I know the blog has been a bit heavy on Gussie time lately, but he's still at the age where almost everything he does is new, and on top of that most of the things he comes up with are hilarious whether represented pictorially or in video. So... it is what it is.
One thing not in these videos that makes me laugh several times a day is Gussie's naming scheme for the family right now. It started with "Dad-Dad"; NOT Da-da, but very specifically Dad-Dad. Then instead of Mary he started going with Mare-Mare. And now his names for the family are Dad-Dad, Cat-Cat, Mare-Mare, and Mike-Mike. I have no idea how long it will last, but I really love it.
Gussie (or Gus-Gus if we're being consistent) is also a genius with the use of non sequiturs. When he woke up the morning, he came in my room and told me, "When I be born I loved Dad-Dad." I think maybe a few days ago Catherine was telling him his birth story? Then when Michael woke up he proclaimed, "And there was a car on fire! On the road!" (again, a story from several days ago). You can be reading a book about bears and he'll interrupt with, "And Mike-Mike made our chair on fire," which is actually him relating how they discovered a while ago that if you bam an upholstered chair REALLY hard with something like a screwdriver you can make some dust fly up that looks like smoke. Really, if you haven't been personally involved with every moment of his life you will likely have no idea what he is talking about because he will refer to any story from any point in the past at any time as part of any conversation. (Sorry, you might have to turn the volume way up on these videos in order to hear Gussie, especially the second one; it's just the nature of on-camera mics.)
He also really, really likes using scissors. If he has a piece of paper and a pair of scissors, he can focus for an hour, easy. And his faces when he talks never cease to amuse me.
But don't worry, in a matter of weeks the blog will be all Teresia, all the time.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
my gracious world
This song was written (words and melody) by Mary this morning. She typed out the lyrics and made a video so you can hear the melody.
my gracious world
the blue dandies
the yellow sun
the purple violets
count every one
o gracious world
the white moon
o the green grass to me
~ Mary
my gracious world
the blue dandies
the yellow sun
the purple violets
count every one
o gracious world
the white moon
o the green grass to me
~ Mary
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Sunny Days
I suppose making it into November before having to turn on the heat is about as much as a girl can ask of Saint Louis, but that doesn't mean I don't get to whine about it being 80 degrees one weekend and a forecast for frost the next. That's a shock to the system that takes a while to get over.
The last sunny day before the temperature was supposed to dive, I let the chickens into what was left of the veggie garden to eat up any little green tomatoes, pumpkin leaves, and wilty spinach they could find (and hopefully all the bug babies buried in the dirt as well). They were very happy little hens.
Then I sent the kids into the flower garden in the front because there were still a lot of zinnias and marigolds that I assumed wouldn't survive a couple nights of frost. So I told them they could cut anything they liked to make bouquets for the house and/or cut any dying flowers and break them open and spread the seeds around pretty much anywhere.
Michael and Gussie grabbed mittens (aka "worker man gloves") and scissors and set to cutting dead flowers and seed spreading.
Mary grabbed a vase and went on the hunt for flowers with long enough stems for it.
And Catherine ran upstairs for a little basket because she didn't want to build bouquets or spread seeds. She cut petals. Once Mary had her vase and Catherine had a full basket of petals, a wedding procession commenced down the sidewalk. Obviously.
I think one of Catherine's only regrets at this point in her life is that she never got to be a flower girl in a wedding. I guess she'll have to hold out for being a bridesmaid or bride in the future.
The chorus to one of the kids' favorite songs in our very old iTunes lineup starts like this: "I was made for... sunny days!" We'll be singing it wistfully until May.
Sunday, November 02, 2014
In Which The Ball Was Never Caught
I think I posted one of these pictures earlier, but they are pretty entertaining as a series.
Gussie was throwing the ball in the air and trying to catch it.
He came close once or twice.
But only close.
Occasionally he looked like he was in a good position.
But those usually resulted in a head shot.
He kept trying.
And while you might be wishing for the happy ending, the final picture of him having caught the ball with a grin of success, alas, it was not to be.
Hi brother told him some days are like that.
And he didn't let it ruin his day at all.
Gussie was throwing the ball in the air and trying to catch it.
He came close once or twice.
But only close.
Occasionally he looked like he was in a good position.
But those usually resulted in a head shot.
He kept trying.
And while you might be wishing for the happy ending, the final picture of him having caught the ball with a grin of success, alas, it was not to be.
