Drums and Parades

Bella was asked by a friend who plays in a band to be one of the people who walks in front during a parade and carries the banner with their band's name on it.  Bella had no interest in doing that but wanted to be a good friend, so she said yes. I had church commitments, Benjamin was at a scout campout, and Christian had a soccer game all at the same time, so Kelly and Peter accompanied her.  Kelly was not so stellar about pictures so this is all I have of the parade - the before picture at a library while they waited for the parade to start.  Alas, imagine Bella carrying a banner with her friend Charlie (on the left) while her other friend Carolin (in the middle) plays the drums.  

Peter loved it apparently, because after that he wanted to "play drums like Carolin in parade."  He got out the pans and some spoons and rocked out.  It was so cute.

Peter has been all things toddler lately - inquisitive, talkative, moody, opinionated, stubborn, charming, and cuddly.  He's a riot.  We've also started speaking German (have put this off too long already) and I must say, he's got the best pronunciation of any of my kids.  So far he's been very open to learning.  Let's hope that continues.

Some fun pictures from lately:  toy time after story time at the library

Our walks with Coco

Playing on the playground while we wait for Christian to finish soccer practice.  His little chicken "cheep cheep" had to come along.

What happens when Peter finds my phone and hides in the bathroom with it.  No less than 107 photos shot on live mode (so about 13 photos in each clip) that look almost exactly like this one:

How Kelly tells Christian that he's sick and tired of him leaving his toothbrush on the countertop every night:

Super hilarious, but sadly ineffective.  He left it out again the very night this note was received.  There's no point fighting entropy.

A Good Day for a Parade

One of my favorite books to read with Peter this past week has been "Sometimes Cake" by Edwina Wyatt.  In the book, the main character, Audrey, and her friend Lion have a parade.  After reading it, I suggested that Peter and I have a parade too.  We discussed it and decided that a parade should have musical instruments and balloons.  He chose a blue balloon to blow up and decided he'd like to play the recorder in the parade.  I chose the drum (Benjamin's drum pad).  I tied the balloon to him so he'd have his hands free and away we went around the upstairs, tooting and drumming and dragging our balloon.  Then he decided he'd like to be the drummer, but the pad was too heavy to carry while drumming, so we marched in place while he drummed on the chair and I played the recorder.  It was a lot of fun.  It's a darling book and I'm so grateful for the reminder it provided that every day is a good day for a celebration and a parade.

 

I Love Sundays

 Every day of the week, the kids are always on their devices and it's a battle to get them to do anything else.  Sundays Christian and Bella have committed to keep them off and it makes Sundays so much fun.  The kids have creativity and play together and it's like old times. Today Christian decided to make a cup stack.  He and Peter spent the morning before church stacking dozens of cups in a variety of ways.  The best part, of course, was knocking them back down.  Sundays allow us to take walks (and to jump in puddles when asked specifically to walk around them), enjoy board games, and spend time at church together.  It's really a wonderful day.

Last week all three older kids participated in an annual piano competition which they do every year.  It was Benjamin's last year of the competition and he was so happy to be done.  It marks the end of piano lessons for him. He has fought and fought me on taking lessons and has pretty much refused to practice for months now, so we made the agreement that he would prepare of the competition and then he could be done.  I'm super sad about it.  He has so much natural talent and I think he could be really amazing, but $25/lesson so he could refuse to practice all week was getting tiresome.  No matter the consequences I enacted, he was unmoved.  It was time to end the battle.  He gave me one happy smile photo but he really wanted the triumphant victor photo too.  We still haven't gotten the scores back.  Christian was the only one with a flawless performance, but we'll see how the judges felt.  Sadly, parents aren't allowed in the room, so no videos to show.

Just a random picture I found that I thought was funny: this is how Peter joins Christian on the computer - laying on his mouse hand, leaning directly in front of the screen so Christian can't see.  Every time.  

