Spring 2016

From "When Early March Seems Middle May" by James Whitcomb Riley

When through the twigs the farmer tramps, 

And troughs are chunked beneath the trees, 

And fragrant hints of s'gar-camps  Astray in every breeze, 

 And early March seems middle-May,

The Spring is coming round this way.

We didn't harvest any maple syrup this spring, but we did plant raspberries, kale, elderberries, blueberries, garlic, and peas. We have large baby bunnies and tiny baby bunnies, and a handful of weeks of school work left for the year.

Today we sang "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad", reviewed some Spanish sentences and Sunday school Bible verses, Tobias and Malachi drew flowers (an indoor one that was on our table) in their nature journals, Tobias read "St. George and the Dragon" and practiced piano, we read a poem and the Bible, and now a serious train-building session is in the works. Later today (aka nap time) we hope to read about Pope Gregory and practice violin.

Park time last week

M: 3 Years

Happy 3rd birthday to Malachi!

Born with a little bit of turkey in his personality that shines through daily. I don't know anyone else who would concoct a medley of "George of the Jungle" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" for the occasion of grocery shopping.

Favorite things to do: singing, dancing, preschool, picking herbs

Favorite Foods: popcorn, spaghetti, and "all the foods"

Favorite Music: Army of Mushrooms, Raffi (especially Bananaphone), Pop Goes the Weasel, Rico's Pizza Restaurant

Favorite Books: The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Favorite Humor: Replacing a word of a song or conversation with "NOTHING." For example: There once was a man and his name was NOTHING!

Life Strategy So Far: "fake it 'til you make it" (though occasionally he will admit that he can't actually read)

Skills: Fwimping pancakes, putting toppings on pizza, finding his favorite songs on the computer, being gentle with animals, finding herbs for cooking

Tobias's favorite thing about Malachi: His jokes.

M: 2 Years

Favorite Author: Dr. Seuss
Favorite Books: What Do People Do All Day (Richard Scarry), Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss), The Mitten (Jan Brett), The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)
Favorite Movie: Chicken Run
Favorite foods: pickles, pears, bagels, spicy chocolate, any chocolate, broccoli
Favorite songs/music: "What Does the Fox Say?", "Nothing is Impossible with God", Raffi, anything he can dance to
Daily activities: giving Toby a goodnight hug and good morning hug, looking at books, helping in the kitchen
Favorite tricks and jokes:
Pretending his finger is hurt (very convincing!), then pointing to the porcupine in a book poked him.
Insisting with a twinkle in his eye that what Daddy wears to work is…"Nekkid".
As I pull a perfect pizza from the oven and say "ooh, it's good", he responds seriously with "No. Bad. Taste bad." and then starts to giggle and smile.
How do you say "no" to him?: Usually it's the curly blond hair and happy eyes that prompt people to ask how I can possibly say no to him. We do say no, but mostly it's hard because he's so sweet: I know that if he had a stash of chocolate and I said "chock-it pees…need chock-it", he would share it with me. It's hard not to reciprocate. Mostly he's very generous and looks out for the people around him: recently he was crying during supper, genuinely tired from playing all day and skipping his nap, but he took a moment between sobs to pass a knife over to Toby when Toby mentioned he needed a knife to spread butter on his cornbread. He gave me a hug and a "feel better pees" when I started gagging over some nasty-smelling basil.
And is he always this good?: Nope, usually I have to sit on him to get him in his carseat, and he has arrived at church without pants several times because I didn't think I could fight the pants battle and the carseat battle consecutively. Always, always getting into the fridge. When presented with something he doesn't want to eat, he pronounces "Yucky. Chickens eat it." Typically he is very polite about food though.

This turkey Two-Year-Old is super excited about "mine biffy cake" (my birthday cake) waiting in the fridge, I'm excited to see him grow and learn and enjoy life heading into his next year!

M: 21 months

Buttered it myself.

 Mr. Malachi is 21 months old. His vocabulary is just exploding lately, and his favorite things include:

• doing things himself: "No, Mom!"
• talking about action: helping, jumping, smashing, raining
• talking about insects and their demise: "fly? bee? swat?"
• cooking, and talking about cooking: flip, stir, chop, slice, cut, egg, flour, hot, beeping, done
• looking out for the interests of numero uno: me!, turn, too
• singing along with 'Tradition' from Fiddler on the Roof: "Pa-paaaaa!!!!"
• spending time with family: "Home! Daddy! Daddy home!!!"