Hi brother told him some days are like that.
And he didn't let it ruin his day at all.
The Halloween That Wasn't
A couple weeks ago, the kids and I spent the weekend on the RV with Grandma and Grandpa at Mark Twain Lake. It was a beautiful weekend to be out at any lake, and Grandma had heard about an annual tradition at a nearby RV park where everyone staying for that weekend decorated their RVs for Halloween and kids could go trick-or-treat the RVs. So we brought along costumes, and Mary, Michael Jr, and Gussie went out with Grandma and Grandpa Friday afternoon, and Catherine and I joined them Saturday morning in order to let Catherine play in her Friday night soccer game.
[Side note: This conversation just happened while I was typing:
Michael Jr: Mmmm... my hands smell good.
Me: Why?
MJ: Just because.
Me: I think you probably had to do something to make them smell good?
MJ: No, they just smell good. Because I have powers.
End side note.]
The weather was very accommodating. It was a bit cooler than it was in the city (ask Michael Jr, who insisted he would be fine packing only shorts, then realized it was a good idea for Grandma to call me to ask me to bring pants when I came up Saturday), but still perfectly enjoyable. We did a lot of bike riding and hiking in the trees and throwing rocks into the lake.
Grandpa tried to keep a pile of small rocks next to Gussie so he could throw them in without clambering around (the edge was a pretty steep drop into deep water and rocks) but Gussie was throwing the rocks in as fast as his little arm could move so it was hard to keep up with him.
"Wow! Look at the splash you made, Catherine!"
We also had to make some firewood collection expeditions. Catherine was particularly enamored with tending the campfire.
Saturday night was the RV trick-or-treat, but I don't have any pictures of that because 1) it was getting dark and 2) I spent most of the time there with Mary in my arms so she could bury her head in my neck and not have to see or hear anything.
The RV trick-or-treat doesn't have a web site or much in the way of publicity, so there was no way to scope it out ahead of time, but Grandma and I had clearly assumed it would be some nice retirees and families with RVs decorated with jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows and maybe some spiders and witches, etc, handing out candy and enjoying having kids come by in costumes.
We assumed very, very wrong.
I would put it more in the category of haunted house than Halloween trick-or-treat walk. Zombies rattling cages and headless horseman on large tricycles chasing people around the walking path and fields of headless brides and mechanized wolves eating bloody person limbs... and we only made it about 50 steps down the path.
So we went back to our RV and made s'mores. Much better.
Then we were coming upon actual Halloween and it occurred to me that I should not have been surprised at all. Halloween everything is increasingly focused on horror and graphic violence. And I happen to have children who are (delightfully) not desensitized to much of it. So I will happily admit that I decided we were opting out this year. I am completely over feeling obligated to allow my kids to participate is some "iconic" piece of childhood like trick-or-treating when there is nothing good about it. It takes exactly one image of something unnaturally violent to give Mary nightmares for weeks. And my kids enjoy dressing up every day, and leave the house in dress-up on a regular basis. And the candy literally runs counter to everything their growing minds and bodies are trying to accomplish. So we did not go trick-or-treating, and we did not invite any trick-or-treaters to our house, and I don't feel even the tiniest bit bad about it and the kids don't feel like they missed out on anything.
We did spend a couple days pulling together costumes for everyone and made special apple pies to take to a party at a friend's house. I give you St. Elizabeth of Hungary (in her princess crown and carrying a basket of bread -- or in our case, apple pies -- because she was fond of feeding the poor); St. May (in her veil and halo); a very cold (and therefore annoyed) prince/soldier (who was later determined to be St. Elizabeth's prince Louis); and a very tired (and therefore grumpy) Duck.
[Side note: Michael's costume is both an epic success and an epic fail. I made the pants at least four months ago, when he asked for a prince costume for the dress-up box because his sisters had so many princess costumes, then I got intimidated by the jacket and the amount of time it would take and things got busy and it never got done. So when he asked if I could finish his prince jacket (which I thought he had totally forgotten about at this point) for the party, I had to get it done. Seeing as how I drafted the pattern from a button-down shirt he already owns, and it's only the second thing with sleeves I've ever made, I was pretty happy with the result. But the exceedingly late completion was made obvious when he tried it all on and I had to let the hem down in the pants because he had grown an inch since I finished them months ago.]