Peter picks up more and more teen slang every day.  Today I was telling him that I would like him to be more careful with my things because sometimes he'll take my things and break them, as he had just then with one of my items.  His response: "Fat L!" and away he went.  Thank you Benjamin for teaching him that little retort.  A few days ago he was trying to tell me something and I couldn't understand and he got frustrated and retorted, "Fine, bye Felicia!"  Thank you Christian for that one.  What I find remarkable is that he doesn't just learn the phrases, but he knows perfectly when and how (with just the right amount of sass) to employ them.  It's both annoying and incredibly impressive.

Blessings of Scouting

 I've always loved scouts and I once again was reminded why this week.  Bella was trying to complete her last requirements for the next rank and this included completing an orienteering course.  We couldn't find one nearby, so I got permission from her scout master to design my own in a nearby park.  One afternoon we packed up and I gave her the map I'd printed and a compass and she had to lead us through the park to the landmarks I'd designated.  Had it not been for this requirement, she never would have ventured out in the freezing cold woods all afternoon and neither would Christian or Peter.  However, she was motivated to get it done and it was a total blast.  We had so much fun that no one wanted to go home.  Christian even said, "I'm so glad I came.  I would have spent the afternoon on my computer, but this was way better."  Yes!! If only they would always remember that.  If only I could have convinced Benjamin to come.  I think he would have had fun too.  The frozen lake was the highlight.  You could walk all the way across it.  They kids had a blast skating in their boots.

This is in the middle of the lake:

Peter's new favorite place to stand.  I have so many pictures of my other three there, that it was fun to see him finally find his way to this spot as well.  He's growing up.  We attended a preschool open house tonight for him!  What!?!?  Where has the time gone? 

Peter's favorite phrase currently: "Do you have pickles on your feet?"  I have no idea where this came from but he'll frequently call from another room, "Mommy!"  "Yes?"  "Do you have pickles on your feet?"  Yesterday Bella's friend Carolin was over.  He asked her, "Do you have pickles on your feet?"  Cute girl that she is, she said, "Why yes I do have pickles on my feet!  Thank you for noticing!"  He thought that was hilarious.  Funny kid.

The View from the Window

 This was my view from the front window today:

Not what anyone wants to see in their driveway.  A water main broke under our driveway this morning and so we were without water until the afternoon as the city tore up our driveway and fixed it.  The hole was massive!  Two guys climbed into it and completely disappeared from view.  Not terribly wide hole, but very deep!

You know who wasn't the least bit upset about the construction site in our space?  Peter.  Never had anything so exciting happened so close to home.  This was also my view this morning:

A backhoe and a dump truck in his own driveway!?!  How cool is that!?!  He got himself a stool to stand on for a better look and ran non-stop commentary on the whole thing.  It made the problem into something to be enjoyed and it honestly was pretty fun to watch.

In the end, they fixed the issue, turned the water back on, filled their giant hole with gravel, and left.  No word on how long it will take them to repave our driveway, if they ever do.  Right now we have a gravel driveway and it's going to be really interesting next time the rain gets heavy or the snow falls.  

One funny story of Peter for this week:

Peter has learned the concept of family relationships - mother, father, sister, brother, etc.  He's always  known I was his mom and Kelly was his dad, because that's what he calls us.  However, the others have only been names, never a relationship.  This week he clued in that Christian was his brother.  Now every time he sees him, he says, "Hi Christian, you my brother!" and he gets so happy.  Yesterday in the car, he said that to Christian and then the conversation continued to the others.

Peter: Blah (how he says Bella), what you?

Bella: I'm your sister.

Peter: You my sister!? Oh!  Christian you my brother.  Blah, you my sister! Benjamin, what you?

Benjamin: I'm your brother.

Peter: Ok! Christian you my brother.  Blah, you my sister.  Benjamin, you my bro...wait...You my brother!? Christian my brother.  How you my brother?  

    *this was so funny.  He just stopped mid-sentence and looked so confused.  Then that "wait" was that slow drawn out "wait just a minute here, I think you're trying to trick me!" kind of wait.

Benjamin: You can have more than one brother.  You have two brothers.

