Life Adventures

Volunteering in Calvin's class allows me to experience proud moments like this:

Calvin's latest writing assignment at school was to focus on their class hermit crabs. The kids brainstormed ideas for possible subjects and came up with an exciting list including: soil, water vapor, body parts, and diet. Calvin apparently had a different genre in mind, as he suggested"life adventures" be added in the mix.

After the allotted time for writing passed, the children gathered in a circle to share their stories with the class. After hearing the very informative stories of the other seven kids, it was Calvin's turn.

He started by proudly holding overhead his illustration with what looked like an erupting volcano and hermit crabs parachuting down from the sky. He enthusiastically started reading, "Watch out, hermit crabs! The hot lava is coming!" From there, his plot eventually led to the crabs making it into the "magical coconut hut" just in time to be transported to another magical place.

Trying to encourage his excitement about writing, his teacher asked where his hermit crabs would go next. After a split-second hesitation he said with wide-eyes, "to the Valley of DOOM!"

Fish Tracks

Noah, lately.

Sitting in the Dr.'s office with the boys, Noah leaned toward me and mumbled a question I couldn't understand. Asking him to repeat it, he again, lowered his head and quickly said something I wasn't any closer to getting. Impatiently asking him to speak up and tell me one more time, he then nearly shouted his question,

"Is that guy a pirate?!!"

As I (and everyone else in the room) took a quick glance around, I made eye contact with the man sitting across from us wearing tall black boots, a bandana, and lip ring.

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We have our bath and bedtime routine down pretty well by now: go to the potty, get in the bath, get in pajamas, brush teeth. The other night Noah decided to mix things up and skip going to the bathroom before entering the tub with his two other brothers. After everyone was out, I told him he needed to go to the bathroom before he finished getting ready for bed. He declined saying,

"It's ok mom, I peed in the tub."

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The boys were playing the usual "tackle-wrestle" in the basement with RB when Calvin decided to add a new element to the game. Quickly getting into character, he announced, "I'm Thunder-Hero! I have laser eyes and laser punch!"

Noah, not to be outdone, countered, "I'm Rainbow Boy! I have super rainbows."

He then demanded to be called "Rainbow" for the rest of the night.

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Thanks to the recent snow, the boys have been identifying different animal tracks on our walks and drives. They've gotten pretty good at most of them, but when we came upon a new looking set they were both stumped. Calvin suggested, "moose", Noah then offered his educated guess,

"umm, Fish tracks?"

A less honest Abe

I asked Noah if he had gotten into the donuts while I was on the phone.

He coolly replied, "nope."