He eschews the traditional "can you say _____?" and "what does the _____ say?" games, but echoes Toby's words (and attitudes...yikes!). 

Even men of action need cuddling and a book.

Bedtime Books

Nate and Toby have just started reading "By the Shores of Silver Lake" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found myself tearing up a little when Mary loses her sight. And the grasshopper plague in "By the Banks of Plum Creek" was quite sad too. Frontier life was certainly a challenge!

But here is a bedtime story guaranteed not to make you cry!

Wild, Reading!

Harassing the chickens with dirt clods while dressed half in pajamas and half in backwards pants... and reading Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car while Malachi naps. The latter is more peaceful and requires less clean-up and discipline but I'm trying to convince myself that both types of activities are important!

Some of Toby's favorite books lately have been:

• Happy Birthday Moon (this was the first "real" book that he read almost entirely by himself without having it read to him first)
• Today I Will Fly
• A Carousel Tale
• All the McDuff books by Rosemary Wells

Malachi loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar and any book with animals in it.

M: 14 months

While the men were off in Portland, Malachi and I had a fun day. He set foot in the library for the first time (I'm pretty sure I've always held him or had him in the ring sling before) and enjoyed checking out his own books at the self-checkout machine just like Toby always does. He is pretty insistent about doing things a certain way: getting his own hymnal from the pile at church, eating his own food with utensils just like everyone else, and having a bedtime book just like Toby. His favorite bedtime book is the farm book, because it has pictures of blueberries, chickens and puppies. He recently added "woof woof" to his vocabulary and enjoys feeding Toby's stuffed dog.

What Child is This?

The reading: many possibilities where those genes came from. But the dancing...is a mystery.

Happy Birthday, Little Turkey!

Happy Birthday to our upwardly mobile (that means "climbs on the table"), goofy, curly-haired determined little helper. We are all thankful to God for Malachi's first year!

• Plays the kazoo happily, or unhappily: it's kind of funny to hear him cry into a kazoo. Sometimes accompanies himself with a rattle.
• Loves guacamole, pickles, peas, squash, popcorn. Whatever everyone else is eating. 
• Says Ma (mom) Da (Dad),  dih (this, or what's this), dat (that, or what's that) and num-num-num.
• Enjoys animals, both real and in books.
• 7 teeth in front and 1 molar trying to come through, ouch!
• In his spare time he cooks imaginary soups, plays the foot pedals on the organ (or the keyboards if he gets a chance), and researches topics such as "Sheep in a Jeep" in his personal library.

Harvest Season

Parkity Park

The cast has been off for over a month now, Toby is walking (even running and sometimes climbing), and the weather is still park-able. Indoors, we're enjoying the usual: Duplos, music, books, and snacks.

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

M: 10.75 months

He's not quite 11 months yet; 11 months sounds so old. I'm going to post while he's still 10 months old...I'm trying to enjoy what little baby-ness is left in him.

• 7 teeth, loves popcorn and peas
• Doesn't use his arms to balance anymore when walking around. Rarely crawls.
• Climbed up a chair and onto the kitchen table for the first time this morning
• Picks up on a lot: Last night he was in the ring sling and watching me form bread into rolls. Right before I started to slap the first one into shape he excitedly started slapping my arm. First I thought he was imitating me, until I realized I hadn't started slapping yet.
• Missed Dad while he was in Portland on a trip: was excited to see him on video chat but then progressively got more upset that he wasn't "real".
• Occasionally signs more, food, water, please. Gets his messages across pretty well.
• Sad to leave mom during ECHO or lessons at home

Brothers at Play. Or work.

For the 8 weeks of cast, Toby and Malachi's play together was limited to "wrestling" on the floor.

Here is some video from today and yesterday...4 to 5 days after getting the cast off. After walking to the mailbox they didn't want to come inside because they were having too much fun pushing each other around on the tractor. Now that's what I've been waiting to see!

M: 8 months

• owns cute hats but won't wear them
• loves sampling yummy fruit
• loves baths and swimming
• 3 teeth: one top one just popped through a few days ago
• has about an inch of hair, but it's so thin and light people still say he's bald
• uses the potty when he gets up in the morning
• claps hands and does "give me five"
• forgives brother over and over again, but also loves to pull his hair and giggle
• enjoyed first tent camping trip, especially swimming in the lake and eating dirt
• keeps his mom so busy she's barely written anything down on his baby calendar

Forward! Upward!