Peter: I have TWO brothers!? Wow!

    *then it was like Christmas morning.  Two brothers - what an amazing gift.  So much joy.  He proceeded to list everyone's relationship again and again throughout the car ride.  I loved it. 

New Car

 Now that Benjamin is driving, we've been looking for a car for him.  I wanted to get an old, manual transmission, beat-up car that he could drive without a lot of worry about accidents and learn how to drive with a stick shift.  However, old, beat up cars can be unreliable and they lack the newest safety features.  Plus, when your dad works at Ford, you can get a management lease for far less than any other car (with insurance, maintenance, and registration included!).  So, lucky guy that Benjamin is, he got a new 2022 Ford Maverick.  Great gas mileage, modern safety features, and fun to drive.  Only downside was that they only had one in white - hello supply chain issues.  He has been a very good driver and with only a few minor exceptions, riding with him is pretty low-stress.  Let's hope he has a far better driving record than I did at his age!

Peter-isms

 We took Peter with us to watch Emma (Bella's friend with whom we went sledding) play basketball.  She plays on the high school team and, in my opinion, is the best player they've got.  He, obviously, wasn't terribly interested in the game, though.  Luckily, he made a little friend.  It thrilled me that he found someone with whom to play and was comfortable enough to do so.  Maybe he won't be so anti-social after all.  He and his friend talked about favorite colors and pretended to play catch with a pretend ball and enjoyed his friend's toy Yoda immensely.  It was adorable.

Peter is very much a 'learn only by personal experience' kind of kid.  You can tell him something is hot a million times.  He will still touch it to make sure you're not lying.  It happened three times today that I told him something but he wasn't convinced until he'd tested it for himself.  The funniest of the three was when I was blending acorn squash to freeze for sauces and soup.  He thought I was making a fruit smoothie and asked to have some.  I explained that I'd cooked acorn squash and was blending it smooth to put in the freezer.  This wasn't a fruit smoothie and it wasn't sweet at all.  He threw a fit and begged that I give him some smoothie.  I explained again and assured him it wasn't smoothie.  He wasn't listening.  Fine.  Here's a spoon.  Try some.  One bite and he screamed louder than ever!  So loud and so dramatically and long, that doors slammed to all the teenager's bedrooms, and Kelly came upstairs to see what was going on.  I was trying to get him to drink some water to wash it out, but he wouldn't drink.  He just stood there with his tongue, covered in squash, hanging out of his mouth, screaming!  He attempted to spit it out into the trash, but that would have required him to close his mouth around it to spit it and he was too disgusted to do that!  I had to get a paper towel and wipe his tongue off a few times before he was willing to get a drink and close his mouth around the glass.  "Now do you believe me that it wasn't smoothie!?"  "Yes," he responded wearily, nodding his head.  Such a character.

Snow Fun

 It's been snowing a lot here lately and I've been doing my best to get Peter used to it.  He has a really hard time with cold and snow.  He always cries like crazy whenever I ask him to go outside with me.  Yet, every time he goes, he has fun, so I keep pushing him hoping that one day it'll click and he'll stop complaining so much about it.  Here are some fun pictures from recent snow adventures.

Our favorite place to play in the snow is on the trampoline.  Bouncing the snow around and collecting the ice chunks that form underneath and then smashing them on the concrete is always fun.  Being buried in the snow is also way better than being buried at the beach.

We went sledding a few more times.  There is nothing like having a private sledding hill.  Christian got the privilege of being the first one down.

Peter was a good sport the first few runs but then he got some snow spray in his face and he wasn't taking it anymore.  "I want to go home! We go home now!?" he wailed on repeat.  That's when Christian had the brilliant idea to introduce him to the joy of eating snow. 

"Peter, do you want to eat some snow?"

"NO! I want to go home!"

"Great, more for me!"

"More for you?"

"Yeah, there's only so much snow and if you don't eat any, I get it all!"

    *greedily takes a handful of snow and stuffs it in his mouth. 

