The I Spy Table

When I picked Benjamin up from school today, his teacher told me, "He seems really tired today." He really did. He'd been fine when I dropped him off, but he looked like he was going to fall over on the way to the car or fall asleep on the way home. When we got home, Bella and Christian took a nap and I was able to pretty easily convince Benjamin to take one too! All three kids asleep at the same time! It can be done!! A true modern miracle. Benjamin hasn't napped for me in nearly a year and a half. So, needless to say, when it was time to go to gymnastics 45 minutes later, I decided to bag it. No way was I waking 3 kids. I got out my book, made myself comfortable on the couch and relaxed! For a whole 20 minutes until Christian woke up. Once everyone was up, there was a lot of "why didn't you wake me?" and "why can't we go to gymnastics?" questions, but it was well worth it. He obviously needed the rest and so did I.

Despite the change of schedule, we kept with our usual Wednesday craft day tradition. We always do painting and crafts on Wednesdays after gymnastics. Not sure why, but it just started that way and it works. So we did that. It was a lot of fun.



We colored on the window again because it still had our Christmas drawings up and needed a change. Bella has started drawing people a lot lately. It's fun to see them. They always have huge ears and a circle for their tummies. Benjamin doesn't draw ears on his people and she's always coming to me saying, "Benjamin not draw ears on his man. He's silly!" By they way, that's Bella's gymnastics leotard that she loves because it's got sparkles. I bought her a more modest one (the sparkle one is a hand-me-down) but even though the one I bought has rhinestones on it, she won't wear it because she likes the sparkles. Women! They can drive ya nuts.

I'm working on letter recognition with Bella lately, so today we did the letter U. We made paper Umbrellas that they got to decorate with stickers and we did a painting of "Underground" where she got to cut strips and bits of green paper which she glued onto brown construction paper, to make the grass and the dirt underneath it and then we all drew things we find in the ground: ants, worms, earwigs, spiders, etc. The kids loved it. Bella also drew a groundhog and grasshoppers...and a boat. "It's a dirt boat!" I didn't pursue it. I labeled each thing with the letter with which it starts and drew a big U in the center. By the end of it all, I took a step back and looked at my table. It reminded me of Benjamin's "I Spy" books. A huge mass of stuff strewn all over and under the table. Plus the bottle, bib, and seat Christian used while he so patiently and sweetly watched us. I had to take a picture. I think it's a testament in itself of the fun we'd had. :) In the picture, Benjamin is "sewing" a paper that he made to look like ones he'd seen at school. He punched holes around his drawing and then wanted to string yarn through the holes. I thought that was pretty cool.


Finally, unrelated to anything prior, I'd like to say something to the person who stole Benjamin's swimsuit out of the gym shower over the weekend: Seriously? Did you think I hung it there because I didn't want it anymore but was too lazy to take it to good will or throw it in the trash?? Did you stop to think of the child who is now without a suit and how he'd feel? I hope you enjoy watching your son swim in the suit which you stole. I hope your son doesn't notice the missing seam or the sun bleached sleeves and wonder why a new suit would look like that. And I hope your son never wears that suit around me because I'm prepared to make a scene.