Anyway, they had a really good time enjoying actually delicious treats and playing games and they spent at least an hour putting together a make-believe scenario that incorporated the costumes of all the kids involved (except the Duck, who had abandoned his costume shortly after arriving). In short, they had a lot more fun than they would have had trick-or-treating, and the only nightmares recently were caused by a picture of Jack Frost in a book Mary got from the library. [Sigh.]
[Side note: This conversation just happened while I was typing:
Michael Jr: Mmmm... my hands smell good.
Me: Why?
MJ: Just because.
Me: I think you probably had to do something to make them smell good?
MJ: No, they just smell good. Because I have powers.
End side note.]
The weather was very accommodating. It was a bit cooler than it was in the city (ask Michael Jr, who insisted he would be fine packing only shorts, then realized it was a good idea for Grandma to call me to ask me to bring pants when I came up Saturday), but still perfectly enjoyable. We did a lot of bike riding and hiking in the trees and throwing rocks into the lake.
Grandpa tried to keep a pile of small rocks next to Gussie so he could throw them in without clambering around (the edge was a pretty steep drop into deep water and rocks) but Gussie was throwing the rocks in as fast as his little arm could move so it was hard to keep up with him.
"Wow! Look at the splash you made, Catherine!"
We also had to make some firewood collection expeditions. Catherine was particularly enamored with tending the campfire.
Saturday night was the RV trick-or-treat, but I don't have any pictures of that because 1) it was getting dark and 2) I spent most of the time there with Mary in my arms so she could bury her head in my neck and not have to see or hear anything.
The RV trick-or-treat doesn't have a web site or much in the way of publicity, so there was no way to scope it out ahead of time, but Grandma and I had clearly assumed it would be some nice retirees and families with RVs decorated with jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows and maybe some spiders and witches, etc, handing out candy and enjoying having kids come by in costumes.
We assumed very, very wrong.
I would put it more in the category of haunted house than Halloween trick-or-treat walk. Zombies rattling cages and headless horseman on large tricycles chasing people around the walking path and fields of headless brides and mechanized wolves eating bloody person limbs... and we only made it about 50 steps down the path.
So we went back to our RV and made s'mores. Much better.
Then we were coming upon actual Halloween and it occurred to me that I should not have been surprised at all. Halloween everything is increasingly focused on horror and graphic violence. And I happen to have children who are (delightfully) not desensitized to much of it. So I will happily admit that I decided we were opting out this year. I am completely over feeling obligated to allow my kids to participate is some "iconic" piece of childhood like trick-or-treating when there is nothing good about it. It takes exactly one image of something unnaturally violent to give Mary nightmares for weeks. And my kids enjoy dressing up every day, and leave the house in dress-up on a regular basis. And the candy literally runs counter to everything their growing minds and bodies are trying to accomplish. So we did not go trick-or-treating, and we did not invite any trick-or-treaters to our house, and I don't feel even the tiniest bit bad about it and the kids don't feel like they missed out on anything.
We did spend a couple days pulling together costumes for everyone and made special apple pies to take to a party at a friend's house. I give you St. Elizabeth of Hungary (in her princess crown and carrying a basket of bread -- or in our case, apple pies -- because she was fond of feeding the poor); St. May (in her veil and halo); a very cold (and therefore annoyed) prince/soldier (who was later determined to be St. Elizabeth's prince Louis); and a very tired (and therefore grumpy) Duck.
[Side note: Michael's costume is both an epic success and an epic fail. I made the pants at least four months ago, when he asked for a prince costume for the dress-up box because his sisters had so many princess costumes, then I got intimidated by the jacket and the amount of time it would take and things got busy and it never got done. So when he asked if I could finish his prince jacket (which I thought he had totally forgotten about at this point) for the party, I had to get it done. Seeing as how I drafted the pattern from a button-down shirt he already owns, and it's only the second thing with sleeves I've ever made, I was pretty happy with the result. But the exceedingly late completion was made obvious when he tried it all on and I had to let the hem down in the pants because he had grown an inch since I finished them months ago.]
Anyway, they had a really good time enjoying actually delicious treats and playing games and they spent at least an hour putting together a make-believe scenario that incorporated the costumes of all the kids involved (except the Duck, who had abandoned his costume shortly after arriving). In short, they had a lot more fun than they would have had trick-or-treating, and the only nightmares recently were caused by a picture of Jack Frost in a book Mary got from the library. [Sigh.]
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