    *Peter looks on, intrigued, and finally stops crying.

"I try it?"

"Well, ok. I guess I can share."

    *Peter tentatively licks the snow on his mitten.

"I like it! It cold!"

After that we sat him up against the fence, at the top of the hill, so he could "bask in the sun" like the lizards in one of his favorite books, and he was happy as a clam scooping and eating snow for almost an hour while Christian and I got our fill of sledding.  Well, I can never get my fill of sledding, but I was willing to call it quits.  Christian is a genius.

 

Peter's favorite part of sledding, though, was the parking lot at the end.  It was filled with large puddles of nasty dirty water.  He would scoop snow into the puddles, then jump and stomp onto it to make it melt away. 

I watched him splash with glee for a long time.  Then Christian got bored sitting in the car waiting for him and said, "Peter, I bet I can get into your car seat faster than you can!" No one can resist such a challenge!  "No! I winning!" Peter shrieked and ran toward the car.  Christian pretended to hurriedly try to climb into the little car seat as Peter raced to get into the car and when Christian sadly lost, we headed home with a Christian who was grinning like an evil villain.

At home we attempted a snow man, but it was such fluffy, non packing snow that we only managed a little snow mound.  To Peter, though, it was perfect.  He loved his little snow man.

In true Peter fashion, though, this little love pat turned into a fatal swipe as he crushed the snowman's head and wiped away all elements of a face.  "Why did you do that?" I asked.  "I in the mood, " he replied matter-of-factly.  Then he decided to see if the snow at home tastes as good as the snow on the hill.  He decided it did.  He ate the snow on the picnic table because that seemed appropriate.

Then he invited Kelly to join our lunch and Kelly and I became horses on a grand ride around the house.  Peter loved every minute of it.  I think mission accomplished - maybe he won't be so hesitant to go play in the snow from now on.

Mister Seahorse

 I was reading Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle to Peter.  It's a wonderful book with lots of illustrations of different fishes and a lot of scientific information couched in a fun, engaging children's book.  

I asked, "Do you see the rock fish?  He's the same color as the rock so he's hard to see.  That's what we call camouflage.  It's how some animals stay safe from other animals who would want to eat them."  That led to discussion of all the different ways animals protect themselves - claws, teeth, spikes, smell, color, behavior (possum), etc.  "God gave every animal a different way to stay safe.  What did God give you to keep you safe?" I asked him.  His answer was delightful: "You!" he said, grinning.  I was thinking 'a clever mind to invent things like knives/guns/security systems' but I like his answer infinitely more.  He's absolutely right.

Another fun Peter moment:  We were dropping Christian off at a friend's house and Peter asked, completely out of the blue, "Jackson have a bunny?"  Christian said, "No, he doesn't."   Peter seemed so perplexed.  "Why not?  I like bunny!  Bunny nice!"  So cute!  Yeah, Jackson, why don't you have a bunny?  Don't you know bunnies are great?!

What do you do when Bella is away and you've got three bored boys at home stuck inside because it's freezing and miserable outside?  Set up targets and dixie cups and have a bb-gun shooting contest, that's what.  The distance was a bit too short, but it was a lot of fun.  Peter got to load the bb's and he was happy as could be about it.

Brother Cuteness

 Benjamin and Christian pass the sacrament each Sunday.  We come early so Christian can set up the camera for the church's zoom broadcast and Benjamin can prepare the sacrament table.  Then they sit and wait until church starts.  Usually no other deacons (except for another bishopric member's son) come for 10-15 minutes.  During that time, the last few weeks, Peter has joined them on the deacon's bench.  It's so cute to see them all together.  He feels so special up there, acting like a big kid.

After church last Sunday, Benjamin was goofing around and told Christian he could bench press him.  Christian told him to prove it.  He made good on his claim.  It sparked a whole lot of bench pressing younger brothers, or in Peter's case, toy swords.

Notice Peter's hat in the middle picture? He wanted to be just like Benjamin. He wore it all afternoon.

That's Not Food!