Tobias loves to make or imagine things that are "blastering off into space".
Malachi is definitely crawling, although it is tiring and frustrating for him! Plus, when he arrives at the toys his brother clears them away and replaces them with a boring baby toy. The end clip with the yellow toy is Tobias at a similar age (not quite 6 months...Christmas 2009) and not quite able to maneuver towards it. But crawling wasn't his thing...running was. Thankful to have two happy, smart kids who undoubtedly will both have their own unique ways of doing things!

M: 5 months

• army crawls
• gets up on all 4s and rocks around
• stands by furniture
• drools, spits and babbles
• thinks it's funny when Tobias drools or spits (stop encouraging him, Malachi!)
• can sit by himself for awhile
• is very hard to hold onto during church while we sing
• has a brand new cousin born 5 months and 5 days after he was
• falls asleep easily in the car but wakes up as soon as we arrive anywhere
• still has 1 tooth, but that 2nd one seems like it could come through anytime
• just as sweet as ever

Physical Education: Wrestling Class

In a scene reminiscent of the classic "Tobias introduces his brother" (except now Malachi can laugh and even fight back), Tobias scoops Malachi into his lap and chats with him.

In case some of the audio is unclear, here's a partial transcript:

H: Hey, gentle.

T: He is not saying stop, and he has one tooth, and he's a baby!

I'm gonna hold him for awhile

Hey, say hi to him! Hiiii! Hiiii! He likes me!

N: He sure does.

T: Yeah, do you like me?

N: I think he likes to pull your hair too.

T: Do you like that baby Malachi? Do you like that baby Malachi? Do you?

This is my friend baby Malachi!

N: It's your brother, Tobes.

T: Yeah, it is my brother...tickle him!

Theological Education

So much to learn! Tobias is soaking up Catechism questions and asking "what letter does that start with" dozens of times per day. Malachi is scootching, sliding, and drifting away from where I set him on the floor. Nate is business-ing and programming and I'm sure he's learning things that I do not even understand. Hannah is sewing and making patterns (hat tutorial coming soon when I work out the last quirks), planning for mega-freezer-cooking day next week, and scheming ways to keep the quail out of the garden. It might be a stretch to say the chickens are learning anything new, but they are enjoying the moveable coop, they get fresh grass every day or two.

4 month old letter

To: My 3-month-old friends

From: Malachi

Dear friends,

Soon you will be hitting the milestone of 4 months old. That is 1/3 of a year. "Time flies", my mom and dad say. I'm not sure what that means. Let me pass on a few words of wisdom and advice to you, though, as you approach this important time of your life.

First, please note that once your arms and hands start working properly, it opens up whole new fields of exploration. I particularly recommend putting everything in your mouth. Clothing, plates, noses, whatever you can get those hands on. Bonus points if it's frozen and feels good on your teeth or gums. You will find that some objects are forbidden, such as silverware, glasses and hair. I have yet to figure out what all these forbidden items have in common...they seem to all look like toys to me.

I am on my way to developing a new mode of transportation in order to obtain things to get into my mouth. I haven't worked out all the details yet but I'll let you in on what I've discovered so far: first, roll onto your tummy and lift your butt into the air. When you get tired of holding it up, the potential energy will propel you either forwards or backwards. This may place you closer to the desired object. If not, repeat until you are successful or someone takes pity on you and gives you the object.

The entertainment around my house is so-so. It's good to smile and be friendly and such, but I like to hold out with the actual laughter for the truly absurd and hilarious. 'Cause then they do it again and again. And get out the video cameras.

I must stress the importance of working out those core abdominal muscles (because we all know that crawling is not our ultimate goal...we are baby bipeds). Crunches, planks, side crunches, and leg lifting are good options. Sure it may disrupt your sleep if you're trying to do these things while swaddled, but that can be dealt with! And if you can find a nice cozy Aunt to nap on during the day, you'll be caught up on sleep in no time anyway. I seem to have misplaced mine though :(

Well, my mom is telling me to quit drooling on the keyboard so I better go now.

Your friend,

Malachi

Soundtrack: ABCs + Tron

Tobias serenades the Sunday park-goers with an abbreviated version of the ABCs (he does know them all, not sure why he left some out), and Malachi attempts to roll the other way (maybe if I'm lucky I'll catch that on video when it happens).