Thursday Thesicle

No one can throw a boy like an uncle can throw a boy.

Baby Reaches Moon, Astounding Scientists and Civilians Alike

Shortly after breakfast, a nondescript spacecraft materialized in Dining Room. Upon inquiry, the astronaut aboard told me it was a slightly altered space shuttle that bears a curious resemblance to a baby jumping seat turned on its side. The nose of the shuttle is softer than normal shuttles' and has a control panel that appears to be made of bits of buttons and pipe cleaners. (The advances in science and modern technology are baffling, aren't they?) The mission of the space shuttle this time was to accomplish something never before even attempted by astronauts or cosmonauts: to take a human baby to the moon.

Astronaut Calvin explains the controls to me, pre-launch.

He welcomes his co-pilot, Baby___.

Though appearing nervous at first, Baby___ quickly settled into his role.

Astronaut Calvin informed me that the plan was to merely, "orbit the moon with the baby, since the moon is too dangerous for babies since they don't have much gravity." The baby, whose name cannot be printed here due to the requested  privacy of his parents, displayed a cavalier and adventurous spirit while in space. Brazenly radioing Mission Control, he requested permission to land on the moon! What could they do to stop him? Astronaut Calvin explained he was honored just to be in the baby's presence as his tiny body calmly but assertively took over the flight. As the shuttle orbited the moon, the astronauts successfully commandeered the Lunar Module onto the moon. Since Baby ___ cannot yet walk, they performed a Lunar Sit together, as Earth beautifully sank low into the sky.

Baby ___ radios for permission to land.

Calvin affirms Mission Control's consent.  

Moon sit

Aided by gigantic parachutes, and an immense amount of drama, including a small explosion in the fuel tank, the astronauts found themselves landing in the "Specific Ocean," where divers plucked them out of their module, to wild civilian applause.

Some emotion finally spreads across Baby ___'s face after
the historical landing and sitting.

Holding hands, the two prepare to enter Earth's atmosphere once again.

They wait patiently for divers to rescue them from their module in the ocean.

Baby___ modestly declined comment, but it should also be noted that he does not have many words in his vocabulary at this time.

Dad's Obstacle Course

Yesterday we built an obstacle course. And I mean that is ALL we did yesterday. Aside from food preparation and consumption, using the bathroom, and the evening when I got to leave to go to my book club meeting (which makes me feel like a real person! Yay!), everything we did revolved around the obstacle course.

A few days ago we went to one of those indoor bouncy places and there was an obstacle course that the boys loved, so they decided they wanted to build one for Dad that would be ready when he came home from work. Great! A project for a frigid day! I was down with that.

We started with our "blueprint" and worked from there. First of all, I had to wrangle the boys away from their football game, and then from the hockey game that broke out, and keep them from getting sidetracked too many times. When all was said and done, a million hours later, we had a course for Brian to take on when he walked in the door. Here are some pictures.

One thing that added to it taking all day--
I made the boys write all the signs.

First obstacle-- ford the raging towel river by jumping
over hockey sticks

Step through the masking tape web

Putt down the one bowling pin

Crawl through the scary cave

What made the cave scary? These terifiying animals ready to eat you. Duh.

Jump and twist!

Tiptoe through the blocks forest
with wandering astronauts, shuttles, rocks,
dinosaurs, and sea life

Toss plastic horseshoes over the four legs
of an overturned chair

Jump over the superhero umbrellas

Score a goal to the left with the tiny hockey stick
and then hit the target at the end of the hall with
a tennis ball

basket to score the goal in

Hit the target that will be randomly selected when
the contestant reaches this point

THE END!

When Brian got home, the excited boys put a football helmet on him for safety precautions and he did some light stretching to warm up. Cal and Clark wore Incredible Hulk gloves to punch him whenever he messed up on the course.

After falling in the river and being pummeled by Hulk hands,
Brian nimbly maneuvered through the spider web. 

And putted down the bowling pin with no problem

The cave was easy, except for the roaring animals, and he had to dance a little
and try a few times to get the jump mat right. But tiptoeing through the blocks
and specifically spiky dinosaurs proved pretty tricky and painful.

Tossing the horseshoes over the chair legs proved the
most challenging of all. Brian still has sore spots from
all the times Hulk hands punched him over this one.
It took so long, in fact, that I lost interest and forgot
to take pictures of the last three obstacles! Oops!
This is what a successful day looks like. :)

Snow Paint

This week has been super cold and one day we got (allegedly) five inches of snow. It looked like less than that to me, but I've never been good with numbers. This morning it was one degree outside. Yes, 1.

School was out on Monday for MLK day and it has now been canceled Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. It might be canceled tomorrow too if the roads remain icy and the temperature stays so low. Brian took the boys out for a romp in the snow the first day, but since then it's been so cold that we haven't ventured far.

I kept seeing posts on blogs and Facebook about having fun inside with kids and snow. So today I brought some snow inside and the boys made paint. It took a long time for the snow to melt, which was surprising to me.

On a separate note, Teddy had an important milestone today. He sat in his own highchair for the first time!

Teddy, meet Highchair.

Here are the snow paint pictures:

Putting snow in jars

Mixing with food coloring

They wanted to mix colors and were particularly proud
of this blue-green color.

Paint!

They asked if I was surprised that such little kids
could make paint all on their own. Absolutely I am!

This amused them for longer than I thought it would-- they loved it.

They liked helping the snow melt.

I put down cookie sheets for the painting since it was a little...
wet.

We also tried painting on paper towels.

Then we dumped the paint onto a pile of snow
 in a flower pot- snow cone!

Good colors

Masterpieces!

Thursday Thesicle

Be open to the culinary experiments of children; they could change your world.

(Yes, you see this right. Waffle, bacon, egg, cheese, waffle sandwich- Clark's brainchild)

Thursday Thesicle

Sometimes hanging a swing from the living room ceiling is the best option.

Thursday Thesicle

Sometimes gift bags are better used as goalie pads.

Teddy Tree

There's no denying that Cal and Clark-- especially Clark-- look like Brian. But Teddy has quite a bit of his mom in him. At least, that's the way I see it. While searching for physical evidence for my claim I came across some pictures that I think prove he looks at least half like me...but also like his dad What do you think?

Brian

Me

Teddy

Six Months My Teddy

Teddy has been around for six months! His latest achievements include finding his tongue and therefore spitting (the cute kind of spitting) in his free time. He also can hug on command, reach out for people with two hands, talk in adorable little baby babble, and rip open a present with nearly as much gusto as his big brothers.

Today I had a little photo shoot with him when the house stopped shaking because Cal and Clark left for hockey.

Smiley little guy

Hanging out with his coat toggles

What? Oh, there's a sticker on me?

Well, that's ridiculous, let me wad it up. I don't need this.

*grunt*

I'll just go ahead and drop it down over here...

Bye bye, sticker. Don't try that again.