Peter has begun exploring and testing boundaries.  One of his favorite ways to test is by seeing what food he can get away with sneaking.  His favorite things are granola bars, apple sauce pouches, graham crackers, and marshmallows.  First he learned that if he just asks each person once, he can get 5 servings of something.  Until we repeatedly overheard him asking someone else and realized what he was doing!  Then he had to get sneakier.  He started going into the storage room when no one was watching and swiping from the extra boxes in storage.  Up until recently, though, he wasn't strong enough to open those on his own, so he just scattered bars and pouches around in there but didn't eat anything.  Then last week he figured out how to open up the packages and it was buffet time!  He no longer came to me asking for food when he was hungry, he just went into the storage room and grabbed 2-3 granola bars. I'm all for independence but granola bars are not a substitute for healthy meals, so I moved all the snack foods to the top shelf and moved all the feminine products and kitchen sponges, etc. down below.  I thought Peter would be disappointed and then move on with his life.  Instead, he thought I'd just bought a whole new variety of granola bars!  Little stick ones that come inside little purple dispensers (tampons).  I came downstairs to find three unwrapped tampons lying around the basement, with their wrappers in tiny, soggy, chewed bits all over the floor.  He was sitting happily with a fist full of additional tampons.  He declared, "I find new bars and I eat them all up!"  Then he stuck a tampon in his mouth and licked it like a lollipop.  I could see in his face he didn't like it, but it was like he was trying to acquire a taste for it because clearly, they were so colorful and perfectly sized, they must be good.  He was crushed when I explained to him that they weren't food and what they were really for and then I had to rearrange the storage room for a second time.

The next day I came home to find Peter alone in the kitchen, sitting on the step stool, with a bag of jumbo marshmallows on his lap.  (All responsible teens were on their devices despite my request that they keep an eye on Peter).  His head whipped around to see me standing there and he blurted out, "I not do anything!" before I'd even said a word.  "Really? I answered, "Because it looks like you're eating marshmallows."  He responded, "I think no one coming back.  I go eat marshmallows.  I only eat two."  Then he popped up, dashed to the cupboard and stuffed the bag inside.  By the look of it, he ate far more than two.

Since then I've had to leave and then come back and check on him after he thinks I've left.  Several times I've found him in a cupboard sneaking something.  Once it was the medicine cabinet where we keep the gummy vitamins.  That made me nervous since there are so many other colorful, fun vitamin-looking things in there.  I guess we never needed to baby proof, but we will need to toddler-proof.

Finally Some Snow!

 This has been a very unusual winter.  We've had hardly any snow.  However, this week we had 3 days without school due to a massive snow storm prediction.  (They canceled school based solely on the prediction before a single flake fell.)  We ended up getting 5 inches over the 3 days.  Really not a lot, but finally enough to go sledding and have some fun outside.

Peter turned out to be every bit as cold and snow averse as he was last season, sadly.  Hopefully next year he'll finally learn that snow can be fun.  I kept him out as long as I could until his whining and crying started to tear too much at my heartstrings and I took him into the car to warm up and wait for the others to fnish.  What's funny is I always want to still sled long after all the kids have had their fill. 

Bella invited her friend Emma to join us and a random kid who was sledding nearby also came right over and joined us for the entire time we were there.  He was an Indian boy about Christian's age and he started talking to us and sledding with us like he'd known us all his life.  It was really cute. It made for a fun group.  I didn't photograph the random kid (never did get his name) incase his mom would be upset, although, I never saw any adult with him.

Christian tried to use our little, cheap snowboard on the hill and did pretty well, but mostly he did a lot of falling off it.  I think we should buy a real snowboard and see how he'd do.

Sitting out on the frozen lake is always fun.  Especially for Peter who can never get enough of Emma. He is quite the little flirt.

For family home evening, Benjamin did the lesson on Noah's ark.  He had us build tinfoil boats in the bathtub and load them full of toy animals.  Peter thought that was a blast and the activity went clear past bedtime and necessitated a complete outfit change.