Me: "What did you do?"

Abraham: "I'm not going to tell you because I don't want you to be disappointed in me."

*   *   *

Conversation after some undesirable behavior on his part. What a vocabulary. :)

"Mommy, are you  mad at me?"

"No."

"Are you unhappy?"

"No."

"Are you frustrated?"

"No, I'm fine."

*   *   *

Another Abraham story that he told me after tucking me into bed.

"Once upon a time, a boy was walking in the woods. He said, 'Hmmm,' and then went back home."

it's a guy thing

Me: "Yeah, shoe starts with S. Actually, two letters together make the 'sh' sound, S and H. Can you think of any other words that start with 'sh'?"

Abraham: "Shereen!"

Me: "Yeah! And shoot." (Why is that the first word that came to my mind?)

Abraham: "Shoot?" (He is interested.)

Me: "Like shooting a rocket up into space!" (Trying to save it.)

Abraham: "Or shooting bullets into fire?"

Me: "...Yes..."

Abraham: "Or shooting guns and lava and lasers!"

Me: "....Yes..."

Abraham: "And zappers and electricity!"

Me: "....."

Abraham says

Abraham is at an age where he says some pretty hilarious and/or impressive stuff on the daily, so I've been trying to write things down when I can. This is just a small sample of what I get to experience on everyday. I'm not even sure if all these will be that funny to anyone else, but they really crack me up.

At the park, talking to a much older kid, Abraham says to him, "I like your shirt."

*  *  *

Abraham asks, "Could you get me a glass of water?" I reply "Sure." Then I get a blue plastic cup from the cabinet, pour some water and hand it to him. He takes a sip, then looks at the cup and says, "I said a glass."

*  *  *

At Sunday devotions, after he'd reached his limit of sitting still, he leans over and whispers in my ear, "I love you very much, but this is taking a long time!"

*  *  *

"The farmer killed all the chickens that were doing bad things and brought them to the store for us to buy and eat."

*  *  *

"I'm thinking about Christmas trees and snowmen."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I want them to exist."

*  *  *

And finally, a very sweet moment that made me proud. We were at the library playing at the playground outside, and Abraham started playing with a little boy about his age. Then when we went inside to look at books, he saw the boy again. The boy's mom was occupied taking care of a baby. The boy kept asking her to come watch him do a puzzle, but she said she couldn't at the moment. Then Abraham went over to the boy and said, "I will watch you so you won't be sad." Then the boy's mom had to walk away for a few minutes and told him she would be right back. But after she left, he started calling her. Abraham said, "Don't worry, she will be right back. I will stay with you."

Construction sensory bin

We found a fun way to bring some sand/digging/construction activities indoors now that it's getting chilly. The water didn't stay in the pond long, though! Also I forgot to add any "guys" which I think would have kept his interest for longer. He enjoyed it though!

Pushing dirt.

Filling the truck with rocks.

Abraham has really been getting psyched about Halloween, so I came up with a couple little activities to fuel his interest: making pumpkin and ghost faces with magnets and a Halloween sensory bin (inspired by this post).

I just cut out a pumpkin from construction paper, taped it to the fridge,
then glued black paper to a magnet ad we got in the mail and cut out shapes.

Abraham decided he needed to use ALL the pieces to make a face.

I really like this cute face he made. It has a mustache. 

Halloween sensory bin - we had the black and white beans left over from
another sensory bin, I picked up a few little things from the dollar store, and
dyed some rice orange via this method.

I made the ghosts out of packing material. I planned to use tissue paper
but couldn't find any white.

In typical Abraham fashion, this turned into a role playing activity with
the skeletons. They have made their way out of the bin and all over
the house, including the bathtub. :)

Seasonal

We have really been enjoying the fall weather and trying to get outside as much as possible. We went on a little nature walk around our yard the other day, collecting cool leaves, flowers, and acorns. Then we made a quick batch of cinnamon play-dough that smells delicious. (The play dough recipe I use is here, but in this case I added cinnamon and no food coloring. It's a really great recipe. Stays soft for a long time even if (often) left out.)

Concentrating

Our collection

my little comedian

Me: Guess what we're having for dinner. It starts with a "t".
Abraham: Tomatoes?
Me: No, but good guess.
Abraham: Tizza?

*    *    *

Me: Do you want crackers or pretzels?
Abraham: A cracker named pretzel.

*    *    *

To go along with his constant pretending, he has also started sometimes narrating himself. After a bath, I'm getting his pjs out and I suddenly hear, "A naked boy lunged at his mother, knocking her over!" Not enough warning for me to escape, however.

overheard

"Then his mother said, 'It's time for lunch!' But he was dead."

generosity

Abraham: What are you eating?

Me: Granola with milk.

Abraham: Can I have a bite?

I give him a bite.

Abraham:  You know it’s a good idea to give some to somebody who doesn’t have any. Let’s practice that.

Me: What about if I just share some with you and give you some bites?

Abraham: No, I think you should put it right here. (points to his spot at the table)

I give in because, hey, isn’t this what I’m trying to teach him? As he sits down and digs in he says, “Now I’m happy! Are you happy?”

What a sweet kid. Either that or very manipulative.... :)

our day

This is either about how to get kids to eat their veggies or about how awesome my child is. Either way. After a morning of working and playing outside, we came in to get cleaned up. While Abraham was showering, I cut up some raw veggies, and then when it was my turn to shower, I told him his choices of things to do were to play with toys in his room or read books in the living room. He picked read books. And then I just casually mentioned, "Oh, if you need a snack before lunch, I put some veggies in a bowl on the table." He immediately replied, "I need them." Then when he looked in the bowl he said, "I love these!" Then he sat on the couch and looked at books and ate vegetables while I showered. Isn't that just every parent's dream??

