduroy elephant as the toy to bite.   Anytime he started to bite we would grab the little elephant and say things like, “Don’t bite Momma, it hurts!  Bite the elephant,” while sticking the elephant’s trunk in his mouth to practice his teeth gnashing on.  Soon his big sister caught on and named the elephant Bitey after a character in one of her books. 

Apparently the use of Bitey the elephant has made quite and impact.  The other evening we were all relaxing in the family room.  My husband was stretched out in the LazyBoy and our daughter had thrown a blanket over his feet making a hideout beneath them.  The cat had gone under there to hide and pretty soon I saw Colton join her.  I didn’t think much of it at the time but pretty soon Colton took off across the room toward his toy box muttering No, No, No, as he went.  He grabbed the Elephant and turned around and headed back to the hideout saying Bitey, Bitey, Bitey and handed the elephant to the cat. 

Now, I have no proof but I’m pretty sure that while they were playing the cat bit him.  Colton knows that if you feel like biting you need Bitey the elephant!

Memories of Aunt Kathleen's

White hexagon tiles brought to life with our crayons

as we colored the bathroom floor

Creativity

Orange and yellow plastic playhouse covered in mud

after making mud pies all day

Freedom

Taking turns eating cherries from the bag

on the rope swing

Yum

The warmth of the summer sun on our bodies as we played

outside all day

Cousins