Abraham's one-liners

To remember:

Throwing his arms around me, "We're best friends! We're super heroes!"

"Maybe your body is saying you need to eat more food, or maybe your body is saying you need to go outside and climb a tree."

After I mentioned something about healthy food, "Do you like sick food?"

In bed, trying to fall asleep, "Sp....sp....sp....spoon! Sp... sp.... spider. Spider. Spoon."

transcript

This is an example of Abraham's jokes....that you will only get if you live in our heads, but are really legitimately funny. In this case, you'll also get it if you've ever read If You Give a Moose a Muffin.

A: "I want to see the geysers!"

S: "Me too. And we can see some animals too."

A: "I want to see the hippos!"

S: "Well, I don't think they have hippos at Yellowstone."

A: "Oh, no."

S: "But they have buffalo."

A: "Buffalo?"

S: "And deer, and moose..."

A: "And muffins?"

Much laughter

I am not even kidding

Me: Since you're going to practice using the potty today, you need to drink a lot of things so that you'll make a lot of pee!

Abraham: Like milk?

Me: Yes, and juice and water.

Abraham: And seltzer with a twist of lime?

Me: ... yes...

storytelling

I asked Abraham to tell me a story. Here it is:

Once upon a time there was a old man, and a beast ate him. The end.

:)

miscommunication

All three of us are lying in bed and we accidentally play telephone. I say something to Abraham (who knows what it actually was), which Anderson interprets as "Don't touch my elbow." So he says to Abraham, "You can touch my elbow," which Abraham misunderstands and replies rather indignantly, "No, I don't want to touch your antelope!"

...Maybe you had to be there.

Seen Around Town

I want to start a new thing where I share here some articles, videos, blogs, etc that I run across that are interesting, inspiring, or otherwise amazing. I'm always reading fabulous things, and some I share over email or Facebook, but this would be a great way for me to keep track of them as well. So here it goes for this week!

Health and Nutrition

66 Things You Can Grow Without a Garden

Saving Food from the Fridge - Awesome article about beautifully un-refrigerating food

The Color Run - Fun, fun marathon coming to Nashville; all ages, no running skills needed - who's with me??

Fraudulent Olive Oil - This blog post summarizes a recent study on olive oil and links to a list of which ones passed the test and which ones were found to be impure (hint: most of them! even Whole Foods!). Also, this is a great blog overall for home-made, all-natural recipes for everything. 

Parenting

Why French Parents are Superior

Enable Me to Grow - Great Baha'i site/blog I found on teaching virtues to toddlers; currently sharing lots of wonderful Ayyam-i-Ha activities and ideas


Thoughts? Comments? Anything cool you want to share with me?

By request

For your perusal, a few relatively recent photos of the Ham. First from an impromptu photo shoot during Thanksgiving, and the second from a fall photo shoot. Maybe I should have added "learn how to take pictures" to my new year's aspirations. But with such a cute subject, my patented "take a bunch and some will turn out" style seems to work just fine.

Yes, those are baby Toms.

New Year's Reflections

Do you think you can change the kind of person you are? I don't mean like, learning to ski, or becoming a better cook, or even disciplining yourself to be more patient. But more like this, for instance: If I write as one of my new year's resolutions that I want to be more spontaneous, is that really something that is possible and achievable? Even if I manage to let go of all reservations when someone else suggests a spontaneous activity, would I really be able to, on my own, decide to do something without first planning it out?

Another example, can I BECOME a morning person? It seems, thus far in my life, that no matter how early I have to get up or how much sleep I get, I just don't jump out of bed ready to go. As I tell Abraham, I have to wake up slowly. Is this just my natural personality, or can it be changed?

All the talk of resolutions on the occasion of the new year has me thinking about ways in which I'd like to change my life, too. But the middle of winter seems a strange time for making changes. And, I'd like to be reasonable with it all. A year is a long time, sure, but rather than vague "be a better person" platitudes, I'd like something concrete, that I can measure. It's the non-spontaneous side of me. It also may be the side of me that likes to make lists. Really, how could I resist the opportunity to make a list of things to accomplish in the new year? So here goes. A preliminary list, anyway. I may add more as the week (or month, or year) goes on.

What are your resolutions?

Also, creative ways to display resolutions here. I might need to try something like this.

New Year’s Resolutions

1.       Learn:

a.       To use the sewing machine

b.      To knit

2.       Create:

a.       12 pieces of art (one a month)

b.      Adaily rhythm chart

c.       A morning and evening routine (prayers and yoga)

d.      Photobook for Abraham, Year 2

3.       Write:

a.       Regular blog posts

b.      Poetry

c.       A novel

4.       Read:

     (I am leaving off the actual items here, lest I be too embarrassed for not having read them already.)

5.       Be:

a.       “A kindly tongue is the loadstone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding.”

b.      “I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.”

c.       “Humanity is not perfect. There are imperfections in every human being, and you will always become unhappy if you look toward the people themselves. But if you look toward God, you will love them and be kind to them, for the world of God is the world of perfection and complete mercy.”

d.      “The imperfect eye beholds imperfections. The eye that covers faults looks toward the Creator of souls.”

6.       Do:

a.       Organize one room a month, doing at least one small thing a day